Author's Note: I'd like to thank Quillcox and southerngirl1 for their reviews. Quillcox, I'll keep that in mind :). And to answer your question, Castle woke up after Beckett left the loft and arrived at the precinct while she was talking to Lanie. Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!
Chapter 12
Beckett got the extra bodies. By 2pm, a group of fresh faced recruits were assembled at Cleopatra's Needle ready to work. Despite the chill in the air, the recruits looked excited. For many of them, this was their very first field exercise. I remember feeling this excited when I was at the academy. Little did they know how tedious field exercises could be.
"Thank you for coming out today; I know it's a little cold and you'd probably rather be inside right about now. Have you all been told what it is we're doing today?" The recruits nodded and Becket continued. "We're going to split you off into pairs and give you a route to take. A CSU tech will be joining you. I want you to make notes when you see other groups. If you see something that looks like it might have come from the Game, have the tech photograph and bag it. Basically, we're trying to figure out what happened last night."
Esposito split them up into groups and handed out maps. "These maps and directions are time coded. Try to follow it as closely as possible to ensure accurate observations. Everybody ready?" They nodded. "Go."
Beckett and company took Borough Five's route and started walking. They headed South from the Needle past Belvedere Castle to the lake. They followed the shore of the lake past the Leob Boathouse and stopped for a few minutes by the Bathesda Fountain. From there they went South again until they reached the Bandshell.
"According to Katya and the GPS, they stopped here for close to half an hour." Beckett put the map in her pocket. "Let's search the area, find out why."
The team meandered around the Bandshell. The snow in the area had been disturbed, but from the amount of dirt in the snow, it wasn't recent. When they came up with nothing, Beckett's team resumed following the map. "Rue" and "Thresh" had gone North again to Cherry Hill and resumed following the shoreline of the lake.
They were approaching a very crowded Strawberry Fields when Beckett stopped walking. She was sure she'd just seen Alex, but there were so many people here, her sight line had just been blocked. Of course, it's December eighth. She stood staring at the same spot, oblivious to her team's attempts to capture her attention.
Finally, the group moved. "That's Alex." Alex saw her at the same moment and turned around to run. "Stop! Police!"
Alex darted up the trail to Terrace Drive, where she raced through traffic and across Central Park West. Beckett and the boys chased her, dodging the moving vehicles, badges held high to make sure people knew they were cops. A bus cut them off, blocking their view of Alex's back. Horns honked as they waited for the bus to get out of their way. When it finally did however, Alex was gone. Beckett stopped on the North side of W72nd and turned a full circle, searching for a glimpse of her. Then she saw the subway entrance on the South side. If I was running from the cops, that's where I would go.
She pointed down the street. "Check around that corner! Castle, come with me!" Beckett quickly crossed to the subway entrance, pulling out her gun as she did.
An MTA Police Officer saw her gun and drew his own. "Police! Drop it!"
Beckett pulled her coat open to expose her badge. "NYPD! I'm in pursuit of a suspect!"
Castle took his phone out of his pocket and pulled up a picture of Alex. "Have you seen this girl in the last few minutes?"
The officer nodded. "She might have been the one that slid onto the C train just before the doors closed."
Beckett holstered her weapon. "Which direction?"
"What?"
"Which direction was the train headed?"
"South."
Beckett pulled out her phone. "This is Detective Kate Beckett. B-E-C-K-E-double T. Badge number 41319. I need to put out an A.P.B. on Alexandra Stevens. Last known location is on board the Southbound C train at 72nd." She paused for the operator's response. "Thank you."
Castle hung up his phone too. "I called Ryan and Esposito."
"Great." She walked onto the platform holding up her badge. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry for the delay to your day, but I'm afraid I'm going to need your cooperation. This shouldn't take long, but your help may aid my team in the capture of a dangerous fugitive. Please line up against the back wall as best you can and we'll try to get you on your way as quickly as possible."
The waiting crowd groaned and moved to comply as Ryan and Esposito arrived. "What happened?"
Beckett filled them in. "Alex hopped onto the C train. I've already called in an A.P.B. but I'm hoping to get a current description. I didn't get a very clear look at her before she bolted."
"We'll get started on the statements."
"Thanks."
Two hours earlier...
