Reborn in Castle (TV show)

[12th Precinct] [Interrogation Room]

Kate sat with her arms loosely folded while Travis leaned forward a bit, looking at the man across from them with great interest now that they knew the truth.

This man looked like Aston. Same face, same eyes, voice. It was pretty weird.

Travis rubbed his jaw slowly before letting out a low breath. "So, twins," he said. "That's a twist I never saw coming." He tilted his head slightly while keeping his eyes locked on the suspect. "Why did you kill Harold, Daniel, Elise, and your twin brother?" He paused briefly. "Actually, let's start simpler. Name."

The man just sat there for a few seconds before answering.

"Adisa Isley."

Kate opened the folder in front of her and looked through the records one more time, even though she already knew what she would find.

"There's no mention of another sibling anywhere in Aston's file," she said while looking up at him. "According to every official document we found, you don't exist."

Adisa smiled faintly at that.

Adisa smiled a bit.

"That was expected."

Travis raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Adisa rested his cuffed hands together on the table. "Our father erased me from the family records after he banished me from the clan."

The air in the room shifted slightly after that sentence.

Kate leaned forward a little. "Why?"

"Because I broke one of his rules."

His expression hardened just enough for them to notice.

"Our family practiced traditional spiritual rituals for generations. Haitian roots mixed with Nigerian beliefs. My father treated it like sacred law." A bitter smile touched his lips briefly. "Aston worshipped him. I questioned him."

Travis stayed quiet, letting him keep talking.

Adisa looked down at his cuffed hands for a second before continuing.

"I fell in love with a woman outside the clan. She got pregnant with my daughter." His voice softened slightly. "Amara."

Kate's eyes sharpened immediately.

"You're saying Amara was your daughter."

Adisa nodded slowly.

"When my father found out, he considered it a betrayal. He stripped me from the family entirely." He let out a quiet breath. "Aston took Amara in and raised her himself."

Travis frowned slightly. "Why would you allow that?"

"I didn't have a choice," Adisa replied quietly. "I had nothing back then. My wife just died from kidney failure. I had no money, no standing, and no way to protect her." His jaw tightened slightly. "Aston promised me she would still be family... that he'd look after her and keep her away from our family's influence."

Kate looked briefly toward Travis before looking back at Adisa. "And instead she ended up dead in the middle of a ritual rehearsal."

Something dark flickered behind Adisa's eyes.

"Yes."

The room fell quiet again.

Travis finally leaned forward slightly. "I think you know the truth. Tell us... What actually happened to Amara?"

Adisa gave a slow nod like he had already expected that question.

"Aston was obsessed with psychological fear response," he said. "He believed fear itself could become a weapon if the brain was pushed far enough." He looked between them carefully. "He spent years developing chemical agents that stimulated adrenaline production while suppressing rational response."

Kate frowned. "Drugs."

"Experimental compounds," Adisa corrected softly. "Odorless once burned through specialized oils and incense. Nearly impossible to detect with standard toxicology at the time." He paused briefly. "It leaves no residue or traditional narcotic signature. Drug dogs couldn't identify it. Lab scans barely picked up traces unless someone specifically knew what to search for."

Travis's eyes narrowed slightly.

"A designer panic toxin."

Adisa nodded once.

"Aston originally developed it for immersive theatre. He wanted audiences to experience authentic fear responses during horror performances." His expression twisted slightly in disgust now. "Then he realized what else it could do."

Kate's voice sharpened. "The cardiac arrests."

"Yes."

Adisa leaned back slightly in the chair.

"The compounds overstimulated the nervous system and elevated the heart rate. People exposed to it would experience heightened paranoia, panic and hallucinations under prolonged exposure." His eyes lowered slightly. "Most healthy people survived short-term exposure. Some became addicted to the sensation afterward."

Travis caught that immediately.

"You can weaponize fear chemically," he muttered.

"And addiction with correct dosage," Adisa added quietly.

Kate's expression darkened slightly. "Amara."

For the first time since the interrogation started, Adisa looked genuinely broken.

"She was exposed for years. If only I knew about it earlier... My daughter would still be..."

Neither detective spoke.

Adisa swallowed once before continuing.

