LEGAL A/N: Psych and all characters belong to Steve Franks, Tagline Pictures, NBC Universal Television Studios, GEP Productions and USA Network.

5. Ju-on: The Grudge


Monday, October 30, 2006

The next morning, Gus calmly walked through the glass double doors of the Santa Barbara Police Station, holding the door for a couple of uniformed officers exiting the building. As he took his hand away from the door and turned towards the rest of the building, he caught a glimpse of Jessica King walking into the hallway, staring down at a folded up newspaper.

A wide grin stretched his face as he adjusted his collar and straightened the lapels of his blazer. Smoothly, he strolled over to Jessica and casually remarked, "Good morning, Ms. King."

Jessica stopped in the hallway and glanced up at Gus with a bright smile, recognizing his voice instantly. "Gus!" she beamed as the two of them converged in the middle of the station entrance. Her smile turned into a slightly pained grimace. "Please," she said, "don't call me Ms. King. It makes me feel like I'm a mother or something. Jessica will do for me."

"A lovely name like that doesn't simply 'do,'" Gus charmingly declared. He turned on charm that had gotten him through high school and college and continued to bring him successful business deals. "In fact, the name 'Jessica' is one of my favorites. It has such a dignified tone about it." He flashed her another smooth grin to which Jessica could only blush at.

Gus glanced down at her newspaper, observing the details – about one of the only useful things Gus ever learned from Shawn. "Ah," Gus noted, "you're reading the entertainment section…"

"Oh, yeah," Jessica shrugged with a smile. "I'm reading a review for the Santa Barbara Symphony."

"Are you a fan of the symphony?" Gus asked with astonishment.

"Absolutely," Jessica declared. "One of my close friends is actually the lead violist."

"Really?" Gus grinned with excitement. "I saw Bolero last spring. It was spectacular—"

"Gus?" Juliet interrupted from the sidelines. Jessica and Gus turned quickly to see Juliet walking towards them with a confused look on her face. "Do you know what's going on with Shawn?"

"What do you mean?" Gus asked. "I just got a text message saying to meet me down here."

Juliet said with astonishment, "He's been here for an hour. I think he just might have solved the case." Gus and Jessica glanced at each other, baffled, as they followed Juliet down the hallway.

Shawn sat in the Interim Chief's office holding a baby rattle in his hands with his eyes squeezed shut, Lassiter sitting across from him with a pained expression. Shawn shook the rattle incessantly as Lassiter clutched his aching head, having heard the sound constantly for twenty minutes.

Juliet walked through the door with Gus and Jessica in tow as they watched the ridiculous scene. Jessica glanced over at Gus with a 'what is he doing' expression.

"Uh," Gus struggled to explain, not sure himself, "he must be… receiving some sort of message from the ghost of a child."

With a breathy, flowing tone, Shawn said to his audience over the sound of the rattle, "There's… been another murder…"

"What?" Juliet proclaimed. "We haven't heard anything—"

"And you won't," Shawn answered. "The murder was in Burbank yesterday. The victim's name… Johnathan Carpenter… Formerly with the Santa Barbara PD…"

Gus, Jessica and Juliet glanced at each other. Even Lassiter, through his pain, found the revelation intriguing. "Carpenter," Juliet repeated, contemplating the name. "He was another one of Henry Spencer's partners."

"Interesting," Lassiter said through gritted teeth. "Now can you stop that rattling!" Shawn stopped the rattle, feeling the impending wrath of Lassiter burning across the table. He began to hum, however, keeping his eyes squeezed shut the whole time.

"My god," Jessica answered, shaking her head in shock. She glanced around at the others. "It's adding up to look like the killer is hell bent on playing some sort of game with Mr. Spencer and with the whole Santa Barbara Police Department."
She continued to explain, "His purpose isn't about hurting the victims but shocking the audience. Sending a message or… possibly paying homage to—"

"The Cobra Killer," Shawn declared, opening his eyes with discovery. Lassiter and Jessica turned to him with bewilderment.

"Do you have any idea how crazy that is?" Lassiter declared, unimpressed.

"It makes perfect sense, though," Jessica answered. "The MO is identical."

"We don't know that!" Lassiter protested.

"There's a lot you don't know," Shawn answered with a smart aleck, smug expression. "Unfortunately, this particular thing falls into the category of police work." Lassiter gave him a daring glare as Shawn turned to Juliet calmly. "Juliet, dear. You'll find the real reason the autopsy reports are inconclusive: the poison doesn't match any other known poison they have in the lab."

