New life and False hope
He opened the door to his home and walked in, closing the door behind me. 'You're home early.' A young girl with long red hair said as she looked up, she frowned when she saw me. 'Yes, aren't you investigating the stadium case?' An older woman walked in, she looked a bit like an actress and also frowned as she saw me. 'Mother, Alexis. This is Haylee, she'll be staying here for a while. Haylee, this is my daughter Alexis and my mother, Martha.' He introduced them. 'Nice to meet you.' I said as I tried to smile. 'Come along, I'll show you the bathroom.' Alexis said as she shook my hand and led me to a big bathroom, obviously not minding my intrusion. 'You can take a shower here, I'll give you some of my clothes to wear.' 'Thanks.' I said, she smiled and walked away. I silently took my clothes off and stepped into the shower, letting the hot water stream over my body like a cleansing wave.
I got out after 10 minutes and saw a neatly folded bundle of clothes lying on a rack. I dried my body and put the clothes on, glad that they fitted perfectly. I walked out of the bathroom and was greeted by Castle. 'Dinner's ready.' He said as he smiled. 'Oh, thanks.' I said, not sure how to repay his kindness. I followed him to the kitchen and sat down on one of the stools as I looked at Alexis and Martha. 'Can I help with something?' I asked as I saw Alexis struggling with a pickle jar. 'Oh no. I got it, don't worry.' She said as she put in some more effort. They served dinner, I didn't really recognise what was on my plate but it tasted great and I was pretty hungry so I finished in about 5 minutes. 'You must've been starving!' Martha said as she saw how my plate was empty before she even started. 'Not starving but pretty hungry.' I said as I grinned.
'It was delicious, thanks.' I said when everyone had finished. I picked my plate up and brought it to the sink but Castle took it out of my hands before I got very close. 'Did I do something wrong?' I asked as I saw the serious look on his face. 'No ofcourse not but we have a dishwasher.' He put on a smile again, another fake smile. 'A dishwasher, right.' I said as I looked at the machine filled with plates and cutlery. My attention was drawn by a ringing phone on the table and I walked that way. 'Mr. Castle, your phone's ringing.' I said as I handed him the phone. 'Please don't call me mr. Castle, that makes me sound so old.' He said as he answered it. 'Really? Okay, we'll be right there.' He said as he put the phone in his pocket and looked at me. 'Seems like Beckett needs you.' He said as he turned. 'Got to go, see you tonight.' He turned to me again and led me out the door.
We arrived at the station for the second time today and walked in. 'You look a lot better.' Ryan greeted me, I smiled in response and thanked him. 'Come along. We have some sounds that we want you to listen to, maybe you can tell us which one you heard.' I nodded and followed him to a desk where he sat down behind a computer. He clicked a button and a sound came out of the speakers. 'Not this isn't it. It was less sharp.' I said. 'Okay, less sharp.' He said as he scrolled and clicked again. A sound that was very much like what I'd heard came from the speakers. 'Almost. It was high at first but then went lower.' 'Ah, this one then?' He clicked another button and the exact same sound as I heard pierced me like a knife. 'Yes, that's it.' I said briefly as I looked at the sound's name. 'Diamond saw.' I said as I remembered how my dad had one in the shed by our house though he hardly ever used it.
'Then we've got our murder weapon.' Esposito said as he wrote it down on a whiteboard underneath a timeline. 'Could you come with me, Haylee?' I turned around and saw detective Beckett. 'Yeah, sure.' I said as I followed her down some stairs. 'This might be a bit hard for you but I need you to identify your family's bodies. You think you can do it?' I nodded confidently as I followed her into a cold room, several tables with covered bodies stood in the middle of the room. 'Hello, I'm Lanie.' A tanned woman greeted me. 'Haylee Sade, nice to meet you.' I said, keepin gmy eyes on the blankets. 'It'll be over before you know it. Just say yes or no or just nod.' Lanie said as she walked over to the first table, I stood beside it and looked at the shape. She lifted the blanket, revealing the scarred face of a young boy who I recognised as my little brother. 'Yes, my brother.' I said as I looked up at her. She covered the body and moved on to the next table, I followed her and noticed that this shape was much bigger. She moved the blanket, a woman's face lay quietly on the cushion as if she were sleeping. 'My mother.' I said briefly as I looked away. She moved on to the next table where I recognised my father. Then my uncle, cousin, aunt, cousing and so on until we got to the last one.
