Expect the worst. These guys are beyond dangerous.
Let's go.
Ripped & Corrected By mstoll
Don't move! Show me your hands!
Is that all the guys you brought?
How you holding up, kiddo?
Oh. This separation thing is getting really old.
I know,
but Katherine is at a crossroads.
The loss she suffered when she was young
has just changed her in ways that she's just now beginning to realize.
Can your mother give you a little unsolicited advice?
- No. - Too bad.
I need to work on my material.
- Material? - Didn't I tell you?
I'm writing a book.
Unsolicited Advice by Martha Rodgers.
That's...
That's actually a great idea.
I know, isn't it?
Oh, and your agent loved it, too.
- My agent? - Never you mind that.
Just listen.
Have faith.
Things between you and Katherine
have a tendency to just work themselves out.
I think it's probably good that she's out of town for a couple of days
because a little time apart is just what you need.
What I need is a distraction.
The burglary at what has been labeled "New York's most secure building"
is clearly a black eye for billionaire developer Ronald Booth,
who is keeping quiet about exactly what was stolen,
but had this to say earlier...
Hi. Welcome to Richard Castle Investigations.
Wow.
You grew up nice.
I'm sorry. Do I know you?
Old friend of your dad's.
Ethan Slaughter.
Of course.
Yeah, let me just tell him you're here.
DEFCON One. Slaughter is here.
Here?
- Like right behind the door, here? - Yeah.
What does he want?
I don't know. He just said he was an old friend.
That can't be good.
Is that the old friend who almost got you killed a few years ago?
Yeah. Like six times. Okay.
I... Uh...
I can handle this. I'll just...
I'll just tell him...
I'll just tell him I'm not interested
in whatever he... Whatever it is.
Hey, Sherlock. Long time no see.
Hey, Slaughter!
Buddy. How you been?
Not enough shootouts, but otherwise, stellar.
Yeah! You're not going to find many shootouts around here.
Oh.
So, good seeing you, you should come back again sometime.
Not so fast. We've got some business to discuss.
What kind of business?
Ma'am, I don't believe we've had the pleasure.
Don't "ma'am" me, darling, I'm Martha Rodgers.
Richard Castle is my son.
And the last time you two did business together,
he was on anti-anxiety medication for a month.
She's kidding. Kidder.
It was just a few weeks.
You got a real mama lion here, Sherlock.
But no reason to worry.
What I'm here about won't put you in a lick of danger, I promise.
Hmm. And what's that?
A case I'm working on I need help with,
a high-end burglary in this big, shiny building in Midtown.
The most secure building in New York?
I just watched a news report about it.
Yeah. Seems somebody was able to bypass the alarm system
and steal themselves some sort of top-secret microchip.
The whole thing's a little above my intellectual pay grade,
so I thought Sherlock here could help me out.
I thought you were gang task force.
Oh, yeah, I got tired of that.
I moved on to a whole new class of dirtbags.
I'm flattered you thought of me, but I'm just...
I have... My schedule is so full...
- Yeah, we're swamped. - Completely swamped.
Completely.
Okay.
You don't have to tell me twice. I got it.
Great to see you again, Sherlock.
I had some stories I was gonna tell you to help you with your next book.
Like this time I was chasing this cartel hit team
through the sewers for three days.
But that's just gonna have to be for another time.
Ciao!
Cartel hit team.
Be strong, Richard.
In the sewers.
- Oh! Ah! - Slaughter! Wait!
- I'm in. - Outstanding.
What's our first move?
Lower East Side, a guy I know named Victor Lee.
Victim's name is Victor Lee.
30-year-old male. Died of exsanguination
from that giant knife in his neck.
Killed between 10:00 and 2:00 last night.
All right, let's find out who Victor was talking to.
What about that bruising on his face?
That's older. Looks like someone worked Mr. Lee over
within the last 24 hours.
Any hope of getting a print off that murder weapon?
Doubtful. Looks like it's been wiped clean.
Hey, Espo.
Guess who the last person our victim called was?
Do you know how hard it is for me to not say "your mama" right now?
