Castle s02e19 Episode Script
Wrapped Up in Death
There are two kinds of folks who sit around thinking about how to kill people: Psychopaths and mystery writers.
I'm the kind that pays better.
Who am I? I'm Rick Castle.
Castle.
Castle.
I really am ruggedly handsome, aren't I? Every writer needs inspiration and I found mine.
Detective Kate Beckett.
Beckett.
Beckett.
- "Nikki Heat"? - The character he's basing on you.
And thanks to my friendship with the mayor, I get to be on her case.
I'd be happy to let you spank me.
And together we catch killers.
We make a pretty good team, you know.
Like Starsky and Hutch.
Turner and Hooch.
You do remind me a little of Hooch.
Sorry! I'm sorry! - What the hell is wrong with you? - I'm sorry.
Can't you see I'm driving here? Initial impact size is 14 inches.
What are you doing? We're studying the practical application of science at school.
I'm focusing on forensics.
Specifically, the physics of spatter patterns.
Oh.
What's wrong? Well, we usually do all your science projects together.
You remember the volcano we made? The flatulent robot? Ew.
I'm sorry, Dad.
I just got excited about it and you weren't here.
- Well, that's okay.
I can help you finish.
- Yeah.
- Beckett? - Yeah.
- I can stay home.
- Go ahead.
I'll be fine without you.
Point five.
Severe concussion.
I guess I don't have to ask about cause of death.
He's not even my first "death by falling object" this month.
Two weeks ago, an investment banker took a frozen sausage to the head from a 10th-floor window ledge.
Well, it's a pretty old building.
Maybe it just fell.
Maybe it got a little help from someone.
There's markings here on the stone.
- What, a chisel? - Or a crowbar.
I found marks up on the parapet as well.
I got CSU dusting it for prints.
That's a long way to go for a murder.
Who would want to drop a gargoyle on someone? Well, someone who wants to make it look like an accident.
But they had to make sure our victim stood there for long enough.
Had someone tampered with the front door lock when you guys arrived? Give that man a prize.
Yeah, we had to pop the lock to get in the building.
Super says our victim's name is Will Medina.
He's got an apartment up on four, and guess who's got the keys? I do.
This place looks like a museum.
Well, that's because Mr.
Medina was the associate curator - at the New York History Museum.
- That would explain this.
I always thought 100-inch flat-screen would be the ultimate bachelor accessory.
- Well, he wasn't a total bachelor.
- What makes you think that? The second toothbrush in the bathroom.
The scented candle on the tub.
Pair of high heels under his bed.
All suggesting that he was in a casual but steady relationship.
Nicely played.
However, I do think you've misjudged the relationship only slightly.
"Eat, Pray, Love.
" Judging from the condition, I'd say she's read it more than once, meaning that she's a woman on the other side of a search for identity.
A romantic, someone who wouldn't be satisfied with just a casual relationship.
And who's to say that that book isn't his? I love that book.
The neighbor on two says the front door worked just fine at 7:00.
Which means that the killer must've tampered with it after that.
Beckett, calendar.
Check out today's date.
before the murder.
It's an office building downtown.
Let's check it out - after we finish our sweep.
- Okay.
You know, we might want to swing down by the museum, see if any of his colleagues can shed some light on who might want to drop a gargoyle on Mr.
Medina's head.
Either you're being a good cop, or you just want to go to the museum.
- They have dinosaurs there.
- Let's go.
Man, I love this place! When Alexis was little, we used to come here every Sunday.
We would run around here for hours pretending like we were on safari in Africa or looking for dinosaurs in China.
You know, Castle, sometimes I forget that you have such a capacity for pure innocence in your life.
Yeah.
Plus, it was a great place to pick up chicks.
And then you open your mouth and you ruin it.
Hi.
I need to speak with someone about Will Medina.
I just can't believe Will's dead.
Dr.
Raynes, how long did you and Mr.
Medina know each other? Two years.
The first thing I did when I got the job as museum curator was to hire him away from the U.
S.
Geographic Institute to lead the Kan-Xul expedition.
- Kan-Xul? - The legendary Mayan king.
What you see here represents the single most important archeological find in Mayan history.
His burial chamber, where he was entombed with a dozen of his mummified slaves.
- So, kind of like a Mayan King Tut? - Exactly.
You know, the exhibit opens in less than a month.
I can't imagine having to do it without Will.
He's the one that discovered the site.
And when was the last time you saw Mr.
Medina? And how well did the two of you know each other? Why? I'm gonna have to contact his next of kin.
His parents are both dead, and I believe he was an only child.
- And what about his girlfriend? - Last I heard, he was single.
What are you doing? This mummy is over 2,000 years old.
Exposure to air in an unfiltered environment could be catastrophic.
Sorry.
I I didn't I didn't know this.
Rachel, it's okay.
He's with the police.
Rachel Walters is our mummification expert.
- She worked with Will.
- Did something happen to him? He was killed earlier tonight.
That That's not possible.
- Were the two of you close? - Only professionally.
Stanford It doesn't mean anything.
It's just a terrible accident.
- Actually, we believe he was murdered.
It wasn't murder.
It was the curse.
Detective Beckett, Mr.
Castle, Rupert Bentley, - our co-financier of the expedition.
- Pleasure.
- I'm sorry, did you say "curse"? - Tell them, Stanford.
Tell them what was written at the entrance to the burial chamber.
"All who gaze on the face of the Mayan King - "shall be struck down by his wrath.
" - Mayan King.
This Mayan King? That very one.
They all looked inside, and they're all dead.
There were other incidents? - All easily explainable.
One of our grad students, Nicole Graham, was mauled to death by a jaguar outside the dig site.
And Professor Fisher died of dengue fever.
Which is common in that region.
As are curses written above grave sites.
It's how they kept people from robbing them for thousands of years.
Well, I can assure you that whatever killed Mr.
Medina was very human.
- Do you know if he had any enemies? Will was passionate.
Nothing could stop him from getting what he wanted.
It's what made him such a great archeologist, but it also rubbed some people the wrong way.
What do you mean? The indigenous Mayans he worked with claimed that he tricked them into revealing the location of the burial site.
- He'd received death threats.
And how do you know that? I'd received one, too.
It's written in ancient Mayan.
This is just like the one that we found in Medina's apartment.
- What does it say? - "Death awaits the robber of graves.
" That's the lab.
They didn't find any fingerprints on either one of the death threats, which means all we've got to go on is the postmark.
So, we're looking for an angry Mayan who mailed a death threat from Spanish Harlem three days ago.
How tough can that be? Well, I called the Mexican embassy and asked them to put their feelers out to the indigenous rights community.
You never know.
You might get a decent tip.
You know, this guy Medina, when he was a grad student, he walked into the Amazon with nothing but a backpack and some satellite images.
He walked out a month later with the golden head of Yax Pac.
This guy is like Indiana Jones, but with space-age technology.
Which would've been such a better movie - than that last one.
Hey, Beckett.
Hey, did you guys get lucky with the mysterious C.
T? Eight people with the initials "C.
T.
" Work out of 1127 Avenue of the Americas.
None of them have heard of Medina.
And there's a coffee shop on the ground floor, maybe he met C.
T.
There, but none of the waitresses recognized Medina's photograph.
Anything on the girlfriend? No one from the museum can even verify that Medina had a girlfriend.
And that second set of prints that we found at his apartment doesn't match anything in our system.
So far this case is nothing but dead-ends.
- Hmm.
You know why? - Why? Because Castle's cursed.
- You had to tell them, did you? - Yes.
Yes, I did.
Well, gentlemen, you'll be happy to know I don't believe in curses.
Seriously, bro.
I saw this special on TV.
A bunch of the guys who found King Tut's tomb ended up dying under weird circumstances.
Yes, and there was an explanation for that.
Evidence shows that some toxins were released when they opened the sarcophagus.
Well, didn't you say that that mummy smelled kind of funny? Well, yes, but there's And you did gaze upon the face of the mummy.
You guys, there is no curse.
Ow! Paper cut.
Yes.
The curse gave me a paper cut.
These things start small, then they snowball.
Yeah, my abuela always said, "La mala suerte viene de tres en tres.
" Bad luck always comes in threes.
Threes, like celebrities.
They always die in threes.
Living in the Dark Ages here.
Why don't you guys check with Lanie and see if she found anything, okay? Medina's cell phone.
It was in his jacket pocket.
