Thank you for all your kind reviews & follows, it really means a lot to me. This chapter is a little longer so you have been warned. Like I have said this is my first story so I apologise for any major mistakes errors spellings you may find. Hope you enjoy it anyway!
Chapter 4
It was early evening when the small 12 seated propeller aircraft finally landed on the famous 'paradise' Island, the sun was nearly set & dusk was arriving, thou paradise was a word being loosely used at the moment in Lisbon's mind.
The runway was basically a strip of old uneven tarmac & the "airport" was a small white rundown building, about half the size of the bullpen, with one fat sweaty passport control guy sitting behind a worn desk, smoking a cigar that was filling the air with its over whelming smoke. After eyeing her up & down & staring at her breasts for ages, the fat vulgar man finally stamped her passport & let her thru.
Thankfully, being such a small airport, she had her luggage with her so all she needed to do get a taxi & get to the hotel, she desperately needed a shower, something nice to eat & a decent nights sleep, in that order preferably, then she could work out where the hell to start looking for Jane.
She had overheard a rather excited man on the plane talking about how he was here for the island's annual local festival & that you could get across to the north of the island in a less than a day so she knew she wouldn't be searching the island for weeks trying to find Jane at least. By the time she got out of the "airport", most of the other passengers had disappeared, but she saw the cute surfer guy leaning up against a post & another man, who was wearing a crumpled cheap suit & looking rather sweaty. He had been on the flight too & had looked nervous the whole time, especially when they had hit some bad turbulence coming into land. He was now nervously pacing up & down wiping his forehead with a soggy looking tissue, dripping with sweat, due to the severe heat & humidity & wearing a cheap suit with a shirt & tie. Lisbon decided he looked harmless enough & decided to ask him if he knew how she would get to the hotel.
She pulled her case along behind her, she smiled at the man in the cheap suit and then asked "Excuse me? Do you know how I get to the hotel on the island?" He looked up at her slightly shocked & then suddenly seemed more nervous than he had before.
"... Uh... Well... I'm not sure, this is my first time..., what I mean is, on the island... but... I think this is where you wait... I also need to get to the hotel... This is where a work colleague told me to wait... I think..." replied the man, who was in shock that the small, attractive lady had chosen him for directions, rather than asking the tall tanned good looking man leaning up against the post. He had always been overlooked, whether it was home as a kid, at school, work, women he approached in bars, so this was a new experience for him.
With this, Lisbon heard a small chuckle coming from behind them, she realised the sound was coming from the tanned man leaning up against the post.
"Something amusing you..." Said Lisbon turning her head to look at the giggling culprit.
"Nope... " he replied short and sweet & continued reading his book.
Just as she was about to thank the nervous man, a small 16 sweater bus pulled up, the electronic doors open & the driver jumped out, he opened the luggage trunk & with a very big smile he greeted them "Hola... CASA Del Mar hotel?".
The driver pointed for them all to get on the coach, she left him loading her luggage whilst she climbed on board to take a seat, thankfully the bus was air conditioned & the cool air on her heated skin felt great. She glanced across aisle to see the surfer guy leaning his head against the window with his eyes already closed. The last to board was the nervous guy, she smiled at him and he sat on the seat behind her.
Lisbon turned & said "I'm Teresa by the way..." The Nervous guy smiled and wiped his sweaty hand on his suit jacket before holding it out to shake hers " I'm Colin...Colin Leonard. I'm here for a business, I sell toilet supplies & facilities. We supply the island hotel with our services, but the contract is now up & its up to me to get them to sign a new one, it's my first big client...I'm little nervous" he stated, which was understatement Lisbon thought to herself amusingly.
Colin knew this stranger didn't really want to know all this information, but he was nervous & felt he needed to say something as she being so nice to him.
"Are you here on business? or pleasure? He asked her.
"Well... Its complicated... It's a long story I won't bore you with it all..." She said not wanting to explain to a total stranger on how her boyfriend had done a runner & her boss had forced here to bring him back. With that the bus started & began to drive away at a fairly quick speed.
