Moment in Time Part 3

Chapter 28

The Last Seduction

Part 4

Kate examines the love nest pictures with disgust. "Look at the timestamps. These are too recent. Even if we knew who these women were, they wouldn't be close to getting slammed in a divorce yet."

Rick glances up from his phone. "According to Twitter, the possible members of the murderous first wives club sweat out their troubles at the Ramsmet Spa. Until she took up with her latest spiritual guide, that was one of Mother's favorite retreats. Maybe she could take you along as a guest – if I spring for it. Perhaps your well-tuned detecting skills could pick up the clue you need."

"You know," Kate considers, "That's not a bad idea if Martha isn't too busy."

"Actually, Alexis sent me a text saying Mother is down in the dumps because she missed out on a role. The director decided she was too old."

"Ouch!"

"Exactly. A day of pampering could be just what she needs. And if it helps solve the case, even better."

Kate wishes that the spa had cut cucumber on her eyes a little thinner so she could see something through it. But at least she can hear the conversation. "He apologized to me. Can you believe it! Sleeping with that bastard cost me twelve million bucks, and then he apologized. And he said he was going to change his ways. He claimed he'd hurt a really good person, and he couldn't do it anymore."

Another woman snorts. "Yeah, sure, I bet. When the money runs out, Scotty will be heating up the sheets again."

"If you're talking about Scott McCoy, you must not have heard," Martha's distinct alto interjects. "He won't be heating up anything. Someone murdered him."

"Well, it serves him right," another patron declares. "And he was scraping the bottom of the barrel anyway. I saw him with a woman who was at least sixty-five. Sorry, Martha. She wasn't keeping herself up the way you do. And wouldn't you know it? She runs some family values organization."

"It's always the pious hypocrites, isn't it?" a new voice chimes in. "They put on a great show to grab the money. Then they sin all the way to the bank."

As a murmur of agreement runs through the group, Kate tries to figure out how long it will be before she can make a graceful exit.

"A sixty-five-plus woman who runs a family values group," Rick considers. "I've met a lot of female money raisers on the charity circuit, but the family values ones usually shy away from me."

"If all they know is your PR, I'm not surprised," Kate offers. "It wasn't until I saw what a serious father you are to Alexis that I realized how much of the shallow Richard Castle was a put on. And I know how many good causes you support below the radar, but the rest of the world wouldn't. Still, there are sunshine rules about non-profits. Information about who runs them has to be public. I'll put Vikram on generating a list. Then I have to get back to the piles of paper that seem to grow on my desk. I could swear that someone sneaks into my office at night and waters and fertilizes them."

"The fertilizer, I'd believe," Rick agrees. "All right. I need to get some writing done, anyway. Now that Mother has rediscovered her enthusiasm for spas, I might as well make the bucks to keep her happy."

Vikram knocks on Kate's office door and holds up a printout. "I put together the list you wanted. I gave copies to Ryan and Esposito too. They're going through them."

"How are they doing?"

"You mean are they sniping at each other again? They had an argument about who would take which part of the list. But when Ryan threatened to call your husband, Esposito backed off."

Kate shrugs. "Well, I guess that's something. Thanks, Vikram."

"There's something else, Captain, about Reed. One of my feelers came back about an oxycodone shipment. There's a ship from China heading to New York, but it's stopping off at some Caribbean islands on the way. I sent the details to your home computer."

"Thanks, Vikram. I appreciate it."

"Hey, I want to nail that bastard as much as you do."

"How were the boys doing on the hunt for a murderer with not quite family values?" Rick asks as Kate drags into the loft.

"They have a few suspects they're tracing down. But I think they need another set of eyes. Aside from the Catholic Church, neither one of them has an idea how non-profits work."

"Well, it won't give them a blow by blow of any sausage making, but they could start with the minutes of board meetings. Any conflicts should at least be hinted at in those."

"That's a great idea, Babe. I'll get them on it first thing tomorrow."

"But there's something else, isn't there?"

"Another of Reed's drug shipments to the VA is coming in. But the ship is detouring to the Caribbean before it gets to New York. Who knows what could be going on down there?"

"The Caribbean islands are favorite stops for tourists. And many cruise-lovers tend to be more into their mature years. So they could use painkillers or anything else that might be on a floating hotel."

