I honestly could have uploaded this earlier. I just got a little distracted by another fanfic. I love this website :')
Please keep the reviews coming!
Gus had just explained to the Chief all about Natalie. Juliet was frantically trying to call Shawn, but no answer. She was starting to worry that something horrible had happened. Gus also had the same suspicion and with every word he told the Chief, he hoped to God that it would help bring Shawn back. Shawn was annoying, Shawn could be a real pain at times, but he was still Gus's friend. He was still Juliet's boyfriend. And he was still one of the best detective's the Santa Barbara Police Department had ever had. They just had to get him back.
Henry Spencer knocked on the Chief's door, also curious as to why Gus was at the station and yet Shawn was nowhere to be found. Lassiter followed closely behind, curious as well.
"Chief Vick" Henry said. "Is there a problem?"
"It's just to do with your sons case" Chief said, trying to keep family out of it.
"Is something wrong? Is Shawn hurt?" Henry asked, suddenly fearing for his son's safety.
"Last we heard he's fine-"
"I still can't get hold of him" Juliet said, terrified. Chief sighed. Now she'd have to tell Henry what had happened to his son. Or, what they believed happened. And that was always the hardest part of the job. Telling someone that their family could be seriously injured. Or worse.
"You want to fill me in here?" Henry asked.
"Shawn was following Tiffany" Chief said.
"Though she's not really Tiffany" Gus said quickly, for some reason under the impression that the more people who knew about this, the faster they would find his friend. "Her real name is Natalie Pond."
"The charity stealer?" Lassiter asked, confused. Then understanding spread across his face. "THAT'S where I recognized her from!"
"Okay, well why was he following 'Charity Stealer' then?" Henry asked.
"He wanted to ask some questions. Like, why she lied about her name and all that. The last thing he said before we left the office, though, was about her husband. He was wondering why he was never mentioned in all of the news articles that he has read."
"But he is mentioned" Lassiter said. Everyone stared at him confused, so he made his way to the Chief's computer and pulled up a web page. "William Pond. That's who she married."
"Who's William Pond?" Gus asked. "And how do you know that she married him?"
"I know because I was monitoring William Pond when he got his parole, and I know for a fact that he married the Charity Stealer."
"Parole?" Gus asked. "Why? What'd he do?!" the others stared at him too. The name was familiar, but seeing as his crimes weren't committed in Santa Barbara, they didn't know the case all that well. In fact, they found it odd that Lassiter did.
"He robbed a bank with a knife. He killed four people, but was caught. He was in prison for 10 years before they let him out for good behaviour" Lassiter said. Everybody stared at him in shock. Juliet quickly pulled out her phone and frantically dialled Shawn's number again.
"Oh, Shawn" Gus said.
"How the hell does he keep getting caught up in all this?" Henry said to himself.
"McNabb" the Chief called out. "I need you to look into William Pond-"
"Search every little thing about this man. If he scratched his bum since the year 2010, I want to know!" Lassiter yelled. The Chief looked at him. "If that's okay with you, Chief…" Then he returned to the group still in the Chief's office.
Juliet turned to face everyone again.
"I still can't get a hold of him" she said, feeling that she was at the verge of tears. Gus then started to tear up as well Henry stared at them both.
"I'm a sympathetic crier" Gus said.
"Guys, guys!" Henry called out. "The best way to approach this is to stay calm. If we're all in a panic, we'll never find him."
"Mr Spencer's right" Chief said. "We need to remain calm. O'Hara, put the phone away. If Shawn is able to get to the phone, he'll be able to call us."
"He got lucky, last time" Lassiter said. "We can't depend on the fact that Shawn will call us back. Odds are he's tied up somewhere being threatened. Probably with a knife." Everyone stared at him. "He robbed a bank. You think he doesn't know how to deal with hostages?" before Juliet could even stop herself, she was dialling the all too familiar phone number again.
"Can't we track his phone?" Gus asked. "You'd think after last time he'd have a GPS signal installed or something."
"I did install one" Henry said. "But Shawn removed it, calling it an invasion of privacy and that if he wanted to jump on the bouncy castle he should be allowed to without his dad coming to stop him." Then, everyone looked at Gus, knowing very well that he was probably at the bouncy castle with him.
"We were never going to go on it" Gus said. "We just wanted the option." Lassiter sighed.
"I'm dealing with a bunch of idiots" he said to himself. Juliet dialled Shawn's number again, and Lassiter groaned. "O'Hara! Would you just put that phone down?! He's not going to answer!" He yelled.
"Well at least I'm doing something!" Juliet yelled back. And then she heard the familiar sound of the phone being answered. She quickly put it on speaker.
"Shawn?" Juliet asked. "Finally! You didn't answer any of my calls! Are you okay?" She then pointed to one of the officers and pointed to the phone. He quickly got on his monitor, tracing the call.
'Yeah' Shawn said. Everyone tensed up. The sound of his voice very clearly contradicted what he was saying. He sounded so hoarse. So much in pain. 'Um… sort of…'
"Ask him where he is!" Gus hissed at Juliet. She pushed Gus away, clearly about to ask the very same thing.
