Crouching, trying to stay motionless, Shawn chanced a sideways glance at Gus to make sure his friend was alright. The female voice had sounded dangerous, and until they knew if their "friend" had a gun or not, they would have to play by her rules.
Tentative footsteps were moving closer, tapping on the hard floor, and Shawn could hear her take in a long breath.
"Shawnoccio?"
Shawn snapped up so quickly that he banged his head on the bottom of the drawer right above him. With one hand he clutched his now throbbing head while scrunching his eyes in pain, and used the other hand to grab on to the side of the cabinet below him in an attempt to steady himself.
“What are you doing in here?”
Melinda stepped into the room, a plastic baseball bat held up defensively above her head. She reached out a hand and snapped the lights on, illuminating the office.
Shawn, still nursing the bump on his head, was about to come up with some sort of explanation when Gus spoke up. “We were looking for Mr. Downs and Quacks a Lot.”
Shawn blinked at the speed with which Gus responded, his mouth hanging slightly ajar in shock.
“I’m sorry?” Melinda lowered the bat, scrunching her forehead with uncertainty.
“It’s Shawn’s stuffed Hippo.” Gus moved away from the desk. “It’s important that we find it or else he’ll never go to sleep.”
“Mr…”
“Downs and Quacks a Lot,” Gus restated, moving the chair beside the desk, obviously pretending to look underneath.
“A hippo?” Melinda furrowed her brow. “That quacks?”
Shawn saw this as his time to chime in. “He was raised by a family of ducks after his parents died in a freak washing machine incident.” Shawn pushed the filing cabinet drawer shut as he stepped towards the center of the room. “He never really got over it and when the ducks fly south for the winter he has to stay with me or else…well, just trust me when I say you really don’t wanna see one of Mr. Downs and Quacks a Lot’s fits.”
“No, I imagine I wouldn’t.” She faltered as the two men stopped their search of the room. “How…how did you get in here?”
Before Gus could answer, Shawn spoke up. “The door was unlocked.”
Melinda recoiled. “No, it was locked.”
Shawn started lifting things again as he continued to look for the non-existent hippo. “It is now, we locked it behind us in case Mr. Downs and Quacks a Lot tried to escape behind us. He’s really sneaky.”
Melinda opened her mouth, then closed it as if unsure what she should say. She settled on, “Look, I’m going to have to ask you to leave. If I find your duck-hippo thing I’ll be sure to let you know.” Shawn followed Gus from the room at Melinda’s encouragement. “Come back in the morning and check. It’s really late, you should get home and sleep.”
“It is late, but I’m glad you were here so we could let you know about Mr. Downs-wait,” Shawn stopped in the middle of the main room, “why were you here?”
“My brother forgot his medicine in my office.” She pulled open the door. Shawn watched as Isaac disappeared around the corner at the sight of Melinda, but luckily she didn’t notice, as he wasn’t sure she would believe another one of their very well crafted lies.
“Well, I hope he feels better.” Gus moved past Shawn into the chill of the early morning air. Only after they turned the corner and were out of sight of Melinda did they hear her close the door.
“Isaac!” Shawn whisper shouted to the seven-year-old, waiting until the kid came into view from behind a tree. “I thought you were watching the door?”
“She didn’t come in the door!” Isaac proclaimed, “Nobody did.”
Shawn did a quick sweep of the parking lot. “There aren't any other cars here…are you saying she was already here?”
Isaac shifted uncomfortably, seemingly unsure of what to say. "I mean, I guess." Then he shrugged. "I swear she didn't come through the door."
Shawn shook his head, holding up a hand to calm the young kid. "No, Isaac, I'm not saying you did anything wrong." He turned to his partner. "Looks like we weren't the only ones not telling the truth in there."
Gus just rolled his eyes.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
“Juuuules!”
Juliet heard her name being called from across the bullpen and knew instinctively who the owner was. Partially because there was only one person who would be calling out to her in that sing song-y falsetto voice, but mostly because there was only one person who called her Jules.
She turned just in time to catch Shawn kidnapping a donut from a box on another officer’s desk. Crossing her arms, she scolded, “That’s not yours.”
He shoved it in his mouth, pieces of frosting flaking off and falling onto his shirt. “Wha’s naw mine?” He said through the mouthful of food. Her disproving look did nothing to stop him from perching himself on the edge of her desk.
