EPISODE

16. Shawn (and Gus) of the Dead

It's four a.m. and an alarm is going off at the Santa Barbara History Museum. Lassiter and Juliet rush in to find that the mummy from the exhibit that opened yesterday is missing along with Hastings, the night watchman, who it turns out has a criminal record. That, combined with the fact that the mummy, along with everything else in the museum, is of so little monetary value that the board of directors keeps postponing the overhaul of the security system, leads Lassiter to conclude this case isn't worth his time. He's been in the papers lately because he's been trying to prove that the death of wealthy philanthropist William Wyles III was no accident, as was originally thought. He tells Juliet to put out an APB on Hastings' car and goes to leave but Sophie, the assistant curator, insists there's more going on. The alarm was triggered from the inside of the museum and although the security isn't top notch, nowhere on any of the footage does the culprit or the mummy appear. She thinks there's something potentially supernatural going on and she wants the paleosleuth who discovered Zippy the Dinosaur on the case. For once, Lassiter is happy to oblige. So Juliet calls Shawn, who is awake and in the middle taking pictures of a married man having an affair outside a cheesy motel. He finishes that and comes straight down to the museum where he sees fingerprints on the inside of the glass mummy case and footprints leading away from the exit door. There is something weird going on here, he tells them. The mummy got up and walked out.