Slaughter?
Hey. What the hell happened to my guy?
Castle. Slaughter.
This is not a pairing I would've expected.
- I know, right? - Huh?
I mean, together again. Yay!
- You got any leads? - Yeah.
We got our victim calling you last night. Care to share what you talked about?
Victor was my CI.
Best damn snitch I ever had!
'Cause he wasn't a criminal. He managed some burger joint.
But he grew up with a rogue's gallery of lowlifes.
Just too stupid not to keep bragging to him
about all the crimes they were committing.
So what was he calling you about?
Uh, he was doing some digging on this burglary I'm investigating.
Well, it looks like that digging might have got him killed.
Are you saying this is my fault?
Was Victor talking to anyone else besides you?
No. He said he was gonna go meet someone.
He didn't give me the name.
All right. Then our first step is to identify that guy.
No, that's our job. This is a homicide investigation.
Tough! It was my case first.
Victor was my guy,
so we're gonna find the rodent that killed him, together.
Come on, Sherlock.
All right. But, Slaughter,
you're gonna keep us in the loop on every move you make.
Of course.
I'm a team player.
I totally lied to those guys.
I already got a line on who Victor might've met with last night.
Don't you think that's information
we should share with Ryan and Esposito?
Nah. Isn't this fun? You and me, together again.
Like Butch and Sundance.
You know they die at the end of the movie, right?
Yeah. What a way to go!
I can't believe it. I just talked to him yesterday.
What did you talk to him about?
Getting back together.
We broke up a few months ago. I got sick of him not keeping his word.
But he said it was going to be different this time.
Told me he was about to come into some big money.
We were talking about taking off together.
California.
I always wanted to live on the beach.
Did he say where this "big money" was coming from?
No.
Would you excuse us for a second?
Do you think Victor might've been involved in stealing that microchip?
No way. He was a straight arrow.
I know you liked the guy,
but he was working a minimum wage job,
while all his criminal buddies were pulling in big cash.
Is it so impossible to believe that he might've given in to temptation?
Yeah, it's possible.
I just hate the idea he was playing me.
Did Victor say who he was meeting with last night?
Some guy named Trucco.
So I looked into Slaughter's burglary case.
The burglars made off with a microchip for a next-gen cell phone.
Prototype is worth north of a million bucks on the black market.
Vikram's looking into the database
Of known fences
to find out who deals in that kind of loot.
Yo. CSU managed to find a print on the murder weapon.
It was hidden under the hilt of the knife.
They get a match in the system?
Yeah, they're sending it now.
Here it is.
What?
Yeah. Got it.
Found Trucco, turns out he's a fence, specializing in high-tech.
What say we go shake his tree?
Sounds good.
Castle.
Where are you?
At the office.
- Is Slaughter with you? - Yeah.
Listen, Castle,
his prints were on the murder weapon.
Slaughter killed Victor Lee.
Everything okay, Sherlock?
- Who you talking to? - Oh, just my mommy...
Mother. Just my mother.
I'm sorry, Mother, what were you saying?
We're headed to you right now.
You're going to the club? How long till you get there?
We're five minutes away.
So just play it cool.
Yeah, don't let on that you're talking to us.
Yeah. No problem.
That ain't your mom.
It's Elvez and Lucky Charms, isn't it?
- There's a slight problem. - Give me that phone.
What are you, Inspector Gadget? This is a gun, not a pen.
You don't keep it in your desk, you strap it to your side.
Or in your case, keep it in your purse.
Please, don't kill me.
I'm not gonna kill you.
Is that what you told Victor before you buried a knife in his neck?
That wasn't me.
Then why were your fingerprints all over the murder weapon?
I gave Victor that knife as a thank-you.
A thank-you...
Flowers are a nice thank-you gift.
A giant Rambo knife, that's psychotic.
Different strokes. But it's the truth.
Just turn yourself in to the boys. They'll treat you fairly.
It ain't that simple.
I may have hit Victor a few times yesterday morning
when he wouldn't look into that burglary for me.
But I didn't kill him.
