Kidnapped Ch.4
'Welcome back to the land of the living, Detective Beckett,' a man grinned as she opened her eyes blearily.
'Let me go,' Kate commanded blearily, her voice weak and her mind still groggy with much-needed sleep. The man took a look at her and laughed.
'Forgive me, Detective, but I really don't think that you are in a position to argue or demand anything from us,' the man told her with an amused smile hovering on his lips. Kate fixed a glare on him.
'My friends will find me soon,' she told him confidently, but the man laughed yet again.
'Detective, detective, detective. Don't you know it yet? We know people everywhere. Your detective friends will never find you. The only way that you can help yourself is to tell us what is in that diary,' the man spat at her, any trace of a welcoming façade gone in a spilt second.
'I have no idea what diary you are talking about,' Kate told him coldly, and the man growled menacingly.
'You have a week, detective. If you don't tell us anything about the diary within this week, both your husband and your daughter will die,' he told her, his voice deadly calm and serious.
'Don't even think about putting a finger on either of them,' Kate told him angrily, struggling uselessly against the chains that bounded her to the wall. The man chuckled at her futile efforts.
'Forgive me for pointing out the obvious again, detective, but you are in no place to bargain with us. You have one week,' the man told her. He started to stride out of the room purposefully, but suddenly, he stopped.
'Maybe we should use some incentive to get the diary,' he mused as he turned to look at her, a gleam in his eyes. He walked out of the room and quickly returned with a tripod and a video camera. Setting the equipment up quickly, he sneered at Kate.
'I'm feeling generous today, detective, so I'm giving them a chance to see you,' he said as he switched on the recording device.
Clicking on another email, Ryan groaned. There had been dozens of incoming messages from people in the other precincts, all keen to know whether there had been any progress on Kate's case. Although the entire twelfth precinct was touched that other officers were also concerned about finding one of their own, it was very irritating to deal with all the emails that were hurled towards them. Ryan scanned the email quickly, expecting to see apologies and condolences from yet another officer, but as he read on, he sat up straighter and straighter. Noticing this, Esposito raised an eyebrow.
'Bro, since when are you so interested in emails from other officers? One of them a love letter?' Esposito made a small joke, and Ryan looked up.
'This is a video of Kate, and it was taken only an hour ago,' Ryan said slowly. Esposito bolted out of his chair and ran into the break room, where Castle was drinking his seventh cup of coffee that day.
Both of them raced back to Ryan's desk, and a stilled frame from the video was on the monitor. Kate's face stared up at them, silent and strong, and Castle's heart skipped a beat at her face. She was unnaturally pale, and was most certainly thinner, with her cheekbones more prominent than before.
Ryan pressed the 'play' button, and the picture of a man in a ski mask stood right in front of Kate. He started demanding to know where 'it' was, and got frustrated when Kate would not answer him. His slaps were clearly seen and heard in the video, and Castle balled his fists tightly, willing himself mentally not to smash the computer, as it would not help at all, and at the same time, trying to figure out what 'it' was.
None of them knew how long they stood there for, watching the video over and over again, hoping for a small clue to jump out of them, that would allow them to find Kate and take her home safely.
'I want to take this home,' Castle told them numbly after what could have been hours, and they both nodded without a single word. They knew that he needed to feel closer to her, and this was the only way that he could do so at the moment.
Replaying the short video yet again, Castle focused on yet another small part of the screen. That was when he finally noticed something. Kate's index finger was moving rhythmically, as if she was typing a message. Enlarging that part of the screen, he slowed the video down and watched it again. In slow motion, Kate's finger could be seen making long and short taps, looking distinctively like Morse code.
Looking at the video with utmost scrutiny, Castle carefully translated the signals onto paper letter by letter. After the whole video was over, he looked down at what he had written. At the sight of the sentence written there, Castle finally allowed the tears to slide down his cheek in the closed comfort of his own home. His whole body started to shudder as tears wracked through him. It was the first time since Kate was kidnapped that he allowed all those negative emotions to escape out of him.
Alexis was startled when she heard a strange sound coming from the living room. Rushing down the stairs, she found her father with his head in his hands on the sofa, sobbing uncontrollably. She walked over to him, concerned and nervous, unsure of what to do. She had never seen her father cry so hard, and she had no idea of what she could do to help him.
'What's wrong, dad?' Alexis asked gently, knowing why he was crying, but she had no idea what triggered his response.
'She… she was trying to tell me… Morse code…' Castle sobbed out, and unable to say anything more, he pointed to the piece of paper on which he had scrawled a sentence.
Pulling the piece of paper to her, she read what was on it, and looked at the sight of Kate in the video again, her eyes filled with hidden fear and desperation, as if she was almost giving up on ever escaping from the place again. Her heart twisted painfully, as she looked at the sentence once again. Throwing it back on the table, she turned away until she could no longer see the paper even out of the corner of her eye. The four words that her father translated sounded too much like goodbye.
I love you both.
A/N: No residential camp for me tonight, so I update on a Monday. Very fair, yes? Anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter, and I hope that it lives up to your expectations.
As usual, PLEASE REVIEW. I'm feeling a little down today, and there is nothing like an email notification telling you that you have received a review to cheer me up. Criticisms are much appreciated, but no flamers please.
This chapter is dedicated to Project66. She has just moved back to the States recently, and I am going to miss her terribly. Good luck with your studies over there, and I hope that you will have loads of fun!
A massive thank you to Bianca tabbycat for betaing this chapter for me.
And last but not least, a massive thank you to all of you that took the time to read/review/alert/favorite this story. You guys are the reason why I am keen to post regularly.
Zoe tabbycat