Part One
Chapter Two
"What have you got for me, Lanie?" Kate strode up to her friend, the Bracken case already pushed out of her mind as she came to meet the next in the long line of bodies waiting for her.
"Hello to you too, Detective Beckett," Lanie returned, looking at her through narrowed eyes and Kate smiled at her friend. "Meet Hasim Farouk, man versus van. At one a.m. last night he was killed instantly."
"Knocked right out of his shoes at the point of impact," Esposito informed her, and Beckett took a moment to look at him appraisingly, taking pointed note of just how close he was standing to the ME, and storing the information away. Interesting. Maybe they had hooked up on Valentine's Day; Lanie had certainly been cagey when Kate tried to convince her friend to come out.
"Hit and run?" She was almost reluctant; their last few cases had been much more interesting, and she wasn't going to lie, she liked the juicy ones- though she did draw the line at calling them 'Beckett-flavored' the way the guys did when they wanted to get a rise out of her.
Esposito shook his head and she saw his eyes light up. He complained, but he liked the weird ones as much as she did. "That's just the tip of the iceberg. A witness, homeless guy, said that the victim emptied his gun at the van and just stood in the middle of the street, shooting right until it hit him." He nodded at the closest uniform. "Jan?" The man gave him a gun in an evidence bag, and Espo held it out for her to see. "This is a Sig P 220 S with a weight compensator, target sights, and custom molded grip to his hand. This was a serious shooter."
Huh. Beckett nodded, breaking into a grim smile. So this wasn't a garden variety murder at all. She was officially intrigued. "What else do we know about him?"
"Well," Ryan offered, "Hasim Farouk is a Saudi national living here as a student up at Columbia."
Beckett raised her eyebrows, staring at the body for a moment more and then shrugging. "So… what was he doing in Lower Manhattan? Let's have tech search traffic cam footage for that van and let's look into Hasim Farouk's life. See if he had any enemies."
Beckett stared at the blank murder board while Esposito sat beside her, shuffling through what they already knew. From experience she knew it would just be a matter of time before the white space was filled with names and ideas; for now nothing had been either established, or ruled out; an almost empty board was a blessing and a curse.
"Hey guys?" They turned to see Ryan hovering in the doorway between one of the work rooms and the bullpen. "I got something here you need to see."
Beckett shrugged and stood up, working the kinks out of her back and taking a last look at the board before she and Esposito followed Ryan into the room.
"Unfortunately there were no traffic or security cams near the crime scene, but we did find this footage shot down the street from where Hasim was hit."
He paused the video and Esposito grunted in agreement. "That's definitely the van that took him out. Front end's all crunched up. You can see the bullet holes."
"Yeah," Ryan agreed. "But watch this."
Beckett scrutinized the tape, her jaw dropping. A girl got out of the van and made it a few paces before a man lunged from the van and pulled her back. "Zoom in on her face," she instructed Ryan, and he did so. She held up a photograph from the file in her hand. "That's Sara El-Masri. She was abducted." She shook her head. "Hasim died trying to stop it."
"Beckett? This is Agent Harris. He'll be running point on the kidnapping."
She smiled at her Captain, before turning her attention to the man in front of her.
"How are the parents?"
"Scared. Devastated." Beckett dipped her head. She knew enough about how this worked to know they were reacting the right way, and Agent Harris nodded, confirming her instinct.
"Okay, that's good." He smiled at her, and she watched him go into the interview room to introduce himself to the couple and she sighed. This morning this had been another interesting homicide, something to wrap her mind around, a juicy one to distract her. Now though, it was a kidnapping, and the stakes were that much higher.
Beckett shook her head, trying to get her head in the case. This wasn't the first time a murder investigation had collided with a kidnapping. She figured she should just be grateful that she was dealing with Agent Harris instead of Will Sorenson. Their relationship had spectacularly combusted the second time round and she had no desire to see him ever again.
She shrugged. For all she knew, he wasn't even in New York anymore; it had been years since she'd heard anything from him. She may not have enjoyed working with many feds over the years, but compared to pairing up with Will again, working with Agent Harris would be a walk in the park.
