The Death and Life of Teresa Wyler

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Do I really have to tell you I don't own Castle? Rating: K Time: Shortly after the episode Still.

They could tell things were going to be difficult as soon as they got in sight of the courthouse.

"Look at that." Castle said. "Every TV station in the city has a van or truck parked outside the courthouse. They all must be covering this live."

"Somebody's Senate career is at stake." Kate replied. "That's big news. But we can just go to the courthouse's garage."

When they got to the entrance of the courthouse's underground garage, they found a dozen uniforms trying to keep reporters from sneaking in.

Kate ran her lights and siren and held up her badge.

"Detective Beckett?" A uniform yelled over the reporters screaming question at Rick and Kate. "To your right. Park anyplace. Elevator is to your right as well."

"Thanks."

Once parked, they headed for the elevator. Another uniform was stationed there.

"Sergeant McAllen? Are you still on the job?" Kate asked.

"Sure am, Detective Beckett. "My youngest is in her last year of college, then I'm gone."

"Castle, this is Sergeant John McAllen. He was one of the instructors at the Academy when I went through. He taught me how to do all the important things a cadet has to do to graduate."

McAllen laughed.

"Yeah, I taught her how to spit shine her shoes and the bill of her cap so that they glowed."

"And he taught me how to iron razor sharp creases in my uniforms." Kate added with a smile.

"Good to see you again, Beckett, but you'd better get upstairs. I hear it's a zoo up there."

The elevator brought them directly to the DA's offices where they met Sarah Green, the ADA handling the Wyler case. She was as tall as Kate and also slender with long, straight black hair and deep green eyes. Like Kate, she wore a pants suit and high heels.

"Kate! How good to see you again. Tell me, did you ever get rid of that empty headed, sex obsessed, obnoxious writer tag along?"

Kate's face turned bright red.

"Hi, I'm Rick Castle." He held out his hand. "If you need an empty head, some obsessing over sex, or maybe some obnoxiousness, I'm your man. I can write a mean book, too."

Ms. Green laughed and shook Rick's hand.

"Glad to meet you, Mr. Castle. Sorry about the dig at you, but I just had to remind Kate of what she'd said in the past."

"Oh, that's all right. Everyone knows she was just trying to convince herself of that. The truth is, she fell for me on day one."

Kate glared at the two of them.

"You know I'm beginning to feel a massive migraine coming on. I may have to take a sick day."

"Sorry, Kate." Sarah said.

"No, you're not. Not one bit." Kate snapped back.

"You're right. But rumor says you two are an item now?"

Kate blushed again and said nothing.

"Yes, Kate Beckett and Rick Castle are an item. Film at eleven." Rick said with a devilish smile.

"I'm glad to hear it. Kate's needed someone in her life. I was afraid she was going to end up one of those old ladies who sit around wondering what happened to their lives."

"If I have anything to say about it, she'll know exactly what happened to her life, with some blurry moments."

"How about you do your job, Sarah, and brief us on what's happening today." Kate wanted to get the conversation on some other topic.

"Not much to tell. We have Teresa Wyler, now Teresa Gordon here, we have two fingerprint experts, one NYPD and one FBI. We also have a Doctor Anne Shields, MD, not PhD, who's the DNA expert the DA uses. She literally wrote the book on DNA identification, so no problem there."

"So no chance you'll need us?" Kate said.

"We'll see. Congresswoman Leonard is here and she's filed a friend of the court briefing, but I doubt Judge Wollmer is going to pay any attention to it. It's all just a rehash of the original trial and a lot of speculation that this is a vast, insidious plot by her political enemies, but without any proof. She does have quite a crew of lawyers, political spin doctors, and some alleged fingerprint and DNA experts. She also has Melissa Wyler and her aunt and uncle with her."

"They're here with Congresswoman Leonard?" Kate asked. She hadn't known anything about this.

"Sure. When George Wyler was convicted of Mrs. Wyler's murder, her older sister and her husband, Tim and Andrea Grace, got custody of Melissa and filed a wrongful death claim against him. She got everything he had. She got WyChem, the house by Central Park, the cabin upstate and everything else he owned. Since Melissa was a child, the Graces got control of everything, subject to checks by Child Welfare."

"What kind of experience did he have running a chemical company?" Rick asked.

"Zero." Sarah replied. "He was a plumber, but since he controlled the majority of the stock, he voted himself in as chairman of the board with a fat salary and hired his wife as the special assistant to the chairman of the board, also at a fat salary. I've talked to some people at WyChem. They say he never did anything but show up at the annual board meetings and vote himself and his wife a nice bonus every year. Luckily, Wyler had hired some very smart people to run the company with him and they kept the company going." Sarah lowered her voice. "They also said they spent their money as fast as they made it. Wyler's attorneys want to have the wrongful death decision declared null and void since there's no death. The Graces will be out on the street if that happens."

"Will it happen?" Kate asked.

Sarah Shrugged.

"There are some cases where the person accused of the wrongful death was found to have not killed the person, but there's never been a case in the State of New York with a wrongful death claim where there was no actual death. There are no precedents for this one."

