While Lassiter reluctantly took a shower so he could play chauffeur, Shawn took the opportunity to go through his things. It's been Shawn's experience that organized people always had a Monica Closet. Monica Geller fooled everyone for years into thinking she was the quintessential clean freak, until Chandler stumbled on that closet with all that junk stacked inside nearly bursting right out of it.
Shawn wanted to find Lassiter's Monica Closet. The wisdom inherent in Friends hadn't let him down yet.
He checked the drawers and under the bed, but all he found in the drawers were gun magazines and the only thing he found under the bed was one of his own socks that had been MIA since his last visit here.
Shawn listened at the door to make sure the water was still running and then went to check the rest of the house. There was no attic. The hall closet held a broom and some spare sheets. Shawn had already seen the garage. Lassiter was one of those odd, rare people that actually kept the garage clean enough that he had space to park his car.
The basement was his last hope. Shawn opened the door and flipped on the light.
He grinned. Jackpot.
Shawn started down the steps and was pulled to an abrupt stop. "Going somewhere?" Lassiter asked, all freshly cleaned in a new suit.
Shawn turned to face him. "I wanted to see your basement, you know, compare notes. I just finished organizing my father's, and I thought you might have some useful tips. But obviously your method of storage is to just toss a bunch of random stuff down the stairs and see where it lands."
Lassiter frowned at him. "It's not that bad," he said, looking back at it. "It's just the stuff I don't have time to deal with."
"I'll organize it for you," Shawn offered.
Lassiter narrowed his eyes. "What's the catch?" he asked.
"No catch," Shawn said. "I love to clean. Ask anyone."
"You have three weeks of dishes in your sink," Lassiter said.
"I don't count dishes," Shawn said. "Dishes are a whole other thing. No one likes cleaning dishes, or cutlery of any kind."
"You just want to go through my stuff," Lassiter said, pulling him out of the basement and shutting the door. "There's nothing special down there."
"You have a ten foot stuffed panda down there," Shawn said. "Tell me there's not a story behind that."
"It's only three feet, and there's no story, I just won it at a carnival," Lassiter said. "Look—we don't have time for this. I thought we were going to go investigate?"
"Right," Shawn said, though his fingers were itching to reopen that door. "Eveline. Holly. Murderer on the loose. You're right. First things first. I'll go through your stuff later."
"I'm not letting you organize my basement," Lassiter said.
"Okay," Shawn said. "That's your choice. I respect it. I promise when I come back to go through your stuff later, I won't organize it at all."
Lassiter sighed and pressed the palm of one hand against his forehead. "You're not going to let this go, are you?" he asked.
"Are you going to tell me you haven't gone through my stuff?" Shawn asked.
"Frankly, Shawn, I'm afraid to go through your stuff," Lassiter said. "There's probably a dozen things I could arrest you for just in your bedside drawer. Impersonating an officer, impersonating a health inspector, impersonating a rodeo clown—"
"Are you sure that last one is against the law?" Shawn asked. "I don't think you can actually prove that I'm not a rodeo clown."
"You're kind of missing the point," Lassiter said.
"Is the point that you have stuff in your basement that could get your arrested?" Shawn asked. "Do you keep stolen goods in the panda?"
"No," Lassiter snapped.
"Then you're right, I'm missing the point," Shawn said. "Why can't I go through your stuff again?"
"Because we're leaving," Lassiter said in irritation, and steered Shawn to the front door. Shawn decided to let it go for now, and climbed into the passenger side of Lassiter's car.
Lassiter pulled out of the driveway, and glanced at Shawn, obviously trying to distract him. "Was your father really here?"
"I know you're changing the subject," Shawn said. "I'm going to let you get away with it only because I think you have a right to know that yes, my father did come to your house. He knows where you live. Be afraid."
"Henry's been here before, Shawn, he was here after Drimmer," Lassiter said, and then grimaced. "He came over for poker a few times before that."
"Poker?" Shawn asked. "And you didn't invite me?"
"You probably cheat," Lassiter said.
"Is counting cards cheating?" Shawn asked. "I don't think so. Everyone has their own way to play. I can't help that my way of playing is better than most."
