"People murdered in my own parking lot!" Gus was livid. He was pacing around in circles as Shawn and Juliet tried to calm him down. "I don't do dead people, Shawn," he pointed to where the body was still leaning against the trees. "If I wanted to own a store where people are murdered in my parking lot I would live in Chicago!"
Juliet looked over at Shawn, Gus had called them in a panic after hearing from Ken. The couple had made it to Guster's before Sheriff Lassiter. Something Carlton was going to be extremely unhappy about.
"Buddy," Shawn held out his hands, trying to placate his friend. "It will be okay."
"Don't buddy me, Shawn," Gus stopped pacing back and forth and pointed threatening at him. "Do you know when the last murder in town was? 1958, and that was because a banker cheated in a poker game."
"I'll take random facts I don't care about for $1200, Alex," Shawn pretended to buzz in.
"I should have known you two would try to horn in on my case," Lassiter snapped, joining the trio. His jacket collar was turned up against the chilly morning air and he looked more irritated than usual.
"Technically, this is our case," Shawn pointed out.
"How is this your case?" Lassiter raised an eyebrow and gave Juliet a confused look.
"You sent Ryan Bainsworth to us," she shrugged.
"You're saying Lyin' Ryan killed that man?" Lassiter pointed to the body on the ground.
"Please, Lassie, it's not like he's confessing to murder," Shawn laughed.
"This time," Lassiter muttered.
Juliet continued, ignoring the sheriff's comment, "Ryan Bainsworth came to us with a tip that revealed an affair. Half of this affair is now dead in the parking lot of Guster's."
"Mark Wilkens was having an affair?" Lassiter wasn't sure he believed this story any more than Lyin' Ryan's version.
"Maybe instead of asking us all these questions, you should be talking to Jessica Miller, who was last seen at the Muscum Falls Motel, lip locked with the dead guy." Shawn crossed his arms.
Buzz ran over, notebook in hand. "Sheriff, I called Laurie Wilkens, she's going to meet us at the station to ID the body and Dr. Strode said he was an hour away when I called him," he relayed his information. "Oh, and we'll have to call up a forensics team from Grand Rapids."
Lassiter made a face at the mention of a big city forensics team. "Call Woody back and tell him I want him here ASAP. Then take statements from Guster and the cart boy and find out where Wilkens was before he was here."
McNab nodded, and led Gus off to the side to record statements.
Shawn raised his hand, waving it around to attract attention. "I know where Wilkens was, Lassie! He was at the Muscum Falls Motel."
Lassiter sighed and glared at the private detective. "Between the motel and the parking lot," he snapped and headed off to look over the body.
"You offer simple advice," Shawn shook his head.
Juliet pulled on his arm, "Shawn, I think we should go find Ryan and see if there's anything else he remembers from Mark and Jessica's argument."
Shawn nodded in agreement. "It might be worth talking to Jessica before Lassie scares the crap out of her." He headed for the car but paused as another car pulled up to the crime scene.
"Is that Mayor Vick?" Juliet asked, staring at the new car.
"Mayor Vick and my dad," Shawn groaned.
"Sheriff!" Vick waved Lassiter over to her as she made her way to the Spencers.
"Karen, don't worry about this, I'll get this case solved as soon as possible," Lassiter started talking before he had even cleared the crime tape.
"Not if Jules and I solve it first," Shawn challenged.
"Don't make me kick you and your wife out of my crime scene," Lassiter threatened, stepping closer to the private detective.
"We'll solve it without even being at the crime scene," Shawn retorted, taking another step closer to the sheriff.
"Can it, both of you," Henry Spencer snapped.
"Why are you here?" Shawn asked his dad.
"This is the first homicide Muscum Falls has seen in two generations," Henry Spencer put up his hand to stop Lassiter and Shawn from arguing further. "The doctor will be here soon to do an autopsy, and hopefully we can put a rush on getting our results from the lab in Grand Rapids."
"I want all three of you to work together," Vick looked between her Sheriff and the two consultants. "The Spencers have a great track record and three heads are better than one. Lassiter, I expect you to keep me updated, and Mr. Spencer," she turned to Shawn, "I expect you to follow proper procedure. Don't think I don't know what happened with the arsonist." She gave him a knowing look and then headed for the small gathering of press that were clamoring for a statement.
