Chapter 2

"Jane!" Lisbon shouted.

"Hm?" the counselor asked and opened his eyes. He has nicely dreamt about…not so important.

"New case," the boss said and put on her jacket.

"Hm," Jane answered and slowly got up.

"Hurry up, Jane!" Lisbon said already at the edge of her nerves.

He searched his jacket until he noticed that it had been his night pillow. He put it on and followed Lisbon, Cho and Rigsby to the elevators.

"What kind of a case?" he asked.

"Murder," Cho said and the elevator doors opened.

"Haha, funny," Jane commented half-sleeping.

***At crime scene***

"Female, twenty-nine years old. She lived a few streets in northern direction," Rigsby said.

"Why don't you directly say she was a prostitute?" Jane asked and started sniffing at the body which made Lisbon roll her eyes again. "Cheap perfume, cheap make-up, she has cried, probably without her last customer or shortly before death. She was strangulated?"

Rigsby nodded.

"Angry customer?" Cho asked.

"Nah, I don't think so," Jane commented. "The hands that had strangulated her weren't big…and weren't strong either. Or he hadn't had to kick her face," he said with his tone becoming disgust when he examined her bloody face.

"So he became angry…and aggressive," Lisbon said.

"No," Jane interrupted. "If he was angry, he would have kicked and hit her before finished strangulating. He choked her until she was unconscious, noticed that – of course – she wasn't dead yet, he kicked her several times in the face. If he was angry, he would have also hurt her…stomach…and other body parts. He wasn't a real customer of her. And…his kicks were precise, no aggressive act."

All agents and police officers remained silent for a second. Suddenly, a cell phone beeped. All of them looked at Jane but he said: "My cell has another to….oh." He kneed down to the victim and searched for a cell. He found the touch-screen phone in her pocket and disabled the key lock.

"Congrats," he muttered and ran to Lisbon to show her the SMS.

"He is watching us," she muttered and looked around.

"And hearing us," Jane said silently so that only the team could hear him.

"No wonder," Rigsby suddenly said and kneed down. Seconds later, he picked up a little 'thing' from under the body. "It's a bug, he stated and bagged and tagged it.

"This is no classical murder. No killer would leave a bug to listen to us," Lisbon summed up.

"Nor would he write an SMS to the victim," Jane said. He started typing.

"What are you doing, Jane?" Lisbon asked.

"Writing back."

"You won't. This is evidence," she said and grabbed the cell phone. She deleted this SMS and put it into a plastic back.

Jane just rolled his eyes and sat down on the near park bench.

"What?" Lisbon asked.

"What 'what'?"

"Would you mind helping us?"

"I already told you everything."

"But we haven't caught the murderer yet," Lisbon answered aggressively.

"We can't. He hasn't make a mistake yet. He was too careful but this isn't the only murder he will commit."

"And you know this why?"

"Lisbon…he's a serial killer who wants to play with us…although he isn't Red John…interesting."

"Interesting? That's all you have to say about this?" Lisbon asked in disbelief.

Jane hesitated for a moment, then he stood up. "There's nothing more to do here for me. I'm at the CBI." Before Lisbon could answer, he turned around to his car and drove away. Lisbon shook her head. Sometimes she really couldn't understand their counselor.

***CBI HQ***

Jane lay on the bed in the loft. He used the time he had before the others appeared. He had seen the number of the cell and now wrote back with his own phone.

Why did you kill her?

It was better to start with something simple. Maybe it was just another killer but he seemed to be intelligent enough. He left a listening device and the cell to communicate with them. Did he want the attention of the CBI?

His cell already beeped and he looked up the new message.

Do I need a motif?

Jane typed quickly, he knew that Lisbon would hit the roof if she found out.

Everybody has a reason to kill. Not necessarily a motif to kill a certain person.

He knew it wasn't the best English he wrote but he sensed that the team must soon get back and Lisbon would pull him down to the office and there he couldn't write SMS' without being noticed.

You seem to have experience, Mr. Jane.

He wasn't surprised that the murderer knew his name. But he certainly felt some kind of strange writing an SMS with a murderer they were searching. What if he could try to locate the other cell?

Maybe.

He smiled at himself. The murderer should know that he wasn't an easy target, whatever he planned.

He felt the vibration and opened the next message. His smile vanished immediately.

How did it feel killing your nemesis? How did it feel to find out, he was the wrong guy?

Jane shook his head. This guy was playing with him. He knew too much.

Are you Red John?

This question was stupid but if he was, he would get closer than he ever thought.

No no no no no. Poor Jane, already that desperate?

Jane sat straight up. Now was the time for being concerned. Who was this and why did he have so much information? Although, he noticed the next moment, it wasn't so difficult to find something out about a person nowadays. There was the internet, the newspaper, everybody had a homepage, a blog, everybody was sharing everything.

Who are you?

Jane closed his eyes again and tried to concentrate while he waited for the next message. It wasn't uncommon that murderers communicated with him, especially serial killers. But who was this guy, another 'fan' of him.

Did he ever meet him, did he dislike or love him? There were so many people in Jane's mind and he couldn't sort them. He had a lot of archenemies, some tried to kill him before, some tried to get his attention. This guy didn't seem to be any different.

It was strange that there came no response. Jane get nervous. Why didn't he write back. It seemed like eternity until the answer came.

Why do you think I tell you?

Jane smiled. Typical. "I want to play a game," he said sarcastically and imitated the other guy he didn't know.

Do you tell me?

He just had sent the SMS when he already got a response.

No.

"Funny," he muttered when he suddenly heard someone entering the room.

"Jane, what are you doing?" Lisbon asked.

"I…play online Minesweeper," Jane answered and showed her his phone, of course, not the display side.

It was obvious that she didn't believe him. "I want you downstairs. We need your help in the case."

"Am I a help lying on the couch downstairs?"

"You're a help because you always say when we're completely wrong," Lisbons sighed and Jane followed her downstairs. They have just arrived at the first floor when Jane received another SMS.

But I can show you.

Jane had to laugh silently. The other guy definitely watched too many movies. Although, he admitted he has just imitated one himself. Make your choice, he thought. I wanna play a game. He shook his head. This guy was nuts, for sure.

"We tried to locate the cell phone, boss," Rigsby informed. He already wore his jacket and Cho was putting his on.

"And?" Lisbon asked.

"He's at North Park. But the signal vanished some seconds ago. He seemed to have turned it off. Cho and I'll check it out but we doubt that he'll be still there."

Lisbon nodded and the two agents disappeared.

"Can I continue sleeping then?" Jane asked and lay down on the couch. He heard Lisbon walking away to her office. He smiled. He just had to wait for the killer to make his next step. He was too sure about himself, he would do a mistake. This was what Jane thought. What he was sure about. He didn't consider that probably he was the one doing the mistake…

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