"You know, it's not really his fault", interrupted Blair Simon's tirade.

"Not his fault?" repeated Simon incredulously. "He is a cop! A detective! After so many years on the force he should be able to keep his weapon close!"

"It's instinct!" explained Blair. "He is a sentinel! A sentinel is a hunter, not a killer. He will always seek the direct confrontation. Plus, his spirit guide is a panther."

"How does his spirit guide figure in it?"

"Jim has the tendency to leap on his enemy – never mind if it is a real person or some sort of vehicle. That is a typical hunting pattern far a panther. And a panther, like every cat, does not use a weapon for hunting…well beside the claws. Hey, perhaps you should issue a knife instead of a service revolver for him."

Simon looked at him gob smacked.

"Sandburg", he said softly. "This idea is so far out; it isn't even in Cascade anymore. Perhaps somewhere in the jungle of Peru."

He was chewing furiously on his cigar for a minute, a minute in which Blair and Jim were sharing an anxious look.

"Out! Out! And take your spirit guides with you!"

Hastily they were leaving the office.

"Phew! Simon is really in a gruffly mood today!"

Jim did not answer as he stormed out of the bull pen. Blair blinked surprised and followed him.

"Hey, big guy, what's the matter?"

Jim turned around.

"What's the matter? What's the matter? My spirit guide is influencing my ability as a cop and you don't think of mention the little fact before you are telling my boss about it?"

"Naturally…I was obfuscating."

Now it was Jim's turn to blink surprised.

"What?"

"I just saved you from Simon's wrath by telling him an off the wall story about sentinels. You know that he does not like to be bothered with this stuff."

Now Jim was chocking a laugh.

"You just invented this shit? Out of the blue?"

"Yeah – although – when I think about it, it is an interesting theory. Perhaps I should look into the influence of spirit guides on human behavior. Perhaps it's not the spirit guide who is chosen based on the human's characteristics but the human who becomes like his spirit guide. Naturally I will have to study your behavior further to verify how strong the parallels are. What do you think, Jim? Jim? JIM!"