Case solved; Now what?
Chapter 2
Lisbon looked at Jane, an astounded expression on her face. Was it possible that Jane had solved a murder in under 15 minutes?
"Jane," Lisbon stated it slowly to make sure she heard it correctly, "did you just say that you knew who killed Professor Martin and you even know what weapon was used?"
"No, I didn't say that," Jane stated.
Lisbon figured as much. She had misinterpret his statement after all.
"Oh, I didn't think so, "Lisbon agreed knowingly.
"I said I think I know who had killed Professor Martin and what the weapon was," Jane replied calmly, "and what I think is usually correct."
Lisbon stared at him, "So..you did figure out who killed the Professor? How could you possibly know-"
Wayne Rigsby chose this moment to come upon Lisbon's side, "Hey Boss," he stated, "one of the local reporters would like you to come over to comment on-"
"Can we do this at a later time, Rigsby?" Lisbon asked impatiently as she waved her hand to excuse him, "Sorry, but I'm working on something very important."
"Oh." Rigsby shifted uncomfortably as he looked at Jane with a questioning glance, "I was told by Cho that you might, uh, need an excuse to, you know, get away from..." he secretly sideways glanced Jane.
"Subtlety isn't your middle name, is it, Rigby?" Jane asked.
Rigsby looked confused.
"I'm fine, Rigsby," Lisbon assured him, anxious to see how Jane figured out the case, "please continue interrogating possible witnesses."
"Yeah, sure...sure," Rigsby appeared uncertain, as he hesitantly walked away.
In no time Rigsby was gone as Lisbon turned eagerly back to Jane.
"Before you go on," Lisbon said, "there's one thing I don't get. If the flat spots and the murder are related, surely the Professor would have seen those two people standing there and been more cautious, wouldn't he? Yet there's no signs of running footsteps or of a struggle."
"That's because the Professor didn't notice the two people standing there," he simply said.
What?
"You think the professor failed to see two people lurking about near his office so early in the morning?" Lisbon looked unsure.
"I didn't say he didn't see them," corrected Jane, "I said he didn't notice them."
"Is there a difference?" Lisbon asked, not understanding Jane at all.
"Yes, definitely," Jane explained, "you see, Lisbon, people don't notice the usual. And what those two suspects were doing that morning was precisely what they have been doing probably most mornings, so it raised no red flags."
Lisbon shook her head, thinking she must be dense, "I still don't get it...so what you're saying is the two people who had been standing there that morning were regulars?...Are you saying the Professor was done in by...gardeners?"
Jane shook his head.
"What time-honored sport is done on every college campus lawn, everyday, for decades on end?"
Lisbon shook her head, looking lost as she tried to come up with something, "I don't know..." she thought and thought. And then stopped, "...wait a minute...you mean, tossing a Frisbee?"
"PRECISELY!" Jane smiled, looking proud and pleased.
Huh. A Frisbee. That theory sounded so farfetched to her.
Lisbon looked unconvinced, "Jane, are you saying the murderers were two students casually tossed a Frisbee around? "
He nodded.
"Just keep an open mind, Lisbon" he told her, "Two students are casually tossing a Frisbee to one another, like they do every morning. That's why the grass is mostly worn down in these two places. One will toss the Frisbee at a distance of 35-40 feet while the other one waits on the other end to catch it. The object, of course, is to catch it while staying in the same one spot as much as possible, even if you have to skid or slide to keep one foot on that one place."
With her eyes, Lisbon measured the distance, "Possible that some Frisbee throwing occurred, ..." she seemed in deep thought and then: "Wait..." and an idea seemed to form slowly in her mind, "I get what you're saying...I've seen college students tossing a Frisbee many times, and...and there's bound to always be one toss that will go awry from an untested flick of the wrist,..."
"...yes," Jane nodded, pleased that she followed his scenario, "and so let's say this one unfortunate erratic toss becomes a deadly weapon..."
"...because, after all, a Frisbee is a hard plastic and it could fly through the air at a velocity of over 20 miles per hour," Lisbon looked excited now.
"...that's right," Jane continued, "so on this particular morning, it comes sailing through the air, hitting Martin from behind the neck. This causes the Professor to smack his head against that hard, dry grass the wrong way, causing the fatality. One of the Frisbee students comes over, realizes Martin is dead, and both players panic. Quickly they snatch the Frisbee and the two disappear, along with the evidence...so therefore, the death was not intentional, but accidental-"
"-until they tried to cover it up," Lisbon finished the thought, "and then it became a crime."
Jane nodded.