"How did Melissa Wyler get involved with Congresswoman Leonard?" That was Rick.

"She was apparently grateful to her for getting her father convicted. She started showing up at events where Leonard spoke when she was fifteen or so. Once she turned eighteen and became an adult, she began donating to her and to causes they both support, mainly getting the maximum sentence for men who kill their wives. She's kind of the poster child for anti-domestic violence."

"I'll bet it's been a shock to find out her mom's still alive."

"I imagine. No one from out office has talked to her."

Kate checked her watch.

"We'd better go in, the hearing will be starting in a couple of minutes."

They sat with the other witnesses, or potential witnesses and were immediately surrounded by reporters who wanted to get a sound bite about the hearing. Kate politely told them to talk to the NYPD's public relations people while Rick chatted happily about the latest Nikki Heat novel and threw in a few stories about cases he and Beckett had worked on.

The bailiff called out loudly.

"All rise. Court is now in session, the Honorable Elizabeth Wollmer, presiding."

Judge Wollmer was an older African-American woman, a bit pudgy and with an iron grey but short Afro. She was too old to have any political ambitions, but was well connected in the African-American community. She was not going to put up with any grandstanding by Congresswoman Leonard. Or anyone else.

The first witness was Lieutenant Dobbs from the NYPD's crime lab. He explained how he'd taken the fingerprints taken when Teresa Gordon was a child and held by the NYPD, and a set that they'd found that had been taken when she was in high school, and compared them to the fingerprints taken by him from Teresa Gordon. Dobbs explained he'd used a computerized fingerprint scanning system developed by the FBI and found that all three prints matched perfectly.

"There's no question that the fingerprints taken are those of Mrs. Gordon."

"I object and wish to cross examine the witness!" Congresswoman Leonard stood up and yelled quite loudly.

Sarah Green shot to her feet.

"Congresswoman Leonard has no standing in this case, Your Honor. This is s matter being considered on behalf of the People of the State of New York and the People only."

"We have no guarantee that the so called prints taken from the NYPD or the high school are those of Teresa Wyler and not some imposter."

"Lieutenant Dobbs has explained the chain of custody of the prints." Sarah Green countered,

"The same NYPD that allows a hack writer to insert himself in official police business so he can write tawdry novels about some round heeled cop."

"I object!" Rick said, shooting to his feet.

Judge Wollmer looked at him over the rim of her glasses.

"Mr. Richard Castle, isn't it?"

"Yes, Your Honor."

"I recall you've been in my court room a time or two, haven't you?"

"Um…Three times your honor."

"And I understand you've become an upstanding citizen since then, is that correct?" She asked mildly.

"Yes, Your Honor."

"Then you can damned well act like one, and not interrupt my courtroom!" She barked. "Do you understand me?"

She didn't wait for an answer from Rick, but turned to Congresswoman Leonard.

"Do you have any evidence that the fingerprint cards in the custody of the NYPD or the school were tampered with in any way, Congresswoman?"

"Not direct evidence, but those records are not like being in Fort Knox, someone could have…"

"I'll ask again." Judge Wollmer interrupted. "Do you have any actual evidence to support the claim that the fingerprint cards were tampered with in any manner?"

"No, but I think…"

"And I think that what you have is speculation, Congresswoman and that's inadmissible. And please remember that you are not a party to these proceedings."

Leonard sat down and began whispering with two of the men with her.

Next up was an FBI agent who explained how the computerized system for checking fingerprints worked.

When he was done, Leonard shot to her feet again.

"I would like to have Doctor Henry Richter cross examine the witness, Your Honor. Dr. Richter has a PhD in computer science and has been asked to consult on many complex cases involving computers."

Sarah Green rose.

"Dr. Richter was asked to consult on many cases but has never been certified as an expert witness in any field. In fact, his PhD is from a for profit school in Oklahoma that was shut down for fraud years ago. It seems there was no course work involved in their degree program, you got the varying degrees as soon as your check cleared. I would also add that the People do not wish to try to certify Mr. Richter as an expert witness. Congresswoman Leonard has no legal standing in this case."

"I agree." Judge Wollmer said.

"So we just have to accept this man's word that the prints are the same?" Leonard yelled.

Wollmer opened her mouth, but Special Agent Farmer spoke first.

"That can easily be done. If Mrs. Gordon will allow me, I can take her prints right here and compare them in front of everyone."

"The People would like that done, Your Honor."

Mrs. Gordon had her prints taken by placing them against the computer screen. The Special Agent Farmer brought up the other prints and superimposed them.

"A perfect match." He said, showing the judge the results.

"Thank you, Agent Farmer. You're excused." Wollmer checked her watch. "This has taken some time, so I suggest we break for lunch for an hour and resume with the DNA evidence. Any objections?"

Both lawyers shook their heads and Wollmer adjourned the hearing.

"It'll be a zoo if you go outside." Sarah said to Rick and Kate. "We can order in and I can pump Rick for the details."

"You'd better be unpumpable." Kate said.

TBC