Chapter 7 – because of the file

9.37 am

The bear claw Esposito tossed to Castle satisfied the hunger that had taken over the nausea. He ate it in several large bites barely tasting it. A half mug of luke warm coffee chased the bear claw down. Castle's mind was too focussed on his investigation to find the evidence he needed. Diligently, he had scanned hours of video searching for his girlfriend in the footage whether she was alone, with him or had been in the company of the boys. Every time Kate entered the video, Castle focussed on the individuals about her, behind, beside, whoever was stationary that she passed. Each person who appeared multiple times was noted, a still image was printed and saved to a folder, and Rick wrote an identification number on each image. He moved from day to day to roughly the same time each day and searched for any common denominators.

He thoroughly filtered through the times Kate crossed paths with the same people day to day. It was exhaustive work as she passed many people who worked in the same area or made the same journey every day.

Almost four hours later, he finally found what he had comprehensively searched for in a print he had casually cast his eyes over during a break he took to drink another cup of coffee. It was simply a glimpse of a Caucasian male who had been behind Rick and Kate over two consecutive days that caught his attention. The male wore a different coat and cap, but it was the same person who observed Kate. He left his coffee unfinished and moved to the video footage he had already checked. He soon found the person again, but this time, the first time he was in the video with two other men.

Rick used the spare office to lay out all the stills he had printed and spread them over the entire desktop in accordance with the days. It was then he saw a pattern emerge. It wasn't just one man who had stalked them. He identified four in the end, on the same path every day he and Kate travelled to buy lunch at their favourite cafe. They had even had the audacity to follow them inside the cafe. The men's presence had ceased the day before Kate had disappeared. Initially he considered it to be a coincidence but then reminded himself there was no such a thing as a coincidence under these circumstances.

He understood with the evidence at hand why they had failed to notice or sense the men who had stalked Kate. Detective Beckett was excellent at spotting anyone on to them, but with four of them, it was like walking past the same people day in and day out. Some you noticed and others were just faces in a crowd.

Absolutely certain he had good evidence, Castle stepped around the desk to the door way where he could see the boys at their desks. "Espo, Ryan. I have something. Please come take a look at it."

The boys glanced to each other then immediately pushed back their chairs, rose to their feet, and strode rapidly to join Rick. They stopped inside the office to study the immense number of photographs laid out over the desk, faces circled with red marker pen on every image. It took then only a few moments before they saw the pattern.

"There are four of them," Ryan said thinking aloud.

"Yes. Four of them." Rick confirmed "That I could identify". He sat back in his chair and rubbed his face, weary from lack of sleep. "What fucking chance does she have against four of them?" He asked and both men looked to him with expressions of horror falling over their faces. Internally, Castle was in a free fall panic. His imagination flashed images of what may be taking place with these men and Kate. The closed his eyes to make it go away by seeing nothing only caused the images to be vivid. He opened his eyes terrified to the point he forced himself to cease thinking about it.

"We'll find them." Ryan said, his voice barely registering in Castle's consciousness.

"It might be in her favour to be dead," he commented, "as she had no idea they were stalking her. No idea." He fell silent unable to maintain his enthusiasm any more.

**************************************Strong warning. Sensitive contents ****************************

This section I have argued with myself endlessly about whether to leave it out or keep it. However, the following is the conflict they are all challenged by for the rest of the story, so without it, the reader may lose the impact of what happens later. Please appreciate it was difficult to write and to write properly. Two writers wrote and reviewed it until we were fully satisfied it was acceptable to put up.

I removed the following section and since receiving private messages, have decided to put it back for the following reasons. This is the voice for the girls and women who suffer in silence. I sourced on experience to produce this story. Violence against women is a subject that is a worldwide taboo! It is important people know about it, and know it can happen to anybody: even to a kickass detective. It is important people know it's not the girl's fault if she gets raped, it's not because of the way she dresses, the way she talks or act.

The following is FICTION and the story is fiction, but we are dealing with real topics.

Thanks to those who communicated and encouraged me to be brave enough to put it back up.

9.47 am

Kate woke because her right arm was abruptly and painfully jerked. She squealed in alarm and pain. With a single hand, her body was lifted off the cold floor. She struggled to place her feet to the floor and she landed awkwardly. She just about gained her balance when a hand to the back of her head shoved her forward. She stumbled. The same hand grabbed her upper arm keeping her on her feet. She felt nauseas from thirst and hunger. Her vision remained poor. She knew it was daylight. She saw light and shadows, dark shapes, and people who moved about them. Orientation was out and she had no idea where she was at all. It was cold and felt damp. She still smelt chloroform, filthy body odours, dampness and the common odours of an industrial warehouse. The stench of sweaty bodies was the worst, a smell she would never get over.

