Moment in Time Part 3

Chapter 46

The Blame Game

Part 3

"Beckett's not answering my text," Esposito reports. "I tried calling, and it went straight to voicemail."

"She's probably in a session," Ryan figures. "Sometimes presenters make the audience turn off their phones."

Esposito shakes his head. "With an audience full of cops? That wouldn't go down too well. I'm going to have Vikram ping Beckett's phone and see if he gets anything."

Vikram looks back from his keyboard. "No response and I can't do a remote reactivation. She must have pulled out the battery."

Esposito turns to Ryan. "I don't like it, Bro. Something's wrong."

"Maybe Castle knows where she is," Ryan suggests. "I'll call him. Damn, going straight to voicemail too. He looks at Vikram. Can you…."

"Ping him? Trying now. No luck. Same as Beckett." Vikram hits a few more keys. "I checked the GPS on Beckett's unit. It's still parked near your crime scene. And a uni just reported a strange symbol was on Beckett's window."

Ryan grimaces. "She never made it to her seminar. And that symbol must mean that her disappearance is tied to the case. But there's one thing we haven't checked out yet."

The proof Jennifer said Emma was looking for," Esposito agrees. "We need to get over to her newsroom – now."

Rick opens Todd's collar so he can breathe better, exposing a symbol on his collarbone.

"What the hell is that?" Judah exclaims.

"I have no idea," Rick admits. "But this whole thing has been like one twisted Dan Brown novel – the poison, the clues, the cryptex."

Simon snorts. "Too bad we don't have a Robert Langdon."

"Rick's pretty good with puzzles," Judah points out. "If he hadn't figured out the last one, Todd would be dead."

Simon stares suspiciously at Rick. "Yeah, how did you do that?"

"I'm a mystery writer," Castle explains. "That's why I was meeting Stephen King – or I thought I was. Richard Castle, um Derrick Storm, Nikki Heat, 24 best-sellers.

Simon shakes his head. "Doesn't ring a bell."

"Oh, I think I might have seen you on Kimmel," Judah recalls. "He beat you at late night golf putting."

Rick squares his shoulders. "No one is talented in every area. But so far, my puzzle-solving skills have come in handy. Maybe you guys also have something we can put to work. Or there might be some connection between us we're unaware of. What do you do?"

"I should know something about classrooms," Simon replies, "I'm a third-grade teacher."

"I own a boxing gym," Judah offers.

"And I'm a minister," Todd croaks.

Rick strokes his jaw. "OK, I don't see any obvious connections. But where are you all from? I was raised right here in New York City."

"Hey, mystery writer, no one cares why we're here," Judah responds. "We just care about getting out of here."

"I'm with him," Simon agrees.

Todd stands up. "There's got to be something in here we can use to escape."

"Damn!" Judah exclaims as they look around the room. "The only thing that would have helped was that fire ax. And that was a bust."

"Well, maybe that isn't the way it works," Castle proposes. "Maybe the guy behind the camera is into escape rooms. To get out, we have to keep solving clues. The last one we had was the position of the clock's hands. Perhaps the clock has another one of those notes." Rick climbs on a stepstool to detach the clock from the wall and takes a piece of folded paper from the back. "Here it is! 'The key will release you.' But what key?"

Buckley stares in disgust as Ryan and Esposito charge into the newsroom. "Not you two again. Listen, I had nothing to do with Emma Matthews' death. To tell you the truth, she was a lying little bitch who probably brought it on herself."

"What lies? What are you talking about?" Esposito demands.

"Yesterday, I caught her in the bay digitizing old VHS tapes. She claimed they had to do with some big story, but they were just strange."

"Strange how?" Ryan prompts.

"They were videos of a couple of kids sitting around wearing weird medallions."

"Weird in what way?" Ryan prods.

"They had round symbols on them."

Ryan holds up his phone with an image of Emma's mirror. "Like this?"

"Yeah, exactly like that."

"Are there copies of the tapes she was digitizing?" Esposito queries.

"Yeah, the system automatically archives the raw footage to the server for backup."

Esposito exchanges looks with Ryan. "We're going to need those copies."

Hayley strides angrily into Richard Castle Investigations. "Alexis, where's your father? He's not answering his cell, and he missed a meeting I set up for us. But if I can find him, I might still be able to keep a potential client on board."

"He was probably too excited to remember," Alexis guesses. "He said he had a meeting with Stephen King. So he might still be there."

"Do you have King's number?" Hayley asks.

"No. But his assistant called Dad's cell, which is linked to the office computer." Alexis brings up a program. "OK, here's his log. I've got the number." After a moment on the line, Alexis hangs up the phone. "I got the operator. The number's been disconnected. Maybe Kate knows where he is." Alexis calls Kate's cell. "She's not answering either."

"Maybe Castle's with Frick and Frack," Hayley suggests.

"I'll call Ryan. He's more likely to be nice about it." Alexis gives a little shiver as she listens to the detective's response. "They can't find Kate, either. She and Dad are both missing."

"The key will release you," Simon repeats. "But what key? Maybe it's a metaphor."

Todd examines the door. "The lock is a strange shape. Maybe there's something around here that will fit it."

Rick joins him to have a look. "I've seen that shape, but I didn't make the connection at the time." Rick grabs the discarded ax handle and fits it into the opening. "We're getting out of here!"

As Rick turns the handle, a smaller door opens, revealing a gun and a note.

Judah palms his face. "Oh, come on!"

Rick grabs the weapon and reads the note. "The last one standing will be freed." He checks the chamber of the gun. "Three bullets, four of us."

"So whoever kills the others goes free," Simon concludes. "You almost killed Todd with that first injection. The asshole wants us to kill each other. That's what this has all been about from the beginning."

"But he gave us a way to save Todd," Castle protests. "And nothing he's said meant what we first thought it did. So no one is shooting anyone."

Silence pervades the room for a long moment until Judah holds out his hand. "Give me the gun, Rick."

"No, I want the gun," Simon argues.

"Stop it! Both of you," Castle demands. "If we go at each other, whoever is behind this wins. Don't you see?"

Todd steps forward. "Don't you see that we're powerless in here?"

"No, we're not," Rick argues, glaring up at the camera. "You hear that? We're not going to play your sick game anymore. You lose!"

A TV on an audio-visual cart in front of the room suddenly turns on. Rick's guts wrench as he sees what's on the screen. "Oh my God! Kate!"