Author's Note: I'd like to thank TORONTOSUN, southerngirl1, phnxgrl, Chkgun93, and MaineCastle for their reviews. We're starting this chapter where the last one left off, but from Alex's perspective. Enjoy!

Chapter 7

"They said it went straight to voicemail but we don't know how much longer that will last. Light a fire under I.T.'s chairs. We need to find Ryan before Cassy turns his phone back on."

Alex pulled the bug receiver from her ear and dialed Sloan's number. "Did you get that?"

"Yes, I did. I've pulled everything I could find on the Cassy brothers. They both have extensive rap sheets, though they never served much in the way of prison time prior to Shane's murder conviction."

"Do they own any properties or frequent any particular areas of town?"

"I've looked. Jeremy Cassy has an apartment that Shane would stay at, but the police have already searched that. No other properties in their names."

Alex paused to think. "What about places their friends own?"

"I'll start looking. Let me call you back when I've got something."

Alex hung up and put the receiver back in her ear. The call with Gates had ended, so she listened in on the processing of the scene. Kate was going from tech to tech, asking what they found. Alex took out her receiver after the fifth tech told Kate "Not much." She wasn't going to find out anything helpful from this angle.

Her phone rang a couple minutes later. "What'd you find?"

"Jeremy has a close friend who owns a warehouse in Manhattan. The friend is in Sing-Sing for aggravated assault. I hacked into the prison's visitor logs. Jeremy went to see him the day before yesterday."

"Was the visit recorded?"

"If it was, I couldn't find the recording."

"Text me the address; I'll check it out."

"If he's not there, there are a couple other properties you could check out."

Alex started the car. "Thanks, Link."

"Be careful."

Meanwhile…

Ryan groaned as he shifted his position. Last night his handcuffs had been shifted from behind him to in front of him and another pair was attaching those to the shelving he was leaning against. He looked around now that it was light; he was in what looked like a large warehouse space. The ceiling was probably two stories above them and the area to his right was wide open. In front and to the left of him was more shelving, though the configuration wasn't familiar to him, suggesting that this area was in flux from time to time. From where he sitting, he couldn't see any doors. Even if I were to get out of these restraints, I wouldn't know where to go.

Behind him, he could hear the sounds of a baseball game. It sounded like the Los Angeles Dodgers were up five to four against the San Francisco Giants. He's either watching whatever's on or he doesn't like local teams. A few minutes later, the channel changed to NASCAR, so Cassy was just watching whatever was on. Ryan shifted again, trying to get comfortable. At least he wasn't being tortured this time; Shane Cassy's brother seemed to be looking for a straight up exchange.

The problem with Cassy's plan was no cop would release a convicted murderer to rescue a cop. Beckett and Esposito would be busy trying to figure out who had taken him and where he was being held. Oh sure, they'd tell Cassy his brother's release papers were being worked on, but they wouldn't go through with it.

It sounded like Cassy had just called someone. "Hey, what's going on down there?" Ryan couldn't hear what the other guy was saying, so he focused on figuring out what the conversation was about from just Cassy's responses. "I thought they might; that's why I set it up. Have you heard anything about my brother?" There was a short pause. "I see. No, don't try to get any closer. It's not worth you getting locked up. Call me at this number if something changes. I'm keeping mine off so they can't track it."

From the sound of it, Beckett and Esposito had fallen for something Cassy set up to test what his friends would do. It made sense that Cassy wouldn't trust his partners to blindly follow orders. No doubt he had a rap sheet to match his brother's; he had the look of a hardened criminal. There was plenty of prison ink mixed in with the professional. At least now he knew Cassy wasn't working alone; it sounded like one of his Aryan brothers was keeping some sort of eye on the rescue efforts.

Ryan sighed. Jenny must be worried sick. He vaguely remembered seeing her in the living room before his head was rudely introduced to the doorway and then his own gun. He prayed that Cassy had left his wife and daughters alone. If not, that bastard wasn't going to prison; Ryan would make sure Cassey had an "accident" long before he saw an orange jumpsuit and set of bars again.

Meanwhile...

Beckett walked out of the abandoned community center to find Jenny standing with a uniform outside. "Is he here? I came over when Gates called and said you might have him soon."

Beckett sighed. "I'm sorry, Jenny. Apparently, his kidnapper was clever enough to divert his cell signal here. I promise, we're doing everything we can to find him."

Jenny's shoulders dropped with disappointment. "Where is he, Kate? What's happening to him?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. Just remember, he's going to be fine. His abductor needs to keep Ryan alive to get his brother out of jail."

"I know. I just… I hate this, Kate. I don't want to lose him."

"You won't. I won't let him die." Beckett gestured to the officer. "This officer is going to take you back to your hotel. I promise as soon as we find him, I'll have him call you."

"Thank you."

Castle waited until Jenny was in the cop car to break his silence. "What happens when Cassy finds out his brother's dead? Will he keep Ryan alive to get a friend released instead?"