“Spencer? What are you doing here? Someone hasn’t stolen your pacifier have they?” Carlton dropped a file on her desk as he made his way through the bullpen. “Oh, and don’t you worry, we already caught the big bad blankie bandit. Except, that turned out not to be a bandit after all. Huh.”
Unable to swallow the donut in time, Shawn opted instead to give the passing detective a thumbs up sign with a forced smile.
“Shawn, really, what are you doing here?” Juliet dropped into her seat, ignoring him as she pulled her latest casework towards her.
It took him another moment to finally finish the donut as well as a swig of Juliet’s cold coffee before he was finally ready to speak up. “What? Can’t I stop by to see you anymore?” He leaned over to read her file.
She turned the corner of the file up, blocking the contents of it from his sight. “Where’s Gus?”
He sighed before jumping off her desk and circling around it to sit in the chair on the other side. “Packing, some sort of ridiculous impromptu family vacation.”
“He’s going on a family vacation?” She released her grip on the edge of the paper in momentary shock but quickly grabbed it again when Shawn leaned forward.
Defeated the psychic leaned back into his chair. “No, he’s going to visit his brother in Connecticut.”
“Just him?”
“The airlines wont let me go, they’re booked full on his flight and honestly, what would be the point of getting another flight? The whole point of going with him would be to actually go with him.” He picked up one of the picture frames on her desk and began to inspect it. “Besides, he did help me get better once you all realized I was actually sick…so I should probably let him go hang out with his brother, if that’s how he wants to spend his vacation.”
He picked at a hole in his jeans, still trying to steal glances over the top of her file. And although Juliet usually enjoyed his company, she really needed to spread her file out and that was impossible with Shawn there.
“I’m sorry he’s going to be gone but..." She paused, trying to figure out a way to phrase her next sentence kindly. "Shawn, was there something you needed? Because I have a lot of work to do, and I can't really sit her and chit chat all day.”
“What? Oh! Right, right!” Shawn jumped up and came around to her side of the desk. His proximity forced her to close the file and turn to face him. “The spirits have given me a name.”
“A name?”
“Yes, a name, only…I can’t see who it is.” His fingers flew to his temples in the clear position Juliet had seen many times. “She…not wait, it’s a he. He wants to be found. Zee? Zaa? Zachary Sea? Seahorse? Seesaw? Saw? Sawyer! Tom Sawyer! Never liked that story." He scrunched his nose and dropped his hands to his side. "Zachary Sawyer," he stated triumphantly.
Juliet could hardly prevent her jaw from dropping at the accuracy with which Shawn had pinpointed the name. “How-?” she began, but couldn’t finish the question.
Shawn pointed to his head. "They're feeling generous today."
With a shake of her head she pulled the file open again. “Zachary Sawyer is our primary suspect in the murder of Jake Ross."
“Wait, Jake Ross? Reese’s dad?”
She pulled the file towards her and skimmed the page. “Yeah, he has one son, Reese…wait is it that kid Weese, at the day care?” Shawn nodded. “Poor kid.”
“What can you tell me about his father?”
She narrowed her eyes at him, “Shouldn’t the spirits tell you everything you need to know?”
“They're on their lunch break.” He reached down and pulled open the top drawer of her desk, snagging one of the granola bars she had stashed there. “All they could give me was the name.”
She reached up and plucked the bar from his hand before he had time to open it and returned it to the drawer. “Really Shawn? Since when do spirits have to eat?”
“Jules!” He made a move for the drawer again, but she blocked it. Instead he pretended to brush some imaginary dirt off the edge of her desk. “How dare you assume that just because they’re dead they don’t have dietary needs! That’s spirit racism.”
“His parents were going bankrupt.” She conceded, realizing that it would be much easier to just tell him what he wanted to know than to keep dragging it out and playing along with his spirit talk. “It looks like the dad had something in mind to save them though. He withdrew everything they had left and set up a transaction with Zachary Sawyer. Unfortunately for him, things didn’t exactly go as planned.”
Shawn flipped through the contents of the file, pausing to look at the pictures. “He was killed by rat poison?”
Juliet nodded. “Yeah, some think it may have been a suicide, but it doesn’t make sense.”
“No Jules, you’re right.” He placed the file down on her desk and stood. “Jake Ross was murdered.” With that, he turned and disappeared from the station and Juliet was torn with whether or not she should go after him. But with the announcement of a new email from the lab she decided she would have to stay.