Says the man holding a gun on me.
Here, take it. Take it!
I didn't tell you any of this before because I know how it looks.
You didn't doubt for a second that I killed Victor.
Neither will anyone else.
So the only way to clear my name is to find the real killer.
So...
Why come to me?
'Cause I got a lot of enemies.
What I don't got is a friend.
I need a friend, Sherlock.
Where's Slaughter?
He's gone. He left a few minutes ago.
- What happened? - He insisted he was innocent.
Said he gave that knife to Victor as a gift.
A gift?
What's wrong with a nice bottle of wine?
I know, but, guys, I got to tell you,
he really seemed like he was telling the truth.
Forget it.
You can't trust a word of what that guy says.
You above all people should know that, Castle.
It was only a matter of time until he crossed the line and got caught.
You're just lucky to be alive.
Stay away from him.
I do not like lying to those guys.
But you were right. They're not going to give you the benefit of the doubt.
You're a good man, Sherlock.
Now we're neck-deep in this, together.
Then we better get to work.
Ryan and Esposito are good cops. They're going to find you.
All right, let's go hang Trucco out a window
till he talks or we lose our grip.
Vámonos, muchacho.
So where is this guy?
My source says he'll be here.
Hey, any chance that smoking wife of yours
is gonna come hunting for me, too?
It might be worth getting caught if she does the cuffing.
Um...
No. Beckett and I are sort of on a time-out right now.
Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.
Thanks.
So, uh, what happened?
I don't know.
She just said she needed time to figure things out.
- Women. - Yeah.
If you're looking for a rebound,
my cousin Shauna's got a nympho roommate.
Um, I'm good. I'm good, thanks.
All right, suit yourself.
Nothing makes a woman want you more than moving on.
Okay, conversation's over.
And another thing.
This time, you need me, so we're gonna play by my rules.
And what rules are those?
You're not going to hurt anybody,
you're not going to intimidate anybody,
you're not even going to raise your voice.
You do, and I'm out.
You're kidding, right?
No.
Okay. Deal.
Hey, Trucco!
Time to pay the piper, buddy.
Hey, hey, hey. What did I just say?
Huh? Oh.
Oh.
My apologies, Mr. Trucco.
My name is Detective Slaughter, this is Castle.
We'd like to have a little chat with you about a Victor Lee.
Never heard of him.
Mr. Trucco, we both know that you fence high-tech items for a living.
And that you had a deal with Victor Lee
to move a certain microchip that he stole.
Now, unless you want us to go check out your place
and see if we can find any stolen merchandise,
I strongly recommend you tell us what we want to know.
And what's that?
Did you buy a stolen microchip
- from Victor last night? - No.
- Ass clown, I'll tear your face off... - Dude.
Please, sir, tell us the truth.
I am.
Look, Victor and his partner were supposed to meet me last night,
but they never showed.
Who's his partner?
I don't know. But from the way Victor talked about him,
it seems like they weren't going to be partners for long.
- You thinking what I'm thinking? - Uh... Probably not.
That maybe Victor got greedy, tried to double-cross his partner?
And the partner might've killed him for it.
Nice going, Sherlock. See, we make a perfect team. Let's go.
- What was that? - What was what?
Hey, check this out.
Traffic cam caught Victor parked
a block away from where the microchip was stolen.
That is Victor right before the burglary.
And there's someone with him.
Must be a partner. Is there a better look?
Nope.
What if that's Slaughter? I spoke to his captain.
Slaughter was reassigned from gangs
because a dealer accused him of pocketing 20K during a drug bust.
Word is, Slaughter was about to be suspended,
quite possibly kicked off the job.
Which means bye-bye pension.
The microchip burglary might've been Slaughter's retirement plan.
And if Victor tried to double-cross him...
Slaughter would've put him down.
But why involve Castle in all of this?
Maybe Victor hid the microchip before he died.
Slaughter couldn't find it,
and so he thought he could fool Castle into using his unique brain
to help him find it.
It's a good thing Castle's not dumb enough to fall for that.
So, where do you think the chip is?
