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Shawn was still staring at the man’s body in shock when Gus tugged on his shirtsleeve and said, "Shawn, let’s get out of here. That was a close call."

Shawn shook himself out of it and turned to him hissing, "What are you kidding me? I just found a huge clue!"

Gus stared at him. "What? Where? What is it?"

"Over there, the dead guy—I know who he is!"

Gus glanced at the dead man before realizing what he was doing and he choked, gagging when he saw the mutilated face of the deceased. He quickly looked away and had to bend over, covering his mouth to stop himself from vomiting right there. As he tried to stem his gag reflex, Shawn kept talking excitedly, still staring avidly at the body.

"We saw him at the scene of Officer Harding’s death! He was that guy who was talking to Lassiter—Kipley—Kringle—uh—uh—Kinsley! That’s it! I can’t believe this! There was no reason to think another officer might get murdered. Holy cow, Gus, do you know what this means?!"

Gus looked up, glaring at him and said, "No, Shawn, not really. To be honest, I have no idea what you’re talking about."

Shawn rolled his eyes and said frustratedly, "Gus, two police officers don’t get murdered, get shot in the face, get killed on duty, and have their badges stolen and not have their cases be related. The odds of that happening are like, a ka-zillion to one!"

Gus seemed to be coming around to Shawn’s way of thinking. "So what do we do about it?" he said, "The police are bound to notice the connection between the two cases if it’s that obvious."

Shawn bit the tip of his thumb, his eyes focusing intently on the hood of the cruiser while he thought. "I don’t know, I don’t know... We have to get more information about these guys." A smile crept onto his face and he said, "We’ll have to pay a little visit to the police station tomorrow when they’ve got everything organized. All I need is one good look at the crime scene board."

Gus had a feeling they were about to encounter big trouble.

~ * * * ~

Shawn strode into the Santa Barbara police station the next afternoon, grinning cheerfully. He waved at Elaine as he and Gus passed the desk, making a beeline for Karen’s office. Stopping at the office door, he pressed his face to the glass, squishing his lips and his nose in a way that made him look like some sort of demented pig. It took a moment or two, but Vick finally glanced up from her paperwork and froze, staring. He grinned, the corners of his squashed mouth turning up disturbingly and she coughed, covering her mouth as she attempted to glare at him. After a moment, it appeared that he wasn’t going to just go away so she heaved a sigh and waved for them to come in. Shawn pulled himself away from the glass, still grinning, and lifted the hem of his shirt to wipe the glass of the saliva and facial oil now smeared on it in a creepy ghost version of his face. Karen rolled her eyes and shielded them from the display, having no desire to see the twenty-nine year old’s bare stomach. When he finally opened the door he said merrily, "Hi Chief!"

She was unimpressed. "What are you doing here, Mr. Spencer?" she asked wearily.

"Oh..." Shawn scoffed, "Just wanted to say hi! It’s been awhile."

"It’s been two days, Mr. Spencer," she replied wryly.

"And doesn’t it just feel like eons?"

She sighed. "No, not really, Mr. Spencer." She got to her feet and leaned on the desk. "Look, if you’re just here for a social visit, I don’t have time for this. Another officer was murdered yesterday, and I have a lot of work to do."

Shawn put on his best "astonished" face. "Another officer? Seriously?" He gasped in horror and then said, "Not Lassie?"

Karen’s face darkened and she snapped, "Get out, Mr. Spencer. Now."

Shawn covered his mouth guiltily. That had been the wrong joke to make. "Sorry. I didn’t mean that."

"Are you losing your hearing? Read my mind then." She tilted her head forward glaring furiously at him and Shawn nodded slowly, his eyebrows near his hairline.

"Ooh. Okay. Now is a bad time to ask for a raise. Gotcha. Going now." He pointed to the door, smiled sheepishly, and he and Gus scuttled backwards out of the office.

When the door had closed behind them Gus hissed, "Dude, why’d you do that?"

Shawn grimaced. "The Lassie thing was kind of reflex. I do that, Gus. You know, that whole ‘speaking without thinking’ thing. Yeah, I do that all the time. That was one of those times."

"Well you need to learn how to stop it," Gus said. "Now how are we supposed to sneak a look at the board?"

Shawn glanced back at Karen’s office. She had stopped glaring in their direction, distracted by a telephone call. "We do it now!" he exclaimed and shoved Gus off to the side of the hall, behind a pillar. Gus made a sound of protest and Shawn covered his mouth with a hand. "Shhh! Dude, this is a covert operation!" Gus rolled his eyes as Shawn glanced back and forth down the hallway and then crouched down, slinking off in the direction of Lassiter’s desk. They managed to sneak up to the pillar across the hall from his desk and ducked behind it, Shawn pressing dramatically against it, like he were in some kind of action movie. Gus followed his lead, his movements only slightly less theatrical. Shawn tended to rub off on him.

