"I feel extremely weird," Darnley said.

"It's not a police car," Castle commented.

"You're right I'll give you that," Darnley replied. "But why exactly would he want me there?"

"It might be a weird one," Castle said.

"No, he could be right," Beckett told her friend quickly as she looked into the backseat at him. "Though why it would warrant you being here I'm not sure."

"Is it going to take us that long to get there?" Darnley asked.

"Rose Grove is on Peconic Bay," Castle explained. "And only about twenty-five minutes."

"Oh, not too bad," Darnley said. "And it's a haunted attraction."

"Not a surprise considering the time of the year," Castle said.

Beckett was watching the view as they were driving north east and when she saw they were close to the town she said, "Maybe it won't take that long."

"That's the hope," Castle said, squeezing her hand and hoping Darnley wouldn't say anything though the carpenter soon was.

"And there's where I feel really weird," Darnley commented. "But I'm kidding. Have you been to this one?"

"Just the one we took you guys to on Saturday," Beckett replied. "So we have no idea what this one is like."

"We have heard of it," Castle then said. "But just when it's going to start." At that point he was parking in the mostly empty lot by the large gothic manor and saw Brad was making his way over to them.

"I'm glad you made it," the chief said, shaking Darnley's hand. "You're going to want to see this, all of you," he added at the end quickly.

"You're not going to tell us anymore than that?" Castle asked.

"No," Brad said so firmly he wasn't surprised they were quiet at that point. He took them around the house and said, "The body was found back here in this room we're heading into, but we moved it for Thayer."

"Why isn't he looking at the body?" Castle said, noticing that quickly.

"You'll see now," Brad replied quickly. He called to the ME and then said, "I can show them?"

"Yeah, I need to look something up," Thayer replied.

Brad walked up to the body on the stretcher and grabbed the sheet over it before he pulled it down to the waist.

Swearing heavily Castle then said, "Not again!"

Grabbing her husband's arm as he had turned away from the mummified body, Beckett said, "This isn't an actual mummy is it?"

"Not in the sense of being ancient," Thayer said, walking back to them. "If you look at the base of the left humerus then you'll notice how white the bone is. This was done recently."

"How recently?" Darnley asked with a frown.

"At the very least a few days," Thayer replied. "I don't know if I could tell you time of death, but method appears to be a gunshot wound here on the chest."

"Have you been able to ID the body at all?" Beckett then asked.

"No luck there but I'll try the best I can once I get him back to the morgue," Thayer said.

"You know it's a man?" Beckett asked. She wasn't surprised, when the ME pulled the sheet down further, that all the men winced visibly as all there was left of the body's genitalia was the desiccated scrotum. "You might have a clue there," she said.

"I thought the same thing, I need a closer look but it seems to be a clean cut," Thayer said before covering the body up again. "I'll give you a call after the autopsy," he then directed to the chief.

"Thank you," Brad replied with a nod. He turned to Darnley as the four of them were left alone and said, "You see why I asked for you."

"I do," Darnley said. "And it's close, not exact but close."

"A past case?" Castle asked the former detective.

"It was four years ago," Darnley began. "A body was found in a fun house, and it was a mummy though from a murder twenty-two years before. After we got some DNA, we identified the man and solved the case easily. But there was no damage to the body like that one and this one's too recent."

"I had to check," Brad said when the others looked at him. "I've heard of that case and wanted to make sure it wasn't a cold case though Thayer confirmed it." He wasn't surprised when Darnley nodded, and he was about to speak when Castle was suddenly asking him about that case.

"What happened to the killer?" he asked.

"He was sentenced to life and is still there," Darnley said when the chief looked at him.

"Okay, let me walk you guys through what we know," Brad said. He led them back around the house and said, "I know you hate the walk Rick."

"Don't pretend you know me," Castle said. "This property is huge. And I know this house."

"So do I," Beckett said. She wasn't surprised when Brad and Darnley glanced at her and told them, "We were thinking of using this for one of the covers of the Moor and Green books."

"I can see why," Darnley commented before they were walking through the front door by then.

"Unfortunately, the pair that discovered the body was taken to the hospital, they were both sick after the arm broke off," Brad began as they were in the foyer.

"Understandable," Castle said. "I'm going to guess right now they just thought it was a prop."

"Good guess," Brad answered. "Okay, so I'm going to walk you through their path in the house, just so we can understand how they got to the room."

"How do you know the way they went?" Darnley asked.

"Security cameras," Brad replied. "They're not in the room where they found the body though, so we'll have to wait for the Craigs to recover before we find out the exact circumstances of how they found it." He looked at the two doors and then said, "Now this house is a little bit of a choose your own adventure kind of deal."

