A Murder in the Mosque
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Castle. Wish I did, though. Rating: K+ for some soldier's language. Time: After Season Eight.
Oswaldo Reyes was young, Hispanic and nervous.
"Does Mrs. Bronstein sign for the drugs when you deliver them?"
"Not exactly." Oswaldo said.
"Perhaps I can explain." The pharmacist said. "Mrs. Bronstein called at least six months ago and said she was feeling much worse and that it was hard for her to get to the door a lot of the time. She asked us to have Oswaldo put the medication through the mail slot and when she was up to it, she'd sign for the fentanyl and stick the document out through the mail slot so Oswaldo could pick it up."
"Is that what happened, Oswaldo?"
"Yes. Exactly."
"We'll need to go see Mrs. Bronstein."
"She may not answer." The pharmacist said, hopefully.
"Since she has a terminal condition and hasn't been getting her proper meds, I think a welfare check would be in order."
Kate got Mrs. Bronstein's address and they headed for her home, a nice brownstone in a middle class neighborhood. They knocked on the door. They waited and knocked again.
"She won't be answering." Said a neighbor, sticking her head out of her front door.
Kate showed her badge.
"NYPD. We'd like to talk to Mrs. Bronstein."
"You're too late. She died five months ago."
Kate swore under her breath, and they all headed back to the precinct.
"Wait one." McCarty said. "There's a traffic cam over there and that looks like a security cam for the building over there. I'll bet we'll get a good look at what happened."
It took another day, but they got all of the footage from both cameras and Tory Ellis began going through it all. Finally, she was done.
"Oswaldo Reyes' story checks out." Tory said. "We have multiple views of him pushing the meds through the mail slot and then picking up a piece of paper several hours later. The paper must be the receipt the late Mrs. Bronstein supposedly signed. But in between that we have something else. Look." Tory brought up some video footage."
"Some guy from a delivery service?" Castle said, looking at the uniform.
"Look at the close up." Tory said.
"The late Teodoro Vasquez, picking up some free drugs. And he's leaving a signed receipt behind."
"There's more." Tory said, switching the video feed. "I managed to track Vasquez using various traffic cams and other security cams. Look who he meets. And who he hands the drugs to."
"We need to go make an arrest." Kate said.
As soon as he saw the grim faced police heading for him, Hassan the Bomber ran to his gym bag. Kate and her people pulled their weapons.
"Don't even think about it, Hassan." Kate said, drawing her weapon as the others did as well. "Your outnumbered and outgunned. Now stop and raise your hands over your head."
As Hassan was cuffed, Espo checked the gym bag.
"Look at what we have here, a .25 caliber automatic pistol."
"I want a lawyer." Hassan said.
"Read him his rights, Ryan. He'll need a lawyer."
A week later, Deputy Chief Gates was in Kate's office, being briefed on the case. Since the State Department was interested in the al Amriki murder, One PP was interested as well.
"Mr. Randolph has to leave so soon?" Gates said. "Why? He could hardly have finished his work here."
"Budget problems, I'm afraid." Kate said. "DOJ had some budget overages in some places, so they had to cut back in others."
"I do hope he'll come back soon."
Kate said nothing. Even though he was family, the less she saw of Randolph, Cross, Hunt, or whoever he really was, the happier she'd be.
Gates checked the report in front of her.
"This Dr. Blackman isn't being punished at all?"
"No. When Mrs. Bronstein was found by one of her neighbors, she was taken to St. George's Hospital where she was declared DOA. St. George's insists they sent Dr. Blackman a letter with the copy of her death certificate, but Blackman says he never received it. Both the NYPD Narcotics and the DEA went over his records very carefully. There's no evidence he was running some kind of a pill mill, so it was just some kind of administrative mix up. Neither the Manhattan DA nor the US Attorney thought a crime had been committed."
Gates snorted and grimaced. Kate decided that if Blackman had been tried in the Court of Gates, he'd be looking at some very hard time.
"What about the pharmacy? They committed a crime by not getting a proper receipt for a controlled substance."
"So they did, but there was no evidence that this was done with any criminal intent and there's no evidence of any other problems with any controlled substances, so CPR Drug Stores paid a fine. Case closed."
Gates shook her head angrily.
"Really?"
"CPR Pharmacies is one of the biggest drug store chains in the country. They have lots of lawyers."
"And this Oswaldo Reyes?"
"He's sticking to his story. He put the drugs in the mail slot and picked up the receipt later. He has no known ties to any gang, but we assume he found out that Mrs. Bronstein's drugs were still being delivered after her death and told Vasquez or someone in Los Assasseninos del Norte. But we can't prove anything."
"He didn't get a signed receipt directly from Mrs. Bronstein as the law requires." Gates snapped.
"The law requires pharmacists to get the signed receipts. The law doesn't mention anything about some guy who stocks shelves and what not." Kate explained.
"What about Mr. Hassan. I hope we can charge him." Gates was sarcastic.
"Two counts of murder, plus drug charges. We have the murder weapon with his prints all over it and video of him getting stolen drugs from Vasquez."
"Do we have any idea why he did this?" Gates asked.
"On the advice of his public defender, he's not talking, but we've found a little about him. He was quite busy with being both a student athlete and a student. He had no time for a job and his parents couldn't help him much. According to "rumors" from his friends, he made ends meet by selling marijuana to students at City College. He sold small amounts and only to students he knew. Since marijuana in small amounts is just a misdemeanor, he wouldn't attract any attention from Narcotics."
"But why take the chance?" Gates asked. "If he was caught that would jeopardize his chances for an athletic scholarship, especially as he'd moved from marijuana to fentanyl. That would attract lots of attention."
"He didn't have a chance at a scholarship. We talked to his coaches. He was an outstanding offensive player, but a decidedly third rate defensemen. The worked with him for a year with little to show for it. They decided not to offer him a scholarship. With no scholarship he'd have to pay for college on his own. Student loans would help, but he probably decided to get into more high value drugs,"
"Why shoot Vasquez then? He was his supplier."
Kate shrugged.
"We'll probably never know, but most killings between drug dealers are over money. Probably Hassan wanted more, and Vasquez wouldn't pay more."
"Why shoot the mullah?"
"Again, we'll probably never know, but Hassan probably needed to stash the drugs he got from Vasquez someplace and picked the mosque's storage room, The mullah was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"At least we got the killer, Captain Beckett."
Kate decided they were no longer Kate and Victoria.
"That we did, Deputy Chief Gates."
Gates left and Castle, who had sensibly remained quiet through the briefing, spoke.
"It seems Mr. Randolph and McCarty and Peake have left."
"So they have." Kate said, checking the bullpen.
However, going to the desk that Randolph had used, they found a brief letter. Rick read it.
Dear Rick and Kate,
It's been a great pleasure to see you both again. I hope we can meet again under more pleasant circumstances. Speaking of which, I missed watching Alexis grow up, so how about getting to work on some more grandchildren.
The note was unsigned.
"Some more grandchildren?" Castle said.
"I hope you remember how that works, old man."
"Old man? I'll show you an old man tonight."
Kate just smiled.
The End
Author's note: Next up is Deadenders. The decades long war is over and the humans have won, but just barely. Entire planets have been wrecked, tens of millions of people killed and in some places civilization is collapsing. Rick Castle just wants to get back to his home planet. But once he gets there, he'll need help. Heavily armed help.