First off, my apologies for the huge delay in getting this chapter posted. On the upside, the entire story has been fully outlined now and many chapters have been written, so updates should come quite steadily once I've had a chance to edit and rewrite them. I'm hoping to have the entire story completed and uploaded over the next few days, so stay tuned!

In order to get this story uploaded in a timely manner, I will unfortunately be going the rest of the way solo. I do want to thank my dear partner in writing, Pskepsilon, for his immense help with the story so far and it's my hope that he will still be able to assist in editing these chapters after they've been posted, so there may be changes from time to time here. But for now, you'll just have to settle for my solo work (I hope I don't disappoint!)

And now, on with the story…

Chapter Six

Castle and Beckett escorted Sydney into one of the offices at the precinct and motioned for her to take a seat as they got comfortable opposite her.

"Thank you for coming in, Ms. Carter." Beckett began. "I'm Detective Kate Beckett and this is Richard Castle."

Sydney nodded. "Yes, I know who you are. There's quite a great deal of hype surrounding your upcoming novel-turned-film, Mr. Castle."

Castle smiled at the thought while Beckett continued to focus her attention on the well-dressed woman in front of her. "We appreciate your assistance in our investigation and we promise not to take up too much of your time." She stated.

Sydney turned serious. "Whatever I can do to help, detective. Peter may have been my ex-husband, but I did care very deeply for him and I certainly hope you will bring whoever did this to him to justice."

Castle looked over at Beckett before he spoke. "Forgive me for asking, Ms. Carter, but you and your ex were overheard having quite an argument not that long ago."

Sydney winced at the thought. "Yes, that's true."

"Would you mind telling us what it was about?" Beckett prodded.

Sydney took a deep breath before she replied. "Peter wanted my assistance to stage his comeback. He thought it would be good press for us to make it look like we had reconciled and were getting back together."

"And you were against the idea?" Castle asked.

"Of course, Mr. Castle." Sydney laughed. "It took me years to repair my image after our messy divorce and I had finally found myself back on top while he found himself in the gutter. I wasn't about to let him use me to further his own career and risk having him drag mine back down again."

Beckett's brow furrowed. "So what happened when you told him that?"

"Well, he didn't take it well." Sydney explained. "Peter thought I owed it to him, that he had helped build my career in the first place and now it was time for me to repay him that favour. He tried to threaten that if I didn't help him with this, he would reveal some rather unimpressive details of my past."

"Such as?" Castle asked, unable to hide his own curiosity.

Sydney glared at the prying writer. "When I was first struggling to break into the industry, I found it difficult to get a solid gig. So I did whatever I had to in order to survive. I'm sure you can fill in the blanks from there, Mr. Castle."

"Your ex-husband threatening you must not have won you over." Beckett replied, trying to get whatever she could out of the actress.

Sydney grinned. "No, not at all. But I was used to Peter acting that way and I set him straight. I simply told him those threats went both ways, that I could ruin him just as easily as he could ruin me. We left it at that." Her grin quickly faded. "That was the last time I spoke to him."

Beckett studied the woman's reaction, trying to process the truth in her eyes. "After that, though, you tried to have him fired."

"Yes, that's true." Sydney replied. "Look, detective, I'm not proud of what I did. I wanted to make sure he knew that I was the one in control, not him. So I went to Mr. Brooks and demanded that he let Peter go from the company, put him out on the street before Christmas."

"But Mr. Brooks refused?" Castle asked.

"Yes." Sydney answered. "He refused to fire him over our argument and told me that Peter had been struggling with a drinking problem and would surely dig his own grave soon enough. I accepted that and opted to take my business elsewhere until I had a chance to calm down."

"So what made you decide to return to the store?" Beckett asked.

Sydney looked at the ground for a moment before responding. "I felt badly about Ally and Jason losing out on my commissions. They were good to me, wonderful sales people really, and I suppose my shopping needs far outweighed my personal issues with Peter."

Beckett continued to study the woman across from her. "Is there anything else you can tell us, Ms. Carter, anyone who would have had motive to kill Peter?"

Sydney pondered the question for just a moment before she spoke. "If anybody at that store had a reason to want him dead, it was Brent, his so-called understudy. I found it odd that Brent would even be at the store at that time of day. He was only there to fill in for Peter on his days off and his lunch break, so why was he there so early that day?" She paused for a moment. "Those two really were bitter rivals, you know. Brent certainly would have celebrated Peter's death, whether he caused it or not."

"I didn't kill Peter." Brent shot back, standing his ground opposite the detective and her partner as they interrogated him from across the desk.

Beckett kept her position, hands folded calmly in front of her, unmoving as she sat behind the desk in the interrogation room. "With all due respect, Mr. Black, we know you and Mr. McKay were far from friends."

