Esposito is the first to arrive at work in the next day. The bullpen is deserted when he steps out of the elevator. The room is filled with the yellow glow of the morning's sun. He steps to his desk and places his coffee cup down, before walking in front of the murder board. He stares at the white planes of the board for a long time, trying to work through the information, before he sits down in his chair.
He gets a message from his boss - she had a new lead concerning the mother of the fiancée and now Beckett was bringing her to the precinct. Early bird like she was - starting her day way too early for normal people. He closes the message and shakes his head.
When Ryan finally arrives to work, juggling with his cup of coffee in one hand and his jacket in another, Esposito is eyeing him judgmentally.
"How was the hot date?" he asks, when curiosity gets better of him.
Ryan smiles to his partner, placing his cup down to his table. "It was great. We had very good time. Although Emily and Castle are both great to go out with, so it shouldn't have been a surprise."
"I'm glad," Esposito responds honestly. There is an awkward moment of silence between them. Esposito shifts in his chair, looking to his smiling partner.
"You should have seen Beckett yesterday," he starts tentatively. "She was really down after you and Castle left."
"She was?" Ryan asks, his smile quickly disappears, replaced with concern in his face, thinking what to do. "Should I do something?" he feels guilty asking Castle a favour. He too knows that something is going on between 'mom and dad'. But he doesn't know where they are at, in their relationship. And now, it seems that his own actions have tilted the balance of their fragile partnership.
"Naah, bro." Esposito shakes his head. "I asked her. She insisted that she was okay. So - there's nothing we can do."
"Ookay, but that doesn't make me feel less guilty." Ryan confesses, sipping the hot beverage from his cup.
"You shouldn't have done it in the first place," Esposito retorts. "Serves you right to feel guilty."
Ryan looks down at the paperwork on his desk, his face obviously flustered.
After a moment of awkward silence Esposito proposes, trying to change the subject, "Let's talk with the brother of the victim. I have some questions for him," He stands up, ready to head out. "He should be still down in the holding."
"Okay," the Irish detective agrees and follows his partner down the stairs.
Kaido is leaning back in his chair, massaging his temples with both hands, his complexion still looking pale. His looks up slowly at the detectives as they set themselves opposite him. His eyes are bloodshot, and he avoids looking at the bright light above the table.
Esposito is mildly amused at Kaido's plight. "I hear you had a killer day yesterday, Kaido."
"Please, do you have to yell? I seem to have picked up a headache behind my eyeballs." Kaido groans and closes his eyes, pressing his fingers to his temples, slowly drawing circles with them.
Ryan shakes his head at Kaido's obvious misery and asks "So feeling any better?"
"Well I did get a coffee, and a change of clothes, thanks," the Estonian looks down at his now orange costume. "The migraine now is only mildly excruciating," he sighs and tries to find a comfortable position to sit.
"So, what really happened yesterday? You admitted to killing your brother. That really happen?" Ryan leans forward, and stares directly at Kaido, resting his chin in the palm of his hand, elbows on the table.
Kaido looks up at them both, uncertainty in his eyes. A flicker of embarrassment runs through him and he opens his mouth. "To be honest, I can't really remember all that much. Just playing video games at home, and..." he falls into deep thought. "Well, that's about it," he gets out after a long silence.
"So you didn't ride a motorcycle along side your brother's car, and fire a gun through the door?" Esposito looks at Kaido intently, his eyes boring into the still stinking suspect.
"I can't even ride a bike, let alone own a gun," he throws a look at the two detectives, like they had made a bad joke. "Only in 'Grand Theft Auto'. I was playing it yesterday. Great game," the condemnation in his eyes changes to a smile, when he answers honestly to them both of them. "Can't say that I am sad that he is gone though. How's that for brotherly love?"
Kaido's frank admission about his recent brother's death and lack of remorse surprises the detectives. Esposito looks hard at Kaido, gauging whether he is genuine or not. "So you aren't upset your brother is dead?"
He sighs. "You don't understand my family. Let me fill you in." He rocks back slowly and pauses, mulling over where to start his tale. "My brother didn't get to his position by playing Mr. nice guy. What he wanted, he took, and he didn't care who he trampled in the process, myself included. I caught him with my now ex-girlfriend in bed, sometime ago now. He laughed in my face and said, 'Now she knows a real Järvesoo'". The last statement was punctuated with a contemptuous snort. "And that was about it for me."
"The rest of the family feels the same way?" Ryan prods him to answer more.
"Well there is just me and my brother. And my parents are around of course, they live back at homeland. They think the sun shines out of his ass." He raises his hands in mock supplication. "Pardon the French".
"No apologies needed." said Ryan, appreciating his candour. "So you kept in touch with your brother regularly?"
