Note: I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to update! I've entirely missed my Halloween deadline, but I'm hoping to at least have this thing done by Christmas.
"Hey, Lassie?" Shawn said, when the call picked up. "I solved the case."
Shawn didn't hear Lassiter's response, because it was swallowed in the sound of the safety unlatching on a gun. "You're gonna want to hang up now," a woman told him, her voice too clear and cold to be Eveline's.
Shawn ended the call and glanced to the right. He could see the woman from Holly's picture standing just behind the barrel of the gun. "You must be Andie," he said.
Andie did not look much like her picture anymore. Her hair was blonder and tied back tightly, and she was wearing an expensive button-up white blouse with a blue blazer and matching pants. She looked more like a businesswoman on a lunch break than a crazy woman on a killing spree.
"And you must be Shawn," she said, and Shawn turned so he was facing her, while behind him, Gus took three steps further back.
Shawn had expected her to be out of control, but her blue eyes were clear and steady. If anything she seemed a little too certain of what she was doing—but then, Shawn knew, that was its own kind of madness. Sane people knew better than to be certain of anything.
"The police are on their way," Shawn told her. "You've been very careful so far, sure to make it all look like accidents, this isn't your style."
"You've already blown my cover," Andie said. "You proved Harvey was murdered. I'm still not quite sure how you knew that, but starting there my plans kept unraveling bit by bit, and now, well, now I haven't got anything left to lose."
"You've got Holly," Shawn said.
Andie glared at him. "Everything I've done I've done for Holly," she said. "Don't you dare preach about her to me."
"You never visited her in all those years she was banished to that place, did you?" Shawn asked. "Not even once. Even Harvey made time for her once a year."
"Shawn," Gus warned in a hiss. "Stop antagonizing the crazy person with a gun."
"I'm not crazy!" Andie screamed.
It clicked then in Shawn's mind: of course she wouldn't visit Holly there. What was it Lassiter had told him? They may not let you out. "I'm sorry," Shawn said. "I'm sorry, you're right, I've misjudged you." He held up his hands. "It wasn't that you didn't want to see her."
"That bastard took her away from me," Andie said. "He took her the one place I couldn't—that I couldn't—" She looked near tears, but her hands were still steady, the gun didn't waver even an inch.
"Andie—" Shawn started.
"All those years and I let him get away with it, I brought him his meals and I cleaned up after him and his little wife and all the time I was dreaming up ways I could kill him, but I wasn't strong enough, I wasn't," Andie said, meeting Shawn's eyes and raising the gun to meet them too. "But I'm stronger now than I was before, and we both know you've brought this on yourself. You took Holly away this time and I'm not waiting another fifteen years to get her the vengeance she deserves."
"No," Shawn said. "I didn't take her away this time—you did. They took her because of what you did."
"Shawn," Gus warned again.
Shawn ignored him and stepped closer to Andie. "But Holly's not the one that really needs help, you are. You need to give yourself up. Killing me, that doesn't prove anything, it'll only get you locked up right there with her."
"Maybe it's time I was with her," Andie said.
"Not like that," Shawn said. "You had every reason to hate Harvey, people will understand that. But Eveline, she didn't even know about any of this. That's why you couldn't do it, isn't it? It's why you couldn't kill her? It's why you won't kill me."
"This should all be Holly's," Andie said. "It shouldn't be hers."
"Holly doesn't care about any of this," Shawn said. "All she ever wanted was you."
"I couldn't go there," Andie said. "I couldn't. I'm not crazy. I'm not."
"Of course not," Shawn said, and held out his hand. "So prove it. Give me the gun. We'll tell everyone the truth, the truth about Harvey and you and Holly. She shouldn't be a secret anymore."
"You think it's that easy?" Andie asked. "I can't ever get back what I lost."
"Have you been in Holly's room?" Shawn asked. "There's only one picture there, and it's of you. You haven't lost everything yet, you still have Holly. You can still try to make up for the time you lost."
"You don't know, you don't know what I've been through," Andie said. "You come here with your visions, telling everyone everything I've tried so hard to hide, but you don't know anything."
"I know you love your daughter," Shawn said. "I know that Aldis was the only person who ever tried to help you. He helped you set up that room, but it wasn't really for Holly, it was for you. You probably spent almost every night there, am I right?"
"This isn't a game," Andie cried. "You don't get points for right answers."
"No, it's not a game," Shawn agreed. "I'm sorry for what happened to you, but this? This isn't going to fix anything, and I know you don't think you can, but you can still fix it."
