AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry for the long wait and thank you SO much for all the reviews!
Finally got a day off and got the chapter I've had in my head for months down. Enjoy!
CHAPTER 3
In the bowels of the SBPD, Shawn, Gus, Carlton, Juliet, looked over the shoulder of one of the forensic analysts as he studied the photograph sent to Shawn.
"Wow," The man exclaimed, "This is in great condition for being this old."
Shawn enjoyed the scowl on Carlton's face. "So it really is old."
The man snorted, "Well, unless they used 150 year old paper, using a 150 year old developing practices, in a 150 year old camera. Besides, the only place you can get this type of camera is in a museum now."
The fake psychic's smugness only lasted a second more before the horror of what this picture could mean sunk into his head. Miss Ivana really could be in 1866, and what did that mean about the other psychics? What could that mean for him if he ever got caught by the person doing this?
While Shawn pondered, Carlton's scowl had turned into a wide grin, and he barely missed a beat before shouting, "MCNAB!" in the enclosed space.
The other occupant's ears hadn't even stopped ringing by the time the young officer showed up. "Yes sir?"
"Look for any museum break-ins in the last month that stole a..." He trailed off and looked at the analyst.
With a disbelieving sigh, the man gave in. "A Carte de Visite camera."
Buzz nodded obediently and quickly disappeared out of the door.
With a triumphant smile, Carlton looked at Shawn. "There, that settles it. A perfectly rational explanation, Spencer. A ring of psychics who take names from other psychics and then fake their kidnappings. Then they have their picture taken with an old camera to further corroborate their pathetic little scheme to increase their profits when they 'mysteriously' turn back up in a couple of weeks."
There was silence for a moment before Gus finally worked up the nerve to say, "You do realize that is probably one of the most outlandish things we've all ever heard right?"
"What? A kidnapper sending people back in time is so much more realistic, Guster?!"
"Well it's a hell of a lot more realistic than a psychic, fake kidnap, conspiracy."
Juliet stepped in before things got too heated. "Guys! Let's just take this one step at a time. We know the type of camera, we can do some research on it while Buzz checks on the Museums. Okay?" All three men nodded in agreement, their anger tempered by Juliet's logic. She turned to the analyst, "Thank you for the information Paul."
"Don't mention it." Paul the analyst gave a half wave, already nose deep into his next project.
Shawn smirked, it figured that his girlfriend would be on a first name basis with every single worker bee in the station. He had seen the worried looks she'd been shooting him since he'd gotten there though, and knew that her anxiety levels were as high as his were about the missing psychics. Unseen by the other two leaving the room, he pulled her close and gave her arm a squeeze. "It'll be okay." It was almost as much to convince himself of that as her.
Juliet gave him a squeeze back as they headed up the main stairs. Buzz McNab unexpectedly met them half way. "Detectives!"
"What the−? McNab! I thought I told you to check on the museum robberies!" Carlton shouted impatiently.
"The Chief wanted me to tell you that there are a couple of people from the missing person's division of the FBI here to talk to you."
The Head Detective straightened up and smoothed his tie. "They, uh... wanna talk to me?"
"Yes sir. About the disappearances."
After a nervous glance to his partner, Carlton cleared his throat. "Of course they do. Lead the way McNab."
Shawn rolled his eyes and saw that Gus was shaking his head. Anyone official showing up in town instantly turned the power hungry Carlton into a sniveling mess. That was until said officials turned out to be the bad guys, which happened more often than Shawn thought it aught to.
He didn't know what he was expecting, but Shawn definitely wasn't expecting to round the corner and see a young man around his age with a young red haired woman, both in business casual suits. Gus's gaze was instantly drawn to the woman, and to his chagrin, he saw his friend's eyes turn seductive.
To stop any awkward advances on his friend's part, Shawn smacked him in the chest and whirled him to face away from the pair. "Gus. No."
"Whatever Shawn, I got this." He turned and addressed the red head. "Helllloooo."
Shawn didn't miss the quick sparkle in the woman's eye but it was hidden quickly as she and the man got down to business.
"Right then, I'm Agent Donna Noble from the Missing Persons Division of the Federal Bureau of investigation. This is my partner Agent John Smith."
Shawn suspiciously took in the man's appearance. He had great hair, like his own but there was something off about the both of them. As if seeing his suspicious glare, John Smith reached in for what Shawn thought was a badge, but when opened it only held a blank piece of paper.
"What?" He looked to his side and saw both Carlton and Juliet scrutinizing the credentials.
Wow, usually fake agents have at least a fake card. Shawn figured it wouldn't even take a second before both detectives ripped into the impostors. Most likely journalists out looking for some extra information.
