“I’m telling you Chief, you have to let us go back there.”
Carlton Lassiter almost followed Chief Vick as she circled around to the back side of her desk, but stopped himself just in time as she sat down on her chair. Leaning her arms on the empty desk surface, Chief Vick folded her hands and looked up at the head detective.
“Carlton, if I remember correctly, you were the one whining about going in the first place.”
“Someone broke into my car.”
“What?!”
Vick's eyebrows went up at that statement, and her gaze strayed to O'Hara as if looking for confirmation of Lassiter's words. Lassiter saw this as his cue to elaborate on the scandalous events that had taken place earlier.
“We went out into the parking lot and there was a baby in my car, the door wide open.”
“A baby?”
The gaze that the Chief leveled on Lassiter was quickly turning from surprised to disbelieving. Before he could explain, however, O'Hara took a step forward and butted in.
“Chief, Carlton is exaggerating, the kid was four. Someone else broke into the car.”
Lassiter turned and looked at his partner incredulously. “What, are you saying that it’s all just fine then?”
“I’m just saying the kid wandered out there, he didn’t break in.”
“Oh, so maybe we should just turn around and leave then?”
“Detectives.”
The pair stopped their bickering, turning to face Karen looking not unlike disciplined puppies.
“You have no reason to go back to the Day Care center at this point-“
“But-“
She held up a hand cutting off Lassiter's complaint before he could effectively make it.
“If you feel so strongly about it Carlton, then I’m sure you can use your own personal paycheck to hire Spencer. Otherwise, drop it.”
“Of course.” That was all Lassiter managed to bring out faced with the no-nonsense tone in the Chief's voice.
She nodded in satisfaction, her gaze lingering on each of them in turn. Carlton clearly did not like even the suggestion that he hire the psychic with his own money. If she didn’t know her lead detective better she might think he was about to be sick at the thought.
Turning back to her desk she pulled out the file she had spent the morning going over. Perhaps giving her top team something to do might get them off this weird day care obsession.
“Detectives.”
The pair had taken her earlier words as a dismissal and were already about to leave the office, but stopped just inside her door as she called out. Vick had to stop herself from smiling at the look on Lassiter's face. The head detective might try to hide it, but it was obvious that he was hoping she had changed her mind about investigating how a four year old could have broken into his car. However, she had other things in mind for the pair, and hopefully it was enough to take Lassiter's mind off the whole issue. She held out the file to them.
“I have a case for you.”
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
“So, when are we going to see Brenton?” Shawn rapped on the dashboard in beat with the music blaring from the radio.
“Shawn for the one hundredth time, I am going to see my brother. You are staying here.”
Shawn rolled his eyes, pulling open the glove box and extracting a bar of Psycholate. “Sure, cause we all know how good you are when you have to fly by yourself.”
Gus smacked Shawn on the arm. “YOU were the one who insisted we go to that all you can eat sushi bar before flying out to visit your mom.”
“You didn’t have to eat any of the sushi!”
“Oh, what am I supposed to do then, pay all this money to get in so I can stare at the wall and drink tea? Besides, you were the one that said you could eat more sushi than I could.”
“Well I CAN!”
Gus winced at the loud exclamation. "Just because you yell it doesn't make it true, Shawn. I can eat way more sushi than you. That's a fact."
Shawn laughed. “I think our competition begs to differ Gus.”
“Dude, just cause I got sick on the plane and threw up half my sushi doesn’t mean I lost.”
Shawn shook his head. “Alright, whatever. We can have another competition before we go visit your brother. How does that sound?”
“That sounds like it isn’t going to happen. Do you know why? Because we aren't going to visit anybody. We aren't going to go anywhere together, 'cause you AREN’T coming.”
Gus shifted in the seat in frustration, but before Shawn could bring up the trip again, he quickly diverted the topic of the conversation.
“Shawn, we’ve been sitting here for hours. The guy isn’t coming back.”
Isaac shifted in the back seat. Gus was amazed at how still the kid had been during their stakeout.
“Don’t be a doubting-Debbie Gus, of course he's coming back. The man lives here after all.”
