Title: Reading Rights and Writing Wrongs
Summary: People die every day. In New York City, odds are pretty good they were murdered. Only a select few can speak for those whose lives are taken by another. And one detective has partnered with a writer to answer this call. They are so opposite they complete each other. But at the end of the day, they solve the crime. It's the Castle and Beckett you know and love. With just one little difference.
Disclaimer: I don't own most of these characters. If you recognize a name, odds are it isn't mine. But seeing as this is a fanfic website, you probably knew that already.
Thank you to the extraordinary Sunshiny-Kate. Without her help, this would have done nothing but stay an idea in my head.
CHAPTER 1
The scene in front of them was odd. No other word could describe it. The pool table's green felt was now an unappealing brownish-red due to the blood that was still seeping into the fabric. The metal pool rack sticking out of the lifeless body atop the table seemed to be the source of the blood-spilling wound.
"That isn't cause of death." The medical examiner said without looking up from her clipboard, already full of notes. Lanie Parish had been rather young when she became a M.E., but she had earned her way there with hard work and an ability to learn fast. Her soft skin and stylish haircut combined with her trendy clothes made her look more like a model than someone who spent her most of her working hours with dead bodies. She often looked out of place at crime scenes, being grossly outnumber by the men she worked with. Glamorous as she could look, once she put one pair of latex gloves, she was all business.
The man she'd spoken to turned and looked at her.
"How is a metal triangle sticking out of his back not the cause of death?" Javier Esposito believed her to a fault, but it certainly looked like a cause of death to him. The detective had done his time to get to where he was. He'd served in the military, been a part of gang task-forces, and beat the street for a while as a uniform. He felt at home at the 12th precinct, and if things went his way, he'd stay there the rest of his career. "And how did you know I was thinking that?
Lanie smirked. "I can read you like a book, Esposito."
"Then what am I thinking now?" he quipped back with a grin on his face.
She looked up at him. "It'll never happen, pal." She answered without hesitation, but she had to look down quickly to hide the tiny smile creeping onto her face.
He sighed and was about to reply when he was cut off by a third voice interjecting itself into the conversation.
"If you two don't mind doing some actual work now, then we could start with you telling us the actual COD." Esposito and Lanie turned to look at Kevin Ryan, both with a mock look of irritation on their faces. So he added a "Please." to his request. Ryan was Esposito's partner and best friend. The vest-clad, former narcotics officer could be clumsy as a person, but was rock-solid as a detective.
All three turned back to the body as Lanie began to talk.
"COD won't be official until I get him into the morgue, but that hunk of metal in his back didn't do it. He was stabbed in the back, literally. Whatever was used had to be at least 3 inches in diameter and very sharp. It made quite a gaping wound. I'll get you the depth during autopsy. Anyway, the weapon probably severed the spinal cord and he was most likely paralyzed instantly. He fell forward onto the table, and then was flipped over onto his back and then bled out. Then, he was flipped again, this time onto his stomach. The pool rack was added after the fact. He was already dead when it was placed ther—"
"Oh wow. It's a pool shark." The interruption came from the doorway behind them, where their lead detective had just walked in. "Sorry I'm late guys. I was running an errand and I had to come here from all the way across town."
"No worries, boss." Ryan and Esposito replied at the same time. Lanie rolled her eyes at them. Sometime those two were like an old married couple.
"Sorry I interrupted you Lanie. please go on." Their leader said while leaning against the wall with arms crossed, settling in to take in the information.
Nodding, Lanie continued. "The time of death looks to be about 12 hours ago, based on liver temp. I am all done with him here, so we are about to take the body. After that, the scene is all yours."
The lead detective pushed off the wall and gave the room a quick scan. "Ok, we will keep looking around until you get him moved."
Lanie nodded and left the room to get the coroner to bring up the gurney.
The three detectives fanned out, without saying a word. They all knew what to do. While looking for anything out of the ordinary, other than the dead body on the pool table, Ryan brought the boss up to speed.
