"Haven't we met somewhere before?" "Really?" "That's your line?" "It's not a line." "I saw you this morning at the coffee bean, and then this afternoon at the gym, and now here." "Why are you following me?" "So I could do this." "Shh." "Shh, shh, shh." "It's okay." "Your aorta's been severed, so this will all be over very soon." "Don't fight it." "Just look into these pretty brown eyes and drift away." "Babe, did you set your hair on fire again?" "That was one time." "And no." "No, no." "I'm just, uh, so good-looking, I'm literally smoking hot." "Okay, what do you have?" " That..." "Is just, uh..." " Let me see." " Just a little... wait a second." " All right." "Okay." "Ah!" "Ha!" "Oh, my God." "First day." "How are you feeling?" "Um..." "Exhilarated and frightened and everything in between." "I wish that you were coming with me." "Oh, sweetie, we talked about this." "What am I gonna do?" "Sit outside your office and fetch you coffee?" "Yeah, you're great at fetching." "I've trained you well." "This is a good change for us." "Is it?" "Yes." "Absolutely." "And besides, with all the money I spent on the remodeling of my P.I. office," "I got to take some cases so I can write that place off." "Now, come on." "Dig in." "No, I'm so nervous I couldn't eat." "Who said anything about eating?" "I said, "dig in."" "Okay." " Like "dig" dig in, right?" " Yeah, yeah, yeah." " Okay." "All right." "Um..." " Full on." "Keep going." "Like that." "Wow." "What?" "That was supposed to be a decoder ring." "Oh, my God." "This is so beautiful." "Um, would you mind getting that?" "Yeah, yeah." "Here." "Thanks." "Oh, my God." "Captain Beckett's phone." "Uh..." "Katherine Beckett, please." "Of course." "Please wait just one moment." " Trade you." " Thank you." "Here you go." "Yeah, this is Beckett." "Uh-huh." "Okay." "Understood." "Yeah." "You know what?" "I'm not interested, so why don't you take me off the list?" "Thanks." "Telemarketers." "I swear there should be tougher laws against them." "Well, if you hadn't turned down the chance to run for State Senate, you could have passed some." "Wow." "I love this." "I'm gonna cherish this." "Thank you." "Mm." "Okay, I have got a meeting at 1PP." " Knock 'em dead." " Thanks." "Bro, what are you doing?" "You know I got dibs on Beckett's desk." "I will play you knife, gun, kevlar for it." "Let's do this." " Knife." " Gun." "You fool, you brought a knife to a gun fight?" "Blam." " Two out of three." " No way." "Kick rocks." "Javi, we're pathetic." "No, you're pathetic." "You're the one who got the crappy desk." "No, look, I mean, here we are moving desks." "Everyone else is moving up." "Gates, she's the new deputy chief," "Beckett, she's the new captain." "So?" "So when's it gonna be our turn?" "Get promoted, make more money?" "Bro, where's this coming from?" "Jenny's pregnant again." "We found out last night." "Oh, wow!" "That's great!" "Congratulations!" "That is great, right?" "Yeah!" "Yeah, yeah, yeah." "It's wonderful." "But it's also another mouth to feed, another body to clothe, and don't get me started on college tuition." "Kevin, ca-can't you just for one second... celebrate before you start stressing about money again?" " Sometimes it's good to just breathe..." " Yes!" "Got ourselves a homicide." "Fingers crossed for overtime pay." "Bro, there's something wrong with you." "Can I help you?" "You sure as hell can, buddy." "I'm Franco Mancini!" "Nice to finally meet you." "Bring it on in." "Come here." "Great news, huh, Ricky?" "My wife's sleeping with my brother, not my personal chef... what a relief." "Uh, I'm sorry." "Y-y-your wife is having an affair with your brother and you're happy about it?" "Hell, I got four other brothers, but my chef is one in a million." "His spicy clams are to die for." "Thanks again for solving my case, Ricky." "You and your associate." "Associate?" "Could you wait out in reception?" "I'll be with you in a sec." "Uh, Alexis, I don't want to say you have some explaining to do, but I think you have some explaining to do." "Wait, did I forget to tell you I've been working P.I. cases for you?" "Must have slipped your mind." "Hey, didn't the guys do a fantastic job remodeling the place?" "I know, right?" "!" "But you're changing the subject." "I know." "But check it out." "Pull on "the complete works of Edgar Allan poe," and..." "Oh, my God!" "This turned out so much cooler than I thought