"Yo, Beckett." Esposito's voice shook her from her reverie and she looked up to see him holding a few papers out toward her. "Ryan spoke to the roommate and apparently Sara went to some kind of science thing last night."
"Found anything?"
"Three anythings in lower Manhattan," he told her. "First, a sci-fi movie marathon in an art house theater eight blocks from where Hasim got clocked."
Beckett nodded. "Location's good, but science fiction isn't really science." Esposito glared at her, and she shrugged. "It's not. What else do you have?"
"You're really cold sometimes, Beckett, you know that?" he asked, and she grinned. Come the end of case, they'd find themselves in a bar with a beer, hashing it all out, differences of opinion forgotten.
Although, she realized, smiling to herself, if the body language between her colleague and the ME this morning was anything to go by, like Ryan, she might be seeing less of Espo as well, soon enough. She made a mental note to check in with Lanie. Esposito cleared his throat and continued. "Uh, a stargazing tour led by an actual astronomer and a speech from a scientist named Hayden Posner, in the ballroom of the Beaumont Hotel."
Beckett wrinkled her nose, weighing up the options. The hotel was close to the crime scene, and also to the precinct. "Let's start with Posner's talk at the Beaumont Hotel."
"I remember her. Very lovely young woman. Sara El-Masri, yes, she definitely attended. I checked her in myself." Beckett watched the manager appraisingly; he was anything but a suspect, but she'd learned the hard way to treat everyone with suspicion.
"Did you notice anything unusual about her?"
Andrew shook his head. "No. After Dr. Posner's presentation she stayed for the Q and A, which went rather late, and then she left."
"And do you have any idea where she went?" Ryan asked.
"All I know is that she exited the ballroom. I stayed on to set up for a wedding reception."
Ryan nodded. "Did she speak with anyone?"
"Just the person she was with. A young woman. They sat together. They seemed to be friends but I couldn't tell you her name."
"You didn't check her in?" Beckett asked, and he shook his head.
"I got called away right after I checked Sara in. Let's see. I think Michael took over from me." He waved at another man. "Michael, do you remember the name of anyone you checked in last night?" Beckett sighed. This was starting to feel like a dead end and her mind was already moving forward; they needed to check traffic cams in the neighborhood. She blinked, trying to pull herself back to the moment.
Michael shrugged and took the list from his boss. "Uh- I checked in a couple of people." He ran his index finger down the list. "Caroline Armand… Peter Butler… Alexis Castle." He looked up at Beckett and Ryan. "Yes. Alexis Castle was the first person I checked in. I remember her- she was striking. Long red hair, pale skin."
Andrew nodded. "Yes, the red-head," he added, evidently remembering the girl. "She asked a few questions during the Q and A, as well."
"Thank you." Ryan nodded at the two staff and Beckett pulled her phone from her pocket, dialing Esposito.
"Get me a number for an Alexis Castle," she told him, barely waiting for an answer before hanging up. There was a stirring of familiarity in her stomach; she knew that name, but before she could dwell too much, her phone buzzed as Esposito's text came through with a number for Sara's friend.
She dialed it without hesitation, following Ryan out of the room, but as she heard the call connect she caught the chime of a cell phone somewhere in the ball room. Icy fear ran down her back as she turned toward the sound, striding back across the room, mentally willing Alexis Castle to pick up, willing her suspicion to be wrong.
"What's that?" Ryan asked, and the manager frowned, pulling up a box from behind the bar.
"Our lost and found. In fact, a guest turned in a phone last night. They found it in the street out front."
Beckett reached for it, and ended her own call. The words unknown caller faded from the screen, replaced by a missed call alert, and she sighed, swiping the cell phone and unlocking it.
"Huh," Ryan looked perplexed, and Beckett didn't blame him. "Is that her phone? They- did they take two girls?"
Beckett ignored him as she scrolled through the contacts, pausing when she got to the one labeled Dad, closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose for a second before reopening her eyes. She knew that face. She knew those eyes. The name Alexis Castle sounded familiar for a reason; her favorite author's daughter had been abducted.
A/N: Thanks for the beta, K! Next chapter is scheduled for 3 days from now! Hope you all enjoy where this is going! I'm thrilled that so many of you want to take this ride with me!
