DAY 2

Castle believes the vigilante is a comic book collector and theorizes that the killer would definitely visit one particular place in town, Comic Cadia. Castle and Detective Beckett head to Comic Cadia in order to gather some answers regarding the vigilante and discover that the store clerk recognizes the vigilante because the murderer bears a great resemblance to an online comic named Sword of Lone Vengeance which was being written by a man named Sean Elt.

The Lone Vengeance online comic

Castle believes that he spotted the knuckle plate which is part of the vigilante’s costume at the crime scene. He and Detective Beckett immediately return to the area in order to retrieve it. Meanwhile, Detective Esposito receives a phone call informing him that a samurai sword was bought off Jake’s Pawnshop recently and the buyer matches the suspect in the photo. As Castle and Detective Beckett return to the area, they found the knuckle piece they were searching for but the vigilante made a sudden appearance at the scene and stole the evidence which they wanted before hopping on a motorbike and fleeing the scene. 

Detective Beckett receives a phone call from Detective Esposito who tells her that he has the location of the suspect, Chad Hockney, who had purchased the samurai sword from the pawnshop. Castle and Detective Beckett then break down the door only to find the vigilante helpless and they successfully take him into custody. In the precinct, both of them try to extract a confession from Chad. However, he stated that he was a fake and there was another vigilante who was the real Lone Vengeance who happened to be a legend in the superhero community and frequented lower Manhattan near Beakman and Theatre Alley. His alibi was that he had been sewing the Lone Vengeance costume on the night of the murder and neighbours had been complaining about the noise.

Castle begins studying the online Sword of Lone Vengeance comics in order to try and understand the vigilante’s motives and identity. Suddenly, he discovers that the comic books bear a resemblance to the events that have happened such as what had happened to the first suspect and immediately goes to tell Detective Beckett about his discovery. He then suggests that the writer of the comic book, Sean Elt, is the vigilante. 

However, at the precinct both he and Detective Beckett discover that Sean Elt is an anagram and not a real name. The NYPD task force then discovers further evidence of the vigilante’s previous crimes. Castle theorizes that Lone Vengeance had turned to crime because the murder victim had known the identity of Lone Vengeance. Both he and Detective Beckett turn to the victim’s mother who said that she did not know anyone named Sean Elt but claimed that her son had been reading Sword of Lone Vengeance and was seen arguing with someone with fair hair and a beard holding a green card saying that he knew the truth about his identity. 

Detective Beckett and Castle discover that the unknown man was the reporter at the crime scene named Paul Whittaker stating that it was the perfect cover up as he would be seeing crime spiral out of control first-hand and decided to take justice into his own hands. The NYPD task force discover that the murder victim made several calls to Whittaker however they lacked the evidence to expose him. Detective Beckett then receives a call telling her that Whittaker just maxed out his credit card at an ATM near Comic Cadia. They then arrive at the scene just in time to bring him into custody as he was trying to sell his comic books in a rush at the area.