it would!" "Wait, did they do the thing on the desk with the...?" "Mm-hmm." "Obviously the spring has a trajectory..." "I'll make the... okay, back to you." "Why... why are you working my cases?" "Truth is, it's all your fault." "You set up shop in my office behind my back," " and it's my fault?" " Exactly." "A month ago, when you sent me here to open the place for your foreman, a potential client came by." "I was intrigued, so I sort of said I was your associate, and then I kind of solved the case." "Since then, I've closed three others." "Alexis, you can't just..." "you closed four cases?" "That's more than I have." "I know." "Step your game up." "W-what about your college courses?" "Oh, please." "I've got that handled." "Plus, I forged your signature to make sure I got school credit for being an intern." "Okay, that's Esposito." "I have to take this." "But we are not done talking." "Good, we need to discuss my profit participation in the company." " Castle?" " Uh, e-Esposito." "How you doing, buddy?" "How's the new boss lady treating you?" "She's ignoring me." "Just like every other woman in his life." "Shut up." "So, your wife is not answering her cell, and we need her authorization for more officers down here." "Is she with you?" "Oh, I'm sorry." "She's at a meeting at 1PP." "What's going on?" "We're working on a case." "You interested?" "I'd love to, but I'm a little busy with my thriving P.I. business." "Not really." "I closed all the cases." "But since you're desperate, I'll rearrange my hectic schedule and, uh, lend you my expertise." "Come on." "Whoa!" "Looks like a Tarantino film came to life in here." "Yeah." "Now meet our stars." "This is Greg Minoso." "Over here, we got Jake Fitz." "And finally, we come to Dustin Chambers." "And check this out." "They were each packing identical .40 cals." "I take it they weren't part of the construction crew." "No." "Renovation's not scheduled to begin till next week." "Okay." "So, what happened?" "Truth is, we're not sure yet." "What we do know is that gunfire was heard around 9:07 A.M." "And continued for a minute or two." "So they shot each other?" "Nope, their wounds are from a downward angle, maybe 45 degrees, which means they probably all were shot from up there." "Yep." "The shooter was definitely up here." "9 millimeter." "All right." "Must have capped them from up here, boom, boom, boom, and then boogied out that exit." "Ew." "Guys." "Oh." "Looks like our shooter took a bullet from one of the dead guys down there, falls back up against the wall, grabbing the drop cloth, pulling it down with him." "Let's contact hospitals, see if anybody came in..." "This is Beckett's." "Wait." "What did you just say?" "I gave it to her this morning." "She was here." "S08E01 XY" "Tell me." "Lanie said that blood was a match to Beckett's." "But there was so much blood." "O-okay." "Okay, but this is..." "This is Beckett we're talking about." "Yeah, yeah." "She's as tough as they come." "Exactly." "So, she must have shot those three guys." "And since she hasn't contacted us, we can assume that their partners abducted her." "But why?" "We need to dig into the backgrounds of those dead shooters." "We need to find out who they're working with." "That's the thing." "We can't." "Their I.D.s are all fake." "And their prints aren't in the system." "Castle, do you have any idea what Beckett was doing at that theater?" "She was supposed to be at 1PP." "I talked to Gates." "Beckett didn't have anything on the books." "So she lied to me?" "Guys, I got a hit on one of the dead shooter's credit cards." "He rented a short-term apartment through an online site." "NYPD!" "Ryan, I got dead space." "Castle, stay put." "NYPD!" "Wait!" " Aah!" " Where is she?" "!" "Where's Beckett?" "Aah!" "NYPD!" "don't move!" "Get on the floor right now!" " On the ground!" " On the floor right now!" "Have you seen the floor?" "If it's all the same to you, boys, let's do the standing." "Have a seat, Miss Shipton." "Oh, no, please, call my Hayley." "I insist that anyone who's frisked me use my given name." "Okay, Hayley, my partner and I really enjoyed reading your file." "Oh, sweetie, I'm so much more than words on paper." "Born and raised in East London, over in the borough of Hackney." "Rough area." "Don't they have a street nicknamed "the murder mile"?" "Well, yes." "But it's not without its charms." "Just like you." "Love your accent, by