Where to go from here
"Be careful when you go in." Buzz told them, coming out of the house. "There´s a lot of stuff you can stumble over. CSI is still cleaning up in there. But …"
"We´ll be careful." Juliet said.
He hadn´t exaggerated. The place was a complete mess. Almost everything that hadn´t been affixed had been thrown around and even some things that had been affixed. These bastards seemed to have a lot of strength, Lassiter figured. Or they just hated certain kinds of furniture. There was even a hole in the wall. The brigs at the edge were hanging askew. It had a diameter of at least fifty centimeters.
The victim lay outstretched on the ground, her hands clinging to the door, as if she´d tried to hold onto it while someone tried to drag her away. At first sight it was not easy to tell what had killed her, but it was pretty obvious that she´d been beaten up. There was dirt hanging in her hair, mainly splinters of wood.
"Goddamn bastards." Lassiter grumbled at the sight. "Now they´re really going nuts. Finally found the bravery to enter a house for their session."
Juliet didn´t say anything. She just looked at the dead woman and shook her head. "Poor thing, probably never had a chance against them."
"This place looks as if a hurricane rushed through here." McNab commented not less sad.
Lassiter didn´t listen to them anymore. His interest was currently fixed on Shawn´s unusually serious face.
"Spencer?" he addressed him and was not less surprised that he actually startled the fake psychic. He almost looked as if he´d been caught. Lassiter frowned. "Anything you wanna share?" he asked.
Shawn cleared his throat and pretended to look around. Lassiter noticed the uncomfortable gaze he threw at the hole in the wall, before he went on looking over the rest of the room, his hand always hovering at the level of his temple. But the greatest surprise should still come.
"I´m afraid I´m not getting anything value right now." Shawn said. "I feel that whatever happened in here, happened fast … and … what is her name?"
"Ehm … Andrea Arbogast." Juliet answered after a moment.
"She had not even time to realize what hit her." Shawn went on. "I sense that whatever killed her …"
"Whatever?" Lassiter interrupted him. "Don´t you mean whoever?"
Shawn only shook his head. "I´m sorry, I told you I don´t get anything clear right now. I mean, what do you want? I already divined for you that vandal case and kidnapper case are the same case."
McNab nodded in agreement at this.
"I guess my psychic fuel is a little low after that." Shawn went on. "Besides. The atmosphere in this room seems to disturb my Juju. I need to get out of here to clear it again and then I´ll call you back."
With that he was already on his way out. Lassiter almost couldn´t believe it. He was pretty sure the fake psychic was hiding something. Something that he didn´t want them to know yet. But that was all right. He had his own ideas of what had happened in here. And these ideas all included this strange hole in the wall, Shawn had seemed to be so uncomfortable with.
Juliet was about to follow Shawn outside, obviously determined to find out what troubled him, but Lassiter called her back.
"We have work to do." he told her. "Everything else you can talk about later."
She looked at the door through which Shawn had vanished for a moment. But then she lowered her gaze and nodded. Lassiter threw one last look after Spencer as well, and then went back to his work. Should the fake psychic have his moment to clear his head. He would come back with something ridiculous soon enough.
...
"Are you crazy, Shawn?" Gus cried, walking into the Psych office. "We need to tell Lassiter and Juliet."
"Would you stop yelling for a second and just listen to me?"
Gus switched off his cell phone. "If it was really Sylar …"
"It was him." Shawn switched off his own phone too. "Or do you know anyone else who could fake this unique head of yours so accurately without some sort of plastic surgery?"
Gus halted for a moment. "That´s impossible." he found.
"See."
"But that´s only more reason to tell Jules and Lassie." Gus came back to the point. "He might be after them too."
"I´m not so sure that he´s after anyone here." Shawn cried before Gus could dial Lassiter´s number. "If he would have wanted to kill me, I would be dead by now, don´t you think?"
"Not if he wants to play a little with you first." Gus replied. "Like a cat with the mouse. People always say they are cute little animals, but they are gruesome killers. Did you ever see what they do with the mice?"
Shawn frowned. "Did we just change the subject?"
"No, we didn´t. Because that´s exactly what Sylar will do to you and to all of us for that matter, when he´s done playing. I´m calling Lassie."
"Wait." Shawn cried and snatched the phone away from him.
"You must be out of your damn mind, Shawn." Gus cried and reached for the phone on his desk. Shawn took that one as well.
"If we tell them now, then Jules will be worried to death and Lassie will be on a rampage and you know what will happen then."
"No, I don´t know that, Shawn. But I also don´t want to know what will happen if I don´t tell them. This guy already tried to kill me once."
"Yeah, I know. He tried to kill me too."
"Then what´s the matter with you?"
