"I mean it, Juliet, you and that husband of yours had better be careful," Lassiter snapped into his phone as he slammed the door on the sheriffs jeep shut. He and McNab had just arrived at the Fletchers. "Remember what Karen said," he paused as he rounded the corner of the house. Both Spencers were there. Juliet was standing off to the side, talking on her phone.
"Lassie!" Shawn looked over from where he had been swapping brownie recipes with Meg.
"Spencer, what did I just say about this being my investigation?" Lassiter hurried over to him.
Shawn paused and thought for a moment. "That it was yours, but then the mayor said that Juliet and I should help, so that got me really confused."
Lassiter rolled his eyes and looked to Juliet for some support.
"We had a lead and we took it," she shrugged.
"Shame about the murder," Amos Fletcher spoke up. "I mean, it saves me the trouble of firing him, but still a shame."
"Amos!" Meg chided her husband. "Would you like some lemonade and cookies, Sheriff?" She held out a plate of chocolate chip cookies and a cup to Lassiter.
Lassiter begrudgingly took a cookie, sneaking bites when he thought that no one would notice. "Why were you going to fire Wilkens?"
Amos shrugged, "there was something off about him. Sneaky like."
"Sneaky," Shawn echoed, thinking back to the list of antiques on Mark's ebay account. "Sneaky as if he were taking things from the museum?"
"How did you know about that?" Meg almost dropped the plate of cookies she was handing to McNab.
"So there were things missing?" Juliet raised an eyebrow.
"We hired a service from Detroit to come out and inventory the museum," Amos elaborated. "With the price Jessica was selling it for, it seemed like a good idea."
"What did the service find?" Juliet smacked Shawn's hand away as he reached for his fourth cookie.
"That there were quite a few things missing from the place," Amos sighed. "Nothing big, just a few small things here and there."
"Did you talk to Jessica about it?" Lassiter asked.
"I mentioned it in passing," Amos shrugged, "but she seemed shocked and even told me I was lying to her."
"Amos doesn't lie," Meg shook her head emphatically. "Oh, that woman drives me up the wall." She set the cookie plate down on the table with enough force to knock the cookies onto the ground.
Shawn looked sadly at the cookies, but a nudge from Juliet brought him back to the present.
"Were the things missing from the museum swords, newspapers and a Civil War era suit?" Shawn thought back to Mark's ebay listings.
Amos gave him a weird look. "No... just small things, buttons and coins, a couple of pictures."
Shawn and Juliet shared a look. Not what Mark had been selling.
"Do you think Mark might have taken them?" Buzz looked between Meg and Amos.
"He was a pain in the ass, but he wasn't a liar." Amos begrudgingly admitted.
"Who the hell would have access to the museum?" Lassiter frowned at the idea that someone would go out of their way to break in.
"There's those boys," Meg nudged her husband's arm. "What were their names?"
"Kyle... and Ben," Amos thought hard. "They go to school in Marquette."
"So they're at school," Buzz's shoulders slumped. "So much for that lead."
"Isn't it Spring Break?" Juliet glanced over at Lassiter.
"Yes it is," Lassiter pulled out his cell phone. He walked away to make a call. "You two," he pointed to the Spencer's on the way to his car. "Stay out of my case."
Buzz hurried after the sheriff after thanking Meg for the lemonade and cookies.
Shawn looked over at Juliet. "It's like he doesn't even know us."
"The only Kyle in town is Kyle Fields." Juliet gave Shawn a smile. "I used to babysit for them."
"Kyle Fields..." Shawn thought for a minute. "Didn't he get in trouble with Lassie for using his minivan for the senior prank last year?"
"Yeah, he welded it to the flagpole," Juliet paused, "his green minivan."
"Text Lassie, I don't need him cramping our style again," Shawn headed for the Fields' Farm.
OoOOoOOoOOoO
Lassiter got Juliet's text just as he was having McNab look up Ben and Kyle on the station's computers. Thanks to the small population, Muscum Falls was far down on the list for technical upgrades and he was tapping his foot, impatiently waiting for the results to come up.
"Crap on a cracker," he growled looking at his phone. "The Spencer's found Kyle and according to Juliet the kid drives a green minivan. Put an APB out on the van and make that thing go faster." He snapped at McNab.
Buzz didn't bother reminding Lassiter that an APB would be pointless since they were literally the only two people employed by the department.
"Sounds like you've had a rough day," Marlowe Vicellio's voice carried across the room.
Lassiter's frown immediately softened and he looked up to smile at the woman standing at the doorway, holding a cup of coffee.
"I thought you could use this," she offered him the cup.
"Thanks," Lassiter crossed the room and took the coffee. He took a tentative sip.
"Three creams, four sugars, just how you like it, Lover." Marlowe leaned closer and kissed Lassiter on the cheek.
The sheriff flushed, "Baby, what did I say about station kisses." His voice was barely a murmur.
