Detective Kevin Ryan is moonlighting for his brother-in-law Frank’s high-end security company. Frank makes it clear that there’s a job there for Ryan if he chooses to leave the police force. 

Ryan is protecting Congressman Lopez during a charity event when Lopez is shot and Carolyn Decker, the woman running the charity is killed. Ryan runs after the man he thinks is the shooter but loses him. Beckett and the team investigate the murder.

Eric Chambers, a French blogger who hated the Congressman is the man Ryan was chasing. They arrest Eric but he says he’s being set up. A hotel employee saw Eric and billionaire Carl Shelton talking about taking Lopez down just before the shooting but Beckett have no proof to back up that this is a conspiracy. 

Ryan calls Castle in the middle of the night when he comes up with a crazy theory. He doesn’t believe that Eric was the shooter. Ryan gets Eric to talk. Someone dropped a press pass in his mailbox. He planned on making a scene when Lopez took the stage. Carl Shelton actually tried to talk him out of it. 

Tori finds footage of a man leaving something in Chambers mailbox. Ryan recognizes him as his brother-in-law, Frank. Frank tries to run but Ryan brings him in. Frank says he was making cash on the side by letting people buy access to events. He was paid $5,000 to drop off the press pass but he didn’t shoot anyone.

Turns out that Carolyn Decker was the actual target. At first Beckett and the team think the Congressman’s wife did it because Lopez was having an affair with Carolyn but it turns out that Megan, the Congressman’s assistant committed the murder. She knew that Carolyn wanted her fired and Megan had been with the Congressman since he ran for city council. She planned to be with him when he ran for President and wasn’t going to let Carolyn get rid of her.

Beckett considers taking the Captain’s exam.