Shared Obsession Chapter 164
Kayla wraps her arms around herself, shivering slightly with her back against the cold metal of her chair in the box. "I-it was last week. I stayed late to help Bobby with some bits."
Kate taps her finger against the photograph the boys found in Bobby Mann's Bugatti. "Do you have any idea who took this, Kayla?"
"Must be someone who works on the show," the girl replies, her voice trembling.
Kate holds up the picture in front of the girl's face. "Who just happened to have a camera and catch the two of you in the act? Or were they tipped off?"
Kayla stares blankly at the detective.
"Were you blackmailing Bobby?" Kate demands.
Kayla presses her palm to her mouth. "Oh! My God! No!"
"He was three times your age and you're an intern on the show," Castle points out. "That adds up to embarrassment and scandal, which I'm sure he'd pay to avoid."
"No! I would never do that. We were in love," Kayla proclaims.
"In love?" Kate repeats. "Really? How long were the two of you together?"
Kayla's chin juts at Kate. "Three weeks this past Monday."
Recalling just how quickly young love can counter any perception of reality, Castle suppresses any urge to laugh. "Um, who else knew?"
"No one. Bobby and I kept it a secret. We didn't want my mom to find out."
"Who's your mom?" Beckett asks.
"The show's producer, Janine Marks."
Janine's acrylic nails dig into her palms as she gazes at the photo Kate holds. "He was bopping my daughter! I'll kill him!"
"He's already dead," Castle mildly reminds her.
"Well, I'll kill him again," the furious mother declares. "Where's the corpse?"
Kate concentrates on keeping her voice even. "Ms. Marks, we just…."
Marks glares at her daughter. "Kayla! My office, now! Move it!"
"Mom, you don't understand," Kayla pleads.
"Move it!" Marks thunders.
Shocked out of his reverie gazing around Bobby's former domain, Hank wanders over to Beckett and Castle. "You realize, if this gets out, it will ruin Bobby's reputation."
"We're not trying to add to an already difficult situation, Mr. McPhee," Kate soothes. "We're just trying to find the killer."
"Bobby wasn't an angel," Hank admits, "but look at the man in his entirety. He deserves to be remembered with grace. This business gets clouded by money, fame, ambition. The only thing that Bobby really cared about was making people laugh."
Kate points to the damning image. "Well, whoever took this either works for the show or had access to the building. And maybe it was someone in a financial jam who was looking to score a quick buck. Or maybe it's someone with a grudge against Bobby."
"I can't imagine anyone doing that," Hank claims. "He was a great boss. Everyone loved him."
"Apparently he loved a lot of them back," Castle comments. "But obviously, someone was less than smitten."
"OK," Hank accepts grudgingly. "Janine can get you a list of everyone on the crew once she's done yelling at Kayla. Poor kid. Who knows? She might have ended up being number seven."
Kate's cell phone buzzes. "Excuse me." She steps a few feet away, grabbing the phone from her jacket pocket. "Beckett. On our way."
"You know, Beckett," Castle says, on the walk back to her unit, "those cash withdrawals were within the last three weeks. Bobby may have been using the money to show Kayla a good time somewhere other than his office. No credit card receipts for, uh, room service."
"It's possible, Castle. But it doesn't get us any closer to his killer. "Hopefully whatever Ryan has, will."
"So what have you got?" Kate asks as she and Castle enter the bullpen.
"Once we suspected blackmail, I went deeper into Bobby's financials," Ryan says. "He shelled out $100,000 for a kitchen reno."
"Bobby doesn't cook," Castle recalls. "At least he doesn't in all the jokes he makes about the restaurants he's gone to in desperation. But maybe he was expecting the next Mrs. Mann to wield a spatula."
"Not unless she would be wielding it somewhere besides the kitchen," Ryan says. "I went to his brownstone and there were no renovations."
"So who was on the receiving end of the 100 grand?" Kate asks.
"Zach Robinson," Ryan replies.
"Ooh, good bad guy name," Castle notes. "Snaky 'z' and hard 'k.' It even has 'rob' in it."
