Disclaimer: I don't own Castle... the characters of this amazing show belong to the genius Andrew Marlowe and ABC. :P

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed that little comic relief at the end of the last chapter. :D For those of you interested, my classes are going well... and my Organic Chem Lab is going great too. I've got a 90% right now in the class and that's beyond excellent for me in that subject. I'm a Biology girl, not Chemistry. :P Anyway, ya'll don't really care about that, you wanna see chapter 12 of the story! It's about 5 pages again or so in Microsoft Word and this one has a semi-evil cliffhanger - it makes you want more for sure. The next chapter will have a pretty damn evil cliffie, just to warn you. ;) :P Oh, and just to remind you guys... there's only this upcoming chapter, 2 more chapters, and an epilogue left of the story. Enjoy chapter 12!

Previously in Habeas Corpses...

"Do you think he's really okay?," Alexis asked. Kate opened her mouth to respond, but Alexis felt the need to explain herself, "I mean, I know I keep asking that question and I know you keep telling me that he's okay, but I'm not naïve… I know how some of these sorts of cases turn out and I don't want anything sugar-coated for my benefit. Please, just tell me straight out if you think he's really all right."

"I think he will be all right," Beckett clarified, honestly, "I can't guarantee that he isn't hurt, but we'll find him in time."

"Thanks, Kate," Alexis appreciated it, "But, um, Detective? Before you head down to the precinct, don't you think you should change out of my Dad's clothes first?"

"I probably should, shouldn't I?," Beckett gave a sheepish smile at Alexis' nod.

Now in Habeas Corpses...

Chapter 12

12th Precinct

"You know, when I called you, I didn't mean you should come down here right this second," Shaw commented when Beckett entered the war room.

"What did you think I was going to do?," Beckett folded her arms, "What connection did you find between the two cases?"

"I found out that Mr. Sullivan and your mother were looking into the same drug trafficking organization," Shaw replied.

"Why didn't I see that?," Beckett unfolded her arms.

"Probably because you weren't looking into past cases of your mother's, you were just looking into her murder," Shaw replied, "Both Charles Sullivan and your mother were looking into a heroin trafficking scheme and I believe it was part of one of Nick King's rackets. When Sullivan was investigating, he must've come across your mother somewhere along the way and decided to look into her death… little did he know it'd lead to his own."

"You mean to tell me that my mother and Sullivan were killed because they were investigating a heroin trafficking racket?," Beckett couldn't quite believe it.

"Looks like it," Shaw nodded, "Can you still handle this?"

"Don't worry about me, Shaw," Beckett assured her, "I'm fine. My old wound hasn't been closed since last year and I've been able to bear the pain thus far."

"That's not what I mean and you know it, Beckett," Shaw gave her a serious look, "You know I'm talking about Castle."

"What about him?," Beckett turned, mirroring Shaw's stance.

"King's pretty ruthless, if something happens to him," Shaw started, but Kate cut her off, "Nothing is going to happen to him. I'm not going to let it… he's my partner."

Shaw gave her a glance, letting her know the discussion wasn't over, but let it go for now. She mumbled under her breath, "In more ways than one."

"What'd you guys find out?," Ryan came running into the room. Lanie and Esposito were right behind him.

"Did you call everybody back in, Detective?," Shaw accused Kate.

"I didn't call anybody. I came down here when you called me," Beckett shook her head.

"It wasn't Kate," Lanie said, "Alexis called us."

"So, what did you find out?," Esposito wanted to know. Ryan and Lanie looked just as eager.

"Well," Kate started, but was interrupted when her desk phone rang. She shared a look with everyone in the room before running out to her desk with her friends following. Finally, she answered, "Beckett."

"Hello, Detective Beckett," a voice greeted. Chills ran down Kate's spine.

"Who is this?," Beckett shifted her eyes back and forth. Shaw was already at her side with headphones on. She was armed and ready to trace the call and that's exactly what she was doing.

"Oh… just a friend," he replied.

