Chapter 6: Fractious Times

Oh what Minelli would give for a day away from the petty politics of the bureau. Just him, a few beers and a fishing rod - the cool ocean breeze blowing away all his cares.

The internecine warfare waging between Lisbon and Bosco's units was bad for morale, both sides were as bad as each other, but Bosco's men were better at covering their tracks. As if to prove the point, Minelli rounded the corner just in time to catch the tail end of Rigsby directing a stream of invective at Hicks and Martinez, and Cho was no better straining like a pit bull on the leash, just waiting for an excuse to get involved.

One glance at Hicks feigning innocence, was enough to confirm who had started the latest contretemps. Hicks was a wily old fox and knew exactly which buttons to press, if not actively encouraged by his boss, Bosco had certainly done nothing to dampen down hostilities. It was disappointing that Lisbon and Bosco couldn't put their differences to one side; they were just as bad as their subordinates at times.

The buck stopped with Minelli, and it was obvious he was going to have to do something. Hopefully the call he'd just taken from Captain Rupert offered him a way forward. Nevertheless in Lisbon's absence, he still needed to deal with the situation in hand.

"You can't be left for a minute without rising to the bait. Show some decorum Agent Rigsby." Minelli cast his eye around the bullpen."So where is Agent Lisbon?" His gruff manner made it perfectly clear this wasn't the end of the matter.

"She's just popped to see Shettrick; she'll be back any minute." Rigsby exchanged a worried glance with Cho, regretting that their indiscipline would add to Lisbon's problems.

All heads turned at the ping of the elevator; Lisbon walked out jauntily, stopping dead in her tracks on seeing everyone staring in her direction. Crap what had they done this time? She glared accusing at Cho and Rigsby.

"Problem Sir?"

"Well that depends whether you think it's acceptable for your agents to be hurling abuse across the bullpen. This has been going on for too long. You've had every chance to sort this out. I'm afraid it's out of your hands now. My office in five, Agent Lisbon." Minelli set off purposefully in the direction of Bosco's unit.

"What the hell have you done this time?" Lisbon snapped at Cho and Rigsby.

"They started it..." Rigsby ignored Cho's hand signals to zip it, but he was cut short by an exasperated Lisbon before he could dig himself into a deeper hole.

"What is this, a freaking kindergarten?" She brushed off Cho's muttered apology, as she made her way to Minelli's office. Oh crap! Bosco was there, just what she needed.

Tapping on Minelli's door before entering, she nodded curtly at Bosco before taking the seat next to him. Bosco was already bristling with indignation, ready to defend the honour of his unit, before Minelli even said a word.

Minelli leant back in his chair and fixed them with an eagle eyed stare. "Agents as you seem to be incapable of sorting out your units; it's my responsibility to make sure that things get back on track."

Bosco immediately went on the offensive. "There's nothing wrong with my unit. Lisbon just needs to accept that we've got the Red John case, and let it go."

Before Minelli could say a word, Lisbon was straight back at Bosco. "And how's that going Sam? I hear that you're so fixated on one suspect that you're not even following up the new leads. Have you even spoken to Danny Ruskin?"

"How do you know about that?" Bosco snarled.

"I'm a detective." She leant in towards him, mouthing the words right in his face.

"No kidding." Bosco spat back.

Minelli banged the desk. "Enough! How can you control your teams, if you can't even control yourselves? That's it. I've decided you're working the case together from now on."

"You can't do that..." Bosco drew himself up angrily.

Minelli narrowed his eyes, irritated by Bosco's habitual undermining of his authority."I think you'll find I just have Agent. Problem?"

Lisbon's lips twitched slightly in satisfaction. "No Boss."

Bosco managed a grunt in response.

Minelli passed a file to each of them. "Captain Rupert passed this over to me, there's been another incident at the mental facility where Patrick Jane is being held, and the Captain thought that seeing as we have an ongoing investigation, we might want to pick this up..."

Jane blew his cheeks out irritably when he put the phone down. Manny wasn't taking his calls, or returning his messages. Jane just hoped Manny hadn't gotten out of his depth again. Although Jane had rescinded access to most of his bank accounts, Manny still had a fair amount of working capital to play with. In some ways the money was a secondary issue; a few days in Reno would soon fix any shortfall. Always assuming he could get out of this god dammed hellhole in the first place, which was precisely why he needed to contact Manny.

Although things had calmed down to some extent, the regulatory authorities had been all over the establishment after such a serious incident. Luis and Eric had been suspended over the drug taking, although they denied any culpability, and Jerry was unlikely to be back any time soon, especially as he'd lodged a negligence claim against the facility.

Needless to say others had stepped up to fill their boots, and security had been increased to the extent that it felt more like a prison than a medical facility. From Jane's perspective the one good thing was that the sex offenders were now languishing back in jail, rather than polluting their airspace. Everyone was glad to see the back of them, even the guards. No one had guessed who was behind the attack; it was taken at face value that the men had acted off their own initiative. Sam had asked Jane outright what he knew about it. When Jane glibly responded he'd heard things, but it wasn't his job to report them, Sam let the matter drop despite his suspicions.

