Always.

Five.

"An orchestrated kidnapping."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"No, no. This can't be happening. Not again." I was getting sick and tired of this. I just wanted to see Castle.

"Well, at least we know that if it was a kidnapping, he's okay." Ryan was trying to comfort me. Emphasis on trying.

"Yeah, for now! But who knows what they could do to him?"

"They probably just want ransom. He is kinda on the rich and famous side, you know?"

"Yeah, that is true. Still, we need to find him, quickly."

"Okay, where do we start?" The boys said in unison. They were just as eager to get their friend back as I was my husband.

"Let's see, ah, how about we survey the area? We can see if there are any clues as to where they went, or if we can find them. If they parachuted out of this thing they can't be far."

"Okay. Hey, maybe we should split up? We could cover more ground that way."

"Yeah, that's a great idea! Ryan, go north. Ill go east. Espo, could you cover more of a southwestern area?"

"Yeah, no problem."

"Okay, let's get going." The boys headed off in their directions, while I paused for a moment before heading off in my assigned area. There was so much going on that I was getting a headrush.

I started walking in my direction. I was about 30 minutes in of searching/walking around, and was starting to get discouraged with no more evidence than some trash. I sat down for a moment, to gain perspective on things, when I looked up to see a man looking at me from a distance. He was wearing a black hoodie, and pants. It was an awfully hot day for this time of year, so there was no reason for someone to be wearing that heavy of clothes. I started walking toward him.

"Hey, you! NYPD, could I ask you a few questions?"

And with that, the man started running. Since he was wearing all of the heavy clothes, and he was already hot, he wasn't running too terribly fast so I caught up to him quick.

"You're coming with me." I told the still unknown man, as I put the handcuffs on him. I then promptly called Ryan so I could get a ride. He had texted me about 15 minutes ago he was on his way back.

"Hey, Ryan. I found this guy, and he started running from me. I put him under arrest so I can try to get some answers from him. Could you give me a ride back?"

"Ah, yeah, sure. Im standing here with Espo. How far away are you?"

"About 30 minutes on foot. If I start walking back with this guy, I could probably meet up with you guys in 5 minutes."

"Okay. We'll hurry."

I started walking back, and this guy was too afraid of me to try to run away. He had also seen that I was armed, so no matter how fast he would run, he knew my bullet could go faster. Since there was nothing else to do but walk, I decided to try to get some answers out of him while we did.

"Who are you?" I asked. No answer. "What's your name?" I tried again, a little sterner. Still no answer. I decided to try to appeal to his nicer side.

"It's awfully hot, do you wanna take that sweatshirt off? I'll carry it for you."

"Sure." I finally got at least a mumble of an answer out of the guy. As he took the shirt off, I could tell that it was way too hot for him to be wearing it. Other than the putrid smell of his sweat, his skin was red hot. I offered him some of my water. He turned it down, of course.

"Look, there's our ride." I pointed out Esposito's car that was pulling up next to us. "Now I'm gonna get some answers out of you."