Another chapter for your reading pleasure. There should be about 2 to 4 more after this.
Hope you like it.
"Juliet, just breathe through it," said Gus using his deep breathing expertise from when he used to cover several birthing centers. "Hee Hee, Hooo. Hee Hee, Hooo," he imitated.
"I know how to breathe, Gus!" Juliet snapped. Gus swiftly pulled his hand from Juliet's back and backed away, as if she was a growling dog. He'd never seen her snap at him like that before. The fire in her eyes was scary.
Shawn came running back to their table where Juliet was now seated again and kneeled beside her. He took her hand and allowed her to squeeze until the contraction was over. "They're really hurting now?" he asked.
She snapped again. "You think?!"
Shawn, too, was surprised by her harsh response and looked at Gus in disbelief, who only shook his head and shrugged.
"Shawn, what's happening? Please tell me we can out of here," Juliet pleaded.
"Jules," said Shawn carefully, and Juliet could tell from the quality of his voice that he was about to give her bad news and started shaking her head anxiously. Shawn tried to explain their situation in as calm a voice as was possible in his current state of dread. "Jules…all of the doors and windows are blocked. Lassiter and the other officers are still looking for a way out, but…"
"No. No. No," Juliet whimpered still shaking her head as if begging Shawn not to complete his sentence.
Shawn took both of her hands between his and squeezed them. "but…it seems that we are stuck where we are….for now."
Juliet continued her "No's" but breaking into sobs this time. "No, Shawn! That's not acceptable. We have to get out of here. I am not having this baby right here!"
"I know, sweetheart….and I promise you, I am going to do everything I can possibly do to get us out of here so that doesn't happen." Shawn kissed her forehead and stood up. "You just sit tight for a little bit and I will work on getting us out of here."
"Shawn, no don't leave me!" she begged, grabbing his hand.
"I have to sweetheart. If we want to get out of here in time, I have to help. You won't be alone. Rachael is here, and Marlowe and Francie, not to mention Woody and Ursula." Shawn glanced at the coroner and parole officer who were making out. "Ok, just Rachael, Marlowe, and Francie, and I will be back to check on you first chance I get."
"O…K…" Juliet said reluctantly. "Just don't be gone long."
Shawn kissed Juliet's hand and went along with Gus to join the group of officers that was forming around the Chief. Shawn positioned himself to Lassiter's right and the stern looking detective glanced at his least favorite psychic consultant and he knew from Shawn's pale complexion and lack of goofy grin and inappropriately timed quip that something was up….something serious, and it surely involved Juliet. He didn't know that Juliet was in labor but had seen her looking uncomfortable earlier, and could easily come to that conclusion. He resolved to catch this son-of-a-bitch and get his partner out of here in record time.
"Ok, officers," began the Chief. "I don't know who this bastard is or what this is all about, but we are not going to let him get away with it. Fortunately, we have the benefit of having three quarters of the police force here, and every one of us is going to be put to good use."
"Chief Vick," spoke the voice of Declan Rand as he worked his way through the crowd. "I'd like to offer my criminal profiling services to use at your disposal." For once, Shawn was thankful that the ever so annoying form of that man with the ridiculous name was present. Fraud though he was, he was good at what he did.
"Thank you Mr. Rand," said the Chief, "Your expertise will be valuable. Now, Dobson, I need you to radio to the station and inform the officers on duty of our situation…have them call in S.W.A.T…."she was interrupted by Dobson.
"Chief…uh…the radios aren't working."
The Chief looked at him incredulously. "What do you mean, Dobson? You didn't break your radio again…?"
"No. Not just mine, all of them."
"All of them?" She looked around at the other officers who were nodding and holding their radios. "Cell phones…?" she asked. Everyone pulled out their phones.
"No signal," said Lassiter and the rest of the officers agreed.
"Son of a bitch!" cursed the Chief. "O.K, so we are on our own…but we've still got our finest here. Look, we know this bastard is here somewhere in this house, so I am going to divide all of you up into search parties to weed him out. She sent all of the men in blue (well, currently they were wearing a combination of tuxedos and dress suits) in different directions and then turned to her head detective and go-to team. Alright, Lassiter and McNab, you take Declan. Address everyone and tell them that no one is to leave this ballroom for any reason whatsoever, then interview as many of them as you can, just in case the culprit is one of the party guests. I'll take Spencer and Guster and we'll interview the staff." She saw Shawn pacing and pulling his hair with his fingers, noting that it was out of character for him, even in the most dangerous of situations. "Shawn." She spoke his first name and caught his terrified gaze. "What is it?"
