136. Chapter 136

Chapter 136

John walked Kate and Rick to the door. Jamie was sleeping later than usual, and John was encouraging them to go and let him sleep. "I'll hear him and go right up when he wakes up. He and I get along just fine. Kate has to go. Not much choice. And, Son, if the FBI thinks they want your input, go help them get these people locked up. I'm damn proud of both of you."

"Thanks, John. We both appreciate this," Kate told him.

"The younger reinforcements will be in later. Don't worry about a thing."

As they left the building, Kate said, "To have started with such a tiny little family, we have a lot of good backup."

Rick swung his arm around her shoulders while they walked to the car and answered, "I guess adopting extra family members pays off."

When they went to check in with the FBI, Jordan greeted them with, "Castle, I don't know who your guy is, but I hope you thanked him properly. We're running background on Ricci now. The address of the same house has come in from two more cab companies, which means all five New York City kidnappings are accounted for. Ownership of the house looks like a shell company. We're also trying to trace that back."

"Has he been seen at the house yet?" Castle asked.

"Not yet. He may have moved on to another city. We have a search warrant ready for the house, but I hate to serve it and give ourselves away when there's still a chance for an arrest. We have people in the building across the street, and they haven't seen any action at all yet. As long as nothing is going on, I'm giving it another day before we go in and make ourselves obvious."

"I need to spend about an hour on precinct business," Beckett told her. And the brass has the captains at a meeting this afternoon at one-thirty. Those usually run a couple of hours. In between, I'm all yours."

"But you have me all day," Castle chimed in. "Lucky you. Where's Avery?"

"Getting some sleep. He'll be back mid-afternoon, and I'll get some rest then."

"What can I do?" he asked.

"We're printing out everything we can find on Francesco Ricci. All of you know what you're looking for…finances, known associates, travel, anything else you can think of. When Ryan and Esposito get here, the three of you can start sifting through that. See if you find something that correlates to anything we already have."

"Then I guess we can get started," Ryan said as he and Esposito walked in.

One of the techs lifted a substantial sheaf of paper from the printer and put it on the table where the boys had been working the day before.

"It's been translated from the Italian. We're still printing," she said with a teasing smile. "Looks like this guy was a busy boy,"

"You're kidding. There's half a tree's worth on the table already," Esposito grumbled.

Castle divided the stack into thirds, and all of them started reading.

About the time Beckett returned, one of the younger agents took a phone call and suddenly said, "I need to put you on hold for a minute." Turning to Jordan, he looked perplexed. "Agent Shaw? I thought you said that all the New York City kidnappings were accounted for."

"They were."

"Well, we have a cab company calling with another one."

"Give me the phone." The young man handed her the phone, and Jordan took the information. "And what time was this?" She listened again and said, "We're going to need to speak to that driver. Just give me his phone number and we'll take it from there. Thank you for your help, Mr. Goldman." She put the phone down and said, "Shit! It's a different address. Ricci is still working. Eilenberg, take that signed warrant for the first address. Schmidt and Perry will meet you at the house with CSU. Search every inch of it. I'll relocate the surveillance team to the new address. Anna, start a search for ownership on this second address. We know he took at least one woman there yesterday afternoon, and judging from his last kidnapping spree, there will be others. Taborsky, fill out a search warrant for the new address and take it to the judge for a signature. We know at least two women were taken there. And we need an arrest warrant for Ricci while you're at it. The man is too arrogant…enough to take them in the middle of the day and use public transportation to move them. Sooner or later he's going to make a mistake.

About an hour later, a driver who had been out sick for a couple of days saw the FBI notice at work and reported to his boss that the day before he was out, he had taken a man and woman home. All the particulars of the situation fit the pattern, and the company verified that the drop-off was at the new address.

Jordan put a hand to her forehead in frustration with a quick sigh. "We need to find him. "

Within half an hour, an alert cab driver spotted Ricci trying to hail a cab and called his boss to ask if he should pick him up. The owner called the FBI contact number and was told to have the driver pick Ricci up and report in as soon as he dropped him off. Give me your driver's present location, and I'll have people moving in that direction now." She listened again and said, "Yes, Ms. Lipton, that would be a godsend. Thank you."

Beckett asked, speculatively, "Agent Shaw, Are you in the mood for good coffee?"

