Jane has been busy outside of the CBI, arriving late and leaving early, annoying Lisbon and the team with his unexplained absences. When a heinous crime points to him, he will have to rely on the help of his friends at the CBI to help him prove his innocence, if they can.
You Don't Know Me
Chapter 1
Are You A Team Player?
"Lisbon! I'm done here!" Jane called, trying to catch his attractive partners' attention as she spoke to some police officers guarding their latest crime scene from gawkers. She turned to acknowledge his announcement with annoyance. He could stick around a bit longer and maybe see something more that she and everyone else had missed, but he was eager to leave. His first cursory examination of the body had produced the usual nuggets of information that only he could discern from the scent of the man's cologne, his silver tie clip, his bespoke suit and the mud on the sides of his shoes. He had concluded that the man was a banker, a mover and shaker who went to the best schools, socialized with the elite and for whom money was no object. He got this from the clues his victim offered up: his suit was very expensive and custom made, so someone who lived and worked in the upper echelons of society and business; his cologne a conservative but costly brand, the purpose being to be subtle but memorable; the silver tie slide was engraved with a personal monogram on the front denoting a large ego, and on the underside of the slide, the crest of a very exclusive private college; his shoes were clean on the tops and bottoms but muddy on the sides, hence, the body had been dragged and dropped in this area from somewhere else.
Jane knew that eventually the cops would have deduced all of this on their own, but time was of the essence and he could shorten the investigation by just coming out with his conclusions and then moving on. Honestly, if people would just look at what was in front of them, they would not have to slog so much in their jobs.
"Lisbon, I'll meet you back at the office in a few…. Talk to you then…" he called, waving back at her when she nodded her Ok. He had been busy these last few days, a personal project on his mind and little time to work on it. If he could steal an hour here or there he could accomplish his goal without arousing too much curiosity from his colleagues back at the CBI. While they lacked his abilities to see the clues staring them in the face, they weren't stupid. He wanted to get away without drawing attention to himself. What they and Lisbon didn't know didn't concern them, he smugly concluded.
Two hours later Jane strolled into the CBI and settled down on his couch for a nap, seemingly without a care in the world. Just as he was drifting off, he heard the small rapid footsteps that only could come from an angry Lisbon. Sure enough a moment later a foot came up and kicked the couch, rousing Jane from his snooze.
"Hello Lisbon, nice to see you too…' he grinned lazily.
"Where have you been? I thought you said you would be back here more than an hour ago!" she groused. "We have work to do and you just disappear for two hours? Not acceptable Jane!".
The curly headed consultant raised himself up onto one elbow and looked up into her angry face. Deciding to be apologetic rather than baiting her, he put on his best remorseful face and looked sincerely sorry.
"Sorry. Really, I meant to be back right away, but I got sidetracked and well, you know, one thing leads to another, and two hours are gone like that!" he said, snapping his fingers at her. "But here I am. What is so important that my nap has to be sacrificed?" he grinned, disarming Lisbon's anger as he knew it would. Whatever she wanted him to do actually could have waited till tomorrow, but she didn't want him to know that.
"We've got a name to work with now. Burton Neeley was the Executive Vice-President of the National Trust and Loan Company. We need to go and speak with the other bank directors and get a feel for Neeley's behaviour the last few days. See if anything odd shakes out. Come on, get up."
"Ok Ok… but be prepared for that bureaucratic bunch to circle the wagons and tell you everything was and is just fine and dandy. No one there is going to go out on a limb and challenge the very lucrative status quo" Jane warned as he got up from his couch and stretched dramatically. While it was terrible that a man was dead, Jane's sympathies were tempered by his dislike of the "suits" and their privileged lives.
"Just don't piss them off in the first five minutes and we might actually get something useful out of them. I mean it Jane!" Lisbon responded, noting his sarcastic grin as he ushered her out of the bullpen. Lisbon didn't hold out much hope of gaining any insight into the victim's colleagues, knowing full well Jane was right. The bankers would want to deflect any attention from themselves and make sure it looked like all was well within the confines of their ivory tower. But Jane would know which one of them was the weak link, and that is why she needed him to go with her. God, she could have been there and back again if only he had not disappeared for two hours. What the hell had he been doing? No use asking him, he wouldn't give her a straight answer unless it suited him.
