(OBJECT CLANGS)
(CLATTERING)
Ripped By mstoll
Oh, my God! It's Lance DeLorca.
Really? This was in fashion in the '90s?
Yeah, I used to rock that in school with my Doc Martens.
You do realize we have a full range of All-Clad at home?
Except this one's my favorite.
My nonna used to make me scrambled eggs in it
- when I was little. - Gotcha.
Okay, so I'm gonna leave the rest of this kitchen stuff here
for when my cousin Sofia moves in.
You know, I don't think I'm gonna miss this place.
What do you mean?
Well, the floors creak,
and we can hear everything Mr. Kubiak does in his bathroom.
You never said anything about it before.
That doesn't matter now. You're moving out.
(CELL PHONE RINGS)
(CELL PHONE BEEPS)
Beckett.
(INDISTINCT SIREN WAILS)
- (INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS) - BECKETT: Thanks.
CASTLE: You okay?
Yeah, sure. I'm fine.
ESPOSITO: Which can't be said for our dead guy.
Usher was closing up last night around 11:30, saw someone fleeing the scene.
That's when he found the body.
Did he see what that someone looked like?
Just a figure in a dark coat.
As far as our vic goes, there's no wallet, no ID, no cell.
But the usher thinks he might be...
Lance DeLorca.
Who's Lance DeLorca?
He's that guy!
He's one of the biggest action heroes of the 1980s,
and a huge role model from my youth.
Okay, well, he does look a little familiar.
A little? He's the star of all the Hard Kill movies.
Ex-Navy SEAL, Zen master Rico Cruz,
with the catchphrase, "Time to hit Cruz control"?
Yeah, I was never a fan.
RYAN: Me neither. What's he done lately, anyway?
- Yeah, right? - Beat leukemia.
Yeah, he hadn't acted in years.
Suffered a couple of setbacks
due to drugs, alcohol, and some box office flops.
But Lance lived in LA. I wonder what he was doing in town.
And at this theater. Did he come here to watch one of his own movies?
The usher said no.
And there was no ticket stub found on the body.
There is perimortem bruising on his hands and torso.
Castle's idol must have gotten into a fight not too long before he died.
Cause of death is clearly strangulation by ligature.
A narrow ligature, from the looks of it.
RYAN: Made by a thin wire, tied to two wooden dowels.
CSU found this in the dumpster.
A garrote? Who would use one of those?
Special Forces will sometimes, when you want to kill quietly.
The bigger question is, how'd they get the drop on Lance DeLorca?
Uh, Lance played an action hero, Castle. Doesn't mean he was one.
(SPEAKING FRENCH)
Lance was born in Spain,
where, before he became an actor, he was a member of the CNI.
The Spanish Intelligence Agency.
He was Black Ops. This man was a lethal weapon.
Yeah, well, not lethal enough.
Have CSU take a look at the murder weapon for prints.
I'll get ahold of his next of kin.
We'll see if they know who might have done this to him.
Every man has his price, El Jefe. Name yours, and we can end this.
There he is.
Lance DeLorca, as Rico Cruz, squaring off with El Jefe,
the ruthless drug lord, played by Henry Boothe.
See, in this scene,
El Jefe has just abducted a brilliant but buxom archeologist
from a dig in Cartagena.
Now, Rico is trying to pay him ransom to get her released.
EL JEFE: You play a dangerous game, se ñor.
I got your zero, Rico.
- You need backup, just say the word. - "You need backup, just say the word."
- I'll take 'em all out. - (GIGGLES)
I was raised by a single mother. Hard Kill was how I got my bro-time.
That explains so much.
Mmm-hmm.
That's Rico's partner in all the Hard Kill movies.
Booker Dane, played by Brock Harmon.
Yeah, the guy from The Indestructibles movies.
Where all the bad-ass action heroes band together for one last mission.
Before they die of old age.
Hey! That's a great film. And so is the sequel.
El Jefe's henchwoman, played by Brock's wife, Naomi Duvray.
The one in the black.
Get your hands off me.
Shut up!
There she is, Mr. Cruz. Your precious archeologist.
The redhead? She's an archeologist? That strains credibility.
Yeah, in a good way.
Hard at work investigating, I see.
Uh, actually, I just called TSA.
And Lance flew into town two weeks ago.
We're still trying to run down where he was staying.
ESPOSITO: And I had CSU take a look at that garrote.
There's no prints or DNA, but it's made out of a high-strength monofilament.
And I found the next of kin.
- The archeologist? - Yeah, Lance married the actress.
Her name is Kat Kingsley.
I know what her name is.
While you were having your B-movie festival, I tracked her down.
She's in New York.
She's shooting a film, and she's on her way in now.
