Chapter 11
The Case of Hedge Fund Home Boys
Part 3
Romy Lee and her family lived in a luxury apartment that no doubt would have cost a fortune. Beckett and I were shown into the living room and area that was furnished with tasteful but expensive furniture. Mr and Mrs Lee were seated together on a small couch. Romy was seated on a larger couch. Beckett and I, as becoming usual were seated together directly opposite her.
Riding up the elevator to the apartment there was a glint in Beckett's eye which I interpreted as that she was going to get to the bottom of this. She was going to find out why the girl had lied. I have to admit I was getting a little annoyed with these kids. These kids who had been Donny Kendall's friends.
"So, this dealer asked Donny for the couple hundred that he owed him, right?" Beckett said to Romy.
"Yeah." The girl nodded her head.
Romy Lee looked decidedly uncomfortable under Beckett's steady gaze. You could say that she was nervous.
"And Dony told him he didn't have it?"
"Right." Romy replied.
Beckett rose from her seat.
"Do you mind if I take a look at your purse?"
Mrs Lee spoke up at this request, wanting to know why Detective Beckett wanted her daughter's purse. Beckett glanced at Mrs Lee before she turned her gaze on the even more nervous Romy.
"I can get a warrant if you want." She said.
Romy hesitated, glancing at her concerned looking parents hoping they would come to her rescue but they only stared back at her. With great reluctance she handed over the expensive looking purse.
"Gucci." Beckett remarked as she opened the purse and inspected the contents. She pulled out a wallet.
"What does my bag have to do with anything?" Romy asked as she watched Beckett.
"If Donny was such a good friend, why did you let him get shot?" Beckett asked her.
"Let him?"
Beckett opened the wallet and found what she was looking for. She pulled out several hundred dollar bills. She showed the bills to Romy.
"You had more than enough money to pay off the guy." Beckett said. "I bet you all had enough more than enough."
Another nervous look swept across Romy's young face as she looked up at Beckett.
"And yet Donny is dead. Why didn't any of you front him the money?"
I must say I was rather enjoying watching this little scene unfolding. I kind of regretted not having some popcorn.
"What are you implying?" Mr Lee demanded.
Like a good father, Mr Lee rose to the defence of his daughter.
"She isn't implying." I said speaking up. As much as I would have liked to sit back and watch the rest of it I had to speak up. Yeah, okay, I find it hard to keep quiet. I looked at Mr Lee and continued speaking. "She's saying that your daughter is lying about what happened that night."
"There wasn't a guy, was there, Romy." Beckett continued.
Romy knew that she had been caught out. Tears sprang to her eyes as she looked at her father.
"What really happened to Donny that night?" Beckett pressed.
Then it came out. Romy said that the shooting had been an accident. They had been playing a game, like Russian Roulette. It had not been the first time they had played this game, they used to do it all the time.
Looking over to the Lees I saw both mother and father were horrified to hear what their daughter had been doing. The thought of their daughter, their 'good girl', playing with guns was almost too much for them to comprehend. I could sympathise with what they were feeling right at the moment. I would be feeling pretty much the same if it had been Alexis. No, scratch that, I would probably go through the roof and then some.
In answer to a question from Detective Beckett, Romy explained that they had gotten the gun from Spencer. There was never meant to be any bullets in the gun. They usually would just point the gun and pull the trigger just feel what it was like. Spencer had supplied the bullets when they had gone up to his summer house just to shoot at some cans. Romy figured that there must have been a bullet still left in the gun when they had been playing with it in the park.
"Who shot him?" Beckett asked.
Romy with tears streaming down her face looked to her silent parents.
"Romy, look at me." Beckett said sharply. The girl slowly turned to face Beckett. "Who shot Donny?"
"Max." She answered fighting back tears. "It was Max."
XXX
After leaving the Lee's apartment and heading for her car I could not help but ask what was going to happen to Romy. When the interview with Romy was over, Beckett had simply told the girl that she would be hearing from the police again. So curiosity got the better of me, and I had to ask.