"Every now and again. Couple of times we met in town, to catch up with some friends who moved out here as well. You know. Even at those reunions, we kept our distance. He used to bring his latest and greatest girl along, I am sure just to flaunt her in my face." A satisfied smirk appears across his face. "Look where that got you, brother."
"So you know anyone who would want to kill him?" Esposito asks curiously.
Kaido laughs without any humour behind it. "Kill him? Hey, the queue would be from here to Central Park."
Esposito frowns, "Come now Kaido, throw us a bone. You seriously know anyone with enough anger to gun him down?"
His smirk slowly fades away from his features and he starts to think harder. "Well now there was this one girl he dated recently. Her name was..." He grimaces in concentration, trying to dredge up her name. He snaps his fingers. "Stephanie. Yes, Stephanie."
Esposito straightens a little in his chair and glances at his partner, surprised about the turn of events. "Stephanie killed your brother?"
"No. No." Kaido waves off the suggestion as ludicrous. "No, Steph is just one of those pretty gold diggers looking for a trophy husband. Not her, definitely not her."
"Ok. Who do you..." Espo tries to continue when he gets interrupted again by Kaido.
"Now I only met her once, but her mother, Amanda, ...well sheesh. That is one crazy bitch."
"Come on now," Beckett growls through her teeth. She woke too early, she is tired and snappy. Her eyes are grainy and she looks and feels like truck has run her over. Even though it's still morning, she wishes the day would be over already, so she could get back to her warm bed. Today is just not her day.
She is walking next to a young looking lady who looks really irritated, and like she would gladly bite a piece out of the detective who is escorting her. The blonde is Amanda, the mother of Stephanie. Beckett had found out her address in the morning. She was a hard piece to find, but Beckett had managed to do it anyway. Now, comes the tricky part, making her confess.
"Do you have to hold me so tight?" the blonde-haired woman asks, her high voice between irritation and frustration.
"Yes, I do," the female detective states. "You tried to run away three times. I am not letting you go until we get to the interrogation room."
"Honestly, I am innocent! Why do you not believe me?" The suspect start squirming against Beckett's hold on her once more, testing the boundaries of her patience.
"Really?" Beckett stops abruptly in front of the interrogation room door. Her face is full of surprise as the woman turns around to face her. "So why did you decide to flee? Three times doesn't exactly scream innocent."
"Because you surprised me. And I thought you were someone else. Believe me, I am innocent!" Amanda pipes out loud.
"We'll see, let's just go in here." Beckett mumbles and pushes the woman into the room.
Esposito and Ryan are back at their desks, throwing a stress ball between them, Esposito chewing on a morning donut as well. They both stop their activities as they see Beckett coming on to homicide floor, dragging a crazy looking blonde behind her. They witness the argument and see Beckett disappearing to the interrogation room with the suspect.
Esposito turns his head to Ryan "I presume this is the crazy bitch Kaido was telling us about."
"Probably." Ryan agrees.
"Let's go watch?" Espo proposes. Ryan nods at his partner and they both head to the Observation room.
The detectives are silent for a while, watching the story unveil under their eyes. After a short while, Ryan swings his legs back down from the table. "When she finishes, let's bring Peeter back in?" he suggests to his partner.
The Hispanic detective nods, not turning away his gaze from the interrogation room.
"Javi, you have sugar all over your mouth. Not a good look." Ryan laughs when he discovers that from his partner's face. Espo looks at Ryan, disapprovingly, although he brings his hand up to wipe off the remaining fluffy sugar on his jaw.
"Castle hasn't made an appearance either. Although not surprising given he had a quite a night." Ryan muses after a moment of silence again, noting that Beckett is conducting the interrogation alone this time. His smile drops when he sees Esposito's disapproving stare. "Okay, I will shut up."
"Walk me through it, Amanda, please," Beckett sighs as the interview continues in the interrogation room. The fair-haired woman is sitting across the table, looking extremely irritated. She plays with her bracelets and she looks like she could lash out at any minute.
"He emptied her trust fund account," the woman stresses. "It took us years to put it together for my daughter. And the son of a bitch just comes around and takes the money. And … Stephanie was stupid enough to give him the account details." She sighs in frustration. "What else I was supposed to do. I was furious. I confronted them both. At first he denied it all. But then they stood against me together, saying that it wasn't any of my business! How dare them! It was MY money!" she yells out loud, hitting the table with his fist.
Beckett blinks her eyes in surprise. Using the pause in the woman's rant, she asked. "What happened then?"
"Then Stephanie just blurts out that she is pregnant?" Amanda's looks the detective, eyes large like saucers. "Like I wasn't mad enough before. Now they had at least a reason to have that damn money. But nooooo. The next day, Steph comes to me, crying, saying that Kalev had beaten her up after she told the news to him and said that everything was off."