"I see that," Castle said. He looked at his wife and asked her, "How have we not come here?"

"Too far for that," Beckett said. "Which way did the Craigs go?"

"To the left," Brad said in response to her question. "And we have the butler's pantry here. I haven't watched the footage, but security here let me know it appeared Mrs. Craig was very reluctant walking in here. And I'll be getting the footage by the time we get to the station." He took them through the room saying, "Please don't ask me to tell you the scares."

"They don't really matter," Beckett said, grabbing her husband's arm tightly.

When they walked through the doorway at the other end of the room, Castle said, "A hallway?"

"Yeah, there are more doors, the people can go into the rooms they want to, or the actors might draw them," Brad explained.

"There's not a problem with that?" Darnley asked.

"There isn't," Brad said. "They need to sign a waiver for that purpose, and they're warned ahead of time." He then looked down the hall and said, "As it was explained to me, they looked into this room with the kitchen set up after some people passed them. But they didn't follow and continued before a female actress came out from here."

"Have you talked to her?" Beckett said.

"I was able to," Brad said. "She's acting like a child-like character who draws off the head of a teddy bear revealing the fake knife inside. They went into another room which was meant to be a dead space to build up tension. The thing is Mr. Craig started pressing around the panels and found the door to the next room which is where the body was found."

Walking through that room, Castle paused at the planks of wood and said, "This is how the room was?"

"Not exactly," Brad replied. "They had to move those planks to get the body. They said it was against the wall."

"How?" Beckett asked.

"We'll have the pictures at the station; Rice took them back to prepare them," Brad answered. "Now what I know better is what happened after the two ran out from here; we're all agreeing they likely got the lower half of the arm off, saw the bone and got to the door outside. People were around here, and they saw the two run to the grass across the path and start vomiting. They immediately called for help but the two couldn't explain what had happened. At first they believed they had become ill because of something from the building, and they focused on the pair before they were looking at them on the cameras and discovered where they'd gone exactly."

"And that's when they found the body?" Darnley said.

"They did," Brad replied. "But they took a while to call the police as they thought it was fake. Only when they had asked around did they realize they should look at the body more closely."

At first, Castle thought they'd damaged it but then figured out what his friend had meant when his wife was speaking first.

"They noticed blood," Beckett said.

"Dried blood," Brad replied with a nod. "So they called us."

"What time?" Castle asked.

"Seven," Brad answered. "But I needed to see what I could before I asked to call you in."

"Does David know you asked me?" Darnley asked then.

"He does, remember you have the permission of the city council," the chief replied.

"Just checking," Darnley said. He was about to speak again when his friend was interrupting him and looking at him pointedly.

"He didn't just ask you here to find out if this case was connected to yours," Beckett said.

"She's right," Darnley said. "This one might be difficult."

"You don't think he could find fingerprints?" Castle asked as they walked away from the house to let CSU get the planks of wood and go back into the room where the body had been.

"Thayer's good, but… I'm not sure if he could work wonders or that fast," Brad said. "But I have faith in him so we'll wait and see what he can do."

"Where do we go now?" Darnley asked, turning from the doorway to the room.

"What're you thinking?" Beckett asked him.

"I just…" Darnley said before a member of the CSU team was calling out to the chief.

"We found this under the last plank of wood," the woman said, handing him an evidence bag.

Looking at it, Brad thanked the woman before he said with a slight frown, "A flower?"

"It looks a little banged up," Castle commented as they were all looking at the bright blue flower.

"And rare as cold as it is now," Beckett said.

"Do you know what it is?" Darnley asked the others.

"No clue," Brad said.

"I… to be honest it looks really familiar," Castle said as his wife was looking at him. "But I'm drawing a blank, sorry."

"Keep thinking about it," Brad said.

"Are we going back?" Beckett asked him.

"We are," the chief said with a nod. "You two… three can head over now," Brad added. "I need to talk to Bernier and Wade."

"Did you talk with everyone who'd been here?" Castle asked.

"Couldn't, by the time they called us those people who were here at the same time as the Craigs were had already left," Brad said. "That I'll have to get Hutchinson to do."

"She's back from maternity leave?" Beckett said with a slight smile as the officer's wife had had their third child.

"She is, baby Zoe is doing beautifully according to her," Brad replied since the baby had been born three weeks early. As the three were walking away he then called, "She'll have pictures."

"I don't mind," Beckett said when Darnley looked at her.

"No, just checking," the carpenter said. "Any luck with the flower?"

"Give me a little time," Castle said. "I'll get it but not this fast."

