CHAPTER SEVEN: SHOWDOWN THE SECOND
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In the end, it was Juliet who saved the day.
Lassiter ran like hell through the park, dodging sitters and walkers and joggers and Frisbee-tossers; he nimbly jumped over, ran around and otherwise avoided dogs, ducks, toddlers and sleepers.
The man he was chasing was nearly as fast as he was. Nearly.
But he wasn't as collision-free; there were several times when Lassiter, hot on his heels, had to avoid the debris cast down by one of the unfortunate victims of an unintentional body-slam.
Guster, somehow, impossibly, came out of nowhere from the side—Lassiter dimly remembered a long-standing fact of the Spencer/Guster partnership being Gus' speed relative to Spencer's—and leapt at the man.
Regretfully, he missed. Lassiter sprawled on top of Guster with an oof before he could hit his personal brakes and the man got a good thirty feet in front of them when Juliet, not too far behind and probably way more pissed off than any of the rest of them, took a shot into the clear space ahead of the suspect… who froze.
Lassiter was on his feet in one second, and that second was all he needed to take the temporarily-indecisive suspect down.
Spencer jogged up, desperately out of breath. "Good… job, Lassie. Good… yeah… job…"
Juliet gave a hand up to Guster and hurried over to Lassiter, who'd dragged the suspect to his feet and was cuffing him.
"Good thing… you've got… those…" Pause to hold his side in pain. "… long stick legs… huh… yeah…"
"Shut up, Shawn," Juliet snapped.
"Why were you running?" Lassiter demanded of the man, yanking his ID out of his pocket. "Dennis Vander. Why?"
"Why were you chasing me?" Vander retorted.
"Because you started running, moron." Lassiter jerked him around. "I think we'll be taking you down to the police station for a little Q&A. We give the Qs, you give the As… got that?"
Spencer was still gasping. "Surprised your… ears… don't… hold you back… when you… run, Lassie."
Juliet spun on her heels. "Didn't I just tell you to shut up?"
"You… were serious?"
Lassiter gave a curt nod to Guster. "Thanks for the attempted assist."
Gus nodded, brushing dirt off his khakis. He looked between Spencer and the others nervously and Lassiter knew he was aware they were in a Bad Place. In fact, the only reason he could think of that Guster would have launched himself at Vander was in an attempt to bolster Psych's sagging reputation.
"All right, guys," Juliet said, returning her weapon to its holster. "You two are coming back to the station too."
"You… don't need us, Ju…ules. You got the guy. I'm… sure Lassie here… can beat the… answers out of him. That's… how he gets… most of them any… way… right?"
Lassiter didn't wait to hear anything else. He marched Vander back across the park and its gathering onlookers, and stuffed him into the Crown Vic for the ride 'home.'
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Karen sat through a budget meeting at City Hall, her mind wandering. She needed more coffee, Councilman Nolan was an idiot, the sun reflecting off the glass in the framed paintings was blinding her, and ever in her head was Saturday morning with Carlton.
And how to get that close to him again.
As much as she loved her daughter, it crossed her mind more than once—not that she was proud of it—to come up with ways to get her out of the house for a few hours. Two would be enough, she thought a bit guiltily, no matter what Carlton's better intentions were, and overnight would be fan-damn-tastic.
Friday was a long-ass time away.
The councilman was speaking to her. She forced her attention back to the meeting and spoke with relative authority as to the question she hoped he'd asked.
It seemed to work, and then someone asked about the status of the double homicide in the park. She said coolly that her best team was working the case, and they hoped to have answers soon.
Councilman Nolan said, "I understand those psychics were claiming information?"
Karen frowned—but kept her smile on. "If you're referring to our consultant Shawn Spencer and his associate, the majority of the information they brought had already been uncovered by my detectives."
"And the rest of it?"
"Was vague."
Nolan was interested. "And do they get paid for providing redundant and/or vague information? I ask because this is a budget meeting, after all."
