Shared Obsession Chapter 129
"The man he come to … el piso," Lara explains.
"The apartment," Esposito translates. "He came to the apartment."
"There was a man who came to the apartment the night Cano Vega died and that's why you were running?" Kate queries.
"He kill my father," Lara responds.
Castle feels the puzzle pieces falling into place. "Your father?"
Lara nods. "Vega."
"All right, Lara, let's start at the beginning," Kate says. "Desde del principio." She turns to Esposito. "Help her out."
Under Esposito's encouragement in her own tongue, Lara's Spanish narration to him streams past her lips. Esposito passes on the meaning of her story. "Vega and her mother were engaged when he defected. She was supposed to come to the U.S. with him, but she didn't. They threw Lara's mother in prison as punishment for what Vega did. She was pregnant with Lara."
"Did Vega know about this?" Castle asks.
"Not until a couple of months ago," Esposito says, "when he heard a rumor that he had a daughter."
"So that's why Vega went to Cuba," Castle realizes, "to find out if he had a daughter."
"They didn't actually meet," Esposito continues, "because the government was watching him. But he got her a message saying he'd get her out as soon as he could."
Lara turns to Beckett. "The first time I meet my father was three nights ago. I want to tell him how much suffering he caused."
"She grew up believing her father had abandoned her mother to get rich," Esposito clarifies. "But he told her that wasn't true, that he'd only defected because her mother said she was going to as well, but that she had changed her mind at the last minute. All these years he thought she'd turned her back on him. He never knew that they – the government – had made an example of him to all the other players. He never knew that she had died in prison."
"My father," Lara continues, "he is very upset when I tell him. He said he need to talk to someone. He, uh, uh, give me money for food. I never see him again."
"You said earlier there was a man at the apartment," Beckett prompts.
"When I go to … the market to buy food, when I come back, I see the man at the um, um, apartment, not my father. I was so scared so I leave. Then I hear Cano Vega is dead. So I run. I hide. I just wanted to go home. He killed my father."
"This man who came to the apartment, can you describe him for me?" Beckett asks.
"Yes," Lara confirms.
"Greying hair, fancy clothes, and I'm guessing," Castle begins to sing-song as he and Kate leave the box, "size 10 to 11 feet."
The charm suddenly fades from Cross's still handsome face. "Ms. Gainer, you received instructions to have a compatriot lure Beckett and Castle into a car that would take them where?"
Marie Gainer's eyes plead at her now menacing interrogator. "I don't know. Arranging to get them in that car was as far as my instructions went. But when Detective Beckett got suspicious I had to abort."
"Your instructions from whom? Who called you from Brinkman's office?"
"It was Brinkman. He didn't identify himself, but that voice was unmistakable."
Cross just stares at Gainer. For years, everyone, including his own agency had assumed Brinkman to be increasingly falling victim to dementia while Bracken called the shots. Could it have been a massive and brilliantly played charade? With his committee memberships, Brinkman had been privy for decades to some of the nation's most closely guarded secrets. With Bracken and possibly others as his operatives, he could have been wreaking untold damage to the nation's security while the intelligence agencies, including his own, were chasing their tails.
Fox smirks at Kate and Castle. "Now let me get this straight. An illegal claiming to be Cano Vega's daughter, after being in this country for less than 24 hours identifies someone who kind of looks like me from a distance at night? Well gee, guys, what? Do I sign my confession now or after the big, uh, press conference?"
"Not bad," Castle comments. "Confused implication of innocence without an actual denial. But then again, parsing words is an agent's bread and butter, isn't it? And from the looks of your offices here, you're very good at it. And you sure had Cano fooled – until you didn't."
Fox smiles indulgently. "Come on, kids. You know he was my friend, not to mention a hefty commission. What's my motive?"
"The thing about people who have a lot, Mr. Fox, is that they have the most to lose," Beckett says. "I'm sure Cano felt betrayed when he learned the truth."
"The truth about what?" Fox demands.
"Your favorite story, Barcelona, 1992," Castle replies. "Only you lied to Cano Vega about helping his fiancée to defect."
"It's not my fault she changed her mind," Fox claims.
"The truth is you couldn't get her off the island," Castle returns. "But you did know that he'd rather be there with her than making big bucks for you in the majors."
"So you let him believe that she'd changed her mind," Kate continues. "And to keep him from ever finding out the truth, you had her put away."
Fox makes a breathy show of disbelief. "Put away? In Cuba? Oh, come on. I have a lot of pull but influencing a military dictatorship isn't as easy as getting a dinner reservation at Le Cirque."
"But the technique is much the same, isn't it?" Castle questions. "You cross the right palm with silver, or perhaps in your case, a gold Rolex. You'd influenced their people before, Manuel Gutierrez, aka El Pulpo, The Octopus. You walked away with the star player of the Cuban National Team for your fancy watch."
"We did a little research," Kate adds, "he was the star witness at her trial."
"Was denouncing Vega's fiancée always part of your plan with El Pulpo or did you have to pay extra for that?" Castle queries. "I hear you're a killer negotiator."
"You can't possibly be serious," Fox insists.
Castle points at Kate. "She's not laughing. Bad sign – for you."
"When Vega found out what you'd done he called you from his club and told you to meet him," Kate continues unfolding the story. "He was near the exit when he made the call, so we have it on video. It matches up with his phone records – and yours. I think he came after you and threatened to destroy you and that's why you killed him."
"So a player called his agent. Is that supposed to be unusual? You've got a hell of a story, kids," Fox concedes. "I paid El Pulpo to take care of my player's girl when the Cuban government is sending people away every day? That's a hell of a tale, but it's pure conjecture."
"You know what's not conjecture?" Kate returns. "The blood that we found on the driver's side mat of your car. It's Vega's blood."
"And, Castle adds, "as much as you tried to clean that pair of $5,000, size ten and a half shoes you were wearing when you smashed Vega's skull in, you couldn't quite get all of it."
Fox picks up his phone. "Cynthia, call my lawyer. You tell him he's about to earn the outrageous, obscene amount of money I pay him."
"Turn around," Kate orders, pulling out her handcuffs. "Robert Fox, you're under arrest for the murder of Cano Vega."
"What's going to happen to Lara?" Castle wonders as Kate follows the marked unit transporting Fox to the precinct.
"She can stay in the States for a year and then decide whether to apply for citizenship or not."
Castle sighs. "I can't imagine her staying. Her last bit of family is gone. I mean the only person she knew here is dead."
Kate's fingertips tap against the wheel as she thinks. "Well, there is one more person she should meet."
Maggie Vega looks as nervous as Lara does as she gazes around her father's house. "So you're Lara?" Maggie asks.
"She was born in Cuba right after Mr. Vega defected," Kate says.
"She's not his girlfriend, she's his daughter," Castle explains.
"Cano had a daughter?" Maggie studies Lara's face. Cano's eyes look back at her.
"My father didn't know you would like to have me here. He uh," Lara stumbles over the English words, "he had fear to tell you about me." She looks hopefully at Esposito.
"It's OK. I'll tell her whatever you want to say," he assures her, and the Spanish words begin to flow from Lara's lips. "She says she knows her father loved you very much, and he didn't want to hurt you. And that he hoped and she hoped that together you could be a family," the Latino cop recounts.
Maggie smiles and opens her arms. "Yo soy Maggie. Mi casa es su casa."
"That was sweet," Castle says as he and Kate head back to the precinct.
"Castle, do you ever wonder if you have family you don't know about, if maybe you aren't your father's only child?"
"Sometimes," he admits. "But one Richard Castle is probably enough for this world."
She reaches her hand across her unit's console to him. "One is fine for me."