"They're going to lock me away," Andie said. "You think I'm stupid? My life is over."
"Holly's isn't," Shawn said. "You said you've done all this for her, but you haven't. You haven't been thinking of her, because if you had you would know she wouldn't want this. You need to think of Holly now, because she needs you."
"She doesn't know what she wants," Andie said. "She came home. A few weeks ago. I found her just sitting on her bed, At first I didn't think she was real, and when Harvey found out he wanted to send her away again, and that's when I knew what I had to do. I did it for her. To keep her safe."
"No one is going to make Holly stay at the hospital if she doesn't want to. I talked to a nurse at Acres and Groves, I'm sure she'll testify that Holly could have been released," Shawn said. "But they're never going to let her out of there as long as they think she's the one that killed Harvey. You really want to protect your daughter, you're going to have to confess."
Andie closed her eyes for a moment, and bit her lip, before she clicked the safety on the gun and flipped it so the handle was facing Shawn. "You have to promise me that Holly isn't going to stay in that place because of what I've done."
"I will do everything I can to make sure she doesn't have to," Shawn said. "That much I promise."
Andie held the gun out slowly, and Shawn took it from her. He heard Gus run out of the room behind him, probably to go throw up in the bathroom. "I loved him, you know," Andie said. "Isn't that the funniest thing? Even when I killed him, I still did. Maybe I am crazy."
Shawn looked down at the gun in his hands, unsure what to do with it now that he had it. It wasn't that he didn't know how to use it. Guns probably wouldn't scare him so much if he didn't know just what he was capable of when holding one in his hands. He popped out the clip and cleared the chamber. "What's that phrase about being crazy and in love?" Shawn asked, glancing up.
"Love that is not madness is not love," Andie said.
"That's Beyonce Knowles?" Shawn asked.
Andie frowned. "Pedro Calderon de la Barca," she said.
Shawn shook his head. "No, I was thinking of Beyonce Knowles. So crazy right now! Your love's got me—Crazy In Love, that's what I'm thinking of. We should all take comfort in her words."
Andie was looking at him like she thought maybe he was the one in need of a padded cell, so Shawn was glad that Lassiter choose that moment to storm the room.
Shawn had to admire Lassiter's entrance. He was still wearing his shades and held his gun with both hands, pointing it towards the ground but ready to raise it in a second, all coiled up with determination and anger and something else. "Andie Delahoy," he barked. "You're under arrest for the murder of Harvey Graves, and the attempted murder of Eveline Graves. Shawn, step away from her."
Shawn stepped back, bumping into Gus. "Why didn't he ask me to step back?" Gus demanded, moving away nonetheless, dragging Shawn with him.
"You're smart enough to do it without my asking," Lassiter snapped, as he pulled Andie's hands behind her back to cuff them.
Gus was appeased by this response. "That's true," he admitted, before glancing nervously at the gun in Shawn's hands.
"How did you get back here?" Shawn demanded.
"I went to let Lassiter in," Gus said indignantly. "I saw him on the monitor. What, you thought I just ran out on you?"
"You're right, what was I thinking?" Shawn asked. "That would have been entirely unprecedented."
Juliet and Buzz came running in. "Lassiter!" Juliet said breathlessly. "What's going on?"
"We found Harvey's murderer," Lassiter explained, handing Andie off to Buzz. "Get her to the station and book her."
Lassiter stepped towards Shawn, and Shawn took a step back. "Uh, Lassie, look—"
Lassiter ignored him, grabbing Shawn in a fierce hug, burying his head in Shawn's neck. "You're going to be the death of me," he said.
Shawn carefully reached around, not sure what to do with his hands at first, before grabbing handfuls of Lassiter's shirt and using them to hang on. "How did you know I would be here?" he asked. "I didn't leave a note for you this time."
"This time you didn't have to," Lassiter said. "I came looking on my own."
"Maybe psychic powers are catching," Shawn said weakly.
"Or maybe I followed your instinct and spoke to Holly," Lassiter said. "She saw everything, it was just like you said. I figured Andie had to have lived here with Holly; she used to read to her at night. So I had O'Hara run the name for me against Harvey Grave's employee records and she found an Andie Delahoy, fired just two weeks ago. I came here to ask Eveline about her. When you called, I was already on my way."
Lassiter pulled back and frowned at Shawn. "But you already knew all of that, didn't you?"
