Gus looked up from his laptop when Shawn ambled in the door with a grin, a pile of envelopes and magazines in his hands.

“Mail’s here!” Shawn announced and began flipping through them, pulling out the ones addressed to Gus and flicking them towards him.

“Hey!” Gus complained when a magazine smacked him in the face. He began piling up his mail while glaring at Shawn, who was glancing through his own items and tossing them either onto his own desk or the trashcan.

Gus blinked. Had Shawn just hesitated for a second there?

Shawn, oblivious to his best friend’s observing gaze paused to open an envelope. Something strange flashed across his face then his grin was back as he glanced over the single page. He stuffed the letter back in its envelope and made his way over to the fridge to find something to eat.

Gus narrowed his eyes as he watched him. He was pretty sure he just saw Shawn immediately open a letter and then stick it under his arm to carry around, two things that Shawn Spencer never ever did. Mail was either tossed into a pile to open later or tossed into the trash and that was even if he was waiting for it to arrive.

Gus eyed his best friend suspiciously, trying to catch another glimpse of whatever expression that letter had prompted Shawn to make. But Shawn simply went about what he was doing, making no notice of the seemingly innocuous piece of paper tucked into his armpit. Undeterred, Gus focused on watching him, knowing that it would only take a matter of time as long as he didn’t get distracted...

He hadn’t meant to do it but when his computer dinged, letting him know he had a new email, Gus automatically went to check it. When he looked up ten minutes later, Shawn was ensconced at his desk, tearing through his pile of letters and using them to make paper basketballs after he had finished reading them.

Damn, Gus thought, kicking himself mentally.

The unusual letter was nowhere in sight.

-------

“Shawn, I’m going to work. Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone!” Gus called, throwing on his jacket and grabbing his keys. He gave Shawn a suspicious look when he just grinned in return.

“Oh don’t be a stale whole wheat muffin, Gus! I wouldn’t do anything like that, you know me,” Shawn admonished his best friend with a wide grin as he spun lazily in his desk chair.

“That’s the problem, Shawn. I do know you.”

“So you know that I’d never do such a thing! Cross my heart and hope to pie,” Shawn crossed his heart with a dramatic flourish.

“It’s hope to die, Shawn,” Gus automatically corrected.

“Why would I want to do that?” The confusion on Shawn’s face seemed genuine.

“It’s a saying. ‘Cross my heart and hope to die.’”

“I’ve heard it both ways,” Shawn shrugged. He grabbed a few items off the desk and began juggling them.

“Whatever, Shawn.” Gus said with a roll of his eyes. “Are we still blowing off dinner at your dad’s tonight?”

“And miss all-you-can-eat jerk chicken?! Blasphemy!” Shawn exclaimed, letting the knickknacks crash to the floor.

“You know that’s right!” Gus called as he disappeared out the door.

Shawn waited, listening closely for the tell tale sound of the Blueberry starting up and driving away. As soon as he was sure Gus was gone, Shawn jumped out of his chair and made a beeline for the fridge. Opening the fridge door, he crouched slightly and pulled away an extra bit of rubber stripping from the bottom of the door and slipped his hand into a hollow inside the door. Shawn pulled out a file folder inside of a heavy duty plastic bag, replaced the stripping, and shut the door.

He had learned the fine art of do it yourself “slicks” and other spy tricks from a CIA spook he had met while in Thailand. Shawn grinned. Mike had been a real stand up guy after Shawn had tipped him off to the wetwork team that was there to kill him.

For the most part, Shawn just used his ‘slicks’ to feel badass or to really drive Gus nuts when he hid something from him, but sometimes, there were things Shawn really just wanted his nosy best friend to not know about. Like the file that was on his desk. He really didn’t need Gus getting a look at that.

Humming the theme to A-Team (the original, obviously), Shawn wandered over and grabbed the fingerprinting kit from inside a hollowed out copy of ‘Twilight’. He didn’t really need to hide the kit, except for the fact that he had ‘borrowed’ it from the SBPD.

Yeah, Juliet wouldn’t be a fan of that.

Shawn frowned at the thought, then shrugged, returning from his desk to remove an evidence bag from the file. In it was the latest letter, just waiting to be dusted. Shawn hadn’t had any luck with the previous dozen or so, but maybe the fourteenth time would be the charm...

Or not.

He stared dejectedly at the sheet of paper. No prints. Damn.

