Hi everyone! I was thrilled with the positive response this story received! Keep it coming! Haha :) Here is chapter two. I completely bluffed through all the crime scene information so hopefully it makes sense. Thank you so much to everyone that reviewed last chapter! Reviews keep me writing faster! Also a big thank you to all that added this story and me to their alerts/favorite lists! You are all amazing!
Chapter Two
Black leather shoes clicked across the aged wood panel floors of the 12th precinct at an energetic pace. Detective Esposito easily sidestepped a quickly rushing officer a wide smile plastered on his face. Esposito suddenly halted his progress across the bullpen and tried to wipe the overly happy expression off his face, not wanting to be teased by his partner and Castle. After he felt his face was normal enough Javier continued forward stopping just in front of a sulking Castle.
"That's not the face I was expecting after the way you and Becket were acting last night. What's up, Castle?"
The writer startled a bit, not noticing Esposito's entrance. "Oh you would have a face just like me if you had the night I did. We cleaned out the attic! I didn't even realize I had an attic."
Javier laughed a booming laugh. "Sorry to be you, Bro."
Castle tilted his head to the side as a sly smile brightened his features. "And what has you in such a good mood this morning? Did you enjoy some company last night?"
Javier coughed and sniffed, looking around the area. "Where's Ryan? He get here yet?"
Castle rose from his seat. "Oh now you're changing the subject. You definitely had company last night…and maybe this morning."
The Hispanic detective scrunched his face up in confusion. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"You know Esposito everyone here knows about you and –."
"We got a body." Kate's said walking into the bullpen, unintentionally cutting Castle off.
Javier swiftly jumped on the change of subject. It wasn't that he didn't care about Lanie. It sometimes scared the detective just how much he did feel for the medical examiner, but he wasn't sure how Lanie would feel if all of their friends knew they were back 'together'. Plus, they hadn't really even discussed if things were serious with them yet. After all the on and off parts of their relationship slow was probably the best course of action. "Great! I'll text, Ryan and let him know."
Detective Beckett's steps slowed. "Text? Ryan's not here yet?"
"No. I was supposed to meet him for coffee this morning, but I…I was running late and wasn't going to make it. He's probably stuck in traffic or the line at Francine's was long." Javier answered, only glancing up from his phone a couple of times as he spoke.
Kate and Rick shared a small smile when Javier paused during his story, both knowing the reason for Esposito's lateness. "Okay. Since Ryan will have his car when he gets there we'll head over to the scene together."
"Ooh shotgun!" Castle shouted with the enthusiasm of an adolescent, and quickly rushed to the elevator doors.
On the drive to the crime scene a small uneasy feeling settled in the pit of Esposito's stomach. The feeling only intensified the moment Beckett informed him of the location of the body. Every few seconds Javier checked his cell phone for a response from his partner. It was unusual that Kevin hadn't sent anything back yet, but Javier reminded himself that Kevin was driving and wouldn't want to use his phone in route. Shaking his head Javier checked his phone one last time before exiting the car and making his way towards the alleyway taped off with crime scene tape.
"Great. This is going to be an easy case." Castle voiced as he, Beckett and Esposito ducked under the yellow tape.
Kate gave Castle a stern look. "And what makes you think that?"
"Come on. The guy shot someone in broad daylight in the middle of a busy intersection, and there's a witness." Richard Castle said confidently.
The two detective's rolled their eyes at the writer's words, but didn't comment on them.
"Hey Lanie. What do we have?" Beckett asked the moment she was close enough, going into full business mode. Her hazel eyes scanning the body for anything and everything.
Lanie looked up from her crouch position next to the body. "We've got a black male early forties, GSW to the heart; precision work, and I'd say he was homeless by the old dirty clothes he was wearing."
"Did he have an ID?"
"I haven't gotten a chance to check his pockets yet." Lanie answered while writing her notes down on a clipboard.
Kate signaled Esposito to check the victim's pockets.
"Why do you say it was precision work?" Castle's curious voice added to the investigation.
Lanie looked to Castle. "The bullet came from a 45 but the wound was relatively small, which would suggest the killer was standing a good one hundred feet or so away. However, the shooter hit our victim square in the heart. I'll have to get him to the lab to know for sure, but I'd guess he hit the victim's heart right in the middle."
