Winter Heat

Ch. 7: Ambush

"So what's our next move?" Castle asked as he and Esposito met she and Ryan coming out of the interrogation room.

"We need to find Danielle and Derek Thompson. He has a fourteen hour head start on us so there's no telling what has happened since then. We need to get Danielle and their son into our custody before he hurts them, and then we can worry about Derek," She instructed as the four of them walked to their desks. "Let's start calling them up and see what we can find." And as expected, they couldn't reach Danielle or Derek. The four of them took turns pushing redial and leaving them messages on their voicemail. She just hoped they weren't too late.

"Who else can we call that might have seen them?" Ryan asked.

"The hotel!" Castle exclaimed. "The uniforms that took them there last night would know which one and where it's at."

"I'm on it," Esposito called as he immediately got on the phone. Within in fifteen minutes, they knew that Danielle and Derek were dropped off at a Hampton Inn fifteen minutes from the precinct, and in another ten, they were in their cars heading to that hotel. She knew that they wouldn't find the family there, but if her suspicions were right, Derek Thompson had taken his wife and child somewhere and they were in harms way.

The car ride with Castle was normal at first: It was just the two of them going to pick up a suspect like they had done many times before. But after a few minutes, the awkward silence returned, but it was Castle who decided to break it.

"I missed you last night," He said to her. "The tree turned out great. We found the hooks in a kitchen cabinet."

"Odd spot," She replied. Odd spot? That's all she had to say after they have hardly spoken a word to each other all day? How stupid!

"Alexis said we must have put them there after we couldn't find them last year."

She smiled and said, "Only in your house." The car fell silent again before she asked, "Are we really doing this, Castle? Faking the small talk?" But before they had time to talk about the bigger issue at hand, they had reached their destination.

When they entered the building and made their way up to the Thompon's hotel room, it was no surprise to find it empty. Their luggage was there, Danielle's purse sat on a night stand near one of the queen size beds, and everything appeared to be untouched. After talking with the manager, they learned the Thompson's checked in shortly after they left the precinct, but there was a twist: Around 2am, neighbors began calling the desk complaining of a disturbance coming from their room, but by the time anyone went to investigate, everything seemed to be fine.

"Did anyone see them leave this morning?" She asked everyone at the front desk. If Derek fled, he must have known that Danny Nixon was going to sell him out. They all shook their heads. "Will someone be kind enough to take Detectives Ryan and Esposito to look at all the security footage between now and 2am?" One of the employees gladly cooperated and a few minutes later, she and Castle got a text asking them to join them.

"We found something at the footage from 4am this morning," Esposito said as they IT guy rewound the footage from the lobby. After putting it in play, they watched as Danielle carried their sleeping son out of the hotel while Derek pulled her arm along.

"Doesn't look she went willingly," She pointed out.

"Where do you think he took them? Ryan asked. "It can't be anywhere good."

"No, no it cannot," She answered as she stared at the screen, thinking about what they should do next. "Alright…let's head back to the precinct and start getting APB's out for them."

The car ride back to the precinct was back to normal as she and Castle theorized about what happened and where the family could be. Back at the Twelfth, everyone was on their phones as they tried to get a location on them. As they were about to meet and discuss a new game plan, her phone rang on her desk. She answered it to find Derek Thompson on the other line.

"I hear you guys are looking for me," Derek said to her in a tantalizing way.

"Derek, where are you?" She calmly asked.

"Why? So you guys can come arrest me?"

"You're not in any trouble yet, so if you just tell us where you, your wife, and your son are, we can put all of this behind us."

"I'm no dummy, Detective. You think I killed my father-in-law and you just want me in your custody so you can arrest me."

"Then why did you call me?"

"To confirm what I already knew was true. I also wanted to let you know the only way you guys will know if my family is safe, is if you find them yourselves." And with that, the phone line went dead.

"Could you guys trace the call?" She immediately asked as she hung up. Esposito shook his head.

