A few minutes later Shawn parked the car around the block from the Niemen's house. He turned to Gus.
"We'll need to talk to the neighbors to see if they know anything." He said unbuckling his seat belt.
"You think they're going to tell psychic detectives stuff they haven't told the cops?" Gus asked as Shawn made his way to the house of the corner.
"No," Shawn said as he rang the doorbell. "but they would tell magazine salesmen." The door opened and an old woman was standing on the other side. Shawn took one look at her cardigan sweater and tapered jeans and plastered a smile on his face. "Good Afternoon, my name is Shawn Spencer and this is my associate Yom Kippur." He motioned at Gus who smiled politely. "We're selling magazine subscriptions for the local high school and were wondering if you'd like to sign up for any." The lady cocked her head to the side.
"Aren't you boys a little old to be in high school?" she said. Shawn grinned sheepishly.
"Yom and I were never very smart. We're at a second chances high school." He wiped away an imaginary tear. "You know what they say. Second chances are erasers for the white board of mistakes." The lady still looked doubtful.
"Well, you can't be too careful anyways what with that house being broken into up the street, in the middle of the day." Gus shot Shawn a look.
"Broken into in the middle of the day?" Shawn said faking surprise. "The nerve of them, you would think people would respect other people's property." The lady made a tsking noise.
"I know exactly what you mean. I even saw them too. At least I think it was them. They were driving this big black van, mind you there's been a black SUV there for almost two weeks, but this was different. There were two men who went around back. I went to look over my garden fence to see if I could see them, but they had vanished by the time I'd gotten there."
"You didn't happen to see anything on the van, did you?" Shawn said. "You know like on those detective shows." He added when the lady started to give them a suspicious look.
"The van was just plain black, but I'll never forget the men that were driving it. One of those men had a tattoo across his neck, it was an eagle." She said. "Kids these days and marking up their bodies." Just then the phone rang in the house. "I have to go answer that, now go bother someone else with your magazine subscriptions." With that she slammed the door.
"So much for old people being cheerful," Gus said. "that old lady looked like she wanted to kick us in the pants."
"She probably would have done it gracefully though." Shawn said not really paying attention to Gus. He was too busy thinking about the case. "Do you think it would be more impressive to go tell Parker and McNab what we found out, or wait until we're all back at the police station." He asked Gus.
"If we wait until we're back at the police station we can get something to eat." Gus said. "I'm starving." Shawn looked at him.
"Jerk chicken?"
"You know that's right." Gus said getting into the car.
Back at the station Lassiter and Doran were going over pictures of the crime scene and the list of the garage inventory that the Niemen's had sent them. Everything was tacked to a giant cork board and they were whispering to each other as they talked through everything.
"There's a void in the coloration of the concrete there." Doran said pointing at a place in the picture where the garage floor was a lighter color than the rest. Lassiter looked at it and then back at the list.
"The report says they moved an old refrigerator they'd been storing in the garage." He double checked something. "It would have been about a month ago, and they said it had been in the garage since they'd moved in."
"So, that's supposed to be there." Doran said. She took a couple steps back from the board and stretched her arms out a little bit. "I feel like we're missing something."
"How about a purple monkey?" Shawn's voice asked as he and Gus came up to them carrying take out boxes. "Anyone up for lunch?" He held out the boxes. Lassiter rolled his eyes and went back to the board. Shawn set the boxes on the desk and glanced over the board they had made. Without warning he slapped a hand to the back of his neck. He stumbled over to the board and smacked his other hand against one of the pictures. "Something isn't right here."
"Spencer if this is one of your premonitions." Lassiter grumbled still frustrated over the case. Doran watched as Spencer twisted his body and stumbled over to the desk.
"Gus!" Shawn shouted. "It's the bird! The bird is the word!" He threw himself into Lassiter, who instinctively caught him, but then dropped him when he realized who he had caught. Shawn lay on the floor for a moment.
"What's going on?" Amanda asked as she and McNab came up to where everyone was gathered around Shawn. O'Hara came over from her own desk where she had been compiling information on Sokolov.
"We need to find the man with the bird!" Shawn yelled, staggering to his feet.
"A bird?" Lassiter said not believing he was hearing what was coming out of Spencer's mouth. Shawn turned to face him.
"Yes a bird. A big one. Big bird?" He shook his head. "No, not Big Bird. The muppets have fallen on hard times, but they aren't involved with the Russians. An Eagle! There's someone with an eagle involved in this burglary." Doran grabbed the case file out of Lassiter's hands.
"Sokolov's right hand man has a large eagle tattooed across the back of his neck." She said flipping open to a mug shot. "His name is Yuri Metelski." Shawn looked at the picture of the frowning man. He had dark closely cropped hair and a thick mustache. Shawn could see the tattoo clearly on the back of the man's neck in the side shots.
"I'll have an APB put out on Metelski." Lassiter said taking the mug shot from Doran.
"That was amazing Shawn." Amanda said. While Shawn had been in protective custody he hadn't really exhibited any of his 'psychic' skills. Shawn flashed them all a brilliant smile.
"Well you know. I just do what I can to help the people of Santa Barbara." Gus and Lassiter rolled their eyes.