Gus heard Isaac begin to mumble something from the backseat, but the sound of the Bee Gees suddenly blasting through the stereo distracted him and he quickly reached out a hand to turn down the volume. He turned to glare at his friend.
“Man, we can’t have loud music on a stakeout!”
Shawn lifted his hands and pointed out the car window. “It’s a stakeout in the middle of the day Gus! We’re hardly incognito.”
Gus snapped the radio off anyways.
“One more hour Shawn. I meant it when I said I had to be back by four.”
“Yeah, yeah I heard you,” Shawn replied flippantly as he snapped the stereo back on. “What’s so important at four o’clock anyways? I thought you finished your route already.”
Gus turned the stereo down. When he looked up, his eyes went to the rear-view mirror for a moment. Isaac was still sitting silently in the back seat. The kid wasn't saying anything, but from his posture it was obvious that he was getting slightly uncomfortable hearing the conversation that was going on in the front seat.
Gus wasn't too comfortable having that kind of conversation with a seven-year-old to witness it either, but he needed to tell Shawn the facts and stop him from making any absurd plans about how he could manage to come along for the trip.
“I’m flying out to Connecticut this weekend.”
Shawn blinked surprised, turning to actually look at him.
“So you’re not leaving today. It’s Wednesday!”
“No Shawn, I need to be at home to meet the delivery guy.”
“You don’t need to be home by four.”
Gus turned sharply in the sheet to face Shawn “Look me in the eyes Shawn, look me in the ‘windows to my soul’ and see that I’m not lying when I say that I will kill you if I am late getting home.”
Shawn leaned forward, his nose nearly touching Gus’ as he stared his friend in the eye. “Dude, you forgot, I’m a pro reader when it comes to these windows.”
“Bring it on,” Gus said, locking his jaw as he stared unblinkingly at Shawn
“Guys…” Isaac piped up from the back seat.
“I can read everything in those windows of yours."
Gus raised his eyebrows without breaking the stare. “Oh yeah? Then you should know exactly what I’m thinking about you right now.”
“Gus, really, I already knew that…of course I’ll be sure to keep your love for Miley Cyrus a secret from the kids, you know how the Hannah Montana craze is taking over the world –“
“I do not have a love for Miley Cyrus, she’s like sixteen. That’s cradle robbing.”
“Guys…” Isaac tried again, again falling on deaf ears.
“How would you know she’s sixteen unless you had a secret crush?” Shawn threw back, his eyes remaining unblinking.
Isaac threw himself forward between the seats, inserting himself in the middle of the staring contest. “Guys!”
“You blinked!” Gus and Shawn exclaimed simultaneously as they both pulled back from Isaac. “No! You did!”
“GUYS!”
“What?!”
Isaac pointed out the front window where the distinctive form of Craig Hinton was walking up the driveway on the other side of the road. He was nearly at the door already, and if not for Isaac's intervention they might have missed his arrival. Instinctively, Shawn ducked low in his seat as they watched how Hinton unlocked the front door, pushed it open and entered the house. Once inside Hinton dropped his keys onto a table to his left, then the door fell shut and blocked him from sight.
Shawn turned towards Gus, a smile starting to spread on his face. "See? I told you he'd come back."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Juliet quickly took the file out of the Chief's hand. It was about time they had a new case. She could only hope that it was a real one that she and Lassiter could sink their teeth into. Her partner was in a foul enough mood from the day spent hanging around at the day care center, and Juliet wasn't sure she wanted to see that mood deteriorate any further by spending their time with cases he considered menial.
She flipped through the file as she followed her partner from the office. “This was a sloppy murder Carlton.” He grunted in response and changed directions towards the coffee machine.
Juliet shook her head and continued on to her desk. The victim had been poisoned. The notes left by the previous detective indicated little sign of struggle at the crime scene. Preliminary forensics report stated that no fingerprints that didn't belong to the victim had been found anywhere on the door or near the victim. The package that had contained the poison had also been found at the scene. Again, no fingerprints on it that would point to a second person having touched it. In fact, there was a remark in the file that it might have even been a suicide.
