"They say we are asleep until we fall in love
We are children of dust and ashes
But when we fall in love we wake up
And we are a god and angels weep
But if I die here tonight
I die in my sleep"
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Benicia was seated criss-cross on the floor of the archive room. She had her notepad out on her lap but it was covered by the stack of newspapers. Beside her were various different stacks that she had already gone through.
"Hey."
She didn't look up as she responded to Ellison, "Hey."
He walked around the corner while checking his watch, "It's been... whoa, three hours."
"What?" Benicia shot her head up, which made her glasses fall off her nose. She had been looking down for so long that it had fallen to the tip of her nose without her noticing and the slight movement just made it go. "Oh, God-" She double-checked the time on her phone, "I'm almost late for dinner." She was about to curse at herself. Her first genuine date and she was running behind. Benicia glanced up to see Ellison holding out a cup of coffee, "Thanks."
Ellison leaned against the shelves, "Any luck?"
"Well, these are all the papers that I could find from the week that Castle was shot." Benicia pointed at the different stacks beside her, "I've been through each one of them so many times that I fucking lost count, and there's not a single mention of Castle, his family-" She released the longest sigh, "-Not even a John Doe that matches. Just nothing."
"Well-" Ellison crossed an arm over his chest as she drank some of the coffee, "You know, people are shot every day. It doesn't always make the paper." He glanced down at the paper on Benicia's lap before taking it, "Cleavered Cleavers."
Benicia gave him a confused look, "What's that?"
"Ah, just an old newspaper adage, right?" Ellison answered to her as he looked away from the paper, "If horror befalls a family you can paint as all-American, it makes the front page. So, if the Castles are not in this paper, it's because somebody wants to keep it quiet."
Benicia just groaned and leaned her head back, "Well, fuck."
"April 14th..." Ellison mumbled, which made Benicia glance back up at him, "When was the Castle family murdered?"
"Well, I figure it's gotta be some time that week, right?"
"You know-" Ellison was searching through the shelves, "-I cannot remember my-my kids' birthdays, but violent, soul-sucking events are just seared into my brain. Figures, right?" He stopped once he found a specific paper, "Ah, yes, yes. Okay, gang-on-gang violence. No civilians were reported injured, so nobody cared. It took me a week to get this in the paper. Here-" He handed the paper to Benicia, who immediately looked down to read it, "Three gangs, Central Park, mid-day. They shot each other to shit. It was a total massacre. Mexican Cartel, Dogs of Hell-"
"Kitchen Irish..."
"-Kitchen Irish." Ellison finished at the same time as Benicia.
Benicia looked away from the article, "Those were all the three..."
