Castle

Hey, so, you want to go to Lincoln Center

and hear some jazz tonight?

Wynton Marsalis is playing.

Oh, I would love to, but I can't.

I've got that dinner with my old friend from high school.

You don't sound very thrilled about going.

Yeah, you know, it's just.

Carly's always been really competitive,

talking about her fabulous life nonstop.

I bet no one's basing a character

in their best-selling mysteries on her.

True, but the last time I talked to her,

she had just came back from the French Riviera

with a count that she met in Monaco.

And now I hear she's married

to some big-shot, European businessman

that she met on a yoga retreat,

and she's embraced the spiritual life.

Well, you want me to tag along

and regale her with tales of our crime-solving adventures?

Definitely not. You are exactly her type.

And the last thing I need is to watch someone from my past

trying to seduce my fiancé

while talking about the goddess that lives in her hoo-ha.

She did ask for a signed book, though.

Who did? Carly or the goddess?

Beckett.

Please, Castle, you have to promise me

if you don't hear from me by 10:00,

you will call me and get me out of there.

I am setting an alarm right now.

See, this is what having a partner in life is all about.

Hey, guys.

So, I hope you're up for a pretty strange one.

Warehouse worker found our vic this morning.

Perlmutter said that she died around 3:00 A.M.

Her passport says that her name is Jade Yamaya.

Passport? She a tourist?

No, she's a Japanese citizen.

Stamp indicates she's been in the country for six months.

Okay, we have to notify the Japanese consulate.

- I'll put in a call. - Thanks.

What is she doing down here all dressed up?

There's no night life in this area.

And her clothes are higher-end.

I'm guessing she's not a working girl.

Looks like she was stabbed with a knife.

Mm.

To the untrained eye, perhaps.

But what you don't know about post-mortem analysis

could fill a book, Mr. Castle.

I... in fact, it has. Numerous times.

Fine. So it was not a knife.

Ah, wrong again. It was a knife.

But "stabbed" implies the blade was thrust into the victim,

whereas this wound was produced

by it being hurled into her chest.

What is this, "Last of the Mohicans"?

What kind of knife is it?

Uh, one with a hilt that matches these small bruises

on either side of the wound.

It killed her instantly,

severing the left anterior descending artery.

Okay, so, either that's the luckiest knife toss

in the world...

Or she was killed by a circus knife thrower.

Like the Great Throwdini.

Ryan, do we have any witnesses that saw the Great Throwdini

or anyone else in the area?

Uh... no, not so far.

But we did find this next to our dead body.

If it's not Jade's, it might be our killer's.

- What is it? - It's a drop key.

Yeah, I used to scavenge stuff like this

from old buildings when I was a kid.

Yeah, buildings would keep them on hand

to, uh, manually open elevator doors,

something like that, in case of an emergency.

I'll have tech try to trace it and see what it's made for.

Long shot, but you never know.

And what about her purse? Is there any contact information

or an address of where she was staying?

No, but I did look through her cell.

Based on her calls and texts,

she had a boyfriend named Dean Bedford.

I can't believe Jade is gone.

Dean, do you have any idea

- why she would be in the warehouse district? - No.

She told me she was going to rehearsals

and then straight back to the dorms.

So she was a student?

She was a dancer at the New York Ballet Conservatory.

She lived there, too.

Yeah, we're patrons of the Conservatory.

That's where she and Dean met.

A professional ballet company is pretty competitive...

did she have problems with anyone there?

Uh, no. Just the usual jealousy.

She rose up the ranks pretty fast.

Any issues with anyone back in Japan?

She didn't talk much about her life there.

Um... it's like she wanted a fresh start.

I have to tell her family.

I don't... I don't even know how to reach them.

Well, the consulate will take care of that.

Right now, the best way for you to help

is to tell us what you know about Jade.

Now, we found this at the crime scene.

Do you recognize it?

No, I've never seen that before.

Dean, how well did you know Jade?

Did she socialize with other people?

No, she was pretty focused. Why?

Well, it's just, when we found her,

she was dressed to go out.

Out?

If she was meeting someone on the sly

it didn't show up in her phone records.

Pretty much every call she made was to Dean and the ballet.

Well, that's where she lived and trained,

so maybe someone there knows why she went out last night.

Time to go to the ballet.

Uh, well, you might want to postpone your trip

when you hear this.

- Did you get a lead on the drop key? - More than a lead.

Tech confirmed that the key was used to open an elevator.

Not only that, but they were

able to get a name off the brass... Marigold.

- As in the flower? - No, as in the Marigold Cookie Company.

The factory's been shut down for years

and the building is abandoned, but the abandoned building

is two blocks from where Jade's body was found.

This place is seriously creepy for a cookie factory.

Maybe the killer lured Jade here and she escaped,

but she was unable to outrun the flying dagger of doom.

That doesn't make any sense, Castle.

How so?

Because look at this place. It's filthy.

There's no way Jade would set foot in here,

not with the clothes that she was wearing.

Here's something else that doesn't make sense...

there's no electricity.

Why would the killer have a key to an elevator

- if there's no power to make it work? - Let's go find out.

There's another room back here.

This must be his lair.

Yeah, and that's some kind of a shrine.

A shrine to murder.

Check this out.

The design of this hilt

matches the bruises we saw.

And I'm betting there's traces of blood on here, too.

Someone's here.

Beckett?

Castle, what happened?

A...

ninja... stole the murder weapon.

Yeah.

Castle S06E18 - The Way of the Ninja Original air date March 17, 2014.

You were attacked by a ninja, and you witnessed it?

Uh, no, sir. Not exactly.

Because he made a sound and drew her away.

Ninjas are masters of the surprise attack.

I... in any case, we think that he's our killer because

the knife that he took from Castle

appears to be our murder weapon.

- So what you're saying is that... - Our killer is a ninja.

Or he is just an athletic person with a hooded track suit.

Yeah, who disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Yes, which I could do if I had a smoke bomb.

Whatever the man is,

do you have any sense as to why he would kill Jade Yamaya?

No, sir. We don't have motive yet.

But we're looking into the objects on the shrine

just in case they're connected to our victim.

Where are we on I.D.ing the suspect?

There's no security video

either from the building or the street cams...

not that any self-respecting ninja would be caught on video.

But CSU is sweeping the place for prints, for evidence.

We've also got a unit sitting on the building,

on the off chance that he returns.

Excuse me, sir. Uh, detective Beckett,

this is consulate officer Amaya Tagami.

I came as soon as I could.

Jade Yamaya's death is a terrible loss,

and the Ambassador has asked me to keep him informed

of your progress on this case.

I spoke to Jade's parents in Kyoto,

and they, too, are anxious for news.

All we know is that the attacker

may have a connection to Japan.

Now, did Jade's parents say if she had any enemies?

No. The truth is, they hadn't spoken to her in weeks.

Her moving here caused a bit of a rift.

Why did she move?

Was she trying to get away from someone? Or something?

I don't think so.

They told me she came here for her ballet career.

How would I go about talking to them?