Detective Ryan stood before the white board, weary and alone as he placed photographs of Beckett and Castle on the whiteboard beneath the title of missing persons. The pictures of them had been taken a few months ago when Rick had been mucking around taking mug shots of the team just in case any of them happened to go missing. He had wanted respectable photos of them in the event they ended up on the whiteboard. Tonight the list of missing people had become too long. Two their friends were on it.
Ryan pushed aside a pile of files to sit on the edge of Beckett's desk where he usually took the weight off his feet. He gazed over the entire board absorbing the information without thinking too much about it. He happened to linger on the photograph of Therese Greene of when she alive that was directly to the right of the photo of Kate. It crossed his mind again how similar they were in appearance. He gave a prayer they wouldn't find Kate the same way she and Castle had found Therese. Then the thought crossed his mind again. Two women who looked similar ended up being snatched. He studied the photo of Alison Atkin. She was brunette, brown eyes, attractive, had similar basic features as the other missing women. He then checked the men who had been taken with the women. All good looking but nothing visually in common to connect them with the exception they had been snatched in the company of the girls. The women were indeed similar.
His cell phone started to ring. He grabbed it from his top pocket and picked up the call. Saw it was an unknown number.
"Detective Ryan."
"Ryan, it's Detective Frank Spencer from the surveillance squad."
Ryan stifled the laughter that was pressing to escape his chest at the name of the new guy from the surveillance group. Frank Spencer. The guy clearly had a cruel mother. Ryan was sharply reminded of stays with his grandparents, to the times in his childhood when he'd watched that English comedy show. He couldn't think of the name of the series
Dropping it, he cleared his throat, suppressing the laughter, "How's it going. Frank?" He greeted putting emphasis on the man's name.
"Good man. Love getting dragged out of bed after midnight to obtain surveillance footage."
"Well, we gotta find them. They're our friends, our partners."
"Yep, I know. Are you at your computer, Dude? I'm uploading the footage we got from the night club to the P drive. It is evident from the video, although it's quite grainy and I've cleaned it up as much as I can, that Beckett and Castle were overcome by a couple of men. It looks like they were drugged in the night club then abducted. They were carried out the back of the club to a white transit van, new Ford Series E model. You said the pair are quite tall, and Detective Beckett is a brunette?"
"Yeah, she's brunette."
"A big guy carried her out and it took a couple of others to carry out the guy she was with. Big fella?"
"He's pretty solid. Six foot two."
"Take a look. There was a van where you said their stuff was dumped."
"Thanks man. I'll go have a look." Ryan cut the call already on his way to his desk. He hit a button to get rid of the screen saver. He struck a few buttons to get his computer on the go.
Given a few long seconds a new window popped up and a security video begun to play on his monitor. He enlarged it to full view and sat down on his chair wheeling it closer to his desk. The image was grainy as the IT tech had mentioned but thankfully the video was in colour. The technician had also edited the video so Ryan only had footage of Castle and Beckett just before midnight. It was easy to see from the overhead camera angle that it was Kate in the picture. She walked ahead of Rick. Ryan absently picked up his coffee mug and took a long drink as he stared at his monitor. Beckett cleared their pathway through the crowd along a narrow hallway. She frequently turned back to Castle. Ryan thought they talked most of the time but it was difficult to tell with the poor standard of video taken in a dim area. The fingers of their right hands were constantly hooked together and they never allowed anyone to go between their bodies. Rick maintained close proximity behind her all the time. A chunky looking bald security guy directed them to detour through a doorway to their left rather than permitting them to continue down the hall to the cloakroom and ultimately the entrance.
Ryan saw that Kate spoke to the security guard. She pointed, indicating she wished to proceed in the direction she had been but the bulky security guy pointed her to the left. He went to touch her shoulder but when he saw Castle right behind her he withdrew his hand. Ryan couldn't see from his view point but it looked as though Rick had physically warned the guard to stay away from Beckett. They proceeded as they had been directed. It was only them and a couple behind them that he redirected. They entered the visual of a new camera as they walked through a room. Ryan saw they seemed to cross paths with someone who gained Castle's attention. To Ryan that person had been waiting for them. It wasn't a surprise that Rick would know someone wherever he went. From the angle of the security camera Ryan was only able to see the back of the guys head.
