"This is heaven." "This is absolute heaven." "Yeah, you mean spending the day with your future husband?" "No, no." "Not that." "Not that?" "No, no, no." "I mean, not only that." "It's 2:00." "I'm in my P.J.s." "We're reading the newspapers." "I never get to do this." "Because you never take any time off." "All we have to do is loaf around." "There's no work, no goals other than to waste hours on end." "Okay." "Stop describing my life." "Though there is one thing we should get done today." "We need to pick a font for our "save the date" cards." "Really?" "We're gonna do that?" "We don't even have a venue yet." "Yeah." "I find deadlines... inspiring." "How about this one?" "No." "It's too frilly." "Agreed." "And this..." "ooh, this is... far too severe." "You will save the date now." "Oh, I like that one." "You?" "Mm, I'm not really feeling it, though I guess, uh, you could convince me." "I bet I could." "Yeah, I mean, you'd have to work pretty hard to win me over, but, um..." "Well, I'm prepared to do just that." "Because it's clear to me that what we both need right now is a really good font." "Yes, we do." "That's so true." "Oh!" "And worst timing ever." "Beckett." "Detective, how soon can you get here?" "Uh, sir, I'm actually not on call today." "I'm aware of that, but something has come up, and I'm afraid it can't wait." "Well, I can get there in 20 minutes." "One more thing... come alone." "Do not bring Mr. Castle." "Uh..." "Yes, sir." "So, what's Gates up to aside from sabotaging our domestic bliss?" "I don't know." " But I got to go." " Huh." "I don't suppose I could convince you to just..." " No." "Yeah." " Yeah." "Yeah." "Don't worry." "It's fine." "Don't worry about it." "I'm fine." "I'll just, uh..." "I'll do some writing..." "If I can... manage to focus." "Yo, Beckett." "I thought you were off." "Was that the deputy commissioner?" "Yeah, there's been more brass through here than a marching band." "What's going on?" "It's all need-to-know, and we didn't make the list." "But whatever's happening is going down in that conference room." "Detective." " Yep." " Yep." " Beckett." " Sorry." "Yeah." "Detective Beckett," "Captain Fowler, head of narcotics." "Thank you for coming, detective." "Mm-hmm." "What I'm about to tell you cannot leave this room." "Yeah." "Understood, sir." "These six victims had their throats cut." "They were mid-to upper-level drug dealers." "Two were teenagers." "They were all murdered in the past few months when a new drug ring muscled in and took over most of the uptown heroin and cocaine trade." "A new drug ring?" "Well, who are they?" "The commissioner asked me to find that out and shut them down, but they're invisible, these guys." "They don't use banks, so we can't follow the money." "They make sure their street dealers never meet their suppliers." "So, when you bust a dealer, he doesn't know who he's working for." "Exactly." "So, three months in, and we have nothing." "We don't even know any of their names, except for Lazarus." " And who is Lazarus?" " The leader." "Not his real name, of course." "Then yesterday, a phone intercept led us to this woman..." "Elena Markov." "She copped to being a low-level drug courier in the ring." "Born in Russia, she came here as a mail-order bride, divorced her husband." "She learned to speak English better than we do and was getting by as a freelance translator." "She'd never been in trouble before, at least not till now." "I needed work, and I heard about a way to make money." "All I had to do was call a number, so I did." "But once I got in, I couldn't get out." "Who was your contact in the ring?" "I didn't have one." "I would get a text with a time and a place, and I'd get a package with a note hidden inside that would tell me where to take it." "Did you ever, um, see anyone?" "Did you ever interact with anyone?" "No." "Everything was anonymous." "I don't know them." "They don't know me." "It... it needs to stay that way." "Look, I..." "I just want to get my life back." "It looked like another dead end." "Then this morning, Elena got another text from the ring." "This time, they wanted to meet her to offer her a promotion." "Which would give you guys a chance to get eyes on someone." "It's the break we've been waiting for." "So, we leveraged Elena to take the meet, but she tried to commit suicide." "She's in intensive care under police guard." "Sir, I'm sorry to hear about that, but what does this all have to do with me?" "The meeting is set for 5:00 today, and a chance like this is not gonna come back around, so we combed the NYPD database for someone about Elena's age and appearance who speaks fluent Russian," "in case that's relevant." "Only one name came up... yours." "You want me to go in her place?" "To the Widmark." "Show up, meet your contact, and leave." "In and out." "What if they found out that you turned Elena and that this is all a trap?" "Then they wouldn't be meeting at the Widmark Hotel." "We were very careful." "No one knows she's made contact with us." "Still, there's the risk that they could see detective Beckett and realize that