Cat and Mouse
This is my angst version of The Gambit and Tyson and Nieman are back with a vengeance. I'm sure the writers aren't going to do this based on the spoiler pictures I've seen (and I do look), but the plot bunnies struck with a vengeance.
Author's Notes: Thanks for the reviews, follows, and favs. That really means a lot to me. And to all of you procedural sticklers, this is fan fic, so the team will be investigating this because it's more dramatic that way, even though they wouldn't be allowed to do this in real life, 'cus then I'd have to introduce a whole new set of characters and that would take forever…
All characters belong to Andrew Marlowe, ABC, and Disney. Just playing with them and you.
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Chapter 2 – Where's Castle?
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The bullpen at the precinct was silent for a moment after the call ended and then chaos broke out.
Ryan grabbed Beckett's phone from her trembling hands. "Are your phones sync'ed?" he barked at her. "Kate, can you locate Castle's phone using your phone?"
Beckett frowned at him and then nodded. "Yeah, Castle sat that up so we could find our phones if we lost them."
"Good," said Ryan as he thumbed open the Find my iPhone app on Beckett's phone. He paused for a moment and then said, "Garment District – 7th Ave and W 38th."
Espo nodded at Ryan and said into his phone, "We've got a man down – 7th Ave and w 38th. Send emergency responders now. The shooter may still be in the area so approach with caution. A description?" He glanced at the DA. "She looks like Emile Cummins, the district attorney."
Beckett nodded, pushing a piece of hair behind her ear. "The conference was at the Courtyard New York Manhattan/Times Square," she said and frowned. "He could have walked there."
Gates nodded at them. "You too – get over there." She turned to Beckett. "Kate, I know you want to go, but they'll take him to Mt. Sinai. We should go there."
Beckett nodded, fighting back tears. To have this happen after all they had been through…
"What can I do?" Cummins asked quietly.
"Stay here," Gates replied tersely. "And be ready to prosecute these bastards when we find them," she added as she and Beckett walked to the elevator.
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Gates and Beckett made it to the hospital at the same time that SWAT secured the building where the shooting occurred.
Ryan and Espo were on the phone with them as they walked into the room where Castle lay on the ground, facing away from the door.
"Yeah, he's here," said Espo as they raced over to him.
"Castle!" Ryan called as he knelt next to him and started to place two fingers on his neck but quickly pulled his hand back as if it had been bitten by a snake. "Javi," he said quietly.
Espo frowned as he looked at Castle. This man hadn't been shot – he had been strangled, the green and white cord wrapped tightly around his neck, his eyes showing the blue-white haze of death.
They quickly rolled Castle over on his back and opened his jacket, looking for signs of bullet holes, but there weren't any. There was no sign of blood also.
"Javi, Kevin, what's happening?" demanded Beckett. "What's going on?"
Ryan was about to answer when a voice in a dark corner of the room spoke up.
"You know, I didn't think you'd be fooled this easily, but Kel said, 'You give the NYPD too much credit for being intelligent.'"
They both quickly pulled out their guns and pointed them in the direction that the voice was coming from, along with the beams of their Streamlights.
"I mean, it did take someone who wasn't a police officer to figure out what I had done. And what did 1PP do – they kicked him out of the precinct for one little minor transgression. Now I ask you, is that gratitude for you?"
Espo and Ryan slowly walked towards the direction of the voice and then stopped in front of a wireless speaker and camera sitting on a crate.
"I had really hoped you'd do me proud and prove her wrong, but you know women, they're always right even when they're wrong," the voice continued. "So we're going to play a game since that obviously isn't him – just some poor hapless shmuck who answered an ad looking for a Castle wannabe."
Ryan pulled on a pair of gloves and picked up the speaker and camera.
"And here's the game – Where's Castle? Kinda like Where's Waldo? You find your man – you get him back." There was a pause. "But you might want to hurry – he's not looking too good. I give him a couple of hours at the best."
The speaker went silent as Ryan switched it off.
