Flu

Chapter 28

Mary Beeman can feel dread narrowing her throat as she opens the door to Detective Beckett and the man she recognizes as Richard Castle. Mary's seen his picture staring at her from book jackets for a couple of years now, ever since Mitchell disappeared. With the police unable to find her son, she'd started reading mysteries set in New York, hoping to discover something that would help her find Mitchell. She didn't get anywhere, until now maybe. But Mary has a feeling that it might be too late. "Is this about Mitchell?"

"Yes. Ma'am, I'm afraid it might be," Kate replies as gently as she can. "We have a body at the morgue we believe could be your son, but we'll need your help identifying it."

"I gave your people a good picture of Mitchell when I reported him missing," Mary protests. "Why can't you tell if it's him?"

"I'm afraid the man we're attempting to identify sustained some, uh, injuries that make that difficult. If you can come with us now, the medical examiner can explain more. If you need to make a call or have someone come with you, we can wait," Kate adds.

Mary swallows and tries to moisten her dry lips. "I have no one to call. I'll just get my purse."

After opening the passenger door of Kate's unit for Mary, Rick folds his large frame into the back seat. At least the woman can have some level of comfort on her way to what may be her worst hour in years.

Mary stares down at the ruined face on the body that Lanie transferred from its refrigerated drawer to a viewing table. "He –he – looks like Mitchell, but," she points at the sheet. "Can I see his arm, the right one? Mitchell has a birthmark."

Lanie pulls back the covering. "I don't know how much it will help. Both his arms are cut and bruised."

Tears bloom in Mary's eyes. "I can't tell if the mark is there. Wait!" She raises her hands, thumbs pointing upward, before indicating the same digits on the victim. "See, they're straight, like mine. That's unusual, right? Most people's thumbs bend backward."

"They do, Lanie agrees, "but it's not enough to make a positive identification. We need to be sure."

Mary swipes at the moisture on her cheeks. "I need to be sure too. Is there anything else we can do?"

"Yes, there is," Lanie declares, grabbing supplies from a nearby cart. "This won't hurt, and it will only take a minute."

"I hope Lanie pushes that DNA analysis through the lab," Rick remarks, reclaiming his place beside Kate after they've taken Mary Beeman home. "Mary's wound pretty tight."

Kate starts the car. "She will. When Lanie needs to, she knows how to kick some bureaucratic ass."

A corner of Rick's mouth twitches. "Osnitz might even enjoy having it kicked. And speaking of diligent desk riders, if we don't get caught in traffic, we should be right on time for our meeting with Marty."

Kate winks. "I can always use the gumball."

"I thought that was only for urgent police business."

"As far as I'm concerned, finding a motive that points to Mitchell Beeman's killer is urgent police business."

"How about the lowdown on my pop up?" Rick questions.

"We'll get to that, too," Kate promises.

Castle is barely settled in an inadequately padded visitor chair before Marty Feldshuh plops a stack of papers in front of him. Rick rifles through the pile. "Are all of these for my pop up?"

"If you go ahead with it, there will be more," Marty informs him. "The document on top is your general business plan. The next one down is a more precise breakdown of the funds you'll be pouring into it. That includes equipment and furniture rentals, a short-term lease for space, advertising, etc. The final printout is a list of inspections and permits you'll need from the city before you can operate. These days, if your place rates anything less than an 'A' from the health department, you can kiss any possible customers and return on investment, goodbye."

Rick hefts the packet. "There's a lot handle."

"I tried to tell you that," Marty chides. "You're going to need some expert help to have a prayer of pulling off this mishegas. I included a few résumés in there of consultant-managers who deal with this kind of thing. I marked the one with the best record of success. If you're still serious about this, you need to start interviewing – yesterday."

"I'll keep that in mind. But Kate and I need to pick your brain on another matter. Have you ever heard of SunKick?" Rick inquires.

"There was an article about it in Fast Company last month. As a rule, I stay away from companies with that quick a rise. A lot of them are pump and dump schemes that grab the money and leave the investors squinting at pink sheets to find what's left of the value of their stock."

"I have no idea what that means," Rick admits.

"So you suspect that someone at SunKick might have been pulling a securities scam?" Kate questions.

"I'd be wary enough to recommend against investment," Marty replies.

"How about anyone who put money in a thing called a PPM?" Castle asks.

"I'd say whoever it was should have known what they were doing. Those things are prospectus exempt, and only qualified investors are supposed to be able to buy shares. Scammers tend to stretch the advantages of buying in. Then they take the thing public with a reverse merger, go big on PR to inflate the value of the stock, and sell it off, before the house of cards crashes. That's the pump and dump."

"So if I can wrap my limited financial understanding around what you just said, a crook runs a publicity campaign that makes a company look valuable, then sells off their interest before the truth comes out. But what if someone convinced a bunch of people to invest and purposely makes a company fail, so they don't have to account for the money?" Castle wonders. "You know, like the plot of The Producers?"

"Is that a movie?" Marty asks.

"Two movies and a Broadway show. My mother was in it. The premise was a couple of crooked producers get a bunch of little old ladies to invest in the worst show ever. They sell over a hundred percent and plan that when the show flops, they'll take off with the extra money. No one will expect a return on a failure. The crux of the story is that the show is a hit, and the producers will actually have to pay the investors. Anyway, I'm thinking that if SunKick got a bunch of marks to kick in more than the company was worth and then suffers some calamity, the money disappears into dirty pockets."

"And the owner of some of those pockets cuts a link of the swing to cause the calamity," Kate concludes.

Rick vigorously nods his head. "What do you think, Marty? Would that be possible?"

Marty strokes the stubble beginning to darken his jawline. "Unfortunately, unlike some of the things you've come up with, it is possible, Rick."

"So how do we find out who'd stand to profit by screwing up SunKick's reputation?" Kate asks.

"I can see about getting you a copy of the offering memorandum," Marty suggests. "Castle more than meets the criteria of a qualified investor. If someone is trying to pull off a scheme like that, they might view him as ripe for the picking."

A/N Guest, just so that you and the other readers know, during filming, a swing actually did break and dumped Nathan on his butt. He mentioned it. Add to that, the one in this story was sabotaged. The failure is possible.