Castle s01e05 Episode Script
A Chill Goes Through Her Veins
Mamma said lift your head From the sieve of your hands Mamma said lift your head From the sieve of your hands Mamma said eventually this hurting will end Beckett.
Would all workers please clear the construction site? Why can't they find bodies between 9:00 and 5:00? Well, early bird gets the collar.
- Yeah.
He was here before I was.
Finally.
You are here.
You are gonna love this.
Come on, show's over.
Active crime scene.
We appreciate your cooperation.
Awesome, right? My first cold case.
Come on, it's a little funny.
Not so much funny as true.
She's frozen solid.
What was the temperature last night? - Mid-40s.
It wasn't exposure.
Site's active.
Boys tell me there's no way she was here last night.
She's melting.
Maybe we should be looking for ruby slippers.
Yeah, while you're at it, why don't you look for some flying monkeys? Maybe they left her here.
So what do you got for me? There are pieces of plastic on her body from the garment bag.
So she was inside the bag.
Other than that, it's gonna take a while for her to thaw.
I can tell you she hasn't been here long.
Maybe a couple of hours.
What about security? Chain link.
A pair of bolt cutters took care of that.
Looks like our guy was hoping she'd disappear into the concrete pour.
A few more feet, and she would have.
It's kind of odd, taking the trouble to freeze a body and then dumping it.
We got two personality types working here.
A killer who freezes a body is a keeper.
He wants a souvenir.
But a guy who dumps a body Doesn't want to be reminded of the crime.
All right, I'm gonna go check out the fence.
Get a close-up of her face.
I want to run her through Missing Persons.
Oh, cool.
Like on the Discovery Channel, where you plug the photo into a facial-recognition database? Yeah.
Just like that.
By hand? That's like life before TiVo.
Maybe you could download an app on that phone of yours.
You could just There are a lot of missing people.
One way or another, we eventually find them.
Some end up dead, some turn up in a double-wide with a stripper named Trixie outside Atlantic City.
And some just don't turn up.
Dana Sullivan.
Her and her boyfriend leave a club.
He's a couple steps behind her 'cause he gets a call on his cell phone.
She turns a corner just a few seconds before he does.
And when he comes around, she's gone.
Street's totally empty.
No traffic, no nothing.
In a matter of three feet, she literally just disappeared.
People don't disappear off the face of the earth.
Sure they do.
Quantum physics, alien abductions, Schrödinger's cat.
One minute, you're getting a hot dog in the park, the next you're fighting off Sleestaks on the far side of the dimensional rift.
I don't buy it.
There's got to be an explanation.
A story that makes everything make sense.
Okay, Castle.
What's our Jane Doe's story? Well, I don't know how it starts, but I know how it ends.
Frozen at a construction site.
So, flying monkeys aside, what's the first question? How did she get there? Considering she was frozen solid, she had to have been kept pretty close.
Not necessarily.
Here is the site.
Her body might not have been kept as close as you might think.
It takes a long time for a frozen body to thaw.
What? You freeze a body once for one of your books? No.
But I cooked a turkey for Thanksgiving.
It was a 28-pounder.
It took all night to unfreeze.
She's a person, Castle.
Not a turkey.
Just making a point.
Beckett.
Okay, I'm on my way.
Lanie's got an ID.
You'll take care of these? Hey, Ryan, can you Thanks.
Melanie Cavanagh, 34 at time of death.
Turns out COD was blunt force trauma to her head.
How'd you get her ID? - Her fingerprints were in the system.
For - Misdemeanor drug possession.
She doesn't look like a junkie.
No.
She's in pretty good shape, considering.
But judging the lack of frost and tissue degeneration, I'd say wherever she was stored, the temperature rarely varied.
Like a freezer.
- Freezer would do the job.
How long has she been dead? Well, considering how long she's been like this, factoring decomposition, I'd say she probably was frozen within 24 hours of being killed.
What do you mean, "How long she's been like this?" According to the records I pulled, this woman's been missing for over five years.
She had a troubled childhood, drug problems in her teens and 20s.
I know.
How do you know? I read the case file.
She kicked the habit.
Met and married Samuel Cavanagh.
She worked in a restaurant.
He managed a bank.
They have two kids.
When did you read the case file? - That When you were in the little girls' room.
- I was gone for like a minute.
Speed reader.
Something I picked up from my years stranded in the New York Public Library.
Would you like the CliffsNotes or, in this case, the CastleNotes? Castle, how do you know you didn't miss something important? Like, after Melanie disappeared, her husband waited a day before he called the cops? A day? That doesn't make any sense.
Until you get to the third paragraph.
Before Melanie was married, she was what is now referred to as a runaway bride.
According to her husband, she ran away a whole two weeks before their wedding day.
And then she came back.
Three years happily ever after, she disappears again.
Comes back.
Lather-rinse-repeat three times.
No indication of where she went.
Well, she must have had a reason for running away.
I'm not judging her.
Some people love the institution, hate the day-to-day.
Are you one of those people, Castle? I guess I just haven't met the right girl.
So, that's why her husband didn't call the cops.
She'd done it before.
Seemed reasonable to the detective at the time.
There's no evidence of foul play, so the detective just closed the case.
Five years, and her husband thought she just ran away? Guess it's time to tell him his runaway bride finally came home.
Who is it? New York City Police Department.
Can I help you? Detective Beckett.
Are you Samuel Cavanagh? Who? Samuel Cavanagh.
Our records indicate that he lives here.
You must have the wrong apartment.
Yeah, but I live here.
And my name is Roger, it's not Sam.
Do you know any Samuel Cavanagh? - No.
What's this about? How long have you lived here? - About eight months.
Well, it's been five years.
He could have moved.
Well, hey, I hate to break it to you, but if you're looking for the guy who lived here before me, he didn't move.
He was murdered.
Wait Hey, Beckett.
- Yeah.
Samuel Cavanagh.
Shot outside a grocery store about a year ago.
Small caliber.
Double tap to the chest.
Wallet and valuables missing.
Poor schlub's wife disappears.
Four years later, he gets shot in a mugging.
Yeah.
What are the odds? Long, unless they're connected.
Well, four years between murders.
One's a popsicle, one just got popped.
How could they possibly be connected? Maybe he and his wife got into something they couldn't get out of.
Maybe something to do with a drug habit.
So some skell waits four years to finish the job? Maybe he finally figured out what happened to his wife and was about to go to the police with it.
I don't believe it.
Give me 250 pages, I bet I could make you.
We're solving a murder, Castle, not writing a book.
I would call it, A Chill Runs Through Her Veins.
I like that.
"Bam" said the lady, another bestseller for me.
What happened to the kids? Living with Melanie's parents up in White Plains.
Looks like I'm going to White Plains.
Canvass the construction site.
Someone must have seen something.
Yeah, the foreman said that they have a problem with the homeless at night, so I figured I'd go down there later, try to catch them at the site.