If Victor's partner didn't sell it to Trucco,
- then they probably still have it. - Ah-ha-ha-ha.
Oh, who's the talent?
Slaughter, this is Hayley.
Hi.
No wonder you weren't interested in that nympho roommate, huh?
- I'm sorry, what? - No... Just forget it.
Um, Hayley just started working with me as a consultant.
Yes, Rick has asked me to suss out the break-in at Booth Tower.
Oh, and she speaks British. That's hot.
Wow. It's always a pleasure meeting one of your friends, Rick.
He's really not... Just...
Please ignore him. Did you find anything?
Of course I did.
So the security system at Booth Tower is definitely cutting-edge.
It would've taken a genius-level digital locksmith
to get through the several layers of the alarm system.
Genius? That sure as hell ain't Victor. Or anyone he hangs with.
You sure about that?
'Cause I did some digging,
and it turns out that Victor volunteered as a mentor
to an underprivileged 16-year-old boy named Louis Prince.
Now, I hacked Louis' records, and he has quite the history of violence.
Turns out he has been in and out of several juvenile detention facilities,
and he was kicked out of four high schools.
Doesn't sound too smart to me.
- Is that his IQ? - Oh, yes.
190.
He's like a criminal Good Will Hunting?
Yeah.
And it looks like he's graduated to murder.
Louis has had a rough life.
He was abandoned by his father when he was five.
Then he was raised by his mother,
who has to work two jobs to support him.
The kid was on his own 20 hours a day.
Not all latchkey kids wind up killers.
Yeah, they're not all Einstein-level geniuses either.
Louis was... Honestly, was just too smart.
And he didn't have anyone to help nurture his talent.
So all he could do was lash out.
That's when I first met him.
I knew right away he was the perfect candidate for Operation Mentor.
What he needed more than anything
was a strong male role model to look out for him.
- That was Victor. - Eventually, yes.
But Louis went through five other mentors first.
I got a lot of pressure to kick him out of the program.
Victor was my last shot.
But they hit it off right away. And Louis started getting better.
You know, Detective, you should consider becoming a mentor.
Yeah, I'm not role model material.
He's really not.
You never know. I wasn't always a counselor.
I used to chase money around Wall Street for 15 hours a day,
but this here, this is definitely more fulfilling.
Yes, I imagine so.
Now, if Victor were to use Louis' genius to help commit a crime,
that would have been quite a betrayal of trust, wouldn't it?
Enough to make him snap and kill his mentor?
Well, Victor was the first person that Louis ever trusted,
besides his mom.
So finding out he'd been betrayed would have been pretty devastating.
Any idea where Louis might be hiding?
I don't know. Sorry.
Oh. Uh, thank you very much for your time, Mr. West.
We got to go.
- Now. - Oh, yeah. Thanks.
Mr. West,
I'm Detective Ryan and this is Detective Esposito, NYPD.
We just have a few questions about a kid that Victor Lee was mentoring,
named Louis Prince?
It's possible that he might have some information
that can help us solve a crime.
That's funny. You guys just missed the two other cops that were here.
They were asking about Louis, too.
Yes. Got it.
Hayley managed to track Louis down using the IP address on his computer.
I have an address.
Thank you very much for doing this, Hayley.
I have another call. Thanks.
- This is Castle. - You lied to us?
Oh, well, when you put it that way...
Castle, no... This is not funny.
What are you doing running around with our murder suspect?
Hey, Slaughter didn't kill anyone.
All right? I promise you.
He wants to find Victor's killer just as much as we do.
Really? Did he tell you why he's not working gangs anymore?
Yes. He said he got bored.
No. He got demoted,
he's under investigation for robbing a drug dealer.
You robbed a drug dealer?
Hell, no! That's a BS charge.
Slaughter's about to lose his pension, Castle.
We figured that he teamed up with Victor to steal that chip
and then he got greedy.
Give me that. Hey, Detective, get your head out of our butt.
Yeah, sure, I might've tuned Victor up a little bit,
but I didn't kill him.
You're wasting your time chasing after me,
you should be after the kid.
