When Captain Banks arrived, he was handed the report on the results of the stakeout. With a pleased smile, he headed for his office, only to be stopped by a line of detectives, barring his way. Raising an eyebrow in question, he drew himself up to his full, most imposing height. Joel just grinned at him.
"They're in your office, sacked out. Jim's got the couch, and Blair's in your chair. Knowing that they've only been there for about two hours, after a full day yesterday and followed by that stakeout, we figured you can forgo your office for a while longer."
Simon looked at his people and sighed. "You mean I don't even get a decent cup of coffee?"
"Of course, you do, Captain," Megan grinned, producing a Starbucks container. "We wouldn't want you to suffer withdrawal, now, would we?"
Simon smirked, taking the offering. "Not if you're smart." He looked around. "So, anything on our suspects?"
"Oh, yeah," Brown muttered. "NCIC had them, and the FBI has called, asking if we think we can actually convict them. Seems they've been doing the cult thing for quite a while. This is the first time, however, that anyone's actually managed to connect them to anything concrete. They've offered all their facilities to us to make sure we can win the case. I told them that we'd be in touch."
"I had a call from the town of Diablo," Rafe reported. "A Deputy Wickham called. Seems she had our suspects' lawyer pay a visit late last night. She is not very happy, and would like Jim to give her a call. I then got a call from the sheriff of Whatcom county, he's not real happy, either, as he was never informed by Deputy Wickham that Jim had connected our John Doe to the livestock mutilations in and around Diablo. He would also like Jim to give him a call."
"Sounds like everything's under control. Any word on the John Doe, yet?"
"Yeah, seems he was the money man behind Mr. Haidi's cult, also, the owner of the compound where the cult resides," Joel explained. "His name is Paul Duschane and he apparently changed his will last week, with the same lawyer who's on his way, representing our suspects. Mr. Duschane's will now leaves everything to Mr. Haidi. His family is already filing the appropriate papers to contest the will. And if we manage to convict Mr. Haidi, the new will will be null and void, anyway."
"Good job, people." Simon smiled and took another sip of coffee. Hearing the door to his office open behind him, he turned to see a rumpled and grumpy Jim Ellison glaring at them all.
"We're trying to get a little sleep, here, do you mind?" Jim seemed unaware of his surroundings.
Simon lifted an amused eyebrow, "Oh? And why would I mind? I mean, I only have a ton of paperwork to get through, not to mention files I need to read before the meeting with the Chief of Police at nine. It's eight-fifteen, and I can't even access my coffee pot. Why on earth would I mind?"
Jim looked confused, then turned around and looked back into Simon's office, seeing Blair snuggled down in Simon's chair, sound asleep. Turning back to face his boss and his colleagues, he frowned, trying to make sense of it.
"Oh. Sorry. We didn't get in until after five. It was too late to bother with going home, so I thought..."
"Don't worry about it, Jim," Simon sighed, ignoring the smothered laughter from the rest of his team, "Just wake Sandburg up and get out of my office. If you're too tired, I'll have someone take you home."
"But we need to interrogate our suspects," Jim almost whined in protest.
"Joel and Megan can do that. Unless you have a need to do it?"
Scrubbing his unshaven face with one hand, Jim shook his head, still trying to finish waking up. "No, just that the woman is gonna be the easier one to crack. She's already on the edge. We're just waiting for their lawyer to get here."
"Well, from what's been found from your earlier inquiries, it looks like their lawyer might just need one of his own. Our John Doe turns out to be a Paul Duschane, owner of the place where Haidi's cult lives. His will was just changed, leaving everything to Haidi, about a week or so before his death."
Jim looked up in surprise, "How'd you find that out?" he asked.
Brown answered. "He sent a copy of the new will to his kids, with some kind of cryptic note in it. His daughter lives here in Cascade, and we got lucky. She was in yesterday to file a missing person's on him, since she hadn't been able to get hold of him for more than a week. She was afraid something might have happened to him, and was hoping we could do something. Missing Persons remembered Jim's asking about anyone matching our John Doe's description, put it together and, voila! Case closed."