The hand returned to the back of Kate's head. His fingers clutched a chunk of her hair and pulled her backwards in a direction he wanted her to head. She cried out, shifted her weight to her toes to ease the pull on her scalp.

She was pushed forward again several steps with a shove between her shoulder blades and it was quickly followed with another push, her body thrown forward by and she stumbled into something hard. Her knees collected a solid surface with a loud clunk against steel. She made a cry of surprise. Her fingers rapidly felt over the surface. She identified it as the fender and hood of a late model car. The hood was still warm from the engine. She didn't remember the last thing that had occurred with any clarity, but she was sure she hadn't been in a car. Her state of mind was severely confused and she felt weak. The chair, she recalled. They wanted the file. She must have been knocked unconscious.

She expressed a panicked cry and called. "Castle! Help."

Laughter from behind her was the only response. In Russian a male said. "You still call for him and he can't help you."

Kate replied in Russian, "Let me go and I will not hunt you down." She blinked hard in an attempt to regain her vision. She could see daylight ahead of her coming through the windows she had noticed earlier. However, they were set in the brick wall too high for her to access if she was left alone unbound. She needed to find an exit in the event she got the opportunity to escape. Silence had fallen over the room which allowed her several seconds to regain her composure, her breath a little. It was the issue of time she had been dwelling on whilst she had been tied in the chair. She had determined she had to buy time for Castle to find her.

"You won't be leaving here alive." The voice came from behind her. "You won't hunt me down, you won't forget this, you won't survive. You need to tell us where the file is."

A chill ran through Kate's spine. She was doomed. "No!" She screeched.

Kate instantly felt the weight of a heavy body against her buttocks and legs. She was pinned to the side of the car. She kicked as hard as she could manage given the pressure against her. At first her hands reached behind her to attack the male but she found nothing to injure. She abandoned it. Her fingers then reached out over the surface of the hood to find anything to grasp. There was only the smooth waxed surface of new paint on the panel. He pushed at her jeans to get them below her hips. She heard the laughter of men. She chose to ignore their noise and stretched as far as she could. She found the edge of the hood near the window. Her fingertips gripped it and she pulled as hard as she could, sliding from between him and the car. She twisted her hips in order to bend her knees. She kicked at his torso. He grunted. She was free.

In pure flight mode she scrambled up onto the car, her bare toes finding some traction on the paint. She was on the centre of the hood and had her fingers clamped to the frame of the windshield. She had to go over the roof to the other side of the vehicle. She had identified a door in her peripheral vision.

A hand planted at the back of her head. Fingers grabbed a chunk of her hair. Kate cried out at the tension placed on her hair. It was so painful on her scalp. Kate cried in pain and terror trying to hang on to the car with her fingertips, but her fingers slipped as she was pulled. She was thrown backwards, through the air. The back of her head hit the concrete with a loud whack, her shoulders taking some of the impact. She saw bright spots of light and felt excruciating pain in her head. She squealed, gripping her head in agony once the pain kicked in and rolled to her side. Her peripheral vision saw movement and in reflex kicked out as the Russian came after her.

Without a thought other than survival, she rolled to her stomach, scrambled to her feet and stumbled forward. One of them clutched at her left leg and violently pulled her down to her knees. She collapsed to the floor as she was dragged several metres over rough concrete, her t-shirt barely enough to protect her skin. She constantly kicked at the arms of the man her dragged her. She was dazed, dizzy but the vision was becoming clearer. She refused to stop fighting. It was down to survival and she was willing to die fighting them off her. As she was dragged, her fingers blindly searched for anything to take a hold of to stop or protect her with. Her jeans gave up the fight and started to slide down over her hips. He yanked them hard and they pulled free of her body. She used that release to escape and clambered to her feet again. There were constant dark shadows moving about her and she heard their voices, their words all in Russian. She cried, very scared of her vulnerability and her inability to protect herself. Her stomach rolled with terror.

She ran blindly forward, straight in to a solid object the corner piercing her right thigh. She fell onto it crying in pain. Her palms struck the hard surface. She swore. They laughed. She blindly felt its shape. A table. It was a god damn table. Although she struggled as hard as she could to scramble around the edge of the table, the attacker suddenly had her legs under his control and he hauled her off the table top with incredible strength. She struggled to grip onto the table. She hit the ground hard, her chin hitting something. It hurt! She screamed in pain and rage.

