"What'd you find?" Kate asks when the boys return from checking into the storage locker.

"The name on the unit belonged to the same dead man with the off shore back accounts," Esposito tells her. "Definitely connected."

"And, you'll love this even more," Ryan starts. "We have the security footage from the lockers from the past 48 hours."

"Okay let's comb through it, see if we can't catch the body drop in action."

"I'll take it over to Tory," Ryan suggests, waving the tape around.

He heads off to go find her and Kate sighs, rubbing at the back of her neck.

"Something wrong with your neck?" Esposito asks. "You've been doing that all day."

"I fell asleep on the couch. My neck apparently didn't appreciate it."

"You know, when Ryan and I have been nagging you lately about getting more sleep, we meant in your bed."

She laughs a little, rubbing at a particularly tight knot just above her shoulder.

"That bed is too big for just me. And in this past month I've worn out his scent on his side. Now the whole thing just smells like me."

"You guys, I think we've found something," Ryan says, poking his head out of the tech room.

"Already?" Kate asks, exchanging a glance with Esposito.

Ryan shrugs. "There apparently haven't been a whole lot of visits to the storage locker these past two days. She just started fast forwarding through the tape until someone showed up."

They follow Ryan into the room, staring up at the image Tory has pulled up on the screen.

"This was around one AM," Tory tells them, hitting play.

A person is seen getting out of the driver's side of a pickup truck, a black hoodie covering their head. They move around to the back and pull down the tailgate. They pull some large, oddly shaped object down from it and drag it into the storage locker.

"That has to be Tyson's body," Kate mutters. "Can you play that again?"

Tory nods and rewinds it. She lets it play.

"There, stop," Kate tells her. "See the hair poking out from under the hood? That's definitely a woman. Could be Neiman."

"Okay, but here's the thing that's still tripping me up," Ryan starts. "Tyson and Neiman haven't deviated away from strangling their victims with rope. Addison's parents were killed with an ax."

"I don't know," Kate says, shaking her head. "But the black escalade, the name on the bank account matching the one on the storage locker, it all adds up. Maybe they hired someone else to kill her parents in an attempt to throw us off their scent. Or maybe it was them using an ax instead of rope for the same purpose."

"Can you get the license plate number off of that tape?" Esposito asks.

Tory tries to make some adjustments to the video frame.

She shakes her head. "It wasn't in view of the surveillance camera."

"I still just feel like we're stuck," Ryan admits. "How are we supposed to find Neiman?"

"We could run a search for pickup trucks that were reported stolen," Kate suggests.

"Stolen from where?" Esposito asks. "New York or Canada?"

"Both," Kate shrugs. "But restrict the Canadian search to around Quebec."

"Beckett, that's going to turn up a lot –"

"I know," she says, cutting Ryan off. "Do it anyway."

She leaves the tech room, her continued frustration growing. She feels like she needs to go up to the gym and let off some steam on the punching bag. She's debating whether or not she still has workout clothes in her locker, when the mail man comes around and hands her a package. Kate turns the box over in her hands. There's no return address, but it's clearly addressed to her and the precinct.

"Ryan! Espo! Can you come here for a second?"

They appear on either side of her and she shows them the box.

"This just came for me. No return address."

"Do you recognize the handwriting?" Esposito asks.

Kate shakes her head.

"You don't think it's going to explode or something if you open it, do you?" Ryan asks, taking a step back.

She shakes her head again. "It doesn't feel heavy enough to be an explosive."

She sets it down on her desk and pulls a letter opener out of her drawer. She carefully slices through the tape and opens the flaps of the box. She plucks the note card off of the top, the handwriting matching the one on the front of the box.

Ready to play, Detective?

She picks up the velvet pouch still left in the box and shakes the contents of it out into her hand. Wedding bands. She stares at the engraving on the inside of the two golden rings. Her breath catches in her throat. No. No.

"What is it?" Esposito asks.

"Our wedding bands," she says softly. "Castle must have had them on him when –"

She feels like she's going to be sick. She thought Alexis had them. But she hasn't asked, too focused on finding him to worry about left over details from their non-wedding. She can feel the tears pricking at her eyes as she holds the rings in her hand. One of these should be on her finger right now, the other on his.

"They have him," Kate says her voice breaking. "Whoever sent this, they have him. They have Castle."