She's coming here?
I had her poster on my wall for, like...
For about a minute.
Hmm.
You know, maybe you should sit this one out, Castle.
This doesn't seem real. Like it's just a bad dream.
Miss Kingsley, do you know of anyone
that would have wanted to harm your husband?
No, of course not.
And when was the last time you talked to him?
It was a week ago.
We tried to meet for lunch, but it never worked out.
A week ago? The two of you weren't staying together?
We were getting a divorce.
I saw Lance through his cancer treatment,
but after all the years, the highs, the lows, neither of us had anything left.
I mean, it was all amicable.
Do you know what he was doing in town?
He was shooting a film with his old partner, Brock Harmon.
What film?
Uh, the next Indestructibles movie. Brock's directing.
In fact, Lance was staying with him.
So if there was trouble, Brock would know about it.
MAN: Go, go, go!
(MEN GRUNTING)
- This is so cheesy. - (SHUSHING)
And by "cheesy," she means amazing.
Come on, behold the miracle of cinema.
The real miracle is how a girl like that is hanging out with a bunch of guys
who are old enough to be her grandfather.
That's Serafina.
The mixed-martial-arts star. She could beat all those guys to a pulp.
Who's that guy?
Didn't you make me watch a movie with him in it?
CASTLE: Rolf Magnus.
He's a Nordic bodybuilder, card-carrying member of Mensa.
I don't know, Castle. Maybe I just like the old-school guys.
You know, like Eastwood, Bronson, McQueen. Real actors.
Well, then check out Clay Biggs.
Graduated top of his class at Juilliard, in contrast to Brock Harmon,
who made his on-screen debut as a porn star known as Brock the...
- Cut! That's a cut. - (BELL RINGS)
Steve, get me something that works, or get a new job.
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS)
Thank you. (SIGHS)
Mr. Harmon, Detective Beckett. This is Mr. Castle.
Hi, Mr. Harmon. Huge fan. Huge fan.
(STAMMERING) It's an honor to meet you.
The honor's mine.
I've passed many an hour in the john reading your books.
We're here about Lance DeLorca.
Ah. Sad day for me. And my family.
NAOMI: Here you go, darling.
Thanks, babe.
Well, if you're a fan of mine, you know my wife, Naomi Duvray.
- And her jewelry line, too, I hope. - (NAOMI CHUCKLES)
She just launched a spring collection. Nice.
You were just outstanding as El Jefe's henchwoman in Hard Kill. I was... Ooh.
Oh, That is so sweet. (CHUCKLES)
I had a mean roundhouse kick, but I wasn't much of an actor.
Well, never stopped me.
(ALL CHUCKLE)
Oh, uh, this is my son, Trey.
Good to meet you.
Uh, Mr. Harmon, could we speak privately?
Oh, sure.
(GRUNTING)
BROCK: Transplant from a bone-marrow donor.
That's what put Lance in remission, saved his life.
He knew he'd been given a second chance.
He got sober, cleaned up his act.
That's why I gave him a part in the movie.
This could have been his big comeback.
So we understand that he was staying with you.
How did he seem?
Quiet. Secretive, I'd even say.
Lance was always a man of few words, but even fewer this time out.
Any idea what he was doing on the Lower East Side last night at 11:30?
I didn't even know he was in town.
You said he was staying with you.
Right, Lance wrapped last week.
I was told transportation took him straight from the set to the airport.
Okay, well, my detectives will need to speak with the driver,
along with anyone else that Lance knew.
'Course.
Um, what exactly happened? How'd he die?
Um, he was strangled.
With a garrote.
Does that mean something to you?
You know Lance was CNI, right?
BECKETT: Spanish Intelligence.
But what does that have to do with his murder?
Everything.
He was a CNI assassin.
That was his signature. He killed people with a garrote.
Which is why it was used to kill him.
Lance was murdered because he's the Spanish Jason Bourne!
Why, Castle? Because a B action movie star in a kimono said so?
Because it makes sense.
Lance was drawing on his experience as a ruthless CNI operative
to play action heroes.
But his shadowy past caught up with him.
Maybe it was revenge for a hit he did back in the day.
Kill him the way he killed.
Castle, he left CNI 30 years ago.
Why would his past catch up to him now?
Mr. Castle might just be right about CNI.
Ah-ha!
How am I right?
Esposito and Ryan are off interviewing folks on the set,
but before they left, they got on to something.
They pulled Lance's phone records,
and the day he died, he made a phone call to Interpol in Spain.
To the office of one Enrique Gomez.
What does Gomez have to do with CNI?
According to his bio, Gomez used to work there.
At the same time Lance DeLorca did.
