The apartment was located on the outskirts of the city. It was far from where Niemann used to work, and even further from the precinct. The building itself was old, crumbling, looked better fit for hosting a fighting ring than a family. The lift was another story altogether- half the buttons barely working and doors that didn't quite close shut.

The team wisely decided to take the stairs.

It was the kind of buildings Beckett was too used to, back when she was in Vice. More often than not drug dealings, gambling, and other such activities were carried out in the empty units of such places. The thought of raising a child here made her shiver.

Beckett made a mental reminder to ask Helen exactly how she got to the precinct. Right now, they had more pressing matters at hand.

Their unit was on the very last floor, all the way at the top. Beckett noted that it was the only unit of the floor that was currently being rented- there were no other tenants on that entire floor.

Helen and Castle was still in the car, as a safety precaution, when Beckett, along with Esposito and Ryan barged through the door.

"Clear!"

"Clear!"

"Clear here too!"

Lowering her gun, Beckett studied the apartment. He gestured at Esposito, telling him to call Castle and bring Helen up.

The place was pretty average. It was obviously renovated and cleaned up-the walls were painted and smelled of lemon and honey, a sharp contrast to the musty, sickening smell outside.

There was distinct lack of any personal pictures. There were, however, two huge shelf absolutely filled with books, medical reports, and various magazine and newspaper clippings.

Apparently the family liked to read.

The living room was pretty standard-couch, television, dining table.

Helen entered the apartment not long after. "Did you find them? My parents?"

Beckett shook her head. "No, but we're looking. Do you think you could show us around your house?"

A nod. "Erm, that's my room," she pointed to a door with a bored carved with her name attached to it. "That's my parents' room and that is daddy's work room. I'm not allowed to go in there and he always keeps it locked."

"Why don't you take Detective Ryan with you to your room? Go pack up some of your things to bring back with you."

"Does this mean I'm staying with you for a long time? If mommy and daddy…"

The small voice absolutely broke Kate's heart.

When they opened the door to Tyson's "work room" they were pretty much expecting everything and anything.

But somehow, see the single, lone USB drive on the ground, obviously placed there for them to find in the otherwise empty room still managed to surprise them.

Beckett picked up the drive. It gave her a sense of déjà vu, of the time she and Castle found something similar in the pen.

It had been a shock, hearing the song. Hearing the proof of Tyson's status as a living person through the music. Hadn't he done enough?

Ryan still hadn't forgiven himself for losing his gun, for getting the young girl killed. And the man had the guts to imprison her boyfriend after that.

And when they finally, finally thought they killed him he just had to come back, violate her best friend, scare her fellow detective.

It was all too much.

And yet, through all that the fact that they were raising a child, an innocent child and letting her believe that they cared about her, that they loved her…

Because they didn't really care about Helen, right?

They were killers.

Murderers.

Psychopaths.

They had no regard for the value of human life.

So why…

"You okay there?" It was Castle, asking with a concerned look on her face.

"Yeah. Ah, let's go check out the other rooms."

The rest of the house, just like the living room was pretty normal. There weren't any suspicious equipment in the kitchen, no head in the fridge, nor were there any blood underneath the mats. Castle almost looked dismayed.

Almost. There was relief in his eyes too, Beckett could see that. Relief that Helen didn't see anything she shouldn't have seen.

"Hey. Helen's gotten all her stuff. We'll get CSU to dust and pack the entire place." It might not have been a crime scene, but there was enough evidence to strip and turn the entire place upside down. Jerry Tyson was a person on interest. Very intense interest.

"Okay Ryan. You okay, Helen?"

"Yep. Do I really have to bring all the stuff? Isn't mommy and daddy going to come back soon?"

Ryan leans down, shifting the bags full of Helen's clothes and books around. "There's no telling, but better to get all your stuff right? In fact, you might be moving soon."

Helen looked a little apprehensive, but didn't say anything.

"Let's get back to the precinct. I'm sure after a good lunch, we can all work together and, erm, find Helen's parents."

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful, at most. They mostly lounged around, reading and re-reading the file, tip-toeing around Helen and waiting for CSU to come back with something (even though they all knew it would take a day at least.) It was only after Alexis volunteered to bring Helen back to the loft and take care of her for the rest of the evening that they finally decided to see what was on the drive.

Three detectives, a writer and their captain huddled around the screen. Ryan plugged in the USB.

Beckett sincerely hopped it wasn't another song.

Whatever it was though, they all knew that it won't bring them any closer to capturing Tyson. He wasn't one to leave clues lying around like that.

The most that they could hope for was that it contained something about Helen. Anything. Truth be told, the fact of who her parents were weren't enough to do anything. She had no social security number, no records, she might as well not have existed.

Not that anyone was expecting her to have all these.

Ryan opened the folder up. There was a single file on it, a video. On the thumbnail, a picture of Tyson could be seen.

Ryan clicked, and they all held their breaths.


I was listening to Panic! At the Disco the entire time I was writing this and accidentally typed in some of the lyrics (._.

Thanks for reading as always, and do drop a review. On a not so separate note, I'm looking for a beta (nothing major, just for grammar or situational mistakes.) Any takers?

My tumblr- lexie-axe