"Juliet!" he squealed. The Chief looked across to see the room to see her blonde junior detective hunched over in her seat and squeezing Rachael's hand as she struggled through another contraction.
"Oh, God!" she said. "She walked swiftly over to where Juliet was sitting and kneeled beside her. "Juliet, just hang in there. I promise I'll get us out of here." Juliet nodded but was too busy concentrating on her breathing to answer. The Chief addressed her companions. "Dr. Jennifer Lesser," she said. "She's an OB-GYN. She's here somewhere. Find her." The women nodded, and Francie and Marlowe started walking the room and calling for Dr. Lesser. The chief gave Juliet a comforting pat on the shoulder and went to start the search.
$$$Pineapple$$$
"Why did you pick Shawn and me to go with you?" Gus asked Chief Vick. Shawn was letting Gus do the talking since he was too frazzled to craft words into sentences at the moment.
"I was thinking that whoever is responsible must have had access to this building for an extended period of time to be able to set this up, so it could only be one of the staff. We are going to start with the manager and then question everyone working here tonight, and Shawn is going to read all of them."
Shawn stopped in his tracks. "Look Chief, I appreciate your confidence in me, but I have to warn you that my psychic senses are a little wonky right now. I'm not sure how well I am going to be able to read anyone."
"Do you want to get your wife and daughter out of here safely, or not, Spencer?" the Chief demanded.
"Of course I do, but…"
"Shawn, I know this is hard for you, but I promise that Juliet is in good hands. She and the baby are going to be ok. Now, I need you to focus. Lives are at stake."
"Lives?" Gus gulped.
"Yes, Mr. Guster, what do you think that psycho meant when he said we were going to ring in the New Year with a 'bang'?"
Gus was speechless when he came to the realization that he and everyone he cared about might die tonight. Shawn leaned into his best friend. "Hey buddy, I need you to stay strong for me ok. I'm in a full on freak-out right now…and not the good kind, so one of us needs to be sane." Gus nodded anxiously. "Hey, remember the Yin case…how you kept it light and entertaining?" Gus responded that he did. "Well I need that Gus now. Let that Gus come out and play. Can you do that?"
"Yeah, sure thing, man. Keep it light. I can do that." Gus took a deep breath and gained his composure. "So, how 'bout them Thunderbirds, Yo? Keeping it tiiiight. Kickin' that pigskin! 40 yards! In the end zone! Whaaattt?!"
Chief Vick looked at Gus in disbelief, "Oooh…not this again, Guster."
"What Thunderbirds you talking about, maaann? They haven't won a game since Vlad kicked the bucket with his bare foot." For the first time since Juliet returned from the restroom Shawn cracked a smile…a tiny one, but a smile nonetheless. When the Chief turned and trudged forward, waving for them to follow, Shawn winked at his buddy and mouthed the phrase, "Thank you!"
After a bit of searching and asking questions, they located the head of the Rose Hill Mansion staff in the kitchen, who along with several of the cooks and wait staff appeared very flustered. The staff head wore a black tux with bow tie and white gloves. He reminded Shawn of the butler from 'Clue.'
"Mr. Denial? Karen Vick, Chief of Police," she said flashing her badge.
"Dude's name is Denial?" whispered Shawn to Gus, who the Chief introduced next.
"These are my colleagues, psychic detective Shawn Spencer, and his partner…"
"Marvin Gayer," interrupted Gus, taking the initiative to give himself a stupid nickname for Shawn's benefit, and holding out his hand to shake Mr. Denial's. "…but, you can call me the King of Looove. You might recognize my smooth vocals from my one-hit wonder, Let's Get it On, Again." He crooned the title of the bogus song.
The Chief groaned in annoyance. "His name is Burton Guster, and you can just ignore him. Mr. Denial, I need to ask you whether you have accounted for the whereabouts of all of your staff."
"That's easier said than done, Chief," answered Mr. Denial. "I've got all of my kitchen staff right here, and a few of our wait staff, but a number of them are still in the ballroom along with the bartender. I have someone rounding up the maintenance crew right now, but I'm afraid our valets have been locked outside."
"Are you sure about that, Mr. Denial?" Shawn asked him. "I mean, absolutely, 100% sure….no doubts whatsoever?"
The joke surprisingly went over Mr. Denial's head. "Yes, what are you implying, sir?"
"Oh, I'm not implying anything. I just want to make perfectly sure that you are not in deni…"
"Sir," the Chief interrupted swiftly. "I am going to need you to have your entire staff gather in the ballroom with the guests. Keep them together and send them one at time to me and my colleagues for questioning. You'll be the first we want to talk to. Make whatever arrangements you need and meet us back here in five minutes, no more."
