Florida Heat

Disclaimer: If there was any doubt: I do not own Castle, The Princess Bride or Google Earth. Darn.

A/N: Out of caution I raised the rating on this to M. Things are about to get intense as some questions are answered, but don't worry. There is plenty more to come.

On a happier note: Woohoo! More than 100 reviews! That is awesome! Seriously, you all rock. I am so happy you are enjoying this story. :)

Chapter 12

"Okay, so here's the thing…" Esposito started as Ryan set the laptop down on the desk, adjusting the screen so Castle and Beckett could see it from their position on seated on the bed. "You were found in Duval County— Jacksonville, but you were found right on the county border. While Jacksonville, or Jax as the locals call it, is a major city it is surrounded by a bunch of little towns. Populations not exceeding 10,000, sometimes not even 5,000 people.

"As the sheriff said," Esposito continued. "There is a lot of rural area around here, farmers, trailer parks, low income areas, but that is not the only case. There has also been an influx of middle to upper middle residential neighborhoods in the area and more upper class areas can be found, especially closer to the river."

Esposito paused, hitting a few buttons on the screen until an interactive map was pulled up on the screen. "Here is where Google Earth comes into play. See here? This is where you were found and here," he paused to zoom in. "is where they have been knocking on doors. This is where they have been searching: a couple of residential neighborhoods and three trailer parks. We think they have it wrong."

Both set's of eyes shot up at him from the screen and Ryan stepped in, taking over. "The Millers may not have had very lucrative jobs, but digging into their financials they had a lot more money than they should have. Most would probably chalk it up to inheritance or stocks, but chances are it was from the human trafficking business."

Ryan paused as his eyes darted quickly to Beckett, silently weighing his next words. Castle's hand crept out silently, slowly to clasp her fingers in his own. Squeezing them only slightly. Ryan's shoulders sagged in silent relief when she gave a faint nod, permission to continue. "So, we started thinking. The St. John's River runs right by the area and heads up through Jacksonville and out to the Atlantic. What better place to have a hub for a trafficking business than on a river? It would be easier to transport down on a boat then in a truck or car. Fewer stops would have to be made and there are less officials watching. Plus, the Millers owned a boat, which they frequently took down here to Florida."

Castle scooted himself down the bed, to sit at the foot, closer to the screen, letting go of Kate's hand in the process. He sat there, examining the screen for a moment before silently gesturing in question.

"May I?" He asked, waving a hand at the laptop.

Ryan and Esposito stepped back in response, allowing the other man to fiddle with the screen, zooming and scrolling through the area, looking at landmarks. After a few minutes, Castle's hand stilled and he looked up at the pair, startled to find Kate kneeling on the bed behind him, staring at the screen from over his shoulder; her cheek hovering just inches from his own.

"Hi," he whispered as he slid his eyes over to take in her profile, suddenly sidetracked from his original train of thought.

"Hey," she responded in like, her voice quiet, her smile soft, encouraging. "What did you find?"

Castle snapped out of his daze, forcing his eyes away from her and, instead, focusing where Ryan and Espo were watching them, not even attempting to redirect their blatantly staring eyes. Clearing his throat he continued as his original question came back to him.

"But why risk moving her? Why not keep her in the house?"

"Because, of the traffic." Esposito jumped in, making his way back to the computer. "Most of these houses had private docks and private drives. It would be really easy to get someone out of the water and into the house or into a car without someone seeing. Easy in, easy out to a more secluded location. The problem with holding someone here, though, is that the main road is a high traffic area: a marina down the street, a large family neighborhood across the street. If someone escaped from one of these houses they would be easily spotted on the main drag. But having a secondary holding location would just be smart. Bring someone in and take them out when they are unconscious. No one would ever see. No one would ever know."

Castle and Beckett both nodded in understanding and Kate slipped off of the bed behind Castle coming around to sit in the rolling chair, pulling it off to the side of the desk.

"So, I was found here? Right?" She started, pointing a thin finger at the screen, looking to the boys for verification. When they nodded, she shifted her finger up an inch. "The sheriff said that they were knocking on doors here."

She touched her finger on the screen again, making the color ripple a little bit as her nail tapped the plastic. "So, why do you think they brought me in down here? Why not in Jacksonville?"