The look that Beckett gave me was somewhere between anger an annoyance. At first I thought she might have been annoyed at me for having asked the question. I am pleased to say that she was not annoyed at me. She was angry and annoyed about being lied to and having police time and resources wasted. As to the fate of Romy Lee, she had not made up her mind yet. If you're asking me, I would not like to be in Romy Lee's shoes right now.
Detectives Esposito and Ryan met us at Max Heller's. Beckett had called them after we had left the Lees apartment filling them in on what Romy had told us. She ordered them to get a warrant and meet us at Max Heller's apartment.
The door to the apartment was answered by a woman aged in her early fifties. A startled look appeared on her face find four people standing in her doorway. Detective Beckett showed Mrs Heller her badge.
"Detective Beckett, NYPD." She announced. "I'm looking for Max Heller, is here?"
"No. I'm his mother." Mrs Heller replied, the concern deepening on her. "What's going on?"
"I need to see him right now, Mrs Heller. Do you know where he is?"
"No, I don't. What is it?"
"I have a warrant for his arrest." Beckett informed her. Esposito, standing next to her passed over the warrant. Beckett handed it to Mrs Heller.
"A warrant?" The colour drained from Mrs Heller's face as she looked at the arrest warrant in her hands. "Oh, my God. What for?"
"He's wanted for murder, Mrs Heller. Do you understand?"
Though Mrs Heller was shocked to hear that her son was wanted for murder she managed to nod her head in answer to Beckett's question. I could not but help but feel for the poor woman right at that moment.
"I need you to go and call him on his cell, find out where he is." Beckett instructed. "Tell him not to move. Everything is going to be alright, but I need you to do it now."
The hapless Mrs Heller nodded her head and stepped away from the front door moving inside to do what Beckett had asked. Beckett looked over to Esposito.
"Get a photograph of him for the APB, please."
"Right." Esposito replied as he entered the apartment and caught up with Mrs Heller.
Detective Ryan's cell phone shattered the uncomfortable silence. He moved aside and quickly answered it. He listened a moment, then called out to Beckett and held the phone out to her. Beckett took it and answered it. A moment later I saw a stunned look hit her.
"What? Where?" She said. "Okay."
Beckett rang off and passed the phone back to Ryan. Esposito returned to the door holding a framed photograph of Max Heller. She turned to look at him.
"Kid's not answering his cell phone." Esposito reported. "Mom thinks maybe he went to the park."
"Yeah, he went to the park." Beckett sighed. "...And killed himself."
At that moment Mrs Heller returned to the front door.
"So, what now? What should I do?" Mrs Heller said. She noticed the stunned look on Beckett's face. "What?"
Oh boy. How do you break the news to the mother of the kid you want to arrest for murder he's been found dead in the park because he shot himself. Well Detective Beckett managed to do it. She recovered from the shock of being told that Max Heller had been found shot dead and then stoically broke the news to his mother as gently as she could. I wont go into details describing that particular scene.
On leaving Mrs Heller's apartment Beckett wanted to go the park where Max Heller had been found. I would have loved to have accompanied her but I had other plans for the evening.
XXX
When I woke up the following morning several things caught my sleep fogged notice. One, the sunlight filtering through the windows was far too bright for this time of the morning. Secondly, I had fallen asleep in my office. At my desk with my laptop resting on my lap to be exact. I had come home around midnight. After the Knick's game, Montgomery, the Mayor, Judge Markway and I had gone for drinks. There's this place that I like to go sometimes where privacy of its clients is assured. I seemed to recall I had knocked back a fair few whiskies before calling it a night and heading home. Instead of going to bed I decided to sit down and write, do a little more work on the new novel.
I must have fallen asleep while I was writing. The screen saver on the laptop was scrolling across with the words: 'You Should Be Writing'. I have to thank Alexis for that particular screen saver. She had downloaded it not all that long ago when she found me asleep, or staring off into space at my desk one too many times.
The third thing was, I found was said daughter wide awake and staring at me. My first thought on seeing Alexis staring at me was that she was paying me back for finding me sitting and staring at her when she was sleeping the other day.
