As soon as Shawn was out of the building, around other people, he started searching for his cell phone. "Come on, come on, where is it?"
He frantically searched all his pockets, only to come to the conclusion that he lost it. Running across the street, he found a payphone and dialed 911.
With in minutes Carlton, Juliet, and Karen pulled up with half the police force, surrounding the building. Carlton stormed up to Shawn, screaming, "Spencer, what the hell happened? Where is she?"
"This guy Lloyd attacked us," Shawn explained. "Gypsy started fighting with him, and told me to run. I did and then called you guys."
"Did she seem like she was winning? Did she come out yet? Are they still up there? Was she hurt?" Carlton was just shooting questions at Shawn.
"Um… I haven't seen them come out the front," Shawn told them. He pulled out the knife from his pocket and held it out for Carlton. "And I know he had at least one knife on him."
Carlton took the knife, all his worst fears running across his mind. "All right, we need to get a team up there now. O'Hara, McNab, come with me, Chief, you, Johnson, Smith and McDubrin take the front entrance, the rest of you go around back. Block all the exits; make sure no one gets out. Those with me, we're going inside."
Carlton took a moment to brace himself before he kicked in the door. He was fully expecting to find Delilah's dead body in there. Barging into the room, part of him was filled with relief. The room was empty, no dead body. There was blood though, a small spot on the beige carpet just drawing all of Carlton's attention. He was thankful though it was too small of an amount to be anything serious.
"They're not here," he said into his walkie-talkie. "We're going to stay in the building and search, keep watching."
"Whoa, is that blood?" Shawn asked, coming in from the corridor.
"Spencer, I thought I told you stay outside!" Carlton snapped. "Why can't you ever lis-"
His phone rang, interrupting his train of thought. The situation was starting to wear him thin. Dealing between his ex-lover being kidnapped and injured, Spencer being Spencer, all while trying to pretend as though he has no feelings for Delilah, the last thing he needed was someone, probably his mother, calling him.
"Who the hell is this?" he groaned, glancing at a number he did not recognize.
Shawn glanced at the phone, just being his normally nosey self, when he recognized the digits. "Hey, that's my number!"
"Spencer, why do you have my number?"
"Lassie, I don't have my cell phone on me! I dropped it in this room. I'm not the one calling you," Shawn explained. "Pick up the phone."
Carlton flicked his phone open and greeted, "Detective Lassiter."
"Good, you are part of the police department," a deep manly voice replied. "This number is under 'Lassie', I was afraid this would be another ex-girlfriend."
"What do you want?" Carlton asked sternly.
"I already have a lot of things I want. A little Gypsy being one of them," the voice told him, his evil grin heard over the phone.
"There's got to be more though, or you wouldn't have called. What else do you want?"
"I'm still deciding that. I'd just thought you might want to know we're not in the building anymore."
"How do I know you aren't lying?"
"Just listen to the background. Hear the cars driving by? If you listen real close you can even hear the ocean. Still think we're in the building?"
Carlton listened, and heard the cars. "All right, let me speak to Gypsy to make sure she's okay."
"You know what, a picture is worth a thousand words. I'll send you a picture after I make her pretty for you," Lloyd stated. "Don't worry though, I'll call you later when I figure out what I want, and what you can do to get what you want back. Bye for now."
"No! You let me speak to her now!" Carlton roared, but Lloyd had already hung up.
Carlton stared at his phone's screen with the blinking number indicating the call had ended. He dropped down to the floor, his legs finally giving out. He wrapped his arms around his head, wishing the world would stop for one moment so he could just figure out a way to bring her back to him.
"Carlton?" Juliet asked gingerly.
He lifted up his head. "McNab go down and tell the chief that the suspect isn't here, and she should send a patrol over to 23 Willow Flower Lane, it was previous hideout of the suspect. And she should also send out a group to check out sleazy motels, basically any place that IDs aren't required, or really checked up on."
The two police officers nodded and were quick to follow the order. As they reached the door, Carlton added, "And tell the Chief that O'Hara and I will investigating the victim's apartment incase there's any chance they go to hideout there or any other leads."
They left, leaving the three in an awkward silence. Finally, Carlton got up and started towards the door. Juliet and Shawn stared after him, not moving. He turned around and asked, "You coming?"
They sat in silence on the ride to Delilah's apartment. Juliet keep shooting secret glances at her partner, trying to gauge his reaction to the situation. He was being alarmingly calm.
