American Crime Stories
Arc three, Chapter thirty four
Life was not going well for Detective Roselyn Karpowski. The past few weeks had been difficult for her and her team. They had been called out to the murder of Steven Hadley, owner of Hadley Tech Inc., a big tech firm based in New York. The killer or killers had shot the man and taken his thumb. Her team had investigated for days, but had not gotten anywhere. Nothing concrete or tangible had come up. Normally, they would have put the case to cold cases by now, but because of the prominent status of Hadley they had stayed on the case longer than usual.
Things were worse because her case had been the second case of a dead rich guy with a missing thumb. They had found out that a detective from the 8th Precinct had investigated the murder of Michael Kessler who owned a very successful investment company.
After the connection had been made, the brass decided that the teams should work together. However, it hadn't helped, as they couldn't find any more leads than in the initial case. There had been no other connection other than the fact that both victims had been on the New York Ledger's top 50 list of richest men in Manhattan.
They had been running down leads on people that worked for one of the dead guys that might be disgruntled enough to kill them. The list had been long, but in the end, nobody had stood out – both cases had gone cold.
Although she didn't like those facts, she knew that it was the way of life for detectives. What made her miserable was the fact that she was sure that there would be another victim, maybe even more than one. That was, however, where her opinion differed from the other lead detective. Carl Beecher thought that they were looking for different killers; that her killer had read about his case and decided to copycat the known facts. And it seemed that his Captain, Joselyn Carter, was thinking the same. After talking with her detectives and some members of Beecher's team and thinking about her options, Roselyn had decided to talk to Captain Eames about her suspicion. Roselyn, as any other cop stationed at the 12th Precinct, knew that Eames had worked Major Crimes. She really hoped that her Captain would be more open to her opinion than Carter or even Gates had been in the past.
That was why she was now sitting in front of Captain Eames desk.
"What can I do for you, Roselyn?" Eames asked after the initial greetings.
"It's about the two pop and drops I've been investigating."
"And?"
"Ma'am, both cases are pretty much cold. Despite the fact that we have working intensively on these cases for weeks now, we've got nothing. No new leads, no DNA or fingerprints. We also couldn't find any connection between the two men other than that they were part of the Ledger's list," Roselyn summarized the facts for her captain.
"So, what is the problem? You know as well as I do that despite our best efforts that we can't solve any case."
"I know, Ma'am. The problem is that I'm frustrated, not about the fact that we seem to be unable to solve the cases. Although, that sucks, too. Sorry for the language, Ma'am," Roselyn apologized with a grimace, but Eames just winked it away.
"What is the problem then?"
"The problem is that unlike Detective Beecher, I think that there will be another murder."
Roselyn went on to explain the situation to Eames, briefing her about the cases a bit more. After hearing the details of the two cases, Captain Eames shared her detective's opinion that despite the lack of evidence the cases were connected and that there would be more murders.
"Roselyn, what is it you want me to do?"
Here goes nothing, Roselynthought. "Well, Ma'am, I'd hoped for that you would speak with your superiors and ask for help."
"You want me to convince them to give the cases to Major Crimes?"
"Well, Ma'am, you could do that or call in the FBI, especially the new VCTF," Roselyn replied while involuntarily holding her breath as she waited for Eames' reaction.
Eames frowned. She, like any other precinct captain, had been briefed about the Task Force. She had also seen the press coverage after they had solved the killings in California. However, unlike the other captains, she had worked with two members of the Task Force. On the one hand, she had been quite unhappy when she had learned that Detectives Ryan and Esposito would transfer to the FBI newest established task force. One the other hand, it had given her the possibility to change her homicide teams and substitute them with new people without stepping on anybody toes.
She didn't have any problems with the two male detectives. In fact, she quite liked them and thought them to be very good in their job. However, they were part of the group of the diminishing numbers of cops who had been at the 12th Precinct during Montgomery's and Gates' administrations. More than that, they had been on the most prominent team - with all the good and bad that came with it.
"Why them? Do you think that they could do anything that the Major Crimes or another team could not?"
"Ma'am, you have worked with Ryan and Esposito and know that they are very good detectives," Roslyn said. Eames nodded.
"And even though you have never worked with Castle, you must have realized that he is very capable, too."
Eames nodded again. Oh, she had been just as surprised as Ryan and Esposito had been when she had learned about the statistics of the 12th Precincts since Castle's arrival.
So had been Karpowski when Esposito had told her about the facts. Sure, on some level she had known what he had told her, as she had been one of the detectives who had consulted with Castle regularly. But the big impact the writer seemed to had have, had surprised her as well.