"If you're looking for lunch money, my wallet's on the nightstand." I said sleepily. I had discounted the first thought and had gone with my second thought as to why I would find my daughter staring at me so early in the morning. I was wrong with my second thought.
"I lied to you, Dad." Alexis announced.
"Oh, can this wait?" It was too early in the morning for me to be hearing confessions.
"No. You need to know." Alexis insisted.
The urgency in her voice caught my attention as did the look on her face. Her eyes were red rimmed from recent crying.
"Oh. Yeah, okay." I said stifling a yawn.
While I struggled to come fully awake Alexis told her tale that had her filled with so much remorse that she felt compelled to confess to me. It had been the holiday formal. Alexis and a friend of hers had gone to another friend's house after the formal. After leaving that friend's house it was already raining. After trying for half an hour to get a taxi they had decided to take the subway.
I told her that considering that getting a cab in the rain was like winning the Powerball jackpot, I was happy to forgive her.
Alexis had not finished her tale of woe. Apparently Alexis' friend Kelsey had gone through the gates so she could hold the door of the train which was arriving. When Alexis went to swipe her card she discovered that it was empty and she did not have time to add money to it and her friend was shouting at her to come on as the train was pulling into the station. Alexis said she was so tired and was anxious to get home that she...wait for it...jumped the turnstile.
During Alexis' retelling of the story I had come fully awake, her look of worry and anxiousness had dragged the last remnants of sleep from me. There was a part of me that was a little concerned about what she was going to confess. I guess what happened to Donny and Max and the other Redding kids had me going into 'worried parent mode'.
"Did you make the train?" I inquired.
"Yeah." Alexis replied. "But the point is I lied to you. Even after you were so sweet and concerned yesterday. I'm sorry."
I can't begin to tell you how relieved I was. A smile rose to my face but I quickly suppressed it.
"You actually jumped the turnstile?" I said. Who hasn't jumped the turnstile at least once, right?
"But I swiped my card twice the next day and didn't even ride." Alexis assured me.
"Okay. Sweetie." I sighed. "If that's the worst thing you've done, I'm a happy, happy man."
"But I lied to you." Alexis said. "Shouldn't you punish me?"
"Yes. No, you're right." I agreed. I tried to find a suitable punishment. "Mandatory ice cream for breakfast. No excuses."
Alexis gave me a pointed look as if I was not taking this as seriously as she was.
"I'm serious. If you don't I will."
"I'm serious about the ice cream." I told her.
"Fine. I'm grounded for a week." Alexis announced.
"Alright. You're tough but fair."
"After the D.C. Trip." She added.
"That's my girl." I smiled.
"Thanks, Dad."
A relieved and smiling Alexis moved up to give me a hug and a kiss before she practically skipped out of the office. I could not help but smile and then let out a long sigh of relief.
XXX
My arrival in the bullpen was greeted by the sight a sombre looking Detective Beckett sitting at her desk. She was filling out forms. I could tell that she was not happy at the way the case had turned out.
"Hey, What are you doing?" I asked as I sat down.
Beckett paused in her work to look at me.
"Paperwork to dismiss the homicide charges against Scoville." Beckett said. She reached for a file and passed it over to me.
"Ballistics." Beckett announced. "Confirms that the gun used on Donny in the park was the same one Max used on himself."
I opened the file and quickly went over it. I looked up from the file to see Beckett frowning even more.
"I'm usually better at reading people."
"You spent about half an hour with Max." I offered in consolation. "There's no way you could have seen that coming."
I set down the ballistics report and looked at Beckett.
"Poor kid must have been a mess." Beckett shook her head. "Imagine shooting your friend and then having to lie about it."
I nodded my head my head in agreement. As I thought it over something else struck me a little odd.
"Well, he did more than just lie about it." I ventured.
Beckett gave me a quizzical look. "What do you mean?"
"He went back and moved his friend's body." I pointed out.