Still it was nice to have Shawn’s confirmation on her theory.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Shawn made it a point to actually meet the kid whose name kept coming up. Zachary Sawyer was only five years old, and as far as Shawn could tell there was nothing unusual about him. He, like many other little boys his age, liked cars and army men and played with other kids without too much of an issue.
Shawn was about to attempt a game of one on one with the blond haired child when he noticed the pair of stroller mom’s stopping by. They swept in, found one of the boys and took off with him.
Although it didn’t surprise Shawn that there were parents milling about, what did surprise him was the fact that these mothers weren’t hanging around for the show that the parents had been invited to see, but leaving instead.
He jumped up, abandoning any previous notions of playing with the small child who was technically the police’s lead suspect in a murder investigation to follow the women.
They made a bee line for the parking lot once they collected their diaper bags and Shawn made sure to stick with them.
Shawn slunk alongside the cars as he followed the two ladies with the strollers, the young boy walking between them with his hand clinging to the side of his sister’s stroller.
“So they told you that he already had his passport?” He heard the first mother exclaim.
“I know right? How could he already have his passport when he’s not even four yet?”
Shawn felt that if the two woman he was silently stalking didn’t have a set of strollers and a three-year-old with them, they would be sitting on the carpet in their parent’s house painting their toenails and dishing gossip the way they were talking.
“That’s absolutely ridiculous! Is Cole supposed to have gone out and applied for a passport all by himself? What did he do, ride his tricycle down twelve blocks to the-“
Not having expected the group to stop as short as they did, Shawn nearly ran into the back of them. He narrowly avoided going another ten rounds with the diaper bag of death as he tucked and rolled to his left.
He jumped up, quickly brushing the dirt off his pants and straightening his hair before pausing to see what the woman had halted for.
What he saw almost made his jaw go slack.
In front of them, next to the car he could only assume belonged to the valley-girl-wish-they-were-still-teenagers mothers was the skinny as a twig aspiring model employee from the day care. Shannon, Shawn managed to recall, was picking the lock to the car.
“Dude, it’s the middle of the day!”
The two mothers jumped at Shawn’s voice and Shannon pulled the pick from the car and quickly hid her hands behind her back.
“Seriously? You’re breaking into a car in the middle of the day?”
“It’s my smoking break.” Shannon managed.
“What?” The three adults said in unison.
“I recently quit smoking…but it’s so hard. And I just needed something to help me get by.” Shannon dropped her tools into her pocket, before wiping at one eye.
“I don’t have cigarettes in my car, I’m nursing!” The woman picked up her son, holding him in case he thought it was a good idea to stray from the safety of his mother’s reach.
“No, I know. I’m not looking for cigarettes…” Shannon slumped against the sedan parked next to their van, “I just needed the new car smell, it-it helps with the cravings.”
Shawn’s jaw dropped for real this time as the girl who moments ago had been looking for a fix in the form of a whiff of a stranger’s car began to sniffle as she held back tears.
“Dude, no offense, but you work in a day care.” The group turned to look at him. “Go get a box of Crayola crayons and sniff New Car Blue till your nose stuffs up. Why do you need to break into peoples cars?”
“I tried that. It’s not the same!”
“Well the least you could do is close the doors behind you.”
Shawn caught sight of Buzz pulling into the parking lot.
“Officer!” The woman shouted, waiving Buzz down as he extracted himself from his vehicle. “This girl broke into my car!”
Buzz pulled his handcuffs out and made his way over to the group. “What’s going on Shawn?”
Shannon slid down the side of the car, crying in earnest at the sight of Buzz.
“Well Buzz, Shannon here has been breaking in to people’s cars. She hasn’t been stealing anything but…” Shawn motioned to the weeping woman and Buzz moved forward, his handcuffs in hand. “We caught her in the act, all three of us.”
Buzz knelt down beside the woman and began conversing with her quietly as Shawn turned to the two women. “This issue you’ve been having getting a passport, is only with your son?”
The two women nodded hesitantly. "How did you know?" one asked.
Fingers moved to his temples. "I'm a Psychic with the S.B.P.D." he said, much to their obvious amazement and Shawn could barely contain the smile that began to spread across his face. “I think I might know what's going on..." Turning on his heel, he left the group behind as he darted back into the day care center, leaving the bewildered women standing behind him.