Shawn hesitated while putting the powder and brush away, before setting them down to look at the envelope a little closer. Grabbing a pair of scissors, he carefully cut along the seams of the envelope to lay it on the desk flat, with the inside up.

“Yahtzee!” Shawn cheered when he managed to get one slightly smudged print from the inside of the envelope.

The idiot who sent the letters had only worn a glove on one hand... or something. Shawn didn’t really care how it was left (other than that it wasn’t planted). He quickly lifted the print with the evidence tape, smoothing the tape over the plastic with a grin. The print may be smudged, but he was 75... no 88% sure that he could get a match on AFIS.

Shawn switched to humming the Mission Impossible theme as he plugged in the office scanner to Gus’ laptop, which he had made sure Gus ‘forgot’ earlier. Normally he would have just let Juliet and Lassiter have the letter checked out by the crime lab techs who’d then run it through AFIS. But normally, he wasn’t trying to hide what he was doing from the police.

Well... Not so much hiding it from them, just doing a bit of investigation himself while prolonging the time before he took the case to them. Which he would.

Eventually.

In the meantime, not telling Juliet and Lassiter meant that Shawn didn’t have access to the crime labs resources, like AFIS. Or it would have, if Shawn hadn’t been snowed in at that airport in Minneapolis with a bunch of hackers who decided that the best way to entertain themselves was to hack into the TSA database and mess around with the no-fly list. By the time flights resumed, Shawn had a free pass through security, a first class seat, and had picked up more than his fair share of hacking techniques.

Usually, hacking was one of the things Shawn designated as being ‘in case of emergency’ only and while this wasn’t quite an emergency, it wasn’t a normal situation either. He couldn’t (wouldn’t) take it to the police so he’d just have to improvise.

It ended up only taking a few minutes to hack into the SBPD network, most of which involved bouncing his IP address around so he wouldn’t be caught. Shawn scanned the print and filled out a dummy report under his father’s name, adding a few notations to make sure the search wasn’t flagged or noticed. It probably seemed stupid, putting it under his dad’s name, but Shawn had his reasons and was confident that it wouldn’t be noticed.

“Come on... come on... come on...” Shawn muttered as the print started running through the system. He was in the process of grabbing a juicebox when the computer finally chimed that he had a result.

“Derek Bisset, you are the 76th caller!” Shawn cried in a announcer voice. “And you’ve just won a visit by Santa Barbara’s own psychic detective, Shawn Spencer!” He made fake cheering noises as print match and profile of Bisset printed. Grabbing the profile out of the printer, Shawn skimmed the page.

“Aggravated assault... Armed robbery... My, my, Derek you’ve been such a naughty boy,” Shawn murmured as he read. “Last known address: 8329 Wellington.”

He glanced at his wristwatch.

“I think it’s time to stop by and check on that case Lassie doesn’t want me working on,” Shawn declared. Bisset and his letters could wait.

-------

 

Lunchtime was a godsend if you’re trying to sneak around a police station undetected. It was a technique Shawn had perfected by the time he was twelve and needed lunch money after the bullies stole his. Towards the middle of the day, like clockwork, the whole station becomes antsy and distracted, their low blood sugar getting the better of them.

Shawn grinned when he realized the only real obstacle wasn’t there: Lassie.

He had figured Juliet and her partner would be out at that B&E with aggravated assault scene that had been called in a half an hour ago, and he was right. Lassiter’s desk remained blissfully unoccupied.

Going back to humming the Mission Impossible theme under his breath, Shawn slipped through the hustle and bustle of the station unnoticed. He casually walked by Lassie’s desk and covertly picked up the file before moving to the area by the old fire escape that wasn’t covered by the security cameras to read it.

“I’ll be damned...” Shawn muttered.

The case Lassie had been hellbent on keeping Shawn away from was a string of armed robberies and B&Es... not unlike the one that Juliet and Lassie were at the scene of that very moment. A slow smile spread across Shawn’s face as he read through the particulars of the case, noting the dates and times and locations.

Apparently, his date with Bisset couldn’t wait after all.

Slipping the report back onto Lassie’s desk, Shawn made his way over to a quiet hallway and stood directly in the line of sight of one of the security cameras. Looking up, he grinned for a moment before signing a few things using the sign language his father had taught him and Gus when they were nine.

With one last wave to the camera, he headed out of the station, making sure to bump into Buzz on his way out.

