Rick, who had one foot out the door stopped in his tracks and turned around to face his daughter.
Rick: What do you mean you think you may know where Beckett is? Where is she?
Alexis: Dad if she is where i think she is then you should give her some space. I can go there and find her if it would make you feel better but i don't think you should go looking for her.
Rick: Alexis what exactly is going on? Beckett said she was going to a meeting in 1PP but she never showed up there. Where is she.
Alexis: Dad i don't know but i know that you shouldn't go searching for her.
Rick: Why the hell not, she is my wife i need to know where she is.
Alexis: Haven't you learned by now that sometimes there is information that you are better off not knowing about.
Rick: Your right but not when it comes to my wife. Look if you won't tell me where she is then i will be heading down to the precinct to help Ryan and Esposito find her.
Alexis: Go i will try and help from here.
Rick: Thanks Alexis i love you.
Alexis: Bye dad.
Rick left the loft and Martha went upstairs leaving Alexis alone in the living room. Alexis took out her phone and called Beckett. The call went straight to voicemail. Alexis waited five minutes and then retried Beckett but once again she was sent to voicemail. After getting sent to voicemail 15 times in a row Alexis finally had to agree that there was something going on here and she had no clue what it was.
Rick arrives at the precinct to find only to find Ryan and Esposito huddled together around Ryan's desk looking extremely concerned.
Rick: What have you got boys?
Kevin: Nothing, Castle we've got nothing.
Rick: What do you mean by nothing?
Javi: We tried tracking her phone but it was turned off as soon as she left the precinct so that was a dead end. We ran your financials and she hasn't used a credit card or taken out cash all day.
Kevin: We ran through all the surveillance cameras around the precinct and nothing we lost her once she started walking towards her car.
Rick: I told her i didn't like that you can't see her parking space on the camera, she told me that as Captain they gave her a little more privacy.
Kevin: Castle no use getting mad about that now, we are doing everything we can to find Beckett. But you need to give us a little time we are running solo on this one as we have no Captain.
The phone rang and Esposito picked it up.
Javi: Detective Esposito, Yes she is, what do you mean? Look i understand that is what she wants but tell her that she knows that we can't do that. If you let me speak to her we will think about it. If i don't talk to her now we continue looking for her.
Kate: Javi?
Esposito put the phone on speaker.
Javi: Beckett is that you?
Kate: Yes its me
Rick: Kate where are you? What's going on.
Kate: Look i can't talk for long but i just want you to know that i am safe, you don't have to come looking for me. I want you all to work on the case that came in this morning and I will be back before you know it.
Rick: Kate don't hang up just because you don't want us to trace the call.
Kate: Babe, i'm sorry but i really have to go. I love you Castle.
Kate hung up the phone before he had a time to respond.
Rick: Did you get it?
Kevin: I'm sorry Castle she hung up before we had a chance.
Rick: She knows our playbook way to well.
Javi: But it is that knowledge that brought her to be our captain.
Kevin: What good is it having her as a Captain if we don't know where she is.
Javi: She sounded okay though, that's a good thing right.
Lanie walks up to them and gives Castle a hug.
Lanie: Is it true about Beckett is she really missing.
Javi: Unfortunately it is true
Lanie: What can i do to help?
Javi: Keep us grounded
They all laugh a little as the fire alarm goes off in the precinct.
Rick: What is that noise? That doesn't sound good.
Kevin: It's the fire alarm Castle.
Rick: Yeah i know what it is, that's not what i meant, whatever is it real or is it a drill.
Lanie: By looks of the smoke coming out of the elevator i would assume it is a real fire.
They all rush towards the staircase and they run down as fast as their legs can carry them. They get out of the building just as the fire trucks pull up. They stand there for an hour watching the firemen do their jobs until a fireman walks up to them.
Fireman: Gentelmen we need you to clear the vicinity.
Kevin: Leave the precinct but why? It looks like you are almost done getting rid of the fire. We work here we are in middle of a high profile case, our captain went missing this morning.
Fireman: I understand sir however i am required by my Captain to have you all vacate the premises.
Javi: Castle i know you want to be here in case Beckett comes back but there is nothing more we can do from here the precinct is out of commission right now, i suggest we go to your house and continue working on the case from there.
Kevin: Guys i have no problem helping you find Beckett but you heard her, she doesn't want to be found, she knows our rules better than all of us combined, she knows what steps we will take to get her back if she doesn't want to be found she has the upper hand.
Javi: How do you know that what she said on the phone she wanted to say. We have no way of knowing if she was kidnapped and forced to say that to us just so we stop looking for her.
Rick: Ryan, Espo is right i will not stop looking for Kate until she comes back now Ryan you can either help me or not but i am not giving up.
Lanie: Wait you boys spoke to Kate?
Kevin: Yeah some dude called the precinct telling us that Beckett asked him to call us to let us know she is okay and doesn't want to be found.
Lanie: And you believe she is okay?
Kevin: Yeah, she said she was safe not okay. Safe makes me believe that she really is safe, i know she used that word for a reason.
Rick: Kevin your a genious.
Castle walks off before anyone has a chance to ask him what it was he just figured out. The boys and Lanie follow him all the way to the loft where Castle opens the door runs directly into his office goes to his safe puts in the code and opens it.
Rick: The safe, its empty
Kevin: What was in it?
Rick: Our marriage license, cash and a bunch of papers that Beckett didn't want me looking at.
Lanie: And you never looked at them.
Rick: Well honestly, i really wanted to and there were times when i came as close as opening the safe but then something inside me made me stop in my tracks, i never looked at them.
Javi: So what do you think happened here?
Kevin: How much cash was in that safe?
Rick: Twenty thousand dollars.
Javi: Twenty thousand dollars!
Kevin: No wonder why we couldn't trace her through money she has enough money to last her a really long time.
Lanie: Ryan i don't think that Castle needed to hear that. Okay lets put our heads together and see what we do know as to where Beckett is.
They walk together to the living room and sit down on the couches. Castle is between Kevin and Javi and Lanie is sitting across from them.
Lanie: What do we know?
Rick: That Beckett walked out of here with her marriage license, her passport and twenty thousand dollars cash. She may or may not want us finding her, she asked us to continue working this mornings case which tells me that she hasn't heard in the news that we already got the killer.
Kevin: What if she only told us to continue working on the case to make us believe she doesn't know we got the killer or to make us think we got the wrong killer in order for us to stop searching for her.
Javi: I don't know that doesn't really sound like a Beckett thing to do except that none of this looks like a Beckett thing to do.
Rick: We all have known Kate for a really long time now, we know she likes being miserable and that it will take a lot of time for her to come to terms with being okay with just being my wife but Espo is right as much as it no longer looks like a kidnapping i don't think Kate would do this to any of us.
Just then the door opens up and Alexis walks in.
Alexis: Dad where have you been i've been trying to reach you for the past 3 hours.
Rick looks in his pockets and then reality hits him.
Rick: I left my phone on your desk. Lets go back to the precinct maybe we will have better luck there.
Before Alexis had a chance to reply they all got up and ran out the door. They got back to the precinct and were happy to see that the fire department had already left. When they got upstairs to their desks the room looked exactly as it had when they left 4 hours earlier. Rick walked over to Beckett's old desk which was now his he looked at the placard on the desk and smiled as he read Detective Richard Castle. He then picked up his phone and was startled as a piece of paper fell off the desk. Castle bent down and picked up the paper the first side was blank so he turned it over and read it. His face turned white as a sheet.
Kevin: Castle whats wrong.
Rick: Beckett was here.