"What I'm trying to say is, I'm not afraid of your father," Lassiter said.
"You looked pretty terrified the other day," Shawn told him.
"I've had time to process it since then, and I've decided it's really ridiculous, being intimidated by Henry," Lassiter said. "Henry wouldn't do anything crazy."
"Pretty much everything Henry does is crazy," Shawn said. "You only know police officer Henry, who plays poker and likes to fish. You haven't quite gotten to know dad Henry yet, and while I think it's really adorable how you're not scared, dad Henry is the craziest Henry of all."
"Everyone thinks that about their dad," Lassiter said.
"Henry is not a normal dad. He's like every crazy sitcom dad ever rolled into one. He nailed my window shut once," Shawn said. "Can you believe that?"
"Were you using it to sneak out?" Lassiter asked.
"Of course," Shawn said. "But it was still excessive. He also used to follow me on dates. One weekend he even set up a whole fake vacation, said he was going out of town with my mom, and the whole time they were at a motel a couple of blocks away. He wanted to know what I would do when I thought he was out of town. He set up a sting, on his sixteen-year-old son, and then got all self-righteous when I threw a party. He sets me up to fail."
"Shawn," Lassiter started.
Shawn ignored him, and glanced out the side window. "And then of course you know about the time he arrested me."
"You stole a car," Lassiter said.
"I borrowed a car," Shawn said.
"I read the report," Lassiter said. "You hotwired it."
"If my dad didn't want me to hotwire cars, he shouldn't have shown me how," Shawn protested. "He overreacts about every little thing."
"Look," Lassiter said, "at least he cares, okay? My father never did any of those things."
"You're lucky," Shawn said.
Lassiter pulled to a stop in front of Acres and Groves. "He never did those things, because he wasn't there to do them," he said, glancing over at Shawn. "At least Henry was trying."
"Lassie," Shawn started, but Lassiter climbed out of the car, slamming the door behind him. Shawn followed him out. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that."
Lassiter pulled his shades off. "I'm not here officially," he said. "I can't flash my badge to get people talking."
Shawn winced. Lassiter was getting good at switching the topic of conversation. "Don't worry, I never have trouble getting people talking," he said. "Just follow my lead."
"We health inspectors?" Lassiter asked dryly.
"I left all my fake IDs in my bedside drawer, so we'll have to wing it," Shawn told him, and entered Acres and Groves. Acres and Groves looked more like a nice hotel than the horror film set that was Wispy Sunny Pines, but it still had that cloying air that could always be found in hospitals: antiseptic and ammonia and something else.
Shawn stopped at the reception desk and rang the bell. Lassiter stood behind him, scanning everything with narrowed eyes. A woman in pink hospital scrubs with little blue and purple hearts on them walked over to the counter. She had short cropped hair dyed Ronald McDonald Red, and about nine different piercings Shawn could spot just on her face. Three in each ear, one in the nose, one in the lip, one in the tongue.
Lassiter was staring at her horror, but Shawn liked to think he was more hip about stuff like that. He glanced at her ID. Her name was Molly Raines. "Groovy piercings, Molly," he said.
She raised a pencil thin eyebrow. "Groovy?" she echoed.
"Hasn't that word made a comeback yet?" Shawn asked. "Groovy? Psychedelic? Psychedelic is a favorite of mine for personal reasons, but didn't seem to apply."
"Are you here to check yourself in?" she asked, in a sotto voice aimed to keep him calm.
"Oh for—" Lassiter snapped, before pushing Shawn out of the way. "We're here about Holly Graves."
"Oh, thank god!" she said, her demeanor switched from wary to relieved in a few seconds flat. "I was so afraid no one was going to come. I called weeks ago."
Lassiter opened his mouth and this time Shawn was the one to push him aside. "We're sorry it's taken us so long to get back to you," he said. "What's happened to Holly?"
"She's gone," Molly said. "She just disappeared one day. We searched the whole hospital, none of the alarms were ever set off, she was just gone."
"Why wasn't this reported to the police?" Lassiter demanded.
"This isn't a prison, Holly was put here at the request of her father, not for any crime," Molly said defensively. "Mr. Graves didn't want anything reported. He said he knew where she was, but I didn't believe him. I tried to get in touch with Mr. Matheus, but I couldn't seem to find him."
