Now What? Chapter 20
"Beckett, does it strike you as odd that a seasoned war correspondent would suddenly develop butterfingers while being chased and drop his phone?" Rick asks as Kate connects Burns' phone to her computer. "And why would he leave it unlocked? What professional dealing with sensitive information does that?"
"You think Burns dropped the phone deliberately?" Kate asks.
"I think he wanted to make sure that whoever was chasing him wouldn't get his phone, but perhaps whoever he hoped would read the message he left at the bank, would."
"All set," Kate announces. "We're about to find out."
Kate and Rick regard the screen as she clicks through images. "The last call he made was to 911, but he didn't push send," Kate notes. "These are the last pictures he took."
An image appears of a building. "That's the drug lab," Rick says. "He was casing it."
Kate clicks to the next image. "That's Monica Wyatt!"
"Booyah! I knew she was involved!" Rick shouts.
Kate springs from her chair. "Let's go get her!"
Rick, Ryan, and Esposito listen attentively as Kate pounds on the door of Monica's apartment. "Monica Wyatt, open up!"
The sound of breaking glass and a woman's scream penetrate the door. Kate throws her body against it, but an inner security bar keeps it from opening.
"Step back, Beckett," Esposito urges. His runner's legs kick through the wood, and he, Ryan, and Beckett charge in, weapons raised. No obvious threat appears as Rick follows behind them.
Monica lies on the floor amid wreckage, bleeding from a wound on her forehead. She points toward the window opening to the fire escape. "He-he-tried to kill me."
Esposito and Ryan rush down the fire escape as Kate kneels beside Monica, checking her injury.
"Monica, who was here?" Rick demands.
"If I tell you, I'm dead," Monica protests.
"We're past that." Kate insists. "Who did this to you?"
"Cavallo," Monica answers weakly.
Monica sits on the bed holding a towel to a cut on her forehead that has almost stopped bleeding. Rick and Kate pull up chairs nearby. "I wasn't lying about Gordon," Monica claims. "I dated him years ago, but he was only doing it to get close to Cavallo. I never imagined that…."
"What's a Midtown real estate agent doing mixed up with heroin dealers?" Rick questions.
"Their labs are mobile. They need new places for their processing centers every month or so and I had the information they needed. Look, this is not who I am. I mean, I never meant for anything…."
"How did it start?" Kate interrupts.
"I had some problems a few years back. I owed some people money. A man came to me and told me he could make it all better. I just had to do a favor for him now and then. At the time, it actually sounded harmless, but the man knew things about me, things nobody could possibly know. I wanted out, but after what happened to Gordon's kid, I just…. Gordon found me a couple of days ago. He said he needed my help, that I could end this, and we'd both be free. All I had to do was take him to the last building I found for the dealers. Now Gordon is dead, and I am next."
"Cavallo, who is he?" Kate demands.
"I've never seen him," Monica insists.
Doubt edges Rick's tone. "Didn't he just try to kill you?"
"If I knew who Cavallo was, don't you think I would have told Gordon?" Monica retorts. "I've only ever dealt with Cavallo's right hand man before. That's who was here trying to kill me."
"And who was that?" Kate presses.
"His name is Harley."
"Kate brings up Harley Romero's mug shot on her phone. "Is this him?" Monica nods. "How do I find him?"
Monica sighs. "He finds me."
"Harley must be Cavallo," Kate figures. "He's still riding the myth. Monica, Gordon was right. We can end this, but we need your help," Kate says. "We believe Cavallo is trafficking drugs through a pizzeria, but we need to know which one."
"I'm sorry," Monica says. "I don't know which one."
"Yo," Esposito calls as he and Ryan return to Monica's apartment. "We covered the whole area."
"Whoever was here is in the wind," Ryan reports.
Kate nods grimly. "All right. You guys take Monica to the ER. Get her checked out. Then, get her over to Narcotics. They should talk to her."
"Monica, one more question," Rick interjects, "Johnny Farrell and Swede Anderson."
"They're how Gordon got on the drug story in the first place. He heard someone at one of the pizza joints use the names, and he knew it was Cavallo's code. Those were last week's names."
"Do you know this week's names?" Kate asks.
"No, but Gordon said they were from his favorite film, the Maltese Falcon."
"Beckett, Monica's story still doesn't add up," Rick says as Kate heads her unit back downtown toward the 12th Precinct.
"Castle, the woman was attacked. We heard it. What doesn't add up?"
"Is that really what we heard?' Castle questions. "Esposito and Ryan headed right down that fire escape but didn't even catch a glimpse of Harley. You know how fast Espo is. He would have caught up or at least seen the guy. And why would Harley bother trashing Monica's apartment if he was planning on killing her? We know the man has a knife. He stabbed Burns to death. He could have used it for a lot more than a little cut on Monica's forehead. And how did Harley get into the apartment in the first place? The door was locked. Running up the stairs of a metal fire escape isn't quiet. Monica could have heard and seen him coming and taken off."
"So, what do you think happened, Castle?" Kate asks.
"I think Harley was never there. Monica heard us coming and broke the glass loud enough for us to hear it through the door. Then she gave herself a little cut with it. It wouldn't have taken much to have blood dripping down her face. The scalp has lots of circulation and bleeds like crazy, even from small wounds. I saw Val Kilmer pull something like that in "The Saint" to get Elizabeth Shue's sympathy. He ended up in her bed. Monica ended up in your head. And notice she told us the code words were from last week. If she's not involved in the operation, how would she know that? She just claimed that Gordon heard them and knew the code. And supposedly Gordon told her all about that, but not which pizzeria has a secret menu. Then there's the picture Gordon snapped of Monica while he was staking out the drug lab. What the hell was she doing there? Come on, Beckett. Monica's been lying all along. You can't keep falling for it."
Kate smacks her palm against the wheel. "Castle, assuming you're right, what do you want me to do?"
"Lies work best if you throw in an interesting little truth. If Monica did that, then the code words for this week's pickups really are from the Maltese Falcon. Maybe it's finally time for us to go into our act again. So, what do you think? Sydney Greenstreet's Kaspar Gutman or Bogie's Sam Spade?"
"Castle, you're playing detective. We should go with Sam Spade."
Rick does his best Humphrey Bogart: "You're a good man, sister." He suppresses a sigh. Too bad that the last way he wants Beckett to act with him is like a sister.