"I don't even want to think about that outcome, but I doubt he'd keep Ryan alive for a friend. He went through a lot of trouble for his brother."

"Exactly; it was a lot of trouble. Maybe he'll want to capitalize on that effort."

"No, this is all about the brother. He'll just cut his losses and try to skip town."

Castle looked mischievous. "Who's discounting possibilities now?"

She shot him an annoyed look, but ignored his comment. "Let's get back to the precinct and see what we can dig up on Jeremy Cassy. There has to be something we can find that will lead us straight to Ryan."

They got back into the car and headed for the precinct. Beckett was tense. Ryan was no longer safe now that Cassy's brother was dead. At any minute, Jeremy Cassy could turn on his phone, find the voicemail left by the prison and discover that the person he was trying to free was dead. Ryan was only alive as long as Cassy didn't turn on his phone. Unless…

She had an idea and speed dialed Gates. "Captain, is there any chance we could have the prison call Cassy and leave another message?"

"What kind of message?"

"Have them apologize and say they mis-identified the prisoner who was killed. Have them say they switched two numbers of the prisoner's I.D. number and the wrong name came up."

"I'll call and see if they'll do it. They might not."

"A cop's life is at stake. At any minute Cassy could turn his phone back on; we need to do something to buy Ryan some time."

"I'll see if I can't stress the importance of that phone call."

"Thank you, sir."

Castle nodded as she hung up. "That's a good plan. He'll want to call someone he knows on the inside to check. That'll buy some time and maybe give us a chance to track his phone."

"That's the idea." She pulled into a spot near the precinct. "In the meantime, let's find something we can use."

Meanwhile...

Alex parked the car a block away from the address Sloan had given her and walked the rest of the way. The warehouse was sandwiched between two taller buildings. From the front, the only way in was through a large rolling door which was locked with a padlock from the outside. Either Cassy's out or there's another entrance. Alex circled to the back of the building and found a back door.

She pulled on a pair of gloves, knelt in front of the door, and pulled out her lock pick set. Half a minute later she was in. Alex opened the door as quietly as she could and stepped inside. The floor was covered in dust and there were no footprints. A quick search of the area confirmed her suspicions; Ryan wasn't here.

She pulled out her phone. "Ryan's not here."

Sloan sounded surprised. "He's not? But that was the most logical place."

"This friend Cassy went to visit, does he have any other properties in his name?"

"No."

"What about family owned properties?"

"No, Cassy's family doesn't have anything besides that apartment."

"I meant the friend's family."

"Let me see." Alex heard keyboard keys tapping rapidly through the phone. "Actually, yes. The friend's grandfather owns an old warehouse on the island. The grandfather is in an assisted living facility upstate now, so the grandson has full access."

"And it's a place that wouldn't show up immediately on a records search when the cops go looking. Text me the address."

"You got it."

Meanwhile...

Beckett wolfed down her lunch while sorting through a search on all of Jeremy and Shane Cassy's known associates. She compiled a list of the names who owned property and started on making a list of the addresses. Esposito was sending uniforms to those addresses and having them do a drive by to see if any of those locations were plausible places to hide Ryan.

As the hours ticked on, address after address was crossed off the list. Too many were active businesses or inconvenient because of the high levels of foot traffic in the area. At this rate, they were going to have to start adding abandoned buildings to their list. Beckett checked her watch again. It's almost five.

Esposito's phone rang. "Detective Esposito, Homicide."

It was one of the uniforms they'd sent out. "Sir, we have a possible location."

He grabbed the list. "Give it to me." His eyes scanned the list as the uniform rattled the location off. "Got it. Stay in the area but out of sight; we don't want to spook him."

"Yes, sir."

He hung up. "We got a hit. Place belongs to one of Jeremy's friends, a Garrett Smith."

Gates came out of her office. "That matches something I found. Jeremy visited Smith the day before Ryan was taken."

Castle turned to Beckett. "He was getting access to the warehouse."

Beckett nodded. "Let's go."

Gates turned to go back to her office. "Set up a stakeout; I'll get you the warrant. Bring him home."

Beckett, Castle and Esposito had been sitting outside the warehouse for half an hour when Gates finally arrived with the warrant. Castle stayed with the car, Esposito joined a group of uniforms at the front rolling door and Beckett and Gates circled around to cover the back. Beckett slowed as the back door came into view, trying to muffle the sounds of her footsteps in this dirty alley. She took her position next to the door and counted to three before trying the doorknob. To her surprise, it turned easily.

Gates noticed. "That's not a good sign."

Beckett shook her head. "No, it's not."

Gates raised her gun, ready to enter. "Ready?"

Beckett nodded. "On three?"

Gates nodded. "One."

"Two."

"Three."

Beckett flung the door open. "NYPD!"

A/N: And... another cliffhanger. Leave a message with your predictions or just to say hi :). Thanks for reading and reviewing.