"I also remember Special Agent Shaw from when she worked the 'Nikki Heat' murders with us. I think they would bring in a new and unique view on the cases. We have been going over the same evidence over and over again, but didn't find anything. Maybe they will see something that we've missed. Also, and I hate saying that, bringing them in could help keeping the possible fallout down."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I don't think Captain Carter would be too happy if you went over her head. Getting the VCTF to look over our own case would help sooth ruffled feathers, save the NYPD the cost and time of another team of detectives working the case. And should there be another case, the pressure would be on them, not on us."
"That's pretty…"
"Yeah, I know, Ma'am," Roselyn said, unhappy to throw her friends under the bus.
"You're right, the pressure would be on them. However, should they find the killer, the prestige would be theirs, too," Eames said with a grimace. "Not that I mind, detective," she added hastily. "I just try to anticipate some arguments we will face with the brass."
"Well, Captain, I'm sure that having Detectives Ryan and Esposito part of the VCTF will help to shine some good publicity to the NYPD as a whole, and even on us here at the 12th Precinct."
Eames thought for a moment. "Okay, I make the call."
"Thank you, Captain."
FBI New York Field Office
"Listen up, everyone," Shaw called out. "That was Captain Eames from the 12th Precinct, she has asked us to look at a case that is possible connected to another."
"Don't they know whether there is a connection?" Ryan asked.
"There have been two pop and drops in different location and therefore different jurisdictions. The lead detective at the 12th, a Detective Karpowski, got the second case, but it went cold. Just like the first case which was investigated by a member of the 8th Precinct. Detective Karpowski thinks that the cases are connected, even though they couldn't find a connection. Worse, she thinks that there will be additional murders. The other lead detective, a Detective Carl Beecher, thinks that the second killer had read about the first murder and decided to copycat it. The captains of the two precincts followed the opinions of their lead detectives. "
"So, we step in a dispute between two captains? Great," Fischer said.
"Roselyn, ah Detective Karpowski, is a very good and experienced detective who got overshadowed by Beckett. Funnily enough, she had the higher closure and conviction rate when I started at the 12th Precinct," Castle said.
"Really, Castle? I didn't know that. Why didn't you tell us?" Ryan said.
"Yeah, well, didn't want to hurt your feelings."
"Funny, bro."
"Alright, you three, let's focus on the task at hand. Detective Karpowski will come to us and bring us the case files. Let's get ready."
The members of the VCTF moved to get everything ready to start their investigation.
"And people? We have had some victories until now, but you know as well as I do, that we will have several eyes on us. Especially now that we will work in our own backyard. So, please, make sure to behave appropriately."
A little more than two hours later, Roselyn Karpowski had arrived at the FBI office and briefed the VCTF on both cases.
"So, let me get the facts straight: We have two murders with the same MO, two rich business men have been shot and one of their thumb cut off. Their bodies have been dropped at another location and there is almost no evidence to work with. Although they were killed execution style, they were killed with different weapons. There are no other connections than the fact that they're prominent business men who appeared in the Ledger's list," Shaw summarized.
"Correct, Agent Shaw. Sure, we know that Kessler and Hadley knew each other, they have attended the same galas and functions, eaten at the same expensive restaurants and so on. But every lead we had so far, went cold."
"Well, Detective Karpowski, despite the still unknown connection and missing physical evidence I'm convinced that we're looking at the same killer or killers."
All of the other members of the VCTF agreed, except Castle who had remained silent. A fact Shaw had realized.
"Castle? You're unusual quite."
Normally, such a sentence would have brought out some comments from Ryan and Esposito, but as they looked to him they immediately saw their friend deep in thoughts. And they could see some concern on his face.
"Yo, bro, what's wrong?" Esposito asked.
"Well, Esposito, there are quite a few things wrong. First, what Roselyn didn't mention so far is that I was part of the same list as Kessler and Hadley."
The other people turned to Karpowski.
"Yeah, sorry about that," she said sheepishly.
"Don't worry about it, Roselyn," Castle sighed. "What's worse is that I don't think that our killer or killers had seen that list and decided to kill annoying rich assholes and take their thumbs just for fun."
"What other motive could he have?" Ryan asked.
"Well, I don't know if you know this, but some high end banks use thumb print scanners instead of keys to open safety deposit boxes, and I have a safety deposit box with such a fingerprint scanner," Castle told the group looking down at his right thumb.
"Oh, that sucks," Ryan summarized what the others were thinking.
"It does. It could be worse though, there are banks that use ones eye scan."
"Uhh…"
"Yeah…"
"Okay, leaving that aside for a moment, why kill two people? Couldn't they have gotten to Kessler's deposit box and cleaned it out?" Fischer asked.
"Well, that's not an easy thing to do. They can't just walk into the bank and ask for access to the deposit box. Despite their discretion, people like Kessler, Hadley or even me, are known to the bank staff, and especially to the security personal. They will accompany the client just outside the safe with the deposit boxes. Some of them have even an added secondary security feature that for the clients to access their boxes, the bank staff has to use their own set of keys or even their biometrics," Castle explained.
