It was not long before Lassiter himself was on the scene, along with Henry, who had stubbornly tagged along with the younger detective, despite his numerous attempts at trying to get him to stay back at the station. Once they reached the two of them, after breaking through the still frantic crowd, their previous fears were immediately stilled. They had expected to find the charred remains of their close friends and family, but instead they found the both of them doing pretty much the same thing that they had been trying to do: get through the crowd.
"O'Hara," Lassiter yelled through the noise of the crowd, his voice carrying an almost unheard of air of concern.
"We're okay," she said defiantly, finally getting out of the chaos herself. "A little scratched up, but we're okay."
"What happened," he barked.
"Actually, I'm not entirely sure. I just saw Shawn running so I followed him. What happened, Shawn?"
"I got a call from somebody. He never told me his name, but I bet Gus' entire Red Phantom collection that he was a Duffy. He told me that his family has something against me, that I know something no one else is supposed to know, so I have to die, and that's when I found the bomb."
"Well, it's lucky you found it when you did. Although it is a tad unsettling, it may mean that whatever they're doing, they're stepping it up a notch," Lassiter, noted matter-of-factly.
"Or getting desperate, I wish I could remember what it is exactly that I've got buried in this memory bank of mine."
"Alright, Henry, let's get these two back home," he said, motioning to the man's car.
"Carlton, I brought my own car here."
"I know, and you're not taking a scrap piece of metal back home."
"Oh," she uttered, only just then realizing that her car had been a part of the carnage.
Wordless as they went, the pair now followed the retired cop to his truck, taking no time to climb into the backseat. Not long after Henry had stepped on the gas pedal so hard that it nearly fell off, they were back at Juliet's house. With a quick goodbye to Henry, who reminded them to let the police know about anything suspicious, the pair nearly passed out on the couch, nodding off with the sudden rush of exhaustion overtaking them.
A few hours later, Shawn stirred awake, stretching the crick in his neck, before taking a quick look outside as he had grown accustomed to doing the minute the first psycho started going after him. Shifting his gaze from the outside, to the woman still asleep on the couch, Shawn hatched an idea. It had been a good, long while since he had done something truly, random and romantic for her. So, he grabbed the keys that he had at that moment noticed that he had left on the kitchen table to his right, and went out the door quietly.
When she woke up, Juliet awoke to an empty house. Once her senses were cleared of any semblance of exhaustion she felt her insides run cold. The space that Shawn had once been sleeping peacefully in was empty. Willing herself not to panic, she listened to the sounds around the house for a moment, hoping to hear the muted shuffling of his shoes. There was nothing. Pushing down the fear that threatened to cloud her common sense, she quickly dialed Gus's phone number. She would have called Lassiter, but she knew that was probably as air-headed a thing to do as walking up to an alligator while it was eating.
"Juliet," answered the man's concerned voice after the third ring.
"Hey Gus, how's everything?"
"Juliet what happened to Shawn this time," he asked in an I-am-not falling-for-anything tone of voice.
"He's gone," Juliet finally admitted. "After Henry dropped us off, we fell asleep, and when I woke up, he was gone!"
"Juliet calm down. Now, are you sure he's really gone? Maybe, he's outside or he took a stroll or something."
"No, he didn't Gus, if he did he would have told me, or at least left a note. He's got to know after what happened today not to do that to me."
"Are you sure? This is Shawn we're talking about. He probably would've forgotten to write a note."
"But Gus," Juliet was suddenly cut off.
"I'm coming over. Maybe if we both put our heads together we can figure this out before we lose them."
"Okay, see you in a bit," she told him after finally calming down.
As she waited, thoughts buzzed around her head aimlessly, and yet they all seemed centered around the same fact, Shawn had gone missing right under her nose. Who knows what their perp could be doing to him right now?
How could he have just disappeared like that? Why didn't I noticing anything, she wondered.
She stayed on this same track of thought for at least another ten minutes, only to have all her thoughts come to a screeching halt when the door handle of her front door started turning seemingly out of its own accord. Cursing her luck yet again, Juliet grabbed her service weapon from where it lay in her purse and stood at the ready to face the intruder. It was the first time in seven years she found herself thanking God she did not have that same shaky trigger finger she had had as a rookie.