“If I’m going to kill myself, I think I’d use something a little nicer than rat poison in my macaroni and cheese.” Juliet shook her head.
She hated picking up half finished cases, she much preferred going through from the beginning, but this case looked like simple enough. The deceased’s wife had an alibi, air tight from what the notes said, but it looked as if someone had visited the man just prior to his death.
After all, she couldn’t be too frustrated at picking up the case midway through. Detective Neej couldn’t help it if his wife had to go into labor after all. But she had a feeling that once Carlton saw the way Neej had been keeping up with his paperwork, the head detective would have a thing or two to say to the new child about letting his or her father finish his work before the kid even thought about making another monumental achievement. First words, steps, graduation, marriage; whatever it may be, the paperwork had better get done first.
Juliet shook her head again and focused on the file before her. It would be best to avoid any and all situations in which Lassiter was forced to interact with children again. Probably, the very best idea was not to let him be in the same room as one, and it didn't matter whether it was the child of a fellow police officer or not. And as soon as Lassiter had sunk his teeth into this case, the way officer Neej was keeping his paperwork would become a secondary concern. At least Juliet honestly hoped so.
There was an easily traceable trail of emails from the deceased’s computer that she was able to follow. The man had been looking to buy something, a theory backed up by the recent extraction of money from his bank account. It would take some time for the technicians to run the information through the works. Just enough time for a nice lunch –
Riiiing.
Juliet sighed. Of course the phone would have to go off just as she was getting into something.
Riiiing.
She scooped up the phone, cradling it against her shoulder as she watched her partner return to his desk. “O’Hara.”
She yanked the phone away from her ear at the scream that echoed back to her while at the same time jumping up and throwing things in her bag. “What’s the emergency?” At the last word Carlton perked up, swiveling in his chair to face her. “Hello?”
“Dude, it’s just a grasshopper!” She paused, a frown crossing her face as the voice on the phone sounded oddly like –
“Shawn. Get. It. OUT!” Juliet paused, dropping her bag to the table as she listened to the exchange on the phone.
“Shawn?” As if that was all he needed to hear, Lassiter turned and went back to his work, a disapproving frown on his face. Juliet looked away from her partner and focused on the strange sounds on the other end of the line. “Is everything alright?”
“There, it’s out, you happy?”
“Shawn!”
“Jules! You are there!”
She sighed. “Yes Shawn, you called me. Did you need something?” It wouldn’t be the first time he called to interrupt her day for no other reason than the fact that he was bored. Usually it was because Gus was unavailable, but if she wasn’t mistaking it sounded like the psychic’s co-worker was right there with him. It was a bit hard to tell with the high-pitched scream, but it had sounded like Gus' voice.
“Right, I uh, I need you to arrest someone.” For a minute there she thought he had forgotten why he called.
“You…what?” She wasn’t sure if she should take him seriously. Shawn had a way of saying things that kept her perpetually unsure of when he was joking and when he was at least trying to be serious. But this was also the Shawn Spencer who had solved a large number of cases for them. So Juliet decided to hear Shawn out and returned to gathering her things again, just in case they really needed to leave quickly.
“I'm getting a very strong psychic vibration here. Extremely strong. Bring out the cuffs strong. I need you to come arrest this dude, and I can’t do it myself. Gus has informed me that that’s called kidnapping when a non-officer of the law does it. Now, I personally think I’m about as close to an officer of the law as I can get without actually clocking in at the station everyday. But Gus insisted…”
“Shawn.” She waved Lassiter away from his work, motioning him out to the car. It wasn't the first time they followed a telephonic hunch by this particular psychic, after all. It was at least worth looking into.
“Maybe the chief can add a psychic clause, then we won't have this problem-“
“Shawn!” She finally got his attention. Juliet could swear that at times trying to get through to Shawn was worse than talking to a child with ADD.
“Yes?”
“Where are you?”
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Four hours and one very angry Gus later, Shawn found himself standing on the front lawn watching as Carlton Lassiter and Juliet O’Hara directed Craig Hinton into the back seat of a squad car.
