Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own anything you recognize.
AN: Got my estimated GPA for my A-levels today. (Surprisingly good. I suddenly feel like a nerd.) English was my best overall subject and so I wanted to celebrate a bit by practicing both my English and my writing skills. (: I got the full score on the hardest level (you can choose between easy or hard) and I think that warrants a little fun, right? (At least that's what I told my mom when she caught me writing instead of studying.)
Anyway, enjoy!
Chapter 3: Message
"That is my kidnapped daughter you are talking about and I do not wish to read her name in the paper or have someone talk about it on TV," a female voice said from behind the suits; her tone spoke of something very dark, cold inside of her.
Castle felt fear well up deep inside him, even though he couldn't even see the owner of the voice.
The suits all shrunk noticeably and got out of the woman's way, carefully avoiding touching her.
She was quite tall, blonde and simply beautiful.
Even in her coldness.
The grandfatherly-looking man's eyes widened a fraction in surprise before he controlled himself again.
"What are you doing here? I told you to stay at home. They will only use you against her!" he whisper-yelled.
She sent him a glare. "Did you honestly believe I would stay at home when my only child is held hostage?"
The man looked resigned and for the first time appeared to be his age.
"There's always hope."
Beckett and Castle exchanged a look.
The man had lied earlier. He knew one of the kidnapped children or at least her family.
"Mrs. Lake, correct?" Beckett asked.
"I am Sasha's mother. Just hand this case over. You have no business dealing with this. You are responsible for homicides, correct, Detective Beckett? (Said person was very surprised to find that the foreigner knew her name.) Well, the security personnel was killed by a group of robbers. Done."
"But who pulled the trigger?" Castle replied.
Suddenly someone called them over to the TV that always showed (muted) news channels. "Isn't that your case? From the museum?"
The blonde woman was the first at the TV. Her expression was even more impassive (and colder) now. She exuded something that made everyone back off unconsciously; nobody wanted to be close to her.
"Turn this up," 'Mrs. Lake' ordered.
No one dared to disobey her.
She was as scary or even scarier than an overworked Beckett on a bad day.
"...this video shows one of the two kidnapped British students. The robbers made her read out a message," a news reporter announced.
They played the full video.
"Well, I'm supposed to read something for you. Apparently these imbeciles can't read themselves. A bit shy?"
The girl who was talking to someone next to the camera received a slap which she managed to mostly dodge.
Her mother, it obviously was the blonde woman in the office, they were like two eggs, tensed; hands balled to fists.
The only sign for any emotional turmoil inside of her.
"Read!" came the harsh command from someone in the background.
"'If you want to see your friends or children again, pay three million dollars to us and don't try to track us down. We will contact you with the whereabouts of the kids after we received the payment.' Seriously?"
"It appears as if the teen still has some fight left in her. …" the reporter continued, but the TV was muted again.
The supposed FBI-agent and Mrs. Lake stared at each other.
Surprisingly the agent was more shocked than the mother of the girl if the slightly widened eyes were anything to go by.
Grandpa reached out to touch the woman's shoulder reassuringly, but she moved a miniscule amount, anticipating the move.
The suits shuffled again, clearly uneasy. They were obviously scared shi(r)tless of her.
But why?
Becketts phone rang. It was Lanie.
"I've got something for you."
"We're on our way," Beckett told her, flipping the phone shut.
She ignored the glares of the two intruders and the suit-army. Castle followed her out of the room to the morgue.
To their surprise the group followed, even the blonde woman.
However she didn't join them in the morgue, but stayed in ear shot.
Lanie sighed upon seeing the large crowd of intruders in her little queendom.
"My earlier thoughts were confirmed. The official guard was killed with a single shot to the head. The same gun, .9mm caliber, was fired twice more, killing victim #2. He was hit in the head and the chest. Both were fatal shots."
"What else do you have?" Beckett demanded to know, falling back into her routine.
She needed to feel like she had some sort of say in this. After all, this was her team's case, the NYPD's, and ultimately her's.
Not some FBI jerk's.
Beckett hated people that wanted to take the control off of her.
Not even the secret agent two years ago had tried to usurp and undermine her power.
Who are these people? Who do they think they are, barging in and demanding respect and that she handed the case over without asking questions?
Not even Castle was this bad in the beginning...
"I x-rayed the two bodies and the shots were as precise as it gets. There could have been only one shooter this skilled."
"May I see pictures of them from the scene?" 'Mrs. Lake' suddenly said.
There was no sign of any emotion in her voice. She was more ordering than really asking, too.
Surprisingly, Lanie didn't question her request.
