A/N: Hello, everyone! Thank you for your reviews, follows, and favorites. I'm so glad that people are enjoying this story as much as I've enjoyed writing it! Just a reminder that I will answer most reviews/comments/questions in my profile. If you have posted a review (thank you!), I probably have posted an answer, so you can check that out!
This chapter is going to have some flashback scenes. All flashbacks will be in italics. And, just as in the last chapter, I will mark who's POV each part is to make it easier on you readers.
Again, thank you for reading, and I hope that you enjoy this chapter.
Sincerely,
Delving
Chapter 2
Sarah's POV
The first day of high school and Sarah's mind was on everything that could possibly go wrong. She felt shy and uncomfortable as she tried to avoid the gazes of the sophomores, juniors, and seniors who were seeing their freshmen peers for the first time this school year. Some of them teased and jeered, others just stared and whispered with their friends.
Sarah tried to ignore the knots tangling in her stomach, and just find her locker number 499. 401, 402, 403… she sighed. She was still a long way from her locker. Adjusting her backpack, Sarah pushed ahead, maneuvering through the crowd of students who seemed intent on being her personal obstacles. No matter how many times she said, "Excuse me," they'd just stare at her and stay rooted to their places, forcing her to edge around them, and bumping them with her backpack. "Sorry," she'd mumble, every time, even if it wasn't her fault.
Finally, she saw it. Locker 499. It was the one thing in this entire school that would be her own. She felt as though she had found her safe place as she carefully unlocked it and started to unload some of her extra notebooks, pencils, and pens from her backpack. A photo of her and her parents fluttered out of one of her spiral bound notebooks. She tried to snatch it before it touched the ground, but it floated just out of her reach and slid between two pairs of feet of the boys talking at the locker next to hers.
Cringing, Sarah knelt down and tried to reach inconspicuously out and grab the photo before either boy noticed. However, just before her fingers could catch the edge of the picture, one of the boys bent over and picked it up himself.
"Cute," he said, standing. He turned around to face Sarah as she stood upright. "This you?" He pointed at the little girl in the picture. It was from five years ago…she was only eight or nine.
"Yeah," Sarah said. She reached out to take the picture, but the boy kept it just out of reach.
"And your parents?" he asked.
Sarah nodded. "Yes. Can I please have my picture back?"
The boy gave her a cold stare for a couple of moments and then smiled. "Sure." He handed over the photograph. "I wasn't gonna keep it."
Sarah nodded and turned back to her locker, tucking the picture up on the top shelf.
"You a freshman?" the boy asked.
"Yeah."
"You look like a junior," the boy said, adding, "Not to say you look old or anything…just that you don't look like one of those baby-faced middle schooler's that come dawdling in on the first day."
Sarah smiled. "I feel like one."
"Nah," the boy said, still smiling. "You just need someone who has got it figured out to show you the ropes."
"Like you?" Sarah asked skeptically. She noticed that the boy's friend was no longer around. It was just the two of them, talking.
"Sure!" the boy said. He reached out and gave her arm a gentle tap. "I've been at this joint for a year now…I know it like the back of my hand."
"So you were the baby-faced middle schooler that dawdled in last year?" Sarah asked.
The boy grinned. "Wow. You've got some sarcasm hidden behind that pretty face, huh? I like it. I think we'll be good friends."
"Maybe," Sarah agreed. She closed her locker. "By the way, my name is Sarah Ryan."
The boy held out his hand. "Jace Owens," he said.
Beckett's POV
Beckett and Sarah walked into one of the interview rooms. It was small, simply furnished, but comfortable. "Why don't you sit down, Sarah," Beckett said, indicating the couch.
After a moment's hesitation, Sarah complied. She clutched the edge of the couch cushion so tight, her knuckles were white. "So," she said, staring at her Converse sneakers, "are you going to ask me questions about Jace?"
"In a minute," Beckett said. "I need to grab a couple of things first. Would you like something to drink while you wait? A soda, a water?"
"No, thanks," Sarah said. She smiled, but it was incredibly forced. It didn't even begin to touch her eyes.
"Right," Beckett said. "You hang tight. I'll be right back."
Sarah nodded.
Beckett walked out and met Esposito coming out of the break room. "Before we talk to Sarah," she said, motioning for him to follow her to her office, "let's review the Emory interrogation. I want to know what he said about Sarah and Jace."
"Shouldn't we have someone stay with Sarah?" Esposito asked.