“Oh, hi Shawn, what’re you doing here?” Buzz asked with a smile. Shawn shrugged.

“I was just looking for Jules and Lassie to see if they had a case.”

“They’re at a scene right now... did you want me to tell them you stopped by?”

“No, no... that’s alright, it’s not important,” Shawn replied with an easy smile.

The tall officer nodded and got back to work while Shawn left the building, grinning. He glanced at his watch as he ambled down the steps and frowned, he didn’t have a whole lot of time to get this done. Hopping onto his Norton, Shawn sped through the streets of Santa Barbara, pushing the speed limit a bit more than usual in his haste.

It ended up taking more time than he had hoped to get to Bisset’s. Taking a deep breath, Shawn parked in a secluded spot nearly a quarter mile from the house. Well, it wasn’t really a house so much as a dilapidated shack, Shawn noted as he approached. He snuck carefully around to the back of the seemingly empty house and silently edged towards a window to peek inside.

“Bingo!” he murmured, grinning. “There’s the--”

Shawn was cut off by something hitting the back of his head.

Well, crap...

Then there was only dark.

 CHAPTER TWO: Breadcrumbs

“Mr. Spencer?”

“Gus? You and Shawn were supposed to be here for dinner three hours ago!”

“I know, I’m sorry. I take it that you haven’t seen him then?”

“No... Gus, what’s going on?”

“Shawn and I had plans to go to the all-you-can-eat jerk chicken event tonight and he never showed...”

“So he blew us both off, that’s nothing new.”

“I know, it’s just that Shawn was really excited about the jerk chicken. He’s been talking it for weeks, he wouldn’t have missed it.”

“What are you saying Gus...?”

“I don’t think he blew us off, Mr. Spencer.”

“Gus...”

“He’s been acting a little strange, too!”

“Gus, my son has always acted strange.”

“Strange for Shawn. Four times in the last two weeks I’ve caught him immediately opening a letter then carrying it around until I stop watching. Then it’s gone, he hides them somewhere.... it’s weird.”

“Alright.... you might have something there, I’ll meet you at the Psych office and we’ll see if we can find those letters you’re talking about.”

-------

Two hours of searching in every nook and cranny they could think of later, neither Henry nor Gus had found anything to do with the letters.

“You’re sure he had the letters?” Henry asked for the tenth time.

“Yes!” Gus cried, exasperated. “I even checked the trash each day. He hid them somewhere and I don’t know where.”

Henry frowned and wandered over to his son’s desk, where a section had been cleared off. Squinting his eyes, he ran a finger over the surface then checked it.

“What is it?” Gus asked, coming over.

“Fingerprint powder,” Henry murmured as he showed Gus the powder on his finger.

“Wait... what does that mean?”

“It means that whatever was on those letters, not only was Shawn trying to hide it from us, he was worried enough about it to dust them for fingerprints,” Henry said, clearly concerned. He looked at Gus. “Try calling him again. We’re going to check his apartment then go to the station.”

Gus nodded and pulled out his phone, following Henry outside.

-------

“What is it?” “What’s going on?” Lassiter and Juliet asked simultaneously as they entered the station in their street clothes. Karen turned from where she was speaking to Henry and Gus.

“Detectives, there may be reason to believe Mr. Spencer is missing,” she stated grimly. Lassiter rolled his eyes and groaned, earning a dark look from Juliet before she looked to Henry and Gus.

“What do you mean?” Juliet asked.

“Shawn didn’t show up tonight for the jerk chicken all you can eat buffet,” Gus replied anxiously.

“But he’s been looking forward to that for weeks!”

“Yeah, and he’s been receiving letters and hiding them from me... and Mr. Spencer found powder from a fingerprinting kit on his desk. He thinks Shawn dusted the letters for prints.”

“Detectives, did either of you run any prints for Shawn?” Karen asked then sighed when both Juliet and Lassiter shook their heads. “Alright, given Mr. Spencer’s proclivity for finding himself in sticky situations, I believe investigating quietly for the moment may be warranted.” She looked at each of them. “When was the last time any of you saw Shawn?”

“I haven’t spoken to him since yesterday when he wanted to borrow my truck to rescue a whale,” Henry said gruffly with a slight roll of his eyes.

“Earlier today, around nine when I left to do my rounds. Shawn seemed a little off then,” Gus responded next. “He confirmed before I left that we were still planning on going to the jerk chicken event.”

“I haven’t seen him today,” Lassiter muttered.

