Walking over the sloppy land, Lisbon tried her hardest to dodge the mud. She was tired; practically drunk with fatigue. The director of the CBI division called her at three o'clock in the morning to announce the death of a local miner. Let's just say Lisbon wasn't happy about being pulled from her dream of a recent Chicago Bears game that Jane had taken her to see for her birthday last week. Now however, all signs of celebration looked slim. It was just another grim day with rotting corpses and twisted murder stories…and worse of all, this meant paperwork.

She groaned at the thought.

The sky was slightly dismal; it was early in the morning after all. The sun didn't look like it was making any effort to make an appearance. The hillsides were covered with wet mud, and a foggy chill hung over the ground. Lisbon hated weather like this. Even more so she hated the countryside. She was a born and raised a sunny city girl herself, despite her bitter attitude to shopping or city night life.

She stepped over a large log, just as she saw a familiar blue Citroen DS pull up. She sighed, stopped still in her place and folded her arms neatly across her chest, feigning impatience.

Patrick Jane got out from his car, and stretched his arms above his head in a way that made his vest raise up, and did his perfectly sculpted derriere justice. If you had asked Lisbon to describe him she would have stated without any real coherent thought that he resembled a God; which would have caused her to blush fiercely and deny it to anyone who inquired afterwards. Flinging his jacket over one arm he shut the car door with a gentleness that many men could not master.

He looked in her direction; smiled, that smile that made his cobalt blue eyes sparkle and his hair shine, despite the horrid weather, and began to pace towards her; carefree.

"Good Morning Lisbon." He spoke.

"Morning." She called, and waited for a few seconds as he caught up with her. As soon as he reached her they fell into immediate sync with each other and they trudged through the mud together.

"Tell me, why were we pulled from our sleep by another immoral murder?" Jane grumbled, widely stepping out of the way of some dodgy looking green stuff.

"Because the bastards keep on killing people." Lisbon sighed. She really needed her morning coffee, which in a rush to get to the crime scene; she'd stupidly forgotten and was now feeling the unfortunate mind grain that often came with the absence of caffeine.

"Why couldn't we throw it to the local police?" He asked, and brushed her wrist gently, attempting to sooth her oncoming headache.

"We have to work on this case, because the director said so, Jane. He called me at three o'clock in the morning saying we needed to get our asses out to Eureka due to an unfortunate homicide." She shot back, turning her attention to the local Sherriff.

"Agent Lisbon, I assume." He shook her hand and turned to Jane.

"Patrick Jane, he'll be consulting on this case, Sheriff." Lisbon cut in. "So who we got?"

"Jack Maine, forty two, worked down the mines with old Don over there." He waved in the general direction of Cho, who stood arms folded, listening to a graying man dictate to him about how egotistical and selfish their victim had been. Jane and Lisbon registered the frustration on Cho's face and pitied the man for arriving first.

"Any family? Friends? Lovers, even?"

The Sherriff raised an untrimmed eyebrow, causing his frown lines to bunch up on his forehead underneath the white tuffs of hair that inhabited his skull. He looked confused, for a brief second but soon snapped out of it when he registered Jane's fascinating stare.

"And what, may I ask, is your problem consultant boy?" He turned to face Jane completely, who in return waved his hands about and smirked.

"Consultant Boy, really? That's new." Jane commented dryly. "It's just fascinating that such an uptight creep like you is excluding vital information from this investigation. It's not surprising though. Considering." Jane muttered, and pushed his way past the Sherriff and kneeled beside a bloody corpse.

There were abrasions on his left arm, and ligriture marks on his wrists and neck. "Hmm"

"I resent that! That is completely out-of-line and…"

Jane cut him off.

"Correct?" He stood up and winked at Lisbon.

She shifted her weight to the balls of her feet, making her body sway slightly, and nodded; as if to say 'just be careful, Jane'.

"No. I never keep anything from the law. I work for the law for God sakes!" He adjusted his belt and sniffed in anger. His face was reddening fast, which is exactly what Jane wanted and Lisbon knew it.

"That may be Sherriff…" He hesitated, leaning closer as if to silently inquire his name.

"Milton."

"Ahh, Sherriff Milton. As a respectable man of the law, and I say respectable just to be polite – it's quite obvious that your colleagues resent you and your authority, so to speak – I suspect that what you're keeping from myself, and sweet Agent Lisbon here, is only to save yourself embarrassment and raising our suspicions that you are a suspect. I hope you have an alibi, by the way."

"Who the hell do you think you are?"

"I'm Patrick Jane. Consultant. CBI." He smirked. "I have more authority over you in this investigation."

"Uh, no you don't." Lisbon cut in quietly.

Their eyes met and locked, as Lisbon looked up at him with sneaky eyes, through hooded eyelashes and the parting in her wavy brunette hair as it fell delicately over her face. The wind blew slightly and her hair danced over her eyes, abruptly breaking their subtle intimacy.

He looked back at the older man.

"Apparently I don't." Jane corrected. "None the less, that doesn't mean that you, Sherriff Milton, weren't covering for your dear beloved wife…who I am certain was having an affair with our vic…which is why you killed him."

"That is an outrageous accusation that you can't prove!" He shouted.

Jane smiled, his charming cat got the canary smile that made many peoples hearts melt.

Except Sherriff Milton's.

"Actually I can." Jane pulled out a badge from behind his back. It was covered in the victim's blood. "I believe that this belongs to you."

"No it doesn't." He stiffened, and his face tightened.

"Are you sure about that?" Agent Lisbon stepped up. "Because I can't see a badge anywhere on your person, Sherriff."

The tension increased and the cold air seemed to heat around them. Jane never broke his confident gaze that was trained on the older man.

There was a rumble of thunder as the Sherriff's façade broke. "He deserved what he got." He spat.

"Oh! Lisbon, I believe that counts as a confession!" Jane jumped up and down, drawing surrounding people's attention.

Cho immediately stopped interrogating Don and mumbled a quick "thanks for your time", before heading towards the wayward consultant and his boss who was currently arresting Sherriff Milton and muttering 'anything you do say can and will be held against you in the court of law, you have the right to an attorney…'

"Hey Cho. Got it in one." Jane thrust the bloody badge in his direction.

"Dammit Jane! Gloves!" He cursed and snatched the badge out of Jane's hand before bagging it for evidence.

Jane grimaced, and mumbled a quiet 'sorry'.

Lisbon just rolled her eyes.