"Thanks, Henry. I'll see you soon." Castle hung up his phone and continued pacing while Beckett finished up a call of her own. He was trying to figure out with whom she'd been speaking. She'd gone straight to her office after their conversation with Alexis, while he'd accompanied his daughter to the conference room. Kate had already been on the phone when he'd rejoined her in her office.

An exasperated sigh from Kate interrupted his thoughts, and he stopped pacing long enough to watch her slam her phone onto its cradle. Obviously, the call hadn't gone as hoped.

She walked around the desk to stand in front of him and took his hands, tried to pull him into her arms. She stumbled back when he pulled away. He didn't want a hug, couldn't stand the comfort, the pity. He wanted his daughter free from suspicion.

"She's innocent, Kate," he insisted, raking his fingers through his hair. "Motive and lack of alibi be damned. Of course her prints were there, she was Paige's best friend." He swore under his breath and collapsed onto the couch.

"Hey." Kate joined him on the couch. "I know, Rick. Look, you know I'll do whatever I can, call in every favor I have if I need to. But I've talked to the DA twice now, and I have no idea how he got wind of it, but he's gearing up for this case."

Castle scoffed. "Isn't he up for re-election?"

"Yeah, and I'm sure he doesn't want it to seem like he'll let people go because they're rich. Not to mention, the Twelve is under a bit more scrutiny because of the LokSat stuff last year." Kate took his hand and laced her fingers with his. "He wants Alexis arrested, and the case moved to another precinct. I convinced him to hold off on any arrest warrant, but he's on his way right now to personally oversee the transfer of the evidence we've collected."

"Please, Kate, she can't," Castle pleaded. "Let Ryan and Espo keep working it."

"Oh, they are. I'll delay the DA as long as I can, and they have no intention of standing by while there's a killer to be caught and a Castle to be exonerated." She squeezed his hand and waited for him to meet her eyes. "Everyone here loves Alexis. She's family. She'll be out in no time."

"Thanks, Kate." Castle sighed and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulled her into his side. He felt completely helpless, but Kate would do everything in-and out-of her power to clear Alexis's name to find the real killer. "Hayley's on her way too," he added. "This is her only case right now."


"Do you think there's a chance they'll press charges?" Alexis asked in the conference room, sitting next to her dad, across from the two lawyers he'd called in.

Henry Browning glanced at his partner, criminal defense attorney Lance Hagan. "Doubtful. Their evidence is all circumstantial, and they haven't looked at anyone else since focusing on you."

"It is concerning that the DA's already involved," Hagan admitted. "Like it or not, your father is rich, and he wouldn't hesitate to pay anything to get you out if you were arrested. There's a good faction of voters who don't like that, and it is an election year."

"So, they could press charges. I could actually go to jail for this? But I didn't do it!"

"We know, Alexis. Just hang tight, okay? Without a murder weapon, they really don't have anything."

Alexis hung her head in her hands after her dad and lawyers left. She'd been around cops, and Kate, enough to know that, even though she was innocent, the justice served was often wrong. Kate had told her stories of innocent people being put away, and guilty ones set free. Hell, it had happened with Kate's own mom. That justice took fourteen years to be served.

"It'll be okay."

Alexis looked up at the unfamiliar voice to see Officer Hernandez. He must have been new; she didn't remember seeing him before. All she could think to respond with was "What?"

Hernandez gave her a sheepish smile. "Sorry. I shouldn't say anything, it's not my place. But even if they do press charges, they won't stick." He shrugged. "As far as I can tell, the evidence is circumstantial."

Alexis blinked at him. "Why are you telling me this?"

"I don't like seeing people unjustly prosecuted. And I've seen you around, I know who you are. There's no way in hell you did this."


Hayley went straight into Kate's office upon arrival and shut the door behind her. "Okay, fill me in. What happened?"

"Alexis's best friend was killed," Kate started. She explained the whole case, from the crime scene to the initial suspect who'd alibied out, to the DA's desire to arrest Alexis.

Hayley was silent throughout, interjecting with questions when necessary, but for the most part just listened. "Okay, has anyone spoken to the ex?" she asked first.

Ryan shook his head. "No, we were ordered off the case before we could. We don't even have access to his information anymore."

"Okay, well, give me the name, I'll go talk to him."

She was at the ex-boyfriend's apartment shortly after, pounding on the door. "Mark Darnell?" she asked when the door opened. At his nod, she continued. "Hayley Shipton, private investigator. I need to ask you a few questions about your ex." She pushed her way past him, stopping just inside the door.

Mark pushed back the hood of his dark sweatshirt. "What about her?"

"I understand you recently broke up."

"Yeah, so? What'd the bitch say about me?"

Hayley's eyebrows shot up. "That bitch, huh? What would she say about you?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's a lie. She dumped me. She was a cheating, lying bitch, but she beat me to it, claimed she needed 'more time to study.'" He punctuated his statement with air quotes.

Hayley crossed her arms over her chest. "So, is that why you killed her?"

"Wait, what?" Mark's jaw dropped. "No, I didn't - she's dead?" His eyes widened and he leaned on the arm of the couch. "Damn. And you're - you think I had something to do with it?"

Hayley shrugged. "You just told me you were pissed about her breaking up with you."

"No, that's not-" Mark sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. "Damn. Okay, let me explain."

"I think that's a good idea."

"We'd been dating, oh, almost a year. So last week, she breaks up with me, says she needs to focus on her studies. Thing is, I didn't believe her. I'd seen her hanging around this sophomore, or with her professor. She kept going on about how broke she was, too, but she kept buying stuff. Always had new clothes, stuff like that."

Hayley nodded, silent until he finished his story, making mental notes to point out to Ryan and Esposito. "Alright, so, where were you this morning?"

Mark didn't hesitate. "Hung over at a friend's place. He had a party last night, I crashed there, didn't get home 'til noon. You can ask him and his girlfriend, she made breakfast."

"I'm going to need their names."


Hayley met Ryan and Esposito at the PI office. They'd managed to sneak Paige's financial records from the evidence box, and divided them amongst themselves. After just a few minutes Esposito pointed out a series of deposits: every couple of months over the previous year, she'd made cash deposits of $5,000. They most likely weren't from her parents, any deposits from them had been electronic.

While the guys reviewed Paige's financials, Hayley looked into the professor that Paige had TA'ed for. Professor Robert Birch, 47 years old, on track for tenure. She had Ryan call the Psychology department head for more information; while Birch was on the tenure track, he was also in danger of not getting it. He'd been trying to get published.

Ryan called the Dean next. If Birch didn't get published, he wouldn't get tenure, and he'd lose his job.

"Do you know why he can't get published?" Ryan asked, the phone on speaker.

They heard a sigh. "There have been reports of suspicious behavior over the past few years," he admitted after a long silence. "I don't have any proof, but there are rumors that he might have been plagiarizing some of his work. I've been keeping an eye on him, but he's careful. I haven't been able to catch him."

Hayley shared a look with Ryan and Esposito. They needed to find the professor.