I doubt gargoyle attack is covered under his warranty.
- Get it? The phone warranty - I'll have tech pull the SIM card.
Speaking of gargoyles, we found trace amounts of a substance by the chisel markings.
It was probably on the killer's clothes and was transferred to the statue when he pushed it over.
- What is it? - The lab says they've never seen anything like it.
It's a mixture of mostly organic compounds, including trace amounts of pollen.
Medina's apartment's not far from the park.
Maybe our killer cut through there on his way to do the deed.
Nice idea, but this pollen is from a particular kind of calabash that only grows in the lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula.
- Where the dig site was.
- It gets better.
We found trace amounts of the same pollen on both death threats.
So, a good chance whoever sent this is your killer.
And it's unlikely he would still have trace amounts of pollen on him unless he had been in the Yucatán sometime in the last few days.
Yes, we'll hold.
- Why is this taking so long? How many Mayans from the Yucatán lowlands could possibly have flown into the New York area in the last few days? - TSA computers are down.
- Oh.
Well, that's reassuring.
You know, Castle, this Kan-Xul is no joke.
Legend has, he personally conducted hundreds of human sacrifices.
You know why his burial chamber was so hard to find, right? Because his own people buried it so that he couldn't come back from the grave and get them.
Yes, yes, yes.
Scary mummy, I get it.
Thank you - You okay? - Yeah.
- Yeah, it's an old chair, that's all.
- Just keep telling yourself that.
Hi, are you there? Yes.
Okay, great.
Could you fax it over right away? Thanks.
TSA reports that a Mayan named Cacaw Te arrived in JFK four days ago on a tourist visa.
Cacaw Te, Cacaw Te C.
T.
His visa application puts his home address right in the middle of our pollen zone.
I'm guessing that guy was not class clown in high school.
This is a local address.
Let's go get him.
Can I drive? No.
Can we call you Mr.
T? It's Te.
Cacaw Te.
You've got quite a résumé, Mr.
Te.
According to the Mexican embassy, you were arrested in 2007 for assaulting a group of tourists.
They were trespassing on sacred Mayan soil.
You sent two of them to the hospital.
Things got out of hand, but that's not why I'm here, is it? Sending death threats through the U.
S.
Mail is a felony.
And so is murder, or, as your ancestors like to call it, human sacrifice.
- I don't know what you're talking about.
- Does this jog your memory? Medina refused to see me when I went to the museum.
I sent that because he left me no other choice, and he needed to be told that the museum must return the artifacts that they stole from my people.
Those items weren't stolen.
Your government made a deal with the museum.
But not with us.
The Mayans are not a dead race.
There are seven million of us in Mexico and Central America, the direct descendants of Kan-Xul.
His remains, and all that was buried with him, belong to us.
Is that why you sent the death threat to Medina? It wasn't a threat.
It was a reminder of the fate that awaited him if he did not return what he stole.
Where were you last night between 7:00 and 8:00? I didn't kill him.
I didn't need to.
Because all who suffer from the mummy's curse are doomed to die.
Hey, Beckett, looks like Cacaw Te isn't our C.
T.
After all.
He was uptown meeting with a Telemundo reporter about the injustice of the exhibit at 5:30.
He didn't finish until after 8:00.
Well, what about the pollen? It turns out the area where the expedition was camped would've been covered with the stuff.
Lanie says it's a safe bet that there's traces of it all over the exhibit.
Okay, but let's hold him on the death threats.
I got a feeling he knows more than he's letting on.
The contents of Medina's phone.
There was nothing interesting in the call list or the calendar, but we hit the girlfriend jackpot with the photos.
- He's sleeping with a mummy? - Yeah.
What? No.
Sorry.
You have to flip to the last one.
- Bam! - That's Rachel Walters.
No one at the museum knew they were seeing each other? - Maybe she's got something to hide.
- Like murder? It started after we got back from Mexico.
- Why did you lie to everyone? - I didn't want to get fired.
- Why would Stanford fire you? - Because he and Will hated each other.
- Why? - Stanford blamed Will - for Nicole's death.
- The girl who was killed in Mexico? Stanford put Will in charge of all the grad students.
He wanted Will to teach them how to survive in such a hostile environment.
When Nicole died, Stanford was devastated.
He felt Will had betrayed his trust, letting her go alone into the jungle at night.
Ever since we got back, Stanford's been trying to get rid of Will.
But he can't, because Will's the one who discovered the burial chamber.
Do you think he would've gone as far as murder to get rid of Will? Stanford told me that Will is the one that should've died that night, not Nicole.
The fact that Will and I didn't get along doesn't mean I killed him.
Not getting along with someone is a lot different than blaming him for a girl's death.
You thought he should've done a better job watching over her.
No, I thought he shouldn't be sneaking into the jungle to have sex with her.
That's why she was out there the night she died, only Will stood her up and she paid the price.
And how do you know this? I caught them together two days before she died.
I told him to break it off.
He was her boss.
But he refused.
That girl had a bright future, and his carelessness took it from her.
Where were you when Medina was killed? Right here, working.
You can check with security.
Ask the staff.
I'm basically living here until the exhibit launches.
Great.
Then we'll know where to find you in case your alibi doesn't check out.
Thank you.
What happened to Will wasn't the curse.
It was karma.
Do you believe that people get what they deserve? Well, if they do, then I must've done something pretty terrible - to be punished with you.
- Funny.
Mr.
Castle, Detective.
Seen our new ad campaign? Tasteful.
Come on, Detective.
You've got to give people what they want.
They are eating the curse up.
Ever since the story broke, ticket pre-sales have jumped 20%.
Yeah, but what about when people come and see the mummy and then they get hit by a car, or slip on a banana peel? - Then they're gonna sue you.
- I have to make a call.
Okay, thanks, Bill.
Hey, did you get a confirmation on Stanford's and Rachel's alibis? Museum security has them both logged in, but I haven't been able to find anyone who can definitively state that Stanford or Rachel were there during the hour it would've taken to kill Will and get back to the museum.
Yo.
I think I found something.
Turns out our victim deposited four days before he was killed.
- Where'd he get that kind of money? Unknown.
But he withdrew the same amount the morning he died.
$ 10,000 in, $ 10,000 out.
Sounds like he's laundering money to me.
Okay, you guys check with the bank first thing in the morning.
Let's see where that money came from.
- What happened? - I don't know.
I was just gonna make a coffee and the cappuccino machine started shaking, and just as I hit the deck, it exploded.
- You could've been killed.
- I know! Okay, very funny! Yes, you got me.
Ooh, I'm Castle.
I don't believe in curses.
What, you get bomb disposal to rig something up? - Yeah, it was all flash and no damage.
- And the chair? I just pulled a couple of screws and let gravity do the rest.
Night, Castle.
I'm not cleaning this up! I better clean this up.
- That was so mean.
- I knew the whole time.
Sure you did.
You know, there are some mysteries that science can't explain, like Stonehenge and déjà vu.
And some curses are real, like the Scottish play.
Here we go.
There's no one more superstitious than an actor.
"The Scottish play"? Are you talking about Macbeth? No! Darling.
You never say the name.
- Macbeth! - No! To do so is to invite grave misfortune.
No, I am serious.
You know, I didn't I didn't know it at the time.
I was in my high-school drama class, I said the name, I wasn't thinking.
For the next two days, nothing went right.
I mean, Lady Macbeth twisted her ankle, the three witches caught pneumonia.
Finally the director said, "All right, this is what you have to do.
" I had to run around the outside of the theater building counterclockwise, knock on the door till someone let me in.
Mmm-hmm.
Well, I'd love to stand around and tell scary stories all day, 'cause I'm really good at it, but I have a date with a murder investigation.
It's lucky your father doesn't believe in the curse.
- Why? - 'Cause he's going into a building - full of guns.
I heard that.
Hey, guys, what'd you find out at Medina's bank? Well, it turns out the deposit and the withdrawal were both made in cash, and the bank manager remembers the withdrawal because he had to personally authorize it.
The bank manager was pretty sure Medina was with somebody at the time, so he pulled the surveillance video, revealing this shining example of thuggery.
Any idea who he is? - Do you want to? - No, bro, you caught it.
- You sure? - Yeah, it's yours, go ahead.
You know, whenever you guys are done being cute.
No, he didn't.
Yeah, he did.
Aruba is nice this time of year.
Meet Mr.