Homeless, White Plains.
Homeless, White Plains.
They're both kind of creepy.
Bye.
Did I scare you? Mr.
Davidson? Yes, ma'am, that's me.
I'm Detective Kate Beckett.
Is there somewhere we could talk? Yes.
Why don't we go inside? Girls, don't play in the street, okay? All right, Grandpa will be out in a minute.
I I think we've both known for a while now that Melanie was not going to come home.
What do you remember about the days leading up to her disappearance? Well, we talked to her a couple days before.
My wife did, I mean.
Everything seemed fine.
She didn't indicate in any way that she was leaving? No.
We're aware your daughter had some issues.
That had nothing to do with what happened here.
How do you know? You know, now you sound like the cop who first had the case.
Convinced she'd run away, convinced she was still on drugs.
But you didn't think that.
Melanie wasn't the greatest of moms, but she loved her kids.
She would have never left them.
- What about her husband, Sam? He thought it was drugs, too.
You know he waited over a day before he reported her missing? She had run off before.
Look, I'm not gonna sit here and deny that.
But if Sam thought our daughter was in trouble, why didn't he report her missing right away? Why didn't he call for help? Even if she'd gotten locked up, she'd have been better off than What the hell's the difference? I mean, the time to ask these questions was five years ago, but the cop who was on the case then didn't want to ask them! Sounds like they were pretty unhappy with the original investigation.
Yeah, well, from where I stand, they had every reason to be.
The guy whose case it was, you know him? No.
Detective Sloan was before my time.
He still around? Well, if you count being a sheriff in Jersey, then, yeah, he's still around.
Melanie Cavanagh.
So, she was finally found after all these years, huh? She wasn't found.
Her body was.
Sorry to hear that.
You know, from the moment I took that case, I figured it was gonna end bad.
Her parents led us to believe that you were pretty sure that she'd run off.
Her being found dead and her running off aren't exactly incompatible.
Not with her history.
Her parents also believe your investigation never made it past her history.
I was on a missing persons, not a murder.
You have a dead body.
All I had was a woman with a drug habit and a history of disappearing.
And a husband who didn't report her missing for over a day.
Don't you dare play Monday-morning quarterback with me.
Look, sweetheart, he cooperated.
He voluntarily allowed CSU into their apartment.
Anything I asked, he did.
- Did you know he was murdered, too? Gunned down on the street over a year ago.
Look, what do you want from me? We had reports of her in Philly with a meth-head ex-boyfriend.
I mean, it was what it was.
But you didn't even go down to check it out.
Didn't need to.
Had reports.
Right.
From her husband's best friend, Charles Wyler.
So? - He's not exactly an impartial observer.
The guy owned his own business.
He had a family.
He was a war vet.
I saw no reason to doubt his word.
Plus, Philly's a pretty long drive.
She was only missing back then.
No, Sheriff.
She was already dead.
You just didn't know it yet.
I ever disappear, make sure this guy's not on my case.
I hate cops like him.
Guys like him, things only make sense if they fit in a box, so they make them fit and murderers go free.
That what happened to your dad? My dad? - I noticed your watch.
It's your dad's, right? That's why you wear it? Beckett.
You find a witness? Yeah.
Homeless guy.
A couple of bucks jogged his memory.
Said he saw a dented yellow truck pull up to the site.
Heavyset guy pulls a large bag out of the back.
When he comes out, he doesn't have the bag anymore.
How'd you find this place? Guy also remembered the word "storage" written on the side of the truck.
We searched all the storage places on the West Side, found out this one uses yellow trucks.
So who owns the trucks? According to the DMV, Albert Bolland.
What body? I don't know what you're talking about.
A witness saw someone driving one of your yellow trucks and dumping the body.
You're lying.
No one saw.
Ouch.
Wow.
Maybe you should have tried denying it first.
Let me help you.
Melanie Cavanagh, mother of two.
Wife of Sam Cavanagh.
Okay, look.
I dumped her.
But I swear, I You didn't kill her, right? - That's right.
I found her.
I never even knew she was here.
What do you mean, "here"? Sixth floor.
Renters were in arrears.
We usually give them three months, and then we cut the locks and we sell the belongings.
Only this time, all I find is a freezer plugged into a light outlet, which, by the way, is totally illegal.
You didn't think it was illegal to store a dead body in a freezer? You think I knew? When I opened it up, I nearly had a heart attack.
You could have called the cops.
So I could make the front page of the Ledger? Yeah, that's good for business.
What if it's a mob hit? I mean, I got a family.
So did she.
So you find her.
Next logical step, dump her at a construction site? I know a guy who works over there.
So when I find the body, I figure that's the place, right? Show us where you found her.
Five years in there.
Nobody deserves that.
How'd they make payments for the unit? Check? Credit card? Cash, every six months.
But like I said, they were three months overdue.
Puts the last payment at two months after her husband was killed.
Hard to make payments when you're dead.
That camera in your office, you got footage of the guy who made payments? That was nine months ago.
We keep maybe two weeks at a time.
Looks like Sloan was right.
Sam Cavanagh didn't have anything to do with it.
Well, if not Sam, then who? You know, we have air conditioning.
I'm just trying to figure out why someone would put a dead body in a freezer.
Is this a Nikki Heat or Detective Beckett question? Beckett.
That's right.
The Nikki Heat thing was about incinerating a body in a self-cleaning oven.
I mean, you put things in a freezer to keep them for later, but once they're there, you rarely ever go back.
If I was putting a body in a freezer, it'd be because I was trying to hide it.
Until you stop paying for the storage space.
Did I stop, or did something stop me? It's family moments like these I will never forget.
With a good therapist, hopefully, I will.
Mr.
Wyler, the detective investigating Melanie's disappearance said that you told him that she went to an ex-boyfriend in Philadelphia.
I only told him what Sam told me.
Sam told you? It's where she went before the wedding, and a few times after.
But you're not sure that's where she went.
It's the only thing that made sense.
Melanie was a good person, but Melanie was troubled.
Sometimes, when things got hard, she'd go out and score, you know.
Come home high, accuse Sam of ruining her life.
He'd given her everything.
Do you remember the name of the boyfriend? Kevin Henson.
If something happened to Melanie, he's the one who'd know what.
Kevin Henson, Melanie's ex-boyfriend.
He's serving a year for meth in South Jersey.
He went in just after the last payment was made on the storage unit.
He stops payments, storage guy finds her body.
Quite a coincidence.
And he was also on the outside when her husband was whacked.
Sounds like he's worth a trip to South Jersey.
You ever been in love, Detective? Makes you do crazy things.
Like kill someone? Mel and I, when we were together, time just stopped.
But even the first day, her and me, we both knew it was never gonna work.
God knows her folks were never gonna let their little girl end up with some tatted-up addict.
But sometimes, see Sometimes when we were alone together Sometimes we almost believed.
