AN: Thanks again for your comments and support of this story! I'm glad many of you seem to like Katherine so far - we'll get to learn a little more about her here. We're back in Lisbon's POV for this chapter, which takes place immediately after the events of the first chapter. The next is nearly finished, so it seems like I might continue to update this faster than I'd originally thought :)
Disclaimer: I don't own The Mentalist.
Had to learn to keep it all below me
Lisbon lets the panic she's feeling overwhelm her for two seconds, then she forces herself to look up at Rigsby with a steady gaze.
"Find her," she says, and she thinks her voice sounds like someone's been sandpapering her vocal chords. "Make sure she's unarmed, and bring her back. I need to speak with her."
Rigsby sends a worried glance at Charlotte then looks back at Lisbon. "You got it, Boss," he says, and he hurries out of the room, his gun still in his right hand.
Lisbon turns to face Charlotte, who hastily removes her eyes from Lisbon's clenched fist.
"He had that ring on this morning," says Charlotte, crossing her arms across her chest. "The only way that woman could have it is if she's the person he met. But why would he give it to her?"
Lisbon shakes her head. "I have no idea," she says. "This ring is…it's almost like a second skin for Jane. I don't remember ever seeing him without it."
Charlotte takes two steps forward to stand by Lisbon's side. "It must be important, then—whatever's happened. For him to take it off."
"With Jane, it's got to mean something. He's trying to send a message."
Charlotte's eyes widen. "You think that woman has the message."
"I know she does."
Lisbon hears the sound of her front door open. "All clear, Lisbon," says Cho, and Lisbon makes to move out of the room. Then she hesitates.
She steps back to grab her gun from her nightstand, and she holsters it on her hip.
Charlotte follows her out of the room.
When they clear the landing at the bottom of the stairs, Lisbon gets her first clear view of the older woman, who is standing between Cho and Rigsby, looking far calmer than any normal civilian should be in a room with three armed cops. Lisbon's eyes narrow. That strange calm, that mask—both seem too familiar to her.
Lisbon reminds herself that this woman may be a relative of Jane's. Of course she'd be equally difficult to read.
However, the woman's unreadable expression crumbles into oblivion the second she lays eyes on Charlotte, and Lisbon instinctively steps in front of the teenager as though she somehow needs protecting from this woman's gaze.
Lisbon glances at Charlotte, who looks confused more than anything, before turning her attention back to the older woman. As they approach her, Lisbon notices that her brown eyes have the same piercing intelligence that she has come to associate with Jane.
"Who are you?" asks Lisbon, and Charlotte comes to stop next to her shoulder. "How do you know my—"
Lisbon stops midsentence, wondering what she was planning to say.
My boyfriend? My friend?
My Jane?
"How do you know Patrick?" she asks instead.
But the woman is not listening—her attention is still completely focused on Charlotte. She grasps the edges of the light shawl around her shoulders and pulls it tighter around her.
"I'm sorry," she says. "It's just…it's like seeing a ghost. Twice over." She smiles at Charlotte. "You look so like your mother when she was your age. Her hair was darker, but…my God. I never thought I'd get to see you."
Charlotte moves closer to Lisbon, clearly uncomfortable, and Lisbon steps forward. "Who are you?" she asks again, this time more forcefully.
The woman looks at Lisbon as though just noticing her presence. "My name is Katherine. Katherine O'Connell. Patrick is my godson."
Lisbon glances at Charlotte, who'd been right, in a sense, in identifying the woman as a relative.
Though Katherine isn't blood-related to Jane, she is family.
"You met him today?" asks Lisbon.
Katherine nods. "He said you needed help. Before we could discuss specifics, we heard sirens, and he told me to leave. I watched Patrick and his friend being arrested from a window in the bookstore next door."
"Arrested?" asks Lisbon, but it comes out sounding more like a gasp for breath than an actual word. "What for?"
Cho and Rigsby exchange a look. Cho sighs. "We used an illegal trace to track Bertram's cell phone the night you and Charlotte disappeared," he says. "We used Van Pelt's computer, and on Jane's order. Whoever is still involved in this Red John thing—well, they must have found out."
Lisbon has to stop herself from reaching for her gun. "Are we in danger?" she asks.
"If they wanted us—or you—they know where we are," Rigsby points out. "They'd have made their move by now. Instead, they waited to take Jane and Van Pelt until they were away from the group—that means they don't want a fuss."
"And believe me, we'd put up a fuss," says Cho.
