Ch. 4

It has been two weeks since I last saw Alexis, in the meantime Castle and Beckett solved another murder, the one regarding the nanny, it was a pretty weird crime, to be honest.

This case showed that Beckett had been hurt romantically before, and is really good at empathizing with these victims.

Alexis and I wrote to each other a lot, we never run out of things to talk about, today we will meet again before her trip to D.C., I offered to go watch a movie, specifically Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which was released earlier than in my own world, pretty interesting not gonna lie, these subtle differences between similar realities.

After the movie, we would then head to her home, eat a bite as proposed by Martha herself who overheard our conversation, and play some board games she decides till 10:30 when she goes to sleep, it is a school day tomorrow after all, gods forbid she clocks out at 11. It was all these peculiarities, that really made her feel different from everybody else. Really which teenager goes to sleep early and plays board games nowadays...

I believe this is our first date. If they told me I would have been nervous about going out with another girl I would have never believed them, but here we are, life seems to really enjoy screwing people and their beliefs over.

"Wow, Jack, who would have thought you could pull that much style with a casual look" interrupted Gina from the door, earning a wink.

"If you prepare so much someone might think you are taking a girl out"

----

"How was the movie?" asked Martha welcoming us into her house.

"The movie was great!" said Alexis

"You should go and see it sometimes Martha the actors are honestly great, Alan Rickman is an absolute legend," I told her trying to appeal to one of her favorite topics: acting, to get some small talk done.

"Ahh he sure is handsome, too young for me sadly"

"Nonsense, you are plenty young yourself" Martha smiled at the praise,

"A charmer this one isn't he, I appreciate the compliment though"

Alexis looked at me with a foxy expression "Someone is playing the violin tonight?" I laughed at her joke hinting at the fact that I was trying to get in her good graces.

"Come on Alex it has been the second time she invited me here, she has been nothing but nice and offered me two dinners already, the least I can do is give her compliments where they are due."

"Yea, yea, you know you can tell me if you crush on grams right?" I faked astonishment before replying

"You know you can tell me if you get jealous right?" she laughed and so did I

"Come on let's go help your grandmother set things up"

Suddenly a familiar voice interrupted us.

"Good evening family, good evening Jack"

"Welcome back dad"

"Hi Ricky"

"Good evening Mr. Castle"

"How was work today?" asked Alexis once we all sat down.

"Exhausting honestly," sighed Richard, I, of course, wanted so badly to make a joke but I did not want to push it too much, we weren't that close after all so I let that slide. There is one person however who doesn't let things like this slide: Alexis.

"Uhh, to think she was able to make you exhausted, can you share any spicy details?"

Castle was trying to reply as seriously as possible, hoping to maintain his "learned man" visage in front of guests, something he unknowingly lost pretty quickly thanks to a certain redhead and her stories.

"Maybe I can share the new case we worked on"

"Nothing better than dead bodies during dinner" quipped Martha ready full of it.

"Alright, so here we go..."

The case was one in the first season that much I am sure, it involved teenagers, a college, drugs, and a dead body in a boat named Donny. The arrested suspect was a drug dealer. Sure. A violent drug dealer with no firearm record apparently shot a kid. Why don't I believe it?

Always said that college cliques were nothing pleasant to be a part of.

"So you already arrested the guy," said Alexis

"We did," replied Castle not really convinced

"And when are you letting him out?" that stopped the both of them, Castle looked at me with his trademark "confused but interested expression", Alexis with excitement knowing exactly where this was going.

"You think we should?"

"Well yes, you don't keep an innocent man behind bars do you?" if before I had his interest now I have his attention.

"Ok shoot, whatcha got" I smiled

"Let's take it from the top, question number one, why would the kids lie about their presence?"

"They feared they would get in trouble" answered Castle, a notion I immediately shot down

"No it makes no sense, they were friends with Donny, the first thing a group of friends would have done is to make sure the perpetrator would have been put in jail. No, they lied to hide the fact they were present."

"People tend to lie to cover things up, normal people don't put layers in their lies, meaning if they hide their presence they are probably-"

"Trying to hide their involvement!" finished Castle for me

"Exactly, or why lie in the first place? Now, first rule about liars: trust them once but don't trust them twice."

"Easiest scapegoat ever, the drug dealer" finished Castle again

"Yes. However, they made another critical mistake in their castle, no pun intended" he was thinking about it so I finished for him

"If the drug dealer wanted money, why didn't they help by giving the money, they are rich they can afford it to lend a hand to their friend, it could even be easily explained to their parents. Why would they freeze like rocks until Donny was killed and why would they then move the body, because let's be real, none else could have moved the body. Certainly not a drug dealer in need of money." Castle was now frowning until he had a realization.

"You are suggesting that-" I cut him off no way in hell you are ruining my cool detective moment

"There are two possible routes, one, the group decided to off Donny, reasons unknown, but I do find it hard to believe, two, the group was playing a game, something they always do, probably involving a gun, normally nothing would happen, they would just scare each other for that sweet sweet adrenaline, until this time a shot was launched for real. Donny is dead, the group decides to hide it all in fear of losing another member of the group because of an accident, they find a scapegoat and make good use of it. They will not lose another member."

"It makes a lot of sense, there seem to not be any other options, either it is one of them or the drug dealer. I have to call Beckett." Castle took his coat at breakneck speed and was about to go about again before I stopped him.

"Me. Castle?" he turned around urgency in his eyes

"Yes, Jack?"

"There is still a big question mark unanswered" he was now frowning again.

"Why was there a bullet in the chamber that day? Was it really an accident?" he widened his eyes before running off at flash speed once again.

What is this feeling of deja-vu?

Martha and Alexis were looking at the scene with mixed expressions, embarrassed I coughed.

"Umh, very sorry... Again..."

The both of them exploded in laughter.

The rest of the night was spent playing chess with Alexis, she was honestly very good and I haven't played it in a long ass time, we talked about many topics with Martha near us studying a play and studying our conversation.

I hoped I gave Castle the right direction, I only remember that one of the friends did it, who however was beyond me.