Chapter Seven

The next morning the precinct was buzzing with confusion as Castle and Beckett made their way towards her desk. Kate looked up to see Officer Hastings coming towards them.

"Detective Beckett. Mr. Castle." Hastings greeted. "Detective Beckett Seamus McKenna is here to see you….along with half the untouchables from the Westies. I showed him to the conference room for you." Hastings added as she walked away.

"Well that explains all the commotion." Kate said as she raised an eyebrow. "Let's get this done." She started to walk away. She turned to say something to Castle and saw him still standing by her desk. "Are you coming Castle?" She asked mockingly.

"I…uh..well…" Castle stuttered as he looked around at all the officers who were now watching him. He walked up to Beckett. "It's just…all those guys…I…" He tried to explain.

"Castle…we are in my house remember. I have a gun along with alllll these other officers. Your safe with me remember." She joked.

"Yeah safe…like we were safe with the tiger…or how about safe underwater…or how about being locked in a storage locker that was covered in ice." He rambled.

"Shut up Castle…let's go." Kate ordered as she walked into the conference room. "Mr. McKenna how did you know I wanted to see you this morning?" Kate asked smartly.

"I received a call from an associate of mine letting me know that you were looking into my future son in laws death. So naturally I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help you along. However, knowing you were planning on speaking to me leads me to believe that you have something specific on your mind Detective. So let's be business people and just ask me what is on that pretty little mind of yours." Seamus replied with the same smugness.

"Ok McKenna, why did you pay Aaron's contract fee? And what did you mean when you said I own you now?" Kate jumped into it.

"Aaron wasn't happy with the troupe anymore. With the wedding just around the corner he needed to be available to my daughter when she arrived. There were a lot of details to go over before the wedding so I made it easier for him to be available. As for owning him? I don't know what your implying Detective. I did tell him he owes me but not I own him. Miscommunication apparently." Seamus stated without a missing a beat.

"When your daughter arrived?" Kate prodded.

"She was in Ireland until Monday. I took a couple of the guys with me Thursday to go help her pack her belongings. I was over there when I received the call about Aaron. We came back as soon as we could. Maddy joined me even though there was no longer to be a wedding. She wanted to pay her respects of course." Seamus answered.

"So you and your men were in Ireland when Aaron was murdered?" Kate asked to clarify.

"That's right Detective…sorry to make it harder for you, I didn't kill him and I didn't have a reason too. He'd be no good to me dead. However, when this is over I do expect to receive my daughter's dowery back." McKenna replied.

"Dowery? As in you paid Aaron to marry your daughter." Kate said with a spark of interest.

"I DID NOT PAY HIM TO MARRY MY DAUGHTER!...I'm sorry for raising my voice, but you American's don't understand the tradition. It's more of a gift to help the man set up a good home for a woman. He could have set up a great home with the dowery I provided." Seamus said as he calmed down.

"How much did he receive?" Kate asked as she made a note in her notepad.

"What you haven't found that detail yet? The boy could act but there is no way he could make $50,000 disappear without a trace. Find my money Detective or I will find a way to get it back." Seamus McKenna threatened as he got up and walked out.

Castle looked at Kate bewildered. Neither of them spoke for a moment.

"$50,000 how did we miss that in his financials. It wasn't hidden at his apartment. There was no safe deposit box key laying around. Maybe it's behind whatever door that other key we found at his place unlocks. Wherever, it is we are back to square one. We have no suspects, no leads, and no answers just a bunch of questions. Why was he engaged to both of those women?, where did he disappear to for hours at a time?, where's the money from the dowery?, and why was that key so important to hid it under his bed?" Kate rambled.

Esposito came into the interrogation room to hear the last few questions.

"I think I can answer one or more of those questions. The ATM footage came back. We have a location. Aaron goes into the same building for hours everyday. I got the address . You coming?" Espo asked.

A half hour later they pulled up to the building they saw Aaron go into from the footage.

"This is a shady area." Espo said as they got out of the car.

"Yeah I don't know why a guy like Aaron Summers would choose to hang out around here." Beckett stated as she looked at her surroundings. "But we aren't going to get any answers just standing here. She walked up to the front door and pulled. It was unlocked so they just walked in. There were 12 mailboxes lined up on the right wall. She walked over and took a look.

"Aaron Summers isn't listed on these boxes. There isn't even a blank one to assume that may be his." She continued to look at the names. "Lets try this one. It's marked as the office. Maybe whoever is there can tell us if Summers rented here." She said as she headed down the hall to apartment 202. One the door it said Office with the hours of 11 am -12 pm and 4 pm to 5 pm. "Not much of open hours is it?" She looked at her watch 1:23 pm. "Well I'm not waiting til 4." She said as she knocked on the door. No answer.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

"Yeah yeah I'm coming." Came a voice from inside. "What do you want it's not business hours." Replied the older man that opened the door.

"I'm Detective Kate Beckett NYPD, this is Detective Esposito and Richard Castle. I needed to know what apartment you rented out to Aaron Summers." Kate said in her Detective tone.

"No Aaron Summers here lady." Replied the guy as he started to shut the door.

Kate blocked the door from closing. And held up a picture of Aaron.

"This man, have you seen him in your building?" She asked getting annoyed but what seemed to be another dead end.

The man grabbed the picture and squinted at it. Then he laughed out loud.

"Yeah I know him that's Tony. Tony Lopiccolo. Weird guy, he says to me, Marty if you don't see me for three days go to my apartment and clear everything out. He paid me a grand up front and $40 a day in cash to keep that promise. Come to think of it I haven't seen him in a couple days so I guess tomorrow if he isn't here his junk is gone." The man said mostly to himself.

"Well…Marty is it? You won't be seeing him anymore. He is dead. Do we have permission to enter the apartment?" Kate asked.

"Dead…well isn't that my luck. I get a tenant that I like and he ends up dead. Yeah, sure toots. I've got his key around here somewhere." Marty said as he started to walk away.

"I think we have our own. If we need yours we will come back. What apartment was he in?" Kate asked getting impatient.

"He was set up in apartment 209. Upstairs." He answered as he shut the door in their faces.

"Well," Castle cleared his throat "Nice guy." He said as he followed Beckett and Espo to apartment 209.

Kate walked down to the end of the hall and dug out the key they had found in Aaron's other apartment. She put the key into the keyhole and turned. She grinned as she heard the click of the lock. "And let's see what's behind door number one shall we?" She said with a smile.