"Bulls-eye." Castle added his voice betraying his awe.
Esposito unexpectedly pulled out an IPhone from their victim's pocket. "What kind of homeless guy has a cell phone?" The tan-skinned detective asked the group in confusion.
Rick looked a bit closer and frowned. "Not only a cell phone, but the new IPhone."
Lanie's kind eyes noticed Javier staring at the face of the phone. A look of absolute horror on his face. "Javier? What is it? What's wrong?"
The silent detective lifted his gaze from the phone, face set in shock. "This is Kevin's phone." He whispered in disbelief.
"What?" Kate and Rick spoke in unison, but their only answer was Javier turning the phone around. The screen displaying a message to Ryan from Javier telling him about the body, still unread.
When Detective Ryan was in the academy he never thought he would be held hostage and restrained by his own handcuffs, but that was exactly where he found himself. Kevin pulled again at the handle above the glove compartment that kept his handcuffs in place, testing for any weakness. The handle held firm, and all Ryan managed to accomplish was making an irritated red mark ringing each of his wrists where the metal dug into his skin. The young Irishman's head pounded in unison with his rapid heartbeat, as a small trickle of blood ran sluggishly down the side of his pale face. After the fight in the alleyway Damon seemed more agitated and not as calculating as before. The situation made Ryan even more nervous. Not for the first time Kevin wondered if his friends realized he was gone yet. They would most likely be the team who found the body Calder left in the alleyway. Another thing that was Ryan's fault. If he had just gotten to Calder's gun or been more convincing the man might still be alive.
The captured detective tried to keep track of where Damon was driving so if he found some way to contact someone he would be able to give them a location. But after Calder left the city he abruptly pulled the SUV over and slammed on the hazard lights.
Kevin sucked in a sharp breath and pulled back as far as he could when Damon suddenly reached towards him.
The cruel man chuckled and raised his hands in a mock surrender. "Relax Detective. I didn't go through all this trouble to drive you out of the city, kill you, and dump your body at the side of a road."
"Forgive me if I don't think you're full of good intentions." Ryan snapped, and rattled the handcuffs.
Calder full-out laughed then and leaned over towards Kevin again. "You're funny Kevin I'll give you that."
"Do not call me Kevin like we're friends, Calder." Ryan ground out through clenched teeth.
Damon shook his head slightly. "That's okay, Detective. We'll be getting to be fast friends I assure you."
"What are you doing?!" Ryan cried out when Damon's rough hands gripped the detective's tie and began to unravel it.
Calder gave Ryan a pointed look and yanked the tie off his neck. "Sorry Detective, but I can't have you seeing where we're going. In case you had any plans to try to escape."
Kevin looked at the man confused until his sight was cutoff with his own tie. Frantically, Ryan shook his head trying to dislodge the offending object, but it was futile. Growling in frustration the blindfolded man thumped his head on the back of his seat and tried to calm his racing heart.
Calder smirked darkly at Ryan before turning back onto the road and carefully driving further away from civilization.
Javier jumped to his feet and began pacing furiously. "How could this happen?! I should have known something was wrong!"
Kate carefully stepped in the path of her fuming detective, catching him with her delicate hands. "Stomping around and getting all worked up will not help Kevin. We need to keep a level head here, Espo. We'll work the crime scene and find out what happened. Alright?"
Javier took a couple of deep measured breath, his jaw muscle pulsing from strain. "Yeah. You're right."
Castle watched the exchange feeling lost while Lanie looked completely torn between continuing with her job and crashing the rattled detective in a comforting hug.
"Good. We should start by interviewing our witness. Also we should have officers canvas the area. Have them look for anything more of Ryan's that might have been dumped or anything more from our victim."
Javier's face was like cold stone. "On it."
Kate waited for Javier to return before approaching the witness, knowing he would want to be there for the interview. "Ms. Witfield?"
A young distressed blond looked up sharply from biting her perfectly manicured nails. The green in the woman's eyes glistened from the tears trapped there. "Yes, that's me. You can call me Anna though. I always feel so old when someone calls me by my last name. Oh God. I'm terrible. Going on about my name preference when such horrible things are happening."
"It's okay Anna. I just have a few questions for you. Do you think you're up to that?"