So Lance reaches out to another ex-agent,
and he's killed with a garrote?
Mark my words, (SIGHS)
This case is gonna lead us into a labyrinthian world of deceit,
villainy and international espionage.
This is better than one of his movies.
After what I saw, it'd have to be.
Yeah, thanks.
Update. I contacted Interpol
to track down that guy Lance called, Enrique Gomez.
Well, it turns out Gomez is here in New York for a meeting at the UN.
Where was he last night at 11:30?
On a red-eye in from Madrid. He arrived early this morning.
So he's not our killer.
But Interpol will send him over here for an interview.
He might have insight on the murder.
Well, I talked to CNI to ask them about Lance's time there,
about missions that he was involved in, enemies that he might have had,
and they are stonewalling me.
Intelligence agencies like CNI
avoid disclosing information on their employees.
But I do have contacts in the State Department.
Let me just ask around.
Great. I've reached out to my guys in Washington as well.
Hey, Beckett. I think we got something from that movie set.
We talked to the driver who took Lance to the airport.
Only that's not what he did.
Lance asked the driver to drop him off at some seedy hotel on Broome Street.
ESPOSITO: And he didn't want anybody to know about it.
He paid the driver 100 bucks to lie and say he dropped Lance off at JFK.
Why would he go to this hotel?
Well, that's where it gets weird.
The unis we sent to canvass said
that Lance had rented a room there for the past week.
Under the name Rico Cruz, his character from Hard Kill.
Uh, okay, have unis check for security video at the hotel,
and let's round up any of Lance's personal effects from his room.
RYAN: Yeah.
Thanks, L.T.
You know, I don't understand.
Why would Lance leave Brock Harmon's Fifth Avenue digs
to go stay in a flophouse?
And without telling anyone. He was definitely up to something.
Hey! A Hard Kill DVD. Looks like Lance was trying to relive the old days.
RYAN: "Time to hit Cruz control."
You know, maybe that's what I need. A catchphrase.
"Time to mete out justice."
"Time for prison time."
Yeah, you keep working on that, bro.
"Time to pay the bill for doing the kill."
Okay, on second thought, don't.
Hey, building schematics?
There's a bunch of weird stuff in this box.
Soldering iron, blue craft paint,
a microphone, a USB drive. Both empty cases.
Looks like he was building something.
Like a recording device.
And then he added stickers to it?
Stickers? What the hell is that about?
I don't know, but the two and five are missing.
Hmm.
"Trey." Hey, this must be Trey Harmon, Brock Harmon's kid.
Why would Lance call him?
He wanted to ask me about the New York club scene.
That's my thing. I'm a club promoter.
But I kind of shut him down, to be honest.
Why is that?
After the cancer, he got sober.
No way I was gonna help him
fall off the wagon and start partying again.
Hmm.
Do you recognize this?
Think it might be the floor plan to a club?
(MAN GROANING)
- BROCK: I barely touched you. - (CLATTERING)
I don't know. I can't really tell what that is.
Did Lance have this?
Yeah, and we don't think that he wanted to party.
Did he explain to you why he was interested in clubs?
Not really.
He just said that there was something he needed to take care of.
CASTLE: "There was something he needed to take care of."
I have a theory!
Great! 'Cause right now, I could use one.
It's a classic action movie plot device.
Lance, his Black Op days long behind him,
decides to go on one final mission.
To vanquish his old nemesis.
Which would be?
Uh, it's a rival assassin, who was once his best friend but then betrayed him.
Or, actually, a Blofeld-style supervillain,
who killed Lance's wife and then disappeared.
Yeah, but Kat Kingsley is still alive.
No, Lance's other wife from his tragic but secret CNI past.
Now, I admit I'm a little sketchy on the details
of the mission and the nemesis,
but bottom line is, Lance embarked on a mission.
The years had caught up with him, he had lost his step.
So he was dispatched by another operative
who was younger, quicker and deadlier.
And possibly female.
Tory screened that security cam video from the hotel and found this.
That's Lance leaving through the hotel lobby on his last day on Earth.
And 10 seconds later, this woman goes after him.
That's her! That's the operative!
She's wearing a dark coat, just like the person who left the crime scene.
She must have trailed Lance from the hotel,
then moved in for the kill.
She's blond, but she might be wearing a wig.
Take a look at her sunglasses
and the way that she's angled her face away from the camera.
She didn't want to be ID'd.
- She may have gotten her wish. - (CELL PHONE CHIMES)
Tory said there's not enough here to run facial recognition.
You know, she's wearing an earring. See if Tory can do something with that.
Enrique Gomez is on his way up.
Maybe he knows who she is.
GOMEZ: No, I don't recognize her.