Beckett shook her head. "No. She needs a few minutes to herself. She just found out her boyfriend was murdered, and that she now has to tell us everything about her secret life. It isn't gonna be easy for her."
"Right, Cap," Esposito agreed under his breath. He added as they entered her office. "Ryan's calling Jenny now."
Beckett picked up her cell phone from where she'd left it on her desk. "I'm going to ask Rick to come down here and stay with the Ryans while we interview Sarah."
"You think Castle can handle two distraught parents right now?" Esposito asked skeptically.
Beckett smiled. "It's almost as though you haven't known Castle for over twenty years, Espo."
"That's why it worries me," Esposito returned with an unsure smile.
The Captain shook her head. "I know this sounds crazy, but if anyone can help them put things into perspective, or even begin to understand what they'll be going through, it will be Castle."
Castle's POV
The text from Kate was cryptic: Come down to the station as soon as you can.
Having been put under house arrest by his own wife so that he'd finish his latest book by its deadline, Castle was a little more than surprised she was giving him permission—nay, not permission—an explicit command to abandon his contract responsibilities to (presumably) help her on a case. Maybe not her. Maybe Ryan and Esposito. Either way, it was a case, and it wasn't his book, so he was happy to let his fingers nimbly type a reply: I'm on my way.
After deciding to take a cab over his own car, Castle was left to himself to imagine what sort of case he was being called to. It would be a murder, naturally. But was the victim male or female? Rich or poor? Young or old? Famous or a John (or Jane) Doe?
He stared at Kate's text for clues. Her wording was strange for an ordinary case. It was urgent but personal. In fact, it didn't even say that she wanted him to be there for a case. Maybe it was something else, like about her job, or about someone being injured. That idea made him worry for a second until he considered that Kate wouldn't have him come to the station just to tell him one of his friends (or she) was in the hospital with a bullet wound or something.
No. It had to be about her job, whether a case or a promotion or…termination? Not termination. Kate wouldn't tell him about that at the station either. Or the promotion. It had to be a case. And it had to be personal. Maybe it was an old case, one that they thought they could put behind them but had snuck up again. Maybe one of the murderers they'd put away was out of prison and was looking for revenge, or had killed someone else.
Castle leaned his head against the window, frustrated by the lack of clues offered to him over text message. While he had been one of the first people to jump on the instant messaging train, it sometimes drove him nuts. He was a writer. He knew how to word things to give clues. Some people were texting illiterates. They seemed to forget that words don't carry voice inflection. He remembered arguing with Alexis over "texting text."
"LOL, TBH, and OMG are not real words," he whined.
His lovely, wise-beyond-her-years daughter had simply smiled and patted his arm. "You'll catch up someday, Dad," she said.
He hadn't.
After what seemed like an eternity, the taxi pulled up in front of the 12 precinct. Castle handed over his cab fare and climbed out, straightening his jacket before entering the building. The all too familiar elevator lifted him up to the homicide division, and he stepped into the bullpen. Even though she hadn't been in that place for years, he glanced to where Beckett's desk used to be before she became Captain. It felt like yesterday that he had been trying to flirt with the beautiful homicide detective who acted as though she would never give him the time of day.
And now, they were married.
He started to walk towards Kate's office, noting that neither Esposito or Ryan was at their desks. A twinge of disappointment clipped the edge of his mind as he imagined them off somewhere, investigating a crime scene without him. Maybe Kate hadn't called him down to work on a case. Maybe it was something entirely different.
Kate opened her office door to meet him. "Good, Castle, you're here," she said, "Come in. I need to talk to you."
"What's up?" Castle asked, noting the stressed tone of her voice.
She closed the door behind him. "There was a murder early this morning. An eighteen-year-old male named Jace Owens."
"Okay…" Castle said, trying to decide if the name should sound familiar. "Do I know him, or rather, of him?"
"No," Kate said. "But Sarah Ryan does."
Castle frowned. "What does that mean? How did she know him? Were they friends?"
"They were dating," Kate elaborated. She sighed. "Sarah may have been the last person besides Owens' killer to talk to him before he died. Needless to say, she's upset, and her parents are devastated. Kevin had no idea his daughter knew this kid, let alone dating him. Ryan was just handling it like any normal investigation, and then she gets identified by our key witness as Jace's girlfriend."
"And Jace wasn't some awesome, upstanding high school student, I'm guessing," Castle said, his voice dropping with sympathy.
