(SHIP HORN BLOWING)
WOMAN: You've made your point, Andy.
So they closed the machine shop and turned it into an espresso bar.
That doesn't make you a bad provider.
Look, this is crazy. It's the East River.
The only thing you're going to catch out here is a cold.
(GRUNTS) Oh!
(GASPS) Oh, my God!
Can you believe my old grade school shirt still fits?
Like a glove, yes. A shirt, no.
You look like The Incredible Hulk.
Nice, Dad.
Yeah. That's what you get when you talk to him while he's writing.
Hmm. Well, Gracie is going to love it. It'll crack her up when she sees it.
Gracie, little cutie whose family moved off to...
I want to say Kansas?
After fifth grade.
She e-mailed me she was coming to town to check out FIT,
so I told her she could spend the night.
I asked you.
Was I writing?
(SIGHS)
(DOORBELL BUZZING)
"Incredible Hulk?"
ALEXIS: Gracie!
Look at you, Greendale girl.
Look at you.
- Hi. - Hi.
You remember Gram and my dad?
Sure, hey. It's been forever.
Thanks again for letting me crash with you guys.
Yeah.
So, your room in the same place?
Yeah. Same place, same old room, you know, everything the same,
almost.
(ALEXIS CHUCKLING NERVOUSLY)
(EXHALING)
Looks like someone's not in Kansas anymore.
What happened to the little hair band and knee socks?
(CELL PHONE RINGS)
Ah! Beckett. Excellent timing.
She used to be so adorable.
I mean, what makes a girl, a little girl who used to play hopscotch
and My Little Ponies suddenly pierce her eyebrow?
It's like she's been assimilated by the leather overlords.
You're probably romanticizing it.
And is anything ever really the way that we remember it in grade school?
Well, to be honest,
beyond some baking soda volcanoes and sweaty palms,
I have very little memory of it at all. You?
Mine are mostly orthodontic.
Braces? You mean, you weren't born with that dazzling smile?
The only thing dazzling was how long it took my parents to pay for it.
Body's in pretty good shape for a floater.
Must not have been in the water too long.
Well, if the river's as cold as my nose,
I'd ballpark it within the last 12 hours at most.
No ID, but he looks early 40s.
He's got a Navy tattoo on his arm
and a nasty crush injury along his temporal line.
Any chance he went overboard?
Classic indicators point to deliberate blunt force,
so I'd say no, this was no boating accident.
Then we'd better close the beaches.
"No boating accident?"
Chief Brody?
Hooper?
Seriously?
I'll zip his prints over to the precinct for an ID,
but for what it's worth, I did find this.
A Gamblers Anonymous medallion.
Four years without a bet.
Ah!
"Ah!" What?
The East River? A GA chip?
Relapsed gambler gets in too deep with his bookie,
ends up floating in the drink.
Are you kidding me? You just went from Gamblers Anonymous to mob hit?
This is the most celebrated body depository
this side of the Jersey wetlands.
Mark my words. This guy has mob ties.
Case closed.
No mob ties.
Are you sure?
Good work.
According to his fingerprints, his name is Donald Hayes,
Navy veteran, served in Desert Storm and he's been a dockworker since '94.
And somehow still employed as one.
Our victim, Donny Hayes, currently clocked in
and on duty at the East Side docks.
Which either means he's an incredibly dedicated zombie...
Or he's a suspect in our murder.
BECKETT: Donny? Mr. Hayes?
Donald Hayes!
What's the matter? You forget your own name?
Police! Don't move!
(GROANS)
The man said don't move.
Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You're just cops?
Just cops?
I guess that makes you just under arrest for murder.
BECKETT: First name: Grant, last name: Vyro.
- I didn't kill anybody. - Then why did you run?
I thought youse were union.
So we're not the only ones
who have a problem with you killing Donny for his union card.
What are you talking about? I bought that card.
Do you really expect us to believe that you bought Donny's card,
assumed his identity and thought no one would notice?
Guy spent 16 years working over on the West Side.
So, I switched to the East Side docks
so no one who knew Donny would catch on.
So, what does a union card go for nowadays?
Since, buying someone else's is illegal.
Sucker cost me 25 grand.
Oh, come on, Vyro. Dockworkers rake in over six figures a year.
Why would Donny trade it in for so little?
Unless he had a gun to his head, in which case it'd be a bargain.
There were no guns. I needed a job. Donny needed cash.