They both moved as one, their synchronization from having spent far too much time together, and peeked around either side of the pillar. Lassiter was sitting at his desk, leaning back in his chair, facing the board, an aggravated expression carved into his face. O’Hara was sitting on the edge of her own desk, looking at a file, and reading parts out to Lassiter. "…no connection. That’s all we’ve got," she said reluctantly.

Lassiter sighed frustratedly and ran his hands down his face. "An entirely new crime scene, and we have nothing to show for it. This just gets better and better," he muttered.

"Maybe we should call Shawn," Juliet said hesitantly. Shawn grinned and nudged Gus, delighted.

"No. Absolutely not. I don’t want that clown screwing around with this case. I might snap and do something I wouldn’t regret," he said darkly.

Juliet rolled her eyes. "You know, I don’t think you’re being fair to Shawn. His dad was a cop. He probably knows better than any civilian how sensitive this case is."

"Yes! Thank you!" Shawn whispered.

Juliet looked up and he and Gus pulled back behind the pillar. They heard Lassiter say, "What?"

"Oh, nothing…" she said. "I thought I heard something." She paused for a second and then said, "Why don’t we go check and see if CSI is coming up with anything?"

Lassiter sighed and then agreed, "All right, yeah, let’s do it."

Shawn stared at Gus. Their luck was almost too good. That or Juliet had see him and was lending a subtle helping hand. Either way he didn’t care. He was getting what he needed.

They waited until Lassiter and Juliet had gotten down the hall and then quickly hurried over to look at the board. Gus kept a nervous look out, while Shawn scanned the board for anything useful. There were photographs of each of the officers along with lists of facts about the crime scenes and various suspects, some already crossed off but no apparent winners among the bunch.

So Shawn, of course, noticed something right away.

"Dude!" he whispered. "These guys were in the same graduating class!" He pointed to the dates and the Academy names listed on the sheets. And then he remembered.

"Holy cow, Gus! The graduation photo!" he exclaimed, now more excited than ever.

Gus raised an eyebrow. "You lost me Shawn."

"Birds eat your bread crumbs, Hansel? The graduation photo at Harding’s place! These two were separated by one guy! Gus…Gus, we’ve got to look this guy in the middle of the dead-cop-sandwich up. He could be involved!"

Without warning, Gus grabbed him by the sleeve, hauling him behind a pillar. "Not now we’re not," he hissed and pointed to where Vick was now striding down the hall.

Shawn watched her go and then glanced back at her office. Gus could practically see the cogs turning in his head.

"No. No way, Shawn."

"Come on, let’s go!" Shawn said, ignoring him as he quick-stepped down the hallway.

Gus glowered after him, following reluctantly and glancing around anxiously. This was a really bad idea.

Shawn casually sauntered up to the Chief’s door and he twisted the knob, walking right in. Gus followed, trying to be inconspicuous. Shawn closed the door behind him, waggling his eyebrows at Gus, and moved to sit in the Chief’s chair. Gus glanced apprehensively at the door, staring down the hallway. "Shawn, we’re going to get caught."

Shawn scoffed, waving his concerns away with his left hand as he shook the mouse to wake up Vick’s computer. "Dude, relax. No one ever looks in here. It’s like some force field or something. I only need a minute or two anyway. Just sit down, relax, and keep an eye out. We’ll be long gone before she gets back."

Gus fidgeted nervously. He didn’t like it, but he would do it. He could tell Shawn was on to something big.

Shawn spent a couple of minutes trying to find the program he wanted, but finally got fed up and just picked one. He grinned when the Law Enforcement Information Network screen blossomed on the screen. Sweet.

"Shawn, hurry up!" Gus hissed. "I don’t like being in here!"

Shawn rolled his eyes. "Oh, give it a rest Gus. She’s not coming back yet." He glanced at the desktop calendar. "She’s going to be in a meeting for the next half hour. Now would you relax?" Gus sulked, falling silent.

Shawn closed his eyes, thinking back to the photograph as he put his fingers to his temples, trying to remember the list of names that had been printed at the bottom. Peter Hughes. That was it. He typed the name into the database’s search engine and waited eagerly for it to complete the command. When the results popped up, Shawn’s lips puckered, and his eyebrows floated upward, the way they tended to when he was surprised by a turn of events.

Officer Hughes was dead.

Now completely engrossed, Shawn scrolled through the page, scanning details, when one in particular jumped out at him: ‘Manner of death: Homicide; Single shot to the face’. He spun the chair around, pounding the desk with the flats of his palms. Gus’ eyebrows shot upward.

"What is it? Did you solve the case already?"

"No, but it just got a whole heck of a lot more interesting," he said, looking excited. "Come look at this!"

Gus moved around the desk, bending over to peer at the screen. "What am I looking at?"

"This is Officer Hughes’ file. He’s the officer who played the role of ‘turkey’ in our dead officer sandwich."

Gus made a face. "Shawn, that’s really inappropriate, you know that, right?"

"Yeah, sorry. Can’t help it. Anyway. Check this out." He scrolled back up the page and pointed to the "Manner of Death" he had just read to himself.

"No way…" Gus whispered, astounded.

