Shared Obsession Chapter 64
Castle watches from Observation as Kate sits across from Adam Pike in the box. His former bravado gone, the young man slumps in his seat. "I didn't kill her. I didn't even know where she was."
Kate rakes her hair away from her face. "We're not gonna get anywhere if you keep lying to me. You knew where Cynthia Dern was. Her husband remembers seeing a guy who looked like you lurking outside their house a couple of weeks before she was murdered. He's more than willing to identify that man out of a lineup. Are we really going to have to do that?"
Adam attempts to lick the dryness from his lips. "I – I just wanted to talk to her."
"How did you know where to find her?"
"That writer, Lee Wax. The way she kept talking about what happened to my dad she knew things that only someone who was on the ship could know. So I started following her. She led me to Cynthia Dern."
"So why didn't you call the police?"
"Because I wanted to look her in the eye when I told her that none of her blood money would buy my family's forgiveness."
"Money?" Castle repeats as he looks on.
"What do you mean by blood money?" Kate demands.
Muscles pop on Adam's jaw. "After I found out where Cynthia lived, I didn't know whether to call the Feds or what. But when I told my mom what I found, she started to cry and said we couldn't. She told me that since the bombing, we'd been getting money every month. There were different amounts from different places but we always got something. In the first envelope, there was a note that said, 'Please forgive me."
"She thought Cynthia Dern was sending the money?"
"Jared Swanstrom was in prison, Susan Mailer was dead. It couldn't have been anyone else."
"Or could it?" Castle muses.
"You know, with the evidence in those letters, Cynthia could have been caught years ago," Kate points out.
"Until now, Mom never told me about them. But when I told her I'd found Cynthia, she said that without the money, we never would have made it. She figured that as long as Cynthia was free, it would keep coming. We need every cent we can scrape up to take care of my dad. Mom was afraid that if I turned Cynthia in that the money would stop and my dad would get worse. She couldn't face that happening. Neither could I."
"So why did you lie to me about where you were last Tuesday?" Kate questions.
Adam's eyes flit around the room as if searching for some escape. Finally, he just gazes down at the table. "Because I was there, at the hotel. I followed Cynthia. I was just going to talk to her. I spent an hour walking up and down the hallway, trying to get up the courage, you know, to go knock on her door. I was going to do it, but then someone else got off the elevator and did."
"You saw her killer?"
"I was walking the other way. By the time I turned around, I didn't get a good look. But I heard them talking. And I can tell you one thing."
"What?"
"It was a woman."
"Lee Wax," Castle mouths, knocking on the glass.
Kate exits the box to meet Castle outside. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"The only woman left in the story is Lee Wax. She certainly had a motive. A book about a dead terrorist will sell a lot better than the memoir of a live one. And Cynthia's death would remove the need for her approval of the text. Lee wouldn't have to make Cynthia sympathetic to a jury. She could write whatever she wanted. The wine glasses fit and the oil would be suitably lurid staging, but she would still have a problem. The book wouldn't have an ending. Who would she blame for killing Cynthia?"
"Maybe she'd blame Swanstrom," Kate suggests. "No one would know what he really said to her and he was already convicted of setting a bomb."
"Maybe, but you already checked his alibi, didn't you?"
"Of course."
"So that ending would never fly. Something's missing, Beckett, or someone."
"Maybe, but Lee Wax is still the best suspect we have. I'm going to send unis to pick her up."
Castle leans against a wall looking on as Kate and Lee glare at each other. "Murder? Are you people crazy?" the new suspect exclaims.
"I have a witness who can place you at the hotel where Cynthia's body was found," Kate claims.
"Well then your witness is crazy too," Lee insists, "because I wasn't there – not when she was killed."
"You had motive, means, and opportunity," Kate asserts.
"Means?" Lee echoes. "What, I was going to bring a dolly full of motor oil up in the elevator and Cynthia would let me in with it? Please!" She turns to Castle. "Come on, that's too absurd a twist even for a bad novel, isn't it?"
"You could have stocked the room with it when she wasn't there," Kate suggests.
"Except that I didn't. If you want to know, I was having dinner with my publisher until after midnight. I didn't have opportunity either. Check it, Castle. I know you talk to him. I needed to see him because from the few calls I made, I thought Cynthia was lying and I was wondering how I could reflect that in the book without violating my contract. I write true crime, not fiction."
"You didn't believe her remorse was genuine?" Kate asks.
"When Cynthia cried – and she was very good at it – she cried for herself. She wanted to cash in and keep herself out of jail. That's it."
"Well, she must have felt some responsibility for what happened," Kate argues. "After all, she kept sending the Pikes money all these years."
Lee gazes from Kate to Castle in confusion. "What money? She didn't tell me about any money. If she had, I would have put it in my manuscript. I assume that by now you've both read it. You know there was no money in there. And what would have been better at getting the sympathy of a jury than that? She would have wanted it in."
Kate glances toward Castle and he nods. "I'll make the call."
Castle studies the murder board, covered with even more clippings about the tanker explosion. "Beckett, remind me if I ever mention writing a memoir, not to write a memoir. Wax's publisher assured me he was with her after midnight – way after midnight. Apparently, she was using non-verbal methods of persuasion. She was our last female suspect." He points to a newly attached document. "But the DNA that just came back is female on both wine glasses. Also, Beckett, this is weird. The DNA on one of the glasses was unidentified, the other matched Cynthia."
"What's weird about that, Castle?"
"The match wasn't the one with the Remian. Cynthia was trying to drug her visitor. Why would she do that?"
"Maybe she knew whoever it was had murderous intentions."
"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer," Castle considers. "But this story still has enough holes to drain that tub. According to Adam, the money came from different places. Before and after the Goldmans' financial setbacks, Cynthia was in the Metropolitan Area. If Lee Wax is right that Cynthia didn't send the Pikes that money, who did?"
"Castle we need to ask Eleanor Pike some questions about those letters," Kate decides. "I don't want to drag her away from her husband. Are you up for another trip?"
"I will take my trusty laptop along on our journey. I think I'm getting really close to what I need to nail Quistel."
"I hope you're right. OK. Let's go."