"Aston tested weaker versions around the theatre constantly during rehearsals." His voice grew rougher now. "Small doses hidden inside incense burners. Oils mixed into stage smoke. Tiny exposures over and over again." He closed his eyes briefly. "Amara grew up around it... She was just a kid."

Kate stared at him.

"She didn't die from one exposure."

"No," Adisa replied quietly. "Her nervous system slowly deteriorated over time." He opened his eyes again, anger burning beneath the exhaustion now. "By the night of the rehearsal, her body couldn't handle another dose."

Travis's face hardened visibly.

"And the autopsy?"

"Aston paid them."

That one landed heavily.

Adisa laughed once under his breath, though there was nothing amused about it.

"Doctors, detectives, coroners." He shook his head slowly. "People always imagine conspiracies as complicated things. Most of the time it's just money changing hands inside quiet rooms."

Kate looked genuinely disgusted now.

"A child died and they covered it up."

"Yes."

The silence afterward felt heavier than before.

Travis finally broke it. "Harold, Daniel, and Elise found out."

Adisa nodded.

"Harold discovered the modified burners backstage. Daniel found Aston's research journals. Elise overheard meetings between Aston and the corrupted investigators handling Amara's death." His fingers curled slightly against the metal table. "None of them came forward."

Kate's voice turned colder. "Because they were protecting themselves."

"And the theatre," Adisa said bitterly. "A scandal like that would have destroyed everyone involved."

Travis leaned back slightly, thinking through the pieces now.

"So you killed them."

Adisa looked at him quietly for a moment.

Then he shook his head.

"No."

That answer stopped both detectives cold.

Kate's brows pulled together immediately. "What?"

"I did not kill Harold, Daniel, or Elise," Adisa said calmly. "I wanted to. God knows I wanted to strangle them while looking into their eyes as their soul leave their bodies. I found out the truth last year when I broke into Aston's apartment to take Amara's pendant... It belongs to her mother... Aston wasn't home, so I looked around and found his diary and drugs. I learned about them from the diary."

His fingers curled slightly against the table.

"But by the time I decided to act, two were already dead. So, I targeted Elise... fed her with the same drugs that took my daughter away, but before I could strangle her, someone already killed her."

Travis's expression sharpened instantly. "You expect us to believe that?"

Adisa leaned forward slowly. "Yes. The night I arrived outside Elise's apartment to kill her, she was already dead and the police were already there."

"What about Aston?" Travis asked.

For the first time during the interrogation, Adisa smiled slowly. This smile did not show relief or satisfaction. It seemed broken.

"Yes," he said softly. "That one was mine."

Kate watched the shift happen in real time. The grief inside him twisted into something uglier, something unstable.

"How?" she asked carefully.

Adisa leaned back in his chair, staring up at the fluorescent light overhead.

"You know the funniest part?" he murmured quietly. "Aston believed he was untouchable." A small laugh escaped him. "He spent years poisoning other people while convincing himself he understood every detail of those compounds."

His eyes lowered back toward them.

"So I started poisoning him instead."

Travis stayed silent.

"Tiny doses," Adisa said. "Over the year." His voice sounded almost distant now, like he was remembering each step one by one. "Small portion to avoid suspicion and enough to slowly destroy his nervous system from the inside." He tilted his head slightly. "Aston loved his rituals." Another laugh slipped out quietly. "Made things very easy for me."

Kate felt something cold crawl up her spine.

"You fed him his own drugs."

"Yes."

Adisa nodded slowly.

"He started getting paranoid after a while. Mood swings, hallucinations, heart palpitations." His smile widened slightly now. "He thought spirits were punishing him for what happened to Amara. He begged her spirit for forgiveness every night for months."

Travis's eyes narrowed. "And you loved it, didn't you?"

"Oh, absolutely."

The madness finally started leaking through his calm exterior now.

Adisa leaned forward suddenly, his cuffed hands tightening hard against the table while his voice grew more animated.

"I sat there listening to him ramble about shadows in mirrors and whispers at night!" he said with a laugh that sounded wrong in the tiny room. "Aston Isley. The great spiritual genius. Terrified of his own damn ghosts."

Kate exchanged a quick look with Travis.

Adisa kept laughing quietly under his breath before speaking again.

"He deserved every second of it."

The fluorescent light buzzed overhead again.

