Hey all! Well, here we are. The moment of truth. (nervous laugh) The chapter's shorter, but it's full of goodies. Um... read on!
Lawyers: Our client does not own Psych, nor does she own certain details belonging to Dexter. Don't sue her.
Chapter Nine: Born Free
Carlton came to with a groan. Attempting to move his hand, he realized that he was tied to a chair. His eyes slowly slid open and as his vision came into focus, he saw that he had been seated in front of an empty table save for one lit candle. Said candle was the only light source in the room which made it hard to see where he was.
'What happened?' he wondered groggily, trying to think back.
He had gone to the station with Shawn to get something checked out. Something important. A piece of evidence?
'The strawberry' he remembered blearily. There had been a bite in it... Possibly saliva, which meant a DNA sample from someone who could quite possibly be the Santa Barbara Butcher.
It was then that he remembered his discovery of the lab technician's body as well as Shawn's disappearance and that brief glimpse he got of the results on the computer screen before he blacked out.
'But is can't be possible,' he thought, completely baffled by what he had seen on the screen. 'There's got to be some sort of mistake.'
However, as the familiar figure stepped into the candle light, he knew the results didn't lie.
"I really wish you hadn't seen those results, Detective. It would've made things so much easier, and yet here we are."
"Shawn," Carlton said, aghast. "You're the Santa Barbara Butcher?"
"You know, I really hate that name," Shawn said with a slight shake of his head. "But to answer your question, yes and no. If you count being an accessory, then three-fourths yes."
Carlton didn't understand. None of it made sense. If Shawn was the Butcher the whole time, then why did he provide Carlton with a DNA sample. Had the whole thing been a trap Shawn created to get Carlton alone so as to kill him? But even that didn't make sense. If Shawn wanted to kill him, he'd had plenty of opportunities beforehand. Carlton couldn't help but feel betrayed by the whole thing. Had their relationship been a trick too?
"How can someone be three-fourths guilty?" Carlton asked, furious.
"It's.. complicated," Shawn said.
"Then explain it to me," Carlton hissed.
"I'm not Shawn," Shawn said simply.
Carlton blinked, his anger fading in exchange for complete confusion, "What?"
"I'm not Shawn," he repeated.
Carlton sighed, annoyed with whatever game the psychic was playing, and asked, "Okay, I'll bite. Who the hell are you?"
"My name is Spence. You know me as the Santa Barbara Butcher, but I prefer Spence," Shawn, or rather, Spence said.
"Evil twin?" Carlton asked with a mocking smile.
"Hardly," Spence deadpanned with a roll of his eyes. "No, I'm a part of Shawn."
"I don't understand," Carlton said, still confused.
"Allow me to explain," Spence said as he sat down in a chair placed on the other side of the table across from Carlton. "It all happened when Shawn was three. A man by the name of Leon LeBork had recently lost his wife due to a shootout between the police and some bank robbers. She had been a hostage caught in the crossfire. Because the robbers had been thrown in jail, he decided to blame the police, so he kidnapped the wives of several officers."
Carlton remembered hearing a little bit about this. It was far before his time as detective, but he'd been told some of the story by the older officers when he was first starting out at the SBPD.
"LeBork aimed to kidnap Henry Spencer's wife, but because she was away when this happened, little Shawn was taken in her place. LeBork felt it was just as fitting a punishment."
Spence paused and got a far off look in his eyes, then continued on, "He kept them all locked up in a basement for several days without food or water. The basement of this very house... Then one day, he just snapped. He came down into the basement with a chainsaw.."
The snarl of the chainsaw mixed with the terrified screams. Blood sprayed everywhere and painted the walls. Hunks of flesh fell to the ground with a wet slap.
"Close your eyes, Shawn. Don't look!" came the tearful voice of one of the officer's wives. Mrs. Lornel, Shawn remembered. She had watched him on more than one occasion just like a couple other officer's wives. Mrs. Bently. Mrs. Morgan. Mrs. Brooks. Most of them were down here with him.
He tried to keep his eyes closed, but like any young boy, his curiosity won over. His eyes opened and revealed to him the massacre before him.
"No! Please, no!" Mrs. Lornel sobbed pleadingly as the man approached.
They were the last two left, and her screams died in her throat as the chainsaw came down...
"Well, of course Shawn couldn't deal with something as traumatizing as that, so he created someone who could. Someone who was older and wouldn't be fazed by such brutal acts of violence. Thus I was born and became the blood-thirsty Butcher you see today. After all, who better to deal with a killer than another killer? Don't you see? I can't help what I am. I was created this way."