Ryan shook his head. "It all comes back to privacy. These houses in Jax are too close together. People would get suspicious. The farther south you go, the bigger the lots, the longer the drives."

"So, assuming you are right and that is a really big assumption at this point. What do we do? The sheriff has no jurisdiction across the county line and there are a lot of houses down there, it's not like we can just start knocking on doors."

"Maybe not," Ryan chimed in. "But we can narrow down out search. We need a house with a private dock and a private drive. That brings us down to these."

He pointed out a series of houses on the map, zooming in until you could almost see the color on the front doors.

"From there, it would be fantastic if they had a tie to another house or some farm land closer to where you were found. We narrowed down the areas. We can assume that you were not kept in a mobile home due to security and sound reasons, and regular neighborhood would be to public. Someone would have seen you escape. That leaves us with this area here."

He scrolled over on the screen, bringing up a small cluster of farms, spanning across the borderline of both counties. "This is where we have to look."

Both Castle and Beckett looked up at the boys with a mixture of pride and amazement etched on their faces.

"Guys, that was amazing." Castle stated as Ryan and Espo attempted to keep their grins in check. Kate continued to smile up at them as the boys put their fingers together in a weird hand gesture, her smile faltering for a second as another thought wandered into her brain.

"So, how do we figure out if there are any residents who own property in both areas? I highly doubt the local police are going to listen to us about this: you two are suspended, he's a writer and I have no memory. At this point, I am surprised the Jacksonville cops are still looking into this," Kate rationalized as the three other heads swiveled to look at her.

"Oh ye of little faith," Esposito chided. "Property records are public record in the state of Florida. All we have to do is a little internet search."

Ryan leaned back in the chair and sighed, his hands running through his hair. "Nothing."

He had been running different searches for an hour: comparing housing on the water to farmland in the area. Castle was lounging on the far double bed, tapping on his phone, playing some sort of game. Esposito had gone back to their room to gather up the rest of their notes and files and Kate was out on a snack run.

Just then the door buzzed and both of their heads turned as the handle turned and Kate walked back in, bag of drinks and groceries in hand.

"I went to the convenience store across the street. We are now in possession of more junk food than you ever wanted to see in your life. What's wrong?" Beckett paused, foot still wedged in the door as she took in the look on Castle and Ryan's faces.

"We can't find any connection in property records," Ryan grumbled as the door swung shut, bouncing off the bar Kate had pushed in the way to keep it from locking. "This sucks. It would be so much easier if we had our usual databases."

Kate dropped the bag on the bed, walking up to him to look over his shoulder.

"Well, in the morning we can start knocking on doors. We'll start with the farms and go from there. Something is bound to turn up." Kate clasped the younger man on the shoulder in reassurance and turned around to the sound of crinkling plastic.

"Yes!" Castle shouted in victory as he held up a twin pack of Twinkies. "You sure do know the way to this writer's heart."

"Oh, just wait. A couple of guys were talking at the store, turns out the Fair is in town. If you think those are good, apparently deep fried Twinkies are ten times better." Beckett supplied as she pulled a bottle of juice out of the bag.

Ryan spluttered and Kate cocked her head to look at him, alternating her gaze between the coughing man and Castle who was stuck, wide eyed, with the snack halfway to his lips.

"What's wrong? Did I say something wrong?"

Castle cleared his throat and took a bite of the cake, stalling his response for a moment. "No, nothing is wrong. I just like regular Twinkies just fine. No need to bring in the deep fried ones, hear they are bad for your health."

Kate nodded slowly; the confusion still etched on her face.

"Hey, Rick," She began again after a few more minutes of silence. Esposito had come back into the room with a silent nod and had dove straight into the bag of treats along with the rest of them, pulling out a small roll of powdered donuts with a triumphant yell and a "so stereotypical" from his partner.

Ryan and Esposito exchanged a glance, neither of them commenting on the fact that she had been calling the writer by his first name more regularly since she had woken up.

"Do I usually wear a watch? Because I keep on looking at my wrist like one is supposed to be there but it isn't. It's starting to drive me crazy." Kate continued, tossing a handful of trail mix into her mouth.

Castle cleared his throat. "Yeah, actually you do. You usually wear your father's watch and your mother's wedding ring on a chair around your neck. Come to think of it, I haven't seen them. They might still be at the hospital. We never did collect your belongings. Your clothes were taken as evidence but the jewelry should still be there if you were wearing them."