Anna blinked releasing tears down both cheeks. "Of course. I want to help in any way I can."
Kate gave the young woman an encouraging smile. "Great. I understand you were the one to call the police. Is that right?"
"Yes. I…I live in this apartment building and I was on the fire escape watering my little vegetable garden when it happened. I was so scared, but I couldn't move. I thought if the man with the gun saw me…he would kill me."
Kate laid a gentle hand on the woman's folded arms. "You're safe now. He can't hurt you."
"But he could still hurt that man he took! If I called sooner maybe I could have stopped the homeless guy getting killed or at least the other guy's kidnapping! I'm a coward and a horrible person!"
Javier jumped in at the mention of another guy. "What other guy?!"
"Epso." Kate whispered to get the other detective to calm down. If he sent Anna into a fit they wouldn't get any answers from her at all. "Anna, you are not a horrible person. The man was clearly dangerous, and by keeping yourself alive you can help us stop him, with what you saw."
The crying girl nodded her head and Beckett took that as a signal to continue. "Just start at the beginning and tell us everything. What did the men look like?"
"Uh….the one with the gun had brown or dark blond hair it…it was hard to tell. He was tall, muscular, and dressed in all black. His voice was almost friendly…I know that doesn't make sense, but it was like the two were friends until the smaller man spoke."
Javier stepped forward. "And what did the other man look like."
Anna looked to the side, trying to remember. "He was smaller than the man with the gun, but he also was toned. He was pale with short dark hair, wearing a suit and tie."
"That's good. Can you tell us what they were doing in the alley?"
"Yeah. I noticed the two of them walking really close together, but there was something off about it."
"Off about it how?" Castle asked from next to Beckett.
"I have lived in New York long enough to tell when someone is in a situation they don't want to be. The pale guy was standing crazy straight and trying to lean away from the other guy but couldn't or something. That's when the homeless guy stood up suddenly. He started shouting at them to stop, he said something like 'What are you doing? Is that a gun? Leave him alone.' Then the guy with the gun said something quietly to the man he was holding."
"What happened next?" Javier's voice was hesitant with worry.
Anna's breathing increase slightly as she remembered. "The smaller guy stepped forward slightly and tried to get the homeless man to leave. He said 'Sir, I need you to just walk away. Everything is fine. This is just a misunderstanding.' Then the homeless guy took a few more steps forward and the big guy didn't like that so he pointed the gun at him. The pale guy shouted 'no' and tried to fight the gun away. But the guy you're looking for must have been trained in the military or something because he fought like in movies and threw the smaller guy into the wall. I think he hit his head because he didn't get back up right away. That's when the homeless man rushed forward to help and was shot. The guy with the gun reached down and pulled the other guy to his feet and dragged him to a parked black SUV, and drove off in a hurry. I called the police and ran down to the homeless man…I had hoped that I could help…but he was dead by the time I reached him."
The detectives and Castle shared worried looks before Beckett addressed the upset woman. "Thank you, Anna. Do you think you got a good enough look at the gunman to work with a sketch artist?"
The girl look terrified. "Maybe…I'm not sure."
Beckett called over another officer and asked him to take Anna to the precinct. She then turned back to Javier and Castle. Her detective looked just about ready to rip someone's head off their shoulders. Making what Beckett had to do next harder.
"Esposito, can you go over the conversation you had with Kevin this morning and the last time you saw him?"
Javier snapped his blazing glare at Beckett. "Don't you think I already did that?! There was nothing out of the ordinary!"
Castle stepped between the two. "Beckett is just trying to help, Esposito. Maybe there was something you missed?"
The fuming detective turned his glare on the writer. "You think this is my fault don't you?! Both of you! If I had just come for coffee this morning, Ryan wouldn't be gone!"
"No! That is not what we're saying at all! You need to relax…we'll find him, Espo." Kate said, trying to make Javier see sense.
Castle looked at the young man in concern. "It's not your fault, Javier, and the last thing you should do is start to replay what you could have done."
"I'm his partner! I'm supposed to have his back! So yeah, Castle it's entirely my fault!" Esposito shouted before turning his back to his friends and storming away from the crime scene.
End of chapter two! Remember to review to tell me what you thought of this new chapter. Until next time...
