Beckett and Castle meet with him and just as he is about to tell them something about the murder, he is shot by a sniper right before their eyes. The trace leads to Joe Pulgatti, a mob-boss in the 90's, who was imprisoned for the murder of the FBI agent Bobby Arman. Joe had always claimed to be innocent and told a story about cops who tried to kidnap him, but when Arman intervened the cops had him killed. Nobody believed him except Johanna Beckett, who was later killed in the same alley as Arman. Evidence leads to dirty cops Raglan and McCallister. McCallister had been Arman's partner at the time of his murder. Raglan and McCallister had been kidnapping and blackmailing mobsters until the incident with Arman. Ryan and Esposito traced down the shooter, a contract killer named Hal Lockwood who appeared out of the blue in 2004. The two detectives get kidnapped by him and are tortured until Castle and Beckett save them. Both Lockwood and McCallister were arrested. In the course of this investigation Beckett reveals her home-made murder board for the case to Castle, which she built the summer before. In the season three finale "Knockout" Lockwood kills McCallister behind bars and breaks free at his official hearing at court. From now on he is hunting down Beckett. It is revealed that there was a third cop involved in the murder of Arman—Beckett's current captain, Roy Montgomery. He admits he shot Arman, but also tells her that he has all the necessary evidence to bring the so-called "dragon" down. He confesses everything to Beckett and sacrifices himself for her. His last act before dying is killing Lockwood. At his funeral Beckett gets shot by another unknown sniper. While she is lying on the ground Castle finally confesses his love for her. In the season four premiere "Rise" Beckett barely survives the assassination attempt on her and takes three months off to recuperate. In this time Castle, Ryan and Esposito were tracking the money of Montgomery, Raglan and McCallister, but the evidence was destroyed in a fire in 1998. Beckett doesn't want to believe this, and only after Castle has a long talk to her does Beckett decide to see her therapist again. Castle only talked so seriously to her about this because of a call he received from a "mysterious man", who claimed to be an old friend of Montgomery and in possession of the evidence against the "dragon" and is now blackmailing him in order to keep Beckett safe.