Kidnapped Ch.18
He put his head into his hands as he stifled a groan. Whatever had possessed him to do such a stupid thing? Why would he carve the name of his intended target right into another victim so that they would be prepared for him? At that moment, he could feel his sanity teetering on the edge, ready to come crashing down at the slightest trigger.
His gaze lingered on a photo that sat on his desk, and he gazed into the smiling face of Elizabeth. She loved fussing over him, and for a moment, a wave of guilt rushed over him, but he quickly pushed it aside. With his job, there was no room for any kind of remorse or hesitation.
He knew his detectives would be coming up soon, to 'inform' him of the tragic death of his personal assistant. Rubbing his palms together, he let out a deep, stressed sigh and sat up straight, starting yet again on his pile of paperwork. He kept one eye on the door as he waited for the detectives to appear.
'Kate, I know I'd asked you this before, but please let me take you to someplace far away, someplace that you will be safe. China? India? Hell, anywhere,' Castle implored.
'No matter where I go, Castle, I won't be safe. Not until Bracken is caught,' Kate answered, her eyes fixed on the photograph of her name on a dead body.
'We will get this sonofabitch, Kate,' Esposito promised, placing his hand around her shoulder.
'And… we found this,' Ryan added, holding out the pink diary, and began to fan. As Kate saw the words that were formed, she stood up immediately, snatched her phone, and speed-dialed a number.
'What –?' Castle started, but Kate smacked her hand over his mouth, effectively silencing him.
'Hey, Dad? Remember those scripts we were talking about? I think we need them now,' Kate said quickly, then waited as Jim said something on the other end of the phone.
'Yeah, it's important. I don't know how, I just know it is,' Kate insisted as Jim rattled something off.
'I'll meet you in an hour,' Kate told him. 'Love you, dad.'
'What was that all about?' Ryan asked curiously.
'I'm not quite sure about this, but if I'm right, those long strings of numbers in the diary is a message that my mom left me,' Kate told them.
Lanie stood over the dead body, a scalpel in her hand. She was ready to cut into the insides of a victim in order to help them speak for themselves, but unable to help herself, she kept staring at the word on the victim's abdomen.
She had often joked that if she saw Kate lying on her table, she would bring her back to life just to kill her again, but in truth, every single time that her assistants told her that there was a body waiting for her, she would have to take a moment just to reassure herself that the victim was not Kate, or Ryan, or Espo. And every time when she saw the victim, she would feel a rush of relief that it was not they who died.
She looked at the woman lying in front of her. There were crow's feet at the corners of her eyes, and Lanie could tell that the woman used to smile frequently. Her eyes darted over to the picture of the woman which was clipped to the top of the case file.
Her brown eyes were large and kind, and even though it was just a photo, her facial expression radiated a sort of maternal warmth around her.
Who could be so cruel as to kill off someone like that?
'We're very sorry for your lost, sir,' Esposito concluded as he stared into the face of the Chief of Detective, Michael Keys.
'She was a good person. Who would do this to her?' Michael asked, plastering a convincing distraught expression on his face.
'We don't know that yet, sir, but we are doing everything we can to find out,' Ryan answered him.
'Find him, detectives,' Michael commanded, though in his heart, he is mentally running through the checklist in his mind to make sure he had done everything he needed to so as not to get caught.
'We will, sir,' both Ryan and Esposito answered simultaneously.
Realizing that he had still not expressed concern for the leader of their team, he quickly stood up, and looked at both detectives sternly.
'Take good care of detective Beckett, is that understood? I do not want one of New York's finest detective to be gone just like that,' he told them, his voice full of authority.
'We will sir,' Esposito answered gravely. 'You can count on it.'
As the two detectives left the room, Michael exhaled deeply and slumped down on to his chair, a triumphant smile on his face.
Perhaps he had gone into the wrong business. Maybe he should have pursued a career in acting instead.
'Katie, what do you have in mind?' Jim Beckett asked as Kate rifled through the many boxes in the study, looking for the one thing she had in mind.
The room was covered with dust, as no one had stepped foot in this room ever since Johanna Beckett had died. Cobwebs covered many surfaces. In short, the room was in ghastly conditions.
'Remember the game that mom and I used to play? Where I pretend that we were spies, and I would make mom write me messages with this really complicated code from different books, the position of the word, and the position of the letter in the word?' Kate asked, as she pulled out a huge stack of papers and set it on the floor.
'I remember that,' Jim Beckett laughed, an amused smile on his face. 'We were trying to tell you that it was time for dinner, and boy, did that message take long to get through.'
'I found a diary with mom's handwriting, and a familiar looking bunch of numbers in them. When Ryan started fanning through the pages, the words 'Temptation Lane' showed up,' Kate answered, as she began to flick through the scripts her mother had written out for her.
'And you think…' Jim trailed off, looking expectantly at his daughter.
'Yep. I think this time, the book is the Temptation Lane script,' Kate announced.
A/N: How would I dare to leave it on a cliffhanger. I mean, I revealed the mole in this chapter –gasp- I really hope that you all like this chapter, and that the whole picture is starting to emerge.
As usual, PLEASE REVIEW. Criticisms are much appreciated, but no flamers please.
This is, yet again, dedicated to the patient Bianca tabbycat, for beta-ing for me.
And today is also Project66's birthday today, so a massive HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you. I hope that you are having a great birthday in the US.
Zoe tabbycat