Shawn attempted to dive behind a mailbox when Lassiter turned and stalked away from the door. He knew the detective would be heading straight for him.
Unfortunately for him the mailbox was not only far to small to hide him, but also not completely secured in the ground. He pressed himself against it, the wood creaking in the ground as he leaned on it.
“Spencer!”
Shawn jumped up, leaning over the mailbox as Lassiter rapidly closed the distance between them.
“Lassy!”
Carlton stopped short on the other side of the mailbox.
“Do you even know what that man was smuggling?”
Shawn shrugged innocently. “No, what?”
Juliet watched as the second squad car drove away with their culprit, then she turned towards the two men.
“Huggies,” Lassiter said bitterly.
Shawn raised both eyebrows at the detective. “You…want a hug?”
He quickly stepped around the mailbox, his arms outstretched in preparation for a hug as he approached the detective. Lassiter took a quick step back.
“No! You-“
Lassiter smacked his arms down, his nostrils flaring in aggravation as Shawn stumbled backwards into the mailbox.
“The man was smuggling diapers! Diapers, Spencer!”
Juliet stepped up to her partner’s side, her face grim as she nodded her support and agreement for Lassiter’s statement. Shawn leaned back against the mailbox, rubbing his head in confusion.
“What? Diapers? Seriously?”
“Huggies, Pampers, Luvs, you name it, he had it. One in each size, each style.” Juliet shook her head. “Even ones with little bears and hearts…it was like he was collecting them.”
“So wait, you arrested him for collecting diapers? I didn't know that was a crime. Now, if they were used I'd understand. That would be a crime. Not to mention a health-hazard…”
“Shawn, he was stealing diapers. Petty theft, if no one presses charges or even claims them as stolen then there’s no crime here.”
“But you’re taking him in right?
“We can take him in, but someone has to actually press charges to keep him there.” She shrugged. "I'm sorry Shawn, but I don't think there's anything bigger to it than that."
“Don’t my psychic premonitions mean anything anymore?” Shawn leaned on the mailbox, scrambling wildly as the base snapped free from the ground and he fell over backwards onto the pile of splintering wood.
Lassiter snorted, then deliberately stepped over him heading towards his car. “Shouldn’t your premonitions have attuned you to that one? You'd better get this straightened up again Spencer. Messing with someone else's mail is a federal crime, and you don't want to have the FBI after you again, do you?"
Shawn sat up and rubbed his aching behind as the two detectives went back to their car. Juliet cast a last apologetic look into Shawn's direction before she got in and Lassiter drove off. With a shake of his head, Shawn scrambled back to his feet and looked over at Gus, who had been lurking in the background for the entire conversation with the detectives. They had left Isaac in the car for this, figuring that his presence would only raise questions none of them wanted to discuss in detail.
Gus was looking at Shawn with a frown on his face. "What was that all about?"
Shawn shook his head. "I have no idea. I mean, dude – diapers?"
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
It had taken most of their morning to deal with Shawn’s diaper bandit, paperwork neither Juliet nor Lassiter had been particularly happy to do. Only after the three hours of irritatingly detailed paperwork had they been able to go back to their case and the victim’s emails.
Juliet almost jumped in joy to find that there was only one name that came back. Their killer had obviously not spent a lot of time covering his tracks. She saw Lassiter turning from the coffee pot and raised her voice so that he could hear her.
“So our suspect is one Zachary Sawyer, not a lot of information on file. He is suspected of being involved in a drug ring, as well as running up a very impressive credit card debt with three different companies.” Juliet listed off the information. “All this within the course of two years.”
“This guy has been busy.” She glanced up as her partner approached her desk, a steaming cup of coffee in his hands.
“Did you get mine?” His eyes followed hers down to his coffee cup, his grasp tightening possessively before he brought the steaming liquid to his lips.
“Did the lab get back to you about my car?” Juliet narrowed her eyes.
“Are you holding my coffee hostage?” He took a sip of his coffee, his expectant gaze never wavering. But Juliet wasn't going to give in, not if it was about caffeine intake after so many hours of paperwork. “Give me my coffee Carlton.”
