Chapter Three
The next morning Aislinn awoke to her phone ringing, but by the time she had picked it up it had stopped ringing. The sun was up, but she wasn't used to the surroundings enough to guess what time it was by the sun, so she squinted her eyes at her phone, then sat up quickly. It was nearly ten, she had slept in much later than she normally would. Using her gift, on purpose, had exhausted her. She had fallen asleep as soon as her and the boys had finished moving her things up to the apartment. She stood up slowly, looking around to figure out where she had put her bag of cloths the night before, but was distracted as her phone beeped again, letting her know that someone had left her a voicemail. She listened to it as she hunted through her duffle bag, trying her hardest to keep from laughing at the message. Shawn and Gus had called her to meet them at the station, but they were fighting over the phone and talking over each other so it took them three times as long as it should have to get to the point. She pulled on jeans and a long sleeved shirt, sliding her gloves on too out of habit. Just because she had sort of figured out how to block out the images didn't mean she wanted to get flashes from everything she touched.
She made it to the police station in less than ten minutes since traffic was light, and circled the lot once to look for Gus's car, but she must have beat them there. She parked and went inside the building and found a bench near the door to wait for them. Her eyes flicked from person to person as she waited. And waited. After about an hour and three unanswered calls to Shawn and Gus she was about ready to leave. She glanced towards the clock for the fourth time in the last five minutes only to see Juliet standing in her view with her hands on her hips looking at Aislinn. Aislinn smiled tentatively as the blonde walked over to her. She wasn't sure what to make of the woman, Juliet had seemed a little wary of her the last time they had talked, but she was smiling now.
"Hey," Juliet said as she approached. Aislinn stood.
"Um, hi," she said, clasping her hands together in front of her.
"I couldn't help but notice that you've been sitting here for an hour. What are you doing here?" Juliet asked, raising an eyebrow. Aislinn looked down as she spoke, hoping she wasn't about to get into trouble for something.
"Well, Shawn called me an hour ago saying it was really urgent for me to meet him and Gus here," she said, shrugging.
"He called you because I told him that as a new employee we need to get you a pass and everything so you can come into the station with them," Juliet said exasperatedly. "I called him this morning to let him know. It's not urgent though, but you can fill out the paperwork while you wait if you want."
"What paperwork?" Aislinn asked, looking up now, a frown on her face.
"Well just the normal stuff, like name, address, phone number, and probably a background check of some sort, I'm not really sure actually," Juliet said as she led Aislinn over to the front desk and picked up a clipboard and some papers.
"Why a background check?" Aislinn asked, trying to keep her voice even. She didn't really have anything to hide, but she didn't want people she didn't know poking around her life.
"Well we do background checks on everyone who works at or with the department," Juliet said, handing the clipboard to Aislinn. "I need to get back to work. Once you're done with these just bring them back to the front desk and you can go."
"Thanks," Aislinn said, accepting the papers and returning to her bench. She worked her way through the paperwork slowly, though it was mostly general things like current information and job history and schooling.
Once Aislinn had her pass hanging around her neck, she wandered around slowly, trying to remember where everything in the station was. She passed a few cops she didn't recognise, but since no one told her she wasn't allowed to be there she figured her wandering was fine.
"Aislinn!" She heard someone call behind her. Only Shawn would be that loud in the station. She turned to face him, frowning as he and Gus came to a stop in front of her. "Oh good, you got your pass. We might have a case. Come along." He tugged her across the room by her arm and she followed quietly, listening as he pointed things out. She remembered where Detective Lassiter's desk was from her last visit, and where Juliet's was, but he didn't stop until they were right outside the Chiefs office. There were four people inside, but Aislinn was in the wrong position to make them out.
"That's Nigel St. Nigel," Gus whispered as they peered through the blinds. "He's one of the judges on American Duos." He continued, seeing Shawn open his mouth in confusion. Aislinn nodded, she had seen the show a few times when there was nothing better on. It wasn't very good. "Shawn I told you I didn't want the show spoiled before I could watch it!" Gus continued to complain as Shawn opened the door and led them inside. Aislinn stood in the back of the room, not really sure what to do. Now she could see that the other people in the room were the chief, Lassiter, and Juliet.
