4:15 am, ~237h:

The bullpen is quite, except for Beckett's team. After they got the notice that the tapes will arrive between 4 and 5 am, they decided to go home early and meet at the precinct at 4am.

'How many matches did you have', Beckett asks Esposito.

'So far 27 hits, 19 women and 8 men have a clear connection to a old factory', Esposito answers. 'But without a different search parameter, it is only a indication they may be connected, no judge will file a warrant on that. And we can't be sure that none of the others have a hidden connection to a factory building', he qualifies his former statement.

Ryan returns huffing and carrying a box full of VCR tapes to his desk. 'Finally the tapes are here!'

'So which method will you use screening the tapes?'

'Of course I will work the tapes chronological beginning with the first, because they couldn't provide us with a date Winters was taken. And we will see if I can spot something suspicious, while Winters was going in and out of his apartment.'
Beckett turns around and nearly stumbles over Agent Crawford.

'Something new' the agent asks.

'To early to say, Ryan will start with the tapes in a couple of minutes. I'm on my way to Karpowski. Want to join me?'

'Sure I want.' The two head over to the conference room. The room looks more like a postal office, everywhere boxes with fan mail.

'Did someone wrote both authors'; Crawford asks.

'Unfortunately they attracted a totally different type of readers. The LAPD checked the threatening writers in great detail. If the person wrote unsuspicious letters under different names to them, he may get away with it.'

'Keep going', Beckett says.

On the way back to her desk Dr. Holloway joins them. 'You are up quite early, Doctor', Beckett states.

'I was at an emergency intervention and I wanted to drop you a note about my non results on your desk. I didn't expect all of you here. I reviewed the facts you provided to me, but I'm sorry there is to less information for an empiric conclusion. There are simply to many possibilities for the behavior of the kidnapper.'

'You couldn't even make a educated guess about age or gender?'

'Sorry Detectives, even for that the data is to ambiguous. Cases like the current one aren't all that common. So I don't have a database to fall back on.'

'Thanks for trying, have a good night Doc', Beckett concludes the conversation.

She takes a seat at her desk, only to get a good nudge by Agent Crawford. She looks up with wonder in her eyes.

'Are these two always that close?'
Turning she sees Esposito, nearly his chin lying on Ryan's shoulder, breathing down his neck. 'Only when there is something good on the screen. It will get better, in the end they will nearly cuddle together.'

On the screen is a couple nearly making out in front of Mr. Winters apartment, a lot of necking and teasing is going on. As the man intensifies his kisses on the neck and the earlobe of the blond woman, she turns her head towards the surveillance camera. While they watch the chins of both male detectives drop.

'I know her', both exclaim. Turning to each other they ask in unison, 'How can you know her?'

'Becketts evil twin', Ryan says, 'and you?'

'A suspect from the weapons owner list.'

Beckett follows their conversation, 'I need a name and address right now!'

Picking up the phone she hits in a phone number. 'Judge Markway, this is Detective Beckett speaking. I need your signature on a warrant … I know, that it is before 5am ...Castle may be there …. Thought so,' Esposito hands her a piece of paper with a name and address on it. Glancing at it she adds, 'You are on our way there. We will stop for the signature. Bye.'

Glancing over her shoulder she says,' Call the ESU team and tell them to met us two blocks north of the address and grab the DMV picture of her.' During this command she opens a document on her PC. After filling only the name and address in she hits print. 'Lets get rolling', she commands while grabbing her weapon.

5:34am, ~238h:

After a a quick stop at the Judge's house, so he can scribble his signature on the search warrant they meet the ESU team. 'What is the status', Beckett asks as she approaches the team leader, with whom she stormed so many hideouts before.

'I have dispatched a car with a attached thermal camera for a drive by. What is this case about?'

'This is our suspect', she gives him the DMV picture. 'And Castle may be held by her, make sure your men are informed.'

'Holy mackerel! This is about Castle, I like this guy', the Lieutenant interrupts.

'Can the car provides us with a live feed or do we need to wait for his return?'

'Yeah, we can watch it in our command center', leading her to the nondescript truck he opens the side door revealing a high tech command stand with a well stocked armory.

'When will they pass the house', he asks the man at the screens.

'Three minutes until they reach the building.'

'Call us then. Let me show you the latest blue prints , we were able to pull.'

Leading her to the far end of the trailer he pulls the prints up on a laptop. 'The blue prints were submitted for the remodeling. The factory was split into three separate apartments. Your suspect lives in the north one.'

'Lieutenant, the car will pass in any second', the officer observing the screens calls out.

They hurry back to the screens.'So there is the target', the sitting officer says.

Taking in the different screens, one with the thermal view and another which shows a normal view of the building Beckett leans against the chair.