Clever, she thought, and said coolly, "When we hire them, we pay for the information they provide. However, since they've not been hired for this investigation, I think the budget is safe. Sir."
Another councilman asked peremptorily, "Shouldn't all resources be utilized to solve a high-profile crime of this nature?"
Nolan glared at him, but the man was waiting for Karen's response.
"All resources are utilized as needed, Councilman. I'm confident my excellent detectives have the investigation well in hand. Now if you want to discuss hiring more police officers, I'm certainly interested in providing whatever information you need to make that happen."
He dropped it. She let her Inner Smirk go wild.
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Dennis Vander was ex-military with considerable marksmanship skills. He'd been honorably discharged due to unspecified health reasons, or at least reasons Lassiter and Juliet couldn't get to at the moment, and Vander wasn't volunteering.
He admitted Specht was his chess friend, and he admitted that the gun they recovered from his car was registered in his name, and as a matter of fact, did use the same caliber bullets as the one which killed Nalley.
There was no green bit of paper found on his person, but it didn't take long for Buzz to report in that Specht's park chess club had made up little fake 'badges' in the same color green paper as found on his body.
"So," Lassiter said relatively calmly, "you and Specht were in the same chess club, you own a gun and were an expert military marksman, and… I'm not really seeing why we shouldn't consider you a lead suspect in the murder of Tom Nalley."
Behind him, Juliet idly paced a slow careful line from one end of the room to the other.
Vander slouched in his chair, and Lassiter read in him something akin to a caged animal, a man trying his best to keep his cool under pressure. "How about I had no motive?"
"How about Specht was a friend of yours and maybe you came up on him fighting with Nalley? How about you saw Nalley stab him and took revenge?"
Vander shook his head, staring at the table surface. "I had no reason to kill that guy. I didn't even know him."
"No," Lassiter corrected, "you had no reason to flee. You had a reason to kill him, if you were trying to stop him from harming your friend."
"So how come you're not asking why Nalley killed Specht?" he demanded.
"Because I figure you're the only person who knows the answer to that question."
Vander glared at him, pale blue eyes watery. He was fatigued and agitated and right now he hated everyone in sight.
Juliet said quietly, "We'll give you a minute," and tapped Lassiter on the arm.
He rose wordlessly and followed her out into Observation.
"He's about to lose it."
"I know." Lassiter ran his hand through his hair. "Anybody else I'd say bring it on, but I don't think this guy's gonna go nuts in a calm and orderly manner."
She sighed. "I'll go check with ballistics."
Lassiter studied her; in a way she was just as agitated at Vander. "What did you do with Spencer and Guster?" She had insisted they come back to the station, but that had been over two hours ago and he hadn't seen or heard them anywhere.
"They're in Interrogation B," she said, her tone short. "I told them to wait until the Chief came back."
His eyebrows rose. "And you think they're still there?"
"I think the armed officer at the door's pretty sure they're still there." She slipped out the door before he could express surprise.
And not a little admiration.
He took a look through the one-way glass and watched Vander for a moment.
His mind was working through the details, and it seemed pretty simple: for whatever reason, Nalley and Specht fought. Vander walked up into it and shot Nalley to stop the assault on his friend. Ballistics indicated the gunshot which killed Nalley had been fired from at least ten feet away, but it was a clean shot with deadly accuracy. Vander had that skill.
The door opened and he turned idly, expecting Juliet.
But it was the Chief of Police, who looked around to be sure he was alone. "Hey," she said softly, closing the door.
Lassiter swallowed. Yeah… he still wanted her. "Hey. Here's our suspect."
Karen stood beside him at the glass and he drank in her scent, and after a moment her hand slipped into his warmly. "You like him for it?"
"Yeah. Ballistics has the gun now. He's edgy, but he hasn't asked for a lawyer." He squeezed her hand, and she squeezed back, leaning against him possessively, making him flush.