the way." "Very posh." "Where did you learn to speak like that?" "Not from the slums she grew up in." "And definitely not from your mom, who's at the tail end of a 20-year prison bid." "Oh, then not wanting to follow in mum's footsteps, you joined the metropolitan police service." " And that was an epic fail." " Yeah, they booted you out because of your tendency to cut legal corners." "Allegedly." "You hung a dealer out of a window in order to get a confession?" "Did I hang him out the window?" "Or did I save him from falling out said window?" "It's hard to tell." "It's even harder to prove." "Well, lucky for us, we don't have to prove that you were hiding in that apartment." "Hiding?" "No." "Lost." "I was looking for a Starbucks, actually." "Usually they're so easy to find." "How do you know the guy who rented that apartment?" "Unlike the imbeciles who usually sit in this chair," "I know my rights, so I would like to leave now." "No." "I don't think so." "We got a missing NYPD captain, as well as three dead bodies, so you should start talking right now." "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." "I don't know anything..." "Hey, come on, Hayley." "You can do better than that." "Look, I am just a freelance security specialist." "I was hired by an insurance company to catch a hacker who's been stealing social-security numbers" " from their system." " Why were you in that apartment?" "I have been following fake I.D.s made from the stolen social-security numbers." "And last night, I got an alert that five of them had been used together in New York City." "Caught my attention, so I flew in to investigate." "Five I.D.s. You sure it was five?" "Four men and a woman." "Greg Minoso, Jake Fitz, Ty Dade, Dustin Chambers, and Susan Emory." "Where were you at 9:00 A.M. this morning?" "On final approach to JFK, and my flight didn't land until 9:30." "And that is all I know." "Now go and check my alibi so that I can get the hell out of here." "Thanks." "She's hiding something." "I know." "We can't just let her leave." "Her alibi is solid." "We have to." "Ryan." "Yeah." "Ugh." "I put you down once." "I won't hesitate to do it again." "My name is Richard Castle." "That missing captain is my wife." "I didn't know." "I'm sorry." "Keep your sorry." "Just give me your help." "There's more to this story than you're telling us." "Now she's been injured and abducted." "I don't know anything about that." "Name your price." "Anything you say, I'll pay it." "I just want my wife back." "I hope you find her." "Yo, unis found a stolen van with blood in it by a dry-cleaner's on 23rd street." "Any sign of Beckett?" "No." "Officers found the owner locked in the back." "They said a woman matching Beckett's description was there." "Hi." "I'm Detective Ryan." "This is Detective Esposito." "This is Mr. Castle." "Can you tell us what happened here?" "A lady and man burst in." "She said she was cop." "Bleeding everywhere." "Big mess." "Those are her clothes." "She told man to lock me in bathroom, he did, and that was it." "Wait, she told him?" "You're saying that she was here of her own volition?" "Not as a hostage?" "I was hostage." "She was in charge." "Yeah, it's her." "Okay, this man that she was with, can you describe him?" "Uh..." "Late 20s, east Indian, had beard." "Did you catch his name?" "No." "But he was in kind of bad shape, too." "Headaches, dizzy, said he needed to eat." "She told him he probably should have gotten breakfast instead of calling her." "Beckett got a call from some guy this morning." "Do you know who she was talking to?" "She said it was a telemarketer." "What is she doing?" "What the hell is going on?" "All right, let's think." "Beckett gets a call from a mystery man." "Can we trace the phone?" "Already checked." "Call came from a burner phone." "Oh, damn it." "All right." "She must have met this guy at the theater." "Clearly they were ambushed." "Beckett gets shot." "But she manages to take three of them out, and then she and the man escape." "But she didn't call for backup." "Yeah." "Why wouldn't she reach out to us?" "Guys, the woman just sewed herself up with a needle and thread." "Clearly something's going on, and she's afraid to contact anyone." "But what?" "I me..." "I mean, what could it be that would cause her to react like this?" "Whatever it is, it has to do with this man." "We find the man, we find Beckett." "All