Chapter 2

Victim #2: Lisa Montgomery

"C'mon Gus, I need you to drive me over to the crime scene."

"You told me that if I didn't want to, I didn't have to go with you on this case."

"I lied."

"You still can't force me to do what I don't want to do."

"I can make you my puppet, Pinocchio."

"Ok, Shawn, first of all, you're more Pinocchio-y than I am. You pretend to be a psychic for the cops."

"You help. That makes you an accomplice."

"Stop it Shawn!" Gus was really getting annoyed. "Why don't you take your motorcycle?"

"The Psych Office is 12 minutes away and the crime scene isn't far from here. If you want to waste gas and ruin the planet go ahead."

Gus hesitated then said, "I hate you Shawn."

Shawn and Gus stared over the body of a beautiful women that if still alive, Shawn would've been interested in her phone number. A #2 pencil was stuck in her chest. While still graphic, it wasn't as gruesome as seeing severed body parts lying all over someone's apartment.

Shawn whispered to Gus, "Control yourself, or close your eyes if it helps. I might need the Super-Smeller or your intimate knowledge of useless and useful information.

Gus took a deep breath and exhaled it back out.

There was a note pined by the pencil stuck in her aorta.

Wearing gloves, Lassiter carefully removed the note without disturbing the pencil.

It's me

The Random Killer

Figure it out

Before I kill again.

"This guy is twisted in his mind," Lassiter grumbled.

Shawn was confused. "Did the 2 victims have anything in common?"

"We're working on that as we speak, Mr. Spencer," said Vick

Shawn tried to look around the poor girl's home for a clue or something that could help. He noticed that she was a slob; didn't do laundry and didn't throw anything away. Receipts, bills, even some half eaten food. There was also a nice television set, a laptop, a soft, leather couch and some exercise equipment.

"She was a slob."

Lassiter was dumbfounded. "Really? What tipped you off? The clothes or the food?"

Shawn hated any sarcasm except his own, but he smelt something faint.

"Dude," he whispered to his partner. "Can you smell that? It smells like smoke."

Gus sniffed around a little and finally said, "She's a smoker."

"No. If she did it would be stronger. She's other recovering, just quit, or it's the killers."

Then Shawn noticed a cigarette butt near the victim.

"Make that the killer."

Shawn got the attention of the cops again when he started coughing. Now they ignored the first 2, but then afterward, Shawn started coughing loudly and couldn't stop.

Juliet, Lassie and the Chief looked at Shawn.

"Spencer, are you all right?" asked Lassiter.

"Do you need some water?" asked Jules.

Shawn couldn't respond due to his coughing. Then he stopped, suddenly. "There's a spirit. He's calling to me. He wants me not to quit. But quit what? Quick, somebody, what makes you cough and is hard to quit?"

It didn't take a lot to figure out. Lassiter and Jules said, "Smoking," nearly at the same time.

"Yes!" Shawn yelled. "Smoking. She's the smoker?" he feigned figuring it out. "No. The killer? YES! The killer is a smoker!"

"Mr. Spencer, are you sure?" asked the Chief.

"Check near her body. There's a cigarette butt right next to hers."

Lassiter bended over and after a second said, "Spencer's right. Man I hate saying those words."

The Chief congratulated Shawn and then replied by saying, "Oh, and we haven't found anything yet that connects these 2 murders except that they were committed by the same person. This may have been a random crime of passion."

"Could you tell me about this poor girl?" asked Shawn.

"Lisa Montgomery. Female, Hispanic, 29, brunette and she works at a Wal-mart. No connection there," Lassiter pointed out.

"I think there is as connection, somewhere. I don't think a killer would be this clever, and still not have a motive." Shawn replied.

"He's a twisted no good evil person that wants to mess with the SBPD, that's his motive." Lassiter never cared much for Shawn, but he always turned out right. Well 99.99% of the time. He missed one once. But Spencer complained the spirits weren't giving him enough information or some junk like that.

Shawn was about to look around the house again when they heard a scream across the street. Every officer in that house went across to the house and there was a woman in the doorway of the house on the verge of tears.

Everyone looked in the direction she was looking and they noticed 2 dead bodies, 1 male, 1 female. The man had blood pouring out of his mouth and the woman was wet and it looked like she'd been frizzed. The dead man was holding the note, in his right hand.