He made it across the parking lot in record time and practically ran into Melinda as he burst through the door.
“Sorry!” He collected himself, straightening his collar.
“Mr. Shawnoccio, there are several parents here this afternoon to see your special performance, so if you’d please not keep them waiting.” She frowned at him.
“I was just tucking Mr. Downs and Quacks a Lot into the car, he doesn’t like it when I put on puppet shows. It's a jealousy thing, you know how it is.” He grinned and made his way into the back room.
Gus was standing in the corner on his phone, his back to the room as he tried to shield the noise with his body. Shawn made a beeline for his friend and tapped him on the shoulder.
“I’ll see you then, great.” He hung up the phone and turned around to face Shawn. “What?”
“Dude, we got a show to do, you on board for this or what?” Gus followed Shawn’s nod towards the puppet booth with his eyes. “The story we got tonight is pure gold. Why else do you think I’d make sure Jules and Lassy were in?”
Gus stared at him, his jaw clenched and his gaze narrowed. “Why? Why would you do that Shawn? You’ve got nothing here. There isn’t a case. You got the diaper theft guy.”
Shawn shook his head. “That isn’t the only thing going on here.”
“What else is there Shawn?”
Shawn opened his mouth to respond, but found himself interrupted by Melinda. “Mr. Spencer, if you’d please.” She motioned to the puppet booth.
“Of course. Gus?”
He smiled to the children and their parents as he moved towards the station. Gus shook his head and moved in the opposite direction. Shawn stopped behind the booth, his brow creasing at Gus.
“Don’t worry.”
He looked down as Isaac appeared at his side, a puppet in one hand. The kid smiled at him before ducking behind the booth.
Shawn smiled at the kid before childishly sticking his tongue out at Gus. Behind his partner Shawn watched as one of the employees, Robert signed for a package. His eyes skimmed the name, “Zachary Sawyer”.
The answers clicked together in his brain like the pieces of a Snap-Train track. He opened his mouth to reveal the woman right then, his hand twitching towards his head when small fingers wrapped themselves around his wrist and pulled.
Unable to fight the tug Shawn found himself in a pile of limbs beside his seven-year-old assistant. Isaac dumped a couple of puppets into Shawn’s lap as the older puppeteer’s mind swirled in an attempt to catch up.
“What story are we doing?”
Isaac asked as he pulled more puppets out of the bucket behind him. Shawn reached into the bucket, pulling out Gus’ dragon puppet with a grin.
“A new one.”
Isaac’s brow creased, the younger having expected the typical Spencer/Guster reenactment of an old fairy tale. A reenactment that typically didn’t come even remotely close to the original story of the fairy tale in question.
“What?”
Isaac dropped the sock creation back into the pile.
“Just play along with me dude.”
He grabbed a couple of the former socks from the stash and laid them out in front of them.
“Mr. Spencer?”
His sock covered hand instantly shot up from below the stage, the dog puppet looking out into the audience as he turned his hand from side to side.
“Ruff! My name is Lassy, I’m a Police Dog.”
Several giggles answered him from the front row, as well as a loud, familiar groan.
Isaac pulled a sock puppet over his hand and stuck the figure up onto the stage.
“Look everyone!” Shawn continued in his half dog voice. “It’s Captain Awesome!”
A chorus of voices, young and old alike chimed back a greeting to Captain Awesome.
“But what is that Captain Awesome?”
Pulling Gus’ dragon onto his other hand with his teeth he stuck the new character up into the play area.
“Roooaaaar!!!” He drawled, shaking the dragon so it’s flimsy wings would give the illusion of flight.
“It’s the scary dragon Maw-leanda!”
“The one who owns the Day Cave!” He heard Isaac squeak beside him, as he moved his superhero character bravely forward.
He gave a reassuring smile to the kid beside him, before continuing on.
“The one and the same, Captain Awesome! This dragon has been stealing the most precious treasure there is!” He growled, pointing the maw of his puppet towards the “flying” dragon.
“She has been stealing the gold pineapple statues?!”
Shawn pressed his eye against the peep hole in the base of the stage, Melinda was still in the room but she was edging her way towards the door. Lassiter and Juliet oblivious to the fact that their culprit was moving farther and farther away.
“No! Something more precious than even that!”
She moved her hand to the doorknob, pulling back startled when someone opened it from the other side. Buzz McNab stepped into the room.
