(Hey guys! Here's the second chapter of the week…Maybe I'm finally on a roll now! Of course I still don't own them. Enjoy!)
The Walls Fall Down
Chapter Eight: Finding Bread Crumbs
As all of this unfolded in the basement of a quiet apartment not all that far from them, Castle, Beckett and Esposito were frantically skimming through files of paperwork in the conference room. Ryan was still at his computer out in the bullpen, making sure they hadn't missed any of Jerry Tyson's long list of previous foster homes in their search.
Detective Kate Beckett was known as a sharp, decisive, by-the-book sort of cop, and she was good at her job because she waited for the facts to come in, checked those facts to be sure, then acted with certainty. However, she could also be intuitive when she had to be, if intuition was all she had to go on. It had already occurred to her that searching abandoned properties randomly wasn't going to get them any farther than it had already. Jerry Tyson was methodical, organized, and though he harnessed his rage enough to keep himself from making mistakes and getting caught, his rage was also his driving force. He had something to say with these killings, and this one was especially meaningful. He had something to prove with Alexis, and he would find a place to hold her that meant something as well, in order to complete the sick picture he was trying to paint. That was when his former foster homes became an obvious choice, and they were now combing through them for possibilities.
Castle was still incredibly, horribly tense, sitting almost at her elbow. He had apologized for his earlier outburst, and for taking his helpless anger and frustration out on her, but the air between them still seemed charged and icy. It was so palpable that from time to time Esposito would look up from the file in his hands to glance between the two of them oddly, as if he was unsure what to make of the tense silence, and then decide to say nothing and go back to scanning the lines before him. Kate didn't blame him for being disconcerted; it put her off balance as well. Yet, she couldn't dwell on it now; she had to focus on these miserable places that had served as homes for a disturbed young man slowly becoming a psychopath. If they didn't get to Alexis in time, Rick Castle would never be Rick Castle again – not really. He might forgive them, knowing that they had done their best, but he would never forgive himself for bringing Alexis to Tyson's attention, and he would never be the charming, silly, effortless man he had been before this. Beckett was realizing with alarming clarity that if they failed to save Alexis, she would never forgive herself for that reason alone – for that fact that it would cost her Castle's soul.
The man in question glanced up at her then, making her jump. For a second, she thought he had caught her and read her thoughts somehow, but though his eyes were hooded and shadowed, she didn't sense that they knew the dark thoughts she'd been thinking. "Why don't we just get several teams and raid all of these places one by one?" he asked desperately. "Aren't we wasting time trying to decide which one site is the best possibility?"
Kate was about to answer, noting sadly that his usual panache for unraveling the clues and detangling the riddles was stripped from him completely. She could only hope that it wasn't gone for good; she had come to adore that facet of working with him most of all. Before she could answer, however, Esposito spoke up for her, "That takes time too, Castle. Some of these places are actually pretty close together in the city. We could tip him off, and he might move her again, or we might force him to move faster than he intended and –" he swallowed hard, "do something even more drastic. Plus, a lot of these places aren't abandoned like those warehouses were. There could be innocent casualties if we don't go about this carefully."
Castle only nodded, drawing in a deep but shaky breath and accepting the detective's explanation. Kate was unaccountably relieved, and they all went back to their reading. At least, they did until Kevin Ryan broke into the room breathlessly a few minutes later. "I've got something," he announced tensely, and they all stood to follow him, almost before he had even turned to head back to his computer. "See what you think," he continued as he sat again and pulled the file up while they gathered around. "This could be the one."
Ryan seemed almost nervous suddenly, now that they were all gathered around him and, without even meaning to, practically down his neck. "You have all the records. I've been through all of his files now, and there are no more foster homes beyond those you have files for. So, instead, I started skimming through them too – like you guys are – figuring another pair of eyes couldn't hurt. That was when I noticed this one." He pointed to the file open on the computer screen to make his point clear. "It wasn't his shortest stay in a home, but it certainly wasn't his longest either. I figured you all would start off looking at one extreme or the other. Anyway, it was in this file that I noticed he had a foster sister in this particular home – a girl he grew pretty attached to. They were close for the months that Jerry stayed with her family, but that was what ended up getting him booted again. Her parents felt he was just a little too attached. That's why the leave date is so abrupt instead of showing a processing time like the others."
He paused to take a breath, and Esposito jumped in, "So what're you thinkin', Kev? That he was mad they ditched him so quickly and never looked back?"
Ryan shot him a playfully exasperated look before continuing, "Well, Jav, if you would let a guy finish his thought…there's more. This foster sister was a pretty strawberry blond, bearing a strong physical resemblance to Tyson's mom and all his victims…and Alexis too. It doesn't take an official profiler to know that he must have both loved and hated her, just like his mom."