right, I'll have CSU dust this place for prints." " Maybe we get an I.D. on this guy." " Right." "I'll get the dry-cleaner to sit with a sketch artist." "Hey, Alexis, listen, somet..." "Dad, come back to the office now." "What's going on?" "Just hurry." "And come alone." "Right." "Uh, I'll..." "I'll meet you back at the station." "All right." "Alexis?" "Dad, we're in here." ""We"?" "Beckett." "That's it." "That is it." "Yeah?" "Yes." "Okay." "What the hell's going on here?" "Oh, I hope you don't mind." "I'm just giving her some P.I. lessons." "Hayley was teaching me the art of manipulating men." "It's all about confidence and eye contact." "Yeah, if you can entice a man with your gaze, you can lie, steal, cheat, what have you." "My wife is out there fighting for her life." "Why are you wasting my time?" "Wait, what?" "Why didn't you tell me?" "Sorry." "I figured it wasn't my place." "Now, look, Rick." "You asked for my help." "You want it or not?" "What's the catch?" "'Cause I'm thinking, with you, there's always a catch." "There's only one... no cops." " Why not?" " Differing agendas." "The cops serve and protect the city." "I serve and protect me." "Fine." "No cops." "Dad." "What happened to Beckett?" "She's hurt, and she's on the run?" "From whom?" "I don't know." "It has something to do with a man she's with." "What man?" "Look, I'm here, aren't I?" "You've got to give to get." "Who's this mystery man?" "He's east Indian, in his late 20s." "He might be sick." "He was dizzy, had a headache, said he needed something to eat." "I don't know." "What about you, Hayley?" "I know you're holding back on something." "I have a lead on the last two shooters." "How?" "Well, I haven't just been chasing random identities." "A hacker stole 100,000 social-security numbers, then bundled them into smaller groupings." "And who's he selling the bundles to?" "Mafia, drug cartels, terrorists." "Take your pick." "However, from the bundle of those five shooters," "I've just uncovered that a new identity's been used." "Can you track it?" "I already have." "It was used to lease a storage locker a few days ago." "And how does this help me find Beckett?" "It doesn't, but there are still two killers hunting her." "If we can track them down," "I get one step closer to my hacker, and you get your wife out of harm's way." "This way, we both get what we want." "All right." "Let's go." "Dad, did you notice any candy wrappers or fruit juice, anything with sugar, at the dry-cleaner's?" "Uh, an empty soda can." "Why?" "I think Beckett's mystery man might have been having a diabetic incident." "But based on his symptoms, sugar is not enough." " You need Insulin to regulate..." " Honey, I need to go." "Let's talk about this later, though, okay?" "Red, don't wait for the old man." "If you've got something, follow up on it." "Look, Beckett's on the run." "She can't go to a doctor, can't go to a hospital, so how does she get her hands on Insulin?" "She would have to get creative." "There you go." "Why did we park back here?" "Hayley, we can just walk straight through the front door." "There's no bolt cutters required." "Oh, you've been playing at being a cop too long, Rick." "As a P.I., you don't have a badge, don't have search warrants." "You've got to get creative, lie, cheat." "And the occasional BE, apparently?" "Yeah, if that's what it takes." "So, what's it gonna be?" "Yeah." "Hi." "My name's Ale..." "Stryker." "Clara Stryker." "I'm an auditor with emergency services." "Um..." "What can I do for you, Ms. Stryker?" "I'm looking into a bogus 911 call made near a dry-cleaner's on 2nd and 23rd street." "Yeah." "Uh, right." "We reported that as a prank." "Then I'm sure you performed a complete inventory afterward." "I take it you didn't know you needed to?" "Don't worry." "We can do it now." "Look, Ms. Stryker, I'm just a probationary E.M.T." "My supervisor's gonna be back any minute now." "Can't this wait?" "Well, looks like everything's in its place." "Where do you keep the Insulin?" "Uh..." "Shoot." "We're missing two vials." "Do you have a monitor for the camera?" "Yeah." "Play back the time of the call." "What the hell?" "Freeze it." "Ms. Stryker, am I gonna get in trouble for this?" "We'll keep it our little secret." "Who the hell are these people?" "Just look for anything that we can use to track these guys." "These are the same .40-calibers the shooters in the theater