PSYCH: From Beyond The Morgue (PG-13), Shawn/Lassiter.

[laytoncolt]

Shawn just wants to solve his latest case, but it isn't easy with Gus and Henry meddling in his love life, especially considering his love life consists of one bored workaholic detective on enforced leave.



back to part three

"Hi, Holly," Shawn said, as he turned the lock on the door behind him.

Holly stared at him with wide eyes. She didn't look much older than her picture, though she had to be thirty by now. She was wearing the same torn white dress he'd seen her in before, with a big bow half untied on the back of it. Her blonde hair was braided all the way down to her waist.

"You shouldn't be here," she said. "This room is secret."

"I didn't mean to interrupt," Shawn said, stepping closer, with his hands out palms up. "What are you doing?"

She was sitting on her bed and writing on the back of a magazine in purple pen, streams of words that couldn't really be seen overlaid on top of a Maybellene ad. "Someone took my diary," she told him.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that, that was me," Shawn said.

"That's stealing," she said sternly. "And you're not supposed to lock the door. That's for emergencies only."

"This kind of qualifies," Shawn said. "Holly, do you know who I am?"

"You were in the hall last night, but I don't talk to strangers," she said. "I shouldn't be talking to you now."

Shawn could hear Lassiter pounding on the door, shouting for him to open it. Holly winced at the noise but ignored it. "I'm Shawn Spencer, I was hired by Eveline to help. See? I'm not a stranger if you know my name," he said. "I talked to Molly today. She's worried about you."

"Molly's my friend," Holly said. "But I had to go away from there."

"Why did you have to leave, Holly?" he asked.

"Andie wouldn't come see me, so I had to go find her," Holly said. "She said we're going to be okay now that Harvey's gone."

"Who is Andie?" Shawn asked.

"She tucked me in, and made me cookies with chocolate chips, but not anymore, she was sent away," Holly said. "I hid where I couldn't be found, or I would have been sent away, too."

"I'm sorry," Shawn said. Outside, he could hear Lassiter screaming orders. He didn't seem to care that he wasn't supposed to be here officially anymore. "Have you been sleeping here?"

"I don't sleep well," Holly said. "This room is smaller than it was before. I see things, when I sleep, and I don't like it."

"I have bad dreams too," Shawn said.

"There's no such thing as bad dreams," she said. "There's dreams and there's nightmares. They're different things."

Shawn nodded. "Then I don't have dreams anymore, at least not at night."

Holly watched him carefully for a moment, before nodding and turning away. "She used to come here, you know, sweet dreams, sweet dreams-but never there, I never saw her there. It's why I came back, it's why I came home."

"What about your father?" he asked.

"I call him Harvey, he was very strict about that," she said. "Hello, Harvey, how are you today. I am well. Goodbye, Harvey, have a pleasant evening."

"He taught you to do that? Say those things?" Shawn asked.

"Oh, yes, he taught me to say lots of things, so I would seem normal," she explained. "Do I seem normal? Is it working?"

"You're doing just fine," Shawn said. "I need you to tell me more about Andie."

"Andie, I always call her Andie, you know. Harvey and Andie," Holly said. "Are you doing well today? You're looking very well. Have a pleasant evening."

"Andie was your mother," Shawn said in realization.

"Oh, you mustn't call her that," Holly said. "It's Andie. It's always been Andie. No one knows, you see. I'm the secret."

"You don't have to be a secret anymore," Shawn said. The pounding behind them was growing louder. Shawn could pick out Lassiter's voice in the crowd, demanding again for him to open the door. He stepped closer to Holly instead.

"Andie said it was my fault, if I had been better, smarter, Harvey would have married her instead, we would have been a family," she said. "But he didn't want a daughter like me so that's why he's just Harvey."

"Do you know what happened to Harvey?" Shawn asked.

"I found him dead in the pool," Holly said, tracing a model's eye with the purple marker like she was drawing on eye shadow. "I dragged him out but he was still dead."

"Did you see what happened?" Shawn asked.

Holly didn't meet his eyes. "I had to stay out of his way, he wanted to send me back," she said. "But he couldn't send me back if he couldn't find me. I'd hear him sometimes, working at his desk, on the other side of the wall."

"What about Aldis?" Shawn asked.

"Aldis helps me," Holly said, and smiled. "He had this wall built when Andie asked him. He brings me food. Sometimes he tells me stories."

Shawn could see something like a crowbar jammed into the edge of the door, and he knew they didn't have long. "Holly, some of my friends are out there. They're going to want you to go with them."

"They want to take me back," she said sadly.

"Yeah," Shawn said. "But I'm going to prove that you haven't done anything wrong."

Holly turned to look at Shawn. "How can you be sure I haven't?"

"I'm psychic," Shawn said.

Holly laughed. "No you're not," she said, and the door slammed open behind her. Two of the officers gently grabbed her by both arms while Lassiter slipped past them to Shawn.

"Are you alright?" he demanded. Shawn nodded.

"Goodbye, Shawn," Holly said. "It was nice to meet you. I hope you have a very pleasant evening."

Shawn stepped towards her and Lassiter grabbed him. "Hey, slow down," Lassiter snapped.

"It's going to be okay!" Shawn called after her.

"That's what Andie said, too," she said as they led her from the room. "But it wasn't true."

Shawn had stopped fighting Lassiter's hold, waiting instead until he let go to step away. "What the hell was that, Spencer?" Lassiter asked. "Did she lock the door or did you?"

"I think you already know the answer to that," Shawn said.

"You don't lock yourself in a room with a crazy murder suspect, Shawn! What is the matter with you?" Lassiter demanded, grabbing Shawn's arm to spin him around so they were face to face.

"I had to know for sure," Shawn said.

"What?" Lassiter snapped. "What did you have to know that was so damn important?"

"That she was innocent," Shawn said.

Lassiter reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose, but it did nothing to stall the headache that he felt coming on. "Is this like with Cyril?"

"I was right about Cyril," Shawn said.

"Not completely," Lassiter snapped. "You went into this convinced she was innocent. Why? What do you know that I don't?"