45 mins later the bus was pulling up to a nice 4 star hotel, it was dark now, but the hotel & the pool was all lit up & she could see candlelit tables dotted around the pool area & people sitting enjoying the warm evening. She walked into the reception area & realised that there it was only her & Colin checking in, she hadn't seen where surfer guy had gone too, to be honest she didn't really care he seemed a tad arrogant & not very friendly. Colin had begun fiddling with his luggage so she decide to head straight up to the reception desk.
She was greeted by a young lady, who thankfully spoke excellent english. The young woman informed her that due to the local festival on the island, the hotel was now fully booked, Lisbon at that moment wanted to collapse on the floor & sob. It had taken her nearly eleven hours getting here & now there was no room available. A young lad wearing a name badge saying Franklin standing behind her had overheard her conversation & interrupted.
"Uh... Señora, there maybe some rooms to rent down by the sea, nothing fancy, but they have a clean bed and a shower..." He told her with a lovely warm smile on his face "
"Thank you, I really appreciate that information..." replied Lisbon.
Colin was still messing around outside the lobby with his reservations papers, Lisbon smiled at him & wished him luck with his business meeting, he was slightly confused at her leaving the hotel so soon but he assumed she had somewhere else to be. He really hoped he see her round again, he liked her, felt very comfortable in her company & that didn't happen very often.
Lisbon walked down towards the beach, after a few minutes she reached a little market square with a few shops, restaurants, bars dotted around. As she stood looking around her, she noticed a small shop still open, it looked like a post office of some sorts, inside was 2 women were chatting, one larger lady sat on a stool & another small lady stood behind counter. She walked in, both ladies look up & smiled at her kindly, She asked them if they spoke any English, the larger lady shook her head, the smaller lady behind the counter lifted her hand to make a gesture to show that she knew a little.
"... I need a place to sleep... " Lisbon made a pillow gesture with her hands to show what she meant "the hotel is full..." She pointed back up at the road, hoping they got the gesture at the hotel. With this the smaller lady pointed towards the sea & said in very broken english " Si si Ah... Manuel... Speak Manuel, beach..." The lady then made a drinking gesture with her hand & said the name Manuel again, Lisbon's years of detective skills kicked in at this point & she took a guess that she was trying to tell her Manuel would be at a bar.
She thanked the 2 ladies & left, Lisbon then decided to go back in, she fiddled with her phone & showed the 2 ladies a picture of Jane, it was a pic she took of him a few weeks back, with him sitting at her kitchen table with a tea cup in his hand smiling one of his dazzling smiles. Before she could say another word both women's faces lit up & they started pointed to her phone.
"Ah Si, Si, Señor Jane... "
Lisbon was a little shocked, she hadn't expected that kind of response, the 2 women had started talking to each other very fast in Spanish, clapping their hands together & practically jumping up & down. Clearly, this was the place to start looking & Jane was, with in no doubt here. She suddenly felt her heart racing, she realised she was a little nervous to see him. She thanked the 2 ladies once again & left the shop. She headed towards to the beach pulling her case behind her, she decided Manuel was the first man she needed to track down & tomorrow she would deal with finding 'Señor Jane.'
After a few minutes she reached a beautiful golden beach, further along she spotted a small hut type building with tables and chairs out on an open air patio area, she could see people sitting around the tables & could hear muffled laughter & soft music playing. It was a bar, this had to be the place to find Manuel, the first thing she noticed as she arrived was an older man on a bar stool with white hair, he looked wistful & sad, she smiled at him & he nodded in her direction, then she said to man behind the bar "hola... I'm looking for Manuel..." The barman pointed to a short man sitting at one of the tables, Manuel said he had no rooms left & the last room had been taken about an hour ago, now Lisbon really did want to cry, she had no idea what to do or where to go, just as she was about leave & head back to the hotel, she heard a familiar voice behind her.