she's not Elena." "In the text, they asked Elena to wear a red scarf, which tells us that they don't know her on sight." "My people will be in place watching every move you make." "We can even fit you with a monitored mike, if you like." "I..." "Detective, something big is going on out there, and this is our best chance to find out what." "But the meeting's in two hours, so I need your answer." "Reinforcements." "Castle." "Wow." "You sound like you are getting a lot of writing done." "I blame you for that." "When are you coming back?" "Uh, I don't know." "A couple hours?" "I have a meeting." "A... and don't ask me what it is." "Well, now I have to ask." "It..." "Look, I..." "I have to get going." "I should be back in time for dinner." "Maybe we can have a glass of wine together." "I will decant something amazing." "Okay." "I love you." "Bye." "I have to tell you I don't care for Captain Fowler's hard-sell tactics." "This is a narcotics operation." "It's not your problem, so you can walk away and I'll take the heat." "Thank you, sir, but I..." "I can handle this." "Then they're ready to review the plan and give you a final briefing." "Remember, don't move like a cop." "You're Elena." "You're intimidated by these guys." "They've been leveraging you for two months." "There will be five plainclothes officers in the lobby and more throughout the hotel." "Head to the north elevator and go to the 11th floor." "The meet is in room 1123." "Undercover officers up there will have your back." "Stay calm, memorize names and faces of whomever you meet, and you'll be out in no time." " Hello." " Hi." "Which floor?" "11." "Okay." "Don't move a muscle." "Elevator just got to 11." "It's empty." "She's not here." "She is not here." "Castle 6x17" " In the Belly of the Beast Original air date March 3, 2014" "This is detective Kate Beckett." "If you can hear me, I've been abducted." "I'm in a white cube van, New York plates." "We've been traveling for about 20 minutes." "We've been making a lot of turns, but I think we're headed east." "Captain Fowler, if you can hear me, this is seriously ruining my dinner plans." "You promised me that you had her back." "What happened?" "We were set up for a simple meet, not an orchestrated kidnapping." "The security cameras... did they get a shot of who did this?" "They were disabled momentarily throughout the hotel." "What about the mike Beckett had on?" "We stopped receiving audio after she got in the elevator." "The signal strength drops in enclosed spaces." "And let me guess... whoever was in room 1123 didn't know about a meeting because there never was gonna be one." "Look, we've issued a limited alert." "Limited alert?" "!" "We need to call in the cavalry here." "We know the drug ring tracks police radios." "Sending up a flare could make things worse." "They must have known that your girl rolled on them, or they made Beckett." "Either way, she's dead if we don't find her immediately." "Gentlemen, we have a situation." "We've been driving for about an hour now, maybe more." "Uh, two-lane road, not a lot of traffic, um..." "We're slowing down." "We've stopped." "I've got to get rid of this thing." "Get on your knees and face the wall toward the cab." "Do not move." "Don't turn around." "Time to see if you're wearing a wire." "I'm not wearing a wire." "Yeah, we'll see about that." "This is detective Kate Beckett." "I'm unavailable at the moment, but please leave a message." "Well, I know you have plans with Katherine this evening, so I'm going to make myself scarce." "Oh, very nice." "I'm off to a revival of "Brighton Beach Memoirs."" "Ha." "Pray for me." "What's the matter?" "I..." "I can't get ahold of Beckett." "I texted her." "I left messages." "This isn't like her." "Maybe she got tied up at the precinct." "Have you tried Ryan or Esposito?" "I called them both..." "just go straight to voice-mail." "Just... something is not right." "So, what happens now?" "It's not my call." "Is that who we're waiting for?" "They're in that room?" "You sound worried." "Should I be?" "What the hell makes you so special?" "I'm not special." "I don't know anything." "I just move packages." "I'm not a threat to anyone." "You can just drop the act." "Let's go." "You're up." "You are Elena Markov?" "Yes." "It's good to finally meet you." "You can call me Mr. Jones, and this is Mr. Harden." "Hey." "I'm sorry for the lengths we go to to have a meeting, but these are the times we live in." "Uh, can I get you anything?" "A drink?" "No." "Thank you." "Good." "To business, then." "You should know how much we value your services," "Lazarus in particular." "Well, I do the best I can." "But always as a freelancer." "What we want to do is offer you a permanent position with our organization." "That's per week, of course." "How does that strike you?" "It's very generous." "But I'm gonna need to meet Lazarus." "That's not an option." "I need to know who I'm doing business with." "It's a matter of trust." "All right." "I'll pass along the request, but you'll remain our guest here until I get an answer." "Please see Miss Markov to a