She was gonna leave Sam.
That's why she came to see you.
She found out he was having an affair.
She thought he was gonna leave her and get custody of the kids, you know, 'cause of the drugs.
She wanted me to go with her.
Take the kids, just disappear.
So what'd you do? Put her on a bus.
You sent her away? What she wanted, I couldn't give her.
Checked into rehab the next day.
I thought if I could get clean That's where I was when she disappeared.
Time I got out, she was dead.
How could you be sure she was dead? She stopped calling.
If she was alive, she would have called.
Well, an affair certainly explains a lot.
Sam kills Melanie, or he and his lover kill Melanie together.
Well, then who killed Sam? The lover, when Sam backs out after all she's done for him.
It's not like she could go to the police if he broke his promise.
How do you come up with these things, Castle? I did not come up with this one.
They did.
Okay, you speak "guy.
" If Sam had a lover, would his best friend know about it? Yes.
Detective.
- You lied to us, Mr.
Wyler.
Excuse me? - You don't think maybe it's relevant your buddy Sam had an affair right about the time Melanie disappeared? That was a long time ago.
What's the point in dragging everybody through the mud? Haven't their kids been through enough? Don't they deserve some peace? What they deserve is to know what happened to their mother.
Elizabeth Forte.
Elizabeth Forte's her name.
She worked with Sam at his bank.
Mrs.
Forte, I'm Detective Beckett.
This is Rick Castle.
Why am I here? Does the name Samuel Cavanagh ring a bell? What about him? We found the body of his wife, Melanie.
From the looks of it, she was killed somewhere around the time the two of you were having an affair.
I'm afraid I don't know what you mean.
Do you really want me to start digging around in your life, Mrs.
Forte? Because that's exactly what I will do.
I'll go through your old phone records, your credit card statements.
I'll even talk to your husband if I have to.
Please.
Please don't do that.
Gary doesn't know anything about it.
Just walk us through what you know.
I met Sam when I got transferred to the downtown branch.
He was in New Accounts.
We were both pretty unhappy at the time.
How long was the affair? - Not long.
Six months.
Why did it end? I realized I loved my husband.
Please.
No one ends an affair because they realize they're still in love.
They end an affair because they're scared.
Scared of taking it to the next level, scared of being found out, scared of ruining their life.
So, tell us, Elizabeth, what were you scared of? Him.
I was scared of Sam.
Why? - He started to ask me what I would do if he wasn't with his wife, if she wasn't in the picture anymore.
And when was that? A few weeks before she disappeared.
When I found out she was missing, I broke things off.
He became angry.
It got so bad that I had to transfer to another branch.
I'm sorry.
You had to Five years, Mrs.
Forte.
Five whole years, and you never came forward.
What's it matter if Sam killed Melanie? He's dead.
They're both dead.
What's it matter anymore? How'd you do it, Sam? Run, rebel.
But you'll never defeat the forces of Voltar.
Death to Voltar! Death to the Voltarians! I sense fear in you.
You sense nothing! Has anyone seen my purse? Mom, we are totally doing battle on the field of honor.
How old are you? Old enough to afford top-of-the-line laser tag.
I'm dead! Mom! Now Voltar will never rule the omniverse.
Well Someone order food? No.
- No.
Better check this out.
Hi.
Hi.
Who is it? - Detective Beckett.
Darling, are we entertaining? Dad! - Yeah? Manners! - Right! Come on in.
Please.
Right.
Enter.
Welcome.
- Thank you.
To our house.
- You bet.
You You remember my mother, Martha, and Alexis, of course.
Hi! - Yes.
Hello.
Can I make you a drink? Wow.
I feel like Alfred in the Batcave for the first time.
Batman fan.
Figures.
Why? Similar origin stories.
Loss of a loved one leads to a life of fighting crime.
Yes, well, you are the multimillionaire crime fighter.
Yeah.
That's where I outline my books.
It's funny.
Looks a lot like our murder board.
Yeah, except mine's fake.
Yeah.
Something wrong? I can't find it.
Find what? - The answer.
It was Sam.
Everything fits.
It's a good ending.
Yeah, but without proof, it's just a theory.
And that family, those kids, they need more than just a theory.
They need to know.
I need to know.
Well, you have an ending.
You want the rest, you need to work backwards.
You need to finish the story.
You have an ending.
You have your killer.
You just have to put it all together with the facts at hand.
The facts? Fact, they had two small children.
So? - Based on police statements, they didn't have a babysitter.
With him at work, she would have had to have been with the kids the day she disappeared.
But Sam said that she left later that night.
Which the doorman was never able to corroborate.
So, if she was there, and she never left, then Then she was murdered in the apartment.
Yeah.
Another fact, he lived in Manhattan.
And, like most people in the city, he didn't own a car.
So what is a good husband to do, living in Manhattan, with his wife's body? He can't leave it in the apartment.
He can't walk out the lobby with it.
So the only question is How did he get the body to the storage unit? He He could No.
- No.
You know what helps? - Yeah? Sometimes, when I'm trying to figure out how a character of mine does something, I will walk the crime scene.
This one time, I was trying to figure out how to throw someone off the Empire State Building, and that movie Sleepless in Seattle had just come out.
So many lonely women approached me, thinking I was their Tom Hanks.
I got laid Castle! Point is, you want to get into a killer's head, go to where the killer was and see what problems he had to face.
Field trip? They told me he was shot in a mugging.
And now you're telling me he was killed here, in my apartment? Not him.
His wife.
His wife? What kind of family was this? All right.
So, you and I are married.
We are not married.
- Relax.
It's just pretend.
I don't wanna pretend.
- Scared you'll like it? Okay.
If we're married, I want a divorce.
Are you two like this all the time? Yes.
- Yes.
All right.
We're not married, but they were.
Let's say the doorman's right.
Melanie gets home about 4:00.
She'd have to make dinner for the kids.
Then Sam comes home.
Banker's hours.
Around 6:00.
Figure, kids have already eaten.
So, they're, what? Watching TV in the bedroom.
In my bedroom? - We're on a roll.
They have a fight.
- About the affair.
About Philadelphia.
- Things get heated.
And she turns her head He whacks her with something.
A pot.
Or a pan.
- Bam! Fractures her skull.
It's over.
Except the kids are still in the bedroom.
He's got to figure out a way of getting her out of the apartment without them seeing.
Hallway bathroom.
He needed to buy time.
Okay.
So he puts the body in the tub, closes the door.
Wait And tells the kids that Mom went to the store.
Which, according to the case file, the doorman was never able to substantiate.
Okay.
So, no car.
How does he get the body out of the apartment? Maybe he hailed a cab.
Yeah.
Maybe the cabbie and the doorman helped him stuff the body in the trunk.
How much do you tip for that these days? The doorman.
- Castle, I'm joking.
What if the body was already in the freezer when he took it out of the apartment? Freezer? He'd have needed a truck.
