"Chief, can we make this quick? I think I'm really on to something here." Lassiter said as soon as the chief shut the door.
"Sit," The chief said ignoring the detective's complaints. Lassiter bit back a retort and sat down across from the chief's desk. "I know I told you to hold off finding information out about our visitor, but frankly Carlton, I'm concerned you might be becoming attached to her." The chief paused to read Lassiter's face as she let her accusations sink in.
"Chief that's ridiculous. I would never let my personal life affect a case-" Lassiter started to argue. The chief held up her hand.
"I know that she stayed with you last night, which I will admit I was surprised to hear. I would have thought you would have put her in the holding cell. Just keep in mind that in reality you know very little about this girl and she might just be using you."
"She's not using me," Lassiter half snapped. The chief raised an eyebrow at the detective's snippy tone. "Sorry, but you know that I don't trust people easily and I think the fact that I'm not constantly trying to see if this girl is working an angle says something about her."
"Just be careful, Officer McNab was just in here with some startling things that Miss Adams has said."
"Spencer says startling stuff all the time, usually it's also stupid." Lassiter replied. "Can I go solve a murder now?" He asked. The chief nodded and Lassiter headed for the door.
"Carlton, just remember that when this case is finished I expect you to find out everything you can about this girl." The chief reminded him. Lassiter paused long enough to hear her advice and then left without saying anything.
Jane and O'Hara watched as Lassiter came out of the chief's office. He picked up the same file he'd been looking over before.
"What?" He snapped as the two women just sat there looking at him. "It was nothing, get back to work." O'Hara shook herself back to attention and went back to the case board to mark out more on the timeline.
"Did Madison Roth say anything to you three about the case?" Lassiter asked Jane after he finished the Mintark file. Jane shook her head.
"Shawn just goofed around for a while."
"Figures," Lassiter muttered.
"Paula Ross and the other female interns at Mintark gave us DNA swabs. I sent them down to the lab. Once we get that information we can start eliminating people that might have been staying with Hudson." O'Hara said.
"You didn't tell them why did you?" Jane asked, envisioning Lassiter asking an entire room of women if any of them were sleeping with their boss.
"Of course not, we're not stupid." Lassiter half snapped at her. "Paula Ross was more forthcoming with information about the merger when we confronted her about the things Roth told us." He continued. "Centremark did propose the merger just like Roth told us."
"Detective Lassiter, forensics sent these up for you." McNab said coming over to hand Lassiter a file. He avoided making eye contact with Jane. Lassiter grabbed the file and motioned for McNab to move on. Lassiter opened the file and Juliet looked over his shoulder at the test results.
"None of them match," Juliet said her voice slightly disappointed.
"Well, that doesn't mean one of them isn't the murderer." Lassiter pointed out. "What about the opera tickets?"
"Those checked out. Ian Hudson paid for and picked up two tickets the night of the show. They're on his credit card bill and there's a signature for them at the ticket booth." Juliet showed Lassiter a copy of the signature the theatre had faxed to the station for them.
"I'm still waiting for Judge Harrison to sign an order for Madison Roth's DNA." Lassiter commented. "Once he does, we'll bring her in. She won't be so cocky when she's not in her own company." Jane snickered as she thought about McNab's comment from earlier. Lassiter shot her a sideways glance, but went back to reviewing evidence with O'Hara. Jane yawned and tried to make herself more comfortable in the chair.
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"Shawn what are we going to do now?" Gus asked. The morgue trip had been only slightly successful. The coroner concluded that Hudson had been killed by a single blow to the back of his head. The weapon used was a blunt instrument with several angles on it and nothing in the house came close to matching to wound pattern. "We don't have anyone with a solid motive, Nate Appleton is never going to call you back and you made Lassiter mad at us again."
"We're going back to Hudson's house." Shawn told Gus. "The last time we were there, I didn't really get to check out the scene since Lassie had a minor meltdown."
"You know that's right." Gus agreed giving Shawn a fist bump.
"So I'm not gonna lie," Shawn said breaking the silence after a few minutes of driving. "it's a little weird knowing that Jane is from a place where we're a TV show."
"Shawn we are not talking about this. You know how I feel about it." Gus objected. "There's no way she can be from where she says she is." Shawn sighed.
"The problem is if she isn't who she says she is, then we don't know who she is and that means we don't know how she knows all this stuff."
"Let's just concentrate on getting this case solved." Gus said changing the subject. "The coroner said the blow the Ian Hudson's head was strong enough to kill him, but not so strong that a woman couldn't have done it." They reached the Hudson house and after checking to make sure no one was looking they ducked under the crime scene tape at the door. Shawn focused and looked around the room. He noticed a fireplace against one wall, large bookshelves along another and a couch facing a TV against a third wall.
"Hey Gus, is it weird that Ian Hudson has a fireplace but no pokey things for it?" Shawn asked looking at the hearth of the fireplace. Gus looked over at the fireplace from where he'd been looking at Ian Hudson's desk.
"Maybe it's a gas fireplace. My parents put one in and they don't need the fireplace tools any more." Gus suggested. Shawn tilted his head and looked at the square shaped discoloration in the brick of the hearth. There was a definite change in the brick color as if something had sat there once upon a time. He pulled out his cell phone and called Lassiter.
"Lassie, I'm getting this really strong vibe that Ian Hudson may have been murdered with a fireplace pokey thing." Shawn told Lassiter over the phone. "Look you don't have to look into it, but I think the chief would want you too." Shawn pulled the phone away from his ear as Lassiter started yelling on the other end of the line. "Alright buddy, I'll get right on that." Shawn shouted at the phone and then hung up.
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Jane started awake as Lassiter's phone rang. She hadn't realized how tired she had been. Lassiter reached out and grabbed the phone off the hook before the second ring.
"Carlton Lassiter," He greeted the person on the other end of the line. When he realized it was Spencer, Lassiter rolled his eyes. "Do you mean a fireplace poker? Spencer there wasn't one of those in the house." He replied after listening to Spencer for a few moments. Then Lassiter's face clouded over. "Spencer you can take your ridiculous suggestions and put them where they'll never see the light of day!" He yelled into the phone. O'Hara glanced up from her desk where she had gone after reviewing the forensics reports with her partner. Lassiter slammed the phone back on the hook and rubbed his hands over his face. "Sometimes I really hate the fact his suggestions are so damned good." He muttered and then looked up to see Jane watching him. "What?" Lassiter snapped. "Are you getting any psychic vibes about fire pokers?" Jane nodded, if Shawn had suggested fire pokers it was probably pretty close to the truth. Lassiter groaned and then picked up the case file. "O'Hara I'm going down to the morgue. Watch her," He nodded his head at Jane and then headed for the stairs.
hcyspsych
"Great Shawn, now Lassiter is still pissed off at us." Gus said.
"He'll get over it. What are you looking at?" Shawn asked going over to the desk where Gus was looking at papers.
"It looks like Ian Hudson's mail. There are bills, cards and a few coupons." Gus answered showing Shawn the stack of mail. Shawn looked around the rest of the desk.
"You know, if Hudson was dating someone he did a really good job of hiding it. There aren't any pictures, no love notes, nothing except a toothbrush in the bathroom." Shawn pulled open a drawer on the desk, except he pulled too hard and the entire drawer came out spilling the contents on the floor.
"Shawn, you broke it." Gus complained. Shawn bent down to pick up the spilled papers.
"I did not," He paused as he picked up a manila envelope from the pile that had fallen out of the drawer. "Dude smell this," He handed Gus the envelope. Gus took it and sniffed.
"Lavender and," Gus sniffed again. "rose water maybe."
"So probably perfumes?" Shawn asked grabbing the envelope back from Gus. Gus nodded. Shawn opened up the envelope and pulled out a stack of cards all in different colored envelopes. "These are all addressed to Hudson." Shawn said flipping through at least a dozen or so cards with the same frilly handwriting on the front.
"They've all been opened," Gus said pulling a card out of a purple envelope. "To Ian, last night's memories are forever ours. Love Cara." He read from the inside.
"There was a Cara on the list of interns from Mintark." Shawn said, remembering the list Juliet had tacked on the case board.
"So this Cara killed Ian Hudson?" Shawn shook his head.
"No, but she was probably the person Hudson was sleeping with." Shawn thought for a minute. "If only we could find the fireplace pokers." Shawn's cell phone rang and he glanced at the screen to see Lassiter's office number in the caller ID. "Lassie! Hey can you do me a favor. Check Cara Gillman's DNA. I'm getting a huge psychic kick in the pants. Oh good the fire poker thingey was good? No I'm getting blocked on where it could be hidden. Alright, I'll talk to you later." Shawn hung up and did a little victory dance.
"Dude, I have this case 87% solved."
"Good, because once it's solved we are sending Jane back on a plane to Indiana and I don't care if that's Indiana or Crazyville."
"Gus don't be the president of the pessimists club." Shawn told him.
"Do you even know who killed Hudson?" Gus asked. "Because all you've got is the girl he was sleeping with."
"Relax Gus, all I have to do is psychically convince Lassie to bring Madison Roth down to the station. It'll be cake."