I'm sad to learn of Lance's death.
What was your relationship with him, Mr. Gomez?
We were close as young men. Less so recently.
Yet he called you just before he died. Why?
Well, he needed a bodyguard. Somebody he could trust.
And I know such people.
But none of them were available on such short notice,
so I couldn't help him.
Why would Lance need a bodyguard?
He didn't tell me, I didn't ask.
You think maybe he was going on one last mission?
Or perhaps his CNI past was coming back to haunt him?
Well, that would be rather unlikely. (CHUCKLES)
You see, Lance didn't have a CNI past.
Why is everyone saying that he did?
Well, we grew up together, but I was the one who went into CNI.
And when Lance came to America,
he asked me to use my backstory
to make himself more mysterious and interesting.
(CHUCKLES) I'm so... I'm sorry, are you...
Are you saying Lance DeLorca wasn't a CNI operative?
Before he started acting, he was a goat-herder. In the Pyrenees.
Hey! So Enrique Gomez's story checks out.
And with his authorization,
CNI confirms that Lance DeLorca was never an agent.
My hero was a liar. And a goat-herder.
Yes, well, despite this deeply personal betrayal,
we still have a murder to solve.
- How? We're back to square one. - Not necessarily.
I mean, there's still that mystery woman that followed Lance from the SRO.
She may not be a mystery anymore.
Is she a goat-herder?
Oh, my God.
I didn't get anywhere with the earrings. They're too common.
But that got me focused on her ear.
Okay. What about it? Looks normal.
It is. But ear biometrics, size, shape, configuration,
are almost as unique as fingerprints.
An entire field of study is devoted to the subject.
- Earology. - Earology.
How did you know that?
FBI seminar.
So you used her ear to identify this woman?
Yes, by isolating the ear and running it against the mugshot database.
When nothing popped,
I ran it against photos of women
who had any connection with Lance DeLorca.
The computer analyzed thousands of images and finally found a match.
With a 99.2% probability that it's this woman.
That's Kat Kingsley!
Lance was killed by his soon-to-be ex-wife?
Hey, so we heard Kat Kingsley was here. Whoa!
RYAN: Now that is a sexy outfit for an interrogation.
It's her costume. They took her right from the set of her movie.
- RYAN: Man, she is really... - ESPOSITO: Hot.
- Holding up well. - Well.
RYAN: What's the movie?
It's direct-to-video. She plays a female Indiana Jones.
She's an archeologist again?
Would it be weird if I asked her to sign this?
When? On her way to jail?
(SOFTLY) It would mean so much to me.
What would her motivation be for killing Lance?
Well, it seems their divorce was a tad messier
than she led us to believe.
So what role are you playing now, Miss Kingsley?
Not the grieving widow.
I need to get back to set
or they're gonna shut down production on Raiders of the Nubian Temple.
Yeah, well, you've got bigger problems than that.
So I talked to Lance's lawyer,
and he said that your divorce was anything but amicable.
We're actors. We're passionate people. Things got stormy at times.
Because you wanted the Malibu house, and he didn't want to give it to you.
That home has sentimental value to me.
Along with monetary value.
I mean, after 20 years, it's worth $8 million.
And with Lance out of the picture, it was all yours.
You think I killed my husband.
BECKETT: You tried to before.
Remember the incident where you discharged a firearm? At him?
I was cleaning it.
I know bad acting when I see it.
This is you, Miss Kingsley,
following Lance hours before he was killed.
I was not following him.
He asked me to meet with him.
And he told you to wear a disguise?
I couldn't be seen with him.
After the gun thing, we were told to avoid contact.
But Lance begged me.
He needed cash. $200,000.
He asked you for a loan?
His assets were all tied-up with the divorce.
I inherited some money. He knew I had access to it.
It wasn't a loan. He sold me his half of the Malibu house.
Are you telling me that he traded you $4 million for 200,000?
How could I pass up a deal like that? I have the promissory note to prove it.
Why did he need the money?
He said he needed to set something right.
That he wanted to live up to the characters he'd played, I think.
I wasn't really listening.
I just wanted him to sign over the house.
I'm just being honest.
Okay, fine. If you're being honest, then why don't you tell me this.
We have a witness that saw a dark figure fleeing the crime scene.
Was that you?
Yes.
Do you want to elaborate on that?
(SIGHS)
Lance called me that night. From a payphone, I think.
He said he was in trouble and that people were after him.
What people?
He didn't say.
But he asked me to pick him up at this theater playing Hard Kill,
that it would be easy to find.
He sounded so desperate. But when I got there
(LOWERED VOICE) he was dead.
Why didn't you tell us this before?
(SOBBING) I panicked.