In my building, if you have something picked up or delivered, you have to sign for it.
Yeah, here, too.
Delivery that big, you have to sign the ledger.
The ledger? - The doorman's ledger, downstairs.
Yeah, that's my name.
I know it was five years ago, Mrs.
Marsh, but the only delivery that day was to your apartment.
If you remember anything at all about the delivery I remember I had to go downstairs and sort everything out.
What do you mean, "Sort everything out"? I told the doorman I never ordered a freezer.
But the guy brought it on up.
He loaded it on the freight elevator while I was talking to the doorman.
So, what happened when you were downstairs? I told the doorman they got the wrong apartment again, and then, by the time I got back upstairs, the guy was gone.
Does this have anything to do with that missing woman? Yeah, it does.
Yeah, 'cause I already told the other cop.
Detective Sloan? I don't know his name, but I told him everything, same as you.
I don't get it.
If Sloan had that woman's report, why didn't he just follow up? He wasn't looking for the story.
He'd already written it.
That's the same kind of truck we saw outside Charles Wyler's store.
He must have a contract with them.
If you wanted some help with some heavy lifting, who would you call? Your best friend.
We can trace the rental of the delivery truck to you, Mr.
Wyler.
If you want, I can bring the lady you delivered the freezer to in to identify you.
Look, I had nothing to do with what happened to Melanie.
You lied about everything else.
Why not about this? I never had any reason to hurt her.
But Sam did, right? I mean, she kept going back to her ex-boyfriend.
How much can a guy take? He called me that night.
He said he needed me to come over right away.
When I got there, the kids were asleep and Melanie was in the tub.
In a garment bag.
He said she came at him, and he just snapped.
Here's an idea.
Instead of killing her, why not just get a divorce? You don't think I know how wrong this was? Why did you take the risk? Why did you move that body? Because he made a very bad mistake.
And what about the kids? Their mom is dead.
If he goes to prison So, you arranged for the truck.
He said it could never be traced back to him.
That's why we sent the freezer to the old lady.
That's why I rented out the storage space.
Because we knew the cops would look at Sam.
You made the payments? Sam couldn't take any chances.
He'd give me the cash, and I'd stop by twice a year.
For five years? Seemed a lot easier than moving her.
Why did you stop paying? Look, I'm truly sorry about what happened to Melanie.
But what was I supposed to do? Keep paying for the rest of my life? The DA will make sure of that, Mr.
Wyler.
Her body gets dumped because this guy Wyler didn't pay a bill? That's You can say it.
Pretty cold.
Ironic that such a selfish act ultimately revealed the truth.
There were people who knew the truth all along.
They just chose not to come forward.
Still, karma comes back and puts a cap in her husband's ass, so all is right with the world.
I'm gonna go talk to Melanie's parents, let them know how this all shook out.
You want to come? The woman with the freezer delivery told us she talked to a cop.
Yeah, Sloan.
Only he didn't list her name in his report.
He didn't feel that it was important.
After all, he didn't believe he was looking at a murder.
Right.
So if you're not investigating a murder, why would you talk to the neighbor about a freezer delivery? This must be some freezer.
You mentioned a police officer, Mrs.
Marsh.
I know it's been five years, but do - I never said it was five years ago.
When did he come see you? - Last year, sometime.
I remember thinking, "Why is this cop asking me questions "about a freezer I never ordered?" Do you remember anything about the man who came to see you? He was older.
- Uniform? No.
Plainclothes, like you.
He had gray hair and he walked with a limp.
Ben Davidson.
- Melanie's dad.
You could just leave it like this.
Sam's dead.
The captain's happy.
Those kids look pretty happy.
That's the difference between a novel and the real world, Castle.
A cop doesn't get to decide how the story ends.
Detective Beckett.
Sir, I'm gonna have to take you with me down to the station.
Who is it, honey? What is it, Ben? So, I'm here because I questioned a woman about a freezer? Not any freezer, Mr.
Davidson.
The freezer that your daughter's body was stored in.
For the moment, let's Let's assume what you say is true.
What's the charge? If Mrs.
Marsh's answer led to Sam's death, then the charge would be murder.
I kept going over everything Sam said, everything he claimed happened that night, until I came to the same conclusion that you both apparently did.
That Melanie never left her apartment alive.
Mrs.
Marsh's answers merely confirmed what I already knew.
That your son-in-law was a killer.
If you had figured out what Sam had done, why not just go to the police? He would have gone to prison for the rest of his life.
If he'd been convicted.
They didn't have a body at the time, remember? His lawyers would have put Melanie on trial, not him.
So you took matters into your own hands.
Well, you could certainly understand how a father might want to.
How he might follow his daughter's murderer one dark night, when he was sure no other people would be around.
How he might confront him with a gun he'd brought back from the war.
Might even promise forgiveness in exchange for the truth.
And, hearing his admission, be overcome with rage.
Every time he brought the girls to see us, I watched a little piece of my wife die.
A visit from your grandkids should be life-affirming, not a reminder of how your only child was murdered.
Killing him wasn't the answer.
I never said I killed him.
I said a father might be justified.
Police told me Sam was shot in a robbery.
And, without evidence, there would be little chance that his killer would ever be brought to justice.
So I guess we'll find out if that's really true.
I'd like to see a lawyer, if I could.
No, sweetie, I just wanted to make sure I said good night.
You got it.
Strawberry happy-face pancakes on me.
Later.
Alexis missed me.
How did you know? Spidey sense.
By the way, it was my mother, not my father.
We were supposed to go to dinner together, my mom, my dad and I, and she was gonna meet us at the restaurant.
But she never showed.
Two hours later, we went home, and there was a detective waiting for us.
Detective Raglin.
They found her body.
She had been stabbed.
A robbery? No.
She still had her money and purse and jewelry.
And it wasn't a sexual assault, either.
They attributed it to gang violence.
Random wayward event.
So, just like in Melanie's case, they couldn't think outside the box.
So they just tried to package it up nicely.
And the killer was never caught.
Why do you wear the watch? My dad took her death hard.
He's sober now.
Five years.
So, this is for the life that I saved.
And this is for the life that I lost.
So, I guess your Nikki Heat has a back-story now, Castle.
I don't know.
I did kind of like the hooker-by-day, cop-by-night thing.
But I guess a heavy emotional angle could work, too.
Well, don't bewilder your audiences with substance on my account, Castle.
Until tomorrow, Detective.
You can't just say "night"? I'm a writer.
"Night" is boring.
"Until tomorrow" is more hopeful.
Yeah.
Well, I'm a cop.
Night.
Night.
Some are reaching Few are there Wandering from a hero's chair Some are scared to fly so high Hi, Dad.
Well, this is how we have to try Have no envy and no fear Have no envy No fear Remember, this never happened.
I was never here.
You have my word.
Thanks.
If you tell her I did this, I will make you bleed.
Understood.
Good luck.
