Apparently Jimmy Ramage, Lily's biological father, had died not five days prior in a fiery automobile accident. His parents were also dead, although they had died less exuberantly of natural causes.

The only thing Teresa had learned on this visit was he missed his daughter fiercely but was given a raw deal by Lily's mother and stepfather.

Oh, and she should really research things before striking out like a rookie.

Her phone rang, breaking her from her foul thoughts. "Lisbon."

"My dearest Teresa Lisbon. How goes your afternoon? Lovely as you I hope."

She gritted her teeth. "Cut the crap, Jane. What do you want?"

His calm voice came through as smug as normal. "Methinks something vexes thee."

"Yes, as a matter-of-fact it is. I went, on your hunch, to visit the town where Lily was conceived only to find there was nothing to find. Lily's father--"

"Is dead," Jane finished.

Teresa let out a noise that was a cross between a growl and a scream before yelling into the phone, "A fact that would have been helpful several hours ago, Jane!"

"I didn't know several hours ago, Teresa."

She let out an imaginative curse as droplets of rain hit her windshield. "Look, it's starting to rain, I'm pissed off at you--"

"Me? What'd I do this time?"

"I'll see you in about 30 minutes, Jane."

"Wait, Lisbon--"

She derived great pleasure in hanging up her cell on him. Childish, true, but it made her feel better.

It took her ten minutes to convince herself maybe it wasn't all Jane's fault. Another two before she realized the pickup truck behind her was following way too close in the downpour they were in. Then the pickup started to pass her on the two lane road. Then several things happened at once.

Her passenger window exploded. Shots? Oh my God, I'm being shot at. She grabbed the cell phone she had dropped in the cup holder and without thinking hit the redial as she saw the man hold up the gun again. Answer, answer, answer, she begged as she tried to speed her vehicle up to keep out of sight of the bullet.

"I knew you'd reconsider," the cocky voice said.

"Jane, shut up! Listen to me."

"What's wrong?" The seriousness in his tone made her want to laugh.

"Caucasian male. Pickup. Dark. Shooting," she managed.

"Where are you?"

She thanked God he was intelligent enough not to ask pointless questions. "I don't know! There's no landmarks. Wait. Oh, shit!" she said as she heard then felt the crash of the vehicle into hers.

"What's happening?"

Teresa knew she was bad off when Jane's infuriating calmness was soothing to her. "He's going to run me off the road. I'm going to die," she saw clearly.

"You're not going to die!" Jane said, forcefully. "I'm on my way right now."

She tucked the cell between her shoulder and ear to try to fight the wheel. Still, the metal guardrail was scrapping and she could see nothing over the side. "It'll be too late," she told him, seeing the end of the rail ahead.

"No, I was too late for my wife. I won't be too late for you."

The end of the guardrail was the end of other safety net no matter how hard she fought it. "I'm sorry," she told him as she felt her front drivers side tire leave the asphalt.

"Damnit, Teresa. I'm coming for you. Just--"

The rest was lost as her SUV completely left the road and went tumbling end over end, speeding towards a corpse of trees. She knew she was screaming, was helpless to stop it.

Finally, she came to rest, a massive tree stopping the fall, she forced herself to remain conscious. She had blood on her hands and a quick glance in the intact rear view mirror showed cuts on her face and a painful knot on her temple.

"Hurry, Teresa. He might be after you," she told herself, not really sure if she actually said it out loud.

Her vision was threatening to go out as she unhooked her seatbelt and painfully made her way across the seat.

Her phone! She found it by the pedals and shoved it in her pocket.

The rain helped steady her a bit but she stumbled more than once- the last time she couldn't get the strength to stand back up. Or even crawl.

As the darkness took over her she thought she heard a man's voice. "Look what we have here..."