She stares at the bottle of whiskey in her hands; the full one she's pulled down from the shelf. She remembers turning to it when her PTSD got too bad, feeling way too much like her father for her liking. A part of her is tempted to turn to it now, in Castle's absence, fully embracing the precedent Jim Beckett set after he lost his wife.
But at the same time she remembers how hard his drinking had been on her. And she doesn't want to put Addison through that, refuses to. But she tells herself one drink won't hurt as she pulls down a glass from the cabinet and pours the amber liquid into it.
She leaves the bottle out on the counter and slinks over to the couch, sinking down into the plush cushions and cradling the drink to her chest. It's Friday night and the loft is eerily quiet. Martha's out on a date with someone she met at her loss support group she started attending. Alexis's friends roped her into going to some party hoping to bring some joy back into her life. Even Addison is out with her dance friends, celebrating the official start of summer now that all of the New York schools have been let out. Normally she'd revel in the silence, curling up with a good book and a nice hot bath. But Castle's been gone for nearly a month now and she's been left alone with a bottle of whiskey.
The liquid burns as it makes its way down her throat. She turns on the television and mindlessly flips through the channels. The amazing lead they thought they'd uncovered with the money and the stolen car had ended at a dead end. Just like every other lead they'd tracked down. The Feds had been able to trace the money to an offshore account, but the name on it was a fake. There was no record of that man existing since he died back in 1922.
She just didn't know what else to do anymore. Castle was gone, the person who murdered Addison's adoptive parents was still free, and she was stuck wondering if the cases were really related after all or if it was just her mind trying to make connections out of thin air to bring him back home.
Kate takes another sip of the whiskey, surprised at herself for turning to it after she was force fed it by Bracken's men. But she needed something stronger than wine and this was all she could find. Thankfully, the taste of it doesn't make her sick like she thought it would.
Her phone starts ringing and she almost doesn't answer it. She doesn't want to hear about another dead end lead. Doesn't need more of her hope to be ripped to shreds. But then she wonders if there's a chance it could be good news for once so she picks it up and hits the green answer button.
"Beckett."
Lanie's voice greets her on the other end. "Kate, there's…I have a body here –"
Kate stops listening, feeling the whiskey trying to work its way back up her throat. He can't be dead. She's not going to make it if he's dead.
"Kate, are you listening to me?"
"Whose body, Lanie?" she chokes out.
"I just said…I think it's Jerry Tyson."
What? No, no. If Tyson's dead then who –
"How long?" Kate asks.
"How long have I had the body?"
"No, how long has he been dead?"
"I think around 24 hours."
24 hours. A day. He still could have killed those people and taken Castle. Maybe this means Castle escaped. Maybe he's headed home right now. She glances up at the front door as though she suddenly expects him to walk right on through.
"I just," Lanie starts talking again. "If Tyson really was behind mine and Javi's creepy lookalikes, how are we sure this is really Tyson and not just another one of those?"
"He should have a bullet wound. Castle shot him."
"Hang on, let me look."
Lanie puts the phone down and Kate chews on her lower lip. If Tyson is dead, how is she supposed to prove that he's behind this? And what's become of Kelly Neiman? She hears scuffling on the other line as Lanie picks back up the phone.
"Either this doppelganger was extremely dedicated, or this really is Jerry Tyson. The bullet wound is accounted for. I'll run his fingerprints through AFIS just to be sure."
Kate reaches for her glass of whiskey again, needing the burn of the strong alcohol right now.
"Where did they find his body?" she asks.
"A storage unit in Brooklyn. But there's no evidence indicating that he was murdered there. His body was definitely moved post mortem."
"Did you find any particulates that could be used to determine where he died?" Kate asks, taking another sip of her drink.
"No, I haven't started the autopsy yet. But I thought you'd want to know who showed up on my table."
"Yeah, thanks, Lanie. This changes things a bit. Let me know what you find out."
"You'll be the first call I make."
Kate thanks her again and hangs up the phone, swirling the amber liquid around in the glass. Jerry Tyson is dead. He's finally dead. But who killed him? Her mind starts to flood with more questions than she can handle right now and she downs the rest of the whiskey in her glass. She sets the empty tumbler down on the coffee table and curls a pillow from the couch into her chest.
She starts to wonder that if Tyson really was the one to take Castle, if Castle was the one responsible for his death. After all, he has tried to kill him before, that night on the bridge. Kate had even been convinced that he had, until the whole Kelly Neiman situation started.
She has the sudden urge to go back down to the precinct and start working on this, or to go to the morgue and see what Lanie turns up from the autopsy. She had promised Addison she'd take the weekend off because she really has been practically living at the precinct, overworking herself. But how is she supposed to stay away when something so huge has happened? Tyson's murder could lead her back to Castle. And she needs that more than anything right now.
When she wakes, she still has the bitter taste of whiskey in her mouth, and this time it threatens to make her sick. As her eyes adjust to the sunlight streaming in from the windows, she realizes that she had fallen asleep on the couch and someone had draped a blanket over her at some point. Kate looks towards the kitchen and sees Alexis waiting by the toaster, unscrewing the lid from the jar of jam. The bottle of whiskey is still sitting on the counter, full minus the one glass she poured.