"The victims name was Thomas Whitley. He worked at a restaurant called Larry's Bar & Grill down on Broadway and Bleecker street. He lived alone as far as we know, and we haven't located next of kin yet. We've got uniforms canvassing the neighborhood and talking to the other tenants in the building. So far, no one saw or heard anything."
"Well, TOD was around 5 or 6 this morning. People may have been sleeping and really not heard anything." Esposito replied.
While the partners kept talking, the other detective in the room was looking at something on the carpet under the coffee table. Kneeling down while pulling on a single latex glove, they reached under the table and picked up a silver button. There was still some thread from the shirt it had been attached to. It looked like a thin red fiber. Hopefully the lab techs would be able to discern what kind of fabric it was. Standing back up, the detective looked at the victim, who was now being placed in a body bag on a gurney by the coroner. Though much of the shirt was stained red, the fabric underneath the blood was yellow. The lost button was not from the body. Was it from the killer's clothing? Was this a sign of a struggle? Nothing else seemed out of place in the room. In fact, except for the blood on the now empty table and the detectives and CSU officers in the room, everything seemed perfectly in it's place. Cliche as it sounded, it was almost too perfect.
"Yo, check this out." Esposito said as he waved the other detectives over to the window. He pointed a gloved finger at the window lock. It was undone and dust free, which made it stand out from the rest of the windowsill, which was covered in a light layer of dust. "This could be how our killer got in and out without anyone seeing him. This fire escape is pretty secluded."
"Then who closed the window? Did he close it from outside? It wasn't shut from in here, the dust would be more disturbed." Ryan added to the discussion.
"Thus window wasn't opened at all." Interjected their senior detective. "Look over there."
Ryan and Esposito pointed their eyes at where their attention was wanted. In the corner of the window, a nail was holding the bottom frame tight to it's base. The nail was slightly rusted, and it was evident that the window had not been opened in quite some time.
"Hey, can one of you guys come dust this for prints?" Ryan called to one of the officers from the CSU. CSI level 3 Tom Kilby came over.
The window lock was soon black with Kilby's favorite powder. He liked to joke that it could find a fingerprint on a pile of dirt. The investigator peered closely at the possible lead. After a few moments of looking at the lock at different angles, he turned to the detectives and shook his head.
"Sorry guys. It's clean. Not wiped clean though, so whoever unlocked this used something to keep their fingerprints from getting on there."
"So either our guy used gloves, or grabbed something to cover his hand. Could be a pro. Made it to look like a random killing. We need to find out if our vic had any enemies." Esposito said before taking a few steps away from the group to make some phone calls to Larry's Bar & Grill to try and get some insight into the life of the recently deceased Whitley.
The detective with the thread laced silver button turned to the Kilby and showed it to him. Kilby grabbed an evidence bag and placed the button inside.
"Make that a priority for the lab. That may be our only link to the killer."
Kilby nodded and bent over to gather his kit so he could head back to the precinct and get the button to the lab.
The head detective took another slow look all around the room. Something felt different about this crime scene. It brought about a sense of Deja vu.
"Does this seem familiar to either of you? Like you've seen this very crime scene before?"
Both Esposito and Ryan shook their heads after taking another quick glance.
"Something about this just feels…different. I feel like I have been here already."
"Does that mean you know who the killer is?"
A quizzical look and a simple "No." was the reply Ryan quickly received.
After a few moments, their boss piped up again.
"Let's keep this one quiet. I have a feeling that if it gets into the press, our investigation could take a weird turn."
"Our investigations almost always take a weird turn." Ryan nodded in agreement at Esposito's statement.
The lead detective ran their fingers through their thick, brown hair while letting out a sigh, then turned and walked towards the door. "I am going to look around outside for a bit. Make sure CSU does a really good sweep. You guys keep looking around here and talk to the neighbors a bit. They may be more open to talking with you than a uniform.
Ryan and Esposito nodded and continued working as Detective Rick Castle headed out the door.