The officer comments the pictures of the thermal camera, 'One person in the first apartment, none in the second and a couple in the last one.' Picking up the radio the Lieutenant calls his intel gathering officers, 'X-ray Bravo, can you set up a stationary position covering the north apartment?' 'Eagle one, clear copy. No problem, boss. There are empty parking lots on the opposite street side', is the reply.

'How do you want to play this one', the Lieutenant asks.

'I don't like it, Mike. But I think we have to breach. How many men do you have at your disposal?'

'Ten to breach, two sniper for covering fire and the two intel for backup.'

'Okay I have four. What do you think about this plan? You split up into two teams and enter through the front door and the terrace. My team enters through the back door completing the pincer movement.'

'Sounds like a rush job, I would prefer a longer stake out to know 100% against what we move, but under the circumstances it is the best plan we could come up with.'

'Give me five minutes to inform my team and get our stuff out. Then we can move into position.'

6:18 am, ~239h:

Castle spits blood on the bare cement floor. He leans hard on the desk, every breath hurts like hell and blood runs into his eyes. He hears the main door open and then the dreaded clicking heals hitting the floor. He also hears other person entering. 'Crap this time she has brought friends with her', he thinks.

'What's done, is done! You can't change it,' he says and puts his arms around his head and tries to get into the best fetal position the desk and chair allows.

6:07am, ~239h:

Beckett and her team take up position on both sides of the back door. With a hiss their earpieces starts a radio call, 'Person moves to the rear of the apartment.' They press even harder against the wall besides the door. 'Person made a left turn', is the next radio message. Beckett pears through the glass parts of the door and is able to see her move inside the room on the right side, which seems to be a bathroom. Tapping her radio she whispers into the microphone, 'Rear one has eyes on target. Start the countdown!' 'Overwatch to all units, breach in five .. four .. three .. two', Esposito moves in front of the door', one .. go,go,go.' Esposito kicks in the door and moves back out of the way, reaching for his AR-15. As soon as the way is clear Beckett moves into the house making the shortest route to the room with the suspect, yelling 'NYPD, we have a warrant.'

From other parts of the house similar sounds are heard. Startled the woman starts to turn, but Beckett interferes, 'FREEZE, SHOW ME YOUR HANDS!' The bathroom smells of roses, because the woman is letting herself a bath in. Moving closer, covered by Agent Crawford she orders, 'Turn around, slowly.' The woman turns around slowly.

Beckett takes a sharp breath, the front of the blouse is covered in blood splatters. Beckett snaps, with a fast step forward she is in the woman, pushing her against the wall and jams the muzzle of her gun under her chin. 'Where is he', Beckett whispers threatening. 'He is downstairs in the bomb shelter', the terrified woman reply.

Beckett grabs her at the collar of her blouse and with a quick move forces her to nosedive on the floor. Turning to the door Beckett sees two officers from the ESU entering, 'You two take her of her, frisk and handcuff her. You know the drill. Let's roll.' Without waiting for her stunned coworker she storms out of the bathroom searching for the stairways.

6:17 am, ~239h:

Beckett and her two detectives are standing in front of the main door to the bomb shelter. All three look at each other, not sure what they will find behind the door, if it will be their friend or a corpse. 'Let's get it over with', Esposito says.

On a nod Ryan opens the door and Beckett enters the room first followed by Esposito and Ryan. Beckett heads straight to the person sitting at the desk on the far side, whom they identify instantly as Castle, while the two detectives checks the sides for surprises.

'What's done, is done! You can't change it,' Castle says and moves into a fetal position.

'Castle, it's me Beckett.'

'You fooled me once with that, a second time will never happen,' comes the muffled reply from him.

'Castle, it is really us', Ryan calls out.

Castle turns in his chair, 'It is really you guys, after two weeks I thought that I am stuck here.' He looks at his friends, but as his gaze comes near Beckett he looks down on the floor.

The three are shocked by his looks, cuts and bruises all over his face, some cuts still bleeding. 'Castle, you were only 10 days gone', says a confused Ryan.

Now Castle is shocked.

Agent Crawford enters the shelter and says, 'The EMTs are on their way.'

'Agent Crawford, what are you doing here?'

'Mr. Castle, you know whenever a child is abducted the FBI takes jurisdiction of the case, even when it in your case only applies for the mental capabilities', she teases him.

This at least brings something like a smile on his battered face. 'Did you get yourself something against the cold hands of yours?'

'I got leather gloves', she replies, waving her hand at him.

Beckett steps closer to him, reaching out with her hand, but after he flinches she drops her hand by her side. 'What did you do to get a treatment like that?'

And for the first time he looks up and makes eye contact with Beckett. 'I killed her … killed all of them', he says with a grin like a maniac on his face.

AN: I planned to release ch13 and 14 as one, but with the cliffhangers at the end of both I had to split them. I have a lot of work coming up, so I may need a little more time for the next chapter.