Castle paused in his stride allowing a little distance to open up between himself and Kate but he kept hold of Kate's hand which soon stopped her from progressing. Given a few seconds, Kate placed a bit of tension on Castle by pulling on his fingers to follow her. It looked as though she didn't acknowledge the man and she wasn't interested in stopping to chat with him. She didn't turn about. With another tug of encouragement Rick continued to follow Kate. As Rick stepped to catch up with Kate, a hand reached out and hit Rick on his shoulder in what looked like a gesture of friendship. Rick collapsed to the floor. Kate felt it and turned about. She too started to fall but someone caught her before she hit the floor.
Wide eyed, Ryan watched as he saw the two bodies of his friends carried out of the night club. Exactly as the tech said, Kate was carried in the arms of a tall male and Rick was carried by a couple of bulky men. The security video camera out the back of the night club caught the group loading the pair inside the back of a white van.
"Shit!" Ryan sat down at his desk to take the video back to the second Rick stalled behind Kate. He watched the progression from that point onward in slow motion. The left hand of a male touched Rick's right shoulder. Rick turned and smiled at the guy. He said something to him, and when he felt the pull from Kate's hand he turned and followed her. On closer inspection another guy then reaches out with his hand to Rick's neck with what looks like a friendly pat to the shoulder. Rick had felt the prick as he begun to turn about. Ryan scrubbed backwards and forwards on the pictures and paused the video when he found a good visual of the guy who had drugged Rick. The face was familiar. With the pictures on the white board in mind Ryan stood and hurried over to the murder board. He scanned the first board then hurried to the second. He located a particular photograph and stared at it a few seconds. He rushed back to the screen and compared the picture in his hand to the male on the screen next to Castle.
"Oh my God. I don't believe it." Open mouthed, Ryan picked up the desk phone and dialled. He anxiously waited until the call was answered. "Esposito."
"What's up Ryan?"
"Where are you?"
"In the bird with Demming. We have a trace on Castle's GPS and we're following its signal."
"Okay. I've scrubbed the security video at the night club. I know who took Beckett and Castle."
"Who?"
"Tony Perri."
"Tony Perri? He was there?
"He was. I didn't see him either. He took them."
"Perri abducted Castle and Beckett? Jesus! Demming can't believe it either."
"Me neither. We have it on video."
"Can you gather a team and go to his apartment?"
"I will. Espo, its Kate he was after. All the women look like Kate."
"I know. I've seen that for ages. Castle has too. It's why he wasn't happy about her being there tonight."
"Can you blame him? He has to protect her. He knows what happened to the others." Ryan stared vacantly at a new photograph of one of the deceased women who had been identified. Kate had placed the picture up that evening before they had left for the assignment. Lanie had finally identified her as missing woman Sandra Russell. She had been one of the oldest victims they had located. The picture from the road authority was reasonably new as the woman had recently moved to New York City. He focussed on her eyes, the shape of her smile, her teeth.
"I think I've found something else," he muttered to Esposito. Listening to the sounds of the chopper and the regular static being carried over the cell phone, he picked up the photo and placed it beside the photograph of the woman that had been found in Billy Benson's possession. "Esposito you there?"
"I'm here."
"Okay. One of the women, umm… Sandra Russell, found in the forest is the same woman in the photo that Benson had with him. She looks different, but it's her. Over."
"You're kidding me?"
"I'm not. Benson must have known that Perri was behind his sister missing." Ryan pulled the picture in the evidence bag off the board with the larger photo and took the two them with him to his desk, "I'll do a background on Sandra. I don't believe she's ever been reported as missing."