"We think that Jace was involved in something. We found a man who says that, on a regular basis, he'd deliver large sums of cash to Jace. Jace would then give him a portion of the cut. Our witness, Emory, mentioned that Jace had a girl with him sometimes. He was going to describe her to a sketch artist when he saw Sarah in the bullpen with Espo. He claimed that she was the girl he saw with Jace. When we talked to Sarah a couple minutes later, she confirmed it."
"Ryan must be upset," Castle said.
Kate frowned. "That's an understatement. Jenny just got here a few minutes ago. They are talking to Sarah now, but Esposito and I are going to interview her. I had to review the interrogation with Emory, but I think Sarah's ready now."
"How can I help?" Castle asked.
"Kevin and Jenny need someone to stay with them while we conduct the interview. Sarah has asked that neither of them be present, but we are going to tape it for reference. I think that you are the best one to keep the Ryans from imagining the worst."
"Of course," Castle said. Despite the fact that he couldn't have known the reason for Kate asking him to come to the precinct, he felt a little guilty twinge prick his conscience for having hoped and been giddy for a murder investigation to help work on. Sometimes, he forgot just how personal these cases always were for the persons involved.
Ryan's POV
When Castle walked into the room, Ryan suddenly felt an immense wave of relief. Finally, someone who could understand what it was like to have their daughter part of such a terrifying and alarming investigation. Of course, when Castle had been in his shoes, Alexis hadn't been dating the murder victim; however, she had been kidnapped, taken out of the country, held for ransom, and then came back under peculiar circumstances with Castle at her side (he had never bought the story Castle somehow always elaborated on every single time he told it).
Even if their circumstances weren't the same, and Castle instance was much more dire, the love they had for their daughters were identical.
"Hey, Kevin, Jenny, Sarah," Castle said, lifting his hand in a casual and light-hearted wave. He was smiling as though nothing were happening at all.
"Hey, Uncle Rick," Sarah said.
Ryan glanced at his daughter and immediately noticed that she was less stiff, less tense. The whole time he and Jenny had been in here, trying to coax anything out of her about what she had been going through the past several weeks (or months or years! Ryan thought frantically), Sarah had answered their questions minimally, and kept her shoulders tucked in, her head down, and her legs crossed, closing herself off from the people that loved her most.
"I'm just here to hang out with your parents while you talk to Kate and Espo," Castle said offhandedly, shoving his hands into his pockets like a little boy who was nervous…and lying by understating the truth. His gaze flickered to meet Ryan's for the briefest moment before he added to Sarah. "Mind if I steal them from you?"
Sarah actually smiled. "Not at all," she said.
Castle grinned. "Great!" he said, and then turned his attention officially to Ryan and his wife. "Shall I show you how to use the espresso machine properly?"
Incapable of putting forth the same mood Castle was trying to portray, Ryan simply stood up with Jenny and followed Castle out of the interview room. Castle went straight to the break room and immediately began to make coffee. "I know it's a little late for coffee, but I think the occasion demands it."
"Beckett told you everything?" Ryan asked, ignoring Castle's attempts at normalcy.
"Yeah," Castle said, not turning around. "She did."
"How could this have happened?" Jenny asked, her voice breaking. "We were so careful. I thought I knew all her friends, let alone a boyfriend."
Ryan took her hand, holding it tightly, for her benefit, but mostly for his.
"Sarah's a good girl, who may or may not have made a poor decision," Castle said, turning around and handing a mug of coffee to each Ryan and Jenny. "But I know that however this turns out, you will both love your daughter just as much as ever."
"Of course we will," Ryan said, defensively. How dare Castle suggest otherwise?
Castle held up a hand. "I know you will, and you know you will; however, the most important thing is that Sarah knows. If you want her to open up to you, you have to make sure that she understands that no matter what circumstances she happens to run into, you will always be there for her, even if it means standing behind her when she has to suffer the consequences of her own decisions."
Jenny nodded, her eyes tearing up. "Yes."
Ryan pulled his wife closer, wrapping an arm around her shuddering shoulders. "We'll get through this, babe, as a family."
Esposito's POV
After reviewing the Emory interrogation, Esposito felt sick. It suddenly made sense why Ryan had reacted so strongly to discovering this daughter was, as Emory put it, "Jace's Girl." It was more than Sarah being involved in criminal activity, it was the situation she had put herself in, to be ogled by that little creep that was sleeping the rest of the drugs out of his system in a holding cell downstairs. He couldn't imagine the thoughts that must have pounded through Ryan's head as the realization tumbled down on top of him in a heap.