Jane was aware that the trustees were in attendance, but curiously the patients had been kept well away from them. No doubt this was just another tick box exercise to keep the lawyers and insurers happy. Nevertheless Jane kept a wary eye on the newcomers comings and goings, hoping for a chance to have his say. He'd even considered activating the fire alarm to engineer a meeting, but would bide his time for now. The trustees offered him his best chance of getting out of here and it wouldn't do to antagonise them. If only he could get hold of Manny...

The one unexpected dividend was the return of Agent Lisbon, albeit accompanied by that caveman Bosco. It was only because he was assured that Agent Lisbon would be present, that Jane agreed to see the CBI. He eyed the odd couple up with amusement as they entered the room, bumping into each other in the doorway, neither prepared to cede authority to the other.

With a glimmer in his eye, Jane leant forward and took the hand that Lisbon proffered, bringing it up to his lips before she could offer any resistance. "Enchanté Agent Lisbon." His eyes wrinkled at her obvious embarrassment; Bosco's grunt of disapproval at the smarmy greeting was the icing on the cake. Not in the mood to be rebuffed again, Jane just gave Bosco the briefest nod of acknowledgement.

Bosco took some satisfaction from seeing Jane's bruised face. "What happened to you? Been shooting that mouth of yours off again?"

Jane shrugged, wincing slightly at the movement. "Oh is that the official line? Let's just say I'm hors de combat, having met with an immovable object." He glared up at the observation panel, sorely tempted to stir things.

Lisbon didn't miss his grimace, or the none too subtle glare at the window. "Do you want to talk about this?"

"What good would it do?" He averted his glance, unprepared for Lisbon's show of concern.

"If you've been attacked, they should do something about it." For all Jane's faults, Lisbon couldn't condone that sort of treatment.

Bosco rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Save your sympathy for someone who deserves it. He's beaten the rap once, so what if he gets roughed up a bit?"

"I was cleared of all charges by 12 good men and true." Jane responded coolly. "Though I dare say you'd have happily watched me take my last breath, strapped down to a gurney."

"Watched, I'd have done up the buckles myself." Bosco wasn't normally the vengeful type, but made an exception in Jane's case.

"Oh well, at least your position is clear. What about you agent Lisbon, would you have me languishing on death row at the whim of some prison governor, trying to make a name for himself? Or perhaps you're more interested in justice being served?"

"We just do our job; it's out of our hands after that." Lisbon shuffled uncomfortably at being made to face the consequences of their actions. "You've got nothing to worry about if you're innocent."

Jane just shook his head at her misplaced faith in the system."Such touching naïveté Teresa. The bourgeoisie have stripped the halo off the hallowed institutions. They're all in it for themselves these days, too busy serving mammon to worry about some nobler purpose. What sort of justice system conspires to keep a man under lock and key despite acquittal?"

"Oh save it for the matinee Dorothy! It sounds like something straight out of the communist manifesto." Bosco had heard enough.

"Umm give or take a few words." Jane conceded.

"Surely your attorney should be attending to that?" Lisbon had been surprised he hadn't walked free.

"He's temporarily indisposed at the moment." Jane chose not to elaborate further.

"Maybe you should change your attorney." Lisbon suggested in all seriousness.

"Oh what's this, good cop, bad cop?" With the exception of Sam, Jane's world was largely devoid of any human warmth, and Jane's default setting was cynicism, even when people were trying to help him.

His eyes drifted over to the door, where one of the trustees was looking through the window, taking an interest in proceedings. "Why Agent Lisbon I do believe you have a secret admirer. No not you Agent Bosco, although much as she tries to ignore it, she's aware of your secret longings. There's clearly some unresolved tension between you."

Bosco's face was thunderous, he couldn't respond without acknowledging the veracity of the statement.

"Oh don't look surprised Agent Lisbon; it's hardly a secret the way he looks at you. There's something primal about his infatuation, it probably started off innocently enough, a mentor perhaps? No doubt your eagerness to learn and your prodigious work rate impressed him to start with. Despite your tomboy swagger there's a damaged intensity to you that brings out your feminine side. It's catnip to men of a certain age."

Bosco leant forward menacingly." Why you..."

Lisbon reached over to his arm. "Oh hush Bosco, he's just messing with your head to see if you'll bite, just ignore it."

"Oh Teresa! You have to spoil the fun every time. It's not as if there's anything else to do in this godforsaken hole. Oh well, I guess if you haven't come here to shoot the breeze, we ought to press on. " Jane was tiring of the charade already.

Lisbon noted that Jane had one eye on the observation panel all the time they were speaking, although he denied all knowledge of Jerry's attack and refused to elaborate on his own injuries. Lisbon came away from the interview with a feeling that something was very wrong with the institution, and her investigative antennae were twitching to find out more.

