Demarco knew better than to doubt Beck, but he still couldn’t believe what he’d heard.
“You’re saying that cop shot Packy?”
“Yes. Detective John Palmer shot Packy.”
Beck held up the copy of the ballistics report on the bullet removed from Packy. “According to this, the bullet that killed Packy was a twenty-two from a gun they found in Watkins’s apartment at Mount Hope Place.” He held up another page. “Here’s an inventory of the guns.” He held up a third page. “Here’s a photo of all the guns laid out next to the pillowcases I put them in.” Beck pointed to one of the guns in the picture. “This gun is a Phoenix Arms HP twenty-two. The gun ballistics says it fired the bullet that killed Packy.”
Beck paused, waiting for any reactions. There were none.
“I wiped down every gun we took off those guys and put them in those pillowcases. None of ’em was a twenty-two. They were all nines, except for one forty caliber. So how the hell did the Phoenix twenty-two get into one of those pillowcases?”
Manny Guzman asked, “It was in the pillowcase with the others? Cops didn’t find it somewhere else in the apartment?”
“No. The report says all those guns were in the pillowcases. If the cops found that twenty-two someplace else in the apartment, why put it in a pillowcase? And, it’s the only gun with the serial number filed off. And, the only gun with prints on it.”
“Derrick Watkins’s prints.”
“Correct, but remember, I wiped down every gun. Palmer’s report says he led the search of that apartment right after we left. And all of a sudden a small caliber untraceable gun appears? That’s the perfect cop throwaway piece. He was the only cop on the scene who knew about Derrick Watkins’s involvement with Packy. He brought the gun into the apartment. He saw Watkins dead … “
Demarco broke in, “And used it to pin Paco’s murder on Derrick Watkins.”
“Exactly.” Beck held up more pages. “He knew that gun killed Packy, because he used it to shoot Packy. With Derrick laying there dead, he had a chance to put Derrick’s prints on the twenty-two. Then he adds the Phoenix to the other guns. Now he’s got someone to take the fall for shooting Packy. A dead man who can’t deny it. He had the gun that shot Packy. He shot Packy. He used it to solve his case.”
Manny asked, “But why? What was his motive? He didn’t know Packy. Packy hadn’t been in that neighborhood for seventeen years.”
“You’re right. It doesn’t make sense unless there’s a connection between John Palmer and Packy Johnson.”
“What’s the connection?”
“Walter helped me find a senior guard at Eastern, Oswald Remsen, who was running a prostitution ring with his two sons, both of them guards at Eastern. I can’t prove it yet, but I’m betting his third son, Edward, worked with Eric Jackson to supply Oswald Remsen with prostitutes.”
Manny asked, “How? What’s the connection?”
“Edward Remsen is a guard at Sing Sing. Plenty of guys from the Bronx are in that prison. I’m figuring one or more of them connected to Eric Jackson hooked up Edward Remsen with Jackson. The Watkins brothers have been recruiting and running prostitutes for years. Jackson was their boss. I got Oswald Remsen to admit a new inmate up at Eastern tipped Packy off about his daughter prostituting for Jackson’s crew. I think Packy knew about Oswald’s prostitution business. I think he believed his daughter, Amelia, was going to be shipped upstate to prostitute for Oswald Remsen.”
Manny said, “Shit, his daughter getting whored out for a corrupt CO—that would’ve definitely sent Packy over the deep end.”
“It did. That’s why he headed straight for Bronx River Houses to get his daughter. But I still haven’t explained Palmer’s motive.” Beck held up the ledger books Amelia had found. “If Derrick Watkins was making three hundred thousand a year with his stable, Oswald Remsen had to be making much more. Maybe millions. Now here’s where it connects to Palmer. Turns out Oswald Remsen was also a big wheel in the correction officers’ union. When things went down up there between us, he denied ordering anybody to kill Packy, but said he had the connections to do it. Said he’d ‘paid his dues.’
