Confession Chapter 18
Castle loads Kate's small wheeled suitcase into the back of his Mercedes. "Are you sure that's all you want to take? Have you got all your meds and everything?"
"I'm only on one now. It's in my purse and the doctor says I'm almost done with it. And we're just going to be up there overnight. There's no reason to drag a lot of stuff along."
Visions of the overnight bags filled with beauty products that used to accompany Meredith, and the trunks accommodating Gina's shopaholism, flash through Castle's memory as he stares at the lone piece of luggage.
"What are you grinning about?" Kate queries.
"I've found another thing to love about you." He walks around the car to open the passenger door. "Detective? Might as well get this show on the road."
As Kate settles into her seat, Castle slides behind the wheel. "I figure we go about halfway, making any necessary rest stops, have lunch, go the rest of the way to the lodge, check in, and then go see Pulgatti."
"I'd rather go to see Pulgatti before we check into the lodge, Castle. I'd like to hear what he has to say as soon as possible."
"As you wish," Castle agrees, starting the car. "Hi ho, hi ho, to Attica we go," he sings as he merges into traffic.
Kate rolls her eyes. "Really, Castle?"
"Well, the seven dwarfs were going off to dig. So are we – the lack of picks and shovels notwithstanding."
"I suppose you have a point," Kate considers. "So are you supposed to be Dopey, Sneezy, Bashful, Grumpy, Doc, Happy, or Sneezy?"
"Ah, you know your Disney, truly a woman after my own heart. But the way I see it, the dwarfs can all be aspects of the same person. Early in the morning, many of us are Grumpy. When faced with the person of our dreams, we can be by turns, Dopey, Bashful, and Happy. When we want to get things organized, we are Doc, and often at the worst possible times, we are Sneezy. But regardless, in one way or another, we all have to go off to the mines. How about you? Snow White?"
"Go off with the first man who kisses me – when I'm asleep and can't agree to it? Not on your life."
Castle chuckles. "I should have known. So for the moment, Grumpy."
"But if we get something we can use out of Pulgatti, I will definitely be Happy."
"That makes two of us."
Castle can see fatigue starting to wear on Kate when they finally make it past the guards, gates, and other precautions at Attica and can meet with Pulgatti. But the determination in her eyes shows no signs of fading. Pulgatti stares as she approaches. "For a moment I thought I was seeing a ghost. You must be Johanna Beckett's daughter – all grown up. She talked about you. You were only a teenager then, but she was so proud of you. She said you had the guts to fight anything you didn't think was right."
Castle gazes at Kate. "She was certainly right about that."
"Mr. Pulgatti, according to my mother's notes, you believed you were framed by dirty cops. Is that correct?" Kate asks.
"Believed it, still believe it. Look, I was at the Sons of Palermo. It was a family hangout, but the old man didn't like us smoking inside. He claimed his wife had asthma and when he came home with smoke on his clothes, it made her wheeze. So this guy, Bob Armen, and I went out in the alley to light up. I thought Bob was one of the old man's lieutenants. He was also a fed, in deep cover, but I didn't know that. Apparently neither did the cops. Some of them had a racket going back then. They grabbed members of the families, beat them up, and demanded a ransom to let them go. They called it incarceration and bail, can you believe it?"
"I've heard about it," Kate says. "I think my mother might have been on the trail of it."
Pulgatti nods. "Wouldn't surprise me. Of all the lawyers I wrote to, she was the only one who responded. She must have had a reason for believing me. But anyway, these three guys in black hoods came into the alley and tried to grab Bob. We fought back and it got ugly. One of the guys shot Bob, killed him, and then they all took off. Next thing I know, I'm being arrested for Bob's murder."
"Are you sure it was cops who killed him?" Kate asks.
"Had to be," Pulgatti insists. "The only people in that alley were Bob, me, and the guys in the hoods. Had to be one of them that hung it on me."
"But if you didn't shoot Armen, why did you plead guilty?" Kate presses.
"Because I don't like needles."
"And New York didn't abolish the death penalty until 2007," Kate realizes.
"My lawyer said the DA would weave a story that I uncovered Bobby as a fed and took him out. With my history, the jury would be sure to convict and I'd be on death row. Taking a plea was my only chance to stay alive. So I took it. But I figured that sooner or later someone would go after what those cops were doing and maybe I'd have a chance."
"Even if my mother had been able to get you an appeal, it would have been a slim chance," Kate says.
"The other way I had no chance," Pulgatti insists. "But the grapevine in here is pretty good, and I never heard of anyone going after those cops."
Castle nods grimly. "That's because no one did. But now we know who at least some of them were."
"And how what they did could be tied to my mother's murder," Kate adds.
"So after all these years, the truth could finally come out?" Pulgatti asks.
"That," Castle declares, "is the plan."
"Beckett, Pulgatti said there were three cops in that alley. Who do you think they were?" Castle wonders as they leave the prison.
"With how Raglan passed my mother's murder off to random violence, he had to be one of them. And he worked with McCallister, so that would be two." Kate shakes her head. "But the third? I don't know."
"It would have had to be someone Raglan and McCallister trusted," Castle figures. "And for good reason if he kept his mouth shut all this time."
"Ryan and Esposito did the digging on Raglan and McCallister for me. Maybe they stumbled across another name," Castle suggests.
Kate pulls out her phone. "I can ask them right now."
"Beckett don't," Castle warns. "They're still on duty, and even with nailing Lockwood, Montgomery's been riding them really hard about concentrating on their present caseload."
"Yeah, they said something about him being a real hardass lately," Kate recalls.
"They used somewhat stronger language when describing the situation to me. But anyway, we can take them out somewhere to get the rundown when we get back. They deserve the celebration. And we can use a celebration of our own. What Pulgatti said backed up a lot of what we've been thinking. And as I said, the food at the lodge isn't bad. We can check in, kick back a little over dinner, and be back on the crime-busting trail in the morning.
"All right, Castle. Sounds like a plan."