“Neither have I, but Buzz mentioned that saw Shawn in the station around lunchtime,” Juliet said. Henry narrowed his eyes.

“What did he say exactly?” he asked.

“Um.. that Shawn bumped into--”

“Shawn bumped into him?!” Henry asked sharply. When Juliet nodded, he frowned and glanced at an alarmed Gus. “What did Shawn say to him?”

“Just that Shawn was there looking to see if we had a case for him, but he told Buzz not to bother mentioning it to us.”

“Shit.”

“Henry!” Karen exclaimed, “Would you care to explain?”

“We need to check the cameras in the station around lunchtime.”

Karen frowned, but nodded.

“I don’t understand why we’re doing this,” Lassiter grumbled as they crowded into the security room a couple of minutes later.

“Shawn doesn’t bump into people by accident--” Gus said tensely, wringing his hands. Juliet looked at him in surprise and confusion.

“Right,” Lassiter scoffed.

“Watch your tone, detective,” Henry said icily. “Shawn made sure to ‘bump’ into McNab earlier today. Check the cameras around noon,” he directed the technician. The man, more than a little terrified of the retired cop, immediately complied, rewinding the recordings to earlier in the day.

“There!” Juliet cried, pointing out the collision between Shawn and Buzz.

“Back it up another thirty seconds,” Henry gruffly ordered. The video rewound, starting again as Shawn walked carefully through the station, not appearing to gain anyone’s attention.

“There’s Buzz...” Juliet murmured, and a split second later Shawn’s demeanor changed completely on the video as he caught sight of Buzz as well. They watched in shock as Shawn deliberately changed his direction to run into the officer and exchange a few words with him. As soon as Buzz turned away, Shawn grinned towards the camera and walked out of the station.

“Damn...” Henry muttered. Gus nodded in agreement, staring at the the video with a deep frown.

“What the hell was that?!” Lassiter sputtered.

“Why would he do that, Henry?” Karen asked suspiciously. Henry sighed and ran a hand over his head.

“I taught him to do that...”

“You what?” Lassiter and Juliet asked incredulously.

“Yeah,” Gus nodded worriedly. “It’s a tip off that he left another message.”

“Another message?”

“Slowly back up the cameras,” Henry instructed the technician.

“Where did he go?!” Lassiter asked when Shawn disappeared from camera a moment later.

“Give it a second...” Gus said. They all jumped when Shawn’s face suddenly appeared in front of one of the cameras.

“What is he doing with his hands?” Juliet asked but Henry and Gus were watching the screen intently. Henry motioned for the technician to play the clip once more, then stood back as Shawn disappeared again.

“Henry?” Karen asked.

“It’s a safeguard,” Henry explained, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I taught Shawn to do them as a kid.”

“A safeguard?” Juliet asked.

“Yeah,” Gus responded with a sigh. “A breadcrumb trail to follow if a covert investigation were to go wrong...”

“Covert investigation? What the.... Why hasn’t he ever left one before?” Lassiter asked tersely. Gus and Henry exchanged an anxious look.

“Because... usually Shawn includes me on the investigation,” Gus explained quietly. “This time he was deliberately keeping me out of it. I just don’t know why.”

“That’s not a good sign,”  Karen said with a frown. “What did the message say?”

“ ‘Checking out a lead... fingerprints... refrigerator door.’ ” Henry recited, glancing at Gus for confirmation. Gus nodded solemnly.

“Great, what the hell does that mean?” Lassiter asked. He starting to be concerned that there may be something to Shawn’s apparent disappearance. And it pissed him off to no end that he might actually be worried about the younger man.

“I don’t know about the refrigerator door part... but I’d bet that we should check to see if any fingerprints were run through the system,” Henry said. Karen nodded and led the group down to the basement labs.

“But how would Shawn have run the print? He doesn’t have that kind of access,” Juliet asked.

“Shawn is a lot more resourceful than people realize...” Gus told her anxiously as they walked into the lab.

“Monroe,” Karen said, calling over the lab tech working that shift. “Were any fingerprints run through the system today?”

“Sure,” the young tech said with a shrug, going to check the computer. “There were... uh... 14  run in the last day.”

“Any of those stand out as being unusual?”

The tech scrolled through the list, then frowned.

“Well, nothing other than the one that Sergeant Spencer ran...”

“You ran a print?” Karen asked Henry sharply. He shook his head with a wry smile.

