Chapter 2

Kate's eyes widened and the detective in her began to come to life immediately. "Who is this? What have you done with Lanie?"

"Tsk tsk tsk, don't get so worked up, your questions will be answered in time. Your medical examiner is just fine, I haven't hurt her."

"Where is she?" By this time Kate was in full cop mode and was cataloguing every detail about the callers' voice that she could.

"They say the team you have there is the best detective Beckett. And I don't like hearing that, because where I'm from? I'm the best."

"I want to know what you've done with her."

"Like I said detective, all in good time. If I just gave you the answers this wouldn't be very much of a challenge now would it? See here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to give you a little test. Here's the deal, you have 48 hours to come and find your precious Dr. Parish, or I start to hurt her."

"I don't know who you are but you're not going to get away with this you-"

"Now now, what did I tell you about getting worked up? This isn't the way to handle things. This is a challenge, a test if you will. Only one of us can be the best, and this is going to help us decide who it is. Remember detective Beckett, you have 48 hours to save your friend. Don't be late."

The line disconnected before she could say anything in response. She didn't wait for Esposito to call back but grabbed her purse and dashed out the door as she was dialing his number.

He picked up and she could hear the worry in his voice. "I couldn't get a hold of her. Did you have any luck?"

"Not good luck. But I have information. I need you to meet me at the precinct as soon as you can get there."

"What happened to her is she-"

"Esposito, I will explain everything when we get there but right now I need you to call Ryan and tell him to meet us there as well and not ask questions. I will be there in 10 minutes."

She hung up without waiting for a reply. She was already in the car and pulling out onto the street as she dialed another number.

"Hey Beckett, miss me or something?" came Castle's voice form the other end.

"Castle I need you to not ask questions and meet me at the precinct ASAP. I'll explain when everyone is there. I'm 10 minutes away."

He could hear urgency and a hint of fear in her voice and knew better than to argue. "I'm on my way," was all he said before she hung up on him as well.

This couldn't be happening. Not to Lanie. Not to the girl that had enough attitude for the entire city and had been there for Kate since she became a cop. She felt tears stinging her eyes as she drove, tempted to turn her siren on, and wiped them away. Whoever did this was going to pay for it.

She was first to the precinct and was telling the captain she needed to talk to him when Ryan and Esposito ran into the room. Castle was only a minute behind them and they all gathered by Becketts' desk.

"What is this about detective?" Montgomery asked.

Kate took a deep breath and spoke. "Lanie has been kidnapped."

"What do you mean kidnapped?" the captain asked.

Esposito turned around and laced his fingers behind his head, taking a couple of steps and turning in a circle.

"Are you sure?" Ryan asked.

Castle didn't say anything but watched the reactions of everyone. He finally turned his attention to Kate. "Are you ok? She didn't get taken while she was with you did she?"

"No, she was supposed to be me at 11 at my place to help me pack stuff up, when she hadn't shown my 11:30 I called her and left a message. She didn't call back so 15 minutes later I tried her again, then called Esposito. When I got off the phone with him someone called back and I thought it was him but…it wasn't. it was whoever took her."

"What did they say?" Esposito said getting close to Beckett and raising his voice.

She could tell he was starting to get worked up. She glanced over at Montgomery and he nodded, allowing her to take the lead. She turned back to her partner "Esposito you need to calm down. We need to treat this like any other case and follow the steps we usually take."

He raised his voice even further. "This is my girlfriend, your best friend, and our best medical examiner, and you want me to treat this like a normal case? How can you-"

She cut him off. "Detective Esposito if you can't handle this case I will ask you to step down. I don't want to have to do that so you need to calm down."

"Calm down? This is Lanie we're talking about! What do you expect me to do?"

She rose her voice to meet his and took a step into his personal space like he had done to her a second ago. "I expect you to do your job detective, and help me solve this case. Is that clear?"

He seethed silently for a minute before taking a step backwards and nodding.

She nodded in return "Good. He told me that we have 48 hours to find her or he's going to start hurting her. We can do this we just need to put our heads together and work fast. Now I want the best CSU we've got at her house looking for any sign of break in, or her being taken from there. Esposito can you handle going with them?"

He nodded and headed off to meet the team.

Beckett turned to Ryan and handed him her cell phone. "The last received call will be the one from the guy that took her. I want to know everything you can find out about it."

"Got it." He said taking the phone and heading to the lab.

"What can I do?" Castle asked.

She turned to face him and pointed at his chair next to her desk. "Sit and stay quiet. I need to think." He nodded and sat down. Finally she looked at the captain. "Is there any way we can keep this away from the public until we find her?"

"I'll do what I can, but one of our own is missing, I'm going to have to tell someone sooner or later."

She made a face but nodded, turned and went over to the murder board and started putting up a timeline. Esposito had been the last person to see her a little before 11. She added the first call she had made, along with the second call to Lanie and the call to Esposito. After that she added the call from the kidnapper. Above the timeline she wrote down everything she could remember about the conversation.

Castle read the notes silently. Male, faint European accent, 48 hours, test. He had no idea what the last word meant, but he waited to see if she would explain anything before he asked. After half an hour of watching her stare at the board silently he finally spoke up. "What does 'test' mean?"

She turned around to glare at him but her gaze softened as she saw the worry in his eyes. She forgot that he had gotten close to Lanie as well over the two years he had been working with them. She took a deep breath and turned back to the board without answering him. He stood up and went to stand beside her. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and decided that he wasn't going to go away until she gave him an answer. "He told me that this was a challenge. That our team is the best from around here and he is the best where he's from but that only one of us could be the best. He said this test would tell us which one of us that was."

"Kate, we are the best." He said with his typical quirky smile. "We can figure this out. Lanie will be fine."

She opened her mouth to reply but heard a beeping noise come from her computer. The two of them raced over to her desk to see what it was. A message had popped up saying she had one new e-mail. Her eyes met Ricks and she pressed open. A video popped up and Lanie appeared on the screen. The voice from the phone started talking. "Well Dr. Parish, do you have anything to say to your friends?"

Lanie hesitated for a second then began speaking. "Kate, Javi, Ryan, and Castle I know you're probably there too. You guys can do this, I know you can. He hasn't hurt me or anything, but you guys had better get me the hell outta here."

The video stayed on Lanie but the male voice took over. "The countdown has started detective, 47 hours left. Don't let your friend down."

The video went blank and Kate cursed. "Damnit there was nothing in that video that can help us at all. she was up against a plain wall, no reflections or anything. We'll have to see if we can get a trace on the IP address." She was about to ask Castle to borrow his phone and call Ryan when the detective in question came jogging up to them. "Please tell me you got something off the phone?"

He handed it back to her and shook his head. "Call came from a one use, disposable phone. Could have come from anywhere. What's that?"

"He sent us a video, I assume to prove to use that he hasn't hurt her yet." She hit play and sat back as Ryan watched. When it was over she asked "can you trace the IP address?"

Her partner motioned for her to move over and he bent over the computer and started typing. A minute later he stood up straight. "He was using a wireless connection at a coffee shop on west 71st in between Broadway and Columbus Ave."

Beckett looked at Castle and Ryan in turn then stood up and headed for the elevator. "Ryan, call Esposito and have him meet us there, Let's go get this bastard."

Can I just say wow? I got such a great response to chapter 1 that I'm posting chapter 2 a bit early Thank you everyone who read, reviewed and added this to your alerts :D