Alex was feeling restless. She hadn't taken a job in over a month despite the numerous offers that had come in. Most of them had been husbands trying to get rid of an overbearing wife, or wives trying to eliminate cheating husbands. If domestic violence was involved, Alex might have considered some of the requests, but when it was people who were too proud to simply file for divorce, Alex made sure to stay as far from it as possible.
Sloan had noticed her mindless pacing. "You could go for a walk or take in a show. You've kept yourself cooped up too long; you need to get out."
Alex stopped. "Are you trying to get me arrested?"
"We live in a city that is home to more than eight million people. Not all of them are cops. Come on, I know you. You have been doing nothing but train for the past few weeks. I think you could easily outrun any cop who actually recognizes you. Especially if you go somewhere crowded."
"So I'm going to a department store."
Sloan laughed. "That's not the only place that will be crowded today."
Alex raised an eyebrow. "It's December. Where else are there going to be crowds?"
"It's not just December, it is December eighth. Ever heard of John Lennon?"
"The guy from The Beatles?"
"Yes. Today is the anniversary of his death. Strawberry Fields should be crawling with fans. You might enjoy it."
Alex opened the closet door and selected a reversible coat. "At the very least it should be an interesting experience. Which coat do you want?"
"You go ahead. I've got some things to take care of here."
Alex snuck up behind Sloan and wrapped her arms around his neck. "You're not ordering my Christmas present, are you?"
"I took care of that last week." Sloan pointed to his screen. "I'm keeping an eye on Asendorf. He's been hitting up Directories trying to find out who ratted on him."
Alex leaned in for a closer look. "Has he found anything?"
"Not as far as I can tell, but that doesn't mean much. Directories don't exactly work on the grid. Don't worry, he won't find anything electronically. I made sure to wipe all the files from my computer's memory. He'd have to break in here and steal the disk itself to find anything."
"Good. Where is he staying?"
"Right now he lives in a studio apartment in SoHo. Why?"
Alex shrugged and walked to the door. "Just curious. I'm going out. Bye."
"Wait, you're not thinking of going after him, are you?"
Alex turned around with a smirk on her face. "Today? No. But if he doesn't stop looking, I'm going to have to do something before he does."
Sloan relaxed slightly. "So where are you going?"
"Strawberry Fields. I hear it's a party today."
Alex hailed a cab three blocks from the apartment. The ride from the apartment to West 73rd was long and slow, but Alex didn't mind. It had been a couple months since she'd been able to just look at the city. She enjoyed watching the insanity of the city drivers and the fearlessness of the pedestrians. Sidewalk Santas stood outside stores, ringing their bells in hopes of attracting a few extra coins. Street cart vendors were surrounded by hungry pedestrians taking a break from shopping to get a quick bite to eat. Eventually, the cab reached her destination and Alex got out, throwing some money to the cabbie as she did.
Alex stood for a minute as the cab drove away. Despite the sprinkling of snow on the ground, the day was nice. A little chilly, sure, but not absolutely freezing. Alex turned south and headed to 72nd. She was glad Sloan had convinced her to go. He was right; she really did need to get out more.
Beatles music floating on the air told her she was getting close. She smiled as she crossed the street with a group who had dressed up for the occasion. She followed them down the path until they reached the Imagine memorial. Alex actually stopped at the sight. She'd been here before, but never before had it been so crowded. Some people were dancing to the music that was being provided by a tribute band while others sang along. Flowers had been arranged on the mosaic to form a peace sign and others had been placed around the outside edge, most likely from some of the people present.
Alex moved to get out of a group's picture when a face caught her eye. She looked up, but a different group had blocked her view of the face. I could have sworn I just saw Beckett. She stayed still, waiting for the group to move. They finally did.
"Crap."
Beckett had seen her too. "Stop! Police!"
Alex had already turned to bolt. Lucky for her, most people had stopped moving, startled by Beckett's shout. By the time they looked around to see what the shouting was about, Alex was clear of the crowds and headed toward the Women's Gate. I'm glad I spent so much time on the treadmill. Alex weaved through traffic on Central Park West. Horns honked, expressing the drivers' annoyance that she would dare to interrupt their already slow progress. She sped up, narrowly avoiding getting hit by the M10 Bus as she cleared the street. She then used the bus as cover to cross W72nd and go down the stairs into the subway terminal.