- For what? - He didn't say and I didn't care.
(CELL PHONE RINGS)
Beckett.
I was right about the blunt force trauma.
A single blow caved in the ridge here along Donny's squamosal suture.
And whatever did the damage,
was kind enough to leave this shard of red glass imbedded in his skull.
Maybe a heavy vase or a bottle?
I'll have Forensics take a look at it. See if they can find a match.
Based on lividity and water temp,
I've narrowed time of death to between 4:00 and 6:00 a.m. this morning.
- What happened here on the shoulder? - Buckshot.
I found several double-ought pellets lodged in the flesh of his left arm.
So someone conked him on the head and shot him?
That's where it gets weird.
Scarring indicates the pellets have been there about two to three weeks.
And he just left them in there?
Well, he certainly didn't seek treatment.
Could have been he was in something illegal,
or scared of whoever shot him.
Or both.
RYAN: Well, forget Vyro.
His alibi cleared and we tracked down his personal check for $25,000.
Endorsed and deposited by Donny last month.
Vyro paid Donny with a check?
Not mobby enough for you, Castle?
CSU's still combing Donny's place, but no broken red glass,
no signs of foul play and no next of kin either.
What about the Gamblers Anonymous chip? Any sponsor?
Yeah, but he says he hasn't heard from Donny for months.
So then, maybe Castle was right.
If Donny was desperate enough to sell his union card,
then maybe he fell off the wagon and got in over his head.
Yeah, to the tune of 25 grand.
Yo! That'd be low-balling it, bro.
Donny's account shows that he deposited
Vyro's check about a month ago,
adding it to his existing balance of $ 125,000.
All of which, wait for it,
is now gone.
- Gone? - All of it?
Except for the remaining balance of $6.23.
All the 150K was spent in one giant check
made payable to a Wilbur Pittorino.
Listed here as owning several properties
as well as a waste management business in Garfield, New Jersey.
Oh! Waste management.
Any priors?
Yeah. Back in 1977,
Billy Pitt spent ten years in Federal for assault and racketeering.
And what?
Racketeering.
As well as shaking down business owners
where he operated his bookmaking operation.
- His what now? - Bookmaking operation.
Oh, so an ex-gambler
dumps his life-savings on an ex-con, ex-bookmaker
and ends up ex-ed out.
Sounds like Donny was late with his 150 grand for Billy Pitt
and he ended up paying for it with his life.
I think I just said that.
You know, you might have gotten a little grayer, Mr. Pitt,
but it seems to me you haven't changed much at all.
Must be all them Pilates classes.
Do you recognize this check?
Of course. It's from Donny Hayes. So?
So I'm wondering if Donny didn't owe you more money
and you didn't flashback to your old racketeering days.
Tap the brakes, sweetie.
Whatever the hell you dragged me down here for, I want to tell you now,
that I paid my tab with Johnny Law a couple lifetimes ago
and he's got nothing on me since.
This guy is gold.
Look, if you don't believe me, why don't you ask
Donny.
Is this about Donny?
He was found dead in the East River this morning.
Now, back to the money. What was it for?
Was it a payment or was it a gift?
- A purchase. - For?
He bought my bar. Downtown. He loved the place.
Really? Enough to drop everything and dump his whole life savings into it?
Kid was practically raised in the joint by his grandfather, Leo the Legend.
Leo the Legend?
You've heard of the guy?
City's best bartender since the days when "gay" meant "happy."
He was the only father that Donny knew.
And where do I find Leo?
Resting in an old silver shaker behind the bar.
Leo was kind of the bar historian and when he kicked in '97,
we figured, "Hey, why not make him part of it?"
Ashes behind the bar.
Which is why Donny decided to buy the... What is it called?
- The Old Haunt. - Haunt.
The Old Haunt?
Don't tell me you've never been to The Old Haunt.
It's legendary. All the great writers drank there.
We're cops. We go to cop bars.
Your loss.
Donny was there every night, anyhow. We were all the family he had.
So what prompted the sudden sale?
I mean, it seemed like Donny had to gather money pretty quickly.
The bar had been weighing down my ledger sheets for years.
I had an offer from one of them T.J. McChucklenuts franchises,
when Brian, my bartender, put together some investors
and made an offer of his own.
I was gonna sell it to him and then Donny outbid him.
And how did Brian feel when Donny bought the place?
He wasn't thrilled about it,
but at least he wasn't working for T.J. McChucklenuts.