She has to sit down to stop her knees from buckling. She clutches the rings in her fist, the circles digging into her skin.

"Is there anything on the back of the note card?" Ryan says.

She reaches for it, flips it over.

"There's an address. And it says, 'come alone or this time I won't miss.' What?"

"Beckett, I almost hate to say it," Esposito starts. "But what if that's about Addison? What if killing her adoptive parents was a warning to you? And now Neiman, or whoever this is, has Castle because they're trying to lure you to them?"

"We can't let you go there alone," Ryan says in a rush.

"And risk my daughter's life? You must be out of your damn mind."

"And you must be just as crazy if you think we'd let you go out there alone with no backup," Esposito tells her. "Bring Addison here. Martha and Alexis too, if you're that worried. They'll be safe and we can go investigate this lead without you going missing too."

"But what if they mean by not missing," Kate starts softly, "that they'll kill Castle? I can't keep him safe if I don't know where he is."

"We'll be discreet. Stay as far away as possible, only come in if you need us," Esposito offers. "You could wear a wire."

She starts chewing on her lower lip again, pressing the rings even harder into her palm. She turns to her computer and types in the address, waits for the location to reveal itself.

"I think this is where Neiman's fake plastic surgery office was," she says, looking over her shoulder at the boys.

They lean over her desk, staring at the location Google Maps brought up.

"Beckett, did she ever seem like she was, I don't know, obsessed with you?" Esposito asks.

"She told me that she liked my face. But she was a plastic surgeon, so while I found it creepy, I didn't think much of it."

"And you said that audio file you and Castle found at her office, it was a message to you?"

Kate nods. "It was a song my mother used to sing me when I was little."

"Okay, so here's what I'm thinking," Esposito starts. "Neiman, for some reason, became obsessed with you the same way Tyson was obsessed with Castle. Now if the two of them were working together still, which I'm assuming they were, taking Castle right before your wedding hurts both of you, satisfying both of their creepy urges."

"What if Tyson had planned to kill Castle, but Neiman wouldn't let him because she wanted to use him as bait to lure me there? And when he wouldn't agree to it, she snapped and killed him?"

"I feel like this is all finally starting to make sense," Ryan mumbles.

Kate picks up her phone, already scrolling through her contacts. "I'll call Martha, tell her to bring the girls here, and then we can leave and hopefully end this headache once and for all."

The boys nod in unison.

"We'll go update Gates," Ryan tells her.

Kate unclenches her fist and studies the wedding bands as she waits for Martha to answer her phone. Her eyes trace over the curvy script of the matching inscriptions. To my always. It had been his idea, a dedication he wrote to her in one of his books. She'd agreed that it was perfect.

Martha finally picks up and Kate explains the situation to her, gets her to agree to come down to the precinct as soon as possible. She hangs up, a nervous sigh drawing out of her at the thought that her month from hell could almost be over. She pulls open her desk drawer, places the rings back in the velvet pouch, and lays them gently in the drawer.

Soon, she tells herself. Soon this will all be over.


"Mom!" Addison calls to her as she rushes into the precinct.

She runs to her desk, lists into Kate's side, wrapping her arms around her.

"Martha said you think it's almost over?" she asks, looking at her with wide eyes.

"I do," Kate nods. "But I need you guys to stay here where it's safe until we know for sure that it's over."

"And this would close my parents' case too?"

"I think so."

"Kate, you found him?" Alexis asks, heading over to her desk with Martha right behind her.

"Maybe. I was sent a package with our wedding bands in it. You didn't have them, right? He did?"

Alexis nods. Kate stands up and smooths down Addison's hair as Esposito walks over to her with the wire. She starts to put it on as he tells them that they can wait in the break room.

"Promise me you'll be careful," Addison says as she starts to walk away.

Kate nods, giving her a small smile. "I'll do my best, kid."


She's standing in front of the building that once held Neiman's fake surgical practice. Ryan and Esposito are parked a couple of blocks away, listening in on her wire in case she needs them. Kate clutches her gun, not sure what to expect when she heads inside. She hopes that Castle is there, and that she doesn't have to keep Neiman alive to find his location. Not that she expects to have to kill the woman on sight, but just in case.

