943. Chapter 943

After A Deadly Game

Episode 2.24

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I have yet to own Castle. Rating: M Time: See above.

Chapter Two.

"Have we gotten anything?"

"We got the owner of the car from the Jersey DMV. The registered owner is a Grace Kelly, lives in Northern New Jersey. But according to the DMV, she's 87 years old. Not sounding much like a professional crook. Or Princess Grace."

"She could have lent the car to a friend or relative. Check her for wants and warrants and…"

"Already did. She's clean. No criminal record at all and nothing in known associates."

She nodded. "You stay here. You're better at dealing with the FBI and their BS. I'll take Ryan and go to New Jersey."

Mrs. Kelly looked every bit of her 87 years, and was of little help. They sat in her living room, drinking coffee.

"Oh, I don't own the car anymore, dear." She said to Kate. "I sold it a week ago to a very nice young man. A Mr. John Jones. He's a very nice young man. I do hope he's not in any trouble."

Not wanting to upset Mrs. Kelly, Kate just said the car had been badly damaged. "You signed over the pink slip to Mr. Jones?"

She nodded. "Yes, dear. And he was so kind. He said he'd handle all of the paperwork for me. I'm getting a bit old, you know."

"Did he pay by check?" Ryan asked.

"No, dear. He paid with nice new one hundred dollar bills. He paid four thousand dollars for the car which was more than I ever thought I'd get for it, but he said it was exactly what he was looking for. He even drove me to the bank so I could deposit the money."

"Did he go inside with you?" Kate asked, hoping he'd been picked up on the banks security cameras.

"Oh, no, dear. He waited in the car and then he took me home. He's such a nice young man."

"Can you describe Mr. Jones?" Kate asked.

"Oh, dear. My eyesight isn't so good and I'd misplaced my glasses. He's….Um, taller than I am." Since Mrs. Kelly was all of five feet nothing, that was of little help. "And I think he had dark hair. And he's a very, nice young man."

Driving back to Manhattan Ryan made a suggestion. "Should we send out a BOLO for a very nice young man?" He got a glare from Beckett.

They arrived back at the 12th Precinct just minutes ahead of the FBI.

Special Agent Charles Fox was exactly what the Bureau wished all of its agents looked like. He was in his early thirties, good looking, had short brown hair and was clean shaven. He wore the FBI agent's uniform of blue suit, a crisp white shirt and a red tie. He gave off an air of competence that Beckett felt was more like arrogance. His partner was Special Agent Lisa Torres, who in spite of her Hispanic surname was deathly pale and prematurely white haired, appearing to be in her forties. She also dressed in the appropriate uniform, but gave off an aura of having seen too many hot shot agents like Fox before.

"I'm sorry we're so late." Fox apologized without sounding apologetic. "We had some communication issues. Special Agent Calvert was working out of the Boston office. In fact, the Boston folks were sure he was fishing at a cabin his family owns in New Hampshire. They even pinged his personal and work cell phones as being there. They insisted on having the locals check the place out. All they found were the phones, of course." Fox managed to sound like the New York office would never stoop to using locals and wouldn't have been fooled by where his cell phones were.

"We've already set up a unit at Castle's residence and we'll be in position to handle the ransom demand when it comes."

"You're positive that this is a kidnapping for ransom, then?' Montgomery asked.

Fox seemed nonplussed by the question. "Why else would he be kidnapped?"

"Mr. Castle has been working with the NYPD as an unofficial consultant and has worked cases involving organized crime. What exactly did Special Agent Calvert do exactly?"

"My understanding was that Mr. Castle was writing some kind of a book about an NYPD detective." He looked at Beckett as if he couldn't quite accept that someone would write a book about a local policewoman as opposed to writing about a male FBI agent.

"Mr. Castle was involved in the apprehension of a killer who was trying to kill a Federal witness, Jimmy, "The Rat", Moran."

Fox looked pained. "That involvement almost got Moran and a Federal Agent killed. I see no reason to think that the Castle kidnapping is for any reason other than ransom."

Montgomery smiled. "Still, it is odd that a FBI agent who's supposed to be off fishing in New Hampshire turns up in New York at the scene of a well organized kidnapping, isn't it?"

The conversation was interrupted by Fox's phone. He went some ways away to answer it. When he came back, he had a puzzled look on his face. "That's odd. We contacted every airfield within a thousand miles of Teterboro to be on the lookout for the plane Castle was taken in. TSA has informed us that the plane never landed at any of them."

"Do you think it crashed?" Kate asked, beginning to feel sick.

"There are abandoned airfields they could have used." Espo spoke up. "They could have had a truck meet them with fuel and gone another nine hundred miles."

"A good pilot could have landed on a deserted stretch of road, pushed the plane into some trees and taken off by car." Ryan added.

