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.
Phillips did come in the next day and had a representative of the police union with him. When Kate remarked about this, the union rep, Manny Gonzalez smiled.
"Bad news travels fast, Detective Beckett. Everyone knows how the DA screwed up the Wyler case and now the politicians want to make it the police's fault. Well, it isn't. And I can prove it." He turned to Phillips. "Go ahead and tell them."
"This alleged conversation with the witnesses happened on or about February 13, 1998, right?" Phillips said.
"Yes." Kate replied.
"On January 31st, 1998, I was in my patrol car and was hit by some drugged out kid in a stolen garbage truck. Yeah, it sounds funny now, but my leg was busted in two places and my knee was all messed up. I was on disability leave for eight weeks while I healed up. I was nowhere near the precinct. Manny has copies of all the records."
Manny removed a voluminous file from his briefcase and handed it to Kate.
"Those are copies, but One PP will have the originals someplace."
She nodded and hefted the bulky file.
"Okay, we'll go over these. Sorry to have brought you in for this."
Phillips shrugged.
"No problem. You have a reputation for being thorough, Detective Beckett, which is a damned good thing. And it's not like there haven't been cops who've "helped" witnesses with their memories before."
Kate's team went over the reports and found that everything was as Phillips had said. Captain Gates was both happy that no police officer was guilty of witness tampering and upset that there was a loose end in the case.
Once back at Kate's desk, the team talked about the case.
"Maybe the witnesses are lying." Ryan said. "They fingered the wrong guy all by themselves and now they want to blame the police. Make themselves look good."
"Or maybe the cop was from somewhere else." Castle said. "Someone from One PP trying to help out a case?"
"Or maybe their memories are bad after fifteen years." Kate responded. "Maybe a cop did help them out and he was a skinny guy with black hair. Whatever it was, there's nothing we can do now. Phillips has an alibi and the witnesses picked out the wrong guy at the photo lineup. The whole thing spells out reasonable doubt in great big letters."
Castle checked his watch.
"If I leave now, I can have the pasta carbonara ready when you get home, Beckett."
"In that case, leave. And don't forget the wine."
Castle did his best to look scandalized.
"What am I? A barbarian?"
Rick and Kate had just barely gotten to her desk the next morning when they got a call from Sarah Green.
"Beckett, go to WKNY's webpage and look at their most recent update on the Wyler case. I'll hold."
Kate went online and looked at the story. A perfectly coiffured blonde, showing too much cleavage for Kate's taste smiled at the camera.
"WKNY has recently discovered that two of the witnesses in the Wyler case who testified that they had seen George Wyler put something resembling a human body wrapped in a rug have recanted their testimony. They allege that an NYPD officer told them that the police had evidence of Wyler's guilt that couldn't be used for some legal technicality. Based on that, Thomas Gregory and Eleanor Crawford, changed their testimony and helped convict an innocent man.
"WKNY has further learned that the officer who allegedly talked to Gregory and Crawford, Sergeant Tom Phillips, NYPD retired, has denied ever talking to or even seeing the two witnesses. However, we have evidence he did. We have film from that was taken during a press briefing by then Captain Roy Montgomery. We never showed the footage originally since one of Mrs. Wyler's sisters, Andrea Grace, was screaming obscenities at the NYPD for not having arrested Mr. Wyler. We've managed to remove that part of the film. Please note that you cannot hear what then Sergeant Phillips is saying as they were in another office. However, we have had a lip reader review the footage. This is what he found."
Phillips, briefly facing the camera. "…at that time…"
Crawford, facing the camera and then moving between Phillips and Gregory "…although there was some…"
Gregory, facing the camera. "We know that there is a lot of…."
At that point another woman, presumably Clare Morton, the now deceased third witness, closed the blinds in the office.
The blonde smiled at the camera.
"Although this does not establish that Sergeant Phillips tampered with the witnesses, it does show he was with them at one time."
The clip ended.
"He lied." Kate said. "The bastard lied."
"Beckett?" Green said. "Get him in there ASAP. I'll be over as soon as I can."
They went to brief Captain Gates who was equally livid about Phillips. When Phillips arrived several hours later, he faced four angry people. However, he not only had the police union rep, Manny Gonzalez with him, but two lawyers from the union.
"You lied to me." Kate snapped.
"I did not lie to you, Detective."
"Exactly what would you call it then?" Gates said coldly.
"A bad memory. I've seen the news clip, but I have no memory of being there with those three people or talking to them. I must have gone into the precinct for some reason and sat in that room with them. I should point out that I was on some pretty heavy pain medication at that time due to my injuries."
One of the lawyers handed a sheaf of medical records to Gates.
"We'll have these looked at."
Manny Gonzalez spoke.
"I'd like to point out that there's nothing in the news clip that shows Sergeant Phillips tampering with the witnesses or violating any other law or NYPD regulation. Further, we have been advised that the two witnesses independently picked an entirely different officer out of a photo lineup as the culprit."
"How exactly did you find that out?" Gates demanded.
