Lassiter followed behind Sydney, hoping she had a plan. Knowing his luck she didn't and was doing what her father seemed to do a lot.
She found the staircase and paused. Holding out her hand so he couldn't pass. For a minute, she stood there still and silent. She must have heard what she wanted because she crept up the stairs, Lassiter following close behind.
He watched as she cracked the door open, peeked out, and then slammed it open. "You know, my mom raised me to be polite to guests. Were you two raised in a barn or something?"
"What the?"
"How did she get out?"
He had to laugh at the surprise in their voices and he came up the stairs, gun at the ready. "Freeze."
Standing in the middle of what looked to be a living room was Drimmer. Wignal was sitting on the couch and stood up when he entered. "Detective."
"Wignal."
"Who's the brat?"
"What's with everyone calling me that? I like to think that I have a sweet sunshiny personality." Sydney made her way to the kitchen counter and sat on top of it.
Lassiter had to hold a laugh in. "Who she is, is none of your business."
He heard a click and saw Drimmer point a gun right at him. "How about now?"
"Are we really going to do this again?"
"Cause it ended so well for you the first time." Sydney muttered as she started digging through drawers.
"She's got a point." Lassiter took a couple steps forward.
Drimmer glared between the two of them, and for a second he saw that he didn't know what to do.
"Oh, this is an original hiding place." Lassiter heard a click and looked over to see Sydney holding a gun pointed right at Drimmer. "I believe the odds aren't in your favor. And for future reference, kitchen drawers aren't a good hiding place."
"Its convenient though." Lassiter murmured and Sydney glanced at him quickly.
"Really?"
"What?" Lassiter shrugged, not taking his attention away from Drimmer.
Drimmer was looking even more uncertain. Lassiter heard a car outside and Drimmer smiled and quickly turned and shot towards Sydney.
She jumped down from the counter and returned it, but Drimmer was already on his way out the door. Lassiter turned and fired a couple of shots and grazed Drimmer's shoulder with the last one as he disappeared out of sight into the night.
Wignall tried to run but Sydney came charging out of the kitchen and threw a punch that stunned him. Lassiter crossed the room and threw the punch that sent him to the ground. Behind him, he heard another thump and turned to see Sydney doubled over on the ground.
"Sydney?" Lassiter hurried over to where she had sat up and found her on the floor examining her foot. Blood was already seeping through her show.
"He got off a lucky shot, but he can enjoy trying to move that shoulder." She winced.
"What were you doing?"
She looked up. "What needed to be done."
"He got away." Lassiter dragged Wignal and shut him in the basement so he couldn't' get away when he woke up.
"He'll be back."
Lassiter knew he had to be looking like she was crazy. "What makes you say that?"
She nodded to the table on the far side of the room. "Those papers may answer that."
"Let's take care of you first." He picked her up and sat her on the couch, propping her foot on the table. "Did the bullet go clear through?"
Sydney looked at the bottom of her shoe and pulled out a bullet. "Yup."
"Take off the shoe, we've got to clean that." Lassiter looked around and found a bathroom. After some digging, he found some first aid supplies and a towel. "Clean it, now."
Sydney tried to get the shoe off but winced. "I can't, getting it off involves moving my foot too much."
He grabbed the bottle of alcohol, paused, grabbed a pillow, and handed it to her. "This is going to hurt."
"I know." She squeezed the pillow.
He poured part of the bottle over the hole in the top of her shoe and heard Sydney cry out in pain. He did the same for the bottom and received the same result.
"Holy crap that hurt."
"I know." Lassiter put the cap on the bottle. He held up the towel. "I'm going to have to wrap it shoe and all."
"Hopefully, that will stop the bleeding." Sydney looked around and he saw a smile grow on her face. "There's a phone in this room."
He looked around, not seeing one. "Can you be a little more specific?"
"Kitchen, wall side cabinet. Umm, I'm seeing the top one?" Sydney had her eyes closed and was concentrating.
Lassiter looked over but didn't see anything. With a shrug, he wrapped her foot in the towel and she held it there. With a nod, he went and found a phone in the cabinet. He stretched the base as far as he could, and then dialed a number.
"SBPD, how may I direct your call?"
"Chief Karen Vick please."
"May I ask who's calling?"
"Head Detective Carlton Lassiter."
"Hold on a second Detective." Lassiter let out a sigh of relief, eyeing Sydney who was humming something to herself.
"Detective?" The chief sounded frantic when she picked up.
"Yeah Chief?"
"Oh thank goodness." He heard her sigh of relief. "Trace this call." She must have waved someone in.
"Right away Chief."
"Are you two ok?"
"Sydney was shot by Drimmer but we both managed to get him. He got away with I'm assuming Cowley. Jenkins and Wignall are locked in the basement."
As if on cue, pounding started on the basement door. "Nice try suckers! The only way you're getting out of that basement is by wearing a pair of matching bracelets." Sydney made a face at the door.