"This is them?" Nigel asked in a snide voice as he looked Shawn and his over as they continued to argue about the importance of the show. Aislinn frowned at his tone. After seeing pretty much all of shawms memories, most of which included Gus, she felt protective of them. Like they were her little brothers of something, which they certainly acted like a lot of the time. She stepped around them, forming her mouth into an obviously fake smile as she approached the desk.
"Hello. I'm Aislinn. It's nice to meet you," she said, holding her hand out to the man. The chief raised an eyebrow but the boys just continued to argue. Nigel ignored her hand and she let it drop after a few seconds.
"I'm sure it is," he said snidely, a smirk on his face. "The answer is no," he continued, turning back to the chief.
"I have to agree ma'am," Aislinn said, also turning to the chief. "We don't take cases that include pompous jack asses." The room fell silent as they waited for the Chiefs response. She knew Shawn and Gus would take the case anyway, but this man seriously irked her.
"Hm." Nigel said, turning back to her with his brows raised in surprise. "I like her. Very well." He turned back to the chief. Aislinn smiled a tiny smirk as she stepped back to stand beside Shawn and Gus. Shawn rested a hand on her arm, his fingers poking underneath the end of her sleeve to find the skin above her gloves just long enough to let her know he approved of her antics before he let his hand fall to his side.
"Nigel needs protection," Juliet began, a small smile on her face too.
"You realise you're in a police station?" Shawn said looking around them in an obvious manner. Nigel rolled his eyes.
"I don't trust the police," Nigel said, shrugging. "No offence," he said insincerely to the chief.
"None taken," she said, though her mouth had tightened a little.
Aislinn tuned out the rest of the conversation, he attention caught by the silent Lassiter as he glared at them through the office windows from his desk. He had been looking her over with narrowed eyes while the others had talked, and Aislinn itched to go touch his hand or something so she could know what he was thinking about her. From his expression it probably want anything good.
"I already have a plan," Shawn said, drawing Aislinn's attention back to the conversation. She tilted her head as she looked at him.
"Well what is it?" Nigel asked after a few moments of silence.
"I thought you wanted us to be stealth," Shawn said, grinning. Nigel rolled his eyes.
"Very well," he said, turning back to the chief. Shawn turned to leave the office, Gus and Aislinn following behind him.
"What are you three doing here?" Lassiter asked from behind them as they left the office.
"We can't tell you," Gus said.
"Police business," Aislinn added.
"All part of a secret plan," Shawn finished. "I'm sure you understand." He turned and led them away before Lassiter could comment, but his expression told Aislinn he was glad they were leaving.
"Is he always like that to everyone or does he just hate me for some reason?" Aislinn asked, glancing back the way they had come though the hallway was empty now.
"Oh don't worry about Lassie. He just acts all prickly but really he's a soft teddy bear," Shawn said as he practically bounced toward the door.
"Just don't let him hear you saying that," Gus added. "I'm still convinced that he will shoot you one day." Shawn just shook his head but didn't respond.
Aislinn rode with them back to the Psych office, leaving her car in the lot at the police station.
"So what's your plan? Do you even have a plan?" Gus asked once they were safely inside the office.
"Of course I have a plan," Shawn said, flopping into his chair. Aislinn settled into one of the arm chairs in front of the TV as Gus flipped it on to the latest episode of American Duos. "How well can you sing Aislinn?"
"I don't sing. Or do stage performances," Aislinn said, watching the two people in the screen.
"Okay. Gus, I think it's time," Shawn said dramatically. Gus waved his hand for silence, his eyes glued to the screen. "Gus!" Shawn continued to whine until Gus paused the show and turned to glare at Shawn. Shawn grinned. "We are going to be on American Duos!" Gus stared at him blankly for a few seconds, and Aislinn thought he might refuse, but then his eyes grew excited and he began to bounce in his seat. Aislinn rolled her eyes and took the remote from Gus as the two began to plan their outfits and which song they should sing.