“She’s been stealing people!”
“What?”
Isaac hissed at him, failing to keep his voice low enough that their audience could not hear him.
“Go along with it.” He hissed back. Buzz remained in the doorway, his body effectively working as a roadblock against the small woman.
“How do you steal people?”
“When people register at the Day Cave.” Melinda paled, moving backwards until she was flush with the wall. “The evil dragon Maw-leanda requests applications to be filled out. Applications that allow her to access their personal information, to steal it.”
“What?”
“Maw-leanda is stealing identities.”
He could tell from the varying glances around the room that many of the parents were confused as to where he was going with this. Melinda was looking for an exit and he knew he didn’t have much time left.
Throwing his body sideways he lurched out from behind the puppet booth, using his dragon clothed left hand to start attacking his own face.
“AHHH!!”
He cried out in false agony as he surveyed the room between the dragon wings. He brought the dog puppet down on top of the dragon before suddenly going still.
“Wait!” He jerked himself up to his knees. “I can see it now.”
He moved the dragon creature up so it was flying next to his head. He looked sidelong at it before scanning the crowd slowly.
“You have all been the victims of fraud.” Many of the parents shifted nervously, a couple of them clutching their children closer. Lassiter’s bored expression melted away as his hand twitched near his cuffs.
“Melinda.” He pointed the dragon at her, a room full of heads following his direction.
“You could care less about the safety of the children. All these fancy locks and gates are just to impress the parents aren’t they? You just care that parents fill out your magic forms properly don’t you?” He paused, making the dog puppet whisper in his ear.
“Well, whaddya know?” He turned back towards Melinda, ripped off the dragon puppet, tossing it aside before pulling a day care child application from his pocket.
“These forms! They ask all sorts of interesting questions. Questions that can be claimed as necessary for the safety of the children. And honestly, what parent doesn’t want to make sure their kid is protected? People eat this stuff right up.”
He grabbed the paper with the mouth of the dog puppet, growling as he “channeled” the creature and made it crumple the paper up before throwing it down next to the dragon.
“The IRS noticed something was going on long before any of the parents did. Something didn’t add up when it came to the numbers of this place.” He had the dog puppet count on the fingers of his other hand. “Because honestly, how much money does a Day Care really make? Not much, I mean it isn’t Disneyland, you can’t charge arms and legs for the place.”
He stepped in front of the booth, his eyes widening in mock realization as the puppet revealed information to him for the “first time.”
“But there’s something you can charge for isn’t there? Social Security Numbers. Those, those you can charge all kinds of money for. Money that might be used for expensive Asian shrubberies or pricey imported office furniture.”
Isaac climbed out from behind the puppet booth, his jaw hanging slack at the information.
“She can sell these kid’s identities with no one being the wiser. Most of these kids wont even need their socials for at least ten years. But you weren’t expecting any of them to be applying for a passport, where you?”
He watched the emotions cross Melinda’s face, entertained by the way she tried to hide it with false surprise.
“What? I would never, how would you even do that?“
Shawn snorted in laughter. “Don’t play dumb with me. Cause here’s the thing. I’m not a puppet master, I’m a psychic.” He watched as her eyes went wide in fear. “And the Spirits tell me you’ve been selling Social Security numbers on the internet for years!”
Melinda, seeming to realize she’d been caught grabbed the kid closest to her. Shawn’s eyes went wide as he recognized Amanda being swept up into the woman’s arms. Some of the parents gasped.
“Do you even know how much money there is in this job? I make peanuts, PEANUTS! How am I supposed to support myself on this crap salary!?”
Shawn raised an eyebrow. “Dude, seriously? Just get another job…”
Melinda moved along the wall, Amanda held tight against her chest in protection from Lassy and Juliet’s guns. “I spent years perfecting this, making the technique perfect. You idiot law enforcement people could never figure it out!”
“You think this was all Melinda?!”
“What?!”
Half the heads in the room turned towards Robert who stood up in the middle of the room, a gun hanging freely from his hand. Parents scooped up their children, some yelling out, clutching their kids close to them and scrambling to the back corner of the room, away from the guns.
“Melinda, couldn’t even try and take credit for all this. I was the brains of this operation! If it wasn’t for me you’d be changing adult diapers at a retirement home!”
