Moment in Time Part 3
Chapter 32
Tone Death
Part 1
Martha Rodgers is totally in her element doing two things she loves, helping young people and raising money for charity. Employing her well-honed stagecraft, she practices her introduction to an oldie but goodie. Well aware that the vocalists backing her all have more range than she does, she speaks the words to "The Things We Do For Love" instead of singing them.
The song is going well until she gets to the lyric about snow. Unfortunately, not enough of it comes down from above. As the crew tries to increase the shower of white, a body falls to the stage.
Rick grins as Kate snuggles into his bare shoulder. "It may be more fun than I thought working around your captain's hours."
Green sparkles flash in Kate's eyes. "Fitting our encounters in around my schedule does make our naked time more intense, doesn't it? And since I have a meeting with Captain Gates this afternoon, there was no reason I couldn't use my lunchtime to make a little detour. But," she says, regretfully checking her phone on the bedside table, if I'm going to make that meeting, I have to get going. You know what a stickler Gates is for doing things on time."
Rick sighs. "She's a stickler about all the rules. I'll find something to amuse myself in your absence. Perhaps Alexis has…." Rick's cellphone sounds off. "That's Mother. She was supposed to be working on her latest pet project. I wonder what she wants."
"Oh, Richard, it's too awful," Martha exclaims when Rick shows up at the theater. "Robyn was such a lovely girl. The way she turned her life around was remarkable."
Lanie is already kneeling at a body when Esposito and Ryan trot in not long after Rick arrives. "Ms. Rodgers," Ryan begins, "I'm so sorry you have to go through this. It's good that Castle can be here for you. Can you tell us what happened?"
Martha takes a cleansing breath. "I don't know, really. Robyn was such a sweet girl. She stayed after my last rehearsal just to thank me. She was supposed to be here today, but she didn't show up. I guess now I know why."
"Then was that rehearsal the last time you saw her?" Rick queries.
"Yes, it was."
"Robyn was killed last night by blunt force trauma," Lanie inserts softly.
Alexis hurries into the theater. "Come on, Gram. I'll take you home."
"Yes, darling, thank you. But first, we should find a witness who saw Robyn last night."
"I was here," manager Chris Jackson volunteers. "A woman showed up looking for Robyn. From what I saw, she was really pissed off about something. Robyn called her Momma but threatened to call the cops if she didn't leave."
"And did she?" Rick presses.
"I saw her go. But she could have come back."
Rick, Ryan, and Esposito gather around the conference table. "Robyn King's mother died when she was five," Ryan reveals. "The woman at the theater wasn't her momma."
Esposito pages through a file. "Robyn was an ex-con."
"Yes, all the members of the singing group are," Castle recalls. "That's Mother's current cause, helping them stay clean through the arts."
"And," Esposito continues, "Momma is Olivia(Momma) Toussaint, a drug dealer. Robyn worked for her. If Robyn threatened to rat her out, Olivia might have decided to take Robyn out first."
Returning from 1PP, Kate strides into the room. "I caught what you just said. Go bring in Momma Toussaint."
"Yeah, I was pissed at Robyn," Olivia Toussaint admits. "She told me she wasn't part of my family anymore, that she'd found a new family. She'd hooked up with them in prison, and they had a big thing coming out."
"What big thing?" Kate presses.
"I don't know, but Robyn was all excited about it. I couldn't talk her into coming back, so I left. And she was alive when I did."
"Momma's alibi checked out," Ryan reports to Kate. "She was across town at the TOD. But I checked Robyn's Metro card. She was making two trips to Spanish Harlem every week. So if she was into something, it was up there."
"But where in Spanish Harlem?" Rick wonders. "A subway stop serves a lot of territory." A chime sounds from the evidence box. "Is that Robyn's phone?"
Esposito picks up the cell. "There's nothing on here but emojis. I can't make them out."
"Castle, you're into puzzles. What do they mean?" Ryan asks.
Rick stares at the cell's screen. "I hate to admit it, but I have no idea. We need someone under thirty – a lot under thirty. And I know just the person."
Alexis writes out the symbols on a whiteboard. "Emojis can stand for combinations of sounds. The clock is at 12, and it's dark. So it's midnight. See the sheep and the ear? That could be a shepherd. And the bull could be Taurus."
"Oh, I recognize the bag," Castle puts in. "That's a shopping bag, a favorite of both your Gram and your mother. But then what's the ball for?"
"Put it together," Alexis advises. "Shopping ball – shopping mall."
Rick points at a map showing the area around Robyn's subway stop. "And there it is. Shepherd Torres Shopping Mall."
Esposito snorts. "That place closed down years ago."
"Sure, who shops at malls when you can do everything online?" Ryan adds.
"Someone who heeds the olfactory siren call of Cinnabon and Mrs. Field's cookies?" Castle guesses. "But if Robyn's new family was getting together to plan a caper, what place could be better than an abandoned mall? Looks like we're going to be midnight callers."
Rick inspects the graffiti on the wall of the empty mall parking garage. "This must be a practice ground for taggers. They've done some excellent work."
Esposito grasps his weapon. "Where there are taggers, there are gangs."
"All right, everyone. Let's proceed quietly and cautiously," Kate commands.
Ryan holds up his hand. "Wait! Is that singing?"
"That's Jitterbug!" Rick realizes. "They don't have the bass of the original version, but it's not bad."
"They're doing a riff-off!" Esposito interjects.
Kate steps forward. "Come on. Let's find out what's happening here."
"We're Aka-Con, a non-profit acapella group that Robyn put together," a singer explains under Kate's questioning. "Robyn wasn't the only ex-con. We all are. Singing helps us stay straight."
"Is there any member of your group who isn't so straight, who might have had a grudge against Robyn?" Kate asks.
"No one but oh! We're all one-time offenders except Agnes, Agnes Molina. She was backsliding into selling drugs. Robyn told her if she couldn't stay clean, she'd be out."
Ryan rubs his eyes as he reports to Kate in the morning. "Agnes Molina is on the run. She missed a check-in with her parole officer, didn't show up at work, and isn't at her flop."
"Sounds like Agnes could be our killer. Put out a BOLO on her. I'm going to find out more about Robyn's non-profit. I'm wondering how Agnes fell back to pushing. And get yourself some coffee. You look like you're about to fall over."
"That will happen with midnight raids before morning shifts," Ryan grumbles, dragging himself toward the break room. Hopefully, he'll remember Castle's recipe for triple-strength espresso.
Opening her laptop, Kate checks out NBP, the non-profit prison arts group that led Robyn to start the Aka-Con. Her lips press into a tight line as she views a picture on her screen. NBP founders Linda and Scott Weinstein look like they belong more in the Hamptons than a prison recreation room. Linda's outfit alone would cost more than most women spend on clothes in a year, maybe five years. Well, looks can be deceiving. Hopefully, they'll be willing to come to the 12th for an interview.