The place we used to call our home Can't be found when we're alone So have no envy No fear Have no envy and no fear ocr/redo/spell:
Would all workers please clear the construction site? Why can't they find bodies between 9:00 and 5:00? Well, early bird gets the collar.
- Yeah.
He was here before I was.
Finally.
You are here.
You are gonna love this.
Come on, show's over.
Active crime scene.
We appreciate your cooperation.
Awesome, right? My first cold case.
Come on, it's a little funny.
Not so much funny as true.
She's frozen solid.
What was the temperature last night? - Mid-40s.
It wasn't exposure.
Site's active.
Boys tell me there's no way she was here last night.
She's melting.
Maybe we should be looking for ruby slippers.
Yeah, while you're at it, why don't you look for some flying monkeys? Maybe they left her here.
So what do you got for me? There are pieces of plastic on her body from the garment bag.
So she was inside the bag.
Other than that, it's gonna take a while for her to thaw.
I can tell you she hasn't been here long.
Maybe a couple of hours.
What about security? Chain link.
A pair of bolt cutters took care of that.
Looks like our guy was hoping she'd disappear into the concrete pour.
A few more feet, and she would have.
It's kind of odd, taking the trouble to freeze a body and then dumping it.
We got two personality types working here.
A killer who freezes a body is a keeper.
He wants a souvenir.
But a guy who dumps a body Doesn't want to be reminded of the crime.
All right, I'm gonna go check out the fence.
Get a close-up of her face.
I want to run her through Missing Persons.
Oh, cool.
Like on the Discovery Channel, where you plug the photo into a facial-recognition database? Yeah.
Just like that.
By hand? That's like life before TiVo.
Maybe you could download an app on that phone of yours.
You could just There are a lot of missing people.
One way or another, we eventually find them.
Some end up dead, some turn up in a double-wide with a stripper named Trixie outside Atlantic City.
And some just don't turn up.
Dana Sullivan.
Her and her boyfriend leave a club.
He's a couple steps behind her 'cause he gets a call on his cell phone.
She turns a corner just a few seconds before he does.
And when he comes around, she's gone.
Street's totally empty.
No traffic, no nothing.
In a matter of three feet, she literally just disappeared.
People don't disappear off the face of the earth.
Sure they do.
Quantum physics, alien abductions, Schrödinger's cat.
One minute, you're getting a hot dog in the park, the next you're fighting off Sleestaks on the far side of the dimensional rift.
I don't buy it.
There's got to be an explanation.
A story that makes everything make sense.
Okay, Castle.
What's our Jane Doe's story? Well, I don't know how it starts, but I know how it ends.
Frozen at a construction site.
So, flying monkeys aside, what's the first question? How did she get there? Considering she was frozen solid, she had to have been kept pretty close.
Not necessarily.
Here is the site.
Her body might not have been kept as close as you might think.
It takes a long time for a frozen body to thaw.
What? You freeze a body once for one of your books? No.
But I cooked a turkey for Thanksgiving.
It was a 28-pounder.
It took all night to unfreeze.
She's a person, Castle.
Not a turkey.
Just making a point.
Beckett.
Okay, I'm on my way.
Lanie's got an ID.
You'll take care of these? Hey, Ryan, can you Thanks.
Melanie Cavanagh, 34 at time of death.
Turns out COD was blunt force trauma to her head.
How'd you get her ID? - Her fingerprints were in the system.
For - Misdemeanor drug possession.
She doesn't look like a junkie.
No.
She's in pretty good shape, considering.
But judging the lack of frost and tissue degeneration, I'd say wherever she was stored, the temperature rarely varied.
Like a freezer.
- Freezer would do the job.
How long has she been dead? Well, considering how long she's been like this, factoring decomposition, I'd say she probably was frozen within 24 hours of being killed.
What do you mean, "How long she's been like this?" According to the records I pulled, this woman's been missing for over five years.
She had a troubled childhood, drug problems in her teens and 20s.
I know.
How do you know? I read the case file.
She kicked the habit.
Met and married Samuel Cavanagh.
She worked in a restaurant.
He managed a bank.
They have two kids.
When did you read the case file? - That When you were in the little girls' room.
- I was gone for like a minute.
Speed reader.
Something I picked up from my years stranded in the New York Public Library.
Would you like the CliffsNotes or, in this case, the CastleNotes? Castle, how do you know you didn't miss something important? Like, after Melanie disappeared, her husband waited a day before he called the cops? A day? That doesn't make any sense.
Until you get to the third paragraph.
Before Melanie was married, she was what is now referred to as a runaway bride.
According to her husband, she ran away a whole two weeks before their wedding day.
And then she came back.
Three years happily ever after, she disappears again.
Comes back.
Lather-rinse-repeat three times.
No indication of where she went.
Well, she must have had a reason for running away.
I'm not judging her.
Some people love the institution, hate the day-to-day.
Are you one of those people, Castle? I guess I just haven't met the right girl.
So, that's why her husband didn't call the cops.
She'd done it before.
Seemed reasonable to the detective at the time.
There's no evidence of foul play, so the detective just closed the case.
Five years, and her husband thought she just ran away? Guess it's time to tell him his runaway bride finally came home.
Who is it? New York City Police Department.
Can I help you? Detective Beckett.
Are you Samuel Cavanagh? Who? Samuel Cavanagh.
Our records indicate that he lives here.
You must have the wrong apartment.
Yeah, but I live here.
And my name is Roger, it's not Sam.
Do you know any Samuel Cavanagh? - No.
What's this about? How long have you lived here? - About eight months.
Well, it's been five years.
He could have moved.
Well, hey, I hate to break it to you, but if you're looking for the guy who lived here before me, he didn't move.
He was murdered.
Wait Hey, Beckett.
- Yeah.
Samuel Cavanagh.
Shot outside a grocery store about a year ago.
Small caliber.
Double tap to the chest.
Wallet and valuables missing.
Poor schlub's wife disappears.
Four years later, he gets shot in a mugging.
Yeah.
What are the odds? Long, unless they're connected.
Well, four years between murders.
One's a popsicle, one just got popped.
How could they possibly be connected? Maybe he and his wife got into something they couldn't get out of.
Maybe something to do with a drug habit.
So some skell waits four years to finish the job? Maybe he finally figured out what happened to his wife and was about to go to the police with it.
I don't believe it.
Give me 250 pages, I bet I could make you.
We're solving a murder, Castle, not writing a book.
I would call it, A Chill Runs Through Her Veins.
I like that.
"Bam" said the lady, another bestseller for me.
What happened to the kids? Living with Melanie's parents up in White Plains.
Looks like I'm going to White Plains.
Canvass the construction site.
Someone must have seen something.
Yeah, the foreman said that they have a problem with the homeless at night, so I figured I'd go down there later, try to catch them at the site.
Homeless, White Plains.
Homeless, White Plains.
They're both kind of creepy.
