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Everyone had somewhere to be, something to do and until the little girl was found, no one at the station would rest. Officers and detectives moved to and fro, looking up records, making phone calls, dealing with the press, it was a nightmare of paperwork. But it was no more terrifying than the knowledge that Iris, the beloved daughter of their own police chief was missing.

Caught up with the memories of the little girl that occasionally visited the station with her father to see her mama at work, ice cream cone in hand and on dress flitted through the heads of every officer in the building and then some. It was motivation enough to find the girl who sometimes wandered their halls, chatting to anyone that would hear about the puppy that her daddy was going buy her (not that he had agreed to it). She was still trying to pick a name, indecisive as all children are, changing her mind every day and always open to hear a suggestion, even Lassiter’s idea to just call the puppy ‘Puppy’ and “stop dragging it out” had not stopped her from asking everyone in the station what they thought. 

And that had only been a few days ago, an era which felt like decades to the members of the Santa Barbara police department. With no leads found and no ransom yet called in, not a person in the building had slept more than an hour or two since the incident had been called in, the tension was palpable.

Karen Vick could be seen in her office through the barely blinded glass, running her hands through her hair and pacing, presumably rehashing the last two days and the first three minutes in which her daughter had been taken from her. Henry Spencer stood in the office, off to the side of the desk, left hand over his mouth and right arm crossing his chest and nestled in the crook of his left elbow. He had shown up an hour after Iris had been taken, called presumably by Chief Vick, and had yet to leave. Vick’s husband was at their house, waiting just in case the kidnapper called and in his absence Henry chose to be the calm presence she needed. Detectives Lassiter and O’Hara also stood in the office, listening to the chief’s overview, standing behind the chairs in front of the big wooden desk. Not a chair had been occupied since the beginning of this nightmare.

Also in the office stood Detective Morrison, eagerly adding his thoughts to the conversation, though from the expressions of the others in the room, they were unasked for. Morrison was relatively new to the station, having transferred just two months before from Sacramento. He had gotten off to a shaky start at the SBPD, having screwed up his first big case. He had allowed a witness to leave Santa Barbara after she had told him she no longer felt safe there and that perhaps it would be better for her to stay in a nearby town until the perpetrator in the case was caught, she would remain in contact, staying with her sister. Morrison had agreed only to later discover that the witness was an only child and in fact, the perpetrator he’d been looking for. Police had still not found her and Morrison gained a quick reputation of being a poor detective. In his eagerness to prove himself, he’d jumped at such an important case as the kidnapping of the daughter of a police chief. His excitement was out of place in the atmosphere of dread and anxiety that had filled the department.

The seemingly rehearsed to and fro motion of the officers moving from desk to desk was interrupted when an older man dressed in a dark blue, expensive looking suit brushed through the station, heading for the chief’s office. Behind him followed what seemed to be a myriad of assistants and interns, and a little behind them a calmer man in his early sixties, wearing a button up white shirt and jeans, he peered around the department house curiously but also with an air of nostalgia but never falling behind the group with which he had arrived.

The door the chief’s office burst open and the man in the expensive suit came to an abrupt halt, causing one of the following assistants to spill the coffee he was holding. The startled occupants of the office quickly recovered.

“Mr. Mayor? I didn’t expect you so soon.” Responded Karen Vick, her diplomacy a reflex and in contrast to her obvious distress.

“Chief Vick,” acknowledged the Mayor, nodding to the other detectives and Henry before turning back to Karen, “I’ve come to straighten a few things out before the investigation into your daughter’s disappearance continues.”

“Straighten things out?” Lassiter asked sharply, no in the mood for what he had no doubt the Mayor would say.

“Yes, given the proximity that this department has to this case, I’ve come to ensure that there will be no conflicts of interest in the investigation.”

“Conflicts of interest?” Juliet spoke up, confused.

“Yes I cannot allow those so familiar with the victim-“ at the mention of her daughter as a ‘victim’ Vick looked like she was going to be sick “-to remain on this case, so from this moment on, Karen you are to be pulled from duty, you’re needed at home anyways” the mayor finished.

“Not that I didn’t see this coming already, but I’d like to ask that you suspend that request until a further ti-“ she was interrupted by the mayor butting in.