"Where are you, Shawn?"
'I don't know. But I do know I don't have very much time left. So please don't waste it trying to figure out where I am.' They all stared at the phone, lost for words. Shawn had never lost hope before, but now it seemed like he had.
"Don't think like that. Don't you dare. We're tracing the call and we're going to find you, okay?"
'I need you to do two things for me, though.'
"Anything."
'First, I need you to think back to our third proper date. I took you out to that fancy restaurant. I think that was the best night of my life and I would very much appreciate it if you could remember me as that romantic guy.'
It was at this point that Juliet finally realized… Shawn was giving them hints as to where he was. Shawn hadn't lost hope! He was being watched! That's why he sounded so hopeless!
"Shawn-"
'Also, one more thing I need you to do. I need you to tell Gus that I don't mind if he goes out with that girl this weekend.'
"Why don't you just tell him that yourself?"
'I don't think I'll get the chance. Jules, one last thing.'
"What?"
'I love you.'
Then the line went dead. All at once, everyone ran outside the office to the officer who was tracing the call.
"Did you get it?!" Juliet asked. "The location? Did you find it?!"
"Yeah" he said, holding up a piece of paper. "It's a cheap motel just outside of town."
"MCNABB" Lassiter called out. Buzz quickly approached the detective, still holding files in his hands.
"I haven't found anything yet. He's been on pretty good behaviour-" Lassiter snatched the files Buzz was holding and threw them across the room.
"Get in your car and go with these two detectives to this location" Lassiter said, handing him the piece of paper. "O'Hara and I will meet you there." Buzz quickly listened to him and took off in his cruiser with two detectives. Lassiter already started making his way to the car.
"Carlton, wait" Juliet called out. "Gus needs to come with us." Gus and Lassiter stared at her shocked.
"Excuse me?" they both said.
"Shawn was leaving clues in that phone call. One of them was directed at Gus. We need him to come with us."
"Fine, fine" Lassiter said. "If that makes you get in the car quicker, then whatever."
"If you think I'm waiting here-" Henry started.
"Fine!" Lassiter yelled. "Why don't we just make an event out of this?! Get in the car!"
They all piled into the car and started following Buzz McNabb to the motel. Juliet started focusing on what Shawn had said. She thought about it over and over but could not make sense of the clue that he had left for her. Lassiter noticed and watched Juliet, trying to decide how to console her.
"What are you thinking about?" Lassiter asked her at last.
"The clues Shawn was leaving. I can't make sense of it" Juliet said.
"Are you sure he actually left a clue? Are you sure he's not just in a lot of trouble?" Lassiter asked.
"I know Shawn" Henry said. "He wouldn't give up without at least trying to give us clues." It was silent for a bit as Juliet thought about what Shawn had said, still arriving at no conclusion. "Try saying your thought process out loud. It helps" Henry said.
"Well, he told me to think back to our third proper date Now, I remember this particular one very well because… well… it was a disaster. Why would he want me to remember him like that?" Juliet said.
"It couldn't have been that bad…" Gus said.
"Oh, believe me. It was" Juliet said. "We made a reservation at a fancy restaurant. On our way there, we couldn't find parking so we were late. Turns out they over booked and they gave our reservation away. So we decided to go look for another place to eat and after searching for ages we finally found one, but they took ages to bring us any food. Everything that could've gone wrong, did go wrong. It was just an awful night and when we finally got back home we both agreed that that whole night was just..." Juliet's eyes widened as she finally understood the clue. "A complete waste of time."
Carlton and Juliet exchanged looks.
"What, so he's saying finding him is a waste of time?" Lassiter asked. "Does he not want to be saved?"
"Maybe it's a trap?" Gus offered.
"Or maybe…" Henry thought about it. "It's a waste of time because he knows they're not going to be there…"
"Well, that's great" Lassiter said. "Now where the hell are we supposed to find him?"
"The theatre!" Gus exclaimed. They all stared at him, then Lassiter remembered to keep his eyes on the road.
"Don't just make guesses, Guster" Lassiter said.
"No. It's not a guess. He said to tell me that he doesn't mind if I go out with that girl this weekend, right? Well, I have no girl this weekend. I was planning to see the play that the theatre was showing, and I had told Shawn today about the tickets."
Lassiter looked at Juliet, unsure whether or not they should follow this lead. Juliet nodded, trusting that Shawn had really left clues and trusting that Gus was right. Lassiter picked up his radio and contacted Buzz.
"McNabb. Listen, you carry on to the motel room. I want you to dust for fingerprints, inspect that place. Only call me if you find something important. Once you've finished, meet us at the theatre. McNabb…" Lassiter thought about the next words he'd say, knowing very well that one day very soon he'd come to regret them. "You're in charge…" he spat out. Lassiter put the radio down and did a quick turn, heading towards the theatre.
The car ride was from then on silent, as they all thought the same exact thing, all hoping that they were right, and Shawn was alive.