Norton Grimes, who recently had the privilege of doing two years for drug trafficking at Franklin Correctional.
That's what the money was for.
Mexico is cocaine central.
What better way to sneak drugs into the country other than inside an archeological shipment? Medina was in bed with a drug trafficker, and it got him killed.
You know, there's a current address here.
- What say we go see if he's awake? - Okay.
Come on, Castle, let's go.
- Can I drive? Are you kidding? You're cursed.
I got two uniforms posted out back in case he decides to rabbit.
Castle, you sure you don't want to stay in the car? - We wouldn't want the curse to get you.
- I'm good to go.
Okay.
Ready? NYPD! Norton Grimes! Police! Show me your hands! Nice doggie.
Good doggie.
Whoa! Ow! He got me! He got me! Castle! Run! Leave! Hey! Over! Easy.
Easy.
Okay, okay, okay Okay, easy Okay, okay.
What is your Right this way, Mr.
Grimes.
- I could've been killed.
- But you weren't.
Look, you go through enough doors, at some point you're gonna find a dog on the other side.
Yes, but it didn't happen at some point, did it? It happened today, right after I gazed into the face of the mummy.
Okay, I admit that the timing was a little troublesome, but I promise you, there is no curse.
Beckett.
Hey.
It's Lanie.
Okay.
Right.
- Well, what does that mean? - What? - Are you sure? - What? - Thanks.
- What? What'd she say? - Nothing.
- It was not nothing.
Okay.
Fine.
The lab identified the substance found on the gargoyle, and it was a combination of sodium nitrate, iron oxide, decomposed hemp fibers and vetted tissue.
I'm sorry.
What? - Ancient human tissue.
- Mummified tissue? Like mummy flesh? Which means, at some point, our killer came into contact with the mummies and somehow transferred the substance onto his or her clothing before killing Medina.
Or maybe the mummy himself has risen from the grave and is roaming New York, seeking vengeance.
I'm kidding.
- Sort of.
- You know, if Medina was trafficking drugs for Grimes through the sarcophagus, then maybe Grimes got the substance on himself when he went to get the drugs out.
You mind flying solo on this one while I head home and change my clothes? I think I can manage.
Hey, Castle.
- Watch out for the mummy.
- Really? Dog attack, icing on the cake.
Yeah, it was sort of like a little bonus, wasn't it? You had to mess with the curse, didn't you? Trying to be funny.
You know what kind of hell I'd catch if Castle got eaten in the line of duty? Don't tell me you really believe in that stuff, sir.
You know what I believe in, Detective? That there's no upside in screwing with things that you can't explain.
First year in homicide, right? My partner tackles a suspect through the window of a gypsy smoke shop.
Owner's furious.
Threatens all kind of hexes on our houses if we don't personally go and clean it up.
And we tell her, "Yeah, take it up with the city.
" Two hours later, my partner drops dead.
Heart attack.
And you think it was the hexes? No.
The man ate bacon with every meal.
But, next morning, I went over there, fixed that window.
And you know why? Because there's no upside in screwing with things you can't explain? - And don't you ever forget it.
- Okay.
You know, if our boy Grimes saw the face of the mummy, it's likely he's cursed, too.
Yeah, well, I'd rather suffer a thousand curses than go up against Beckett in a box.
Lady, you got the wrong guy.
I dropped out of the drug game after I left the joint.
That's funny, because I've got surveillance photos showing you taking $ 10,000 in cash from Will Medina the day that he was murdered.
And given your rap sheet, I don't think it would be too difficult to convince a jury that you were involved.
Okay, okay, okay, hold on.
I didn't murder anyone, and I don't smuggle drugs anymore.
I used my connections to get a new gig.
Antiquities.
Really? And why would Will Medina be buying antiquities from you? Not buying, selling.
I met him at a museum fundraiser last year.
I gave him my card, I told him I'm always interested in rare items that may need a new home.
He gave me a call few weeks later.
He said he had a box of Incan arrowheads that had just been sitting on a shelf since the 1940s.
I found him a buyer and we made a nice little profit.
And what were you buying this time? - A mummy.
- A mummy? - Who would want a mummy? - A collector in Taipei.
So I stopped by the museum.
You know, I thought he would say no, but he jumped at the opportunity.
Did he ever think that somebody would notice this missing mummy? He said all the attention was being paid to the mummy of the Mayan king, not to slave girl number six.
She was destined for the storage room in the basement.
So it'd be years before anyone went looking for her, at which point, her disappearance, it could never be linked to him.
And this $ 10,000 was a down payment? Of a quarter-million-dollar payout.
But then you showed up and you took it back.
Why? My client changed their mind.
Guess they didn't like the mummy.
- Why not? - I don't know.
All I know is they sent someone down to the museum to take a look.
- Who did he send? - I have no idea.
I swear.
Whatever they told him turned my client off.
Maybe the mummy was too short, maybe it didn't have enough teeth.
These private collectors, they're very particular.
They want exactly what they want and nothing else.
Selling mummies? How stupid does he think we are? I know, the drug story is a hell of a lot more plausible, but it just doesn't seem to be Medina's style.
There's one way to find out.
Take samples from this mummy's sarcophagus.
If they test positive for drugs, Grimes is lying, and most likely our murderer.
Great.
Thanks.
- Hey, what are you doing home? - Facing my mortality.
All this curse stuff has got me thinking.
If something were to happen to me, - you'd take good care of Alexis, right? - Of course! - Better than you took care of me? - Please.
You turned out fine.
Look, look, look.
The chances of this curse being real are almost non-existent.
You know that.
Maybe.
But what kind of father would I be if I didn't do everything I could to make sure I stick around? Well, then I think maybe we should try to figure out a way to reverse the curse.
You know, the mummy equivalent of my running around the theater.
Someone at the museum must know that.
You've become very wise in your old age.
Watch it, buster.
I'm afraid there's nothing in the literature about reversing the curse.
- Hey.
- Castle, what are you doing here? Nothing.
Just waiting for you.
Detectives, are you here to talk about reversing the curse as well? No.
I'm here to see a man about a mummy.
So, no luck with the curse, huh? Look on the bright side, Castle.
You die, your book sales skyrocket.
Great.
What did Beckett mean, "See a man about a mummy"? Which mummy? The one Grimes said Medina was trying to sell.
Fill me in.
Spare no detail.
Well, in some ancient cultures, instead of burning or Fast forward a little bit.
Detective, this is a significant archeological find.
You can't just walk in here and open it up.
- I've got a warrant that says otherwise.
This is preposterous.
Tell that to the drug dealer in my lockup who was doing business with your associate curator.
Please.
I just have to reiterate how fragile these mummies are.
They should only be handled in a controlled environment.
Don't worry, it's just a simple swab test.
I promise, I won't damage anything.
My God.
It's gone! I'm not saying I believe, but where's the mummy? CSU field test shows that there's no drug residue inside the sarcophagus, and all the other mummies are accounted for.
No drugs in them either.
Well, if it wasn't the drugs, then what's so special about the missing mummy? Well, maybe Grimes was telling the truth.
Maybe Medina was trying to sell it.
And then when Grimes wouldn't buy it, he sold it to someone else? Except that one of the researchers swears it was in its sarcophagus - the day after Medina was killed.
- Well, that could only mean one thing.
Please don't say that it's walking among us seeking revenge.
Okay.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
This place is gigantic.
They have over 30 million specimens down here.
We got a K-9 unit coming in to help, but finding this mummy might be like finding the lost ark.
- Lf it is even still here.
- All right, have CSU sweep the area and see if they can get any prints off of the sarcophagus.
Whoever stole the mummy must have left some evidence behind.
Disaster! PR disaster! I only hope the press doesn't hear about this.
Ten bucks says he calls the press just as we're out the front door.
You don't think he could've orchestrated this whole thing just to generate interest in the exhibit, do you? Murdered Medina just to boost ticket sales? No.
That would make this Scooby-Doo, and I'm not Velma.
Velma? Are you kidding? You're Daphne.
You're hot, smart, not aggressively brainy, but long legs, short skirt - Stop.
- Fine.
- Now.
- Got it.
No, he didn't know anything about how to reverse the curse, but I've decided it's okay.
I was just overreacting.
It's like you said, the chances of there actually being a curse are virtually non-existent.
That was weird.
The elevator just stopped.
Mother? Okay.
No reason to panic.
Small reason to panic.
Hello? There is no curse.