To his shock, Carlton nodded and shook the man's hand. "I'm Head Detective Carlton Lassiter. This is my partner, Junior Detective Juliet O'Hara." Juliet nodded her acknowledgement. As usual, Carlton "forgot" to introduce him and Gus.
"And you two gentlemen are...?" The woman asked, eyeing Gus.
Shawn was too taken aback at the odd behavior of the agents and his friends to introduce himself, so after a moment of silence, Gus took the initiative. "Burton Guster." It took a moment for his friend to remember he was there, and introduce him as well. "This is my partner, Shawn Spencer. He's a Psychic Detective."
John Smith's eyes sparkled and he smiled, "Brilliant! I've met a few psychics in my day. Tell me, do you see spirits, read minds?"
Carlton looked over at Shawn, absolutely horrified that someone from a prestigious institution like the FBI could possibly believe in psychics. "You've got to be kidding me."
"That was on a completely different case though, right Agent Smith?" The woman, Donna, looked at John with widened eyes.
"Sorry, yes, just a complete coincidence that a bunch of psychics are missing now and all." The smile the man gave was supposed to be reassuring.
Shawn however, was more than suspicious. Now, he was thinking that they had their kidnappers. Forget old pictures and cryptic messages, people who obviously knew more than they were letting on, and who weren't who they were saying. He just didn't understand how everyone else didn't see it too.
Donna did her best to not glare at The Doctor. His curiosity had almost blown their cover, within the first two minutes. The revelation that the police had a psychic working for them may have been a coincidence, but it was definitely a weird one. Having walking bait for the Angels right in front of them may just help their investigation though.
The psychic's friend, however, was awfully cute and obviously interested in her if his coy advances were anything to go by. "So Detective," She addressed Carlton, "can we please see what you have done in your investigation so far?" She flipped her hair just a little to see what the black man, Burton, would do. Sure enough, his nostrils flared and he sniffed in her direction as she walked by him.
The Doctor seemed to have noticed their exchange and pulled her close to whisper, "Donna, don't get involved with these people. We have a job to do."
She gave her best skeptical "pffft" at him. "Says the space man who wants to verbally dissect the psychic right here in front of everyone. I'm just having some fun."
"What? I don't want to dissect−"
"Here's what we have." Carlton interrupted their conversation by shoving a file in their direction.
The next twenty minutes were almost sad for Donna, and she felt sorry for the detectives working on the case. It was exactly the kind of investigation and conjectures she would have jumped to had she not known about time machines, aliens, and The Weeping Angels. A psychic conspiracy to kidnap themselves to increase their notoriety and business doesn't sound as far fetched as time jumping angels feeding on energy that are mysteriously targeting psychics. The female detective seemed a lot more skeptical about her superior's ramblings, but hadn't offered any other ideas herself.
Donna had spent months investigating anything weird, just so she'd have the opportunity to meet The Doctor again so she could find out why these strange occurrences had been happening. The detective had done his best, but without the knowledge of what was really out there, he'd be banging his head against a wall trying to figure it out.
"So this photograph," The Doctor tapped his pen on the file in front of him, "This Miss Ivana sent it to your psychic? Why?"
"Well why don't you ask him?" Carlton stood up from the desk and looked around, but both of the other men seemed to have slipped off without any of them noticing. "Damn it Spencer!"
With an exasperated sigh Juliet took out her phone and tried to call them, but it suddenly cut out and went to voice mail. She tried Burton's phone as well, but it went straight to voice mail. "I'm not liking this." Juliet said as she closed her phone.
"He probably just forgot to charge the damn thing. Besides, if anything had happened to Spencer, Guster would be banging the door down." Carlton reasoned.
"You're right. I'm sure they're fine." With a small smile she looked at Donna, "They probably went to get something to eat." Donna returned the smile, trying to reassure the detective. She wasn't sure if it was woman intuition, but she thought there must be a thing between Juliet and Shawn.
"You know, it is almost noon. Maybe we should break for lunch. We have something we need to do." The Doctor moved his eyes towards the door, telling her it was their cue to go. He obviously wanted to go and talk to Shawn and Burton.
Donna nodded, "Right. Lunch. We'll be back, after lunch." She tried to be convincing, but it just came out awkward. They probably wouldn't be coming back, but it would give them an 'in' if they had to talk to the detectives again.
She waved to the pair, who were giving each other confused looks, and started to walk to the door. "Why are we leaving so soon?"
"I have to see that picture. It may give us a clue. Plus, I want to talk to this psychic, he might know something if Miss Ivana decided to send him something. This is getting more and more interesting isn't it?" The Doctor gave her an exhilarated grin. The one he always gave her when he knew that there was a game afoot.
"Yes Doctor, it would seem so."