"Roger that. Get uniforms and a couple of the guys to go to Perri's home to see if he's shown up there. I don't think he'll be there but you might find where they've taken Beckett and Castle, especially if this GPS transmitter is leading us on a wild goose chase. We're a fair way out now. It's not consistently reading so it's either well out of range if that's possible or it's faulty."
"Roger that. It could be bloody accurate to. Where are you headed?"
"Basically due north. Over forestry."
"Where the bodies were found," Ryan noted.
"I know. I don't like that."
"Me neither. I'll put out a search to find Perri's vehicles. If I find him I will bring him in for questioning."
"Great idea. Find his vehicle, we might find Castle and Beckett."
"Yep. Keep in contact, dude."
"Will do."
The pair hung up.
Ryan had an idea. He shrunk the video window and opened his windows explorer to the NYPD case software. He tapped in the case number then waited for the computer to deliver the folder he wanted. He scanned until he found what he was looking for and double clicked his mouse on the Benson electronic case file. He scrubbed through the collection of photographs that Benson had captured when he had been spying on Perri. Benson's obsession with Perri and his extensive collection of intel on the man was about to blow the case out of the water. The detective was perhaps a quarter of the way through the exhaustive collection of photographs when he experienced several moments of sheer shock as to what he had just found. The evidence they had collected and the story had been in front of them the entire time. They had just never found the simple link between the people. He printed a photo from every session Benson had taken of Perri ensuring he gathered a picture of each of the women in them. Each woman was brunette, attractive and tall.
With them printed he carried them to the Kate's murder board. One by one, he slowly began to pair up Benson's photos of women with the pictures of the remains of the dead women on the board. He placed each pairing side by side in a column down the right hand side of the board. He then stood there staring in alarm over his discovery. Benson must have known that the woman he knew had been snatched by Perri. Why hadn't he come to the police with his information when he was alive? He would have saved lives.
"Detective Ryan? What are you doing here so late?"
Kevin jumped in surprise and turned to see Captain Gates approaching from the elevator. She was dressed casually and had her coat hanging over her left forearm.
"Captain. You surprised me."
"Sorry."
"I'm here trying to find Castle and Beckett."
"Can you update me on the whereabouts of Mr Castle and Detective Beckett?"
"I'm not sure about their whereabouts Sir. Esposito and Demming are in a chopper following the GPS transmitter that we believe is on Castle. But I know who has them and who is behind all this." He pointed a finger at the picture of Tony Perri.
"Tony Perri? Detective, what had you done here?" She waved her hand at the paired photographs.
"I just finished pairing up the deceased women who have been found in the forest with photos taken by Billy Benson from the period when he was spying on Perri. A couple are missing but not many. Something popped."
Gates studied the board. "So he captured images of Perri with the women who were abducted?"
"Yes Sir. It seems Benson was on to Perri."
"And he never reported this to the police?"
"No Sir. We now know Benson was working alone. By the looks of her-" Ryan put his index finger on a picture of a woman, "She was Benson's sister. He must have known Perri was behind it and that motivated him to attempt to kill Perri. An act of revenge for his sister's life." He reached for the photograph of the woman found in Benson's possession. "Lanie identified her yesterday afternoon before we went on the night club assignment but because of her different surname and the similarities in the girls here, none of us put two and two together."
"How do you know Perri has our people?"
"I got the security footage at the nightclub. Castle was stopped by Perri. Castle lost consciousness and Kate did seconds after him. She was knocked out before she even knew what was happening."
"Esposito and Demming are following them now?"
"Yes Sir. They hitched a ride on an FBI chopper under Special Agent Shaw's direction. Agent Shaw is working from the FBI office."
"So it seems like Beckett and Castle will be found."
"I hope so Sir. Perri's involved in human trafficking I think and Kate fits his ammo. Castle's been worried for days that he would lose her but none of us could figure out who it was."
"I'm worried." Gate's frowned, her eyes looking over the photographs of skeletal remains of the first victims. "Get them back Detective, no matter what. They are good people and we need them here."
"Yes Sir. On to it." He held up his phone that was ringing.