"He went back and moved his friend's body." Beckett repeated. A thoughtful look appeared on her face as she considered what I had said. "Having the presence of mind to move the body isn't exactly consistent with a guilty conscience, is it?"
"I'd say that's more an act of a cold-blooded killer." I suggested, leaning closer toward her.
I could almost hear the wheels turning in Beckett's head. An eager expression now settled on her face as she looked over at me.
"And a cold-blooded killer doesn't suddenly feel guilty to commit suicide, does he?"
"Not in any story I would write." I assured her.
"So, if we're right, and Max didn't move Donny's body, then who did?" Beckett asked.
That was a very good question Detective Beckett posed. At the time I did not have an answer to that question. What I immediately took away from that particular exchange was the fact that Beckett had said 'we were right'. Emphasis on the 'we'. I think this was the first time Beckett had gone anywhere close to admitting that I might have been right about something. That was okay, I still maintained the hope that one day she would come right out and say that I had been right about something.
For the next half hour I had the pleasure of watching Beckett complete the paperwork that would see Kent Scoville being released and tossed back out into the world in the hopes that one day soon he would be caught for something that he actually did. Having seen Scoville that hope would not be too long in being realised.
When I said that I spent half an hour watching Beckett doing paperwork, I might have exaggerated just a little. After about ten minutes of watching Beckett filling in boxes and checking other boxes and signing her name on the bottom of one page after another I grew bored. I fished out my phone and started playing one of the games that I had on it.
Paperwork and playing games on my phone was interrupted by a call from Dr Parish. Beckett passed the rest of the paperwork Esposito to complete, then grabbed her things and we head out to answer the summons from the Medical Examiner.
XXX
Dr Lanie Parish escorted Beckett and myself to the cold storage area and I found myself in a room facing a bank of freezers where the stiffs were stored. Sorry, that sounds a little cold—pardon the pun—where the remains of the deceased were cached prior to their proper disposal. Does that sound a little better?
Dr Parish walked over to one of the doors, opened it and pulled out the tray on where the body of Max Heller rested.
"Looks like your basic, garden-variety suicide." Lanie announced, glancing down at the body.
"But you said on the phone that there was something that wasn't consistent with a suicide." Beckett said.
"Looks like a suicide." Lanie nodded. She reached down and lifted up Max's right hand. "But his shooting hand, more specifically, his right index finger, has has a slight abrasion."
Both Beckett and I leaned a little closer to inspect the finger. I could not see anything.
"It's visible only under the scope." Lanie informed us. "Department autopsy protocol doesn't even call for that kind of thing."
"And the abrasion means what to you?" Beckett looked at Lanie.
"That someone may have helped him pull the trigger." Lanie reported. "Plus, toxicology has his blood alcohol content at point two eight."
"Point two eight!" I exclaimed in surprise.
"So, he was drunk." Beckett said.
"Waayy drunk." I emphasised.
Back in my college days there had been one or two parties I attended where the booze was chugged down like it was water. I can remember that I might have reached levels of point two eight and them some. Thankfully I did not have to operate any heavy machinery, instead being left to sleep it off but the day after I did suffer one mother of all hang overs that lasted for a couple of days that forced me to swear off drinking for all time, only to break that vow when I got invited to another party a day later. But I digress.
"At point two eight, he may not have even been conscious." Lanie informed us.
Beckett's eyes suddenly narrowed. "So, Max was murdered."
XXX
"Whoever staged Max's suicide wanted us to believe that he killed himself out of guilt over shooting Danny." Detective Beckett declared.
Detective Beckett and I had returned from the visit to the morgue and we were walking up the stairs of the precinct. Beckett had been a little too impatient to wait for the elevator to arrive so she had made a bee line for the stairs.
"Yet the kids corroborated Romy's story that Max pulled the trigger."
Reaching the fourth floor I moved ahead and pushed open the door to allow Beckett to go through first. I quickly fell into step alongside her as we made our way through the bullpen.
"I didn't say he didn't shoot him. I said he didn't kill him."