The trip to the bank had gone pretty much the way both she and Jane expected. The senior executives of the bank had doubled down and put up a show of solidarity and security, trying to convince them that all was well, that the victim was a saint and that they all had loved and respected him. That elicited a snigger out of Jane, as it was most likely far from the truth. Jane had fun watching each Director beatify the deceased and express his outrage at the poor man's passing. They were good, Jane had to admit, but he knew it was all B.S. One by one Lisbon pressed them for details about the man and his job performance and asked if anyone knew of any enemies Mr. Neeley may have made. As if reading from a script, each Director expressed shock at the idea that their colleague could have made an enemy of someone capable of murder. Jane became fixated on the one man who declined to speak unless absolutely necessary. That man seemed to be the lowest man when it came to seniority and it was obvious he deferred to the other Directors in all ways. He kept looking at the door and his watch, a sheen of perspiration beading on his upper lip. He had remained mostly silent during the whole interview and didn't want to add anything to the conversation. He had something to hide and Jane zeroed in on him. Dismissing everyone except for this hapless bundle of nerves, Jane made short work of terrifying him and getting to the truth. The seemingly docile and sympathetic senior bankers were, as it turned out, a conniving bunch of opportunists, who wanted the victim out of the way so that a new senior partner amenable to their influence could be brought on board and swayed to their corrupt ways. The victim was a man of conscience and standing in their way, so they had hired a hitman to do away with him. It all fell apart because of the most junior and nervous partner now quivering in fear in front of Lisbon and Jane. Jane sighed with disgust at the outcome of the investigation, glad it had all wrapped up so quickly but dismayed at the level of evil disguised in suits and false civility in the bank tower.
"Call them all back in Jane and I'll phone Cho for back up. We'll take them all back to the CBI for further interrogation" Lisbon commanded, smiling weakly as Jane stood up and motioned for the disgruntled looking executives to file back into the boardroom. He proceeded to keep them busy, asking them inane questions that only infuriated them while he and Lisbon waited until Cho and a few more officers arrived to handcuff them all and transport them back to the office.
"Nice work by the way" she smiled as she and Jane headed back out into the bright sunshine outside the bank.
"My pleasure. If only every case was so easy" he suggested, glad to be done for the day. His couch beckoned.
As expected, once the bankers were separated and individually interrogated, they turned on each other and accusations were being flung at any and all of them, every man for himself, deals being made in hopes of reduced sentences. The hitman was named and as it turned out, easy to find as he was already on the CBI most wanted list. Now they had information that led to his arrest just outside Sacramento. All in all, it had been a highly productive day. Lisbon stayed late to file her paperwork and Jane cleared out of the office unusually early. Without much more than a 'see you in the morning' he was gone by 4pm. Lisbon thought it odd but then she was dealing with the king of all rule breakers, so why try to figure him out now?
Jane drove his Citroen out of the CBI parking lot and headed out of town, driving until he was almost at the city limits. Doffing his suit jacket in the heat, he loosened the buttons on his vest and drove up to his destination, a grin growing on his face. He would have hours ahead of him to do as he wished without interruption He turned off his cell phone so no one at work could reach him and he whistled softly as he entered a tired old building. It was going to be a good night.
A week later Jane was still taking his own sweet time getting to crime scenes without much in the way of excuses and Lisbon was just plain tired of it. It made her team look bad and her leadership was now being impacted. Cho, Rigsby and Van Pelt said nothing but were miffed that Jane was blowing off his responsibilities while they had to play by the rules. Sooner or later it would all come to a head and one of them would finally complain to the Boss.
As the latest case dropped into their laps, Jane was not even in the office, having left soon after he arrived that morning. No excuse was given and upon calling him to get to the crime scene, Lisbon discovered his phone was switched off - again. Her anger hit the boiling point and she resolved that this was going to stop, today. Jane was still just as effective as ever every time he attended a murder, but getting him there and keeping him there was becoming more and more difficult. Either he was part of her team or he wasn't, there could be nothing half-assed about it.
About an hour after the case came in, Lisbon's cell rang in her pocket and she frowned when she saw Jane's face showing on the caller ID.
"Where the hell are you Jane? We have a case and you go AWOL?" she shouted.
