ACT FOUR
"So," Beckett stopped in front of the body of Dobins as it lay out on the morgue slab, "did he walk the plank or not?"
"Analysis shows," answered Lanie as she pulled the sheet back over the corpse, "that he was in the water for about two days."
"He was killed sometime just after he left his office," Castle added it up.
Lanie nodded, "I sent the water in his lungs out for more tests, see if we can find out where it was he fell in."
"Fell in?" Beckett asked.
"Minor signs that could indicate a struggle," the petite coroner continued, "nothing that would have knocked him out, but he did fall into the water at speed," she pulled from under the sheet one of the man's arms which had red whelps and bruises. "The pattern suggests a type of water burn, like road rash, and it occurred not long before death."
"So he's on a speed boat," Becket caught on, "falls or is pushed in, then drowns."
"Accident or murder?" the writer mused.
"Could go either way, he could have struggled or tripped," Lanie apologized, "sorry."
"Dobins leaves at lunchtime with presumably Peritti's laptop," Beckett stares at the covered body, trying to sort the mess out in her head, "he then gets on a speed boat and falls into the water and drowns."
"Another partner?" Castle voiced what she was thinking, he did have a talent for that.
"Peritti, Pendlecote, Dobins and one other," she agrees. "Maybe he takes out Dobins before Dobins could take out him."
"Or maybe the fourth man took out all of them," was the other logical conclusion.
"But why?" that was always the number one question, even if you had someone confess, you had to know why they did it. "There is no evidence anywhere of the supposed gold, no changes to habits or movements by the group, not until Peritti died."
"It's like a domino effect," Castle sighed. "Maybe Peritti finally discovered where the treasure was, told the fourth man and he didn't want to share."
"Possibly," she replied after consideration, "If it is sunk, the fourth man is going to have problems getting to it. But if it's not sunk… it could just be a matter of putting it in the back of a van."
"Hhmm," the writer rubbed his chin, "Mutiny, buried treasure, assorted nautical murder weapons… maybe I should try writing historical fiction."
She was saved coming up with a snappy come back by her phone ringing, "Beckett."
"Hey," Esposito came over the line, "we found the murder weapon."
"The blunderbuss?" she asked.
"Nah," he replied, "the other one."
"The musketoon?"
"Uh, no," he paused, "the other weapon. The paddle that killed Pendlecote."
"""
As they walked into the station room, Esposito and Ryan were sitting at their desks, the latter shaking his head, "No, they totally debunked that on Mythbusters."
"Debunked what?" he asked the detective.
"Hey, Castle," Esposito greeted before explaining, "we were talking about that scene where Sloth mimics that old pirate movie and uses a knife to slide down a sail."
"Classic scene from The Goonies," the writer approved. "'Hey You Guys!'"
"As much as I like to see Castle make a fool of himself in the middle of the station house," Beckett jibbed with a grin, "you said you found the paddle?"
"Actually," another voice broke in and Castle turned to see Detective Karpowski approach from the vending machines, "I found it."
"Good work," Beckett nodded to the woman.
"Don't thank me yet," she picked up a file from Esposito's desk, "The paddle had prints, they go back to Pendlecote and Dobins."
"So Dobins did kill Pendlecote," Castle spoke up then mentally chided himself, correcting, "well, he got rid of the murder weapon at least."
"That's all this proves," his partner sighed, taking the file from the woman, "though Dobins does have a good motive."
"I've worked every other angle I can think of," Karpowski shrugged and crossed her arms, "but nothing gives. A security camera puts Dobins in the area around time of death, and unless he was working with this mysterious fourth man I heard you're trying to locate, I like Dobins for the murder of David Pendlecote."
Castle let the wheels spin in his head, but came up with the same conclusions. With so many dead bodies, playing pirate just didn't seem as much fun anymore.
"Right," Beckett was the first to give, "thanks Roselyn, if we find anything we'll let you know."
"Appreciated," the other detective nodded before taking her leave.
"Hey, Roselyn," Castle quickly asked, "you seen The Princess Bride?"
"Rodents of Unusual Size, they exist," she shot back seriously, "they infested my last apartment on the corner of The Pit of Despair and Brooklyn."
The three men shared a laugh as the other detective walked away.
Turning his attention back to his partner, he watched as she wandered over to the murder board. Esposito and Ryan started to talk about shooting steak knives out of canons and as interesting as the conversation was, he knew this case was getting to Beckett as much as it was getting to him. With every dead body they found, the farther they seemed to get from the truth.
"So let's assume," Beckett said without turning to look at him, "that Dobins did kill Pendlecote."
"Good assumption," he could safely agree.
"But Dobins had a good alibi for Peritti's death," she leaned back against her desk, arms crossed, eyes focused. He liked her with she got like this, it was as if he was seeing the real Beckett, nothing to clutter or distract, just a brilliant woman putting together the pieces of a puzzle. "I'm almost positive Pendlecote didn't kill Peritti either."
He followed her train of thought, "The fourth man."
"Yeah," she glanced at him, "fourth man takes out Peritti. Dobins then confronts Pendlecote, maybe thinking he did killed Peritti? Or maybe Pendlecote asks Dobins to meet him, thinking Dobins killed Peritti."
"Either way," Castle frowned, "ends with Pendlecote getting the wrong end of the stick… or the paddle in this case."
"Could be a pack," the woman tapped her finger against her lip, "Dobins takes out Pendlecote, fourth man gets Peritti."
"Then fourth man double crosses Dobins," he adds. "I should really tell Patterson about this case, he'd love it."
There was a slight distraction as Esposito and Ryan made explosion noises, flailing comically with their hands.
Beckett sighed but there was a twist in her lip that told of how much she appreciated the comic relief. "The fourth man is the key. If we can find him, alive, then we can find out who killed who and the motives will fall into place."