Seconds later her arms were taken hold of. She was turned over to her back and restricted by two other men. They lifted and carried her by her limbs. She was thrown crudely on to the car, flat on her back her head cracking on the hood. She cried in pain and defeat. She felt lightheaded and incapable of fighting or breathing. The hood of the car felt cold on her hot back, the air was damp.

"God! Please stop!" She cried out. Tears streamed from her eyes. She stared at the roof for several moments in an effort to regain control of her fears. The room that had been spinning out of control was easing once she kept still. There was light in the roof. A skylight. She was inside a warehouse. "Castle!" She called helplessly. Hands held her tightly down. She cried in pure terror. Panic started to rise when she realised no one would be looking for her anymore. They would have heard by now she had died in the staged car accident. Where would Castle be? Would he be mourning her death? She wished he was there to save her. She felt her arms being pinned to the hood. She understood perfectly the situation she was trapped. There was nothing she could do.

She listened to the men speaking in pure first generation Russian. There were an indistinguishable number of them around her. She stared at the skylight, trying to calm down enough to think straight. They knew her name and already had planned what they were going to do to her. She thought back to the attack at the Hamptons months ago, when she had shot David Matthews. This was payback for their comrades who had been arrested for attempted murder of her at the Hamptons. In Russian she pleaded. "No, please don't," several times. She waited, trying to think of a way out of the restraint they had her in. She knew there wasn't a chance in hell she could over power the men holding her down. Her ability to fight was diminished due to her physical weakness and concussion. They were all too strong for her to successfully defend herself she had to be smart.

Kate's few seconds of thought ended abruptly when she was pulled across the car her legs held so she could no longer struggle and her arms were out over her head held strongly from the other side of the vehicle. She smelt tobacco smoke and alcohol. A hand felt up her inner left thigh. Kate screamed piercingly loud, straining her vocal cords out of pure survival instinct. Maybe someone would hear her outside. She prayed someone would hear her. She could hear city sounds beyond the ringing inside her ears and the voices of the men she could not see.

She took a deep breath and screamed as loudly as she could. A hand clamped about her neck, gripping enough to choke her and took away her ability to make a noise. She was barely able to breathe. To conserve energy, to maintain oxygen to her brain and to the life within her, Kate stilled and relaxed her muscles.

Kate stole oxygen from the atmosphere by breathing shallow and laboured. She was terrified. She wasn't able to think of a way out. This was it. She wished her neck would be released of the massive hand that gripped it. She would keep still for them, do as they wanted so long as they let her have air. She struggled to maintain the airflow. She repeated to herself, in, out, in out, in out blocking out all other thoughts. No amount of training in self-defence had prepared her for this situation. Her neck was released when they pulled her top offer over her heads. She inhaled her throat rasping as she sucked in as much oxygen as her lungs would take. Three, four deep breathes. She promised herself not to make a noise to just let them kill her. They cut away her underclothes. She didn't care. She had oxygen. She felt fingers on her between her thighs again. The panic within peaked when her body was dragged over the hood to the edge of the car. She knew with without a doubt she was about to experience hell before they would end her life.

The hand returned to her throat. She cried. The grip tightened on her windpipe. She squeezed her eyes shut. The pain was unbearable. She was suffocating. She couldn't even make a sound when the hand tightened further about her neck. She couldn't stop him. It hurt. It was agonising. She was immobilised. Her vision was fading to shooting stars, her ears rang loudly, the room turned extremely bright.

She thought about Castle, his beautiful eyes, the way he looked at her. She was glad he hadn't heard her screams. She prayed he would never learn what was to come of her, how she was really going to die.

All this for a file she didn't have.

Kate's imagination rescued her and extracted her from reality by catapulting her onto the beach at Coney Island with her mum and dad, walking along the shore on a cold January day. Castle was holding her hand and carrying their child. She was so happy.

She passed out unable to draw a breath.

10.11 am

Esposito's cell phone rang. He looked to the caller id, saw it was Lanie and picked up. "Hey Chica. What'sup?" He greeted and then listened. "You sure? Ok. See you in five." He hung up and turned to Rick and Kevin. "Lanie is on her way over. She has something for us she couldn't tell us over the phone," He informed them soberly, his chin tightening in thought. He knew Lanie well and by the tone of voice she wasn't bringing them good news.