“Shawn. He knew it’d be found eventually if it were under my name.”

“Monroe, print out the profile,” Karen instructed. When he handed it to her, she turned to show the rest of the group.

“Derek Bisset...” Lassiter read.

“8329 Wellington,” Henry said confidently, his face grim. “That’s where Shawn is.”

“Aggravated assault... Chief, this doesn’t sound good,” Juliet said worriedly. Karen nodded.

“I agree, Lassiter, O’Hara, go over there and see if there’s any sign of Shawn,” she ordered and the detectives immediately hustled upstairs.

“C’mon Gus, we’re going too,” Henry said tersely, following them. Juliet and Lassiter were in the midst of grabbing their things from their desks when Buzz and Officer Renner came in with a couple of suspects.

“Buzz!” Juliet cried, running over. “Have you seen Shawn?!”

Buzz’s eyes widened and he glanced at Renner for half a second, indecision on his face.

“McNab, answer the question or I’ll make your life living hell,” Lassiter ground out, glaring at the younger man. Buzz flummoxed.

“H-He made me promise not to tell you!”

“Oh for the love of...” Lassiter sighed, rolling his eyes.

“What do you mean, McNab?” Karen asked, coming over with Gus and Henry. Buzz glanced from the irate older Spencer to the annoyed head detective then to the chief.

“He’s... he’s right behind us. He said he’d be here in a few minutes, he just had to grab something from the Psych office...”

“Wait,” Juliet said suddenly, looking at the suspect in Renner’s custody. “Isn’t this Derek Bisset?”

“What did you do to my son?!” Henry yelled at the man, getting in his face. Bisset’s eyes widened, moving back only to run into Renner.

“Whoa! That psycho is your son?!”

“What does he mean by ‘psycho’?” Lassiter asked.

“Just keep me away from--”

“SHAWN!”

All eyes turned to Gus who was staring at the doors where a very tired looking Shawn had just walked in. He stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening as he took in the scene in front of him.

“Well... crap.... didn’t think you guys would work it out that fast...” Shawn muttered with a sigh.

CHAPTER THREE: Instant replay

It took the group a full minute to return to their senses and snap back into motion after Shawn’s entrance.

“Mr. Spencer, my office, now,” Karen commanded, then looked to Renner and Buzz. “Get these two booked, then come to my office as well. The rest of you, with me.”

Shawn reluctantly followed them into the office and was immediately shoved down into one of the chairs by Lassiter. He winced and rolled his shoulder with a grimace.

“Shawn, are you alright?” Gus asked anxiously.

“Yeah, man, I’m okay,” Shawn gave him a reassuring smile.

“Mr. Spencer, would you care to explain what is going on?” Karen said archly, sitting down at her desk. Shawn glanced at the tense faces around him before he gingerly pulled a file out of a plastic bag that he had on his lap and opened it.

“A couple of weeks ago, I started receiving these letters...” Shawn began, placing a stack of letters on the Chief’s desk, each in their own evidence bag. Lassiter quickly picked up the top one and read it aloud.

“ ‘Stay out of it or face the consequences’ “ Lassiter looked at Shawn sharply. “You received threatening letters and didn’t say anything?!”

Shawn shrugged.

“It happens a lot, not usually a big deal.”

“It’s true,” Gus piped up. “We... well, Shawn gets a few each month. We usually just bag them and wait to see if there’s any more. There’s a whole file of them at the office.”

Henry, Karen, Juliet, and Lassiter all looked at Shawn in shock.

“I get a lot more love mail than hate mail though,” he grumbled. Taking a deep breath, Shawn continued his story. “After the third one in as many days, I started dusting them for prints and came up with nothing. I checked our current cases, but none of them had a connection... I had no leads after ten letters.”

“Why didn’t you bring them in?” Karen asked with a frown. Shawn shifted uncomfortably and looked away.

“Shawn?” Henry asked sternly. Shawn blew out a sigh.

“Everyone was really busy with the big case for the mayor and I didn’t want to bother you guys,” Shawn mumbled quickly. Lassiter stiffened, looking guilty.

Juliet glared at him, remembering earlier in the week when the head detective had snapped at Shawn to stay out of the way, telling him that they were all very busy working on a case and didn’t need his ‘idiotic distractions’. Shawn’s offer to help was also shot down in a truly spectacular fashion.

