This is a sequel to Sweet Home Santa Barbara it takes place about a year after the events of my first story, and I'm a little nervous about posting it because I'm not entirely sure where it's going yet, but please review and tell me what you think, I'll try and update it as soon as possible.
Chapter 1
"Having an off day?" I teased watching Lisbon shoot at the range. Her aim was accurate, but not up to her usual speed.
"Oh cause you could do better." She came back.
"I think I could." I grinned.
"You don't even like guns." She argued.
"True." I smiled, taking the gun from her hands and stealing a kiss from her. I looked at her used sheets, and took aim. I was done in half the time it took her.
"You missed." She laughed.
"Oh did I really." I frowned as the sheet came forward toward us. "Cause it really doesn't look like I did." You could see that each of my shots had accurately hit the same exact spots as her shots from before. This was the second time I had done this.
"How?" She asked.
"I said I didn't like guns, not that I couldn't use one." I laughed putting the gun down and pulling her into my arms. She looked up at me waiting for a better explanation. "My dad wanted me to be a cop remember."
It had been almost a year since we had solved that case in Santa Barbara. Almost a year since Lisbon had learned about his past as a fake psychic consultant in Santa Barbara, along with the deaths of my father and best friend, and how I left my fiancée behind. It had also been almost a year since we had started considering ourselves a couple.
"Jane you have a phone call." Rigsby had come down to the range to find him. "From Santa Barbara." He added, Lisbon looked concerned. I hurriedly grabbed the phone from his hand.
"Hello?"
"Spencer, you need to get down here right now." Lassiter yelled through the phone.
"Carlton what happened?" I asked, motioning for Lisbon and Rigsby to follow me up the stairs to the bullpen.
"When you get here we'll explain." Lassiter tried.
"Just tell me now." I exclaimed.
"Shawn." He worried.
"It's Juliet isn't it?" I frowned.
"Yes." He practically whispered.
"What happened?" I needed to know.
"You just need to get down here." He was trying his hardest not to give anything away.
"Lassiter tell me what's going on!" I yelled through the phone.
"She's missing." He sighed.
"You're not telling me something." I stated.
"It's…" He stopped. "It's Red John." I hung up the phone and fell back onto my couch.
"Jane what's the matter, what's going on?" Lisbon asked coming over to sit next me.
"I have to go to Santa Barbara." I frowned, I was truly holding back tears, this was exactly what I was afraid of.
"Patrick what happened?" She asked reaching for his hand.
"Juliet." I whispered, I wasn't sure if I could say the rest, I opened my mouth again. "Red John."
"Oh Patrick." She whispered. "Come on guys, pack your things we're going to Santa Barbara." Lisbon started ordering the others around.
"No this is between me and my past." I interrupted, "You guys will just end in trouble or worse. I'll go find her."
"Patrick, I'm coming with you." Lisbon, held my hand.
"Me too." Van Pelt got up from her desk.
"I'm going." Rigsby added.
"Me too." Cho looked up from his desk.
"Besides what makes this different from the other Red John cases?" Rigsby asked, "What is so special about this girl?" Lisbon and I glanced at each other, she nodded, but I shook my head.
"You tell them or I will." Lisbon warned.
"If you're coming we're wasting time." I got up and headed to my perch upstairs.
"Where are you going?" Lisbon called after me.
"Meet me at the car, I need to grab something." I shouted over my shoulder, I hurried and grabbed something from under my makeshift bed, and then rushed down to the car that was waiting outside the door. "I take it we're not taking two cars." I frowned.
"You need to tell them." Lisbon whispered, as I climbed into the back of the van.
"Tell us what?" Van Pelt asked from the very back seat of the van. I frowned looking at the faces of his coworkers, knowing the whole time that Lisbon was watching him in the review mirror.
"What do you remember about that case in Santa Barbara?" I finally sighed, they would probably find out eventually, especially since we were going back to Santa Barbara.
"Um the girl's brother hit her with a shovel and threw her in the ocean." Rigsby shrugged, "What does that have to do with anything?"
"What do you remember about the detectives involved?" I changed the question.
"There were three…what were their names?" Rigsby thought out loud.
"Lassiter, Seaver, and McNabb." Cho cut in.
"Is that all you remember?" I asked.
"You were really annoying Detective Seaver, about the psychic consultant." Cho remembered.
"Okay, we're getting there what do you remember about the psychic consultant?" I decided this would be my final question.
"Come on just tell us what's the connection with this detective and Red John?" Rigsby was impatient. "Why didn't he just kill her like his other victims?"
"Wait a minute, when we were in the car you pointed out the psychic was her husband to be." Cho stated, turning from his seat in the front of the car to look at me.
"That's right." I nodded, Cho was piecing it together in his head, and Van Pelt was starting to realize something to, Rigsby was still a little lost.
"Seventeen years ago Shawn Spencer disappeared forever, and about a year later Patrick Jane started work at a carnival." I all but whispered, it was a story I knew well, but had told only once. Van Pelt breathed in, Rigsby turned and looked at me, and Cho stayed emotionless.
"You knew?" Van Pelt asked Lisbon after several minutes.
"Only since we went to Santa Barbara last year." She nodded.
"That makes sense." Cho nodded.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lisbon got suddenly defensive.
"Well Teresa I think he's referring to the fact that a year ago was when I guess you could say we became official." I smiled, even if only for a minute, and of course she noticed the immediate disappearance of my smile.
"We will find her?" She nodded, and that pretty much ended the conversation. So five hours later when we pulled up to the Santa Barbara Police Department I didn't wait for the car to stop before I jumped out and hurried up the stairs. Where I saw Lassiter pacing inside the conference room.
"What happened?" I hurried in skipping the sign in desk and barging through the double doors to the conference room. I almost didn't see Chief Vick staring at a note on the table.
"Mr. Jane can you clear this note up for me?" The chief looked up after a minute. I reached for it slowly afraid of what it might say. "It was found on Detective Seaver's car early this morning, and we spoke to her husband, she never made it home last night."
I looked down at the note in my hand and found my eyes jumping to the ever to familiar red smiley face at the bottom. It read:
Dear Mr. Jane,
It's been some time since we last spoke, how are you? Me, well I'm a little disappointed, you see I just recently discovered something rather upsetting. You're not the man you have been claiming to be. I thought we knew each other better than to keep secrets like that. I'm hurt that you don't trust me. Well we must reconcile this, I'll be in touch.
P.S. As usual I do approve of your choice in partners. Juliet is a very attractive women, and don't think your current progress with Agent Lisbon has gone ignored.
I could feel my knees giving out, it took all of my strength just to find a chair to fall into. "Chief, I'm so sorry." I whispered not having the strength to speak louder. "It's all my fault."