Beauty & The Beast (Book 1)

3. Vincent

The next morning, Catherine had just arrived at the plant on her own, when Tess calls to tell her she spoke to three of JT Forbes's students who were his alibis, confirming that he was teaching the night of the murder.

"Yeah, I'm here," Catherine admits while closing her car door.

"I don't see you?" Tess says in confusion.

"Creepy warehouse, I was up early, thought I could check it out."

"No, that's what I'm telling you there's nothing to check out."

Catherine wasn't so sure about that. "I'll call you later," she says before hanging up on Tess and going into the building.
She walked straight down the empty bottom floor to the stairs headed to the second floor and when she saw the doors unlocked, she looked over her shoulder before she entered.
This was grounds for serious trespassing issues, but obviously JT Forbes also wasn't supposed to live in an abandoned warehouse slash plant with NO ENTRY signs all over the place...

"NYPD!" Catherine announced herself.
"Got a warrant!" She didn't. But he didn't know that. Yet. "Mr Forbes?"
She heard a sound from upstairs and looked to see the gate to the third floor was unlocked, and being who she was, Catherine pulled it open and started going up the stairs, her gun ready to be drawn. "Mr Forbes?" She called him again.

The entire upstairs floor was like a darkened with painted windows in places. It was creepy for sure. There was some light shining in through the broken windows at least so there was that.
Old work tables and equipment were still there, tools scattered here and there.

"Mr Forbes?" Catherine called again. Maybe the guy hit his head and needed help, so she moved in more. Looking around, calling his name.
"I know you're up here, I can hear you." She had been hearing little movements here and there, so obviously he was still alive.

She stopped when she saw the partial silhouette of a man behind a tall shelf with old paint cans, next to a concrete pillar.
"He's teaching class," a heavy Brooklyn accent said in a deep voice.

She removes her gun. "I need you to step out where I can see you." He hesitates. "Sir, I'm not going to ask you again," Catherine states firmly.

A moment later, a man, about 5 ft 9 steps out of the darkness. Catherine frowns and stares at him. He is looking at her too. He looks resigned and she looks confused.

"You're Vincent Keller. You look pretty good for a dead guy."

"I did not kill that woman," he says before she could say more.

"And I didn't mention a murder." He looks away for a second. "But since you brought it up, why were your prints at the Webster crime scene?"

Vincent steps more into the light. Catherine remained calm. He wasn't a threat. She's fought bigger and she has the gun.

"Look, I was out driving," Vincent says nervously, leaning on one foot then the other. "I saw her collapse, she hit her head, she needed help." He kept eye contact with Catherine.

"So you followed her into the hotel?" Catherine wasn't buying his story, clearly, but he was telling the truth.

"I tried to resuscitate her."

"You gave her CPR." Catherine remembers Evan saying she had been given CPR at one point. "You're a doctor."

He swallows. "She'd been poisoned."

Catherine stared at him. "How would you know that?"

He looks at her pocket for a second the same time it starts to vibrate in her pocket. "Your phone," he says.