"He was arrested?" asks Charlotte, her voice smaller than Lisbon has ever heard it. Lisbon glances at her over her shoulder. Charlotte's bottom lip has dropped a fraction of an inch, and Lisbon can tell she can't quite get herself to believe what's she's hearing.
Lisbon squeezes Charlotte's hand quickly before turning her attention back to Katherine.
"Why did you bring Patrick's ring here?" she asks.
Katherine holds her gaze. "He said you'd know it meant I wasn't lying."
"He gave it to you to bring to me?"
"Yes, right before I fled from the diner."
"What else did he tell you?"
The first traces of fear flash across Katherine's face. "He says you need to leave Sacramento—it's not safe here for you, or for Charlotte."
Lisbon holds her gaze, debating.
I've just met this woman, she thinks. And now I'm supposed to trust her with my life? With Charlotte's?
Katherine's eyes narrow slightly, as though she knows exactly what's running through Lisbon's mind.
Just what I need, Lisbon thinks irritably. Someone else who can read my thoughts before I think them. An image of Jane flashes through her mind.
And suddenly she knows she must trust this woman. Jane trusts her, after all—enough to entrust her with his wedding ring in hopes that she would bring it to Lisbon. Which she has.
Jane trusts Katherine. And Lisbon trusts Jane.
But what if bringing the ring to her hadn't been Jane's plan after all? What if something more sinister is at play? What if the ring had been taken from him?
Lisbon's doubt intensifies.
She weighs her options, but eventually she realizes she and Charlotte will be unsafe anywhere they are.
And this message has "Jane" written all over it. Surely only he could be responsible.
This last thought is what ultimately helps her make her decision, but it is still a leap of faith.
Lisbon sighs. "I know," she says in response to Katherine's last statement. "We need to go."
"No," says Charlotte, and everyone turns to look at her. She looks like she's too overwhelmed to process what's going on. "I'm not leaving without him."
Lisbon raises an eyebrow—Charlotte has acted with such poise that it seems odd for her to act her age for once.
It's too easy for Lisbon to forget that Charlotte is still a teenager.
A teenager who just found out her father has been arrested.
Lisbon shifts to place her arms on Charlotte's shoulders. "Look at me," she says firmly, and Charlotte meets her gaze. "You know that I would go to hell and back for your father. I will do whatever I can to make sure he is safe. But right now, the thing he wants most in the world is to keep you safe. I promise you, he couldn't care less about being in jail as long as he knows you and I are as far from Sacramento as we can get. We have to do that for him, okay?"
Charlotte scrunches her eyes shut. "I don't think I can," she whispers.
Lisbon leans down to bring her face closer to Charlotte's. "The last thing I want to do is leave him, Charlotte." She can barely get the words out, and even when she does, they come out mangled and strained. Charlotte opens her eyes. "Leaving him is going to tear me apart," Lisbon whispers, the words barely audible.
Charlotte finally nods. "Okay."
Lisbon squeezes Charlotte's shoulders before letting her hands fall. "Rigsby, Cho—you'll have to stick around. We'll need a CBI presence to keep tabs on Jane and Van Pelt before we can break them out."
Charlotte's breath hitches. "Break them out?"
"We're not losing them into the system," says Lisbon determinedly. "Who knows how far up that cult has influence? The sooner we can get them out, the better. When they're free, you all will meet up with us. Then we'll figure out how to dismantle this thing. Whatever it is."
"Isn't this exactly what Red John wants?" asks Charlotte, her face ever paler than normal. "All of us splitting up, going our separate ways?"
Lisbon glances at Cho and Rigsby, both of whom are scowling slightly.
"Red John may think he's weakening us by splitting us up," she says. "All he's succeeded in doing is making us that much more determined to get Jane and Van Pelt out of there so we can take his group down for good."
She turns back to Katherine. "What did Patrick want us to do?"
Katherine gestures to the east. "We're set up about forty-five minutes outside of town," she says. "And we're getting ready to head to the Midwest in the next few days. Patrick wanted me to take you with."
Lisbon ponders this. "Can you afford to wait to return until nightfall? It'd be safer for us to travel in the dark—it's easier to see if we're being followed."
Katherine nods. "Of course."
"Good." She glances at Charlotte. "Your stuff is packed, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then we're mostly set. Cho, Rigsby—we'll need a plan to make sure Charlotte, Katherine, and I can't be followed when we leave town. And we need to figure out what to do about Van Pelt and Jane."
"You got it, Boss," says Rigsby, and after he glances at Cho, the two of them head into the kitchen. Lisbon hears their chairs scrape against the floor as they sit down to being hashing out a course of action.
