Most 12 year olds broke their wrists while running around the playground or rough housing with their friends or siblings, not Teresa Lisbon.
It had been seven months since her mother's tragic car accident.
Tommy was at his friends house and James was at the park, tossing around a football with Christopher. Teresa was doing all of the chores, while her father sat silently in his chair in front of the TV in the living room, a half empty bottle of whiskey in his hand, and the floor around him littered with empty beer cans.
She was just finishing up doing the dishes when she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Slowly turning around, her father was standing right behind her, his forrest green eyes vacant and glassy.
He reached past Teresa making her flinch, and snatched up a dish from the stack on the countertop. He turned it over in his hands, taking his time to inspect it.
"There's a spot." His voice was cold.
Teresa gulped and looked down to the floor. "Sorry, I'll wash it again."
The plate slammed down on the linoleum floor, shattering.
"Jesus, Teresa! All I ask that you to do is help out around here and you can't even do that right!"
Apologizes began spilling out of Teresa's mouth as she dropped to her knees and began picking up the pieces of the broken plate. A gasp escaped her when she felt her father's fingers wrap around her wrist and yank her back up.
"You can't do anything right!" He breathed into her face, the smell of whiskey and beer making her cringe.
Teresa squirmed under his grasp trying to free her arm. "Dad... dad let go." He only tightened his hold. "Dad!" Tears were beginning to stream down her face. "Daddy!" The man squeezing her fragile wrist was no longer her father. He was a complete stranger.
She somehow managed to wrench her arm free and slammed her foot into his shin. He let out a loud shout followed by a slew of curses and let go of her. Teresa took the opportunity to run for it. She rushed out of the kitchen and ran into the hallway. She could hear him following close behind, his lumbering footsteps getting closer. Her heart beat sped up and she picked up her pace. She just had to get to her bedroom at the end of the hall.
She finally reached her door and grabbed onto the knob swinging the door open. Before she even could step into her bedroom she felt his large hand grab her wrist again, and tug with so much force she knew that he heard the snapping sound as well. She let out a shriek of agony and fell backwards onto the floor in her room. He went to come after her again, but Teresa kicked the door closed and shot up, locking it so he couldn't get in.
"You open this fucking door now!"
She held her twisted wrist oddly against her body and prayed for the pounding on her door to stop.
...
A loud and persistent knocking noise dragged Lisbon out of her sleep. She sat up on the bed and realized that she was still fully clothed. She must've drifted off.
"Lisbon?" Jane called through the door, and she could have sworn that she heard a hint of concern in his voice.
"Boss?" Van Pelt asked.
Lisbon got off the bed and quickly smoothed down her top and jeans. A dull burning feeling lingered in her left wrist, but she pushed it away and went to the door, unlocking and opening it.
"Are you okay?" Van Pelt asked, worry etched across the pretty red head's face.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." Lisbon ran her hand through her hair. "I guess I just fell asleep. What time is it?"
"It's 7:53." Van Pelt told her, looking at her watch.
"I've been out for hours. How come no one woke me up?"
"You needed to rest." Jane said.
"We have a case going on with no leads whatsoever. I can rest later."
Jane was going to shoot back with some comment about her all too apparent grumpiness, but stopped himself when he saw how frazzled she looked, and watched with curiosity as she held onto her left wrist.
"Where are Cho and Rigsby?"
"They went to the hospital about an hour ago to talk to the staff who were on duty at the ER the other night, when Gray Evans came in. We've been over the security footage from the parking lot where her body was found... there was a black SUV, a 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee. We couldn't get a license plate number and the windows were tinted, but whoever was driving it was definitely the one who dumped her body. " Van Pelt caught her up to speed, and Lisbon noticed she was holding a stack of papers in her hand.
Lisbon stepped back, signaling for Jane and Van Pelt to come in. Van Pelt went right in and set up a make shift work area at the small table in the corner of the room. Jane however, leaned against the door frame, his bright blue eyes practically piercing into Lisbon as he tried to figure out what exactly was going through her mind. She ignored him and went over to Van Pelt, sitting in the chair next to her.
"Jane told us that Laura Evan's daughter..."
"Eden." Lisbon said, not really realizing it.
"He told us," Van Pelt continued, "that she mentioned her mother was on her cell a lot, more than usual the past few months, and acting a little strange so I had the phone records pulled."
"She was having an affair." Jane bounced down onto Lisbon's bed.
Both women ignored his comment, for the moment. It was just a hunch he had that they couldn't prove or disprove yet. They were going with the solid evidence they had for now. Lisbon's eyes scanned over each page as she flipped through them. "The number she kept calling is blocked."
"That," Van Pelt sifted through the papers until she found the one she was looking for, "and look at the phone record from last night."
Lisbon looked closely at the page. There were calls being made from the blocked number to Laura Evan's cell phone almost every five to 10 minutes after 10 PM, the time Eden said that she saw her mother leave the house.
"We're going to have to talk to Eden again... probably Joseph." Jane said. "I wouldn't mind talking with Gray Evans again either.
Eden's pretty face came into Lisbon's mind, her big amber eyes looking like they had witnessed more than anyone at that age should ever have to.
"Jane's right, I doubt Cho and Rigsby are going to get much from the hospital."
Lisbon nodded her head in agreement. "Okay, but I'll go tomorrow."
"Do you really think we should wait?" Van pelt asked.
"She just found out her mother is dead." Lisbon tried to keep her voice steady as she said that. "She was seriously guarded when I spoke with her earlier today. I think it's best if we give her some time. Maybe she'll remember something."
Van Pelt didn't completely agree, but she nodded her head anyway.
"Why don't you start going through the security footage of all the stores that were around the grocery store. Maybe we'll get lucky and one of their cameras picked something up."
Van Pelt neatly stacked the papers into a pile. "No problem." She got up from the chair and left the motel room.
It was quiet for a long time after Van Pelt left and Jane's voice startled Lisbon. She had been so wrapped up in her own thoughts she had forgotten that he was there.
"Are you all right?" Jane watched as Lisbon dropped her mother's cross pendant from between her fingers and shook her head.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She blatantly lied. "I just haven't been sleeping too well lately." She told him, which actually was the truth.
"You see yourself in that girl."
"Eden." Lisbon said her name again, and Jane watched her closely, picking up on the fact that Lisbon wasn't seeing this kid as just another faceless person in one of their many cases. "There's just something... not right there." Lisbon blew her bangs out of her face.
Lisbon suddenly felt extremely vulnerable under Jane's unwavering blue gaze. She stood up and shifted her invisible armor back into place. "It's getting late."
"It is." Jane agreed, knowing exactly what she was insinuating, but deciding to ignore it. "Hungry?"
"No." Lisbon lied again. She was starving, but she had the feeling she couldn't eat anything even if she wanted to. "You should probably get some rest. It's going to be a long day tomorrow." She folded her arms across her chest and waited for Jane to get up off of her bed.
He didn't move for a long time and Lisbon thought she was going to have to resort to physically kicking him out of her room when he finally stood up.
She walked with him to the door and was about to close it when he stopped and reached out his hand, gently taking hold of her left wrist. His thumb began running soothing circles over her pulse point. Lisbon had to use every inch of her will power not to let her eyes flutter closed. She cleared her throat and slowly pulled her wrist out of Jane's comforting hold.
"Night, Jane." She closed the door.
Jane stood in front of the closed door for a long time. "Sweet dreams, Lisbon."
TBC
