Yikes.

It was the only word Castle could think of under the circumstances; the uncertainty about Esposito's whereabouts paired with the sobering notion that it was very likely the detective had been kidnapped and manipulated to do God-knows what by Lafayette left no room for flowery eloquence.

Matter of fact, by now, his busy mind had made room for his churning stomach, each phone call coming in making his heart skip a beat as they tried to narrow down the missing detective's whereabouts, whilst ignoring, if not downright dismissing the chance that something horrible could have happened in the meantime.

A few minutes ago, Ryan had left along with Vargas to check out Esposito's apartment, the pile of circumstantial evidence having grown high enough that the DA's office was comfortable issuing a warrant, especially considering that there was a distinct chance that the detective's life was in danger.

He'd seen that blank look on Ryan's face before; it was that of putting on a brave face while expecting the worst. And Castle couldn't fault him. If Lafayette had somehow managed to coerce veterans into killing other people with the power of hypnosis and pills, who was to say he couldn't convince his ninja assassins to commit suicide when things got too close for comfort, thus eliminating as much evidence as possible?

For what it was worth, Castle truly hoped and prayed that it wouldn't be the case and that Esposito's apartment would be empty, placing the detective somewhere out on the streets.

While Ryan was following up on that lead, Beckett was busy making some phone calls, trying to get at Lafayette from a different angle this time. Her first goal was to get a hold of the Psychiatrist's credit card statements, determining habits, trying to scope out his hunting grounds as well as how he'd singled out Esposito. Additionally, she was pulling up anything she could on his secretary, looking for silence-payments, signs of blackmail or anything in between.

It was safe to assume that the Psychiatrist knew better than to channel any questionable transactions through the clinic's checking account and by the looks of all the deposits and withdrawals over the last six months, that was the case.

As she hung up the phone for what seemed like the hundredths time, Beckett sighed in frustration and ran a hand through her beautiful hair, looking down at the thick file that summed up their current case, her delicate fingers running over the grainy picture Vargas had provided.

For a lack of knowing what else to do, Castle reached over and covered her hand with his, squeezing it tightly.

"This isn't over yet.", he said reassuringly, glad to see her glance over and nod.

"I know. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't terribly afraid of what Ryan might find at the apartment."

Clearing his throat, Castle leaned forward some more, creating some privacy while taking a moment to smell her sweet perfume.

"You know, when I first started out with "In the Hail of Bullets", I would fret day and night about what these publishers would think of my manuscript and how my audience would react to the storyline. I spent all my free time worrying about something that hadn't happened yet and it began to eat away at my confidence, my creativity and my energy. And two things happened; when I did get my first denials, I was so exhausted that I just gave up, rather than make a case for myself, see if there was a way I could change their opinion. And when Black Pawn finally agreed to publish it, I was too exhausted to enjoy the victory to the fullest. I guess what I am trying to say is that we don't know yet how things will turn out and instead of running ourselves ragged trying to speculate about the worst-case scenario, why don't we wait and see? If Esposito is hurt, he's going to need our full attention. If Lafayette is onto us and tries something stupid, it will take all our energy to stop him. If the worst-case scenario does strike, it will take our combined efforts to indict Lafayette and make sure he spends the rest of his sorry days in prison. I guess the best thing we can do for Esposito right now is to focus all our energy into this investigation instead of worrying about his whereabouts. Whatever happened to him that made him not show up this morning is already in the past, it's outside our realm to change. What we can change is everything that's right in front of us at this very moment."

His words painted a faint smile on Beckett's lips and she squeezed his hand affectionately, ready to say something when her cell rang.

"It's Ryan…", she gasped, her eyes widening, her expression turning into unbridled fear as she reached for the phone, "Beckett?"

Castle studied her body language as she took the call, not putting it on speaker phone as she usually did, undoubtedly fearing the news awaiting her on the other end.

After a painstaking few seconds, she hung up again, exhaling slowly, her hazel eyes dropped to the ground for a moment of contemplation.

Then, with her lips pursed, she looked back up to meet his gaze.

"Espo wasn't there. His cell phone was on the counter with the battery dead. Ryan said they couldn't find anything that would tell us where he's at right now. But they did find an interesting message on the answering machine."