"Good bad guy rap sheet, too," Ryan says. "Former lowlife private investigator."
Kate presses a fingertip to her lower lip. "I remember the guy. He had some celebrity clients back in the day. He was known for digging up dirt on celebrity clients and turning it into a personal payday."
Ryan nods. "That's him. He did a nickel on multiple counts of extortion, wiretapping, racketeering, and blackmail."
"Well, Robinson must have gotten the picture from somebody on the inside," Kate asserts.
"Sure, figured it was worth a fast buck," Castle agrees. "But if Bobby paid, why would Robinson kill him?"
Maybe Bobby figured out that Robinson was a blackmailer and threatened to take him to the cops," Kate offers.
"Bobby pushes, Robinson pushes back harder," Castle continues Kate's thought. "But hasn't Robinson been strictly a white-collar criminal? No assaults? No bar fights? And if he was out after five years on that many charges, wouldn't that mean he behaved himself?"
"You're right. Nothing violent on his sheet. And he was released early for good behavior," Ryan adds.
"So why would he suddenly escalate to murder?" Castle wonders. "And why would Bobby take spiked cranberry juice from someone that scummy in the middle of the night? If I were writing that, an editor would never buy it. Hell, it wouldn't make it past Alexis's red pencil to get to an editor."
"This isn't a book, Castle," Kate replies as gently as she can. "And right now Robinson's the best lead we have. Let's pick him up."
Ryan leans on his desk. "Easier said than done. Esposito already ran down his last known address. He's in the wind."
"A hundred grand can buy a pretty big sail," Castle says. "But he might decide to have a little fun with it."
"He does have a history of illegal gambling," Ryan says.
"Then you and Espo check the usual haunts," Kate instructs. "Castle and I can go through the info on Bobby's crew that Marks is emailing me."
A few hours later, Castle is nursing a paper cut when Ryan and Esposito triumphantly usher a man toward Interrogation. "He looks like a Zach Robinson. Where did you find him?" Castle asks.
"A craps table at the Mohegan Sun," Ryan replies.
"Ah, legal gambling this time," Castle observes. "He's come up in the world."
"Not much," Esposito says. "He hit snake eyes just as we spotted him."
"He almost seemed glad to see us," Ryan adds.
Kate slides the blackmail pic across the table. "Recognize this, Mr. Robinson?"
Robinson lounges in his seat. "I've never seen it before."
"Really? Sure you didn't use it to blackmail Bobby Mann?" Kate presses.
Robinson rolls his eyes. "Blackmail? You're fishing in the wrong pond, Detective."
Kate slides over a printout. "How about the 100 grand from Bobby Mann in your bank account? Is that in the right pond?"
"That was for services rendered," Robinson insists.
"Let me guess," Castle inserts. "You renovated his kitchen, leaving the clever impression it hadn't changed since Bobby bought it."
"I don't think Webster's defines blackmailing as a service, Mr. Robinson," Kate says. "More like a coercive threat."
Robinson sticks up a hand. "Hold on there. I never threatened Bobby. He did hire me, just not to fix his kitchen."
"Then what did he hire you to do?" Kate demands.
"Bobby knew about my, um, skills. Some of his acquaintances were forced to make big settlements to their exes when I caught them, um," he points at the picture, "indulging in something like that. Except that Bobby wasn't out to slam anyone. He was afraid someone was after him. So he paid me to bug some guy's office."
"Who?" Kate demands.
"Howard Weisberg, big shot at Bobby's network. It was an easy gig, too. Bobby got me into the building."
"When was this?" Kate asks.
"A week ago."
"What did you do with the recordings?" Castle queries.
"Put them on CDs and delivered them to Bobby."
"When did he get them?" Kate questions.
A trace of regret creeps over Robinson's features. "The day he was killed."
"No wonder Weisberg was so upset when the news of Bobby's murder broke," Castle says, settling into his spot next to Kate's desk. "He wasn't watching his network's ass. He was worried about his own. Could he have killed to protect whatever secret Bobby discovered on those CDs?"
Kate brings up a profile of Weisberg on her computer. "We're going to find out."