A young man, possibly in his twenties lay on the cold steel. He didn't look injured at all but I figured that the cause of death was probably beneath the blanket. 'I do remembre him but he's not family.' I said as I remembered how he bumped into me and apologised with a smile. 'Okay, that's it thanks.' Lanie saida s she put the blanket back and smiled. 'When will I have to start with funeral preperations?' I asked detective Beckett as we walked out. 'Funeral preperations? You don't have to worry about that.' She said briefly without looking at me, obviously remembering something that heppened to her sometime but I didn't want to bother her by asking what it was and just followed her in silence.
The funeral was three days later, on a Sunday. I'd gone to my house to get some things and still lived with Castle. I put on some dark jeans, a shirt and a black jacket. I didn't really care much about clothing, it wasn't a fashion show after all. The pastor cited verses from the Bible abou forgiveness and about how God would welcome them into Heaven. I let a singel tear as he said: 'Please take these souls, Lord, and make sure that they will suffer no more.'
'You okay?' Alexis asked as she walked beside me. 'Yeah, thought it'd be worse.' I said. Alexis and I had become good friends in the three days, turned out that we like the same things and had the same kind of humor. 'Want to get some ice cream when we get home? To eat away all the sorrow?' She said as she smiled. 'But I'll get fat if I do that too often.' I said as I grinned and looked at her. 'We'll train it back off.' She sat in the backseat of the car and closed the door, I got in on the other side and did the same. 'I'm tired.' I said as I looked at the ceiling. 'You haven't slept well the past few days, have you?' 'No, I'd just wake up in the middle of the night, sweating and panting. I have no idea why and I can't remember what I dreamt of so that doesn't help much either.' I answered as I rubbed my eyes.
A series of flashes pulled me out of my relaxed moment and made me shoot up. A bunch of photographers stood by my window, pressing the buttons like madmen. Castle got in the car, started it and drove away as fast as he could. 'You're even more famous than me!' He said as he avoided one that stood in the middle of the road. 'And I don't like it at all.' I said as I looked at them over my shoulder. We got back to his house, got out the ice cream and sat down on the couch. 'So that's the mentality of today's youth?' Castle said as he threw his arms up. We looked at him, then at eachother and laughed.
'Wake up!' Alexis' happy face greeted me. 'Good morning to you too.' I said as I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. 'Beckett says that they got a suspect, you can got the the station to be with the interrogation.' She said as she walked to the closet and threw some clothes at me. 'Really?' I said, still half asleep. 'Hurry up!' She said as she pulled me out of bed and walked out. 'Okay okay, give me a minute.' I said as I yawned and got dressed. Alexis pushed me out of the front door, Castle was waiting in the hallway with a big smile on his face. We walked to the car, got in and drove off. 'I actually dreamt about this tonight.' I said as we stopped in front of the office. 'How did it end?' He asked as we got out and walked inside. 'I don't know, Alexis woke me just before they told me.' I said, having a bad feeling about this. 'In here.' Esposito said as he opened a door to a small and rather dark room. There was a big window that allowed us to look at the interrogation. Beckett was in the room along with a tattood man of about 40, he had a scared expression on his face. 'You recently bought a diamond saw and you're an employee at the stadium. Tell me why you did it.' She said as she looked at him. 'I work at the stadium, I'm the janitor and I bought the saw so that I could do some chores at home. I was in the janitor's closet, I didn't do it!' The man said, his voice shaking. 'What were you doing there?' Beckett asked. 'I… I was inventorising the cleaning supplies.' He said. 'He's telling the truth, he didn't do it.' I said. 'How do you know for sure? Maybe he's lying.' Ryan said. 'All people have a twitch when they lie, a small moving of the hands or a blink of the eye. He's got nothing.' I said as I walked out, filled with disappointment. 'But he was there at the time.' Esposito followed. 'Have you looked at the takes from the surveilance cameras yet?' 'No, they haven't sent them over yet.' Ryan said as he stood beside him. 'He'll be where he says he was although he wasn't really inventorising cleaning supplies.'
