Author's Note: I'd like to thank MaineCastle, southerngirl1, phnxgrl, Chkgun93, and TORONTOSUN for their reviews. MaineCastle: just to clarify, the footage was of the murder Shane Cassy committed while Beckett was out on bereavement leave. Shane Cassy is the person Ryan's abductor wants to get out of jail. Hope that clears things up a bit. We're starting this chapter a few hours after the last one ended. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Just to warn you in advance, toward the end there will be some things that a character says that might be offensive to some readers. These are the beliefs/opinions of the character only and not my own personal beliefs and opinions.

Chapter 5

Beckett was on her fourth cup of coffee by the time the sun started peaking in the windows of the precinct. She rubbed her eyes and stretched, feeling as though her eyes were going cross-eyed from staring at the computer. Too many perps had matched Jenny's vague description, so she'd started to coordinate with Esposito to see if Shane's known associates matched the description. In all, they'd identified fifteen who had the height and build, but only three had the number of tattoos.

"My money's on the brother, Jeremy. Anyone in the Aryan Brotherhood could do this, but he strikes me as the only one that would." Esposito moved Jeremy's picture to the top of the deck they'd printed out.

Beckett nodded. "Let's have Jenny make the I.D. before we make that call. Put his picture toward the middle. I don't want to be accused of leading when this goes to trial."

The elevator opened and Castle came in with a cup holder of coffees, a large bag of takeout containers, and a smaller bag. "I brought breakfast." Beckett smiled as he set up shop on the desk across from her and started handing out the boxes. "They're all the same, but I've got salsas and syrups to customize your pancakes and eggs to your heart's content. And I've got creamers and sugar for the coffee too, so dig in."

Gates had come out of her office. "What do we have here?"

Castle handed her one of the takeout boxes. "Pancakes, eggs, and coffee. There's salsa, syrups and creamers in the bag. Help yourself."

"Oh, you are a godsend."

"I do what I can. Now, how can I help?"

"We're waiting on a phone call from Ryan's abductor to see exactly what he wants. Until then, we started talking with the prison to see about transferring Shane to our holding cell. And we need to talk to Jenny; see if she recognizes anyone in our list of suspects." Beckett took a bite of eggs.

Castle sat down and dumped some salsa on his eggs. "She told me her mother was arriving at nine. She'll be available after that."

Beckett's cellphone started to ring. She glanced down at the screen, and then signaled Esposito to start a trace. He grabbed his phone and dialed a number, speaking quietly as Beckett answered. "Beckett."

"Where are you on releasing Shane Cassy?"

"We're working with the prison to transfer him to our precinct right now, but it'll take a while. Judges aren't usually at the courthouses until nine, so it's going to take some time for the release paperwork to go through."

Voice Change didn't sound happy. "How long?"

Beckett decided to stall, trying to let the trace do its job. "Well, that all depends…"

"Do you care for your colleague or not?"

"Of course I care."

"You have until tomorrow morning, 9am. If Shane Cassy's not out by then, your friend will get it."

The line went dead. "Did we get it?"

Esposito shook his head. "Needed a few more seconds."

Gates set down her fork and grabbed her coffee to take them to her office. "I'll get to work on the transfer."

Esposito was shocked. "We're actually going to release this guy, Captain?"

"Of course not. But we've already said we were working on transferring him here. This man may call again, and when he does, I want Shane Cassy here and available to talk to. That'll keep this guy from getting suspicious and hopefully stop him from killing Ryan before the deadline."

Beckett glanced at her watch. "We have about 24 hours to rescue Ryan. Castle and I'll work with Jenny. If she can identify Ryan's attacker, we can start working on tracking him down."

Castle set down his fork. "He's using Ryan's phone. Can't we just track that?"

Esposito shook his head. "Tried that. He's smart enough to turn the phone off when he's done with a call. Tory's going to keep trying though."

"Good, keep on that. Let's go, Castle."

They got to the hotel room just before nine. Jenny let them in and took a seat on the couch. Beckett sat next to her and Castle started to play with the girls. For a few minutes, the women watched Castle and the girls in silence. Sarah Grace was almost two and wanted Castle to swing her around, but Cathleen Alexandra was currently crawling around on Castle's lap, so he couldn't stand up.

Jenny sighed, breaking the silence. "They don't know what's going on. I told Sarah that Daddy was still at work. What if he doesn't come home?"

"Don't think like that Jenny. We're working really hard to find him."

"I know you are." She sniffed. "I'm scared Kate. This is like when Sarah was born and Kevin was trapped in that building. I can't do that again." Sarah looked up at her mom at the sound of her name and then Castle distracted her with a teddy bear.

Beckett smiled. "They seem to like him."

Jenny nodded. "He's so good with them."

"His experience with Alexis prepared him for that. When does your mom get here?"

"Any minute now." There was a knock on the door. "That must be her."

Jenny got up and opened the door. Introductions were made and the group helped get the girls into Jenny's mother's car. Jenny and her mom had a conversation by the car before they hugged and the car was driven away. Beckett had to turn away during the conversation because watching was making her sad. Her mother and father would never get to hold her kids or take them to the cabin for a weekend. Castle pulled her into his arms and held her close, letting her know without saying anything that he understood.

They returned to the room before Jenny spoke. "You had something to show me, right?"