There is no curse.
There is no curse.
All right.
What do I do if the elevator falls? Okay, I'm I think I'm supposed to jump in the air.
No! Lay on the ground.
Castle? What are you doing? There was That whole thing, the Then the light, the light, and then the whole thing went I thought that I thought the elevator was gonna fall! That wasn't you, was it? Because that wasn't funny.
No, no, I'm not that cruel.
It's an old elevator.
You know what, let's get maintenance up here and tell them not to let anyone on here before it's fixed.
Are you okay? Yeah.
No, yeah.
I'm I'm Splash some water on my face and then throw up a little bit.
Rogue archeologists, Mayan death threats, drug dealers claiming to deal in antiquities, and missing mummies.
There's got to be a story that makes all of this make sense.
What? - Nothing.
- Castle.
If something were to happen to me, I want you to watch out for Alexis.
She looks up to you.
And if her boyfriends get frisky, you can shoot them.
- Nothing's gonna happen to you.
- But if it does Okay.
And would you also go into my closet and get rid of my porn collection before she finds it? Don't worry, bro.
I got you covered on that.
We hit a home run with the prints from the sarcophagus.
One popped that doesn't belong to anyone who works at the museum.
But according to the background check, he does work at 1127 Avenue of the Americas, the address on Medina's calendar.
At a company called Bio Inc.
, and here is the best part.
His name is Charles Taylor.
- C.
T! - C.
T? Spoke to the guy two days ago and he insisted he'd never met Medina.
Lied right to my face.
No, no, I didn't lie.
I swear to you, I don't know Will Medina.
You didn't see him two days ago at 5:30? No.
You got the wrong guy.
But you admit that you were in the basement of the New York History Museum? No.
Charles, we have your fingerprints on a sarcophagus, so you can either start telling us the truth now, or after spending an afternoon in the holding cell, entertaining a meth addict through the violent phase of his withdrawal.
- I might have been down there.
- When? - Okay, holding cell it is.
- Five days ago.
- And Medina? - Look, I heard he was dead.
I didn't want to get mixed up in that.
I I was only sent there to check out the mummy.
- The mummy? - Yeah.
I was sent by a private collector to examine it.
Grimes was telling the truth.
Medina was trying to sell the mummy.
- This is getting good.
- This collector, where is he from? Taipei.
I've done testing for him before.
Hominid skulls, a mammoth tusk.
He asked me to carbon date the mummy to make sure it was real.
And was it? - It's complicated.
- We'll try and keep up.
As soon as an organism dies, it stops taking in new carbon.
Specifically, we focus on carbon-14, which starts to decay in the body as soon as it dies, and by examining the rate of decay, we can actually date the age of the dead organism with incredible accuracy.
When I tested the mummy, I took samples from the sarcophagus, the cloth the mummy was wrapped in, and a small piece of bone, and then I ran them through a mass spectrometer.
And that's when things got weird.
Define "weird.
" The samples from the sarcophagus and the cloth dated at over 2,000 years old, but the piece of bone was too young to date.
Meaning that it was less than 500 years old.
- How much less? - I have no idea.
Five hundred years is as low as the test goes.
Are you saying that the mummy Medina was trying to sell was a fake? All I know is that there was a discrepancy, and I called him and I told him that, and he didn't believe me.
He insisted on coming to the office to see me.
The night he died.
Beckett.
- Uniforms just found your mummy.
- Where? In a dark corner of the museum basement.
Someone was doing their best to make sure it was never found.
Medina's buyer rejected the mummy because it wasn't real, and when Medina started asking questions, he was killed.
And now someone's trying to make it disappear? I think we need to take a closer look at that mummy.
Your carbon dater was right.
This girl's body is definitely less than 500 years dead.
- How much less? - She died four months ago.
If she's been dead for four months, why does she look just like the other mummies? Because whoever mummified her knew what they were doing.
Her blood's been drained, there's an incision on her left side, which her killer used to remove her organs before starting the desiccation process.
- But how did she die? - Blunt force trauma.
Someone hit her in the back of the head.
She never saw it coming.
And then do you have any idea who she is? No.
And I was unable to get a usable fingerprint.
We don't need them.
She died four months ago.
I know exactly who this is.
Dental records confirm that the body is Nicole Graham, the first victim of the curse.
I thought this girl was killed by an animal in the jungle.
Turns out they never actually found the body.
Just her bloody clothes and a piece of scalp.
It seemed obvious to the Mexican authorities what had happened.
Instead, somebody killed her and turned her into a mummy? Hell of a way to get rid of a body.
Hide it in plain sight, ship it out with the other artifacts.
And no one would have ever found out if Medina hadn't decided to sell the wrong mummy.
When the collector refused it, Medina must have decided to take a closer look.
And then that suspicion must have tipped off our killer, who had to murder Medina in order to keep the secret safe.
It makes sense, but who's our killer? The only person with the skill to mummify a body.
What's going on? Four words.
Eat, pray, love, kill.
Little friendly advice.
Next time you kill someone, skip the part where you prove only you could have covered it up.
Kill someone? What are you talking about? We're talking about Nicole Graham.
You killed her in Mexico and then you mummified her body in order to cover it up.
What? No, Nicole was killed in a jaguar attack.
- Except they never found her body.
- But we did.
And so did Medina when he discovered the discrepancy in the carbon dating.
And that's when you knew that you had to kill him.
- That's insane.
What happened, Rachel? Did you find her in the jungle making time with your man? Little Girls Gone Wild jealousy turned deadly? No, Nicole and I were friends.
And whoever told you she was sleeping with Will was lying.
Sure, she had a crush on him, okay? We all did.
But she backed off when she realized that Will was interested in me.
But Stan Stanford.
Stanford was the one who was jealous.
Ask any of the women down there.
He had a thing for Nicole ever since she joined the program.
You'd always see him standing around watching her.
It was creepy.
You were the expert, Rachel.
You were the only one who knew how to do it.
No, I wasn't.
Everything I know about mummification I learned from Stanford Raynes.
Look, Detective, mummifying a body is a hands-on process.
I promise you, whoever did that to Nicole left behind some DNA.
I'm happy to provide a sample.
Why don't you see if Stanford wants to do the same? Stanford Raynes? - Yes? You're under arrest for the murder of Nicole Graham.
And don't forget Will Medina.
You had to kill him, too, when you caught him sniffing around her mummy.
- Only way to protect your secret.
- You can't be serious.
Serious enough to get a warrant for your DNA.
This is the part where you say, "And I would've gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling kids.
" Is he actually running away? Yeah, it's primal instinct.
Fight or flight.
- Should we run after him? - No need.
Still say there's no curse? Ruh-roh.
Once Stanford got out of surgery, he confessed to everything.
How he lured Nicole into the burial chamber and how they fought when she refused to celebrate with him.
So, what happened to the mummy he swapped for Nicole's body? The body was so fragile that all Stanford had to do was strip off the wrapping and stomp it into dust.
And then he re-wrapped Nicole's body, stuffed it in the sarcophagus, sealed it up tight, and by the time it got to the U.
S.
Months later, the mummification process was complete.
And when Stanford decided to kill Medina, he just used one of the pry bars from the museum to tip the gargoyle, and hoped that Medina's death would be blamed on the curse.
Three members of the expedition dead, one on the way to jail.
- Sounds like the curse is real to me.
- Speaking of which I have a deal to propose.
I spoke to the D.
A.
And he's agreed to drop the felony threat charges based on your cooperation.
What kind of cooperation? Tell him how to reverse the curse.
- Why should I? - Because, thanks to us, Mr.
Bentley has agreed to send the entire collection back to the Mexican Museum after the exhibit ends.
Why would he agree to that? Well, let's just say he's got a little public relations problem right now, and he could use all the good publicity he can get.
- That's all I have to do? - Mmm.
And one more thing.
I wouldn't say no to a ride to the airport.
Let's go.
- You're in a good mood.
- The curse has officially been lifted.
- How'd you manage that? - You don't want to know.
But I tempted fate all the way home just to make sure.
- Jaywalking? - Mmm-hmm.
Even walked under a ladder.
What murderous experiments are you performing on tomatoes now? - Stabbing? Filleting? - Dicing.
For a salad.
Want to help? I would love to.
So, I was thinking, maybe this weekend we could go to the museum.
- It's been a while.
- Yeah.
How about the zoo? - That sounds great.
- Thank you.
