Title: Murder and Mayhem and Monopoly, Oh My!
Author: greenrandomness
Rating: K
Warnings: Mild violence and some disturbing images.
Summary: A robbery and murder occur inside the Santa Barbara Police Department while multiple officers are present. Shawn and Gus try to find out who did it, and how.
Authors Note: Here is the 3rd chapter; I hope you guys enjoy it. READ THIS PART OF THE AUTHORS NOTE - - Also, the first two chapters have been revised. I edited some of the dialogue, added some more description, and overall just made it smoother. Feel free to re-read it if you want, but it's not necessary. No plot details changed or anything, but if you do read it you'll get at least one more slightly humorous comment from Shawn and a description of the body in the evidence room...plus quite a bit of other descriptions. Oh and by the way any suggestions are welcome and all reviews are considered, no matter whether they are good or bad.
Disclaimer: Only the story line and any characters you don't recognize are mine…anything else belongs to the creators and owners of Psych.
Chapter 3- Clue
Running to Gus's blue company car, Shawn and Gus tried to avoid the raindrops still failing from the threatening sky. The wind whipping through the trees pulled at their clothes and slammed the drops into their faces with stinging force. Shawn turned to Gus, "Was it just me, or did Lassie seem a little cranky?" He asked, but at Gus's disbelieving look he continued, "…Er than usual?"
"A cop was murdered, you know how personal that makes it." Gus replied, "Someone kills a cop, and the entire force is up in arms."
"Yeah, I guess you're right…plus it happened in the station." Shawn agreed turning to look out the window; his fingers tapped an impatient rhythm on his jean-clad leg.
"Yeah…" Gus paused. "Shawn?" He inquired, looking at him briefly.
"Hmm?" Shawn answered still watching the wet streets and dark sky. Occasionally glancing through the front windshield to see Lassiter and Juliet's car driving carefully down the street in front of them.
"Are you sure about this?"
"Positive! Once we find Mark he'll confess to everything." The psychic confidently responded before leaning his head against the cool glass of the window
Ten minutes of following the detectives brought the pair to Mark Spies apartment. Getting out of the car, Shawn caught a glimpse of the alleyway behind the building. A Single masculine hand was just barely visible from his vantage point. The rusty brown of dried blood was almost unnoticeable on his fingers.
"Or not." Shawn groaned, earning a confused look from Gus.
"What—" He began, but Shawn's sudden and loud collapse to the ground drowned out the rest of the sentence.
Juliet and Lassiter stopped a few yards from the alley to stare at the flailing display that was Shawn Spencer. His arms were waving wildly as he collapsed to the cold, damp pavement, moaning like a man on his deathbed.
"Is he okay?" Juliet half shouted, taking a step closer to the two. A large boom of thunder nearly drowned out her question. Shawn moaned louder in response, clutching his torso.
"Spencer." Lassiter rolled his eyes, starting to walk again, but Shawn's rather realistic cry of pain made him pause, and caused Juliet to go running to the fake psychic's side.
"Oh god!" He cried prying his eyes open to stare at the two pairs of worried eyes above him. "It hurts." He moaned pitifully.
"Shawn…?" Gus asked, his voice made slightly higher by his worry that something may actually be wrong.
"Spencer! What the hell are you doing? We don't have time for this!" Detective Lassiter yelled, walking briskly back to them. Although before he reached the others, Shawn stood up, an empty look on his face.
"Mark Spies is dead." He intoned in a flat voice, causing everyone, including Lassiter, to stare in shock. "There." He pointed to the alley. Moments later he shook his head as if coming out of a trance. About to speak, he opened his mouth again, but Juliet and Lassiter had already run to the alley.
Gus punched him in the shoulder. "Next time warn me!" He whispered, barely containing his anger.
"I can't control the Spirits, Gus." Shawn grinned, earning himself a glare. Gus quickly stalked away, his tense shoulders and straight back showing his irritation. Jogging to catch up, Shawn reached him just as he reached the detectives.
Juliet was still in a mild state of shock. Her wide-eyed stare was still trying to take in the scene in front of her. Mark Spies lay in a pool of his own blood. His once sandy blonde hair was dripping wet, and covered in the dirt and grime of city streets. His once tall frame was curled in a sick imitation of the fetal position, his legs eternally bent as if trying to push himself out from between the two buildings that had become his deathbed.
