A/N I thought Aunjanue Ellis was brilliant in this episode - great actress would have loved to have seen more of her.
Disclaimer - I do not own the Mentalist - I wish I did.
A day in the field with Madeline Hightower had definitely piqued Jane's interest in her, there was decidedly more to her than met the eye. Fiercely intelligent, direct and more than a tad ruthless Hightower was nothing like the usual pen pushing career cop, she was equally at home in the field as she was playing the political game.
The rumour mill was in overdrive about her; Jane filtered the more prurient aspects of this whilst garnering the salient information about her, after all information was currency no matter how tawdry.
La Roche was constructing his best case against Hightower - the link between Howard and Todd Johnson being too strong to ignore - he was just following the evidence trail there was nothing personal about it. The evidence conveniently seemed to be stacking up against her but it all seemed just too obvious, an agent as capable as Hightower would surely have covered her tracks better, Jane could not help but feel she was being framed but by whom and why?
Hightower nervously stubbed out her cigarette as Jane approached; she had clearly been La Roched and was in no mood to be mentalised so he played it light just advising her to tell La Roche the truth. There was an undercurrent to all this that made him feel very uneasy.
When Lisbon's late night research had revealed the link between Montero and Johnson his unease intensified, either Hightower was with Red John or she was being set up either way he had to get to the bottom of this.
Having ascertained the fingerprint evidence would lead to Hightower's arrest, he swiftly took her out of the game and so it was that he found himself in the attic with a shotgun pointed at Madeline Hightower...but not for long.
She quickly turned the tables on him, he was impressed and a little bit afraid – looking up the barrel of a shotgun with her piercing eyes looking down on him was intimidating to say the least, the minx had well and truly fooled him. This re-affirmed his feeling that he was dealing with a formidable operator.
"So Patrick, it appears we have a problem" she said drily.
"I would certainly say I have one Madeline and you appear to have the upper hand." Resistance was futile he would have to try and talk his way out of the situation.
Hightower considered her options then wryly smiled before lowering the gun, having reasoned that shooting the mentalist would serve no purpose and he might yet be an asset, anyhow she kind of liked the guy.
"Patrick don't try anything stupid now – you know you won't get the better of me. Let's talk" she said calmly.
Jane could not help but admire her cool, pulling himself up muttering "Jeez Madeline, did you have to be so rough?" he looked across to see Hightower shaking her head at him with a rueful smile on her face.
"Do you want to tell me what's going on Patrick?" she asked.
"I would say you know exactly what is going on and more - assuming you are not Red John's man, which I am fairly certain you're not, someone is going to an awful lot of trouble to frame you. I'm guessing there is a lot more to this than just protecting Red John's mole."
He paused then stared her in the eye "Tell me Madeline – who are you really?"
"I think you mean what not who" she enigmatically replied.
"OK, what are you and don't say a single Mom trying to do her best – we both know you are a lot more than that "Jane responded
"Well, I know – you can only surmise and why should I tell you anyhow, I have more pressing problems I'm about be arrested for a murder I did not commit."
Jane had at least worked that bit out "I have a plan for that – you may not like it but I think it will work but before we go any further you need to sort your domestic arrangements out, then I will fill you in."
Hightower made the necessary arrangements as Jane outlined his plan to her – she acquiesced without further ado as she could not think of a better option.
So they resumed their conversation banking on at least half an hour without interruption.
"So Patrick how do you want to play this?"
"Well seeing as time is at a premium, I'll start and feel my way in – I am guessing that somehow you have uncovered something that affects Red John."
"Not that I know of, well not directly anyhow."
"That suggests you have unwittingly stumbled on something that you may not realise the significance of."
"Well, I would not say stumbled."
"Now is not the time to be coy Madeline" he observed before the penny dropped "You are running some sort of covert operation?"
There was a barely perceptible nod so he continued – "Within law enforcement?"
Another nod followed - "Just law enforcement or beyond?"
"You're getting there Patrick" she acknowledged.
"Time is moving on Madeline – care to elaborate?"
"There are bad apples in any organisation – you just have to keep weeding them out as you find them but over the last year we have begun to suspect that these are not just individual rogue operators but that there may be an organisational element to this including the judiciary and high ranked city officials."
"Umm that makes sense" Jane conceded.
Hightower carried on "in too many cases suspects are intimidated or disappear, evidence is compromised and there seems to be a criminal intelligence network as efficient if not more so than our own – all too often key information gets disseminated before we even have time to act on it.
Patrick you must have wondered why Red John is always one step ahead of us – perhaps there is a network of spies or the computer systems have been compromised, we are not entirely sure at this stage."
"But why the CBI – why here and now?" Jane enquired.
"Law enforcement takes it very seriously when its own people are taken down on its own territory. After Rebecca Anderson killed Bosco and she was subsequently poisoned, it was decided that something had to be done. This was considered to be part of a larger investigation and not necessarily a Red John investigation; I am sorry Patrick, we really were concentrating on the bigger picture trying not to get bogged down in specific cases. With Minelli's departure a convenient vacancy cropped up and I was airlifted in to run the department alongside my ongoing operation which was a slow burner."
"Who else knows about it – Bertram?" Jane enquired.
"No, for all I know he may well be part of the problem – a small handpicked group of trusted people have been silently gathering information off radar."
"Officer Howard was one of them?"
"Yes Rance was" she acknowledged. "We got too close but you have to understand we were operating in a climate of fear – no-one and nothing was as it seemed. Sometimes you just need to reach out for human contact and Rance was a good man.
You should think about that Patrick, no man is an island – you and Lisbon could hardly be closer, the office scuttlebutt already has views on that. I know you have eschewed such matters until you have avenged your family's death but sometimes feelings creep up on you by surprise – I suspect Lisbon may be ready even if you are not."
