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.
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 would 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.
(Siren wailing)
�?�
(man shouts indistinctly)
(Horn honks, brakes squeal)
Sorry. Sorry. I'm sorry. What the hell is wrong with you?!
Can't you see I'm driving here?
�?�
(gravel rustles)
�?�
(gravel rustles)
(Squish)
Hmm. 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...
(Camera beeps, shutter clicks) And you weren't here.
Oh, that's okay. I can help you finish. Yeah--
(cell phone rings)
(Ring)
Beckett? (Beep)
Yeah. Um...
I can stay home.
Go ahead. I'll be fine without you. (Grunts) Ooh.
.5...
Severe concussion...
(Camera shutter clicking)
I guess I don't have to ask about cause of death.
He's not even my first death by fallen object this month.
Two weeks ago, an investment banker
took a frozen sausage to the head
from a tenth-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 C.S.U. dusting it for prints.
That's a long way to go for a murder.
Who'd want to drop a gargoyle on someone?
Well, someone who wants to make it look like an accident.
He'd have to make sure our victim stood there 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.
(Police radio chatter)
This place looks like a museum.
Well, that's because Mr. Medina was the associate curator... (Ryan speaking indistinctly)
at the New York History Mseum.
Well, that would explain this.
and I thought a 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. The pair of high heels under his bed,
all suggesting that he was in a casual
but steady relationship.
Hmm.
Nicely played.
However I do think you 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?
Oh, I love that book. Neighbor on two
says the front door worked just fine at 7:00.
(Beckett) Which means that the killer must have
tampered with it after then. (Esposito) Beckett, calendar.
Check out today's date.
(Beckett) "C.T. 5:30. 1127 Avenue of the Americas."
5:30. That's two hours before the murder.
(Ryan) 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.
(Laughs) Let's go.
Oh, man. I love this place!
When Alexis was little,
used to come here every Sunday.
We would run around here for hours
pretding 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-I can't imagine having to do it without Will.
He's the one that discovered the site.
When was the last time you saw Mr. Medina?
4:30 today.
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.
(Dramatic music playing)
(Lightning crackles)
(Music continues)
(Rumbling)
(Birds squawking)
(Music continues)
(Squawking continues)
(Click)
(Motor whirring)
(Dramatic music plays)
(Music stops) (Coughs and spits)
What are you doing?! This mummy's over 2,000 years old.
(Motor whirs) 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. (Glass shatters)
Rachel Walters is our mummification expert.
She worked with Will. Did something happen to him?
Uh...
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.
(Man) It wasn't murder.
It was the curse.
Detective Beckett, Mr. Castle,
Rupert Bentley, our co-financier...
Pleasure. Of the expedition.
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."
�?� Castle 2x19 �?� Wrapped Up in Death Original Air Date on April 5, 2010
-- Sync, corrected by elderman -- -- for www.addic7ed.com --
Great. Thanks. That was 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.
Ooh! Which would've been such a better movie than that last one.
(Ryan) 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 'em have heard of Medina.
(Ryan) 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.
Mm. 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 a special on tv.
Bunch of the guys who found King Tut's tomb
ended up dying under weird circumstances.
Yes, and there's 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 kinda funny?
Well, yes, but there was--
and you did gaze upon the face of the mummy?
You guys, there is no curse.
Ow. (Lips smack) Paper cut.
Mm-hmm.
Yes, the curse gave me a paper cut.
These things start small. Then they snowball.
Mm. Yep.
My abuela always said...
(Speaks Spanish) (Ryan) Mm-hmm.
Bad luck always comes in threes.
Threes, like celebrities. They always die in threes.
(Lips smack) I'm living in the dark ages here.
Why don't you guys check with Lanie
and see if she found anything, okay? (Esposito) Mm-hmm.
Medina's cell phone. It was in his jacket pocket.
I doubt gargoyle attack is covered under his warranty.
Get it--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. Oh, it gets better.
We found trace amounts of the same pollen
on both death threats.
There's 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.
(Beckett) Uh, 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? T.S.A. computers are down.
Oh. Well, that's reassuring.
You know, Castle, this Kan-Xul was 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.
(Metal clanks and thuds)
You okay?
(Whispers) Yeah, yeah. It's an old chair, that's all.
Just, uh, keep telling yourself that. (Groans)
Yes.
Okay. Uh, great. Could you fax it over right away?
Thanks.
T.S.A. reports that a Mayan named Cacaw Te
arrived in J.F.K. 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. (Fax machine beeps)
I'm guessing that guy was not class clown in High School.
