Chapter Text
Det. Carlton Lassiter
Carlton was already peeved. Local nuisances Shawn Spencer and Burton Guster had decided to spend their morning perfecting the art of the paper airplane, and had tested their models by using Carlton’s desk as a landing strip. This is why, when a stranger approached his desk, Carlton had to close his eyes and muster up the closest thing to politeness he could manage.
“I’m sorry, can I help you?” He forced a smile onto his face. “If you’re looking for the front desk, you’ve already passed it.”
The stranger didn’t answer right away, his eyes elsewhere. Carlton sighed, dropping his smile. He was beginning to think the man hadn’t heard him, when a southern drawl broke the silence.
“I believe I’m lookin’ for you, Detective Lassiter.”
The stranger was well-dressed, to say the least. He wore a tan 2-piece suit with a crisp mint-colored dress shirt. The top button was undone, revealing a beautiful dark green ascot. Carlton subconsciously smoothed his own dress shirt.
“And who might you be?”
“Ah. My apologies, detective. My name is Benoit Blanc.”
The name sounded vaguely familiar, but before he had a chance to place it, O’Hara came bounding over.
“Mr. Blanc! I can’t believe you actually came! I’m Juliet; we spoke on the phone?”
Blanc smiled, extending his hand to her, which she shook vigorously.
“Miss Juliet. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I was just meetin’ your partner, Mr. Lassiter.”
O’Hara looked to Carlton, whose eyebrows were now deeply furrowed in confusion. She took the cue to finally explain what was going on before he could emerge from his stupor and reprimand Blanc for not using his preferred honorific.
“Mr. Blanc is going to be joining us on the Edmondson case! The world-famous detective himself.” Blanc waved his hands in humility at the title.
Carlton felt his ears go hot. Another consulting detective? What the hell? Doesn’t anyone around here trust me to get the job done?
“Oh, I don’t know if that’ll be necessary.” Carlton knew his words were sour, but he really couldn’t be bothered to care anymore. It was enough to deal with Spencer, he didn’t need some award-winning Kentucky-fried hotshot undermining him too.
Blanc didn’t look offended, though Carlton had kind of hoped he would be. Instead he looked… empathetic?
“I assure you, detectives, that my presence here won’t intrude in the slightest. I’m simply here to offer another pair of eyes and ears into your investigation. I’m happy to be of service.” Blanc clasped his hands together, bowing his head slightly.
Carlton eased up a bit, but still wasn’t happy with Blanc’s intrusion. And what did O’Hara have to do with this? Why did she know what was going on before he did?
He grabbed her arm, pulling her aside and giving a curt “one moment” to Blanc before speaking in a tense whisper.
“What the hell is going on, O’Hara? Did you invite him?”
She frowned. “Well, yeah! Remember I told you I was putting out feelers for more information on Edmondson? For the case? I threw in an email to Detective Blanc as well, not expecting him to respond. But then he did! And I thought, wouldn’t it just be so fun if we had Benoit freaking Blanc on our case? I’ve totally been obsessed with him since I heard about his solve on the Kentucky Derby case a few months back. Weren’t you following that one too?”
So that’s where he knew the name from. That really had been incredible detective work. Nevertheless, he was still upset with O’Hara. But it was too late now. Blanc had already traveled all the way to Santa Barbara, and after making the connection to the derby case, Carlton was feeling a little more confident in the man’s crime-solving abilities. Benoit Blanc was a real detective. Unlike some people he had the misfortune of working with.
Carlton turned back to Blanc, a much more welcoming expression on his face.
“My apologies, Detective Blanc. It would be a pleasure to have you join us.”
“Oh, wonderful.” Blanc beamed. “I am just itchin’ to hear what you’ve got on Mr. Edmondson. Miss Juliet, would you be so kind as to set me up somewhere with the case file? I don’t wanna be botherin’ the good Detective Lassiter anymore.” Blanc shot a wink at Carlton, whose cheeks flushed in embarrassment.
“Yo, Lassie!”
The sound of Spencer’s voice earned an eye roll from Carlton, who turned to see what he wanted now.
“Spencer.”
“I see you finally met Benoit. Cool guy, right? Sexy.”
“Jesus, did everyone know about this but me?”
“What did you think was on all those paper airplanes Gus and I sent over to you? I mean, did you even unfold any of them?” Spencer scoffed. “Where is your sense of curiosity, dude?”
Carlton rolled his eyes again, swiftly turning and walking away. He didn’t have the patience for Shawn Spencer today. He had a case to solve.