"Mr. McHugh, Mrs. McHugh, your support has helped us make this a world-class institution." "We have such amazing plans for the new season." "I'll have Mr. Hayes tell you all about the exciting exhibits still available for sponsorship." "Where is he?" "Go get him." "I'm sure Mr. Hayes will be here any second." "Myrna is freaking out, Owen." "Where is Mr. Hayes?" "He's not in the west gallery." "I'm about to look in the men's room." "Just keep looking for him." "Uh, excuse me..." "Darling." "One second." "I'm just about to toss a guy off the Brooklyn Bridge." "Oh, I am sure that..." ""Carter Damon" would appreciate a short reprieve." "Too late." "He just went kersplat." "Now how can I help you?" "I have invited my acting class to come here Friday night to do the Nora scenes from "A Doll's House."" "Thank you for the warning." "I will make myself scarce." "No, no, no." "No, no, darling, this class could really benefit from your perspective as a--as a writer." "No, you--you definitely should be here." "Mother, what's going on?" "There's a lovely girl in the class..." " Oh, mother..." " and I just thought maybe-- you're not trying to fix me up again." "Haven't you learned your lesson after the last fiasco?" "Fiasco?" "You married her." "Yes, and how did that marriage end?" "Honey, I am just trying to help you." "You have to admit that your social life has been a bit anemic as of late." "Now I want to throw myself off the Brooklyn Bridge." "Oh, darling." "All you have been doing for the last few months is writing and working with Beckett." "Now I think a fix up is in order." "Unless..." "Unless?" "You have some reason for not putting yourself out there." "Getting ready for your close-up, Castle?" "No, just trying to discern the hidden meaning." "Is it about the rise of technology, rampant narcissism, or did someone just have a lot of extra TVs?" "Well, sometimes you don't need to know what it's about." "Sometimes it's just... art." "Why, detective Beckett, how very existential of you." "Let me guess." "Art theory in college." "No." "The closest I ever came to taking an art class was posing for one as a model." "Wait." "Posing in?" "Not a stitch." "Meet Bryan Hayes, 39." "Executive director of the museum." "Looks like somebody gave him liberty and gave him death." "Any idea when this happened?" "Hayes was last seen at 10:00 by a Myrna Ramsey, the museum's development director." "His body was discovered around 10:21." "So the killer must have struck sometime within that window." "Killing him during the gala, that's pretty ballsy." "My money's on he walked in on the other crime being committed here tonight." "It's called the "Fist Of Capitalism."" "A searing indictment of our consumer-driven culture." "Somebody stole the Fist Of Capitalism?" "Anyone check up the ass of socialism?" "How much was it worth, Mrs. Ramsey?" "$50 million." "The diamonds alone were worth 30." "The Fist was on loan to us." "Mr. Hayes assured the owners it would be safe." "Y-you know, I notice that you have cameras, so there's obviously a security system." "Why wasn't the alarm triggered?" "It should've been, the moment anyone stepped into this room." "My security team is trying to determine why it wasn't." "Okay, well, we'll need a list of all the people who attended the gala along with the videos from the cameras." "Of course." "We'll also need to talk to whoever found the body." "I can't believe this." "This is the worst day of my life." "Were you close to Mr. Hayes, Alyssa?" "We worked together." "I helped him curate this exhibit." "He was a lovely man and very supportive of young artists like me." "Oh, so you're an artist?" "This is my day job." "Art is my passion." "Mr. Hayes even put one of my sculptures in the exhibit." "Did Mr. Hayes have any family?" "A mother in Idaho, I think." "So Mr. Hayes was supposed to work the crowd tonight, right?" "What do you think he was doing over here?" "I know he was worried about the "Fist Of Capitalism,"" "especially with the gala and the people and all the distractions" "Wait." "Are you saying that he was worried someone might steal the Fist?" "Ever since it got here." "He even reviewed the security video of the Fist, going back two weeks, to when we first put it on display." "I thought he was being paranoid, but..." "I guess he knew something I didn't." "$50 million?" "That's why Hayes was AWOLl from the gala." "He came to check on the Fist." "But the thief was already on his way out with it..." "Through this gallery, which put him on a collision course with Hayes." "So Hayes confronts him, they struggle," " and Hayes get pushed into the spikes." " And at that