What's the difference between curse and clumsy? - I'll get a Band-Aid.
- Get two.
I'm the kind that pays better.
Who am I? I'm Rick Castle.
Castle.
Castle.
I really am ruggedly handsome, aren't I? Every writer needs inspiration and I found mine.
Detective Kate Beckett.
Beckett.
Beckett.
- "Nikki Heat"? - The character he's basing on you.
And thanks to my friendship with the mayor, I get to be on her case.
I'd be happy to let you spank me.
And together we catch killers.
We make a pretty good team, you know.
Like Starsky and Hutch.
Turner and Hooch.
You do remind me a little of Hooch.
Sorry! I'm sorry! - What the hell is wrong with you? - I'm sorry.
Can't you see I'm driving here? Initial impact size is 14 inches.
What are you doing? We're studying the practical application of science at school.
I'm focusing on forensics.
Specifically, the physics of spatter patterns.
Oh.
What's wrong? Well, we usually do all your science projects together.
You remember the volcano we made? The flatulent robot? Ew.
I'm sorry, Dad.
I just got excited about it and you weren't here.
- Well, that's okay.
I can help you finish.
- Yeah.
- Beckett? - Yeah.
- I can stay home.
- Go ahead.
I'll be fine without you.
Point five.
Severe concussion.
I guess I don't have to ask about cause of death.
He's not even my first "death by falling object" this month.
Two weeks ago, an investment banker took a frozen sausage to the head from a 10th-floor window ledge.
Well, it's a pretty old building.
Maybe it just fell.
Maybe it got a little help from someone.
There's markings here on the stone.
- What, a chisel? - Or a crowbar.
I found marks up on the parapet as well.
I got CSU dusting it for prints.
That's a long way to go for a murder.
Who would want to drop a gargoyle on someone? Well, someone who wants to make it look like an accident.
But they had to make sure our victim stood there for long enough.
Had someone tampered with the front door lock when you guys arrived? Give that man a prize.
Yeah, we had to pop the lock to get in the building.
Super says our victim's name is Will Medina.
He's got an apartment up on four, and guess who's got the keys? I do.
This place looks like a museum.
Well, that's because Mr.
Medina was the associate curator - at the New York History Museum.
- That would explain this.
I always thought 100-inch flat-screen would be the ultimate bachelor accessory.
- Well, he wasn't a total bachelor.
- What makes you think that? The second toothbrush in the bathroom.
The scented candle on the tub.
Pair of high heels under his bed.
All suggesting that he was in a casual but steady relationship.
Nicely played.
However, I do think you've misjudged the relationship only slightly.
"Eat, Pray, Love.
" Judging from the condition, I'd say she's read it more than once, meaning that she's a woman on the other side of a search for identity.
A romantic, someone who wouldn't be satisfied with just a casual relationship.
And who's to say that that book isn't his? I love that book.
The neighbor on two says the front door worked just fine at 7:00.
Which means that the killer must've tampered with it after that.
Beckett, calendar.
Check out today's date.
before the murder.
It's an office building downtown.
Let's check it out - after we finish our sweep.
- Okay.
You know, we might want to swing down by the museum, see if any of his colleagues can shed some light on who might want to drop a gargoyle on Mr.
Medina's head.
Either you're being a good cop, or you just want to go to the museum.
- They have dinosaurs there.
- Let's go.
Man, I love this place! When Alexis was little, we used to come here every Sunday.
We would run around here for hours pretending like we were on safari in Africa or looking for dinosaurs in China.
You know, Castle, sometimes I forget that you have such a capacity for pure innocence in your life.
Yeah.
Plus, it was a great place to pick up chicks.
And then you open your mouth and you ruin it.
Hi.
I need to speak with someone about Will Medina.
I just can't believe Will's dead.
Dr.
Raynes, how long did you and Mr.
Medina know each other? Two years.
The first thing I did when I got the job as museum curator was to hire him away from the U.
S.
Geographic Institute to lead the Kan-Xul expedition.
- Kan-Xul? - The legendary Mayan king.
What you see here represents the single most important archeological find in Mayan history.
His burial chamber, where he was entombed with a dozen of his mummified slaves.
- So, kind of like a Mayan King Tut? - Exactly.
You know, the exhibit opens in less than a month.
I can't imagine having to do it without Will.
He's the one that discovered the site.
And when was the last time you saw Mr.
Medina? And how well did the two of you know each other? Why? I'm gonna have to contact his next of kin.
His parents are both dead, and I believe he was an only child.
- And what about his girlfriend? - Last I heard, he was single.
What are you doing? This mummy is over 2,000 years old.
Exposure to air in an unfiltered environment could be catastrophic.
Sorry.
I I didn't I didn't know this.
Rachel, it's okay.
He's with the police.
Rachel Walters is our mummification expert.
- She worked with Will.
- Did something happen to him? He was killed earlier tonight.
That That's not possible.
- Were the two of you close? - Only professionally.
Stanford It doesn't mean anything.
It's just a terrible accident.
- Actually, we believe he was murdered.
It wasn't murder.
It was the curse.
Detective Beckett, Mr.
Castle, Rupert Bentley, - our co-financier of the expedition.
- Pleasure.
- I'm sorry, did you say "curse"? - Tell them, Stanford.
Tell them what was written at the entrance to the burial chamber.
"All who gaze on the face of the Mayan King - "shall be struck down by his wrath.
" - Mayan King.
This Mayan King? That very one.
They all looked inside, and they're all dead.
There were other incidents? - All easily explainable.
One of our grad students, Nicole Graham, was mauled to death by a jaguar outside the dig site.
And Professor Fisher died of dengue fever.
Which is common in that region.
As are curses written above grave sites.
It's how they kept people from robbing them for thousands of years.
Well, I can assure you that whatever killed Mr.
Medina was very human.
- Do you know if he had any enemies? Will was passionate.
Nothing could stop him from getting what he wanted.
It's what made him such a great archeologist, but it also rubbed some people the wrong way.
What do you mean? The indigenous Mayans he worked with claimed that he tricked them into revealing the location of the burial site.
- He'd received death threats.
And how do you know that? I'd received one, too.
It's written in ancient Mayan.
This is just like the one that we found in Medina's apartment.
- What does it say? - "Death awaits the robber of graves.
" That's the lab.
They didn't find any fingerprints on either one of the death threats, which means all we've got to go on is the postmark.
So, we're looking for an angry Mayan who mailed a death threat from Spanish Harlem three days ago.
How tough can that be? Well, I called the Mexican embassy and asked them to put their feelers out to the indigenous rights community.
You never know.
You might get a decent tip.
You know, this guy Medina, when he was a grad student, he walked into the Amazon with nothing but a backpack and some satellite images.
He walked out a month later with the golden head of Yax Pac.
This guy is like Indiana Jones, but with space-age technology.
Which would've been such a better movie - than that last one.
Hey, Beckett.
Hey, did you guys get lucky with the mysterious C.
T? Eight people with the initials "C.
T.
" Work out of 1127 Avenue of the Americas.
None of them have heard of Medina.
And there's a coffee shop on the ground floor, maybe he met C.
T.
There, but none of the waitresses recognized Medina's photograph.
Anything on the girlfriend? No one from the museum can even verify that Medina had a girlfriend.
And that second set of prints that we found at his apartment doesn't match anything in our system.
So far this case is nothing but dead-ends.
- Hmm.
You know why? - Why? Because Castle's cursed.
- You had to tell them, did you? - Yes.
Yes, I did.
Well, gentlemen, you'll be happy to know I don't believe in curses.
Seriously, bro.
I saw this special on TV.
A bunch of the guys who found King Tut's tomb ended up dying under weird circumstances.
Yes, and there was an explanation for that.
Evidence shows that some toxins were released when they opened the sarcophagus.
Well, didn't you say that that mummy smelled kind of funny? Well, yes, but there's And you did gaze upon the face of the mummy.
You guys, there is no curse.
Ow! Paper cut.
Yes.
The curse gave me a paper cut.
These things start small, then they snowball.
Yeah, my abuela always said, "La mala suerte viene de tres en tres.
" Bad luck always comes in threes.
Threes, like celebrities.
They always die in threes.
Living in the Dark Ages here.
Why don't you guys check with Lanie and see if she found anything, okay? Medina's cell phone.
It was in his jacket pocket.
I doubt gargoyle attack is covered under his warranty.
