For a moment, I swear time just stopped.

I don't really believe it myself even as I write this, but I remember it clearly. At that moment, I glanced at a clock across the precinct, and the second-hand was frozen in place.

It immediately unfroze, however, when Chief Vick stepped out of her office and spotted the three of us across the room.

"Detective O'Hara," she called, motioning us into her office. "Mr. Guster. I need to talk to you."

She nodded at Buzz. "Officer McNab, I think Detective Lassiter was looking for you."

"Right, Chief." Buzz nodded, quickly scuttling off as Juliet and I followed the Chief.

She closed the door behind us and crossed to her chair. As she sat down, my eyes fell on a paperweight that rarely ever moved from its position near the center of her desk.

Every time she sits down, I always flinch just a little. Someday, she's going to move that paperweight and discover the inch-deep gash in her desk from the time Shawn decided it would be a good idea to play flag football in the precinct…even though we didn't have flags or a football on-hand.

It's a long story…but I don't want to be there the day she finally sees it.

I'm not taking the heat for that one.

She leaned back in her chair, her fingers drumming on the arms thoughtfully. I had seen that look in her eyes a thousand times before. It was the stern, commanding look she always got when she was about to tell me and Shawn to butt out of a case we weren't involved in.

"Detective O'Hara," she began, leaning forward. "I want you on the case. Now that we have his bike…"

"I'm on it, Chief." Juliet nodded. "Gus and I were just--"

Vick shook her head sharply, cutting off the thought before Juliet could even finish it.

Juliet glanced at me out of the corner of my eye, seeing my fists already starting to clench.

We both knew what was coming.

"Mr. Guster, I want you to stay out of it," she ordered, turning her gaze on me next. "It's an official police investigation now, but we still don't know for a fact anything is wrong. According to you, Henry Spencer is the last person who would've seen him…and we can't find him, either."

I blinked in surprise. "Isn't he fishing?"

"No," Vick shook her head. "He's not. When they found Shawn's motorcycle, I had a patrol car drive by the marina. His boat is still there, and it hasn't moved all morning."

"Then where is he?" I asked, suddenly confused. "His truck's gone!"

"I don't know," she murmured. "I've been calling his house and his cell phone…he's not answering either. Until we find him, I want this case kept quiet. Unless we talk to him, we won't know what time Shawn left his house or where he was going or who he was with. And I don't want it leaking to the press that we have a missing psychic before we notify the next of kin…especially when that next of kin is Henry Spencer."

She turned back to Juliet. "Which means I want you looking into it quietly. And I want Mr. Guster to stay out of it. Just until we know what we're dealing with."

She stood up, waving us out the door. "I know you're concerned about him, Mr. Guster," she added as Juliet and I walked out of the office, as if that was supposed to make being told to back off finding my best friend okay. "But let us handle it. If something happened to him, we'll find out what it is."

Juliet looked at me as we shut the door to the Chief's office behind us.

"I'm sorry, Gus," she said quietly. "I'll call you later let you know what's going on with the investigation."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "You don't seriously think I'm backing off just because the Chief told me to, do you?" I snorted.

She smiled. "No."

"Good," I nodded, already walking away. "Because I'm not. I'm the only one who knew he was missing, and I'm going to find him!"