For the People Chapter 75

"What's going on, Jim?" Rick asks as the waitress at the diner automatically fills his coffee cup, and Lily looks on from a high chair.

"I believe I've got Neighspec stymied, at least for now, as far as Olivia Jefferson and her fellow tenants are concerned. Under the city ordinances protecting seniors, Neighspec can't evict Olivia and the others, like Granville Chester, of similar maturity. The company will have to wait until they either pass away or decide to leave on their own accord. Until that happens, no demolition to make way for condos. However, Neighspec has been playing the long game and chances are that in a few years, the seniors in that building will be gone. In the meantime, Neighspec will be liable for hefty fines if it attempts any more dirty tricks to induce the tenants to vacate. The tenants association will be monitoring the situation and reporting any violations.

"With that squared away for the present, I've become aware of Neighspec turning its attention to properties in a rent-stabilized area of Washington Heights. The buildings there house younger families. Many of them are immigrants with a deep-seated fear of getting involved with any kind of public officials. If Neighspec cuts off their services, they'll be terrified to fight. That will mean one of the few remaining new York City neighborhoods affordable for everyday workers will bite the dust. Unless the city has proof that Brown Rock is deliberately maintaining unsafe premises for Neighspec, Brown Rock can push those people out, and Neighspec can bring in the wrecking balls."

"So what are you going to do?" Rick asks.

"There are a few families living there that aren't intimidated by public proceedings. I'll help them bring whatever actions they can. Still, with projects with that much promise for early returns, Neighspec and Brown Rock will probably be willing to eat the cost of the fines. And I have no legal basis to oppose the actual redevelopment. Worse, several members of the city council support it as a way to add to the city's tax base. Brown Rock is required to make its best effort to find the tenants equivalent housing at a similar rent. But its lawyers can complain to the court that the requirement is akin to finding a herd of unicorns. So I was hoping some ideas would spring from the Castle imagination."

"I don't know that it's my imagination that Neighspec's potential victims need. It's a cliché," Rick admits, "but in fighting the various scams I've been describing in my books, sunlight really was the best disinfectant. That's especially true for politicians. Compared to any court action, ZNN moves at lightspeed. If Kimmel or Fallon work a mention of the real estate boot on the public's neck into their monologues, even better. And if Stephen Cobbler attacks a nasty situation, he can blow the roof off of it. So if you can get together as much dirt as possible on Brown Rock and Neighspec's operations, I can call a strategy session with my agent to see where I can grab a microphone. And I can get the PR department at G&S in on it as well. They can spin the Brown Rock/ Neighspec unholy alliance as something I'll be exploring in my next book. We'll want to go to social media and pull in the Ledger as well. As soon as you give me some facts I can use as hooks, I can get into it."

"Ook," Lily echoes. "Pa."

Rick chuckles. "Lily likes the music from Peter Pan. I got her a mobile with some of the characters flying around. Not Captain Hook, of course, but she probably recognizes the name. I suppose that makes a certain amount of sense. We are talking about modern-day pirates of a sort."

"Yes," Jim agrees. "I guess we are."


Kate can barely fit her stack of files into her briefcase. The purse snatchers and petty thieves seemed to take a stretch of unusually pleasant weather the city experienced as a cue to up their efforts. That meant the NYPD had to up theirs as well, bringing a steady stream of defendants accused mostly of misdemeanors into the court system. Kate will be spending the morning and possibly the afternoon arraigning one after another in front of Judge Willis. After her experience with the Baird trial, Kate knows the judge will be efficient and evenhanded, almost boringly so.

By the end of the day, pleas will be entered for all or most of the defendants causing Kates's overworked leather conveyance to bulge, and she can give some thought to preparing to try the mariachi murder. Ryan and Esposito did their usual efficient job gathering evidence. However, Yesenia Martinez has enlisted the services of Alvaro Gil as a replacement for Elijah Epstein, who may be facing charges of his own. Alvaro is well known as the go-to attorney for the segment of the Hispanic community that can afford him. From everything Kate's heard about the man, he works hard, and he works smart. If the boys stumbled anywhere along the line in their investigation, he'll do his best to exploit the error. Kate will have to be ready to jump in with countermeasures.

One thing Kate's worrying about is the boys treating Yesenia's apartment as a potential crime scene. Since she wasn't the only occupant of the building, they had no real basis, other than cop instincts, to assume that the boxes being moved were hers. The lack of markings on the truck or uniforms on the movers may not impress the judge as probable cause either. Students borrow or rent trucks and move renters all the time as a source of cash. Also, many people will borrow a truck and move on their own. That makes the whole situation shaky. Kate has two advantages. The men acted guilty, and any information they gave did nothing to implicate them. Their rights weren't violated. As to Yesenia's rights, Kate will have to cope with any argument Gil makes. But since spying Yesenia coming in on the boat follows from information from the movers, the arrest could be questionable as well. Still, it was no different than receiving a tip from a ci or an accomplice. Kate just has to make the judge see it that way.

It would have been nice if the boys thoroughly toed the legal line, but she'd seen them save lives by pushing the limits a little. Hell, Royce's tutelage had shown her where she could get away with blurring the lines herself, and unfortunately for Royce, where he couldn't.

Citing actual law is more complicated than Royce's maneuverings or the boys' imagined theft in progress. Kate needs to find actual cases that back up her argument and prepare to dispute any that Gil may use on the other side. That means hitting the books, or at least West Law, hard. If she needs to, she can pull in a paralegal to help with her searches, but she'll have more confidence in citations she finds herself.


Rick scrapes the last of his apple pie from his plate and takes a final sip of coffee. "I guess that's it, Jim. I'll try to give you a heads-up on any PR before it hits the news cycle. But it may be a few days before anything gels."

"Whatever you can do will be great, Rick. As you're well aware by now, PR has never been the forte of the Beckett family, at least not for Katie or me. Johanna was pretty good with it, or she would never have gotten her Cleanup campaign off the ground. Too bad she never got to see Vulcan Simmons and his people finally get what was coming to them. But I think she knows, just like she knows what Katie is doing. And I think she's proud."

Rick lays a firm hand on his father-in-law's arm. "And I'm betting she's proud of you too."