"Aldis Matheus the Seventh?" Shawn inquired.
"Yes," Molly said, and then started to look a little suspicious. "I assumed you were here on his behalf. I left a dozen messages with him."
"Of course we are," Shawn said. "But you know there were six other Aldis Matheus' before him, and it doesn't hurt to be exact."
"I guess," Molly said bemusedly, before turning back to Lassiter. "Anyway, Mr. Graves called and said Holly wouldn't need to come back, but now he won't return any of my calls. I wanted to make sure she was alright."
"You seem close with her," Shawn said. "Did you bond over your rhyming names?"
"We were kind of friends," Molly said quietly, before glancing behind her to make sure they were alone. "You're not really supposed to do that. I mean, be nice, right, but not become friends. Except Holly was different, she wasn't like the others. She didn't belong here."
"What was she diagnosed with?" Lassiter asked.
"Don't you know?" she demanded. "I thought you were friends with the family?"
"We are," Shawn said. "But everything we know about it we heard from Harvey, and I think we both know he would have said anything to excuse keeping Holly here."
Molly sighed. "You know about that?" she asked. "He was awful. Makes these huge donations to this place, gets a wing named her, all in return for keeping her safely locked out of his sight. You know he only visited her once a year on her birthday? At least Mr. Matheus was here everyday. But you didn't hear any of this from me."
"She never had any other visitors?" Lassiter asked.
"No," Molly said. "She always told me Andie was going to show up every day. But whoever he was, he never did."
"And how long was Holly here for?" Lassiter asked.
"About fifteen years?" Molly guessed. "Since long before I started anyway."
"You never told us what was wrong with Holly," Shawn asked.
Molly frowned. "Well, she wasn't like other people, she wasn't perfect, but she didn't have to be here," she said. "Her diagnosis was always tentative. Doctors thought maybe some Asperger syndrome, but she functions fine, mostly. Just a little odd. Has trouble relating to others, making connections, but she's smart. Reads books I'd need a dictionary to understand. In my opinion she could easily be living on her own, but I'm not a doctor, right, so what do I know?"
"You think she was smart enough to sneak out of here without setting of any of the alarms?" Shawn asked.
"She must have," Molly nodded. "Because I know she left on her own, she left me a note."
"Do you still have it?" Lassiter demanded.
"No," Molly said, "but I remember what it said. Just: Goodbye, I'm going to find Andie. That's all."
"And you don't know who that is?" Shawn asked.
"No idea," Molly said. "But I hope she finds him. She deserves better than she's had."
"One last question," Lassiter said. "When exactly did Holly leave here?"
"Two weeks ago," Shawn answered.
Molly glanced at him, startled. "Yes, almost to the day," she said.
"Thank you, Molly, you've been a great help," Shawn said, before spinning around and starting for the doors. Lassiter followed after him.
"You've onto something," Lassiter said.
"Not yet," Shawn said. "I'm still piecing it all together, but we're close."
"I'd say we're more than close," Lassiter said, as they got into the car. "Holly spends fifteen years exiled to that place, breaks out, kills Harvey and then goes after Eveline."
"No," Shawn said.
"What? What do you mean no?" Lassiter demanded. "You're the one that figured it out. You were right."
"No, there's something not quite right about that," Shawn said. "We're missing something."
"We've got motive, means, opportunity," Lassiter said. "Just what are we missing?"
"Andie," Shawn said. "Who's Andie?"
"She was crazy," Lassiter said. "It was probably her imaginary friend."
"And did she build that wall by herself?" Shawn asked. "No, she had help. Someone was helping her. Maybe someone still is."
"Even if someone is, I still have to call this in, you know that," Lassiter said.
"Call it in?" Shawn asked. "Call it in where?"
"The station, Shawn," Lassiter said. "They need to go pick Holly up."
"For what?" Shawn demanded.
"Well, let's see, she's an escapee from a mental institution, sneaking around and living in a hidden room," he said. "And someone's been trying to kill Eveline in her home. Guess who gets to be suspect number one."
