Coaster Ride

Who: Lisbon's team

What: Typical day at CBI, in a lull

When: April-May

Where: California

Why: Bored and outraged team gets itself work and trouble

Typical CBI crime of week story set in the early years of The Mentalist - Season 2. In a lull, Lisbon's team goes out of its way to find a case - and trouble.

The unit was idle, their last case wrapped up and no new case assigned yet. Lisbon was catching up on administrative work, Rigsby and Cho were out to lunch. Van Pelt was covering phones while Jane napped on his couch, having fallen asleep reading a book.

"That's terrible!" Van Pelt exclaimed, watching a news update on her computer screen.

"What?" asked Jane yawning and stretching.

"A group of almost one-hundred illegals died in Death Valley from the heat and lack of water. Even though it's just May, the desert's had a stretch of daily highs over 100 degrees. It looks deliberate–about as far from any major roads as you can get."

"Hmm. Death Valley is what–five hundred miles north of Mexico? Why would there be such a large group? Illegals usually scatter as soon as they cross the border. Harder to track and apprehend."

"Let me check the law-enforcement network and see if there are any details. ... Yes, here. 'Ninety-one undocumented workers were found dead in Death Valley on Tuesday, May 2nd.' Homeland Security has drone footage on a tractor-trailer traveling through the area's back roads the afternoon the illegals were abandoned there. The guess is the driver ditched them to avoid discovery. The plates and other identifying information were fake. The drone lost track of the truck that night. Nothing helpful on the ground, just personal effects. Oh, this is odd. There was a plastic product label found among the personal effects. They don't seem to have any leads."

Jane groaned and rolled off the couch to his feet. Bending over Van Pelt's computer screen, he asked, "Do they have a close-up of that label?"

"Sure. Here."

"What's up, you two?" Lisbon asked, walking into the room.

"Jane and I were just looking at the law-net post about the hundred illegals abandoned in Death Valley."

"Something is off about that Toshiba label," Jane said, peering at the screen. "The typeface is close, but not quite right. Counterfeit? Grace, can you overlay it with a picture of a legitimate Toshiba trademark?"

"Jane, you've memorized product trademarks?" Lisbon asked.

"No, I had a Toshiba TV. Got any pictures of the truck?"

"Umm, first take a look at the real Toshiba trademark compared to the label found at the scene. You're right–close, but not the same. As for the truck, it's a standard tractor- trailer–looks like any one of thousands. The plates are fake as are the company name, etc. Not much help."

"Maybe, maybe not. Blow up that picture of the trailer–the rear right corner. See? It scraped a building or underpass or something. That dent and torn metal are pretty distinctive. Find the trailer, maybe find a connection to the illegal transport and counterfeit distribution operations."

Lisbon interjected, "Jane, this is all speculation not to mention the jurisdiction of California border security and Federal Homeland Security. Don't even think about mucking around with this."

"A hundred people were deliberately left to die in our state. Negligent homicide at the very least, no? Why not poke around?"

"I swear, your purpose in life is to make mine difficult. Let me call my contacts and see how the investigations are going. If they're hard on the case, we are not interfering."

Jane grinned, "Thank you."

"I didn't promise anything. Don't get your hopes up."

~.~.~.~

Cho and Rigsby returned from lunch about the time Lisbon got return calls from her contacts. She gathered them around the conference table.

"Jane is bored–" Lisbon started.

"Hey!" Jane objected.

"–and wants us to look into the 91 illegals who died in Death Valley. This isn't our jurisdiction, so I'd have to keep border security and Homeland Security in the loop. They don't have a problem with our working the case, but they'll take part of the credit if we solve it. This is back-burner for them because of the three–count them, three!–major border tunnels that were just discovered for drug and weapons smuggling. It is completely optional if you want to help."

"I am kinda tired of sitting around," said Rigsby.

"Ninety-one people died in the desert? Why not take a look?" Cho added.

"I'm in. I think it's horrible," Van Pelt said.

Jane leaned back in his chair, smiling widely.

"Looks like you get your wish, Jane. I'll have the other agencies send us their files. Van Pelt, give us an overview of what we know right now."

After the overview, Cho commented, "So the three anomalies that stand out are the distance from the border for a large group of illegals, the counterfeit product label, and the distinctive damage on the truck's trailer. Not a lot to go on."

Van Pelt said doubtfully, "This doesn't seem like a typical smuggling operation to get illegal aliens into the US from Mexico."

Jane asked, "When were these people left in the desert? And what's today's date?"

"They were found dead May 2nd," answered Van Pelt, "So they were left a few days earlier-April 30th is when the drones were tracking that truck. Today is May 6th."

Jane, thoughtfully. "What if they weren't being smuggled out of Mexico, but in?"

"Why? Especially such a large group?" asked Lisbon.

"Cinco de Mayo? People going home to celebrate," offered Rigsby.

"That'd be my guess," seconded Jane.

"Okay, working theory-the trucking outfit smuggles high-value counterfeit products into the US and transports illegals back to Mexico–profit both ways. Not as sexy as weapons and drugs, but I bet it's plenty lucrative," summarized Lisbon. "Van Pelt, check with US Customs and Border Protection. See what they have on high-value counterfeit products being smuggled into the US, especially Toshiba knock-offs. It'd be great to know the foreign manufacturer and the buyers, ideally with products, quantities and dates received. Ask if they know the trucking outfit, as well. Get any information on a disk so we can match it to shipping manifests if we identify a specific trucking outfit.

"Cho, Rigsby, see if you can find the major areas where illegals find work in that part of California. Employers won't talk. But someone in the barrios must care about the 91 people who died. Make it clear you're not from ICE. Maybe they'll talk if they know we're only after the trucking outfit. Somehow, we'll need to find that specific trailer to have any chance of making a case for negligent homicide. Homeland Security and Border Patrol might be good places to start.

"I'm going to call our counterparts in Arizona, Oregon and Washington state to see if they have had any similar cases. I'll also contact Homeland Security and find out more about the truck from the drone surveillance. When and where they started tracking it, when and where they lost track of it. Jane and I will try to see if we can pick up the trail from there."

"Why would Homeland Security be tracking that truck, anyhow?" wondered Jane. "There's got to be more than a single suspicious truck."

"Let's ask them."

The group scattered to tackle their assigned tasks.

"Lisbon, don't you think you're being a little unfair to lay this at my feet?" Jane asked as they walked out to the SUV.

"Aren't you bored?"

"Well, yes."

"And didn't you want us to take this on?"

"Yes."

"Then what's unfair?"

"Never mind."