Now What? Chapter 10
"Joe's killer would need access to his apartment to switch the pills," Kate figures. "I need to get CSU over there to print the place, but I'm not going to wait for the results. I'm sending the boys to execute a search."
"Hoping they'll find the poison pills?" Rick asks.
"Or anything else that will point us to the killer. Meanwhile, I have to figure out what Montgomery can tell Karnacki about our progress so far."
"Well, Lanie said the time release capsule would screw up our timeline, and along with the video, we've eliminated anyone at the courthouse."
"Better than nothing," Kate acknowledges.
"If you want, I can jazz it up a little, pointing out how much you've narrowed the possibilities," Rick offers.
"OK, bestselling author," Kate agrees, "do your thing."
After knocking, Esposito opens the door of Joe's apartment using keys from McUsic's effects. "NYPD!" Ryan calls out. When no one responds, the two detectives walk in.
"You know, the murder of Joe McUsic is a real tragedy," Esposito says.
"Isn't every murder a tragedy?" Ryan inquires.
"Maybe, but I checked Joe's background. He was special, a juvenile delinquent who reformed himself."
"Sounds like someone I know," Ryan comments.
"Not exactly. I had help, a teacher who believed in me. And the military straightened me out a lot too. But Joe not only pulled himself up on his own, he helped out ex-cons trying to go straight. And what did he get for his trouble?"
Ryan pulls open the medicine cabinet, pointing to a drugstore vial. "A pill full of poison."
"It sucks!" Esposito proclaims.
"Cowards die many times before their death; the valiant never taste of death but once," Ryan emotes.
Esposito shakes his head. "Bro, you're no Castle."
"Castle's not Castle lately. He's hardly made any of his smart-ass comments in days. Something's going on."
"Or someone," Esposito guesses. "Beckett's buttoned up even tighter than usual. What do you think happened between those two?"
"I don't know, but I hope they get it straightened out soon. Checking out murders is depressing enough, and Castle's the only one who's ever been able to get Beckett to lighten up."
"I hear you, Bro, and…" Esposito cocks his head. "Did you hear that?"
The detectives draw their guns to check out the source of the noise. As Esposito opens a closet door, a man springs from inside and tries to rush past him. Ryan handily flips the would-be escapee over his shoulder.
Esposito stares down at the intruder. "Now, who the hell are you?"
Ryan slaps a file folder on the table in Interrogation Two. "Hank Ponzell, former resident of Joe McUsic's halfway house – until you were kicked out when Joe denied your extension."
"That had to make you mad, huh, Hank?" Esposito accuses.
Hank shakes his head. "You don't understand."
"Oh, no?" Esposito retorts. "Your prints were all over his apartment. You had access to his pills, and you dumped out his medicine and filled every one of them with cyanide. Then, all you had to do was wait for him to poison himself."
"If I poisoned him, why would I still be in the apartment?" Hank argues.
"To take the rest of the poison away so we couldn't find it. To cover your tracks," Ryan returns.
"I was out of the apartment all day. Every guy I knew in the joint could have picked that lock. Anyone could have gotten in. I never would have hurt Joe," Hank claims. "He was my friend."
Ryan rolls his eyes. "Friends like you…."
"Right," Esposito agrees.
"I didn't poison Joe," Hank insists. "He was letting me stay there, OK? I maxed out my time at the halfway house and didn't have a place to go. He broke the rules and let me crash with him."
Rick turns to Kate as they watch the interview through the glass. Do you believe him?"
"I don't know. Ryan and Esposito brought him in. I want to give them a little more time before I get into it."
"If you belonged in the apartment, why were you playing hide and seek in the closet?" Esposito presses.
"I'm a felon on parole. I hear cops, and my ex-con instincts kick in," Hank explains.
Ryan waves his file. "Look, Buddy, we could call your parole officer right now and have you back at Sing-Sing before roll call. If you want to keep seeing the sun, you better start talking about more than instincts. You weren't just hiding. You tried to run. If you didn't kill Hank, why were you trying to get away?"
Kate moves closer to the glass. "I think Ryan's getting to him now."
"All right, while I was staying with Joe, I wanted to help out. So Joe let me run errands for him," Hank says.
"What kind of errands?" Ryan questions.
"Pick up laundry, go to bodegas, stuff like that."
"Why would stuff like that be a problem?" Ryan queries.
"Not that stuff, something else. A few weeks ago, Joe had me take an envelope to a lady."
"What was in the envelope?" Esposito asks.
"Cash, like two grand, but I don't know what it was for, I swear. Joe always talked about how he got out of the criminal life. But maybe he still had one foot in it."
"If Joe was so straight, why do you think it was criminal?" Ryan inquires.
"Because the lady works at the courthouse, and Joe wasn't paying no parking tickets."
Rick gazes through the glass. "So everything leads back to the courthouse. This really is like a John Grisham novel."
"But it sounds like you got your twist, Castle. Joe McUsic wasn't just some innocent victim. The court pays jurors, not the other way round."
"Time to go see the lady?" Rick asks.
Kate starts toward the elevator. "The sooner the better."
Sandy Jenkins looks up at the sound of footsteps in an empty courtroom. "Can I help you?"
Kate points to her badge. "Detective Beckett, NYPD. This is Mr. Castle. Are you Miss Jenkins?"
Sandy's eyes dart around the room. "Yes."
"We need to ask you some questions," Kate continues. "Have you ever received anything from a Joe McUsic?"
Sandy's eyes flood with tears. "I did it! I did it!"
"You killed Joe McUsic?" Rick asks.
Sandy slaps her hand to her mouth. "Ohmigod! Why would you think that?"
"You just said I did it," Rick reminds her.
"I didn't kill anyone!" Sandy exclaims. " No, I did something else, something awful."
"Miss Jenkins, you're the court clerk. Why did Joe McUsic pay you thousands of dollars?" Kate asks.
"He paid me to put him on the Addison jury. I mean, I couldn't ensure that he would serve. He still had to go through voir dire, and the judge could have excused him, so I couldn't see the harm in letting him try. The whole courthouse knew Karnacki had a slam dunk case. So I put him in the pool."
"Why would anyone pay to get on a jury?" Rick wonders. "Most people try to stay off of juries."
"I don't know," Sandy claims. "But that's why Joe McUsic sent me the money." A sob rises in her throat. "I'm going to get fired for this. What am I going to do?"
"You can worry about that later," Kate says. "Right now we're going to have a little talk at the 12th Precinct."