Lassiter glanced back impassively. “Give me the information O’Hara.”
“I can’t give you something I don’t have.”
“Likewise.”
“Except you don’t have that problem. I gave you my coffee cup for a refill when you got up, so where is it?” It occurred to her now that she probably should never have borrowed his mug while they were working on that volleyball case.
“We need to be focusing on the car. Whoever broke in is going to pay.”
“That was my favorite mug Carlton, it had horses on it. My brother gave it to me.”
“Can we focus on the car?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Do you have my coffee?” He stepped away from the desk, his hand slipping behind a pile of papers on the desk across from hers to extract her cup from its hiding place. “One cream, no sugar?” Carlton nodded. “And a Danish?” She thought for a moment that she had him, but he faked surprise before reaching back to his hiding spot and holding up a Danish. Expectantly, Lassiter raised both eyebrows.
“Now, the car?”
Juliet faltered only as long as it took for the sweet smell of brewed coffee beans to reach her nostrils. Although she knew she might regret it, she held out her palm for the bribes. Lassiter hesitated for a second, as if expecting this to be a trick, but a moment later a hot cup of coffee and the pastry exchanged owners.
“The lab guys didn’t find much unusual at first glance” Juliet mumbled around the edge of her Danish. “They’ll get me a specific report in about an hour or so, but between us and the kid not much is coming through.”
Carlton snagged a stack of papers off her desk and began shuffling through them. “We need to go back to the scene of the crime.”
“How do you suggest we go about doing that?” Her eyes skimmed the page of their actual case over the edge of her cup and what she read there almost made her spill the only hope she had at a coherent afternoon. “On second thought, we might be able to go back.”
Carlton moved around her desk to read what had caught her eye, frowning as he skimmed the file. “Zachary Sawyer has connections to the day care?”
“Looks that way.”
Lassiter downed the rest of his coffee and snatched his keys from his desk. “What are you waiting for O’Hara, let’s go!”
Juliet cast a last longing look at her untouched cup of coffee, then took another bite out of the Danish and hurried to keep up with her partner.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
“Ahhhhhhh!!” Shawn cried as he collapsed in a pile of children as they dragged him down, miniature hands holding on to his clothes as he tumbled under the onslaught.
He twitched and lay still, a variety of the children cheering at their defeat of the “Shawn Monster”. He waited for a couple of them to climb off of him, one little boy poking his nose in an effort to determine if he was actually alive.
“No, you have to plug it!” the little girl sitting on his shoulders said. He took in a deep breath, anticipating the boy would pinch his nose to cut off his air supply. Instead, the boy stuffed two of his fingers up Shawn’s nostrils.
Shawn snorted and the boy instantly recoiled his fingers before clamoring away. Having given away the fact that he wasn’t actually dead, Shawn twisted beneath the children and began tickling anyone within his reach.
It was in this pile of screaming and giggling children that Carlton and Juliet found him.
“Lassy! Jules!” It took him a minute to extract himself from the pile, and he somehow still ended up with three kids clinging to him. He lowered two of them to the ground, but the small petite girl with her legs wrapped around his neck and her hands clinging to his ears refused to come free. “What’s up?”
Lassiter frowned, “Isn’t it past your naptime Spencer?” The girl on Shawn’s shoulders began smacking the top of his head lightly.
“No nap!”
Lassiter frowned and pushed past the overgrown child towards the office, disappearing inside.
“Shawn, what are you doing here?”
“No nap!” Shawn chanted with the girl as he began to march a circle around Juliet. “No nap for ‘Manda!” The girl leaned backwards so far she started to fall. Her small fingers instantly wrapped themselves in Shawn’s hair. “AH-ah! The hair!”
Juliet smiled and reached up to pull the kid from Shawn’s shoulders, the girls fingers only releasing when she was safely cradled in the detective’s arms. All three of them looked up when a new voice interrupted their spontaneous separation of body parts and rearranging of hair.
“Hey Shawn, is this the wife and daughter you were telling me all about? They’re cute. You guys make a nice looking family.”