Montgomery spoke. "It's getting along towards summer. The ground is nice and dry and hard. They could have landed in a field somewhere and either refueled, changed planes or taken a car."

Fox shook his head. "The plane is not important. The kidnappers will have to contact the Castle family and that's how I'll get them." He said testily. "Normally, we'd run this from FBI headquarters, but since the crime scene and the witnesses are here, the Special Agent-in-Charge has told me to set up here. Where's my office?"

Montgomery directed him to an unused office and then took Kate into his own office and closed the door. "I think we should think about the possibility that Castle's kidnapping may be for something other than ransom. Contact the NYPD's organized crime unit and see if the Spolanos are mad enough at Castle to take a run at him. Then drop by and see Martha and Alexis. Warn them that the FBI Super Agent is on the case."

Beckett smiled. "Yes, sir."

The Organized Crime Task Force was of little help. "To tell you the truth, Detective," Detective Brunson told Kate, "the Spolanos are running scared. But they'd try something with Moran or Carla Dante who can really hurt them. There's rumors that other people in the Spolano organization are looking to cut deals while there are still deals to be made. I'd say grabbing a writer who was marginally involved in the case would be pretty unlikely. To tell the truth, they'd be more likely to go after you if they just wanted revenge. But they don't want revenge right now. They want to stay out of jail. But, I'll shake a few trees and see if anything falls out. I'll call you if it does."

When Kate got back to the precinct, she briefed Captain Montgomery and then took a peek at the office Fox was using. He had his laptop set up and was on the phone. From the look on his face, he wasn't happy with the conversation. He's probably upset at being stuck with the NYPD rather than back at the FBI building. She did notice that his partner was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Torres?' She asked Ryan.

The Irish detective shrugged. "I have no idea. Fox sent her out of here about two minutes after you left. Probably wants some red power suspenders in case he has to take his coat off. You find out anything?"

She shook her head. "It's probably not the Spolanos, but I'm going to look through the files to see if anyone else might have grabbed Castle.

The longer the day wore on, the more Kate had to work to keep her mind on the work she was doing and not on the man who was missing.

"Beckett." Montgomery said. "Time to go home. Get some sleep."

"Sir, I just want to go over some of the files on cases Castle's worked with us to see…."

"Go home." Montgomery repeated. "I've seen this happen and so have you. Something important happens and everyone wants to work flat out until the case is solved. And as the case goes on and on, people get tired and tired people make mistakes. Go home. That's an order."

She nodded. "I thought I'd stop by Castle's loft and see how Martha and Alexis are doing."

Montgomery thought about it. "Okay. But don't stay too long."

When Kate knocked on the door, it was answered by an FBI agent. They were set up to record and trace the phone call for Castle's ransom when it came. If it came. Beckett thought, still not convinced this was a kidnapping for ransom, but she couldn't think of any other reason to grab Castle, either.

"Katherine, come in, dear." Martha hugged her and drew her into the kitchen. "Alexis and I were just about to eat. Oh, don't worry, I didn't cook tonight. We ordered Chinese. The FBI did their own ordering."

"Thank you, Martha, but I really couldn't. I just came by to…."

"Nonsense, Katherine. What have you eaten today?"

Kate wasn't about to tell the older redhead that she'd had a bear claw for breakfast and a sandwich from the machine in the breakroom for lunch. "Thank you. I appreciate it."

As usual, the food was both excellent and there was a lot of it. Kate realized she was hungry when she realized she had wolfed down a plate of food and had begun filling her plate again.

As Kate started in on a pot sticker, Alexis couldn't wait any longer. "Detective Beckett, why haven't they called about Dad?"

Beckett thought for a second and tried to school her face to give Alexis all the hope she could. "Normally, kidnappers will call as soon as they can. That gives the authorities less time to get ready for them. It also cuts down on the chances of something going wrong."

Alexis started to say something, but decided she didn't want to know what could go wrong.

Beckett went on. "The men who took your father took him away in a plane. It looks very much like a professional kidnapping, so I think they wanted to get your father as far away from New York as they could, perhaps even out of the country. They may hold your father in one place, make their demands from another and arrange the ransom from a third place. But I really don't know. "

Alexis went back to eating, but looking like she was going to cry.

"Alexis, we're doing everything we can to bring your dad home safely. I'm doing everything I can to bring him home to you." And to me. She added silently.

Once back home, Kate went to bed, but spent a long time staring at the ceiling and wondering if allowing Castle to become such an integral part of her team had been a good idea. If all Castle had done was observe from a distance, perhaps he wouldn't have been kidnapped. Kate smiled at the thought of how difficult it had been to keep Castle from jumping into the middle of her investigations. She finally fell asleep wondering where Castle was.