"Please don't tell me you came all this way without anywhere to stay..." It was the cute surfer guy from the plane, the last thing she needed was him laughing at her so she just rolled her eyes & grabbed her case. "Hey, wait up... Look, I overheard your predicament, I can help..." He said, a little less mocking now.
"You know where I can get a room?" She replied with pure hope in her voice.
"Well, no, I doubt you'd get anywhere to stay around here for the next few days, due to the local festival, but you can always share with me if you want..."
Lisbon stood looking at him, shocked, she couldn't believe her ears, was he actually hitting on her.
"Look buddy... whoever you are, I'm not interested..."
Before she could say anything more he shrugged & said "ok, fine, well good luck finding a bed for the night, I was just trying to be helpful by offering you a place to stay. I have a shower, bed & couch in my room but suit yourself, there's always the beach to sleep on, oh but be warned the sand gets everywhere & it's going to rain later apparently... Oh... & just for the record your really not my type...
With this he turned back to the bar & sat back down on the bar stool.
It suddenly dawned on her that her options were very limited, she could either sleep on a cold sandy beach, out in the open or take the offer of this jackass guys couch. She decided it best to swallow her pride & take him up on his offer. It was only for one night anyways & she'd hopefully find Jane tomorrow & sort something else out.
"Um, Hi, again. Mmmm The couch sounds great. It will just be for one night, I will find somewhere else tomorrow... thank you..." She said, approaching him gently, tail firmly between her legs. The guy turned & smiled at her.
"I'm Josh Beacon..." He held his hand out for her to shake. She took his warm hand & introduced herself. "Teresa Lisbon"
Sharing a room with a total stranger was not normally something Lisbon would ever choose to do, but what choice did she have, plus she was a FBI agent & could look after herself. With that, Josh grabbed her suitcase & walked off towards square again, she had no idea where Jane was tonight, so this really was her only option.
Lisbon woke up the next morning to the sun shining thru the window, surprisingly, she had slept very well, Josh had insisted she take the bed & he would take the couch, she was so tired that she didn't have the energy to argue & took him up on his offer.
When they had arrived back at Josh's rented room, she took a shower, Josh kindly made her a sandwich & poured a glass of apple juice. He told her he was heading back out to the beach bar & he leave her to it. He added that he may be up before she woke tomorrow so chances were he may not see her, he the wished her luck finding somewhere else to stay but if no luck then she was always welcome to crash with him till something came available. Lisbon thanked him for saving her skin & decided that she may have judge this guy a little harshly.
She laid in bed for a few minutes enjoying the sound of the waves crashing & the warmth of the sun on her face, she realised she could hear the shower running, she looked over to couch, it was empty, Josh must have slept in late she thought, she hadn't heard him come back last night but she had been so exhausted so it was no surprise.
Suddenly there was a loud knock on the front door, she wasn't sure if she should answer, it wasn't her room or place too, the knock came again, more insistent this time, she was wearing only her Chicago bulls football shirt & a pair of pink panties, maybe she should wait for Josh to get out the shower to answer it she said to herself. Again the knocking persisted, deciding it may be important she got out of bed, pulled down her shirt as far as she could & went to answer the door.
Unfortunately Josh came out of the bathroom just as Lisbon grabbed the handle & pulled the door open, there, standing in front of her was Patrick Jane, he was standing in the doorway, dressed in one of his dodgy island shirts, a pink sarong, wearing one of his trades mark smiles, that was, until he looked over her shoulder to see a tall good looking man with a golden tan & a full 6 pack, walking out of the bathroom in just a towel.
Jane's gorgeous smile dropped instantly, Teresa spun round to see what he was looking at, she turned to see Josh standing behind her half naked, she looked back at Jane, horrified at the scene unfolding in front of her, Janes face was now so serious it took her back to his red John days, he looked her straight in the eye & said coldly "oh I'm sorry Lisbon, I didn't realise I was interrupting..."
With that Jane turned his back on her & stormed off. She called after him but he just continued walking, she desperately wanted to go after him, but she couldn't, not dressed in just her panties & a short T-shirt. She knew she needed to get quickly get dressed & find Jane immediately.