Lanie just swabbed the shard of glass and found trace amounts of alcohol.
A container of alcoholic beverage, a resentful bartender.
And given the location of The Old Haunt,
a potential crime scene just two blocks away from the river.
Convenient for all your body dumping needs.
So, Castle, can I buy you a drink?
Why, Detective Beckett, I thought you'd never ask.
BECKETT: So, how well do you know this bar, Castle?
I haven't been here in years, not since Alexis,
but I wrote most of my first novel in one of these booths.
Okay, well that explains a lot.
It sold over three million copies.
No, I mean, why you're so excited.
Well, it's loaded with history.
First, as a blacksmith, then as a bordello.
It only became a bar during the Prohibition as a speakeasy
and it was one of the best.
I swear, you can still feel the vibration
of every notorious episode of glamour and debauchery in its walls.
Easy, Castle, it's just a bar.
No, no. T.J. McChucklenuts is just a bar.
The Old Haunt is the last of a dying breed.
Proud institutions standing up to ruthless gentrification.
It's a classic...
What are you doing?
Well I'm not gonna get much out of Brian looking like a cop.
Undercover. I like it.
You might wanna pop one more button, just in case.
(INHALES DEEPLY)
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)
CASTLE: This is how a bar should smell.
BECKETT: Mmm. Yeah. Stale beer.
You know, I'd write in more bars if there were more bars like this.
(PLAYING TUNE ON LOW-KE Y)
Nice to see you, Eddie. Been a long time.
Thank you for remembering.
Come over here. Check out the Wall of Fame.
Who is that handsome devil just two over from Hemingway,
directly above the infamous booth where In A Hail Of Bullets was born.
Oh, my goodness, Castle. You were so cute back then.
Back then?
A lot of memories.
That's Old Leo. Which would make that young Donny.
But I don't see any red bottles.
- What are you looking at? - Nothing.
Welcome to The Old Haunt, folks.
Is Donny here by any chance?
Not yet, but he will be.
And he won't mind one bit that you're sitting in his regular spot.
You know, I knew this place felt right for a reason.
I'm Kate, I'm one of his old friends.
And this is Rick.
Brian.
And any old friend of Donny is a new friend of mine.
Tell me, Brian,
you don't, by any chance, carry a liqueur.
It's really delicious and it comes in this red bottle.
Oh, yeah, that red bottle we shared
down in that little cantina in Tierra del Fuego?
Red, huh?
Let's see.
No red here.
Just your standard brown, green and clear.
Let me check the other end of the bar.
Did you see that?
How could I miss it. Can't he see we're together?
Undercover.
No. His reaction when I mentioned Donny.
I don't think he knows.
- Maybe he's just a good liar. - No luck.
Maybe I could interest you in a blue vodka?
Oh, no. Thank you. Way too early for vodka.
Think about it, folks. I'll be back in a second.
Actually, Brian, we're not really here for a drink.
How could Donny be dead? I was just with him last night.
What time was that?
4:30 a.m. I locked up on my way out
and Donny went to do the books in the office like always.
Are you sure he was alone when you left?
Positive.
This is crazy. That guy was like a brother to me.
Even though he bought the bar out from under you?
You know about that?
I mean, he didn't even offer you to be a partner.
That doesn't sound very brotherly to me.
Hey, any beef I had with Donny was short-lived.
We hashed it out.
So now you're just stealing from him?
- What? - What?
Couldn't help but notice your trick with the fruit, Brian.
You pretend to ring up a drink, you stuff the money in the till
and you keep track of it by throwing pieces of fruit into the sink.
Cherries are ten, limes, what, twenty?
At night's end, you tally up your fruit
so you know how much to put into your tip cup
before you lock the register.
So, what happened, Brian? Donny catch you stealing?
Things get physical?
Over an extra 30 or 40 bucks?
That's not even stealing, it's skimming. Donny understood.
The owner understood?
We'd all been family long enough,
Donny knew I had to get creative to make my rent once in a while.
I'd like to see his office.
Sure. It's in the basement.
The basement?
I've never seen this.
No one knew it was there until the flood of '98.
Billy Pitt pulled up the old linoleum. There it was.
A hidden basement. How cool is this?
Did I say cool?
Make that awesome.
Perfect place for a murder. No one can hear you scream.
No one can help you carry the body up the stairs either.