Henry gave Shawn the same knowing look and followed after her.
"Just stay out of my way, you two," Lassiter growled, purposefully bumping into Shawn's shoulder as he went to check on McNab.
"Touchy," Shawn muttered, rubbing his shoulder.
"Shawn, this is a pretty big case, a lot bigger than an arsonist," Juliet reasoned.
"Exactly, which is why we need to start finding out more about Jessica and Mark's affair. Let's start with the motel. Lassie will have Laurie Wilkens covered, but I'm more interested in what the motel owner might be able to tell us. Besides, Lassie will be stuck here until the forensics team gets in," he checked his watch, "which won't be for another hour."
OoO OoO OoO
After a pit stop to pick up Ryan, the Spencers were pulling into the parking lot of the Muscum Falls Motel.
"Mark Wilkens was murdered?" Ryan asked for the hundredth time since they'd left town. "Was he shot? Because I saw them with a gun, and they were arguing."
"He was stabbed," Shawn explained, just like he had every other time Ryan had asked about the murder weapon.
"Here's the thing," Juliet was thinking out loud as they headed for the motel office. "Jessica and Mark looked pretty cozy yesterday, not like they were thinking about ending things."
"Maybe the motel owner will have a different story," Shawn pushed open the door. The management office was just as cramped and rundown as the rest of the motel. A bell dinged above the door and presently the motel owner, Hank Walker, came out to the counter.
"Hank, I'm sure you remember me," Shawn waved.
Hank narrowed his eyes. "I know who you are. You go around sticking your nose into other people's business."
Juliet stepped in to try and smooth things over. "We're here to ask you some questions about Mark Wilkens."
"What about Wilkens?" The manager crossed his arms.
"We know that he and Jessica Miller were using your motel as a hideout for their illicit affair," Shawn blurted out.
"Do we still consider making out to be illicit?" Ryan asked, puzzled. "I mean, there wasn't a lot of skin, and the kiss was pretty tame compared to what you see on television these days."
"The point is," Juliet cut Ryan off, "your motel doesn't see a lot of traffic and two people from in town would have sparked your interest."
Hank rolled his eyes. "Ever since that fancy chain place went up thirty miles closer to Chicago, people think it's the kit and kaboodle."
"True story, I was in a grunge band with two women named Kit and Kaboodle in college," Ryan piped up.
Hank ignored Bainsworth and continued. "So when Jessica Miller said she would pay me triple the room rate to keep it hush-hush, I agreed."
"Did Mrs. Wilkens ever find out about things?" Shawn asked.
"Laurie stopped by last week, asking questions, crying her eyes out and I denied everything." Hank held up his hands. "Though, if you ask me, Mark and Jessica were going to end it soon; they had a big fight on Tuesday night. I thought I was going to have to call Sheriff Lassiter over it."
"Would that have been around eight o'clock?" Shawn recalled the timeline from Ryan's story.
Hank nodded. "Just around then. I remember because the new episode of the Mentalist was on and I don't have one of those new fangled DVRs, so I was going to miss the episode if I had to call the cops."
"Thank you for your information," Juliet gave Hank a smile. "If there's anything else you happen to think of, give us a call." She handed him a business card.
"Will do, and if you see Jessica, let her know that she still owes me for next week's room. Cash, in advance, just like normal," Hank nodded.
Shawn was thinking as they headed back to the car. "If Jessica was planning on ending the affair, then why would she have already planned to pay Hank?"
"If Laurie was on to him around, maybe it was Mark that wanted to end the affair," Juliet mused. "We should head back to town and see if the autopsy had been done yet."
OoO OoO OoO
"Thank you, Laurie, and you have our condolences," Buzz murmured as he ushered Muscum Falls' newest widow out the door of Dr. Strode's office.
Lassiter watched her leave. She had tearfully identified the body as that of her husband, although, Lassiter reflected, that was more a formality than anything else because of how small the town was. Now that the body had been positively ID'd, Woodward Strode, the town doctor, could start his preliminary autopsy.