- Get it? The phone warranty - I'll have tech pull the SIM card.
Speaking of gargoyles, we found trace amounts of a substance by the chisel markings.
It was probably on the killer's clothes and was transferred to the statue when he pushed it over.
- What is it? - The lab says they've never seen anything like it.
It's a mixture of mostly organic compounds, including trace amounts of pollen.
Medina's apartment's not far from the park.
Maybe our killer cut through there on his way to do the deed.
Nice idea, but this pollen is from a particular kind of calabash that only grows in the lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula.
- Where the dig site was.
- It gets better.
We found trace amounts of the same pollen on both death threats.
So, a good chance whoever sent this is your killer.
And it's unlikely he would still have trace amounts of pollen on him unless he had been in the Yucatán sometime in the last few days.
Yes, we'll hold.
- Why is this taking so long? How many Mayans from the Yucatán lowlands could possibly have flown into the New York area in the last few days? - TSA computers are down.
- Oh.
Well, that's reassuring.
You know, Castle, this Kan-Xul is no joke.
Legend has, he personally conducted hundreds of human sacrifices.
You know why his burial chamber was so hard to find, right? Because his own people buried it so that he couldn't come back from the grave and get them.
Yes, yes, yes.
Scary mummy, I get it.
Thank you - You okay? - Yeah.
- Yeah, it's an old chair, that's all.
- Just keep telling yourself that.
Hi, are you there? Yes.
Okay, great.
Could you fax it over right away? Thanks.
TSA reports that a Mayan named Cacaw Te arrived in JFK four days ago on a tourist visa.
Cacaw Te, Cacaw Te C.
T.
His visa application puts his home address right in the middle of our pollen zone.
I'm guessing that guy was not class clown in high school.
This is a local address.
Let's go get him.
Can I drive? No.
Can we call you Mr.
T? It's Te.
Cacaw Te.
You've got quite a résumé, Mr.
Te.
According to the Mexican embassy, you were arrested in 2007 for assaulting a group of tourists.
They were trespassing on sacred Mayan soil.
You sent two of them to the hospital.
Things got out of hand, but that's not why I'm here, is it? Sending death threats through the U.
S.
Mail is a felony.
And so is murder, or, as your ancestors like to call it, human sacrifice.
- I don't know what you're talking about.
- Does this jog your memory? Medina refused to see me when I went to the museum.
I sent that because he left me no other choice, and he needed to be told that the museum must return the artifacts that they stole from my people.
Those items weren't stolen.
Your government made a deal with the museum.
But not with us.
The Mayans are not a dead race.
There are seven million of us in Mexico and Central America, the direct descendants of Kan-Xul.
His remains, and all that was buried with him, belong to us.
Is that why you sent the death threat to Medina? It wasn't a threat.
It was a reminder of the fate that awaited him if he did not return what he stole.
Where were you last night between 7:00 and 8:00? I didn't kill him.
I didn't need to.
Because all who suffer from the mummy's curse are doomed to die.
Hey, Beckett, looks like Cacaw Te isn't our C.
T.
After all.
He was uptown meeting with a Telemundo reporter about the injustice of the exhibit at 5:30.
He didn't finish until after 8:00.
Well, what about the pollen? It turns out the area where the expedition was camped would've been covered with the stuff.
Lanie says it's a safe bet that there's traces of it all over the exhibit.
Okay, but let's hold him on the death threats.
I got a feeling he knows more than he's letting on.
The contents of Medina's phone.
There was nothing interesting in the call list or the calendar, but we hit the girlfriend jackpot with the photos.
- He's sleeping with a mummy? - Yeah.
What? No.
Sorry.
You have to flip to the last one.
- Bam! - That's Rachel Walters.
No one at the museum knew they were seeing each other? - Maybe she's got something to hide.
- Like murder? It started after we got back from Mexico.
- Why did you lie to everyone? - I didn't want to get fired.
- Why would Stanford fire you? - Because he and Will hated each other.
- Why? - Stanford blamed Will - for Nicole's death.
- The girl who was killed in Mexico? Stanford put Will in charge of all the grad students.
He wanted Will to teach them how to survive in such a hostile environment.
When Nicole died, Stanford was devastated.
He felt Will had betrayed his trust, letting her go alone into the jungle at night.
Ever since we got back, Stanford's been trying to get rid of Will.
But he can't, because Will's the one who discovered the burial chamber.
Do you think he would've gone as far as murder to get rid of Will? Stanford told me that Will is the one that should've died that night, not Nicole.
The fact that Will and I didn't get along doesn't mean I killed him.
Not getting along with someone is a lot different than blaming him for a girl's death.
You thought he should've done a better job watching over her.
No, I thought he shouldn't be sneaking into the jungle to have sex with her.
That's why she was out there the night she died, only Will stood her up and she paid the price.
And how do you know this? I caught them together two days before she died.
I told him to break it off.
He was her boss.
But he refused.
That girl had a bright future, and his carelessness took it from her.
Where were you when Medina was killed? Right here, working.
You can check with security.
Ask the staff.
I'm basically living here until the exhibit launches.
Great.
Then we'll know where to find you in case your alibi doesn't check out.
Thank you.
What happened to Will wasn't the curse.
It was karma.
Do you believe that people get what they deserve? Well, if they do, then I must've done something pretty terrible - to be punished with you.
- Funny.
Mr.
Castle, Detective.
Seen our new ad campaign? Tasteful.
Come on, Detective.
You've got to give people what they want.
They are eating the curse up.
Ever since the story broke, ticket pre-sales have jumped 20%.
Yeah, but what about when people come and see the mummy and then they get hit by a car, or slip on a banana peel? - Then they're gonna sue you.
- I have to make a call.
Okay, thanks, Bill.
Hey, did you get a confirmation on Stanford's and Rachel's alibis? Museum security has them both logged in, but I haven't been able to find anyone who can definitively state that Stanford or Rachel were there during the hour it would've taken to kill Will and get back to the museum.
Yo.
I think I found something.
Turns out our victim deposited four days before he was killed.
- Where'd he get that kind of money? Unknown.
But he withdrew the same amount the morning he died.
$ 10,000 in, $ 10,000 out.
Sounds like he's laundering money to me.
Okay, you guys check with the bank first thing in the morning.
Let's see where that money came from.
- What happened? - I don't know.
I was just gonna make a coffee and the cappuccino machine started shaking, and just as I hit the deck, it exploded.
- You could've been killed.
- I know! Okay, very funny! Yes, you got me.
Ooh, I'm Castle.
I don't believe in curses.
What, you get bomb disposal to rig something up? - Yeah, it was all flash and no damage.
- And the chair? I just pulled a couple of screws and let gravity do the rest.
Night, Castle.
I'm not cleaning this up! I better clean this up.
- That was so mean.
- I knew the whole time.
Sure you did.
You know, there are some mysteries that science can't explain, like Stonehenge and déjà vu.
And some curses are real, like the Scottish play.
Here we go.
There's no one more superstitious than an actor.
"The Scottish play"? Are you talking about Macbeth? No! Darling.
You never say the name.
- Macbeth! - No! To do so is to invite grave misfortune.
No, I am serious.
You know, I didn't I didn't know it at the time.
I was in my high-school drama class, I said the name, I wasn't thinking.
For the next two days, nothing went right.
I mean, Lady Macbeth twisted her ankle, the three witches caught pneumonia.
Finally the director said, "All right, this is what you have to do.
" I had to run around the outside of the theater building counterclockwise, knock on the door till someone let me in.
Mmm-hmm.
Well, I'd love to stand around and tell scary stories all day, 'cause I'm really good at it, but I have a date with a murder investigation.
It's lucky your father doesn't believe in the curse.
- Why? - 'Cause he's going into a building - full of guns.
I heard that.
Hey, guys, what'd you find out at Medina's bank? Well, it turns out the deposit and the withdrawal were both made in cash, and the bank manager remembers the withdrawal because he had to personally authorize it.
The bank manager was pretty sure Medina was with somebody at the time, so he pulled the surveillance video, revealing this shining example of thuggery.
Any idea who he is? - Do you want to? - No, bro, you caught it.
- You sure? - Yeah, it's yours, go ahead.
You know, whenever you guys are done being cute.
No, he didn't.
Yeah, he did.
Aruba is nice this time of year.
Meet Mr.
Norton Grimes, who recently had the privilege of doing two years for drug trafficking at Franklin Correctional.