"Get him one," she said. "The minute Ballistics comes back with a match. This case is too public for there to be any question about how we're handling it."
"Yes, ma'am." He savored the feel of her hand in his, and it was such a sweet and simple thing, really, hand-holding, that it took the edge off most of the day and some of how much he wanted her.
She smiled up at him, and he thought again that her eyes were utterly beautiful.
"We do have one issue," he said, hating to break the spell. "It involves Spencer."
"Of course it does. I'm already annoyed."
"Excellent. Saves time." He was one second away from kissing her when the door opened again.
"Oh, Chief, good," said Juliet. "They told me you were back. We need to speak with you and Henry and Psych in your office about this Vander case."
We do? Well… yeah, we do.
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Karen led the parade to her office, noting but not asking why Shawn and Gus were let out of Interrogation B—as in allowed to leave—because she figured all would be made clear soon enough.
Taking a seat, she made quick judgments that Henry wasn't sure what was going on, Shawn and Gus were unsettled, Carlton was doing his usual admirable impression of impassive, and Juliet was made of icy bits of stone.
"You have my undivided attention. Why is McNab posted outside the door?"
McNab turned and nodded, a bit embarrassed, and no one answered her question. Let it go for now, she decided.
"We had a tip this morning," Juliet began calmly enough, "just as we were about to arrive at the park, which directed us across town to Moeller Park to find our suspect."
Karen glanced at Shawn. He was unusually un-fidgety.
"It only took a few minutes to figure out we'd been sent on a snipe hunt. It only took a few seconds to realize who called in the tip." She looked pointedly in Shawn's direction.
Henry rolled his eyes. "Shawn," he muttered, but that was all.
"When we came back to our original destination, we found Shawn and Gus talking to Vander, who subsequently fled. He—"
"Excuse me, but I think you left out the part where you told Vander we couldn't be trusted!" Shawn objected, as if he had her over a barrel.
"I also left out the part where you admitted to calling in a fraudulent tip and thus impeding a police investigation," she shot back.
Karen interrupted. "You warned Vander about them?" 'Bout time someone did. "What was your reason for doing that?"
Juliet met her gaze squarely. "Chief, I was pissed off and tired of being jerked around. At the moment I issued the warning, we didn't have any actual reason to suspect Vander of anything. For all we knew, Shawn was quizzing him about taco stands."
Oh, it was hard to resist a grin, and Karen silently commended her for admitting to her own human frailty.
Huffing, Shawn folded his arms and shook his head. Gus looked ill.
She stole a glance at Carlton, who was watching her, still impassive. She commended him too, because surely it was taking massive self-control not to egg Juliet on.
"And then?"
"We pursued Vander."
"We helped," Shawn interjected.
"Gus attempted to tackle Vander," Juliet said composedly, "but was unsuccessful; however, Carlton lost his balance, which cleared a path for me to discharge my weapon and get Vander's attention. Carlton then took him down." She glanced up at her partner, who nodded at her solemnly.
"And none of that would have happened if you'd just stayed out it," Shawn said hotly.
Juliet turned on him at once. "Stayed out of it? Stayed out of police business?"
Karen held up her hand. "Let me get this straight, Mr. Spencer. You had reason to believe Dennis Vander was a person of interest in this investigation?"
"Yes! I… divined that he was a chess player, and… the spirits told me he'd be at the park this morning for a new tournament."
Karen sighed. "And divining that he was a person of interest in an investigation you have not been hired by any person or agency to participate in, you not only withheld this information from the police, but willfully—"
"I had to be sure!" he protested. "And I would have been sure if Jules hadn't been pissed at me, and he never would have run or had to be chased by Stilts over there, and—"
"Enough!" she snapped, getting to her feet, because there it was again. Yet another needless slam to Carlton, one like so damned many she had let pass over the years. "Do not interrupt me again, Mr. Spencer."
He subsided. Henry rubbed his face, because he, unlike his son, could see the train coming.
