“I officially declare this the most boring day in the history of all days,” Shawn announced, throwing his tennis ball against the wall of the Psych office and catching it.

                “Stop that, Shawn,” Gus said, poking his head over the door of the refrigerator, pausing his search for something to eat for lunch. “Our lease states that we have to pay all damages, and that includes ball-shaped dents in the wall.”

                Shawn sighed dramatically, threw the ball one last time, and put it down on his desk next to his feet, which were propped up on his desk. “Let’s do something!” he said. “Anything beats sitting around here all day.”

                “Why don’t you go make up with your dad?” Gus suggested, already knowing the response he was going to receive.

                “Funny,” Shawn scoffed. “Henry Spencer is way too stubborn to even think about making nice with me right now.”

                “Yeah, he’s the only stubborn Spencer,” Gus muttered, shutting the fridge door and laying the ingredients for his sandwich on the counter. “What is this fight over anyway?”

                “He wanted me to come trim the bushes in front of his house yesterday because his lodge buddies were coming over, and I had something come up, so his precious bushes were too large to accommodate his friends’ bush size requirements,” Shawn said, shrugging. “The wakeup call I got this morning was less than desirable, and it included several words that you wouldn’t hear on regular cable.”

                “Oh?” Gus said. He should have known the situation was Shawn’s fault.

                “Yeah, and I refuse to be the one to apologize,” Shawn said, amplifying his voice slightly, as if it actually made a difference.  “It wasn’t completely my fault. He only gave me a couple hours of notice, and the time just slipped away. You know how time consuming online Tetris can be. He’s going to be the one to come to me and apologize first.”

                “Okay, Shawn,” Gus replied, letting his doubt leak into his voice.

Because Shawn had been his best friend for two and a half decades, Gus knew Shawn was being dramatic about the situation. He knew that the basic elements of the story were true, such as Henry asking Shawn to trim bushes before the get-together, and possibly even the short notice, though it was probably more than a couple hours. But another thing the lengthy friendship had taught Gus was to stay out of the situations between Shawn and Henry unless it was a life or death situation, and even then it was debatable.

                Shawn ignored Gus, picked up his laptop, and logged into his email account. His inbox was empty.

                “Ugh!” he yelled. Gus looked up, slightly startled. “My daily brainteaser didn’t come! Could this day get any worse?”

                Gus rolled his eyes at his eccentric friend and started eating his sandwich.

                “Let’s go to the station,” Shawn said, closing his laptop and turning to face Gus.

                “Shawn, I’m just here on my lunch break,” Gus said. “I’ve got to start my route, and I have a meeting this afternoon at four.”

                Shawn sighed again. “What am I supposed to do then?”

                “I already gave you my suggestion,” Gus replied in between mouthfuls.

                “Yeah, a lame and ultimately impossible one,” Shawn whined.

                “Sorry,” Gus shrugged, finishing his lunch, picking up his sample case, and walking towards the door of the office.

                “You’re leaving me all alone?” Shawn cried helplessly at Gus’ retreating form.

                “Shawn, I’ve got two jobs. You have one, and you basically choose your hours. I don’t have time to be bored,” Gus said, walking out of the door and closing it behind him.

                “Fine then!” Shawn said indignantly. “I’ll just go to the station by myself.”

 After he watched Gus pull away in the Psychmobile, Shawn kicked his feet off his desk, grabbed his keys, and walked out to his Norton.  He started the bike and rode it skillfully to the Santa Barbara Police Department. Once he got there, he parked his precious motorcycle and walked into the building.

                The first person Shawn saw when he walked into the station was Buzz, who was eating his lunch at his desk. Shawn walked over.

                “Buzz!” Shawn said excitedly, greeting his friend.

                “Hey, Shawn,” Buzz said, returning the smile. “What are you doing here?”

                “Oh, you know, just looking for something to do,” Shawn shrugged. He looked around. The building was empty. “Where is everyone?”

                “Either patrolling or on their lunch break,” Buzz replied. He hesitated before adding, “Except for the Chief, Detective Lassiter, and Detective O’Hara. They’re having a meeting about their case in the Chief’s office.”

                “Is that so?” Shawn asked, perking up at the opportunity for a new case.

                “Yeah,” Buzz replied, still seeming somewhat hesitant. “Apparently, it’s pretty big.”

                “Do you know anything else?” Shawn asked, prying for more information. He started bouncing on the balls of his feet with enthusiasm.

                “Nope,” Buzz said shrugging. “But they’ve been in there for an hour.”

                “Really?” Shawn asked, raising his eyebrows. This had to be a huge case. Normally, a case briefing took ten minutes, maybe fifteen. Shawn wanted this case. He needed it.

                “Well, the spirits are telling me that it’s time to barge in!” Shawn said, grinning at his chance to cure his boredom.

                Buzz suddenly looked uncomfortable. He shifted nervously a couple times before saying, “You can’t go in there!”

                Shawn, who had started walking away, stopped dead in his tracks. He turned around to face Buzz.

                “Why not, Buzz?” he asked. Buzz had never been that vocal in trying to stop him from doing something before. Normally, he just stood awkwardly, half-way voicing his disapproval, and Shawn ignored him completely.

