Chapter Four: Revenge
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: Has it ever occurred to anyone that I do own Castle? I thought not. Rating: M, eventually. Time: Before 47 Seconds.
As soon as she heard Castle's voice, she felt a coldness in her gut. She pushed it down. Calm. Controlled. I'm in total control. His life may depend on this. "Ryan. Trace this call now!"
Ryan waves and holds up his phone. He's already on it.
Gates walked out of her office. "Is that Mr. Castle I hear?"
Kate nodded. "He's being beaten." She can hear the sickening thuds and hear him cry out. Calm. In control. He needs me to be rock steady so I'll get him back. Damn! I need him back so badly.
"Detective Esposito, as soon as Ryan traces the call, get a half a dozen uniforms together. We'll go get Mr. Castle back." Gates turns and goes back to her office to grab her sidearm and put on her jacket.
"Got it!" Ryan yells. "On the West Side. The GPS on the phone is working. I know within fifty feet where he is."
Twenty minutes later Beckett and her team, as well as Gates and additional uniforms, were staring at an empty brownstone in a quiet residential neighborhood just down the street from them. Esposito was briefing the team. "The brownstone is unoccupied. It's in the middle a huge court fight. The couple that owns it is going through a bad divorce and the city is after them for some unauthorized remodeling they did. One owner is suing the contractor, the other is suing the city." Espo shook his head. "And their neighbors are suing over something. The guy in the store I talked to wasn't too sure about what. "
"Captain." LT broke in. "The team at the back of the brownstone says that the back door has been busted in. Looks recent."
Gates grimaced and then nodded. "Okay. We go in now. Use the battering ram to knock the door open, then rush inside. We don't want them to have any time…" She suddenly caught sight of Beckett. "…to do anything. Now, lets' go."
The officers raced across the street and up the stairs to the brownstone. The biggest officer swung a twenty pound battering ram and knocked the door completely off the hinges. They poured into the house. As they had previously decided, Kate, Espo and Ryan went to the second floor with another officer. They flung open doors until Ryan found one that was locked. "Door's locked!" He screamed. Javi opened it with one fierce kick. The two men elbowed Kate aside and went in together, weapons drawn.
"Damn!" Espo yelled.
Kate pushed past him. "What is…" She stopped, shocked at what she saw.
"What is it?" Someone yelled from downstairs.
"It's a damned cell phone taped to a two way radio. He isn't here. He's never been here." Ryan replied.
Gates walked in to the room, anger clear on her face. "Everyone out. Get CSU here now. I want them to go over this place from top to bottom. Everybody start canvassing the neighborhood. You know the drill. Someone must have seen something, or better yet, gotten a picture of something."
Kate was starting to shake from a combination of rage, fear and the adrenaline let down. Gates caught Esposito's eye and nodded to Espo and Ryan. The two detectives pulled her into an empty room. "Don't worry, chica, we'll get him back for you."
"I wish I was as sure as you are, Javi." Kate looked down and saw she was still holding her pistol. She slowly put it back in her holster. "They were taunting us. They're torturing him and they wanted us to hear it."
"Beckett, maybe you should go tell Martha and Alexis what happened." Ryan said gently. "We've got this."
Kate pushed all of her emotions down until they disappeared somewhere behind her wall. "No. I'm fine. I need to do this. I couldn't not do this. I'll call them, though." Her voice softened. "Thanks, guys."
Espo put his arm out to stop her. "Beckett, when we catch these guys, you'll need to make a phone call."
"Sure. I'll call Martha and Alexis right away." She said, somewhat puzzled.
"No. You'll have to step outside to make a call. Leave me and Ryan alone with them."
She shook her head vehemently. "No. I will not have you to risking your badges over them. Forget it."
"Beckett…" Ryan began.
"Forget it. That's an order."
That afternoon they were back in the precinct, going over what they had so far. In addition to the 12th Precinct detectives, Agent Grivas had joined them.
Kate finished her briefing. "The canvas turned up nothing so far, although we did get traffic and security cam footage we're scrubbing. But if they came through the back door, there are no cameras anywhere near there, and no neighbors saw anything. We have footage from the two nearest subway stations, but it was during rush hour, so we aren't very confident of seeing anything. Especially since hoodies, baseball caps and sunglasses are a fashion statement now."
Video Tech Tory Ellis took over. "As Detective Beckett said, we're scrubbing the video footage we have and we're going over the recording of Castle's call. We're not hopeful. But we do have something." She turned her laptop around so everyone could see it. "This is the feed we got when Castle's wallet was thrown away. We can't make the license plate, it appears they had something covering it. We can't even tell if it's a New York plate. But we did identify the car as a dark blue, late 90's Honda Accord."
"There's only like a million Accords around." Ryan muttered.
"We did get something, though." Ellis continued. She tapped the screen and a blurry view of the car showed on the screen. "We can't see the driver at all, but look in the center of the windshield. At the top."