"Hardly that," Simon disagreed. "But it certainly looks like we have enough to send to the DA. Good work, people. Now, Jim," Simon turned towards his office, "If you would be so kind as to vacate? I have work to do."
"Yeah, sure, Simon. Let me get Blair." He turned back and made his way through the office, not noticing that everyone had followed him. Moving around behind the desk, he crouched beside the chair containing his soundly sleeping partner.
"Hey, Chief? Time to go home, buddy."
"Mmmmppphhh," Blair mumbled, trying to wiggle into a more comfortable position.
Jim smiled, tiredly. "Yeah, I know. But Simon wants his office back, and I'm pretty sure that even the front seat of the truck is gonna be more comfortable than that chair of his."
"S'mn?" Blair's eyelids opened minutely. "S'mn's hr?"
"Yeah, Blair, Simon's here. He wants his office back. He also wants his desk chair. That means you have to get out of it."
"Ct th bd gys?"
"Yeah, Chief. We caught the bad guys. Now, it's time to get you up so we can go home and get some sleep. Simon says we don't have to be back until tomorrow morning."
Surprised, Simon blurted out, "I most certainly did not say any such thing. I need your reports first thing..." he stopped when two weary pair of blue eyes turned and focused on him. He visibly deflated. "Fine. First thing tomorrow. But I want your reports completed by noon! You got me?"
"Yes, Sir," Jim and Blair chorused, suddenly looking much more alert and awake. Jim rose to his feet and Blair bounced out of the Captain's chair, and the pair grinned at their colleagues and captain as they quietly pushed their way through the group, gathered their coats from the rack, and headed out the door, leaving five shocked police officers behind them.
Joel cast a sidelong glance at his long-time friend and started to snicker. Simon tried to glare him down, but that only caused Joel's laughter to increase.
"That's one of the best 'gotchas' I've ever had the privilege of witnessing," Joel finally managed to gasp out through his laughter. The looks of surprise on the faces of the other detectives quickly shifted into amusement, and soon they, too, were trying to stifle their laughter.
Simon glared at them, one by one, his obvious ire quickly cooling their amusement, all except Joel's. With a pointed glare at his friend, who finally managed to control his own hilarity, he growled, "As for the rest of you, I'm sure that all your reports are finished and ready for my inspection?" Immediately, the four detectives spun and headed for their own desks to work busily at their own appointed tasks. Smiling smugly, Simon turned and entered his office, closing the door behind him. Looking around, he noticed that there was a fresh pot of coffee waiting for him. Shaking his head, he began to chuckle. Yeah, that had been one of the best 'gotchas' he'd ever been party to, as well. He didn't really begrudge the pair the day off to recover. After all, they'd pulled more than a double shift, and this way, they wouldn't be getting as much overtime... Something Chief Warren and the Mayor both liked. Chuckling, he set his cup of Starbucks' coffee on the coaster on his desk and sat down, pulling the first of the files toward him. Taking a sip of the excellent Latte, he began what was promising to be a pretty nice day.
The pony act described herein is real. We saw it at the Folsom Rodeo on the Fourth of July a few years ago. When the 'pony' was 'shot', he threw all four legs in the air and landed hard on his side. Everyone was laughing hysterically at the two men... Me, horse-oriented as I am, said, "There's a real pony in that pony suit." My family disagreed. I told them to watch his flanks, his heavy breathing was quite visible. The looks I got from my sibs and their spouses and children when the 'pony' was revealed were priceless... It still ranks up there as the best act I've ever seen... even better than Gunther Gebel-Williams and the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus... If you ever see 'Tony the Pony' at a fair or rodeo, you really don't want to miss it. It's worth the price of admission, all by itself.
TAE
Stay tuned next week when Major Crimes tracks down a violent murderer while Blair balances working the case along with helping Orvelle Wallace coach a boys basketball team in "Hookshot" an all new The Sentinel.
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