(SIGHS)
I'm trying to restart my career. I just knew how it might look.
Well, that's because it's exactly how it does look.
(GROANS)
CASTLE: Well, not to me it doesn't. (SIGHS) I don't think she's our killer.
Yes, she's just an innocent archeologist.
My opinion is not affected by her skimpy outfit.
I'm speaking as an objective investigator,
someone who has set their personal feelings aside.
Along with your poster?
Who told you? It was Ryan, wasn't it?
Castle, Kat Kingsley admitted to being at the crime scene.
Yeah, when she didn't have to.
Why admit to that if you're actually guilty?
To make herself look not guilty.
Look, she had motive.
But parts of her story still check out.
The promissory note, the withdrawal from her bank for $200,000.
Lance said he needed the money to set something right.
He needed to live up to his on-screen persona.
Yes, according to our murder suspect.
So here's Lance meeting his bone-marrow donor.
Perhaps surviving leukemia
changed him, drove him to become a better man.
A man more like the hero he portrayed.
That's why when he registered at the hotel, he did so as Rico Cruz.
Because he became Rico Cruz.
What does that even mean?
That despite being an ex-goat-herder with no formal Black Ops training,
Lance took on a mission.
Oh, okay. So we're back to "one last mission," now.
Why else would he have the schematic?
Or the listening device? Or why would he need a bodyguard?
To protect himself from Kat Kingsley.
Yeah, except for her story is still holding up.
That call she says was from Lance,
came from a payphone six blocks from the movie theater.
All right, canvass for witnesses that saw Lance or anyone else by that payphone.
And if he was in trouble, as Kat said,
then let's find out where he was coming from.
We'll get into it. But we might not have anything till the morning.
Okay.
(SOFTLY) You told her about the poster?
I didn't know it was a... (GROANS)
I don't know. Maybe it's the way that he said it that struck a nerve.
Well, tact isn't exactly the man's middle name.
Okay, but it's my place, you know? It's not Castle's.
Who cares if he never liked it?
I don't know why I got so upset.
Because. To him this is just an apartment with creaky floors.
But to you, this is where you rebuilt your life.
Where you solved your mother's murder.
Where you fell in love.
Well, to the best apartment ever.
To the best apartment ever.
RYAN: So we struck gold on that canvass.
Someone saw Lance using the payphone?
No, but they saw him before that, running like hell from an alley.
Which leads us to this security cam video right here.
- (MOUSE CLICKS) - You gotta see it to believe it.
These four guys have got Lance cornered.
Oh, this can't be good.
Who are those guys?
RYAN: I don't know,
but you should wonder what Lance did to have them come after him.
Four thugs against an aging Lance DeLorca?
I don't know that I can watch.
Did you see that?
What Lance just did?
That belongs in one of his movies. He annihilated them.
Yeah, but not for long. Half an hour later, someone annihilated him.
Ah, well, right. But at least this explains the phone call.
When Lance called Kat Kingsley
and said, "I'm in trouble and people are after me,"
this is what he was talking about.
And whoever these guys are, they must have caught up to him.
We find these guys, we'll find our killer.
BECKETT: We can't ID any of these guys off of the surveillance video.
Tory says that the image quality is too poor to run facial recognition.
Or ear recognition.
The key is finding out what happened to Lance
before he wound up in that alley.
Something that required $200,000 and a listening device.
But whomever he went up against sent those four sides of beef after him.
And after seeing the ass-whooping they got, I checked nearby hospitals.
Turns out that an ambulance was called to that area during our time window.
They brought in a heavyset dude to the ER.
He was unconscious, bruised, and had a possible broken jaw.
- All right, let's go talk to him. - ESPOSITO: We can't.
He woke up and checked himself out of the ER
before they could even get his name.
Does the hospital have cameras?
I'm glad you asked that.
This guy
definitely looks like one of the guys from the video.
Wait a second, I know that guy.
Yeah, from the film set. He was dressed in Afghan garb.
Brock Harmon barely tapped him in the face
and he screamed like a baby.
Perhaps because he has a broken jaw.
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS)
AD says his name is Ernest Howe.
He's playing ISIS Militant Number 12.
Not for long. You know what time it is? It's Ryan time.
Please, just stop.
My name is Ryan, and I hate lyin'.
Ernest Howe? NYPD.
We're here to talk to you about Lance DeLorca.
Yeah, it's a bummer that he died.
A little problem with your jaw there, Ernest?
A little TMJ.
You sure it's not from that little altercation you got into the other night?
Look, I don't want any more trouble.
Well, you got trouble. Ryan trouble.
I don't know what that means.
We have you on video.
You and those three mooks attacked Lance,
and he put the hurt on all of you.