"Not only did you withhold the information," Karen went on flatly, "but you willfully misdirected my officers across town so you could question the man first."
"Well, since you keep saying we're not working the case, technically we had a right to talk to anyone we wanted to in the park."
Karen couldn't believe it, but fine, let's play it that way. "And Mr. Spencer, you are so right! You are free to talk to any damn person you want in the park, from chess players to black market hair gel suppliers. But that's not the crux of the problem, see. The crux of the problem is that you are not, in this matter, some innocent citizen just chattin' up a new bud. You are a citizen who knew perfectly well not to get involved in this investigation, and you set out to deliberately impede it for your own utterly stupid-ass reasons!"
Gus abruptly crossed to the table in the corner and sat down, obviously not sure his legs would hold him up anymore.
"I wouldn't call them stupid-ass," Shawn managed.
"No, I don't suppose you would. And here you are, still managing to deny, evade, work in totally inappropriate insults to my head detective, and act like the wounded puppy you have most likely never once been in your entire life."
Henry cleared his throat. "Karen, if I may…"
"No. No, Henry, you may not, because I have finally had enough. Impeding a police investigation is a serious matter. If my detectives hadn't caught Vander, who knows where he'd be right now?"
Shawn argued, "He only ran because she warned him!"
"He ran," Carlton said calmly, "because he overheard your argument with O'Hara, wherein you referred to him as 'the guy.'"
"Stay out of this, Lassie."
"It's Lassiter," Juliet ground out.
"God help us, every one," Gus whispered.
Karen again snapped, "That's enough! There are consequences, Mr. Spencer, to every action, and so far as I can see you've skated past a lot of them over the years." She stared at him a moment, trying to figure out why in the hell he just wouldn't learn. "You know, I can only imagine how many times Henry had to send you to your room when you were a boy—or thirty—but I think it's high time we tried that tactic again."
Henry looked up sharply. Shawn's eyes went wide.
She zoomed in on Gus. "Mr. Guster, did you make the phone call to the tipline or in any way encourage your associate to do so, and before you answer, keep in mind we record every tip?"
He stared in terror at her, and then at Shawn, and then at Henry, and then back at Shawn.
Shawn gave it up with a sigh. "He didn't do it. He tried to talk me out of it."
Gus almost shuddered with relief.
Karen turned back to Shawn and spoke very clearly so he wouldn't miss even one syllable. "Shawn Spencer, you are under arrest for impeding a police investigation, and if I have anything to say about it—and guess what, I do!—you will spend at least one full night in jail."
Henry said, "Karen—"
Shawn said anxiously, "Chief—"
Juliet was stock still and Carlton reached for his cuffs, but he kept whatever joy he might have felt to himself.
She held up her hand. "Stand down, Detective. I wouldn't dream of giving up this prize to Shawn's father, girlfriend or favorite punching bag." She yanked open her top drawer and removed her own pair of handcuffs, and Shawn was completely horrified. "Turn around, please. I strongly suggest you try something new and exercise your right to remain silent, because I can for damn sure promise you that anything you say can and will be used against you. You have the right to an attorney that your father or friend can afford, or you can take whichever desperate public defender wants the job. Do you understand these rights?"
He obeyed, stunned into silence for no doubt the first time in two decades, and Karen fastened the cuffs around his wrists with a satisfying click. Nodding to Buzz, who was still standing agog in the doorway, she asked him to escort Mr. Spencer to Booking.
"Oh, and Shawn," she added pleasantly, "if you're hoping to get your father or Mr. Guster to bail you out in the next five minutes? You'd be surprised just how long it can take to do some types of paperwork."
God, I love my job sometimes.
Shawn had no fight left in him. Henry just kept shaking his head.
Karen waved dismissively toward the door, and all of them left slowly and silently, except for Juliet, who hung back in the doorway to say three words very, very quietly.
"That's ex-girlfriend, Chief."
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