moment, our thief becomes a killer." "A killer who gains access to the museum through the gala." "That's not likely." "All arriving guests were screened at two security checkpoints and then greeted by board members who knew them personally." "Odds are the thief came in through the roof-- an air vent probably-- and then disabled the alarms." "I'm sorry." "Who are you?" "I'm Serena Kaye, the museum's insurance investigator." "So if the thief got in through the vent, then how did he get out?" "The loading bay." "The guards there checked everyone entering, but they didn't check people leaving." "Plus, the bay was full of catering vans." "He could've had one waiting for him and just blended right in." "Oh, she's good." "At theory, but what about proof?" "I don't need proof to know that I'm right." "It's my job, and..." "I can help you with yours." "How so?" "I get a 1% finder's fee for recovering stolen objects." "I want that Fist." "You want your murderer." "We have common goals." "I could consult on your case and share my insight." "You know, that is an intriguing idea." "No, thank you." "That won't be necessary." "Well, you can't blame a girl for trying." "Mr. Castle, detective Beckett." "You know, we really could've used her." "She has valuable assets." "Not those kind." "Castle, she'd just get in the way." "Really?" "And what if she's on to something?" "Ryan, check and see if all of the catering vans are accounted for and interview all the catering staff." "See if anyone saw anything unusual in the loading bay." "Now was that so hard?" "So for reasons unknown," "Hayes thought someone might swipe the "Fist Of Capitalism."" "We don't know why, but he goes to check on it and ends up paying for it with his life." "Yeah, except as it turns out, that's not what the security video shows." "What does it show?" "The Fist sitting there, undisturbed in the gallery." "The thief tapped into the camera lines and rigged a prerecorded loop." "There's no prints, but CSU did find what they think is hair gel." "Hair gel?" "Where would they find that?" "In the air duct." "In the air duct?" "That's just what Serena" "It's a lucky guess." "So was the call on the loading bay." "What do you mean?" "Two of the caterers recall seeing a blue Astro van parked there." "Same color as the catering vans, but without the company logo." "Imagine that." "Did we get a description on anyone in the van?" "No, but I put an APB out on it." "Beckett." "Oh, great." "What'd you do now?" "Shut up." "Detective," "I believe you've met Serena Kaye." "Hello again." "What are you doing here?" "Ms. Kaye has presented me with... a very compelling proposal." "Yeah, I am familiar with her proposal." "Difference is, I like what I heard." "Uh, captain Gates-- she has expertise, which she can bring to bear as a consultant on this case." "Sir, I prefer working with my team." "Which includes a consultant with no expertise at anything." "Serena will be a value add for a change." "I look forward to working with you." "Well, I will give you this, you've got some gigantic balls." "What I said about the thief, did I turn out to be right?" "I'm about results, detective." "This is the best way for both of us to get what we want." "Think of it as a merger." "More like a hostile takeover." "I'll have detective Ryan bring you up to speed." "He bypassed security cameras here, here, and here." "Then near as we can figure, uh, he left via the loading bay in a blue van." "And, uh, that's... pretty much where we are." "What about the security footage that Hayes was looking at from two weeks ago?" "If the killer had cased out the exhibit, maybe he's on that video." "Well--well, see, that-- that's the problem, because security downloads all the camera footage into flash drives." "Now Hayes checked out one of the flash drives, but now it's missing." "It wasn't in his office, and it wasn't on his body, either." "Maybe the killer took it because he knew he was on it." "So what's our next move?" "Major case squad sent in a list of all of the fences that might be interested in a piece like the Fist, and so we are looking into that now." "The Fist is too hot to handle now that there's a body on it." "So the thief may try to fence off the diamonds, but he won't do business with anyone on that list." "Anyone on it's yesterday's news." "Well, do you have a better idea?" "Yo, guys." "Found something." "I was going over the security s" "Oh, detective esposito, this is" "Serena Kaye." "She's with us." "Okay." "Anyhow... uh, we found these clamped to the wires on the security system." "It basically cancels out the alarm signals before they reach the