"Come in," he answers.
She steps into the apartment, closing the door behind her. She never takes her eyes off the baby in her arms. He says nothing, he just braces for her reaction.
"Dad?"
"Hm?"
"The baby?"
He looks down at the little girl in his arms. "She's..." he struggles with how to tell her.
"Abigail?"
His eyes fall on his oldest daughter. He looks at her in confusion, and dismay. "How do you know her name?"
"I know a lot of things," she answers.
"But..."
"She looks just like Kate," Alexis adds.
"Yeah," he agrees.
"A little girl with Kate's features? Why are you so surprised that I know who she is?"
"I see what's going on here. Your grandmother called you, and told you want was going on. You were only feigning surprise."
"No she didn't tell me anything. I wasn't feigning anything."
"So how do you know her name?"
"It was a discussion that Kate and I had once, when you weren't around."
"Oh."
"Dad, where is Beckett?"
"Alexis I don't know."
"How can you not know? The baby is right there."
"She left her on the doorstep, with the morning newspaper."
"She wouldn't," Alexis shakes her head in disbelief.
"I agree. Something is wrong. Ryan, and Esposito are trying to find her."
"Did you read the paper?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Are you sure there wasn't a message in it?"
"A message?"
Her eyes light up, "The crossword."
He furrows his brow, "What are you talking about? Do you know something that I don't?"
"I know that everything about this situation is absolutely wrong. Did you know that she was pregnant?"
"No."
"She didn't tell you?"
"She didn't know until after she left."
"And she didn't try to tell you? Dad I have to agree with you, something is very wrong. She would never keep something like this from you. She would never just leave her child on a doorstep."
"And you honestly think that the answer is in the crossword?"
"I think that it is worth a try," she suggests.
"Okay," he agrees, heading to the kitchen. He holds Abigail in one arm, and uses his free hand to search the newspaper. He turns to the crossword. There are words written in blue ink inside the puzzle.
"Why would she try to leave me a message like this? Why wouldn't she just write whatever needed to be said in the letter that she wrote?"
"Maybe she couldn't. Maybe someone was watching her."
Castle cross references the answers with the clues.
"None of these answers are correct."
"Read them to me," she grabs a section of the newspaper, and a nearby ink pen.
"Lake, Seville, Rogue, Armory, Two, Kenton, Edwin."
She finishes scribbling the clues, and looks up at him in disbelief, "Do you have any idea what this means?"
"I could come up with a completely outlandish theory, but I am exhausted, and anything I could say would just be a guess."
"Dad keep it simple."
"A house by a lake. A..."
She cuts him off, trying to keep him from going down a rabbit hole, "No, simplify it."
"Alexis just tell me what it is that I am supposed to be seeing?"
"If you rearrange the letters at the beginning of each word it spells stalker."
"Someone is following her?"
"Are you sure that she didn't write any other clues?"
He shrugs, "I apologize, but I was quite distracted this morning, when I was attempting to read the paper."
The baby begins to whimper as Alexis searches the rest of the paper.
"I'll be back," Castle excuses himself. He returns a few moments later after changing the baby's diaper. He finds Alexis standing in front of the counter, staring at her own handwriting in the margin of the newspaper.
"Did you find something else?"
"There were letters underlined in the horoscopes. I think it is supposed to spell out prisoner," she reveals.
Before he can comment his phone begins to ring. He glances at the sleeping baby in his arms, and then to Alexis. She nods subtly, and slips the newborn from his arms. He ducks into his office, closing the door behind him.
"Ryan what did you find out at the hospital?"
"Beckett wasn't here alone. There was a man with her. According to the nurse the man went out for a smoke just after three this morning. He told her that he was the father. When he returned to the room Kate had taken the baby, and left."
"She was being followed," Castle adds.
"That is what thought, too. How did you know?"
"She left clues in the newspaper. The first letter of the words she wrote in the crossword puzzle spelled out stalker. Then she underlined letters in the horoscopes, it spelled prisoner."
"What did she write in the crossword?" Ryan questions.
"Lake, Seville..."
Ryan cuts him off, "Seville? Are you sure?"
"Yes, why? Is it significant?"
"The cameras in the parking lot only cover half the lot, but it does cover all the exits. Just after the man with Beckett leaves the hospital a black Seville is one of the cars leaving the lot."