An elderly MTA cop was close to the entrance, but he was helping a tourist find her way. The C train was announcing that the doors would be closing soon, so there wasn't much time. Alex decided to use the cop's distraction to her advantage and hopped the turnstile.
The cop didn't see her, but someone on the platform did. "Hey, you can't do that!"
She ignored him, racing to make the train before the doors closed. Up ahead, the doors had started to slide shut. Alex stuck her hand out, pushing to keep the doors open just enough to squeeze through. She barely made it. Alex looked back as the train started moving. The cop was heading to the booth with the passenger who'd seen her in tow, presumably to check the video or call in her turnstile jump. She moved toward the back of the car. Along the way, she spotted a lady who had several shopping bags with her. Alex stopped nearby, noticing a hat sticking out of the top of one of the bags. She waited until the train swayed to bump into the man behind her so that he would crash into the woman in front of him. The resulting chaos gave her the distraction she needed to swipe the hat and move into the next car. Once inside, she put it on and turned her coat inside out.
Two stops later she disembarked, picking the pocket of a man who had just gotten on, taking his wallet. Inside, Alex found a Metro card monthly pass. She smiled to herself as she swiped the card at the turnstile to change trains. Safe, for now. Moving with the crowd, she boarded the Eastbound E train and began to work her way back home.
Meanwhile...
The statements collected from the subway station were of little to no help. The one thing Beckett learned was that Alex had jumped the turnstile and caught the train by so narrow a margin, if they had spotted her only a few seconds later or if she had been two steps slower, they might have actually had her. For now they would have to settle for the security footage. Ryan was working with MTAPD to get the right cameras.
He finally hung up. "They're sending the footage now."
"Great. Forward it to me."
"You got it." He turned back to his computer when the chime sounded. "Just got here. Sending you the link."
A chime from her computer told her the email had arrived. "Got it."
Beckett pulled up the video and pushed play. For a couple minutes, nothing out of the ordinary happened. Eventually, Alex ran down the stairs into the subway station. She paused momentarily when she saw the cop, then jumped over the turnstile and onto the platform. A disembarking passenger noticed, but Alex ignored him and just managed to slip onto the train before the doors shut.
Beckett rewound the tape until she got a clear shot of Alex. "Gotcha."
Castle sat down and slid a coffee to her. "Is that Alex?"
"Yep."
"She looks different. What do you think she did to disguise herself?"
"I don't think she was in a disguise. I think she was merely taking a walk in Central Park, visiting the memorial to John Lennon."
Castle smiled. "We can add Beatles fan to her profile."
Beckett smiled too, but ignored him. "She thinner, but not like she's sick or malnourished. She's more fit."
"Which would explain how she managed to easily outrun us this time around."
"Right." Beckett leaned in to study the screenshot. "Her hair is shorter and it's auburn now. Wait…" Beckett pulled up the still of Nicole Downland. "Downland was Alex. We assumed that Alex hadn't changed while she was healing, but we were wrong."
"More like mislead. Her cheeks appeared fuller when she was stealing Benigno's will and looking at Zoratti's."
"Which lead us to believe that she hadn't changed."
Castle took a look at the screenshot. "She's been working out. I guess the fact that you were able to put a hole in her made her realize that she needed to work on being more elusive."
"Maybe." Beckett printed out both stills. "I've got to tell Gates. Esposito!"
"Yeah."
"Stay on the Hunger Games case. I want to know what the other teams found. We'll have to finish our part of the canvass tomorrow."
"Ryan and I could do it tonight. We were almost done as it is. And it'll give us more context…"
"And less light. I'd like to be able to see as much of the crime scene as possible. We'll pick it up again tomorrow."
"Copy that."
Satisfied that the cases were being covered, Beckett knocked on the door to Gates' office to let the boss know what had happened.
A/N: Thanks for reading. Please leave a review, I'd love to hear what you guys think. Also, if any of you are New York residents and I've made a mistake regarding the Subway System or location of Central Park landmarks, let me know. I've never been on the subway and I've only been to Central Park once. As amazing as it was, it was also several years ago, so any advice you might have would be greatly appreciated. I'd be more than happy to fix errors if I need to. Thanks!
