Shared Obsession Chapter 11
Despite the consternation on his face, the words Howard Peterson speaks into his cell phone sound friendly enough. He gazes around an empty office suite. "It's an impressive property, but my client has a growing business. I need to find a larger space. Yes. I understand. I'll be in touch."
"Mr. Peterson," Kate calls from the doorway. "We need to talk to you." She raises her badge. "I'm Detective Kate Beckett. This is Mr. Castle. We're looking into the murder of Sara Manning."
Peterson's expression suddenly shifts to sorrowful. "Yes, my wife told me about it. We had to break it to Justin. Terrible thing. But I don't know how I can help you much. I barely saw Sara. We hired her to come in afternoons to do a few chores, get Justin at school and take care of him until Claudia or I came home from work. Claudia and I had an agreement that one of us would always be there in the evening to take care of dinner and spend time with Justin. Neither one of us wanted him to be raised by a nanny."
"An admirable sentiment," Castle comments, "but one on which you apparently failed to follow through."
"I'm sorry, I don't understand," Peterson claims.
"Mr. Peterson, you were paying Sara extra to stay late on some of the nights when you were supposed to be home," Kate explains.
"Yes, in real estate, sometimes something comes up, and I have an unexpected showing. I didn't like having to do that, but Justin was happy with Sara. Look, I have an appointment." Peterson starts toward the suite door. "If you have any more questions, you'll have to walk with me."
"Fine," Kate agrees. "Mr. Peterson, when I called your office to locate you, your assistant was very helpful. She not only told me where you were, but that I'd have to hurry if I wanted to find you here. Your company doesn't visit properties after regular business hours. And you make a point of not working late. She finds your dedication to fatherhood impressive. So, Mr. Peterson, if you weren't working on the nights when you asked Sara to stay late, where were you?"
"And where was Sara? You wouldn't be the first guy to cozy up to the nanny," Castle observes.
Peterson's jaw drops. "You think I was having an affair with Sara? Yes, all right. I was having a little thing on the side, but not with her. It's hard to find someone who understands how stressful commercial real estate can be. I hooked up with one of the women in my office."
Castle's eyes narrow. "And the supposed epitome of responsible fatherhood takes time away from his son to relieve his stress. Nice. You know, playing a video game with your kid can be a great stress reliever too."
"Mr. Peterson. You said hooked up, past tense," Kate jumps in. "Why did you stop? Did your wife find out?"
"No, but Sara said she felt bad about covering for me. She was going to tell Claudia."
"Which would give you a motive to kill her," Kate points out.
"What? No! I ended the affair. I didn't kill Sara. I was showing properties all day yesterday. Look, you can check with my clients. It's all on my phone. I can send you their names."
Kate shoves her card at him. "You do that. Right now."
"Fine," Peterson agrees, pulling his cell from his pocket. "There. I forwarded you my whole schedule. Now, I really have to make a meeting."
"Go ahead, Mr. Peterson," Kate allows. "But if your clients don't back you up, we'll be talking again."
"So, Castle asks from his now accustomed seat, did Howard Peterson's alibi hold?"
Kate tosses her cell phone on her desk. "It did. He may be a cheater, but he's not a murderer."
"Which brings us back to Claudia Peterson," Castle notes. "Maybe she thought what we did, that Howard was getting extra kicks with the nanny. She said Justin called her at work to pick him up. But if he called her cell, she could have been anywhere."
"Right," Kate agrees. "I'll have to check that."
"Detective Beckett, Mr. Castle, do you have any news about who killed Sara?" Claudia asks when she answers Kate's knock on the Petersons' door.
"We're checking all possible leads," Kate replies. "And I have some more questions. May we come in?"
"Yes, but please don't stay too long. Justin is upset enough about losing Sara. He doesn't need the police in his home."
"I understand. I'll keep it to the point," Kate promises. "Ms. Peterson, you said Justin called you at your office when Sara didn't show up to take him to the doctor. But we checked with your office. You weren't there. So where were you?"
Claudia sinks down on the couch. "I didn't want to have to talk about this, but I was at an attorney's office, a divorce attorney. My husband was having an affair."
"We know. He told us. But how did you find out?" Castle asks. "Did Sara tell you?"
"No. Howard left his phone in the bedroom when he was taking a shower. He got a call that went to voicemail. But I knew he was working on a big deal, so I checked the message in case it was important. It was his girlfriend, saying how much she enjoyed their little getaway. So I started segregating my funds, making sure Howard couldn't get at them. And then I went to see the lawyer. I was there when Justin called. You can check."
"Attorneys don't give out that kind of information," Kate notes. "Interactions with clients are privileged."
"I'll give my permission, sign a waiver, whatever," Claudia insists. "I had nothing to do with Sara's death."
At her desk, Kate shakes her head in disgust as she examines a document. "This is a statement from Claudia's attorney saying she was there when she says she was. We're back to square one."
"So what is square one?" Castle asks.
"Building a timeline. But we already know our kill zone and that none of our suspects could have gotten to Sara during that time."
"How about a timeline for Sara?" Castle asks. "Could she have been somewhere that might have given someone a motive to kill her, witnessed a crime, or committed one?"
Kate throws him a skeptical look. "And then gone to get the Peterson's laundry? It was still down in the laundry room."
"A dryer runs for about an hour. That's enough time for a pleasant – or unpleasant – interlude. Does the Peterson's building have surveillance video?"
"Only in the elevators."
"Where people can do many interesting things. Once I had Storm…."
"I remember. All right, Castle, We can look at the elevator video. At the moment, I can't think of anything else."
Kate points at the screen of her laptop. "That's the third time we've seen it, Castle. Sara takes a load down to the basement. Then she comes up again without it. Then she goes down and up again, probably putting it in the dryer. Then she goes down a final time, right before she must have been killed."
Castle frowns, pulling out his phone. "Something is off."
"I don't think social media will help this time."
"But my stopwatch app might. Run it again. OK, stop! Beckett, when she first took the elevator down, the trip took 13 seconds, one per floor plus the basement. But her last trips up and down took 15 seconds each. She had to be traversing two extra floors. Who lives two floors up?"
"The Harrisons!" they exclaim in unison.