That's All It Takes

Ch. 12: Flash

A/N: Alright here's a big chapter coming your way. Hope you all enjoy and leave a review :)

"Yo Castle, you're just in time to watch the latest episode of world's worst security camera footage: The Joe Ingly story," Esposito called to Castle as he entered the bull pen the next morning.

"What hideous attire will people be sporting today? 80's short shorts? Banana hammocks? Fanny packs?" Castle asked as he leaned over Esposito's shoulder. Castle and the guys had made a game out of watching security footage. They tried to point out the oddest people they could find, add their own captions to conversations, and whatever else they could think of. It was childish, sure. But she'd watched her fair share of security footage and knew firsthand it was a long and tedious process. Truth be told, some of the stuff they came up with was pretty funny; About a month ago, Castle had a whole monologue going about a hobo that lived on a bench in front of that vic of the time's apartment.

"Well if it gives us a clear shot of our killer, we'll be calling it the world's best footage," She corrected them. "Good morning, Castle."

"Good morning, Detective, guys," He replied handing her the usual coffee. God knows that was needed. She didn't get home from Castle's until midnight, and then she was up by seven o clock to get here by eight. She sifted through some of Joe's court documents. Whoever shot Joe was keeping tabs on him and knew he'd been released from jail. It was entirely possible it was someone who worked in the system. Yanz had people everywhere, so it also could have been an insider of the jail who tipped him off, just like someone had most likely done with the jewels. But she liked the first idea, because that way was more likely to give her a murderer to put behind bars.

"Alright, let's start looking at the footage the day Joe was released, which was…a week ago today. You know the deal: Look for anyone suspicious and pay close attention to our kill zone," She instructed.

"You're not going to watch with us?" Ryan asked.

"Call me if you find anything. I'm going to go run through these arraignment files again." She retreated back to her desk to leave the three boys to themselves. She needed the alone time to think anything through that they missed, and with those personal Castle thoughts that kept popping up...

"Beckett!" Ryan called breaking her out of her thoughts a while later. "You should see this." She walked over to the guys and leaned over Castle's shoulder. She'd be lying if she didn't think for one second about how nice he smelt today.

"Do we have our guy?" She asked.

"Not quite…" Ryan trailed off as he rewound some of the footage. "Here we are at 5:30AM," Ryan explained as they put the footage into play. "You can make out a man that is most likely the one Joe's neighbor gave to the sketch artist. He hung outside the building a good half an hour before going into it, but here's the catch…he never comes out."

"He must have gone out an emergency exit," Castle said.

"Are we sure he's not a friend of anyone in the building or something? How do we know that's our guy?" She questioned as she moved closer to the screen for a better look.

"The only ones who went in and out of the building during our two hour time frame are the neighbors that told us they did," Esposito explained. "We kept count." Ryan put the video in fast forward to watch the scattered people run in and out of the building.

She sighed and walked over to the murder board, staring at all the evidence, the timeline, and the photos. None of this added up. The longer she stared at all of this, the more it made her want to kick the damn thing over. There was a reason they couldn't see the face of the suspicious looking man, and it wasn't because it was dark outside; this man knew about the possibility of security cameras and how police would go looking for them after he killed the man. There were no prints because anywhere because the murder was planned and carefully done. It was done by a professional.

"You're thinking something," Castle said as he came to stand beside her.

"I'm thinking that we're running out of options," She replied with a sigh.

"We can still go back to the building and check the emergency exits. Maybe we'll get lucky and find a building with a camera that caught something," Castle suggested.

Smiling she told Castle, "Thanks for the optimism. It's a slim margin, but so is waiting for Cobbstad or Arkin to give us a call back." They both laughed a bit at that one. "Castle, if we don't find anything…"

"I'll buy you a pony." It was little lines like that in a stressful situation like this when she was grateful that Castle was around.

"Hey guys, grab your information on the neighbors and let's head out to Joe's apartment," She called to the guys. "Re-check your stories with the neighbors, survey every inch of the building. If we re-trace our steps, sometimes we get lucky."

When they reached Joe's apartment, she and Castle decided to survey the area surrounding the building, while Ryan and Esposito went inside to talk to neighbors again. As she had turned around after giving the instructions, she smacked into a man who was walking on the sidewalk.

