Shattered Lies
Chapter 26
Joe Pulgatti's eyes widen as Kate enters the room where he's been shackled to a table. "Ms. Beckett?"
"Detective Beckett," Kate corrects automatically.
"For a minute I thought I was seeing a ghost, but you're her daughter. She talked about you. Your mother was a beautiful woman, inside and out. You know you look just like her?"
"I'll take that as a compliment, Mr. Pulgatti. Mr. Castle and I have some questions for you. My mother believed that there was a chance you are innocent of Bob Armen's murder. Are you?"
"Are you enough like Johanna Beckett to believe me if I said yes?"
"You tell Mr. Castle and me your story, and we'll see."
Pulgatti rubs his palm across his balding crown. "Sure. What have I got to lose? Bobby Armen was a friend of mine. I didn't know he was an undercover fed. I did know that he was gathering information on Vulcan Simmons' drug operation in the Heights. The family thought they could use it to push back against the Cardanos. And I think your mother believed me when I told her this: Bobby said he thought Bracken, the D.A., was letting Simmons' dealers walk."
"Armen might have been planning to bring that information to the Southern District," Castle speculates.
Pulgatti shrugs. "I don't know. Not the kind of thing Bobby would have spilled to me or anyone in the family. Guido Cardano, Vinny's father, had this thing about smoking. It gave him asthma attacks or something, even the smell of it in the air or on furniture. It wasn't allowed in any family establishment. So, Bobby and I went out to the alley to light up. This guy comes by, sunglasses, baseball cap. Looks like he's just walking his dog. He pulls out a Magnum and shoots Bobby before we can get our pieces out of our holsters. Then he orders me to lie on the ground and count to ten. By the time I'm up again, he's gone."
Kate looks up from her notes. "You remember anything about him besides his hat and sunglasses?"
"Not much that would help. Brown hair I think. Height and weight kinda average."
"Sounds like he could put away the gun and just blend into the crowd," Castle notes.
"There was one thing," Bulgatti adds. "The dog- I've never seen another one like it. It had a really thick coat, like double fur or something and looked like it was wearing a fur hat. There can't have been many like that in New York. Of course, that was 18 years ago, so it's probably gone to doggy heaven."
Kate finishes writing the canine's description. "It still might be a clue, Mr. Pulgatti."
"After all this time you think you can get me off?'
Kate spreads her hands. "That would be a longshot at best, but what you've told me could help lead me to who was responsible for killing my mother."
Pulgatti nods. "Then telling you about it would be worth it."
Kate glances at Castle, after pointing the car back toward New York City. "What are you doing with your phone?"
"Looking up unusual dog breeds. There's a list here with pictures of 20 of them. Not a lot of fur on most of them - booyah! Double thick coat and looks like it's wearing a fur hat; Kate, that dog was a Tibetan mastiff, one of the rarest of the rare. It would have been registered somewhere. Dog fanciers keep records and have long memories. Someone will know who owned that furry companion."
"Hit the speaker, will you, Castle?" Kate requests when her phone suddenly buzzes from the console between her and Rick.
Ryan's voice emanates from her cell. "Beckett, you need to get in here ASAP. We have a body, and the brass is going to be all over this one. It's Cecil Bowdry, the councilman from over in Rockaway."
"Why's that our case?" Kate queries. "Queens isn't our jurisdiction."
"But City Hall is, and he was shot on his way to a meeting there. Lanie thinks the bullet was from a long-range rifle so it could have come from anywhere within half a mile. Javi says it might have even been farther than that if the sniper was really good. Anyway, the captain's called for all hands on deck, including Castle, if he's with you."
"We'll be there as soon as we can."
The tall, blue-eyed man who has chosen to call himself Hal Lockwood for the past year gazes with satisfaction at the numbers on his computer screen. Bracken transferred the funds, as promised. Hal glances around what could laughingly be called a suite in his long-term residence motel. He can look for a better place. If he's going to get jobs like this from Bracken, it will be worth hanging around the city for a while.
Lockwood brings up the listings for rentals. He doesn't want an apartment. There are too many people around to see you come and go, but an industrial property like a warehouse would be perfect. He could put whatever he wants in it, including a considerable arsenal, and equip it with whatever amusements he likes.
He might even get himself a girlfriend now - someone who understands his needs and accepts his predilections. C**** like that cost, but he can afford it. He can set himself up nice in New York - real nice.
Castle uses the rest of the drive back to the city to educate himself on Tibetan mastiffs. The history of the dogs is fascinating, as is the genetics. He's even more interested in awards that members of the breed might have won in New York in the early nineties, but he can't find any useful listings. With some help from Kate, he can go at it from another angle.
According to the characteristics listed for Tibetan mastiffs, they have been bred to be guardians. That means they have features usually considered undesirable in a city-dwelling dog - a lot of barking and aggressive territoriality - that could easily generate complaints. Armen's real killer might not be in the archives of the N.Y.P.D., but his best friend could have earned a place. It's worth checking out.
Bracken moves fast to make the arrangements for his speech, while a tribute to Cecil Bowdry will still be relevant to the news cycle. He has most of what he needs cued up - a portable podium, sound system, a sign language interpreter and all the other niceties that reinforce his image as an empathetic representative of the people. Bracken has his men casting his audience now, complete with the diversity that will look good on camera, but he still has to finalize the details of his speech. He'll be concentrating on hazards to the ocean, so as not to alienate his upstate base, but he's confident that he can present himself as heroic.
From what he's managed to garner from his source inside 1PP, the N.Y.P.D. doesn't have a clue about Lockwood, but he'll keep an eye on the situation. If an investigation gets close, Lockwood may have to be moved or eliminated. Bracken could even claw back his fee. But if Lockwood did as clean a job as he claimed, Bracken will have more work for him.