Unexpected Appearance Chapter 38
Kate's landline jangles. "Detective Beckett?" a deep male voice inquires.
"This is Kate Beckett."
"This is Grandy Cartland. I understand that you've been trying to get in touch with me concerning a murder investigation."
"That's correct, Mr. Cartland. Thank you very much for calling. Your helicopter was used in the escape of a multiple murderer."
"Am I in some kind of trouble?" Cartland queries.
"Not that I know of," Kate replies quickly. "But my partner and I need to talk to you about who had knowledge that you would be out of town and where the helicopter would be."
"My friend Alan Slayton and I both flew back to New York last night. I can meet you at my office this morning," Cartland offers. "I'll leave your name with security in the lobby."
"I'd appreciate that, Mr. Cartland."
"Then, I'll be available in about an hour. The offices of my firm, the Cartland Fund, are in One Wall Street."
"One Wall Street," Kate repeats. "Thank you, Mr. Cartland. I'll see you in an hour."
"Beckett," Rick says excitedly, "we'll have time to open Papa Pachyderm and still make your meeting with Cartland."
"We should do it at my place. It's a little closer to Wall Street." Kate grabs the China elephant and puts it in her purse. "Come on! Let's go!"
Kate shoves the door of her apartment closed behind her and rushes to put the elephant on the table in the kitchen. "This was precious to my mother, and it's precious to me. I don't want to just break it open."
"The fastest way to have put it together would have been with superglue," Rick figures. "Once Alexis accidentally glued – never mind. You can dissolve the glue with acetone. There's some in the most obnoxious kinds of nail polish remover. Do you have any?"
"Better. I have some pure acetone. It's left from when I refinished a dresser I bought at a junk shop on Canal Street."
"Great! Let's get to work!"
After Rick swabs it several times with the solvent, the seam on the china elephant slowly comes apart. As Kate separates the halves, a microcassette tumbles out. "Omigod! Castle, this is it, Montgomery's evidence against Bracken."
"Do you have anything that can play it?" Rick asks.
"No. Everything I have is digital."
"Same here."
"There might be a player with my mother's other office stuff in the storage unit, but we don't have time to look before our meeting with Cartland."
"Let's talk fast," Rick urges.
Hair lightened and skin darkened by sun exposure, Grandy Cartland extends his hand to Kate and Rick. "I wish that we were meeting under more pleasant circumstances. My mother loves your books, Mr. Castle."
"Always glad to make mothers happy," Rick replies as Cartland waves him and Kate to comfortable visitor's chairs.
"I was shocked to learn that my helicopter had been used for such a terrible purpose."
"Who would have known where it was and how to appropriate it?" Rick asks.
"My mechanic, of course," Cartland responds.
"We've already checked him out. He's clean," Kate says. "Who else?"
"My pilot, but he took his vacation while my family and I were on Alan's yacht. He went to visit his folks in Puerto Rico. As far as I know, he's still there. He wasn't scheduled to come back until the end of the week."
"Do you have other friends or employees who would know?" Rick inquires.
"My assistant knows about the craft, in as far as she calls the pilot and mechanic to get it ready. But she doesn't know any details about its storage. I've had friends and business acquaintances ride with me, but they didn't know any details either. But there's…."
"Who?" Kate presses.
"My friend Alan Slayton, the one whose yacht I was on. He's been up with me many times and knows the routine."
"And, of course, he would have known you were out of town. He was a congressman, wasn't he?" Kate asks.
"He was, for two terms. Some of his constituents who supported his campaign became clients of his hedge fund. He did well for them in both endeavors."
"I'm sure he did," Kate says.
"And he would never have anything to do with something as horrible as turning a murderer loose on society. I mean, he has children. He'd never endanger them like that," Cartland adds.
"Well, sometimes people reveal information quite innocently, without knowing they're doing it," Kate offers. "Congressmen press a lot of hands, talk with a lot of people."
"That's true," Cartland allows.
"And they often travel for the job," Rick adds. "Did Slayton take any trips, overseas perhaps?"
"He was on the Foreign Affairs Committee, so that was part of his duties. He brought my wife back a beautiful Pashmina shawl from one of his trips. And he brought me a Ushanka hat. I'll tell you, that thing got me through the polar vortex. Slayton's a great guy."
"Sounds like it," Rick says.
"Is there anyone else you can think of who would know about the helicopter?" Kate asks.
"I'm sorry, I really can't think of anyone," Cartland insists.
Kate pushes up from her deep chair. "All right then. I know your time is valuable. We won't take any more of it. But," she hands him a card, "if you think of anything else, day or night, please let me know."
Cartland nods. "I will."
"Beckett," Rick exclaims as soon as they leave the Wall Street building, "they make Pashmina shawls in Afghanistan, and Ushanka hats come from Russia."
"I know, Castle. Slayton could have been traveling with Bracken. He might even have passed on the information about the helicopter. But right now, our priority is finding a way to play that cassette tape. Let's check out the storage unit and see if my mother's machine is there."
"Right behind you."
Kate gazes around her father's unit. "Dad wouldn't have put it with the files, and we went through all the totes."
Rick points to a shelf in a corner. "That looks like miscellaneous office equipment. Maybe it's there."
Kate rushes over to check. "I found it, but ugh!"
"What?"
"The batteries were still in it. They corroded and leaked all over the inside. It's ruined. We'll have to find one someplace else."
"I bet Krumholtz will have something to play the tape on, and you were going to give it to him for voice printing anyway. Why not go see him now?" Rick suggests.
"Good idea, Castle."
"But you might want to stop at the ladies' room to wash up. That battery stuff can be nasty."
Kate sighs. "Yeah."
"Oh sure, I can play that," Krumholz says, his mop of curly hair, hoody, and wide grin making him look more like a student than a professor. "I have equipment going back to wire recorders sold in the 1930s. Compared to those, a microcassette is new technology."
"Thank God when he goes to court, he tames that hair and wears a suit," Kate thinks to herself. Still, his enthusiasm is contagious. She waits with Castle while Krumholtz digs in a storage closet for the appropriate machine. When the tape starts to play, Roy Montgomery's voice sounds younger but recognizable. "Pulgatti knows he's been framed. What if he gets on to this?"
A voice Kate is sure must be Bracken replies. "Then I'll handle them."
"You? How?" Montgomery questions.
"I know people, Roy," the smirking response comes, "dangerous people. Anyone comes too close, like that bitch lawyer Johanna Beckett has been poking around, I'll have them killed. I've had people killed before."