bedroom." "Sir, can I have a word, please?" "Sure." "Would you excuse me, please?" "Yes." " What's the problem?" " She's the problem." "She's all wrong." "Look, I've been watching her." "She acted like she didn't know why she was here." "Esposito." "Javi, Javi, it's me." "Beckett, where are you?" "We've got half the force looking for you?" "Hey!" "No." "Listen." "Get a trace on this phone." "Get eyes on me." "I don't know where I am or who the hell Elena Markov is, but her story is a lie." "She is more than just a low-level courier." "You never like it when we bring new people in, especially above you." "That's not what it is, not this time." "Okay, she was afraid." "All right, you keep an eye on her, and if she is wrong, then you get to do the honors, okay?" "Let's go." "Are you telling me that we can't trace Beckett's call?" "It's a voice-over-Internet line fed through an anonymizer." "Okay, but can we at least narrow it down to the area where the call was made?" "No, it was routed through the Ukraine, bounced all over Europe." "These guys know security." "Captain, why did Beckett tell us that Elena Markov was more than just a courier?" "I have no idea." "So, there's nothing about her that you haven't told us?" "Absolutely not." "Every part of her story checked out, but..." "But what?" "We didn't have enough time to go deep, not with things moving this fast." "We didn't even know miss Markov until yesterday." "Well, maybe you didn't know her at all." "Looks like we can fix that." "The hospital just called." "She's conscious." "Go talk to her." "Get to the bottom of this." "I'll go with you." "She knows me." "Hey, you guys have not been returning my calls." "Where's Beckett?" "Mr. Castle, why don't you come into my office?" " Hurry it up!" " Quickly." " Over here." " Let's go." " Come here." "Do we have any idea where she is?" "Traffic-cam footage caught a white van heading away from the Widmark right when she was abducted." "We think she was in it, and we're trying to track it down." "There are reasons for hope here." "I'd love to hear them." "First of all, they didn't make her as a cop." "They think she's Elena Markov, which buys us time." "She's pretending to be Elena when she doesn't know who Elena is?" "She can't keep that up forever." "Well, hopefully, she won't have to." "Once Elena tells us everything that she knows about this, it could lead us to Beckett." "Miss Markov regained consciousness about an hour ago." "She's stable, so we transferred her out of ICU." "Has she said anything yet?" "Just that she's glad to be alive." "So, she's lucid?" "Yes, but she's also extremely weak from her ordeal, so, please, I'd ask that you limit your time with her as much as possible." "We need answers, so we're gonna question her as long as it takes." "Room's just up here... 3410." "I thought you had an officer guarding her." "We do." "He must be inside with her." "Elena Markov, NYP... son of a bitch." "We have an officer down!" "Officer down!" "Elena's gone." "Either she killed him and fled..." "Or someone else did and they grabbed her." "If they took Elena, that means Beckett's cover's blown." "She's as good as dead." "Dear Rick," "I don't know how much time I have, even to write this letter." "What I do know now is that I'm in this, and the only way I'm gonna make it out alive is to see this through." "I'm sure everyone is looking for me, and if they figure out I was here," "CSU's gonna search this house." "They're gonna look for blood, and they will find it, which will lead them to this letter." "Babe, it's your letter, and I hope you never have to read this... that I can tell you all of these things in person, but if something happens and I don't make it," "I need you to know that our partnership, our relationship is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me." "You're an amazing man, and I love you with all of my heart." "Always." "Mr. Jones wants a word." "Let's go." "I've got surprising news." "Lazarus agreed to meet with you if you agree to an assignment." "What assignment?" "You complete the assignment, you get the meeting." "Take it or leave it." "Deal." "What do I have to do?" "What you do best." "Kill him." "Make it clean." "We're here." "Where's here?" "All you need to know is that the target's in that house." "Is he alone?" "As far as I know." "Use this." "Lazarus doesn't want it to be connected to your other kills." "Well, he's got to be important." "Who is he?" "He's the next name on the list." "What does he do?" "Why are you so curious all of a sudden?" "You ever hear of recon?" "I like to know what I'm walking into." "Is he a cop, is he a drug dealer, are there guns in the house?" "Curiosity keeps me alive." "The guy's a civilian, a nobody." "If he's a nobody, then why are we killing him?" "Because they told us to." "Look, is there..." "is there a problem here?" "Yeah, there's a problem." "I don't work like this." "I do my homework," "I control the variables, and this is sloppy." "You know, maybe Lazarus wanted to see how well you improvise." "You know, maybe I do, too." "Now... are you gonna kill him or