"And I bet," he suggested, "if you asked around, students will be able to identify who the two regular Frisbee players are. And if you recover the Frisbee, there still might even be some of the professor's DNA on the edge of it."
Lisbon grinned, "I better hurry while I still have all these officers at my disposal!"
And that was how Patrick Jane solved his second crime in about a quarter of an hour.
.
It was late at night as Lisbon sat at her desk, the lone employee in the building. She looked off in the distance, out the window, at the buildings across the way. Their lights seemed to cast a romantic orange glow in her office located on the fifth floor.
The quietude allowed her to dig deep into her private thoughts and she was thinking about Patrick Jane. Yes, he can be overwhelming at times with his smug and confident ways, but beneath that, there was more to his devil-may-care attitude than he cared to show.
Because sometimes, once in a blue moon, when he gave one of his genuine smiles; it was filled with warmth that seemed to radiate from his heart.
But...she sighed, maybe she was having these late night musings in order to avoid finishing the paperwork. That was the worst part of her job because even if she finished her write up, there was another crime just around the corner.
R-r-ring!
She was brought out of her revelry by the phone ringing.
Who could be calling at her at this hour? she wondered, as she picked up.
.
The next day in the lecture hall of Sacramento University, students sat listless in their seats, bored.
They were waiting for another in a long line of substitute 'guest teacher' to arrive and deliver another dull Criminology lecture. Most of them were even contemplating changing majors.
The door opened and in walked a confident Patrick Jane.
Most of their flat expressions did not change, although a few of the young co-eds sat up slightly straighter in their seats.
"Good day, eager young minds, my name is Patrick Jane," he introduced, "I'll be your instructor extraordinaire for today."
Some students exchanged smirks, others continued texting, one person was doing electronic Sudoku, while two yawned.
"And now that I have your divided attention," he said sardonically, "I understand that most of you probably consider attending lectures to be on the same level as using the sleep aid Ambien..."
At the bluntness of his statement, some students managed to smile slightly while others began to perk up.
"Lectures do not teach you everything you need to know," Jane stated unexpectedly," but they may stimulate your mind to think critically about a subject. And my way of stimulating your mind requires that you participate in my lecture, so..."
He looked around and then pointed to a student three rows up.
"Let's see...YOU," he identified, "with the blue cap."
The student looked shocked, "M-me?" he said, pointing to himself.
"Yes, YOU...You are not participating correctly in this class. Stop playing games on your iphone," he stated, as he looked around some more, "and YOU, YOU, YOU and YOU," he indicated four different students, "stop texting ...and YOU and YOU, stop reading emails."
Heads turned this way and that, as the guilty parties put away any extraneous activities.
"That's better," Jane smiled, "because, believe me, no one's lectures can compete with things that bings, blinks or blings! Interest in a lecture, by the way, is merely the result of devoting energy to the appreciation of a topic. So let's begin, shall we?"
The students didn't know what to make of Jane, but at least no one looked drowsy.
"I'm sure all of you consider yourselves as being observant, right?" Jane continued, as several heads nodded, "but what we filter from it is usually open to interpretation. Sometimes we have to look at a situation from a unique or unexpected point of view."
He looked around the classroom.
"YOU," he pointed to a female student in the second row who looked shocked to be chosen.
"Oh, um, yes?"
"Let's see if you can think outside the box," Jane challenged, "Answer this short mystery: Tom loves taking walks in the shadowy park at night with his dog. One evening his flashlight stops working. He can't see a thing, but he's not worried at all. Why not?"
The student looked completely baffled.
"Maybe..." she began, "...the dog has a flashlight?"
The class chuckled as Jane smiled.
"Sorry-this isn't a cartoon."
Another student raised her hand.
"There are streetlights up above?" the student guessed.
"Unfortunately," Jane said, "none are positioned at the park. Anyone else?"
He saw they gave up.
"Quite simple, really," he revealed, "Tom is blind. The flashlight was used for others to see him."
It had been so obvious, yet no one could figure it out. Jane was now looking around the classroom again.
"YOU," he said to a male in a plaid shirt, "Listen to this story and tell me what the logical assumption is...Imagine that you arrive back to your apartment after a weekend trip to find your favorite coffee mug broken on the floor beside the dining room table. Upon close examination, you see your cat's paw prints on the table top. What is your conclusion?"
The plaid shirt student looked uncomfortable.
"Uhh," the student said, "that the cat is going to have to get a 'time out'?"
There were some snickerings.