Bye.
Did I scare you? Mr.
Davidson? Yes, ma'am, that's me.
I'm Detective Kate Beckett.
Is there somewhere we could talk? Yes.
Why don't we go inside? Girls, don't play in the street, okay? All right, Grandpa will be out in a minute.
I I think we've both known for a while now that Melanie was not going to come home.
What do you remember about the days leading up to her disappearance? Well, we talked to her a couple days before.
My wife did, I mean.
Everything seemed fine.
She didn't indicate in any way that she was leaving? No.
We're aware your daughter had some issues.
That had nothing to do with what happened here.
How do you know? You know, now you sound like the cop who first had the case.
Convinced she'd run away, convinced she was still on drugs.
But you didn't think that.
Melanie wasn't the greatest of moms, but she loved her kids.
She would have never left them.
- What about her husband, Sam? He thought it was drugs, too.
You know he waited over a day before he reported her missing? She had run off before.
Look, I'm not gonna sit here and deny that.
But if Sam thought our daughter was in trouble, why didn't he report her missing right away? Why didn't he call for help? Even if she'd gotten locked up, she'd have been better off than What the hell's the difference? I mean, the time to ask these questions was five years ago, but the cop who was on the case then didn't want to ask them! Sounds like they were pretty unhappy with the original investigation.
Yeah, well, from where I stand, they had every reason to be.
The guy whose case it was, you know him? No.
Detective Sloan was before my time.
He still around? Well, if you count being a sheriff in Jersey, then, yeah, he's still around.
Melanie Cavanagh.
So, she was finally found after all these years, huh? She wasn't found.
Her body was.
Sorry to hear that.
You know, from the moment I took that case, I figured it was gonna end bad.
Her parents led us to believe that you were pretty sure that she'd run off.
Her being found dead and her running off aren't exactly incompatible.
Not with her history.
Her parents also believe your investigation never made it past her history.
I was on a missing persons, not a murder.
You have a dead body.
All I had was a woman with a drug habit and a history of disappearing.
And a husband who didn't report her missing for over a day.
Don't you dare play Monday-morning quarterback with me.
Look, sweetheart, he cooperated.
He voluntarily allowed CSU into their apartment.
Anything I asked, he did.
- Did you know he was murdered, too? Gunned down on the street over a year ago.
Look, what do you want from me? We had reports of her in Philly with a meth-head ex-boyfriend.
I mean, it was what it was.
But you didn't even go down to check it out.
Didn't need to.
Had reports.
Right.
From her husband's best friend, Charles Wyler.
So? - He's not exactly an impartial observer.
The guy owned his own business.
He had a family.
He was a war vet.
I saw no reason to doubt his word.
Plus, Philly's a pretty long drive.
She was only missing back then.
No, Sheriff.
She was already dead.
You just didn't know it yet.
I ever disappear, make sure this guy's not on my case.
I hate cops like him.
Guys like him, things only make sense if they fit in a box, so they make them fit and murderers go free.
That what happened to your dad? My dad? - I noticed your watch.
It's your dad's, right? That's why you wear it? Beckett.
You find a witness? Yeah.
Homeless guy.
A couple of bucks jogged his memory.
Said he saw a dented yellow truck pull up to the site.
Heavyset guy pulls a large bag out of the back.
When he comes out, he doesn't have the bag anymore.
How'd you find this place? Guy also remembered the word "storage" written on the side of the truck.
We searched all the storage places on the West Side, found out this one uses yellow trucks.
So who owns the trucks? According to the DMV, Albert Bolland.
What body? I don't know what you're talking about.
A witness saw someone driving one of your yellow trucks and dumping the body.
You're lying.
No one saw.
Ouch.
Wow.
Maybe you should have tried denying it first.
Let me help you.
Melanie Cavanagh, mother of two.
Wife of Sam Cavanagh.
Okay, look.
I dumped her.
But I swear, I You didn't kill her, right? - That's right.
I found her.
I never even knew she was here.
What do you mean, "here"? Sixth floor.
Renters were in arrears.
We usually give them three months, and then we cut the locks and we sell the belongings.
Only this time, all I find is a freezer plugged into a light outlet, which, by the way, is totally illegal.
You didn't think it was illegal to store a dead body in a freezer? You think I knew? When I opened it up, I nearly had a heart attack.
You could have called the cops.
So I could make the front page of the Ledger? Yeah, that's good for business.
What if it's a mob hit? I mean, I got a family.
So did she.
So you find her.
Next logical step, dump her at a construction site? I know a guy who works over there.
So when I find the body, I figure that's the place, right? Show us where you found her.
Five years in there.
Nobody deserves that.
How'd they make payments for the unit? Check? Credit card? Cash, every six months.
But like I said, they were three months overdue.
Puts the last payment at two months after her husband was killed.
Hard to make payments when you're dead.
That camera in your office, you got footage of the guy who made payments? That was nine months ago.
We keep maybe two weeks at a time.
Looks like Sloan was right.
Sam Cavanagh didn't have anything to do with it.
Well, if not Sam, then who? You know, we have air conditioning.
I'm just trying to figure out why someone would put a dead body in a freezer.
Is this a Nikki Heat or Detective Beckett question? Beckett.
That's right.
The Nikki Heat thing was about incinerating a body in a self-cleaning oven.
I mean, you put things in a freezer to keep them for later, but once they're there, you rarely ever go back.
If I was putting a body in a freezer, it'd be because I was trying to hide it.
Until you stop paying for the storage space.
Did I stop, or did something stop me? It's family moments like these I will never forget.
With a good therapist, hopefully, I will.
Mr.
Wyler, the detective investigating Melanie's disappearance said that you told him that she went to an ex-boyfriend in Philadelphia.
I only told him what Sam told me.
Sam told you? It's where she went before the wedding, and a few times after.
But you're not sure that's where she went.
It's the only thing that made sense.
Melanie was a good person, but Melanie was troubled.
Sometimes, when things got hard, she'd go out and score, you know.
Come home high, accuse Sam of ruining her life.
He'd given her everything.
Do you remember the name of the boyfriend? Kevin Henson.
If something happened to Melanie, he's the one who'd know what.
Kevin Henson, Melanie's ex-boyfriend.
He's serving a year for meth in South Jersey.
He went in just after the last payment was made on the storage unit.
He stops payments, storage guy finds her body.
Quite a coincidence.
And he was also on the outside when her husband was whacked.
Sounds like he's worth a trip to South Jersey.
You ever been in love, Detective? Makes you do crazy things.
Like kill someone? Mel and I, when we were together, time just stopped.
But even the first day, her and me, we both knew it was never gonna work.
God knows her folks were never gonna let their little girl end up with some tatted-up addict.
But sometimes, see Sometimes when we were alone together Sometimes we almost believed.
She was gonna leave Sam.
That's why she came to see you.
She found out he was having an affair.