He waited until Castle had brought Kevin and Jenny into the break room before he joined Beckett and Sarah in the interview room. Sarah's eyes were red still from crying; however, her face had dried, and she looked more relaxed. The Captain had been right: she needed time to adjust to the situation that had jumped her. Nonetheless, he could tell that anything could set her off. She might be calm now, but it was only because she had reached the stage in the grief process of denial.
"We're going to record the interview," Beckett said, setting up the video camera in the corner. "Is that okay, Sarah?"
Sarah shrugged. "Yeah, of course."
"Great," Beckett said. She pushed the record button, and the little red light came on.
Esposito sat down across from Sarah, and Beckett sat next to him.
"Now," Beckett said, leaning forward, "I know this isn't going to be easy, Sarah, and we're probably going to ask some hard and uncomfortable questions; however, it's very important that you tell us everything honestly, even if you think we won't like the answers. Do you understand?"
Sarah shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "Yeah," she whispered.
Esposito pulled a picture of Jace out of his file. "Can you identify him?" he asked.
"That's Jace," Sarah said, taking a breath. "Jace Owens."
"When and where did you and Jace meet?" Beckett asked.
"I met him at my locker my first day of high school," Sarah replied. She swallowed and smiled. "He had the locker next to mine. I was nervous, and he said he'd show me the ropes because he was a sophomore. We became friends."
"But he's two years older than you," Esposito said, more passionately than he intended.
"He got held back in eighth grade," Sarah explained. "He changed schools like four times that year. It threw off his grades. It wasn't a big deal…"
"No, of course not," Beckett agreed, defusing any heated emotion Esposito's question might have sparked. "We just want a little background on who Jace was. What can you tell us?"
Sarah took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and stared at her hands, picking the nail polish off her left thumb. "He'd been a foster kid since he was four. His mom died in a car accident, and his dad was in prison. When his dad got out, he never came back for Jace. So Jace jumped from foster family to foster family. He said it was hard because he couldn't make friends, and…" Sarah paused, "he realized nobody ever really loved him. He said that I was the first person who ever cared about him." Sarah closed her eyes, and a tear rolled down the side of her face, leaving a glittering path behind it. "He didn't deserve to die."
Esposito grabbed a tissue out of the tissue box beside him and handed it to Sarah. "Hey, girl," he said, "I promise we're going to find whatever freak did this."
Sarah nodded. "I know. But that won't make Jace come back." Suddenly, she began to sob again. "It's all my fault!" she choked.
The words made Esposito's stomach jump into his throat. His first reaction was to somehow take away any pain that Sarah felt, any guilt she might be harboring as part of her grief. However, any comforting words fled from his mind, and he felt helpless to do anything but reach again across the distance between them and take Sarah's free hand.
"Sarah," Beckett said with a gentle firmness Esposito wished he could replicate, "I know this is hard. And I know that it always feels like we could have done something more to prevent a tragedy that was out of our control, but I promise you, Jace's death was not your fault."
Sarah shook her head violently, pulling her hand away from Esposito, and drawing it against her almost protectively. "You don't understand," she cried, "I knew that what Jace was doing was illegal. I didn't know what he was doing exactly, but I knew it wrong. But I helped him anyway because I thought I could save him."
Esposito could have sworn Sarah punched him in the gut. His vision blurred as the substance of Sarah's words penetrated. He didn't know he was speaking until he heard his voice through the haze of the blow. "How were you helping him?" he asked.
"I was one of Jace's runners."
Sarah POV
"You promised me, Jace!" Sarah cried. "How could you do this?"
"It was a one-time thing, sweetheart," Jace said, reaching out to touch Sarah's shoulder.
She pulled away. "I trusted you."
"I know, babe, I know. But listen to me. My supplier told me that if I didn't do this last drop, he'd take care of me for good. I owe him money, Sarah, and I told him I'd pay him back without doing his drug work. But I can't. I don't have the money, and I can't get it."
"I could have helped you," Sarah said. "You should've asked me. I have a college fund. I could have borrowed from it, and then you and I could pay it back before my parents' notice."
"C'mon, Sarah. You know that wouldn't have worked," Jace scoffed, shoving his hands in his pocket.
"We could have figured something out," Sarah argued.
"It's too late for that now, isn't it?" Jace said with a sigh. "I wasn't able to make the drop when I was scheduled to, so now I've got to keep the stash on me until tomorrow. If I get caught with it, I'm going to prison, Sarah."
"You wouldn't go to prison," Sarah said. "You're under eighteen."