"The butler?" Shawn asked. "I admit that Alfred is growing on me, but I'm not ready to count him out yet. He's the only one to consistently visit Holly."
"Holly needs to be brought in, for her own good as much as anyone else's," Lassiter said. "I'm calling O'Hara. They need to take her in for questioning."
"This is a bad idea," Shawn said. "We should just go there alone, talk to Holly, try and figure out what's really going on here."
"I'm not working this case officially, and I'm not letting you anywhere near some crazed potential killer," Lassiter snapped. "We do this by the book. I'm sure O'Hara will let you talk to Holly just as soon as we have her in custody."
"Fine," Shawn snapped, and sunk low in the passenger seat.
Lassiter let him sulk, and pulled out his phone to call O'Hara. "O'Hara. Lassiter. It seems that Harvey Graves has a daughter that's spent the last fifteen years over at Acres and Groves. She snuck out a couple weeks ago and has been hiding in the mansion ever since."
Shawn, despite all appearances of nonchalance, strained to hear Juliet's response. "Got it," she answered. "I'll get a team together and go pick her up now. You think she's dangerous?"
Lassiter glanced at Shawn, who looked away. "It's always safer to assume they are," he told her, before hanging up. He started up the car and pulled out quickly. "We'll go there, okay? Once she's secured I'm sure you can talk to her, but I told you before you can't keep running off to try and catch these people alone. You're not trained for this."
Shawn didn't answer him. Instead, he turned away and braced one of his feet against the glove box. He saw Lassiter's mouth tighten, worrying about footprints on his flawless interior, but he ignored it.
"What, you're not talking to me now?" Lassiter demanded.
Shawn crossed his arms. "I don't do long silences," he said resentfully, "but that's the only reason I'm still talking to you."
"I'm just doing my job," Lassiter said. "And whether you like it or not, part of that job is protecting you."
"Well, my job was a lot easier when you didn't care what happened to me," Shawn said petulantly. "I can take care of myself. I've done it for years without help from anyone. Well, except for Gus, but he doesn't count!"
"I'd be doing the same thing with anyone, no matter my personal feelings," Lassiter snapped. "I resent the implication that I wouldn't."
"How many times, since you've known me, have I been wrong about a case?" Shawn asked quietly.
Lassiter's hands tightened on the steering wheel, but he didn't answer.
"Yeah," Shawn said, leaning back in the seat and putting on his sunglasses. "That's what I thought."
Shawn and Lassiter didn't speak for the rest of the ride. Shawn's fingers itched to turn on the radio just to have some sound, but knowing Lassiter it was probably tuned to NPR, and he'd prefer the awkward silence.
Shawn pushed the sunglasses back on his head and sat up straighter when they pulled into the driveway of the mansion. There were three patrol cars in front, with lights flashing but no sirens. He could spot Jules and Buzz amongst all of the bullet-proof vest wearing officers, standing on the front step talking to Eveline.
"Do you think she brought up enough backup?" Shawn asked snidely.
"We need enough people to search the house," Lassiter told him calmly. "You wouldn't be here at all if you weren't our best shot at finding her quickly."
Lassiter got out of the car and slammed the door, and Shawn was tempted not to help. It would probably take them hours to find that hidden room without him, and she might not even be there. But one way or another, Holly couldn't keep living like that. She had to be found.
Shawn got out the car and joined Lassiter, Jules and Buzz at the doorway. Eveline smiled gratefully when she saw him. "Shawn, I don't know what's going on. They want to search the house for Holly, but I don't think this is necessary, really, I—"
Shawn wanted to agree with her, but he didn't. "Holly left a psychiatric hospital without permission," Shawn said. "She may need help. We need to find her. We'll all be very careful, won't we?"
"Of course," Juliet said reassuringly.
After a moment, Eveline nodded and stepped back. She grabbed Shawn's arm when he went to follow the others. "They said Holly might have killed Harvey," she said. "Do you think that's true?"
"I need to speak with her before I know anything for sure," Shawn said.
Eveline nodded and let him go. Lassiter and Juliet were waiting for him by the hallway.
"Shawn, do you know where?" Juliet asked him.
Shawn pointed to the stairway. "She'd go somewhere she felt safe, she'd probably be in her father's room."