"I believe he doesn´t want to kill us anymore." Shawn said and Gus only snorted.
"Because he told you?"
"Yeah. No. It´s a little more complicated. He said that he wanted to protect me."
"What?" Gus cried, now finally convinced that Shawn had lost his mind.
"Something like that." Shawn affirmed. "He said …"
You don´t have any reason to fear for your life. There are people watching you but it is people like me, who only want to help and protect you.
"I think he´s the one who has been following me lately." he suddenly realized.
"And you really think that this guy is not after you?" Gus cried in disbelieve.
"If you´d ask Jules, she´d tell you the same." Shawn said and finally made his friend shut his mouth in astonishment. Shawn shook his head. "I can´t explain it. But the way he said it … I think she´s right. I think he´s actually earnest with that. I really don´t think that he´d want to kill us. He likes us. That´s at least what I think. He might kill other people but not us. I don´t know …"
"Great." Gus said with a false cynical smile. "You´re his Clarice to his Hannibal. Perfect. Then we have no reason to worry."
"Hey." Shawn cried. "Hannibal would never kill Clarice. And I didn´t say that I´m okay with this point of view. I only say that I believe that this is the way Sylar sees it."
"And what do we do about it now?"
"Dunno." Shawn shrugged. "Nothing. Not yet at least. I guess he will contact me again. I mean, he came in here to talk to me. He´ll do that again. Somehow."
"Great." Gus exclaimed. "And you just want to sit here and wait for him?"
"Not quite." Shawn replied. "I´d like to have something to demask him next time."
"And what? A bucket of water?"
"Don´t be silly, Gus. Sylar is no witch. He won´t melt."
"Then what?"
"Remember that dog whistle Mary had?" Shawn asked after a minute of thinking.
Gus thought for a moment, trying to recall the day on the pier. After another moment his eyes lit up.
"I know a place where we can get some." he said.
"Then let´s go there." Shawn was already on his way out, and of course Gus was at his heels.
...
Sylar hurried up the stairs, heading for the door with the number 209. He hadn´t been gone for too long, so he figured there was hope he was still in time. Slowly he opened the door and peeked in, expecting, or at least hoping, to find Mohinder still asleep. He was immediately grabbed by the collar and pulled into the room. A second later he found himself pushed against the wall, a very angry looking Mohinder Suresh in his face.
"Hey." he brought out with a smirk. "You´re awake."
"What did you do?" Mohinder demanded to know. "You drugged me!"
"No." Sylar objected calmly. "I didn´t drug you. I simply put you to sleep, so you wouldn´t stay up all night."
"Why?" Mohinder snapped. "What did you do last night? WHO DID YOU KILL?!"
"I didn´t do anything." Sylar frowned over that accusation. He´d expected almost everything but that the geneticist still expected this … He´d thought they were over that.
"I DON´T BELIEVE YOU!" Mohinder yelled now and let go of his collar, to grab his throat instead. The grip was hard but controlled. So far.
He took something out of his pocket and held it up, for Sylar to see. It was the little remote, Mohinder had build back at the Company, the one Sylar had given back to him as a sign of his good will. Now it seemed that the scientist was ready to really use it. The way he showed it to him was enough to make the killer nervous. He remembered the pain this little thing could cause him very well.
"You told me to use this in case you should go too far." Mohinder recalled. "And now you´ve gone too far."
He activated the signal before Sylar even had a chance to say anything.
Within only a second pain shot through his head, as if a thousand needles had been driven into his brain. Sylar cried out and fell down, to his knees. Still Mohinder wouldn´t turn off the signal. He just stood over him, the remote in his hand, as if it were a gun.
And in some way it was. An acoustic gun.
Fortunately Mohinder was too enraged to hold it tight. Sylar saw his chance – his only chance – and used it. He lunged out. His telekinesis might be disabled by the pain, but his motoric functions were still working. That he hit the remote pinpointed out of Mohinder´s hand was pure luck though. The little thing flew to the ground and finally the pain stopped.
For a moment, Mohinder just stared after his weapon in utter disbelieve.
Sylar would have preferred it to take some time just to breathe, but he had a feeling that Mohinder´s shock wouldn´t last long. So he reached out his hand and collected all the willpower he´d left, to activate his telekinesis again. The geneticist got shoved backwards until he was the one pinned to the wall.
Sylar lowered his head for a moment, finally allowing himself to indulge in his panting. Dammit, he hated this.
"Let me go." Mohinder demanded, struggling under Sylar´s invisible grip. "I knew, you were a murderer. I should have never trusted you."
Sylar wanted to say something but his panting came in the way. So instead of speaking, he raised one finger. "Give me a second."
"Tell me the truth." Mohinder cried. "What did you do?"
