AN: Thanks to all those that tried to crack Lassie's code. A few got close and only one almost got the whole message in one go. *cough*Jesse*cough* The freaking police officer in-training that she is. I am going to have to make my riddles a little harder next time.

Chapter 34 – Message Deciphered

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" She heard Shawn ask over her shoulder and she rolled her eyes.

"It's some kind of code." Gus stated on the other shoulder.

"You know that note looks similar to the one written to Lassie from himself. Same messy handwriting." Shawn stated, pointing over her shoulder.

"I guess Lassiter likes to write in riddles." Gus said a little close to her ear.

"Guys. Can you give me some space?" She said in a huff, glaring at them. They backed off.

"Ouch, Jules. We're only trying to help."

Ignoring Shawn, she took a few steps away to read the note in peace.

-10-

12

Keep 60

44 denied

20 denied

15

77 tomorrow

DOA

11-42

Make puppy sit and stay

4

-CL

"Let's see…" She mumbled. "Ten. Twelve. Wait. Why is the ten written away from the rest of the message like that?"

"Maybe it has something to do with that picture in the corner." Shawn answered over her shoulder.

"What picture?" She asked herself, trying to ignore the returned closeness of both Shawn and Gus. She spotted a small rectangle with a circle in the middle and a single, straight line drawn from the top of the rectangle.

"It looks like a remote. You know from the cartoons, where you push the button and something blows up. I hope Lassie doesn't blow up."

"Shawn." She heard Gus say as she studied the picture.

"No, it's not a remote. It's a walkie-talkie. There are some faint lines coming from it to express sound. See." She said pointing to the picture.

She read the note again.

Then it clicked and she laughed a little. "Only Carlton would do something like this."

"What is it?"

"It's written in radio code." She said looking up from the paper.

"Radio code?"

"Yea. Every now and then, Carlton and I would have these radio code battles to see who could confuse the other during random conversations. Right now, I'm in the lead." She finished with a smile.

"You are one weird woman, Jules."

She ignored Shawn's comment to look back at the note. "Ok let's see, I'm supposed to add ten in front of the numbers…" Her eyes scanned the note, decoding the numbers. Once her brain realized what the note meant, her face paled. "What?" She whispered, reading over it again.

There was no way she was going to let him do this.

"What is it Jules?" Shawn asked.

"I can't let him do it." She looked at Shawn and Gus.

"Let him do what?" Gus asked.

She turned the note to them.

"10-12," She started, pointing to the numbers as she listed them off, "Is stand by, 10-60: squad in area, 10-44: permission to leave, 10-20: location identification, 10-15: heading to station with suspect, 10-77 is ETA: estimated time of arrival, DOA: dead or alive, 11-42: no ambulance required, and 10-4 is clear. It pretty much means-"

"He wants us to stay here protected while he goes off to some hidden location to confront Leo and bring him in… all by himself." Shawn stated rubbing a hand in his hair.

"And he really wants you to stay away." She added tapping the puppy comment.

"Okay, I'm starting to think that threat at the station wasn't a real threat." She heard Shawn mumble and she gave him a look that said 'I told you so' before walking off to inform the Chief.

He watched Jules disappear into the hallway before turning to his friend.

"Why does he keep calling me a puppy? I am so much more than some shoe-eating, cuddly ball of fur and energy."

Gus shrugged. "Maybe because you're immature and you keep getting in his way."

He scoffed. "I am not getting in his way. I'm trying to help. Any sane person can see that."

His friend shook his head. "Yea, sane in your dimension."

He ignored the comment with eyes staring at where they had found Jules.

"Something more is going on." He muttered.

"No kidding." Gus answered with a sarcastic tone.

He again ignored his friend. His mind was replaying what happened at the station. "That was not Lassie that walked out of the interrogation room. It was the same one that attacked us." He put a finger to his cheek in thought. "But it was different from the one that ran out of the station with Jules."

"Shawn what are you talking about? That was the same person. Don't tell me you truly believe that Lassiter is possessed."

"No, I don't believe he's possessed." He joked. "Why in the world would I bring it up if I didn't believe it?"

"Because you like bringing up farfetched theories."

"Buddy," He said sweetly throwing an arm over Gus' shoulders and guiding them to the kitchen just as a couple of officers entered heading to the guest room.

"Gus, buddy. Do you remember in the interrogation room when you hit him with that chair?"

"Yea," Gus gulped, softly removing his arm from around his shoulder. "He looked like he wanted to cut off my head."

"Did you notice the color of his eyes?"

"Why would I be worry about his eye color at a time like that? My life was on the line."

"Gus." He whined.

"Okay they were a light color."

"Light as in yellow, right?"

"I guess."

He shook his head. "Okay. When he stepped in the hallway-"

"They were… yellow?"

He nodded. "But after I put that collar around his neck, they were-"

"Green." Gus said in awe.

"Something happened with that collar. There was a switch. Instead of wanting to attack, he wanted to get away."

"Like at the warehouse and the apartments."

"And on the beach." He added softly. He knew he couldn't exactly see the color back then, but he remembered them being a darker than normal color. "Except when he told me to back off."

"It's like the eye color is some kind of indicator." His friend added.

Smiling, he nodded his head again.

"But that still doesn't tell us what's going on with Lassiter, whether it's Leo's drugs or some kind of weird possession like you said-"

"And that is why I need to talk to him."

"What!? You just tried that at the station! Are you crazy?!"

"Yup and I know exactly where he is." He smiled before yelling out to get Jules and Chief Vick's attention.

Gus panicked.

"Calm down. If the chief's theory was right." He quickly whispered. "Then he wouldn't have taken the time to talk to Jules, comfort her while she was asleep." He said motioning to the blanket that Jules threw back on the couch and the vase of lavenders. "And send out a text to let us know where she was, especially since she was dead set on not texting me in the first place."

"You didn't say-"

"Well she did." He folded his arms in huff. But his face immediately lit up when Jules appeared back in her living room, followed by the chief.

"Mr. Spencer, what is it?"

"Chief, the spirits are talking." He called out placing a hand to his head. "They know exactly where Lassie is and they want to guide me to him. But we'll have to hurry because I doubt he'll be staying there for very long."

AN: Now I am going to work very hard to get the next part done by Wednesday. But if I don't, blame it on Lassie. If he sneezes or steps to the left, it changes how everything else plays out. And depending on how this part goes, you may get more or less answers from him. So send him gifts, so he'll cooperate and stop making me travel through fifty million parallel dimensions in fifty million directions with fifty million reactions…

My head hurts just thinking about it.