computer." "It's called an ISI or" "An inductive signal interrupter." "This one's custom made." "I recognize it." "From where?" "From a report I read on the 1992 Vermeer theft in Brussels." "The same thief used these to steal a dozen other paintings." "These are his signature." "I know who took the Fist." "It's Falco." "Falco what?" "Does he have a last name?" "No one knows." "He's never been caught." "He's never even been photographed." "He's a top art thief in Europe, though he hasn't worked in years." "Rumor was, he'd gotten out of the game." "Well, nothing like $50 million to pull you out of retirement." "Now that we have some direction, I can get us some leads." " Great." "Let's go." " You can't come." "I'm sorry." "You might have misunderstood the word "consultant."" "This is my case." "The people there won't talk to cops, but they'll talk to me." "Where are you going?" "Uh, I'm not a cop, either." "So..." "Fine." "She's with us?" "Let's get a hold of Interpol." "I want to find out everything we can about Falco." "You're an interesting man, Mr. Castle-- crime fighter by day, mystery writer by night." "You're pretty interesting yourself." "So are we meeting a secret informant?" "Oh." "I guess Beckett doesn't just keep you around for your good looks." "This place is as infamous as it is anonymous." "Serena." "Why you been such a stranger?" "You don't love me no more?" "Oh, Vin." "I've been busy." "Busy with what, Jason Bateman over here?" "Hey, that got me out of a speeding ticket once." "Hey, Vin." "This is time sensitive." "We can play catch-up later." "Right now I need to know if anyone's moving D flawless diamonds, a lot of them." "Time frame?" "They might have hit the market as early as last night." "These babies hot?" "Like a supernova." "Can't help you." "Well... you know, there was-- there was a guy who came my way a few days ago, was real cagey-like." "Tried to take my temp on a piece of art covered with a crapload of flawless D's." "Yeah, some sort of marble hand or something." "This guy, what did he look like?" "Serena was right." "Falco's a badass." "Look how fat his Interpol file is." "He lifted a Renoir from the Pushkin in '96 and a Monet in '99, always using an ISI." "Doesn't look like Falco's killed anybody before." "First time for everything, I guess." "Yeah, especially when Hayes stood between him and $50 million." "Though according to Interpol, Falco doesn't steal for himself." "He's more of a gun for hire." "Someone wants a Picasso, he boosts it for 'em." "Which gives us a second path to our killer." "If we can't find Falco, then we look for whoever hired him to steal the Fist." "I'll tell you who hired him." "Anton McHugh, my son-of-a-bitch husband." "The Fist belongs to me and Anton." "We loaned it to the museum from our collection." "Why would your husband steal it?" "To screw me over." "Right, but you said that he owns it." "He owns half of it." "You were going through a divorce." "Oh, we keep up appearances, mostly because neither of us will give up the Fifth Avenue apartment." "But this?" "This time, Anton has hit a new low." "So then you're fighting over the Fist?" "I think it should stay in the museum." "It's a work of art." "It should be enjoyed by the public." "Right, but your husband's not on board." "There's an understatement." "At our last meeting with the divorce attorneys, he screamed at me that he would get the Fist back by any means necessary." "Yeah, but saying that he wanted the Fist back doesn't necessarily mean that he hired someone to steal it." "Yes, it does, because he's tried to steal it before." "Mr. McHugh, a curious incident happened two weeks ago when the "Fist Of Capitalism" was on its way to the museum." "Two men claiming to be from the moving company tried to intercept it." "My understanding is, that was a bit of a mixup." "Now there were no charges filed, but both men had long criminal histories." "I had nothing to do with this." "Never even so much as made contact with them." "But interestingly, your divorce lawyer did." "Made lots of phone calls to the men right before this mixup." "Where's Falco?" "Who?" "After your first failed attempt to steal the Fist, you decided to hire a better class of thief." "Unfortunately, he ended up killing Bryan Hayes in the process." "Which makes you an accessory to murder." "What?" "You're out of your mind." "Wait a second." "I'll bet Joy is behind this." "Trust me, Mr. McHugh, your divorce is gonna be the least of your problems if you don't tell us where Falco is." "I never heard of any Falco, and I didn't take the Fist, all right?" "The truth is, I didn't even want the damn