"I did," Shawn said. "But we both figured it out in the end, right? Maybe the method doesn't matter."
Lassiter frowned. "The method always matters."
"Oh my god!" Juliet screeched from behind them. "You really are together! That's just the most adorable thing ever!"
Shawn stepped to the side as Juliet tried to collect while Lassiter was still handing out the free hugs, and glanced over at Andie. She spoke to him without quite looking up. "You get it, right?" she asked quietly. "Why I did what I did."
"You're asking the wrong person," Shawn said. "You need to talk to Holly."
"Come on," Buzz said gently, and led her from the room. Behind them Lassiter was wiggling out of Juliet's grip, and with a sharp beat of his heart, Shawn realized he was still holding the gun and quickly set it down.
Lassiter appeared behind him, and reached across to pick the gun back up. "I got permission from Vick to come back early. I'm officially off medical leave."
"That's good," Shawn said.
"Means I have to go back to the station, fill out my report," Lassiter explained.
Shawn heard Eveline behind him, demanding to know what was going on. He figured the house was so big she hadn't even noticed the disturbance until now. Aldis was speaking lowly from somewhere too, and Shawn always hated cases like this, where it couldn't just be over. The ones where you could see the damage spreading further than a chalk outline.
"What about Holly?" Shawn asked.
"Juliet's going to cut her loose," Lassiter said.
Shawn nodded. "I'll go with her," he said. Lassiter grabbed his arm when he turned to leave.
"We need to talk, Shawn," he said.
"I think that's a first," Shawn said. "You wanting me to talk."
"Well, there's a first time for everything," Lassiter said, and reluctantly released his grip. "If anything we're proof of that."
x x x x x x
Gus had declined to come with him to the psychiatric ward, despite Shawn's appealing arguments of lots of crazy people in need of pharmaceuticals, and while Shawn wasn't strictly supposed to be here himself, he still managed to make his way alone to Holly's room while Juliet argued with her doctor about whether or not she should be allowed to leave.
Shawn had no doubts that Juliet would win the argument. It didn't hurt that Holly had a home to go to. Eveline wanted her to come back, and promised that she and Aldis would take the care of her she deserved. They were even going to give her a whole room, one she could have all to herself.
"Shawn," Holly greeted when he entered, giving a slight smile. "It's nice to see you. Have you been dreaming yet?"
"Not yet," Shawn said. "But probably just because I haven't slept."
"That's no excuse not to dream," she said.
Shawn sat down beside her on the bed. She was sketching out a half-formed face with her red crayon, it could almost be a self-portrait except for the lines around the eyes and forehead, marks of age and worry that were worn by Andie instead.
"Hey, you want to get out of here?" he asked.
Holly paused, glancing up at him. "That really depends," she said.
"On what?" Shawn asked.
"On where I'd go from here," she said.
"How about home?" Shawn asked. "Eveline wants you to come stay with her and Aldis."
"Eveline is nice," Holly said. "I didn't like her at first, because she was the reason I had to leave, but she was kind, and she has pretty things. I don't think she's going to like me, though. No one would, Harvey always said. People don't like crazy people. We make them uncomfortable."
"Maybe we're all a little crazy," Shawn said. "Maybe you're just more honest about it."
"You're honest," Holly told him.
"I spend most of my time lying, actually," he said.
"You tell the truth about the things that matter," Holly said. "You just need to tell the truth to yourself."
"I'm not sure what you mean," he said.
"There has to be a reason you're afraid to sleep," Holly said. "I had nightmares because I was afraid of ending up here. It's strange but since I got here I haven't been afraid of it anymore, and now I've been dreaming all the time."
"What do you dream about?" Shawn asked.
"Flying," Holly said. "In my dreams I always have wings."
"We should have a Red Bull together sometime, my treat," Shawn said.
Holly didn't catch the reference, and she looked over at Shawn with solemn eyes. "Do you really think it's going to be okay?" she asked.
"Life's a work in progress," Shawn said. "I think you'll get there."
"They're going to lock her up, aren't they?" she asked. "For what she did?"
"Yes," Shawn said. "She turned herself in, but you need to know that she loves you very much."
"Love is kind of terrifying," Holly said. "Have you ever noticed that?"
"It does seem to be a recurring theme," Shawn said.
Juliet came through the door, throwing an exasperated glance at Shawn before turning to smile at Holly. "You ready to go home?" she asked.
Holly carefully packed away her crayons. "I'm ready to leave," she said, but Shawn knew that didn't mean quite the same thing.