"That's right," Juliet said with puzzlement. "It doesn't—"

"That's because there was no manmade poison in their food or in their bodies," Shawn explained casually as he leaned back in the chair. "It's snake venom."

"If that's true, then somebody really is copying the Cobra," Jessica responded with astonishment.

"Wait a second," Juliet declared, awash with confusion. "Who is the Cobra Killer?"

Lassiter hesitantly explained, "Twenty years ago, a Santa Barbara man named Kane Hodder poisoned several people in October by putting snake venom in candy. A kid died because of the poison the week of Halloween and Hodder kidnapped several other children in that final week."

"Henry Spencer was the lead detective on the case," Jessica explained. "He was the man responsible for capturing Hodder on the morning of October 31st and rescuing the six children he abducted. Hodder's now serving three consecutive life terms in federal prison."

Gus turned to Shawn, bewildered. "You remember this?"

With a monotone voice, he answered, "The case that made him everybody's hero. Of course."

With a defeated sigh, Lassiter placed his hand on his head. "I can't believe I didn't remember it."

"Maybe that's what the killer wants," Jessica declared. "He wants us to remember the Cobra."

Lassiter looked up at Juliet. "Get me Burbank PD on the phone, plus any and all files on the Cobra." He came to a tired stand, "Now, one of the children he kidnapped back in '86 was a California Representative's daughter so it's a federal case. We'll need to request permission from the FBI."

The room cleared out as Juliet and Jessica disappeared. Lassiter glanced over at Shawn with as much of a thankful expression as he could muster. "We'll call you if we need you," was all that Lassiter could say. Shawn didn't expect anything more. He came to a stand, leaving the rattle on Lassiter's desk and exited the room with Gus.

As they walked away from the office, Gus glanced around, making sure they were alone, and asked in shock, "How did you know about John Carpenter?"

"I simply remembered the name of Henry's longest-running partner and looked him up online." Shawn pulled a folded up piece of computer paper out from his pocket and handed it to Gus. "The Burbank Daily Press." Gus unfolded the paper and stared at the article detailing Carpenter's death, identical to Romero and Cunningham's.

"All we need to do now is find a more accurate list of my dad's partners," Shawn said, as he and Gus continued to walk through the station.

"How are you going to do that?" Gus asked confusedly.

"Simple," he replied. "I'm gonna get it from him."

Henry looked up as he heard his kitchen door swing open. Shawn marched through the door with determination, Gus following him with less enthusiasm. "Dad," Shawn demanded, "give me a list of your partners. I need it."

"How dare you order me around in my own house," Henry answered angrily. Henry got up from the table as the two of them began a stand-off in the center of the kitchen with Gus watching anxiously. "Get out, Shawn. I don't want to play anymore games."

"Well, if wishes were horses," Shawn declared. "Sorry, officer, but you're in one." Gus glanced back and forth between the two men uncomfortably as Shawn lingered dangerously close to the end of Henry's line. He stepped up and glared at his father. "Your partners are dying and a killer is calling you out personally. Trick or Treat, Dad."

Shawn's eyes moved over to the telephone sitting on the kitchen counter with a notepad and pen next to it. He glanced down at the words momentarily on the paper: a time, date and name of a funeral home. Shawn looked up at Henry with a betrayed expression.

"You knew Carpenter was dead," Shawn declared, astonished. "You knew and you didn't tell me."

"I want you off this case," Henry threatened.

"I don't care what you want!" Shawn shouted.

Henry shouted back, the two of them overlapping voices, "Stop being a child!"

"Shawn," Gus snapped, seriously worried. "We're not getting what we want. Now we should leave."

Henry sneered at his son, "You're better off packing up your motorcycle and running off again."

Shawn stared defensively straight into Henry's eyes. He calmly declared, "I'm not running away. This is my case and you'd better start cooperating with me or we're gonna have a problem."

"A problem?" Henry repeated as Shawn glanced over his shoulder. "Your case? Son, you screwed up your life a long time ago—"

"You're right," Shawn said with a sudden change of tone, cutting him off. All of his anger had disappeared and he sounded like normal. "I apologize for coming into your house and ordering you around. We're leaving now."

He turned around, pulling Gus out of the kitchen door with him. As the door slammed with finality, Henry stood in the middle of the room with a baffled expression. His eyebrows raised as a thought occurred to him. Henry spun around and stared at the piece of paper on the kitchen table: Henry's own list of his former partners, all out in the open for Shawn to see.

In a flash, Henry rushed out of the kitchen door to see Gus' Toyota Yaris speeding out of the driveway with Shawn at the wheel.