"But I'll be eighteen in a couple months," Jace said. "And after that, I'll be dead. I couldn't survive prison, Sarah."
Sarah didn't know what to say. "What are you going to do?"
"I need your help, Sarah," Jace whispered.
"How?"
Jace reached into his backpack and pulled out a paper bag. "Please. I need you to hold this until tomorrow."
Sarah took a step back, horrified. "No! I can't do that! If my parents caught me with drugs, they'd never trust me again."
"Do they look through your backpack every night or something?" Jace asked.
It sounded condescending, and Sarah retorted. "No. But if this is the one time they do, it would ruin my family, Jace. My dad's a cop. He thinks that nobody is above the law."
"Even his own daughter?" Jace asked.
"Especially me," Sarah said.
"Do you agree with him?"
Sarah hesitated, glancing away. "Yeah. I do."
"Then why didn't you turn me in last year? When you found out I was dealing?" Jace asked.
Sarah couldn't think of an answer, so she didn't say anything. She knew the reason: it was because she couldn't see Jace arrested because of her. She couldn't do that to him. Not the one friend she had in the world.
"I need this, Sarah," Jace pleaded. "Just one night. That's all. Then I'm out of this business for good. And this time, I'll keep my word."
He held out the bag to her, and she took it.
Beckett's POV
This changed everything. Sarah was no longer a victim of association. In the eyes of the law, she was a suspect. She was a criminal. Potentially, this compromised her future forever. And what was worse, her parents were in the other room, waiting for Sarah to return to them, to tell them nothing was as bad as it seemed. That she had been caught in the middle of something she hadn't known about or understood. But instead, everything exploded into a mess of devastation that would break the hearts of two of her closest friends.
"Sarah," Beckett managed to say through the painful lump forming in her throat, "I need you to start from the beginning. You can't keep anything from us."
"I didn't want to," Sarah sobbed, clutching both hands to her hairline and combing back her hair. She didn't stop gripping the sides of her head as she added, "I didn't mean for Dad and Mom to find out this way, Kate! The reason I was here today was to tell Dad everything. I even brought the notebook of all the places Jace had me pick up his money from."
Out the corner of her eye, Beckett saw Javier sway slightly, catching the arm of his chair for support. "How many pick-ups did you do for Jace, Sarah?" he asked.
"I don't know. Ten, maybe," Sarah said. "But I swear, I thought I was helping Jace. I only did what the detective told me to do, and I turned over all the evidence I could get…"
Beckett's heart skipped a beat. "Sarah, you need to slow down. What detective? What evidence?"
Sarah sucked in a breath of air, held it for several seconds, and released it. "A couple months ago, I got arrested for possession. But the drugs weren't mine, they belonged to Jace."
"Jace was into drugs?" Esposito's voice shook vaguely, and Beckett shot him a look, silently warning him to keep his emotions in check, despite the situation.
"He told me he was done with them," Sarah said. "It was because of drugs that we broke up last year. He promised to get rid of them for good. And then, a few months ago, we got together again. Not even a month later, he came to me and said that he had to make one more drop or his suppliers were going to kill him for missing a payment. The problem was that he had missed the drop time, and had to wait until the next day. He asked me to hold them for the night, because if he got caught with them, he'd go to prison." Sarah's voice became fainter and fainter as she spoke until Beckett had to strain to hear the girl add, "I got caught with them instead."
"You got arrested on possession?" Esposito cried. "How did your parents not know about this?"
Sarah's eyes came up to look at Esposito. "The arresting detective said that if I helped him find out what Jace was actually into, he'd drop all charges and not tell my parents anything."
Beckett closed her eyes. "So you became an informant."
"I had to," Sarah said.
"Who was the arresting detective, Sarah?" Beckett asked.
"Detective Andrew Prescott," Sarah replied.
Beckett caught Esposito stiffen out the corner of her eye. Everyone knew of Detective Prescott in narcotics. An arrogant blowhard who enjoyed bending the rules just for the thrill, Prescott somehow managed to rub every detective, beat cop, DA, and secretary he came across the wrong way. And yet, the higher-ups loved him because he got results, and had made a record number of arrests and drug busts in his short, five-year career.
"How long have you been in contact with Detective Prescott, Sarah?" Beckett asked.
"Two months," Sarah said.
"And what evidence are you turning over to him?" Esposito asked.
"I give him my share of the money that I pick up for Jace, and the locations of where I picked it up," Sarah replied, winding her fingers together. "And I also tell him anything Jace said that might be helpful."