"I know she's not a killer," he said. "You know her father used to make her rehearse? Little phrases for her to say when other people were around. Hello, how are you today? That kind of thing. Over and over. She has it written hundreds of times in that diary we found, but I didn't realize why until now."

Lassiter heaved a sigh, and lowered his hand. "Shawn-"

"I know what it's like to constantly disappoint your father," Shawn said. "We do okay now, but this is actually the closest we've been since I was eleven years old. I know what it's like. And Holly's never had someone to speak up for her."

"You're not anything like her, and everything you just said, that sounds like motive to me," Lassiter said quietly. "She had every reason to hate him."

"She had every reason to, but she didn't," Shawn said. "She didn't come back here for revenge, she came back here because she wanted a home, she wanted a family."

"She's mentally unstable, you know that," Lassiter said. "She's going to be safer in custody, either way. They're going to get her help."

"She doesn't need their help," Shawn said. "She needs mine."

"If she's innocent, we're going to prove it," Lassiter said. "We're just going to do it the right way."

"What you need to be doing is finding Andie," Shawn said.

"The imaginary friend?" Lassiter asked.

"She's not imaginary, she's Holly's mother," Shawn said.

"As far as we can tell, Holly doesn't even have a birth certificate. We can't find her mother. I'll make sure O'Hara asks Holly about Andie, but we can't just let Holly go because you've got a hunch."

"Right, of course not," Shawn said, and started for the door. "I'll find her myself."

Lassiter brushed past him and blocked the doorway out. "You're still not trusting me."

"Shouldn't that be my line?" Shawn asked. "I'm the one asking to be believed. You said before, with Cyril, that you only couldn't trust me because I was lying to you, but I'm not lying now and you're still not listening to me."

"Because you're not explaining your reasons any better than you did before," Lassiter said.

Shawn laughed. "Right, you want me to trust you, but you're the one that keeps asking me to explain myself. I'm not going to keep trying if you're not going to listen to what I say. You've got Holly in custody. Congratulations. Go have a drink and celebrate."

Shawn ducked under Lassiter's arm and went out the door. "Shawn!" Lassiter called after him, but Shawn didn't stop.

He went down the hallways and the down the front steps. He could see the back of Holly's braided hair in the back of a patrol car, driving away, and he didn't notice the other patrol car coming down the driveway right at him.

Shawn spun around at the sound of screeching brakes, and stared down at the hood of the police car that had stopped all of three inches from his feet. Buzz stared back at him from the driver's seat, looking just as startled, and then leaned out the window with a frown.

"You need to look both ways before crossing the street," Buzz told him seriously, and Shawn was guessing this was as stern as Buzz would ever manage to get.

"You're right, I'm sorry. You heading back to the station?" he asked. "Do you think you could drop me off at the Psych office?"

"Sure, hop in," Buzz said. He glanced at Shawn as he got in the passenger seat. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," Shawn said. He saw Lassiter rushing out of the mansion in the side mirror as they pulled out into the street, but Buzz didn't seem to notice.

Buzz had apparently already gotten over their near miss, and was smiling brightly as he talked about his wife. Shawn tuned him out until he was just a bunch of friendly Buzz white noise, and wished he had a Red Bull.

"-but, well, you know how it is to be in a relationship, it's never all easy, is it?" Buzz said.

Shawn finally tuned him back in and turned to him in surprise. "Huh?"

"Well, you're dating Lassiter," Buzz said. "Don't get me wrong. Detective Lassiter is a great guy. I like him a lot. But he kinda scares me."

"You know about me and Lassiter?" Shawn asked.

"Doesn't everyone?" Buzz asked. "I didn't realize it was a secret, you're just so obvious."

"No, it's not really a secret," Shawn said. "It's just no one else believes me."

"You started seeing each other after the Dah-Ling case, right?" Buzz asked. "I noticed right away. Lassiter smiles more. At first I was kind of terrified, but then I realized it was because of you."

Shawn shifted and looked out the window. The first few days were always smiles. That's why Shawn's relationships never lasted past them. "It's not a secret, but could you not spread it around?" Shawn asked. "Lassiter would probably appreciate it."

"What about you?" Buzz asked.

"I'm not sure it's even going to matter much longer," Shawn said, as they pulled to a stop in front of the Psych office. "Thanks for the ride."

"Anytime," Buzz said, but he was frowning again, and Shawn's mood must be pretty terrible if he was even bringing Buzz down.

Shawn waved goodbye to Buzz, and waited until he drove off to hop on his bike. He needed some time to think, to clear his head. To piece this case and his life together in some way that made sense again. So he started driving.

It was anyone's guess where he was going to end up.

x x x x x x

Lassiter dialed Shawn's number for the fifth time, but it went straight to voicemail again. Shawn either didn't have his phone on or he hadn't bothered to recharge it. He was pretty sure it was the latter.

He felt a little dizzy, with the image of Shawn driving off with McNab stuck like a jammed film reel behind his eyes. It all felt a little too much like watching Victoria drive away, sitting in the back of that limo her father had sent to pick her up, with her oversized black sunglasses and her stiff upper lip.

Victoria hadn't looked back, either.

"Carlton, what are you doing here?" Vick asked.

Lassiter glanced up with a frown. He hadn't even seen her walk up to him. "Chief," he said.

She crossed her arms as she looked him over. "You're supposed to still be on leave," she said. "I thought I was very clear."

Lassiter cleared his throat, and reluctantly slipped his phone back in his pocket. He knew Shawn wouldn't answer his call, even if he could. "I'm not here as an officer, but Eveline Graves hired Spencer," he said. "I've been assisting him."

Vick gave a laugh of disbelief. "You've been assisting him?" she echoed. "Jeez, Lassiter. If you're so desperate you're even working in Mr. Spencer's employ, I guess we can make an exception and let you come back from leave a few days early."

Lassiter had been meaning to go find Shawn, for once grateful that he wasn't on the clock, but he could work this to his advantage. "In that case, I'd like to be the one to question Holly Graves," he said.

Vick frowned. "She's been taken to the hospital for psychiatric evaluation," she said. "Frankly I think the court will find she isn't fit to stand trial, and this is most likely going to end up with a plea. I don't think we need to push for an interrogation right now. She needs help more than we need a quick confession."