"I'm afraid that's covered by lawyer-client privilege, Captain Gates." One of the lawyers said. "Now, unless you intend to arrest my client, we'll be leaving."
No one said anything and the four left.
"He has us." Green said. "All we can prove is that he talked to three witnesses fifteen years ago. He claims a bad memory and pain killers is the cause. And our witnesses IDed another officer entirely."
"Can't we ask for a real line up?" Castle asked. "Maybe seeing him in person would change things."
"We can't just keep asking witnesses to ID people until we got one that we like." Kate said. "They IDed another man and that's it. We're done."
But they weren't.
Kate got a phone call the next day.
"Beckett." She said, then grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled some information down.
"We have one. A shooting at the St. Marks Hotel, and it's in the suite where George Wyler and his lawyers are holed up."
"Was it Wyler?" Ryan asked.
"The uniform that called it in didn't know. He said there was a doctor working on the vic and the doc told him to get the hell out of the way."
Twenty minutes later they arrived at the St. Marks and went upstairs. There were two uniforms standing by the door to the suite.
"How's the vic?" Kate demanded.
"The doctor called it about ten minutes ago. Dead."
"Who's the vic?" Castle asked.
The uni looked at his notebook.
"Robert Leroy Parker. A lawyer with Dunn and Fillmore. Witnesses said there was a knock on the door and Parker looked out through the peephole and asked who it was. Witnesses said they heard four shots through the door, but the doc only found three in the vic. No other bullet holes we could find."
"Okay, check all the rooms on this floor…"
"We did, Detective. No one heard a thing."
"No one? Are they all deaf?"
"No. The suites on this floor are all heavily soundproofed. You could fire artillery down the hall, and no one would notice. Oh, and they have no security cameras anywhere in the hotel. The clients here like their privacy."
Kate saw a maid pushing a cart down the hall.
"Did you talk to her? That cart can't be soundproofed."
"Earbuds. She didn't see or hear anything."
Kate and her team went to talk to the witnesses inside the suite. Dunn spoke for all of them, which Kate didn't like, but couldn't help.
"There was a knock on the door and Bob went to answer it. He looked through the peephole in the door and someone fired through the door and killed him."
"What were you doing in here?" Kate asked. "Your client was released from prison and exonerated."
"There's still the matter of the wrongful death suit on behalf of Melissa Wyler. Mr. Wyler wants his property back. And based on the report of the witnesses, we're filing a malicious prosecution claim against the city. We're asking for fifty million. And lastly, Mr. Wyler is changing his will. He's leaving ten thousand dollars to Melissa on the proviso that she does not contest the will. If she does, she gets nothing. The rest of the estate goes to the New York Innocence Project."
"I wasn't aware they had any connection with Mr. Wyler's release."
"They didn't, but he really likes the idea of someone looking out for the wrongly convicted."
"Detectives Ryan and Esposito will take your statements…"
"I took the liberty of doing that already." Dunn handed Kate a pile of neatly typed statements.
"We'd prefer to do this ourselves."
"Suit yourselves."
Rick and Kate went down to the lobby to talk to the hotel manager.
"I understand there are no security cameras anyplace in the hotel?"
"None. Our clients like their privacy."
"Have you seen anyone acting suspiciously in the last hour or so?"
The manager looked around and lowered his voice.
"Yes, but not in the way you mean."
"Can you explain that?" Kate said, giving the man a full-strength Beckett glare.
"This is Wednesday, when we have our famous all you can eat buffet. Today it's our surf and turf, lobster and filet mignon…"
"The food is acting suspiciously?" Kate said, sarcastically.
"No, but a lot of expensively dressed men in the forties and up, bankers, stockbrokers, lawyers…"
"Is there a point to all this?" Kate demanded.
"A lot of these men come with their secretaries, their nieces and their daughters. All of the women and very attractive, very young and rather…scantily dressed."
"So these men are cheating on their wives and after lunch go upstairs where there are no security cameras and have sex."
"I didn't say that." The man said, sounding shocked.
"You didn't have to. Okay, I'll need to get the names and addresses so we can interview them all."
"Not without a warrant." The manager said.
"Oh, a warrant won't be necessary." Another man said from behind Kate. "My name is Mike Dunn and I'm the managing general partner of Dunn and Fillmore. You may have heard of our law firm?"
The manager nodded.
"One of my employees was just murdered in your hotel and I'm sure that you'll want to do everything in your power to bring the killer to justice. Won't you?"
"I really want to cooperate, but my hands are tied." The man squeaked.
Dunn smiled coldly.
"Now, I'm not a vindictive man, but one of my employees was murdered here. I'm thinking I should probably file a wrongful death claim against your hotel."
"You can't do that."
"Actually, I can file a suit for just about anything. I may have trouble winning, but I'll guarantee you that I'll subpoena each and every employee in this hotel and all the other hotels in this chain to establish a pattern of negligence where the safety of your guests is concerned. And I will definitely subpoena every single person who has ever eaten in this hotel, their secretaries, their daughters, their nieces and each and every one of their other relatives. Do you understand me?"
TBC