"Where's Richard Castle, King?," Beckett had a gut feeling that was who she was talking to.

"Aww, you figured me out," King replied, "Ricky here said you were clever."

Bile rose up in Kate's throat. The irony that this was Castle's father wasn't lost on her when he used that nickname, but she was the only one in the current situation who knew this bit of information, "Leave him alone… just tell us where you are and this will be over soon."

"You got one of those things right," Nick smirked, "Be ready at your computer in the next minute… I've got a surprise for you."

"KATE! Don't-," Castle yelled in the background before King hung up.

"Could you get a trace?," Beckett asked Shaw.

"He's good," Shaw shook her head with a long sigh, "He must have a lot of people to re-route the call. I'm getting at least a dozen locations. Beckett, you better boot your computer up."

"Right," Beckett moved the mouse around to wake her computer up out of its hibernation mode.

"What did King say?," Ryan asked.

"He said that I'd better be ready at my computer in a minute for a surprise," Kate looked worried. She could hear the distress in Castle's voice when he yelled for her before the call ended. And what was he going to ask her not to do?

"Look," Esposito pointed to her screen as a video popped up.

Kate's eyes widened in pure horror – Castle was shackled to the wall, just like in her dream. She gulped and listened to what King had to say on the tape.

"Hi there, Katie," King waved, standing far enough away from Castle so he wouldn't try anything. He had a gun in his other hand aimed right for Castle's head, "Ricky, don't be rude. Say hi to your partner."

"Kate," Castle started. He shifted his eyes to King, knowing that if he tried to warn her, he'd be killed right before her eyes and he didn't want that – especially since he didn't know whether or not his daughter might be watching. He licked his lips, his voice sounded hoarse as if he'd been crying, "Hi, Kate."

"He hasn't been very talkative," Nick looked back to the camera as if Castle's reluctance to speak needed explanation, "I just figured it wasn't very fair of me to not give any clues to our whereabouts. I'm a fair man, if anything, so I thought I'd send this little video greeting as a way to drop a clue, even your chances so-to-speak, and if you don't figure it out soon… boom."

The video abruptly ended with Castle getting a kick to the chest once the video went dark. Kate looked up at her friends to see their reactions. They were just as stunned and apparently scared as she was. Shaw immediately went into FBI agent-mode, "All right, since my team isn't here right now, you four are all what I got until I can call them in. Get into the war room and do everything you can to try and triangulate their position."

"Right," Esposito and Ryan jogged off to do as they were instructed.

"Was there anything in that video that might give a clue to where they are?," Lanie asked. Kate dragged the time bar at the bottom of the screen a little farther back, just as Nick was about to kick Castle in the chest.

"I don't see any windows in view to give us some area," Shaw shook her head, "It's just solid wall."

"Maybe he's at one of his old hideouts? A guy like that has to have a hideout, right?," Beckett tried.

"I'll see if I can find anything while I call my men in," Shaw replied, "In the meantime, the rest of you should try and figure out if there's some sort of clue in there to tell us their location."

Without another word, Shaw headed off to get to researching, and Lanie and Kate got up to join Ryan and Esposito in the war room to replay the video to figure out the site. All business when she entered the room, she asked her partners, "Any part of the audio giving away anything? A subway? Train? Anything?"

"We didn't hear anything too significant. It's not like last time," Ryan shook his head.

"What about the wall, can't that give a clue?," Lanie tried.

"The wall?," Beckett wanted her to clarify and that's exactly what she did, "Yeah, it doesn't look like concrete. Maybe it's special. It looks a little like marble to me."

"If it is unique enough, maybe we could narrow down his locations," Esposito saw where she was going with it. His fingers flew over the keyboard, the smart board zoomed in on the wall and started to analyze the make of it, "Looks like it's custom-made. All buildings for that district have that type of marble wall somewhere in its structure."

"Well, that narrows our search down a little, but that's still too much of an area to cover for us," Ryan commented at the blocks of New York that appeared on the screen.