thing." "I just wanted Joy to think I wanted it." "And why is that?" "I thought if I made Joy think it meant something to me, she'd give me the vineyard in Napa." "Now that it's gone... that bag of Botox is gonna clean me out." "So what do you think?" "You believe him?" "Well, e-either way, we don't have enough to subpoena the McHughs' financials to, uh-- doesn't look like Falco is working with McHugh." "Well, who was he working with?" "The museum's director-- Bryan Hayes." "Our victim?" "A man matching Hayes' description met with" "Serena's contact a few days ago, asking about D flawless diamonds." "So Hayes was in on the theft?" "He must have hired Falco to steal the Fist." "Yeah, only Falco decided to keep it." "So he murdered Hayes." "If Hayes was a coconspirator, that might lead us to Falco." "Let's take a look at his, um, financials" " The usual." " Yeah." "I'll work some of my other sources, see if we can get a line on him." "Oh, another jaunt into Manhattan's seedy underbelly?" "Count me in." "Sorry." "No need for a guy Friday on this one." "I'll just be making phone calls, boring stuff." "But I'll catch you later?" "Catch me anytime." "Kate..." "Really?" "An insurance investigator?" "A sexy insurance investigator." "I think she'd make a great character for my next book." "Well, you seem rather taken with her." "I find her... impressive." "What's she like?" "She's an uncooperative, cocky, stubborn know-it-all." "But she is good at her job?" "Yeah, well, Castle seems to think so." "And that bothers you." "Yes, of course it bothers me." "Why?" "Because he's supposed to be..." "Be what?" "My partner." "I mean, he's supposed to be on my team." "He's not supposed to be all smitten." "Smitten?" "Mother, I think "intrigued" is a better word." "So what's our next move?" "Move?" "Oh, Richard, honestly." "Beckett has made it plain that she's not available for now." "And now you've met this woman." "She's smart, she's incredibly attractive, you're intrigued by her." "Why not ask her out?" "It's complicated." "Why is it complicated?" "You know why it's complicated." "Only what you've told me." "Kate... what are you really scared of?" "That he won't wait for you or that he will?" "Hey." "Hey." "I figured that you were with Serena." "No." "She had a meeting with her bosses this morning." "Oh." "So you already saw her this morning." "No." "She texted me." "Oh." "You thought that we were" "Yeah." "I mean, you know, it's pretty obvious that she really likes you, so..." "It is?" "Mm-hmm." "So then you think" "I should..." "Pursue it?" "You know, I mean, suit yourself." "That, uh, getaway van the thief used?" "It was dumped in an alley in Queens." "Any prints?" "Nope." "Wiped clean." "Very professional." "But CSU did find traces of that hair gel on the headrest." "They're trying to ID the manufacturer." "Hey, Beckett, I got that stuff on Hayes." "Well, during the past year, the guy has shelled out some major cash to pay for his mother's long-term care bills." "Financially, the man was deep underwater." "He probably thought the Fist was his only solution." "We also found some suspicious e-mails on his laptop." "Stuff about the museum's security system." "Tech traced them to an anonymous account." "Falco knows how to cover his tracks." "One of them mentions a meeting the day before the heist." "So if we can figure out where they met, it might lead us to Falco's identity." "I'm guessing it took place some time between 12:00 and 2:00 P.M." "Since that's the only time Hayes left the museum." "Wait a minute." "I got something on his phone records for that day." "11:06 A.M. he made a one-minute phone call to Ascana's restaurant." "He was making reservations." "How much you want to bet it was for two-- him and Falco?" "Sure." "I remember Mr. Hayes." "Three days ago." "They sat in a corner booth." "So he was here with someone?" "Definitely." "The two of them were having a real intense conversation." "Do you remember what this person looked like?" "Uh, she was tall, blonde, gorgeous." "Wait." "Hayes was here with a woman?" "That's right." "She was in her 30's, but still really hot." "Wait a minute." "Did she look like... this?" "Yeah." "That's her." "It's Serena." "She's our thief." "No, no." "Thank you." "Hey." "Just got off with the insurance company." "Guess what Serena did before she worked for them." "Kindergarten teacher?" "Art thief." "Alleged art thief." "Whatever." "Suspected of pulling off some major jobs between '01 and '06" "Prado, Uffizi, Houston-- but they could never pin anything on her." "Well, how the hell did she end up working insurance?" "About five years ago, she went to