Possibly the ME hadn't seen the news channel's report yet and assumed the woman belonged to the suit-army. (Which was frankly not that off. She wore a black costume, a white blouse and the same carefully cultivated impassive expression as the rest of them.)
Lanie handed her the on-scene-pictures of the two dead men.
The blonde flipped through them. She didn't seem to study each for a long time, but there was something that spoke of professionalism.
The foreigner obviously knew what she was doing.
Beckett was surprised to notice that.
If she had any experience with dead people – not just dead people, but unnaturally killed people – she could not be a mere civilian. Plus, the blood and gore didn't seem to affect her much if at all – her impassive face was too hard to read – even though she stayed as far away as possible from the bodies.
It didn't make sense.
Either she was desensitized to gruesome deaths and bodies, or she wasn't.
Why else would she position herself in the doorway?
"Contract killer. The shots are very precise. Plus, the fatal areas. He thought the second victim was more dangerous and tried to play it safe by shooting him in two different vital areas. Not many people are able to display this much skill, not with a .9mm," the foreigner finally said.
"The guard was just a guard. However, things get a bit more complicated now that we know there is a fully trained assassin involved."
Sasha sighed. She was even more bored now than before in the museum.
Lessons in school at least provided enough other distracting things, such as students, doodling on her notebook etc. Here, she had nothing to keep herself occupied with.
Her mind wandered back to her mother. If their kidnappers told the truth about sending the video to every news channel, she was most likely worried sick about her by now and on her way to New York.
Mum will be acting like a raging bull again, kicking the officials in the teeth... She will probably start a crusade against any- and everyone until these idiots are caught. No way their plan is going to work. She is too overprotective for letting them go without punishment.
Sasha sighed again, standing up.
Might as well exercise. It's not like there is something awesome about to happen.
Somehow, she wished these men were as easily intimidated or at least not stupider (depends on the way you looked at them) than the Green Jackets that had kidnapped her before.
Freddy stared questinoningly at her when she started to do sit ups.
Shrugging, he joined her, having no better idea either.
There was nothing else to do at the moment.
"The guard was just a guard. However, things get a bit more complicated now that we know there is a fully trained assassin involved."
Beckett, Lanie and Castle stared incredulously at the blonde woman who handed the pictures back to the ME.
Grandpa joined them again, having heard her little speech.
"Well, things never get boring with you," he muttered.
"What can I say? It's hereditary."
Grandpa snorted. "I managed to keep the names out of the press. No channel is going to publish them."
"Thank you, Joe."
"You are welcome, Alex. Now, why don't you explain to these detectives why they should have just given the case over?"
"Usually my partners curse me after closing the latest case. Except for one, they all quit after working with me. I am working for the British equivalent to the FBI. That's how Joe and me met."
"And she's the best they have."
Castle cleared his throat. "Does Sasha know?"
"No. She knows I work for the government and can't talk about my job with her. But it's possible someone targeted her specifically to get back at me for something or to interrogate her for information she doesn't possess," the cold blonde replied, a faint bitter edge in her tone.
The room was silent for a moment during which everyone processed this piece of information.
"But how can you be so sure that the killer is an assassin? It could be some highly-trained psycho for all we know," Castle argued.
"For one, the precision. I need to see the tapes to be absolutely sure, but he did manage to get three hits close to the bull's eye. They are only minimally off. So, yes, the shooter has been training extensively for a long time period. Second, the speed. He had only a few seconds to spot the two in the crowd, draw the gun and shoot. Additionally to the guard, he identified the undercover security guard which means he is very observant and has been in contact with undercover officers before," the blonde explained in an emotionless tone, almost bored.
As if she had done this thousand times before.
Grandpa or Joe nodded once.
"After that's out of the way, we should get back to the important matters. We need to find the kids as soon as possible."
"Can you make a list of people that might be behind the kidnapping?"
"I could, but until that list is done, my daughter better be back home," 'Mrs. Lake' replied.
Her lips twitched with something that under other circumstances could have been a smile.
Only the suits and Joe seemed to get the joke behind those words.
"Just to make sure we don't overlook anything, we should consider the possibility that the rest of the group might not have known who they were taking as hostages. Most likely they know now, thanks to the assassin..." Joe added thoughtfully.
Alex agreed. "Yes, why would they steal that particular jewelery? I checked, there is a diamond necklace worth twice as much. Why didn't they take that?"
The elevator arrived, stopping the conversation for a second.
When the 'ding' rang through the empty hallway, the doors opened, and an empty cabin came into view, there was a soft sigh and a low 'thud'.