Maybe somebody marched Donny at gunpoint down to the river
and killed him there.
If the killer had a gun, why would he use a bottle?
Don't ruin my story with your logic.
It smells like fresh paint.
BRIAN: Yeah, Donny had been putting in a lot of work to fix the place up.
New brass rail, refurbished wood on the bar.
CASTLE: You find something?
(BECKETT GASPS)
These are buckshot holes.
- You own a shotgun, Brian? - No.
CSU's gonna comb this place from top to bottom.
Blood, buckshot, broken red glass.
- So if you have something to say... - Look,
if a shotgun was fired down here,
everybody in the bar would know about it.
Not if it was after hours.
We're talking about two or three weeks ago.
Did Donny have a beef with anyone then?
You said two weeks ago?
Yeah. It was a couple weeks ago. I was closing up alone.
I had just done my cash drop down in the basement safe
and I came up and some guy was knocking on the door.
Pick-up Pete.
Pick-up Pete? Big hit with the ladies?
No, he drives a pick-up.
- Ah! - Gun rack?
Yeah. Regular upstate redneck.
Anyway, he said that he dropped his wallet in the booth,
so I let him in.
Next thing you know, he's got his hands all over me,
he's pushing me against the bar.
All of a sudden, the basement door pops open
and here comes Donny like Hemingway's ghost.
Guess I missed him down there, but I'm glad he showed up when he did.
He grabbed a baseball bat, chased Pete out.
He smashed his taillights, put a few dents in the pick-up for good measure
before the jackass could drive off.
Donny told me to go home and to forget about it.
He said that Pete was eighty-sixed for life.
That was the last time we talked about it. Until last night.
And what happened last night?
Pete showed up again. Donny wasn't having any of it.
He just threw that trash out,
said the next time it wouldn't be the truck he used the bat on.
So Donny eighty-sixed Pete for life.
Looks like Pete returned the favor.
Pick-up Pete, a.k.a. Pete Mucha.
He's got a couple of dismissed domestic assault charges
and he is also the proud owner of a Remington 870 shotgun.
And Ryan and Esposito are bringing him in now.
What do you think of "The Castillion"?
For?
The Old Haunt just reminded me of how vital tavern culture is in this town.
I thought why not open up a little tavern of my own.
So instead of buying a drink, you're gonna buy a whole bar?
- My way of giving back. - Yeah.
To your ego.
- "The Ego." - PETE: Someone call the police.
Let me go, I'm perfectly fine!
Pick-up Pete, I take it?
Yeah. We found him getting tossed out of a bar uptown.
And just like the shotgun in his truck, he's a little loaded.
(GRUNTS)
Well, maybe a murder charge will sober him up.
Yup. Come on.
"The Castle."
Just have a wee drawbridge to let you in.
Congratulations, Pete, you're our drunkest murder suspect this year.
And that includes St. Patrick's Day.
What did I win?
Well, that depends on you, Pete.
You know my name, too... And did you just say murder?
Your driver's license said you're from up in Cortland.
What, they don't have any bars up there,
or did you get eighty-sixed from them, too?
The city's where I work. You know, like drywall, like pipe-setting.
And I do some of my best pipe-laying after work,
if you know what I mean. (LAUGHS)
You own a shotgun, Pete.
You like hunting, do you?
Wait a minute. You after me for murdering a two-point buck?
Nah. We're after you for your little dust-up
at The Old Haunt two weeks ago.
The Old Haunt! That's where I was last night.
Donny wouldn't let me in because of that bitch bartender.
For the record, she came on to me.
That why you came back and you killed him?
Because you were drunk and angry and he wouldn't let you in?
Donny's dead?
What did you really do last night, Pete?
Whoa, hey. Why would I kill the guy?
Maybe because he trashed your truck.
And you were too drunk to shoot straight
the last time you came after him with a shotgun.
Shotgun? Look, he trashed my truck. So what?
He more than paid for the damages.
- He what now? - After he pounded my truck,
I started calling the cops.
Well, he calmed down real fast, and out came this fat wad
and he peeled off a cool grand like it was nothing.
Donny gave you $ 1,000?
He had plenty more.
I asked him, "What, did you score Lotto?"
And he was all like, "Yeah, sort of."
You can ask my repair guy, I paid with Donny's cash.
Don't go anywhere. I'm gonna make a call.
Don't worry. We're gonna get this guy.
Pete's alibi holds.
