Title: Neon Terror
By: greygoose70
Chapter 4
The Precinct
"Okay Castle whatta ya got." Beckett cried out the second her feet hit the bullpen but looking around she couldn't see hide nor hair of him. "Check the 'tech room'." Someone shouted back.
Reaching the 'tech room' the ladies found Castle and Strong glued to a monitor and Tori Ellis, the precincts guru of all things electronic, working her magic. "Beckett. Shaw." Castle said. "Nice to have you back. Pull up a seat. Here you'll need these." He then handed over a set of headphones.
"What am I listening for?"
"Just listen and then you tell me what you think it is, Beckett.
Beckett slipped them on then signaled Tori to start. Tori hit the 'play' button and let it run for approximately 20 seconds. Beckett motioned for her to play it again plus give her a little more volume. After the second time Beckett removed the headphones giving them to Shaw saying she wanted her opinion before committing her own.
Shaw donned the headphones, gave Tori the 'play' sign and waited. She only needed to hear the recording once, She pulled them off and said, "High heels."
"Exactly what I thought," Beckett replied. "What about you Castle?"
"Mine and Jason's thoughts also but here's what cinched it," he claimed as he had Tori begin the video.
The view finder was pointed forward so the onlooker and the camera saw basically the saw thing. The four of them watched as the suspected killer move forward toward the victims car where Sally Capland was just starting to exit. Capland raised her head when she saw the person in front of her blocking her exit and said, "Who are you." That's when the killer pointed the gun at her and she begged, "Take what ever you want but please don't hu…"
Sally Capland never got to finish her plea for at that instant the killer pulled the trigger putting a bullet in her forehead. Sally Capland fell backwards, her body laying across the center console. The killer then reached in and placed a yellow neon clip in her hair.
Tori then stopped the tape.
"Okay Tori take it all the way back to the beginning then play it forward till I tell you to stop." Castle told her.
Honoring Castles request Tori rewound the tape then pressed 'play' to begin it again. At about the 25 second mark Castle called, "Stop." Tori immediately pressed 'pause'. "Good," he said. "Now back it up frame by frame." Again Tori followed his instructions backing the film up one frame at a time, holding each frame till Castle gave her a signal to continue. After approximately ten frames he said, "That's the one." He then circled an area asking her to zoom in and enhance.
Instantly everyone there knew what they were seeing. It was a reflection coming off the drivers side window giving them a clear yet somewhat fuzzy view of their suspect and it definitely was a woman. She wore a red long sleeved top, black skirt and black heels.
"I'll be damned Castle. How did you ever catch that." Shaw said.
"Actually I didn't." He responded. "It was Jason here who deserves the credit. We were just getting ready to do the frame search when you showed up so we waited. I wanted everybody to see the entire thing first though."
"So how do we go about catching her," Beckett declared. "She's already killed five women and if she holds to her current time line she'll kill again within 24 to 48 hours."
"We can put out a description and a BOLO," Esposito answered having just walked in along with Ryan.
"That might help but I believe we need a better description of her before you to that." Shaw responded.
"Tori, can you print out that frame; I want to put it up on our murder board." Beckett said getting up. "But right now I need coffee and food."
"How about pizza everyone? I can have it here in 30 minutes," Castle spouted pulling out his notepad. "Just tell me what kind you want."
Castle began taking down request hoping he wouldn't have to order 10 different pizzas. Fortunately everyone kept it simple, usually just pepperoni or Italian sausage, and so when he called it in he ordered two of each kind plus his personal favorite (okay it was actually Kate's favorite). He then went and fixed Beckett her coffee.
Beckett, Shaw and Castle sat in the conference room eating their pizza and discussing their options when Castle came up with a theory, Beckett giving him one of her eye rolls and hoping it didn't have anything to do with aliens or the CIA.
"No but it does have something to do with WNYN and I'm thinking with Eve Nevers particularly." Castle explained.
"Why do you think that?" Posed Shaw.
"Lets start by looking at our victims, with the exemption of Fleetwood of course, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. All the victims had blonde hair, all of them had a neon clip in their hair placed there by the killer which means it has significance. WNYW is the only station receiving the pictures and the video, their the ones that named her the 'NEON TERROR' and none of the other stations is covering the story to the extent that WNYW is. Therefore, there is some connection between Nevers and our killer. We find out what that connection is and we find our killer."
"Wow Castle," Beckett said. "That's some theory. Probably the best one I've ever heard from you. So how do you suggest we find out what this connection is?"
Cindi Williams pulled into the almost empty parking lot. She was there to pick up here cousin who would be getting off work soon. She had been baby sitting Naomi, her five year old niece, Tabitha's daughter who was curled up in the back seat, asleep. It had been a long day mainly because the girl had dragged her to the zoo. Cindi herself couldn't wait to get home and get off her feet. Unfortunately for Cindi that was never going to happen. A tapping on her window caused her to turn her head to see whom it was and that's when she saw barrel of a gun pointed at her. Just as she was about scream the gun went off penetrating the glass and Cindi between the eyes.
The noise from the shot immediately awoke Naomi who bolted upright and began looking around then saw the stranger on the outside staring back at her. The unknown person then turned and walked away.
Ryan and Esposito were at there desks playing a game of wastebasket basketball when the phone on Beckett's desk began ringing. Ryan being the closer of the two rolled his chair over and answered it. "Beckett's desk." It was dispatch. "Got it," he replied then hung up. "Time to go Espo, we got another one. I'll get Beckett, Shaw and Castle.
Ryan stuck his head in the conference room telling the three people in there there was another killing. "Where?" A voice sounding like Beckett asked. "Parking lot WNYW," He replied back then took off for the elevator where Esposito was holding the doors open for them.
TBC