4x02 Heroes and Villains was one of my favorite episodes. This scene is suppose to be after Beckett interrogated Officer Hastings. I wanted to write a theorizing scene with her and Castle. I hope you will enjoy it. And please review and tell me what you liked about it.
Castle – Heroes and Villains – Theorizing Scene
As Castle left Paul alone in the interview room, his heart felt heavy for the sorry he felt for the crime reporter. He knew too well how it feels is to fell in love with a muse. His mind was overflowing with memories of Montgomery's funeral where Beckett was almost killed. The panic he had felt, the desperation. His confession to her startled face. A confession she didn't even remembered.
What a joke from fate.
They said that you could never take words back once you had said them. Perhaps you also couldn't take them back to say them again.
Beckett came out from the interrogation room looking frustrated. Castle joined her on her way to the murder board.
"Well, she didn't kill Tyler Farris," she said.
"How do you know?" Castle asked. To be honest he was hoping for Paul's sake that officer Hastings was innocent.
"I – I just – I know."
Ah, the magical guts.
"Well, if she didn't do it and Chad Hockney didn't do it, then we're looking at a third Lone Vengeance. A clever imposter."
They took a new look on the murder board. Esposito and Ryan were nearby watching them.
"Okay, so let's suppose that our killer is an imposter. That would mean that he targeted Tyler Farris and wore a costume, either to make sure that no one could identify him…"
"Or to make sure he would be identified and frame Lone Vengeance for the murder," suggested Castle.
Beckett nodded. "And Tyler Farris was the perfect victim."
Castle had to agree on that. "Yeah, he shows up in a dark alley like clockwork and brings his own witness."
Beckett felt that they were close to the answer. There were just a few more steps they needed.
"Okay, so maybe our killer was a criminal who wanted Lone Vengeance off the streets."
"A criminal who wanted vengeance from Lone Vengeance and Tyler Farris," added Castle
"Someone who knew Tyler and his habits."
"Someone who had experience wielding a blade," he reminded her.
Beckett got a thoughtful look in her eyes. "Someone who pointed us to Lone Vengeance in the first place."
Castle's eyes met hers. "Someone like Tony the Butcher."
Esposito approached them along with Ryan with a rapport in his hands.
"Yo, speaking of Tony the Butcher, I just got something about the two real-life incidents, that Paul had added in his comics. The drug dealer that got shook down? Tony the Butcher was the one who paid for the hospital bills. And the truck that was set on fire…"
"Let me guess," Beckett said. "It was Tony Valtini's."
"No, it was registered to a firm, who has a contract with Valtini's meat packing company. So he could have used the truck for his other 'business'."
Castle smiled. "So Tyler Farris was ratting out Valtini's business. Maybe as payback for being cheated out of the money, he believed the Butcher owned him. And Paul passed those information to officer Hastings, who as Lone Vengeance was always went into Valtini's way – and cutting his butt to add salt to injury. That would be motive to kill Farris and get rid of Lone Vengeance."
Beckett nodded, but she looked a bit troubled. "But what I don't get is how did Tony Valtini find out that Tyler Farris was the one, who tipped Lone Vengeance?"
"You are forgetting something," said Castle. "Tyler Farris thought that he was on to Lone Vengeance's secret identity, despite that he was really halfway on to it."
Beckett quickly caught on. "And he did told our witness that his 'ship' was coming in. We assumed it was a pick-up-line, but what if he meant…"
"That he was expecting to be paid top dollar by selling his information on Lone Vengeance to Tony the Butcher?" finished Castle. "If he had tried to do it by suggesting a deal…"
"Then Tony figured out that Tyler had to have been in contact with Lone Vengeance to get that information," continued Beckett. "And how could he do that, if he wasn't the one who tipped him off?"
"And thus Tyler Farris revealed his own secret and signed his own death sentence," add Castle dramatically. "So Tony the Butcher gets his own Lone Vengeance suit, waited for Tyler to come to the ally with someone to witness the whole thing and lives up to his nickname by butcher Tyler into half."
"And because of the suit, it would look like to the world that Tyler Farris was killed by Lone Vengeance. The witness saw what he wanted her to see. What better way to avoid being suspected than being recognized as somebody else?"
Castle smiled his childish smile. "Talk about a classic superhero story."
"Dude," Esposito whispered to Ryan. "Do you think they are using telepathy?"
"Or maybe they are twin souls."
Beckett then got a concerned look on her face. "How do we prove it?"
Castle's face fell. He clearly had not thought of that. "The partial print. We could compare it to Tony's."
"Castle, we already have Tony the Butcher's fingerprint in our system. And Officer Hastings said that the partial print wasn't a match to any in the system."
The duo went silent for a thoughtful moment.
"The tailor," Castle blurt out.
"What?"
"What if the print is not the killer's but the tailor's? That kind of suit must be made by a professional. If we find the tailor, we could get him to rat out on Valtini."
"Castle, there are over twenty tailors in the city alone. And Valtini might have used someone from out-states."
Ryan broke in. "Actually, Tony's cousin Ernesto is one. I have met him from my time in the narcotics. He makes custom-made shirts. Very pricy, but very nice."
Castle and Beckett looked at each other, sharing a mischief smile.
"Do you know his address?" Beckett asked Ryan.
"I can get one of my buddies from narcotics to find it for us," answered Ryan and pulled out his phone.
Castle clucked. "So let us have a word with Ernesto the Tailor about Tony the Butcher."
