They met up again in the bullpen close to midnight, the usually busy office barren this time of the day except for an anxious Captain Gates making a slew of phone calls behind closed doors.

Deciding to leave the stern leader to her devices, Beckett ran a DMV printout of their victim and began to set up her murder board with the pertaining preliminary information, starting with Harrison's arrival at the bar around 4pm, to his eventual demise at 7pm and discovery of the body by a half-drunk passerby at 9:15pm.

Behind her, Castle was busy working the espresso machine, the angry steam rising toward the ceiling almost dulling out the swooshing of the elevator, as both Ryan and Esposito returned from their assignments.

"I hope you guys found more than we did…", she sighed and ran a hand through her dark locks before taking a step back to review her work.

"Not much on my end…", Esposito replied, unable to disguise the disappointment in his voice, "I checked several buildings between the bar and the place his body was found, but nobody seems to have seen anything. This is all residential, I didn't notice any cameras. The people I talked to were unaware of any gang activity. There was a hobo half a block up the street who said he saw a black or Hispanic male follow Harrison, but he couldn't swear to it. He was…quote on quote…enjoying the evening with his best friends Jack and Jim."

"Wonderful…", Beckett groaned, then turned to face an anxious Ryan.

"Still waiting on the cell phone records. I did do some preliminary research into the cases Lieutenant Harrison was working on, as well as his private life; see if there are any red flags. He is married, two kids, no trouble there but his Captain said that Harrison had been taking an unusual amount of vacation days over the past few months. He has a clean track record, so Capt. Simmons wasn't too worried about it but under the circumstances, it seems weird."

Crossing his arms in front of his chest, Esposito frowned, his dark eyes narrowing.

"You think he could have gotten into some sort of side business? He was part of the drug taskforce, wasn't he? Maybe he tried to…branch out."

"No Espo, trust me, that man was as clean as they come. I've been following his work for years. He's got a hell of a track record.", Beckett answered with a confident headshake and turned around when she heard Castle return with two fresh cups of coffee, handing one of them to her, "Thanks!"

"My pleasure…", the writer replied with a warm smile, then pointed at the murder board, "So our friend spent the early evening at the bar to watch the game, have a good time, and gets brutally murdered on the way home but nothing is stolen. Everything about this looks like a deliberate hit. If you ask me, he was asked by a third party to go undercover and investigate the Chinese mob, maybe he worked himself deeper and deeper into their society and uncovered some dangerous secrets that could change the drug market in this town forever. It would explain all those vacation days; he was clearly busy infiltrating. One day, they catch onto him and send out their deadly ninjas to kill him kung fu style. Ka-waaaa!"

Cringing at Castle's theatrical battle cry and waving arms, Beckett smiled faintly and took a sip of coffee, relishing the warmth soothing her battered stomach.

"Why don't we wait until we hear back from Lanie before listing Kwai Chang Caine as our prime suspect, Castle?"

"I am surprised you didn't consider the possibility of our murderer being a zombie…", Ryan nudged from the sidelines, causing the writer to stop and ponder for a moment, before a wily smile spread on his lips.

"Well, if we consider the fact that Kwai Chang Caine is a fictional character displayed by the late and beloved David Carradine, it is entirely possible that Mister Carradine returned to the world of the living as a zombie, being ordered to kill Harrison with his quick hands, just to vanish into thin air again."

"Castle, unless you can explain how an Irish David Carradine can turn into the black or Hispanic man seen following our murder victim, I would suggest we stick to the facts for now."

Chuckling, Beckett took another sip, ready to return her attention to the murder board when something completely different caught her attention.

Surprisingly, Esposito wasn't joining in on the genuine bantering. Instead, the detective's expression had turned somber, his stern eyes trained to the ground.

"Everything okay, Espo?", she asked worriedly, causing the chuckling around her to stop in an instant.

Upon her words, he glanced back up, jaws clenched as he drew in a deep breath, visibly struggling with what was on his mind.

"I know how he was killed. And it wasn't Kung Fu."