Charlie Marx did not look comfortable in his cold steel chair in Interrogation 1. He looked devastated actually, his hair disheveled by his own hands, his glassy brown eyes restlessly moving around the bare room. Kate Beckett loved it when her suspects were fidgeting before she even had a single word with them. A manila file in her hand she entered the room, dropped the file onto the desk with a thump, but remained standing.

Castle didn't join her this time - he was watching from behind the magic mirror with Ryan, following her every move. "By the way, did that Laurie girl from the bakery case finally talk?" Castle asked without turning his eyes away from the interrogation room. Ryan hummed something that sounded like a negation and added "We're keeping her without bail until she talks. We've got enough evidence to hold her without her confession."
They turned their attention to the two people behind the one-way mirror.

"You have been told your rights, Mr. Marx?" Beckett asked, her arms crossed on her chest.

"Yes" Charlie said exasperated, running his hands through his dark hair for about the thirtieth time. "Look, I don't know what you want from me. I had nothing to do with Jamie's death, I didn't even know he was dead until a couple hours ago!" he pleaded, but his tear-stained cheeks did nothing to convince Beckett.

"Is that why you ran away when the police wanted to talk to you? You shoved one of my best officers down a flight of stairs without warning! You could get 3 months to a year for assaulting a member of the NYPD and you expect me to believe that it was because you had nothing to do with James Eagle's murder?" she confronted him in full interrogation mode, completely in control of every nuance of her voice.

Castle looked over to Ryan, who was rubbing his bruised back at Beckett's mention of the incident. "Guess it was your turn this time" Castle said with a shrug of his shoulders. "At least he didn't put you through a wall" he added with a wink and a smile, but Ryan didn't reciprocate the gesture.

"Yes, because it's the truth!" their suspect exclaimed. He sighed and rubbed at the little rhinestone in his left earlobe. "Listen, I freaked, okay? I haven't really paid my bills recently and I don't like cops, so I…"

Beckett suddenly unfolded her crossed arms and charged forward and Charlie winced, maybe expecting to be hit or something. Her facial expression definitely allowed for such an assumption.

Castle chuckled in the observation room. "It isn't particularly smart to say you don't like cops to a detective's face, right?"
Ryan grinned. "Especially not when you've just shoved one of her best detectives down the stairs" he said with the hint of complacent pride in his voice. "She's in a real grumpy aggressive mood today, too. What did you do to annoy her?"
Castle opened his mouth to speak when Ryan went on. "Oh wait, don't tell me, I don't think I want to know."
Castle closed his mouth again and put an impressive pout on his face.

Of course Beckett hadn't hit Marx, but she'd braced her hands on the table and her face was now intimidatingly close to his. "You were sentenced to 10 months up the river for using and distributing in 2007. Maybe that's where your money problems were coming from?"

Castle forgot about his pout and turned to Ryan once more. "Did you know that the phrase 'up the river' refers to the actual Sing Sing prison, because it's up the Hudson River when you're coming from New York City? The state of New York is home to more than 70 prisons. I don't think that everyone who's sent 'up the river' will really be incarcerated in Sing Sing, because there's just…"
"Castle?" Ryan interrupted again. Castle closed his open mouth. "That's better. No wonder Beckett gets so worked up over you."

"No! I'm clean!" Marx called out, helplessly fisting his hands in his hair. "Ever since I've been with Jamie I haven't even thought of taking drugs again! He made me realize that it wouldn't get me anywhere."
Tears were swimming in his eyes. "He made me want to be a better person" he choked out.

"Then why did you break up with him?" Beckett demanded, not moving an inch away from his face. If she leaned any further across the table, Marx would be able to look down her shirt straight to her belly button.

"What? I didn't break up with him! I loved him!"
Beckett gave up with a tired groan and sat down. "Enough with the lying, Charlie!"
"No, seriously!" he pleaded and showed her the palms of his hands, as if that was going to make her believe him. "He was the one who broke up with me! He thought I was cheating on him, but I wasn't. That's what I wanted to talk to him about, the morning he died. He was going to meet me at the delta terminal Starbucks at LaGuardia but he never showed up. I assumed he just didn't want to talk to me. If I'd known that he was already dead…" His voice broke.

Beckett opened the manila file and flew over the pages for a second. "James Eagle worked as a truck driver for a food company up in Manhattan and lived at the other end of town. Why would you meet him all the way across the city at a Starbucks at LaGuardia?"

Marx lifted his head, a single teardrop clinging to his lashes. "I work as a mechanic at the airport."
Beckett faintly smiled and closed the file. "You don't by any chance know how to fly a helicopter?"

Marx broke down with a sob. "I didn't kill him!" he cried out. "I loved him, I'd never hurt him! He wasn't even there that morning!" he screamed through his tears.

Beckett neatly folded her hands on top of the closed file. Even the hint of a smile was gone from her face now and when she spoke, it was with a sharp and cold precision.

"Mr. Marx, do you know how to pilot a helicopter?"

Marx whimpered as tears spilled down onto the table. "I didn't kill him!"

"Do you?" Beckett asked again, her voice determined and harsh, and Castle involuntarily leaned closer into the mirror, wanting to see the killer's face when he cracked.

"I do" he sniffed and Beckett visibly let out a small breath.

"BUT I DIDN'T KILL HIM!"

A/N: Hmmmm...What did you think of it?
Does anyone even care about the case? (It's not closed yet, just so you know. This would be way too boring for Castle...)
The next chapters will include some fun, some serious things and some drama. And then there's lots of fluff of course!