Kate saw it at once. "A blue blur." Then I came to her. "A disabled parking pass."
Ellis smiled. "There are still a lot of late 90's Accords around, but those with disabled parking passes will cut the number down to something manageable, we hope. We've already got the DMV records from New York and we're waiting for New Jersey and Connecticut."
Ellis went on. "We've checked the phone and the radio. The radio's serial number shows it was part of a shipment stolen from a loading dock in New Jersey six months ago. We've asked robbery to look into the case and let us know. The phone is a burner phone, bought for cash five months ago at a big box electronics store in the Bronx. The name given for the buyer was U. N. Owen."
"U. N. Owen?" Ryan asked. "Anything on him?"
"Probably not." Ellis replied. "U. N. Owen? Pronounced unknown? And the address is a street in Ridgewood, New Jersey that doesn't exist. But, "She went on, "the store does have a video surveillance system at every check-out counter. They're sending over their footage for the day the phone was sold, but they don't know what time it was and they were having a sale that day, so the place was crowded. But, maybe we'll get lucky."
Esposito spoke up. "I checked the radio. It had an antenna lead going up to the roof. The radio would have a line of sight range of two or three miles. Castle could be anywhere."
The CSU tech spoke next. "We found nothing. We're betting the guy got in, set up the radio and phone, called the precinct and got out the back door as quick as he could."
Gates looked at Kate. "How are you doing on the cases Mr. Castle was involved with? Anyone that might hold a grudge?"
"His first case was the Tisdale murder. Harrison Tisdale is in prison and Johnathan Tisdale passed away several years ago. We can't find anyone who'd want revenge against Castle there. The next is the Sara Manning case. The killer, Chloe Richardson, is in prison. She had a child by Ian Harris. He's never seen his son by her, never contacted her and when the State of New York tried to get child support out of him, he took off. Last seen in Miami. Which proves he's a slimeball, but not likely to go after Castle for helping to bust his girlfriend. Next is the murder of Donny Kendall…"
"I assume you're telling us you have no leads, Detective Beckett?" Gates broke in.
Kate nodded. "Yes, sir." Gates turned to Agent Grivas. "And what do we have from the FBI?"
"The Bureau doesn't feel this is a kidnaping for ransom, and while we will keep our agents at the Castle residence in case there is a call there, we feel that our resources would best be utilized elsewhere. Of course, if the NYPD needs our assistance, we'll be glad to oblige."
After a short speech from Gates to try to raise their morale, the meeting broke up.
"How come the Wicked Witch of the FBI bailed?" Ryan asked. "I thought a case with a nice high profile vic would be a dream for her."
Esposito shook his head. "The best time to nab a kidnapper is when the money is delivered. And once you get the victim back, you can go all out, but…"Espo stopped as he noticed Beckett.
"That's okay, Javi. "She said. "If the kidnappers aren't interested in money, if all you find is a mutilated body, then if you're an ambitious FBI agent, you don't want to be associated with that. Once there's no happy ending, you're out of there."
"Don't say that. Don't even think that, Beckett. We will get Castle back."
"I hope we do." She said quietly.
Beckett want back to her desk and continued reviewing cases Castle had worked on. After reviewing another case, she felt overwhelmed. Any of these killers could have had a relative or a lover that we never found out about that would want revenge. It'll take months to check every person that might, just might, have a grudge against Castle or the NYPD. And he's out there right now. Being beaten. And I'm sitting here doing nothing!
"Beckett?"
She looked up to see Ryan standing at her desk. "Yeah. I'll just do another case and then I'll go."
"No." He said with a shake of his head. "You need to rest. Get some sleep."
Kate was suddenly angry. "Sleep? Castle isn't sleeping. He's probably being beaten as we speak. How the hell can I sleep when that's happening to him? How can I? Tell me?" She glared at her friend.
"You can because you're a good cop and you know you can't push yourself like this forever. And you need to think about Martha and Alexis. You called them to let them know what we found. They'll be a wreck by now. They need you, too. Go home, Beckett. Help Martha and Alexis deal with this. We've got this. The whole precinct is on it. People from the swing and midnight shifts are in working on this. We'll get him back."
Kate nodded to Ryan. "Thanks. Tell everyone else thanks, too."
She left the precinct, noticing that Ryan had also referred to Castle's loft as her home. Please God, if you are there, and I know for a long time I didn't believe You were there, but please let him come back to me. Please give us a chance. Please give me a chance.
As soon as she walked through the door to the loft, Alexis and Martha were hugging her. The two redheads were as worried about how she felt as she was worried about them. Martha took her into the kitchen and put her dinner on a plate for her. "Dear, if you could call when you leave the precinct, we could do a better job of dinner for you."
Kate almost cried. "I'm sorry, Martha. I didn't think. That's so inconsiderate of me. Here you've been…"
Martha pulled her into a hug. "No. We owe you so much. Not just for what you're doing now, but for everything you've done for Richard. You've been a godsend to all of us."
