6. DARK HORSES

The following Monday, Agent Tierney called in sick. She would be out the whole week. Jane hoped she wasn't suffering from a relapse. He hadn't really gotten any closer to her, but she was keeping Lisbon safe, and that made her important as far as he was concerned.

On Thursday, Lisbon called in sick and would be out for the remainder of the week. Cho was still coming into the office, and although Jane couldn't understand what was going on, he trusted both agents to know what they were doing. When Cho took a quiet moment to relay a message from Lisbon that everything was all right and not to worry, he secretly blessed her for knowing him so well.

Both women were back at the start of the next week. Jane couldn't help being concerned for Lisbon. She looked pale and unnerved—not at all her usual self. She mostly avoided the team except for necessary communication regarding the job. Tierney kept a concerned eye on her charge at all times. When Jane questioned Cho about it, he learned Cho hadn't been on detail that weekend. Cho said she probably hadn't completely recovered from a virus she'd picked up the week before. When the agent inquired after her health, she told him she was fine, and he could tell from her manner he shouldn't push it. The thing that most concerned Jane was that she was completely avoiding him.

At 11:20 a.m. Lisbon's phone rang. She stood as she listened, seemingly dumbstruck. She walked out into the bullpen and addressed the team in a forced voice.

"We have a case. It's Red John . . . He's killed Dr. Steiner."

They all sat in stunned silence. No one had actually liked the coroner. His people skills were non-existent, he covertly ogled the female agents, wasn't particularly helpful at crime scenes and seemed to delight in holding up his reports for as long as possible. But he had worked with the CBI for years. Lisbon wanted the whole team at the crime scene, and they all moved quietly to the elevators.

Sacramento PD, along with their medical examiner, was already on the scene. A neighbor had heard Steiner's cat wailing. Knowing she hadn't seen the obsessively punctual coroner leave for work and fearful something was wrong, she called the police. When no one answered the door and Dr. Steiner didn't pick up his work phone, they entered his house and found the body in the bedroom.

The ME estimated that due to lividity, liver temp and rigor, Steiner had been dead about 48 to 72 hours, approximately since Friday night. Jane idly wondered why Steiner himself had never been able to deliver information in such a timely manner.

The house was pristine. Steiner had kept it immaculate, almost obsessively so. As far as they could tell, there was nothing out of place except for the gruesome vignette in the bedroom. Once the team made their observations and found nothing helpful (exactly as expected), they decided to head back to the office to await the Crime Scene Unit's report. Everyone was quiet, but Cho could tell Lisbon was mentally chewing on something. In a rare move, he elected to ride shotgun. Curiosity kept Jane from going into the dark musings that usually carried him away during a Red John case. Did Cho think the danger for Lisbon was greater or that this murder was directly connected to her? When her second-in-command spoke without turning toward her, Jane realized Cho had sat up front so he could engage her in quiet conversation.

"What are you thinking, Boss?"

"I'm thinking about the possible reasons why Red John would kill our coroner."

"You think Steiner had something?"

"It would be like him to hold onto it for a while if he did. Or maybe to not realize what he had."

"How many Red John cases did Steiner handle?"

"All of them for the last three years."

Cho's brow furrowed. "All of them? For three years?"

"The AG believed his slower, more methodical manner would be more likely to uncover any evidence left behind."

"Who were the coroners on Red John cases before that, and where are they now?"

"Steiner has been a coroner with CBI for eleven years. But until three years ago, there were two others that worked Red John cases: William Stacey and Randall Joyne. Stacey joined the CBI in 1995, and in 1998 he caught the first case. Eighteen months later he committed suicide. Steiner was hired out of Lincoln, Nebraska as his replacement. Joyne was new here when the murders started—just transferred from San Antonio's CSU. He handled the Jane case. Three years ago Joyne died in an automobile accident."

"Sounds like a lot of bad luck for coroners associated with Red John."

"Maybe luck had nothing to do with it." Lisbon replied. Both agents were quiet for the remainder of the trip. Jane was impressed and a little surprised by Lisbon's thorough knowledge of the timeline as it related to the coroners. He had pretty much memorized the Red John files, but he didn't have near the command of the details she had just demonstrated.

Once back at the office, Lisbon made her way straight to Hightower's office. When she exited twenty minutes later, Hightower was barking orders to her assistant to check with personnel to see if any other employees were absent without calling in and to place a call to the Federal Building in DC. In short order, it was learned that the second-in-command of the CSU, Gordon Fargo, was AWOL. Rigsby and two other CBI agents were dispensed to his address and found the house in a mess. The closet was empty, and the dresser drawers had been cleaned out except for an ancient and empty prescription bottle for a very strong anti-psychotic.

A small portal in the back of the closet, apparently left open in Fargo's haste, led to a secret room that held newspaper clippings as well as crime scene photos and other objects, including jewelry and car keys. News articles about Jane's family and Lisbon's days at the SFPD were mixed with photographs of the two of them working Red John crime scenes. The patterning in the layer of dust on a bookshelf was evidence that whatever volumes it once held had been removed. Back in Fargo's bedroom, Rigsby spotted a book on the floor partially hidden beneath the bed. It was a journal dating to last year. It was possible it was one of a series, and that's what had been removed from the shelf. Fargo had probably unknowingly dropped the journal in his hurry to flee.

By 9:00 a.m. the next morning, three of the FBI's top forensic pathologists and their best Crime Scene Unit were downstairs in the morgue and forensic labs combing through the files of every Red John case as well as the newly discovered journal. It didn't take them long to see that there were major discrepancies in the files from the late coroner and former crime scene investigator. The autopsies had been incomplete and sloppy. Some of the CSU reports were flawed as well. If Red John had been arrested and tried, the evidence would never have held up in court. Any defense attorney worth their salt would have had their own forensic experts investigate the findings, and they would have torn the case to shreds. The discoveries left everyone at the CBI reeling.

Then, two days later, Kristina Frye's body was found.