Castle and Beckett investigate the murders of two victims who resemble Lanie and Esposito.
Recap:
A security guard finds a woman hanged on the docks.
Castle and Beckett try to find a honeymoon destination that he doesn’t share with one of his ex-wives. So far, they’ve got Albania.
The victim, Pam Hodges, 32, looks exactly like Lanie. She was strangled sometime between 2 and 4 a.m. and left hanging on the dock to make it seem like she was just standing there.
Jump with me to read more.
Pam moved to New York seven months ago, leaving a life of prostitution in Florida behind her.
Her brother said she was doing better now, and her apartment would make it seem so. She didn’t let on what kind of new job she had, but apparently it paid well. They find a camera in the apartment, but so far, the tech only finds pictures of tourist attractions.
A shell corporation based out of Belize paid the rent and high credit card bills for Pam.
Lanie calls Beckett down to the morgue. The victim had surgery to make her face similar to Lanie’s, and they used the same hair products. And the victim has the same exact tattoo as Lanie. It’s no longer just a creepy coincidence.
The FBI has files on two other victims killed in a similar fashion in Florida. Beckett has Ryan track the serial numbers off Pam’s cheek implants to a Dr. Kelly Nieman.
Lanie gives her statement to Esposito. She’s only had the tattoo for six months, and the only person who’s seen it is Esposito. But she remembers going out with friends one night and not recalling how she got home the next morning.
Castle and Beckett pay a visit to Dr. Nieman, who says that Pam brought in a picture of Lanie for reference, and the same shell corporation paying for her apartment paid for the procedure too.
One of the techs is able to find a deleted picture on Pam’s camera. It’s one of Pam in front of a boat. Rudy Hollings, a businessman currently overseas, owns the boat in the photo. Esposito and Ryan board the boat and find another body – this time, the victim resembles Esposito.
The victim is Daniel Santos, a stripper from Florida. The day he died, he met with a speech therapist, Dr. Ian Fuller, and brought an audio file of Esposito’s voice for reference.
They find a home address for Daniel, along with a neighbor, who mistakes Esposito for Daniel. She saw Daniel leave in a limo with neon blue license plates. The company says it dropped Daniel off at Dr. Kelly Nieman’s apartment.
Nieman’s doorman confirms that Santos was a frequent overnight guest at Nieman’s apartment. Once brought in to the precinct, Kelly claims that their relationship was purely physical and she isn’t mourning over his death. She also says that Daniel referred Pam to her and she knows that the detectives have no physical evidence linking her to the crimes, so she leaves.
Castle doesn’t think that she’s the killer. It’s a little too convenient that she would make a traceable call for Daniel to get to her apartment. Besides, Kelly’s alibi checked out, and the security cameras confirm her story. Daniel left her apartment around10 p.m. and got in a car…with the security guard from the docks.
The guard, Carl Matthews, originally from Florida, quit his job the day after Pam’s body was found.
Castle thinks that Carl has a partner, someone they’re all too familiar with: 3XK. Beckett is convinced that he’s dead, until they go check his files and find that they’ve all been signed out. According to the system, Esposito checked them out—or someone who looked a lot like him did. And all the DNA evidence, forensic files, were checked out by Lanie…er, Pam. Everything’s gone.
Matthews’ car is spotted at the Starburst motel, the same motel inhabited by 3XK not so long ago. As the detectives all go into the room, Castle spots Matthews leaving the motel and corners him.
Castle and Beckett don’t have much to connect Matthews to the crimes, so they convince Matthews to confess, and he’s glad to do so, as long as they leave 3XK out of it.
Ryan secures 3XK’s prison records and finds out that his prison doctor was none other than Dr. Kelly Nieman. When they go back to her office, it’s cleaned out, but she’s left her pen.
Castle takes the pen home and, after fiddling with it, finds that there’s a flash drive hidden inside. Once hooked up to a computer, it plays a song: “We Will Meet Again.” If that doesn’t convince Beckett that 3XK is still alive, I don’t know what will.
Review:
This is my favorite episode of the season so far! Lanie had more than three lines AND a connection to the case, and this signals a return of the creepy serial killer, 3XK.
– Lindsay