He was sleeping it off at a friend's apartment over in Murray Hill.
It's weird that a guy who had only $6.23 in his bank account
had enough cash on hand to peel off a G like it was nothing.
Not to mention all the repairs he made to the bar.
Maybe he was skimming, too.
If he was skimming that much,
there'd have to be someone he wasn't paying.
A supplier, distributor.
Why don't you guys go back to The Old Haunt
and take a look at Donny's ledgers?
Let's find out where that money was coming from.
- Here you go, Detective. - Thank you.
So CSU processed that bar and basement
and there's no indication of any broken red glass.
And the only blood they found was under the buckshot.
So it wasn't our murder scene.
Well, looks like Donny left that bar alive.
RYAN: You know, I don't get it.
If Donny got shot down here and he didn't do anything wrong,
why didn't he report it?
The last thing any new bar owner wants is trouble with the cops.
Even an accidental shooting on the premises
could have cost Donny his liquor license for good.
Probably why he shelled out for Pete's truck damage, too.
I don't see how.
His personal account isn't the only thing that's tapped out.
The Old Haunt was barely breaking even. Operating at a loss most days.
There's no way he was throwing money around.
And yet he was.
I've got invoices here.
One for the new brass rail and one for the new wood for the bar.
Each totaling close to six grand.
Both of them are stamped, "Petty cash, paid in full."
Nothing petty about that.
Sure there's nothing in there about him winning the Lotto?
Actually,
maybe there is.
A consignment receipt from Hagen and Graham auction house?
Why's a guy like Donny doing business
with a place that sells Picassos and Rembrandts?
His business was barely breaking even,
he was on the verge of losing everything.
And with his union card gone, it looks like he found something else to sell.
Yeah, but what?
What does a dockworker have that's valuable enough
for a place like Hagen and Graham's to be interested?
Maybe something that wasn't his.
Now here's a place that honors history and values craftsmanship.
You're pretty into this whole preserving history stuff, huh?
I think just lately I've just been noticing the changes.
You mean in Alexis' Goth friend?
Nah, I was thinking more along the lines of Times Square.
You know, once it had a real New York grit and character.
And now they should just call it "Times Square Land."
(MAN CLEARS THROAT)
So sorry to have kept you waiting. I'm Steven Heisler, Associate Director.
I'm Detective Kate Beckett. This is Richard Castle.
We were wondering if you recognize this man.
Yes, Donald Hayes.
We don't get many dockworkers here, as you might imagine.
What's this about?
He was murdered.
Murdered? Good Lord.
We understand that he put an item up here for auction.
We were wondering what it was.
Are you familiar with a man by the name of Jimmy Walker?
Sure. Everybody knows Jimmy Walker.
No. Not the actor who played J.J. on Good Times.
No. The former Mayor of New York.
Took office in 1926. Went by the nickname "Beau James."
Famous for being a corrupt politician, renowned womanizer,
and also openly defiant of Prohibition.
Ah! So you do know him.
What does the former mayor have to do with this?
Donald had an item that once belonged to him.
You see, Mayor Walker was rumored to have had a private liquor collection
thought to contain one of the finest whiskeys ever distilled.
Unceremoniously dumped in the sewers
by federal agents when they ran him out of office.
Donald came in with the sole surviving bottle.
An 1875 St. Miriam, Rock of Scotland.
I knew what it was the moment I saw the "JW" pressed into its wax seal.
An 1875 St. Miriam? That is the Holy Grail of scotches.
I would kill for just a taste of that.
Do you have a picture of this bottle of scotch?
CASTLE: Where did Donny get it?
Left to him by his grandfather, Leo,
who apparently was given it as a gift when he returned from World War II.
And there you have it.
And where is that bottle now?
It was sold for $26,000
to an Internet millionaire called Jeffrey McGuigan.
A red glass bottle at 26 grand.
That is one expensive murder weapon.
How did you say this guy made his millions?
Internet gaming. Owns about 50 sites.
The guy spent 26K on a bottle of whiskey
he could treat himself to nicer digs.
What's his motivation?
All I know is that this is about a body's throw away from the river.
Speedy Wok my ass. You're not even Speedy Wok.
We're here about a purchase that was made at Hagen and Graham's.
Is there a Jeffrey McGuigan here?
I go by Magoo. It's my street name.
Seriously, you're Jeffrey McGuigan?
Magoo. And yeah, I purchased a ton of crap at that place. Come on in.