"You're assuming she's guilty," Lassiter said.

Vick raised an eyebrow. "You think she isn't?"

"Spencer thinks she isn't," Lassiter said. "I think we should listen to him, or at least follow this through."

"You think Spencer is right?" Vick asked. "Maybe it's you I should have sent for psychological evaluation."

"It's not-" Lassiter started, but Vick moved past him up the steps to the house.

"Go ahead and question her. But I want a report on my desk by 5:00 PM with everything you know, including any of Mr. Spencer's divinations," she called behind her.

Lassiter considered going to find O'Hara for a moment before getting into his car alone. He couldn't handle his partner today; she was getting to know him far too well. She'd see something was wrong, and O'Hara being O'Hara, she'd want to do something crazy like talk about it.

He pulled out his cellphone again before starting the car, but this time he wasn't calling Shawn.

"McNab," a cheery voice said.

Lassiter squinted against an oncoming migraine, and considered not for the first time that he was allergic to cheerful people, except maybe Shawn. Or maybe especially to Shawn. "I need to talk to Spencer," he said.

"He's not here," Buzz said, his voice going to level and inflectionless, in a way Lassiter tried to tell himself he didn't find disturbing.

"Where is he then?" Lassiter demanded.

"He asked me to drop him off. He seemed…upset," Buzz said. "I'd never seen him like that."

"Where did you take him?" Lassiter asked.

"Are you asking me officially?" Buzz asked, sounding uncomfortable. "Because I know about the personal relationship you have with Shawn, and I'm not sure if I should be saying anything-"

"You know-" Lassiter broke off, holding a hand to his forehead. "I just need to find him, McNab. You know what he's like when he's on a case. He's going to get himself into trouble. I only want to help."

"The Psych office," Buzz said after a moment. "But you didn't hear it from me."

"Thanks," Lassiter said, ending the call and starting the car. Lassiter drove by the Psych office on his way to the hospital, but Shawn's bike was gone and the sign on the door said closed.

Lassiter wanted to turn around and try to track Spencer down, because something was niggling at the back of his neck that he was going to disappear-that same feeling he'd get with suspects sometimes, right before they took off running. A kind of look in the eye, something cornered.

Lassiter knew he'd smothered Victoria. He'd always wanted to know where she was. It wasn't that he was controlling, exactly-it was for his own peace of mind. Seeing the kinds of things he saw everyday, it got pretty easy to imagine that person beneath the white sheet was someone he loved. He knew better than most that it could happen to anyone.

But Victoria hadn't been able to put up with that for long, and Shawn wouldn't put up with it at all, so he put the car in drive and started back to the hospital instead.

He had to start trusting him, Shawn was right about that. This seemed as good a place as any to start, because if there was one thing that could be counted on when it came to Spencer, it was that he wouldn't leave a case unsolved.

And he trusted Shawn enough to know that if he said this one wasn't over yet, it wasn't.

x x x x x x

The door swung open on only the second knock, and Shawn stuck his hands deep in his pockets and stared at the ground instead of looking up.

"Hi, Dad," he said. "Mind if I come in?"

It was Shawn asking and not just coming in that really tipped Henry off that something was wrong. Henry moved aside at once to let him in. "What's wrong?" he asked. "Where have you been?"

"I've been driving around for awhile," Shawn said, as he walked past him. "It should make you happy to know you were right."

"Right about what?" Henry asked.

"You called it brilliantly," Shawn said. "First fight with Lassiter and I was running." Shawn sat down at the table, crossing his arms on it and then burying his head in them.

Henry ruffled his hair as he walked by him to the fridge. "I'm proud of you," he said.

"You're proud of me?" Shawn demanded, voice muffled from his arms. "For doing exactly what you said I would?"

"You didn't," Henry said. "I said you'd be heading out of town, but you haven't. You came here instead."

"Which just goes to show how much my judgment has been impaired," Shawn argued, reluctantly lifting his head.

Henry dropped a tub of ice cream in front of Shawn, and he eyed it dubiously. "Leftovers from the Gus bribe?" Shawn asked petulantly.

"Be nice, or you won't get any sprinkles," Henry said, and sat across from him.

Shawn narrowed his eyes at his father, where he sat with his out of character, calm, neutral behavior. "I thought you'd be happy this was falling apart," he said. "Why aren't you gloating?"

"Look, you may not exactly be a wilting flower the rest of the time, but when Lassiter's around you kind of-you light up," Henry said, stumbling over his words in embarrassment. "I haven't ever seen you like that with anyone else."

"Yeah, but I figured you were holding out hope I was going to toe the line, get the picture perfect life you wanted for me," Shawn protested. "I mean, except for the whole being a real cop thing, which we both know isn't all it's cracked up to be. I know you thought I was going to grow out of this."

"Please, Shawn, I've known this wasn't just some phase since you watched Top Gun and told me you planned to marry Val Kilmer," Henry said, but the exasperation in his voice was, if anything, fond. "That's not the problem. I kind of figured out awhile back that you were never going to end up with some picket fence, a wife and kids. Frankly the thought of you having kids terrifies me, though you'd more than deserve everything they'd put you through."

Shawn rolled his eyes. Henry leaned forward, forcing Shawn's eyes to focus back on him. "What it comes down to is this," he said. "You're my kid. As long as you're happy, and safe, then I'll learn to live with anything else."

"Seriously?" Shawn asked. "Because your track record does not reflect this."

"Maybe you're not the only one who's changed," Henry said. "I've learned what's important to me, Shawn. Maybe it's time you figure out what's important to you."

"How am I supposed to do that?" Shawn demanded.

"You could start by asking yourself why you're still here," Henry said.

"I couldn't leave, even if I wanted to. I've got a case to finish," he said, and slouched in the chair.

"Like you've never left a job unfinished before?" Henry asked.

"This is different," Shawn said.

"Yeah," Henry said, and pushed the bottle of sprinkles across the table to Shawn. "Welcome to being a grown-up, kid, you finally made it. Whether you meant to or not."

"I certainly didn't mean to," Shawn said miserably. "Being a grown up sucks."

"There are consolations," Henry said gently. "Being a grown up means you get to be in a grown up relationship. What happened with Lassiter?"