Taking a deep breath, she pushes through the door to the building, her gun raised. The office space is eerily quiet. The only light comes from a source around the corner. Cautiously, she walks around it, spotting a single floor lamp. It's what's lying in front of the floor lamp that makes her breath hitch in her throat.

"Castle?"

She starts to go to him when a figure steps out of the shadows, forcing her to back up and raise her gun again.

"I'm glad you could make it, Detective."

A woman's voice. Neiman's voice, if she remembers correctly.

"Oh don't worry him," Neiman says, looking over her shoulder. "I just used some knockout gas on him. He'll be fine."

"What do you want?" Kate asks.

The woman laughs, slowly stepping into the light and revealing that she is, in fact, Kelly Neiman.

"Well isn't that the question of the hour?"

"I know that you killed Dave and Allison Holdredge," Kate starts, raking her brain for the names of Addison's adoptive parents. "And that you kidnapped my fiancé with Jerry Tyson, before you killed him and left his body in a storage locker for us to find. What I want to know is, why?"

"The why is simple, Detective. The apprentice had surpassed the master and he was just getting in my way."

"Not just about Tyson. About the Holdreges and Castle."

"What, you expect me to stand here and give you my massive evil plan speech like some villain in a superhero movie? It doesn't work like that, Kate. You should know that by now."

Her grip tightens around her gun. "All right, then I will repeat myself. What do you want?"

"You know, my mentor had quite the obsession with your fiancé here," Neiman starts, looking down at him passed out on the floor. "He just couldn't let it go that he was the one to out him and his murderous ways. Real psychopath that one."

"I noticed," Kate mutters, trying to take a step in Castle's direction.

"But he lacked originality," Neiman continues. "Something I make up for in spades."

"Why don't we all go down to the precinct and you can tell me all about how original you are?"

Neiman smirks, tapping her index finger against her chin. "I'm not willing to admit defeat."

She kneels down beside Castle and grabs a rope from out of the shadows. She lays it over his neck and looks back up at Kate.

"Your move, Detective."

Her finger hovers over the trigger, but she doesn't pull it.

"How many times do I have to ask you what you want, before I get a straight answer from you?"

"What I want," Neiman starts, her fingers dancing over the rope along Castle's neck. "Is your perfect little life."

"And how do you expect to achieve that by killing him?"

"I don't."

Kate feels the roughness of a rope scrape against the skin of her neck, and her hands fly up to grab at it, trying to keep it from cutting off her air supply and dropping her gun to the floor in the process. Neiman straightens up, walking over to her and pacing back and forth in front of her.

"Killing you gets me what I want," she tells her. "And you see a good apprentice develops apprentices of her own. Mine is clearly standing behind you, doing the dirty work for me. Oh and don't worry about that back up you brought along. That wire you're wearing won't transmit any frequencies in here. Say goodbye to your perfect little life, Kate."

She sees spots forming in her vision as the rope around her neck tightens. She struggles to cough, to force more air into her lungs. If she could just get to her gun and manage to shoot this guy, or girl, in the foot or something. That's when she notices Castle starting to come to, behind Neiman, the knockout gas wearing off. She waits until Neiman is pacing away from her, to kick the gun in his direction.

The weapon connects with his forearm and he makes a little grunt at the contact. She silently begs him to come to faster as she continues to fight with the rope around her neck.

"Well what are you waiting for?" Neiman asks. "Stop being so gentle, and finish the job!"

Kate feels the rope get even tighter and her vision starts to go completely black. And then she hears a gunshot and feels herself falling forward onto her hands and knees. She gasps for breath, hearing the sounds of a struggle and two more gunshots before her vision manages to return to normal.

"Kate?"

She lifts her head, sees Castle scrambling for her. She looks around and sees Neiman and her apprentice dead on the floor.

"Hell of a shot, Castle," she chokes out, her voice still strained.

He gets to her and pulls her into his arms. She clings to him, tears spilling from her eyes as a whirlwind of emotions overtake her.

"Guess it helps that I wasn't aiming for their heads this time, huh?" he jokes, talking into her hair as she curls into him.

She reaches up to cup his face, rubbing at a spot of dirt on his cheek.

"Are you okay?" she asks, her voice still rough.

He pulls her in tighter, tears of his own now trailing down his face. "I am now, Kate. I am now."