Slaying the Beast
Chapter 27
"What doesn't make sense, Babe?"
"If Bracken has a partner, why didn't he make a deal to flip? It's not as if he has any loyalty. Sociopath that he is, he should have done anything he could to save his ass."
"You have a point."
"Then there's the matter of why Bracken is still alive at all. You would think a partner would want to take him out of the game the minute he was caught. Dead men tell no tales."
"Lanie and Perlmutter might disagree with you about that, but you're right - unless Bracken thinks he's going to get out of this somehow or that he'd be in even more danger if he does talk. Or our theory about Susan Collinwood or anyone being Bracken's partner might be completely out in left field. Maybe someone just saw taking control of the drug trade as a target of opportunity. But I don't think so."
"I don't think so either," Castle agrees. "It is up and running again too damn fast. There's something we're just not seeing."
Kate's cell buzzes. She pales, her breath coming in gasps as she reads the message on the screen. "Rick, Bracken wants to see me."
Castle reaches for her hand. "Can you handle seeing him?"
"If we're going to figure this out, I'll have to."
Bracken's aura of confidence has vanished. "Thank you for coming, Detective. And you might as well hear this too, Mr. Castle, since you've chosen to involve yourself. Look I'm finished, I know that. Briggs has enough to put me away until the next millennium, and there will no doubt be federal charges too as if it really matters."
"It matters to the families of all the victims of the poison that was sold to fill your pockets and finance your campaign," Kate throws back, "just like the murder of my mother matters to me. You don't actually expect me to have any sympathy for you, do you?"
"No, I don't," Bracken confesses. "But I know you, Detective. I've followed your career. I did it to make sure you weren't getting too close, but also because you interest me. You turned your anger at your mother's death…"
"Her murder," Kate interrupts.
"Her murder," Bracken acknowledges, "you turned your fury into a crusade for justice. And I know that you won't see any justice in an innocent person being hurt."
"What innocent person?" Castle asks.
"I have a son," Bracken explains, "Not one of my children with my wife. He was born when I was in my first term as a congressman. It was covered up, both for my sake and his mother's. She was as ambitious as I was. His maternal grandmother raised him. He knows about my political career, but he's been untouched by anything else that I did. His grandmother died some years ago. I've made sure that he's had whatever he needed, college, grad school, a decent job. He's been working for a pharmaceutical company, but with me in here, he's going to be more under his mother's influence, and from what little I've been able to find out now, he may be drifting."
"Drifting how?" Kate asks.
"His mother was my partner, with Simmons, with all of it. She's kept a lower profile than I have and worked very effectively behind the scenes. But now she's taken over, and I don't want her to pull our son into it."
Kate leans across the table. "Is your son's mother Susan Collinwood?"
Bracken nods. "So you figured it out. Kudos, Detective."
"Actually, it was Castle who figured it out," Kate confesses.
Bracken regards the writer. "How?"
"Have you ever watched Perry Mason, Bracken? The original ones from the '50s and '60s- not the later incarnations."
"A few. Having someone confess in court week after week seemed a little ridiculous."
"Granted," Castle agrees, "but it was always easy to tell who the murderer was since it was never Perry's client. There was always a character at the periphery, portrayed by an actor who was too well paid and too well known to play a minor role. Susan Collinwood is like that. She's been at the periphery of all of this. Apparently, she's even more ambitious than you gave her credit for. She wanted it all, your business, perhaps your son, but so far, she hasn't quite been able to bring herself to put a hit out on his father."
"Or hasn't been able to manage one, yet. That was always more my end of the business. My soldiers, like Lockwood, didn't even know about her. But my point is, I don't want my son dragged into this. I need you to expose her and take her down - as you did me. And I can give you all the information you'll need to do it - just keep my son out of it."
Kate chews her lip. "I can try, but if Susan has already pulled him in, I'm not about to shield him. And I'm Homicide. Unless you expect me to turn this over to Narcotics, I need a case that involves a murder - in the part of Manhattan covered by the 12th Precinct."
"And I can give you one," Bracken promises. "When Susan became my partner, I looked deeply into her history. I needed something I could use to keep her in line in case she had some sudden come to Jesus moment. I found it. When she was in Law School, she and another student were up for the same award - with a considerable cash prize attached to it. Before the winner was announced, Susan's competition, a girl named Callie Freedwell, disappeared. I remembered the newspapers briefly running the story. Callie was later found dead, with her boyfriend, right in your jurisdiction, Detective. They'd eaten some bacterially contaminated lobster. That can happen if you wait too long to freeze or cook them once they're dead. The M.E. called it an accidental death."
"Right," Castle agrees. "That's why lobsters are often boiled alive - much to the distress of the animal rights groups. They're much safer to eat that way. Susan's father was a lobsterman. She'd know that."
"She would, and she did," Bracken confirms. "She made a trip to Maine, to an area where the ocean was known to be infested. All she would have had to do was let the lobster sit long enough for toxins to form, then freeze it before sending it to Callie."
Castle nods vigorously. "Bacteria are killed by cooking, but it doesn't destroy the toxins they produce. It's a fairly clever method for murder. I was considering using something like it in one of my books, but Robin Cook wrote a much better story using toxic E. coli."
"And you have the evidence that Susan Collinwood did all that?" Kate interjects.
"I do." Bracken claims, "or rather it is in a very safe place. You promise me that you'll protect my son, and I'll tell you where it is."
Kate's voice softens. "The most I can promise is that I'll do the best that I can, Bracken."
"We will need one more thing," Castle adds.
Bracken's hands fist. "What?"
Castle can't repress the upward turn of his lips. "You never told us your son's name. I assume it's not William H. Bracken, Jr."
"No. It's Joshua, Joshua Pelletier."