"Did he know Emory?" Beckett asked.
"I told him about Emory." Sarah bit her lower lip. "And when I told him Jace wanted me to help him pick up the money, Detective Prescott said I should. It would help the case."
"Do you know what Prescott thought Jace was into?" Esposito asked.
Sarah shook her head. "He never told me anything. When I'd ask, he said that it wasn't my job to put the pieces together, just to get them."
"But did you start to have your own idea?" Beckett asked.
"Jace was getting a lot of money," Sarah said. "Wads of it at once. I never counted it, but he'd always give me five hundred of it. I think he gave Emory the same."
"Sarah," Beckett said. "I know this is going to be hard for you to hear, but in light of the circumstances and the evidence you've provided, we're going to have to ask – where were you last night, after 11 p.m.?"
The blood officially drained from Sarah's face. "I'm a suspect?" she breathed.
"We're not accusing you of anything, Sarah, we just have to ask for the record," Esposito said gently.
Sarah sat quietly for several seconds before she said, "I was in bed. I did homework all evening and went to bed at ten. My parents said goodnight to me."
"Good," Beckett said.
"This is going to ruin them, isn't it?" Sarah asked. "Everything I've done. They're going to be devastated, and they'll never trust me again."
"We're going to work this out, Sarah," Beckett said, leaning forward and putting a hand on Sarah's knee. "You made some really bad decisions, but nothing you do will ever make your parents stop loving you. You have to remember that."
Sarah nodded. "But no one is above the law," she said faintly, and Beckett wasn't sure she heard her correctly. "Especially me."
Castle's POV
It seemed like an eternity. Castle couldn't decide if that was a good or a bad thing. Did Sarah have so much good information the case was basically being solved as the seconds crawled by or was she creating more questions?
Whatever the case was, Ryan was going stir-crazy. He paced the break room, clutching and unclutching his hands. Sometimes he thrust his hands in his pockets, stood still for a brief moment, but then set about pacing again, his hands always busy.
Castle watched those hands like they were a story in and of themselves. Those hands had done so much in Ryan's lifetime, especially his adult life. They wrote up paperwork, gathered evidence, handled deadly weapons, and also captured deadly criminals. However, they were also responsible for holding his wife's hand when they were taking their customary walk in the park together; pushing his daughter on the swing when she was younger; and on that night long ago, it was those very hands, darkened by ash and blood, that gently held his wife's hand and stroked the tiny, infant head of his newborn daughter. Now those hands fretted one another, wringing and tangling relentlessly as they mirrored the inner turmoil of their master's thoughts.
Jenny wasn't crying anymore, but it was as though she'd been hollowed out, her eyes staring at nothing, too lost in her own fear, her own distress, to notice that she had disconnected from those around her. And Castle didn't have anything else he could say that would comfort the grieving parents, waiting anxiously to discover the truth behind their daughter's hidden life outside their protection.
The long anticipated sound of the door opening made Castle stand and face his wife as she walked in, her hands pressed together as she avoided briefly making eye contact with the Ryans. "I'm afraid that what I'm going to say isn't good news," she said, sympathy playing her voice but not condemning it to being unprofessional. However, her eyes told Castle that her heart was breaking for her detective and his wife.
"How can it possibly be worse than we've been imagining?" Ryan asked, almost in an accusatory tone. He paused, cleared his throat, then went to stand by Jenny, putting an arm protectively around her. "Just tell us, Kate. Don't try to make it easier."
Kate caught Castle's gaze and held it, and he tried to read her thoughts. He'd stared into those eyes many times over their nearly two-decade friendship, and he didn't doubt for a moment that what she was about to say was going to be one of the hardest things she'd ever done. "I need to verify," she said, "that Sarah was at home last night after eleven p.m., all night."
"She's a suspect?" Ryan demanded, but his voice caught on the last syllable.
"No," Kate said quickly. "Of course not; however, we need to be sure we are above reproach in this investigation. We can't have anyone doubting Sarah's part in this investigation."
"Why is she a suspect?" Jenny asked, tears beginning anew.
"Please," Kate said, "Where was Sarah last night?"
"At home, in bed," Ryan said firmly. "I checked on her myself just before midnight."
"Okay," Kate said. "I'm sorry I had to ask that."
Castle spoke up on behalf of Ryan, catching the man before he said something he'd regret. "We understand, Kate. You're just doing your job."
Kate gave Castle a grateful nod. "Now," she said, addressing the Ryans, "let's sit down and talk about Sarah's position in this investigation."
TBC