Jane shrugged his shoulders none of that was news to him but it was hardly pertinent at this moment, so he did not dignify it with a response.
He persisted "What was Howard investigating when he was killed – can you think of anything that could be relevant to Red John?"
"Rance had been following up on the tampering of security footage, he suspected that the systems were being tampered with at will to hide the movements of people – maybe he was indiscrete in his enquiries or perhaps he recognised someone on the footage, either way he was taken out before we had time to talk."
Jane recalled how easily the security footage had been tampered with when Bosco was murdered and this seemed an entirely logical line of enquiry. Jane trusted no one outside his team, hell even now he did not trust Hightower completely, he knew he was only being told what was absolutely necessary.
Knowing time was moving on he tried to concentrate his efforts.
"How high up the tree does this network go? "
"We don't know – at this moment it is still a theory but one I firmly believe in" Hightower responded. "Whether there is an embryonic secret organisation or it is a less formal arrangement of favours, where people become beholden to each other, I cannot say but there is an all pervasive feel to this - friends in high and low places would be my guess."
"This would certainly explain how Red John has access to so much and why you are being targeted – who else knows?" Jane persisted.
"Patrick – you of all people should understand I can't tell you specifics, secrecy on the ground is paramount the other agents don't even know who else is working on it, everything is strictly on a need to know basis but I will tell you some out of state Feds are involved in analysing the data we collect to see if they can establish any patterns. We have to assume that everything is compromised until we can prove otherwise."
Jane took this on board grimly – he had assumed as much, he would have to talk to Grace about one of those thingamabobs and start scanning his rooms and car for bugs. It may be worth laying down some false trails in his attic, he had no doubt it was visited on occasion.
They heard the approaching footsteps and assumed their agreed roles. Hightower leant forward and whispered "Patrick – trust nothing and nobody apart from Lisbon. Assume the worst; the walls do have ears – hell someone might be listening right now. I am only telling you this in case they get me, I would not have told you otherwise. Do not try to contact me – I will contact you if needs be."
Later that night Jane recovered Hightower from La Roche's car boot, despite her entreaties to involve Lisbon in the search for the mole Jane insisted no-one should know. They parted with a brief peck on the cheek from Hightower, whose thoughts were now solely on evading Red John.
Jane was contemplating what he had learned today about both Red John's mole and the bigger picture – the web of intrigue that Hightower painted certainly resonated with his own observations. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of familiar footsteps on the stairs, he smiled in anticipation of some friendly verbal jousting. However having established Jane was feeling no ill effects from his adventures and quickly deflecting his flimflammery, Lisbon got straight to the point.
"Cut the crap Jane – what is going on?"
My dear Lisbon, I have barely said a word – how can I possibly cut anything?"
"Hightower – you know what I mean."
"If I knew what you meant, I would not be asking the question" he responded obtusely.
"Some mentalist hey, Jane I know you are involved in this. For what it is worth I don't believe Hightower did anything but it is not for us to pervert the course of justice."
"Unless the course of justice is already perverted" Jane grimly responded looking hard at Lisbon, he was surprised to see Lisbon was not particularly perturbed by that statement.
"I've been doing some research" she started ...
"I've told you about that Lisbon – it's time people started doing some research on you my dear" he quipped.
"Stop flannelling Jane, I'm serious I've been looking over Hightower's files – very impressive they are too.
You have to ask why a woman like that ended up doing this job. Moreover the closer you look into her file you start to hit roadblocks, there are too many dead ends - I am sure Hightower is not what she seems."
With a sense of panic Jane sat up sharply; she never ceased to amaze him. He knew she was a fine detective but had not expected her to latch on so quickly. "Lisbon – what have you done. Do you have any idea what you are getting into?"
She looked him straight in the eye "Obviously not, but clearly you do. Spill the beans now."
"Lisbon I am telling you – drop this no good will come of it."
She stood her ground "Firstly you are not my boss and I am an officer of the law, it is my job to investigate."
He raised his hands by way of apology "Lisbon I implore you – please don't carry on with this or you will bring unwelcome attention to yourself and all my efforts to protect you will be in vain.
I can't tell you any more, I made a promise and anyhow it puts you at risk the more you know but I will say this everything you believe in may be turned upside down before long, nothing is as it seems. The walls may have ears" he said wafting his hands meaningfully at the surroundings. "Apart from routine investigations, we need to take all but the most general discussions outside the office."
He looked affectionately at her and said "that might necessitate spending a bit more time together outside the office – I know it's a sacrifice but I'll get over it."
"You are not out of the woods yet Patrick Jane and since when have you protected me jackass? It's me protecting your sorry hide normally.
However I get the general drift, it's too late to follow this up now but I will have answers – you have to decide whether to give them to me or I'll continue to find them out regardless of the consequences. I won't involve the rest of the team but you have yet to convince me there is a real danger and that this is not your general paranoia."
Jeez these women were hard work he thought - whoever said they were the weaker sex?
"So how has the Hightower business gone down with everyone?" Jane enquired hoping to change the subject.
"It's been kind of weird actually not how I expected; Bertram even resorted to reciting some little ditty he knew."
Jane's ears picked up at this "ditty?" he repeated.
"Yeah, La Roche said it was Blake but it meant nothing to me" Lisbon replied.
Jane was wide awake now, this was getting interesting. "In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors." he said enigmatically.
Lisbon looked at him curiously, "Blake" he responded - she shrugged her shoulders assuming it was just another Jane-ism.
She started to leave before turning to look at him with a smile on her face – "You know I'll expect feeding if we're spending more time together."
Jane lay back closing his eyes feeling unexpectedly comforted. "Of course you will – goodnight Lisbon."
A/N The Blake quotation is considered to be one of the influences behind Jim Morrison's naming his band the Doors