One week later…

So far, Japan was a bust.

Not only was Anderson Cross – or Jackson Hunt, or whatever the hell he called himself these days – nowhere to be found, but Kate Beckett and Alexis Castle were as lost as they had been when their plane touched down in Tokyo.

The intel Cross had slipped into the back of Molten Heat only took Kate and Alexis but so far. Ultimately, they were chasing dead ends, much like they had been in the months immediately following Richard Castle's disappearance. They had a name, Dmitri Rankoff, but right now, that's all Rankoff was.

Alexis tried to put a positive spin on things, arguing this trip wasn't a total waste because hey, it's Tokyo, but Kate wondered why she even bothered in the first place. Especially since Tokyo was on the short list of places she and Castle were considering for their honeymoon.

At least Cross had sprung for the two of them to stay in a pretty nice spot, a swanky two-bedroom suite downtown that reminded her of the suite she and Castle had stayed in that time they flew to Los Angeles. The memory wasn't pleasant at first, but Kate eventually grew to embrace the familiarity, considering she was in a country, immersed in a culture, with which she was woefully unfamiliar.

She also had to admit she and Alexis had bonded far more. Kate still felt guilty about not being there for the redhead over the past three years – not nearly as much as she should've been – but at least they seemed to be making up for that.

So even if they didn't find her fiancé, they at least had each other. That was something.

Beckett's ringtone stirred her out of a fitful nap. Sleep had been hard to come by the last few days, not just because of the emotional toll this was taking on Kate, but also because she struggled with the time zone changes.

Groggy, she almost didn't register the sound in time to pick it up, but she sat up and managed to grab her phone to press it to her ear. She sighed, running her free hand through her hair.

"Beckett."

Alexis walked into the room at that moment, furrowing her brow at Kate. The detective closed her eyes again, placing the phone on speaker and setting the device on her bed. "Lanie, hi." Kate and Alexis shared a brief, knowing smile. "I've got you on speaker. Alexis is here with me."

"Good, cause you both are gonna want to hear this."

Their smiles disappeared, Alexis sitting on the edge of the bed. They both stared at the phone, as if they were looking right at the medical examiner who was actually half a world away. "Lanie, what's going on?"

When Lanie spoke again, it was clear she was keeping her voice low. "Javi and Ryan received a package yesterday. No return address, international postage. It…"

"Lanie?"

"It's a finger." Kate's heart skipped a beat, though she couldn't place why. "Left ring finger."

The detective and the redhead stared at each other. "I...I don't get it."

Alexis shot Kate a questioning glance, and the detective responded with a shrug of her shoulders. A random finger being mailed to the NYPD's 12th Precinct was creepy, no doubt, but neither Kate nor Alexis could think of why that would matter to them while they're half a world away.

Unless…

Alexis shook her head. "You don't think…?"

"I'm afraid so." Lanie was careful with her words. "Fingerprint and DNA are both a match. This is Castle's finger."

Kate clasped a hand over her mouth as Alexis closed the distance between them to grab the detective's other hand. Their hands squeezed, Kate giving a teary-eyed glance before another voice over the phone grabbed her attention.

"Good news, though." It was Esposito. "No return address, but the barcode on the box traces all the way to the Japanese embassy in D.C. Ryan's on the phone with authorities there, and they've pledged their full cooperation."

Alexis gave Kate's hand another squeeze. The detective drew in a ragged breath.

"Lanie, the finger…"

"It was severed recently. Probably within the last week or two."

Kate gave Alexis' hand a squeeze, a strange mixture of hope and dread welling up in her chest. This was the first tangible, physical evidence relating to Richard Castle since the video of him dropping money into a dumpster. Everything after that had been little more than speculation, conjecture, and theory.

All of which were great…when Castle was actually around to banter with.

Alexis' voice was tentative, shaky. "Is there any way to tell if he was alive when they cut it off?"

Espo spoke up again. "There was a significant bloodstain in the box."

"Which means he was probably alive when the finger was severed." The words twisted a proverbial knife in Kate's gut even as she said them. She always thought the idea of her fiancé being alive would bring relief, but not like this. If he was still alive, he was in pain.

Or maybe they killed him after slicing off his finger and shipping it to the 12th. But that didn't make any sense. If his captors were going to kill him, why not just kill him? Why make a show of it? No, if anything, that finger was a message.

Kate's frown deepened. "Hey, Lanie? Any prints on the finger itself?"

"You mean aside from his actual fingerprint?"

"Yeah."

Alexis sat up a little straighter. "You think whoever cut off the finger left prints."

Kate shrugged and sighed. "It's a longshot, but…better than nothing." She glanced at the phone again. "Hey, Espo."

"Yo."

"Keep looking into Rankoff. I've got a feeling that if there is a print on that finger, it's his."

"What?"

A knowing smile crept onto Kate's face. "Keep looking into Rankoff. You know, like you have been."

"How did you-?"

"Boy, I told you…"

Kate's smile faded when the line disconnected. The weight of the revelation was finally dawning on her. There really was a chance that Richard Castle was still alive, or at least had been recently. After all those years, she'd been sure he was dead. But that glimmer of hope that kept tugging on her over the weeks and months hadn't been in vain.

Tears welled in the detective's eyes, and she leaned against Alexis when the redhead wrapped her arms around her shoulders. They sat like that for what felt like several minutes, the silence weighing in on them.

"I don't get it."

Kate almost didn't hear Alexis, but the words managed to find their way to her ear. Sitting up a little straighter, she took Alexis' hand into her own. "What?"

"If you're gonna lop off a body part and send it to someone…" The redhead shrugged. "Why a finger? Why that finger?"

The realization nearly doubled Kate over once her eyes focused on the engagement ring. She lifted her hand for Alexis to see, her eyes wide. "It's a message." Kate swallowed hard, her fingers shaking.

"That finger was meant for me."