Disclaimer: I'm a poor college student with no income.
Hey guys!
Sorry once again for the delay - it was actually my editor's fault this time, not mine. So blame her (actually she was busy with homework and such, so I forgave her, but still)!
Alright, I hope you like this chapter, cause I do & it was a load of fun to write!
REVIEW, OR I WILL KILL CASTLE. AND EVERYBODY ELSE.
Love you all,
-Ana
The suspect sat inside the interrogation room looking utterly confused and slightly worried, with his brow furrowed over his troubled expression. He periodically scratched his nose, and sometimes drummed his fingers on the table.
Nikita and Ryan stood on the other side of the one way mirror, watching the man as he rocked back and forth in his chair. The rest of the auror team was out of the office attempting to track down a few other possible suspects on the streets of London. The Captain had muttered something about a meeting with the Master, quickly gulped down Nikita's coffee, and immediately proceeded to disapparate to (presumably) the headquarters.
"If you'd like, I can talk to him," Ryan offered, not taking his eyes off the suspect.
"It's alright, I should probably do it," Nikita replied.
Ryan nodded.
"Good luck."
Straightening out her shoulders, she grabbed the purple folder off the nearby table. She took a steadying breath, and once she made sure that her expression was nothing but neutral, she opened the door of the interrogation room and entered.
Castle immediately stood up; knocking back the blue fold-out chair he had just been sitting on.
"Why have you brought me here?" he demanded.
Nikita cleared her throat and fixated her eyes on his in a hard stare, silently willing him to sit down. He returned her stare begrudgingly, but picked up his chair nonetheless and sat down again.
"I'll be the one asking questions here Mr. Castle," she replied coolly.
The man looked more confused than ever.
Nikita walked over so she faced him on the opposite side of the single metal table as she flipped the folder open and took out the two photos she had put in there earlier – those of the murder victims.
"Have you ever seen either of these people?"
Castle glanced over at the photos and gave them a cursory once-over before he looked back up at Nikita.
"The older gentleman came over to the house once or twice to meet up with mother. They're a form of friends or another. The woman I've never seen in my life. What my mother and I have told you before is true."
Nikita nodded.
"Where were you between midnight and 2 o'clock on Monday and Wednesday two weeks ago?"
"On Monday I believe I was finishing up with a book signing and on Wednesday I was stuck in my office writing the whole night," he replied confidently.
"How many OWLs did you get in your fifth year at Hogwarts?" Nikita changed the subject abruptly.
Castle scratched his head.
"Eleven or twelve, I can't remember…" he trailed off momentarily. "Look, why are you asking me all this? How did you even know I'm a wiz-?"
Nikita cut him off.
"Do you or do you not have the ability to practice wandless magic?"
"Just a few simple spells, nothing big," he replied. "But I don't know anymore because I haven't tried it in years."
"A brilliant student with a perfect record and some extraordinary magical abilities graduates Hogwarts and decides to live his life as a muggle. Why?" Nikita stared straight at him, her voice never wavering. It was a technique she was known for – it unnerved people, and she'd broken more than one suspect with it.
"Last I checked, that has never been outlawed," Castle shot back with surprising hostility in his voice. "And if you brought me here solely to discuss my life decisions, I'm not bloody interested and I suggest you let me go before I blow this place apart. Figuratively."
He stood up and headed determinedly towards the door. Nikita knew he wouldn't be able to leave, but decided to stop him anyway.
"Your daughter..." she began. Castle stopped abruptly and walked back to the table. Nikita smirked.
"What about my daughter? Last I checked, you were on really good terms with Alexis, and now you're questioning me about her?! Is she okay? Where is she?"
Nikita decided this gave her an advantage. Using his kid against him was cruel to the man, but she had to do it if she wanted this investigation to move forward. Besides, she knew Alexis was at school – the little girl had texted her earlier about some geography project she needed help with.
"She's in safe hands Mr. Castle. But I'd like to know why you raised your daughter as a muggle?"
"Alexis is a muggle," Castle said with such defiance that his words came out in a hiss.