Arriving at Delilah's apartment building, Shawn instantly recognized it. As soon as Juliet was out of the car, Shawn hit Carlton in the arm and exclaimed, "Polly Smith?! Polly Smith! There better be a Polly Smith who lives here also."
Carlton got out of the car, ignoring the shocked psychic and headed up to Delilah's apartment without a word.
It looked exactly the same. Nothing had changed since he stormed out previously. The bedroom looked like it always did. He could almost see her, smiling at him, wearing one of his button down shirts, laying on the bed with him, their legs entangled, explaining her tarot cards just like they once had.
"So which one do you think is mine?" she questioned, fanning the cards. She had this cocky little grin, doubting he would be able to chose correctly.
He looked between the cards, and his eyes fell on one. A woman in blue robes, with a crescent moon at her feet, and this small knowing smile, he plucked that card and showed it to her. With an even bigger cocky grin he read, "The High Priestess."
"How'd you..." she questioned, impressed he figured it out.
"It looks like she has secrets, and I know you have secrets," he explained, giving her a quick kiss on the nose. "So which card would I be, Brainiac? No, Justice, right?"
She shook her head. "No, you're The Emperor. You're a powerful individual, with self-control, and worldly power who can handle responsibility. You're very strong. You're my Emperor."
He never put much faith in those cards, but she lived her life by them, so he would at least pretend to believe in them around her.
"And you're my High Priestess," he replied and pulled her closer to him, their lips meeting.
"Carlton? Are you okay?" Juliet asked, pulling him out of his flashback.
He realized he had stopped in front of them bedroom door. Shaking his head, he answered, "No. I expect her to be there, smiling at me, telling me everything is going to be okay. And she's not going to be there."
Juliet grasped his shoulder, probably the only thing she could have done to make him feel better.
After few moments, he finally managed to open the door. He saw the bedroom, but at the same time he didn't see it. His eyes went straight to the bed, his legs soon followed suit. He picked up the object on the bed, it was his shirt from last night, the missing one. He wondered what it was doing on the bed, but then all the images of her wearing his shirts popped back into his head. His shirts often ended up being her nightgowns.
He sat on the bed for a while, just holding his shirt, unaware that Juliet and Shawn entered the room. The two looked at each other, pity evident on their faces. They both knew why Carlton was reacting so strongly to Delilah's kidnapping, but would not comfort him in front of each other. Shawn instead glanced around, trying to get a feel for Delilah's room. The closet door was open, shoes and random boxes were scattered near it, like someone had been search through the closet for something. There was even an empty space in the closet.
Shawn continued to snoop around the room, walking over to her dresser, observing that the drawers were not shut all the way. Juliet just stood there awkwardly, trying to think of something useful to say. Finally she blurted out, "Why is Shawn here?"
"Jules!" Shawn cried, genuinely hurt.
Juliet started to apologize, but Carlton's answer cut her off. "Delilah believed in psychics, and tarot cards, so I was hoping he could figure out where she is and if she was okay."
There was an urgency in Carlton's voice that made Shawn, for the first time, feel uneasy about faking a vision. Shawn had no clue to where she could have been or how bad she was, he had also seen the blood spot. Yet, Shawn could not tell Carlton this, he was afraid Carlton was fall apart.
Closing his eyes, Shawn walked towards the closet, stating, "The spirits are pulling me towards this direction. Question, was this mess here last night?"
Carlton shook his head. Shawn nodded, and concluded, tearing his fingers away from his temple dramatically, "They were here. He made her look for something, I'm not sure what, but something important that she hide in her closet."
Carlton nodded, and glanced back the floor, thinking. Shawn took this moment to signal Juliet to follow him out of the bedroom. Once they had shut the door, Shawn turned to her and questioned, "Who the hell is Delilah?"
"Gypsy, it's her real name," Juliet answered.
"Oh, so then you know about them, being…" Shawn slid his fingers to interlock with each other and then pulled them apart. He repeated the action until Juliet stopped him.
"Yes, wait, how do you?" Juliet asked.
"Psychic," Shawn replied.
Juliet was going to press the issue when Carlton stumbled out of the bedroom. He handed her the phone and said, with no emotion in his voice, "We need to get back to the station."
Juliet glanced at her partner with concern, and then her eyes flashed over to the phone's screen. She only saw the image for a second before the screen went black, but it was enough to shake her. Shawn took the phone from her hands, and pressed a button to bring the image back to the screen. He wished he hadn't.
