Castle

9-1-1, what's your emergency?

You have to help me. Please.

I only have a few seconds left.

Ma'am, what's your address?

250 Avenue C. Please hurry.

We'll send help right away.

Can you tell me what's happening?

Ma'am, I need to know what's going on.

Oh, my God.

Ma'am, can you hear me?

The lights went out.

It's coming for me.

What's coming for you? Ma'am?

Ma'am?

I'm gonna die.

Ma'am are you there? Hello.

Ma'am are you there? Hello.

You hear that?

That call came in at 11:59 from our vic--Val Butler.

She's an ad exec downtown.

First responders came moments later.

That door was locked and that couch was in front of it.

No sign of forced entry.

She looks like she's been scared to death, literally.

Is that based on your vast medical experience, Mr. Castle?

No, based on the fact

she looks like an Edvard Munch painting.

Really freaky.

So what was the cause of death?

Well, there's no external trauma,

no puncture or stab wounds.

Once I get her on the slab,

I'll know more about how she died and who did it.

If it was a who.

Meaning?

Meaning she said "It's coming for me."

Not "he" or "she," but "it."

Look at what she was researching here--

"How to keep away evil,"

"How to ward off evil spirits,"

a book on urban legends.

Over by the door, horseshoes.

I've clocked two Indian wind chimes,

there and there.

These are things used to ward off evil spirits,

like Perlmutter.

I heard that.

What are you saying, Castle?

Oh, was the boogeyman out to get her?

I'm saying maybe that's what she thought--

why she said "It's coming for me,"

why the lights went out,

why she inexplicably died, and why she looks so scared.

She was scared because she was about to be killed

by an actual person.

So we should spend our time looking for that person.

Let's set up a canvass and talk to everyone in the building

that might have seen or heard something.

Wh-what happened to Val?

What's going on?

I work nights

as a research assistant at the college.

But I should've stayed home last night.

I knew something was up with her.

What do you mean?

She's been weird the past couple of days.

She hadn't been eating or sleeping.

She was really paranoid, always locking the doors.

Did she say what was wrong?

I asked,

but she said she didn't want to talk about it.

Amanda, do you know of anyone

that would've wanted to hurt her?

Her ex-boyfriend.

Boyfriend's name is Freddie Baker,

31.

Quite the resume-- resisting arrest,

assault and battery.

Sounds like a prince.

Yeah, Val wised up, though.

She filed a restraining order against him after they broke up.

Esposito is checking into where he was last night.

So what did we get from Val's family and friends?

Just that they hadn't heard from her

in the last three days.

She wasn't returning their messages.

Three days--that's how long Val's roommate

said she'd been acting strangely.

Yeah, so I dug into the last 72 hours of her life.

Besides a credit card charge

for a train ticket to Greenwich,

there was nothing else unusual.

What was she doing in Greenwich?

I'm still looking into that,

but as far as abnormalities for the last few days,

that was it.

Uh, no, there's more. The wind chime,

the horse shoe, the book on urban legends--

all bought online two days ago.

Almost as if Val thought

some kind of evil spirit was coming for her.

Castle, what she thought was gonna happen

versus what actually happened

are two completely different things.

Yeah, because if Val was a victim of anything,

it's her lousy taste in men.

Canvass popped.

One of her neighbors saw Freddie in the building

and hour before her death.

I would never hurt Val.

I loved her.

Really? Then how do you explain this restraining order

that she filed against you?

Was that a love letter?

A misunderstanding.

Well, we got a witness that saw you

in Val's apartment last night, Freddie.

But I didn't kill her.

Yes, I went over there,

but only because she begged me to.

Do you actually expect us to believe

that she invited you over to her apartment

after she filed a restraining order?

It's true. She said she wanted to get back together.

But when I got there, all she did was

accuse me of sending her some package.

What package?

I have no idea.

But when I told her I didn't send her anything,

she started freaking out.

How was she freaking out?

She kept saying, "It's real."

What's real?

I don't know.

She wasn't making... any sense.

She kept asking me

if I believed in the power of evil.

I didn't want to get in trouble for breaking the RO,

so I got out of there, went to hang out with friends.

But when I left that apartment,

Val was alive.

I swear.

Freddie's alibi checks out.

Friends confirm that he met them at 11:00.

They hung out at a club till dawn.

So he's not our guy.

Well, I'll just point out that Val asked him

if he believed in the power of evil

and then was talking about how it was "real."

- I hate to say it-- - Then don't.

Did CSU find a package at her apartment?

No, but they were looking for evidence of the murder not mail.

So maybe that's what freaked Val out.

She knew that

that package was coming from her killer.

Did you find anything yet?

Yes, a closet with more stilettos than yours.

Didn't think it was possible.

How about you? Any luck?

Uh, yes. Looks like the package she got

contained a CD or a DVD

so be on the lookout for a disc.

Disc, got ya.

Help me.

Uh, Beckett?

Beckett?

Can you come here?

You saw...

midnight on the third day...

you die!

Are you okay? Did you find something?

When did you say Val got that package?

Three days before she died.

That was midnight on the third day.

She died because she saw this disc.

And now I saw it,

which means I'm next.

"Legend tells of a mysterious video

"that can harness the forces of evil from the beyond.

"The disc is a harbinger of great misfortune,

"marking its watchers

and sentencing them to certain and unavoidable death."

I saw it, just like Val did.

That's why she said "It's coming for me."

That's how she knew when she was gonna die,

why she was trying to ward off spirits--

because of the message on that disc.

How's a DVD gonna kill you?

Is it gonna come at you like a ninja star, cut your head off?

The actual DVD will not kill me, Esposito.

It will be the spirit inside the DVD,

just like in "The Ring."

Ooh, ooh, the one...

with the creepy waterlogged little girl

who crawls out of the TV.

I didn't sleep for days after that movie.

Yes, exactly. Thank you. That movie.

It's fiction.

It's a horror story in a book about urban legends.

Yeah, I mean, because...