Alexis steps back from Detective Beckett after giving her a comforting hug and notices the worry creeping into her expression. Beckett knows something is wrong.
"Alexis, may I ask the name of the perfume you are wearing?" Kate asks.
Shit thinks Alexis. I know that this question she's asking is a thinly disguised informal interrogation and if I lie, I'll just make the situation worse. Damn. I can't answer her. She can't think of anything to say without implicating herself. I'll just do what Dad does when I catch him in a lie – deflect!
"Detective Beckett, I don't really remember what the name of it is. It was something my grams had lying around and I just spritzed some of it on."
"Okay. Hey, can I see your hands?" Kate asks hoping Alexis will relent.
"Why, detective?" Alexis gives Kate her hand.
"I just have a hunch. We've found out that someone who was at the crime scene was wearing a shade of nail polish that looks a lot like yours," Kate says as she releases Alexis' hand.
Damn, could this go any worse? Alexis thinks to herself.
Kate watches as her former partner is led out of the courtroom to be transported back to the holding area in the courthouse.
"Your Honor, can I make a simple request?"
The judge, who had wanted to head back to his chambers before the next case, decided to humor the detective.
"Detective Beckett, you have thirty seconds. So make it quick."
"Yes, Your Honor. Would it be possible to have Mr. Castle be held right here for the next ten minutes?
"May I ask why detective?"
"I just need to ask him some questions about his motive. It won't take that long. Would that be alright?"
"Proceed, detective."
Kate hurried with her questions for Alexis. Alexis turns towards her, looking her straight in the eyes.
"Alexis, do you really want to know what I think?" Kate says as she grabs the younger woman's shoulders and holds onto her tight.
Alexis knows that this is going to be a no-win situation so she just shakes her head.
"Well, listen. I'm going to tell you what I've figured out already. I'm sure that your father was not himself when Josh came into the pub. But I think you already knew that. You have been keeping an eye on your dad, haven't you?"
"Detective, my father did not kill your boyfriend," Alexis says, her voice laced with venom.
"Then why don't you tell me what happened that night? It seems that you might have some insight that we don't know about." Kate prompted.
"I do and I will. I was on my way to the 12th precinct to see dad and was just about to cross the street to enter the precinct when I noticed him coming out of the lobby and down the steps. He looked defeated. He stopped, looked left, looked right, and then he turned left and walked away from the precinct. Staying about twenty-five feet back on the other side the street, trying not to be seen, I followed him to Reilly's. Not less than twenty minutes later your boyfriend entered the pub. I know that they hated each other. And I know that dad has been indulging in alcohol more often than not, and he would have been half in the bag by the time your boyfriend got to the pub. My assumption was correct. Dad punched Josh in the nose and broke it. Fifteen minutes later I came into the bar and noticed that both my dad and your boyfriend were missing. Having not seen them come out the front door, that only left one door for them to leave by. That's when I heard the screaming in the alley behind the pub. Apparently, your boyfriend got a couple of good shots into my father's ribs and head before Dad knocked out two of his teeth. When my father turned and left, your boyfriend yelled for him to 'come back to settle it once and for all' as he put it, but my father just kept walking. When I came out of the bar and into the alley, I noticed that Josh was lying on the cobblestone pavement. He had blood dripping down his chin and his lip was starting to get a lot more swollen along with his left eye. He asked me what I was looking at when I saw him lying on the ground. I told him I was looking at nothing. That's when he grabbed my ankle, and I fell onto his chest, bounced off him and on to the cobblestone alley next to him. Having no other course of action to follow, I kicked him swiftly in his family jewels. After that, I got up and left the alley, which is probably how my fingernail polish got on to his body. So, there you have it, detective. When I left the alley, Doctor Joshua Davidson was very much alive."
"Alexis, I need you to sit down right over there and don't move a muscle," Kate demands as she points to the front row of the spectator's seats.
Kate walks over to where Castle was being held and stops right in front of him; the bailiff won't let her get closer than a foot between them.
"Detective Beckett," Rick says, always being the courteous gentleman he was raised to be.
"Rick, I am going to ask you one question and one question only." Kate waits until she has his attention. When he looks directly at her she continues.
"Rick, am I correct in assuming that you are taking the blame for Alexis for Josh's murder?"
The second the question comes out of her mouth she has her answer. His head drops down and he starts to shake.
"Rick?" Then her cell phone vibrates in her pocket at the worst time imaginable.
Digging for her cell she pulls it out of her pocket to view the screen. It's from Lanie. Knowing that she could decline the call, she accepts it instead. Taking a step back from Rick, she answers.
"Lanie?"
"Kate, there's something that I've found that might be important. It seems that there is more to the evidence then we had first thought. How soon can you get here?"