Carlton and Juliet pulled their own guns out at the sight of Robert’s, but the man leveled his gun at Shawn’s chest. “How dare you come in here and try to take away our means of supporting our families! Have you no respect for these children? How else am I supposed to feed my kids?”
Shawn raised his hands slowly, looking to Juliet for encouragement as the man moved towards him.
“I’m gonna have to go with what I said earlier…get another job. It’s not that hard…honest.”
Amanda twisted in Melinda’s grasp, a muffled cry escaping her lips. “Candy Bar man!”
Shawn caught Gus’ gaze, the panic evident in his friends eyes. Gus stood a few feet behind Robert, but he seemed incapable of movement at that moment in time.
Shawn suddenly recalled Juliet’s case, a real case that had show up in his initial scan for something to do. He recalled their first day at the day care, how he had seen Robert outside that day talking with Reese’s father, the same man who had shortly there after turned up dead.
“That wasn’t all though, was it Robert?” He held his arms forward a little bit, his non puppet clad fingers finding their way to his temples. “One of the parents here was a customer of yours. But you…” His brain scrambled to comprehend how the man would have figured it out. “You must have accidentally sold him his own kids’ social number. Now, any parent would know this number, but especially a parent who is looking to make a dime off of some one else’s identity.”
Robert and Melinda locked their gaze with each other before turning to Shawn.
“He blackmailed you didn’t he? Told you he’d turn you in unless you let him in on your little scheme. But now, you went and killed him.”
Robert scowled. “We were already divided two different ways. I’m not about to let that jerk eat into our profits.”
Melinda was making it closer the door, the young bundle in her arms still squirming as the girl tried desperately to escape.
Time seemed to move in slow motion as Shawn watched Amanda cry out in pain from being held to tight before promptly emptying her bladder. The girls scared cries continued as Melinda shrieked at the urine now soaking her front side.
Gus jumped to one side away from the scream and his foot caught on a xylophone. He flailed, his arms going wildly in all directions before he collided with Robert’s backside.
At that instant Shawn felt a small mass collide with his side. The sensation was oddly familiar as he tumbled to the ground, a gunshot echoing above him.
He watched as Gus knocked Robert down as well, the gun tumbling from his hands and landing in the center of a room that instantly erupted into screaming parents and crying children.
He finally realized that the body knocking him to the ground belonged to Isaac. And he was about to wonder if the kid made a habit of tackling people to the ground when his head connected with a wall and all he could consider were the white, dancing stars that now claimed his vision.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
“Shawn.”
He could feel hands on his body maneuvering him to what he vaguely seemed to remember was called a supine position.
“Shawn?”
With great effort he managed to work one eye open, but instantly shut it again with a groan.
“The light bothering you?”
“No Gus, it was your face.”
The hands retracted from his shoulders and he could sense Gus moving away from him after tossing some stuffed animal or another at his chest.
“Fine, I’ll just leave you here, how’s that sound?”
He groaned, bringing his hand up to rub his face. Only to recoil in surprise when instead of meeting his hand his face was ambushed by a fuzzy dog puppet.
“What the-“ he sat upright, blinking rapidly against the assault of light. He looked down at the puppet before ripping it off and tossing it aside. “Everyone okay?”
Gus shook his head, helping him to his feet.
“Yeah, Lassiter and Jules got them.”
Shawn nodded as he glanced around the now empty room.
“The kids?”
The two made their way to the door, carefully climbing around the discarded toys, bottles and blankets.
“With their parents, outside. Or most of them went home. Amanda’s mom wants to thank you though.”
They stepped outside into the harsh sunlight and Shawn squeezed his eyes shut again, wishing desperately that he had a pair of sunglasses.
“O’Hara, I’m not taking her in my car.”
“Carlton! She’s a criminal, we need to take her back to the station.”
He heard a car door slam and managed to squint enough to see Carlton grab Melinda by the elbow and drag her away from his car.
“She reeks of urine, I’m not letting that smell stink up the whole inside of my car! I just got it cleaned after diaper breath was in it!”
Juliet crossed her arms over her chest.
“Well then, how do you plan on getting her out of here?”
Carlton faltered, his gaze narrowing at his partner. He was about to speak when something caught his eye.
“It wont be a problem.” He said with a diabolical smile, before turning and shouting over his car. “McNab! Get your squad car!”
Shawn shook his head as he and Gus made their way to their car. “Poor Buzz.”