Lassiter managed to wait quietly for fifteen minutes, then started tapping his foot impatiently as he stared at the door to the autopsy room. A makeshift morgue had been set up in the back of the doctor's office. Muscum Falls rarely dealt with a dead body; usually the locals died at the hospital or of natural causes that had their bodies delivered to the funeral home. It was typically the flu, or old age, or anything that didn't require a police investigation.
McNab was standing next to him sipping coffee. "Do you think Dr. Strode will be long?" He asked. "Not that I want to rush him or anything, I've just never been part of an autopsy."
"If he doesn't call us in the next three seconds, you'll be able to observe a second one," Lassiter growled.
As if on cue, the door opened and Woody Strode waved the two cops into the backroom.
"Curious case," Woody commented, pulling out a chart. "Not as curious as Benjamin Button, but damn near."
"Just give us the rundown," Lassiter motioned for the doctor to speed things up.
"Oh, I will," Woody nodded. "But first, have you tried the coffee at the corner store lately? I have tried coffee at all the towns around here and I must say I think Muscum Falls takes the cake."
"Ms. Vicellio is a wonderful coffee brewer," McNab chimed in, giving Lassiter a knowing nudge.
"We can all have as much coffee as we want, as soon as you tell me how Mark Wilkens died." Lassiter gave the deputy a warning look.
"Right, Mr. Wilkens, passed on between one and two-thirty this morning. He died of a knife wound," Woody pointed to the whole in Wilkens' chest. "I retrieved the knife and the Grand Rapids team dusted for prints. There were a couple, so they were hopeful that we could find a possible murderer that way."
"Is there anything else? Anything more unique?" Lassiter was using the coroner's magnifying glass to examine the wound.
"The knife was pretty old," Woody handed him pictures of the weapon. "If he hadn't died from the stabbing, then he would have died from blood poisoning and probably syphilis."
"Mark Wilkens had an STD?" Lassiter looked at the coroner like he was insane.
"Wilkens? No," Woody shook his head, "no, no, no, but everyone else in the 19th century did, so he probably would have caught it from the knife." Woody held out a folder. "I made copies of my notes for you."
"If anything else comes up, give me a call." Lassiter took the folder and glanced at it before handing it over to his deputy. "McNab, where are we on tracking down Jessica Miller?" He motioned for the younger man to follow him out the door.
"She was out at the museum when we called her; she said she'd be down as soon as possible and Mr. Guster is supposed to be here with the security footage from the parking lot before three." McNab hurried to keep up with the sheriff's determined strides.
"Call Guster and tell him to hurry it up," Lassiter snapped, shoving the file folder into McNab's hands. "Now c'mon, I need some coffee before we interview Jessica Miller."
OoO OoO OoO
Lassiter had his hand on the door handle to the corner store when Spencer's voice called out his name.
"Lassisippi!" Shawn shouted from half a block away. "Don't you want to know what Juliet and I discovered?"
Lassiter took a deep breath to try and alleviate some of the irritation he automatically felt anytime that Spencer spoke. Then he turned and glared at the couple as they crossed the street to talk to him. "What? What did you discover?"
"Ryan Bainsworth was right," Juliet explained. "Hank Walker told us that Jessica Miller has been paying him for months to keep quiet about an affair she was having with Mark Wilkens."
"Juliet, did you not hear me yesterday? I can't arrest Jessica Miller for having an affair." Lassiter rolled his eyes.
"But you could ask her why the murder weapon was a two hundred year old knife," Shawn pointed out.
Lassiter turned his attention him and saw Spencer flipping through the autopsy report. "Where did you get that?" Lassiter glared at McNab, who shrugged apologetically.
"Mayor Vick said we were working together," Buzz shrugged again.
Lassiter reached for to door again but this time was interrupted by Guster.
"Here's the security tape from this morning." Gus handed the tape over to the sheriff. "It's from close last night until 6:30 this morning."
"Looks like coffee will have to wait, Lassie," Shawn was still looking at Woody's report.
Lassiter gave one last hopeful look at the door, sighed in resignation, and then stalked off towards the station.