I was confused by that statement. "Is that a Zen koan one-hand clapping thing?" I asked her.
Beckett stopped walking and turned to face me.
"These kids played a game pretending to shoot each other." Beckett said. "What if one of them wanted Donny dead for real? What better way than to get someone else to pull the trigger?"
I considered what Beckett had said. It made sense.
"You think one of the other kids put the bullet in the gun without Max knowing."
"That's our killer." Beckett declared and started walking to her desk.
My face lit up. "Oh, I like that." I breathed.
XXX
Regrettably I had to forego the pleasure of sitting in on Beckett's interrogation of Spencer, the kid who had supplied the gun. My presence was required at a meeting with my publishers. With the publishing date of 'Storm Fall' rapidly approaching a few details had to be nailed down. Having to sit through a meeting with Gina my publisher and ex-wife number two, and my agent Paula Haas is not my idea of fun. I usually leave those meetings with a terrible head ache and questioning my decision of ever becoming an author. Most of the time I feel that I'm not really needed and the other times I feel like I'm a referee in a boxing match, stepping in to stop the two combatants before they claw each other's eyes out.
So while I sat in a conference room at Black Pawn wondering whether I was going to be a referee or just ignored, Detective Beckett went to work on Spencer.
Beckett recounted to me later on what had occurred during the interrogation.
Spencer, a tall kid with curly black hair and a swarthy complexion sat at the table looking terrified. I suppose having to confront an angry Detective Beckett would terrify most men whatever their age.
Spencer had come in with his lawyer.
Beckett had accused the kid of bringing the bullets, a charge Spencer did not deny claiming that it was to screw around. If by screwing around, you mean intentionally putting a bullet in a chamber, knowing that Max was going to shoot Donny, then she and Spencer were in total agreement Beckett had retorted.
Beckett then question if the point of the game was to shoot without bullets then why would he have bullets unless he intended to use them. Spencer came back with the declaration that he did not know that there were bullets in the gun.
The kid was getting really getting frightened more than likely realising that this was no longer a game.
Beckett then told Spencer that it was his gun, his bullets and from where she was standing he looked like the guy who had done it. Before Spencer had a chance to deny the accusation levelled at him Beckett asked where he had been between 6.30 and 9.00 the previous night.
A thoroughly shaken Spencer supplied that he was at his father's club, The Century, and he was with Brandon. Beckett expressed the thought that Spencer should hope that Brandon could corroborate that before she left the kid to cool his heels while she checked out his alibi.
XXX
The Universe must have taken pity on me because the meeting at the Black Pawn took a lot less time than I thought it would. I had agreed to do the usual number of book signings and readings around town as well a few out of town, as well a raft of interviews for with print and TV media. That was par for the course when ever I had a new book coming out.
Thankfully there was nothing else to discuss for the time being. I could not get out of there fast enough. Once down on the street I sent a text to Detective Beckett informing her I had been released from my imprisonment. She texted right back telling me to meet her at Redding Prep. I raced in search of a cab.
I met up with Detective Beckett at the front of Redding Prep where she filled me in on what Spencer had revealed during his interrogation and what we were doing back at Redding Prep.
We found ourselves in the school cafeteria which was currently empty. Not a great deal had changed my days here, the posters on the walls seemed not unlike the ones that I remembered. The colour scheme on the walls was the same only they had been repainted a few times since. One thing I notice immediately were the tables. The tables were large round ones. Back in my day there were long trestle tables that looked like they should have been in a prison movie.
Beckett and I were seated at a table with Brandon seated on the other side of the table. Brandon had that same smarmy, cocky expression on his face that had worn the last time we talked to him. It struck me that he reminded me of a young version of Tom Cruise only with a bad hair cut.
"I know that Romy and Spencer told you guys everything and that we're all in big trouble." Brandon said. "But I'm glad."
"You're glad?" Beckett said, sounding a little surprised.
"Yes. We should have just come clean with you guys after the accident."
"You're damn right you should have." Beckett said tersely.
"I know. But we didn't want to screw Max over."
