Chapter 9, I hope Chapter 8 wasn't too horrible
Princeton:
Meanwhile, Beckett and Castle walked slowly in the direction of Alexis's group of friends. Some of them from the party earlier recognised Beckett and stood up to meet them.
"Hi girls, I would like to ask you a few questions. Do you know anything about Lex's disappearance?" Beckett asked, saying the last bit of the question quietly as she felt Castle flinch beside her.
The girls were all aware of Alexis, however, it didn't stop them from gasping aloud and some taking a step back or looking towards the ground.
The brave one, Kelly, whom Beckett recognised, replied, "We don't know anything about it. But, of course we'd answer some questions. Anything to help the investigation. Let me introduce you to the group."
"There's Maddie, Sarah, Ashleigh, Abigail, and Taylor. I'm Kelly, and you'll know Charlotte who's Lex's roomie, although I don't know where she is, sorry."
"Girls," Beckett began softly, "Charlotte was also attacked when Lex was taken. She's in the hospital right now."
Everyone gasped, can't believe what they just heard. They looked to each other, and the floor, each not knowing what to say. They couldn't believe their ears. Not one, but TWO of them were taken from the group.
"I know it's hard to take in, but please, if you don't mind answering questions."
"Of course, anything. What would you like to know?" Abigail asked.
"Has anything happened recently? Any arguments between Alexis and someone else? Or anything that had happened in the group? A disagreement, perhaps?"
"No, Alexis is the kindest, most loving and smartest person we know. Nothing has happened. We all got along well." Ashleigh piped up in a small voice, still a little intimidated by the detective.
"Wait, but there was one incident." Taylor said and then turned to the girls. "Remember the time when that boy bumped into Maddie, and when Lex picked up his photos, she freaked and ran?"
"Oh, yeah." Maddie said and turned back to Beckett and Castle. "There was this boy who bumped into me the other day while we were sitting here. Well, he tripped and fell, and all his photos came tumbling out. Then when Alexis picked them up, she freaked and ran. Just kept running and didn't stop when we yelled her name."
Beckett nodded, knowing of this incident, but was going to tell Castle after they had interviewed the girls.
Castle, who had been so quiet all this time suddenly asked, "Did anything about this boy strike you as being weird? Or was there anything you notice about him that you could give a sketch of some sort?"
Maddie's head bobbed around, nodding to what Castle had been saying. "Yeah, he had a camera hanging around his neck and he wore bright red shoes which squeaked everywhere he went. It was annoying. He always wore a red baseball cap. I'm pretty sure he supports the Yankees. I noticed he had blue-grey eyes and sandy brown hair poking out the side of his cap while I was yelling at him."
"Do you know his name?"
"I think its Nick? Or Nicholas?"
Kelly piped in, "Wait, there's something you can double check on. He's in my English class and on the first day, we had to write on a piece of paper; our name, age, date of birth, likes and dislikes. If he does support the Yankees, maybe it might be on that piece of paper. Our teacher's name is Miss Turner."
"Thanks." Beckett replied, making a note on her pad. "Just one last question before we go. What happened to those photos? The ones that he dropped?"
Sarah, the last person who hadn't said a thing yet suddenly replied, "I have them." Everyone turned to look at her. "After Lex ran, she had dropped the photos. Everyone was yelling at her to come back. That's when I noticed the photos. I realised that the boy had gone so I picked them up and placed it in my dairy. I was going to give them back, but I never saw him again." Sarah fished in her backpack and withdrew a stack of 15 photos, and gave them to the waiting hands of the detective.
"Thanks girls. Sorry to interrupt your lunch. We'll be in touch if we need anything, okay?"
"We're glad we can help." Everyone chorused.
Beckett rang Esposito and Ryan to check up on 'Nick' by using the method that Kelly suggested, while Castle went through the photos. When she hung up, Beckett spun around to find Castle's fuming look staring right at the photo.
"Castle? Rick? What's wrong?"
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Castle shakily walked over and handed the pictures to Beckett. What she saw, gave her a fright too. Being a detective, she could deal with gruesome murders but this was just, disgusting. As she flipped through the photos, her expression became more horrified.
There were pictures of the courtyard and the oak tree, and then as it progressed, the pictures soon became of Alexis and her friends, then Alexis with Charlotte, then Alexis alone in the room. The final picture was of only Alexis. It showed her, half-naked, walking around her dorm, in just undies and a bra.
Castle's expression was one that couldn't even be explained. All sorts of emotions flashed through his face. This was HIS baby girl. The one he brought up from young, took care of all the diaper changes, the food, the crying, the naps, and the strolls through the park.