“Honestly, I hadn’t gotten anything, so I knew you guys wouldn’t... No offense.” Shawn added the last bit quickly, looking remorseful. “I knew the mayor was threatening to make heads roll so I figured I’d keep looking into it and let you guys know when I found something or things cooled off--”

There was a knock at the door and Karen waved McNab and Renner into the room.

“Continue, Mr. Spencer,” she said as soon as the door was closed behind them.

“I got lucky earlier today, I found a viable print on the inside of the envelope...”

“But you didn’t bring it in,” Juliet said with a frown. “How did you run it?” Shawn shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“I may... theoretically... know a back door into the SBPD tech servers...”

Blank looks, then Gus’ eyes widened.

“You hacked into the SBPD?!” he hissed. Shawn winced.

“...maybe?” Shawn offered, ducking his head. “I only created a report under my dad’s name and ran the print...”

Karen sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“For the moment, I’m going to ignore what you just said,” Karen told him. “So, you ran the print...”

“Yeah,” Shawn said, grateful she was going to let it drop for now. “Derek Bisset. I’d never heard the name before so I figured that it might have something to do with the case Lassie didn’t want me working on. I came to the station to take a look at the case file...”

“You went snooping in my files?” Lassiter bit off.

“I wouldn’t call it snooping when it was sitting on your desk,” Shawn shot back.

“Gentlemen!” Karen interrupted. “You were saying, Mr. Spencer...”

“Anyway, when I looked at the case, I- ...the spirits told me that there might be a connection and that I should check it out. Just to be safe, I left messages...” Shawn glanced at his father, who nodded, a slight smile on his face. “Then I went over to Bisset’s place for confirmation...”

“You should have called, Shawn,” Juliet told him worriedly. He smiled ruefully.

“Yeah... the spirits warned me a little late that Bisset was part of the crew doing the robberies and that they were becoming more violent,” Shawn said. He shifted a little in his seat before continuing. “I was in the middle of investigating when I was hit from behind--”

Juliet gasped while Henry and Lassiter swore quietly.

“Knocked me out,” Shawn said, “when I came to, I was handcuffed behind my back, around a pole.” There was a sharp intake of breath. “I realized that they were about to hit another residence and that this time it might end... badly, so I got loose--”

“How exactly did you do that?” Lassiter asked, frowning.

“There wasn’t anything to pick the lock so I...” Shawn grimaced slightly, “...dislocated my thumb and pulled my hand through the cuff.”

All eyes shot to where Shawn had one hand cradled carefully in his lap, the thumb still dislocated. How they had not noticed that earlier?

“Shawn!”

“Jesus, Spencer!”

“Oh my god!”

Shawn groaned under the barrage of comments.

“Calm down! Jeez, guys, it’s alright!” Shawn cried, ignoring the look his father was giving him.

“Shawn, why didn’t you have the EMTs reset it?” Buzz asked worriedly.

“I wanted to get back before they freaked out,” Shawn told him quietly. Karen narrowed her eyes.

“EMTs?” she asked archly.

“I’m getting there,” Shawn said tiredly. “So after I got myself out of the cuffs, I snuck upstairs, grabbing a brick from the basement along the way. Bisset and his buddies hadn’t noticed I was loose and I managed to surprise one of the goons and knocked him out with the brick.”

Clearing his throat a little, he continued.

“Bisset and the other guy must have heard the guy get hit, because they came running. I had just grabbed the unconscious guy’s gun when they burst into the room. Bisset was unarmed but the other guy had an Uzi--” A series of gasps cut him off. Shawn glanced at Henry, catching a flash of terror in his father’s eyes. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, recounting the next part without emotion.

“He wasn’t expecting me, I took advantage of his surprise and got off two shots. Elbow and knee. As soon as he was down, I grabbed the Uzi and kept the pistol on Bisset. I ordered him to the ground, hands on his head. After I grabbed the key to the handcuffs, I handcuffed Bisset to the unconscious guy and had him put pressure on the gunshot wounds.” Shawn paused. “Then I called Buzz.”

“Buzz?” Lassiter repeated dumbly. All eyes swivelled to the tall officer, who looked rather uncomfortable.

“Yeah, he owed me a favor,” Shawn continued, cutting Buzz some slack. “I asked him to come, and bring an ambulance. I told him that shots were fired but the situation was contained.”

“Why didn’t you report that Spencer was there?” Karen asked the officer.