(SHOOTING ON VIDEO GAME)
(KIDS LAUGHING)
CASTLE: So, this piece of crap we're looking for, Magoo,
is a priceless red bottle of scotch.
It had a price, all right. Though it was pretty tasty.
Tasty.
You describe a 135-year-old bottle of scotch as "tasty"?
I mean, you know, after I mixed a little root beer.
Yeah. Okay, Magoo, let's see that bottle.
Seriously?
You're just gonna walk into my crib and start bossing me around?
CASTLE: Well, I don't see it here.
You didn't happen to break the bottle over something?
Hey, what is this about?
You know, I may have dropped out of Cornell when my company went public,
but I still know my rights.
That bottle that you purchased might have been used to commit murder.
So unless you want to learn your Miranda rights,
you better quit stalling and show us where it is.
Yeah, okay, cool. I'm not stalling.
- Great. - Yeah.
You were throwing it out?
It's in the blue bucket. I recycle.
Well, it's still intact.
Unless a sliver of glass came out when it hit.
Man, nobody hit anybody.
Yes, well, keep mixing root beer with fine scotch, that may change.
Okay, Castle. Let's go.
- Just so you know. - Thank you.
Cretinous little uncultured palate doesn't deserve...
Did you hear what he said? Root beer.
If I was 15 years younger, I'd give that kid such a pinch.
Same glass,
but the shard in Donny's head is way too big to have come from this bottle.
Which means it can't be the only remaining bottle in the world.
Clearly not.
Which means I still have a shot at getting a taste.
Which means that Donny came across a second bottle.
Yeah. Upside his head.
Okay, so, maybe Leo gave a bottle to a relative or a friend.
And once Donny learned how much it was worth, he went after it.
And got more than he'd bargained for.
I think I'm gonna do a little research on Leo.
See what we can dig up on Mayor Walker and his mystery whiskey.
Research. I'm gonna do that, too. Yeah.
(INHALING DEEPLY)
It's called The Sidecar.
One of the best drinks to come out of the Prohibition era.
A time when getting a drink meant
secret doors, gangsters and bootleggers.
Rick, I'm loving this idea.
You know, our town could use a throwback joint.
Perfect name for it. "Rick's Café Americain."
Mother, that's perfect
I was trying to come up with a Bogie reference myself.
All I could think of was "Castle-Blanca."
I thought it was a little too on-the-nose.
I need a drink.
H-two-O. Dirty.
Tap water it is.
So, where's your dark shadow?
She went out with some people she met at FIT.
I was not invited.
I don't know whether to be delighted or outraged.
Me neither.
She's really defensive and she makes fun of everything that's important to me.
I keep looking for the Gracie I knew, but she's just not there anymore.
Well, you're not the same girl you were back then either.
You know, maybe she's just responding to how you've changed.
I haven't changed.
Oh, darling, please. Look at you.
You are tall, beautiful, sophisticated.
You have a glam Gram
and him and a boyfriend.
Did it ever occur to you that might be
rather intimidating to a girl from Kansas?
Intimidated? When I asked where she got her gloves,
she said it was a place I wouldn't go to.
Now, you took that as an affront
and she was just probably being self-deprecating.
Mmm-hmm. You know what, I think someone needs a virgin mojito.
Grab me some more mint. It's in the fridge.
Here's looking at you, kid.
And you.
(ALEXIS EX CLAIMING)
You could've told me you booby-trapped it.
Oh, yes, that's just how I protect my stash from G-men and mobsters.
Mmm. At least help me reload them.
Right.
Reload.
(GRUNTS)
Beckett, I think I know how Donny was shot.
CASTLE: Take a trip with me, to a simple yet dangerous time.
Castle, CSU already swept through this entire basement,
and we were just tucked in with my laptop.
We?
Josh and I. He was helping me research.
Anyway, a dangerous time when Prohibition was law
and bootleggers, the lawless,
often going to extreme measures to protect their liquid treasure.
- Can you get to the point? - Yes.
Do you remember when Donny jumped up
and rescued Annie from Pick-up Pete,
she said she completely missed him
when she was down here doing her safe drop.
It was late, she was tired. I can relate.
Or maybe he wasn't down here at all.
Buckshot wall.
Wall directly opposite.
Help me move the shelf.
And what exactly are we hoping to find?
The truth.
Same thing Donny was hoping for.