"That's why you fingered the drug dealer?" I said "Because he's expendable."
Brandon claimed that he had told Romy it was wrong to finger the drug dealer but she wanted to protect Max. It was the drug dealer was the one who had gotten Donny into dealing in the first place.
"So where were you when Max was killed?" I asked.
"With Spencer, at his Dad's club." Brandon replied with a smirk on his face. "Ask him, he'll confirm it."
"You guys always have your stories straight, don't you?" Beckett said with barely suppressed anger. "'We weren't in the park'. 'It was the drug dealer'. 'It was Max'. You guys are always in sync. Maybe that's why I don't believe you."
Brandon continued to smirk not flinching at the accusation. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He glanced at Detective Beckett.
"You don't have to believe me." He told her. "I have proof."
He looked down at the phone in his hands and he switched it on. He looked up again. He explained they take videos just for laughs, doing crazy things. Romy's father was is a big IT guy and he hooked all them up with a file share over Bluetooth. That way they all would get the files. He paused again to look down at his phone before he announced that Amanda had shot this the night Donny had been shot.
"What is it?" Beckett demanded.
"A video." Brandon informed her. "Of Donny getting shot."
That piece of information surprised me. A glance in Beckett's direction told me that she too was surprised.
"We were all supposed to have erased it." Brandon continued. "But I knew that if the truth came out, we'd all be screwed. And after what happened to those kids in the Duke case I just didn't want to end up like that."
Brandon pressed the play button on the phone and passed it across to Detective Beckett. I moved in closer to view the video. The picture was dark and the camera work was jerky but the faces were recognisable. There was a shot of Brandon raising a flask to his lips and taking a pull of the alcohol. The others around him were encouraging him. Brandon passed the flask to Romy and she took a drink from it. Then we saw Donny calling out 'let's do this'. He stands on the park bench. Then there was Max raising the gun and pointing it directly at Donny. Moments later there is a gun shot.
The sound of the gun shot startled me, seeing the kid getting shot made me look away from the video. I heard a few shrieks and a couple of 'oh my Gods', then the video ended.
XXX
To say that seeing the video left me unsettled would have been an understatement.
I have always loved watching horror movies. I have seen all the 'Saw' movies and 'Friday the Thirteenths', 'Halloweens' and many others that I could name. I love blood and gore movies I have always found them fun. The bloodier the better, as someone once said, and that is a sentiment that I subscribe to. Yet however bloody or gory the movie was I knew in the back of my mind that this is all make believe. It's not real. It's just someone's fantasies brought to life on the screen. Seeing Donny getting shot shocked me. I had never seen anything like that before and I hope never to see again.
In the car driving back to the precinct I was subdued and in a reflective mood. I could only imagine how Donny's parents would react if or when they saw that video. Beckett too had been a little subdued.
"You okay?" Beckett asked, breaking into my thoughts.
"I was just thinking about Donny's parents. What they'll go through when they watch that video." I said. "Guess it's not too often you get a murder caught on tape, huh?"
"Yeah, well he was smart to keep it." Beckett replied. "Otherwise they'd all be facing manslaughter
charges."
Beckett was right. It was smart of Brandon to keep the video and I could understand why he had kept the video while the others had deleted it. Yet there was something else about this video that I found curious.
"Yeah. It was pretty smart of him when you think about it, wasn't it?" I murmured.
"Beckett glanced across to me. "I know that tone, Castle."
"I'm just saying, it's pretty lucky they filmed their little game that night."
"Yeah, well people post crazy stuff on you Tube."
That is so true. Some times at night when I'm bored I will surf through You Tube looking for something to amuse me. I've seen videos of singing cats and dancing dogs and everything in between and then some. People truly do post really crazy stuff on You Tube.
"I get filming it the first few times. It's exciting." I said as I looked across to Beckett. "But the tenth time? The fifteenth? What was so special about that night?"
"Donny got shot."
"So the only reason to film it is..."
"You knew something was going to happen." Beckett finished.
We shared a satisfied smile.
XXXXX
What do you think?
Con