“I’m sorry but I cannot have the press discover that I let the parent of a kidnapping victim be in charge of the case, especially when its practically common knowledge nowadays that the most likely suspects in these situations are family-“ everyone in the office took a step forward and opened their mouths to refute this when the mayor held up a hand and continued, “-I know, I know that you are not involved but given the knowledge that the general public seems to have these days I cannot afford the bad press. Now I know you all have a history of becoming involved in cases in which there is a conflict of interest for you” at this the Mayor glared over at Henry.

Two years ago when Shawn Spencer had been shot and kidnapped, Henry had insisted on helping to find him, luckily they had found Shawn before the mayor had intervened but they had been subjected to quite a dressing down by him on department policy, one that had ended abruptly with Henry Spencer telling him to stick it where the sun don’t shine and walking out of the office. Apparently the mayor had not forgotten that. “I must however insist that this time policy is adhered.”

“Don’t worry Chief, we’ll keep you in the loop on the investigation,” Juliet, ever the cool head, ensured her boss.

“You misunderstand me, Detective. This whole department has a conflict of interest with this case, none of you will be involved in the investigation.” Before anyone could protest the mayor continued again,

“I am therefore, appointing a temporary chief during the course of this investigation and Chief Vick’s absence,” he turned his head slightly and waited for the man in the white button up shirt who had arrived with him to come forward, as he stepped into the room, Henry spoke up,

“Ritch?” surprise colored his tone.

“You know him?” Juliet asked curiously.

“He was the Chief when I was on the force,” he stepped forward with his hand outstretched to greet the new arrival “good to see you again, Ritch. This is Detective O’hara, Detective Lassiter and you remember Karen Vick, everyone this is Richard Cherry” he introduced, Cherry shook everyone’s hands, even Morrison who had not been introduced, mostly because Henry had decided he didn’t like him and had therefore not bothered to learn his name.

“Richard will be the temporary acting chief until this mess is over with, all I need now from you Karen is a list of detectives in the department with little to know contact with you and your family, I can’t afford for you to pick someone you know well,” the mayor eyed O’Hara and Lassiter as if to say ‘don’t try and fool me.’

“I can do it!” Morrison spoke up, Lassiter rolled his eyes in response muttering an ‘of course you can’ under his breath. The mayor turned to the other detective.

“and who might you be?” he asked, dispassionately, looking the officer up and down in assessment.

“I’m Detective Zachery Morrison, Sir.” He held out his hand which the mayor reluctantly shook. “I only transferred here two months ago and therefore am the detective least involved in this case” he finished before adding “Sir.” Abruptly.

The Mayor sighed before deciding that this was probably his best option at the moment. Nodding he addressed Morrison, “Alright you are lead on this case, but I must remind you that you are not to share any information on this case with your fellow detectives or Chief Vick” at Morrison’s eager nod he continued, “I want you to set up in a headquarters in one of the unoccupied rooms in the station, I’ll be sending over some officers from another station house to assist you shortly, understood?”

“Yes, sir!” Morrison looked positively vibrating with excitement, unknowingly irritating the other occupants in the room with his enthusiasm over such a serious case.

“That will be all, I expect to hear of your progress on the investigation as soon as possible, Detective. Turning to the newly appointed chief Cherry he nodded his head, “Chief,” turning to the others in the room he nodded goodbye and headed for the door. He hesitated just before he walked through it, turning back towards Vick and saying with only the tiniest hint of sincerity “And… I’m sorry about your daughter, Karen,” with that he walked out and was gone from sight.

“What a-“

“Detective!” Vick cut off Lassiter’s surely volatile assessment of the mayor before he could finish. She took a deep breath before turning to Morrison.

“Detective,” she hesitated, looking unsure, “good luck.” And with that Morrison bounced out of the office. There was a silence in the room before Chief Cherry spoke up,

“Well, I best be getting to work and so should you,” he said pointedly at O’hara and Lassiter. With an air of defeat they all headed for the door before they were stopped by the voice of their new chief.

“And need I remind you that the mayor insists that none of you investigate this matter on your own time either,” the only motion was the slight slumping of shoulders even further.

“So make sure I don’t …. catch you investigating this matter,” he said with a stern look. No one missed his emphasis on ‘catch’. With a slight smile from all of them they hurried out the door. With the door slammed, a silence took over the office yet again. Sitting down at his new desk Richard Cherry sighed, ran his hands over his face and stared out into the bull pen at sight of Henry Spencer, Karen Vick, Juliet O’Hara and Carlton Lassiter huddled together talking in obviously hushed tones. With a grim look at the case file in front of him, he opened it and prepared for the worst.