"Yes," Beckett spread out the stack of photos, "does anyone look familiar to you?"

"That's him." Jenny picked up the photo of Shane's brother, Jeremy. "That's the guy who took Kevin. Who is he?"

"Jeremy Cassy. He's the older brother of Shane Cassy."

"He wants his brother released or Kevin dies?" Beckett nodded and Jenny glanced between Beckett and Castle. "So do it."

"It's not that easy…"

"Why not? Kevin will die if you don't. Why can't you?"

"Shane Cassy murdered a man. It was caught on tape. We can't release a convicted murderer." Beckett paused to remain calm. "I understand what you're feeling, Jenny, I do. Kevin is our friend and I want to bring him home safely."

"Is this the part where you tell me you're doing everything in your power to get him back?" Jenny was getting angry. "Saying that doesn't do anything; you know that, right?"

"If there's one thing I know about Kate, it's that when she says she'll do everything in her power, she means that she will do everything in her power." Castle sat down across from Jenny. "Where other cops say those sorts of things because it sounds good or makes them look good, Kate makes a promise."

"Jenny, I care about Kevin too. He's my partner and my friend. I promise you; we will get him back."

Jenny sniffed, her anger dissolving into fear and worry again. "I know. I'm just scared, Kate. I don't want to lose him."

"You won't."

"How do you know?"

"Because I'm not going to let that happen."

10 Minutes Later…

"Thanks."

Castle turned toward her in his seat. "For what?"

Beckett didn't take her eyes off the road. "For stepping in when Jenny started getting angry. I'm not handling this very well and her going off on me like that… I was about to walk out or start yelling at her. So, thank you."

"Hey, don't worry about it. I've always got your back. I could tell something was off. You looked like you were drowning; I couldn't just sit there and let you take the brunt of it. I gotta ask though, what's going on?"

They'd come to a stop light and Beckett sighed. "I think I may have tried to come back too soon. Dad's death is still very raw. After my mom died, I had some time between her death and when I joined the force. With Montgomery, I was out for months because I'd been shot."

Castle nodded. "But this time it's only been a month."

"Exactly. Gates suggested that I should take some more time. Maybe I should have listened."

"Ryan needs you right now. When we get him back, then you can consider taking more time. Right now though, he needs you."

The light turned green. "You're right. I gotta focus."

The rest of the way back to the precinct, they ran what they knew. At the moment they didn't have much to go on, but it was a start. Jenny's I.D. placed Shane Cassy's brother Jeremy at the top of the suspect list, which made the most sense. Shane and Jeremy both had ties to the Aryan Brotherhood, so anyone in the brotherhood might try to get Shane out by kidnapping a cop, but the attack that Jenny had described seemed a little too personal to be just anyone in the Brotherhood. If the evidence CSU had collected corroborated the I.D., then Jeremy would become the prime suspect. After talking things through with Castle, Beckett was starting to feel more focused and was in control of her emotions for now. They arrived at the precinct, parked, and went inside to update the board and Gates.

Gates pointed to a still on the board after their report. "Jenny's I.D. matches up to something I found. I've been through all the footage we could get from around the Ryans's building. I never saw Ryan being brought out of the building, but I did see this car moving very quickly out of the area. It seemed suspicious, so I ran the plate. That's Jeremy Cassy's car."

"So Jeremy Cassy is definitely our guy." Beckett put his photo up on the board. "What do we know about him?"

"White supremacist, multiple assault charges, suspect in a rape case." Gates gestured to Esposito. "He's been looking into Shane a little more; seeing if there was something we could use to have him cooperate."

"Where are we on the transfer?"

"Waiting for a judge to approve it. I'm working on it."

"Thank you, sir."

She nodded. "Let's bring him home, Detective."

Beckett headed to Esposito. "What have you found?"

"Nothing we can use. This guy is a piece of work; listen to him."

He turned up the volume on the video of Shane testifying at his trial. "Why did you plead 'not guilty' when you were clearly caught on camera killing Mr. White?"

"Why? Because I'm being charged with the wrong crime."

"I don't follow."

"I'm being charged with First Degree Murder. That charge only applies to human beings. 'Mr. White'," Shane made the bunny ears sign as he said the victim's name, "wasn't a human. He's a monkey. If you were to charge me with animal cruelty or something like that, I'll plead guilty."

Esposito stopped the video. "It doesn't get any better."

Castle was shaking his head. "I don't understand how some people can think like that."

"This world is full of things that don't make sense. Believe me, that's mild compared to some of the things I've had to deal with over my career." Beckett folded her arms. "So Shane's not going to help us."

"Unlikely. I'll keep looking."

"No, start looking into the Cassy family. Look for properties, land, storage units; if they have any places you could hide someone, I want to know about it." Her desk phone started to ring. "Be ready to trace this if it's the kidnapper."

"On it." Esposito picked up a folder. "Oh, CSU report on the handcuffs came back. Cassy handled them."

"Good to know we can place him at the scene without Jenny's I.D." Beckett returned to her desk to pick up the phone. "Beckett."

A/N: Just a recap of the disclaimer above: I do not in any way agree with the comments Shane Cassy made in the footage from his trial. That is the opinion and/or belief of the character only. Please keep that in mind as we move forward because there will be more of that as we continue. Leave a review below, I'd love to hear your theories about what's going to happen. Thanks!