Once at SBPD headquarters, Shawn and Gus made their way to the Chief's office. Susie sat down on the floor outside of the office. Shawn looked down at Susie, and then walked over to Detective Lassiter's desk. He dragged the chair away from the desk and over to where Susie was sitting.
"Here you go," he said.
"Lassiter's going to spaz when he sees that you've been messing with his stuff." said Susie.
"Anyone could have moved it."
"And who besides you would want to?"
"Chair thieves."
"Of course. I'll be sure to keep my eyes open for any."
Shawn smiled and walked into the Chief's office, Gus following.
"Mr. Spencer, so glad you came. Unfortunately, we can't begin to discuss this particular case."
"Then why call us here?" asked Gus.
"I was hoping detectives Lassiter and O'Hara would be back by now."
At that moment, who should open the door but Lassiter and Juliet. "Sorry we're late," said Juliet. "Traffic was a mess."
"And she wouldn't let me use the siren," said Lassiter. "I told her that it would let us get here sooner, but she kept insisting that I didn't."
"Well, speak of the devil's advocates," said Shawn. "Hi, Jules. Lassie."
"What do you have for me detectives?" asked the Chief.
"Thirty-four year old Caucasian female, five-three, one-thirty pounds. Six months pregnant." said Juliet.
"Found her in the garden supply store where she worked," said Lassiter, handing the file to the Chief. "Some workers found her this morning out by the fish ponds. Cause of death was drowning."
"So are we looking at a serial killer?" asked the Chief.
"We're not sure," said Juliet. "The women didn't have that much in common.,"
"Different ages, different jobs, different social stands, different methods of death…" said Lassiter.
"So all they had in common was the fact that they were pregnant?" asked the Chief.
Shawn looked at Gus. A serial killer that was after pregnant chicks? It'd take a while to get them all.
"There is that. But all the women were at different points in the gestation period," said Jules. "The only other thing that connects all the women was that they all went to the same pregnancy relaxation home."
"Pregnancy relaxation home?" asked Shawn.
"Yeah, some 'Mothers to Be relaxation house." Juliet said to the fake psychic. "Detective Lassiter and I stopped by there. The owner hadn't seen the ladies in a while."
Maternal instinct was kicking in on the Chief. She knew what it was like to be pregnant, the feeling that you got when you thought of a little person growing inside of you. If someone was out there killing child-bearing women, she'd find 'em. And when she did….. oh boy. Not only could she get them on murder for the ladies themselves, but the little person inside of the women were to be considered murdered also. So it would be a double homicide charge for all of the victims found. That would stack up quite nicely in a court of law.
"Mr. Spencer, you're on the case."
"What? Chief, are you sure--"
"We need all the manpower we can have on this case," said the Chief, handing the file to Shawn. He took it and stood up, trying not to look at the hatred on Lassiter's face. The head detective hated working with the psychic, even though Shawn did help solve numerous cases.
"Right," Shawn said, looking at Gus, who was also standing. "Manpower. Got it."
He and Gus exited the office. Susie looked up when the door opened. "Hey," she said, standing. "Did we get a case?"
"Yeah," said Shawn. "Pregnant chicks are mysteriously turning up dead."
"Well, look on the bright side," said Susie. "It'll take a while for Santa Barbara to be clean of 'em, so we've got plenty of time to solve this case."
At that moment, Lassiter and Juliet came out of the office. Lassiter glared at the three non-force members. Then he looked behind Susie. "Is that my chair?" he asked.
"Damn chair thieves," said Susie.
Back at the Psych office, Shawn pulled out the clear whiteboard on wheels. Susie and Gus sat on the couch, facing the board, file in hand.
Uncapping the marker, Shawn said, "Okay, what do we know?"
"Five dead in--"
"Ohio?"
"That was four, and no." said Susie. "Five dead in seven months."
"'Kay," said Shawn, dividing the board into five parts. He labeled them by numbers at the top of the columns. "Dates of death?"
Gus took the file up to the board, took the marker out of Shawn's hand and wrote the dates of death for each lady. Then Shawn snatched the marker back out of Gus's hand, which caused Gus to grab it back. This wordless bicker over the marker, though entertaining for Susie, was wasting time. Sighing, Susie got up, snatched the file from Gus and the marker from Shawn and finished writing the stats for each lady, like the name, age, method of death, how many months along she was. Snapping the file shut, Susie turned to the guys who were standing behind her, staring at the board.
"Now," said Susie. "What else do we know?"
Shawn took the file. "They all went to this weird 'pregnancy relaxation home'."
"They have those?" asked Susie.
"It's Santa Barbara," said Gus. "We have everything."
"Except the Twin Towers," said Susie.
Gus shrugged. "Okay," he said.
"And the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, Statue of Liberty, snow monkeys, unicorns--"
Gus turned to Shawn. "Can't you do anything about her?"
"Skeletons running around, snow twenty-four seven, Chinatown, native hula dancers--" Susie continued.
"Shawn!"
"But we do have delicious pineapple," said Shawn, closing the file. "Gus, let's go."
"Where?" asked Gus.
Shawn opened the file again. "Mother's to Be relaxation house," he read off. "Everyone there is a suspect, especially since it's the only known connection between the dead ladies."
"Do you need me?" asked Susie.
"Not at the moment." said Shawn.
"Good," said Susie. "Pregnant chicks get on my last nerve."