"I'm not talking about this with you," Shawn said. "That's not why I came here."

"Then why did you come here?" Henry asked.

"I need help with the case," Shawn said, getting to his feet to pace. "I'm missing something, I know it. It's right there in front of me-but I-"

"You should be talking to Lassiter," Henry said.

"You think I didn't try?" Shawn snapped. "He doesn't believe me. I told him Holly wasn't responsible, and he-he doesn't care."

"I don't buy that," Henry said. "What proof did you give him?"

"What is with this obsession with proof? With evidence?" Shawn asked. "I know she didn't do it."

"Shawn," Henry said wearily. "You have this fight with Lassiter all the time, and you know he needs proof before he can act on anything, you know that."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, but there's nothing written that you can't solve the case first and then find it," Shawn protested. "I do things a certain way."

"And so does Lassiter," Henry interrupted. "He follows police procedure and the law and you know it all by heart. Why is this any different?"

Shawn turned on his heel, pacing away from Henry. "It's not," he said reluctantly.

"Shawn," Henry said, shaking his head. "Lassiter's just doing his job."

"Yeah, I know, and he needs the proof, the evidence," he said. "But it isn't going to be found by going after the wrong person, and Lassiter doesn't believe me, he doesn't believe in me, and I told him, Dad-I told him everything, and he still doesn't."

"Did he say that?" Henry asked.

"He didn't have to say it. It's what he didn't say-" Shawn broke off, his eyes going wide. "That's it. She's been right there all along, it's just no one's said a word about her-"

"What are you talking about?" Henry demanded.

"The maid!" Shawn shouted, as he started for the door. "That's what I've been missing, and it's been right there in front of me all this time. I must be completely off my game. I keep thinking about-"

"Lassiter?" Henry asked quietly.

"Among other things," Shawn said, avoiding his father's eyes as he opened the door.

Henry grabbed his arm to tug him back. "Slow down a minute, this isn't about the case, and you know it."

"I told you, I came here because of the case, not Lassiter, and I've got it, you've been a great help, as always, see you Wednesday," Shawn said.

"Shawn," Henry snapped. "You look exhausted, just stay for lunch, okay? We'll talk. You been sleeping at all lately?"

"No time to sleep," Shawn said, and slipped out of his grip. "I've got to go solve this case."

"Shawn," Henry called after him. "Shawn, I thought we agreed this wasn't about the case!"

"When you're working a case, it's everything," Shawn said, not stopping or even slowing down. "You taught me that!"

Henry sighed and leaned against the door, watching Shawn hop on his bike and drive off. It just figured that would be the one lesson he'd listen to.

x x x x x x

Lassiter had only been in a psych ward twice before. Back when he'd still been on the beat he'd had to drag a guy here. He'd been half out of his mind, shouting about the creatures that lived under the ground. Lassiter had handed him off at the door and they'd taken him inside and that was that.

The second time he'd been here, it was to interview the only witness to a brutal murder. That hadn't taken very long either, because she refused to speak. The last time Lassiter had checked on her progress, she still hadn't spoken a word.

These places were always white and too clean. There was a subtle switch in atmosphere when he went from the main hospital into that locked ward. There were no longer abstract pictures on the wall, there were no splashes of color at all. Lassiter supposed the doctors knew what they were doing, but he figured anyone who didn't go in crazy would end up that way, because all that white had to drive any sane person mad.

"I don't recommend this," the doctor told him, not for the first time since Lassiter had arrived. He was an older man, and with his shock of white hair and that long lab coat, he blended into the scenery like those camouflaged bugs on the nature channel.

"She hasn't confessed to anything," Lassiter told him. "If she's not responsible for what happened we need to know, because that means there's someone still out there who is."

"I understand that," he said, pushing his glasses up on his nose. His nametag said Dr. Blakely, and Lassiter vaguely recognized him from some case or another. He'd been on the stand, claiming a suspect was not fit to stand trial.

Lassiter hadn't liked him then, either.

The doctor pursed his lips when Lassiter made no further comment, and unlocked the door with his key card. "Fifteen minutes," he said. "Not a moment more."

Lassiter moved past him into the room, and tried not to wince as the door clicked locked behind him. He moved his eyes across the tile floor and then up, until they came to rest on Holly.

She too seemed to have adapted to her surroundings, and she looked washed out and faded. Her skin was pale and her light blonde hair hung limply down to frame her face. She'd had her torn white dress traded in for clean white hospital scrubs. The only color left was the blue of her eyes.

"Hello," she said. "How are you today?"

She was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the bed, and wrist restraints lay unlatched along the sides. Lassiter had never been comfortable in places like this. He liked suspects he could yell at, the ones he didn't doubt himself about.

Someone had given Holly a notepad and a purple crayon. She'd drawn at least twenty perfect circles side by side. "You're supposed to answer," Holly told him without looking up. "You say, I'm fine today, and you?"

Lassiter cleared his throat. "I'm fine today," he said softly. "And you?"

"Very well, thank you," she said. "But it's cold here and they took my clothes. Harvey always said I'd end up here without him. In the funny house, he said. It's not very funny though, is it?"

"No, it's not," Lassiter said. "Holly, I need to ask you a question."

"You've already asked me one," she said. "That means you've only got nineteen left."

"I only have one more," Lassiter said. "Who is Andie?"

Holly's hand stilled, the crayon halfway to closing circle number twenty-one. "That's a strange question to ask," she said. "I thought you were here about Harvey. That's what everyone keeps asking me. They want to know how I did it."

"How you did what?" Lassiter asked.

"How I killed him," she said.

"Did you?" he asked. "Kill him?"

"I saw him in the pool. He was floating on a raft, and I thought, that's strange, because he doesn't like to be still, you see, that's the thing you notice first about him, the way he won't sit still, and he always said, mind your manners, keep your elbows off the table, but that's the second thing you notice about him, he never follows his own rules." Holly ran the crayon along the page in a meandering twirling path that seemed to follow the flow of her words, and Lassiter fought the urge to take it from her and protest that she hadn't given an answer to his question at all.

"You saw him die?" he asked.

"No, I didn't see him die," Holly said. "I couldn't see him at all because Andie was holding him under the water. It's so hard to see through water at night. It's black, have you ever noticed that? Water's always the same color as the sky."

