Chief Vick arrived at the warehouse even before the squad cars.

Juliet was still sitting in her car, her headlights pointed at the building and all her doors securely locked as she drummed nervously on the steering wheel.

When she saw the Chief pull up, she quickly got out and ran up to her.

"Detective O'Hara…what's going on?" Vick demanded.

"I have no idea!"

She had already told the Chief everything she knew over the phone, but she quickly related it again as they walked through the warehouse.

It wasn't much.

A vague phone call, a smashed bottle, a ballpoint pen, Shawn not showing up, and no answer when she called Detective Lassiter.

That was it.

"I sent a couple of units to check out their places," The Chief told her when she finished. "Nothing unusual, no signs of a struggle at either one. But neither of them are home. Are they still not answering their cell phones?"

"No," Juliet shook her head. "I've tried a few more times. I think Carlton said something this afternoon about having dinner with his wife tonight…something about dividing their stuff up."

"Well, that would explain the bottle of scotch…" Vick murmured to herself, her flashlight sweeping over the broken glass. "Dinner with her would drive anyone to drink…but why would he come here?"

"I don't know…he was working on the John Doe case before he left. Maybe he caught a break?"

"Maybe…"

"Shawn told me to bring my gun…he definitely sounded like he knew something was wrong. Maybe Carlton called him or something?"

"Why wouldn't he call you if he caught a break? You're his partner."

"Well…he had been drinking…" Juliet pointed out.

"A lot, if he willingly called Mr. Spencer…" the Chief added, sighing ambivalently.

They stepped back through the window and waited silently in the parking lot until the squad cars and the crime scene unit finally arrived, neither of them wanting to acknowledge the painful lump in their stomachs that was only growing by the second.

Once the warehouse was abuzz with officers walking through the scene, bagging the glass and dusting for prints, the Chief ducked away to call Lassiter's wife.

She was back only a few minutes later.

"I can't stand that woman…" she muttered at Juliet.

"What did she say?"

"Nothing helpful. They had dinner, fought about CDs and tables, and went their separate ways. She doesn't know where Carlton went after that, and he hadn't been drinking at dinner. He probably hit the bottle the second he got home…I would've…"

"Chief!"

A burly officer stuck his head out the warehouse window.

"I think you're gonna want to see this."

Vick sighed wearily, stepping back through the glass into the now very loud, very bright warehouse.

Juliet was right behind.

"What?" Vick asked.

"Over here."

The officer led them to the far wall, where another officer was on his knees, clawing at a sizable gap between two of the stones.

"What?" She repeated, a testy edge creeping into her voice.

"There's something wedged into the stone here…my light caught it when I was testing for blood residue…I'm trying to get it out…" the second officer answered, concentrating intently, his hand almost completely immersed in the rock. "Ah! Got it!"

He wrenched something out of the wall and handed it to the Chief.

It looked the like battered remains of a small, black cell phone.

"A phone?"

"It looks like Carlton's…" Juliet murmured, her eyes growing wide. "But how did it get in the wall?"

The officer was examining the stones at the base of the wall, his brow wrinkled in bewilderment.

He gently inserted his hand into the gap again.

"It's loose," he said, starting to work it free. "I think there's something behind here."

It only took him a minute to have both of the loose stones pulled out from the rest of the wall, revealing a black hole the seemed to go beneath the warehouse.

"What is it?" Vick asked.

"Looks like a tunnel or a cellar of some kind."

"Can you get down there?"

"I think so," he nodded, grabbing a flashlight that was sitting on the floor nearby.

After only a moment or two of wriggling, he quickly disappeared into the abyss.

A few minutes later, they heard him calling up to them, his voice echoing and distant-sounding.

"Chief! Get an ambulance!"

She knelt by the hole, calling into it.

"What is it?"

His head suddenly popped out of the hole again, dirty and now smeared with blood.

"We got a body down there, Chief. It might already be too late."