Shattered Lies

Chapter 5

Clark Murray spreads pictures of Balthazar Wolf's body out on the conference table at the 12th and hands Castle and Kate each a copy of his report. "If it hadn't been for Rick's suspicions, this could have been the perfect murder."

"So what killed him?" Kate prompts.

"Well, first of all, Dr. Perlmutter was telling the truth that the man had a self-destructive lifestyle. He did have liver damage and blocked arteries as the original autopsy showed. He'd also sustained considerable injuries from liquid nitrogen, but that's not what killed him."

Murray points to one photo. "There is a small puncture mark here almost obscured by burns from intense cold. Yet there are no drugs or toxins, other than alcohol, in Wolf's system. He appears at first, to have died of a heart attack, perhaps brought on by the shock of freezing. He has high potassium levels that might occur with one. But looking more closely, we can find that the overload of potassium didn't result from a heart attack - it caused his heart to stop. There is a tiny residue of potassium chloride at the site of the wound. Wolf was injected with it, and the cause of his death disguised by the application of liquid nitrogen either at the time of his demise or immediately post mortem."

Kate picks up the photo Murray had indicated. "So someone with medical knowledge killed Wolf and then staged the murder scene?"

Murray nods. "I believe you could draw that conclusion."

Castle holds up his copy of Murray's report. "Beckett, I surmise that you now have enough cause to delve more deeply into Perlmutter."

Kate takes a swallow from a bottle of water. "Yes, Castle, I do."

"So those are Sidney Perlmutter's complete financials?" Castle asks pointing to a stack of paper on Kate's desk.

"Both Perlmutters, actually. Sidney's showed a lot of transfers from his account to Edgar's, establishing a connection. So I was able to get Edgar's too, as well as having the boys check into his background."

"And what did you discover?"

"Edgar is a day trader. While the economy was booming, he did pretty well at it. He even got Sidney to invest some money with him. But when the recession hit, Edgar was like a lot of investors. He lost big. And when he attempted to make it back, he kept losing. Sidney was trying to prop him up, either through brotherly love or maybe to try to get his money back. But it didn't help.

"Then Edgar got his loan from Collici Corp. and apparently couldn't repay it. I heard back from Judy, my friend at the Southern District. She says that they suspect that Collici Corp. has been expanding its money laundering into restaurants, especially the upscale ones."

Castle buzzes air through his lips. "Like Q3?"

"Exactly like Q3. We need to talk to Maddy again."

Maddy invites Kate and Rick to take seats at the VIP table near the Q3 kitchen. "I've been interviewing chefs. So far, no one's come close to measuring up to Wolf. I have his arch enemy from "Kitchen Wars" coming in next."

Castle's face brightens. "Jennifer Wong? I could practically taste her pork belly through my television screen. That cherry concentrate she made with her rotary evaporator was sheer genius. I thought she should have won."

"Apparently a lot of the other fans of the show did too, Rick," Maddy acknowledges. "She has quite a following. But Becks, what else did you want to ask me?"

"Were you ever approached by Collici Corp.?

"I think you know I was. It offered to make me a loan to add to Wolf's prize money when we were starting up. But I didn't want any part of it. I'd heard about three other places accepting their money. Then when business slowed down after the initial buzz, Collici foreclosed and took control. The original owners became minor partners, fronts with no decision making power. I wasn't going to take a chance of that happening to me. I went to a community bank that supports small businesses, one that survived the bursting of the real estate bubble."

"Smart lady," Castle comments.

But Collici kept sending a man, kind of a scary looking guy, around every so often. Usually, he talked to Wolf."

Kate presses her lips together. "Yeah. This is all starting to make sense."

Rick slides into the passenger seat of Kate's unit. "So Collici Corp. was trying to get its hooks into Q3 for their money laundering scheme, but Maddy turned them down."

"So they went to Wolf," Kate continues. "He was vulnerable because of his gambling habit, but at the time of his death he was pretty well fixed, so he said no."

"Then," Castle picks up, "the Collici gang figures that if they have Wolf killed and Maddy framed for his murder, they can waltz right in and take Q3. They threaten to wipe out Edgar Perlmutter, perhaps literally, unless he gets his brother to play along."

"Collici owns a company that supplies liquid nitrogen. They either get Perlmutter to murder Wolf himself, throwing suspicion on Maddy, or they make him complicit in the plan. Under the law, the penalty would be the same."

"So our least favorite M.E. doesn't just cut up corpses, he makes them."

"Or at least he made one. God, Castle! This situation is a mess, and it's going to be a bigger one. I almost wish you hadn't seen through what Perlmutter did."

"I can't believe the justice-seeking, tilter at windmills Kate Beckett means that."

"Castle, I hate the shakeup this case is going to cause, but I am glad you were there to expose what really happened."

When Detective Beckett enters his lab trailed by four uniformed officers, and of course, Castle, Sidney Perlmutter knows he's finished. He drops to his knees to await the inevitable.

"So what's going to happen now?" Castle wonders as he and Kate take in Sidney Perlmutter's elocution as he enters his guilty plea.

"Both Perlmutters have agreed to cooperate with the US Attorney in building a case against Collici Corp. That and the duress Sidney was under may allow the judge to give him as light a sentence as possible under the law. But now our D.A. has to head off all the fallout from Sidney's discreditation as a witness.

"Sidney just swore as part of his plea deal that Wolf's case was the only one he ever misrepresented in a report. But his statement won't stand on its own. Dr. Murray, Lanie, and a group of other forensic pathologists will have to go over every one of his cases to make sure. After they do, they'll need to be prepared to answer any challenges that arise. The courts will be sorting through all that for a long time."

"How about Collici Corp. and the racketeers behind it?"

"Collici can't be nailed exclusively on the testimony of an accomplice to a crime. There will have to be corroboration. But this case provides an opening to further investigate their operations, and those of the sponsoring family, the Spinellis. That could take years too. There will be a lot of rocks to turn over."

"But it will be worth it, right? To rid the city of those predators?"

"Yeah, Castle, I think it will."

Castle claps his hands together. "Then we should celebrate!"

"It's only eleven o'clock in the morning. Not exactly the time to hoist a cold one."

"No, but how about tonight, Beckett? At Q3? Maddy hired Jennifer Wong, and I'm sure we can get a great meal."

A smile teases Kate's mouth. "Fine, Castle. I'll see you there."

A/N I have a new book called "Sarah, an Autistic Among the Lying NTs." It is very personal and very important to me. I have more than one publisher interested, but I need preorders to get it put out. I'd give you a link, but this site won't allow it. If you are interested or even curious, just google the title. YouTube videos of me explaining the book and a link to my Publishizer campaign will come up.