"For years," Adisa continued, "I watched that man sleep peacefully after what happened to my daughter." His voice cracked suddenly. "I watched him keep making money from those drugs while Amara rotted in the ground."

His breathing became uneven now.

"So yes," he whispered. "I poisoned him."

Adisa lowered his head briefly before looking back up at them with red eyes and a smile that looked completely unhinged.

"Do you understand what poetic justice feels like, Detective?" he asked softly. "Watching a man slowly die from the same nightmare he created?"

Neither of them answered.

Adisa leaned back against the chair again and stared at the ceiling while laughing under his breath.

"Amara's soul will finally rest in peace now," he murmured. "That monster cannot hurt anyone anymore."

Adisa sat there breathing unevenly, red-eyed and exhausted, like years of hate had finally torn open inside him. The laughter from a few seconds ago still lingered faintly in the room, clinging to the walls in an ugly way.

Kate stayed quiet for a moment, studying him carefully. She had seen grieving fathers before. She had seen broken people too. But this felt different. Adisa looked like someone who had carried revenge for so long that it had hollowed him out from the inside.

Travis finally leaned forward again, elbows resting on the table while his eyes stayed locked on Adisa.

"No," he said calmly.

Adisa's smile faded slightly.

Travis shook his head once. "Amara's soul doesn't get peace just because Aston and those three are dead." His voice stayed level, controlled, though there was something colder underneath now. "Not while the rest of the monsters who helped him are still out there breathing easy."

Adisa stared at him.

Travis continued without blinking. "You read Aston's journals. Which means you know more." He leaned in slightly closer. "Who was he selling the drugs to?"

Adisa lowered his gaze toward his cuffed hands for a moment before exhaling slowly.

"Adewale," he admitted quietly.

The room went still.

Travis leaned back slightly in his chair. "The theatre owner, huh?"

Adisa nodded once.

"Aston handled the compounds. Adewale handled everything else." His jaw tightened visibly now. "Money, distribution and connections."

Kate frowned. "Connections to what?"

Adisa looked up at her.

"The underground cartel network moving through New York." His voice stayed calm now. "Adewale wanted control over it."

Travis's eyes narrowed slightly.

"With fear drugs?"

"Yes."

Adisa nodded again.

"He believed Aston's compounds could destabilize entire organizations without firing a single bullet." His expression darkened further. "Drug crews become paranoid. Leaders stop trusting their own men... Hallucinations, panic attacks, sleeplessness, emotional breakdowns." A bitter laugh escaped him. "Once fear spreads inside a criminal organization, it starts eating itself alive."

Kate exchanged a quick look with Travis.

'What is he, Scarecrow?' Travis thought.

Adisa continued speaking quietly.

"From what I know, Adewale planned to poison rival cartel meetings slowly over time to make them unstable." His fingers curled slightly against the table. "Then he would step in afterward with money, protection, and supply routes."

Travis rubbed his jaw slowly while piecing it together.

"He creates chaos," he muttered. "Then takes over whatever survives."

"Yes."

Adisa nodded.

"Aston called it psychological warfare through dependency and fear." His eyes lowered briefly. "Adewale called it evolution."

Then Adisa spoke once more, quieter this time.

"But that still wasn't the sickest part."

Kate's eyes narrowed slightly. "What do you mean?"

Adisa looked directly at her now.

"Adewale wanted a public demonstration before moving against the larger cartels." His voice sounded hollow. "He believed fear becomes more valuable when powerful people witness it personally."

Travis's expression hardened.

"The theatre."

"Yes."

Adisa swallowed once.

"The next show scheduled at Velmont Grand Theatre tomorrow night…" He paused briefly. "Adewale planned to release the newly developed airborne version through the ventilation system during the final act and through incense."

"He planned to create a mass stampede!" Kate said as her eyes widened.

"Not if we catch him first," Travis said as he stood up. He then looked toward Adisa. "Thanks for your help. But you murdered a man... Even if he was scum, you killed him. So..." He sighed. "We'll make sure the jury shows leniency to you. And, sorry the system failed you and your daughter. But I promise you this, I'm gonna make sure every single one of those corrupt bastards rots in prison."

--

Find me in the link below for advance chapters: https://unknownmaster.carrd.co/

[20 advance chs] + [Modern Family: 17 chs Early access]