DAY 3

After interviewing Miss Wyatt, the duo head back to the police station where they found that Miss Wyatt’s alibi had been viable along with a clean record. Detective Ryan discovers that the victim used his credit card at an ATM machine that night not too far from a bad neighbourhood but did not complete his transaction. The machine ate the credit card after a few minutes of inactivity. Detective Beckett found out that Burns had requested files regarding the 2003 murder of a drug trafficker named Harley Romero. Castle suggests that it may be some form of a mafia tie-in with one of the Nicks but there were no connections to any of the major crime families in New York.   

The police file on Harley Romero stating his death

 Romero was supposedly killed by a dealer over a turf war. Detective Ryan finds a surveillance video of the ATM machine and the task force sees Burns looking fearful and frantic writing something on a piece of paper when a man apparently swooped in and dragged him away with a knife. The task force then watch in astonishment as they identify the man when they freezed the video as Romero himself who was supposedly dead. However, Beckett is still unable to find any link between Romero and the pizza parlors while the captain suggested that the murder may have nothing to do with pizza.

Castle and Beckett interview the victim’s employer again who states that he did not recognize Romero at all and Burns had never mentioned Romero in any of the stories that he wrote. However, he did recognize the names, Johnny Farell and Swede Anderson, explaining that they were characters from old film noir movies.   

Burns’ employer asked Beckett regarding the drugs Harley was dealing in to which she replied was heroine. He then added that the only heroine story that Burns ever chased was the one which he could never finish which was about a high end distribution ring that operates in New York hiding amongst legitimate businesses. He explained that when someone requires heroine, they used a code word and that their code happens to be names of characters from film noir. The victim’s employer stated that the story had destroyed Burns because of the man behind the distribution ring, Carvallo. Detective Beckett was skeptical of Carvallo stating that he was only an urban legend stating that he was not real. The victim’s employer on the other hand stated that Burns had told him he had someone who can get him close to Carvallo and Carvallo was apparently responsible for his daughter’s death.

Detective Beckett theorizes that Romero was responsible for creating the Carvallo myth because it had started in 2003 which was the year in which he faked his own death. The NYPD task force then rewatch the video in an attempt to see what Burns was trying to write on the piece of paper in front of the ATM machine. Castle suggests flipping the video and slowing it down as he tries to mimic his hand movements to write it out. They then discover that it was an address leading them to a basement along 127^th street. The NYPD task force storms the basement and discovers all the hallmarks of a well-known heroine processing compound.