Red Star

Before the Fire Part 4

They had gone to a crime scene last week - bog-standard murder - and he had deduced that the victim hadn't killed themselves.

She had a lot to teach Castano, so if having him make some better comebacks was the start, then so be it.

"Thank you, then," She concedes, walking away from the front door, stroking Vanessa as she passes. "Follow me."

"Who is this?" Castano coos, ruffling Vanessa's feathers, making her lean into his touch.

"Vanessa." Vanessa speaks, making Castano laugh a delightful laugh.

"She likes to watch Game of Thrones," Rosa smirks slightly, but she'd never let Castano see that. "Now, come on. You can properly introduce yourself later."

She takes him to the room opposite her bathroom. Her office. No one else has ever been in this room except for her. Castano honestly doesn't know much he is being honoured right now.

She hears his gasp as she pushes the door away from them, revealing what's inside the room.

10:54

"Talk."

"So, here's the thing I didn't understand," Castano begins, inspecting her 'Red Star' wall, covered in photos, maps, reports, newspaper clippings. "They want to start the government again by taking it down, but yet I never hear about politicians committing mass murder."

Rosa is beyond impressed. She hadn't even thought about that.

"Keep going." Rosa instructs, searching the wall for something to back this theory up. He's right. Lopes made a big show about all these cases Red Star have allegedly taken and completed. But no evidence of these hardcore cases.

All Rosa has found on Lopes is his hitmen business and all the contracts he's done. It's answered a lot of her old murder cases, but there are more cases that just scream Red Star to her.

11:06

"So, my thought was," Castano continues, turning to face Rosa a little more. "What if, Lopes wanted to make himself known? What if he wanted to make you paranoid like this? What if he wanted to give you all those clues you saw at the interrogation and make you go crazy? What if -"

Eureka.

Eu-fucking-reka.

"What if they've been here for years, watching us, waiting for us to notice them," Rosa finishes, a look of understanding slowly dawning on her face. "What if, this was just the prologue?"

"What if they wanted some attention before they got down to business?"

"Shit," Castano mutters as he lowers himself into Ros' desk chair. "Shit, shit, shit." Lowering his face into his hands, Castano curses a couple more times until Ros begins to speak again.

"So, what are we gonna do?"

We. Rosa winces the moment she says it, but honestly, Castano wouldn't be a terrible asset to her team, which, until now, was a team of one.

If she can bring him up to speed (which could potentially take a millennium), they could take Red Star down together.

Castano's blushing now, blinding her with a smile that any other girl would die for. Not Ros. Nope. Not even a little bit.

They don't call her The Ice Queen for no reason at the office.

"We wait, right?" Castano says, mocking what she said on their first case.

And Rosa can't stop the little smile that creeps on her face.

11:10.

"So, what we really need to do is outsmart them before they strike. So, what do we already know?" Castano has migrated to lying on his front on the floor of Rosa's and is flicking methodically through many old newspapers.