"Three deaths for a treasure that might not even exist," it made no more sense now than the first time that thought had occurred to him.
"Sadly," his partner met his eyes, "I've seen far worse for far less."
"Castle," Ryan called over to him, "you watch Mythbuster's, right?"
"Yes," he turned towards the man, "and I have several kitchen appliances that have suffered greatly because of it."
"Did you watch the episode," the man blissfully ignored the comment and carried on, "where they were debunking Pirates of the Caribbean myths? Specifically the one about walking underwater with a boat as a dive helmet?"
"Yes," he quickly added, "and it was busted. Clever editing."
"See," Esposito chimed in, "told you. Ain't no way two people can do that."
"Aww," Ryan sunk in his seat, "I thought it was pretty cool. MacGyver style diving."
"Dude," Esposito laughed, "MacGyver would just make a sail boat out of duct tape to get the pirate ship, confirmed."
Castle realized that there was something they were missing. Something that had bothered him before, but it didn't seem important at the time…
"Well," Beckett broke into his thoughts, "we can start re-interviewing everyone attached with the case. See who has a connection."
"Good idea," it clicked and a knowing smile crept across his face, "and I know who we can start with."
"""
"You said you had new information regarding Josh's death?" the suspect asked as Beckett gestured him into the interrogation room.
"Have a seat, Mr Johnson," the detective gestured for the man to sit, Castle and her taking chairs across the table. "We just need to ask you a few more questions. You're free to go whenever you want."
"Sure, okay," he glanced around nervously and both could already tell that they were on the right track.
"You own a speed boat," Beckett asked almost casually, "keep her at SoundWaves Docks & Storage?"
"Yeah," he mumbled, "a lot of people have their boats there."
"Including Harold Ketter's boat," Castle added.
The man glanced away quickly.
"Come on, Dominic," Beckett leaned in a bit closer, "tell us what you know, lying or denying will only hurt you."
"It was an accident," the man blurted out. "I didn't mean for it to happen!"
"Didn't mean for what to happen," she prompted, needing him to confess but not put words in his mouth.
"Professor Dobins," Johnson rocked slightly, "he called me, he was so angry. Kept going on about David and how the cops were going to figure it out. I told him to fess up, but he wouldn't listen."
"Why were you on the speed boat," her tone was non-judgmental, she needed to keep him talking.
"I wanted to scare him," the man confessed, "get him to turn himself in."
"Then what happened," she prompted him again.
"He tried to take the wheel," he lowered his head into his hands, "I only meant to knock him to the deck, not overboard."
As the man began to almost cry, Castle softly asked, "Why didn't you go back for him?"
"I did," Johnson swallowed hard, "I did, I just couldn't find him again."
"Did he say why he killed Pendlecote?" Beckett took the initiative as he was being so helpful.
"He claimed self-defense," Johnson literally sunk into the chair, a more pitiful human being if one ever did see. "They got into a fight over Josh's research. David had been holding on to it. Dobin's was still clutching that stupid laptop when he fell overboard."
"So," Castle edged in, "Dobins killed Joshua for his research but it was Pendlecote that had it?"
Johnson stiffened, slowly raising his head, the sorrow of his deed being pushed aside and cold dark anger taking its place. "Dobins killed Josh? That son of a bitch!"
"""
"Poetic irony?" Castle mused as they got an espresso. What was it about interrogations that drained the interrogator as much as the interrogated?
"If I was Dobins I wouldn't have told Johnson that I killed his brother-in-law," Beckett considered.
"You think he was telling the truth then, that he didn't know?" the writer asked.
After a moment, she said, "Yeah, if he had known I'm pretty sure we would never have found the body, in one piece at least. But that's for the counsel to argue and jury to decide."
Castle sipped his drink, "Dobins kills Peritti and Pendlecote for the research which Johnson accidently sends to Davy Jones' locker along with Dobins. Case closed."
"Case closed," she said it about as convincingly as he did.
"Hey," Esposito walked through the door, holding a file in his hands. "Know it's a bit late, but the Coast Guard's report on Ketter's boating accident finally came in."
"Thanks," Beckett sat her drink down and started to glance through it.
"I was wondering," the man moved to make his own coffee, "how did you know it was the brother-in-law?"
"Castle had a hunch," she answered.
"Well," the writer didn't like to sing his own praises, oh, who was he kidding, "you reminded me of what Johnson said, that Peritti couldn't dive, complications from the bends."
"Ah," the man caught on as he poured his drink, "and if you're going after sunken treasure, you need an experienced diver."
"Exactly, which Johnson is," Castle nodded, "and after a quick check it wasn't hard to find out that his boat was a speed boat and he grew up on Lake Superior."
"What does Lake Superior have to do with it?" Esposito asked, the momentum stalled.
"That's where the Fitzgerald went down," Castle explained. "Peritti looked it up for his brother-in-law so he knew there would be records. Johnson didn't want to admit knowing about the Irving."
"Dobins kills Peritti and Pendlecote, and then Johnson kills Dobins," the detective smiled, "myth confirmed."
"Myth confirmed," Castle begrudgingly agreed.
"Myth plausible," Beckett mumbled, still reading the Coast Guard's report.
"Why?" the writer gave her his complete attention. "What did you figure out?"
"That you shouldn't mix your themes and metaphors," she turned a page of the report, "and that the Coast Guard did a better job investigating Harold Ketter's death than the cops did."
"Then Dobins isn't our killer?" he tried to peak at the report.
"No, Dobins killed Pendlecote alright," she chewed her lip, then glanced up at him, "and Johnson knocked Dobins off the boat."
"What about Peritti?" he asked as she handed over the file to let him read it himself. It only took a moment for him to grasp the same realization she had and he frowned, "I guess dead men do tell tales."