The hands that had only hours before shook hands with Shawn were now stiff with rigor mortis, one vainly holding onto the gaping wound just above his belly button, while the other reached out to the street. In his last moments Mark Spies had been trying to reach help, he had tried to save himself. Unfortunately, he had failed, dieing in a back alley of Santa Barbara with only dirt, a rusted green dumpster, and the trash inside it as company.
"I'll call the chief." Lassiter said solemnly after a minute of silence. Pulling out his cell phone, he walked a few feet away and turned his back on the grisly sight in the alley.
Shawn came and stood next to Juliet, while Gus stood slightly behind her to the left. Gus gently placed a hand on her stiff shoulder and smiled reassuringly when she turned to look at him. Shawn took in everything he could, knowing that he and his partner wouldn't be there for much longer.
He could see that the wound on Mark's stomach had been the cause of death. The ragged two inch long incision indicated that the knife was most likely relatively large and serrated. It also showed that it had been plunged into his body and then sharply yanked down, lengthening the incision and nearly doubling the blood flow. The distinct lack of bruises or scratches showed that there was no struggle, which lead Shawn to believe that Mark Spies had known his attacker.
"Spencer, Guster, I want you two out of here." Lassiter ordered,
"But—" Shawn replied, in a whiney child-like tone.
Predicting Shawn's argument, he crossed his arms, "We don't need any 'psychic' assistance." Lassiter said. "So why don't you take you're little sidekick, and get out of here."
"Let's go, Shawn." Gus conceded, almost haughtily. He placed a hand on his friends shoulder, and gently steered him away. As Shawn was pulled away from the crime scene he saw one final piece of evidence. A small bag of white powder was near the body. It couldn't have held more than an gram of the drug, but he knew that it had come from someone with a lot more stashed away.
"It's a setup!" Shawn cried as he and Gus got into the blue car.
"How is it a setup?" Gus asked, a note of disbelief in his voice. Turning the key in the ignition, he looked to the fake psychic, waiting for an explanation.
"Don't you see, Gus!" Shawn exclaimed enthusiastically, which for anyone else might have been considered odd due to the fact that they were talking about a dead body.
"No, Shawn, I don't see. Unlike you I don't have the Spirits to guide me." He replied mockingly, only sparing Shawn a quick glance as he traversed the slick roads.
"He wants us to think it was a drug deal gone bad, or that the dealers were trying to make it look like it was a deal gone bad." Shawn explained, completely disregarding the psychic jibe.
"What?" Gus asked, totally lost by Shawn's leap in logic. "Like that makes sense." He replied sarcastically looking back to Shawn a moment later. "And 'he' who, who is 'he'?"
"I don't know yet…" Shawn replied leaning his head against the window again. "But I will soon. I just need time to think."
Later that night, Shawn lay in his darkened bedroom, tossing and turning in the rumpled coverings of his bed.
"Who is it?" Shawn half moaned staring at the stark white ceiling of his room. "Who did it?" He asked himself for the hundredth time that night. Slowly sitting up in his bed, he threw his legs over the edge, and placed his bare feet onto the cool wood of the floor. Placing his head in his hands, he wracked his brain for the answers.
Jumping up he began to pace the length of the room. "How did he do it…who is the other guy?" He mumbled, and suddenly it was like a herd of stampeding wildebeests had just hit him. "That's it!" He yelled, not caring if he disturbed his neighbors. "How could I have been so stupid?"
He grabbed his cell phone, and quickly dialed Gus's number. After five rings he heard a muffled "'lo"
"Dude! I figured it out! I know who did it!" He exclaimed loudly into the phone.
"Shawn." Gus moaned sleepily, holding the phone away from his ear slightly.
"I can't believe I missed it! I just can't believe it!" He ranted ecstatically into the phone, oblivious to the man on the other end's mood.
"Shawn." Gus tried again to get his friends attention
"Really, I mean how stupid can I get? It was right in front of me the entire time!"
"Shawn!" Gus yelled, finally stopping the happy rant on the other end. "It is three in the morning, I have work tomorrow, and I specifically told you not to call me past ten tonight." Gus admonished crossly, frowning into the phone.
"But Gus—"
"I specifically said not to. No matter what, and I meant it, Shawn. I'm not doing anything, except sleep, from ten p.m. until six a.m. I'm not going to run all over Santa Barbara on some half-formed hunch of yours." Gus continued holding his ground.