That's what the money was for.
Mexico is cocaine central.
What better way to sneak drugs into the country other than inside an archeological shipment? Medina was in bed with a drug trafficker, and it got him killed.
You know, there's a current address here.
- What say we go see if he's awake? - Okay.
Come on, Castle, let's go.
- Can I drive? Are you kidding? You're cursed.
I got two uniforms posted out back in case he decides to rabbit.
Castle, you sure you don't want to stay in the car? - We wouldn't want the curse to get you.
- I'm good to go.
Okay.
Ready? NYPD! Norton Grimes! Police! Show me your hands! Nice doggie.
Good doggie.
Whoa! Ow! He got me! He got me! Castle! Run! Leave! Hey! Over! Easy.
Easy.
Okay, okay, okay Okay, easy Okay, okay.
What is your Right this way, Mr.
Grimes.
- I could've been killed.
- But you weren't.
Look, you go through enough doors, at some point you're gonna find a dog on the other side.
Yes, but it didn't happen at some point, did it? It happened today, right after I gazed into the face of the mummy.
Okay, I admit that the timing was a little troublesome, but I promise you, there is no curse.
Beckett.
Hey.
It's Lanie.
Okay.
Right.
- Well, what does that mean? - What? - Are you sure? - What? - Thanks.
- What? What'd she say? - Nothing.
- It was not nothing.
Okay.
Fine.
The lab identified the substance found on the gargoyle, and it was a combination of sodium nitrate, iron oxide, decomposed hemp fibers and vetted tissue.
I'm sorry.
What? - Ancient human tissue.
- Mummified tissue? Like mummy flesh? Which means, at some point, our killer came into contact with the mummies and somehow transferred the substance onto his or her clothing before killing Medina.
Or maybe the mummy himself has risen from the grave and is roaming New York, seeking vengeance.
I'm kidding.
- Sort of.
- You know, if Medina was trafficking drugs for Grimes through the sarcophagus, then maybe Grimes got the substance on himself when he went to get the drugs out.
You mind flying solo on this one while I head home and change my clothes? I think I can manage.
Hey, Castle.
- Watch out for the mummy.
- Really? Dog attack, icing on the cake.
Yeah, it was sort of like a little bonus, wasn't it? You had to mess with the curse, didn't you? Trying to be funny.
You know what kind of hell I'd catch if Castle got eaten in the line of duty? Don't tell me you really believe in that stuff, sir.
You know what I believe in, Detective? That there's no upside in screwing with things that you can't explain.
First year in homicide, right? My partner tackles a suspect through the window of a gypsy smoke shop.
Owner's furious.
Threatens all kind of hexes on our houses if we don't personally go and clean it up.
And we tell her, "Yeah, take it up with the city.
" Two hours later, my partner drops dead.
Heart attack.
And you think it was the hexes? No.
The man ate bacon with every meal.
But, next morning, I went over there, fixed that window.
And you know why? Because there's no upside in screwing with things you can't explain? - And don't you ever forget it.
- Okay.
You know, if our boy Grimes saw the face of the mummy, it's likely he's cursed, too.
Yeah, well, I'd rather suffer a thousand curses than go up against Beckett in a box.
Lady, you got the wrong guy.
I dropped out of the drug game after I left the joint.
That's funny, because I've got surveillance photos showing you taking $ 10,000 in cash from Will Medina the day that he was murdered.
And given your rap sheet, I don't think it would be too difficult to convince a jury that you were involved.
Okay, okay, okay, hold on.
I didn't murder anyone, and I don't smuggle drugs anymore.
I used my connections to get a new gig.
Antiquities.
Really? And why would Will Medina be buying antiquities from you? Not buying, selling.
I met him at a museum fundraiser last year.
I gave him my card, I told him I'm always interested in rare items that may need a new home.
He gave me a call few weeks later.
He said he had a box of Incan arrowheads that had just been sitting on a shelf since the 1940s.
I found him a buyer and we made a nice little profit.
And what were you buying this time? - A mummy.
- A mummy? - Who would want a mummy? - A collector in Taipei.
So I stopped by the museum.
You know, I thought he would say no, but he jumped at the opportunity.
Did he ever think that somebody would notice this missing mummy? He said all the attention was being paid to the mummy of the Mayan king, not to slave girl number six.
She was destined for the storage room in the basement.
So it'd be years before anyone went looking for her, at which point, her disappearance, it could never be linked to him.
And this $ 10,000 was a down payment? Of a quarter-million-dollar payout.
But then you showed up and you took it back.
Why? My client changed their mind.
Guess they didn't like the mummy.
- Why not? - I don't know.
All I know is they sent someone down to the museum to take a look.
- Who did he send? - I have no idea.
I swear.
Whatever they told him turned my client off.
Maybe the mummy was too short, maybe it didn't have enough teeth.
These private collectors, they're very particular.
They want exactly what they want and nothing else.
Selling mummies? How stupid does he think we are? I know, the drug story is a hell of a lot more plausible, but it just doesn't seem to be Medina's style.
There's one way to find out.
Take samples from this mummy's sarcophagus.
If they test positive for drugs, Grimes is lying, and most likely our murderer.
Great.
Thanks.
- Hey, what are you doing home? - Facing my mortality.
All this curse stuff has got me thinking.
If something were to happen to me, - you'd take good care of Alexis, right? - Of course! - Better than you took care of me? - Please.
You turned out fine.
Look, look, look.
The chances of this curse being real are almost non-existent.
You know that.
Maybe.
But what kind of father would I be if I didn't do everything I could to make sure I stick around? Well, then I think maybe we should try to figure out a way to reverse the curse.
You know, the mummy equivalent of my running around the theater.
Someone at the museum must know that.
You've become very wise in your old age.
Watch it, buster.
I'm afraid there's nothing in the literature about reversing the curse.
- Hey.
- Castle, what are you doing here? Nothing.
Just waiting for you.
Detectives, are you here to talk about reversing the curse as well? No.
I'm here to see a man about a mummy.
So, no luck with the curse, huh? Look on the bright side, Castle.
You die, your book sales skyrocket.
Great.
What did Beckett mean, "See a man about a mummy"? Which mummy? The one Grimes said Medina was trying to sell.
Fill me in.
Spare no detail.
Well, in some ancient cultures, instead of burning or Fast forward a little bit.
Detective, this is a significant archeological find.
You can't just walk in here and open it up.
- I've got a warrant that says otherwise.
This is preposterous.
Tell that to the drug dealer in my lockup who was doing business with your associate curator.
Please.
I just have to reiterate how fragile these mummies are.
They should only be handled in a controlled environment.
Don't worry, it's just a simple swab test.
I promise, I won't damage anything.
My God.
It's gone! I'm not saying I believe, but where's the mummy? CSU field test shows that there's no drug residue inside the sarcophagus, and all the other mummies are accounted for.
No drugs in them either.
Well, if it wasn't the drugs, then what's so special about the missing mummy? Well, maybe Grimes was telling the truth.
Maybe Medina was trying to sell it.
And then when Grimes wouldn't buy it, he sold it to someone else? Except that one of the researchers swears it was in its sarcophagus - the day after Medina was killed.
- Well, that could only mean one thing.
Please don't say that it's walking among us seeking revenge.
Okay.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
This place is gigantic.
They have over 30 million specimens down here.
We got a K-9 unit coming in to help, but finding this mummy might be like finding the lost ark.
- Lf it is even still here.
- All right, have CSU sweep the area and see if they can get any prints off of the sarcophagus.
Whoever stole the mummy must have left some evidence behind.
Disaster! PR disaster! I only hope the press doesn't hear about this.
Ten bucks says he calls the press just as we're out the front door.
You don't think he could've orchestrated this whole thing just to generate interest in the exhibit, do you? Murdered Medina just to boost ticket sales? No.
That would make this Scooby-Doo, and I'm not Velma.
Velma? Are you kidding? You're Daphne.
You're hot, smart, not aggressively brainy, but long legs, short skirt - Stop.
- Fine.
- Now.
- Got it.
No, he didn't know anything about how to reverse the curse, but I've decided it's okay.
I was just overreacting.
It's like you said, the chances of there actually being a curse are virtually non-existent.
That was weird.
The elevator just stopped.
Mother? Okay.
No reason to panic.
Small reason to panic.
Hello? There is no curse.
There is no curse.
There is no curse.
All right.