"Andie killed Harvey?" Lassiter asked intently, stepping forward.

Holly closed her eyes, and let the crayon slip from her hands. "He just disappeared into the water, and Andie's hands ran along the surface of it like she was sealing him in," she said. "It was odd how quiet it all was. I went to pull him out after she left. He was very heavy though, and I got all wet."

"You don't sound too concerned," Lassiter said slowly. "Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"I don't speak to strangers usually, if I can help it, and the doctors say I don't see things quite right," Holly said. "Maybe they're right to say that, because I feel as sad for her as for him. Is she going to be in trouble?"

"Yeah," Lassiter said gently, and he kneeled by the bed. "Can you tell me where she is?"

"No," Holly said. "You should ask the psychic, he was asking the right questions, too."

Lassiter frowned. "Shawn?"

"He said it was going to be okay," Holly said, "except it's not, is it?"

"Someone has to answer for what happened," Lassiter said. "Do you understand that?"

"Of course I understand," Holly said. "If my father taught me anything it's that everyone has to answer for something. There's a right response to everything, and we should always be polite."

"Where's your mother, Holly?" Lassiter asked again.

"All I know is that she isn't here," Holly said. "That's all I can say for certain. I'm almost sure I'd know, if she were." She picked up the crayon again, and started to turn the circles into flowers.

"Holly, I need you to look at me," Lassiter said gently. "You have to tell me about her, so we can find her."

"She used to read to me from Lord Byron's Don Juan. Isn't that a strange thing to read to a child? But it's beautiful, I knew that even then," she said, focused on her drawing. "Do you know Stanza 30, in Canto 1? 'No doubt this patience when the world is damning us is philosophic in our former friends. 'Tis also pleasant to be deemed magnanimous, the more so in obtaining our own ends, and what the lawyers call a malus animus, conduct like this by no means comprehends. Revenge in person's certainly no virtue, but then 'tis not my fault, if others hurt you.'"

"That's some memory," Lassiter said. "I've never read it myself."

"You should," Holly said. "It has something for everyone. My mother's favorite line was this: 'I don't much like describing people mad, for fear of seeming rather touched myself.'"

"We need to find her," Lassiter said. "She might hurt someone else."

"That's the problem with keeping madness to yourself," Holly said. "It isn't like you don't still know it's there, and it always finds a way out somehow."

"You'd tell me, wouldn't you, if you knew where she was?" Lassiter asked.

"I've already told you so much," she said. "I've said more than I should."

"Holly-"

The door opened, and Dr. Blakely stepped in. "That's enough for now, detective. Holly needs her rest."

"No rest for the weary," Holly said. "Though the wicked sleep just fine."

"Goodbye, Holly," Lassiter said, and started towards the door.

"Have a nice day now. Come again," Holly said, before finally looking up. "And tell Shawn, I hope he starts dreaming again soon."

"I will," Lassiter said, and then shut the door.

x x x x x x

Shawn got Gus's key out of the fake rock and slipped inside. He found Gus on the couch in his train pajamas, drinking a cup of coffee and watching cartoons.

"I can see you've been very productive today," Shawn told him, dropping down beside him. "While you've been sleeping in and watching cartoons, I've gone and solved our case."

"Where's Lassiter?" Gus asked, glancing at him sideways. "I thought we established that weekends are Lassiter days. I want to enjoy my coffee and finish this Sponge Bob, Shawn."

"Lassiter and I had a fight," Shawn said, grabbing Gus's coffee and drinking what was left. "I think we may have broken up."

"You what? Already?" Gus demanded. "Wait, what do you mean you think? Don't you know?"

"No one's ever broken up with me before, and I've never broken up with anyone," Shawn explained. "So I'm not really clear on the rules."

"That's not possible, Shawn," Gus said. "You've been with a lot of people. You can't still be dating all of them."

"No, of course not, but we always drift apart, or I end up setting them up with someone who's really a lot better suited to their needs," Shawn explained. "I've never had a fight with someone I was sleeping with before."

"Are you serious?" Gus asked.

"Yes!" Shawn said. "Most people don't fight with me, Gus, most people find me adorable and want to take care of me. I don't know what's wrong with you and Lassiter and my dad, you guys yell at me all the time."

"We yell because we care, Shawn," Gus said.

Shawn rolled his eyes. "Well, I don't see how that makes sense," he said. "And definitely not in Lassiter's case. He yells at everyone."

"It's always a little louder when it's you," Gus said.

"Well, it doesn't matter right now," Shawn said. "What matters is that I totally solved the case, so we have to go catch a murderer and get Holly free."

"You're always wanting to go catch murderers," Gus said. "I wish you'd get a different hobby. We're private investigators, we're not bounty hunters."

"I totally could be, though, I still have the vest and everything," Shawn said. "But don't worry, I think we can take this one. Our unsub is a woman between the ages of 50 and 55. She likes to bake cookies and drown people in pools. She has-"

"Stop talking like you're on Criminal Minds, Shawn," Gus snapped. "Just tell me who it is."

"The maid!" Shawn shouted, flashing a grin. "We were right. Harvey was totally sleeping with his maid. I knew he was the type."

"Sani?" Gus asked in disbelief. "She's got no motive, and she seemed pretty sure about not sleeping with him. Anyway, there's no way she's over fifty."

"No, not Sani," Shawn said, closing his eyes. He took his mind back to that picture on Holly's dresser. The woman was wearing a dress, it was blue instead of grey, and she'd taken off the apron, but it was the same style as Sani's. "I've been so stupid. I've been so sure that it was someone living in the house, but what if it was someone that used to live there?"

"What are you talking about?" Gus asked.

"Eveline told us that Sani's only been the maid there two weeks," Shawn said. "And I never even thought to ask who had worked there before her."

"And so that makes their former maid a murderer?" Gus asked. "I'm not sure I'm following the logic."

"You'll get there," Shawn said, "but first you need to change out of your ridiculous pajamas and put on some grown up clothes. We need to talk to Eveline. We need to find out who the maid was before Sani, and why she was fired."

"You sound like you already know," Gus said.