The quartet exited the elevator onto the forth floor of the hospital and started the familiar journey down the hall. Kate crinkled her nose as the smells of sick bodies and antiseptics wafted towards her. She really did not like hospitals; they gave her the willies. She shoved her hands into her pockets, to keep her fingers from nervously playing with each other, causing her elbow to knock into Castle's. He looked down at her and gave her a reassuring smile. She could do this. He wasn't going to leave her. She expelled a puff of air as they approached the nurse's station and forced a smile onto her face.

"Mr. Castle, Detective Beckett, hi! Is everything okay?"

Kate followed Castle's lead and smiled indulgently at Angela, the perky nursing assistant that had tended to her while she was there.

"Hi Angela," Castle started, his face morphing into a charming smile. "Actually, we were wondering if any of Kate's possessions got left here, a watch and necklace specifically."

"No, Sir, Ma'am," Angela responded in kind, her dark ponytail whipping back and forth with the emphatic shake of her head. Kate couldn't help but let her smile widen at the girl's innate Southern hospitality. "You didn't have anything beyond the clothes that you were wearing and the sheriff took those."

"Are you sure?" Esposito piped up from behind them. "Because she was wearing them when she disappeared in New York."

Angela nodded again, her smile fading and a serious look taking up residence in its place. "I promise, Detective, Detective Beckett only had on ripped jeans and a torn white shirt when she was brought in here. She didn't even have a belt or shoes or anything."

Angela's eyes flicked over to Kate and her lips twisted up into a shy, hesitant wince of a smile. "You, um, you didn't even have a bra and underwear on, ma'am, that's why we ran all of the tests we did."

Kate reached out and rubbed the blushing girl on the shoulder. "It's okay, Angela. Don't worry. I'm fine."

Angela's face broke into a small, relieved, smile and she nodded, shifting slightly and pushing an invisible clump of hair behind her ear. "I'm sorry. It's my first week and this is harder than I was expecting it to be."

Castle smiled at the girl. "You've been doing great. Is there anything else your remember from when they brought Kate in? Did she say anything strange?"

No, Sir. We had to sedate her because she was agitated and she was seriously dehydrated, but that was it."

Kate let out a sigh and was about to pull Castle away, thanking the girl when Angela's face brightened. "Oh, but we did find hay in your hair. We thought that was a little weird since it was at least a mile to the nearest farm."

"Hay, really?" Castle physically perked up at the news and put a hand on Angela's head, ruffling her hair. "That is awesome. Thanks Angela."

The girl was beaming as the four of them turned towards the elevator; Castle pulling Kate along by the hand as the boys hurried on behind them.

"I know where you were." Castle exclaimed as the elevator doors shut in front of them. "Only one of those farms had horses."

Unknown Days Earlier

Kate's body was shaking, shivering uncontrollably, when her eye cracked open. The floor was cold and damp under her, the jagged edges of the concrete pressing little dented patterns into her naked hip.

Naked. She was naked. Oh God. No.

Her eyes shot open as she struggled up, scrambling back until her back was pressed against the wall, her legs clutched to her chest, ankles crossed, hiding as much of her nude body from sight as possible. A lock of bleach blonde hair fell into her face and her hand shot up to push it back behind her ear, palm sliding open against the side of her face as she did.

"Relax," a gruff voice came from her side and her head turned to find a man standing in the corner of the room holding a digital camera. "We only needed pictures. No need to damage the goods. The buyers want their merchandise untouched."

Kate stared up at him: tanned skin, shaved head. He had a tattoo on his muscular bicep, an intricate swirl of color and shapes. Her head swam as she tried to memorize it. His voice was low, gravely and had a thick southern accent to it, but it wasn't drawl, it was the tone of a southern gentleman. Kate snorted despite herself and the man ambled across the room. She closed her eyes as she tried to remember. He was wearing jeans and a white wifebeater, tan work boots on his feet. She had to remember.

"Make sure you put that icepack back on your shoulder, we wouldn't want you getting bruised. The small ones on your face should heal in time but anymore would be bad for sales." He called as the door slid open and he slipped out, the light shutting off behind him.

