Now What? Chapter 12
"As I told you on the phone, Detective Beckett, Mr. Williams will not discuss the Lila Addison case," Attorney Nick Keller confirms to Kate.
From across the table in Interrogation One, Kate nods her assent. "Mr. Castle and I are here to talk about Juror Number Seven, Joe McUsic's murder."
Keller scowls. "You're not suggesting that my client had anything to do with that."
"Actually," Rick interjects, "some things have popped up that suggest your client may not be guilty of either murder."
Kate leans toward Otis Williams. "Look, we think you might be able to help yourself by helping us find the real killer."
Keller and Otis exchange glances, and Otis nods. Kate zips open her ever-present leather folder and slides a photograph in front of Otis. "This is Joe McUsic. Had you ever seen him before the trial?"
Otis shakes his head. "Uh-uh, but I remember him. He was the only one on the jury who didn't look at me like I was a piece of sh*t."
"He claimed he had evidence proving your innocence. Do you have any idea what that could be?" Rick asks.
"How am I supposed to know?" Otis retorts.
"He put out two grand to get on your jury and get you off. Then he got murdered for it. He must be connected to you somehow," Rick insists.
Otis gazes across the table. "Look, I'm sorry he's dead. I appreciate the man putting himself out like that for me. But I don't know how to help y'all."
"Mr. Williams, if you didn't kill Lila, then we need to figure out who did," Kate says.
"You were first on the scene," Rick picks up. "Any detail you can remember, no matter how little, could lead to the real killer."
Otis glances toward Keller, who nods. "It was late when I got off my job. You're on parole you take what you can get, like the crappy shifts. I was tired, but I had to walk home. That time of night, the subway only runs like every hour, and there's no bus. I was dragging my ass when I see this sweet 760i just sitting there, keys in the ignition. I knew I should have passed it by, but like I said, I was tired, and I always wanted to drive a 760. So I got in."
Kate's fingers drum on her folder. "I'm sorry, but as Mr. Castle told you, I need details. Did you see anyone?"
"If I had, I wouldn't have taken the car," Otis replies. "I wasn't interested in being thrown back in the can."
"Was there anything around the car?" Rick probes.
"Anything to suggest someone else had been there?" Kate presses, "a cigarette butt, gum on the sidewalk?"
"Lady, it was the middle of the night," Otis reminds Kate. "I wouldn't have seen a cigarette butt and wouldn't have known there was gum unless I stepped on it."
"So you don't see anyone or anything around, and you get in the car. What then?" Rick queries.
"I slid in the car, pulled up the seat, hit the ignition, and…."
"Wait!" Kate interrupts. "Did you say you pulled up the seat? Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure. That bad boy was all the way back, so I hit the button on the side to move it up."
"Lila Addison was only five feet tall," Castle recalls. "Part of her social media following was because she showcased petite clothes."
"So, if she had been driving the car, you would have had to move the seat back, not forward," Kate says.
"Someone else had been driving that car," Castle asserts. "Probably someone even taller than I am. In most cars, I don't have to put the seat all the way back. And in a German luxury car, definitely not. Whoever was driving that car could have been the killer."
"And our killer would have to touch the seat back button to get into the seat. Mr. Keller, did CSU check that button for prints?" Kate inquires.
"The report only listed prints on the wheel and the dash," Keller recalls. "And they were all my client's."
"It was Lila's car. At least her prints should have been there," Kate says.
"The killer wiped them," Rick realizes. "But for someone as tall as Killer Long-legs, hitting the seat adjust button would have been automatic, maybe even unconscious. And if it was…."
"He would have forgotten to wipe it," Kate finishes. "The car should still be in impound as evidence. We need to get the seat back button printed – now."
"Did I miss the case-cracking reveal?" Rick asks returning with coffee as Kate stares at her computer screen.
"CSU's report is just coming in now. Two sets of prints on the seat controls. Otis' are on the seat up button."
Rick sets the coffee on Kate's desk. "Whose are on the seat back button?"
"Look for yourself."
Rick gazes over Kate's shoulder. "Wow. I knew there had to be a twist, but I never expected that."
Joe McUsic's six-foot-five brother Eddie fidgets in his seat in Interrogation One. Kate shoves two photos in front of him. "This is the fingerprint we pulled off Lila Addison's seat controls, and this identical one is yours. We had it on file. You have quite a rap sheet, Eddie."
"That's all in the past," Eddie protests. "Joe helped me turn my life around. The lab must have screwed up. I didn't even know Lila Addison."
"Yes, you did, Eddie," Rick counters. "We have two cops who have black belts in canvassing. When they showed your photograph around Lila Addison's regular haunts, it didn't take them long to find out you're the bartender at the Kiwi Seven Lounge. They pay you cash under the table."
"Lila was a silent partner there. You still want to go with your story that you don't know her?" Kate questions. 'I think that you killed her and dumped her body in her trunk."
"No way!" Eddie protests. "All right, I knew Lila. I liked her. I liked her too much to let her drive when she was loaded, she and her brother Stephen. He was high on drugs, too. That's why I was driving the car. I was trying to get Lila home safe."
"So, assuming for a moment that's true, who killed Lila and who killed your brother?" Kate queries.
"Stephen did. He hung out at the lounge with Lila. We all talked. We even talked about Joe's condition. When he was straight, Stephen wasn't a bad guy. But he couldn't handle himself on drugs. On coke, he thought he was a badass gangster. He was in the back seat with Lila when I was driving them home, and he was fooling around with a f*ing gun. That 760 has a great suspension, but in this city, the potholes – hell, you probably know. I hit one, and bang! The gun goes off."
"And the bullet hit Lila," Rick guesses.
"From what I could tell, she died instantly," Eddie confirms. "Maybe Joe really did rub off on me. I told Stephen that he should go to the police, tell them it was an accident. But he was so f*ing high on coke I couldn't reason with him. He wouldn't go to the police, and he warned me that if I did, he'd tell the cops I shot Lila. He said: 'Who will they believe, an ex-con bartender or an Addison?'"
"But you had to tell someone," Rick says, "So you told your brother, Joe."
Eddie buries his face in his hands. "Yeah, I told Joe, and that's why he's dead."