"Sorry. We needed another fifteen or twenty seconds," Ryan added on.

"Wait a minute…I have an idea…" Castle spoke up. Even when things weren't going well between them, she could always rely on Castle to come through with a silver lining. "Some employees at Mr. Nicholson's shop said he was planning on expanding the business. Where was the location of this taking place?" They all scattered through their paperwork, only to find that no one had actually written that piece of information down.

"Castle…Are you thinking that that's where Derek is hiding out?" She asked as she picked up the phone to dial Santa's Workshop.

"If it's in the outskirts of the city, an underdeveloped building that no one knows exists would be an awfully good place to do so."

"Hi, this is Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD. Can I speak with a manager please?" She asked into the other line. Tammy Smart came onto the line and was able to answer their question instantly.

"C'mon boys, get your coats. It's time for a road trip."

The newest shop being built was about forty minutes away in the outskirts of the city. According to maps they looked at, it was near a loading dock often used to import seafood, but it was pretty much abandoned during the winter season. The adrenaline was coursing their veins as it often did before an arrest, but the longer she and Castle sat there in the car, the tension between them began to creep back in again. She wanted to talk to him about last night; they needed to talk about last night. But this wasn't the time.

"Kate…" Castle started to say. She could tell he had been running through lines in his head that he should say to her. She could see that the spark in his eye was gone today, and she felt bad that she did that to him.

"Castle, I'm sorry. I know I owe you an explanation and that we need to talk, but this isn't the time or place," She explained.

"Okay. I'll let you decide when and where whenever you're ready."

"How about tonight? When hopefully this case is solved and behind us?"

"It's a date." She gave him a smile and nodded, happy that now they were on a mutual, common ground.

As they arrived at their destination, the shop stood like they were in the middle of nowhere with the lake behind it and snow covering the ground. There was a lone set of tire tracks that wrapped behind the building and another set tbat kept going down the road. It was more than likely that their guy was here somewhere.

"Hey Esposito, you and Ryan want to go check out where that second set of tracks leads to?" She asked over the radio.

"You and Castle going to be fine by yourselves?" Esposito asked back. "We don't know what exactly this guy is capable of."

"We'll scope the place out and then when you two get back we'll raid the place."

"You got it boss."

They parked out of site of the building, so assuming Derek Thompson was in there, he wouldn't be alarmed by the cars outside. Esposito and Ryan went on ahead and Ryan gave them a salute as they passed by.

They quietly walked up, she with her gun in hand so she was ready if need be. They brushed some snow and ice one of the side windows and peered in, but it was too dark to see inside. The only thing they could see was the floor where the sunlight hit. As she tried another window, Castle went ahead to a set doors.

"Castle! What're you doing?" She whispered.

"Seeing if they're unlocked," He answered nonchalantly.

"Castle, just get over here, will you? We don't want to be caught before Ryan and Esposito get back here." They both stopped and stared at each other, realizing that that statement easily could have been subtext for what happened last night if she changed Ryan and Espo's names to Castle's. Castle didn't object anymore and just let it go, heading to a different window further along.

"Hey, check it out: you can see in through this one," Castle called her over. She put her hands to the glass and looked in. Because it was in a shadier spot, they were able to see that even though the outside was finished, the inside was mainly a large open space with partial walls built in.

"Doesn't look like anyone is here. Should we still continue scoping through the windows?" Castle asked.

"Better safe than sorry," She replied. "Besides, I think I smell gasoline. There might be a leak somewhere around here." The next thing she knew, a terrible pain was shooting through the back of her neck. She heard Castle cry, "Hey! What's going on?" And everything began to go black as her legs gave out underneath her.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Boy do I look forward to posting chapter 8...That is going to be a big one ;) I'm planning on posting it later today or tomorrow, so stay tuned! In the mean time, leave a little review! Is the case being dragged on? Story progressing too slow? If so, let me know