Nikita shook her head.
"Your daughter is a witch, and a powerful one at that, but her power is being squashed by the artificial environment you've created. I want to know why."
Castles face became completely blank, but Nikita wasn't fooled by the apparent lack of emotion. She'd seen this reaction many times before, and she knew she'd hit a nerve.
He was bluffing.
"I don't know how you found out about my wizarding background, but I sure as hell do know that I'm not obligated to answer to you on matters that don't concern your investigation," he said harshly, but Nikita could instinctively detect the feeling of unease in his eyes. He was worried, and she knew it.
"Mr. Castle, the questions I ask always have direct relations to the investigation. It's in no way my fault that you're too stupid to see it."
Upon hearing this, Castle smirked.
"I haven't seen a glimpse of the wizarding world for ten years before the day you dropped your wand on the pavement in my presence. I haven't performed a single spell practically since the year I've left Hogwarts. I don't even know if I can do them anymore, and I'm the last wizard you should suspect of a magical murder."
Even with the mirrored wall that prevented her from seeing outside the interrogation room, Nikita could practically feel Ryan's gaze burning holes into her skull. She hadn't told anyone about her first run-in with Rick Castle, and she certainly hadn't expected him to bring it up today, with every word he said being recorded by the quick quotes quill on the table right outside the room.
Damn, she'd have to bribe Ryan with Gwen Bascher concert tickets, no less, to keep his mouth shut.
Castle cleared his throat loudly and she realised she'd been silent for at least a full minute. She took a deep breath before deciding on an ultimatum.
"I need you to talk to me if you want to get out of here any time soon. Unlike the Scotland Yard laws, the auror departments are allowed to keep you here for a full month. Think about how Alexis would feel if she found out her father is in prison."
Castle chuckled, but Nikita could detect the underlying unease that accompanied it.
"I don't think you'd find any of my information useful," he replied, a little too casually for Nikita's liking.
Nikita sat down on the edge of the desk, and crossed her arms across her chest.
"I can spend all day doing this, don't think you'll ever convince me with your bullshit."
Castle gave her a once over, pausing for a moment on her crossed arms. Noticing his glance, Nikita pulled her shirt up slightly.
"Alright," he settled back in his chair and crossed his own arms and smirking widely at her, "I can do this all day as well."
The man was stubborn, Nikita knew that well. But she also knew that she could break him. And if he planned on being stubborn, that was exactly what she was going to do.
She hopped off the desk abruptly and sat down in the chair opposite the suspect.
"What relationship does your mother have to the wizarding world?"
"She respects it very much," replied Castle in a mocking tone.
Nikita slammed her pen down on the table with a force that made the man twitch slightly. She leaned back and smirked.
Good, she thought, she had him right where she wanted him.
"Is your mother a witch or a muggle?" she asked in a deadly calm tone.
"Neither," he replied in an equally calm tone, "she's a squib. A pureblood squib."
Nikita nodded. That would explain why their first victim – Marcus Grimler – didn't appear to have any magical relations. Squibs were considered equivalent to muggles in the Ministry, and magical records on them were rarely stored.
"And your father?" she questioned further.
"My father?" echoed Rick with a blank expression on his face. "He was a wizard."
"Was?"
"I haven't seen him or heard from him since I was five, I couldn't tell you if he's alive," he explained.
"I see," Nikita almost felt bad for asking him about his family, but it was part of her job, and she knew he'd understand. "Have you any idea why he left?"
Castle shook his head.
"Only what mother told me. She said he left because he couldn't stay."
"And she gave no explanation?"
"None."
"And your daughter?"
"Half-blood, but I think she's a squib too. She hasn't shown any signs of magical ability," he gave a sigh, and Nikita could hear the relief in his voice. She smiled to herself contentedly: she knew more about Alexis than her own father, and that made her feel slightly triumphant over him.
"Why don't you want your daughter to be a witch, Mr. Castle? Magic is a great gift in many ways, shouldn't a pureblood wizard know that?"
His features turned sour.