Katherine takes a step forward, nearly within arm's reach of Lisbon. Though Katherine is a couple of inches shorter than Lisbon, the way she holds herself makes her seem taller than she is.
"Thank you," Katherine says. "Thank you for looking after him all these years. I don't think he'd be alive if he hadn't found you."
Lisbon blinks rapidly, surprised at these words. How much had Jane told this woman about their relationship?
As Lisbon studies Katherine's face, she realizes that Jane probably told her very little. If Katherine is anything like her godson, she could have read all that from Lisbon's emotions in the few minutes they'd known each other.
Lisbon nods, still shaken slightly, and heads into the kitchen to talk with Cho and Rigsby.
Their escape from the city that night feels anticlimactic.
Cho and Rigsby come up with an elaborate scenario involving three car changes, and Lisbon even gives Charlotte a scarf to wear over her tell-tale blonde locks in order to prevent being recognized. But there is no sign of any tail on them, from the air or the ground, and soon Lisbon and Charlotte are staring at Cho's taillights as he drives away from them in the darkness.
Lisbon says a silent prayer for him and Rigsby.
She says several for Van Pelt and Jane.
It is well after midnight, and Lisbon is still awake.
Earlier, Katherine had led them along the edges of the too-cheery music and sugary smells and neon lights of the carnival as they made their way toward the land where the workers' trailers and mobile homes were parked.
Katherine's home is an old, silver Airstream with a fold-out couch, a bunkbed built into the wall, a tiny kitchenette, and a too-small bathroom. Charlotte had glanced once at Lisbon before offering to take the top bunk, clearly mindful of Lisbon's injury.
The teenager fell asleep right away.
Lisbon is envious.
She doubts she will sleep well for a very long time.
Lisbon slides out of the lower bunk carefully and moves silently to the front of the Airstream. She climbs into the passenger seat and stares at the bright lights beyond her. As she watches, the lights from the Ferris wheel go dark, and she knows the carnival is shutting down for the night.
She pulls her knees up to her chest and leans her head against the window.
A warm hand comes to rest on her shoulder, and Lisbon jumps.
"Sorry," whispers Katherine as she sits down in the driver's seat to face Lisbon. "Just wanted to make sure you were alright."
Lisbon looks at her, surprised. She's not used to this—being looked after, like a mother would a daughter. It's disconcerting.
Katherine smiles. "It's funny," she says quietly. "Whenever Patrick and his father had an argument, he'd stay over at my place and spend the whole night exactly where you are now. It's been years now, so I have a different Airstream," she admits, "but that's where he'd be. I just...I saw you, and it brought back memories."
Lisbon shifts to face her. "What was he like?" she asks, curious. "You know, when he was a boy."
Katherine thinks about her answer before she speaks. "Charming," she says, smiling. "There was always a flock of girls following him around. Especially during his teenage years."
"He dated a lot?" Lisbon has a difficult time picturing this, but of course Jane had had a life before Angela.
Katherine shakes her head. "No," she says. "I don't think he really had any desire to date, though there was certainly interest in him. No, as far as I know, Patrick has only dated Angela and you."
For some reason, the thought cheers Lisbon considerably.
"I never had kids," says Katherine, "but if I did, I would've wanted them to be like Patrick." She gives Lisbon a nostalgic smile. "He'd come over every Sunday to visit and have dinner, despite the fact that he disliked my husband. Patrick was everything you'd want your child to be—considerate, kind, intelligent, and fiercely protective. But he hated his life here. I could tell. And that's why I was happy when he and Angela left. Because it made him happy."
"You knew Angela?" asks Lisbon, remembering that Katherine had thought Charlotte resembled her.
"I introduced them," says Katherine with a sad smile. "Angela was my niece."
Lisbon shifts uncomfortably. "I'm sorry," she whispers.
"It was a long time ago," says Katherine. She smiles sadly. "But what matters now is that Patrick has Charlotte—and he has you." She leans over to Lisbon. "The way he smiled when he told me about you this morning—he was absolutely enamored. If there's anything in the world I'm sure about, it's that Patrick will find his way back to you."
She stands up to make her way back to the couch, touching Lisbon's shoulder again as she leaves.
Lisbon sighs, wishing she shared Katherine's certainty.
She feels the warm weight of Jane's ring in her hand, and she raises it up to examine it more closely. It catches the moonlight.
Blinking back the sudden moisture in her eyes, she unfastens the clasp on her cross necklace and slides the ring onto the chain.
The ring settles over her heart, and Lisbon closes her eyes.
