| Brian Reilly | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Vital Statistics | |
| Gender | Male |
| Status | Incarcerated |
| Character Information | |
| Appearances | "Headhunters" |
| Portrayed by | Michael McGrady |
Brian Reilly is, some time after Jack Coonan, the apparent chief enforcer for the Westies.
A hard man, he shows no sign of emotion when Detective Slaughter breaks the news without preamble of his son's death. Brian ignores Slaughter's provocation, and merely declares he'll have to inform his wife.
Later he gets the drop on Castle with a gun, but Slaughter was only using the writer as a 'magnet' to draw the attention of the bad guys whilst he slipped in behind Brian with a weapon of his own. Brian, as one would expect of a man in his position, gives the police nothing during his interrogation, and soon has to be set free. At this point Slaughter and Castle are working on the theory that a rival gang killed Glitch, either as revenge, or to trigger all-out war between their competition.
Slaughter's ways of getting corroboration, however, don't sit well with Castle, and he eventually turns to Beckett and her team to help him identify the real killer, and their motive. This turns out to be Brian, who seemingly snapped after cleaning up one too many messes behind his only son. Unfortunately for him, the injured young man managed to crawl away far enough that Brian couldn't dispose of the heads that were the evidence which eventually saw him caught. As Brian himself notes, "Even with his last breath, that boy managed to screw me up."