"Children," she muttered under her breath, then changed the channel to something more interesting to watch.
Aislinn stood backstage at the American Duos first round dressed all in black like the other stage hands. This round wasn't televised and there was no live audience, but all the stage hands were in full dress rehearsal mode. As a newbie, she had been positioned near the curtain cables with the clear instructions to pull the rope to close the curtains only during the 'commercial break' which for today meant only when the judges took a break. It also meant she had little to do besides stand off he the side of the stage with a clear view of both the stage and the judges. To her, this was the perfect undercover surveillance post. She had seen Shawn and Gus verify that morning, but they were now out in the main hall with the hundreds of other contestants as they waited their turn. Aislinn hadn't protested their plan only because she knew she would be wasting her breath to do so. She also knew that Shawn had his own way of doing things. From what she had observed so far, besides Nigel, the other judges seemed like idiots, though she personally classified Nigel in that category too. The woman was too high on drugs to know what was going on and the other man didn't have anything to say about anyone. There was the stage manager, Aislinn hadn't heard his name, but he was very obnoxious. She avoided him.
When she got bored she shed one of her gloves and began touching various things within her area, practicing her control over the flow of information coming into her brain. By the time Shawn and Gus came into the stage, Aislinn had learned a lot about the stage hands and people working the show, but she hadn't seen anything to help tell her who was behind the attacks on Nigel. She had learned that nearly everyone hated him though, which still didn't give her any ideas. She covered her hand with her mouth as Shawn and Gus began their routine. She knew Juliet was lurking somewhere on the other side of the stage and she moved to see what the other woman thought of the horrible singing. Aislinn covered her mouth as she took in the shocked look on Juliet's face. Juliet caught her eyes and the two of them grinned at each other for a second before Aislinn turned back to her place beside the ropes. She shook her head as Nigel forced the two idiots thorough to the next round.
"Pst, Aislinn," Shawn half whispered half spoke as he and Gus leaned around the doorframe between the back stage and a hallway. She turned to them, then glanced around her. Seeing no one, she went through the door, leaving it open a crack behind her so she could get back in later.
"What?" She asked once they were all in the empty hallway. "Did you figure out who rigged the light to fall?"
"Not yet, we are going up there now to look around. You coming?" Shawn asked, his voice still in a whisper. Aislinn glanced around, then lifted the black hood on her sweater to cover her hair. She followed them up the maintenance stairs to the metal footpath above the auditorium, then to the area above the judges table where the light had fallen from. She rested her ungloved hand on the metal railings but didn't get anything from the vision.
"Shawn, whoever did it must have worn gloves, I'm not seeing anything," she whispered, then glanced down. "I need to get back to my post, the next pair will be up soon." She left the way they had come, leaving the two boys to poke around, and got back to her place just in time to see the stage manager guy catch Shawn and Gus. She shook her head, then pulled the rope to open the curtains as the next two singers took the stage. After the first round was over, Aislinn went out back to find Shawn and Gus. She knew the judges all had little resign room trailers behind the building and assumed thats where Shawn and Gus would go.
"How do you expect me to carry you two injured howler monkeys through tomorrow?" Nigel was saying snidely. Aislinn couldn't help but agree with him, even though she disliked him. She supposed that if she'd had to listen to all the people who had been in the first round over and over like he had, she would probably be cynical too.
"Woah," Shawn said, frowning in mock hurt.
"I might have been a little pitchy. I had a dairy-heavy Jamba Juice…" Gus said, then trailed off.
"Stop with the excuses. Step it up. I cannot carry you another round," Nigel said, pulling a metal cigarette case from the robe he was wearing. "I think I preferred the stalker," he mumbled. Shawn had stopped paying attention and was looking around the little lot, frowning. Aislinn followed his gaze, but didn't see what he had been looking at. He held out his arm in front of Nigel, making the man frown.
