Poison Pen
Chapter 50
"I sent Toni Gonzales an email and a text," Kate announces, gratefully accepting the mug of coffee Castle offers. "Hopefully, she'll read at least one of them before Badcock's trial reconvenes."
Castle leans over the counter to brush Kate's hair with his lips. "Thanks. She should be starting to present witnesses this morning. Any idea who she'll call?"
"She'd have to start with establishing Badcock's crimes," Kate explains, "so, the first cop on the scene when Connor O'Donnell was killed, and others who can lay down the facts. Normally she'd call me, but since I'm engaged to you, Kirby would accuse me of bias. She'll have to go through all the autopsy details with Lanie, too. Then, she'll need testimony from whoever can swear that Badcock delivered the poison doughnuts and that they weren't poisoned when he bought them. There shouldn't be much you don't know."
Castle scowls, shaking his head. "I don't see why she'd have to bother. Kirby isn't disputing the facts, just Badcock's sanity."
"Did he stipulate to them or just say that in his opening statement?" Kate queries.
"Just the opening statement."
"That doesn't count as evidence. Unless Kirby stipulates that Badcock did everything Gonzales says he did, there's no case, and Badcock walks. But since the jury knows that Badcock committed murder and attempted murder, they're going to be bored while Gonzales goes through all that. It's probably a good move on Kirby's part. Gonzales will have to make her presentation as brief as possible. However, if she goes along with your suggestion about emphasizing consciousness of guilt, she'll give the jury something new to think about and undercut Kirby's case."
"Kate, if you ever decide to follow your original career path and go to law school, you'd probably ace every class. Jurisprudence genes?"
"More like being involved with a lot of trials. It's no good catching a killer if you can't get a conviction. That's why I'm so careful about making sure we have solid evidence. Otherwise, I'm wasting my time and the taxpayers' money. And you know how Montgomery feels about the taxpayers' money."
"Considering what I shell out to the city every year, I'm not crazy about seeing it wasted either. So more delving into Adom Gamal for you today?"
"Probably, and any other possible buyers, unless we get a call from Rachel Walters. And then…" Kate taps her finger alongside her nose.
Castle grins. "The Sting! I don't want to miss that. Can you set up the takedown when the court's out of session?"
Kate leans in to deliver a coffee-flavored kiss. "I'll do my best."
Rachel almost misses the medallions. The envelope holding them is unmarked and stuck behind a tray of spondylus shells and semi-precious stones, but the contents are unmistakable. The images of a deity with rays coming out of its face look exactly like Tiwanaku relics described in the literature. Their sale will not only fatten her bank account, but it will also forestall any ideas her customer might have about dropping a gargoyle on her. She feels for the card in the pocket of her lab coat. The sooner she makes the call, the better.
Retired Detective Moshe Gardner stares at the cellphone sitting on the desk in his den. With a father holding duel professorships at Boston University and Weissman Institute, he spent a lot of his childhood in Israel, quickly picking up both Hebrew and Arabic. He's always been interested in archaeology anyway, so educating himself on Tiwanaku artifacts wasn't much of a chore.
Playing a part in Detective Beckett's masquerade could be almost as much fun as a visit with his grandchildren. Almost. Anyway, Moshe's always anxious to help out the force when he can, even if that mostly consists of buying tickets to fundraisers and holding training sessions for civilians interested in keeping crime out of their neighborhoods.
Moshe chides himself that a watched phone never rings and reaches for his copy of The Ledger. A chime sounds, urging him to take a call. Game on!
Kate listens intently to the recording of Gardner's call with Rachel. Under New York's "one-party consent," law, Gardner's agreement will make it admissible in a case against Rachel Walters. Whether Will Medina's partner in crime stole the medallions or faked them, doesn't matter. Now Kate has the leverage she needs to get Rachel to talk. That Rachel wants to turn over the medallions that night should work out perfectly. Castle will get to see their plan come together.
After dark, and with the museum closed, the only people in the park are busy walking their dogs — except for Rachel Walters. Her meet should be taking place any minute. Squinting through the dim park lighting, she spies a man coming toward her. As far as she can make out, he's wearing a suit, not a thobe, but a kaffiyeh tops his head. "Ms. Walters?" he inquires.
Rachel nods, recognizing the voice she heard on the phone.
"Did you bring them?" Moshe inquires.
"Did you bring the money?" Rachel responds.
"I need to examine the merchandise before rendering payment," Moshe insists. "There is, as I'm sure you are aware, a field test for gold. If the pieces are genuine, it will inflict no damage on them. Your hands, however, would suffer severely if touched by the solution." He indicates a nearby picnic table near a light post. "We can use that." Moshe spreads a small sheet of plastic over the wood and pulls a dropper bottle out of a sealed bag. "Just put the medallions down. This will only take a moment."
"Get ready," Kate whispers into her walkie-talkie. Rachel hesitantly lays two medallions down on the plastic. "Move in! Move in!"
Moshe makes a show of placing a drop of fluid on each medallion. "No reaction. That is excellent, Ms. Walters." He reaches into the inside pocket of his suit for an envelope and hands it to her.
"Now," Kate commands. Cops emerge from the shadows, guns drawn. "Rachel Walters," Kate proclaims, pulling out her handcuffs as Castle beams, "you are under arrest."
"The medallions do belong to the museum," Stanford Oakes confirms to Rick and Kate, over lunch in the museum cafeteria. "We obtained those Tiwanaku artifacts before our records were digitized, but my predecessor knew where they'd be located. The descriptions and photographs match precisely. There's no doubt that Rachel stole them."
Castle grins. "Just what we needed to hear."
"Don't look so happy, Mr. Castle," Oakes chides. "Both Medina and Rachel were excellent at their jobs. They'll be extremely difficult for the museum to replace."
"I'm sorry about that, Mr. Oakes," Kate interjects, "but Medina was guilty of fraud, and Rachel theft, at the very least. And if Rachel's been willfully hiding information about Will's murder, that makes her complicit in that as well."
"I can't imagine they would pass the vetting process for employees," Castle adds.
"Of course not," Oakes agrees. "What's going to happen to Rachel?"
"That," Kate replies, "is going to depend entirely on her and how much she's willing to cooperate in nailing Medina's killer." She turns to Rick. "Do you have to get back to court?"
"No. Judge Mencas said she had responsibilities elsewhere and adjourned until tomorrow morning. So do I get to be in on Rachel's interrogation?"
"Considering that you came up with the sting, it's only fair."