This is a local address. Let's go get him.
(Ryan) Ooh, can I drive? (Esposito) No.
Can we call you Mr. T.?
It's Te. Cacaw Te.
(Beckett) 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.
Oh, and so is murder, or as your ancestors like to call it,
human sacrifice.
I don't know what you're talkin' about.
Does this jog your memory?
(Sighs) 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.
(Ryan) Hey, Beckett.
Looks like Cacaw Te isn't our C.T. after all.
He was uptown meeting with a Telemundo reporter
about the, uh, injustice of the exhibit at 5:30.
He didn't finish until after 8:00.
Well, what about the pollen? 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.
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?
Ye--what? No.
Oh, 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.
And 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 have done
something pretty terrible to be punished with you.
Funny.
Mr. Castle, Detective.
Seen our new ad campaign?
"Do you dare see...
The mummy of the Mayan king."
Tasteful.
Come on, Detective. You gotta give people what they want.
They are eating the curse up.
Ever since the story broke,
ticket presales have jumped 20%. (Laughs)
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 could 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 10 grand into his bank account
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. (Loud bang)
(Dish shatters, screams indistinctly) (Esposito) Ow!
Ow! (Steam hisses)
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!
(Cappuccino machine squeals) Mm.
(Snickers)
(Esposito giggles)
(Ryan, Beckett and Esposito stifling laughter)
Oh, very--okay. Very funny.
Yes, you got me.
Ooh. I'm Castle. I don't believe in curses.
(Ryan, Beckett and Esposito laugh)
What, did 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. (Laughs) (Laughs)
(Snickers and laughs)
I'm not cleaning this up!
(Cup piece clatters)
I better clean this up.
That was so mean. Oh, I knew the whole time.
Oh, 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.
Oh, here we go.
There's no one more superstitious than an actor.
(Sighs) The "scottish play"? Are you talking about "Macbeth"?
No, darling. You never say the name.
"MacBeth." No. (Spits)
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. Mm-hmm.
Well, I'd love to stand around
and tell scary stories all day 'cause I'm really good at it... (Alexis laughs)
But I have a date with a murder investigation. Mm.
It's lucky your father doesn't believe in the curse.
Why? Because he's going into a building...
(Whispers) 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.
The bank manager remembers the withdrawal
because he had to personally authorize it.
The bank manager was pretty sure
Medina with somebody at the time,
so he pulled the surveillance video,
revealing this shining example of thuggery.
Any idea who he is?
Do you wanna? You sure? No, bro, you caught it. Yeah, it's yours. Go ahead.
You know, whenever you guys are done being cute.
(Clears throat and makes beeping sounds)
No, he didn't. (Esposito) Yeah, he did.
Aruba is nice this time of year.
Meet Mr. Norton Grimes.
He 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, got him killed.
You know, there's a current address here.
What's say we go see if he's awake? Let's do it.
Come on, Castle. Let's go. Can I drive?
Are you kidding? You're cursed. (Laughs)
I got two uniforms posted out in back
in case he decides to rabbit.
Castle, you sure you don't want to stay in the car?
We don't want the curse to get you.
I'm good to go.
(Beckett) Okay. Ready?
(Exhales deeply) (Whispers) Go.
NYPD.
(Beckett) Norton Grimes. Police. Show me your hands.
(Dog growling) (Ryan) Dog!
(Esposito) Castle. (Castle) Nice doggy. Good doggy.
Castle, look o! Ah! He got me! He got me!
(Beckett) Castle, run! Aah!
Oh! (Growling and barking)
(Growling and barking continue)
Right this way, Mr. Grimes. I could've been killed.
(Singsong voice) But you weren't.
(Normal voice) 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... (Cell phone ringing)
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. Oh, hey. (Lowered voice) It's Lanie.
(Normal voice) Okay.
Right.
Well, what does that mean?
What? Are you sure?
What? Thanks.
(Cell phone beeps) What? What'd she say?
Nothing. That 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... (Mumbles) Tissue.
I'm s--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.
(Wolf whistles)
(Police radio chatter)
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? There's no upside
in screwing with things that you can't explain.
First year of homicide, right, my partner tackles a suspect
through the window of a gypsy smoke shop.
Owner's furious, threatens all kinds 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. (Snickers)
But the next morning, I went over there,
fixed that window, and you know why?
(Both) 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 the box.
Lady, you got the wrong guy.
I dropped outta 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, 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?
Hmm. Not buying. Selling.
I met him at a museum fund-raiser 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 a 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 a little profit.