Beckett stared at her partner. She felt guilty and sad. Alexis was a bright young teen with a cheerful personality. Perhaps, if she didn't leave for New York that early, maybe Alexis would be safe. Kate took another step towards Rick and wound her arms around him. Castle stiffened but relaxed into the embrace. He started to shake and Kate felt little droplets of water on her blouse.
"Shh, let it out Castle. Just let it out. We'll find Alexis, and she'll be fine."
The ringing of Beckett's phone snapped them out of their reverie.
"Beckett." Kate answered while Castle turned away to dry his tears.
"Yo, Beckett, we have good news. We found this Nick guy. His full name is Nicholas Daniel Smithson. He's actually not that clean. Apparently, on his get-to-know-you card, he wrote that he likes red-haired girls and likes dreaming about 'doing sexy stuff to them'. We had a chat to Miss Turner and she said that all his essays always include at least one red-haired girl and her name is always Alexis." Esposito said in one breath, excited by the news.
Ryan continued, "Yeah boss, and when the teacher looked at his school dairy they got on the first day, it had pictures of Alexis on basically every page. When Miss Turner confronted him, he said that he and Alexis were a couple. She left it at that, since it's school policy that teacher's aren't allowed to probe into anything, until it becomes a school matter."
"Sounds like out guy. Let's get a warrant for his arrest."
"Girl, they've already done that, the warrant's an hour away." Lanie's voice came onto the loudspeaker.
"OK, we'll meet you outside Nick's dorm."
She turned around to where Castle was standing. However, it seemed that Castle had overheard everything and was on his way. Beckett ran to catch up.
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"Hey man, I'm really sorry." Esposito and Ryan greeted Castle while Lanie said, "I'm sorry Castle."
Castle shrugged and said, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go in!"
"We can't Castle. We're waiting for a warrant for his arrest."
"WHAT? How long will it take?"
"An hour. At least."
"AN HOUR? I'll be right back." He took his phone out and walked away to a secluded corner.
Beckett knew something was up and followed her partner.
"Hey Bob, how are you? Yeah, listen they've found Alexis. Yeah, Thanks. But look, we need an arrest warrant to rescue her. Any chance that you can- oh, yup, yup, ok... Thanks Bob." Rick hung up and turned around to be face-to-face with his partner.
"Beckett."
"Castle, what was that?"
"What was what? You mean the phone call, nothing."
"That was to the Mayor. Castle, I told you that we can't jump the line!"
"So what? This is MY daughter we're talking about. OK? MY daughter. I can't help it if I need to res-"
Before Castle could go any further, Beckett pressed her lips to his in a moment of fiery passion. When they broke off, they were panting.
Castle stared shocked, "Um, warrant comes in 10 minutes." He then side-stepped her and walked away. Beckett leaned on the wall and slammed her forehead against her hand. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" That's when she heard a scream.
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She came running back to meet her team. Castle and Lanie were standing behind Ryan and Esposito. She withdrew her gun and nodded at the other two.
They burst through the door, yelling, "NYPD! Hands in the air! NYPD!"
Nick came running out, this time in a loosely fitted shirt and a pair of pants. Ryan pointed his attention to him while Esposito checked the room.
"Ryan, cuff him. Castle, take him outside." The boys did as they were told and Beckett and Esposito pointed their gun at the door to an adjoining room.
Beckett held up her hands and counted, 3, 2, 1 and they both smashed through the door.
Alexis turned her petrified head towards them and the tears flowed again.
"Kate! Please, please, he-help me. Please." Beckett untied Alexis and the teen clung to the detective like a lifeline, not wanting to let go.
Esposito searched the room and gave Beckett some of Alexis's clothes and the all clear. He then left the room, leaving Beckett to change Alexis. When they both stood, Beckett noticed some blood on the sheets. Alexis noticed too, but said, "Please, don't tell my dad. I don't want him to worry. In due time, I promise I'll tell him myself." Beckett debated for a moment then nodded. "But you have to tell him soon. Promise?" Alexis nodded, "Promise."
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Beckett led Alexis out the door and into the open arms of her father.
"DAD!"
Alexis buried her head in Castle's chest and sobbed, and when he started up as well, they had Lanie and even Esposito in tears. Soon, Beckett found herself wanting to cry as well. She walked over to Ryan, who was reading Nicholas his rights.
"You can add rape to that charge as well Ryan." Her team member nodded and then asked uniforms to take him away.
Lanie and Esposito came to them and they all smiled at Alexis and Rick Castle, sobbing and hugging, reunited at last.
There we go! Last chapter done! The next one is going to be an epilogue and Castle and Beckett's change in their relationship.
Please R&R
Gnie