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Juliet sighed in frustration, she wanted to be working on finding Iris but she was stuck having to work on a case that was, basically, a victimless crime. That is except for the mayor’s wife’s dog, Bumblebee, which was lost that morning. The mayor had made the case top priority for her and Lassiter specifically and she got the impression that it was his subtle way of making sure they weren’t working on Iris’ case. That and she got the impression his wife was giving him a hard time about it. It was smart however because it allowed him to call every hour to make sure they were taking it seriously and to check up on them. Juliet thought it was ridiculous, excuse or not, to put the welfare of some silly little dog before that of the beloved daughter of their chief. But then again she was always a cat person.

At least Henry wasn’t under the mayor’s watchful eye and could work secretly on the case with the chie- …. Karen. They were currently at the Vick house, waiting for a ransom call that might not come. Juliet sighed, wishing this had happened back in a time, years ago when the department would have had two troublesome yet effective private detectives who could circumvent the law quite easily and find the culprit surely before anyone else in this department. But so much had changed since then.

They had come under investigation because apparently their closure rate was ‘suspiciously impressive’ and some hot-head new IA guy felt like there was some crime there. He had even accused her and Lassiter of using Gus and Shawn to investigate for them without the pressure of procedure, accusing them of breaking into buildings and suspects’ homes without warrant to weed out any evidence and hand it to Lassiter and her. She had scoffed at the idea, encouraging him to go ahead and investigate because they had nothing to hide. She later remembered how uncomfortable that action had made Lassiter and realized that he probably knew what Internal Affairs would find, and despite his reluctance to admit it, was not keen for Shawn to be discovered as a fraud.

 It had happened though, and it had shocked her to the core. Despite some semblance of doubt that had always resided within her, Juliet had always, honestly believed that Shawn was psychic, maybe not the flapping-around-stage-show-psychic that Shawn had always enjoyed being but psychic none-the-less. Shawn had ensured the investigators that he had fooled everyone even his best friend and his dad, so the two hadn’t gotten into any trouble. Juliet had long suspected that this was a lie and later found out for sure from Gus during their weekly lunch dates. This didn’t however subtract from her feelings being hurt by the whole situation.

She had been so angry and so hurt that he hadn’t confided in her with this so important secret and, as she recalled screaming at Shawn afterwards, humiliated that she had believed something that was now so ridiculous. She wasn’t the only one to react this way, the chief, though Juliet suspected she had already known Shawn’s secret had also reacted in angry though it seemed as though she was angrier that Shawn had been caught, this intense anger was none-the-less also directed at Shawn.

Lassiter hadn’t really said much at the time, not really reacting much to the news, not even to mock Shawn at his outing. It didn’t seem as appealing since it had actually happened, not like Lassiter had always dreamed of it in his head, the real thing was a lot more … depressing.

Gus had received one heck of a lashing from his other job, they even talked about firing him. Luckily for Gus they had decided not to but Gus was so mad at Shawn he stopped speaking to him, though admittedly Gus was obviously only going to do so for a few days, the two never got the chance to reconcile.

Henry however was embarrassed that Shawn had humiliated him so much. It was all over the papers that Shawn was not psychic and Henry was having trouble dealing with his new reputation as an ex-cop with a criminal for a son, at least that’s what Gus thought. He had told Juliet that Shawn and Henry had gotten into a huge fight over it and that was when it happened. When Shawn did what he always did in tough situations, he ran.

That had been a year and a half ago and they had yet to hear from him since. No visits, no calls, not even a postcard like Shawn had always done to ensure the people back home that he was still alive. This anger had subsided and gradually turned to guilt in most of them. There was nothing they could do about it now however.

Now after all this time, Juliet saw Gus once or twice a week just to check in. She had taken it upon herself after Shawn had left and her anger had dwindled to a mere spark, to make sure that Gus was okay. He had taken his best friend’s departure particularly hard and had a hard time coping for a long time. She occasionally saw Mr. Spencer, who still had a few old buddies on the force and would on occasion stop in to say hi to her and Lassiter, who he still often went fishing with. Gus had told her that he went to Mr. Spencer’s house every week for dinner on Sundays just like Shawn used to do, just to make sure everything was alright and to catch up.

It seemed like so much had changed in such a short time, but oddly also like nothing had changed in what seemed like forever.