what?" "Who in the hell are you?" "!" "It's done." "Show me." "What?" "No." "We don't have time for this." "I said show me." "Now." "Like I said." "I'm done auditioning." "You tell Lazarus he wants to play games and this deal's off." "Yeah, we should get back." "Just got off with the hospital security again." "The building's locked down." "We got teams going through, but there's no sign of Elena." "And we still have no idea who this woman really is." "I'm afraid we do." "Security video shows her leaving her room alone, and the officer's throat was cut in the same exact manner as the murdered drug dealers... same angle, same left-handed stroke favoring the carotid." "That's what those text messages meant about packages being delivered." "She wasn't a courier for the ring." "She was their contract killer." "A contract killer?" "!" "That's who Beckett is out there impersonating" " and you didn't know?" " Mr. Castle..." "And now this woman is out there somewhere?" "Do you have any idea what's gonna happen to Beckett when the real Elena shows up?" "We're doing everything we can." "Well, it's not enough." "Hey, come on, man." "This is Gates." "What?" "Where?" "She told me to get down on the floor, and then she said she was a cop and that if I wanted to live," "I had to do exactly what she said." "And then she went to the kitchen and she came back with ketchup and... and... and beet juice and... and she told me to lie as still as possible and to hold my breath." "Mr. Potter, did she say anything else about where she was, where they were keeping her?" "Yeah." "She said it was some kind of a compound." "She didn't know where but that she would try to get a message out soon." "At least we know she's still alive." "This guy who was with her." "Did you see his face?" "No." "I had my head down." "Do you have any idea why members of a drug ring would want you dead?" "No." "That's not my world." "You're an attorney at Tyre, Potter, and Langston." "What kind of law do you practice?" "It's mostly corporate... trust administration." "Do you do any criminal law?" "No, none." "I hate this." "She's out there somewhere, has no idea how much danger she's in, and I can't help her." "No, you can't." "But this is Beckett we're talking about." "But she's also a damn good cop, so don't sell her short." "She'll figure out a way to let us know what's going on, and when she does, we'll get her out." "What if it's not in time?" "So, how did it go?" "The package was delivered without any issues." "Good." "Clean yourself up." "Lazarus wants to see you." "You're getting out of here... alive." "Sorry." "I really have to pee." "Do you mind?" "No, it's fine." "Thank you." "Great gig, huh?" "Yeah, it's amazing." "I don't know who these guys are, but they sure like to spend money." "Come on." "He's waiting." "This way." "You keep him in the basement?" "He likes it there." "He thinks it suits him." "After you." "What's the matter?" "You've never seen a counting room before?" "Yes." "But never to this scale." "Lazarus is a man of enormous appetites." "I'm impressed you've been able to hide this from the feds." "You don't know the half of it." "Wait here." "He's ready." "Come in." "I apologize for the delay." "I had to resolve a business matter." "Of course." "I don't usually do this..." "meet like this." "But for you, I'll make an exception." "Between our needs and your skill set, this could be a very profitable arrangement." "I agree." "Good." "So, now that we've met, why don't we formalize our arrangement?" "You are not Elena." "What do you mean?" "I know you." "No." "No, I don't think you do." "No, no, no." "I never forget a face." "Detective Beckett." "Oh, no, no, no." "She is a cop?" "Homicide out of the 12th." "Last time I saw you, you tried to put me through a wall." "Accused me of murdering your mama." "And from the look on her face, she remembers me." "Don't you, detective?" "Vulcan Simmons." "You're Lazarus?" "Yo, guys." "It's her." "It came in from an unknown number." "But that's her badge number." "It's got to be her." ""Addr is 5."" "She was trying to send an address." "Looks like she got cut off." "Run that phone number." "Find out who owns it and find out where it is." "Right." "Let's do it without all this Kabuki theater, detective." "It's undignified." "Tell me what I want to know, and I'll give you a proper death without all this messy suffering." "Now what was your mission and what do they know about Lazarus?" "Do you want undignified?" "Then wait till you see what I do to you." "You know, you're just like your mom... both playing in worlds where you don't belong." "Your mother paid for it with her life." "So will you." "But first tell me what I want to know." "Yo." "Just got off with the carrier." "Any idea whose phone it is?" "It's a pre-paid." "There's no way to identify the owner." "I got a hit." "The signal originated from a tower in Scarsdale." "Great." "Can you lock on the location?" "No." "The message pinged off a single tower." "Without a second or third tower, there's no way to narrow it down." "Depending on signal strength, it could