The interrogation room at the 12th precinct has changed greatly over the last more than a dozen or so. The walls have been beaten and patched. Acoustic panels replaced and repainted more times than anyone cares to discuss. The lights changed from the original incandescent bulbs, to florescent lamps, and now the newest and most efficient LED.
The table shows its age with the scratches and dents along with the chairs now bent from repeated slamming into the table legs and an occasion al kicked over by either the suspect of Beckett, herself proving a point
Even the officers that are using the room changes between shifts each day and to older officers retiring and being replaced by young hot shots newly advanced detectives with a desire to break every suspect down to a confession…
But one thing stays the same. The person sitting opposite the officer is the one claiming that "I didn't do it"
Today is going to be no different.
The woman at the table is most likely the murderer and the two officers preparing entry into the room are determined to get a confession from her. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
The woman is startled when the door quickly swings open and she is faced with two very stern looking men, One Hispanic and the other probably Irish Catholic from his hair color and Irish features
They both sit down across from her. The Hispanic officer drops a file folder on the table just as the other man speaks "This is Detective Javier Esposito and I am Detective Kevin Ryan"
With a name like that she knows he definitely is Irish "Yes gentlemen. What can I do for you" she responds thinking they are wanting to talk about the break-in at the offices of CI Software.
"We are investigating a murder"
Now that remark takes her off base quickly "I did not know anyone was killed at the break-in. Who was it? The bookkeeper? She sometimes comes in on Saturday to finish some accounting task"
Thinking she is just diverting the conversation away from the real murder Ryan responds "So the some of the staff are there on the weekends?"
"Yes sometimes. Robin comes in for a little but…you know, while it is quiet, to finish accounting data entries. This is awful" The suspect seems truly shocked
Esposito decides to just go for the jugular vein "No. Ms. Hopkins. Your boss is the victim. Charles Ivy was murdered and you are the prime suspect"
"WHAT?" she screams and in what appear to be real, tears flow down her face "How could he be dead? I was with him yesterday. We went to his class reunion. He was fine"
"Ms. Hopkins" Ryan begins the next lines of questions "You were checked-in with him at the hotel, yet you left around 11:00 and went to a neighboring hotel to stay…WHY?"
She looks really scared now "Charles and I had a fight and I left to go somewhere else to get away from him" Realizing that made her sound guilty "I left him in the ballroom and went to the room, grabbed my stuff and left. It was easy. I had not really unpacked"
"So, you left him in at the party and threw your clothes back in your bag and just left the hotel?"
"What few things I had unpacked. We got there a little late and I had changed into the dress for the cocktail party. After our fight, I went back and sis not even change. I left and went to a nearby hotel"
"Did you check out of that hotel?"
"No. They let you leave your key in the room and just leave, so I did"
Esposito return to the main line of questions "Mr. Hopkins, what was the fight about?"
"Charles using me then dumping me for another woman"
"What do you mean using you?"
"Charles and I created the software that the company sold. In fact, I wrote the algorithm that it uses to determine if something is a virus and create a patch to run and stop it from damaging a system. He never could get his code to work right so we joined forces. We later became a couple but…"
She stops when something enters her thoughts keeping her form finishing
"But what Ms. Hopkins?" Ryan asks
"He always had a wondering eye. When we first got together he was still the dorky computer nerd. After we started making money he had his teeth fixed. Got laser surgery on his eyes and began working out in the gym. I was proud to be his girlfriend but he always wanted more"
"More women?"
"Oh yeah. He always talked about this one woman that he went to school with. She was always nice to him even when no one else would. He thought he might get her to like him. He said she was beautiful and every guy had the hots for her wanted to be with her"
Ryan finally asks "Who was she?"
"Kate Beckett. He wanted her and when he saw her at the reunion, he started focusing on her. I was jealous and went over and cursed her out for being such a tramp. I should not have done that, but I was angry and jealous"
The two men look at one another then Esposito finally speaks "The woman you are referring to is Captain Kate Beckett, NYPD and our boss and happily married"
"OH!" Hopkins responds "I guess that makes me look even more guilty?"
"Definitely" Ryan answers "And then what did you do after that?"
"He just kept flirting with all the women and they were mostly lapping it up. I mean Charles is…or rather WAS good l0ookin…not to mention RICH."
Esposito break in "So you had good reason to kill him?"
"NO! I couldn't watch him hitting on all the women. That is when I went to the room, grabbed my stuff, and left"
"You did not wait for him in the room and kill him later…THEN leave?"
"No. I left to go cool off. I checked into the Best Traveler Inn for the night then I came back here this morning"
Looking at the file Esposito finally remarks "Ms. Hopkins, we are going to hold you on suspicion of murder. You might want to get an attorney"
"OK! But what about my staff at the office? You said there was a break-in. Was anyone hurt there?"
Her evident concern for the staff is playing well on her part.
"No one was hurt but the computers were taken"
"So, the workstations were all? That means they did not get the programs themselves" She remarks more of a statement than a question
"No" Ryan answers "The servers' hard drives were also taken"
"HOW?" she again seems extremely concerned "They were locked in a bank vault. Charles and I were the only two who had access"
Rather than give her the answer, the detectives respond "That is information in evidence and we cannot divulge it to anyone at this time"
Ryan stands and motions to a female uniformed officer to come in and take Nancy Hopkins to holding. They can hold her for 24 hours pending formal charges
Back in the conference room they use as an office whenever they are at the 12th precinct, the two are comparing notes and getting ready to call Beckett when Esposito's phone rings. Called ID says Beckett
He slides the answer button "Hey Beckett" he answers "I am putting you on speaker"
From the other end of the line comes their captain's voice "Doing the same here. What have you found? Is she the killer?"
Ryan answers first "I don't think so. She seemed truly shocked by his death"
"So why did she leave and go to another hotel?" Castle can be heard asking
"She was jealous of your wife"
There is a moment of silence then Castle asks "Jealous of Kate? Why?
"It seems Beckett was the focus of a lot of the high school boys back in the day and he talked about her…"
Esposito finishes "AT LOT"
"Oh really? Is the questioning tone from the writer "Kate Beckett was the center of the boys in her class?"
Ryan and Esposito can just feel the jealously coming through the phone line when Kate can be heard answering
"I have no idea what they are talking about…" a noise is heard over the phone "CASTLE stop that" then more calm "What else? Why did you say she left?"
"He was flirting with several women evidently and she got tired of it. They fought and she left. She said that is when she checked in to the other hotel"
Over the phone line they can hear a man's voice "Hey we got…oh sorry, I di not know you were on the phone"
Castle's voice is next "Not a problem Stake, we are just building theory with Kate's team back in New York" Castle's tone changes "Guys. The voice you just heard is Detective Stanley Drake…also known a Stake"
Ryan and Esposito return the hellos over the phone then Castle continues "These are detectives Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito"
Drake responds "Good to meet you two…Dis you say Javier Esposito? The same Esposito that was in Special Forces?"
"Yes" Javi answers "I understand you were as well, but our paths never crossed"
"Yeah. I heard about you"
Esposito responds "You too Stake…I hope we can meet in person someday"
"Same here…listen the reason I came in. The preliminary DNA came back on that toothbrush we found. It belongs to a woman and it is NOT Nancy Hopkins"
After a moment of silence "Then who?" Everyone else states at the same moment
A query for the weekend
.