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
It seemed like Shawn had been waiting for hours when his dad finally dropped a plate of homemade carne asade tacos down in front of them. Shawn couldn’t help but drool a little at the sight of the fresh food, steam still rising from the plate.
“Mmm, these look delicious.” Shawn lurched forward, grabbing four off the plate before his father could even sit down.
“So, looks like you went through and cleaned out all the criminals in that day care of yours.”
Shawn almost choked on his taco. “You were following that?” He coughed out.
“Of course I was following it Shawn. You have a habit for almost getting yourself killed with every case you do, why wouldn’t I be following your cases?” Henry grabbed the hot sauce out of Shawn’s hands before lightly applying it to his taco. “I need to know if I’m going to be childless, cause I’m pretty sure Gus wouldn’t tell me.”
“Hell no, that’d be the scariest conversation ever.” Gus blinked the thought of it out of his mind before getting up for a drink.
“Hey, can we pause for a second here? Because I’m not dead. I was hardly even in serious danger this time.”
“Someone pointed a gun at you Shawn. I hardly call that being out of ‘serious danger’.”
“Dad, how do you even know that?” Shawn put down his taco and stared at his father.
“I read the paper, I watch the news. I stay informed with what’s going on in the world.” Henry reminded him as Gus returned to his seat. “You might try it sometime.”
“I stay informed!” He grabbed back the hot sauce and began pouring some on his tacos. “In fact, I bet you didn’t know that Richard Wright died in September.”
Gus shook his head. “Dude, everyone knows that, that’s old news.”
“Who is Richard Wright?” Henry managed around a half full mouth of taco.
Shawn sat back in his chair, his eyes wide in shock. “Who is Richard Wright? Really Dad? I thought you said I was the one that needed to stay in touch with current events.”
“Current events do not include whether or not one of your ridiculous and obscure movie people are still alive.” He shook his head before reaching over to the end of the table and grabbing the newspaper. “I’m talking current events like these.”
“First of all, Richard Wright isn’t some obscure dude no one cares about. He is the keyboardist and one of the founders of Pink Floyd.” He held up his hand to count on his fingers. Partially so that his father might know which point he was on, but mostly for himself. “Second of all, he was in the paper, so if that’s what it takes to make something a current event, then Richard Wright is a current event.”
“Well, pardon me.” Henry folded the paper back over to the front page before pushing it towards Shawn. “Point is, if you’re going to do this dangerous work, you should really look into going at it from the legal and safe option.”
Shawn looked down at the paper, the headline reading ‘Psychic Does Diaper Duty.’ Gus practically choked on his water at the headline. “Cleans up with ease? What?! They’re making me sound like a freaking nursemaid or something.” He pushed the paper away with a frown. “I’m never going to get the respect I need with this kind of publicity. Gus, we’re gonna hire a PR guy.”
Gus didn’t say anything as he instead finished off his taco. “Thank you Mr. Spencer for the meal.” He wiped his mouth and moved to clear his plate when Henry intervened.
“I got it Gus.” Henry picked up both Gus and Shawn’s plate, staked them on top of his own and moved to the sink.
“I wasn’t done!” Shawn whimpered as his food was scraped into the trash.
“I’ve got some pie if you boys want some?” Shawn watched as his father dumped the three plates into the sink and moved to pull a pie from the fridge.
“Thank you, but I really have to get going.” Gus stood and collected his jacket from the back of the chair. “Maybe next time.”
“Of course.” Henry put the pie back in the fridge.
“Gus where are you going? It’s like six o’clock. Our show isn’t on for like three more hours.” Shawn stood and followed Gus into the other room. He stopped Gus before he reached the door with a hand on his shoulder. “Gus?”
His friend sighed before meeting his gaze. “I told you Shawn, I’m flying out to meet my brother, I have to get to the airport or I’ll miss my plane.”
He pulled back from Shawn’s grip and opened the door. Not knowing what else to do Shawn followed after him. “Dude, it’s Brenton, it’s not like he’s going to be all upset if you’re a day late. Honestly, you’re treating this like a job interview or something.” Shawn laughed as Gus climbed into the car, his smile fading as he realize Gus was actually going to leave him there.
“I’ll be back on Monday Shawn, try not to get yourself killed between now and then?”
Shawn scoffed. "I would never!"
Gus just shook his head. "I'll see you."
“Yeah, okay. Have fun.” Shawn waved from the curb as he watched his best friend drive off.
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