Kate hugged the older woman back and felt Alexis join in the hug. I've screwed up my relationship with him so badly. Please, please, let me fix it.
She took a forkful of food and then spoke. "I need to tell you what happened after I called today. Although it's not much."
Once again, Kate found herself in Castle's bed. She had almost decided to sleep in the nude, but had found an old tee shirt of his and used that as a night shirt. She snuggled deep in the bed, hugging his pillow to her. All of her fears for the future and all of her regrets from their past came to the surface. Tears began to pour down her cheeks. She pulled the pillow tighter to muffle her sobs. The tears kept falling.
The door opened and Martha came into the room. Kate could see tears in her eyes as well. She put her arms around Kate. "I know, dear. I know. But there will be no tears in this house. We do not worry about the possibilities for failure. They do not exist."
In spite of Martha's brave words, the two women wept in each other's arms.
Finally the tears ceased to fall and Martha looked at Kate. "Katherine, I want to see more of you here in the future." She gently tapped the bed, implying she wanted Kate there with Rick. "I think sometimes you're more than he deserves, but I'm glad you've found each other."
"No. I'm not more than he deserves. But I want to be here too."
Kate slept soundly that night and arrived at the precinct early.
"Beckett!" Ryan called to her. "I was just about to call you. We may have one."
"What?" She asked, her eyes lighting up.
Ryan waved a post-it. "Conrad van Houten."
Beckett frowned. "I don't recognize the name. How is he related to Castle?"
"He probably isn't. But he owns a dark blue 1998 Honda Accord and he has a disabled parking placard. According to the DMV records he's 74 years old and has really bad arthritis. His wife is 72. I can't find any relationship between them and Castle, but a uniform spotted the car and the placard late last night and looked it over on a hunch. He saw what looks like scratches from a slim jim by the driver's side door. It was late, so he didn't want to wake the owner, but he called it in."
"And?" Kate asked.
"We got a team from auto theft out there. The car had been hot-wired. The wires from the ignition were all wrapped up in electrical tape. This could be the car. CSU is on the way. I thought you'd want to do the interrogation."
"Let's go."
The van Houten home was a small, two bedroom house in a neighborhood of similar houses, leftovers from the housing boom after the Second World War. Beckett was happy to see that CSU was already going over the car. Esposito knocked on the door and a small, white haired lady in a beige housecoat and slippers answered.
"Come in. Come in. We've been expecting you. Haven't had this much excitement since…Oh! Since forever. Sit down. Coffee? Tea? I have some home made cookies?"
The three detectives declined and sat on the couch, across from Mr. van Houten. He was a bulky, balding man with a cane across his lap. He smiled at them, but appeared to be in pain.
"Sir, "Kate began, "can you tell us where you were last Tuesday?"
"Oh, sure. We were in Trenton. Trenton, New Jersey, that is. It's our grandson's birthday. Michael. He's thirteen now. A teenager." Mr. van Houten pointed to a picture of a younger family on the mantel. One of the children was undoubtedly the new teenager.
Kate's face fell. "So, the car wasn't here on Tuesday."
"Oh. Sure, the car was here. We weren't. Mama does all of the driving, but she hates going on the freeways. Our son drove up on Monday and took us down. Got back on Wednesday."
"The car was parked out in front of your house on Tuesday?" Ryan asked.
Mr. van Houten nodded. "They didn't build any garages with these places. Got to park on the street."
"How many people knew you were going to be in Trenton last Monday?" Kate asked.
The van Houtens looked at each other. "Everyone, I guess." Mrs. Van Houten said. "We've lived here for forty years. Most of our neighbors have been here that long. Why, the newcomers have been here a good twenty years. We're proud grandparents. We always brag about the kids."
"Did you notice anyone around here that you didn't know? Anyone around the car. Anyone in the neighborhood acting suspicious?" Esposito asked.
"No." They both replied together.
Kate almost smiled at the two replying together, just like her and Castle. We're like an old married couple already. We will be an old married couple?
They left the van Houtens' home just as the CSU team was getting ready to leave. The CSU team leader called them over. "Detectives, the inside of the car was scrubbed clean. No fingerprints, no DNA, no fibers, no nothing. The guy did a good job."
"Assuming it's our guy." Kate said, not wanting to get her hopes up.
The CSU tech shook his head. "Steal a car and leave it right back in front of the owners house? A teenager who's joyriding will do that, but they won't clean up after themselves that well. No, this guy did something bad in this car. He still might not be our guy, but I wouldn't bet against it. And, while we did get nothing inside, the outside of the car had prints on it. We'll run them and let you know what we find."
The three detectives walked back into the bullpen, tired and disappointed at finding nothing. As soon as they came in, Gates stuck her head out of her office. "Detective Beckett, will you come into my office, please?"
Something in Gates' tone of voice and on her face sent a shiver through Kate. "Sir, what is it?"