                “That’s why I’m eating lunch here today,” Buzz said, a guilty expression on his face. “They told me that if you came I had to keep you from barging into the meeting. Lassiter said to-” he paused in order to choose tactful words “-use force if it was necessary.”

                “Well, did he mention torture or maiming?” Shawn asked. “Because you know, Lassie is only serious when he gets to inflict pain on me somehow. Am I the only one who finds that disturbing?

                “I don’t know,” Buzz said slowly, not feeling comfortable with the question Shawn posed. “But he just said that there would be consequences for me if you ended up in the office.

                “Well, we wouldn’t want that, would we, Buzz?” Shawn asked, turning away to leave.

                “I guess not,” Buzz said slowly, looking somewhat confused by Shawn’s retreating figure. “I’m really sorry, Shawn.”

                “It’s fine, Buzz,” Shawn said carelessly, walking away from his guilt-ridden friend. “I’ve got other stuff I can do anyway.”

                Shawn walked out of the main room of the station and into the lobby. He waited a couple of minutes and then peeked back into the area. Buzz was sitting with his back turned to Shawn.

                Grinning, Shawn stepped forward and tiptoed stealthily across the floor, not making a sound. The blinds on the inside of Vick’s office were closed, but Shawn knew of a location on the left side of the office where part of the blinds were broken, creating a perfect peephole. And what was better was that it was out of Buzz’s view, even if he turned around.

                Shawn crept around the corner, still not making a sound. He quickly located the peephole he was looking for and started peeping.

                Chief Vick was sitting behind her desk, with Juliet and Lassiter sitting across from her. She was talking quickly. Lassiter was holding the case file and Juliet was watching her intently.

                Shawn squinted, attempting to see the file. Lassiter was only sitting about eight feet from where Shawn was crouching, so it was possible he could catch a glimpse of the file name. If he got the name, he could get its replication from the copy room.

                Lassiter shifted his weight in his chair, exposing the front of the file to Shawn, but unfortunately, the print was too small for Shawn to read.

                “Damn it,” Shawn swore quietly, squinting harder.

                Juliet then stood up, Lassiter doing the same. The head detective swung around furniture, narrowing the distance between Shawn and the file by two feet. As Lassiter took a step forward, the cover of the file he was holding was exposed to the peeping psychic. It read “Martinez.”

                “Yes!” Shawn whisper-yelled animatedly. He sprung up and shot off into the file room before Lassiter and Juliet were out of the Chief’s office.

                “Martinez,” Shawn said quietly, looking at the filing cabinets, searching for the one with the “M” case files. He walked around the room and found the right one. Shawn found that it was locked, but luckily, having spent entirely too much time in the station during his childhood, he knew how he could open the cabinet. The police station had always had cabinets with a special latch on the bottom to open them. Shawn bent down, pressed on the latch, and heard the click of the cabinet unlocking.

                Shawn grinned victoriously. He had always thought it was stupid to have ancient filing cabinets that anyone could open, but at the given moment, he did not have any complaints.

                “O’Hara!” Shawn heard Lassiter call. “Meet me in the file room.”

                Shawn’s heart leapt into his throat. He hastily wrenched the drawer open, saw a case copy with “Marti-” on it, grabbed it, and sprinted out of the room before Lassiter and Juliet walked into it.

                Shawn grinned, feeling very pleased with himself. He hastily, and stealthily, left the station, hopped back onto his bike, and went back to his office.

*.*.*.*.*.*

                Twenty minutes later, Shawn was settled at his desk absorbing the file, only to find that, it was completely baffling.

                An eight-year-old girl had disappeared. Practically into thin air. Her family was very wealthy; they owned their own secure, gated estate. The girl had been playing outside near the mansion, and then she was gone. The mother had checked on her ten minutes before. There was no evidence, no sign of a struggle, nothing.

                Shawn could not get any information from the file. Absolutely nothing. It did not make sense. The family was well-respected, they had no enemies, and all the security guards reported that there had been no suspicious activity.

                Shawn started thinking: if he could solve this case before the police even knew he had it, Lassiter’s face would be priceless. He would be sure to have his camera that day. Funny Lassie faces caught on camera were always very rewarding. Grinning, Shawn continued flipping through the unhelpful pages.

                When Shawn read the last page of the file, his grin slid off of his face. There, in red ink, his humorous thoughts of Lassie faces caught on camera disappeared.

“Case Opened November 21, 1998”

“Case Cold on November 21, 2000”

                Shawn’s mind went blank for a millisecond. It did not make sense. Why would Chief Vick call a special meeting to brief Lassiter and Juliet about a cold case that was ten years old? Was there a new lead? Were they reopening the case?

                Shawn flipped the file over to look at its cover and he got his answer. The front of the file clearly read “Martin.” Not “Martinez.” In his haste, Shawn had grabbed the wrong case out of the cabinet.

                At first, Shawn was frustrated with himself; he never-well, almost never- made stupid mistakes like this one. He sighed and began to lean back in his chair, but then he stopped. He thought about all the information he had just read: how a little girl had simply disappeared into thin air with no evidence, leaving her family with no answers. It was then that Shawn realized that he did not care about the top-secret Martinez mystery.

                He had his own case to solve.