"What are you thinking, Beckett?"

"I'm thinking there's going to be a coffee shop in the picture soon. I'm guessing the godsend you mentioned to Ms. Lipton is that GPS tracking we're seeing on her cab. Ricci's present path is moving toward us. If we move people to meet the GPS tracking now, we should be there when Ricci is. He needs time to find someone and charm her into the coffee shop. When we know where the cab drops him off, we can have a couple of my detectives there in minutes to keep an eye on him and let us know which coffee shop he chooses. We can go in for coffee and arrest him before he can kidnap anybody else, and my detectives can provide backup. We should be able to take him before he drugs another woman. I think it would be appropriate for women to make the arrest."

"You know, I do think I feel the need for good coffee," Jordan agreed.

"Is this guy dangerous?" Castle asked.

Beckett looked at her concerned husband's face and answered, "So far there haven't been any reports that he's used weapons, so probably not; but we'll be careful, I promise. I'll send Nixon and Santiago for backup. They've proven themselves."

Once the cab driver reported a location, everything went into motion. The cab company had kept them informed of the GPS location, so they had their people in place quickly after it stopped. It was half an hour before Ricci talked a young woman into having coffee with him; and Beckett and Shaw were on the street pretending to be window shopping while they waited for a specific location. Nixon called with the name of the coffee shop, and they moved in and ordered coffee, sitting down close where they could intercept the kidnapper. When he returned to the table and put the coffee down in front of the young woman, Shaw and Beckett announced themselves and told her not to drink it. As she donned the nitrile gloves from her pocket and moved the cup away, Beckett stated Ricci's name and the reason for his arrest while Shaw read him his rights and put on the cuffs.

"Detectives…"

"Captain Kate Beckett, NYPD," Beckett answered.

"Special Agent Jordan Shaw, FBI," Shaw responded.

"Whoever you are, you have the wrong man. I'm Alessandro Cancio. I have my driver's license, and..."

"I'll tell you what," Beckett interrupted. "If we run your prints against Italian police and Interpol and they don't match Francesco Ricci, we'll apologize. Looking at Nixon and Santiago, who had moved to join them, she said, "Gentlemen, get him to the fifteenth, get him processed, and put him in holding. We'll meet you there."

"With pleasure," Nixon responded, and the two detectives took Ricci's arms and led him to the squad car that was waiting outside. From another pocket, Beckett pulled an evidence bag big enough for the cup of drugged coffee and bagged it to send for lab results. Then she and Jordan sat down and explained to the young woman what had happened and asked her to come to the precinct with them to make a statement.

As soon as Ricci was taken away, Jordan was on the phone getting an update on the search warrant for the new address and arranging for agents to execute it. The warrant had been signed and was being delivered, and agents were on their way to the house.

Meanwhile, Beckett was on her phone, to Castle. "When we cuffed Ricci, he told us we had the wrong man. He called himself Alessandro Cancio. Tell somebody we need to run that name, too. He mentioned a driver's license, so he may have been using that name for a while."

"Any problems bringing him in?"

"No. He didn't seem concerned…probably thinks he can talk his way out of it."

"Ownership of the new house came back the same as the other one."

"Well, at least the search on that shell corporation is already underway," she answered. "We'll be back soon and then I'll leave for my meeting. If absolutely nothing slows me down, I should make it on time."

By the time Beckett and Shaw were back at the fifteenth, the agents carrying out the search warrant had called in to report an armed man at the house. They had taken him into custody after a struggle and were requesting officers and a squad car to take the man to the fifteenth. They also found three women who were being held in a secured room. The agents had called in their CSU and one agent was bringing the women to the fifteenth to make statements.

"Do the prints match Ricci?" Shaw asked.

"We should know soon," one of the techs answered.

"After meeting him, I don't think I want to bother to start the interrogation until we're one hundred per cent sure." Beckett said. "I don't want to tolerate another smarmy effort to convince us we're wrong."

"Me, either. We'll talk to the women he was holding hostage first," Shaw agreed. Get to your meeting, Beckett. I'll get that coffee to the lab. We should have his prints on the cup of drugged coffee. Even if the surveillance video doesn't show him putting the drug in the cup this time, we've still got him."

"I should be back in about three hours." Beckett told her.