Brent glared back at Beckett and Castle. "No, detective, we weren't. Truth be told, I couldn't stand the guy." He paused as he continued, keeping his cool. "Peter got every role we ever competed for, including the one that made him a household name when we were kids."

"You resented him for it, didn't you?" Castle asked.

"Of course." Brent replied, matter-of-factly. "But it's part of the business."

Beckett opened up the folder in front of her and glanced down at the information. "Isn't it true that Mr. McKay went so far as to ruin your reputation in order to win a role over you? I'm sure that's not exactly part of the business."

Brent smirked. "You've gotta do what you've gotta do sometimes."

"Yet even as he's poised to make his comeback in the industry, he's still unwilling to give up his small-time gig as the Macy's store Santa? That didn't bother you?" Castle pried.

"It was just how childish Pete could be, Mr. Castle." Brent responded. "I kept my job as his understudy, knowing he'd eventually be himself and screw this up."

Beckett studied the calm man across from her. "So why were you there so early this morning, Mr. Black? Isn't it a bit of coincidence that you just happened to be there hours before your shift on the day that your rival is poisoned?"

Brent smirked again. "Bad timing, I suppose." He paused and continued in a more serious tone. "Listen, detective, I hear a rumour that Pete had been drinking on the job. I figured one of these days he'd screw this up for himself and get caught. I wanted to be there when he did, prove that I was the right man to take over for him."

Castle stared back at him. "And you expect us to believe that?"

Brent looked at Castle, mustering all of the sincerity that he could to try to prove his innocence. "Look, I know how it sounds. But really, Pete didn't have too many fans in that place and anyone there would have been happy to kick the bucket." He studied the defeated look on Castle's face and continued, a smug tone now evident in his voice. "Good luck figuring out who it was. Something tells me you're going to need it."

Castle and Beckett quietly closed the interrogation room door and headed into the break room.

"Do you believe him?" Castle asked her.

Beckett shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure yet." She began to make two cups of coffee for them as she continued. "We'll head over to the store again today and talk to Mr. Brooks, see if he can shed any light on a possible suspect."

Lanie entered the room and made her way over to the pair. "Any leads yet?"

Castle and Beckett both watched her, puzzled.

"Not that I'm not happy to see you, Lanie, but what are you doing up here?" Beckett asked, a light tone to her voice.

Lanie looked back at her friend and laughed. "Girl, you guys have the espresso machine up here." She glared at Castle as she continued. "And I'm still waiting for mine down in the morgue." She winked at the writer to make sure he knew she was kidding.

Castle grinned. Before he could respond with his own witty remark, Esposito walked by and poked his head into the room.

"Hey, thanks again for lunch, Lanie." He said and left as quickly as he could.

Lanie stood, frozen for a minute as she could feel Beckett and Castle's questioning stares focused on her.

"Lunch with Esposito, huh?" Beckett asked, accusingly.

Lanie laughed, attempting to brush off the question. "Just a simple lunch between two co-workers who happened to be free and hungry at the same time." She paused as she looked at the pair in front of her, still smirking in their discovery. "Like you two have never shared a meal together?" She asked, now accusingly herself.

Castle and Beckett exchanged an awkward glance. At the same time, they both responded. "Just once." They smirked at their own synchronicity.

Lanie grinned at the pair. "The way you two do that, you really should go out more often…" She trailed her words, raising her eyebrow with a suggestive tone, causing Beckett to blush and roll her eyes while Castle smiled proudly.

Lanie began to head out of the room and Castle called out to stop her in the doorway. "My dear, Ms. Parish…" he chimed, pointing upwards.

Lanie laughed when she saw the mistletoe. "You're a sly one, Castle, I'll give you that." She joked as she motioned for him to come towards her and get his reward.

"Don't encourage him, Lanie." Beckett chirped, rolling her eyes as Castle winked at her.

Lanie brushed off her friend's comment. "Relax, girl, it's a holiday tradition."

Castle turned to Beckett, triumphant. "Yes, a truly timeless tradition, detective."

Beckett shook her head but had to fight to hold back her smile. Lanie rose up on the balls of her feet and gave Castle a friendly peck on the lips. "See you both later." She said as spun to leave the room.

"See, now is that so difficult?" Castle joked.

Beckett raised her voice as she looked out towards the bullpen at her friend. "I don't know, Castle, you might want to watch your back. Esposito might just hunt you down for that little show." She smirked as she watched Lanie spin back around.

"I heard that!" Lanie shouted at her, laughing at the same time.

Beckett smirked. "Well, I said it out loud…" She shouted back, the sarcasm dripping in her tone.

Castle laughed as he watched Lanie wave her hand to brush Beckett's comments off and continued her exit.

"Alright, Castle, we should get back to work." Beckett said, gesturing for him to walk out of the room first so she could avoid the mistletoe.