"Shawn," Lassiter said tightly.
Shawn heaved a sigh, and pointed to the other hallway. "Okay, she'd probably be in the hidden room down that way." He started to the hallway and Lassiter grabbed him by the back of his shirt, before turning him towards the other hall.
"Wrong hall," Lassiter snapped. "Stop messing around and show us the room."
"Okay," Shawn said, slipping out of Lassiter's grip. "Fine. If you already know where she is, then why don't you lead the way?"
"Harvey's office," Lassiter said, staring at Shawn the whole time. "It's this way."
Shawn followed Juliet and Lassiter, walking beside Buzz. Juliet motioned for the rest of the officers to spread out. The lights in the hall still weren't working, but there was enough spare sunlight that they could see where they were going. Juliet went into the office first, gun out, to secure the room.
Lassiter ushered Shawn in after her, while Buzz stayed to guard the door. "Okay, Shawn, where is it?" Lassiter asked.
Shawn pointed to the wall. "There somewhere," he said. "Just look for the crack in the wallpaper. I can't remember exactly."
"Stay back," Lassiter told Shawn.
Lassiter and Juliet ran their hands over the wall, searching for any break. He figured Shawn knew exactly where the door was, but was just being purposely vague. That was to be expected, but after a moment Lassiter realized that Shawn had listened to the order to stay back. Shawn never did as he was told.
That's when he started to worry.
Lassiter spun back around, and the room behind him was empty. Shawn was gone. He went to the doorway. "McNab," he snapped. "Where did Spencer go?"
"He didn't go anywhere, he's still in the room," Buzz said.
"Lassiter?" Juliet asked. "What's wrong?"
Lassiter narrowed his eyes at the opposite wall. Unlike Shawn, he made no claims of prescience, but he still knew he should have seen this coming. "He lied, the door's hidden on the other wall," he snapped, moving towards it.
He scanned the wallpaper until he spotted the door, but when he pressed against it nothing happened. He slammed a hand against the door. "Spencer! Spencer, you open this damn door!"
x x x x x x
"Hi, Holly," Shawn said, as he turned the lock on the door behind him.
Holly stared at him with wide eyes. She didn't look much older than her picture, though she had to be thirty by now. She was wearing the same torn white dress he'd seen her in before, with a big bow half untied on the back of it. Her blonde hair was braided all the way down to her waist.
"You shouldn't be here," she said. "This room is secret."
"I didn't mean to interrupt," Shawn said, stepping closer, with his hands out palms up. "What are you doing?"
She was sitting on her bed and writing on the back of a magazine in purple pen, streams of words that couldn't really be seen overlaid on top of a Maybellene ad. "Someone took my diary," she told him.
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that, that was me," Shawn said.
"That's stealing," she said sternly. "And you're not supposed to lock the door. That's for emergencies only."
"This kind of qualifies," Shawn said. "Holly, do you know who I am?"
"You were in the hall the other day, but I don't talk to strangers," she said. "I shouldn't be talking to you now."
Shawn could hear Lassiter pounding on the door, shouting for him to open it. Holly winced at the noise but ignored it. "I'm Shawn Spencer, I was hired by Eveline to help. See? I'm not a stranger if you know my name," he said. "I talked to Molly today. She's worried about you."
"Molly's my friend," Holly said. "But I had to go away from there."
"Why did you have to leave, Holly?" he asked.
"Andie wouldn't come see me, so I had to go find her," Holly said. "She said we're going to be okay now that Harvey's gone."
"Who is Andie?" Shawn asked.
"She tucked me in, but not anymore, she was sent away," Holly said. "I hid where I couldn't be found, or I would have been sent away, too."
"I'm sorry," Shawn said. Outside, he could hear Lassiter screaming orders. He didn't seem to care that he wasn't supposed to be here officially anymore. "Have you been sleeping here?"
"I don't sleep well," Holly said. "This room is smaller than it was before. I see things, when I sleep, and I don't like it."
"I have bad dreams too," Shawn said.
"There's no such thing as bad dreams," she said. "There's dreams and there's nightmares. They're different things."
Shawn nodded. "Then I don't have dreams anymore, at least not at night."