Juliet was too surprised to respond, and Shawn quickly wrapped an arm around Juliet’s shoulders and gave her a squeeze. “Yes sir. Robert my man, meet my lovely wife Juliet and our daughter Millicent. I was just telling her how perfect it would be to have our little Millie here.”
Juliet maneuvered one hand out from where it was holding Amanda and shook the man’s hand. She had no idea what either Shawn or the man were talking about, but for now decided to play along. “Have you been working here long Robert?”
Robert shifted to adjust the small box of toys he was carrying. “Not really. Melinda is my sister, I’m just helping out for a little bit. It’s a great place though, I think you’ll really like it. A perfect fit for you and your family.”
Juliet adjusted the wiggling girl in her arms. “Ahh, honey, let me take her.” Shawn scooped Amanda from Juliet’s arms and made off towards the corner.
Juliet watched him go, unconsciously grinning at the way he handled the kids so easily. It was the harsh sound of Robert’s voice that stirred her from her thoughts.
“I bet he’s a great father.”
“I’m sorry?”
Robert nodded towards the corner, where Shawn was sitting on the floor with the young girl sorting through a stack of books until Amanda determinedly pulled out a battered copy of The Three Little Pigs. “Your husband, I bet he’s a great dad.”
“Yeah.” Juliet smiled. “Millie just loves him”
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Carlton Lassiter found Melinda and her mousy assistant Debbie working intently behind the computer when he arrived in the office. Melinda seemed rather irritated at his intrusion, but a few strokes on the keyboard and she stood to give him her full attention.
“Can I help you officer?”
He reached into this jacket, removing the paper with the name of the guy he was looking for. “I’m looking for a man that might have had connections with your business. I need to go over your employee records.”
She stepped back shocked. “We’ve had nothing but great employees here…is someone in trouble?”
“That remains to be decided.” With a glance down to the paper in his hands, “I’m looking for information on a Zachary Sawyer.”
Melinda moved to her file cabinet, pulling open the drawer to flip through the employee records. “I don’t believe we’ve had a Zachary working here in the last ten years…” She continued flipping through the records, “We might have a Zachary currently in our care…Debra, will you look into that?”
The small assistant turned to her computer and began typing away lazily. “The only Zachary I have detective is a Zachary Elwood who worked here in Nineteen Ninety Four.”
Carlton scowled. “Are you sure?”
Melinda nodded and was about to speak when Debbie interjected. “We currently have a Zachary Sawyer in our system”
“Oh really?” Lassiter approached the desk, his interest piqued. “Who is that?”
“He is…five years old.”
“What?”
Debbie leaned forward to read the information off the screen “Zachary Christopher Sawyer is five-years-old. Son of Rebecca and Jack Sawyer, his parents have been bringing him in for a little over two years. He’s never had any problems.”
Carlton skimmed the file over her shoulder. “I want a copy of all that.”
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Shawn, Gus and Isaac left the day care center at Gus’ insistence. Somehow, the salesman didn’t find the idea of peanut butter and jelly to be an appetizing lunch. There was little activity in the parking lot at lunchtime and they only passed one person, the aspiring model employee that had chased Gus from the day care the day before.
She barely spared them a glance as she made her way into the building. “Apparently someone doesn’t want to be late getting back from their lunch break.”
Gus shook his head as the three made their way back to the car, “To some people lunch breaks are more than just suggestions for when one should eat Shawn.”
“Dude, she works at a day care, not the white house!”
“Some people take the responsibility of their job very seriously.”
“I take my work seriously!”
“Name one job Shawn, ONE that you took even half way seriously.”
“Taking care of kids, that’s serious…I was a live in nanny for a family of six kids for like a whole month. Single, traveling father, I taught them to sing.”
“Good to know Julie Andrews.”
It took Shawn longer than he would have liked to come up with a retort. “I’m pretty sure that makes you…Tim Curry then.”
“Tim Curry wasn’t in Sound of Music Shawn.” Gus was on top of his game today, Shawn noted with a frown. He couldn’t help but wonder if that meant either of the movies in question had been recently watched by his best friend.