"It's more of a plague than a gift, really," he declared. "I wouldn't want my daughter facing two cruel worlds at once. One is quite enough."
Nikita found it strange that a pureblood wizard would ever leave the wizarding world to try and live life as a muggle. Things like this just didn't happen. She wondered if prying would do any good…
"Why did you cut yourself off from the wizarding world?" she tried.
Castle leaned forward in his seat and put his elbows on the table, all the while looking her straight in the eye.
"Objection – not relevant to the case," he stated proudly. "You'll have to find that out on your own time, Auror Morar."
Damn.
"Alright," she replied, "let's do this a different way. Are you aware of the laws regarding the mandatory trace being placed on all of wizarding community in the post-war period?"
"I am," he nodded.
"Are you also aware of the consequences one is faced with when the Ministry finds out the trace has been tampered with?"
"Making the choice of living a muggle life doesn't remove the trace," Castle defended.
"Doesn't it?"
"Affirmative. I checked."
Nikita stood up and began pacing around the room slowly, and with a hard look on her face, as if contemplating the best torture method to use on the man – a tactic that had forced quite a few of her suspects into confessing to crime. However Castle's smug look indicated that he didn't give a damn about how she tortured him, all he wanted was to win a debate and go home.
"Then why is it that when I checked your file in our system, the only information I found in it came from Scotland Yard, and the trace on you didn't exist."
"I have no bloody ide – "Castle began, but Nikita cut him off, abruptly stopping her pacing and coming to a standstill across from him.
"And WHY IS IT," she raised her voice, "that when I checked the records on Alexis, they also came up EMPTY?"
"BECAUSE ALEXIS IS NOT A BLOODY WITCH!" bellowed Castle, leaping out of his seat, his face contorted in anger. "She's a muggle, and she has absolutely nothing to do with this ridiculous case you have built against me. You have no hard proof of anything linking me to these two cases you lot haven't managed to get any leads on. You guys use the magic, if it's such a 'great gift' why don't you use it to catch the REAL perpetrator?! KEEP MY DAUGHTER OUT OF THIS!"
Nikita's voice went back to its previous deadly calm as she replied, "For your information Alexis is a witch, and this has been verified. I have proof, and yet," she continued, "there's not a single file in the Ministry that indicates this."
"Look," growled Castle as he leaned across the table towards Nikita, "I have no knowledge of those records. But the one thing I do know is that when I chose to live a muggle life, I did nothing to erase my history as a wizard, so those files you're talking about – they're your responsibility, not mine."
Nikita could tell he wasn't lying. Unlike most aurors, Dan's team was specifically trained in lie detection, and the man before her was telling the absolute truth. He hadn't tampered with the files. But if it hadn't been him, who else was interested in Castle's life enough to beak a major wizarding law?
"Have you any knowledge of anyone who would want to frame you?" she asked.
Castle shook his head with a puzzled look on his handsome face. Nikita ran a hand through her hair in frustration.
"Someone practically had your head handed to me on a silver platter, and you're telling me you've got absolutely no enemies?"
"No one in the wizarding world has a personal vendetta against me if that's what you're asking," he replied. "I haven't been in this world for years, do you honestly think people from here still remember me?"
Nikita bit her lip. He had a point.
"Isn't there any other way these files could've gone missing? A mix-up in the records offices or something?" he suggested.
"No. Actually the only way you come off the record is when you're…dead," she paused as a sudden idea hit her. "Castle, are you a ghost?!"
He laughed at this.
"Do I look like a ghost to you?"
"Well no, but neither did Peeves," she retorted.
"Nikita, Peeves isn't exactly a ghost," replied the man in a somewhat educational tone.
"I know that, but he isn't exactly a living man either," Nikita replied.
Castle shook his head once more.
"There's gotta be another explanation for this," he stated. "Are there any other possible ways this could've happened?"
Nikita frowned.
"Not that I know of."
"Oh, but there is another way that I know of," said a voice from the door.
Nikita turned to find Katie casually leaning against the doorframe, a cup of coffee in hand and a nonchalant expression on her face.