Hello?
You know you can just take the SIM card out, right?
I lose more phones in this line of work.
If I wanted to just walk away, you'd let me, right?
Having second thoughts?
I think that's reasonable, given your history.
You mean given our history.
Hey! Hey! Freeze!
Stay with the kid, Sherlock.
Whoa. Relax, relax. We're not here to hurt you.
Please... Please, stay away from me.
Come here.
You're okay. Come on.
We're just trying to figure out what happened to Victor.
I didn't kill him. I swear.
Hey, hey.
No one's saying you did, okay?
Really?
Not your proudest moment, huh?
I don't think he did it.
Sure he did.
You didn't see his face.
He was scared and young.
That's not the face of a killer.
We're all killers, Castle,
when push comes to shove. Come on!
Do I still have to play nice?
- No. - Good.
Now, you're gonna tell me what you're doing here
or I'm gonna pull your dipstick up to your chin like a zipper.
Okay, I came for the kid.
Why?
'Cause he's the key.
- I'm going to start zipping. - No, wait.
Look, I work for a crew that specializes in high-end B&E's.
Run by a guy named David Lacey.
I know Lacey. He gives sociopaths a bad name.
So you guys helped Victor steal the microchip?
No.
See, now he's insulting our intelligence.
Go get the shower curtain. This is gonna get a little messy.
No, it's true.
Victor and the kid pulled off the microchip job alone.
To send a message.
What kind of message?
Victor was going around town
boasting that he had the key to any lock.
Meaning Louis.
The kid invented a device that could disarm any alarm system,
no matter how complex.
So breaking into the Booth Tower
put the town on notice that Victor's services
were available to the highest bidder.
So Victor was using Louis.
Only your boss, Lacey, wasn't interested in paying Victor's price.
So Victor ends up dead, you come here, pick up the kid free of charge.
Slaughter!
Put your hands up right now!
Do it! Now!
Easy with that. It's a little more weapon
- than you're used to. - Yeah.
You have the right to remain silent.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Heard it all before.
We're gonna need another unit to transport a second suspect. Thank you.
Espo. Espo, he didn't kill Victor.
And if my instincts are right, neither did Louis.
Which means there is a 16-year-old kid out there,
alone, with a very dangerous crew after him.
We're gonna need all hands on deck to find him.
It's not gonna happen, Castle. Slaughter's going in.
And you're lucky I don't arrest you, too,
for aiding and abetting.
- Espo, please. - No, Castle.
I'm not changing my mind on this. Ryan.
Ryan, where are we with that lead unit?
- What the hell? - I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that.
What just happened?
Castle just stole our murder suspect
and our car.
- What are you laughing at? - What are you laughing at?
Javi, I think they know.
They don't know.
The patrol unit totally bought our story about our car breaking down.
Yo! Take him to holding.
- Thanks. - Hey. Come here.
What happens when we don't get the car back
to the motor pool at the end of our shift?
I think we should call Beckett.
And tell her what?
That her husband staged a jail break right under our noses?
Well, technically, your nose.
But that's not the point.
We just need to find Castle and Slaughter.
We'll be safe here until we figure out our next move.
This can't be your place.
Why not?
Two reasons. One, we're both fugitives,
hiding in either of our apartments would be a terrible idea.
Two, I picture your décor
less Architectural Digest, more Guns & Ammo.
It's my ex-wife's. She's, uh, out of town.
Oh.
I had no idea you were married.
- What's her name? - Maddie.
And I take it Maddie's a fan of the opera?
She's a mezzo-soprano with the New York City Opera.
I'm sorry, Maddie? As in Madeleine Corday?
I've seen her perform.
She's an absolute revelation.
I just can't picture her
with you.
How would you even meet her?
College.
We had the same major...
You majored in opera singing?
No.
Musical theater.
- You? - Yeah.
And if you tell anyone,
I'm gonna force-feed you your spleen, through your nose.
Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm trying to be scared.
I just keep picturing you doing jazz hands.
Where's Castle?
I have no idea.
Don't lie to us. We're not in the mood.