But not enough hurt, because one of them killed him.
Judging by your little trip to the ER, it wasn't you.
So why don't you give us the name of your buddies, Ernest?
And whoever put 'em up to this.
You got it all wrong.
Those guys did this to me.
I was on Lance's side. He hired me to be his bodyguard.
Why would Lance need a bodyguard?
He had a meeting at Club Drift.
He wanted backup.
He brought a briefcase. I think it had money in it.
Who did he meet there? What was the money for?
I don't know. They made me wait downstairs.
But the meeting ended quick.
All of a sudden, four security dudes hustle us out,
accused Lance of wearing a wire.
A wire? Why would he be wearing a wire?
Well, I didn't exactly get a chance to ask.
The last thing I remember was a guy's foot flying across my face.
Maybe Lance was wearing a wire.
That would explain the microphone and the USB drive.
Yeah, Ernest said that security didn't find a wire,
and there wasn't one on Lance's body.
But let's say he was all wired up with a briefcase of money.
What the hell was he doing?
It's like Lance was running some kind of half-assed sting operation.
Maybe he was. I spoke to Narcotics.
The club that Lance went to is a major hub for drug sales.
Run by a guy that you're familiar with, Castle.
Is it... Is that Henry Allen Boothe?
ESPOSITO: El Jefe from Hard Kill?
He made a career out of playing drug dealers, and then he quit acting.
And then he began living the part.
Apparently, he spent so much time with drug dealers,
researching his roles, that he actually became one.
Narcotics hasn't been able to make a case against him, though.
This is just like Hard Kill, where Rico Cruz took down El Jefe.
Only now, it's one actor taking on the other actor.
But the other actor actually happens to be a drug dealer!
(BREATHES DEEPLY)
But, again, why would Lance do this? Why would he go after Boothe?
I don't know, but it's so meta. We should really talk to El Jefe.
Oh, believe me, we will.
Yeah, sure, I met with Lance.
BECKETT: What about?
Old times. He wanted to share a drink, relive the glory days.
Just out of the blue?
Why not? Hard Kill did a solid for both of us.
Even after all these years, not a day goes by
where some middle-aged dude doesn't see me and shout "El Jefe!"
I suppose I shouldn't complain. That role bought me this club.
We hear that it did more than that, Mr. Boothe.
(CHUCKLES)
So the movie drug dealer becomes a drug dealer, huh?
It'd be a good story if it were true.
That being said, I don't discourage it.
A good fiction can do wonders for one's reputation.
I've learned that every good fiction contains a kernel of truth.
What happened to the briefcase that Lance brought to the meeting?
The one with $200,000 in it.
Lance had no briefcase.
And I suppose your guys didn't chase him out of here
and then attack him?
Doesn't ring a bell.
We have video.
BOOTHE: Not of my guys.
You're welcome to check. I doubt you'll find any of them here.
And since your next question will be where was I that night,
I'll save you the oxygen.
There are about 20 people downstairs
who can attest that I never left the building after Lance left.
I didn't kill him.
Okay, thanks for your time.
CASTLE: "Thanks for your time"?
Beckett, he was lying.
About the money, about the meeting, about everything.
Of course he was lying.
So why didn't you push harder? Why didn't we check his alibi?
Because we didn't need to.
Since when?
Since I figured out what the numbers five and two meant.
The missing numbers from the sticker sheet?
That number 52 was on a slot car in Boothe's collection.
A blue Shelby Cobra, to be exact.
That's what Lance was building.
He put a listening device inside a replica of one of Boothe's cars.
He must have switched them out when they had that meeting.
Which means that car was recording everything that happened in that office,
including why Lance was there.
And why Boothe had him killed. We need to get that slot car.
We will. We just need a warrant first.
BROCK: I don't understand.
You're telling me you can't get a search warrant?
Even though that son of a bitch Boothe is behind this?
Not unless we can provide evidence that ties Boothe to Lance's death.
And right now, we can't even prove that the two of them met.
Look, Mr. Harmon, we were hoping that you could help us with this.
Did Lance tell you that he was going to the club,
that he was gonna talk to Boothe?
Lance never said a word to me about Boothe or the club. Nothing.
Hell, I thought he was in LA.
I wish I could help you.
BECKETT: Well, you know what?
We'll keep looking for the men that attacked Lance.
We're not giving up.
Castle?
How did Lance know to bug a slot car?
Oh.
Boothe and his collection
- were featured in SlotZone magazine. - Hmm.
So you really think the proof of who killed Lance
is sitting in that little blue Shelby Cobra?
Well, it doesn't matter if we can't get a warrant.
Too bad Rico Cruz isn't around. I bet he'd find a way, right?
