Chapter 2: Interview

Castle delicately balanced the steaming coffee cups in his hands as he made his way over to Ryan's desk. The blue-eyed detective was on the phone having a conversation about ballistics. He glanced up enquiringly as Castle placed the cup on his desk.

"You're gonna need it," said Castle and made his way over to Esposito's table to hand him his cup. He finally went over to Beckett who was staring at the whiteboard in one of her classic contemplation poses. She had her hands cupped at her hips as she looked up pensively at the crime details before her. Peter Wellington's three wives, a blonde, another blonde and the red head Sarah smiled down serenely from their photos.

"This is my favorite pose of yours," said Castle, "Calls attention to the immense sexiness of your hips."

Beckett just rolled her eyes at him as she accepted the coffee cup. She took a sip. It was quite good and immediately calmed her tense nerves.

"Pretty good, huh?" said Castle, "I'm so glad I got that coffee machine here. There's nothing more relaxing than good coffee. Beckett took another sip and mentally agreed with him. A thought occurred to her and she glanced at him, "You made coffee again. Didn't we have it on our way back?"

Richard Castle took a few sips from his own cup and then said, "Reporters are going to throng the precinct in seconds. We'll need some caffeine in our systems to deal with them. Beckett gave him a slow nod.

"Why hasn't Mrs. Wellington arrived yet? We need to question her immediately. She was the first one to find the bodies…"

Meanwhile, as Castle had mentioned, there were over a dozen reporters stationed outside the precinct entrance. News of the scandalous murder had already made waves among the press and they were all just itching to get a piece of the latest gossip. They were thrusting their microphones like assault weapons at every officer who came out through the precinct doors. All of a sudden, a sleek, silver Porsche pulled up alongside and a young woman got out of the passenger seat.

It was Sarah Wellington. She had changed into a light blue sweater and maroon skirt. Her red hair was artfully hidden under a beige scarf and she had on Armani goggles. She was still very recognizable and the reporters made a beeline for her the moment she stepped out. Two police deputies came up next to her and shuffled the news people out of her way. A few minutes later, she was seated in the visitor's room with Beckett and Castle. She removed her goggles to reveal tear-stained eyes. She opened her Versace bag to remove a tissue. Beckett couldn't wait to ask her about her step daughter's absence. She offered the young widow a coffee and was unsurprisingly refused.

"Mrs. Wellington…" began the detective.

"No please, call me Sarah"

"Very well, Sarah. Why haven't you brought Trisha Wellington with you?"

The woman appeared startled at this. "Why… how could I. That young girl was terribly scarred after seeing the bodies. I sent her back to her friend's place where she's currently living. She's in the city for the holidays. She was looking forward to seeing her father. They have always been close…" The tears started to flow again and she brought out another tissue.

Beckett decided to leave the matter for now. "But we need to talk to Trisha as soon as possible, Sarah. Even though she had been interviewed at the crime scene, we still have quite a few questions for her."

"Of course. I'll send her over tomorrow."

"Now Sarah, I need to ask you a few questions. Some of them might be uncomfortable. Are you up for it?"

The woman sniveled for a few seconds before nodding her assent.

"You're Peter Wellington's third wife?"

"Yes. We were… we were married three years ago."

"Have you ever been in contact with his previous wives?"

"Yes. Both of them. Elaine, his first wife still came over to see him quite a few times. We never exchanged anything more than a few greetings. I think we met some six times over three years. Every time, she came to see Peter and I happened to be in the house. She always refused any food or beverage offered. It would always be an awkward few minutes before Peter came in to relieve us and they walked in to his study. She would always leave after two hours. I don't know what they did. But I know Peter would never cheat on me."

Castle smirked at that as he recalled the position of the dead bodies. The old man must've been banging the young blonde for at least more than a week. And who knows how many more before that… He kept silent though.

"She wasn't at the wedding either," said Sarah.

"And what about Monique, his second wife?"

Sarah took a few minutes to respond. "She was a former beauty queen. I think Peter met her when she was a waitress at one of his corporate gigs. Fifteen years younger than him, he said that he was immediately struck by her looks and figure. Didn't have the sense to see much else with the alcohol flowing freely. She seemed equally taken by his expensive airs and drove him home as he was drunk. Needless to say that she spent the night there and it didn't take them more than two minutes to end up in bed. Elaine had already left him by then and he married that slut the next day. They barely spent two months together and filed for divorce in the fourth month of their marriage…"

She took a long pause as a contemptuous expression settled across her features. She asked for a drink of water and after receiving it continued, "Trisha was the only pleasant outcome of that distasteful fling… Monique gave birth to her six months after they separated. She just dumped the girl on Peter, didn't fight for custody and just took a lump sum from him and fled to France… She wanted to become an actress or something. I only saw her last year in June when she came to demand alimony or something. Peter refused and she went away."

"Hmmm, okay," said Beckett.

"Now, about Susan Masters… our other victim, whom your husband was…"

"She must've seduced him," snarled Sarah. She had a vicious look on her face. Gone was the appearance of a demure, newly-widowed twenty-five year old. Her blue eyes blazed with malice.

Castle and Beckett were taken aback. They looked at each other and back at Sarah.

As suddenly as the wave of malevolence had rocked her countenance, it left and a tiresome look replaced it. "Look," she said, "I have been dealing with this for three years but I and Peter were truly happy…"

She took out another tissue to wipe her eyes and continued, "In spite of our thirty year age gap, we were quite happy together. Peter never cheated on me. He was the epitome of a good husband. Always home on time for dinner. Patient, understanding, reasonable…. and now he's…"

Castle and Beckett looked at the volley of tears that left her eyes for the nth time that day. Beckett gave Castle a 'she's soooo faking it look'. Castle simply gave her a thumbs up. He looked at the widow and spoke, "Can you tell us how… you and Mr. Wellington happened to meet?"