had." "Who did you just text?" "The cops?" "We had a deal." "You shook on it." "If you wanted a binding agreement, we should have pinky-sweared." "What are you, 4?" "Aah!" " Hey." "Whoa." " Hey!" "Hayley, what happened?" "Ooh." "I got my ass kicked." " Oh." " Yeah." "Hey." "What's up?" "Dad, I was able to track Beckett and that mystery man to a taxi." "You are the best." "Okay." "Um..." "Now all we have to do is call the cab company, figure out where they went." "Already did." "They went to a prison upstate." "Really?" "Is she still there?" "No, but she visited an inmate..." "William Bracken." "Bracken?" "Okay, why is your wife visiting a disgraced former senator?" "They have history." "What kind of history?" "He had Beckett's mother killed." "It's why she became a cop." "She dedicated her life to hunting him." "Okay, so, what's with the reunion?" "And why today of all days?" "Because Bracken's behind this." "I know he was a powerful man, but that sort of influence dries up when you're serving life in prison." "You don't know the kind of people Bracken was aligned with... mercenaries, dealers, the worst of the worst." "He made a lot of people rich." "A lot of whom may still owe him favors." "You're saying that William Bracken ordered a hit on your wife?" "Beckett ruined his socalled legacy, his life." "He's out for payback." "You really think Bracken's behind this?" "The story tracks." "Bracken is a megalomaniac who blames Beckett for ruining his life even though it was justice for what he did to her mother." " You gonna be here when I come out?" " No." "Because I texted Ryan and Esposito?" "I said no cops." "You'd rather there be a storage locker full of guns out there?" "It's not my problem." "Look, Rick, if you want to be a real P.I." "and not just play dress-up, you're gonna have to make some changes in how you operate." "Changes like lying to my friends?" "Yeah, sometimes." "And sometimes you're even gonna have to screw them over." "Yeah." "No, thanks." "Look, nice guys don't just finish last in this business, Castle." "They end up dead." "I'll see you around." "You really love her, don't you?" "Like a house on fire." "Must be nice." "Speed dial 5." " Go." " It's me." "What do you need?" "Tell the lab I'm coming in with something for them to test." "Gonna need it I.D.'d right away." "No." "No, no, no, no." "Forget it." "I got nothing to say to you." "Oh, tough." "I know Beckett was here, and I know why." "So you're gonna call off your dogs right now." "Or what?" "Are you gonna write something mean about me?" "Or I'm gonna start a scholarship in your name and offer it to the children of the first inmate who shanks you in the prison laundry." "You'll be wasting your money." "Oh, forgive me if I don't take your word for it." "What's so funny?" "You." "You come in here all on fire about your wife." "You don't even know who she is." "16 years, Kate Beckett's been obsessed with solving her mother's murder." "You really think she can turn off that kind of obsession?" "Are you saying this is her fault?" "I'm saying she's never gonna be happy just being Mrs. Castle." "She needs to tilt at windmills." "It's in her DNA, like a moth to the flame." "And we all know what happens to the moth in the end." "Let me out of here." "Hey." "Storage unit was rented with a stolen I.D." "Who do we know who's been chasing those?" "Hayley Shipton." "She must have a list of all stolen I.D.s in that bundle." "Used it to track our shooters here." "And to convince Castle to run with her instead of us." " What the hell's he thinking?" " He's not." "He's reacting, trying whatever he can to find Beckett." "It's gonna get him killed." "Look at all this stuff." "It's all next-gen weaponry." "Piston-driven, tricked out with thermal scopes," " sound suppressors." " Probably some kind of professional hit squad or something." "Yeah, but who's paying them?" "And how do they connect to Beckett?" "I.D. sketch from the drycleaner's came back." "The guy running with Beckett." "Let's priority-one this through the system and hope that an I.D. on this guy gets us some clarity." "Keep walking." "Head for the blue van." "Oh, just the person I was looking for." "You know, most people react differently to a gun in their side." "Yeah, well, this sort of thing happens to me a lot." "So, I was just in there visiting with your boss." "I don't know how much he's paying you, but it can't be