In all the stories that Leo ever told as bar historian,
what if he saved one story just for Donny?
A story that Leo himself could never verify,
because the trapdoor to the basement wasn't discovered until after he died.
When Billy Pitt decided to sell the bar,
and T.J. McChucklenuts was going to buy it,
Donny realized he had to find out before it was too late.
Find what?
Donny sold his union card and bet his life savings that Beau...
Come.
(CASTLE GRUNTING)
Help me. There we go.
That Beau James' secret stash really existed.
- Are you pushing? - I am pushing.
Okay, that's...
Wow.
Oh, Castle.
This is where Donny was when Annie made the drop.
(EX CLAIMING)
Donny pulled on this door and blam said the lady.
- (WATER RUSHING) - Do you hear that?
Rushing water.
If that water leads to the East River,
then that's probably where Donny was killed.
What are you doing?
We're gonna need a light, right?
Not so fast, Indy.
We're also gonna need breathable air. So...
Torch would be more fun.
BECKETT: This must be a part of the old sewer system.
CASTLE: Probably used these as access tunnels during Prohibition.
It's incredible, isn't it?
Yeah. Aside from the fact that it is
(SPLASHING)
damp, cramped, dark,
and we are almost certainly walking in rat poop. Awesome.
Don't forget the CHUDs.
CHUDs?
Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers.
These sewers are crawling with them.
You know, I kind of figured you more for an alligator in the sewer type of guy.
There's alligators down here?
What is this?
Whoa!
This looks like an old passageway that was bricked up a long time ago.
Yeah, until Donny got at it.
(LAUGHING)
Mayor Walker's moniker.
1919, that's when Prohibition started.
Best time capsule ever!
lmagine Donny's joy when he realized that Leo's legends were true.
At $26,000 a bottle, who cares Brian's skimming?
There's got to be a hundred bottles of scotch on these walls.
Take one down and pass it around.
Hey. That's evidence. There's already a lot that's been taken.
That's fairly recently, too.
These bottles are caked with dust, and the empty spaces are relatively clean.
There's our murder weapon.
Hopefully with some prints on it.
There's probably blood mixed in there, too,
in case you were thinking of tasting it.
- Oh, come on, I'm not that desperate. - Mmm-hmm.
So someone else finds out about Donny's treasure,
follows him down here, surprises him,
a fight breaks out and the killer grabs the only weapon available.
Striking the fatal blow.
And it looks like our killer dragged the body
right back out the same way.
Look at this. All the way down. Then it travels all the way...
This tunnel has everything.
Secret scotch vault, private murder nook, convenient sewage disposal.
I bet you this water leads straight to the East River.
This is fairly bright. Someone's been here in the past few hours.
(CLANGING)
Police! Don't move!
Stop! NYPD!
This way. This way.
Where did he go?
He was right in front of us. I heard him.
This is a dead end. He couldn't have gotten past us.
There is no other way he could have gotten out.
So how did he get away?
MONTGOMERY: What do you mean, gone?
He was right there in front of us, and then, nothing but a brick wall.
There's no way this guy could have gotten past you two
and snuck out through The Old Haunt?
No. It was too narrow.
Brian the bartender and a handful of regulars were still upstairs.
They swear no one came up before we did.
We think that our spirit-loving Mayor didn't want to be seen
going back and forth from his favorite speakeasy
so he had a back-way entrance built to his stash.
Hidden from view. And, trust me, we looked.
Yo! Just got off the phone with Lanie.
She confirms the blood on the broken bottle is Donny's.
It's definitely our murder weapon.
But we've run the prints and we still came up empty.
No matches to anyone at The Old Haunt or in our system.
It took 70 years to find the way down to those tunnels from The Old Haunt,
and somehow our killer finds another way in. How?
There's gotta be another access point
from the tunnel to the East River sewer line.
Sewer Bureau's map doesn't have anything.
It's like Con Ed doesn't even know those tunnels exist.
That's because these are modern sewer lines.
Any of the old sewer lines that didn't get patched in
when the new ones were built, they just got bricked up and abandoned.
It's like old subway lines.
There are whole stations underground no one's seen for decades.
So, basically we need to take a look at an old sewer map
and once we figure out where our killer disappeared to,
we might be able to find some witnesses on the other end.
Then let's find that map.
Now this place could use a little gentrification.
Or, at the very least, a copy machine.
It's the Pre-World War II Archives section, Castle.