"Don't," Shawn said, not really paying attention.
"Don't what?" Nigel asked, his voice impatient.
"Um, smoke. Those things can kill you," Shawn said, pacing from one end of the small trailer to the other.
"Well add them to the list," Nigel said, rolling his eyes as he pulled out a lighter.
"Stop!" Shawn said suddenly, wrapping his arms around Nigel. Aislinn might have laughed at the expression on the mans face, but Shawn looked serious so she didn't say anything, just stepped closer as she looked around for the trouble Shawn had seen.
"I do not have physical contact with people with arm hair," Nigel drawled, and Aislinn shook her head. Shawn grabbed the cigarette case from Nigel's hands.
"That case…" he began, but Nigel cut him off.
"Was a gift. A very expensive…" he stopped as Shawn took it and tossed it a few feet to the right of them. It sparked and smoked as it his the small puddle of water. Nigel looked at it for a moment, then fainted. This time, Aislinn did laugh as Shawn went to move the exposed electrical wires out of the water as carefully as possible. Nigel, when he had regained consciousness, insisted on calling the police. Within the hour, cops that Aislinn didn't know had conducted all the contestants, stage workers, judges, and anyone else in or around the building into the police station. She waited with the boys until one of the officers led them into an interrogation room. Shawn seemed to find the whole situation funny, and he was joking with the officer, whom he called McNabb. About ten minutes later, McNabb came back, leading Lassiter, who walked into the room without looking at them.
"'Sup," Gus said when he finally looked up. Aislinn was standing in the back of the room while the boys sat in the chairs, grinning up at Lassiter.
"You're kidding," he said, his expression annoyed. "What were you idiots doing down at that show?"
"We're looking for our big break," Gus said, shrugging.
"I needed a second job," Aislinn added, also shrugging. She did her best to keep her face straight. She could understand why the boys liked to needle Lassiter so much. He was so serious all the time, it was fun to try to make him break.
"Do I get a phone call?" Shawn asked, looking around the room.
"Out," Lassiter said, his expression growing angrier the longer he was there. "I'm trying to conduct an investigation."
"Don't you wanna ask us if we did it?" Shawn asked in mock surprise.
"Ask him," Gus said, crossing his arms over his chest. "I plead the fifth." Shawn gave him a surprised look, then grinned up at Lassiter who was rubbing his temple. Aislinn stepped forward and lifted both of them out of their seats by their arms. They followed with no complaint though they easily could have shaken her off.
"That's enough," she said, grinning at them as the stood and headed to the door.
"Aww," Shawn whined. "But moooom you're ruining all the fun." Aislinn shook her head and followed them up the stairs and out of the station.
"So where to now?" She asked, following them to Gus's car.
"Well, Juliet agreed to be our choreographer," Shawn said.
"What? When?" Gus asked frowning.
"I cornered her while we were waiting for Lassie," Shawn said, smiling.
"Well I'm going to go furniture shopping," Aislinn said, glancing over to her own car. "I'll see you guys tomorrow morning?"
"Sure," Shawn said, getting into the car. "Oh yeah," he said, rolling down the window. "Jules said you were waiting at the station for an hour this morning. Sorry about that."
"It's fine," Aislinn said, smiling too now. "I'll see you tomorrow." She waved to them, then went to her car and used her phone to find a good furniture store nearby. She was on the second floor of her building, so she would have to pay to get the things delivered and just hope they would carry it up the stairs for her. Now that she was working at Psych, and had gotten a portion of the payment from their last case, she didn't feel so bad about dipping into her old family money to furnish her apartment. Not that anyone else could access the money or anything, but she always felt a little bad when she used it. Now she would be able to replace some of what she used. Not that she really needed to. Between the bank accounts of her parents, and both sets of grandparents, and the money she had gotten from selling their house in Wisconsin, she was well enough off to not have to work for the rest of her life and probably still have some left over. That seemed like the boring option to her though. Her life had been more interesting in the last few days since meeting Shawn and Gus than it had been in the entire time before that.