"Right, Kate agrees. "So by the time Reed's ship makes port in New York, what's left of the drugs could go straight to VA facilities, giving us no trail to follow at all."

"That would be a tough break. But there are other possibilities," Rick suggests. "Anything picked up on a cruise in the islands could end up in New York via the passengers or crew. You never know what might find its way into your domain."

Kate cuddles into his shoulder. You're right. I don't."

Ryan approaches Kate's office, waving a document. "These are the minutes from the Family Values Fund. Penelope Keller and her son George run it."

Esposito pushes in beside Ryan. "It looks like there was a power struggle going on. George was trying to push his mother out. Then she suddenly resigned – right after one of those deposits to Scott McCoy's account."

"Bring them both in," Kate instructs.

"I don't know what you're talking about," George Keller claims. "The only reason I wanted to take my mother's position on the board is that – what is a diplomatic way to say this? Unfortunately, her faculties are not what they once were."

"Did she agree with that?" Kate questions. "Did you have any professional assessments to back it up?"

"I didn't need any. A son knows. She was losing all dignity, running around with a man young enough to be her grandson. I wanted her to retire before bad publicity could ruin the organization she, both of us, worked so hard to build."

"And did she go along with that?" Kate presses.

"She admitted that she did something, uh, unwise. So she stepped down before the reputation of the Family Values Fund was ruined."

"And of course, that made you CEO."

"It was my duty to take up the yoke."

"Ms. Keller," Kate inquires gently, "why did you resign as CEO of the Family Values Fund?"

"I did something terrible. I broke God's law, and I couldn't allow the work to be sullied by my sin."

"What did you do?" Kate asks.

"I had relations out of wedlock. The young man was so kind and understanding that for a moment, he made me feel young again. And he knew it was wrong. He came to me and apologized. He said he was going to do everything he could to atone, to make it right."

"Ms. Keller, what was the name of the young man?"

"Scott, Scott McCoy. The newspaper said he was murdered."

"And did Scott McCoy tell you what he was going to do to atone?"

"No, just that he had to talk to someone. I thought it might be a priest or a minister."

"Ms. Keller. We are trying very hard to find the person who killed Scott McCoy. Is there anything else you can tell me?"

"Just that when he asked for my forgiveness, he said he shouldn't have taken the thirty pieces of silver."

"Thirty pieces of silver," Rick repeats after Kate finishes with Penelope Keller's interview. "That's what Judas was paid for betraying Jesus. And we know who paid Scott McCoy."

"Lindsey Trent!" Rick and Kate exclaim together.

"Yes, all right," George Keller admits. "I paid Lindsey Trent to help me get my mother to resign. But it's no crime to expose someone's failing self-control."

"It may not be a crime, Mr. Keller," Kate allows, "but I don't think you could sell it as a family value either."

"I don't know why I'm here!" Lindsey protests, tossing her coffee cup into a nearby trash receptacle. "Is this some stupid revenge for seeing your husband about a divorce? I didn't even take his case."

"No, you just sent him to a counselor who receives regular payments from your shell corporation. But that's not why you're here," Kate explains. "You used that same shell corporation to pay Scott McCoy to sleep with your clients' wives to break their prenups. But after Penelope Keller, Scott had a change of heart. He was going to expose the whole scheme. Being disbarred would have been the least of your legal problems. You had to silence him.

"If you could prove that, you would have arrested me already," Lindsey declares. "I'm leaving."

Kate pulls an evidence bag from her pocket to retrieve the container Lindsey tossed away. "You may have wiped your prints off the knife you used to stab Scott McCoy. But it's hard to wipe away DNA. The M.E.'s report showed saliva on Scott's body that didn't belong to him. It contained female DNA. We thought it might have come from a sexual partner. But it didn't, did it, Lindsey? Your final act of contempt was to spit on him. In death, he'll spit back. And we can hold you long enough for the lab to seal the deal." She signals to LT to take Lindsey to Holding.

Rick strolls out of observation extending a bowl of popcorn to Kate. "Want some? That was a great line about spitting. Can I steal that for Nikki Heat?"

Kate dips her hand into the bowl. "Knock yourself out, Babe. Let's go home."