"Way," Shawn confirmed. "And look at this. This guy died in San Bernardino last week. How insane is that?"

"No way!" Gus repeated, astounded even further.

"I know, crazy, right? Wanna know something even freakier?"

"Not really, but I know you’re going to tell me anyway," Gus said.

"You got it. In that picture—the graduation one?—yeah, Officer Kinsley is the last guy in the first row."

"I don’t get it," Gus said, missing the connection.

"Hold on—let me check these other guys in the first row. If I’m right…" Shawn typed in the name of the officer who came before Harding in the photo and waited impatiently for the search to complete itself. When the page loaded, he scrolled down and he and Gus stared at the stats.

Dead.

They exchanged a heavy look and Shawn immediately began typing in the name of the next officer. Dead. The next: dead. The next, and the next, and the next, all the way down the row of eleven officers. All of them dead. Shawn checked the final officer in the row, the teacher, and he and Gus were shocked to discover that he was still alive. "All right," Shawn concluded, "So there’s some crazy guy out there, killing the students in this class."

"How did the police miss this?" Gus asked in disbelief.

"Dude, haven’t you been looking at the dates of their deaths? They died months, weeks, years apart and they all lived in different cities. No one would have even known there was a pattern."

"What the hell do you think you are doing, Mr. Spencer?"

Shawn and Gus froze.

Gus was just beginning to open his mouth to spew forth the first excuse he could come up with, when Shawn, wearing his best, ‘Where the hell am I?’ face, stammered pathetically, "I…I don’t know."

Karen sighed heavily, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Mr. Spencer, I don’t have time for games right now."

Gus shook his head, catching on quickly. "No, no, Chief. He was in a trance. I followed him in here, and he just started typing things into the computer. It was—"

"He what?"

"Gus?" Shawn said weakly. "What am I doing here?"

As Karen rushed over to check her computer, Gus helped Shawn out of her chair and into another, in front of the desk. Shawn recovered a little as she began looking through the files, and he and Gus watched expectantly for her reaction. Her face went from angry, to bemused, to dawning realization, and then to white-faced horror. She looked up, her gaze intense upon Shawn and said, "Are you telling me there is a serial cop killer running around out there?"

Shawn nodded gravely. "That’s what the spirits seem to be indicating."

"How did we miss this?" she whispered, aghast.

"Well," Shawn said gently, "I think if you look at when the officers died, you’ll find that they’ve died with long gaps in between them over the last five years or so. Not to mention the fact that they were murdered in different cities and not all of them are even cops anymore. Whoever this guy is, he’s got this act down. I don’t think anyone would have made the connection."

Karen sighed heavily. "I suppose…is there anything else?"

Shawn put his fingers to his temples for a moment and then with a gasp, opened his eyes. "I see a photograph. These officers all graduated in the same class. The photo from their graduation is what this psycho is using to pick his next victim! It’s perfect."

Karen nodded, scribbling down the information. When she had finished, she paused, and said seriously, "Mr. Spencer, I’m grateful for this information, so grateful that I’m going to overlook your trespassing into my office, how’s that sound?"

Shawn smiled weakly. "Sounds super, Chief. I suppose now is a bad time to ask if I can help with the case then, huh?"

She smiled and got to her feet. "Sorry, I can’t let you do that. If you get any more information, I would love to hear it, but I can’t put you on the case officially. I hope you understand."

Shawn sighed dramatically. "I guess. I promise to come straight to you if I have any more visions."

"See that you do. Straight to me, Mr. Spencer, and not my office," she added pointedly.

Shawn grinned. "My pleasure."

~ * * * ~

"See, Gus!" Shawn exclaimed, as they headed out of the station toward Gus’ car. "You were worried for nothing. Chief loves me!"

Gus raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn’t exactly say that, Shawn. If she likes anyone, it’s me."

Shawn snorted and said disdainfully, "You, Gus? You’re the one she caught sitting in her Magic-Springy-Bounce-Up Chair slurping on a pineapple smoothie."

"Yeah, but you’re the one who broke into her office this afternoon. And how do you think she’d feel about you if she found out about how much time you spent in there while she was off on that trip with Lassiter, having her baby? Huh? What do you think about that?" he said. "I think that’s ten points for me, Shawn. Swish!" He mimed lobbing a basketball into an invisible net.

"Oh," Shawn scoffed, scandalized. "You wouldn’t tell her about that, would you?"

"I would if you try to make this into a thing. I’m wild, Shawn," he added as he unlocked the car. "You never know what I might do."

Shawn let out a bark of laughter. "’Wild’. Oh, that’s comedic gold, Gus. I’ll tell you what, if anyone ever calls you ‘wild’, I owe you a grand, and a foot massage."

"Oh, you’re on."

They started to climb into the car and then Shawn stopped, banging a hand on the roof. "And they have to say it in front of me, dude, or it isn’t valid." He nodded, satisfied with those parameters and completed the journey into the car.

Gus frowned at the space Shawn had previously occupied. "What? Shawn, that’s not fair!"

Their bickering continued the entire way home.