Holly watched him carefully for a moment, before nodding and turning away. "She used to come here, you know, sweet dreams, sweet dreams—but never there, I never saw her there. It's why I came back, it's why I came home."
"What about your father?" he asked.
"I call him Harvey, he was very strict about that," she said. "Hello, Harvey, how are you today. I am well. Goodbye, Harvey, have a pleasant evening."
"He taught you to do that? Say those things?" Shawn asked.
"Oh, yes, he taught me to say lots of things, so I would seem normal," she explained. "Do I seem normal? Is it working?"
"You're doing just fine," Shawn said. "I need you to tell me more about Andie."
"Andie, I always call her Andie, you know. Harvey and Andie," Holly said. "Are you doing well today? You're looking very well. Have a pleasant evening."
"Andie was your mother," Shawn said in realization.
"Oh, you mustn't call her that," Holly said. "It's Andie. It's always been Andie. No one knows, you see. I'm the secret."
"You don't have to be a secret anymore," Shawn said. The pounding behind them was growing louder. Shawn could pick out Lassiter's voice in the crowd, demanding again for him to open the door. He stepped closer to Holly instead.
"Andie said it was my fault, if I had been better, smarter, Harvey would have married her instead, we would have been a family," she said. "But he didn't want a daughter like me so that's why he's just Harvey."
"Do you know what happened to Harvey?" Shawn asked.
"I found him dead in the pool," Holly said, tracing a model's eye with the purple marker like she was drawing on eye shadow. "I dragged him out but he was still dead."
"Did you see what happened?" Shawn asked.
Holly shook her head. "I had to stay out of his way, he wanted to send me back," she said. "But he couldn't send me back if he couldn't find me. I'd hear him sometimes, working at his desk, on the other side of the wall."
"What about Aldis?" Shawn asked.
"Aldis helps me," Holly said, and smiled. "He had this wall built when Andie asked him. He brings me food. Sometimes he tells me stories."
Shawn could see something like a crowbar jammed into the edge of the door, and he knew they didn't have long. "Holly, some of my friends are out there. They're going to want you to go with them."
"They want to take me back," she said sadly.
"Yeah," Shawn said. "But I'm going to prove that you haven't done anything wrong."
Holly turned to look at Shawn. "How can you be sure I haven't?"
"I'm psychic," Shawn said.
Holly laughed. "No you're not," she said, and the door slammed open behind her. Two of the officers gently grabbed her by both arms while Lassiter slipped past them to Shawn.
"Are you alright?" he demanded. Shawn nodded.
"Goodbye, Shawn," Holly said. "It was nice to meet you. I hope you have a very pleasant evening."
Shawn stepped towards her and Lassiter grabbed him. "Hey, slow down," Lassiter snapped.
"It's going to be okay!" Shawn called after her.
"That's what Andie said, too," she said as they led her from the room. "But it wasn't true."
Shawn had stopped fighting Lassiter's hold, waiting instead until he let go to step away. "What the hell was that, Spencer?" Lassiter asked. "Did she lock the door or did you?"
"I think you already know the answer to that," Shawn said.
"You don't lock yourself in a room with a crazy murder suspect, Shawn! What is the matter with you?" Lassiter demanded, grabbing Shawn's arm to spin him around so they were face to face.
"I had to know for sure," Shawn said.
"What?" Lassiter snapped. "What did you have to know that was so important?"
"That she was innocent," Shawn said.
Lassiter reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose, but it did nothing to stall the headache that he felt coming on. "Is this like with Cyril?"
"I was right about Cyril," Shawn said.
"Not completely," Lassiter snapped. "You went into this convinced she was innocent. Why? What do you know that I don't?"
"I know she's not a killer," he said. "You know her father used to make her rehearse? Little phrases for her to say when other people were around. Hello, how are you today? That kind of thing. Over and over. She has it written hundreds of times in that diary we found, but I didn't realize why until now."
Lassiter heaved a sigh, and lowered his hand. "Shawn—"
"I know what it's like to constantly disappoint your father," Shawn said. "We do okay now, but this is actually the closest we've been since I was eleven years old. I know what it's like. And Holly's never had someone to speak up for her."
