Chapter 4

Investigation

Shawn Spencer stared over the mutilated remains of a once beautiful woman. No one deserves to die by decapitation. This was the scariest case he'd ever worked on.

Juliet walked up and said, "There was a bullet hole found inside her head, so we assume that she was shot and then had her head chopped off."

The Chief looked up and said, "Do you have the list of the victims the last time they were here?"

Juliet pulled out a paper from the report. "Yes. And it turns out they were all here Monday morning while it was still dark."

The Chief looked astonished. "Same night, same gym?"

"There's more. All 7 of them were here between the time of 2:45 AM to 3:12 AM. And she, Mandi Ricky, was the receptionist on duty."

Shawn broke in. "So, what happened here, between the hours of 2:45 and 3:12 AM on Monday night?"

The Chief interrupted him, "Mr. Spencer, we asked you to stop people from dying, not to ask obvious questions. Unless you can tell us who the next victim is, or who the killer is, there's the door."

Shawn looked awestruck at Lassiter, who gave him a mock salute, Juliet, who shook her head, and the Chief who gave him an icy look.

Shawn looked out the clear front doors and noticed across the street was an Apartment complex and noticed a red spot on the grass in front, he looked straight up and noticed a flowerpot missing by the pattern on a person's balcony. Then he counted the number of stories that the balcony was on. 4 stories high. He smiled.

"OK. I can see I'm not wanted. C'mon Gus."

Guster always knew that whenever Shawn said that, he had something up his sleeve, so he followed his best friend out the door.

When they were out of ear range, Gus said, "What did you see?"

"I think that something bad went down, at the apartment across the street.

Shawn explained what he saw to Gus as they entered the foyer of the apartment building. He walked up to the person in charge and said, "Hello, my name is Shawn Spencer, I'm a psychic, and this is my partner, 'Tweedle-Dee Gumdrop'" Gus gave him a nasty look but let him continue. "I need to know the numbers to the apartments of the ones of the fourth floor facing the gym across the street."

The receptionist looked at Shawn and she said in a loud voice, "Why do you need me if your psychic?"

He noticed her red bloodshot eyes and a white stain on her shoulder. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize you'd just had a baby and are still going through mood swings or haven't gotten a bunch a sleep."

Her eyes popped out. "Sorry. I hadn't gotten sleep and I just had a baby a few days ago, how did you know?"

"Don't insult the psychics, please. Insult Michael Jackson if you want, maybe Tweedle-Dee here (another nasty look from Gus), but not the psychics please. Why are you even here? Go home, with your child. Come back in a few weeks."

"Thanks, I think I'll do that." She went to the back.

Shawn looked over the counter, waited until she was out of sight and jumped over the counter.

"What are you doing?" Gus snapped.

"She'll be gone for a few minutes, we have time." The computer was on, so no password was needed. Shawn searched through files on the fourth floor. "That's weird."

"What?" Gus' curiosity piqued.

"There's 1 girl that hasn't been in or out of here since Monday Night. Coincidence?"

"I doubt it. What's the room number? Get a key."

Shawn didn't move. "First, the room number is 421. And secondly, I have a skeleton card key."

Gus looked nonplussed. "Shawn. It's a skeleton key. A card is called the master card."

"That's a credit card company name."

"Forget it, Shawn. We have to go up there."

Shawn and Gus snuck up onto the fourth floor. They walked up to room 421. There was a Do not Disturb sign on the doorknob. "Should we disturb? Maybe we should."

"Shawn, stop it. Besides, we're investigating 8 murders. Be serious for a few seconds."

"This is how I roll. Didn't you learn that from our last case?"

"What case?"

"Ooops. I broke the fourth wall. I'm sorry readers of FanFiction. I broke the fourth wall."

"Shawn, stop it. Just open the door."

Shawn slid the key into the slot and opened the door. He was careful not to touch anything.

Gus' ear twitched. "Do you hear that? It's like a faint beeping."

Shawn heard it too. He walked in to her bedroom and noticed an alarm that let's you know when to take your pills. The time was 3:45 AM. "I don't like the looks of this." Shawn noticed something. On her paperwork, there was Gus' company name and on the papers, her name said Jacqueline Morister. Then he remembered Gus saying that a girl just quit. "Gus, the girl that just quit. Was her name Jacqueline Morister?"

Gus looked astonished. "Yes. How'd you know that?"

"We're in her house."