Kate stayed huddled in the corner for a few more minutes, shaking on the soggy mattress. Slowly she stretched a hand out, grabbing at the shirt and pants next to her, pulling them on as quickly as she could, her limp disoriented limbs repeatedly missing the holes. Her hands continued to quiver as she reached for the icepack, making to put it on her aching shoulder before she paused, holding it out in her hand.

They didn't want her bruised. They couldn't sell her that way.

Slowly she placed the icepack down on the mattress and pushed herself up the wall, wavering slightly until her legs could hold her on their own. She took a shaky step to the middle of the floor, sucking in a deep breath. There was a slight sliver of light sneaking in from under the door and she could see shadows of shapes around the room. Her foot hit the side of a cup on the floor and she reached down to grasp at it. It was plastic this time, but that was okay, she could work with plastic. She reached down and picked the cup off of the concrete, tipping the liquid out onto the floor. Some of it splashed onto the top of her foot and she wiped it against the leg of her pants, drying it. She placed the cup back down, laying it on its side, on the cement ground.

She wobbled slightly as she lifted one foot up and brought a hand to her head to steady her fuzzy brain. She stomped her foot down as hard as she could and hissed as the plastic cracked and slid into her skin. Kate bent over and picked up the thin, jagged piece of broken cup and held it against her forearm, taking in a deep breath as she jabbed the edge into her flesh, cutting down as hard as she could dragging it across her skin.

Tears began to slide down her cheeks and she lifted her shirt to press the plastic against her stomach, her muscles trembling as it cut into her flesh over and over.

She'd be damned if she made this easy for them.

With a whimper, she let the plastic slide from her fingers and balled her hand up into a fist. She closed her eyes as the muscles in her arm flexed and she swung it upwards connecting solidly with her cheekbone.

She cried out in pain despite herself and let her fist connect with her face once more, slicing open her lip.

The door flung open as the man and a woman came running into the room, light flooding the space along with them.

"You little bitch!" The man exclaimed as he reached out to grab her as he took in her bloody lip and swollen eye.

"Go to Hell," Kate growled out as her bloody arm came up to connect with his face and she sprung forward with all of her might, forcing her battered, tired, and broken body towards the wide open door. A hand reached out a grabbed at catching the collar of her t-shirt, tearing it as she forced herself to continue going, the fabric ripping as the hand fell away and she burst though a second door and into sunlight.

She sprinted across the open land, her head swimming, floating in a haze, as the sun beat down on her skin and she headed for the tree line in the distance. Her eyes caught a flash of red as her brain fleetingly registered a large red pick-up truck in the driveway. She stumbled over her own feet and she forced herself to continue breathing through her gummy mouth and dry throat. Just a little bit farther, she just had to get to the tree line.

Her feet connected with the ground, her ankles wobbling as she stumbled and pushed her self up off the ground with her hands, her body never losing its momentum. Colors whirled around her as the green grass floated up and the blue sky danced down, swirling under her feet. Bile rose in her throat.

Roots, needles and small stumps tore up her feet as she hurried through the brush, never pausing to look back behind her. She didn't know how long she had been running or how far. The trees had swum closer and farther away every time she had looked at them and her eyes felt heavy as she panted for breath.

Her body was forced still as she ran into a wire fence, the small barbs sinking into her palms as her fists closed around it in an attempt to steady herself.

She lifted her hands up and stared at the marred, bleeding flesh curiously. How had that happened?

Slowly, she lowered her head to look at the fence and took a step forward, forcing her body to stoop, sliding through the wires as the barbs dragged down her back, catching on the waist band of her pants, tearing into her skin. Her ankle rolled in the ditch and she pitched forward until she fell to the ground. Her body burned as the ants started to crawl over her, biting at her skin in retribution for disturbing their peaceful home.

Her eyes slid closed as a hysterical laugh left her lips. She wanted it gone. She felt like Dorothy, wishing to be home and to not have had any of this happen. She just wanted to forget.

She laid there, her body no longer strong enough to move away from the small creatures battering her ruined skin, her mind drifting into oblivion. Small welts began to form on her hands, arms, neck, face, stomach and back.

At least no one would want to buy her now.

A/N2: I did do a lot of research for this chapter, including messing around with Google Earth and getting layouts of the Jacksonville area and doing property searches. I tried to make it as realistic as possible. :)