It was Delilah, beaten, with a forming black eye, fat lip and cuts along her forehead from where he must have smashed her face into the ground. She was lying on the ground, either unconscious or dead.
Shawn glanced at Juliet nervously, and they were both too preoccupied to notice Carlton slip something into his pocket.
As soon as the chief was filled in, she demanded to speak to Carlton alone. He was not even aware that anyone had left the office, till the chief yelled, "Detective Lassiter!"
Carlton sat up and finally looked at his boss for the first time. Karen sent him a worried glance and stated, "I know you and Gypsy had a history together, so I would completely understand if you aren't up to working this case."
Carlton shook his head. "No, the bastard is calling my cell. I'm seeing this through."
"All right, but I need to know, don't lie to me," Karen said. "Is there anything other then a profession relationship between you and Gypsy?"
Carlton shook his head, and headed out of the office not seeing Karen's glare. He sat at his desk, trying to make the world stop, but he could not. He couldn't tell the chief truthfully what she wanted to hear. He couldn't stop the stares from everyone, waiting for his next moves. He couldn't stop his mind from going back to the image of her hurt. He couldn't say he was sorry for their fight, he couldn't take back calling her a murderer. There was so much he couldn't do, and the only thing he could was wait for a call.
Juliet came over to his desk, holding a coffee cup. She placed it on his desk, but he shook his head. She nudged it towards him and insisted, "Try it, extra cream."
He was too tired to fight, he body was aching and he just wanted to collapse and sleep. The last thing he wanted was Juliet pestering him, so he took the coffee and had a big sip to make her happy. He stopped and stared at her, it is Delilah's drink.
Juliet smiled to herself at his reaction. "I'd thought you'd could use some coffee," she explained.
Carlton was seriously considering hugging her if his phone had not rung. It was a video message from the kidnapper psycho. His face scrunched in distaste, but he pressed play.
The video was of a very still Delilah, not moving on the ground. Lloyd's voice was heard taunting, "By now you've probably had enough time to squirm and wonder whether or not she's alive. Don't worry, she is, let me prove it to you."
A foot was seen, kicking Delilah in the gut. A groan escaped her lips and she curled up, trying to protect herself from future kicks. Carlton started to shake.
"Now that you know she's alive, I want you, Detective Carlton Lassiter, to come with your boss at ten thirty AM to the corner of Seashell Boulevard and Degradi Lane. Once you get there, I'll tell you where to go. I want just you two and I want you to come in a truthful mood. Don't try anything because I have no problem killing. Gypsy knows. I won't contact you until then, so go get some sleep. See ya then."
The video ended with Delilah staring at the phone, with an almost pleading look. Pleading him not to go, to just leave her. Yet he ignored her silent pleas, too focused on his thoughts of what he would do to Lloyd if he ever got the chance. Carlton would make his pay for every hit he inflicted on Delilah, especially that kick.
"What do we do?" Juliet asked, after a few moments of silence. If this had been a normal kidnapping she would know what to do. If Lloyd had given any demands or ransom she would know what to do. But he had not, they were all in uncharted territory.
"We tell the Chief, and show up tomorrow at ten thirty. Nothing else we can do O'Hara," Carlton informed her.
Juliet nodded and Carlton got, putting on his jacket. He noticed her staring at him, and snapped, "Well, get going O'Hara."
She did not move. "Where are you going?"
"Home, to get some sleep. I don't see any reason to stick around," he explained and started to walk towards the door.
"What about Gypsy?" Juliet cried after him.
"She's a big girl, she can handle herself," he replied, not even looking back at her.
Juliet ran after him, stopping him. She glared at him angrily and whispered, "You're not even fighting for her."
Carlton looked at his partner, and wondered how she could still have all her innocence. She was staring at him, upset and angry, like someone had just told her the truth about Santa Claus and she refused to believe it. She still believed in happy endings. Carlton grasped her shoulder, hoping she would understand, and told her, "I am."
Juliet was left staring after him, a small smile creeping on her face.
Carlton glanced around, the payphone stuck to his ear. He felt extremely uneasy about this situation, but it was the only way he would get an upper hand.
"Hi, it's the Cop. Listen, I need your help," Carlton said into the phone, as soon as the person picked up. He glanced down to look at what was in his hand. They were tarot cards from Delilah's apartment. The Devil and Strength, but Strength was upside down. She had left them flipped up for him to find. "What can you tell me about Gypsy's Devil?"