"So that was enough for you to kill him?" she squints her eyes, tries to find logic in the woman's story.
"NOOO!" Amanda yells at her. "I would never kill anybody, can't you see?" she leans forward, to make her point clear to the female detective.
"You have to prove it to me, Amanda. Right now, everything points to you." Beckett tells her firmly without blinking an eye. She pushes herself forward to make the point clear to the woman.
"I did not kill him." she pushes through her teeth. "I went to confront him. But the son of a bitch was so cocky. He yelled at me and threatened to hit me if I didn't leave. I tried to talk to him about the child and the money but he didn't listen at all and threw me out of the apartment." She huffs and crosses her arms on her chest.
"And then what happened?" Beckett asks again, trying to get more information out of the woman. Amanda fell silent and shifted herself uncomfortably on the stool. "You got back home. And took the bike and went for the kill?" Beckett suggests, her voice stern and serious.
"I told you! I DIDN'T do it!" she yells out loud, frustrated. "Yes, I went to ride the bike, but I never even had the idea of shooting him," she confesses. "But I would thank whoever killed him. He deserved it."
"So you wanted to kill him?" Beckett asks, trying to shuffle her closer to the truth.
"Of course I did! Who wouldn't have wanted it? He is an asshole and I am glad he's dead!" Amanda blurts out, without thinking.
Beckett sighs. It doesn't make sense. She had the bike, she had the outfit. She could have done it. But something is off with the story.
"Why did you take your son's bike out yesterday, Amanda?" Beckett asks from the woman.
"Because I wanted to," she sighs out, sounding tired already.
"But you don't usually drive the motorcycle, right?" Beckett knows to ask, leaning forward again, joining both of her hands in the table.
"No, I don't like it. But it was the only ride that was home at the time. So I didn't care anymore. I needed change. I needed to get away from the city."
"That was the only reason?" Beckett doesn't seem to believe the woman.
"Yes. It was. What else was I supposed to do? It wasn't like I had a gun lying around and went on a shooting spree," she closes her eyes and leans back in the chair. She was now clearly tired and annoyed.
"Are you sure? Because, right now, you seem like a perfect fit for the murder." Beckett points out, her face dead serious. "You had everything to make this happen. And it doesn't look good that you don't have an alibi for the time of the murder."
"I didn't do it!" she yells out again.
"Where were you Tuesday morning at 11am?" the detective ignores Amanda's yelling and continues pressing for information despite her rant.
"I told you, I was on a bike! I was trying to head out of the city!" Amanda barks out, annoyedly.
"We don't have any proof that you were heading out. You could have just randomly driven around the city and killed him in the process." Beckett tries to push the woman's buttons, maybe some of the words would hit her in the right place.
"I told you, I didn't do it! Oh my god, you, cops, are so stupid!" Amanda yells out.
Ignoring the last comment with a raised eyebrow, she sighs and speaks with a calm and cold voice, "I will be looking into your statements, but you haven't really given me any information to corroborate your claim of innocence. You are going to stay here until the uniforms have finished searching your apartment. As soon as they find the murder weapon, you will be going into jail for real." she threatens the older woman.
"How many times do I need to say, I. DIDN'T. DO. IT!" she spells the last words out. "I have no murder weapon!" she tries to make the detective understand.
"Are you sure?" Beckett squints her eyes and looking at the suspect. She continues voice low and dangerous. "Because right now, Amanda, there is nothing that can support your statements."
The woman falls silent. Beckett waits for her to say something, but Amanda doesn't do it. She's done talking. Beckett waits for few more minutes, but nothing.
"You are going to stay here until the warrant has been seen through," Beckett informs her. Amanda just sighs.
Beckett stands up and signals for the uniform to come in to the interrogation room. The man enters and heads over to the suspect.
"Take her to the holding," Beckett asks from the young officer.
He starts tugging the suspect out from the chair when Amanda points her finger at Beckett and yells to her when she is stepping out from the interrogation room "You will see, I am innocent. I am. No matter what anybody says!"
Beckett exits the interrogation room with a sigh and stops. She looks over the fairly empty room and starts heading to her desk, slowly shuffling through her folder of notes. She sees Esposito and Ryan standing in front of her desk and Castle directly across them, heading for her chair. All of the three guys are entranced by some kind of debate, so they don't notice her. She closes her eyes for a moment, takes in a deep breath and prepares herself to face the music.
A/N:
Brett: Big thanks to kimmiesjoy, and lv2bnsb who have provided many helpful suggestions for the story. Been a blast writing with Trinx so far. We have had a hell of a good time putting it together so far. We love reviews! Good or bad. So tell us what you think...
Trinxy: I do enjoy writing this fic, and please stay with us! The story is far from over. We have plans, oh we have good plans. Casketty goodness soon (hopefully). Keep tuned in. And review!