"Yes, yes, certainly," said Mr. Denial.
As soon as Mr. Denial and all of the staff that were in the kitchen exited the room, the Chief was about to yell at Gus for his antics, but when she saw that Shawn's demeanor had lightened significantly, she realized there was a purpose for it and decided to keep quiet.
Exactly five minutes later, Mr. Denial returned, and they shot a barrage of questions at him…questions about himself, his actions that day, about his staff – how many were there and who was responsible for what? How long had they been working for him? Were there any new hires? Did any of them display inappropriate or suspicious behavior? – and more of the like. In the end, they decided the Mr. Denial had no knowledge of the perpetrator and had narrowed down their suspects to a few new hires and one long time employee who had been acting suspiciously, or otherwise whose whereabouts hadn't been accounted for yet. Some progress was good but they clearly had a long night ahead of them.
"How much time left until midnight, Gus," asked Shawn.
"Gus repressed to urge to quip about Shawn never wearing a watch and looked at his own. "It's still only 9:00 PM. We have three hours."
"Have I ever solved a case in three hours, Gus?"
"Well, there was that case with Mrs. Jablonski's missing poodle…and the stolen computers. That one only took you three seconds."
"…any real cases, though?"
Gus contemplated for a few moments, but nothing came to mind. "There must have been something…" he said. Shawn wasn't encouraged though.
(((Pineapple)))
Marlowe managed to track down Dr. Lesser, who was ready and willing to help Juliet.
"Ok, Mrs. Spencer. Can I call you Juliet?" she asked. Juliet nodded while she muffled a groan. The contractions were rapidly getting more painful and closer together. "I understand this is your first baby. I know it's scary, especially since we can't get to a hospital right away, but I am here to help you. Everything is going to be ok." Dr. Lesser asked Juliet about what she was feeling specifically and some questions about how her pregnancy had progressed so far. Juliet explained she had had a healthy pregnancy, but that she was three weeks from her due date.
Dr. Lesser smiled in a way that infused calm into everyone around her. Even Juliet settled. "That's good, Juliet. The best thing now is to remain calm. I promise you, there is nothing to worry about. I'm really good at what I do. Also, I want you to know that it is very common for some women to deliver early. It doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with your baby. My cousin had all four of daughters three to four weeks before her due date, and every one of them was perfect."
"How long do you think it's going to be?" Juliet asked.
"Most women in your current state have a good five to six more hours to go."
"Seriously?" exclaimed Juliet. She couldn't imagine going through this for another five to six more hours.
"You should feel lucky," said Rachael. "I was in labor with Maximus for almost 24 hours." Marlowe gulped nervously from her position about three feet from Juliet.
"I'm going to have to do a proper examination to give a more accurate estimate, though," continued Dr. Lesser. "Is there someplace more private we could go?"
"The Chief said everyone has to stay in the ballroom," said Rachael.
"I think she'll make this one exception," said the doctor.
"This place is a hotel. We should be able to use one of the rooms," said Francie.
"That would be perfect. Why don't you and Marlowe go find the concierge and see if he'll get us a room, while Rachael and I get her ready to…."
Dr. Lesser's words faltered, as did a majority of other voices in the room when they heard the familiar squealing of speaker interference again, and the gravelly voice returned.
"Attention SBPD and guests. Sorry for the delay, but I was busy working on the first of tonight's surprises. Are you all ready to have some fuuuunnnn!" Everyone was either gasping and whispering fearfully to each other or waiting in silent anticipation. "I thought so."
The voice stopped again and was replaced by music that sounded like it was being played from a 1920s phonograph. The music was so cheery, there it was creepy. Suddenly the walls and ceiling began to rumble as if the building was being struck by an earthquake. The enormous crystal chandelier above the dance floor rattled and jingled. A loud cracking noise directed everyone's attention to the chandelier, and people cried out and screamed as they saw several deep crevices formed around its base. Everyone who was sitting on or near the dance floor scrambled to get as far away from it as possible. Luckily, Juliet and her group were already far from it and only watched the scene in horror while the massive lighting fixture broke free of the ceiling and came down with a deafening crash. Glass shattered and flew in all directions. People hid and ducked, but many were still pierced and scraped by shards of crystal. When the clinking rain of sharp glass finally diminished, the music stopped and all was quiet, save for the moans and cries of the injured.
Just as an interesting aside, Dr. Lesser is named after my doggie's veterinarian who took such great care of him last week. Mr. Denial is name after a friend of mine whose last name was actually Denial, that is until she got married a couple years ago.