"We should have more information by then. Avery should be here to replace me when you get back."

Kissing the top of Castle's head as she passed him, Beckett left to pick up her things from her office.

"She's happy. We like seeing her happy. You're good for her," Ryan observed with a smile.

"But if I ever make her unhappy, I'm a dead man…no traces left behind. I haven't forgotten," Castle answered, moving another page of information onto the stack he had finished.

"Smart man," Esposito chuckled. Getting back to their paperwork, he said, "This guy was living the life wasn't he? Looks like when his family told him to figure out how to make his own living, he decided to do that by living off rich girlfriends. But even when he moved on to somebody else, the women didn't badmouth him. They liked to party as much as he did and apparently liked whatever it was he had to offer while they were together."

"Something had to trigger the name change and the move, though," Castle said. "Another scandal that was harder to overcome, a dispute that got dangerous. Something big. We should be looking for that."

"Yeah. Haven't found it yet, though," Esposito mumbled as he scanned over another page.

"And how did he get from that life style to kidnapping women in the United States?" Ryan asked.

xxxxx

Beckett lucked out on traffic and was at her meeting with fifteen minutes to spare. Over the donuts and coffee served in the few minutes before the meeting started, Chief Dawson took her aside and asked her, "How is the case with the FBI going?"

"We brought in the kidnapper this morning, and he was still working. We were watching the house where we knew he had kept the five women from New York, and then we got calls from other cab companies saying they had similar fares taken to a different address. We caught him in the act this morning, and agents found three more women at the new address. They also brought in the armed guard who was keeping them there. We're still working through all the new developments."

"Keep me posted on the situation. I don't want to be caught without answers if I need them."

"I understand, Sir. Most of this happened last night and this morning, so you're getting pretty close to immediate feedback."

"I'd like a daily report, even if it's just a short statement."

"Yes sir. Is the afternoon okay?"

"That's fine."

When the chief moved on, Beckett went to speak to Gates; and the two of them found a place to sit for the meeting.

xxxxx

By the time Beckett returned to the fifteenth, Castle had found what seemed to be the turning point for Ricci's name change and relocation. Ryan and Esposito had found corroborating information, and the techs were doing follow-up checks, looking for pictures and news articles to identify Ricci's companions during that time. They were also looking for information on the armed man they had arrested at the house where the latest hostages were being held. The name on his ID was Pietro Bruno.

"We made a lot of progress while you were gone," Castle told his wife.

Then he and his two collaborators filled her in on what they had found. There were a couple of business ventures that were basically fraudulent, but Ricci had somehow managed not to be charged with anything. However, after that he was looked on as a bad business connection. He went back to living on the prosperity of rich girlfriends and attached himself to a businesswoman who was CFO of her father's company.

"Her father, the CEO, had a reputation as a hardhearted boss…and was apparently no better as a father," Castle reported. "The woman was brilliant and an excellent executive, but she was unhappy working for her father. She had used her talents to embezzle from the company for two years and had amassed a hefty nest egg, intending to use it to leave the country, start a new life, and build her own company elsewhere. She was caught the week before she had planned to leave and take Ricci with her. She swore throughout the entire debacle that Ricci didn't know what she was doing, but her father refused to believe that his daughter had decided to work against their company without outside encouragement. He aimed some serious threats against Ricci, and apparently Ricci found them believable."

Esposito took up the story from there. "That was when Ricci disappeared and Alessandro Cancio turned up here. Cancio has a driver's license, a birth certificate, and a social security number, all looking like an American citizen. The FBI's cool toys have found only one birth certificate and social security number for an Alessandro Cancio, who would be the right age for Ricci. Thing is, he died at age nine."

Avery added, "In the last few minutes we've found that there's no record of Ricci ever entering the country, no green card or visa. He just miraculously appeared as Alessandro Cancio. But the Italian police came through for us. We know he's Ricci. The prints matched."

"Do we have any idea who helped him get here?" Beckett asked.

"Not yet, but we're still looking."

"Are we planning to interrogate him this afternoon?"

"Jordan said to call her if we got anything substantial. I guess that would be now."

"Might as well call her. If she wants to talk to him today, we need to get our facts lined up."

Beckett went back to talk to her team while Avery called his partner.