Where the hell had she come from?
"What are you doing here, you aren't supposed to be back until evening!" Nikita exclaimed.
Katie waved her off, as if Nikita was nothing but an annoyingly loud bee.
"But," she continued, "it's a closely guarded Ministry secret, known only by the auror captain and his superiors…and Katie," she added as an afterthought.
"Well?" Nikita prompted.
Katie grinned devilishly.
"Katie will only tell if Nikita agrees to go out on a date with the man of Katie's choosing," she declared.
Nikita sighed exasperatedly. She should've known Katie wouldn't let out information without a bribe.
"Oh, hell no! This is serious, Katie, and I don't want to play your mind games! An innocent man has become a murder suspect because of this mess-up, and I want to set it straight."
Katie gave a shrug, and suddenly became very interested in examining her bright green fingernails.
"So you wouldn't agree at all?"
"Definitely not. I'm not going to date my Captain, and that's final!"
Katie looked confused for a second.
"Who said anything about Dan?"
"Then who are you talking about?" asked Nikita, then hastily added, "not that I'm agreeing to your ridiculous means of exploitation."
Katie hummed and began to clean out imaginary dirt from under her fingernails.
"Not even if the man I want you to go on a date with is the innocent murder suspect himself?"
"Exactly," nodded Nikita then, suddenly realising what had been asked and hearing a loud protest of HEY! coming from the prisoner, she snapped her eyes to where Katie was standing with her hands on her hips (the cup of coffee was supposedly banished back to her desk), and a slight smile playing on her lips. "Wait, WHAT?!"
Katie looked up. "What what?"
"Repeat what you just said," seethed Nikita impatiently.
"I didn't say anything, you must be imagining things," Katie smiled sweetly.
Nikita folded her arms across her chest and stared expectantly at the girl, but to her dismay it didn't seem to faze Katie in the slightest.
"Auror Katie," called Castle from his seat, "if I take her on a damn date, will you bloody tell us already?"
Katie nodded her head rather enthusiastically. Castle grinned.
"I'll drag her out if I have to," he promised Katie, and then turned to Nikita. "Auror Morar, I think you should make a sacrifice for the law," he winked.
She frowned and crossed her arms.
"This in itself is a violation of the law if I'm not mistaken," she told Katie. "And must I remind you that your every word is being recorded?"
Katie gave Nikita a lopsided grin and mirrored her pose, sticking her nose up in the air to indicate the air of stuck up superiority.
"Do you really think I'm that stupid? I turned the recorder off before I came in. It's not like you need it anymore, now that his name has been cleared, plus Dan wouldn't be happy I'm giving out state secrets."
"I give up, do whatever you want," sighed Nikita. Then she turned to Castle. "I agree to one date only, the only reason being that I get to put you in the clear once and for all."
"Good," said Katie, rubbing her hands together with a satisfied smile on her face.
"Well? What's the secret?" prompted Nikita.
"Oh right. Well, the only people who could've gotten to those records are the Record Keepers, the Master, and two of the auror Captains. One of those captains may or may not be our very own Dan Hayes."
Huh.
"Are you saying that Dan did this?"
Katie shook her head.
"I'm saying he could have, not that he had."
Nikita sighed. This information didn't help them in the slightest. The only thing they could do now is restore the records and put the trace back on the Castle family. Perhaps that would be the best line of action.
"Well then – " she began, but stopped short as Dan's head poked through the door, followed by the rest of his body after he scrutinised everyone in the room.
"Niks, Katie," he addressed the two of them, completely ignoring Castle, who was now studying the newcomer intently, "the Master would like to have a chat with the suspect before he is let out."
"But why?" tried Nikita.
"NOW," stated the Captain sternly and, with one criticizing last glance around the room, turned on his heel and headed toward the door.
A/N: REVIEW IF YOU WANT THE NEXT CHAPTER OUT SOON. I HAVE IT WRITTEN ALREADY. IF YOU WANT IT, YOU GOTTA REVIEW OR YOU WON'T GET IT FOR ANOTHER FEW WEEKS.