worth your life." "You really have no idea what's going on, do you?" "So enlighten me." "Not my job." "Open it." "Oh!" "Sleep well." "Dad's missing!" "We have to find him!" "Whoa, whoa." "Whoa." "Slow down." "What are you... what are you talking about?" "I've been tracking his cellphone on the sly." "That way, if he ever disappeared again, I'd know." "And an hour ago, his phone suddenly went dead." "Okay, maybe the battery just died." "No." "Not with where he went." "And where's that?" "Winterkill correctional." "I tracked Beckett there earlier." "Winterkill." "That's where Bracken is." "He's connected to this somehow." "That's why dad went to see him." "Without telling us." "But I bet Hayley went along, huh?" "Yeah, but when I called her, she said she left him at the prison." "Hasn't heard from him since." "All right, I'll reach out to the prison, get their external surveillance feed." "All right." "Where are you going?" "To get Hayley." "You can quit faking." "The dose I gave you wore off by now." "Well, you can't blame a guy for trying." "You might want to try something a little more original than the trick Derrick Storm pulled in "Stormfall."" " You read my books?" " Lot of downtime in my line of work." "Your earlier stuff was better." "You got soft once you met the skirt." " Everyone's a critic." " Sit." "Ouch!" "Ah." "Can't help but think you've done this before." "Hey." "Richard Castle." "I'd shake hands, but..." " You think this is funny?" " No." "No, no." "I just felt like you'd be serious enough for the both of us." "Well, how's this for serious?" "You either tell me where your wife is... or I'm gonna kill you." "This is a simple question." " Where's Kate Beckett?" " I don't know." "And even if I did know, I wouldn't tell you." "You know, it's amazing." "They all say that." "And yet they all end up talking in the end." "You know, since we're asking questions, maybe you guys could fill in a few blanks for me." "For example, if Bracken isn't your boss, then who is?" "You know what, I don't think he's taking this seriously." "Maybe a little pain will help him focus." "Pass." "But you know what?" "I would kill for a nice cappuccino right now, extra froth." "You expect us to believe that your wife is keeping you in the dark?" "Look, this isn't working." "How do you want to do this?" "Start by cutting off his fingers until he talks or jump straight for the wedding vegetables?" "You know, actually, I was thinking something maybe a little more, uh, psychological." "I'm gonna be honest with you." "That doesn't look that scary." "Well, why don't you look again?" "Okay, I might puke." "Where is she, Castle?" "I don't know." "Hmm?" "Where is she?" "I don't know!" "Where is she?" "I don't know anything." "The last time I saw Castle was outside the prison." "You'd think an ex-cop would understand obstruction of justice." "Yeah, especially since arresting her for it will torpedo her investigator's license." "You're not scaring me, guys." "You think we're playing?" "Castle's one of us, which means you better come clean right now, or every cop in this city is gonna make it their mission to jam you up." "I understand the passion." "But I have a reputation to uphold." "My clients think that I roll over every time a cop says "boo,"" "I'm looking for a new line of work." "Damn it, my dad's in trouble!" "If you know anything about where he is, you have to tell us." "Alexis, it's not that simple." "Yes, it is." "Please." "Okay, there is something I kept to myself, but it's not gonna help you." "It's a dead end." "Spill." "There was a woman at the storage locker." "We mixed it up a little." "When she kicked me, something transferred from her boot." "I had a lab test it." "It's creosote." "It's a form of coal tar primarily used to treat railway ties." "There are tens of thousands of those ties used in the subway." "You get a copy of the lab report?" "Yeah." "No, tie's not from the subway." " What?" " How do you know?" "No traces of any steel dust or any other pollutants." "My guess is that the rail road tie's new." "I'll call MTA." "See where they store those things." "Thank you." "Where is she?" "Where's your wife, Castle?" "I don't know!" "I swear!" "That is the wrong answer." "Tell me where your wife is." "Tell me where she is." " Where is she?" " I don't know!" "Come on, Castle." "No woman is worth dying for." "Come on." "Where is she?" "!" "I believe