"Sorry," they both said as she turned around to apologize. When she saw his face, something clicked in her head. He looked familiar, but she couldn't place where she had seen him before. He was tall, probably around six feet. He had short brown hair and brown eyes, and he had a striking resemblance the serial killer who blew up her house (but that wasn't what was familiar about him). Was it a victim's family member? No, Castle called her the human encyclopedia because she could remember almost every person she'd ever told bad news to (and it was a large number). Was he a waiter? Taxi driver? Bartender?

"No problem, Detective," The man smiled and replied as he continued on his way before she could ponder who he was.

"Jeez, Beckett, watch where you're going," Castle nagged as he spun and knocked the bags out of a lady's hands who was entering the building.

"You were saying?" She asked raising her eyebrows.

"I'm…just going to go over here," He pointed his thumbs behind him after he picked up the bag of groceries and apologized.

"Good idea. C'mon, let's go check alternate exits before we cause any mass chaos." Inside the apartment, there was one elevator and one staircase in the back of the building, which was also the only other way out. Once you head out the exit, it leads to an alleyway with a couple of giant dumpsters and a fence that separates that building with another apartment building behind it.

"Let's go see if any of the apartments that face this way have any cameras or saw anything," She said to Castle. She texted Ryan and Esposito to let them know where they'd be and they headed over that way.

They passed the man she ran into for a second time as they entered the other apartment building. She found it strange, but she didn't think anything of it at the moment. They talked to a few of the tenants, but most of them said the same thing: "I was sleeping" or "I was getting ready for work" and "I didn't see anything." They were about to call it quits when Ryan and Esposito texted them asking to meet them outside of Joe's apartment. As they headed back, she caught the guy staring their direction and walking the opposite way for a third time, and that's when it hit her.

"Castle, where's the file with the pictures from the murder board?" She asked as she stopped dead in her tracks.

"What is it? Did you forget something?" Castle asked as he handed her the folder he was carrying. She hurriedly flipped through the papers until she found the drawing from the sketch artist. That's when her thoughts were confirmed: The man looked exactly like that drawing.

"It's him," She whispered to Castle as she turned around to see where he'd gone. "Castle, that's our guy." When she locked eyes with the man through the crowd, that's when all hell broke loose.

The man reached into his overly large coat pocket, and she pulled Castle down to the sidewalk. Shots rang through the air and people screamed and ran for cover. She was stepped on and pushed and shoved before she was able to pull out her gun. Before she could fire back, a flash grenade went off and smoke filled the area. She ducked down once again to shield herself and called out, "Castle?" She had to make sure he was alright and that he wasn't shot and she didn't know about it. When she didn't get an answer, she looked up to realize that though it was smoky, she could no longer see him. They must have been separated from the chaos of everyone around them. After all, people were running around screaming that they were being bombed and thought this was another terrorist attack.

She tried to make her way out of the smoke as it began to clear, hoping she might catch a glimpse of where their man went or where Castle was. From her experience, the flash grenades were used to create a diversion. The man had been watching them since they reached the apartment and god knows how long before that, and he even called her "Detective." So what was he trying to do?

"NYPD, I need everyone to stay calm!" She heard Esposito calling out. "This is NOT a terrorist attack. I repeat, this is not a terrorist attack." As the smoke began to dissipate, she could make out Ryan and Esposito standing by their car trying to calm frantic people down. However, Castle was still nowhere to be found.

"Ryan! Esposito!" She ran up to them.

"Beckett! Are you all right?" Esposito asked as he sat one shaken lady on the curb.

"I'm fine. Have you seen Castle?"

"Castle? We thought he was with you?" Ryan asked he and Esposito looked to each other.

"He was until the flash grenade…oh no…" She exclaimed as she frantically turned around to canvas the area.

"Beckett, what's going on?" Esposito asked looking confused. Looking around, no one seemed to be injured but they were all pretty shaken up. Any taxis and cars that had been driving by were slowly beginning to make their way to whatever destination they were heading towards in the first place. She walked away without responding to Esposito and pulled out her phone, even though she wasn't surprised there wasn't an answer when she dialed Castle's number.

"Please pick up, Rick," She muttered to herself. She dialed three more times before she got so angry that she was shaking and dropped it. He wouldn't just leave in the midst of all of that. He would've stayed to make sure she was okay…

"Beckett? We wanted you and Castle to meet us because we think we know who the killer is," Ryan informed her coming up behind her.

"I know who it is too," She replied without turning to look at them. "And they just took Castle."