DAY 3

Detective Beckett then forcefully interviews Whittaker and discovers the artwork of Sword of Lone Vengeance at his apartment. Whittaker then states that Lone Vengeance is supposed to stamp out crime and was not real. However, Detective Beckett stated that Whittaker had been mugged previously and he had been non-compliant for the police interview. Castle implies that that was the turning point in his life when he had donned the costume of Lone Vengeance. 

Detective Beckett offers a deal to place him in segregated confinement should he confess to the crime. Whittaker then hesitantly confesses that he murdered the victim because he had discovered his identity. Castle states that a superhero has a code and if he or she should go and break it, the event would trigger a crisis of fate which would devastate the superhero. Castle then asks Whittaker’s feelings regarding the murder who then replies that he had only felt really bad about it. Detective Beckett then asks why Whittaker had chopped off the victim’s hand after he killed him which was a rouse to try and figure out if he had been lying to which he replied he did not know. Both her and Castle believe that Whittaker is covering for someone and discover that the vigilante could be hiding at an abandoned tenant building where Whittaker had been mugged and where Chad had found Lone Vengeance which only proves that that was the place where the vigilante would be hiding.

Castle and Detective Beckett then infiltrate the hideout and discover various samurai swords through a hidden door. Detective Espesito radios in and states that he had seen an unknown person climb up the fire exit. Detective Beckett managed to catch Lone Vengeance off-guard and orders the vigilante to remove the mask and discovers that it was actually Officer Hastings, a police officer at the NYPD. During the interrogation, Hastings revealed that the reason why she had turned to a vigilante was because her father was murdered and decided to take justice into her own hands. 

Castle discovers that the reason Whittaker confessed was because he had loved Hastings and tried to protect her. Hastings denied that she murdered the victim and explained that she had stolen the knuckle piece was not hers and took it to test it for fingerprints. She said that the victim was a creature of habit and that the killer knew that the victim would end up in the alley. Detective Beckett believes that Hastings is innocent and that there is another person impersonating Lone Vengeance. Castle and Beckett decide that the killer was someone who knew the victim and who had experience in wielding swords. 

They arrive at the conclusion that Tony, the first suspect, was the real culprit. During the interrogation, they press Tony for answers that he had impersonated Lone Vengeance in order to point them in the wrong direction and to stop the real vigilante from interrupting his criminal business. Although Tony denied the charges, Detective Beckett showed him the knuckle plates which were found to have fingerprints belonging to Tony’s cousin Ernesto who confessed to making the outfit for Tony. 

So Tony Valtini was the murderer.

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.

DAY 1

Detective Beckett believes that the murder could have been a ritual killing and had tasked Detective Esposito with obtaining photos of the bystanders in case the killer came back. The victim, Tyler Farris, had only just been released from prison after being charged with sexual assault. The victim was assaulting a woman named Marie Marcatto who had met the victim at the bar and left with him before he was murdered.

The victim had tried to sexually assault Ms. Marcatto when the killer murdered him and fled the scene. Ms. Marcatto said that she could not identify the killer’s face in the dark when interviewed by Detective Beckett. However, the detective believes that she was covering for the killer who saved her.

The victim’s mother was brought in for an interview at the station who complained that her son had plenty of enemies and was involved in multiple forms of crime. Farris, had  been seen fighting with another individual named Tony Valtini lately by a shopkeeper. Valtini, also nicknamed Tony the Butcher who owns a meatpacking plant, has a criminal record and has criminal connections with the mob. Mr Valtini explained to Detective Beckett in an interview that he had only been arguing with Mr. Farris because of work issues.

Mr. Valtini denied that he murdered Mr. Farris and suggested that a sword-wielding vigilante who attacked him was the murderer. Mr. Farris claimed he caught the vigilante on video. When Castle and Detective Beckett viewed the surveillance camera video they spotted what seemed to look like a superhero flee the scene. Although Detective Beckett was skeptical in regards to the superhero killer, Captain Gates believes that the vigilante is very dangerous. 

Surveillance photo of superhero fleeing the scene

 Castle theorizes that the vigilante is a superhero and displays a rather hilarious display of a superhero which actually is a subculture of society. A mysterious man is scene in a photo which Detective Esposito and Ryan gave to Beckett, which they believe could be a suspect as he fled the scene. Detective Ryan states that rumours of a masked man with a sword are circulating. Meanwhile, Castle believes that the costume which the vigilante is wearing is a combination of various famous Marvel superheros in comic book legend such as Spiderman and Ironman and believes that he could be driven by the death of a fatherly figure or loved one.