that you're telling the truth." "I do." "I believe that you're telling me the truth." "But unfortunately, that means it's time for you to die." "Sorry about that." "Hey." "Lights out." "Aah!" "Castle." "Are you okay?" "Where have you been?" "Why haven't you called?" "I couldn't." "Kate, what's going on?" "I..." "I've got to go." "No, no!" "No, Kate..." "Kate, why are you shutting me out?" "Castle, I love you." "Kate." "Kate." "Kate." "Kate." "Castle!" "Hey, man, you okay?" "Beckett... she was here." "She was here!" "What?" "Where?" "Dad!" "Hey." "Hey, hey, hey." "I'm okay." "I'm okay." "It's okay." "No sign of Katherine Beckett, sir." "E.S.U. says the building is secure." "There's no sign of Beckett." "Why doesn't Beckett trust me?" "She does." "Then why is she keeping me in the dark?" " I don't need protecting." " Yes, you do." "You're a writer, dad." "And you and Beckett are magic together." "But you don't have her training or her skill set." "When you disappeared last year..." "I thought you were dead for two months." "And then you went missing today, and I was so scared." " Honey..." " Beckett has a reason for keeping quiet." "If you love her, you have to trust her." "Finally." "What are we waiting for?" "Let's go give her hell." "Castle, wait." "We got a positive I.D. on the guy running with Beckett." "Great." "Who is he?" "His name is Vikram Singh." "He's a low-level analyst for the Attorney General's investigative office." "In D.C.?" " That's where Beckett worked." " Yeah, but that was two years ago, and she never mentioned anyone named Vikram." "Yeah, as far as we can tell, their paths never crossed." "He's only been on the job a few months." "Then how would Beckett know him?" "We need to call Rachel McCord." "She was Beckett's partner." "McCord's dead, Castle." "Killed yesterday in an automobile accident, along with three other members of her team." "That can't be a coincidence." "It's not." "The last member of her team was stabbed to death at a club that same night." "Witnesses saw him flirting with a hot brunette." "This doesn't make any sense." "What does any of this have to do with Bracken?" "Well, let's go ask her." "For someone who says they've got a lot of downtime, you sure have been a busy girl." "Staging car accidents, stabbings in D.C., kidnapping me at gunpoint in New York." "Tell me, do assassins get frequent-flier miles?" "Ah, but you didn't fly commercial, did you?" "We ran your photo against every flight from D.C." "So you either road-tripped it or you took a private jet." "And given your arsenal, you people clearly have the resources." "I'm not really sure what you're expecting here." "A tearful confession?" "Not gonna happen." "Well, we are expecting that you're smart enough to know that it's C.Y.A. time." "Look, unless you've got a bag of spiders, we're done here." "You know, you told me I had no idea what was going on, and you were right." "But now I've got the edge of it, and I'm gonna keep on peeling it back until I know everything, with or without your help." "I'll recommend the "with." It comes with less prison time." "Prison's a picnic compared to what happens to me if I talk." "You need to make your peace with the fact that your wife isn't long for this world." "Don't be so sure." "Your team started out with five." "Three of you are dead, and you're sitting right here." "That leaves one... your boss." "And Beckett against one guy?" "I like those odds." "What makes you think there's only one team in play?" "All right." "Hey." "I just got off the phone with an assistant A.G. In D.C., an Allison Hyde." "She's leading the investigation in the deaths of her people." "She's up on the first plane in the morning to take our hitter into federal custody." "Does she have any idea of this Vikram guy's connection to Beckett?" "No, but she's pulling his records." "So, we're nowhere." " Gun!" " Gun!" "Gun!" "Everybody, get down!" "Look out!" " I'm gonna do something." " Don't be stupid." "Where's the fun in that?" "Shooter's down!" " Are you okay?" " Yeah." "Come on." "L.T. Stay down." "We got two officers down." "Hurry up!" " Oh, sweetie, don't look." " Why did she do it?" "There's no way she thought she could escape." "It wasn't about escape." "She knew her fate was sealed as soon as she got caught." "That's why she went out on her own terms." "And made sure we stay in the dark." "Damn it, Kate." "Where are you?"