“No, but he was that mean dude in Annie.”
Any retort Gus might have made was cut short at the sight of his car. It was untouched, exactly as Gus have left it but with one minor change. The driver’s side door was hanging open.
“Dude, you closed the door didn’t you?” Shawn circled around the vehicle while Gus stood staring at his car, his jaw hung open.
“Who the hell broke into my car!?” Gus circled the Echo again, pausing at the driver’s side door before he climbed inside to check out about any thefts.
“Anything stolen?” Shawn stood back with Isaac, watching as his best friend checked every facet of the car for injury or theft. But no matter how hard he looked, he came up empty with his search.
“No…nothing.”
Clapping Isaac on the back Shawn moved around to the passenger’s side of the car. “Perfect, let’s go to my dad’s then.”
0o0o0o
Henry Spencer pulled open his door for the second time that week to the child he wasn’t sure had ever actually been weaned enough to live on his own. “Shawn.”
Not only was Gus with him this time, but they also had a young boy in tow. Henry looked at the kid, then back at his son, silently asking the question that was on his mind. But as usual, that subtle move was lost on his son. Sometimes Henry thought most of the real world was lost on his son.
Shawn strode into the house without another glance at his father.
“Dad, something is going on at this day care place.”
“So what, you’re going to start bringing the kids here? I’m not a babysitter, you tried that before. I don’t do diapers.”
“I don’t wear a diaper!” Isaac protested loudly and to Henry’s amusement.
“So what are you doing here then?”
“Beats me, there isn’t a case to be solved. Shawn is starting to border on obsessive, we've been going back to that daycare constantly and nothing's going on. I think he just wants there to be a case," Gus spouted angrily.
“Gus, were you too busy playing cowboys and Indians in that paper-mâché teepee to notice anything?” He shook his head disapprovingly. “Reese wasn’t there today.”
“So?”
“So, he wasn’t there because his dad was murdered.”
“What? Nobody has been murdered Shawn.”
“Have too.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I read Juliet’s mind. Her aura is always a little dimmer when she’s working a murder case.”
Gus narrowed his eyes at Shawn who instantly threw his hand to his head. He squinted at the amazed face of Isaac as his ‘vision’ led him to the stack of old newspapers in the corner of his father’s kitchen.
Shawn grinned when he noticed that the height marked it as being at least three days old. It took him a few moments of shuffling through before he finally pulled out the page he wanted and began reading.
“Carl Wigby, husband of Lucy Wigby and father or Reese Wigby was found dead in his home today, killed by an unnatural amount of rat poison found in his macaroni and cheese.” He flicked the newspaper shut. “Authorities are saying it’s a suicide.”
Gus shook his head. “Rat poison? There has got to be a better way to go.”
“Lassy and Jules are investigating someone named Zachary Sawyer.”
Isaac was barely able to maintain his giggle. “The same Zach that beat you a dozen times during thumb wars?”
“What kind of day care are you working at Shawn?” Henry reached over the table and plucked the newspaper from the stack. “Rat poison suicide by a five-year-old who can best you at thumb wars?”
“He has very strong thumbs!” Shawn rubbed his own thumb, the memory of losing evident on his face. “Contrary to popular belief, we didn’t come here for case help dad, we’ve totally got this one.”
Henry leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “Oh, well why did you come then?”
“We needed to show Isaac a nice home cooked meal. Buzz is a good guy, but he’s not a chef.” Isaac started to protest Shawn’s statement, but the psychic quickly quieted the boy with a subtle shake of his head.
“I don’t know anything about this day care place Shawn.” Henry got up and went over towards the fridge. When he closed the door again, he had picked up a plate of meat and made for the back door. “And if this Buzz guy is as bad a cook as you say he is, the least I can do is teach his son a thing or two about barbequing. I have the grill on, anyway.” He motioned for Isaac to follow him into the yard.
After receiving a confirming nod from Shawn the boy stood and followed the older Spencer out. “Don’t worry, he wont eat you. Not when there's other meat in striking distance.”