"You're not anything like her, and everything you just said, that sounds like motive to me," Lassiter said quietly. "She had every reason to hate him."
"She had every reason to, but she didn't," Shawn said. "She didn't come back here for revenge, she came back here because she wanted a home, she wanted a family."
"She's mentally unstable, you know that," Lassiter said. "She's going to be safer in custody, either way. They're going to get her help."
"She doesn't need their help," Shawn said. "She needs mine."
"If she's innocent, we're going to prove it," Lassiter said. "We're just going to do it the right way."
"What you need to be doing is finding Andie," Shawn said.
"The imaginary friend?" Lassiter asked.
"She's not imaginary, she's Holly's mother," Shawn said.
"As far as we can tell, Holly doesn't even have a birth certificate. We can't find her mother. I'll make sure O'Hara asks Holly about Andie, but we can't just let Holly go because you've got a hunch."
"Right, of course not," Shawn said, and started for the door. "I'll find her myself."
Lassiter brushed past him and blocked the doorway out. "You're still not trusting me."
"Shouldn't that be my line?" Shawn asked. "I'm the one asking to be believed. You said before, with Cyril, that you only couldn't trust me because I was lying to you, but I'm not lying now and you're still not listening to me."
"Because you're not explaining your reasons any better than you did before," Lassiter said.
Shawn laughed. "Right, you want me to trust you, but you're the one that keeps asking me to explain myself. I'm not going to keep trying if you're not going to listen to what I say. You've got Holly in custody. Congratulations. Go have a drink and celebrate."
Shawn ducked under Lassiter's arm and went out the door. "Shawn!" Lassiter called after him, but Shawn didn't stop.
He went down the hallways and the down the front steps. He could see the back of Holly's braided hair in the back of a patrol car, driving away, and he didn't notice the other patrol car coming down the driveway right at him.
Shawn spun around at the sound of screeching brakes, and stared down at the hood of the police car that had stopped all of three inches from his feet. Buzz stared back at him from the driver's seat, looking just as startled, and then leaned out the window with a frown.
"You need to look both ways before crossing the street," Buzz told him seriously, and Shawn was guessing this was as stern as Buzz would ever manage to get.
"You're right, I'm sorry. You heading back to the station?" he asked. "Do you think you could drop me off at the Psych office?"
"Sure, hop in," Buzz said. He glanced at Shawn as he got in the passenger seat. "Are you okay?"
"Fine," Shawn said. He saw Lassiter rushing out of the mansion in the side mirror as they pulled out into the street, but Buzz didn't seem to notice.
Buzz had apparently already gotten over their near miss, and was smiling brightly as he talked about his wife. Shawn tuned him out until he was just a bunch of friendly Buzz white noise, and wished he had a Red Bull.
"—but, well, you know how it is to be in a relationship, it's never all easy, is it?" Buzz said.
Shawn finally tuned him back in and turned to him in surprise. "Huh?"
"Well, you're dating Lassiter," Buzz said. "Don't get me wrong. Detective Lassiter is a great guy. I like him a lot. But he kinda scares me."
"You know about me and Lassiter?" Shawn asked.
"Doesn't everyone?" Buzz asked. "I didn't realize it was a secret, you're just so obvious."
"No, it's not really a secret," Shawn said. "It's just no one else believes me."
"You started seeing each other after the Dah-Ling case, right?" Buzz asked. "I noticed right away. Lassiter smiles more. At first I was kind of terrified, but then I realized it was because of you."
Shawn shifted and looked out the window. The first few days were always smiles. That's why Shawn's relationships never lasted past them. "It's not a secret, but could you not spread it around?" Shawn asked. "Lassiter would probably appreciate it."
"What about you?" Buzz asked.
"I'm not sure it's even going to matter much longer," Shawn said, as they pulled to a stop in front of the Psych office. "Thanks for the ride."
"Anytime," Buzz said, but he was frowning again, and Shawn's mood must be pretty terrible if he was even bringing Buzz down.
Shawn waved goodbye to Buzz, and waited until he drove off to hop on his bike. He needed some time to think, to clear his head. To piece this case and his life together in some way that made sense again. So he started driving.
It was anyone's guess where he was going to end up.