A/N: In the immortal words of Sheldon Cooper under the influence of valium… "I'm ba-aaack!" :P
And before you say, yes I know I've taken FOREVER to write this but getting the dynamics right in this chapter was crucial… not to mention writing exposition can be REALLY tough.
But this is a very important chapter too and I hope it was worth your wait.
Thanks for your patience.
P.S. There's a lot more murder case stuff in this chapter then there has been in previous ones. I just felt it deserved a really great conclusion. But in saying that it's not the ENTIRE focus of this story so please excuse any plot holes.
P.P.S. Wanna know a secret? … I'm Batman! Shhhh! :D
#
Previously…
"Kate." Castle called out to her. Beckett froze in surprise at his use of her first name. With her heart racing in her chest for reasons she didn't quite understand, Beckett once again turned back to face him. And before she knew what was happening Castle walked up and put his arms around her, pulling her into a warm and gentle hug. Beckett was too stunned to move.
"Thank you." He whispered quietly to her, his genuine and touching words flowing through her, allowing her to relax into his embrace, her arms finding their own way around him. It was only a few moments before they both withdrew from each other, but as Beckett finally made her way towards the exit she couldn't stop the small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
TBC…
#
"So what have we got?" Beckett asked her boys as she exited the break room with her third cup of coffee for the day, instinctively dodging other detectives and officers hustling through the precinct at the midday hour.
"Well I was thinking of who might have helped our victim stash away all that money," Esposito began as he stood up from his desk,
"So I went back through the list of friends and family and I saw that her brother-in-law graduated from NYU with a degree in accounting."
"I thought he was a landscape architect?" Beckett queried, slightly confused.
"He is. He was working for a large consulting firm for two years before he changed his career, got married and moved to the suburbs. " Esposito clarified.
"So she could've gone to him for help..." Beckett finished the though.
"Except the victim and her sister haven't spoken to each other for over 10 years." Ryan piped up.
"Still I'd like you to go through both their phone records and emails to check if they've been in contact in the last few months." Beckett requested as she walked over to her desk and slid her jacket from the back of her chair.
"Call me if you find anything." She said, heading out of bullpen towards the elevator.
"Say hi to Alexis for us." Ryan called out to Beckett as she left.
#
The drive into the hospital grounds that afternoon was in stark contrast to her previous visit only eight hours before. Instead of having to slowly edge the car through a media circus to get to the emergency department, the footpath and grassy areas were empty, said for the occasional empty coffee cup littering the ground. It clearly hadn't taken the reporters and cameraman long to move on to another breaking story. Flashing her badge at the same nurse who had occupied the desk that morning, the door to the ward was immediately opened for Beckett. At the end of the corridor, Beckett paused briefly before knocking softly on the door of Alexis' room, pushing it open gently and peering inside to check if she was sleeping. But when she saw the young red head sitting up in bed reading, Beckett opened the door all the way and stepped inside the room.
"Detective Beckett!" Alexis greeted her with a warm smile.
"Hey, just thought I'd stop by to see how you're doing," Beckett replied as she walked over to the bed, "And I brought you something." She added with a smile, handing over a small, white paper bag that she had bought with her.
"Thank you." Alexis gratefully accepted the gift, eagerly opening the top of the bag before peering inside.
"Butterscotch white macadamia cookies!" She squealed in delight. Beckett smiled,
"Your dad said they're your favourite." Beckett said before a low murmur interrupted their conversation. Beckett looked up and across the room only to see Castle curled up on the couch under a blanket sleeping.
"He refused to go home so I finally managed to convince him to get some sleep. Grams just left to go home and bring us both back some clean clothes." Alexis explained. Beckett smiled to herself as her eyes briefly scanned over his peaceful face and dishevelled hair, allowing herself just a brief moment to admit to herself how adorable he looked.
"So, how are you feeling?" Beckett asked, turning her attention back to the young woman.
"I'm doing okay," Alexis said tiredly, "the doctor says that I'll probably be released tomorrow."
"That's good." Beckett responded in relief.
"Well I should leave you to get some rest." She added after a few minutes of comfortable silence, "Ryan and Esposito also wanted me to tell you to get better soon."
"Thanks, and thank you for coming Detective Beckett." Alexis replied sincerely. After a brief pause Kate smiled warmly back at her and said,
"Call me Kate."
#
Two days later Beckett and Esposito were standing in the observation room watching their suspect through the one-way mirror. The victim's estranged sister, a tall, thin and well-dressed Caucasian woman in her early 40's sat at the interrogation room table. Her arms were crossed loosely over her chest, her right heel tapping the floor impatiently whilst her facial expression read indignant boredom, like she had better things to do with her time then be a murder suspect.