She spent the rest of the evening looking through stores and magazines and ordering the things she liked, then went to a nearby retail store to buy a few more outfits, since most of her clothes consisted of jeans and t-shirts that she had owned since high school.
Aislinn woke to her alarm at seven the next morning, showered, dressed in her all black stage hand outfit, and was at the auditorium at eight sharp when the next group of auditions for the day started. She hadn't expected to see Shawn and Gus that early in the morning, so she made an effort to keep an eye on Nigel while pulling the curtain ropes. She wore her gloves today, not really wanting to get flashes of image that would distract her when there was supposedly a killer on the loose, but she may as well have not even been there. There was nothing unusual about anything that she could see. It was actually extremely boring and she found herself wishing she had brought headphones or something to listen to music that wasn't sung off key or at the wrong tempo.
When they all broke for a two hour lunch break Aislinn followed Nigel back to his hotel round the corner staying about half a block behind him to see if anyone else was following. She didn't notice anyone. At the hotel she spotted Shawn and Gus and went to join them as they followed Nigel up to his room.
"You left me alone for half the day," Nigel was saying as she caught up to them. "You'll never make it as body guards."
"We aren't body guards," Shawn said as Nigel opened his hotel door.
"You'll never make it as anybody," Nigel said, leaving the door open for them to follow him inside. Aislinn looked around the room silently, just to make sure there wasn't someone hiding somewhere. She even checked under the low bed though the person would have had to been pretty despite to squeeze themselves into an area that small.
"You weren't alone anyway," Shawn said, peering around the room. Aislinn could tell when he noticed something that might be important because his face scrunched up a little. "Aislinn was there the whole morning."
"Ah yes, the only sane one in your little group is a 90 pound girl. I feel so safe," Nigel said sarcastically.
"Actually I weigh 107 pounds," Aislinn corrected absentmindedly as she glanced out of the window. "I'm also a black belt in karate."
"Exactly," Shawn said, winking at her. "Safe and sound. Whataya got there?"
Nigel had seated himself at a small table with a covered plate and had tucked his napkin into his shirt collar.
"My standing order," he said, smirking as he lifted the top off of some kind of sandwich and began putting salt on it. Shawn frowned, then stepped closer.
"Wait," he said, grabbing the sandwich out of Nigel's hands. Nigel frowned.
"Give it back," he said, reaching for the sandwich half. Aislinn nearly laughted as Shawn replied with a no, mocking Nigel's accent. He threw the sandwich to the other side of the table.
"What is it with you and throwing things?" Nigel asked as he picked up the other half of the sandwich sullenly.
"Don't eat that!" Shawn said as Gus came over to stand beside him. Aislinn stood back a bit, but was watching carefully to see what Shawn had seen.
"Why the devil not?" Nigel asked, looking down at the sandwich.
"Because I'm getting a very sting feeling about this sandwich," Shawn said, lifting his hand to his temple in his typical 'vision' stance. "It's-"
"Delicious?" Gus interrupted.
"No," Shawn said.
"Herb crusted?" Aislinn added, raising an eyebrow.
"No," Shawn said, getting impatient. He hit Gus's arm as Nigel rolled his eyes. "It's not from the hotel kitchen."
"And?" Nigel asked, still holding the sandwich.
"And," Shawn said, finally getting to the point. "It's poisoned." Nigel dropped the sandwich onto it's plate and held his hands up while making some sort of protesting noise. Aislinn leaned over to peer closer at the sandwich but couldn't see anything odd about it. She pulled off one of her gloves and touched the bread, assuming that the poison had to be ingested since both Nigel and Shawn had touched it and seemed to be fine. She got flashed of an industrial bakery, a storage warehouse, a truck and a store, but nothing useful.
"Whoever made the sandwich wore gloves," she said, shaking her head.
"Well at least they were observing proper health and safety procedures," Gus said.