"Perhaps, but in this case, no." Jane confirmed, "The logical conclusion was that the cat had been walking around the table and had knocked the mug to the floor, but could that be the only obvious choice?"
The class looked stumped.
This time when he looked around, he saw Teresa Lisbon sitting in the classroom. The sides of his mouth turned upward and Lisbon realized she was about to become part of the class. Preparing herself, she squared her shoulders as she drew her body up straight.
And sure enough, he picked on her.
"YOU, in the blue suit..." he pointed to Lisbon.
"Me," she said, not sounding surprised.
"Yes," Jane said, liking to put her on the spot, "Your opinion regarding the mug and the cat situation."
Lisbon's mind was working fast, "...maybe the mug was broken first and THEN the cat jumped on the table."
"Not bad," he said, not helping her much, "but, give me a logical explanation how this could have occurred."
She was ready, "Perhaps a small earthquake had occurred while the owner was gone and the chaotic trembling caused the mug to come crashing down, which then made the cat so jittery that he jumped up on the table, thus the unexplained paw prints."
He nodded, quite impressed.
"That is EXACTLY what I am saying!" Jane's eyes lit with excitement, "you should consider being a detective," he jested to her.
"Too bad...I already have a career in mind," Lisbon claimed, straight-faced.
Jane hid his smile.
By the time he looked around the class again, he had the students' complete attention.
"Question!" he exclaimed, as he paced back and forth with his index finger up. All eyes were on him. Then he stopped as he presented his scenario.
"A woman walks into a bar and asks the barman for a glass of water. The bartender pulls out a gun and points it at the woman. The woman says "Thank you" and walks out. What just happened?"
He looked around and a couple of students cringe, not wanting to be pick.
"YOU with the braid," he said, pointing to a female, "can you explain why the bartender pulled a gun and pointed to the woman?"
She didn't know, "Be-cause...he's a male chauvinist?"
A male student raised his hand, "The bartender was mad due to a water shortage?"
"Both guesses were not even close," Jane said, looking about, "anyone else?"
Everyone was stumped but they were definitely curious.
"The woman had hiccups," Jane explained, as if the answer was obvious, "The bartender recognized this from her speech and drew the gun on her in order to give her a shock. It worked, she didn't need the water."
The class was actually leaning forward, wanting to hear more.
"These were examples of seemingly irrational and incongruous situations having simple answers that are not obvious," he explained, "so there's more to observing than just recording what we see. Let's do some other examples..."
The students were mesmerized the rest of the two hours Jane spoke. At one point as he looked out in the crowd, he caught Lisbon's eye, but chose not to single her out again. Time had passed quickly for the class.
"So what is the point of all this?" he concluded, "these exercises were to show you that there's a little misconception when it comes to perception-we think we get the whole picture, but we must be open to more than one interpretation. Consider everything before drawing your conclusions," he advised them, and then with one more smile, he ended the lecture with a simple, "It's been fun. Thank you."
Everyone was surprised that it was over so soon. They were quite convinced that this was one of the most fascinating lectures that they had ever heard.
As students passed by Jane in order to depart, they uttered small phrases to him, "Great lecture"..."Thanks, Mr. Jane"..."Hope you come back!"..."I enjoyed that!"..."See you soon..."
Jane could hear the footsteps of departing students as he gathered up his notes from the desk. He didn't look up, even when he heard approaching footsteps. Instead he continued to shove his notes into his briefcase.
"You make an excellent student, Lisbon," he merely said.
He looked up and their gazes unexpectedly locked.
Beneath his cool exterior, he felt his body getting warm at how fresh and lovely she looked today. Meanwhile, Lisbon could feel heat rising to her cheeks at his presence.
Something passed between them, but it was so fast, neither had time to reflect nor understand.
"Maybe I'm so good as your student because I'm used to being put on the spot by you," she wryly said.
Jane grinned, "What are you doing here, anyway, Lisbon? I would've thought you wouldn't want to be within a ten mile radius of me."
"We need to talk," she obliquely stated.
"Oh?" he wondered, feeling excited at the thought of working with her again, "Another case you need me to solve?"
How had she forgotten so soon about that huge ego of his? Any attraction she felt for him here quickly subsided and she was immediately glad that at least this time, she would not be feeding his crime -solving ego.
"Not quite," she sounded coolly professional, "Last night I had received a phone call."
He didn't like the way that sounded, "I have a feeling you are not here to deliver good news."
"Let's just say," she calmly told him, "that I don't think you're going to like it."
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.
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Yes, case #2 is over, but case #3 is just beginning!
More to come!
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