Author's note: It's about time to remember that "Castle" has something to do with cops and murderers and all that stuff.

Thanks as always to my lovely beta annem57 and first time fan APseudonimo. But thank you to all of you as well, who are following, favoriting and/or reviewing this story. You being interested is what helps me work on this story trying to get it as good as possible.

Disclaimer: I definitely do not own "Castle" otherwise I would probably not be musing about what "complicated" may tell us about season 6.


Chapter 9 – Three bodies

Det. Walter Harris' POV

Tuesday, May 25th 2021

He watched his partner dropping the papers noisily onto the desk of the interrogation room and glaring at their suspect, one Stanley Brim.

"We know that you knew Angela. You worked at the same office for more than two years." Harris reached for the file and flipped it open looking at some papers in there to make sure the guy sitting across the desk knew that they had already proof to about what Stanley had done.

"I would have never laid a finger on her. I loved her!" Harris noticed that the guy was using past tense, but he didn't react to that.

"You loved her, secretly, but she didn't love you back. Am I right? You admired her from afar. You talked to her from time to time. Nothing special, just about work and other small talk maybe," Harris started to paint a picture of Brim's connection to the victim. "You took her shifts when she needed to change them. You were willing to do everything for her. You were patient. One day she would see you. You were willing to wait for her. But she didn't come to you, did she? She found someone else. She married. She didn't care for you. She never had."

Harris paused to let the story sink in. He used the tense silence to watch the facial expressions of the plain guy sitting just across him. He didn't look like a killer but most of the time they didn't. Obviously he was trying to hide the hurt which had appeared on his face, when Harris had been talking. He wasn't all that successful in doing so. He was even rubbing his right ear for the third time now. He seemed to be getting nervous already.

Harris' partner Rodriguez sat down next to him and took over from there. "And then you saw her that evening on the street again, hand in hand with her husband. Smiling at him the way you wanted her to smile at you. And he was holding her. The woman you knew was your soul mate. You couldn't let go. And you followed them. One block," he tapped the knuckles of his fisted hand onto the desk's surface, "... two blocks," accompanied by another tap.

"And it was eating at you, wasn't it? You needed to know. You went up to them. You addressed her. But she didn't even remember you. For more than two years you had seen her every day at work, but she didn't recognize you. She thought you were just a random guy. She was stabbing your heart, tearing it apart. The smile on her husband's face was mocking you. It was too much for you."

It was Harris' turn again. "You couldn't take it anymore and you drew your knife." He dropped the evidence bag onto the desk, right in front of Brim's cuffed hands. It was holding the blood covered knife they had found only some blocks from the crime scene.

"You only wanted to teach him a lesson but it went all wrong. She stepped in front of him, protecting him. And you stabbed her. You didn't mean to, but you killed her. It was an accident. She was still breathing but in severe pain. Her husband was holding her, crying over her. Then he started yelling at you and you stabbed him too. When you realized that they were about to die you ran. You dumped the knife. You let them bleed out on the street and just ran off."

The guy was shaking his head, eyes wide, in disbelieve. Or more likely denying it. He didn't want it to be true but it was.

"We know you didn't want it to happen. You didn't mean to kill her. You are no coldblooded murderer, Stanley." Harris used his first name to get closer to him. "You are just a man that has been hurt deeply. You don't want to face murder charges, do you? We can talk to the DA. But first you need to sign this." Harris took a paper from the file and pushed it over the surface of the desk toward the guy. Then he took his pen and gently laid it on top of the confession-sheet. He looked him in the eye.

"Please look at it. Is this the way it happened?" He tapped his finger onto the paper, drawing Stanley's attention to it. "Or do you want us to change anything?" The moment the guy took up the pen and started to read the paper, Harris knew he had won. He exchanged a victorious smile with his partner.

"Nice work, Detectives," Captain Davidson addressed them as they stepped out of the interrogation room later. Obviously she had been watching from observation.

"Thank you, Sir. When we discovered his connection to the woman it was piece of a cake," Rodriguez answered waving the compliment off. The captain still nodded appreciative.

"Please make sure the paperwork is done by tomorrow. And don't forget the meeting. 9 am, conference room. Detective Hastings will join us." Then she turned and headed back to her office box. Harris nudged his partner, who was staring at her legs, again. He gave him a disapproving look but Rodriguez didn't seem to feel guilty at all.

"Hey, I'm only lookin'. Men are allowed to."

"Sure, but she's the Captain and you wouldn't like to be caught staring, do you? And I'm pretty sure Caroline wouldn't be pleased as well," Rodriguez grimaced at the mention of his wife.

Harris put the file on top of a huge pile on his desk. He was satisfied that they got a confession this time and it surely cut their work short but he wasn't looking forward to going through all that paperwork that awaited him. He was a cop not a clerk. If he had wanted to fill in forms all day he would have made a different choice of profession. He didn't bother to hide his groan.