After he closed the call, Avery came back to speak to them. "Jordan said to tell all of you to go home for the day and let Ricci enjoy the pleasures of confinement overnight. She said she and Beckett will deal with him in the morning. We still have searches running, and we'll probably have some new information by then."

"Nobody needs to tell me twice," Esposito said. "You got time for a beer on the way home?" he asked Ryan.

"Not this time. Wish I could, but I'm antsy about Jenny. The baby could be here any time, and I don't want her alone and scared."

"A celebratory drink after your daughter's here, then."

"Yeah. Sounds good." With a big, wondrous grin, Ryan said, "I'm about to be a dad…to a little girl."

Castle and Esposito laughed at their friend's expression.

"Bro', you should see your face. You look like you just saw a double rainbow or a unicorn or something," Esposito answered.

"Don't pay any attention to him, Ryan," Castle told him. "A baby is way better than a unicorn. You're gonna be a great dad. You'll call us when she's born, right?"

Ryan grinned again. "I'll probably call everybody I ever knew. Gotta get home. Bye." He grabbed his suit jacket from the back of his chair and hurried out.

"Hey, Partner. Wait up. I'll walk down with you," Esposito called behind him.

"Night, Avery. Thanks," Castle said.

"See you tomorrow," Avery answered over his shoulder as he checked something with another agent.

As they left, Beckett walked next to Castle. "It feels good to have all of us working together again, even if it's a little different than it used to be." She looked over at him flirtatiously. "I need to go through this pile of paper from my mailbox and check my emails to see if there's anything that can't wait until tomorrow. It won't take long. Want to hang out in my office and do some creepy staring while I do paperwork?"

Castle laughed. "I wouldn't want to miss another chance at that. Like old times, huh?"

Castle sat and waited until his wife was ready to leave. Beckett did her due diligence then checked with each division, starting with Homicide, kissed her husband, and said, "Let's go home."

He put his hand at her back rather than around her waist to preserve decorum appropriate to her workplace, and they walked to their car.

xxxxx

In the car on the way home, Rick looked over at her while he started the car. He smiled and told her, "It was nice. I didn't realize how much I'd missed creepily staring at you while you work, especially when you throw all those flirty little smiles my way. Somebody might think you like me."

"It was, and I do miss it now. Sometimes I look up from what I'm doing and wish you were there staring…or even playing Angry Birds. It's good to have you back at work with me, even if it's temporary. And I like staring at you, too, Stud."

"Ooooo… I love it when you call me that. It usually means I'm getting lucky first chance we get," he answered.

"We'll see." Her mischievous response indicated he was probably right, and he glanced over at her with a playfully predatory smile as he drove. She smiled back and reached over to pat his thigh.

They enjoyed the quiet and lack of pressure for a while before Castle broke the silence. "Did you see Gates at the meeting today?"

"Yeah. She's really looking forward to their time at the beach house."

"That's this weekend, so they don't have long to wait. I'm really looking forward to two weeks after that when you can come with all of us for a long weekend there."

"Me, too. I want to run around and chase the little waves with you and Jamie, and look for sea shells, and sit in the sun, and hang out with Alexis and JD...and soak in the big bathtub with you, and make love to you, and take walks on the beach, and…"

"Whoa. Hold on," he answered with a smile. "Back up to the two right before walking on the beach and just let me imagine for a minute."

She laughed and swatted his arm as he pulled into the parking space at their apartment, and he took her hand and led her into the building. When they entered the apartment, Jamie came to meet them excitedly.

"Come and see, Mommy." He took her hand and pulled her into the study. "Grandpa John helped me. I stacked the blocks way up high."

"Wow!" Kate applauded. "You did a great job. That's pretty tall. What are you going to do with it?"

"Crash my firetruck and knock it down," he answered with a big grin as he went to get the toy. Then he rolled the large firetruck into the stack of blocks and belly laughed as he watched them fall.

"How many times?" Castle asked John, nodding toward the scattered blocks with a sound of amusement.

"That was the third one. The firetruck's had a workout, but it was worth it because he laughed like that every time. You guys get to build the next one, though. Grandpa John's had a workout, too," John answered with a grin.

"You're a patient man, John," Kate praised appreciatively.

"I couldn't ask for a better great-grandson. He's a terrific kid…reminds me a little of JD at that age. I'm definitely feeling the extra years I've added since JD was his age, though."