Sylar closed his eyes in exasperation. "I didn´t do anything, okay?" he managed to say. "At least … not what you think. I didn´t. Kill. Anyone. Okay?"
"And what about this woman?" Mohinder demanded an explanation.
Instead of being confronted the way Mohinder obviously had intended it, Sylar was confused. "Woman?" he repeated.
"Switch on the news." was all Mohinder said. His voice was low and his eyes dark and accusing.
Sylar turned around, to the little TV on the sideboard. He switched it on.
"… after there has been a body found at the crime scene at last." the reporter just spoke into the camera. "The police is now officially investigating a connection between the vandalism that terrorize our city and the kidnappings."
Sylar couldn´t help but smiled. Good boy, he thought.
"You want to tell me you had nothing to do with that?" Mohinder dragged him out of his thoughts. "You drug me and the next day there´s a body popping up by pure coincidence?"
For a moment, Sylar was shocked. "I didn´t do that." he cried. Mohinder didn´t seem convinced at all. "Shawn is working on that case." Sylar explained. "Okay? I followed it in the news. I watched him. There were some things that seemed odd to me and I gave him a tip. That´s all I did."
"You gave him a tip?" Mohinder repeated wary. "How?"
Sylar chuckled. What did he think how he did it? "I talked to him." he said. "Just before I came back here in a matter of fact."
Mohinder frowned. "How did he react when he saw you?" he asked.
"He didn´t know it was me. I was in disguise." Sylar smiled subtly and shrugged. "I guess by now he knows that."
"That doesn´t explain what you did during the night." Mohinder came back to the main point. "As far as I´m concerned you have no alibi for this woman´s death."
Sylar sighed and at last let go of the scientist. For a moment Mohinder seemed surprised as if he´d just remembered the fact that he had been held in the first place.
"You´re right." Sylar said. "I don´t have an alibi. No one was around to confirm that I was alone. You just have my word."
Mohinder seemed unsure. "How am I supposed to trust your word?" he asked.
Sylar shrugged. He had no idea how to convince this doubter. Except maybe … maybe he hadn´t hoped to get back in time before he woke up. Maybe he´d taken that chance subconsciously, knowing that it would result in his discovery. Maybe it was time to come clean.
"I was out almost every night these last … what? Two weeks?" he started to tell him and the surprise was unmistakable in Mohinder´s face. "Yeah, I guess it started two weeks ago." Sylar nodded more to himself than to Mohinder. "Almost around the time when this case started to come about." he suddenly realized. When Mohinder looked at him the fitting way, he repeated: "It wasn´t me. But the reason why I went out …" he stopped himself when he suddenly realized even more. "Is that possible?" he mumbled.
"What?" Mohinder asked, impatiently.
Sylar could only laugh and shake his head. "God, it´s so obvious." he chuckled, not able to compute his own blindness of such simple facts. "Sometimes it´s so simple." he said.
"What?" Mohinder repeated his question, demanding an answer.
"I felt that something was building up in the air." Sylar tried to explain it to him. "It was something like … tension. I don´t know how to describe it. But it was strong. I could feel it at night. In the darkness. That first night … I went out to find out what it was. Where it came from."
Mohinder´s eyes were wary but even he couldn´t hide the curiosity that was hidden underneath. "Did you find it?" he asked.
"No. But it got stronger since then. On my trips I noticed those destruction, the news talked about."
"The vandalism."
"Yes." Sylar smiled, so relieved to finally speak it out, and that Mohinder actually understood. "I thought it was just that, you know. Just some vandalism. But now I think it´s something entirely different. I can´t believe I didn´t see that earlier."
"What didn´t you see earlier?" Mohinder asked, slowly losing his patience.
"Isn´t it obvious?" Sylar was smiling excitedly. "There is destruction in this area, that happen without anyone ever saw how. No suspects. Destruction that looks as if a supernatural power caused it. People disappear without a trace. No pledges, no bodies. Think Mohinder. What does that sound like? Consider the possibility that I´m telling the truth, just for one second. What conclusion remains?"
"Someone with an ability lost control over his power." Mohinder spoke it out at last.
"Or is on a rampage." Sylar agreed, more and more excited.
"Like you, you mean?" Mohinder asked, a menacing look in his eyes.
Sylar lay his head askew. "Like me in the old days." he agreed halfway. "So now what do you say? Does that sound like we could be needed out there?"
At last Mohinder started to think about the whole idea. "I´ll check my list for a matching ability in this area." he finally said.
Sylar nodded at this, approvingly. Finally the Indian scientist, his warden by choice, started to think in his direction. He really believed him. That was almost better than he could have planned it – if he would have planned it.