She thought he was gonna leave her and get custody of the kids, you know, 'cause of the drugs.
She wanted me to go with her.
Take the kids, just disappear.
So what'd you do? Put her on a bus.
You sent her away? What she wanted, I couldn't give her.
Checked into rehab the next day.
I thought if I could get clean That's where I was when she disappeared.
Time I got out, she was dead.
How could you be sure she was dead? She stopped calling.
If she was alive, she would have called.
Well, an affair certainly explains a lot.
Sam kills Melanie, or he and his lover kill Melanie together.
Well, then who killed Sam? The lover, when Sam backs out after all she's done for him.
It's not like she could go to the police if he broke his promise.
How do you come up with these things, Castle? I did not come up with this one.
They did.
Okay, you speak "guy.
" If Sam had a lover, would his best friend know about it? Yes.
Detective.
- You lied to us, Mr.
Wyler.
Excuse me? - You don't think maybe it's relevant your buddy Sam had an affair right about the time Melanie disappeared? That was a long time ago.
What's the point in dragging everybody through the mud? Haven't their kids been through enough? Don't they deserve some peace? What they deserve is to know what happened to their mother.
Elizabeth Forte.
Elizabeth Forte's her name.
She worked with Sam at his bank.
Mrs.
Forte, I'm Detective Beckett.
This is Rick Castle.
Why am I here? Does the name Samuel Cavanagh ring a bell? What about him? We found the body of his wife, Melanie.
From the looks of it, she was killed somewhere around the time the two of you were having an affair.
I'm afraid I don't know what you mean.
Do you really want me to start digging around in your life, Mrs.
Forte? Because that's exactly what I will do.
I'll go through your old phone records, your credit card statements.
I'll even talk to your husband if I have to.
Please.
Please don't do that.
Gary doesn't know anything about it.
Just walk us through what you know.
I met Sam when I got transferred to the downtown branch.
He was in New Accounts.
We were both pretty unhappy at the time.
How long was the affair? - Not long.
Six months.
Why did it end? I realized I loved my husband.
Please.
No one ends an affair because they realize they're still in love.
They end an affair because they're scared.
Scared of taking it to the next level, scared of being found out, scared of ruining their life.
So, tell us, Elizabeth, what were you scared of? Him.
I was scared of Sam.
Why? - He started to ask me what I would do if he wasn't with his wife, if she wasn't in the picture anymore.
And when was that? A few weeks before she disappeared.
When I found out she was missing, I broke things off.
He became angry.
It got so bad that I had to transfer to another branch.
I'm sorry.
You had to Five years, Mrs.
Forte.
Five whole years, and you never came forward.
What's it matter if Sam killed Melanie? He's dead.
They're both dead.
What's it matter anymore? How'd you do it, Sam? Run, rebel.
But you'll never defeat the forces of Voltar.
Death to Voltar! Death to the Voltarians! I sense fear in you.
You sense nothing! Has anyone seen my purse? Mom, we are totally doing battle on the field of honor.
How old are you? Old enough to afford top-of-the-line laser tag.
I'm dead! Mom! Now Voltar will never rule the omniverse.
Well Someone order food? No.
- No.
Better check this out.
Hi.
Hi.
Who is it? - Detective Beckett.
Darling, are we entertaining? Dad! - Yeah? Manners! - Right! Come on in.
Please.
Right.
Enter.
Welcome.
- Thank you.
To our house.
- You bet.
You You remember my mother, Martha, and Alexis, of course.
Hi! - Yes.
Hello.
Can I make you a drink? Wow.
I feel like Alfred in the Batcave for the first time.
Batman fan.
Figures.
Why? Similar origin stories.
Loss of a loved one leads to a life of fighting crime.
Yes, well, you are the multimillionaire crime fighter.
Yeah.
That's where I outline my books.
It's funny.
Looks a lot like our murder board.
Yeah, except mine's fake.
Yeah.
Something wrong? I can't find it.
Find what? - The answer.
It was Sam.
Everything fits.
It's a good ending.
Yeah, but without proof, it's just a theory.
And that family, those kids, they need more than just a theory.
They need to know.
I need to know.
Well, you have an ending.
You want the rest, you need to work backwards.
You need to finish the story.
You have an ending.
You have your killer.
You just have to put it all together with the facts at hand.
The facts? Fact, they had two small children.
So? - Based on police statements, they didn't have a babysitter.
With him at work, she would have had to have been with the kids the day she disappeared.
But Sam said that she left later that night.
Which the doorman was never able to corroborate.
So, if she was there, and she never left, then Then she was murdered in the apartment.
Yeah.
Another fact, he lived in Manhattan.
And, like most people in the city, he didn't own a car.
So what is a good husband to do, living in Manhattan, with his wife's body? He can't leave it in the apartment.
He can't walk out the lobby with it.
So the only question is How did he get the body to the storage unit? He He could No.
- No.
You know what helps? - Yeah? Sometimes, when I'm trying to figure out how a character of mine does something, I will walk the crime scene.
This one time, I was trying to figure out how to throw someone off the Empire State Building, and that movie Sleepless in Seattle had just come out.
So many lonely women approached me, thinking I was their Tom Hanks.
I got laid Castle! Point is, you want to get into a killer's head, go to where the killer was and see what problems he had to face.
Field trip? They told me he was shot in a mugging.
And now you're telling me he was killed here, in my apartment? Not him.
His wife.
His wife? What kind of family was this? All right.
So, you and I are married.
We are not married.
- Relax.
It's just pretend.
I don't wanna pretend.
- Scared you'll like it? Okay.
If we're married, I want a divorce.
Are you two like this all the time? Yes.
- Yes.
All right.
We're not married, but they were.
Let's say the doorman's right.
Melanie gets home about 4:00.
She'd have to make dinner for the kids.
Then Sam comes home.
Banker's hours.
Around 6:00.
Figure, kids have already eaten.
So, they're, what? Watching TV in the bedroom.
In my bedroom? - We're on a roll.
They have a fight.
- About the affair.
About Philadelphia.
- Things get heated.
And she turns her head He whacks her with something.
A pot.
Or a pan.
- Bam! Fractures her skull.
It's over.
Except the kids are still in the bedroom.
He's got to figure out a way of getting her out of the apartment without them seeing.
Hallway bathroom.
He needed to buy time.
Okay.
So he puts the body in the tub, closes the door.
Wait And tells the kids that Mom went to the store.
Which, according to the case file, the doorman was never able to substantiate.
Okay.
So, no car.
How does he get the body out of the apartment? Maybe he hailed a cab.
Yeah.
Maybe the cabbie and the doorman helped him stuff the body in the trunk.
How much do you tip for that these days? The doorman.
- Castle, I'm joking.
What if the body was already in the freezer when he took it out of the apartment? Freezer? He'd have needed a truck.
In my building, if you have something picked up or delivered, you have to sign for it.
Yeah, here, too.
Delivery that big, you have to sign the ledger.
