Marleen Harrison was all one-hundred pounds wet, her lean body frail from years of hard work. Beckett could see old scars on the top of her hands, discolored skin where burns and cuts had blemished them.

At sixty-eight, she didn't look like a mother of a thirty-three-year-old son, her only child. According to her statement, Danny had been an oops at best, created during a careless night of flirting with her boss at the time.

Too afraid to confront the man who was signing her paycheck about the imminent result of their late-night encounter, she had left her well-paying office job to accept a part-time manufacturing job which would allow her to raise her son without much assistance from nannies or daycares.

"It started when he was about three…or four years old.", she said with her voice quivering in worry…or regret, "He'd lie to me about eating snacks and taking money out of my wallet. I just thought it was a thing for toddlers to do, a phase he'd go through. But even though I punished him for lying every single time, it became increasingly worse. By the time he was seven, he'd steal from the few friends he had, and their parents, he'd lie in elementary school about his assignments, and he would make up stories about his homelife."

"What kind of stories, Miss Harrison?", Castle asked intrigued, not moving a single muscle as they continued their eye-opening interview with the mother of their prime suspect.

Next to him, Beckett had stayed unusually quiet as well, handling the situation with kid gloves for fear of derailing their efforts that had finally resulted in an ID of the presumed killer.

"He would make up stories about me having a boyfriend. And that we were sexually abusing him. None of which were true. They were scary stories, and so detailed. To be perfectly honest, I have no idea where he came up with them. I spoke with his teachers to see if he'd gotten into some books or other material, but they vehemently denied it. And he became so good at lying over the years. Even when I would catch him in a lie, he'd come up with another one to talk himself out of a situation. I always wondered if Albert's genes were cursed."

"Albert? Was that your…your boss? Danny's biological father?"

"Correct.", she answered and took a moment to look them both in the eye, "I realize that Danny wasn't planned and shouldn't have been born into a situation without a father figure. But I did everything I could to give him a good childhood, I swear to you. He always had food, toys…a listening ear. I never laid a hand on him, I never spoke ill of Albert or made him feel as though he was lacking anything in life. I worked twice as hard to become both of his parents. But in return…he became more withdrawn and the phone calls from school began. They would ask me about the things he said in class, about touching him inappropriately, all these…these vile things."

"Miss Harrison, I realize you were in a tough situation, but did you ever consider having your son talk to a psychologist, to see where these lies were coming from?"

Beckett's question, despite her even tone, cause the other woman to frown in obvious ire.

"And who was going to pay for that? I had a hard enough time keeping social services off my back with the things he'd said. It was just fitting that Danny began to lie while they were doing one of their home visits, so they saw what was going on too. The shrink they recommended I use was more than three hundred dollars per session. I wasn't poor but I definitely couldn't afford that. Shortly after, Danny disappeared and I always thought he was going to see Albert. But he never arrived."

"I see that you filed a police report after he disappeared. Did anybody ever follow up on that? I mean, Danny was ten years old when he disappeared. He was a very young child."

Pointing at the dated piece of paper that was laid out on the table separating them, Beckett leaned forward a bit, just enough to make her conversation partner lean back in submission.

"He was a troubled adult inside a child's body; that's what Danny truly was.", she defended, her eyes darkening significantly, "I may have birthed him but there was something wrong with him from the start. So when he disappeared after all the trouble he'd caused, I had hoped, well, prayed too, that he'd found his place somewhere on a farm maybe; some place where he could be safe and do some good to society. But to be honest, something inside me always knew that this wasn't the case and that Danny would return some day. By the sound of it, that evil he has been carrying inside for so long has finally reached the surface."