"Can this wait, Lanie? I'm in the middle of something right now," Kate pleads.
"Not really. There's something going on here that might jeopardize your case."
Kate takes one look at Castle and sees the intrigue in his features from her half-sided phone call. She needs to let him be seen by a doctor. Realizing that maybe it would be better if they talked later, she tells him, "Rick, we still need to talk. You need to be checked out by a doctor and I need to go to the morgue. I will be back."
All he does is nod. Kate turns away from him and in long strides she reaches Alexis, quickly pulling her to her feet.
"Detective Beckett?" Alexis says a little worriedly almost losing her balance.
"Alexis, you're coming with me. I have some evidence that I need to take a look at and I do not want you conversing with your father until I have seen it. He will be checked out by the medical staff here and will be in holding until Monday morning at 9 o'clock."
"Detective, you do know it's against my constitutional right to be held against my will."
"I am not in any way violating your constitutional rights Alexis. What I'm doing is taking my friend out for a cup of coffee down the block. See? No violation of any constitutional right. Now let's go."
Even though Castle would be in holding Kate does not want Rick to collaborate his story with his daughter, just in case. They bid farewell to Martha and Kate promises Martha that she'll have her granddaughter back to her within the hour.
By the time they get to the morgue, Lanie has the pipe set out on a collection table. Standing nearby is a CSU technician; Kate wonders why he is here.
"Detective Beckett, I see you returned and you've brought a friend with you," Lanie says.
"I did. So, tell me, Lanie, what did you find?"
"Kate, it seems that this pipe has a life of its own. When I first took it into evidence, I had CSU run the bloody fingerprint I found on the end of the pipe. Now that came back as a ninety-eight percent match to Richard Castle. But after further reviewing the pipe, the CSU tech here tells me that there are more than one set of fingerprints on the pipe. You're not gonna believe what he found."
Kate isn't understanding what she means. Now she's going to have to explain it to her.
"Okay, let's say that Castle picked up the pipe. He would then leave his fingerprints on said pipe. Where I found the pipe, it was not far from Josh's body on the ground. I bagged it and leaned it up against a wall for CSU to process later. That's when Mr. Chen here came down with the pipe and told me that there was something off with the prints themselves."
"Okay Lanie, so what is it?" Kate asks.
CSU Tech Chen walks up to Kate.
"Detective Beckett, this pipe has three sets of prints on it, and DNA from three different people as well. Now I'm not sure who you suspect for this crime, but whoever left their DNA on this pipe are all related."
"There is no way to tell by the fingerprints how hard the pipe was swung. It just gives us the fact that somebody handled the murder weapon. What I mean to say is, someone could walk along, pick up the pipe, and move it to a different location, as well as grip it hard and swing it like a baseball bat. There is no way to tell the force that was used to swing the pipe. But then again, there are complications with the DNA that we found on this pipe. After the collection of the DNA samples, we found Mr. Castle's DNA, his daughter's DNA, and yet still a third sample of DNA that matches that of Mr. Castle and his daughter. But we came up against a roadblock trying to figure out who this third person was."
"So what you're trying to tell me is that there are three different DNA samples and you can only identify two of them. Is that right?"
"That would be correct, Detective. The third sample of DNA is not in the system, and the fingerprints don't come up on any database we've searched."
"That's impossible. There's no way a set of prints can't be found in any system," Kate says heatedly.
Kate turns to look to Lanie for help. All she can do is shrug their shoulders because she can't believe it either.
The CSU Tech makes one more comment about the evidence as he packs up to leave.
"Detective, the DNA match is a familial match. I'm not a detective, but whoever killed this man was related to your suspect, and his daughter. If that's all, I'm going to log the evidence back into storage."
Neither Kate nor Lanie has any objection so the tech takes the pipe, places it back in the evidence bag, and walks back to storage.
"Lanie, what the hell's going on?"
"Sweetie, I'm not sure. But as Chen said, you have three people who handled that pipe and they're all related. You just don't know how."
Lanie and Kate both turn and look directly at Alexis. If they had heat vision she would be melted in a pile of goo by now.
"What! All I did was move the pipe away from Josh's body. That's why the tech had found it far from his body in the first place I swear that's all I ever did. I never beat him with it if that's what you're thinking."
"Kate there's no way that Alexis could have done the damage that resulted in Josh's death. No, whoever did this was at least 6' 4. And very very powerful."
"That's just it Lanie, Rick is that tall and he can be that powerful."
Noticing the time Kate needed to get Alexis back to the loft.
"Lanie, can you email me the results from the DNA and prints? I'll look it over after I take Alexis back home."
"No problem Kate. They'll be there by the time you get back to the precinct."
By the time Kate and Alexis had got back to her car, Alexis had a bad feeling about what was going to happen next.