After the nights set of auditions was over, Aislinn, Shawn, and Gus went to the police station to start sorting through all the information on all the contestants, employees, and anyone else near the building from the other day while the police checked through Nigel's room for any evidence. Aislinn had led the room where the man was staying after only half an hour, not willing to stay near him if it wasn't necessary. She had been hiding out at an unused desk waiting for Lassiter and Juliet to come back with the toxicology report on the sandwich while she went through the statements from some of the people. She jumped up as Lassiter walked past and grabbed her files to join him.
"Well it looks like your idiot boyfriend was right, it was poisoned," Lassiter said as they walked toward the conference room the others were in. Aislinn rolled her eyes.
"I'd never go out with Shawn. He's too childish. I'd end up killing him within a day," she said, walking quickly to keep pace with the taller detective.
"I'll help you hide the body," Lassiter mumbled and she laughed in surprise, not having ever heard him make any kind of joke before, as he pulled open the conference room door. She stayed near it as he approached the table and discussed the sandwich.
"Your hotel detail couldn't even handle one room," Nigel said in a snide voice to the chief.
"Well they aren't the ones out ordering room service with a big target on their head," Aislinn said snippily. She was loosing patience with this man. No wonder someone wanted to kill him, he was a complete asshole.
"It was a standing order," Nigel argued, but he did look a little subdued.
"We are almost through with the screen of your room Mr. St. Nigel," the chief said, interrupting the arguing. "You can return when we clear it."
"Fantastic," Shawn said, setting down a hand of cards. Aislinn frowned at him. Had he even gone through any of the files? Probably not. "Because to be honest, Gus and I have slightly more pressing issues at the moment. We need to rehearse," the two of them stood and made their way toward Aislinn, each of them grabbing one of her arms on the way out of the room.
"I really dislike that guy," Aislinn said as they walked down the hallway. "If we find this murderer theres just going to be someone else in line behind him."
"Well we only need to find one of them. Once he;s out of town he can find someone else to keep him alive," Shawn said as they walked toward the exit.
"How did you know that sandwich didn't come from the kitchen?" Gus asked and Aislinn glanced over her shoulder to make sure no one was listening.
"Easy. There were only 83 sesame seeds on his bun. All the other ones from the hotel have 87," Shawn said and Aislinn rolled her eyes.
"Are you serious?" Gus said sounding impressed.
"No," Shawn said, rolling his eyes. "The other ones had swords, Nigel's had tooth picks. Im not rain man Gus."
"You sing like rain man," Gus said, and they paused int he hallway to appreciate the reference. Aislinn walked past them before she realized they had stopped walking, only to find her way blocked by Lassiter.
"Spencer, you missed something," he said, a smug look on his face. "We found prints."
"Was he in a little red corvette?" Shawn asked.
"Under the cherry moon?" Aislinn added, grinning. Lassiter rolled his eyes.
"Finger prints," he said angrily. All three of them made an 'oh I understand now' face which seemed to make Lassiter even angrier. "They belong to Emilina Saffron. So do the drugs we found in the food. We cross referenced them with her prescriptions and her medical records. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go get a warrant." He pushed his way past Aislinn, then between the boys. Shawn looked after them with a confused look on his face.
"Emilina?" He said, as though not believing it. He shrugged and left the station, the other two following him out.
"So Nigel is staying at your dad's house now?" Aislinn asked the next afternoon.
"Yep," Shawn said, leading them through the front doors of the hotel the judges were staying at.
"And they are still doing the show even though Emilina's in the hospital?" Asilinn asked. Shawn nodded. "So I can't quit my stage hand job yet?"
"No way," Shawn said, leading them into an elevator. "You are so good at pulling the ropes at the right time. What would they do without you?" Aislinn rolled her eyes as the elevator dinged and opened to an empty hallway. She was the first one out and headed around the corner, thinking they were going to Nigel's old hotel room to look at the explosion. She got to the door, then frowned, noticing that Shawn and Gus weren't behind her anymore. She backtracked and found them sidling along the wall.