The ledger? - The doorman's ledger, downstairs.
Yeah, that's my name.
I know it was five years ago, Mrs.
Marsh, but the only delivery that day was to your apartment.
If you remember anything at all about the delivery I remember I had to go downstairs and sort everything out.
What do you mean, "Sort everything out"? I told the doorman I never ordered a freezer.
But the guy brought it on up.
He loaded it on the freight elevator while I was talking to the doorman.
So, what happened when you were downstairs? I told the doorman they got the wrong apartment again, and then, by the time I got back upstairs, the guy was gone.
Does this have anything to do with that missing woman? Yeah, it does.
Yeah, 'cause I already told the other cop.
Detective Sloan? I don't know his name, but I told him everything, same as you.
I don't get it.
If Sloan had that woman's report, why didn't he just follow up? He wasn't looking for the story.
He'd already written it.
That's the same kind of truck we saw outside Charles Wyler's store.
He must have a contract with them.
If you wanted some help with some heavy lifting, who would you call? Your best friend.
We can trace the rental of the delivery truck to you, Mr.
Wyler.
If you want, I can bring the lady you delivered the freezer to in to identify you.
Look, I had nothing to do with what happened to Melanie.
You lied about everything else.
Why not about this? I never had any reason to hurt her.
But Sam did, right? I mean, she kept going back to her ex-boyfriend.
How much can a guy take? He called me that night.
He said he needed me to come over right away.
When I got there, the kids were asleep and Melanie was in the tub.
In a garment bag.
He said she came at him, and he just snapped.
Here's an idea.
Instead of killing her, why not just get a divorce? You don't think I know how wrong this was? Why did you take the risk? Why did you move that body? Because he made a very bad mistake.
And what about the kids? Their mom is dead.
If he goes to prison So, you arranged for the truck.
He said it could never be traced back to him.
That's why we sent the freezer to the old lady.
That's why I rented out the storage space.
Because we knew the cops would look at Sam.
You made the payments? Sam couldn't take any chances.
He'd give me the cash, and I'd stop by twice a year.
For five years? Seemed a lot easier than moving her.
Why did you stop paying? Look, I'm truly sorry about what happened to Melanie.
But what was I supposed to do? Keep paying for the rest of my life? The DA will make sure of that, Mr.
Wyler.
Her body gets dumped because this guy Wyler didn't pay a bill? That's You can say it.
Pretty cold.
Ironic that such a selfish act ultimately revealed the truth.
There were people who knew the truth all along.
They just chose not to come forward.
Still, karma comes back and puts a cap in her husband's ass, so all is right with the world.
I'm gonna go talk to Melanie's parents, let them know how this all shook out.
You want to come? The woman with the freezer delivery told us she talked to a cop.
Yeah, Sloan.
Only he didn't list her name in his report.
He didn't feel that it was important.
After all, he didn't believe he was looking at a murder.
Right.
So if you're not investigating a murder, why would you talk to the neighbor about a freezer delivery? This must be some freezer.
You mentioned a police officer, Mrs.
Marsh.
I know it's been five years, but do - I never said it was five years ago.
When did he come see you? - Last year, sometime.
I remember thinking, "Why is this cop asking me questions "about a freezer I never ordered?" Do you remember anything about the man who came to see you? He was older.
- Uniform? No.
Plainclothes, like you.
He had gray hair and he walked with a limp.
Ben Davidson.
- Melanie's dad.
You could just leave it like this.
Sam's dead.
The captain's happy.
Those kids look pretty happy.
That's the difference between a novel and the real world, Castle.
A cop doesn't get to decide how the story ends.
Detective Beckett.
Sir, I'm gonna have to take you with me down to the station.
Who is it, honey? What is it, Ben? So, I'm here because I questioned a woman about a freezer? Not any freezer, Mr.
Davidson.
The freezer that your daughter's body was stored in.
For the moment, let's Let's assume what you say is true.
What's the charge? If Mrs.
Marsh's answer led to Sam's death, then the charge would be murder.
I kept going over everything Sam said, everything he claimed happened that night, until I came to the same conclusion that you both apparently did.
That Melanie never left her apartment alive.
Mrs.
Marsh's answers merely confirmed what I already knew.
That your son-in-law was a killer.
If you had figured out what Sam had done, why not just go to the police? He would have gone to prison for the rest of his life.
If he'd been convicted.
They didn't have a body at the time, remember? His lawyers would have put Melanie on trial, not him.
So you took matters into your own hands.
Well, you could certainly understand how a father might want to.
How he might follow his daughter's murderer one dark night, when he was sure no other people would be around.
How he might confront him with a gun he'd brought back from the war.
Might even promise forgiveness in exchange for the truth.
And, hearing his admission, be overcome with rage.
Every time he brought the girls to see us, I watched a little piece of my wife die.
A visit from your grandkids should be life-affirming, not a reminder of how your only child was murdered.
Killing him wasn't the answer.
I never said I killed him.
I said a father might be justified.
Police told me Sam was shot in a robbery.
And, without evidence, there would be little chance that his killer would ever be brought to justice.
So I guess we'll find out if that's really true.
I'd like to see a lawyer, if I could.
No, sweetie, I just wanted to make sure I said good night.
You got it.
Strawberry happy-face pancakes on me.
Later.
Alexis missed me.
How did you know? Spidey sense.
By the way, it was my mother, not my father.
We were supposed to go to dinner together, my mom, my dad and I, and she was gonna meet us at the restaurant.
But she never showed.
Two hours later, we went home, and there was a detective waiting for us.
Detective Raglin.
They found her body.
She had been stabbed.
A robbery? No.
She still had her money and purse and jewelry.
And it wasn't a sexual assault, either.
They attributed it to gang violence.
Random wayward event.
So, just like in Melanie's case, they couldn't think outside the box.
So they just tried to package it up nicely.
And the killer was never caught.
Why do you wear the watch? My dad took her death hard.
He's sober now.
Five years.
So, this is for the life that I saved.
And this is for the life that I lost.
So, I guess your Nikki Heat has a back-story now, Castle.
I don't know.
I did kind of like the hooker-by-day, cop-by-night thing.
But I guess a heavy emotional angle could work, too.
Well, don't bewilder your audiences with substance on my account, Castle.
Until tomorrow, Detective.
You can't just say "night"? I'm a writer.
"Night" is boring.
"Until tomorrow" is more hopeful.
Yeah.
Well, I'm a cop.
Night.
Night.
Some are reaching Few are there Wandering from a hero's chair Some are scared to fly so high Hi, Dad.
Well, this is how we have to try Have no envy and no fear Have no envy No fear Remember, this never happened.
I was never here.
You have my word.
Thanks.
If you tell her I did this, I will make you bleed.
Understood.
Good luck.
The place we used to call our home Can't be found when we're alone So have no envy No fear Have no envy and no fear ocr/redo/spell: