Chapter 4

"We just finished with our last." Beckett said talking to Ryan on the phone as she and Castle made their way back to her car. "Yeah we hit the same thing. No one remembers anything. I don't think this is our link….. Head home. We'll see what comes through tomorrow." She hung up and looked at Castle in the passenger seat. He saw the look that crossed her face before she started driving to his loft.

"I'll see if I can scan through what you guys got today. Maybe I can make some crazy connection you haven't seen yet." He told her and saw her nod. He fell silent thinking about how upset she was and the rest of the ride back to his loft was spent in silence. Both thinking about the other and the events that had been happening recently. Beckett wondered if he was trying to hide Karen since she didn't have a boyfriend at the time, while Castle was still trying to figure out what was going on with her. Time moved quickly and before they knew it, she was pulling up in front of his building.

"I'll let you know if anything else comes up." She said looking over at him as he unbuckled. He started opening the door but stopped and looked at her.

"I'm not with Karen." He said making her look at him and furrow her brow. "I know you think I've been hiding a relationship but there's nothing between us. There's only one woman I have my sights on." He smirked before he climbed from the car and went back to his loft leaving her to think over what he had just told her. After a minute, she started back to her own apartment to sleep for the next day of dealing with Gates.

Castle sat at the dining room table the next night looking over all the papers the detective had left him the night before when his phone buzzed. Looking at it, he saw it was a message from Beckett.

'Nothing new so far. Ryan and Esposito are looking at more employee lists and running the red flags down now.' Quickly he replied.

Beckett was sitting in the conference room looking at financial with Gates across from her. She heard her phone buzz softly and looked to see a message from Castle in reply to what she had sent him.

'Sounds like they are having all the fun while you sit back and do nothing.' She gave a little smirk reading his comment before she typed in her replay and set her phone down.

'I'm not just sitting around. I get the job of working with Gates.'

"You have too many distractions." Gates told her making her look at the woman. "Boyfriends texting you through the day will only hinder your work."

"It's not my boyfriend and as long as I do my job and do it well I see no reason for you to worry." Beckett said replied before going back to work leaving Gates to look at her.

'Sounds like you're going to need a nice stiff vodka tonight. I have just the stuff.' Beckett bit her bottom lip to stop from grinning. After working with him for over three years and she could just hear his silly tone saying the words he sent. She quickly responded, 'sounds like a good idea.'

"Seems whoever it is, is a big distraction." Gates said making Beckett glance at the woman sitting across the table from her as Ryan and Esposito stopped at the doorway. "You are a good detective; if you took away your distractions you would be so much better."

"Castle is not a distraction. He may be a pain in the ass but he is brilliant when it comes to thinking outside of the box to solve our cases."

"He is not a detective and we have no place for him to be running around pretending to be one." Beckett looked at Gates for a minute, trying to hold back anything that would cause her to lose her job.

"We didn't find anything. We rand down every one of the names. There's no connection." Esposito interrupted making Beckett and Gates turn to look at the two men. "We're looking over some of the other lists but we're just not seeing any connections."

"Yeah, usually this is when Castle starts spouting ideas and usually there's one or two we can link to the evidence we have. Beckett's right, Castle is a huge help on our cases." Ryan explained.

Beckett's phone vibrated on the table again making everyone watch as she looked at it. Another text from Castle. Opening it, she saw Gates give a disapproving look. 'Well then detective, I will have my best stuff set for when you are done.' "Castle?" Esposito asked, watching Beckett nod. "Does he have a crazy theory?"

"Not yet." She replied rolling her eyes reading the text.

"How would he be getting any new theories if he is not working the case?" Gates asked making the three detectives look at each other. "Right?"

"Castle is part of our team." Beckett said pulling her papers together and standing up. "We're going to need our full team to catch this guy." She walked out, gabbing her jacket from the back of her chair at her desk and started for the elevators.

"Beckett." Esposito called after her.

"Let me know if you find anything else." She called over her shoulder as she walked into the elevator. As the doors closed, she pulled her phone from her pocket and dialed.

"Did you find something or are you calling for that stiff vodka?" She heard after two rings. She couldn't help but smile and roll her eyes.

"I have some more reports and lists that I thought you'd want to add to your collection."

"Well in that case, detective, I'll be waiting for the addition."

"I'm leaving now."

"See you soon." The two hung up and she was on her way.

Castle looked at his watch and saw that it had been five hours since Beckett had told him she was on her way over to his place, and she still wasn't there. He dialed her number and heard it ring before clicking to her voice mail and he hung up. Something was wrong, he could feel it. He decided to call Esposito and Ryan; maybe she had to go back and was just busy with work.

"Esposito." He heard.

"It's Castle. Is Beckett still there?" Esposito paused for a moment.

"No she left a while ago with her papers. I figured she was going to take them to you."

"She said she was on her way over with them. That was five hours ago." He was beginning to worry more and more. He heard Esposito adjust the phone.

"Ryan, get a trace on Beckett's phone."

"I'm on my way." Castle told him.

"See you in a few." They hung up and Castle moved as fast as he could grabbing his jacket and keys.

"Where are you going?" Alexis asked as she and Sam came down the stairs both smiling brightly. Alexis' face fell as she looked at her father's scared expression. "Dad? What's wrong?"

"Just stay here, don't go anywhere. Lock the door and don't let anyone in."