"Huh, no guard," Shawn said, looking down the hallway.
"We did all that sneaking around because you thought there might be a guard outside of Emilina's empty hotel room?" Gus asked incredulously. Aislinn rolled her eyes as Shawn pulled out a key card and unlocked the door. The three of them spent a few minutes looking around the hotel room and the bathroom, but they didn't find anything.
"Thats what you get for drinking whole milk Shawn," Gus said, making Aislinn turn around. Shawn was on his hands and knees, peering into the toilet.
"My bones are like granite, Gus," he said as the two of them came over to see what he was looking at. He stood up and pointed."Reach in there and get it."
"No way," Gus said.
"I found it, you get it, that's how it works," Shawn said.
"I'm not reaching my hand into Emelina's toilet water Shawn," Gus said, crossing his arms.
"Aislinn?" Shawn asked.
"No thanks," she said. Shawn sighed then pulled out his phone an pretended to have a vision to Juliet. They went down to the lobby to wait for her to arrive, then Shawn and Gus led her up to the hotel room while Aislinn went back to the auditorium for the beginning of round two. This round would be fully televised, unlike most of the first round.
Halfway through the performances, she spotted Shawn and Gus creeping around backstage and went over to them.
"Hey," she whispered. "Whats going on?"
"We solved it," Shawn whispered back, grinning. "You want to come out with us and reveal the big finale?"
"No thanks, I'd get fired," she said, rolling her eyes. "There's so much for me to do this round, what with having the lights on the stage instead of a curtain. I get to stand around back stage and do nothing, and I'm getting paid minimum wage to do it."
"Nice," Shawn said, holding up a fist for her to bump. She rolled her eyes, but bumped it anyway. "No help me make a commotion."
They looked around and spotted a table full of empty paint cans. Shawn and Gus looked at each other, then they both looked at Aislinn in question. She shrugged and followed them over. Shawn pretended to stumble into the table, making most of the cans fall loudly and roll across the stage. They picked up a few and threw them out too, just to make more noise. The pair singing stopped as Shawn and Gus pretended to stumble out onto the stage. Aislinn stood back, shaking her head, but smiled anyway.
"Please, accept our apologies," Gus began, and Aislinn positioned herself so she could see the chief and the cops she had brought with her. The chief was rubbing her forehead and Shawn and Gus interrupted the show. Aislinn could relate. Half the time, the boys gave her a throbbing headache, but half the time she welcomed the childlike behavior. "We just thought you would all like to know that you're in the presence of a homicidal sociopath," Gus continued. The two that had been sining looked at each other, then the taller one shook his head.
"No, no, no, he's not crazy," he said in a southern accent. "We got a doctors note and everything." Aislinn shook her head.
Shawn continued to walk through the whole case, and Lassiter and Juliet came in with the guy Aislinn assumed had been behind it. She almost wished Shawn had told her who was behind it, but this was better than a tv show. She grinned when they got the third judge to confess everything, almost surprised it had works. Nigel continued to ridicule him as some cops held the man back and Aislinn shook her head again. If that guy ever got out of jail he would just be that much angrier at Nigel. She almost wished he would get out soon, this guy was a complete jerk. At least after today she wouldn't have to deal with him ever again, or so she hoped.
The cops took the two almost murders back to the station, but the stage manager wanted to continue the second round. She stood back stage as the other contestants did their bits, two at a time, until it was Shawn and Gus's turn. They had some elaborate routine planned, and Juliet had come to watch as well. The two women stood next to each other through the song, and Aislinn had to admit that they had improved quite a bit, though they still sort of sucked.
Nigel, as the only judge left, voted them off immediately, and Aislinn laughed as they came off the stage, knocking things over int heir anger.
"Better luck next time guys," Juliet said, patting Shawn's shoulder.
"Come on, lets get milkshakes. I'm buying," Aislinn said, leading the other three to the stage door exit. Shawn and Gus looked mildly happier to be getting ice cream, and Juliet came along without complaint.