And what were you buying this time?
A mummy. A mummy?
Who would want a mummy?
A collector in Taipei. So I stop by the museum.
You know, I thought he would say no.
But he jumped at the opportunity.
Didn't 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 it tests positive for drugs, Grimes is lying
and most likely our murderer. Great. Thanks.
(Footsteps approach)
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?
Oh, of course.
Better than you took care of me?
Oh, please. You turned out fine.
Look, look, look, the chances of this curse being real
are almost nonexistent. You know that.
Maybe.
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, uh, reverse the curse--
you know, the mummy equivalent
of my running around the theater.
Someone at the museum must know that.
You have become very wise in your old age.
(Sighs) Watch it, Buster.
No, I'm afraid there's nothing in the literature
about reversing the curse. (Sighs) Hey.
Castle. What are you doing here?
Oh, nothing. Just waiting for you. Huh.
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 burying-- 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.
(Motor whirring)
(Whirring stops)
Oh, my God. It's gone.
I'm not saying I believe...
But where's the mummy?
(Siren whoops, camera shutter clicks)
(Esposito) C.S.U. 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
(Castle) 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 canine unit coming in to help,
but finding this mummy might be like finding the lost ark.
If it is even still here. All right, have C.S.U. 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! P.R. Disaster!
I only hope the press doesn't hear about this.
10 bucks says he calls the press
just as soon as we're out the front door.
Hey, 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 but not aggressively brainy
with 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--are virtually nonexistent. (Motor stops)
(Elevator rattles)
(Clattering)
That was weird. The elevator just stopped.
(Cell phone line clicks)
Mother?
Okay.
No reason to panic.
(Electricity powers down)
Small reason to panic.
(Emergency lights click)
Hello?
(Creaking)
(Laughs)
There is no curse. There is no curse.
(Clattering)
What do I do? What do I do if the elevator falls?
Okay. I, um, I think I'm supposed to jump in the air?
No! Lay on the ground. (Thuds)
(Elevator bell dings)
(Beckett) Castle?
What are you doing?
(Mutters) That was-- that whole thing--
then the light--the light, and then the whole thing went--
I thought--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 'em not to let anyone on here before it's fixed.
Are you okay? Yeah. No. Yeah. I'm--I'm--
I'm gonna splash some w-water on my face
and then... Throw up a little bit.
(Creaks)
(Beckett) Rogue archeologists, Mayan death threats
drug dealers claiming to deal in antiquities
and missing mummies?
There's gotta be a story that makes all of this make sense.
(Indistinct conversations)
What?
(Whispers) 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.
(Beckett and Castle) 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? (Sighs)
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.
(Lowered voice) 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--
uh, uh, hominid skulls, a mammoth tusk.
He asked me to carbon date them,
wanted me 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.
500 years is as low as the test goes.
Are you saying that the mummy Medina was trying to sell
was a fake?
Well, 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 that 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 then 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.
(Lanie) 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.
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've 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've 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?
A 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 Stanford...
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 hands-on process.
I promise you,
whoever did that to Nicole left behind some D.N.A.
I'm happy to provide a sample.
Why don't you see if Stanford wants to do the same?
(Beckett) 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 D.N.A.
This is the part where you say,
"and I would've gotten away with it, too,
if it weren't for you meddling kids."
(Gasps)
(Panting)
Is he actually... Running away?
Yeah, it's primal instinct--
fight or flight.
Should we run after him?
Eh, no need.
(Pants)
(Grunts)
(Panting)
(Grunts) Oh! Ohh!
(Rumbles and thuds)
(Footsteps approach)
(Stanford groans)
Ohh. Oh.
(Stanford) Ohh.
Still say there's no curse?
(Stanford moans) Ohh.
Ruh-roh.
(Castle) 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 rewrapped Nicole's body,
stuffed it in the sarcophagus, sealed it up tight,
and by the time it got to the U.S. months later,
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...
(Beckett) 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.
And 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.
(Whispering indistinctly)
That's all I have to do?
Mm-hmm.
And one more thing. Hmm?
I wouldn't say no to a ride to the airport.
Let's go.
(Whistling)
You're in a good mood.
The curse has officially been lifted.
How'd you manage that? You don't want to know.
(Laughs) But I tempted fate all the way home
just to make sure. Jaywalking?
Mm-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. (Squishes)
What's the difference between cursed and clumsy?
I'll get a band-aid.
(Strained voice) Get two.
-- Sync, corrected by elderman -- -- for www.addic7ed.com --