Beginnings ➣ Monroe [1]

26 | OF MOUSE AND MAN PT. 2

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Getting out of her car Isabelle quickly races inside the precinct before joining both Nick and Hank in the lobby.

"What happened to you?" Hank asks inquisitively as she grabs the coffee from his hands and takes a large gulp.

"Sorry. Long night. Didn't get much sleep." Isabelle apologizes before handing Hank back his coffee cup. "Here."

"Thanks." Hank grimaces and throws it right in the trash.

"Are you okay?" Nick inquires with concern, unable to shake the feeling that something had changed in his cousin.

"Nick, Relax, I'm fine." Isabelle reassures him. "Now let's get a move on. Standing around like a litter of newborn puppies isn't going to solve a murder."

"Speak for yourself." Hank mutters laughing as he walks past her and Isabelle rolls her eyes before she, Nick, and Hank all walk into the interrogation room where Natalie Haverstraw was in. "Miss Haverstraw, I'm Detective Griffin and this is Detective Burkhardt and Detective Kessler. Would you mind telling us what happened?"

"All I did was ask him why did he have to take that engine apart on the kitchen table." Natalie responds.

"What'd he say?" Hank questions.

"Nothing. He just.." Natalie pauses momentarily, knowing that there would be no going back once she told the detectives the truth about her and Lenny's relationship. "He had been drinking, and he stood up, and he hit me."

"And then what happened?" Nick asks.

"I told him that I'd had enough and I went to the bedroom and started packing, and then he came after me and he grabbed me — and I think that he would have killed me if it hadn't been for Marty." Natalie informs them.

"And Marty is.." Isabelle begins.

"Um, Marty is our downstairs neighbor. He lives right below us." Natalie explains.

"That would be Martin Burgess in 101?" Hank says looking over the paper in the file.

"Yeah." Natalie nods. "He, uh.. he always heard everything."

"So what exactly did this Marty do?" Isabelle inquires.

"He knocked on the door, and then that's what stopped Lenny, and then I felt afraid for Marty because Lenny started yelling at him. And then that's when Mason showed up." Natalie tells them.