“I didn’t know what that meant. Who he was connected to? Before I came back here, I went online. It took about five minutes to figure out the correction officers’ union does a ton of lobbying in Albany. The chief lobbyist for the New York correction officers’ union is John Palmer Senior.”
“Fuck.”
“I’m betting Oswald Remsen put a lot of money into that man’s pocket. It all fits. Oswald knew an inmate had tipped off Packy about his daughter being turned out by those pimps in Eric Jackson’s set. Remsen knew Packy was getting out on parole. He wanted to make sure Packy didn’t make any waves. I believe Remsen called John Palmer Senior, who, in turn, called his son, an NYPD detective working in the Bronx, and told him to make sure Paco Johnson didn’t cause any trouble for them.”
Demarco asked, “By killing him?”
“No. I don’t think Palmer Senior ordered his son to kill Packy. He wouldn’t want his golden boy to do that.”
Demarco asked, “Then why did he?”
“At first, I didn’t see it. I remembered back when we found Derrick Watkins, I didn’t think he’d shot Packy. I thought one of his crew did it. Trying to make a name for himself. But there was someone else trying to make a name for himself.”
Demarco said, “John Palmer Junior.”
“Exactly. His father tells him check on this guy Paco Johnson who might be causing trouble about his daughter living with a pimp at Bronx River Houses. I think the plan was to intervene and violate Packy back to prison. Simple. Problem solved.
“But Packy moved too fast. Next thing he knows, Palmer hears a bunch of 911 calls about a disturbance at Bronx River Houses, which is in the precinct right next to his. Palmer makes a beeline over there. Or maybe he was already snooping around Bronx River Houses trying to find the daughter before his midnight-to-eight shift.
“Packy is calling out Derrick Watkins. Trying to find his daughter. They beat the shit out of him. Cops start arriving. Palmer doesn’t want to disappoint Daddy. He has to make sure this doesn’t get worse. He follows Packy out of the complex until he walks into Palmer’s precinct. Now Packy is on his turf. What does Palmer see? The guy his father warned him about, already making trouble. A broken-down ex-convict, already half dead from a beating. But he sees more. He sees an opportunity to take care of a problem for his father, and a chance to advance his career. He walks up behind Packy, puts one in his head with his throwaway piece.”
Beck pointed his forefinger like a gun barrel. “Opportunity. Impulse. Pop. One shot. Packy is dead in the gutter. Daddy’s problem is taken care of, and John Palmer is on the way to solving his first murder.
“Palmer had the weapon. He had the opportunity. He had the motive. In fact, two motives.”
For a few moments, no one said a word. And then Manny Guzman spoke. “He should have gotten away with it. Packy was a nobody.”
Beck said, “He should have, but he’s not.”
There were a few moments of silence while everybody at the table absorbed what Beck had told them. And then Ciro Baldassare asked, “How’s Palmer not going to get away with it?”
Beck didn’t answer.
“Hold on, boss. You really thinking about takin’ out a cop?”
Beck sat back. “Let’s not worry about that now, Ciro. First, we have to figure out how to get Manny and Demarco off the hook for shooting Jerome Watkins and Tyrell Williams. And me for shooting Derrick Watkins, and you for the attempted murder of an NYPD detective. And, we have to do it in a way that doesn’t implicate Amelia for shooting Derrick Watkins and Tyrell Williams.”
Manny added, “And we gotta make sure Jackson’s crew doesn’t kill her. Or any of us.”
Demarco said, “Plus, we have to do it fast, before the NYPD comes down on us and locks us all away, maybe this time for good.”
Willie Reese rose his big hand.
Beck said, “Yeah?”
“Plus that other guy.”
“What other guy?”
“You said there were six. You took care of five.”
Beck smiled. Willie Reese never failed to surprise him. He reached in his back pocket and held up the envelope with the name Janice Elkins had written on it. He tossed it onto his pile of documents.
“Plus that other guy.”
Reese nodded and told Alex Liebowitz, “Computer man, don’t lose that name.”
Manny said, “So back to my question. What’s first, James?”
“First, I talk to Amelia.”