"Dad? What happened?"

Castle paused for a minute looking at his worried daughter before he took a breath. "Beckett's missing." Alexis' eyes went wide and her mouth opened slightly. "Stay and don't go anywhere." He told her quickly before he turned towards the door again. "I'll call you as soon as we know something." She nodded and locked the door behind him.

Castle ran out of the elevators and over to Ryan and Esposito who were trying to connect something from what they had. Gates looked through the window of her office seeing castle run stop to talk to the two men. She stormed into the bullpen and over to the three who were talking about what they knew.

"Mr. Castle." The three looked up at her. "You are not a detective and have no reason to be here, nor do you have any right."

"You may not like it but Castle can help." Ryan shrugged.

"My partner is missing and no one can figure out even an area she could be. I'm not leaving." Castle said taking two steps toward her. "I'm not going to back down from this. I'm not going to let Kate die because you are too stubborn to accept help from people who aren't detectives."

"You think you can find her when the entire department has been looking for her for the last hour?" Castle stood face to face with her, setting his face and leveling his eyes on her with a look she had never seen from the writer before he answered her.

"I will find her." The two looked at each other for another minute before Gates narrowed her eyes at him.

"Then find your partner." She turned and walked away leaving Castle and the two detectives stunned for a moment. They hadn't thought she would have agreed. He turned to look at the two before they jumped into the case.

"What was she working on?" Castle asked before Ryan turned pulling papers out of a folder on his desk.

"These are the papers that we got earlier. It's the list of employees from the rest of the vics. She was looking through them with Gates. She left after Gates told her that you were a distraction with the texting her." Castle looked at him a second and then took the file from the detective. He quickly walked into the meeting room with the large long table.

He spread the papers out and started skimming through the names trying to see if any rang a bell with the names he had been studying the last few days. The two detectives pulled the whiteboard into the room so they could work from on spot and they started going over everything they knew.

The three detectives were still trying to find something that would help them find their friend. They were becoming desperate. It has been a day and a half already and time was running out. Castle ran his hand over his face before looking back over the board. They were running on pure will to stay awake to find their missing friend.

"We have nothing to go on." Ryan said frustrated.

"Each victim was found in an abandoned building, one that would allow the body to be found. They were tied up and starved so we have some time to find her." Castle said trying to stay focused on the facts and what fit together. "We need to find a place that fits with where the other victims were found. It will at least narrow things down and we might be able to catch something from there."

"Okay well the other victims were found here, here…" Ryan began marking the places on the map and it began to revile a pattern. "It's…."

"a cross." Castle finished as he moved closer to the board. "There's one missing in the center. That's got to be where Beckett is." The two detectives moved quickly with Castle right behind them.

"Did you find something?" Gates asked seeing the three rush around the desks.

"We know where she's going to be." Castle told her as Esposito was on the phone and Ryan was working on his computer.

"Got it." Ryan said looking up at them. "There was a building that was just rented out three days ago." he read the address to Esposito who relayed it to the person on the phone and paused.

"Got it." Esposito hung the phone up and nodded. "It was rented to a Bryan Yates. His sheet is being faxed over now." He told them quickly before he went to get the paper.

"Bryan Yates?" Castle asked before taking off back to the papers in the other room. "I can't believe I didn't catch this before." He grumbled as he flipped through all the papers.

"What did you miss?" Gates asked before Castle turned eleven papers to face her making her look down at them. "Bryan Yates, Brian Yates, Brin Yates, Brian Yats….they're spelt different."

"They're the same person. There's no way that there are eleven people with the same name only spelt slightly different working at the work of each victim. I never put it together until Esposito said the name."

"Got his sheet." Esposito said as he walked into the room making everyone look at him. "Wife died six years ago. Since then he's been arrested on five counts of assault, two counts of attempted murder."

"Do we have an address?" Gates asked.

"Right here." Esposito handed the paper to her.

"Go get this guy."

"What about Beckett?" Castle asked making Gates turn to look at him.

"We bring the guy in and get him to tell us where she is so we aren't searching the large area. We don't have the man power to search the entire area." She turned back to Esposito and Ryan. "Go get the guy." They looked at Castle as he grabbed his jacket from the chair before he walked out quickly.

"Castle." Ryan called as he and Esposito caught up to him in the elevator. "What are you doing?"

"She's going to waste time finding this guy and hoping he'll tell us where exactly she is, we know the basic building and it might be huge but we need to get her safe first." The two detectives looked at each other.

"I got this guy." Ryan said giving a slight nod to Esposito. Castle looked at the two. "Get Beckett back. I'll take the unies and take this guy down."

"Let us know when you got him." Esposito said as the elevator doors opened. Ryan nodded and walked off to head off to the house of Bryan Yates leaving Castle to look at Esposito. "Let's get our girl back." Castle gave a little nod and followed Esposito to his personal car.

Ryan pulled his gun from the holster as he pointed the officers to surround the house as he led a few to the front door. He pounded on the door, "Bryan Yates! NYPD! Open up!" He yelled. His call was answered with silence. Ryan looked at the other officered before one kicked the door in and they swarmed the building, checking each room. Looking for the man who had caused so much trouble and taken one of their own, but finding nothing but furniture.

"There's no one here, sir." One said making Ryan pull his phone out to call Esposito.