Reborn in Castle (TV show)

AN: This case will be like the big finale of this volume, or you can call it the start of season 1 finale. 🫡 Hope you like it. Oh and this is gonna be really big with multiple chs. Enjoy 2 back to back chs.

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[Location: Tunnel]

The tunnel shook again.

Dust spilled from the cracked ceiling in thin streams, drifting through the weak beam of Travis's flashlight before settling across broken concrete, rusted pipes, and old brick walls slick with moisture. Somewhere deeper in the darkness, footsteps echoed and then disappeared, swallowed by the maze beneath the city.

Kate sat against the wall inside a ruined maintenance room, one hand pressed over the side of her stomach while her breathing came shallow and uneven. Blood soaked through her fingers and darkened the fabric beneath her jacket.

Travis knelt beside her, one hand locked firmly over the wound, keeping pressure steady while his other hand held his Glock toward the broken doorway.

"Stay with me," he said quietly, his eyes never leaving the entrance.

Kate tried to answer, but the movement pulled a sharp breath from her instead. Her face had gone pale under the grime streaked across her skin, though her eyes still carried that stubborn fire he knew far too well.

"I'm fine," she forced out.

Travis glanced at her for half a second. "That's a terrible lie, Beckett."

A faint, pained smile touched her lips despite everything. "Still counts as talking."

"Barely."

Another sound moved through the tunnel outside.

Travis went still.

Kate saw the change in him immediately. His shoulders tightened, his breathing slowed, and the hand holding the gun adjusted by less than an inch. It was not panic. It was calculation.

Whoever was hunting them was getting closer.

The room they had found was half-collapsed, barely large enough to hide them behind a rusted metal cabinet and a pile of broken concrete. The old door hung crooked on one hinge, leaving a narrow gap into the passage beyond. If anyone looked too closely, they were finished.

Kate's fingers curled weakly around his wrist. "Travis."

"Don't talk."

"That's usually my line."

He did not look away from the doorway. "Save your strength. And next time, try not to go alone in tunnels."

"Yeah, next time... I atleast broke his leg," Kate said with a groan.

She swallowed hard and leaned her head back against the wall, trying to keep her breathing quiet. The pain was spreading now, hot and deep, but what scared her more was the look in Travis's eyes. It wasn't fear but something colder... dangerous.

"Tell me you have a plan," she whispered.

Travis listened to the footsteps outside, counting distance, rhythm, and weight. Three men at least. Maybe four. One dragging his left foot slightly. Another carrying something heavier than a handgun.

His thumb shifted lightly along the Glock.

"I have half a plan," he said.

Kate let out a weak breath that almost became a laugh. "That's comforting."

"Trust me. I'm gonna kill them all and then I'll take you to the hospital. Till then, keep your eyes open," Travis said before switching off his flashlight. "Maybe think about our next date. That'll keep you awake. I mean, dying without watching your favorite movie will suck big time. Your soul won't get rest and you will probably haunt me forever."

"I'm gonna hit you," She let out a painful smile.

The footsteps stopped outside the room.

Kate held her breath.

A shadow moved across the gap beneath the broken door.

Bang! Bang!

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[Present time] [Approx 17 hrs earlier]

[12th Precinct]

Travis shrugged off his damp jacket and tossed it over the back of his chair. Kate went straight to the board and pinned up the victim photos in a row. Miriam Voss, Gabriel Rusk, Evelyn March, and Father Thomas Keane. On the way, they made some calls and tracked Keller's phone location to check his alibi, and it checks out.

Castle stood beside her, arms folded as he studied the names. "Four people, four heads, three labels, one film negative, and one extremely suspicious construction mogul with moisturizer under his eyes. I have to say, this killer knows how to open a chapter."

Kate gave him a sideways look. "Try not to sound impressed by the person who dismembered four people."

"I'm horrified," Castle replied, lifting one hand. "Deeply horrified with narrative curiosity."

Travis pulled a marker from the tray beneath the board and wrote the three phrases under the victim names.

Subject One: The Mind.

Subject Two: The Memory.

Subject Three: The Confession.

Then he drew a question mark under Gabriel Rusk.