Half of this probably hasn't been seen in over 70 years.
Lower East Side, 1920.
That's about when Prohibition was getting started.
You see how much nicer the neighborhood was back then?
You think that little box there might be the Old Haunt?
Yeah. That's where it would be.
Not long after its bordello phase. You can still see the little garter belts.
Okay, there's a sewer line running under it that wasn't on the newer map.
So, that's gotta be our tunnel.
Which would put Walker's whiskey right about here.
The man could grab himself a bottle, come and go without ever being seen.
But come and go from where? Where did he start from?
Here's where our tunnel ends and our killer vanished.
There's one, two, three sewer lines that branch off from that point.
Any of which our killer could have accessed to get away from us.
So, if we can figure out exactly where the three sewers end,
we can subpoena traffic cams around the time the killer got away.
Maybe get an ID.
Or maybe we won't need any of that.
You said no one has laid eyes on these maps in over 70 years.
Only it says here, someone checked this one out just two weeks ago.
And I'd bet a bottle of Beau James's whiskey that someone was trying
to make their way back to the mayor's stash just like we are.
Going once... Going twice...
Sold to the gentleman in the back.
Next up, I have a marvelous 1955 Chateau Restivo Blanc
and we'll start the bidding at $ 1,200. Do I hear $ 1,200?
There's $ 1,200.
Do I hear $ 1,250?
$ 1,250 there.
$ 1,300?
(CLEARS THROAT)
$ 1,300 in the back.
Do I hear $ 1,350?
$ 1,350.
Do I hear
14...
BECKETT: It's just a sad case of Donny trusting the wrong guy.
He told Heisler about the Beau James stash and Heisler got greedy.
He convinced Donny that the whiskey would fetch a better price
if he sold a bottle at a time.
So Donny left the stash where he found it.
And that gave Heisler enough time to figure out where it was hidden.
When Donny caught him in the vault, Heisler panicked, hit him with a bottle.
Yo. We figured out how Heisler disappeared on you in the tunnel.
Secret passageway?
Basically.
He had a hidden entrance that could only be opened from the other side.
CSU followed it from the street to the abandoned sewer to the tunnel,
just like Mayor Walker had drew it up.
Here's three cases that Heisler hadn't gotten around to selling yet.
At 26 Gs a pop, you're looking at just under a cool million.
And I just, I mean, how might I acquire one of these for myself?
Castle, I told you. They're evidence.
Yes. But who's to say today's evidence can't be tomorrow's nightcap?
That would be me.
Now, I'm sure it'll be a few months before we can figure out
where this and the rest of the stuff belongs.
(CELL PHONE RINGING)
Montgomery. Yup.
Look at you.
Isn't it cool?
Gracie took me shopping at this place I never even knew existed
and it's right down the street from here.
They had the greatest stuff. She has a really good eye.
Well, Alexis looks good in everything.
I'm glad you two reconnected.
We just had to get to know the new us-es.
Neither of us are 10 anymore.
Thanks for letting me crash at Chez Castle.
It reminded me of the good old days.
Before life got too real, you know?
I do know.
I'm gonna walk her to the train.
Bye.
Gram's waiting downstairs.
Thanks for the warning.
Wow. I remember that phase.
That's about when I got my tattoo.
You got a tattoo?
(STUTTERING)
Where?
Just heard from the DA, Castle.
Apparently, since all of these bottles used to belong to Beau James,
and he used to be our Mayor, it's her opinion that they're owned by the city.
But, she says if you're willing to make a generous donation
to the NYPD Widows and Orphans Fund,
you can have one of Beau James' best for your very own.
This is early Christmas, baby!
(QUAVERING) May I? I was not expecting this.
Are you crying?
Yes. I don't know what to say.
Try, "Let me get my checkbook."
Yes. Of course, of course.
But I will only accept this if you all share it with me.
Twist my arm.
No, not here.
At The Old Haunt. We will toast to Donny with his family.
Yeah. What about that place? What happens to The Old Haunt?
It's gonna go back to the bank.
Which means T.J. McChucklenuts is gonna get another shot at it.
I wouldn't worry about The Old Haunt.
You bought it, didn't you?
So, you joining us?
You know, I'd love to.
It's late and I've got a lot of paperwork.
It's 9:00 on a Saturday.
9:15, actually.
(SINGING)
(BOTH SINGING)
(SINGING)
(BOTH SINGING)
(ALL SINGING)