Now What? Chapter 14
The aroma of barbecued meat lingers in Authentic Nick's Pizzeria, but no one is likely to order from the menu. Lanie points to a charred body in the pizza oven. Someone must have thought he'd be cremated, but there's still enough tissue left to do a post-mortem. Another couple of hours might have been a different story. Fortunately, Nick Junior brought a girl here for…."
"A little midnight snack?" Rick interjects.
"Except that she couldn't stop barfing when she saw the body," Esposito says. "The paramedics had to take her to the hospital."
"So, where's Nick Junior?" Kate asks.
Esposito points to a table in the corner where Ryan is interviewing a young man.
"Lanie, do you have an official cause of death?" Kate asks.
"Small mercy, the killer didn't try to cook him alive. There's a stab wound in his chest. He was dead before he was baked."
"There were no signs of forced entry," Esposito reports. "But we're running prints on the door handles just to make sure."
Kate glances toward the corner table. "I need to talk to Junior."
Nick presses his fingers against the easy-clean surface of the table. "I got no idea who the guy is. I knew nothing should have been baking that time of night. So I open up the oven and bam! There he is."
"Before you returned, who were the last ones here last night?" Kate queries.
"My dad and me closed up around eleven."
"And then what did you do?" Kate asks.
"I hit the Katari Lounge and met up with a lady friend. We came back here to, um, have a slice."
Kate resists the urge to roll her eyes. "But wasn't the oven shut down?"
"Yeah. My dad insisted. He said it was a fire hazard to leave it on. And he just bought it. He didn't want anything to happen to it. But I know how to get the fire going again."
"Fan of heat, huh?" Castle asks.
"Yeah, sure. Who isn't?" Nick replies. "But I wasn't the one who turned the oven on again. The bartender at the lounge and my, um, friend, can confirm where I was."
"So, when did you come back here?" Kate questions.
"I dunno, maybe four-thirty."
"I understand your friend became ill. Do you know how we can get in touch with her when she recovers?" Kate asks.
Nick grins. "I got her phone number." He pulls a napkin out of his pocket but holds on when Kate tries to grab it.
"I don't think there's going to be a second date." Rick comments.
"You never know," Nick says. "Shared trauma and all that."
"I'll just copy the number," Kate offers.
Nick shrugs. "Yeah, I guess that'll be OK."
"I'm also going to need a list of all your employees and delivery staff," Kate adds.
Nick glances nervously at the oven. "You don't think it was one of our guys getting cooked, do you?"
"Right now, it could be anyone," Kate responds. "The sooner I start making phone calls, the sooner I'll know."
The sound of a classic New York accent penetrates the walls before a man charges in and runs to the oven. "I don't believe this! You've got to be kidding me!"
"Dad, these are the cops," Nick Junior explains.
"You must be Authentic Nick," Rick assumes.
"The one and only."
Kate consults her notes. "I have the proprietor listed as Ralph Carbone."
"That's me," Ralph declares. "Everybody calls me Nick."
"Why?" Rick asks.
"Cause that's what everybody calls me."
"Do you have some ID?'" Kate queries.
Ralph pulls out his wallet. "Yeah, sure, but you should be going after the jackhole who put a body in my oven, not worrying about me."
"You think you know who did this?" Kate probes.
Ralph points through the plate glass window to a man watching from across the street. "Him!"
Rick regards the pizzeria behind the observer. "Terrific Authentic Nick?"
"Luca Sabatini," Nick Junior clarifies.
Ralph waves an angry arm at the variations of "Nick's" pizzerias on the other corners of the intersection. "They're thieves, all three of them! They live off our name, but they're not 'Nicks.'"
"And your real name is Ralph," Rick reiterates.
Ralph draws himself up. "Exactly."
"Mr. Carbone, what makes you think that another Nick did this?" Kate questions.
"They've been trying to run me out of business for years. Weeks ago, one of them snuck a gallon of soap into my secret sauce. Cost me a whole day of returned pies. I, uh, may or may not have retaliated. But if I did, one of them putting a cadaver in my oven is retaliating back."
Kate points at the oven. "Mr. Carbone, the body in there isn't a cadaver. Someone killed him."
Ralph smacks a hand against his face. "God! Who's gonna buy my pizza now? I'm out of business."
Kate gathers with Rick, Ryan, and Esposito around the murder board. "We got through to all their employees. Everyone is accounted for," Ryan says.
"And Lanie couldn't get prints," Kate adds. "We may have to wait on missing person's reports and dental records."
"We have the unis canvassing," Esposito says. "Nothing yet."
"All right, get statements from all the employees, especially the ones with keys," Kate orders. "I want to know what they were doing last night."
"What I don't understand is why all those Nicks would want to be on top of each other like that," Ryan says. "Wouldn't they get more business by setting up on different blocks, or even in different neighborhoods?"
"Seems stupid, doesn't it?" Rick acknowledges. "But I ran across the idea when I was researching an entrepreneur for a character. He believed that the presence of a successful business proved the presence of customers. So, instead of setting up in a location where the market was uncertain, he set up where the customer base was established. He figured he'd get at least half the other guy's business, and if he were good enough, he'd get more."
"And that works?" Ryan questions.
"Sometimes. I mean in The Village, you can see a whole block of art galleries, and a farmers' market has a whole bunch of stalls selling vegetables. But if one of the Nicks is going to win the whole pie instead of settling for a slice, he'll need something really special. Maybe Ralph's neighbors were afraid his new oven would give him that leg up. So they gave him the whole body."
"A dead body is quite an escalation from soap in the secret sauce, Castle," Kate points out.
"You're right," Rick agrees. "So maybe someone was protecting a bigger secret than sun-dried tomatoes."
"Ooh, Jenny loves those!" Ryan says.
"Well, if anyone is likely to know secrets, it's the employees," Kate asserts. "So get started on those. I need to update the captain."
Montgomery crumples a report into a ball before throwing it in the direction of an overfilled waste basket. He grimaces as it lands on the floor. "Something wrong, Sir?" Kate asks.
"Fallout from the Karnacki mess. Damn crooked DAs! Lawyers for cases he prosecuted are coming out of the woodwork, filing for new trials. No one can tell yet how many closed cases might have to be reopened. The still active detectives who were on them don't have the time to go to court all over again, and the mess could lead back to cases where the detectives are either retired or deceased. What that asshole did could put a flood of criminals back on the street. So, let me guess, you're bringing me another murder."
"Yes, Sir," Kate admits, "A body in Authentic Nick's pizza oven."
"Not Terrific Authentic Nick's? My kids love his pizza."
"He's in the pizzeria across the street," Rick says.
"Thank God!"