"Since I did most of the work in there what about you do this, Rod?" he gestured towards the pile of papers.

"Yeah, sure," his partner sarcastically answered, "I've done my share too. Besides calling me out on it before and now wanting something from me? Not a smart move there, buddy."

Harris flinched at his partner in response when Rodriguez' desk phone rang. 'Please let it be a body' he mentally crossed his fingers and saw his partner writing something down. After he had hung up, Rodriguez knitted his brows and was ready to tell him. Hopefully good news for him about a body drop, because then he got to leave his desk.

"Three dead bodies near 178 Thompson Street." Wow, three at once. That's going to be interesting. "It's kids. Preschoolers. Nothing more yet."

Harris' face fell. Oh no. Cases on dead children were the worst. Not only because of the parents whose life fell apart, but also because they were especially tough on those cops who had children on their own. Luckily he wasn't one of them but he had a niece in junior year. And he could imagine what it meant to someone losing a child. Not to mention the pressure, which usually was put on all of them by the Mayor and Commissioner on solving such cases. Children's murders were the kind of horrific news the papers liked to spread immediately, causing scared parents to keep their kids at home and schools closing for days on the lack of students until they were able to catch the perpetrators.

"Your turn!" He grabbed his jacket and threw the keys to his partner quickly heading to the elevator. 'That's gonna be a hell of a week.' He thought by himself.

When they reached the crime scene they knew it was even worse than they had expected. There was a crowed of curious onlookers blocking the sight of the yellow tape at first. Flashes told them that press was already there as well. Harris exchanged an annoyed look with his partner before they worked through the people, coming to a hold in front of Caltonati. The younger man, a uniformed cop, seemed busy in hushing people away although it didn't work well. But at least nobody really tried to get through the tape.

Harris flashed his patch at him even though they knew each other. "Bad one, huh?" he asked motioning for the people behind him.

Caltonati nodded and answered in a low voice, "We even had to draw the tape in a wider circle to keep them from running the scene. ME is already there and CSU is searching the surroundings," he told them while he lifted the tape to let Rodriguez and Harris pass.

They rounded the corner and made their way into the once shadowy alley which was now lit by the four flood lights CSU had put up obviously expecting a long night. Behind a dumpster Harris could make out a person crouching down. As they got there he recognized Dr. Perlmutter, one of the MEs they were worked with from time to time.

Rodriguez flinched at the sight. Personally, this guy could be difficult to deal with sometimes, but he was really good professionally. But more disturbing than the idea of working with Perlmutter was the glimpse they got on the bodies sitting, literally sitting, behind the doctor. Three young children, one boy, two girls, dressed in rather old fashioned all dark blue clothes, were sitting back at the brick wall side by side on the ground. They seemed to be leaning on one another a little bit too. All three children had short blond hair, with one longer strand of hair tangling behind their right ear. The girls wore a bow in it. Their eyes were closed and their facial expressions seemed calm. Only their pale skin and blue lips indicated that they were not just sleeping. They looked like life size dolls. Harris could hear his partner sucking in air. He had to swallow himself. The peaceful staging and the lack of blood or any sign of violence made it even more eerie.

"What have we got, Doctor?" Harris addressed the ME as he put on his gloves.

"One female and one male, both age about 5, another female probably age 4," Perlmutter answered dryly without even looking up at him.

"Cause of death?" He wasn't able to spot any obvious signs on the bodies.

"So far not much about that, Detective. No wounds, signs or marks indicating the cause of death. Body temperature and the fading rigor mortis indicate they have been dead for at least 24 hours. Post-mortem lividity shows they have been moved after death but have been put into this upright position even before they were brought to this lovely place. Probably their last rest was a little more comfortable than a brick wall. I'll know more as soon as I have them on my tables."

"Any idea how long they have been here?" A uniform who was standing beside answered instead of Perlmutter.

"There is a back entrance to a little restaurant over there but it is only used by the kitchen staff when they get out for a cigarette which they actually do on a regular basis about every hour. When they came out at half past seven everything was as usual. But when the sous-chef took his break at a quarter to nine he discovered them. He was the one to make the call."

"Do we have an ID?" Harris wanted to know but the medical officer only shook his head.

"With kids that age we rarely have dental records or finger prints either so it could get rather difficult. We'll probably have to go on the DNA." Perlmutter stated.

"Well, somebody must be missing them," his partner Rodriguez answered. He had been wandering the crime scene to check for anything out of the usual. Yeah he was right.

"Let's check the missing persons to find out who they are and traffic surveillance for the time between 7:30 and 8:45. Maybe we'll get lucky and find something on the scumbag that deposited them here. You give us a call when you got results, Doc?" Perlmutter nodded and turned to the bodies again.

"Let's get going, back to the precinct." Rodriguez was already heading off to get to the car.


Author's note: I think I may have missed to remind you on reviewing in my last chapter. I hope you guys are more interested in giving me some feedback this time. You know I appreciate all of your reviews, don't you?