Beckett came to Castle's house the day after. 'It checks out. He was filmed going into the janitor's closet with a woman who didn't look much like his wife. How did you know?' She asked as she turned to me. 'He had the same expression on his face as my dad when my mom questioned him about 'working late' almost every night. She forgave him in the end when she'd made sure that he wouldn't make that mistake again.' I said as I grinned. 'Oh right, Castle, CS will be visiting tomorrow.' 'Thanks for letting me know.' He said as he led her out the door and closed it. 'Child services.' He said as he saw me frowning. 'But you heard about that already, didn't you?' 'I have no idea what you're talking about.' I lied. 'Don't worry, I used to eavesdrop on conversations too.' He said as he walked to the couch and sat down. 'You think they'll ever get the one who did it?' I asked as I sat down as well. 'They will. Beckett will. She's New York's best detective after all.' 'Yeah, she is.' I said as I looked out the window.
The doorbell ran around noon the next day, right when we were having lunch. 'We're here to see how miss Sade is living.' One man said. Upon hearing my name, I leaned back in my chair and looked at Alexis. 'She silently asked me who they were. 'Child services.' I whispered in her ear. She nodded understandingly. 'Sure, come in.' Castle said as he let the two men in, they were both dressed in fancy suits and were both wearing awful but expensive colognes. 'Miss Sade?' One asked as he walked up to me. I stood up and nodded as I held out my hand. 'Haylee Sade, nice to meet you.' I said as he shook my hand, the other followed and repeated what I'd just said. 'We'd like to ask you some questions in private. Is there a room we can use for that?' The other asked as he looked at Castle. 'Yes ofcourse.' He said as he walked out of the room, the men following him closely. 'Good luck.' Alexis said as she smiled. 'Thanks.' I turned the corner and followed them into a small room.
'I'll be right next door if you need me.' Castle said to no one in particular as he walked out, closing the door behind him. 'Okay. Haylee Sade, currently 16 years old and native to the Netherlands and the Dutch language. Correct?' 'Yes, correct.' I answered politely. 'Your parents and all other relatived died on 05-11 recently. Correct?' 'Correct.' I said coldly. 'Has been living with Richard Castle since then. Correct?' 'Correct.' 'That was just to check if our information was correct.' The other one said, giving me the impression that 'correct' was one of their favourite words. 'How do you like it here?' One asked. 'I like it here very well, everyone has been really kind to me and they have helped me with my English studies. I wouldn't be able to talk English this well if it was not for them.' I said, dramatising so badly that I thought it might be a little too much. 'And you're eating well?' 'Yes, Alexis is the best cook.' I said, speaking the absolute truth. 'And you have everything you need here?' I nodded. 'I have my stuff here and I have books to read, games to play and people to talk with. Everything I need.' The men looked at eachother as they nodded and walked out. I quickly followed them and watched as they stopped in front of Castle. 'There is no doubt about it that this girl lives in a good and educative environment. Please keep up the good work.' They said as she walked to the door and left.
'How did you convince them so soon?' Alexis asked amazed. 'I think I had them when I said that without your guidance I wouldn't be speaking English now.' 'You lied?' Castle asked. 'No. Because I talk to you guys daily I instantly learn better pronounciation and vocabulary.' I explained as I sat down beside her. 'Nicely done.' She said as she laughed.
-Thanks for reading, another chapter next week! Please R&R!-