"So, the killer needed a way to bypass them. But how?" Fischer asked.
"The same way Ron Brandt did," Castle stated. Ryan and Esposito turned.
"That's genius, bro," Esposito said.
"Who is Ron Brandt?" Fischer asked.
"Ron Brandt hired a group of mercenaries to rob the New Amsterdam Bank and Trust on Lex. The heist was a cover for the mercs to get their hands on the safe deposit boxes," Ryan explained.
"So, Castle, you're saying that this is a set up to a bank heist?" Shaw asked surprised. She hadn't thought about that at all.
"I think so. That would explain why we have two victims already, and why we should expect more. Their collecting a number of thumbs before they hit the bank. Why limit yourself with the content of the bank itself? It's pretty difficult to get through the vaults these days. Compared to that, access to the deposit boxes are much easier."
"Besides, rich people surely have something valuable in their safe deposit boxes; something that you can fence much easier than the dollars whose serial numbers are listed," Fischer added.
"Well yeah," was the only thing Castle said. "We should check out which bank or banks Kessler and Hadley were using. None of them will give us a list of clients with safety deposit boxes, at least without warrant. However, they should hand over the staff list. We can start there," Rick said, proposing a game plan.
"You think that this is an inside job?" Karpowski asked.
"I do, Roselyn. The killers have to know that their victims have a deposit box."
"Castle, you're talking about killers. You think that we're dealing with more than one killer?" Fischer asked.
"Yes, I'm sure that we're not dealing with just one guy," Castle said and nodded his head. "If I were to write the story, my bad guys would be a group of three or four. You have the inside man who works in a high security bank. His or her position allows him access to information about VIP clients - which is not something regular teller Joe Banker gets. Then you have one cold blooded killer who has no problem to execute his victims. He knows what he is doing and does it as painless as possible. Then you have at least one other person who has medical training. I don't think he's a doctor, but an EMT. Maybe a vet. Either way, he's the one who cuts the thumbs and then keeps them fresh so that they can take the print to use in the heist. There may be one other guy that's driving the van, but I'm not sure about that. However, in my books, this would be a close net group who have experience working together, probably military or private security. They trust each other enough to pull such an operation that goes on over few weeks now. They are not psychopaths, they're criminals without remorse. Using bolt cutters to remove the thumbs and the execution style killings tell us that they don't want the victims to suffer."
"That sounds plausible, Castle. Let's check whether we had similar cases in other states. As you said, they seemed experienced, maybe they've done it before," Shaw said.
For the next two days, the members of the VCTF re-investigated the two murders, and followed the new leads they had found. In the meanwhile, Shaw had to deal with an irritant Captain Carter who didn't like the fact that her and her detectives finding were questioned. In addition, Carter had allowed Beecher to keep on investigating, although it had been made clear to Carter that the FBI would take over the case.
Even worse was that Carter had failed to inform the VCTF about a possible suspect who they were about to arrest. In fact, it had been a member of Beecher's team who had informed Karpowski who in turn had called them.
Shaw was furious and she would make her feelings known.
When the members of the VCTF stepped off the elevator of the homicide floor at 8th Precinct, they instantly saw a buzz of activity. They spotted Karpowski who was talking with another detective. They walked over to them.
"Detective Karpowski, what's going on here?" Shaw asked.
"They arrested their suspect. He was driving around in an old van with a gun, a hacksaw, and a shovel," Karpowski answered.
"Who are you?" The male detective asked.
"I am FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Jordan Shaw. And you are?"
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ma'am. I'm Detective Bill Szymanski," he greeted her pleasantly and held out his hand to greet her.
"Bill was the one who informed me about their suspect, Samuel Fry," Karpowski explained.
Shaw accepted the hand and thanked Szymanski for calling Karpowski.
"Where are Captain Carter and Detective Beecher?"
"They're talking over interrogation strategy before they start on Fry."
"Who?" Castle asked. He like the other members of the VCTF had been silent so far. "Sorry, guys. Detective, these are Special Agent Kimberly Fischer, Detectives Ryan and Esposito and FBI Consultant Richard Castle."
To their surprise, and a little satisfaction, Bill Szymanski didn't so much react to Castle' name. He greeted the writer just as he greeted the others.
"Can you tell the Detectives and Castle about the suspect while Agent Fischer and I talk to Captain Carter and Detective Beecher?"
"Maybe it'd be better if I accompanied you to the Captain's office, Ma'am. As Roselyn had worked here in the past, she can show you to the interrogation room," Szymanski told her.
Szymanski, Shaw and Fischer walked away, Roselyn turned to her former colleague.
"So, Roselyn, do you know the way to the interrogating room?" Castle asked.
"Sure, follow me."