Elvis has left the building, but Castle has just arrived! Our favorite mystery writer, dressed as the King, is shuffled into the office of a man wielding a baseball bat. The unseen figure is pretty angry. Please bear with us as we jump back 16 hours earlier to find out why. As Elvis would say, "Uh, thank you, thank you very much."
Sam Siegel was the co-owner of the Sapphire Coast Resort Casino in Atlantic City. The guy's luck ran out the moment someone murdered him in an abandoned delivery dock in NYC. The victim argued with his ex-wife, Rebecca, just before he was killed. He wanted her to sign over an investment property they co-owned in Queens. He was offering the full value of the building just for her share. Sam told Rebecca that his life depended on it.
Captain Gates wants to see how Beckett works without any distractions. So she lets Castle tagalong with Ryan and Esposito as they check out things in Atlantic City. The Sapphire's beautiful concierge, Nadine Espinoza, escorts our boys over to Sam Siegel's business partner, Charlie Turner. He steers them towards Sam's driver, Ralph Marino, as he had argued with the victim over a woman.
Beckett arrests Marino, who was hiding out in New York. The guy's no killer, but he did see a black SUV at the murder scene. The casino's head of security, Daniel Sullivan, provides video footage of Charlie Turner punching Sam in the face. That's because his partner stole $10 million from the casino. But why would Charlie kill Sam before he got his money back? And what does any of this have to do with the property in Queens?
Sam didn't steal the $10 million. The team suspects Nadine Espinoza is the real thief once they realize her parents live in the Queens building. The A.C. team is about to bring Nadine in for questioning when some men in a black SUV kidnap her. Things just got a lot more complicated. Guess Castle won't be getting to see Carrot Top perform in the main showroom anytime soon.
Charlie Turner is the prime suspect in the kidnapping. But the guy seems genuinely surprised that Nadine was behind the theft. Charlie's through answering questions from cops out of their jurisdiction. He tosses them out of the casino. That's too bad. The boys need to get back inside to question Daniel Sullivan since Nadine made several calls to him. Castle has an idea how they can sneak past security.
As luck would have it, the Sapphire is hosting an Elvis impersonator event. Esposito, Ryan and Castle don some supremely gaudy attire and some super fluffy sideburns to become the three Kings. They make their way to Daniel who admits he and Nadine took the money as leverage to get Sam to turn over the building in Queens. These two are in love, but Sam was obsessed with Nadine. Once they got the deed to the building, Sam would get his money back. The problem is it wasn't really Sam's money.
The investigating Elvises are unmasked. Charlie Turner isn't dumb enough to take a baseball bat to a cop, but a civilian is fair game. Castle realizes that Charlie is so on edge because he and his partner borrowed money from a violent mob man named Tommy Moretti. Beckett joins the team to set up a sting. Moretti meets with Daniel Sullivan. The money is returned and Nadine is released.
Tommy knew all about the blackmail so he gave Sam an extension to get back the money after his ex-wife signed the property deed. But Rebecca had told Beckett she never made the deal. Tommy begs to differ. As it turns out, Sam made Rebecca sign at gunpoint. The frightened woman knew she'd never be out of her ex-husband's clutches, so she killed him. Case closed.
In other news, Esposito is bummed when he learns that Ryan had to ask Jenny's young half-brother to be his best man. It's a major bummer, but it doesn't stop the boys from having an unofficial bachelor party. Speaking of parties, Alexis takes her dad's advice to have a "girls' night in" with her friends to help get her mind off Ashley. It turns into a total rager. Alexis scrambles to clean up the apartment. Fortunately, Castle is way too hungover to investigate anything that may have happened while he was away.