It seemed like nothing was out of the ordinary. A small yellow packet with it's white contents. Buzz McNab had opened hundreds of them during his tenure at the SBPD. Detective Carlton Lassiter had an average of four cups of coffee at the station, Buzz typically made at least three of them. That meant the rookie sacrificed twelve tiny packages to the steaming brown liquid daily.

At seven the scowling head detective walked through the door. "McNab!" Lassiter's irate voice rang out through the station as he made his way to his desk. "Where the hell is my coffee?"

The rookie cop skidded to a halt beside the detective's desk. "H-h-here, sir." He stammered, giving the detective a cup with a small steaming mug printed on the side. He then quickly left to avoid any other threats the older man might have to offer this early in the morning.

The first and second cups were made with Lassiter's normal three creams, four sugars. There was nothing out of the ordinary about them. It was Lassiter's third cup of coffee that was out of the ordinary. The day itself had been normal. A case had come in around ten, Shawn and Gus had shown up around twelve-thirty and, much to Lassiter's annoyance, solved the case by two. It was now three and Lassiter was barking at McNab for his next drink.

McNab grabbed the yellow packets off the counter and dutifully emptied them one by one into the paper cup, he added the three creamers and then stirred carefully.

Lassiter was standing talking with O'Hara and the chief about Spencer's wild, flailing, spastic vision from earlier. "He nearly hit me in the face, chief. We need to rein him in somehow." Lassiter paused and accepted the cup from McNab, who hurried off again.

McNab was barely ten feet from the detective when he heard two distinct sounds. The first was the sound of liquid spewing from someone's mouth and the second was a female voicing a disgusted ewww. Buzz turned to see Lassiter standing, mouth agape. The chief was staring at the large brown stain on her shirt in disbelief and O'Hara was staring with panicked eyes at Buzz.

"What the hell is in this coffee, McNab?" Lassiter shouted, once he'd regained his senses.

"S-s-sugar? I grabbed it from the counter." McNab stuttered and pointed to the small basket by the coffee machine.

Juliet took the cup from Lassiter and tasted it. Her face went from curious to sick. "It's salt," She wrinkled her nose.

"You thought it'd be funny to put salt in my coffee, huh, McNab?" Lassiter turned and slowly started towards the rookie.

"No, sir!" McNab objected. "I would never,"

"Don't lie to me, McNab." Lassiter's face was red from his predicament. He looked like he was about ready to staple some heads.

"Carlton," The chief spoke up for the first time. "Would Officer McNab ever really put salt in your coffee. No matter how often he makes it for you." She didn't add inflection to that last comment, but Lassiter ducked his head at it.

"Someone still switched the sugar." Lassiter snapped. "chief." He added when Karen raised an eyebrow at him. He grabbed for the basket and sifted through the tiny packets. "Not one of these is sugar." He fished around in the basket some more and picked out a folded post-it.

"What does that say?" Juliet asked trying to read it from afar.

"Dear Lassisota, sugar rots your teeth. Get a water and some sleep. H's and K's Shawn." Lassiter read out each phrase with more venom than the next.

Some of the color returned to Buzz's face when he realized Shawn had played a prank on the detective. "I'll get you a fresh coffee, sir." He hurried away with Juliet following at his heels, leaving Lassiter to deal with Vick.

Top of Form

Bottom of Form