"Maybe there's something else," Kate bit her lip, "Let's watch the video again, maybe there's something in the audio we missed."

"You want to try the background audio again?," Esposito asked, "We didn't hear any train or anything to suggest they're near a station."

"Yeah, but that was before we narrowed it down to this district," Beckett replied, "Do it, maybe we'll get lucky."

Esposito played back the video, taking Castle and King's voices out, so all they would hear was the background. After a few seconds they could hear something. Beckett got a glimmer of hope in her eyes, "There, what's that? You didn't hear that before?"

"Hear what?," Esposito didn't hear anything.

"It sounds like traffic," Beckett squinted her eyes, trying to pin-point the exact sound.

"Traffic in New York City doesn't exactly narrow anything down, Kate," Ryan commented.

"It doesn't sound like a busy street though, Ryan," Beckett replied and took over the controls on the computer, "It sounds like traffic down a side-street."

She typed a few commands into the computer and everybody heard the few cars down the street. Lanie thought of something, "Do you think he could have Castle at his own house?"

"Who knows with this guy," Beckett shook her head. Shaw came into the war room with Avery fastening his tie, "You guys find any more useful information from that video?"

"Just that we narrowed it down to a single district thanks to the unique marble wall in the background and the background audio leads me to believe that they're down a side-street somewhere," Beckett replied, "Maybe King is bold enough to be holding Castle in his own house."

"Possibly," Shaw started thinking out loud, "We've never been able to pin him down before. We've been looking for a business, but maybe he runs his organization from his own house – like a family business."

"It's not a family business," Beckett immediately replied in defense of Castle.

"I beg your pardon," Shaw furrowed her brows.

"I just meant that King doesn't really strike me as a family man," Beckett covered for her slip, "He seems more like a loner than anything else."

Shaw shot her a glance, "I haven't had a lot of time to profile him, but you sound right."

"I don't think we have a lot of time to delve into his psyche right now," Esposito commented.

Shaw reluctantly agreed to that and looked to the video. Something caught her eye, "Is Castle saying something here?"

"Where?," Kate walked up to the screen.

"Here," Shaw was pointing to Castle. His mouth was open in the form of a word.

"The only thing we heard Castle say on the audio was saying hi to Kate," Ryan answered.

"Play the video again and take King's audio out," Shaw ordered. Ryan's fingers flew over the keyboard. The video played again, but all they heard Castle say was what he did before, but his mouth was still moving with nothing coming out.

"Is he whispering?," Lanie wondered.

"No," Avery scooted Ryan out of the way, "He's mouthing something. Fortunately, I can read lips."

Avery zoomed in on Castle and played the video again, this time the complete focus was on Castle. When Castle mouthed the words again, Avery relayed the information, "He's trying to tell us, 'It's a trap'."

"A trap?," Lanie was confused, "A trap for who? Us?"

"Most likely," Beckett sighed, "It doesn't matter though… we're trained. We'll be ready for anything King can dish out. As soon as we find out where they are, we make our move."

"Couldn't have said that better myself," Shaw smiled and took out a file, "And I think I might know where they are…"

TBC

What'd you guys think of that video? ;) Oh and just so you all know, I have absolutely NO idea about any sort of construction in New York and any information for that section is completely made up and was just inserted to move the story along. I'm sure it won't take away from the enjoyment of the story, but I just wanted to let you know so there wouldn't be any discrepancies about it. ;) In the meantime, tell me what you thought! Was the end of this chapter that bad of a cliffhanger? ;) Please comment on this! I love reading all your reviews and it'll give me something to look forward to after my long 4-hour lab today. At this moment, this story is only 3 reviews away from having 200 reviews! I can't believe it! Thank you all so much! And this story is #4 in the most hit story of all of my published stories. It even beat out some of my Smallville stories. :P I wonder, if Castle fans can make it #1. :P Please review! I love reading them all so much!

Thanks to those of you who are just reading this. I really appreciate you too. :D

Clois and Caskett Forever! :D