She didn’t realize that she’d been staring blankly into her coffee cup until Lassiter came running up and banged on the desk in front of her. She jumped a foot in the air and put a hand to her chest, Juliet opened her mouth to scold him for startling her when he interrupted.

“Spencer just called; the ransom call just came in.”

She was so caught up in the past that at the mention of ‘Spencer’ Juliet felt like she’d just gone back in time before remembering suddenly that Lassiter was talking about Henry. Without saying a word she grabbed her coat and followed him out the door. On the way out they ran into Morrison, who in taking his new assignment had become suddenly quite bossy, taking very seriously the mayor’s ruling that no one in the department but him be involved in the case. He had even set up his little headquarters with a guard outside the door to ensure maximum discretion. In short he was pissing everyone off.

“Where are you going, Detectives?” he called, folder in hand as if busy, but apparently he had not yet been told by his officers about the ransom call. He gave them an assessing look. Carlton and Juliet exchanged a look before turning back to him and in unison saying,

“Lunch.”

With that they were out the door and on their way to Vick’s.

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Sitting at the kitchen table, Juliet felt a little lost wishing for a moment that Gus was there. The two of them were the more sensitive of the group and in the presence of Lassiter and Henry’s calm and controlled manner, she realized how much easier it would be if Gus was there, panicking so that at the very least she wasn’t the most anxious in the room. But alas, Gus was at a Pharmaceutical conference in San Francisco for the next and probably didn’t even know about all of this.

“Okay so let’s go over it again, when you picked up the phone what was the first thing he said?” Lassiter asked from his pacing gait around the kitchen. Karen who was sitting at the kitchen table fiddling with her hands in a worried, anxious, so-not-the-chief-they-knew-way responded, casting glances at her husband who was too distraught to be in the room for this and had settled into the living room and could be seen sitting tensely on the sofa.

“He said he had Ir-“ Chief Vick paused before recovering, “he said he had my daughter and that if I wanted her back I had to give him three million dollars, he spoke with a some sort of distortion device…I don’t …. I don’t even know if it was a he,” she breathed out again and put her hands cupped over her mouth in defeat and frustration.

“This doesn’t make sense,” Henry spoke up from his position leaning against the kitchen counter, after speaking he pushed himself away from it and walked the room while continuing.

“The guy knows Karen’s enough to know which days she takes her daughter to the park and at what time…” he trailed off.

Lassiter, who oddly had paused his stride just as Henry had begun his, spoke up realizing where this was going,

“So if he does that kind of research on getting the girl then why doesn’t he know how much ransom money the Chief can afford? Three million dollars? You don’t make that kind of money being chief of police….maybe mayor..”

“And for that matter why three million dollars? Why not five? or one? or ten? Statistically speaking you ransom a kid you ask for one of those amounts, unless you know exactly how much money a person has in their bank account” Henry added, leaning back onto the counter.

“Which they obviously don’t know if they think the chief has three million dollars….” Juliet added, if only to feel useful in this conversation.

“Wait-“ Karen spoke up, as if just remembering something, “There’s something else … I didn’t even think but … the voice, it said nothing about police presence. Why wouldn’t they tell me not to involve the police?”

“Maybe with their Swiss cheese research of your routine they stumbled upon the fact you’re chief of police and thought it was pointless to request.” Lassiter spoke up, not realizing how rude he sounded, Juliet reminded him by stepping on his no-longer-pacing foot.

“Ow! O’Hara what the hell?!” he exclaimed, turning to her. Suddenly Buzz came into the room with an air of urgency.

“Detective Morrison just pulled up,” he warned before heading towards the front door to stall.

“God I hate that idiot Morrison,” huffed Lassiter.

“That’s because he wore the same time as you that one time,” Juliet remarked, amusedly.

“That and he’s an ass.”

“Come on, Carlton lets slip out the back,” Juliet stood, nodding to Henry and squeezing Vick’s hand as she walked past towards the back exit.  Lassiter turned to Henry as he followed her,

“Call if something comes in. Press conference is at one thirty, right?” At Henry’s nod he walked through the door and out of sight.

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Lassiter stood at the back of the room next to his partner. They leaned their backs up against the wall and looked over the sea of reporters and cameramen. This was the part of police work he hated, this bull crap, press release nonsense put in place for the sake of ‘politics’ and ‘free speech’. The public would lap this stuff up like it was some sort of daytime Spanish soap opera while good people suffered for their entertainment.