"Oh, and Mohinder." he called him back before the scientist was out of the door. "Sorry for the …" He moved his hand before his own face to indicated the sleep inducing he´d used on him the night before. Mohinder only looked at him with hard eyes, not saying a word.
...
Lassiter entered the morgue, O´Hara right at his heels. He was eager to get briefed on the results of the autopsy. He was sure they´d prove his suspicions. And he´d have his proof before Spencer had a chance to pretend that he´d divined it psychically.
"Ah, detectives." Woody Strode greeted them with a wide smile. "Welcome."
"What do you´ve got for us?" Lassiter asked the coroner, getting straight to the point.
"Well, I can tell you that our poor Miss Arbogast here, died from an impact to her skull. I found splinters in the wound, so I assume it was a piece of wood that hit her."
"Foul play." Lassiter nodded. "We already guessed that."
"Naahh, not so fast." Woody objected. "The wound was located at the base of the skull. Usually when someone´s hit over the head by another person, the wound would be located farther up, at the top. But that´s not the case."
"So you mean, she knocked her head somewhere?" Juliet asked surprised.
But still Woody didn´t seem quite all right with that explanation.
"Then what the hell do you want to say?" Lassiter demanded an answer.
"You see the thing is …" Woody started to explain. "The hit she got, hit a nerve. It killed her instantly. The result of that immediate death was an instant contract of her muscles, which caused an immediate rigor mortis. Very rare but it can happen."
"That´s why her fingers were still clinging to the frame of her living room door." Juliet understood. "She never had a chance to let go of it."
"Very right, detective." Woody praised. "So what really troubles me is the rest of her body. There are several injuries all over her that look as if she´d been beaten by various kinds of objects. I mean if someone only hit her in a very strange way, I could explain it. But this …" He pointed at some of the bruises he´d examined on the body. They were really everywhere and they had different sizes and shapes.
"Did all of this happen before she died?" Juliet asked.
"Some of it. And some others are post mortem. Whatever happened to her, it didn´t end after she was already dead. Not immediately at least."
"What does that mean?" Lassiter asked.
"I can´t be sure of course." Woody admitted. "But if I may be frank?"
"I´d ask you to."
"You know. I used to work in Kansas before I moved to Santa Barbara and I used to have a lot of tornado-victims on my table back then. This woman really reminds me of those victims. People who died from flying objects that got blown around by the wind. Sometimes someone would be impaled by a lath or a bar but most of the time they die from impacts just like this poor girl. Not quite as unique in the results but …"
"You want to tell me that a tornado rushed through her house?" Lassiter snapped.
"Of course not." Woody replied. "That would be quite outrageous, wouldn´t it? But I must say the looks of these wounds really do remind of something like that. Either that or her attacker went completely nuts and threw everything at her that he could find. But in that case he must have one hell of a throw."
"Crap." Lassiter mumbled. The whole thing was different from what he had expected. But on the other hand … The guy was crazy. Why shouldn´t he go likewise on his victim and do something like that? Throwing things was nothing impossible for him, they´d seen that. And it wouldn´t even cause him some sweat to do so. The only thing that didn´t quite fit was the motive.
"Anything … special about her?" Lassiter asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, you know … in her blood or …"
"The tox screen was negative." Woody told him. "She hadn´t even drunk alcohol."
"That´s not what I meant."
"Well, what did you mean?"
"Oh, nothing special. You didn´t see any abnormalities in her DNA or something?"
"Well, I didn´t run a DNA test but I could send a sample to the lab if you insist on that. Any doubt about her identity?"
"No. No, I think such a test won´t be necessary after all." Lassiter declined. "Thank you, doctor."
With that he left the room, O´Hara right at his heels.
"Carlton, where are you going with this?" she asked him, trying to keep up with him.
"I think you know where I´m going with this." he answered and took his cell phone out.
"Who are you gonna call?" she demanded to know, grateful that he finally stopped.
"Someone who claimed to know where this bastard is, last time I spoke to him." Lassiter answered her question already dialing.
"You want to call Bennet?" Juliet asked and when Lassiter still didn´t look at her, she grabbed his arm and pulled it down. "You think it´s Sylar?" she asked.
"You don`t? You heard what he said."
"I know but that doesn´t mean …"
"O´Hara …"
"How do you want to justify your suspicions before the chief?" Juliet demanded to know. "You have no solid proof."
"I don´t need any solid proof because I don´t plan to go to the chief with it."
"What does that mean?" she cried. "What do you want to do?"
"Detective Lassiter." someone addressed him.
"What?" both, Lassiter and Juliet snapped and turned around to the newcomer.
McNab looked at them startled for a moment but this moment passed rather quickly. "There is someone here you should see." he told Lassiter. "He says it´s about all the destructed areas … and the missing people."