Shawn remembered the application he had picked up from the day care the first day and pulled it from his coat pocket now. “There’s something off about this place. You’d think they’d background check or something.”
“Shawn, can we focus please? Someone broke into my car.” Gus shook his head as he started poking through his Henry’s cabinets for anything edible.
“Gus, they didn’t take anything.” He paused, his eyes locked on the application in front of him. “What’s up with this application?”
“Does it tell you who broke into my car?”
“No, but look at these questions, why the heck do they need all this personal information in order to take on these kids? They hardly even look after them!”
Gus frowned at him. “What exactly is it that you are investigating here Shawn?”
Shawn pulled the newspaper back towards him, laying it out alongside the application. “I’m not sure, but something weird is totally going on over there. I think we need to get a closer look at their files.”
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The parking lot of the day care was empty, but that was to be expected. Nobody brought their kid to a day care after midnight. Well, nobody except Shawn and Gus. But then again Isaac wasn't their kid, so technically it didn't count.
Buzz had been called in to work a late shift and Shawn had volunteered both him and Gus to have a sleepover at the psych office with the seven-year-old. For Shawn however, slumber parties weren’t complete without illegal outings.
“Shawn, what the hell are we doing?”
Shawn grimaced as he worked on the first window, but it was very securely locked.
“Dude, you wanted information about these employees, and so we’re gonna get it!”
Gus shook his head. “There is nothing going on here…if there was don’t you think there’d be an actual investigation by the police?”
Shawn moved on to the next window, being careful to avoid Gus’ friends the Asian bushes. “Gus, when in our long career of saving the world through detective work have the police been right?”
“Saving the world?”
He shrugged. “How bout just Santa Barbara?”
“We’re breaking into a day care at three in the morning Shawn! With a seven-year-old as our lookout. I don't quite se how we are saving and entire city with that, let alone the world.”
Shawn threw his hands up in the air, slapping them against his sides in exasperation.
“Dude, you said you didn’t want to be the look out, who else am I supposed to use? You have a folding disposable look out man we can put to work? I’m all for it.”
Gus narrowed his gaze at Shawn before pushing past him and picking up the work on the windowpane. With a few swift tugs the window came free. “Dude, niiice.”
Gus brushed himself off, feeling pretty confident in his muscles. “It’s called going to a gym Shawn, you should try it sometime.”
Turning to check on the kid positioned at the corner of the building Shawn gave Isaac a thumbs up before climbing in the window after Gus.
On the other side of the window Shawn stumbled, falling into a pile of squeaky and murderous toys. It took him several minutes to untangle himself, every movement causing another of the toys to start squeaking in the silence of the empty day care, while Gus stood by and nervously shushed him.
“Don’t help or nothing.” Shawn groaned as he finally dragged himself to his feet. Gus merely stood there and silently stared at him until Shawn pushed past him towards Melinda’s office. “Whatever we need to find out about this place is going to be hiding in here.” Luckily for him the door was unlocked, it seemed Melinda didn’t worry about theft in the dead of night.
Barely had he moved into the darkened room than Shawn found himself stumbling over a rather sizeable box in the middle of the room. “Ow!”
“Shawn, what is it?” Gus snapped the switch on and the pair blinked rapidly in the sudden onslaught of artificial light. There in the middle of the room, next to Shawn who was rapidly rubbing his shin were two boxes with brand new desktop computers inside. “Whoa…”
“That’s weird.” Shawn circled the boxes before picking up the packing slip.
“Those are really expensive computers Shawn.”
“The packing slip says they were delivered to Zachary Sawyer. Tell me Gus, why would a five-year-old need two computers? And where would he get the money to buy them?” Shawn turned the slip over before moving to the filing cabinet. “Our answer has got to be in here.”
He heard Gus move behind him to the other bookcase as he pulled open the first drawer of files. There was a lot of information, it was going to take them at least a couple of hours.
But before they could get really going with the information Shawn’s head tilted at an odd noise. He barely had time to register the sound as that of another person entering the room before they spoke up.
“Don’t. Move.”
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