Chapter one

It wasn't the first time he had grown nervous before an interview for research for one his book. However, this time it was different. The story he was going to tell wasn't some brilliant creation from his over active imagination. It was a real story. From a real serial killer.

He listened as the guard went over the rules again. Only to make sure he had understood every single one of them.

The basic ones. Don't hand anything to the prisoner. Don't make physical contact in any way. The conversation would be recorded and a guard would be present all the way throw his interview. Even though he would only be allowed to talk the prisoner for an hour a day, it could be ended anytime or interrupted if the guard considered it should, or if the inmate wishes to. If he wanted out, all he had to do was say it to the guard.

He was only allowed to carry with him a pad of paper and a pencil inside the interview room, and it should stay in his possession the entire time. He had to leave in a box outside his cellphone and any other electronic device he had with him, his watch, any object he carried, even his belt… He would only be allowed to pick it up when the interview was over.

The inmate would stay the whole interview handcuffed to the table and, in any occasion, the guard was allow to release her from the cuffs. For everyone's safety, they instructed.

He sign the waiver confirming that he had agreed and understood everything, even the risks.

"Are you sure you don't want your lawyer to oversee this before you sign Mr. Castle?"

The guard –Jenkins, was read on the tag over his chest - asked.

"Are you kidding? He would never let me do this."

He tried to laugh the apprehension away. But he was really nervous with this encounter.

"All set."

A voice, mix with electronic static, was heard from Jenkins radio.

"Okay. The prisoner is ready. Remember: she is a psychopath. She can be really seductive and charming, but it is all a lie. Can and will do anything to manipulate you if she wants to. She likes to play mind tricks, too. Even if you think she is being just friendly or that she will hesitate to hurt you, just keep in mind that she may do just that to get what she wants. Okay?"

Castle only nodded. His heart pounding against his ribcage fast in anticipation.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Mr. Castle?"

Another nod, more reluctant this time. Was him getting cold feet?

"Ready? Let's go."

He took a deep breath by the door of interview room. He really needed to calm his nerves, to silence his fears. They said psychopaths can smell fear and take advantage of it, did they?

He had followed her story from the beginning. From the first body that had dropped when they didn't even suspect she was the one behind all those killings, to her arrest and then her trial and conviction.

He had seen pictures of her on the television during the news or those TV shows that are specialized in the macabre, that followed the blood like vultures and followed the bodies that weren't even cold yet. He had read every article that had come out about her, had see every special feature story about her on all kind of medias.

However, she had never agreed to talk to any of those reporters and sensationalists that were painting her serial killer image to the world to see. She had refused to talk to specialists, psychiatrists, lawyers, all kinds of people interested in her case and saying they could help… She avoid talking to anyone but the police, her lawyer and the DA. Everything the media got from her was what the police and the DA were saying and her lawyer's pronunciations.

Well, she had spoken with the forensic psychiatrist that had been assigned by the DA to her case. But that didn't count because he didn't release anything about the case to the public.

He had moved skies and earth to be able to speak to her and she only agreed to speak with him under one condition: that he would tell her side of the story. That he would listen to her and she would answer any question he asked her and then would write her side, her take on it.

He didn't had to think twice to agree with the settlement as it was. Even if she lied to him, he was specialized in fiction so it wouldn't damage his reputation anyway. Nevertheless, he was obsessed with her story and he wanted to know every single piece on that puzzle. Even if, by the end of it, he ended up publishing nothing. He wanted to whole story behind the cold-blooded serial killer picture that they were trying to sell. The moment he got the call from her lawyer, he started daydream about what would go on during those meetings. He had even come out with a title (wich he still kept in secret).

"I'll be outside watching you if you need anything."

Jenkins reassure him before receiving a nod that indicate he was ready, so the guard opened the door in front of him and he was met by a scene that caught him of guard, took his breath and even made his heart skip a beat.

In the center of the not so well illuminated room, with walls painted on two shades of gray, sitting on a chair and with her hands cuffed to the table in front of her, she was patiently waiting for him. The woman staring at him at that moment seemed nothing as the one the media was portraying. Even wearing those ugly orange prison clothes, Katherine Houghton Beckett, The Vigilant, was the most beautiful women she had ever seen.

Her hair was tied in a loosen bum from where some curly strands of hair fell as a perfect frame for her face with no makeup of any kind. Her hazel green eyes were starring at him fiercely as they could see his soul. Of course that with that overall that she was wearing there was no way for him to pick on her body, but assuming from the little it revealed, he could say that she had an amazing body. The kind that would drive every man crazy.

"You can come inside. I won't bite. Not even if I wanted to…"

She spoke, moving her hands the little as the restraining allowed to show him the cuffs that would keep her from attacking him. Her voice was even more beautiful than he thought. She was nothing like the monster he pictured. She seemed to be a person of manners, polite… The smile she was offering him at that moment was one of the most genuine and beautiful he had ever seen.

He knew she came from a healthy family. That she had went to Stanford for a semester before her mother had been killed and that her father had died not long after that. He knew she had spent another semester in Kiev studying. He knew she was the top of her class at the Police Academy, the detective with the highest case closure rates, the youngest woman to make Captain… All those informations he got from the bios the media had exposed from her, but he had no idea of how she really was like.

He wanted to know more. He wanted to know HER, the person behind the serial killer.

He let go a breath he didn't even know he was holding and started moving to his sit right in from of her, on the opposite side of the table.

"Ms. Beckett, I am…"