Yeah. We had to Uber here.
What? Where's your car?
That's not important.
What is important is that we need to find him now.
Well, we haven't seen him for hours. What's going on?
Castle stole our car after we arrested Slaughter.
I'm sorry. That's really not funny.
It really is, though.
Okay, knock it off.
But, wait, wait, why did you arrest Slaughter?
According to Dad, he didn't kill Victor Lee.
- That's not the point. - It's kind of the point.
Look, we had reason to believe that Slaughter killed Victor.
But now we're not so sure.
Well, I can tell you this,
that genius kid, Louis, definitely didn't kill him either.
- How do you know that? - While I was tracking
his IP address with Castle,
I noticed that during the time of the murder,
Louis was at a coffee shop in Brooklyn.
And a barista remembers seeing him.
Which makes David Lacey our prime suspect.
Who's this Lacey guy?
He runs a heist crew with a trail of bodies.
We got one of his soldiers in holding, but he's not talking.
Wait, is my dad in danger?
We really need to find him.
Fast.
Yum, yum, yum.
Oh.
Try that.
Ah...
Who are you?
I do some of my best thinking when I'm cooking.
It's what got me through my divorce.
What happened with you and Maddie?
Her career took off, mine failed to launch.
I got jealous.
It went downhill from there.
What really happened with you and your wife?
I told you, I don't know.
You're too smart to be talking this stupid, Sherlock.
If you really love that broad, you figure out what the problem is,
and you do something.
Hey, it's the kid.
Oh, God, not you again.
I'm looking for Detective Slaughter.
- Yeah, he's... - Hey.
Victor told me that if I ever got into trouble, to find you.
He said that you'd look out for me.
He did?
Yeah, yeah. Of course I will.
Wait a minute, how did you find him here?
I hacked his life.
You what my life?
I used a cryptographic generator I created
to get your social security number.
After that, it was simple guess work.
I went through your credit cards, your bank statements,
and when I discovered that you had an ex-wife
who's currently performing in Italy,
I found it odd that her home alarm system
had recently been disarmed.
I knocked down a few firewalls, got into your ex's calendar,
and discovered the housekeeper doesn't come until Thursday.
So I assumed it was you,
I hacked her desktop's IP address and here I am.
Maybe I should be calling him Sherlock.
Someone's here.
Hey, kid, tell us where you are, and then I want you to hide.
I'm at a warehouse...
Hey!
Damn it, we lost him.
Maybe not. Look at the wall.
What is that?
It's a fumigation notice.
You can just make out the company name and the phone number.
I really think we should call for backup.
Screw that. Come on.
I see the kid. He's tied to a chair.
Looks like he's being interrogated.
By how many?
I only see one. Come on.
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!
You don't even have a gun.
It's just one guy. Come on.
Hey, buddy.
- Nice. - Piece of cake, huh?
What's the matter, kid?
Huh?
I guess we should've called for backup.
Do you think?
Okay, chuckleheads.
Killing a police officer is not exactly a good addition to your rap sheet.
Or a best-selling author.
It's kind of hard to charge us with murder
if nobody ever finds the bodies.
Should I take the kid out of here?
No, let him watch.
This way he knows what's going to happen to him
if he doesn't do exactly what I ask.
What the hell are you doing?
Hey, knock it off.
Sherlock, we're gonna die here, let's at least try to do it like men, huh?
Will somebody please shoot these guys!
- Fight scene! - Fight scene!
Sorry.
Don't move! Show me your hands!
Is that it?
Is that all the guys you brought?
You think we enjoy this?
Hey, thanks for coming for me.
Victor wasn't wrong about you.
Yeah, but I was wrong about Victor.
He was a crappy role model.
And you're a crappy singer.
Hey, you nail Lacey and his crew?
Yeah, they'll be doing some serious time
for kidnapping and attempted murder.
Whoa. Why aren't they getting charged with actual murder?
Because none of them killed Victor.
They were at a restaurant in SoHo at the time of Victor's homicide.
So we're right back to square one?
Not necessarily.
Louis, is there anything you can remember about Victor's death?