have originated anywhere within this 10-mile radius." "It would be easier to find a needle in a haystack." "Can you ping the GPS?" "It's off, and it looks like the phone's off, as well." "I'm sorry." "I've got no other way to trace it." "That's the best I can do." "I know your lungs are burning." "I can feel the panic in your soul." "All you want is for this to end." "And I promise I will end it." "Just tell me what I want to know." "Scrub the place." "Find a patch of dirt to put her in... somewhere where she won't be found." "I love these woods." "My daddy used to take me hunting up here when I was a kid." "I spent days learning every rock, every tree, all the secret little places to hide." "Over the years, it's come in handy." "You know, I had you made from the moment you walked through the door." "I could see it in your eyes." "I thought, "no way this woman's a killer."" "No." "You don't want to kill me, Harden." "You know that I'm a cop." "Yeah, I've killed cops before." "In fact, a few of them are your new neighbors." "My people will hunt you down." "They will kill you." "But we can make a deal." "You help me take down Lazarus, you can set any deal you want." "No, I'm good with the deal I got." "Thank you." "Elena." "You got balls." "I'll give you that." "You're not gonna kill me?" "He sent me because he owed you." "He said he wanted you to live." "Who sent you?" "Who wanted me to live?" "Lazarus." "Tactical teams raided the compound at 0600 this morning, shortly after your call." "The place was empty." "Everything's gone." "The mansion itself is held in a trust by an offshore corporation." "It'll be months before we find out who the real owners are." "If ever." "And what about Vulcan Simmons?" "My team picked him up this morning in Washington Heights... nowhere near the compound." "They've been questioning him all morning, but..." "He had an alibi for last night." "We'll go after him, but without evidence, it will difficult to make any of your allegations stick." "Are you saying we have nothing?" "No, not nothing." "Future Forward?" "Yeah, part of the money-laundering operation... whatever it was, they are funneling a lot of cash into that account." "See what happens when I leave you alone?" "Babe, I wasn't alone." "When they were interrogating me, the only thing that kept me going was thinking about you, about our future, the wedding." "You were with me the whole time." "Well, at least it's not a total loss." "Now that the police know that Vulcan Simmons is Lazarus, they'll be watching him." "He will not be able to rebuild his operation." "He's not Lazarus." "If he was, then I would be dead." "Vulcan Simmons is just a figurehead." "Someone else is behind this, someone higher up, someone who wanted me alive." "Who?" "Someone bigger." "This can't be right." "I'm afraid it is, sir." "You're saying that's what Future Forward is... a political super pac?" "That's where the money was going?" "Yeah, and that's a connection to Evan Potter, our would-be victim." "Potter did all the legal work to establish the super pac for a client of his..." "a wealthy hedge-fund manager with significant political connections named Jason Kochler." "It would appear as if drug money were being funneled into Future Forward's accounts." "Nearly $160 million in the past several months." "It was then legally laundered, passing through an anonymous shell corp and second secret super pac." "What do you mean "legally laundered"?" " Where's that money now?" " It's gone." "Federal tax and banking laws that regulate these kind of super pacs make it impossible for us to find out where that money actually came from or went." "Well, someone must be able to tell us." "Evan Potter." "No." "He just set up the pac for Kochler." "He didn't run it." "Then we need to bring Jason Kochler in here." "We can't." "He died of a heart attack this morning." "That's why you couldn't find the money." "Someone's using it to build a massive political war chest." "But who?" "It's impossible to know." "Those of you who know me know that I've gotten where I am today by doing whatever it takes to get the job done." "That is the kind of leadership this country needs, and that is why I am forming an exploratory committee for a run for the presidency of the United States." "Senator Bracken, an early front runner, is rumored to have significant funding already lined up from major contributors." "Hiding behind Vulcan Simmons, funding his campaign with dirty money, killing whoever gets in his way, just like he did with my mom." "It's him." "And we have no way of proving it." "Maybe the feds will find something." "No." "Bracken is so well-insulated." "It's genius, actually." "He has all the campaign funds that he needs without having to compromise or be beholden to any special-interest groups." "But if it really was him, why wouldn't he just let you die in the woods?" "Why would he send Elena to save you?" "Because when I stopped the assassination last year," "I saved him." "And he told me that he owed me." "And now we're even." "So the next time that we see each other..." "Come to bed."