[Castle] Ch: 67 [The Lawyer] (Patreon)

[Meanwhile] [Upper West Side]

While Kate's team worked through Cassandra Wells's secrets at Sterling Investigations, Cho, Ryan, and Esposito spent the afternoon eliminating possibilities in Allison Reed's murder.

Matthew Cole disappeared from the suspect list first.

The cyclist Allison had struck three months earlier had every reason to hate her. He'd spent weeks recovering from a broken leg, fractured wrist, concussion, and several other injuries while watching Allison's attorneys argue that grief, medication, and psychological distress had contributed to what happened. His public comments afterward had been angry enough that his name naturally became one of the first investigators checked.

The timeline killed that theory quickly.

Cole had been staying with his older brother in Queens during the week Allison was murdered because another procedure on his injured wrist had temporarily left him needing help around the house. His brother confirmed he'd been there throughout the night, though Cho didn't rely only on family testimony.

Security cameras outside the building showed Cole entering shortly after seven that evening and never leaving again. His phone remained connected to the apartment Wi-Fi throughout the murder window, food had been delivered shortly after ten, and the delivery driver remembered handing the order directly to him.

More importantly, Allison's arsenic exposure had started several weeks before she ever struck Cole with her Mercedes.

Whatever anger existed between them, Matthew Cole hadn't started the months-long campaign against Allison.

Cho crossed his name off their immediate suspect list while Ryan forwarded the supporting records back to the precinct.

From there, the three detectives turned toward Allison's neighborhood.

Ryan contacted several Broderick & Vale employees and confirmed what Kate had already learned about Allison's behavior after losing Daniel and Sophie. She'd withdrawn socially, stopped attending most company events, delegated more work than she had before, and frequently disappeared during the day for personal appointments without explaining where she was going.

Nobody described a workplace conflict serious enough to suggest murder.

Esposito spoke with Allison's housekeeper, several delivery workers, and people living near her property. Cassandra Wells had visited repeatedly over the previous few months, which they already knew. Allison also received pharmacy deliveries, groceries, restaurant orders, and occasional business documents brought over from Broderick & Vale.

One visitor appeared far more often than anyone expected.

Allison's lawyer.

His name was Nathaniel Price, forty-seven, a partner at Price, Garrison & Cole. He had originally handled matters connected to Daniel and Sophie's deaths, then continued representing Allison personally. He dealt with estate issues, investments, several private financial matters, and eventually the hit-and-run case involving Matthew Cole.

On paper, regular contact made sense.

The frequency didn't.

Several people in the neighborhood remembered Price's car parked outside Allison's house late at night. A delivery driver remembered seeing him leaving early one morning while Allison stood near the front door wearing a robe. Allison's housekeeper had seen him inside without paperwork or a briefcase several times and assumed they'd become friends after Daniel's death.

Nobody had ever formally described him as Allison's boyfriend.

That changed when Cho knocked on the neighboring property.

A woman opened the door wearing loose jeans, an oversized sweater, and the expression of someone who had already decided the detectives were about to make her afternoon more interesting.

Her name was Maya Bennett, thirty-five. She worked from home as a freelance fashion editor, lived in the building beside Allison's property, and apparently treated everything happening on the street as information worth remembering.

She looked at Cho's badge before glancing toward Ryan and Esposito behind him.

"You're here about Allison, which means either you finally realized people living nearby know more than official reports, or somebody complained because I keep watching everyone from my window." Then she pointed at Cho. "And you got a good face and kinda seem hot. You ask. I'll answer."

Cho kept his expression completely neutral. "We're asking about people who visited Allison regularly before she died."

Maya's eyes brightened. "Then you absolutely came to the right woman because I work from home, sleep badly, and have a desk beside a window facing half the street."

Ryan glanced toward Esposito, who was already trying not to smile.

Cho continued. "Did you notice anyone spending unusual amounts of time at Allison's house?"

Maya folded her arms and leaned against the doorway. "You mean besides the lawyer who apparently forgot lawyers are supposed to go home after business hours?"

Cho's attention sharpened. "Nathaniel Price?"

"The handsome one with expensive suits and a car that probably costs more than my yearly rent," Maya replied. "Yeah, him. He started coming around a lot after Allison lost her husband and daughter. At first, I figured it was legal stuff because grief comes with paperwork nobody deserves. Eventually, though, those visits started looking considerably less professional."