Nothing. I swear.
But you and Victor, you did use your device
to break into Booth Tower and steal that microchip, right?
Victor came to me with the idea.
All right, he was sick of living paycheck to paycheck.
Promised to split the profit
that we got from selling the chip to Booth's competitor.
And I could take care of my mom for once.
But when he didn't show up for the chip, I didn't know what to do.
Wait, you have the chip?
Now, was that part of the plan?
No. And when we were leaving the tower,
Victor started getting all weird.
Why? What happened?
I don't know. But he deviated from our plan.
He told me to hang on to the chip, and that he would catch up later.
He said he had to take care of some business.
That was probably part of the bigger score.
What bigger score?
Hate to tell you, kid,
that break-in was never just about stealing that microchip.
It was an advertisement to all the heist crews in town.
For your invention.
Victor was using you.
Hey, I need to speak to somebody in charge.
Mr. Booth, I'm Detective Ryan, this is Detective Esposito.
Oh. So that's the punk who broke into my building
and turned me into a late-night punch line, huh?
We recovered your microchip.
Who cares? Word in private.
Yes.
Gentlemen, as you know, I am a generous supporter of the NYPD.
Be it the Policeman's Ball, or the Widows and Orphans' Fund...
Mr. Booth, is there something you need from us?
A favor.
- A discreet one, I take it. - Yes.
The money I'd lose if a rival brought a version
of that microchip to market before me
pales in comparison to the real fortune that punk kid stole from my building.
What fortune is that?
Earlier today, $50 million was wired from a Cayman Islands account I have.
A private account.
- You mean a secret account? - Yeah.
From my wife. It needs to stay that way.
So I need you to do whatever it takes
to recover my money, quietly, to avoid further scandal.
Do you understand?
What makes you think this kid stole your money?
Well, who else could have?
The account number, the transfer codes,
they were kept in an electronic safe in my office
two floors up from the clean room where he stole the microchip.
I mean, the kid's a genius.
He's got a device that can open any lock, right?
I don't know anything about a Cayman account!
And I sure as hell didn't steal $50 million.
Louis, come on, man, be straight with us.
Yeah, kid, if you took that money, first of all, impressive.
But more importantly, you got to fess up.
Look, it wasn't me!
Guys, I think he's telling the truth.
If Louis stole the money,
why would he go to Slaughter for help in the first place?
Why would we find him hiding in a warehouse?
Look, Sherlock's got a point here, kid's a genius.
With $50 million,
he'd drop off the face of the Earth before we could even blink.
Okay, Louis, is it possible that Victor stole the codes from that safe?
No. No way.
He was with me every second we were inside that building.
So, what are we saying here, someone else broke into that building, too?
Wait.
You said that when you and Victor left the building, he started acting strange,
broke from the original plan
- by giving you the microchip. - Yeah.
Well, maybe he did that because he saw something.
Like what?
Something that made him think
that someone else was piggybacking on the burglary
to pull a heist of their own.
Who else knew about your plan?
No one.
At least not from me.
But maybe from Victor.
Hey, wait a minute.
When we accessed the building's service elevators in the basement,
Victor wedged the door open, but when we left, it was closed.
I assumed it was a draft.
It could've been a second thief.
Hot damn, that's got to be what spooked Victor.
Maybe when Victor said that he had to take care of something first,
it was to confront this piggyback thief.
Which means whoever our second burglar was
not only knew about the plan to rob Booth,
but also had knowledge of where Booth kept those codes for his secret account.
We find that person, we find our killer.
We're missing something, gentlemen.
More specifically, we're missing someone.
A person who knew Victor and Louis were planning their heist,
and had intimate knowledge of Booth's finances.
We'll find our killer in the intersection of that Venn diagram.
Only question is, who could that be?
Oh, come on, Espo.
You're not really gonna charge Louis, are you?
He broke the law, Castle. It's not Monopoly.
There's no get-out-of-jail-free card.
Grand theft.
Even though he's a minor, he's looking at real time.
The kid never stood a chance.