"Sorry Lisbon, I didn't realize I had turned my phone off. Where are you? I can be there in no time!" he placated her.
"I doubt that. We need you to check out the body and speak to a couple of witnesses. Something isn't adding up and we could use your input". Lisbon gave Jane directions and was pleased to hear that he in fact would be there very soon. Whether he had really turned off his phone by accident was up for debate, but she could ream his butt out once they got back to her office. Whatever he was up to, it had to stop.
Jane arrived 15 minutes later and did his usual performance, sniffing the body and freaking out the local police. The assembled witnesses were still very emotional, much more than Jane felt was appropriate for people who supposedly did not know the victim. Someone was lying about his knowledge of the events leading up the murder. Time would reveal all and he tipped Lisbon off about his suspicions. An investigation over the next two days would indeed point to the involvement one of the witnesses and the case was resolved by the weekend. Score another case closed pizza for the team.
Lisbon called Jane into her office after the rest of the team went home, stomachs full of pizza and most of the paperwork done.
"What's up Lisbon? I would think you would want to see the back of me so late in the day" smiled Jane as he plumped up the cushions on the white sofa in Lisbon's office. Sitting down with a satisfied sigh, he crossed his legs and smiled placidly at his beautiful partner. He knew a lecture was coming, but he didn't care. They were old hat to him now and reassurances that he would smarten up, he figured he would be on his way.
Lisbon sat down at her desk and just stared at him. He smiled back at her. She was fuming and he knew it. She was so cute when she was mad. Her freckles just popped when her complexion grew rosier with anger and he was admiring the view. Drumming her fingers on the desktop, Lisbon gathered her thoughts, trying to avoid lashing out at him in frustration. She knew he could play her like a fiddle, so she had to choose her words carefully.
"What's going on with you?" she finally spoke, as calmly as possible.
"With me, ahhh, nothing. But thanks for asking. And how are you Lisbon?" he replied, grinning a megawatt smile.
"Jane, stop it. You know perfectly well that you are up to something. Whatever you do outside of work is your business, and I really do try to stay out of your personal affairs."
"And I am grateful for that" said Jane earnestly, cutting her off.
"But whatever you're up to now is impacting our work here. You leave early, come in late, arrive late to crime scenes, turn off your phone during the day. You are putting in the least amount of effort without actually quitting work. What's going on?" she said, listing her issues with him.
Jane re-crossed his legs unconsciously and folded his arms across his chest, classic signs of self-protection. Lisbon noticed.
"I have been busy with personal matters unrelated to work and I'm sorry that my phone was accidentally switched off, just that once. But we get the work done and we are still catching the bad guys Lisbon. I won't be busy for much longer. Almost done and then I will be my usual paragon of virtue, the quintessential team player. The model of group think…" he bluffed, eliciting a strangled growl in Lisbon's throat.
"Jane! Enough! When were you ever the quintessential team player?"
As Jane started to reply, Lisbon cut him off in frustration. "Just wrap up whatever you're doing and get back to work with us. I need to be able to rely on you being there when I need you."
"And you shall. I will always be there for you Lisbon" Jane said with surprising sincerity. The straightforward way he stared at her when he said this made her heart lurch in her chest. 'How the hell does he do that?' she wondered. She knew he would always be there for her. Just like he once said he would always save her. But how he went about it was another matter.
Lisbon's shoulders dropped slightly and relaxed as she realized the lecture she had planned was now a moot point. He was being sincere, was trying to be truthful, without telling her what he had been up to. God only knew what that man did in his off hours.
"Ok. I believe you. We need your complete attention when you are out on a case. Anything less and it won't work" she warned him again.
"Got it. Glad we had this talk Lisbon. And by the way, you need to go home at some point and have a weekend too. Don't stay here chained to your desk for too long."
Jane stood up and made his way over to the door of her office.
"I mean it, go home and relax. See you Monday!" he said cheerfully and with that, he was gone.
Lisbon watched him walk away with a swagger that was typical Jane and couldn't refrain from letting a small grin spread across her face. That handsome man was irritating and would drive her to distraction but she couldn't imagine doing this job without him now. Looking at the clock, she decided to take his advice and pack it in for the day. Whatever forms needed to be filled in could wait until Monday. Maybe by then she would have her consultant back to work full time.