“I told him not to,” Shawn answered, before Buzz could respond. “Anyway, I kept them subdued and waited for Nabby to get there.”

“McNab, Renner, what did you find when you arrived?” Karen asked. Buzz glanced at his partner before speaking.

“The residence was dark upon arrival, Shawn yelled for us to come in when we approached the front door. After clearing the other rooms, we entered a large room in the back of the residence where Shawn appeared to have a pistol in one hand, and an Uzi on a strap over the other shoulder, aiming them towards the suspects on the floor approximately ten feet away,” Buzz stated, uncomfortable under the combined scrutinization of Henry, the Chief, and Lassiter.

“One man appeared to be unconscious and was handcuffed to another man, later identified as a Derek Bisset, who was pressing a shirt onto a wound on the third man’s knee. The third man was also holding a makeshift bandage to his elbow. As soon as we entered, Mr. Spencer surrendered his weapons and explained what had happened while medics were called in.” Renner went on, grateful they weren’t paying as much attention to him as his partner.

“Shawn said he needed to grab something from the Psych office and would meet us back at the station to give his statement. I let him go after he refused medical attention... he hadn’t said that they knocked him out or that he had dislocated his thumb... I would’ve...” Buzz said anxiously.

“It’s alright, McNab,” Karen said with a sigh before turning back to Shawn. “I take it that this file is what you went back to the office for?”

“Yeah,” Shawn nodded. “The letters were sent by Bisset, he and his friends were the ones behind the robberies. They assumed I had been called in to investigate and were trying to warn me away. But I didn’t know...”

Guilty looks were exchanged by the members of the police department.

“So,” Shawn let out a sigh. “That’s the whole story, if you don’t mind, I think I’d actually like to go to the hospital now.”

“Henry, Mr. Guster, would you take Mr. Spencer to the hospital?” Karen said. Henry was by his son’s side in a flash, helping him up after handing the remainder of the file to Juliet. As soon as the Spencers and Gus were out the door, she looked to McNab and Renner.

“Get to work on your paperwork,” Karen waved them off and sighed. “Lassiter, O’Hara, obviously I’m going to need you to look into this...”

“What about the part where Spencer hacked into the SBPD?” Lassiter asked tersely, his demeanor oddly subdued. Karen thought for a moment.

“Leave it out, we’ll say that he took the print to his father to have it run,” Karen said. “As far as the system is concerned, that’s what happened anyway.”

“Are you sure?” Juliet asked. Karen nodded.

“So Spencer can hack...” Lassiter murmured, running hand over the back of his neck.

“And all that about leaving messages...” Juliet piped up.

“What I want to know is where he learned to shoot like that,” Lassiter asked brusquely. “From the sound of it, he would have had maybe a second or two to make the decision then make both shots, not counting time for aiming. That’s no fluke...”

Both detectives looked at Karen sharply when she laughed.

“I’m not sure why you’re so surprised, you’ve been grousing about Mr. Spencer’s scores at the range for years,” Karen said with an eyebrow quirked.

“What are you talking about, Spencer’s name--”

“Detective Anañas.... sound familiar?” Karen smiled as Lassiter’s face twisted into a deep scowl.

“He’s had the top score here for the last twenty years! You can’t be saying--”

“That’s Shawn,” Karen said with a smile as shock and horror crossed her head detective’s face.

“Wait, if Shawn’s had the top score for the last twenty years...” Juliet said with a frown.

“When I first transferred here, Shawn was sixteen. He won the SBPD marksmanship competition for the second time in a row that year.”

“Wow.”

“Yes, I think you would be very surprised what Shawn is truly capable of,” Karen said proudly.

“What are you saying, Chief?” Juliet asked carefully, drawing Lassiter’s attention.

“I’m saying that maybe you should maybe give Shawn some more credit, rather than assuming that ‘the spirits’ do all the work.”

Juliet and Lassiter stared at the chief dumbly. She had basically told them that Shawn wasn’t psychic.

“How...?” Lassiter asked.

“Well,” Karen said, leaning back in her chair. “You heard Henry earlier, about the messages...”

“He taught Shawn, when he was younger...” Juliet recalled, then frowned, looking to her partner sharply. “What else did he teach Shawn when he was young?”

Lassiter’s eyes widened.

“That’ll be all, detectives,” Karen said lightly, dismissing them. Lassiter and O’Hara filed out of the office, minds miles away. Karen smiled at their behavior.

Mission accomplished...