"That means we know one thing," Darnley said. He couldn't continue as they were getting into the car but once he could speak, he said, "You didn't give it to Kate."

"No," Beckett said. "I really would have remembered myself." She looked back at the house as they were leaving and she said then, "We already have a possible motive."

"Competition?" Castle and Darnley said at the same time.

Laughing at the expressions of surprise on the men's faces Beckett said, "Thank you for agreeing, but it's not that much of a reach. I'm sure Brad already thought of it."

"We'll see what he says when we get back to the station," Castle commented.

"I'm eager to see the footage from the security cameras," Darnley remarked.

"Me too," Castle and Beckett said at the same time, smiling briefly at each other before they focused on getting to the station.

"You guys are heading to lunch soon," Brad said as he walked into his office.

"Nice greeting," Castle teased him. "The footage?"

"The flower?" Brad asked immediately. When his friend shook his head he said, "Okay, let me see and we'll check it out." He walked around to his desk and as he sat down, he looked up at Beckett when she started to speak.

"Have you started looking into other places?" she asked.

"I had Bell do that," Brad replied. "Though do you think there'll really be anything in that?"

"No idea," Castle said. "To be honest I'm guessing no." He wasn't surprised when the other three looked at him and said, "They're spaced far apart. And most people talk about the places there are in the city and upstate."

"Then it's likely not going to go anywhere," Brad said with a nod. "But we'll see." He was about to turn to his computer and said, "Anything about the flower?"

"No," Castle said. "I'm still trying to recall though," he added. "Since it's starting to annoy me."

"I'm not surprised," Brad commented. He turned to his computer and then said, "I have the footage; let me set it up with the TV," since he'd recently had one put onto the wall of his office.

"Is this a touch screen?" Darnley asked.

"It is," Brad said with a slight smile. "I'm surprised you didn't ask."

"He beat me to it," Castle said with a shrug because his friend was looking at him.

After working on the TV for a while, Brad said, "This is going to take a while, there are different cameras."

"Please start," Beckett said.

"Yeah, I want to see this too," Brad said before he pressed the play icon on the screen.

Her eyes on the screen, Beckett could discern the couple since the woman was standing back from everything and reacting more than her husband. After they watched the pair go through the first room she said, "She really didn't want to go."

"Which would explain why they were trying to leave when there are three stories to the house," Brad said.

"You don't think someone ushered them into that room next to where the body was do you?" Darnley asked.

"No, the actress who drew them into the room before the dead room said she hadn't had someone go by her and she decided to pull them in when she heard them," Brad said. "We're going to look at the employees; don't worry."

"I wasn't," Castle commented before they watched the couple going through the hallway until the man went with the actress into the last room in the hallway.

"The husband was into it," Darnley said. "Have you looked into them?"

"That's what Rice is doing," Brad replied. "After that will be the employees."

The four watched the footage from the playroom and second the dead room before they saw the couple going into the room where the body had been.

"Does it look to anyone else that the guy trips?" Castle said immediately.

"It does and he likely did," Brad said, handing a file to Beckett.

"It was leaning against the wall," she told her husband and Darnley. "What's at the base of it?"

"A weight," Brad answered since the footage was over. "Which means they wanted to hide that body as long as possible."

"You know what this is reminding me of?" Castle asked.

Since her husband was looking at her Beckett said, "Elmer McCurdy?"

"I've heard of him," Darnley said. "Train robber who was shot and killed and mummified and treated as a carnival sideshow," he said with a grimace. "They'd put tickets and stuff in his mouth."

"I've heard the story too," Brad said. "And I see what you mean. But I think the mummification process on our vic was more an ancient method; not arsenic like McCurdy." He looked at the TV and then said, "I think we should get started on the murder board with what we have so far, but we need to save a space for our vic."

"Balloon flowers," Castle said blurted out suddenly. He looked at the others seeing they appeared to be confused and was about to speak before his wife was, a look of realization on her face.

"He's right," Beckett said to the other two. "The flower they found under the body is a balloon flower."

Going over to his computer, Brad searched the flower and he nodded saying, "That's it. Let me call the owner of the house and the haunted attraction."

"They don't bloom now do they?" Darnley asked.

"Late summer," Castle said. "Though in Japan it's one of the Seven Autumn Flowers."

"Does it have a meaning?" Beckett asked her husband.

"Not that I know of," Castle replied. "But I don't know if it really has a meaning here."

"What if…" Darnley started to say before he trailed off.

"Don't worry," Castle told him swiftly. "All theories are welcome."

"To be heard," Brad said. "Whether or not we accept them…"

"We're talking more about Castle's theories though," Beckett said with a smile at her husband.