"So you're an alter of Shawn's mind?" Carlton asked, trying to process the information he'd just been given.
"Correct," Spence confirmed with a false smile that looked so wrong on Shawn's face.
Carlton wasn't sure if he could believe the story. After all, Shawn was still trying to sell him the psychic bit, so how could he be sure that this wasn't just another lie? Sure, it would explain things in a complicated way that only Shawn could explain something, but it all just seemed too far-fetched. Still, he couldn't deny that the person standing before him was 100 percent different from the man he had fallen for over the past couple of weeks. No, they definitely weren't the same person, he could feel it deep down... So this must be true.
"A gay, homicidal psychic with multiple personality disorder. Boy, do I know how to pick them," Carlton muttered.
"Shawn's bi, actually," Spence said absentmindedly. "It is were up to me, he wouldn't date anyone at all."
"Does Henry know?" Carlton asked as he pulled at his bindings.
"Of course. Who do you think taught me how to evade the police so well?"
Carlton couldn't believe Henry was in on the whole thing. After having heard the story about how he arrested Shawn for taking his truck, it was a little hard to believe he would let something like this slide by. Of course, this whole night has been unbelievable, so why not add one more little fact like that to the bunch?
"So what happens now?" he asked warily, eyeing the homicidal alter's every move.
"What happens is really all up to you," Spence said seriously.
"What does that mean?" Carlton asked suspiciously.
"Well, you could go and tell everyone the truth, or the more preferable option is that you forget the DNA results you saw tonight and pretend this little conversation we had never happened," Spence explained.
"Are you going to kill me if I tell?" Carlton asked with a defiant glare.
"No, I won't kill you," Spence said.
"Why not? You didn't seem to have a problem cutting that lab technician's throat," Carlton growled while silently wondering why he was trying to egg the psycho on.
"For your information, Detective, that man had been very, very bad and was deserving of my knife. I won't bore you with the details, but know that he got off lucky in the end. Why else do you think I recommended him to do the sample? I like to save aside some of my playmates for occasions such as that," Spence explained.
"So that was you in the car, not Shawn?" Carlton asked, trying to keep up with the whole thing.
"For a brief moment, yes, it was me," Spence said. "But getting back to the matter at hand, you lead a very clean life and I don't kill the good people. I don't think Shawn would appreciate me doing something like that. Besides, I owe you, Detective. Remember?"
Carlton thought back to that night he spent at the hospital sitting by Shawn's bedside. It was a strange thought that for a few brief moments, he had been speaking directly to the very serial killer the entire department was hunting and didn't even know it. Now that he thought about it, it was also probably Spence that took a swing at him, not Shawn. Yet the fact that a deranged part of his boyfriend's mind turned out to be said serial killer was even stranger than the first thought.
"You just expect me to keep quiet about this?" Carlton asked incredulously.
"Detective, do you love Shawn?" Spence asked suddenly.
Carlton blinked, surprised by the question. Did he love Shawn? It was a little soon to know for sure and this new revelation about the psychic didn't help his decision any. It was true that as much as they had fought in the past, he did have some form of a crush on the younger man. He had to admit that Shawn was easy on the eyes and that every time they kissed, Carlton felt something. Was that love though, or was that just physical attraction.
"Too soon for love?" Spence asked, amused. "Do you at least care about him?"
Of course he cared about Shawn. For the past week or so, he had been worried over what had been bothering the psychic so much. He had also been extremely worried when Shawn had been drugged. Shawn was always so carefree that when Carlton saw him in such a delusional and vulnerable state, he felt a strong need to protect him; the same need he felt when Shawn had confessed to him all of the strange messages he had been receiving.
"I do care about him," he said firmly.
"Then we share a common interest because I care about Shawn's well-being too," Spence said. "Do you realize what would happen if word got out about this? Shawn's life would be over. If he's not carted off to jail, he'd be sent to a mental hospital. That's not even the worst part though. Shawn would be devastated if he ever found out the truth. He wouldn't be able to live with himself knowing of his technical involvement in all the killings."
It was all true, Carlton knew, with lowered spirits. Shawn had felt guilty enough about all the messages and the four people he partially assisted with in finding evidence. Something like this would push him completely over the edge. It just didn't seem fair to make Shawn suffer with the news of something he had no control over.
