"I can't stop seeing it," she says, shaking her head, looking down at her hands as if she's almost expecting to see something there. "Can't stop picturing the way I felt his life just go out of him right there, under my hands."

When she looks over at him, she can feel her control slipping, her face crumpling up as her eyes glisten over.

"He was the only chance I had, the only one who knew who - who would want to do that to her, Castle?" It turns into a question halfway through, and she shakes her head, a teardrop tremoring on her jaw before it drops onto the bedsheets.

"Who would want to have my mom killed?"