So you were a pretty big fan, huh?
Of Hard Kill? No, I was average. Ordinary fan.
Not like I had the Hard Kill pajamas.
Say, the gang and I are going out for drinks later tonight.
How'd you like to come with us?
Castle?
Hey?
You are never gonna believe what just happened.
Brock invited me to go drinking with The Indestructibles.
Me. With them.
But you told them you couldn't because you're in the middle of a case.
- Right? - No. What?
No, I just... What... Isn't it okay if I...
Castle, you really think
that I could stand between you and your boyhood dream?
You are my boyhood dream.
Aw. (CHUCKLES)
Well, you and drinking with The Indestructibles.
You don't always have to keep talking.
- Right. - Yeah.
I'm gonna... I'm gonna go.
I don't know what I'm gonna wear.
I gotta get ready.
CASTLE: (LAUGHING) All right. Okay.
Well, you guys, you have no idea how excited I am to...
Did you guys just come from set or something?
- Son, we came straight from hell. - (ENGINE STARTS)
Let's roll.
So, um,
what's going on?
No warrant is gonna stop us
from getting our hands on evidence to put away Lance's killer.
Somebody takes out one of our own, we take him out.
Oh. Guys...
Hey, listen, if your plan is to go to the club and steal that slot car...
No, no, that would... That would taint the evidence.
Actually, we can compel the DA to consider it
since the car technically belonged to the victim, Lance.
You really are a genius, aren't you?
And also, none of us is an agent of the law.
That's one of the reasons I chose you.
And because you have been in Boothe's office.
You're gonna help us find that slot car.
No. No, no.
Guys, my wife is a cop. If I do this, she'll kill me.
(IMITATING CASTLE) "Oh, my wife's gonna kill me!"
Is that what Rico Cruz would say?
No, but what if we get caught?
BROCK: We're not gonna get caught.
We're The Indestructibles.
Tense up, guys, it's showtime.
BROCK: The plan is simple.
Once we get to the club,
Serafina, Clay, Rolf, go in through the main entrance, take your positions.
(DANCE MUSIC PLAYING)
Serafina, alert us when you have eyes on the rear door.
Falcon is in the nest.
Clay, you and Rolf create a diversion to draw Boothe down to the bar.
Young fella, young fella! We're doing bottle service.
You got some of that Angel? You know, the champagne?
Sure do. Just gonna need your credit card, Mr. Biggs.
If you know who we are,
then you know we haven't paid for a drink since Reagan.
Sir, Angel's a grand a bottle. You understand.
Son, we're here to toast our fallen comrade.
That has-been Boothe too cheap to pay respects?
- BARTENDER: Mr. Boothe? - Yeah?
Got some old friends of yours at the bar. You should come down.
All right, I'm coming down. Yeah.
BROCK: Once El Jefe's on the move, Serafina, you will unlock the villa gates.
Prairie dog is on the plain.
BROCK: And Castle and I will go for the goods,
Hard Kill style.
Okay.
(SOFTLY) Always check.
Okay.
I gotta get going. Great seeing you, man.
Whoa, where are you going?
- I gotta go. Anything you want... - Hey, come on, hang out.
...you can have it on me. Enjoy.
Abort! Abort! Prairie dog pulled a boomerang.
- I got it! - Boothe's on his way back up.
- What? No! - Yeah.
(SOFTLY) Prairie dog is in the burrow.
(SOFTLY) Prairie dog's gonna kill us! We're gonna be killed by a prairie dog!
(ALARM BLARING)
I'm starring in my own action movie. This is the best night ever.
Go!
You're telling me that this was handed to you by a concerned citizen?
Uh...
Yes.
Castle?
This is probably one of those times where I shouldn't keep talking.
For both our sakes.
The recording you are about to hear will provide incontrovertible proof
that Henry Allen Boothe ordered the murder of Lance DeLorca.
(CLICKS KEYS)
Sound's not working.
Hang on a second, this was...
Headphones? Aren't you gonna let me hear it?
And reward you for your semi-illegal behavior? I think not.
I... Fine, I'll put it on speaker.
Seriously? Because if it wasn't for me, we wouldn't even... What?
Lance just walked into Boothe's office.
They're exchanging pleasantries.
And they're getting down to business.
Oh, my God.
What is it?
Oh, my God!
What are they saying? Please just tell me what they're saying.
This is so not what I expected.
Oh, my God!
So what's this about?
Trey, how well do you know Henry Allen Boothe?
Well, if someone owns a club, it's my job to know them.
I met him through my dad. They did a few movies together.
In fact, Boothe invested some seed money
so you could become a club promoter.
Then, as a promoter, you had access to all the clubs in the city.