"I got the subpoena's back on our victim's and brother-in-law's home and work computers." Esposito informed Beckett before continuing,
"Turns out that our brother-in-law had a separate email account that he only used at work to email someone named Alicia Holmes. But when I traced the ISP address of the emails sent from that account it came back to an internet café just two blocks from our victim's hotel."
"Did you talk to the manager at the internet café?" Beckett asked.
"Oh yeah. Got security camera footage of our victim entering the internet café only minutes before each of the emails were sent. And tech also gave us print outs of all the emails sent between the two accounts." Esposito said, handing over a small stack of paper he had been holding,
"Looks like our victim offered the brother-in-law $20,000 in return for his help hiding the money. Apparently he needed it to pay overdue medical bills from his wife's stay in the hospital last year." Beckett glanced over the papers in her hand but barely had to the opportunity to absorb their contents before Ryan made his entrance.
"I finally got in contact with the brother-in-law's business partner. He said that two days before the murder he remembers walking in on our suspect in her husband's office using his computer while he was out on a job." Ryan began, referring to the open file in his hand,
"When he asked her what she was doing she said that the internet connection at their house wasn't working and she just stopped in to check her emails. But when the business partner offered to come over and look at the internet on his way home from work she got flustered, insisted that it wasn't a big deal and that she'd call technical support when she got home." Beckett and Esposito shared a knowing glance at this telling revelation.
"Now he thought it was kind of odd at the time and was planning to mention it to his partner but got side-tracked with work and forgot about it." Ryan added briefly.
"So our suspect could've seen the emails between her husband and the victim." Beckett surmised as Ryan handed her the file.
"But how did she know who he was talking to? The victim set up the email account under a fake name." Esposito thought aloud.
"Let's ask her." Beckett declared.
#
"Why am I here Detective?" The suspect demanded in irritation as Beckett entered the interrogation room, "I already told you everything I know."
"Mrs Bennett, you've waved your right to have an attorney present?" Beckett asked as she took a seat at the table across from the suspect, placing the files down in front of her.
"I don't need a lawyer. I didn't do anything wrong." She stated confidently, clearly attempting to prove her superiority over the detective right from the beginning.
"Mrs Bennett, why did you visit your husband's workplace last Friday?" Beckett enquired. The suspect's cocky smile faltered slightly at the question, but she recovered quickly.
"As my husband's business partner probably told you, our internet connection at home wasn't working so I decided to drop in briefly on my way to my hair appointment to check my email." She explained, trying to maintain a calm and casual demeanour. Beckett didn't reply straight away, instead opening the file on the table and pulling out one of the papers.
"Was that when you saw this?" Beckett asked as she placed the paper down in front of the suspect. The woman's eyes briefly dropped down to look at the information in front of her before quickly looking up again.
"I have never seen this before." She insisted, her voice faltering slightly under the weight of the lie.
"Really? Because we have the records from your husband's work computer, and it shows that this email account was accessed at 10:47am, the same time you were there." Beckett explained, pausing to allow this information to sink in.
"So when did you suspect your husband was having an affair?" Beckett asked seemingly from out of left field. The suspect clenched her jaw, letting out a deep sigh of resignation.
"After I heard about my sister's theft of millions of dollars of other people's money I noticed my husband started acting differently. He spent more hours at work, and whenever I brought up her name he'd act nervous and refused to talk about her. So when I went to his office to try and find some evidence to use when I divorced him, I found that email address." She detailed angrily.
"How did you know it was your sister your husband was emailing?" Beckett prompted her to continue her story. The suspect snorted in derision,
"My sister thought she was being so clever using a fake name. She didn't think that I'd remember the name of the head cheerleader of her graduating class that got knocked up a month before graduation." She snarled with contempt, her anger continuing to overflow,
"And when I saw those emails about the money I realised that my no-good rat of a husband was leaving me for my bitch of a sister. They were going to run away together with all those millions of dollars and leave me with nothing! And there was no way I was gonna let her destroy my life!"
Beckett waited silently for a few moments as the suspect slowly deflated under the realisation of what she had just done.
"Mrs Bennett, your husband wasn't having an affair with your sister," Beckett revealed as she returned the piece of paper to the file, "he was helping her hide the money she stole in return for $20,000 to pay off your medical bills." She said, turning and exiting the interrogation room to give their suspect time to contemplate the ramifications of her mis-guided actions.
TBC…
Finally! Done! Damn this was a tough chapter.
But the good news is next chapter there's nothing but Castle/Beckett/Alexis goodness! And I know you want that! :D
So please review and let me know how much you want Castle/Beckett/Alexis goodness :D
Foghorn_clj87