"I need to get a look at the alley." Shawn said pulling on his pants, not believing for a second that Gus wouldn't give in.
"No. I have a 'real' job that I have to go to tomorrow. I can't be up half the night."
"I can't go without you, man!" Shawn pleaded standing in the middle of his room in a pair of jeans, no shirt, no socks, and the phone cradled against his shoulder.
"No." He replied, not giving in. "I need to sleep. If this can wait until my lunch break tomorrow, I'll go." Gus decided, pulling the phone away from his ear.
"But Gus…" Shawn pleaded again, putting as much hurt and sorrow into his voice as possible.
"Goodnight!" Gus called loudly into the phone, hanging it up before Shawn could reply. Moments later he was once again fast asleep.
"Gus…Gus…I know you're still there." Shawn said coyly before pausing. "Gus?" He pulled the phone away from his ear when he got no response, and frowned as he closed it, ending the call.
He placed the phone in his pocket as he began to pace once again, his bare feet padding against the wood as he continued in a never-ending loop around the room. "I'll wait…yeah I can do that." He announced to the room before collapsing onto the mussed bed. "Patience is a virtue after all."
Shawn looked at the clock hours later. He had been trying to occupy himself since three a.m., and it was now ten. "Close enough!" He said loudly, pulling his phone out of his pocket.
"Gus!" Shawn practically yelled into the phone.
"Good morning to you too." Gus sighed, still slightly irritable from earlier.
"You have to take an early lunch. We are going to that alley!" Shawn demanded, his jacket already on and his keys in hand.
"Shawn." Gus began.
"I'll meet you there in a half an hour." He continued, ignoring Gus. Hanging up, he grabbed his helmet and walked out the door.
"I just can't—"Gus replied weakly to the dead line, trailing off when he realized that his friend had already hung up.
Hanging up the phone, he dropped his head down on the desk in front of him. "I'm staying here." He decided. " I have responsibilities. He never really needs my help anyways" He reasoned, his words muffled against the dark, smooth wood of his desk. Breathing deeply, he steadied his resolve, but a few seconds later his breathing turned into a huge sigh, and he stood up. Grabbing his keys, he hurried out of the office.
When Gus reached Mark Spies apartment building he could already see the fake psychic impatiently pacing in front of his motorcycle.
"Dude!" Shawn cried gesturing widely with his arms. "What took you so long?" Gus opened his mouth to reply, but Shawn didn't give him the time. "Never mind, we have a murder to solve. Onward!" He announced briskly jogging to the passage, leaving Gus to try and catch up.
Once there, Shawn ducked under the yellow police tape, and crouched next to the still visible pool of blood. The rust colored stain was dull against the dark asphalt; the rain had been washing it, and all of the other physical evidence, away while Shawn had been doing nothing at his apartment. Luckily, Shawn had seen enough the day before to visualize the crime scene, body and all.
Closing his eyes, he placed his fingertips to his temples in an effort to concentrate. Blocking out the few cars whizzing by, and the pattering of the persistent drizzle that had begun earlier that morning while Shawn was reorganizing his CD collection by band name, album release date, and color. He ignored the dog barking two doors down, and the children's laughter and screams of joy that could be distantly heard from the elementary school a few blocks away.
He visualized Mark's body on the ground. He could see the stab wound, the lack of bruises, and the small bag of Cocaine as if it were all still there. Opening his eyes he saw a few splatters of blood leading to a large dumpster against the wall.
"The murder weapon." Shawn said just loud enough for Gus to hear. "They never found it."
"How do you know?" He asked crossing his arms.
"It's under the dumpster, I'd bet my life and all the Pineapples in Hawaii on it." He replied, lying down to look under the metal container.
With his face next to the ground, his cheek pressed to the damp pavement, he could see a medium sized knife lying against the brick wall. The dried blood on the blade was clearly visible, and he could tell that the edge was serrated, just like he had guessed. "Gus! I—" A bullet hitting the wall above the dumpster caused his words to die on his lips.
As he froze another hit the street near his feet. With a girlish scream he jumped up and ran behind the large metal dumpster, pulling a stunned Gus with him.
TBC
Author's note: Here's the third chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it. Even if you didn't please review and tell me what you think.