"That was hardly a kiss," Marlowe raised an eyebrow at him. "This is a kiss." She leaned in and kissed him, running a hand through his hair and down his neck.
Lassiter was all too happy to return the favor and when his free hand went from Marlowe's waist to her hip, McNab coughed awkwardly to remind them that he was also in the room.
"Right," Lassiter backed away from Marlowe and turned to glare at McNab. "What did you find?"
Marlowe winked at McNab. "I'll let you solve the case, see you tonight." She squeezed Lassiter's hand and then headed out the door.
"She sure is nice," McNab gave Lassiter a knowing look.
"Eyes to yourself, McNab," Lassiter growled. "Now did you find out who Ben is?"
"Ben Garrison's parents live out about a mile past Guster's." McNab handed Lassiter the address. "I figured since the Spencer's were going to the Fields' Farm we could take the Garrison's."
OoOOoOOoOOoO
"The boys went up to hike at the falls," Mrs. Fields gave Shawn and Juliet a worried look. "Are they in any kind of danger?"
"No, ma'am, we're just wanting to ask them some questions." Shawn gave her a reassuring smile. "If they come back can you have them give us a call?" He handed her one of the Spencer and Spencer business cards.
"I sure will," Mrs. Fields gave them a smile. "You two are just too cute with your investigating."
Once the front door was shut, Shawn turned to Juliet. "Please tell me I don't have to convince you to go up to the falls and find Ben and Kyle."
"You don't have to convince me," Juliet told him. "I even know a shortcut."
Shawn tossed her the keys to their car. "This is why you rock, babe!"
OoOOoOOoOOoO
The short trip out to the Garrison's had been a bust; no one was home. Lassiter hadn't been able to reach either Spencer on their cell phones. That probably meant that they were on the outskirts of town, out of range, but Lassiter didn't know where and didn't want to go chasing after the couple.
He was just about to dial Juliet's number again when the station doors opened and four people came walking over to his desk.
"Lassie, look who we ran into," Shawn beamed.
The Spencers were accompanied by two college age boys. All four of them were covered in mud from head to toe and the boys didn't look happy at all.
"McNab, take Kyle and Ben to interrogation A and be sure to put some newspaper on the chairs." Lassiter snapped. He waited until the boys were out of earshot to turn on the Spencers. "What the hell happened to you?" He left it as an open question, but his gaze was fixed on Juliet. The normally put together woman was covered in mud from the waist down and had a few streaks of it across her face.
"We ended up chasing the boys through the woods and with all the rain last weekend there was a little bit of mud," Juliet explained.
The door opened again and Gus walked through carrying a bag.
"McNab called and ordered some sandwiches," he explained, holding out the bag to Lassiter. "I charged it to the station's account."
Lassiter eyed the sandwiches and looked like he wanted to refuse them, but his stomach growled loudly at the mention of food.
"You guys have a good lunch," Juliet didn't bother hiding her smirk. "I'm going home to shower and get out of these muddy clothes." She waved and headed for the door.
"Sheriff, those kids are all settled," McNab came back into the room.
"You two stay here, and don't eat my sandwiches." He pointed threateningly at Spencer and headed for the interrogation room.
"Like I would eat a ham and cheese on rye," Shawn rolled his eyes.
"I brought you a peanut butter and jelly anyways," Gus handed Shawn a wrapped sandwich of his own.
"Crunchy?" Shawn raised an eyebrow as he slowly unwrapped the sandwich.
"Crunchy and grape jelly, c'mon son!" Gus seemed offended that Shawn would doubt him.
Shawn smiled and set about eating his sandwich. They could hear the occasional shout from down the hallway; Lassiter was working hard to get a confession out of the boys.
A beeping noise filled the room and Shawn turned to see the station fax machine lit up and printing off something.
"Shawn, don't," Gus knew his friend well enough to know that Shawn was not above looking at Lassiter's faxes.
"What if it's something that Lassie should know while he's interrogating those guys?" Shawn asked.
"What if it's a love letter from Marlowe Vicellio?" Gus countered.
Shawn made a face of disgust. "I'm willing to risk it," he decided and grabbed the paper.
"Dude, you're getting jelly all over that. Lassiter will know you read it." Gus looked around to make sure the sheriff wasn't going to appear out of nowhere.
"He'll know I read it when I tell him, too." Shawn studied the fax. "It's from the lab in Grand Rapids. The knife was from the 1800's, duh, we already knew that."
"Does it say anything about fingerprints?" Gus asked hopefully.
"They were too smudged to get any data from them," Shawn read further on. "But..." He reread the second paragraph. "Whoever stabbed Mark Wilkens used their left hand."
"Only 15% of Americans are left handed."
"Thank you, I'll try to remember that fact next time I'm on Jeopardy." Shawn laughed and then cocked his head to the side as he realized something.
"What?" Gus frowned.
"I just remembered who we talked to today that was left handed." Shawn tossed the report onto Lassiter's desk. "C'mon, no time to wait for Juliet."