Chapter 2

Henry went home and Lassiter busied himself with processing the crime scene. He wanted to over see it himself; he was determined not to miss anything. He had seen a lot of gruesome scenes in his day, but this one belonged to a friend, well sort of. Seeing the stretch of 20 plus feet of blood from where Spencer slid across the blacktop when he wrecked was making him ill.

Juliet was sitting in Lassiter's car and the thought came to her to run a trace on Shawn's phone. She punched in the information on the computer and was excited to see that the phone was only about 2 miles away.

She yelled at Carlton she would be right back and took the car to where the program said the phone was. She found it lying in the middle of the road. By some miracle it looked like no other cars had run over it. She bagged it then walked around to see if the kidnappers might have left any other clues, then she went back to the crime scene.

Juliet sat in her car holding the bag with the iPhone in the bright green Psych case. She was trying hard to keep her "Cop Face" on but it wasn't working and small tears began to roll down her cheeks. Lassiter came over to the car and knelt beside the open drivers side door.

Juliet smiled and weakly said, "I was able to find his phone." Lassiter took the bag with the phone in it and gave it to Officer Myers to process. Then he turned his attention to his partner, "Listen O,Juliet we will find Spencer and we will get him back alive. Juliet smiled and thanked her partner. She wiped her tears and got out of the car and helped finish the scene.

Henry had just pulled into his driveway. He sat in his truck for a minute thinking about the evening, seeing his son's destroyed motorcycle and he kept rereading that text in his head, "Help 911 taken in black van hurt."

He took his frustration out on his steering wheel, he hated to feel helpless and right now he felt nothing but helpless.

Frustrated and exhausted he gathered his belongings and headed for the house.

He went to unlock his front door and there was a package waiting for him. He reached down and grabbed the package and then went inside.

He gently laid the it on the coffee table and sat on the sofa next to it. He examined it carefully trying to make sure the damn thing wouldn't blow up on him if he opened it.

Finally he decided it was safe enough and he opened the box.

Inside was his son's helmet, cracked in two pieces and a CD. He went over to the computer and put the CD in and there was a video on it. The video showed Shawn sitting in a chair with his head slumped to his chest. He could barely tell it was Shawn. There was blood oozing out from the hundreds of cuts and abrasions all over his body.

He was staring so intently at his son that he almost missed the menacing voice that said, "Your son took my life, now I am going to take his, but not before I let him watch his friends pay for his crimes." A masked figure appeared on the screen then walked over to Shawn and grabbed his hair and forced him to face the camera. The masked man yelled, "Now say goodbye to Daddy!" Shawn was barely conscious but said, "Sorry Dad, I tried, Love you." That is all he was able to speak before his eyes rolled in the back of his head and he went unconscious again.

The masked man looked into the camera and said, "Be warned Judgment day is here" then the camera went black. Henry took his anger out on the wall beside the computer. Then he called and told Lassiter about the package.

Lassiter and Juliet ran from the scene and sped to Henry's house. Lassiter was the first to enter the residence. He found Henry sitting silent on the sofa holding the box with his son's broken helmet. Lassiter quietly sat on the coffee table and asked what was in the box.

Henry didn't speak he just tilted the box for Lassiter to see. When it registered in Lassiter's brain that the contents of the box were not random pieces of plastic and fabric but Shawn's helmet his eyes got as big as saucers. Henry told the two detectives the video is all ready in the computer.

The two walked over to the desk with Henry's laptop and watched the video. They were both in stunned silence at the broken unconscious figure on the screen. When the video ended Juliet looked at Lassiter, "What does he mean Shawn took his life, Shawn has never killed anyone and what does he mean about judgment day?"

Henry heard the detectives questioning. He said, "My guess is Shawn was the person responsible for breaking a case that caused someone to die, maybe in prison?" Lassiter smiled, "Come on O'Hara that is a great place to start. Looking at his partner he told her lets get this new evidence back to the station and then we will dive back in to all the cases Spencer worked on and see if anyone died while in prison.

He apologetically took the box from Henry's hands. Henry grabbed his arm and said, "Be careful, you heard what that mad man said he was going to make Shawn watch as his friends pay for his crimes." Lassiter nodded his head at the old man and said, "I will and you be careful yourself."

They headed back to the station. When they walked in to the station they noticed that the chief was in her office, they knocked on the door to her office. She waved them in and they began to bring her up to speed on the events of the evening. They showed her the broken helmet and the video. The three of them sat in silence for a moment while the video paused at the image Spencer's bloody face.

She steadied herself for a minute and then said, "I came back to the station tonight because of these." She handed an envelope with pictures in it to the two detectives. "I found them on my bed this evening and I couldn't stay in the house alone." Juliet looked concerned and a little confused at the chief then opened the envelope.

The Chief said, "I guess I am the first one to have judgment from that maniac." In the envelope were pictures of Iris (the chiefs spunky 3 year old) sleeping in her bed and playing on the swing set, the last picture was of Iris and he husband driving away. Juliet looked at the chief, "Where are Iris and your husband now?"

Chief trying to steady her voice, "He took her this morning to his parents house in Ojai, they should be safe there. I told my husband too be extra vigilant. They will be there for 3 days. Listen to me detectives, we have three days to catch this bastard before they get back." Lassiter interrupted, "If we want to get Spencer back alive we don't have the luxury of 3 days, we need to find him now."

Lassiter and Juliet had no sooner sat down at their desk, and then they saw Officer Myers came running up to them, "We were able to get a print off the phone. Vincent Romano. Lassiter looked at the Officer and said, "YES, good job!"

Lassiter typed in Vincent Romano into the computer and sure enough he had a rap sheet as long as your arm and he has a son Dominique Romano who was put in jail when Spencer solved the mini mart robbery case and it says here that Dominique was found dead last week, beaten to death by his cell mate.

Lassiter sat back in his chair, "So we are dealing with a grieving father who wants to take the pain of loosing his son away by causing another father to grieve even more then him." Lassiter sat running his fingers through his short hair when out of the corner of his eye he saw Henry enter the station.

Juliet said, "You sit, I will go and see what he wants." She walked up to Henry, "Henry, you need to stay at home in case they call, I told you we would keep you informed. We all ready have a suspect from a print on Shawn's phone. We are getting closer."

Henry didn't answer the woman he just gave her another disk. "This was attached to the refrigerator, I found it when I went to get a beer. I haven't watched it yet I came straight here." Juliet rubbed his shoulder and ushered him into the Chief's office and motioned for Lassiter to join them.

They put the disk into the Chief's computer. The masked man was sitting next to a lifeless Shawn, still strapped to a chair. The man began, with a snide tone that sent shivers down their spines, "So, Daddy Spencer it is time for your first payment for sonny boys crimes."

He never said another word; he picked up a baseball bat and slammed it into Shawn's leg. The pain caused Shawn to instantly wake up screaming. You could almost hear Henry's heart breaking. He walked over to Shawn's other side and Shawn looked at the masked man and said, "Please, don't."

The man didn't listen and he swung the bat as hard as he could into Shawn's other leg. Shawn screamed in pain and then laid his head down and they could all see the catches in Shawn's chest as he cried over the pain.

The masked man held up a picture of Buzz with the words, He is next on it.