"She's on her way here?" Castle asked in surprise. He almost collapsed in Kate's desk chair in sheer terror. Lanie only attended the Precinct when the news was horrific or she didn't have a body to exhibit her evidence. He would normally change the height of the chair but on this occasion it never entered his mind. "I'm worried," he murmured. His palms pressed together and his index fingers rested on his bottom lip in thought. "I'm really worried," he whispered staring at Kevin who was seated at his own desk.

Esposito who sat in Castle's usual chair, picked up one of Kate's white elephants and studied it, turning it over in his fingers. "Me too," He eventually replied. "Lanie sounded like she was crying." He glanced between the elephant and Castle then returned the elephant to its rightful place on Kate's desk.

"Seriously? Lanie has been crying?" Kevin carefully asked looking to both men. Esposito gave a nod. "Wouldn't we have been called if her body had turned up?"

"She might be in another jurisdiction." Esposito replied quietly as he slumped in the chair.

"Don't anticipate," Castle ordered. Silence reigned for almost a minute. "This is gonna be the longest fucking five minutes of my life."

"Maybe she has evidence," Esposito suggested.

"She's an ME," Rick replied. The only evidence she would have would related to a body.

The three men waited in silence, staring vacantly at the clock on the wall that continued to tick in seconds then minutes. Almost eight minutes later the elevator doors opened and Rick saw Lanie, in a dark suit appear. She glanced to her right then left and stepped from the elevator. Rick nodded to the boys indicating she had arrived and they all stood up and turned toward her. Lanie walked at first then rushed to Esposito, not stopping till she was in his embrace. She was sobbing. Esposito rested his chin on her head his eyes moving between his two friends, understanding perfectly what news she had come to give them. It took a couple of minutes for Lanie to regain her composure and she stood back moving toward Rick who was falling to bits in front of them. She swallowed seeing how much his hands trembled. He swallowed nervously, his adams apple showing.

"Tell us." Castle ordered.

"I had a call from a New Jersey ME just before. They identified the victims of a vehicular accident in which the car exploded very early this morning. They identified one of the victims via dental records. Rick I'm so sorry to have to tell you. It was Kate Beckett. She was in the passenger seat."

"No!" Rick murmured. "No! Do you have the ME's report?"

"Not yet." Lanie replied.

"How do they know it was her?"

"They had her dental records first thing." She replied glancing to each of the boys, silently questioning them why Rick was asking these questions.

"I want to see the postmortem report." Rick ordered. "As soon as you receive the report, I want it." He demanded.

"It won't change anything Rick." She sobbed and allowed Rick to pull her close for a hug he needed so much.

Kevin leaned against the desk. "My god." He murmured no sure what to say or think.

"How did they get her dental records so fast?" Rick asked. "How did they know who her dentist was? It takes you ages to find dental records and some ME in Jersey just happens to locate them before office hours even start?"

"Castle!" Ryan shouted to shut him up.

Esposito picked up a book he violently threw, then sat back in Castle's chair putting his hands to his head. "She's dead Castle."

"Just like she got in that SUV yesterday," Rick replied and grabbed his jacket and laptop bag. He lifted the shoulder strap over his right shoulder and headed out of the bullpen. He stopped and turned back.

"Please Lanie, call me when you have the ME's report. I need to read it." He requested very calmly. Lanie stared at him giving him her response by shaking her head no. He stared at her calmly and mouthed please, as he slowly stepped backwards. He raised his left eyebrow, half smiled and turned away from his friends. He quietly descended the stairs.

Outside the Precinct, Castle stood motionless on the pavement for minutes, his head tilted to the blue morning sky, feeling numb. He didn't know whether he should be angry at Kate for dying or angry because he felt he had been deceived by her. Should he be frustrated by the confusing information and evidence or just plain out upset over the news her body had been located. Numbness is all he had. After some time, he lowered his eyes and started down the street that he and Beckett and travelled along on many occasions. He commenced his walk towards his car, during which time his heart slowly dislodged itself from the cavity of his chest. It gradually rose to his throat painfully lodging itself there. The further he walked the more it hurt until he felt nothing put pure agonising grief.

On autopilot, he found his car and sunk behind the steering wheel tired and broken. It was dark beneath the Precinct in the car park, so quiet peaceful. His phone constantly vibrated in the back pocket of his jeans but he ignored it, not wanting to speak to anyone. He lifted it out of his pocket, checked who had called, He slipped it into a side pouch of his lap top back to cease the disturbance of it.

He started the car and drove out of the Precinct towards home