Shared Obsession Chapter 136
Matt regards Kate and Castle with a look somewhere between sullenness and defiance. "So I borrowed Kelly's keys. That doesn't prove anything."
Kate zips open her folder. "Which is why we took a look at the whole picture." She shows Matt a document. "This is a list of phone calls from your cell to the university switchboard. Each one coincides with a harassing call to Jessica."
"You made those calls," Castle accuses.
Matt's body sways in his seat. "Look, it was a joke."
"How about your little visit to Jessica in the dungeon?" Kate questions. "Was that a joke as well?"
"She didn't tell anyone where the dungeon was," Castle continues. "So how'd you find it? Did you follow her or the clues in her research?"
"You were her rival for a fellowship," Kate picks up. "You needed her out of the way. And when you read her research you saw your chance."
"Look, I needed the funding," Matt insists. "My work is important. I mean, come on, seriously. I couldn't let her get the fellowship. And when I saw her research, it read like fiction. So I went to the dungeon to find out."
"If your work was so much more important than Jessica's why would you even worry about her getting the fellowship?" Castle inquires. "If that's supposed to be so clear to us, why wouldn't it be clear to the fellowship committee? But I'll tell you what is clear." Castle starts ticking things off on his fingers. "You broke into her filing cabinet. You copied her research. You followed her to the dungeon. You're not putting a whole lot of checks in the innocent column, Matt."
Matt smirks. "The innocent column. Listen, I threatened her, all right? But I didn't kill her. When I found out she was Mistress Venom I told her that if she didn't withdraw her application I was going to tell her boyfriend."
"And when that didn't work, you killed her," Castle asserts.
"It did work!" Matt protests. "Jessica withdrew her application the day before she was killed."
"Can you prove that?" Kate presses.
"The proof's right on my phone and on my computer," Matt declares. "Jessica blind-copied me on an email she sent to the head of the committee. We were cool. She was most concerned with getting back the research I copied. So as soon as she was out of the running, I brought it all back to her apartment."
"Even though Matt didn't kill Jessica, how would the fellowship committee react to him blackmailing her?" Castle wonders as he and Kate stare up at the murderboard. "Usually these things have some clause about good moral character. You know you are morally challenged if your alibi for murder is a blackmailing scheme."
Kate studies the gapped timeline accompanying the postings. "Yeah, but since we confirmed he was telling the truth, we have no motive."
Castle turns at the sound of Ryan and Esposito strolling up. "Anything we can use from your visit to the House of Pain?"
"None of the girls admit to Jessica sharing any client's secrets with them," Ryan says. "That's kind of a pain."
"Oh, one of them thought that she might have been seeing clients outside the dungeon," Esposito recalls, pointing to the timeline. "That might account for the hole."
"But we ran through her phone and financials again. We can't find any record of it. How about you?" Ryan asks. "What about your suspect?"
"Ex-suspect," Kate says. She points to a copy of Jessica's email. "This lets him out."
"But Beckett, aside from the time gap we've still got a missing piece," Castle points out. "Matt had no reason to lie about bringing the research back to Jessica's apartment. So where is it? Given her concerns for privacy, she wouldn't just throw it away. And we know she didn't take it back to the university."
"She didn't shred it either," Ryan adds. "We had the unis search the trash. Just the usual coffee grounds and old pizza boxes. No shreds."
"Well maybe we missed something," Kate offers. "Maybe she hid it somewhere. Or maybe Matt is lying about the research."
"Why would he?" Castle queries. "There would be no self-interest in that, and despite his protestations of concern for mankind, everything he's done has been in self-interest. But you're right. We are missing something."
"Speaking of missing," Castle says, as Kate drives toward the apartment Jessica shared with Danielle, "what do you think Brinkman did with the evidence of his activities all these years? A lot of it would predate digitization, and even if he shredded his documents, that would be a pile of paper high enough to ski down. I wonder if that dossier has a key to the location of a cache."
"Are you thinking Brinkman might have kept evidence against Bracken?" Kate asks.
"Why not? As the ultimate puppet master, he would keep the power on his side. I just hope if he did, it will find its way to the special prosecutor."
"It might," Kate considers. "That office would start by flipping people at the periphery of the organization to uncover the dirt that will take them toward the center of power."
"Right. And disposal or storage would be pretty far out on the edge. If the investigation starts nibbling there, the press probably won't be far behind. Sometimes I wish I could materialize Rook and ask him what he'd do. That's just the sort of thing he'd go after."
"And maybe when this is all over, you can write about him doing just that."
Castle grins at the thought. "With inspiration from the formidable Nikki Heat, of course. Maybe I will."
"So you didn't see a stack of paperwork?" Kate inquires of Danielle as the girl fidgets on her seat at the edge of a couch.
"No, I would have noticed that. Maybe she took it up to school," the roommate suggests.
Castle shakes his head. "It wasn't there either."
"Are you sure Matt's telling the truth?" Danielle asks. "Jessica always said she thought he was a little slimy."
"Most people lie to avoid suspicion. No one lies to incriminate themselves," Castle observes.
"That night you came home, did you notice anything different or out of place?" Kate queries.
Danielle nods slowly. "Now that you mention it, I did find something odd. Earlier tonight I was emptying the dishwasher and I found a wineglass with lipstick on it. It didn't seem like Jessica's shade and it wasn't one of mine. So I put it aside to handwash it later."
"Can I see it?" Kate asks.
Danielle pushes herself off the couch. "Sure, I'll get it for you." She walks the short distance to the kitchen, retrieves the goblet, and hands it to Kate.
The detective holds it up to the light and points at the smudge on the rim. "Castle, do you recognize that color?"
"Mistress Red."
"From the pictures we've seen of Mistress Venom, she went for lips in gothic black," Castle recalls as he and Kate leave Danielle's apartment. "According to what one of the mistresses told Esposito, Venom might have been whipping up business on the side. Moonlighting would have cut Lady Irena out of her slice of flesh, so I can't imagine she would have approved. Perhaps she was here to mete out the final punishment."
"That's a stretch, Castle. But she acted as if she didn't recognize Jessica's real name. If she knew to come here, then she was lying to us."
"And you want to find out what else she was lying about," Castle assumes.
"Damn straight I do."
"If she was telling the truth about being a hotshot lawyer, do you think she might anticipate your questions and try to use her legal skills to get around them?"
"She'll be in Lady Beckett's domain. And I have some skills of my own."
"That, you most assuredly do."