the company and said she wanted to make good." "Even told 'em where they were going wrong with their security." "Let me guess." "She suggested that they all work together." "Well, at least she's consistent." "And nostalgic." "Looks like she's back to her old tricks again." "Only now she's added a new one--murder." "That's why she knew how the thief got into the museum." "She was the thief." "And then she partnered up with us to steer us to the mythical Falco." "She played me." "Don't worry, Castle." "You're not the only one." "She's in on it?" "Uh, we're not exactly sure, sir, but the evidence suggests" "I want her in custody, detective, now." "Our case is circumstantial." "Get something concrete." "I will not have this department publicly humiliated." "Yes, sir." "So where is she now?" "At her hotel." " She invited me for a drink." " Did she?" "Doesn't look like she's in a rush to leave town." "Well..." "Well, then we press our one advantage." "She doesn't know we're on to her, so we make a run at her without her finding out." "And how are we gonna do that?" "Simple." "Castle asks her out on a date." "I do?" "It's what you wanted, isn't it?" "All you have to do is keep her out of her room." "And take her to the restaurant at the hotel." "Then... just show her a good time." "Thank you." "And while you keep her occupied... we get into her room." "So what am I doing on this date?" "Am I trying to... trip her up, get her to break?" "No, just stall her-- make some jokes, you know, small talk." "The important thing is to keep her out of her hotel room so we can search it." "So what do you say, Castle?" "Think you can charm her for an hour?" "Are you serious?" "Absolutely." "I was gonna give you one more day." "And then you were gonna ask me out yourself?" "Mm-hmm." "Well, I'm a woman who believes in going after what she wants." "I can see that." "Besides, I hardly made it a secret that I was attracted to you, and I could tell you felt the same way about me." "Well, looks like neither one of us are very good at keeping secrets." "Nothin' so far." "You find anything?" "No." "Hmm." "You really want to nail this chick, don't you?" "Yeah, well, it's what we do, isn't it, catch bad guys?" "Yeah, but... seems like it might be about more than that." "Just keep lookin', okay?" "So why choose to be an insurance investigator?" "It's really not something most little girls aspire to be when they grow up." "It's a recent career change." "Really?" "What did you do before?" "Actually, I was a thief." "Get out." "Well, that's what the museums like to call me." "I prefer to think of myself as an art retriever." "What's the difference?" "Well, the pieces I took had already been stolen from their rightful owners-- taken by Nazis, despots, governments." "Just because a piece is in a museum doesn't mean it belongs there." "Seriously?" "I specialized in returning art to their rightful owners, starting with a small Rembrandt an SS officer took from my grandfather." "So you were kinda like the, uh, female Indiana Jones, only without the hat and whip." "Well, without the hat." "It's gettin' hot in here." "I have an idea." "Why don't we skip dessert?" "Oh, well... what's the rush?" "I hear the strawberry shortcake here is excellent." "Wouldn't you rather come up to my room for a drink?" "The, uh, strawberries are supposed to be really fresh." "Well, great." "We can order them from room service... with extra whip cream." "I think I found something." "It's a message between Serena and a bunch of fences." "Guess who's trying to sell D flawless diamonds." "I think I found something, too-- the tools of the trade." "As well as an ISI." "Mm." "There it is." "The skyline suite." "Hey!" "What--what are you doing here?" "Arresting you for theft... and murder." "Wait." "So now you're telling me that you don't believe she's in on this?" "Why would she tell me she's a thief?" "Why offer that up?" "Because she's feeding you just enough truth so that swallowing the lies is easier." "I don't think she's behind this." "Yeah, well, you're thinking with the wrong body part." "It was only a kiss." "I was doing what you told me to, keeping her occupied." "I was trying to give you enough time so that you could search her room." "Yes, the room-- the room where we found the suitcase and the e-mail, which all stands as evidence against her right now." "I just think we should give her a chance to explain." "We?" "No, there is no way we're going in on the interrogation together." "Oh, come on." "I'm sorry, Castle, but right now, based on this conversation and your behavior in that hotel, it is obvious that you have been