Playing With Fire chapter 2
"Tell me exactly what you remember." The Chief said.
The SWAT Team had gone back out to the building once Juliet had been taken away in an ambulance. Just under 100 uniforms had surrounded the building before ambushing it, to find it empty. Completely empty, and recently cleaned out, except for a little room that held the footage from the security cameras.
They wanted them to find it.
The police were now catching on that the Pravada Banda wanted them to find this footage, wanted to leave Juliet alive, because they were sending them a message. To stay off their backs.
Lassiter sat on one of the chairs in the Chief's office. She was wound-up and on edge, barking at anyone who even made eye contact with her. Anyone in her position right now would. No Chief ever likes to hear the words "officer down", especially when she sent them there herself.
The only response Chief got when she called the hospital to ask about Juliet's condition was the word "alive." It wasn't very helpful. Lassiter didn't at all think she was dead, so the alive part really went without saying. She had been breathing when he found her, and her pulse had even been abnormally quick.
Lassiter told the Chief every detail from the moment he and Juliet left the car to the moment the ambulance arrived.
All they could do was wait for Forensics to process the security footage.
"Do you think they knew you were there? Do you think they lured you there on purpose?"
"Yes, and… I don't know about specifically O'Hara and I, but I believe they wanted someone."
"You say you heard the AK firing, but Juliet was not hit once by any of those bullets. Do you have any idea what might've happened?"
Lassiter slowly shook his head. "No. The only thing I can think is that there was a struggle, maybe the rounds got fired into the air and into the ground while they were fighting over it."
"And then she was shot with her own gun."
"Yes. Though one round was missing. She was hit eight times. I counted it."
"All in the vest?"
"All in the vest."
"Every last one?"
"Every last one. Although I can't say the vest protected her the way we've seen in demonstrations. It must've been at close range, but those are definitely our bullets. Bullets from the AK would've pierced right through."
"…Thank you Detective Lassiter. I'll let you know as soon as we have something concrete."
Lassiter took this as a dismissal and retreated back to his desk, hoping to dig deeper into what they already knew about the Pravada gang. Why would they be wanting to send a message to the police?
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"I'm having a vision! I can see it now!" Shawn Spencer was less animated than usual in the conference room. He and Gus had been waiting around at the station from the moment they heard "officer down" over the police radio, and it wasn't long before Henry joined them. There was no denying that Shawn was getting antsy, and worried, and frustrated, and probably a little bit hungry.
Lassiter knew about the little "thing" between him and O'Hara. To him, Spencer was a player, who wouldn't know how to treat her right. Nonetheless, Lassiter found his partner subtly falling for the eccentric psychic. He wasn't sure if they had actually gotten together yet, but Lassiter at least knew the feelings were mutual, and that the tension was growing. He really, really preferred not to think about it.
"I see it!" Shawn repeated. Henry covered his face in shame at his son. Today, Shawn spared them from one of his absolutely crazy visions, and was a bit more solemn instead. He instead spoke the vision calmly. "I see the vest. One round after another, right… into… the vest. But- I see the shooter. I… I can feel his skill, years of training. This man was no stranger to shooting guns. So why did every round go into the vest? Why? He says… Gus help me a little here" Shawn placed his hand on Gus's head, which Gus promptly swatted away. "They're trying to tell me something, no, they're trying to tell you something." Shawn gestured to the Chief, then waved his hand around the room, gesturing to the rest of the station.
"They're trying to send us a sign to back off, we already knew that, Spencer." Lassiter was more than happy to be the one to shoot him down.
"…Oh." Shawn said.
At that moment, the phone in Chief's office rang. She scurried back to her office to answer it.
Lassiter turned to Shawn. "Spencer, I'm asking of you one thing: cut the crap, take your little visions and go home."
"That sounded like three things." Shawn said.
"Shawn." Henry said firmly.
Shawn sighed. "Look, I'm worried beyond comprehension right now, and… sick out of my mind just thinking of anything ever happening to Jules. I guess humor was just my stupid way of dealing with it, because if something doesn't happen soon and if I don't occupy myself somehow… I'm goin' after those guys myself. Alone. Right now." His hands had formed fists at his sides and he bounced a little on his toes with anger and anticipation.
"What, you think the whole station isn't worried, too? Ever since Yin, everyone went all big-brother on her, I can only imagine what we're gonna do to these Pravada guys once we find them. I'll rip 'em apart myself."
"Boys." Henry said, getting their attention. "In the police station, at least back in my day, when an officer was hurt, everyone would pray for his safe recovery, work our asses off to avenge him as best we could under the law, and most of all, not fight with each other."
"I'll do the avenging. You can stay here and hold down the fort, Spencer." Lassiter directed at Shawn.
"Alright, listen Lassie! I care about her, okay? I'm not always the goofball you think I am, and right now, I'm feeling a lot like shit because I wasn't there to protect her."
"Protect her? You know we've all gotten along our lives just fine for the past few decades without you."
"I'm the psychic, man! I should've seen it coming." Shawn's last comment was more one of defeat.
Gus tried to mitigate the situation. "Look, guys, they said she was alive, right? Some wounds to the back, she'll survive. She'll recover. She's gonna be fine."
"Unless, you know, any one of those bullets hit her spine the wrong way, she could be paralyzed for life." Lassiter pointed out. "Not to mention she was bleeding from the head. And the mouth, which only leads me to believe something internal…" He trailed off.
Gus was silent.
The chief re-entered the room slowly, and closed the door behind her. "That was Lakeshore Mercy Hospital on the phone." She said, immediately catching everyone's attention. She sighed. "They said it could've been a lot worse than it is. She got away with four broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and a mild concussion. They've done what they can with her lung, but the other things unfortunately can only be healed on their own, with time."
"Is she awake?" Shawn asked.
"They're not accepting any visitors right now."
"But is she awake?"
"I would assume yes, since they did the concussion and nerve assessment."
"So she's not paralyzed?" Lassiter asked.
"…No, she's not paralyzed."
"When can I see her?" Shawn asked, then rephrased, "When can we see her?"
"As soon as she's alert I'm going to have two of my other detectives go in and write down everything she remembers, before she forgets it. I don't know when that's going to happen though, since she's heavily drugged right now." Chief said.
"Don't you think she'll want to see someone she knows?" Lassiter proposed.
Shawn had been pacing the room, aggravated, for a few minutes now. "Alright! While the rest of you decide to play bad cop and interrogate her, there is a plethora of new evidence out there that Gus and I haven't yet explored. Chief, call me the damned second you hear anything."
"Excuse me!?" Chief retaliated.
"It's not an interrogation." Lassiter insisted.
But Shawn was already out the door, dragging a mostly-neutral Gus behind him, outside of the station and to the Blueberry.
"Plethora?" Gus asked once they were outside in the daylight.
"I know it was the word of the day in the paper next to the funnies this morning. I've been dying to use it all day." Shawn said, grabbing the keys from Gus and pushing him out of the way for the front seat. "Now you heard my Dad! We have a friend to avenge!"
"He's gonna do something stupid." Gus said to himself in the passenger seat, shaking his head. "I just know it."
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