Ryan leaned closer. "Why didn't the filmmaker get a subject tag?"

"Maybe the film negative is the tag," Kate said as she crossed her arms and looked over the board. "Or the killer didn't get time to put a proper tag."

Castle pointed lightly toward Gabriel's photo. "Documentary filmmaker. He records things. Maybe his role is The Witness."

Travis nodded once. "Possible. The negative looked like a tunnel entrance, probably old subway access or a service passage. If Gabriel filmed something there, the killer wanted us to know."

Kate looked toward Travis. "Alright, before we get buried in victim histories, explain Keller."

Ryan turned toward him immediately. "Yeah, what did you see? Because from where I stood, he looked like every developer I've ever wanted to punch at a zoning meeting."

Travis leaned against the edge of his desk, marker still in hand. "Keller lied. I'm sure of that. Doesn't mean he's our killer, though."

Castle tilted his head. "That sounds painfully responsible coming from you."

"Enjoy it while it lasts," Travis replied before nodding toward the board. "Keller said he left the site around four thirty yesterday and noticed nothing unusual. His left eye twitched when he said the place was normal. Tiny reaction, but it came right after Kate asked about anything unusual."

Kate nodded slowly, replaying the moment in her head. "He also hesitated when I asked for the access list."

"Exactly," Travis said. "He had heavy makeup under his eyes, enough to hide dark circles. He smelled like coffee like he drank half a pot before arriving. His wedding ring was off, but the ring mark was fresh. He was tired, stressed, and hiding something personal or business-related."

Ryan frowned. "Affair?"

"Maybe," Travis said. "Could be an affair, a bad marriage, a late-night meeting, financial trouble, blackmail, or something related to the site. He also rubbed his thumbs together after denying he knew the victims. That's a stress response. Then he licked his lips right after answering Kate, which usually happens when someone is trying to get through a lie without adding extra details."

Castle pointed at Travis with his notebook. "So he lied about knowing the victims."

"I'm eighty percent sure," Travis said. "Or he lied about the site being normal yesterday. The problem is without hard evidence, Keller is just a nervous rich guy with bad sleep and expensive shoes."

Kate tapped the marker against the board. "We can't move on him yet."

"Nope," Travis replied. "Right now, we don't have enough to drag him into interrogation."

Castle looked disappointed. "There goes my construction tycoon secret murderer theory."

Ryan took a sip of coffee. "Give it time. Rich guys usually have backup secrets."

Travis looked back at the board. "For now, we dig into the victims. Their jobs don't connect on the surface, but killers like this don't pick random people and label them like museum exhibits. There's a connection somewhere. We find that, we find the reason they were killed and probably find our killer."

Kate nodded and picked up the phone from her desk. "We start with families. Spouses, siblings, close friends, whoever knew their schedules."

"And we wait for Lanie's report," Travis added. "Cause of death, preservation method, time windows, traces, anything she can pull from those heads. And the tech team will take a few minutes to get a photo from that negative."

Castle looked at the board again, his expression sobering slightly. "Mind, Memory, Confession, and possibly Witness. That sounds like a story about a secret."

Kate glanced at him.

Castle shrugged, quieter now. "Someone knew something. Someone remembered something. Someone confessed something. Someone recorded something."

Travis looked at him for a beat, then nodded. "That's actually good."

Castle blinked, then touched his chest. "I'm sorry, did Detective Wilson just compliment me? I need a witness."

Ryan lifted his coffee. "Witnessed."

Kate rolled her eyes, though a small smile slipped through before she turned toward her desk. "Castle, don't let it go to your head."

"Too late," Castle said, already writing in his notebook. "It's going directly into my head."

"By the way, where is Esposito?" Travis asked.

"He's on a stakeout for an arson homicide case," Ryan replied.

The next hour turned into organized chaos. Ryan pulled basic histories on all four victims. Travis started building a timeline from the last confirmed sightings. Kate coordinated family contact through uniforms and kept one eye on her phone for Keller's access list. Castle hovered around the murder board, adding theories no one asked for and occasionally landing close enough to be useful that Kate let him keep talking.

..

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