compromised." "I was only doing... what you asked." "I thought I'd sit this one out." "I gotta hand it to you." "This whole long con you've got going..." "It's impressive." "Cozying up to insurance companies, telling them that you want to go straight, all the while waiting for your next score." "What are you talking about?" "The only catch was that you knew you needed Hayes but you knew you couldn't get away with it if you let him live, so you insinuated yourself into my investigation to cover your tracks." "And here I thought Rick was the only writer on your team." "Rick?" "You guys on a first-name basis now?" "Well... he was making out with her in the hotel hallway." "Beckett told me to stall her." "She also tell you to use tongue?" "I don't need to spin stories." "I've got you meeting Bryan Hayes the day before the heist." "Yes, to go over security for the gala." "He was concerned." "Concerned?" "He was involved." "I didn't know that it was all an act at the time." "If that meeting was so innocent, then why didn't you tell us about it before?" "Because it's not like I'm particularly proud of the fact that I didn't figure out what he was up to." "If I had, then the sculpture wouldn't be stolen, and he might still be alive." "Man, she's really selling the whole" ""thief with a heart of gold" act." "Maybe it's not an act." "She is being really calm in there." "Yeah, like strangely calm." "Maybe she didn't do it." "Either that or she's a psychopath, in which case... you sure can pick 'em." "We found the tools that you used to break in to the museum-- the rope, grappling hook, lock picks." "I specialize in recovery." "The insurance companies don't care how" "I get the pieces back, just that I do." "So basically, you're still a thief." "Recovery, not theft." "And what part of recovery involves trying to sell" "D flawless diamonds on the black market?" "Falco may try to move those stones." "I was trying to flush out his possible fences." "Listen, I've done my homework on you, detective." "I know that you're a smart, methodical cop with great instincts." "And those instincts are telling you right now that I'm innocent." "For some reason, you're ignoring them." "Why is that?" "Ms. Kaye, your job is recovery, as you call it." "My job is to solve this homicide." "Then why don't you put aside your personal agenda and ask me for my alibi so we can move on with this investigation?" "For the record, I was in a business meeting with one of my bosses when I got the call... if you want to check." "If you're telling the truth, then why have you been going behind our backs?" "Because in my experience, the police just get in the way." "My job's to recover the sculpture, not play nice." "But you're right." "I've been treating this like a regular case, and it's not." "So I promise, from here on out, no more secrets." "It won't be necessary." "We won't be working together anymore." "Would it change your mind if I told you, I know who Falco is?" "What you're watching right now is security footage from the museum exhibit from two weeks ago." "You stole Hayes' flash drive?" "That's why it went missing?" "Remember, you're trying to get us to trust you." "At least I meant it when I kissed you." "It wouldn't have done you any good." "You wouldn't know what to look for." "You see that guy right there?" "He's casing the joint." "How can you tell?" "Trust me." "I can tell." " So you're saying that's" " Falco." "Well, why didn't you tell us this before?" "Well, I just didn't get a chance to show you." " I guess you were busy." " Okay, okay." "Perhaps we can just focus on getting this guy." "Well, how's this supposed to help?" "We don't even know his real name." "Well, the only thing we can do is send photos out to TSA and put out an APB." "Otherwise, without more information, it's not gonna do us any good." "What if I could tell you which hotel he was staying at?" "The gel in the vents and on the headrest of the van?" "CSU identified it as a proprietary formula made exclusively for the Wessex hotel." "There's only one in the city." "Let's get the photos out to the hotel employees." "If one of them recognizes him, we got him." "Right on." " NYPD!" " NYPD!" "Let me see your hands!" "Let me see your hands right now!" "Hands, right now!" "Hello, Falco." "Falco?" "I've got no idea what you're talking about." "My name is Holt." "William Holt." "Yes, William Holt, British passport." "You just got into town two weeks ago." "You also happened to be in Bilbao ten years ago when the Pissarro went missing, and then in Berlin 15 years ago when that El Greco disappeared." "Don't know anything about that." "Drop the