"I've got a pretty good guess," Shawn said. "I bet when we ask who the maid was, Eveline's going to say her name was Andie."

"The one in Holly's note?" Gus asked.

"Oh, that's right," Shawn said, as Gus stood to change. "I forgot to tell you. Andie's Holly's mother. That's where the whole sleeping with the maid thing comes in, and it's why Holly went back to the mansion, to find her, not to find Harvey. Sometimes when I get things so right without even meaning to, I kind of scare myself."

"Well, if it's any comfort, you scare me most of the time, whether you're right or not," Gus said, before heading down the hall.

Shawn slouched down and tilted his head to watch the show. The pineapple under the sea briefly brought back his dream of opening a pineapple shaped smoothie hut, but Gus was like one of those stage actors who could exit backstage and come right back out wearing something else-he only had a moment to muse before Gus was standing in front of him in a neatly pressed suit, impatiently taping one of his hundred dollar shoes (sixty if you subtracted for the gift certificate).

"Shawn! I thought this was urgent?" Gus demanded.

Shawn turned off the television and jumped to follow him. "It is! How did you manage to come out so wrinkle free that quickly?" Shawn demanded.

"I iron all my suits before I hang them up," Gus said. "It's just good sense."

"I think you need to rethink your idea of 'good,'" Shawn said. "And maybe 'sense'? You're going about it all wrong."

Gus rolled his eyes as he unlocked the Echo. "Whatever, Shawn, I know I look good," he said. "You look like a college drop-out."

"I can live with that," Shawn said, looking down at himself. "At least that means I look like I had some college."

"Which of course, you haven't," Gus said.

Shawn joined him in the car. "That's a lie!" he said. "I've taken a number of classes at the SBCC! Theater, remember? I was Othello."

"The Santa Barbara City College? And you were not Othello, you were Iago, and you were a terrible Iago," Gus said.

"That show sold out, Gus, and everyone loved me," Shawn protested. "I got more laughs than anyone."

"Othello is a tragedy, Shawn!" Gus protested. "They're not supposed to laugh!"

"That's besides the point," Shawn said. "Anyway, I also took Underwater Basket Weaving and Economics. I'm sure I was only a few credits away from some kind of degree."

"You took Economics?" Gus said in disbelief.

"Home Economics," Shawn said. "I wanted to make a good wife someday, but they expected me to cook something, so I had to drop it after the second class."

"You made it to the second class?" Gus asked. "I'm impressed."

"There's a lot you don't know about me," Shawn said. "I have hidden depths."

"Clearly," Gus said. "I'm sure you explored them in your underwater basket weaving class."

"I'm sensing sarcasm in your tone, but I'll forgive you because of the awesome pun," Shawn told him.

Gus just shot him an irritated sideways glance and gave the Echo more power, going nearly sixty miles per hour. Shawn started chewing on one of his nails as they made it to Padaro Lane. "Stop it, Shawn," Gus said. "You know onychophagia freaks me out. Do you even realize how much bacteria you're ingesting by putting your fingers in your mouth?"

"No, because I'm a normal person," Shawn said. "As evidenced by the fact that I call people nail-biters, not onychophagiacs."

Gus reached over to pull Shawn's hand down. "What are you so nervous about anyway?" Gus demanded, as they pulled to a stop in front of the gate. The gate pulled open on its own again, and Gus gunned the Echo inside.

"The police probably told Eveline they caught the killer," Shawn explained. "She's going to be off her guard, especially considering the murderer is most likely someone she knows. We've got to warn her, and we've got to find out where Andie is."

"You think she's going to try and go after Eveline again?" Gus asked.

"I think she was unstable before, and Holly's just been taken from her again," Shawn said. "She's going to need someone to blame."

The Echo pulled to a stop in front of the mansion. "That's a good point," Gus said. "But Shawn, what if she's already here?"

"Then we'd better hurry," Shawn said, jumping out of the car.

"That's not what I meant," Gus snapped, but followed him. "What are we supposed to do if we find her?"

"Congratulate ourselves on a job well done?" Shawn said, as he took the steps two at time and reached out to ring the bell. The door swung open before he could reach it, and Aldis stared down at them with narrowed eyes. "Alfred! Nice to see you again. We need to see Vicki Vale."

Aldis moved aside, and Shawn went inside. Gus stepped in behind him, watching Aldis warily. "Wait here," Aldis said, and the door swung closed behind them. He disappeared down the hallway, and Eveline came back out of it a few moments later.

"Shawn, Gus," she said, rushing up to them. She didn't look anymore together than she had on their first meeting. She was wearing an expensive maroon blouse, but an old oversized grey sweater was pulled over it, and Shawn guessed it had been Harvey's. She didn't seem comfortable with expensive things, which was certainly a rare quality in a trophy wife. "I can't believe this. First I find out I have a step-daughter, and then that she-well, I just, I can't-"

"You don't believe it because it's not true," Shawn said, closing his eyes, one hand held up to his temple. "Holly didn't do it, I'm quite sure of that, there's someone else, someone that's been out of the picture for awhile." Shawn opened his eyes again and aimed them at Eveline. "Who was the maid before you hired Sani?"

Eveline frowned. "Andie Delahoy?" she asked. "Surely you don’t believe she has anything to do with this?"

"Why was she fired?" Gus asked.

Eveline bit her lip, and pulled the sweater closer around her. "Harvey fired her," she said. "She'd worked for him almost her whole life, too. Practically grew up with Harvey, you know, her mother was the maid for his parents. It was very sudden. He said she was stealing, but he never said what she'd taken."

"Do you have any idea where she'd be?" Shawn asked.

Eveline nodded. "Yes, I think so. I set her up in a little apartment, just until she could get on her feet. I never told Harvey, of course."

"We're gonna need that address," Gus said.

Eveline walked to the entry table and slid a notepad towards her. She wrote down the address and handed it to Shawn. "I don't know why I never thought of Andie before," she said. "Because I liked her so well, I suppose, but after the way Harvey dismissed her, I can see why she'd be angry. I always tried to help her, though, I-" Eveline broke off, shaking her head. "Do you know why?"

"She's Holly's mother," Shawn said. "But if it's any consolation, I'm pretty certain that Harvey stopped his relationship with her when he married you."