They heard their phone squawk from across the room and went back to pick it up.
"Detective Ryan, Esposito," Gates barked, "what's going on? Is there a problem?"
Espo nodded. "Yeah, there is – the person we found isn't Castle."
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Ryan and Espo walked back into the bull pen as Beckett hung up the phone.
"That was Paula," Beckett said to them. "She said Castle left the conference right before noon today after he had signed books. He told her that he had a meeting to go to. She didn't notice if he got into a cab or not."
"Detective," said Tory, walking out of the other room. "I think I may have something."
They walked back into the room where she pulled up several pictures on the monitor, explaining as she went.
"I've been trolling tweets, comments, and pictures of Castle that have hit social media from the writer's conference since this morning."
She pointed to several. "These were time stamped this morning at 9:30 of Castle arriving at the hotel."
She pulled up several more that showed Castle taking selfies with fans. "And these were time stamped from 10 to 11 this morning—"
"But he was speaking then," said Beckett. "How can – oh, damn," she swore. "Is that the victim?"
Espo shook his head. "No. The man we saw had been strangled several hours earlier. He had that white eye thing going on."
Beckett nodded and looked at Tory. "Can you tell where that man is now?"
"A few photos just posted – they were taken at the coffee shop by the hotel," said Tory.
"Then that's where we'll start," said Beckett.
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With lights flashing, Espo made record time as he drove to the hotel and pulled up in the drive. He waved off the valet as the team walked across the street.
"There—" said Beckett, pointing to a Castle look-alike taking another selfie with a fan outside of the coffee shop.
They quickly walked over to him.
"Excuse me, sir," Beckett said, pulling out her shield and flashing it at him. "Detective Beckett, NYPD. You need to come with us now."
The man looked at her and smiled, looking surprised. "Oh, Detective Beckett, it's good to see you again."
Espo and Ryan frowned at him.
"Dyson – Paul Dyson," he said, putting out his hand. "We met a couple of years ago – you know, me looking like Richard Castle and that reality show where I bought the jewelry…" he added helpfully.
"Right," Beckett replied and then frowned at him. "You really do look like him now."
Dyson shrugged. "I had a little work done – it helped me land this part. You like the results?"
Beckett shook her head. "No, no, I don't." She frowned at him again. "What part?"
"This travel agency – Leave It To Nieman – is putting on several 'Death on the High Seas' cruises and they hired me to play the part of Richard Castle." He glanced around the outside of the coffee shop. "Today was the dry run, you know, with the mystery writer's conference going on across the street."
Ryan took out his pad of paper and a pen. "What's the address of the travel agency?"
"Just a couple of blocks from here – 5th Avenue and East 39th. In fact, they are expecting me about 30 minutes."
"Ryan, Espo," said Beckett. "You go there. I'm taking Dyson back to the precinct."
"Really?" asked Dyson. "Just for looking like Richard Castle?"
"No," said Beckett, "for being stupid enough to aid and abet a serial killer again."
"Wow. Maybe this gig isn't what I thought it was then," replied Dyson.
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Espo and Ryan and several uniforms carefully walked up the stairs to the address that Dyson had given them.
The lights were off in suite rented by the travel agency and several posters adorned the hallway walls outside the front door.
Ryan tried the knob and found that the door was unlocked. He slowly turned the knob to open the door slightly and then looked at Espo.
"On my 3," Espo mouthed. "1 – 2 – 3—"
At that point, the men stormed the suite, guns at the ready, yelling "NYPD!"
They quickly searched the front room that contained only an empty desk and filing cabinet. By the looks of it, whoever had been here had already cleared out.
They paused when they reached the back room where a tapping sound was coming from behind the closed door.
Ryan carefully turned the handle again and then quickly opened the door to a gruesome scene.
The tapping noise came from an electronic mouse trap that kept opening and closing, the fake DA Cummins dangling by a noose in the middle of the room, with a sign, 'Cat = 2, Mouse = 0' hung around her neck.
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