Shared Obsession Chapter 171
Kate taps her fingers against her folder as she holds the victim's wife in her gaze. "Here's the thing, Monica. We're not interested in whether you helped your husband case the bank. All we care about is finding the guy who killed him – Ike Thornton."
Monica stares open-mouthed at Kate. "You think Ike Thornton killed Paul? Lady, I don't know what you've been smoking but let me tell you about the kind of man Ike is. About 12 years back he collared Paul and his brother Barry on a heist. Ike saw Barry was a first-timer so he cut him a break. Paul went to jail for five years but he never forgot what Ike did for his brother. That's why Paul did a last job for him, as payback."
"Ike was there, Monica," Kate insists. "We found his fingerprints on Paul's body."
"If he was there, he didn't kill Paul," Monica declares.
"Maybe Ike didn't like his split of the take," Kate suggests.
Monica guffaws in disbelief. "Split? There was nothing to split!"
"So what was in the box?" Castle asks.
"A book. A ledger."
"A ledger?" Kate echoes, trying to wrap her head around the unexpected revelation.
"Something that showed all of Racine's pays and owes on all his businesses, not just his legitimate ones," Monica clarifies.
"An accounting of Racine's illegal operations could be worth a bundle in blackmail," Castle offers.
"It could if they'd gotten it," Monica agrees, "but when they hit the bank the box was empty. The ledger wasn't there."
"So, according to your theory of the crime, a guy tortures and kills a guy to get a ledger – that he knows wasn't there," Castle tells Demming as the robbery cop joins the writer, Kate, Ryan, and Esposito at the murder board.
"It does sound crazy when you put it like that," Demming admits.
"Look, I know my partner," Esposito declares. "No matter how I slice it, it makes no sense that he would kill Finch."
Holliwell's dark shadow falls on the group. "Detective Beckett."
She turns. "Lieutenant Holliwell."
"Sorry to interrupt, but my team's been up on a wire monitoring the cell phones of several key members of Racine's operations for mentions of Ike Thornton."
"Isn't eavesdropping on organized crime a bit out of the purview of Internal Affairs?" Castle asks. "Thornton isn't a cop anymore. He isn't even officially alive anymore."
"I hate to leave threads dangling in a case, and there's a chance someone else in the department is working with him," Holliwell responds.
"The poly wouldn't let you pin anything on me so now you're looking for another patsy?" Esposito accuses.
"Both good questions," Kate acknowledges," but right now we need to know what the lieutenant's team heard. What did you find out, Holliwell?"
"That Racine is looking for Thornton too. He just put a price on his head."
"Racine must have found out Thornton was going after the ledger," Kate assumes.
Holliwell turns toward Esposito. "I guess you're not the only one your old partner betrayed."
"Carol!" Esposito exclaims running for the stairs.
"Where are you going?" Kate calls after him.
Still running, Esposito glances over his shoulder. "If Racine's going after Ike, the first place he's gonna go is the same place we went – his wife and kid."
Kate points at Esposito's retreating back. "Ryan!"
"Yeah," Ryan responds taking off after his partner.
"I'm gonna call the surveillance team," Kate says.
Castle shakes his head. "For all the good that will do. Espo told me he spotted them in about two seconds. Racine's people can probably do the same."
The door of the Thornton house vibrates under Esposito's desperate pounding. "Carol! Carol! It's Javi!" The lock gives under the impact of his kick. "Timmy! Upstairs, go!" He urges Ryan.
"Nothing," Ryan reports to his frantic partner.
Esposito sinks down on the stairs.
"I checked with the surveillance team," Ryan says. "According to them, no one left. How the hell did they…?"
"Racine!" Esposito hisses. "Have the uniforms canvass the neighbors. Maybe someone saw something the surveillance team didn't."
"Yeah. On it."
As Esposito slowly descends the stairs, he hears the click of a gun cocking. Ike is sitting in a chair in the front room. He aims his weapon at Esposito. "I appreciate what you done for my boy, Javi."
"Carol and Tim, where are they?" Esposito demands.
"Somewhere where Racine can't find them."
"We've had guys on this place 24/7. How the hell did you pull it off?" Esposito questions.
"Three years as a ghost, you learn a few things."
"So IA was right? Three years ago you were working for Racine?"
"Is that what you believe, Javi?"
"You let me think you were dead. Now you're holding a burner on me."
Ike lowers his gun. "You're a good cop, Javi. I put this down you're gonna take me in. And I can't let you do that, not when I'm so close."
"So close, that's what Carol said. So close to what?"
"There is a dirty cop on Racine's payroll. So in order to throw them off his guy, he dirtied me up. And IA bought it hook, line, and sinker."
"You could have come to me. Why didn't you come to me?" Esposito demands.
"Look, cases like mine are contagious, Brother. I couldn't let you catch what I had. Racine's guy fed them so much garbage they could lock me up. And if I'd let them, Racine woulda had me shanked at Rikers before I could clear my name."
"Where you been all this time?"
"I went under, deep, got what work I could, made sure Carol and Tim could make it. But the thing about being underground, it's easier to watch, to hear things, to learn. That's how I found out about the ledger."
"Racine's pays and owes."
"More than that, everyone on his payroll – including the dirty cop that set me up. If I had it, I could expose him and come out of the cold."
"But the ledger wasn't in the bank like you thought."
"But Racine must not have known that either. So he found Finch somehow."
"But you were there, Man," Esposito protests. "We found your prints."
"I was there. But Finch was dead when I found him. And the look in his eyes, not just the stare you see on bodies, but I could see the terror, the pain in them like he was still seeing his torturer. I closed them. So my prints were on his eyelids, weren't they? And that's the only place they were."
"That's right. And that's what Castle said must have happened."
"Who the hell is Castle?"
"He works with – makes up stories – it doesn't matter now. But what about the ledger?"
"I know where it is, but I need a little more time, Javi, just until tomorrow night."
Esposito pulls his 54th keychain from his pocket and holds it up for Ike to see. "You used to carry yours all the time."
Still holding his weapon tightly, Ike reaches into his jeans. He pulls out a matching, undamaged, chain. "Still do."
Javi runs his fingers over the curved metal of his talisman. "We found one, broken up, in Finch's car. That means there's somebody else mixed up in all this – somebody from the 54th."
"Whoever it is, they tipped Racine that I'm still alive, which means they're close, maybe part of your investigation."
"The 54th, Demming!"