Seeing that he'd gotten his point across, Spence smiled and said, "That's why I believe you'll keep quiet about this."
The red and blue lights of a police cruiser flashed outside a window Carlton hadn't noticed before because of the darkness. Spence's smile didn't falter any at the arrival of backup.
"I made an anonymous call before you woke up," he explained as he pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his pocket, Carlton's handcuffs. Snapping a cuff around on wrist, he put his arms behind the chair's back and handcuffed himself to it by weaving the cuffs into the back of the chair itself.
"Remember Shawn's well-being, Detective," Spence said. "Don't do anything rash without thinking about it first."
With that said, Spence closed his eyes and went limp, retreating back into Shawn's mind just as several police officers swarmed into the room with guns drawn. Juliet and Agent Vardez were among them.
"Carlton," she exclaimed as she rushed over to him, not putting her gun away. "Are you okay? What happened?"
"I'm fine," Carlton lied. He was anything but fine after all he had learned.
After a quick concerned look thrown in Shawn's direction, she went around behind him to untie his restraints.
"We found Rayner's body and then we couldn't get a hold of you. The secretary remembered seeing you both come in, but she never saw you leave," Juliet explained as she finished untying the restraints.
Carlton messaged his wrists with a slight grimace. Spence had tied it a bit too tight.
As half of the officers went off to check the house for the killer that would be there, Agent Vardez walked over to him and asked, "Just what happened, Detective Lassiter?"
"I don't remember much," Carlton lied again. "Spencer did his own checking up on the case, but I think we all expected that. He thought he may have found some evidence, a strawberry with some saliva on it maybe. I called up Rayner to check it out, mostly to humor Spencer, I seriously didn't think it would be anything. Spencer went down to the lab to check up on the results and when he didn't come back, I went down to check, but someone snuck up behind me and drugged me."
"Did you see who it was?" Juliet asked as she went over to check on Shawn who had yet to wake up.
He couldn't do it. He couldn't just turn Shawn in like that. It would destroy him and Carlton couldn't let that happen even though the whole thing went against everything he stood for.
"No," Carlton said. "I couldn't even tell if it was male or female. They stuck me with a needle and then I was out. I woke up here and then you all came in."
"It's all clear!" one of the officers declared as he and his comrades came back into the room. "There's nobody else in the house."
It was at this point that Shawn finally woke up, or at least Carlton hoped it was Shawn. How was he even supposed to know?
"What'd I miss?" Shawn asked, looking around the room in confusion.
"Oh, not much," Juliet said. "Just the Butcher giving you two the slip. Apparently that strawberry was just what the Butcher didn't want us to find. I don't remember seeing it in the lab though."
"Damn," Shawn muttered. "We were so close."
'Too close,' Carlton thought.
"Do you remember seeing anyone, Shawn?" Juliet asked, pulling out some keys and unlocking the handcuffs.
"No," Shawn said, shaking his head. "I remember seeing Rayner who looked freaked out, but then nothing after that."
"Rayner's dead, Shawn," Juliet sighed.
"He must have gotten a good look at the Butcher," Agent Vardez mused. "Which was why he was killed." Turning his attention back on all the officers, he shouted, "Alright, listen up people! There could be something here, some sort of evidence. Call up our CSI, I want this place searched from top to bottom. Officer McNab, I want you to do a search on this house, find out its history and see if there's a reason the Butcher chose this place."
"Yes sir."
"Detective Lassiter, you have the rest of the night off. Go get some sleep, you've been working since six this morning," Agent Vardez said. "And please escort Mr. Spencer off the premises."
Carlton got up without a word and walked Shawn out of the house. Juliet gave him her keys so that he could borrow her car for the night since he didn't have his own around, and a part of him wondered how Spence got them to the house in the first place.
He doubted the FBI agent was concerned about how much sleep he got. If anything, this was a subtle way of punishing him for not calling the agent when he had the possible evidence in his possession. At the moment though, he couldn't care less about the FBI agent or working on the case. He had a bigger problem to deal with and that problem was walking next to him, completely oblivious.
'What the hell can I even do at this point?' he wondered, feeling more trapped than he ever felt in his entire life.
"Don't do anything rash without thinking about it first."
He doubted he would be getting any sleep anytime soon.
That's the end of chapter 9. I have a feeling that some of you aren't going to be too happy with the way this turned out, but hey, what can you do? This is how I planned it from the very beginning. And to Dexter fans, I just couldn't resist using 'Born Free' for the chapter title.
Review please!