Esposito stepped a little closer. "What makes you say that?"

Maya gave him a look that suggested the answer should've been obvious. "Because lawyers usually don't arrive at ten at night carrying wine, stay until two in the morning, and kiss their clients beside the front door."

Ryan's eyebrows rose slightly.

Cho remained focused. "You saw them kissing?"

"Twice," Maya replied. "Maybe three times if you count the one where the hedge blocked half my view. Allison wasn't exactly pushing him away."

That changed the picture considerably.

Until now, Nathaniel Price existed in every document as Allison's attorney and trusted adviser. Nobody had mentioned a romantic relationship.

Cho asked when the relationship seemed to begin.

Maya thought about it before answering.

"Maybe five or six months after the accident. He visited before that, but something changed. He started showing up later, staying longer, and sometimes arrived without carrying anything remotely legal-looking."

"Did he keep visiting recently?" Cho asked.

"More than before," Maya replied. "Although they weren't always having romantic little evenings. I heard them arguing a couple of times. Allison was crying during one of them, and Price left looking like he wanted to punch something."

Ryan asked when that happened.

"The first one was maybe four months ago. The other was around three weeks before Allison died."

That timing immediately mattered.

Four months earlier placed the first argument around the same period Cassandra had hired Sterling Investigations.

Three weeks earlier placed the second well inside Allison's arsenic-poisoning timeline.

Cho asked whether Maya had anything more reliable than memory.

A slow smile appeared on her face.

"Actually, Detective, I've got something much better."

She disappeared inside and returned carrying a laptop. Maya explained that somebody had vandalized her car twice the previous year and packages had also disappeared from outside her building. After that, she'd installed two outdoor security cameras covering her entrance, driveway, and part of the neighboring street.

One camera happened to capture Allison's front gate and a large portion of her driveway.

Maya opened the archived recordings.

Nathaniel Price appeared repeatedly.

His car pulled into Allison's property late at night. Sometimes he stayed several hours. On one recording, Allison came outside to meet him, kissed him beside his car, then took his hand as they walked toward the house.

Another recording was considerably more important.

Price arrived during the afternoon while Allison's Mercedes wasn't there.

He parked outside, walked through the gate, approached the house, and unlocked the front door himself.

Cho paused the recording.

Price clearly had independent access to Allison's home.

The timestamp placed the footage roughly eleven weeks before Allison's murder, directly inside the period when Lanie believed the arsenic poisoning had begun.

Maya copied the relevant recordings onto a flash drive and held it toward Cho.

When he reached for it, she kept her fingers around the drive for another second.

"You're very serious. Do you ever chill out?"

Cho looked at her calmly. "We're investigating a homicide."

"I noticed, although I'm pretty sure you'd have the same face while ordering coffee."

She finally released the drive.

Cho slipped it into an evidence bag. "Is there anything else you remember about Nathaniel Price?"

Maya reached toward a table near the door, picked up a pen, and wrote something on the back of one of her business cards before handing that to him as well.

Cho looked down.

A phone number was written beneath her name.

"Nope, that's all I got about the rich lady. But you can have my personal number," Maya replied with a pleased smile. "You can call sometime when nobody's dead. I'm curious whether you're capable of having a conversation that doesn't sound like testimony."

Ryan looked away immediately.

Esposito rubbed one hand across his mouth, doing a terrible job of hiding his grin.

Cho slipped the card into a separate pocket. "We'll contact you if we need anything further concerning the case."

Maya began closing the door while still smiling at him. "That wasn't exactly what I meant, Detective Cho."

The door shut.

Ryan waited until they were halfway toward the car before looking at Cho. "She likes you."

Cho kept walking. "We have evidence to process."

Esposito followed beside him. "That's definitely not a denial."

Cho ignored both of them.

More importantly, they finally had something substantial. Nathaniel Price had concealed an intimate relationship with Allison Reed. He had his own access to her house. He entered the property while Allison wasn't home. That access existed during the same period somebody started poisoning Allison through her medication and contaminated incense.

...

And somewhere else in Manhattan, Kate's team was questioning the private investigator who had secretly sold Allison's personal information to someone already close to her.

Neither team knew it yet, but both sides of the investigation were beginning to point toward the same man.

--

AN: Next ch will end the case and we'll move toward the real Red John.