She scrubs a hand through her hair, reaching for her phone to check her messages. She has two missed calls from Lanie and one from the precinct. Kate rubs at her eyes, groaning. She is going to have to go in today.
"Hungover?" she hears Alexis ask from the kitchen, the accusation evident in her tone.
"No," Kate says, pushing herself to her feet and stretching her arms overhead. "Stressed out."
She heads toward the kitchen, picking up her empty tumbler from last night and putting it in the dishwasher before putting away the whiskey. She can feel Alexis's eyes on her as she moves.
"I had one drink," she tells her. "I'm allowed."
"I didn't say anything," Alexis says, retrieving her toast as it pops out of the toaster.
"Yes, but were you not saying anything very loudly."
Alexis gives her a small smile, dipping a knife into the jar of jam. "Dad always says that."
Kate nods, opening the text Lanie sent since she wouldn't answer her phone. They found pollen grains on Tyson's body native to a plant in Canada.
"Canada?" she mumbles out loud.
"What?" Alexis asks, around a mouth full of toast.
"I – I'm not sure."
She really should shower first before she heads down there, but her hair doesn't feel that greasy and if she puts it in a bun…
She's already moving into her room to change when Alexis stops her.
"I thought you told Addie you'd take the day off."
"I did," Kate sighs, turning back to look at her. "But I can't."
"I want him back as badly as you do, Kate, but you're seriously overworking yourself here. There are other people working on his case, it doesn't rest entirely on your presence at the precinct."
"Nobody knows this case better than I do," she tells her. "I have to go."
Fifteen minutes later, as she's pulling on her shoes, Addison appears in her bedroom doorway. She leans against the frame like Kate always does in her room.
"Alexis told me you're going in to work."
She sighs, looking up at her daughter.
"Come here," Kate says, patting the bed beside her.
Addison hesitates, but eventually pulls away from the wall and joins her on the bed. Kate drapes an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into her side.
"I'm just going to come right out and say it, because I think you deserve to know why I'm breaking my promise to you. The man that I thought was responsible for taking Castle and killing your parents was found dead last night. And if I'm right about him, this could be huge. This could lead us to Castle; get you the closure you deserve."
"Wait, you think the cases are connected? Why didn't you tell me before?"
"I didn't want to worry you," Kate says, stroking her hair. "This man had a vendetta against our team, and I was the last one he had left to target. It's obvious why he'd want to take Castle, but killing your parents is still more of a mystery. But we found evidence connecting them."
"Do you think he was after me?" Addison asks, softly.
She hugs her tighter, kissing the crown of her head. "This is why I didn't want to tell you. I don't know, kid. That's the one part I still can't figure out. That's why I need to go in to work today. I just want this family to be safe again. And solving this case and bringing Castle home is the only way I know how."
Addison sighs, tucking her feet up under her on the bed. "Bring him back in time for Nationals, okay? I want him there too."
"So what are you suggesting, Detective?" Gates asks. "That we send a team to scour the entire province of Quebec and the surrounding areas searching for Mr. Castle?"
Kate shakes her head, the frustration in the room this morning palpable.
"There has to be some way we can narrow down this search," Ryan says. "What else did Lanie find on the body?"
"I'm still not convinced as to why you think Jerry Tyson is behind all of this," Gates adds.
Kate rolls her head on her neck, trying to work out the kink in it from sleeping on the couch last night.
"Sir, I know it seems far-fetched, but when you look at everything else the guy has done to screw with this team, it just makes sense," Kate tells her. "He has the ability to make off shore accounts under fake names and if he's still working with Kelly Neiman, she has the resources to get to my medical records. If we can find Neiman, we'll find Castle. And maybe then we'll finally have answers to this double homicide too."
Gates continues to give her a skeptical look.
"What other leads do we have?" Esposito asks. "In either case? I think looking into Tyson's murder is our best bet at the moment."
Kate shoots him a grateful look.
"All right fine," Gates sighs. "But narrow down your Canadian search."
She goes back into her office and Kate stalks back over to study their murder board. Not that it will help any.
"I'll ask again," Ryan starts. "What else did Lanie find on the body?"
"A gunshot wound matching the one Castle gave him almost two years ago," she replies, still staring at the board.
"She said cause of death was asphyxiation. Killed the same way he killed his victims. It's almost poetic when you think about it," Esposito adds.
"Okay, but was there anything else besides this pollen?" Ryan tries again.
"You know, if he was killed in Canada and then found in Brooklyn within 24 hours, whoever killed him is probably still here," Kate says.
"Any rare insects? Some nice dirt? Anyone?" Ryan keeps trying.
"You think that whoever his murderer is has Castle with them? Or that Castle did it, even?" Esposito asks.
Kate chews on her lower lip. "But if Castle is back here and 'free' as it were why hasn't he come home yet?"
"Neiman," Esposito says. "What if she turned on Tyson? Killed him in his own manner of death, like a good apprentice gone crazy would, and then took Castle as her own prisoner."
"Does anyone else feel like we're plotting out the crime in Castle's next best-seller?" Ryan asks.
"We have to find Neiman," Kate says, shaking her head. "She's the key to all of this. She has to be."
"Ryan and I will go down to the storage unit where he was found, see if we can figure out who owned it," Esposito offers. "Maybe this time, the lead won't leave us empty-handed."