act, Falco." "We've got a video of you casing the museum two weeks ago." "That is you, isn't it?" "Whenever I come to a new town," "I always take time out to admire the city's treasures." "Is that a crime?" "No, no." "But sneaking back in and stealing them is." "Look familiar?" "It was used to disarm the security systems in the museum." "They also found matching ones in Bilbao and Berlin." "If you say so." "I, for one, have never seen anything like that." "The hotel that you're staying it, it's nice, isn't it?" "They even have their very own exclusive hair products." "Hair products that left a trace in the air duct system." "And by the way, uh... hair gel?" "Not very manly." "Hundreds of people are staying at my hotel, and I'm pretty sure you didn't find prints on that." "So... what exactly were you planning to book me on?" "This Falco person you're chasing... are you sure he's your guy?" "From what I know about him, he's no murderer." "He may not be as involved as you think." "He's trying to tell us something." "Yeah, to politely go to hell." "No, he went out of his way to tell us, he's not the murderer." "Well, most people do that in the room." "CSU come back with anything from the hotel?" "Nothing." "No equipment, no Fist." "What are you thinking?" "He knows something." "But he can't tell us without admitting he was there." "Let me talk to him." "You're kidding, right?" "He's a suspect, and you're not even a cop." "No, I'm a thief, like him." "He'll talk to me." "Whoa." "Bad cop struck out, good cop gets a turn?" "I'm not a cop." "Then who are you?" "That depends on who you ask." "I'm Der Geist in Zurich," "Pantera in Spain." "Police nationale know me as Gaston." "But you... probably know me as..." "Jackal." "The Prado." "'07?" "Are you saying that was you?" "Mm-hmm." "How'd you get by the sound sensors?" "I had the Russian build me a wave cancellation box." "I heard he built one for you for the Boston job?" "That's no easy exit, Prado." "How did you get the piece out?" "The guard was so busy checking out my assets that he didn't notice me cut the trip wire on the Goya's back." "I came in later on a skyline and whipped it right out." "I'll be damned." "But now you're here, working with the cops." "So you must have got caught." "Mm." "I got smart." "One day you realize that you or someone else is going to get hurt." "I didn't kill him." "But you were there." "Think she'll get him to talk?" "Who knows, Castle?" "Maybe she'll kiss it out of him." "I wasn't hired to steal the Fist." "My contact told me that I was being paid to test their security for vulnerabilities." "I was to break in, disable the alarm, and walk out undetected, all before 10:00 P.M." "And for my trouble," "I got 200 grand in advance." "Who hired you?" "Oh, church and state, love." "Everything goes through a third party." "You know that." "It's safer that way." "Mm." "Yeah, until you get set up." "The real thief needed you to disable the alarms." "Yeah, apparently." "What'd you see?" "Nothing at first." "I mean... it had all been too easy." "I got halfway back to the loading bay when it hit me" "I mean, I'd already disabled the alarms, right?" "And it was just, oh, sitting there." "You went back for the Fist." "It's an awful lot of temptation, $50 mil." "When I got back to the room, there was a woman walking toward the Fist." "So I got the bloody hell outta there." "This woman, what did she look like?" "I barely got a glimpse." "All I can say for sure is, she was wearing a black dress." "Come on, Beckett." "He's got no reason to lie." "He's a thief." "He's got plenty of reasons to lie." "Not about this." "He knows you've got nothing on him." "All he had to do was wait, and you'd have to release him." "If Falco is telling the truth, then with Hayes' money trouble, the $200,000 payment to Falco rules him out." "Then why would he go to the bar, asking about fencing diamonds?" "Because he was paranoid someone was trying to steal the Fist." "Not paranoid." "Right." "Which means our killer's probably whomever Falco saw going in to the room with the Fist." "And when Hayes got in the way, she spiked him." "Did he say anything about what the woman looked like?" "Just that she was wearing a black dress." "There were over 200 people at that gala, and half of those women were wearing black." "And more importantly, if she didn't leave by the loading dock, then how did she get the Fist out of the museum?" "Yeah." "How did she?" "She waits for Falco to finish disabling the system, and then she comes in through the gala." "And with the alarm system deactivated, she grabs the Fist." "But Hayes is paranoid about security, so