Twenty minutes earlier:
The moment Shawn knew everyone was engrossed in Carlton's research, Shawn decided it was time to go. He didn't trust the agents, and he had his own investigating to do. He covertly put his hand around Gus' mouth and dragged his struggling friend far enough away from the group that he could talk to him. He'd had to practically take him all the way outside.
"UH! Shawn! What the hell are you doing?" Gus complained as he straightened his clothes.
Pointing to the group around the desk, Shawn hissed. "I don't trust them."
"Why? They don't seem so bad..."
With a growl of frustration, Shawn started down the station steps. "Will you think with your Big Burton head for a second!" He ignored the loud tsk aimed in his direction. "They know a lot more than they're letting on."
"It's because they are the FBI, Shawn." Gus pointed out, sounding annoyed. "They always know more than they let on."
"They are not FBI. They don't even have badges, just a blank piece of paper." Shawn opened the car door and hopped in. "I know Lassie isn't the most observant guy ever, but really? A blank piece of paper?!"
Gus stopped before he put the car in drive. "A blank piece of paper? Agent Smith showed you his FBI badge. I'd call that more than a blank piece of paper, Shawn."
"What?" Shawn said more to himself than to his partner. This is getting weird. While Gus drove, he rewound back. The paper was definitely blank but... maybe there was something there, lettering maybe? Was he completely losing it from the stress of this case?
He rubbed his eyes with a sigh and Gus looked in his direction. "You need to eat, and you need some sleep."
"I know buddy, but with Lassie's crazy theory and now the agents we have a lot on our plate."
"At least something to eat then. I'm hungry, Shawn." Gus complained as they pulled up to the drive through of a Taco Bell. "Hello. I'd like five Dorito tacos, two large loaded grillers. What do you want, Shawn?"
A few minutes later, they were loaded down with food and stopped in the park near Psych so they could relax and talk about the case. Shawn definitely needed a break from whatever had been eating at him since reading the paper that morning.
"That redhead, Donna?" Gus said between bites of his tacos and Shawn nodded, confirming he had the name right. "She seems nice, right? You think she might be, ya know, interested?" Gus asked hopefully. He'd seen her and felt an instant attraction. She was his type, smart, pretty. There were a lot of his types around, but so far he'd struck out with all of them.
Luckily, Shawn wasn't in the mood to be sarcastic and he didn't give him a hard time before agreeing that there was something there. "Yeah, she's into you." Gus grinned until Shawn added, "But she's probably one of the people kidnapping psychics. Sorry."
"Man, can't I get a break, Shawn? Not everyone I'm interested in is a killer, kidnapper, arsonist..." He went on to name a few more before his stomach reminded him that he was eating, and he took a large, frustrated bite from his food.
Shawn suddenly jerked in surprise and reached into his pocket, pulling it out. "It's Jules. They probably just realized we were gone." Shawn went to answer it, but his brow furrowed and he smacked the phone.
"What is it?"
Still frowning, Shawn said, "My phone just died. I even remembered to charge it! Check yours. She'll be calling you next."
Gus pulled out his phone. As soon as he looked at it, the screen flickered and it went out. It wouldn't even turn on again. "What's going on, Shawn?"
"I don't know, but let's get back to the office so we can call them." Their food forgotten, they got up and started for Psych just a few blocks down the park path. Half way there, Shawn stopped and looked around. "Where is it?"
Gus narrowed his eyes, not liking the worried look on his friend's face, or the whole creepy situation with the phones. "Where is what?"
"The statue! There was a creepy statue right here this morning." Shawn pointed at the ground.
"Maybe they moved it." He didn't know why Shawn was worried about a statue of all things.
Shaking his head, Shawn looked around the area. "There isn't even an indent. The statue was heavy Gus. It would have left an indent, dead grass, something."
"Shawn, why on earth would this be important right now? We're in the middle of an kidnapping investigation."
"Because it was an angel statue, Gus."
The statement hung heavy in the air as his brain worked to catch up with Shawn's reasoning. What are the chances that a photograph seemingly from the past warning about angels would show up the exact same day as an angel statue. He finally realized what had been bugging Shawn all morning.
"Let's just get to the office, okay. We'll call Lassie and Juliet and everything will be fine." Gus stated, trying to calm Shawn down. His friend was almost hyperventilating, but managed a nod and they started walking the rest of the distance to the Psych office.
By the time they got there, Shawn seemed to have calmed down. He pulled out his keys and began to open the door. "You're right Gus. I'm over reacting about the statue. They probably did just mo−"
Shawn's words were cut short as he was pulled into the office by something already inside it.
"SHAWN!" Gus shouted in surprise and terror as his friend disappeared into the darkness.
END NOTES: You are going to have to know a bit about Dr. Who lore for this one, but I'll eventually get to explaining the confusing bits as The Doctor explains things to Shawn and Gus.
Hope you liked the cliffy :D