Lassiter laughed. " I think she'll be ok. Oh, the airbag may have broken her nose, but she hasn't let that phase her."
"Have you called Mr. Spencer?"
"Why would I call him before you?" Lassiter tried to play dumb, not sure if Spencer had spilled the beans yet.
"Because he's worried sick about Sydney and Henry is on a warpath."
He groaned, remembering the last time Henry had been on a family member related warpath. "I'm surprised he hasn't managed to mobilize the National Guard."
"Probably not from lack of effort." The chief's voice held a hint of a laugh. "Are you ok, Detective?"
"So far, I've been on the better end of this than Sydney."
"A team is on its way, hold tight."
"Will do."
"Call Spencer."
"Which one?"
"Both, I think they're together at the Psych office."
Lassiter nodded. "Will do."
The call ended and Lassiter looked over to see Sydney staring out the still open door. "Detective?"
"What's wrong?"
She looked over to him, and for the first time he saw fear in her eyes. "I have a feeling that they are going to come back before the cops get here."
Shawn felt his eyes glaze over, he'd been staring at Wignall's file for over an hour and nothing shed any light onto what they were up to, no idea where they'd stashed Lassie and Syd.
He leaned back in frustration and looked around. Gus was playing some game on his computer and hoping no one noticed. Juliet was bent over her graph paper, and his Dad was trying to make it look like he hadn't dozed off reading the paper.
Needing a distraction, he grabbed the photo album and turned it to the beginning, this time studying the pictures. A photo, he checked the caption to see it was Halloween when she was 7, showed her in a Sherlock Holmes costume jacket and all.
He heard a noise and saw Henry straighten up. "What time is it?"
"About nine." Gus didn't look away from the screen.
"How's the game."
"Would you stop doing that?" Gus looked away long enough to glare.
"Would you try challenging me every once in a while." Shawn laughed as the phone rang. He grabbed the cordless, on its charger for once, and answered. "Psych."
"Spencer."
Shawn sat straight up at the sound of Lassie's voice, quickly putting it on speaker. "Lassie?"
"Carlton?"
"Lassiter?"
"Lassie?" Gus, Jules, and his dad came running to the phone.
"Are you trying to find us or having a party there, Spencer?"
"Where's Sydney?" Shawn and his dad answered in unison.
"Relax guys, I'm fine." She didn't sound fine, she sounded like she was in pain. But still, Shawn was relieved to hear her voice.
"She may have been shot."
"You let her get shot?" Once again in unison, it was getting kinda weird.
"He didn't let me, it just happened." Shawn could practically hear the eye roll.
"Are you ok Syd?"
"I'm fine Shawn, he got me in the foot, I'm trying to stop the bleeding. How's Chipper?"
His dad laughed. "He's fine, checked on him before we came to the Psych office."
Shawn wasn't going to let her change the subject. "You're sure you're ok?"
"As ok as one can be after being shot."
A knock sounded at the door and Chief Vick walked in. "Guys, we have a lock on their location." She was already back out the door. Jules raced after her.
"See you in a few Syd."
"See you Shawn."
Shawn hung up the phone and ran out the door behind everyone. Time to get Sydney back.
Lassiter hung up the phone and turned to where Sydney was filling backpacks that he had found. She had it in her head that they were going to have to make a run for it. To humor her, he had run all over the cabin gather supplies and had even found a cane.
"Alright, we've got food, water, blankets, bullets, matches, flashlights…" Sydney muttered to herself.
He went over to the table to check out the papers she had pointed out earlier. There was a paper full of what had to be an equation, as if someone was trying to find the right chemical balance or something. Receipts for food, clothes, and gas lay scattered. Apparently they didn't see a need to keep any of this organized.
But he noticed there was something under all that. He moved the papers to the side and found schematics for the SPBD, the Psych office, and their homes. How did they get these? What were they planning?
"Detective." Sydney broke through his thoughts.
He turned to see her wearing two different shoes. Drimmer's feet were several sizes larger than hers so she had borrowed a shoe to work over hers, something to help keep the wound clean. "What is it?"
"They're coming."
Lassiter went to the door and didn't see anything. A minute later, he saw a car at the bottom of the hill, and he knew it wasn't backup. They were so close.
"Can you walk?"
Sydney adjusted the straps on her pack and he grabbed his bag and did the same. "I don't have a choice, now do I?"
She got up, and he could see the pain in her eyes, but she didn't stop. Using the cane, she limped over to him, passed him, and started making her way towards the woods.
Lassiter followed her away from the cabin and into the dark woods, hoping this wasn't a huge mistake. They paused just inside the tree line and watched as Cowley and Drimmer got out of the truck, guns in hand. They disappeared into the cabin and a second later Lassiter heard them yell.
"They got away!" Cowley's voice rang out.
"You bet we did." Sydney laughed.
Lassiter turned away from the cabin and started into the woods. "Let's put some distance between us and them."
"Best idea I've heard all day." Sydney leaned on the cane and slowly made her way, Lassiter let her take the lead.