As the older man moved to stand, Castle held his hand out to help him up.

"Thanks, Son," John said as he got to his feet.

"It's the least I can do after leaving you with my energetic boy to wear you out," Castle answered.

"Alexis and JD were here all afternoon. All of us took care of him. He's a loving little rascal."

"Stack blocks with me, Mommy," Jamie said, plopping down on the floor.

Kate sat down beside him and agreed, saying, "Okay. Pick them up and bring them all over here so we can stack them."

"You help me."

"No. You crashed them all over the place, so you bring them over here and we'll stack them again."

Kate gathered the ones near her, and Jamie crawled around pushing, tossing, and carrying blocks back to Kate; and when he was finished, she asked, "How did you stack them so high?"

"Grandpa John said be gentle so they won't fall."

"Well, let's see if you and Mommy can stack them that tall."

They took turns adding a block at a time while John and Castle watched. As the stack got higher, they were more careful about adding to it. Jamie was obviously trying to add them carefully, the way John had shown him; and Kate provided a steadying hand now and then to help hold it up."

"It's really tall now," she said enthusiastically, and smiled as her son nodded with glee.

"Firetruck," he said with a grin.

"Okay, bring it on!"

He backed up the firetruck and rolled it into the stack of blocks with the same gusto as his last demolition and laughed the same way, jumping up and down and throwing himself into his mother's arms. She laughed along with him and kissed all over his face teasingly, and he settled into her lap and snuggled against her. The two of them were the picture of contentment, and Castle had the same sort of expression on his face as he watched.

"He's a lucky little boy to have you two as parents," John told Castle. "I hate that good parenting skipped a generation in my family. I thought JD would have had that growing up."

"From what he's told us, you took care of that. He grew into a good man, and we can see your influence. And from the way he treats Jamie, I'd say he's going to be a good father one of these days."

"I think he will." With a mischievous look in his eyes, John then asked, "So are you ready for that? Being a grandfather? It could happen, you know."

"Do you know something I don't know yet?" Castle asked, looking worried.

"Relax, boy," John answered, clapping him on the shoulder. "It's not happening any time soon. Not that I know of, anyway."

"There's an evil side to you, isn't there?"

John chuckled. "You should have seen your face."

"I know eventually somebody will probably assume that Jamie is my grandson; but at least for the moment, I can say I'm not a grandfather. I'm hoping we'll have another one before there's a grandchild. But I'll love my children's babies as much as I love my own. And yes, I know they're likely to grow up together. I don't need reminders."

"You're a good man, Richard Castle. I'm proud you consider me part of your family."

Kate was whispering something to Jamie, and Jamie was whispering back, then he was out of her lap and standing in front of Castle saying, 'Hi, Daddy.' and holding his arms up. Castle lifted him and blew a raspberry on his tummy where his shirt had pulled up above his pants. He tucked his son into a big hug and told him, "I missed you today." Jamie melted into the hug, and Castle smiled at John in fatherly pride.

Joining the men near the door of the study, Kate called out to the young couple in the kitchen, "Hi. We didn't mean to ignore anybody. Something smells really good. What is it?"

"I made that casserole you like so much," Alexis answered.

"Yum!" Kate answered, moving toward them. "Can I help? A salad? Garlic Bread? Anything?"

"Garlic bread would be good. The salad is already made."

"Have I reminded you lately that I'm glad I married your family?" she asked, giving her stepdaughter and son-in-law a hug as she got out what she needed for the bread. She talked to Alexis while the bread baked in the toaster oven, and all the men talked among themselves for that few minutes. When the telltale dings from the two ovens let them know that dinner was ready, Castle asked, "You're all staying for dinner, aren't you?"

"Yeah," JD answered. "Not planning on anybody being on kitchen duty when we get home."

"Well, your kitchen duty is over now. We've got the table and the cleanup," Kate promised. Castle sat Jamie in his high chair, and Kate leaned close and whispered in her husband's ear, "You're helping, right…Stud? You know when you get lucky, I get lucky, too, don't you?"

Castle turned where only Kate could see his face, wiggled his eyebrows at her and grinned wolfishly then took the dishes from the cabinets and helped set the table before they all sat down for a pleasant, laid-back family dinner.