Eveline let out a disbelieving laugh. "Small consolation," she said. "Since that's probably what started all of this." She brought a hand to her head. "I'm sorry, I think I need a moment to collect myself. Did you need anything else?"

"No, you've been a great help, thanks," Shawn said.

"Please, stay as long as you need, and call Aldis or Sani if you need anything," she said, before heading up the stairs towards her bedroom.

Shawn glanced around, but Aldis seemed to have disappeared as well. "Do you see Lurch anywhere?" he asked Gus.

"No, he went down the hall," Gus said. "I think he was giving me the evil eye."

"Could we focus on the case please?" Shawn demanded. "Did you hear what Eveline said? That's why Andie couldn't do it."

"Couldn't do what?" Gus asked.

"Couldn't kill her," Shawn said. "That's why she couldn't kill Eveline. Eveline was nice to her, but she was in the way, it explains both the motive to want her dead and the hesitation in carrying it out."

"You really think she's the murderer?" Gus asked.

"He made her live in this house with their kid, still working as his maid. And with Harvey and Eveline out of the way, Holly would get everything, this house, all the money. She would have known about Eveline's pills-it wouldn't have been hard to grab a couple, and she knows this place, she's lived her nearly her whole live. The code to the security system is her daughter's birthday, so she can come and go as she pleases," Shawn said, ticking everything off on his fingers. "That's motive, means, and opportunity, Gus!"

"We should call Lassiter," Gus said.

"Yeah, we should," Shawn said.

"Shawn," Gus started.

"He still doesn't trust me," Shawn snapped. "Say I do call him, what then? You think he'd actually come?"

"Yeah, Shawn, I think he would," Gus said.

Shawn bit his lip and looked down at his cellphone. Everything inside of him was itching to run and confront Andie, catch her off her guard and get a confession. He was good at it.

But trust went both ways, and Lassiter had his reasons for thinking Shawn wasn't telling him everything. He knew they had to start somewhere. Shawn sighed and hit the speed dial.

"Hey, Lassie?" Shawn said, when the call picked up. "I solved the case."

Shawn didn't hear Lassiter's response, because it was swallowed in the sound of the safety unlatching on a gun. "You're gonna want to hang up now," a woman told him, her voice too clear and cold to be Eveline's.

Shawn ended the call and glanced to the right. He could see the woman from Holly's picture standing just behind the barrel of the gun. "You must be Andie," he said.

Andie did not look much like her picture anymore. Her hair was blonder and tied back tightly, and she was wearing an expensive button-up white blouse with a blue blazer and matching pants. She looked more like a businesswoman on a lunch break than a crazy woman on a killing spree.

"And you must be Shawn," she said, and Shawn turned so he was facing her, while behind him, Gus took three steps further back.

Shawn had expected her to be out of control, but her blue eyes were clear and steady. If anything she seemed a little too certain of what she was doing-but then, Shawn knew, that was its own kind of madness. Sane people knew better than to be certain of anything.

"The police are on their way," Shawn told her. "You've been very careful so far, sure to make it all look like accidents, this isn't your style."

"You've already blown my cover," Andie said. "You proved Harvey was murdered. I'm still not quite sure how you knew that, but starting there my plans kept unraveling bit by bit, and now, well, now I haven't got anything left to lose."

"You've got Holly," Shawn said.

Andie glared at him. "Everything I've done I've done for Holly," she said. "Don't you dare preach about her to me."

"You never visited her in all those years she was banished to that place, did you?" Shawn asked. "Not even once. Even Harvey made time for her once a year."

"Shawn," Gus warned in a hiss. "Stop antagonizing the crazy person with a gun."

"I'm not crazy!" Andie screamed.

It clicked then in Shawn's mind: of course she wouldn't visit Holly there. What was it Lassiter had told him? They may not let you out. "I'm sorry," Shawn said. "I'm sorry, you're right, I've misjudged you." He held up his hands. "It wasn't that you didn't want to see her."

"That bastard took her away from me," Andie said. "He took her the one place I couldn't-that I couldn't-" She looked near tears, but her hands were still steady, the gun didn't waver even an inch.

"Andie-" Shawn started.

"All those years and I let him get away with it, I brought him his meals and I cleaned up after him and his little wife and all the time I was dreaming up ways I could kill him, but I wasn't strong enough, I wasn't," Andie said, meeting Shawn's eyes and raising the gun to meet them too. "But I'm stronger now than I was before, and we both know you've brought this on yourself. You took Holly away this time and I'm not waiting another fifteen years to get her the vengeance she deserves."

"No," Shawn said. "I didn't take her away this time-you did. They took her because of what you did."

"Shawn," Gus warned again.

Shawn ignored him and stepped closer to Andie. "But Holly's not the one that really needs help, you are. You need to give yourself up. Killing me, that doesn't prove anything, it'll only get you locked up right there with her."

"Maybe it's time I was with her," Andie said.

"Not like that," Shawn said. "You had every reason to hate Harvey, people will understand that. But Eveline, she didn't even know about any of this. That's why you couldn't do it, isn't it? It's why you couldn't kill her? It's why you won't kill me."

"This should all be Holly's," Andie said. "It shouldn't be hers."

"Holly doesn't care about any of this," Shawn said. "All she ever wanted was you."

"I couldn't go there," Andie said. "I couldn't. I'm not crazy. I'm not."

"Of course not," Shawn said, and held out his hand. "So prove it. Give me the gun. We'll tell everyone the truth, the truth about Harvey and you and Holly. She shouldn't be a secret anymore."

"You think it's that easy?" Andie asked. "I can't ever get back what I lost."

"Have you been in Holly's room?" Shawn asked. "There's only one picture there, and it's of you. You haven't lost everything yet, you still have her. You can still try to make up for the time you lost."

"You don't know, you don't know what I've been through," Andie said. "You come here with your visions, telling everyone everything I've tried so hard to hide, but you don't know anything."

"I know you love your daughter," Shawn said. "I know that Aldis was the only person who ever tried to help you. He helped you set up that room, but it wasn't really for Holly, it was for you. You probably spent almost every night there, am I right?"

