Castle hated this.

He hated seeing his daughter hurt, having her cry on his shoulder as she clutched at his shirt like she would when she was a little girl. Hated that he'd had to tell her that her best friend was dead.

He just held her, arms around her as she sobbed. She had questions, too many that he didn't have the answer to, but he also had questions for her.

Ryan had given him the details of their suspect's testimony, but pending surveillance, they had no idea if he was telling the truth or not. Castle had agreed to see what Alexis knew, if anything.

"Do we know who did it?" Alexis asked after several minutes of silence. She sat up and wiped her tears, smearing them across her cheeks. "Any suspects?"

Castle swept his hand across her back, a feeble attempt to comfort her. "One so far," he admitted. "A student in the class she TA'ed." He was interrupted by his phone buzzing on the table, and he winced when he checked the message. It was from Espo.

Suspect alibied out. Cameras at the library confirmed his whereabouts.

Castle sighed. "Well, we had a suspect, but he apparently has a solid alibi. I know this is hard, but do you know anyone else who may have had a grudge against her? Former friends? Rivals? An ex-boyfriend, maybe?"

Alexis sat up. "Yeah, actually. She dumped her boyfriend about a week ago, said she needed to focus on school. I saw him the other day and he was still really upset."

"Good." Castle nodded, bringing up Beckett's contact page. Before he could press the call button, though, there was a knock on the door. He furrowed his brows and glanced at Alexis. "Are you expecting someone?" When she shook her head he stood, the hairs prickling on the back of his neck. "Wait here."

He had to do a double-take when he looked through the peephole and opened the door. "Kate?"

"Hey, Castle," she said, stepping into the apartment. She shoved her hands in her pockets. "Alexis. I'm sorry about Paige."

"Thanks, Kate." Alexis stood and joined her dad. "What's going on?"

Castle studied his wife. She looked nervous, less like the confident captain he knew her to be and far more like someone who was dreading the words that had to come out of her mouth. "We've had a couple things come up. Would you be willing to come down to the station, answer some questions? Help with the timeline?"

"Yeah, of course, anything you need." Alexis grabbed her coat.

Castle took Kate's elbow before she could follow Alexis out. "What's going on?"

Kate sighed. "It could be nothing. I hope it's nothing."

"Kate-"

"We just need some context for a phone call that Paige made, that's all."

"What phone call?" When Kate refused to meet his eyes, he took her hand. "Kate. What phone call?"


They sat in the break room, Castle next to Alexis, and Kate across from them. She had a folder in front of her, and Castle recognized the look on his wife's face. She'd filled him in on the basics, but without hearing the whole story, he didn't know what to think. He'd been tempted to call his lawyer, but it would work out. It had to.

"How well did you know Paige?" Kate asked first, her voice soft.

Alexis was leaning forward, elbows on the table, her eyes glued to the closed folder. "She was my best friend. We knew almost everything about each other."

"You were both majoring in Psychology." Kate opened the folder and studied part of its contents. "Did you have the same classes?"

"Some, yeah. She was focused more on research, me on criminal psychology." Alexis paused, then looked up at Kate, questions written all over her face. "What's going on, Kate? I thought you needed help on the timeline and info about her ex."

"Yeah, about that." Kate pulled out another piece of paper. "About a week ago, your texts to each other decreased dramatically. Did something happen?"

Alexis hesitated before answering. "We've been focused on school. She'd been struggling so far, but that happens. She was working hard to get back into the swing of things."

"Alexis."

Castle just sat and listened. He had no idea where this was going. Kate hadn't filled him in on everything, which he knew had probably been a good idea.

"Why did Paige call the Dean's office?"

Alexis's head snapped up. "What?"

"Yesterday morning, about an hour before she was killed. She called the Dean's office, left a message that she, and I quote, 'needed to speak to someone about Alexis Castle.' Please, Alexis." Kate leaned forward, her face softening. "What happened?"

"I didn't think she'd go through with it," Alexis mumbled.

"Go through with what?" Castle interrupted.

Alexis shot a look towards him, one that asked for both his help and his forgiveness. "The past year has been rough on Paige. Her parents were having trouble, her grades have been slipping, she got dumped. She'd been having a hard time with one class in particular, so I offered my help, since I'm taking it too. I figured we could share notes and I could help her study."

"And by study-"

"I meant quiz each other and the like. She meant cheat." Alexis finished Kate's sentence with a heavy sigh. "Anyway, we fought about it a couple days ago, again. She wanted me to help her cheat, I said no way. She claimed she just hadn't had time to study. I said she-"

Alexis stopped herself and dropped her head to her hands. "I said she should have thought about that before screwing a student for a grade she didn't even give. She got mad and threatened to call the Dean, and tell him that I had asked her to cheat."

"Alexis-" Castle whispered. He spared a glance at his wife; to the casual viewer she was listening intently, but he could see the worry in her eyes, the tension around her mouth. She knew something.

"That was two days ago. What happened this morning?"

"She texted me, said she was calling the Dean. I told her to go ahead. I didn't think she'd do it." Alexis looked up at her dad, tears shimmering in her eyes. "We've fought before and we've always made up. So I said fine, do it, we'll see what happens. That was when I met you for coffee, Dad."

"She's who you were texting when I sat down."

Alexis nodded. "And that was it. You can check my phone."

Kate audibly swallowed, her eyes on the file in front of her. "I hate to ask you this. But where were you between nine and nine-thirty this morning?"

"I-" Alexis hesitated.

Castle did the math in his head; they'd met at eight, Alexis had left after just a few minutes, and he'd gotten the body call around 9:45. It was a short time of death window.

After a long silence, Alexis spoke again, her voice soft. "I was home. Alone."

The three sat in silence for a few moments until they were interrupted by a quiet knock on the door. Kate stepped outside the room and picked up the phone at Ryan's desk; by the way her shoulders stiffened, Castle knew something was wrong. She returned to the room with a young uniform in tow.

"That was CSU. Your fingerprints were all over Paige's apartment, including the outside of her door. I know it'll be cleared up soon and we'll find who really did it. But for now, can you stick around? At least until I can figure it out."

"Of course my prints are there!"

"Kate-"

"Call the lawyer, Castle." Kate motioned for the officer to step closer, then turned back to Alexis. "Look, just hang out for a while, ok? We'll get this cleared up ASAP." She pulled Alexis into a tight hug. "I'm so sorry about Paige."

"Thanks." Alexis sat back down and raked her fingers through her hair.

"Hang on, you don't actually think she had anything to do with it?" Castle protested, blocking Kate from the door. "Kate, there's no way."

"It's just temporary, Castle. Alexis, can I get you anything?" Alexis just shook her head, and Kate opened the door. "Let me know if you do."

"Just hang tight, Pumpkin." Castle squeezed her shoulders, holding her tight, not wanting to let go until he absolutely had to. They'd figure out what happened, who really killed Paige, and they'd do it soon.

They had to.