he comes in to check on the exhibit." "He catches her... and she's forced to kill him." "Now she's in a hurry to leave before someone discovers her with the Fist and a body." "Ah, but she can't take it out through the gala without being spotted..." "And she can't take it through the loading bay without one of the catering staff noticing her dressed in black." "Well, those are the only two exits." "And both of those choices leave too much to chance." "She would've easily gotten caught." "So if she can't take it through the gala and she can't take it through the loading bay, how the hell did she get it outta here?" "Maybe she didn't." "What do you mean?" "What I mean is..." "What are you doing?" "!" "It never left the museum." "Mr. Castle." "Looks like I broke this case wide open." "You needed to see me, detective?" "Yes, we need to talk to you about your installation." "Oh, my God." "What happened?" "It's a new interpretation" "I'm working on." "I call it... busted." "It's ruined." "Who the hell did this?" "More to the point, who put the Fist in it?" "The Fist was inside it?" "That way, the thief didn't have to worry about smuggling it out." "She could simply rejoin the party." "She?" "We know that whoever stole the Fist was a woman wearing a black dress-- the same woman that killed Mr. Hayes." "If I remember correctly, you were wearing a black dress that night." "So was every woman in here." "Yes, but only one of them knew that there was a compartment inside that piece nearby." "It was the perfect plan until Bryan Hayes showed up and saw you." "Wait." "I-it wasn't me." "I swear." "You mean, it wasn't just you." "You didn't have the money to pay Falco, but you did use your position to place the piece in the exhibit." "I didn't place anything." "My piece was selected by the board, just like all of the art in here." "Yes, and when the exhibit was done, it would come back to you, only worth about $50 million more." "No, it wasn't coming back to me." "I sold it last week." "It was going to..." "Oh, my God." "I found Alyssa's work compelling." "I'm not sure why I'm having to justify my taste in art." "Because this particular piece just happened to have a bronze Fist in it." "You found my Fist." "Yes, right where you put it." "You know, right about now is where you should be thinking about whether pushing Hayes was an accident or not, because that's gonna make a 30-year difference in your prison sentence." "You think I did that to Bryan Hayes?" "Now we've obtained a warrant for your financials, and we will find evidence of the $200,000 you paid to William Holt, also known as Falco, to disable security at the museum." "I'm sorry, dear." "You've lost me." "CSU found your fingerprints all over the Fist." "Of course they did." "It belongs to me." "Bloody fingerprints-- his blood, your prints." "It's over." "You killed a man, Mrs. McHugh." "You don't understand." "My husband was going to take it away." "I just took what was rightfully mine." "Bryan Hayes showed up out of nowhere." "He saw me with the Fist in my hands." "What was I supposed to do?" "You know what's ironic?" "Your husband would've let you have the Fist." "He didn't even want it." "The DA said that her husband called several times, begging to testify against her." "Mm." "When can I collect the Fist?" "The insurance company's asking." "Well, it's in evidence." "Once the case is resolved, they'll release it." "I want to thank you." "I couldn't have done this without you." "I'm really grateful." "So does that mean you're cutting me in on the finder's fee?" "I'm not that grateful." "Well, I, uh... think we all ended up with what we wanted." "Yeah." "Um, you know... after you and Castle went on that date" "More like a sting." "He... never thought that you were involved." "Oh." "He believed in you, even when I didn't." "Why are you telling me this?" "I just--I, I think that you should know what kind of person you're dealing with." "Here we are, ladies." "Thank you." "Thank you." "Anything wrong?" "Uh, no." "I should" "I'm just gonna go and file some stuff." "Uh, and I'm--I'm going back to my hotel." "I would ask you to come, but... it's like I said," "I don't steal things that belong to someone else." "You guys didn't go out?" "No." "Why?" "Because I can't afford it." "The museum just slapped me with a bill for that exhibit I broke." "Whoa." "I know." "You'd think they cut me slack after the whole "helping to solve the murder" thing." "I guess the least the NYPD could do is take you out for a hamburger." "I accept." "Let's go." "I could put Alexis through college on this." "Yeah, and med school." "Thank God I'm rich."