A/N : Woohoo! More subscribers. There *are* people reading this after all. Welcome aboard. : ) And double woohoo! I have my first review :D. Thank you klindsay, also thanks for the advice. : )
Disclaimer: I do not own Castle
Chapter 6It was early in the evening when all the interrogations had ended. They didn't end up with too much useful information. Usually it helped to know if someone wanted a victim dead. That narrowed the search for a murderer. Here it just widened the search since according to everyone who worked with White they all wanted her dead – but not like that.
Things were looking up though because Ryan and Esposito had checked security footage and found an anomaly. They caught up with Castle and Beckett to fill them in.
Esposito started "One of the researchers we just interviewed, Mr. Nathan Smith; his alibi doesn't check out. He said that he was also working with White till about 8 and left her there alone and alive after that. He claims he walked all the way home, which we just found out is several blocks from the lab and then stayed there the rest of the night."
Ryan continued "So we called up his building security to confirm his alibi. Turns out the guard had left his station to check out some drunken ruckus a guy was creating nearby right about the time he claimed to have gotten home. So there's no one who can corroborate his whereabouts after 8 pm."
"So we went back to the security footage for the lab and boom." Esposito continued "Right before the time of the murder we see a man dressed in black jeans and a black hoodie with the hood drawn up and dark glasses entering the same floor as White."
"We checked with the labs security team, they said that getting in the lab could be easy enough, but you can't get to White's section without a special clearance card. We asked them to run the last entries, and we get our hit – it was Smith who entered at about 11:15 pm. We saw the footage from the camera inside, White turned when she must've heard someone enter and looked surprised, but she spoke calmly enough and turned back to her microscope as if it was normal for that person to be there. Then we see a black paper going in front of the camera so we don't know what happens next, but we can guess."
Castle interrupted "Black paper? I thought you said the cameras were sprayed black."
Ryan answered "In the rest of the lab, yes, but this one had nothing when we saw it in the morning, and CSU didn't find anything either. It was low enough for someone of Smith's height to have slid it in place and taped it there. He probably took it away after he positioned her and left. In that position, her back was turned to the camera, all the blood was in front of her lab coat, so immediately no one would have thought anything was wrong. She probably looked like she was asleep."
This time Beckett spoke "Okay and because she turned back to her microscope, we assume it was someone she recognized."
"That's right" Esposito replied. "Hoodie guy matches Smith in build and he fits our requirement of her knowing him."
Castle pitched in "And he hated her too."
"Right."
"Good work boys, let's bring this creep in. Find out what he had to do with Wilkins."
With that Rysposito puffed out their chests clearly proud of having cracked the case and set off to bring Smith in for a confession.
"Hmm"
"What Castle?" Beckett asked as they both stared at the murder board.
"I was just thinking about that symbol again."
"That's the only thing connecting the two" she nodded.
"Not necessarily" he said.
This had her interest piqued. "What do you mean?"
"Well, you remember one of the meanings of the symbol was 'Earth' and the four elements?"
"Yeah, go on."
"If you consider it in that context, it might be possible that the murderer is targeting those trying to change the Earth. Whether it's to harm it or otherwise. Wilkins' company – Turbofuels was engineering a new fuel composition" he said as he got just a little closer to her. They always did that.
She nodded, going a step closer herself encouraged by some sort of progress with the motive, " White's team at Auctagnitio was working on bioengineered crops, among other things. They both have ties to the Earth."
"But wait, that can't make sense." Castle said as his face fell. "Smith was part of Auctagnitio. He obviously knew what he signed up for and he's been working there for years.
"It could have been just to get close to White and her research division" Beckett said, but she knew too that this was a thin explanation.
"Still, if he could go after Wilkins, he could just as easily have gone after White without actually having worked with her. Can we find out more about what was going on with White's work?" Castle asked.
She knew he was right. Something didn't fit. "Yeah, we can do that. Until then, let's crack this guy."
"Beckett" she answered her phone.
"Yo boss. We might have a problem." Esposito said.
"What's wrong?" Beckett asked him. Castle tried to lean in but thought better of it and backed away while covering his earlobe.
"Though Smith's alibi with the guard didn't check out. He has another more solid alibi."
"And that is?" she asked him.
"He was getting lucky in his apartment. With two women." Esposito replied. "And his neighbor can confirm it. He says he could hear the whole thing and went over to his apartment to tell Smith to keep it quite or take it someplace else."
"Okay, tell him to come in tomorrow morning for questioning anyway. There's something amiss about this whole thing" Beckett said. "I think we should call it a night for now."
She retold the facts to Castle.
"So why'd you call him in tomorrow."
"We need an explanation about his key card anyway and this way we can ask him about the project they're working on."