I promised you questioning, you will get questioning! This is me procrastinating; I really don't want to write my english essay!
Disclaimer: I want it to be mine but it's not.
"So tell me Mark, why where you chasing a young girl around New York?" Beckett slammed a ring-binder onto the table before taking a seat. Her shoulders were set and her eyes steely.
"Do I have to answer?" Mark Slinger shifted nervously in his seat. The cops had bundled him into a police car after arresting him and he had been sitting in the interrogation room for ten minutes before anyone had come to question him.
"No, but then you'll be facing murder charges on top of everything else." Beckett leant across the table, narrowing her eyes. "Start from the beginning."
"I didn't kill anyone, okay!" Mark shot up at the accusation. "I was following the girl – her name's Melanie – because she was going to lead me to her Dad. He's the person I want to harm, I was just going to threaten her a bit to get at her Dad! His job – do you know what he does? He works for animal testing companies; it's cruel the way the animals are treated. They have souls you know!"
"How do you know her name?" Beckett asked backing off a little.
"I heard her friends call her it. Outside the school you know."
"So, you chase her for ten blocks around Manhattan?" Beckett was getting frustrated, he was talking too slowly.
"I didn't know she would run! Or be able to run for such a long distance! And I hadn't realised she'd called the cops." Mark slumped back in his chair. He had been surprised when she'd sprinted off, he had followed her immediately but he had tired quickly – it had been a long time since he had run any distance.
"Did you kill Roger Nichols and his wife?" Beckett cut to the chase, if he had done it he was doing well to conceal his guilt.
"They're dead? Oh, I see. You're trying to pin this on me? You think I would try and threaten Melanie to scare her parents if I knew they were dead? I'm not stupid." Mark slammed his fists on the table but Beckett didn't flinch.
"It would be a good cover. Tell me Mark, where were you yesterday between nine in the morning and twelve noon?"
"I was trying food at 'Terri' a nice organic cafe on West 23rd street. I'm writing an article for a magazine on places that use organic materials. Ask their staff, I loved their hummus and avocado wrap."
"Oh, we will." Beckett snapped before standing up to leave.
"Can I go now?" Mark asked with a smug look.
"No, we're still charging you with carrying a hidden firearm without a license and bringing various charges against you for threatening Melanie. I'll have the officers escort you down." Beckett smiled as the smug look fell from Mark's face.
"He didn't do it." Castle said as Beckett walked into the break room from the interrogation.
"You're right. Waitress places him in the cafe from quarter past nine until half past twelve eating his way through the menu. He couldn't have got from the apartment to the cafe in fifteen minutes. He was sat by the door, in full view of a security camera across the street." Ryan read through his notes before grabbing a biscuit and heading back to his desk.
"The door..." Castle murmured.
"What about the door?" Beckett asked, this was usually when he came up with some crazy idea that was either totally wrong or had some sense behind it.
"The door to the Nichols' apartment hadn't been broken into. The lock was still intact. That means that the Nichols knew whoever was at the door." Castle exclaimed.
"The Nichols knew their murderer!" Beckett followed the idea, it was certainly logical but there was one issue. "The doorman said nobody came into the building to see them though and there's no-one on the camera footage."
"There's a fire exit at the back of the building. The door is falling off its hinges; it's easy to get in." Melanie spoke from the doorway. "I saw you come over here and I wondered what you'd found out."
"Your chaser didn't kill your parents, he did want to threaten them but he didn't know they were dead and he has a solid alibi. How're you holding up?" Beckett asked, turning to face the girl.
"I'm alright. It's just a bit shocking you know? This is only the second time I've really come face to face with a protestor. It's not an everyday worry for most teenagers. I'm sixteen, I should be anxious about exams and friends and stuff not scared that there might be lunatic following me around!"
"Something like this has happened before?" Castle looked shocked as he blurted out the question.
"Yeah, see this?" Melanie lifted the bottom of her top slightly to reveal a long pink scar about five inches long. "I was ten. An animal rights extremist grabbed me and as I struggled his knife slipped and stabbed me. I told everybody that I had my appendix taken out, I didn't want to explain."
"The guy went to prison though?" Castle asked. At just sixteen years old this girl had been stabbed and had lost both her parents; huge traumas but she didn't break down in tears or even show any hint of grief.
"Yeah, he's still there. Sentenced to ten years. You think it was somebody my Dad knew that killed him?" Melanie addressed Beckett with a serious look in her eye.
"It's a possibility. Can you think of a person who didn't like him, somebody in the business possibly?"
"Dad was only working on one study at the moment, for a company called, em, Red Tiger Research. It's the first study in their new lab." Melanie shrugged as she finished. She had no idea why any person in the business would kill her father; he was one of the best in his field.
"I'll have someone look into the progress of the study, see if anybody there was planning on visiting your Dad." Beckett smiled before heading off to make some calls. If their new theory was correct then it could be a Red Tiger employee who was the last to see Mr and Mrs Nichols alive, or the first to see them dead.
More soon, I promise!
Hattie xx