All his life, he'd been taken advantage of by adults
who should be acting like his role models.
Hey.
- What's up, man? You got something? - Uh... Oh, yeah.
While questioning Mr. Booth about his Cayman Island accounts,
he told me that they were set up a mere five years ago.
Yeah?
- So? - So...
Guess who worked at the accounting firm that originally set them up.
I'm just glad you guys were able to find Louis
before something horrible happened to him.
Yes, we got lucky. Please, have a seat.
Poor kid, he's been through so much.
You know, I'd like to testify as a character witness on Louis' behalf
when his case goes to trial.
That's very kind of you, Mr. West.
But won't you be too busy with your own trial?
My trial? What are you talking about?
We know.
You know what?
Well, for starters, you didn't always work with at-risk youth.
No. I mean, I've had other jobs. So?
So, you were Mr. Booth's accountant,
where you worked on his most sensitive matters.
Like setting up tax shelters in offshore banks.
Well, yeah. But the work was unfulfilling, so I left
because I wanted to give back to the community...
No, you wanted to give back to Mr. Booth's wife.
But she didn't appreciate your sexual advances,
so Mr. Booth fired your ass.
Yeah, you lost your job, you lost your pension,
all those stock options.
All right, listen, I know how this looks...
Your reputation was ruined.
The only job you could get was working with juvenile delinquents.
Not exactly the cushy life you were used to.
So you heard about Louis' invention,
and you saw not only a way to get back on top...
But also get revenge on your former boss, who ruined your life.
That's why you convinced Victor to pull that heist, didn't you?
So that you could go in right behind him
and steal those Cayman Island bank codes.
Well, that is an imaginative story.
You got a surprise twist, revenge,
all that's missing is the proof.
Like records of the bank transfers on your home computer?
We got a warrant for your place, Mark.
We also have a credit card receipt for a cab ride
that you took to Victor's apartment on the night he was murdered.
It's over, Mr. West.
Look, Victor wasn't supposed to know what I was doing.
All right. But somehow he found out. And he confronted me at his apartment.
Now, I panicked. Okay? I...
I didn't mean to kill him.
I... You have to believe me. That was not...
Ah, come on, it ain't that bad, kid.
- We caught the bastard, didn't we? - Yeah.
But I'm still going to prison.
How much time am I looking at?
Maybe none.
What? How?
You're a good kid, Louis.
Too good to be rotting in a cell for a few bonehead decisions.
So from now on, I'm gonna personally see to it
that you got someone looking out for you.
That you got a cool role model.
You mean Mr. Castle?
No.
Me.
Really?
You bet.
First thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna use my pull
to get the Mayor to ask the DA to reduce your sentence
down to probation.
You've got that kind of clout with the Mayor?
Hell, no, but Castle does.
And I'm gonna see to it that he makes that call.
Or else.
So you're gonna beat up Mr. Castle if he doesn't do what you ask?
Some role model.
Yeah, you got a point.
Looks like the two of us are gonna have to do
some role modeling for each other.
Sound good?
Uh-oh. You've got that dumb look on your face again.
Um...
I don't know. I'm just confused about Beckett.
That makes two of us.
I mean, how does a hot lady like that fall in love with a guy like you?
Especially when there's a real man like me running around.
Okay, Slaughter, you know, I'll take a lot of crap from you,
but not about Beckett. It's not a joke to me.
Just trying to get your attention, Sherlock.
Look, I don't know much,
what I do know is that lady has it bad for you.
And you feel the same.
Your point?
Whatever's going on with Beckett,
she shouldn't have to go through it alone.
Yes, well, I've tried. She won't let me in.
Then quit asking permission.
I lost my wife
because I wasn't man enough to put her needs ahead of mine.
Don't make the same mistake.
You know what, Slaughter,
for all your bluster and bravado,
you are actually a wise and, dare I say, sensitive...
Whoa! Stop right there.
Only you could take two guys talking about a chick and make it weird.
- Sorry. - Yeah.
Me, too. Every time.
Thank you.
Whatever, Sherlock.
Ripped & Corrected By mstoll