“Yea I hate this part too,” Henry Spencer had walked up beside him while he was deep in thought and surmised from his facial expression what he was thinking. Henry was good at stuff like that and that was one of the things Carlton liked about him. He nodded to the other man in acknowledgement before turning towards Karen Vick who had just arrived at the podium, make-up unmarred despite her somewhat delayed reaction to the ransom demands earlier.

“Hello I’m Karen Vick and, as you may know, chief of this department. You were informed a few days ago, during another press release, of my daughter Iris’ disappearance. She was taken while we were visiting the park three days ago..” she took a second to calm herself, “we received a ransom demand for her return this morning. I would like to send a message to the people who have my daughter to please… please don’t hurt her, she has done nothing to you, she’s only five years old and she has so much to do in her life-“ her voice broke, “Don’t take that away from her… we are working on your demands and if you’ll be patient we can get you what you want and we can all come out of this unharmed.”

She nodded her thank you to the cameras and turned to leave. She stopped however, left hand still on the podium and turned back to the crowd of reporters.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to send a message to someone else if you don’t mind,” she looked out at the reporters before turning to look into the camera in front of her and breathed deep.

“Shawn, if you’re watching this … I need your help, please … I know we weren’t exactly …. Understanding, but I need you here…my daughter …Needs. You. Here.” As she turned away again, one reporter stepped forward, mic pointed at Vick,

“Who is Shawn? Are you referring to Shawn Spencer the fraudulent psychic the worked for your department?” before Karen could answer, Morrison who had until then merely stood behind her stepped forward to the podium hurriedly.

“Shawn Spencer is no longer a member of this department. He was a fraud and any attempt by himself to hijack this investigation will not be condoned. He was ordered to remain in town after the Santa Barbara Police Department dropped the charges against him and he disobeyed that order. If he sets foot in Santa Barbara again, he will be arrested!” with that he stepped back again, ignoring the sudden reaction of shouted questions from the reporters. Karen looked crushed as she was ushered off stage.

Lassiter sighed. At the mention of Spencer he had felt a sudden surge of adrenaline, somehow knowing what had just been proposed by Vick was exactly what they needed. They needed Shawn. While he had not been entirely a fan of Spencer’s, he got results and he solved cases that even the most experienced detectives failed to solve.

Endlessly wondering exactly how the psychic had solved his cases as that had never truly been explained; it had been an agonizing curiosity for him after Spencer had been outed as fake psychic. Both the idea that he might actually have the chance to find out and the hope that some progress would be made in finding Iris caused an intense excitement within Lassiter which was then stamped out at Morrison’s veiled threat. Spencer would be arrested if he came back. If he was even in the country … If he had even seen the newscast.

Carlton looked towards Henry out of the corner of his eye and saw a mask of calm. Underneath it however he thought he saw a flicker of something else… hope?

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“Shawn, if you’re watching this … I need your help, please … I know we weren’t exactly …. Understanding, but I need you here…my daughter …Needs. You. Here.”

Gus stood in the lobby of the San Francisco Bay Hyatt Hotel, staring at the flat screen television set up next to a couple of leather couches and a coffee table, watching the newscast for the fourth time. He couldn’t tear his gaze away from Chief Vick’s face. Chief Vick. Their Chief Vick. Whose daughter had just a week ago rejected his suggestion of calling her yet to be given new puppy “Stringfellow Hawke.”

He never thought for a moment he would be walking through the hotel he was staying at, heading towards one of the events of his Pharmaceutical conference only to glance up at the television as he walked by and see the image of a little girl that he recognized. He was then kept rooted to the spot by the mention of his best friend. This was all so surreal, this couldn’t be happening, it was like he was watching a movie or a soap opera. He stayed where he was as the newscast replayed the video, only vaguely aware of someone standing beside him, probably also riveted by the events on screen.

“…my daughter …Needs. You. Here.”

“Tough stuff.” Said the voice beside him, Gus nodded absently, not really paying attention. The part about Shawn had come up again and that other man was about to step up to the podium and threaten to arrest Gus’ best friend for the fifth time.

“…Shawn Spencer the fraudulent psychic…”

“So what do you say?” the voice was obviously speaking to him and the odd question caught Gus’ attention, mostly because it sounded familiar. So familiar. Gus barely heard the newscast now as his blood rushed to his ears at the realization he had just made.

“…sets foot in Santa Barbara again, he will be arrested!”

He turned his head to look towards the voice as it spoke again.

“We gonna go find her or what, Buddy?”

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