What do I do if the elevator falls? Okay, I'm I think I'm supposed to jump in the air.
No! Lay on the ground.
Castle? What are you doing? There was That whole thing, the Then the light, the light, and then the whole thing went I thought that I thought the elevator was gonna fall! That wasn't you, was it? Because that wasn't funny.
No, no, I'm not that cruel.
It's an old elevator.
You know what, let's get maintenance up here and tell them not to let anyone on here before it's fixed.
Are you okay? Yeah.
No, yeah.
I'm I'm Splash some water on my face and then throw up a little bit.
Rogue archeologists, Mayan death threats, drug dealers claiming to deal in antiquities, and missing mummies.
There's got to be a story that makes all of this make sense.
What? - Nothing.
- Castle.
If something were to happen to me, I want you to watch out for Alexis.
She looks up to you.
And if her boyfriends get frisky, you can shoot them.
- Nothing's gonna happen to you.
- But if it does Okay.
And would you also go into my closet and get rid of my porn collection before she finds it? Don't worry, bro.
I got you covered on that.
We hit a home run with the prints from the sarcophagus.
One popped that doesn't belong to anyone who works at the museum.
But according to the background check, he does work at 1127 Avenue of the Americas, the address on Medina's calendar.
At a company called Bio Inc.
, and here is the best part.
His name is Charles Taylor.
- C.
T! - C.
T? Spoke to the guy two days ago and he insisted he'd never met Medina.
Lied right to my face.
No, no, I didn't lie.
I swear to you, I don't know Will Medina.
You didn't see him two days ago at 5:30? No.
You got the wrong guy.
But you admit that you were in the basement of the New York History Museum? No.
Charles, we have your fingerprints on a sarcophagus, so you can either start telling us the truth now, or after spending an afternoon in the holding cell, entertaining a meth addict through the violent phase of his withdrawal.
- I might have been down there.
- When? - Okay, holding cell it is.
- Five days ago.
- And Medina? - Look, I heard he was dead.
I didn't want to get mixed up in that.
I I was only sent there to check out the mummy.
- The mummy? - Yeah.
I was sent by a private collector to examine it.
Grimes was telling the truth.
Medina was trying to sell the mummy.
- This is getting good.
- This collector, where is he from? Taipei.
I've done testing for him before.
Hominid skulls, a mammoth tusk.
He asked me to carbon date the mummy to make sure it was real.
And was it? - It's complicated.
- We'll try and keep up.
As soon as an organism dies, it stops taking in new carbon.
Specifically, we focus on carbon-14, which starts to decay in the body as soon as it dies, and by examining the rate of decay, we can actually date the age of the dead organism with incredible accuracy.
When I tested the mummy, I took samples from the sarcophagus, the cloth the mummy was wrapped in, and a small piece of bone, and then I ran them through a mass spectrometer.
And that's when things got weird.
Define "weird.
" The samples from the sarcophagus and the cloth dated at over 2,000 years old, but the piece of bone was too young to date.
Meaning that it was less than 500 years old.
- How much less? - I have no idea.
Five hundred years is as low as the test goes.
Are you saying that the mummy Medina was trying to sell was a fake? All I know is that there was a discrepancy, and I called him and I told him that, and he didn't believe me.
He insisted on coming to the office to see me.
The night he died.
Beckett.
- Uniforms just found your mummy.
- Where? In a dark corner of the museum basement.
Someone was doing their best to make sure it was never found.
Medina's buyer rejected the mummy because it wasn't real, and when Medina started asking questions, he was killed.
And now someone's trying to make it disappear? I think we need to take a closer look at that mummy.
Your carbon dater was right.
This girl's body is definitely less than 500 years dead.
- How much less? - She died four months ago.
If she's been dead for four months, why does she look just like the other mummies? Because whoever mummified her knew what they were doing.
Her blood's been drained, there's an incision on her left side, which her killer used to remove her organs before starting the desiccation process.
- But how did she die? - Blunt force trauma.
Someone hit her in the back of the head.
She never saw it coming.
And then do you have any idea who she is? No.
And I was unable to get a usable fingerprint.
We don't need them.
She died four months ago.
I know exactly who this is.
Dental records confirm that the body is Nicole Graham, the first victim of the curse.
I thought this girl was killed by an animal in the jungle.
Turns out they never actually found the body.
Just her bloody clothes and a piece of scalp.
It seemed obvious to the Mexican authorities what had happened.
Instead, somebody killed her and turned her into a mummy? Hell of a way to get rid of a body.
Hide it in plain sight, ship it out with the other artifacts.
And no one would have ever found out if Medina hadn't decided to sell the wrong mummy.
When the collector refused it, Medina must have decided to take a closer look.
And then that suspicion must have tipped off our killer, who had to murder Medina in order to keep the secret safe.
It makes sense, but who's our killer? The only person with the skill to mummify a body.
What's going on? Four words.
Eat, pray, love, kill.
Little friendly advice.
Next time you kill someone, skip the part where you prove only you could have covered it up.
Kill someone? What are you talking about? We're talking about Nicole Graham.
You killed her in Mexico and then you mummified her body in order to cover it up.
What? No, Nicole was killed in a jaguar attack.
- Except they never found her body.
- But we did.
And so did Medina when he discovered the discrepancy in the carbon dating.
And that's when you knew that you had to kill him.
- That's insane.
What happened, Rachel? Did you find her in the jungle making time with your man? Little Girls Gone Wild jealousy turned deadly? No, Nicole and I were friends.
And whoever told you she was sleeping with Will was lying.
Sure, she had a crush on him, okay? We all did.
But she backed off when she realized that Will was interested in me.
But Stan Stanford.
Stanford was the one who was jealous.
Ask any of the women down there.
He had a thing for Nicole ever since she joined the program.
You'd always see him standing around watching her.
It was creepy.
You were the expert, Rachel.
You were the only one who knew how to do it.
No, I wasn't.
Everything I know about mummification I learned from Stanford Raynes.
Look, Detective, mummifying a body is a hands-on process.
I promise you, whoever did that to Nicole left behind some DNA.
I'm happy to provide a sample.
Why don't you see if Stanford wants to do the same? Stanford Raynes? - Yes? You're under arrest for the murder of Nicole Graham.
And don't forget Will Medina.
You had to kill him, too, when you caught him sniffing around her mummy.
- Only way to protect your secret.
- You can't be serious.
Serious enough to get a warrant for your DNA.
This is the part where you say, "And I would've gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling kids.
" Is he actually running away? Yeah, it's primal instinct.
Fight or flight.
- Should we run after him? - No need.
Still say there's no curse? Ruh-roh.
Once Stanford got out of surgery, he confessed to everything.
How he lured Nicole into the burial chamber and how they fought when she refused to celebrate with him.
So, what happened to the mummy he swapped for Nicole's body? The body was so fragile that all Stanford had to do was strip off the wrapping and stomp it into dust.
And then he re-wrapped Nicole's body, stuffed it in the sarcophagus, sealed it up tight, and by the time it got to the U.
S.
Months later, the mummification process was complete.
And when Stanford decided to kill Medina, he just used one of the pry bars from the museum to tip the gargoyle, and hoped that Medina's death would be blamed on the curse.
Three members of the expedition dead, one on the way to jail.
- Sounds like the curse is real to me.
- Speaking of which I have a deal to propose.
I spoke to the D.
A.
And he's agreed to drop the felony threat charges based on your cooperation.
What kind of cooperation? Tell him how to reverse the curse.
- Why should I? - Because, thanks to us, Mr.
Bentley has agreed to send the entire collection back to the Mexican Museum after the exhibit ends.
Why would he agree to that? Well, let's just say he's got a little public relations problem right now, and he could use all the good publicity he can get.
- That's all I have to do? - Mmm.
And one more thing.
I wouldn't say no to a ride to the airport.
Let's go.
- You're in a good mood.
- The curse has officially been lifted.
- How'd you manage that? - You don't want to know.
But I tempted fate all the way home just to make sure.
- Jaywalking? - Mmm-hmm.
Even walked under a ladder.
What murderous experiments are you performing on tomatoes now? - Stabbing? Filleting? - Dicing.
For a salad.
Want to help? I would love to.
So, I was thinking, maybe this weekend we could go to the museum.
- It's been a while.
- Yeah.
How about the zoo? - That sounds great.
- Thank you.
What's the difference between curse and clumsy? - I'll get a Band-Aid.
- Get two.