"What do you have Darnley?" Brad said.

"Yeah, I was just wondering if it got caught on the body of the person or maybe the killer; the flower," the carpenter said.

"That's not a bad idea," Brad said reassuringly. "But the biggest problem with that is-" he began before his phone rang on the desk. "It's Thayer," he told the others quickly before picking up the receiver. He set it on speaker and then said, "I'm here in my office with Castle, Beckett and Darnley. You finished the autopsy already?"

"No, I put it on pause," Thayer replied. "They did a sloppy mummification process with this guy; the liver was still there and as soon as I looked at it, I can tell you more definitely when he was killed. That was a week ago and the mummification process was done at least three days later."

"Okay, that might help us," Brad replied. "Do you think you can get fingerprints?"

"That'll be after the autopsy," Thayer replied. "And I'll do my best."

"We'll be grateful, keep in touch," Brad said before he and the ME said goodbye to each other.

"Are you looking up missing persons reports?" Castle asked his friend as the chief was typing rapidly.

"I am, we can start there," Brad said.

"What about facial reconstruction?" Beckett asked.

"That would be iffy," the chief said immediately. "If he has family, they might not appreciate us getting the skull."

Nodding Beckett said, "I'm assuming you're keeping that as a last resort?"

"I had it in mind," Brad said before he stood up a second later.

Looking at the printer near him, Castle went over to it while Brad was leaving the office. He saw Darnley was watching the chief and said, "I'm assuming we're getting a second murder board; there must be a number of names."

"Eight," Beckett commented as the printer finally stopped.

"You're right," Brad said, taking the pages that Castle was holding. He grabbed magnetic clips and proceeded to put up each person and said their names, "Walter Palmer, Thomas Mayer, Izaak Pope, Reardon Minett, Abel Ariesen, Eamon Day, Watson Audley and Adam Dalton."

"Did Thayer give you a possible age?" Beckett said with a slight frown as she realized something looking at the pictures of the men.

"Yeah, sorry about that, he looked at the bone that was exposed and just what he could see of the body and pegged the vic being between twenty-six to thirty-six," Brad said. "And these are the people that have been missing for a week in that age group. But this is only on the island, I didn't go any further though I will of course if we need to."

Beckett, looking at the men, realized something else and was about to speak when her husband was asking the question she'd been about to say herself.

"Are they all the same height?" Castle said.

"They are, Thayer said the vic's wouldn't have lost his height because of his bones and he'll be five-eleven," Brad replied.

"No hair left?" Darnley asked.

"No, but there's always the hope there's a little left somewhere," Brad said. He then said, "But I need to make some calls right now; see if we can determine if any of the eight have been found in any way."

"Anything you want us to do?" Castle asked in a rush.

"Would you look at social media? One of you? I'd like to see if people have information," Brad said.

"You don't have a number out there?" Beckett inquired.

"It was in the newspaper and on TV," Brad said.

"I can post something," Castle said.

"Alright," Brad said after thinking that over for a moment. He then said more firmly, "Please, you know the number."

Nodding, Castle turned his attention to his phone and Beckett, watching him, turned to Darnley and saw he was at the second board with the eight men there. Going over to him she didn't say anything for a while before she said, "What do you think?" speaking softly.

"This one's a pain right off," Darnley replied seriously. "You have no clue who your vic is." He then frowned and said, "I do have to ask, Castle's reaction to the body's state?"

Beckett couldn't help smiling before she related what had happened during the case early in hers and her husband's partnership with the mummy. When she finished, she was surprised at her the frown on her friend's face and said, "What?"

"You guys were sadistic," Darnley said, glancing over at Castle who was still on his phone.

"Believe me, I apologized to him," Beckett said.

"Did the boys?" Darnley asked.

Starting to speak, Beckett then hesitated and said, "I don't think so, but I started it so… it needed to come from me."

"And you realize it backfired right?" Darnley asked her. He saw the confusion on his friend's face and said, "You mention his theories, you also told me once he didn't start out with those." He did his best not to smile at the way his friend looked annoyed suddenly and said, "But you did mention you didn't mind it."

"I don't but I realized another reason why he started doing that," Beckett replied. When Darnley looked at her questioningly, she answered, "Attention; from me."

"Oh yeah, good point," the carpenter replied with a nod.

"What's a good point?" Castle asked, having finished with his phone and walking over to them.

Beckett wasn't sure how exactly she was going to explain that when Brad was jumping up from the desk and she asked him, "Good news?"

"Great news," the chief said before he paused in walking over to the board. "Well, not entirely but this does help out our case. Four of the men have been found, the bad part is that two of those four were killed. So we can take off Palmer, Minett, Day and Audley. Which leaves us with Mayer, Pope, Ariesen and Dalton."