"And he would feel drawn back to that place because he never got to finish his business with her," Kate finished, cutting Ryan off in much the same way Esposito had. She was already on the move however before Ryan could give her grief for it. "Nice work, Ryan. Let's get mov-"
"Wait! What's that?" Castle interrupted suddenly, eyes still on Ryan's computer monitor. They all turned back again from the motion they had thrown themselves into, just in time to see a video much like the one Tyson had sent them before pop up in the corner of the screen.
They all seemed to visibly swallow hard and square their shoulders, as if wishing they didn't have to follow through with the action as Ryan clicked the blinking box to open the file that then filled the monitor. The picture that appeared before them froze Ryan's blood, and he couldn't even begin to think of looking at Castle for his reaction. Right before their eyes sat Alexis, in a rickety-looking chair, in what appeared to be a different, but equally empty and abandoned, room. As in the other twisted little "home movie" Tyson had sent them, she said nothing, made no sound at all, but the differences were still astounding. Alexis somehow seemed paler, weaker, and less herself than she had a mere day before. There were no more visible injuries that anyone could see; it was more that they sensed her spirit flagging, like she'd lost a battle and her strength was giving out. Their minds couldn't help but make the leap to what Tyson could have done to make that happen.
What was truly troubling though was the sight of Tyson's signature brand of braided rope on her wrists, securing her to the chair and the words he was intoning in her ear as they listened raptly in spite of themselves. "No one's coming to save you. You might as well stop fighting me and wishing for your daddy, Princess. Once we're finished here, I'm going to find them all and end them one by one. Your grandma, Ashley, and then the great Richard Castle himself." He chuckled as Alexis' closed eyes began to leak tears, despite the calm she was struggling to retain in front of her tormentor. She didn't look at him, didn't react otherwise, but the tears gave her away. Watching helplessly, even in the midst of the police station, Rick Castle lost several tears himself. Esposito looked away, clenching his fist, Ryan stared down at the surface of his desk, and Kate found herself reaching out to clutch Rick's hand bracingly, despite the presence of her two favorite fellow officers.
Just when it appeared as though things couldn't get any worse, they did. Knowing he still had a captive audience, Tyson looked right into the camera, grinning evilly as he spoke right to them. "She's a beautiful girl, Rick. But, as I'm sure you've noticed, she's just a little too dark a redhead for my taste. I'm going to fix that before I'm finished with her." Then, he methodically began to run his fingers through Alexis' hair, causing her to jump and then a visible shiver ran through her, echoed by an unconscious shiver of her own going through Kate Beckett's body as she watched. Tyson leaned down, taking a disturbing moment to sniff Alexis' hair held in his hand. Castle knew from times he'd pulled his daughter into his arms for a hug that the strands would be scented of fresh apple blossoms from her shampoo and the bright, radiance that was just simply her own, and he hated the fact that Tyson knew that now and was bound to destroy it. He couldn't take anymore and shot out of the chair, sending it skidding violently backwards until it hit Esposito's desk and toppled over.
Tyson chuckled on the screen as if he'd seen the whole thing. "Who knows, Rick? You may not even recognize her when you find her." Then suddenly, the feed cut, and screen went black.
Galvanized into action, Kate was spitting orders to head out for the location that Ryan had found, Esposito and Ryan were both on their phones, checking their guns, and moving to make things happen. Castle was the only one standing in place, chest heaving, unsure of what to do. When she's finished giving her orders, Kate glanced at him, "We're going to get her back right now, Castle. He isn't going to finish this." Her icy calm demeanor and the determination in her beautiful brown eyes stabilized him somehow, and he was finally able to draw a full breath of air down into his lungs. He nodded at her, but still couldn't bring any words forth.
It ricocheted through his mind that this could all be part of Jerry's plan, that he was leading them there to draw them into a trap. Yet, he couldn't speak it, even if it were so. He couldn't not go to Alexis, if they were really about to find her. Plus, he knew these detectives – knew they were the best, knew they were prepared for all possibilities, and knew they would do what they had to do to catch 3XK and get his daughter back alive. He knew Beckett was whip smart and capable and had probably already considered the possibility anyway. If she was going ahead, then she knew Tyson might have something up his sleeve and was ready for it. This monster was too good to have it be a coincidence that the video was almost connected to the file Ryan had been showing them when it appeared.
Tyson had been toying with them, like a cat with a mouse, all this time; it was nothing more than a sadistic game to him. The game was up now, and Castle hurried after his lady muse, hoping they weren't too late to save the day before the walls tumbled down. One way or another, play stopped here. This would be the end; all that remained now was to find out who had won.