The shower of sorrow stopped abruptly. She looked up and said, "We share the same alma mater. The University of Iowa. I had finished my graduation in business economics and he was there to present our degree. He gave such a rousing speech. That was four years back. The CEO of Axtel... presenting me my degree… We didn't connect then. I was like any other fresh off the assembly line graduate awed by him and his magnificent persona…"

She seemed calm now as she recalled the pleasant memory. "After the ceremony was over, we had lunch during which he left his VIP table and came over to chat with us. I'll never forget that moment… He talked about the American economy, not like some boring, stuffy professor but like a true businessman who understood his lifeblood. Every piece of theory that seemed so tedious in our college textbooks seemed so fresh and more relevant to our lives the way he talked about it. We were hanging onto his every word. He even asked us a few questions. He said he was most impressed by my answers. In me, he had said, he found a zest that he most people never exhibited in their entire lifetimes…"

"We talked and chatted the whole afternoon. Everything else was forgotten. The people around us slowly drifted to other tables and in an hour or so, we were alone at our table in the centre of the entire hubbub. Proud parents clicked pictures with their children, friends talked about their future plans, lovers vowed to keep in touch somehow… but we had eyes only for each other. My professors came in between to talk to Peter. They discussed my stellar academic record with him and he seemed even more impressed. I was grinning like an idiot the entire time. I don't know what had come over me. While leaving, he said he wanted to have dinner with me. But I had to be home then and he had to catch the early morning flight to New York the next day. So he offered me his business card, told me to keep in touch and left. I never thought I'd see him again…"

She fell silent at that and didn't say anything further. Beckett was getting impatient and Castle sensed another great story. What could be more scandalous then a love affair between a man and a woman thirty years apart in age. Guaranteed to sell more than a thousand copies.

Beckett wasn't interested in the love story and wanted to ask questions pertaining to the case. Every passing second fuelled her desire to change the line of questioning. Castle, sensing that she was about to do just that immediately goaded the young widow before Beckett had a chance to get two words out.

"But you two did meet again, right," he said hurriedly.

That spurred Sarah too attention and she didn't need more than a nanosecond to continue, "Oh yes. Many, many times. After that day, a week passed without any contact between us. I felt too shy to even send him a mail but every day, sixteen hours, he was on my mind. Sleep was my only reprieve from him. At the end of the week, he called himself. He seemed agitated that I hadn't contacted him and asked what I was doing. When I told him that I was at my parents, he admonished me for being lazy and told me that he was sending me a flight ticket for a one way trip to New York. He wanted me to come and work for him. I agreed in shock and was in his office the next day. He gave me a job as a junior analyst at Axtel and arranged for my housing just a block away from the office. He would take me to dinner every evening and a month after my joining; we confessed our undying love…."

Beckett almost belched at the dreamy look that came upon Sarah's eyes. This had been the longest interview of her career and she hadn't obtained a single nugget of information about her case. She needed suspects, names, numbers and all this woman had given her so far was a sappy love story.

"Um Sarah, that was very heartening to hear but I really need to ask more questions about the case."

"Yes, of course."

"Did Peter have any enemies?"

"Well of course. He was the twentieth richest man in the world. He had quite a few rivals."

"Did any of them have a reason to murder him? Had he received any death threats?"

"No, none. But I don't know much about his professional life. I left the company a day before we married. That was three months after I had joined. For his corporate life, you'll have to ask Chris, his best friend and vice president of Axtel."

"We'll do that. But as difficult as it is for you, I need to ask you about Susan Masters. Many of Peter's office people knew about his affair with her. It can't be that you hadn't got wind of it."

"Look. After resigning from the company, I have only been there a handful of times. My husband liked to keep his personal and professional lives apart. We woke up every morning at six. He would eat the breakfast I made, leave for work and come home every day at eight on time for dinner. He left town only once a month for whatever work related matters. He has rarely stayed out till after eight and the only work friends that he entertained at home where Chris and his longtime secretary, Mrs. Bettina Duval and her husband Giovanni. You can question them as well. Beyond this, I know nothing about his professional life and he never talked about work or the people there at home."

"All right…" Beckett hesitated a moment before continuing, "Had he been on any overnight trips recently?"

"Yes, he was in Albuquerque two days ago for a conference. He stayed there for four days."

"Very well, Sarah. That will be all. If there's anything else that you can think of, please contact us. Thank you."

Once the grieving widow was out and Castle had closed the door behind her, Beckett gave a large sigh.

"Whew, some people can talk and talk even in such distress. That was one of the most useless interviews I have ever had."

"Well," said Castle, "You still have quite a few. There's the VP, Chris Gallagher who'll be here in a few moments. The secretary and her husband will be here in an hour. Esposito and Ryan are already over at the company, interviewing his colleagues. Susan Master's parents have also been notified and they too will be here within the hour."

Beckett gave another sigh. She wasn't looking forward to any of them. Least of all, Mr. and Mrs. Masters who would be devastated with their young daughter's death.

A deputy officer knocked the door and came in. "Miss Parish wants to see you immediately. Something urgent has come up. She says it won't be more than ten minutes."

"All right," said Beckett and quickly trudged out of the door with Castle in tow. Chris Gallagher, the sandy haired VP in his late forties got up as soon as he saw them. He would have to wait. Beckett apologized profusely to him saying that she would be back in half an hour.

"Try the coffee," Castle whispered to him, "I hear it's the best in four precincts."

Beckett mouthed an annoyed, 'Castle' to him and resumed her way towards the morgue.