"Think it's too early to call Thayer?" Castle asked.

Brad was about to comment on that when there was a sound from his friend's phone and said, "Is that for your post?"

"It is," Castle said before opening the site. He handed his phone to the chief and told his wife and Darnley, "I think they said they're going to call the hotline."

"They will," Brad said before the two could respond to that. He then said, "At least we've got that now, but I want to focus here on the vic for now." He looked at his watch and said, "Do you guys want to head out to lunch?"

"It's early still," Beckett said immediately without looking at her watch. She glanced at her husband, relieved to see him nodding before he was speaking to the chief.

"She's right, and we'd like to maybe get an identification?" Castle asked.

"I did talk to the police in charge of the four cases," Brad said before the phone on his desk was ringing again.

Watching him talking, Beckett shared a surprised look with her husband and Darnley as the chief was talking about a second call. "Hopefully they found two of them."

"Not murdered," Castle said in a rush though he knew it wasn't necessary.

Beckett nodded absently as they were waiting for Brad to hang up and she asked, "Two more?"

"Two more, take off Mayer and Ariesen," the chief said, walking over to them. "Mayer got drunk and crashed at a hotel for the night last weekend and then proceeded on a bender. Ariesen drove down to AC and didn't tell his parents, but he just called them and according to him he was having such good luck he couldn't tear himself away from the slot machines."

"What about the two that are left?" Darnley asked once the papers were taken off and they were looking at the last two men.

"Pope is a construction worker," Brad replied. "He went down the island to Montauk and hasn't been seen or heard from since."

"Any troubles?" Beckett asked.

"No," Brad said. "He has no family, so it's just his friends that are worried for him."

"Significant others?" Castle asked.

"Not as far as the friends knew," Brad replied. "Ex or current because he was trying to focus on work to earn money to buy a fishing boat."

"He wanted to change careers," Darnley said instead of asking. When the chief nodded, he said, "Will Thayer be able to discern the mummification method?"

"He's going to try, I gave him permission to contact anyone who might know," Brad said. "So Pope is… doubtful on this."

"Dalton now?" Castle asked.

"He works in a lawyer's office here in the Hamptons," Brad said.

"Where does he live?" Beckett asked immediately.

"Southampton," Brad replied. "Which is why I don't know the name. I talked to Officer Ainsley who took the case and she let me know Dalton has a family who filed the report. He lives at home still, is twenty-six, though he was looking into a home either there or here so he'd be closer to work. He was in the habit of heading to AC too, but he usually let his family know."

"Did they try AC?" Castle said with a slight frown.

"They are now," Brad said. "I texted Ainsley to let her know about Ariesen so we might be focusing on Pope."

"Is it a weird coincidence they're both trying to raise money for something?" Castle asked the others.

"A little, but in this case it…" Brad started to say before he trailed off. "I see," he said then. "But they're in different areas here on the island."

"And what would you do with a connection?" Darnley said.

"Pope killed Dalton or Dalton killed Pope," Brad said. When the carpenter nodded, he said, "There could be some merit in that, but I want to wait for word from Ainsley before I say that's our murder."

"And Thayer," Darnley said, pulling the paper for Pope off the board.

"What're you thinking now?" Beckett asked her friend.

"Just that we're forgetting something," Darnley replied.

"The flower," Castle said, looking at his wife.

"Were there balloon flowers around the house?" Darnley asked the chief.

Shaking his head Brad said, "The owner said they don't keep flowers there. Just trees."

"I saw that too," Beckett said. "I'm guessing to go with the gothic architecture."

"Then there has to be something there," Darnley said. "What about the room itself? Is it used that much?"

"No," Brad replied. "The crew has that as an emergency exit, their rooms are more in the front of the east wing."

"Did they check it the night before?" Castle said. "And you said there was a security camera around the outside right?"

"The camera was broken," Brad said simply. "The night before and the replacement hasn't been bought yet. But the flower, does anyone know anything about those."

Castle and Beckett froze at the same time before looking at each other and saying, "Seung Hwa."

"You two really need to tell us how you know Professor Hwa," Brad said while he was walking with the three down the path to the home of the man.

"For our stories," Castle said.

"Through the Carters," Beckett added. "Though we should have remembered him a lot sooner."

"Soon enough, Thayer still isn't finished with the fingerprints," Brad said.

"What exactly is he a professor of?" Darnley asked.

Beckett was about to answer that when she heard the sudden thwish of a string and they all hit the ground just as an arrow embedded itself into a tree trunk above them.