Boothe used that access to sell drugs in those clubs.
Or so we're told by Narcotics.
I don't hear you denying this, Trey.
I didn't know about the drugs at first.
And once I did, it was too late.
He owned me.
Let me guess. Boothe said you could buy him out,
but at a price he knew you could never afford.
What was it? $200,000?
You didn't tell your parents about any of this, did you?
I wanted to make my own way.
Not have Brock Harmon come to the rescue.
But Lance found out.
He tried to buy out Boothe, pay your ransom.
Just like Rico Cruz did in Hard Kill.
Yeah, and I begged him not to.
This wasn't some movie.
I knew that Boothe wasn't gonna let me go,
and Lance couldn't just walk in there with a bag of money and fix things.
But suddenly he wanted to be a hero.
I told him he was gonna get us both killed.
But he only got himself killed. Trying to save you.
We have an audio recording of Boothe from that night.
How?
Lance bugged his office.
After Boothe kicked Lance out of his office,
he sent his men after him.
Lance gave them a beat-down worthy of an action hero.
That's when Boothe made this phone call.
(CLICKS KEYS)
BOOTHE: Trey, your pal Lance was here.
I think you know why.
He's on the run, somewhere near that theater playing Hard Kill.
He's your problem now.
You need to take care of him, to make this right.
Or I'll take care of you. You do that, Trey.
Get it done.
(CLICKS KEYS)
You were so afraid of Boothe
that you killed Lance in order to save your own skin.
I would never do that.
It sounds like that's exactly what you did do.
Now, what happened after you hung up?
I freaked.
I called my mom. Told her everything, the whole story.
She said to lay low, that she'd call a lawyer.
And then the next morning, Lance was dead.
I figured Boothe's guys got to him.
Look, I was at my office all night. I slept there.
The cleaning crew saw me.
I swear to you, I did not kill Lance.
And I don't know who did.
Tell me, Trey. Why would Lance go through all this trouble to help you?
I don't know.
He just said that the cancer really woke him up,
and that after all this was over,
there were some things that he wanted to tell me.
So the cleaning crew confirmed Trey's story. He is not our killer.
Well, maybe it was one of Boothe's men.
We still haven't ruled them out.
Hey, guys. I just found something very interesting.
The identity of the killer.
RYAN: No, not that.
You know how Trey said that Lance's cancer woke him up?
Well, I just spoke to his doctor.
When Lance got the name of his bone-marrow donor, to thank him,
he found out there was a second donor who was a very close match.
Take a look at that name.
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS)
Have you released Trey yet? He had nothing to do with this.
Actually, Trey has everything to do with this.
I'm not sure I understand.
When Lance needed a bone-marrow transplant,
Trey gave a sample to see if he could donate.
We all did. It was the least we could do.
Except Trey's sample was nearly a match.
Lance must've had his suspicions,
because he ran a paternity test on that sample.
Trey was his son.
No.
He would've been conceived during the filming of Hard Kill.
Which is inconvenient,
since you were already married to Brock.
BECKETT: We spoke to your doorman, Naomi.
He said that you didn't come home until well after midnight
the night that Lance was killed.
So, where were you?
I didn't kill Lance, if that's what you're suggesting.
CASTLE: You're more than capable of it.
You don't just have a mean roundhouse,
you hold two black belts.
Okay, you need to leave.
BECKETT: We matched the wire.
The wire that you used for your jewelry line,
like the necklace that you're wearing right now,
it's an exact match to our murder weapon.
CASTLE: Trey told you that Lance had something important to tell him.
You knew the truth would come out.
Lance would have destroyed everything.
My marriage, my family.
Everything that I spent almost 30 years trying to build.
I couldn't let him do that.
What's going on?
You might be interested to know
that Henry Allen Boothe was just arrested by Narcotics.
I thought they couldn't make a case.
GATES: Well, they couldn't.
But when Trey learned the truth about why Lance really did all this,
he stepped up and decided to testify against Boothe.
So good work, Detective Beckett. Mr. Castle.
Don't stay late. You can finish the paperwork in the morning.
BECKETT: Thank you, sir.
Wow.
Looks like Lance managed to vanquish his nemesis after all.
An ending worthy of one of his movies.
You know, maybe we should watch Hard Kill tonight.
- In his honor. - I was just gonna suggest
the exact same thing.
We're starting to think alike now.
That is horrifying.
Okay, uh, go cue up the movie,
open up a bottle of wine, I'll be home in a bit.
I've just got a stop to make first.
Well, if I'm thinking what you're thinking,
and it's to pick up a sexy archeologist costume, don't worry.
(SOFTLY) I've already got the whip.
- BECKETT: Thank you. - Mmm.
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