| abstract | - Laurie Horn is a character portrayed by Lisa Waltz in the ABC crime series Castle. She was the wife of murdered New York City Councilman Jeff Horn. She arranged the murder with the help of her husband's campaign manager, Frank Nesbit. Laurie came from an extremely wealthy family. After marrying Jeff, she broke into her trust fund to help finance his first campaign. The two, along with Frank Nesbit, wanted to change the world. However, emotional distance between husband and wife, along with the stresses of elected office, lead to Councilman Horn having an extended affair with an escort. Horn's opponent, Jason Bollinger, hired a private investigator to vett Horn for possible vulnerabilities, and discovered the affair. Already well ahead in the polls, Bollinger decided not to use the damning information. However, the detective, Bruce Kirby, decided to blackmail Councilman Horn. Horn paid the blackmail using campaign funds, but couldn't keep the secret. After telling his wife, the two arranged to pay Kirby a quarter million dollars of her money to end the blackmail once and for all. Laurie was humiliated to discover that her husband had cheated on her. She looked ahead to the shame of being caught in the glare of media coverage if the affair went public. She confided in Frank Nesbit, and old friend who shared her idealistic dreams. In addition to everything else, Frank faced a ruined career if Horn's career crashed, and the two plotted to kill Jeff Horn instead. The blackmail plot went off as planned, except that Laurie called Jeff to tell him that Kirby had changed the location of the meeting at the last minute. Kirby assumed that Jeff Horn had skipped the meeting, but when Horn got to the new location, he was shot and killed as arranged by Frank Nesbit. Laurie played the distraught, grieving widow, and even declared that she would run for her husband's seat. With the sympathy vote, she quickly passed Bollinger in the polls. Bollinger, for his part, was unable to use the information on the affair-- public sympathy meant that it would actually help Laurie's poll numbers. In the end, Laurie was undone by two fatal mistakes. Frank Nesbit, in a clumsy attempt to frame one of Horn's political enemies, wrapped his body in a rug from Calvin Creason's hotel. If the body had simply been left, the police would have written it off as a robbery gone wrong. Meanwhile, Frank had recovered and returned to Laurie the blackmail money. Although Castle and Beckett had figured out that Laurie was responsible for her husband's murder, their only proof came when they had her home searched and found the money-- money he had been carrying with him when he was shot. Confronted with the proof, Laurie confessed and implicated her old friend.
|
