Synopsis for
"Castle" Deep in Death (2009)

A man is found dead on the branches of a tree. The man, John Allen was suffocated. Lanie's preliminary exam indicates that the victim was dead before being tossed off the roof. As he is being taken to the morgue to be exhumed, a group of masked men stop the car and kidnap the body. At Allen's home, his wife tells Beckett and Castle that a former co-worker Max Haverstock used to call him up at night and complain for having been laid off by John.

But at Haverstocks questioning he reveals that both he and Allen were laid off. They discover that John Allen had been lying to his family. He was laid off from his job months ago.

Allens body is found again, having been operated on. Lanie concludes after the autopsy that he was carrying drug and was possibly a drug mule. Also, she concludes he was killed by a man with a missing or prosthetic forefinger.

Fingerprints of one of the masked men are detected and he and his friends are taken in. One of them reveals the name of the man who vouched for Allen, Ron Bigby.

Bigby tells them that Allen had lost heavily while gambling at Chinatown to a tattooed Russian. Castle used his sources to find the location of the gambling place and try to infiltrate as a big time gambler.

At the den, Castle goes in with a camera and speakers on him as Beckett, Esposito and Ryan stay and observes him in a van. Inside, Castle sees a table of Russians and while narrating the story of his new book about a Russian mobster, Beckett identifies one man as having a prosthetic forefinger. Realizing Castle is in danger, Beckett changes clothes and goes in, arriving just in time to save Castle and apprehend the mobster.

At the station, Castle asks for her to reopen her mother's case and help her in solving it. But Beckett says no and asks him to leave.

In the subplot, Alexis and Owen have a fight when he misses a movie they were going to see together. Alexis tells Castle that boys should just say they're sorry and not invent excuses. Castle acts on Alexis's advice and apologizes to Beckett, who forgives him.