"This isn't a game," Andie cried. "You don't get points for right answers."

"No, it's not a game," Shawn agreed. "I'm sorry for what happened to you, but this? This isn't going to fix anything, and I know you don't think you can, but you can still fix it."

"They're going to lock me away," Andie said. "You think I'm stupid? My life is over."

"Holly's isn't," Shawn said. "You said you've done all this for her, but you haven't. You haven't been thinking of her, because if you had you would know she wouldn't want this. You need to think of Holly now, because she needs you."

"She doesn't know what she wants," Andie said. "She came home. A few weeks ago. I found her just sitting on her bed, At first I didn't think she was real, and when Harvey found out he wanted to send her away again, and that's when I knew what I had to do. I did it for her. To keep her safe."

"No one is going to make Holly stay at the hospital if she doesn't want to. I talked to a nurse at Acres and Groves, I'm sure she'll testify that Holly could have been released," Shawn said. "But they're never going to let her out of there as long as they think she's the one that killed Harvey. You really want to protect your daughter, you're going to have to confess."

Andie closed her eyes for a moment, and bit her lip, before she clicked the safety on the gun and flipped it so the handle was facing Shawn. "You have to promise me that Holly isn't going to stay in that place because of what I've done."

"I will do everything I can to make sure she doesn't have to," Shawn said. "That much I promise."

Andie held the gun out slowly, and Shawn took it from her. He heard Gus run out of the room behind him, probably to go throw up in the bathroom. "I loved him, you know," Andie said. "Isn't that the funniest thing? Even when I killed him, I still did. Maybe I am crazy."

Shawn looked down at the gun in his hands, unsure what to do with it now that he had it. It wasn't that he didn't know how to use it. Guns probably wouldn't scare him half so much if he didn't know just what he was capable of when holding one in his hands. He popped out the clip and cleared the chamber. "What's that phrase about being crazy and in love?" Shawn asked, glancing up.

"Love that is not madness is not love," Andie said.

"That's Beyonce Knowles?" Shawn asked.

Andie frowned. "Pedro Calderon de la Barca," she said.

Shawn shook his head. "No, I was thinking of Beyonce Knowles. So crazy right now! Your love's got me-Crazy In Love, that's what I'm thinking of. We should all take comfort in her words."

Andie was looking at him like she thought maybe he was the one in need of a padded cell, so Shawn was glad that Lassiter choose that moment to storm the room.

Shawn had to admire Lassiter's entrance. He was still wearing his shades and held his gun with both hands, pointing it towards the ground but ready to raise it in a second, all coiled up with determination and anger and something else. "Andie Delahoy," he barked. "You're under arrest for the murder of Harvey Graves, and the attempted murder of Eveline Graves. Shawn, step away from her."

Shawn stepped back, bumping into Gus. "Why didn't he ask me to step back?" Gus demanded, moving away nonetheless, dragging Shawn with him.

"You're smart enough to do it without my asking," Lassiter snapped, as he pulled Andie's hands behind her back to cuff them.

Gus was appeased by this response. "That's true," he admitted, before glancing nervously at the gun in Shawn's hands.

"How did you get back here?" Shawn demanded.

"I went to let Lassiter in," Gus said indignantly. "I saw him on the monitor. What, you thought I just ran out on you?"

"You're right, what was I thinking?" Shawn asked. "That would have been entirely unprecedented."

Juliet and Buzz came running in. "Lassiter!" Juliet said breathlessly. "What's going on?"

"We found Harvey's murderer," Lassiter explained, handing Andie off to Buzz. "Get her to the station and book her."

Lassiter stepped towards Shawn, and Shawn took a step back. "Uh, Lassie, look-"

Lassiter ignored him, grabbing Shawn in a fierce hug, burying his head in Shawn's neck. "You're going to be the death of me," he said.

Shawn carefully reached around, not sure what to do with his hands at first, before grabbing handfuls of Lassiter's shirt and using them to hang on. "How did you know I would be here?" he asked. "I didn't leave a note for you this time."

"This time you didn't have to," Lassiter said. "I came looking on my own."

"Maybe psychic powers are catching," Shawn said weakly.

"Or maybe I followed your instinct and spoke to Holly," Lassiter said. "She saw everything, it was just like you said. I figured Andie had to have lived here with Holly; she used to read to her at night. So I had O'Hara run the name for me against Harvey Grave's employee records and she found an Andie Delahoy, fired just two weeks ago. I came here to ask Eveline about her. When you called, I was already on my way."

Lassiter pulled back and frowned at Shawn. "But you already knew all of that, didn't you?"

"I did," Shawn said. "But we both figured it out in the end, right? Maybe the method doesn't matter."

Lassiter frowned. "The method always matters."

"Oh my god!" Juliet screeched from behind them. "You really are together! That's just the most adorable thing ever!"

Shawn stepped to the side as Juliet tried to collect while Lassiter was still handing out the free hugs, and glanced over at Andie. She spoke to him without quite looking up. "You get it, right?" she asked quietly. "Why I did what I did."

"You're asking the wrong person," Shawn said. "You need to talk to Holly."

"Come on," Buzz said gently, and led her from the room. Behind them Lassiter was wiggling out of Juliet's grip, and with a sharp beat of his heart, Shawn realized he was still holding the gun and quickly set it down.

Lassiter appeared behind him, and reached across to pick the gun back up. "I got permission from Vick to come back early. I'm officially off medical leave."

"That's good," Shawn said.

"Means I have to go back to the station, fill out my report," Lassiter explained.

Shawn heard Eveline behind him, demanding to know what was going on. He figured the house was so big she hadn't even noticed the disturbance until now. Aldis was speaking lowly from somewhere too, and Shawn always hated cases like this, where it couldn't just be over. The ones where you could see the damage spreading further than a chalk outline.

"What about Holly?" Shawn asked.

"O'Hara's going to cut her loose," Lassiter said.

Shawn nodded. "I'll go with her," he said. Lassiter grabbed his arm when he turned to leave.

"We need to talk, Shawn," he said.

"I think that's a first," Shawn said. "You wanting me to talk."

"Well, there's a first time for everything," Lassiter said, and reluctantly released his grip. "If anything we're proof of that."

on to part five