After failing to agree whose car to travel in, Lisbon and Bosco had travelled independently. It was a joint investigation and Lisbon was determined Bosco wasn't going to dictate the agenda. "I'm going to hang around a while longer to see what I can find out, I'll see you back at base."

"Bah! You're wasting your time, it's a cut and dried case, they caught the culprits. As for Goldilocks the sooner I can wipe that smile off his face the better."

They had both assiduously ignored the elephant in the room; Bosco had been an open book to Lisbon on that score for years, but something about this case had rattled him."Samuel Bosco what on earth has gotten into you? I barely recognise the cop that taught me to follow the evidence and track down every lead. I'm only doing what you taught me. When did you become so cynical?"

Bosco had the good grace to look embarrassed. "I'm just saying Teresa, be careful. This place gives me the creeps."

The trustees of the institute were establishing how procedures had become so lax, but that wasn't really any of the CBI's concern. However Lisbon met a wall of silence with all her enquiries, and became more certain that there was more to this than met the eye. Finally having drawn a blank, she made her way out to the small gravelled car park set in the quadrangle. She immediately recognised the slim uniformed figure, ruefully examining the side of one of the cars. He looked up at the sound of her footfall on the gravel.

"Sam isn't it?" Lisbon noted the scratch marks down the side of the car. "I take it this isn't an isolated incident?"

Sam inhaled deeply considering his response; he took a long look round the courtyard. "No this is just the tip of the iceberg."

"I thought as much. Was the attack on your colleague just lax security or part of the bigger picture? Surely it's unusual for patients and staff to be targeted?" Lisbon dangled a speculative line hoping for a bite.

"If you have dangerous people around these things can happen. Some of the staff go out of their way to antagonise them, so perhaps there was an element of revenge. As for your second question there's a lot of things happening here that shouldn't be. Hopefully the trustees will sort it out before it gets completely out of hand." Sam's serious manner left Lisbon in no doubt that her suspicions were well founded.

"So what happened with Patrick Jane? I'm guessing his injuries are more extensive than he's letting on."

"They say he slipped in the bath, but he was half drowned when I found him. Patrick's coy about the details, but I have no doubt it was some form of punishment. He never knows when to let things go." Sam started to open up more, instinctively trusting Lisbon.

"So who else was involved?" Lisbon gently probed.

Sam glanced around. "Miller, Jerry and two of the night staff."

Lisbon's ears pricked up. "Jerry? Was that a coincidence?"

"I couldn't possibly comment." Sam raised an eyebrow, letting his thoughts be known on the matter.

Lisbon took out her card and slipped it to Sam. "Look, call me any time if there's anything you want."

Sam nodded in thanks, then grimaced at the sound of the alarm bell ringing. "Sorry got to go."

Lisbon's eyes lingered appreciatively on his retreating form, his all American boy good looks and soft manners brought out a protective streak in her. She jumped with a start when she heard a voice pipe up from behind her. "Such a shame, all the good ones are either married or gay."

She turned around to see the speaker occupying a bench in a shady nook, with his some heavy tome on his lap. He peered over the top of his half rimmed glasses, in the direction of Sam's retreating figure."The last of the boy scouts, it's fairly obvious who blew the whistle and called the police in."

Gathering herself together, she pointedly looked at his finger, and then looked him straight in the face. "No ring I see, so what does that make you?"

A low chuckle. "Aah but I never said I was good." He leant forward conspiratorially and whispered to Lisbon. "In fact I make a habit of behaving badly whenever the opportunity presents itself."

Lisbon felt decidedly flustered and the colour of her pale complexion heightened. His eyes crinkled in amusement at her discomfort. Reverting to a mock Irish accent her tormentor teased. "Aah, for shame on me, that's no way to be treating a good catholic girl like yourself."

Lisbon looked him over with a more than professional curiosity. The slightly bookish clothing hung off his angular frame in the insouciant way that only the most elegant of men can carry off. The foppish mane of hair, slightly greying at the temples, was swept carelessly to one side. It framed a slim but lined face that was dominated by an aquiline nose and strong dark brows, it all lent a very distinguished air to the man in question. He wasn't good looking by conventional standards, but coupled with the timbre of his deep voice, there was a magnetism to him that Lisbon found disturbingly attractive.

He uncrossed his long legs carefully and extended a long fingered hand to her."Excuse my rudeness, let me introduce myself. I'm Dr Rubin. I'm one of the directors of the facility, I spend most of my time lecturing at Stanford, but exceptional circumstances have necessitated some hands on time here. I'm sure you're aware of the circumstances Agent Lisbon."

Lisbon shook his hand, taking the man in more circumspectly this time, realising their paths might cross professionally. "Good to meet you Dr Rubin. I'm afraid my visit here isn't entirely for pleasure either."

"I'm sure it isn't. If I were to speculate, I would guess that you're more open minded to following your instincts than your colleague, who favours a blunt instrument. Something feels off to you, and you just can't put your finger on it."

He paused briefly to assess her reaction. "You're in a quandary over the tragic widower. Despite all logic, something is holding you back from believing he's your man. Although not immune to his charms, you're professional enough to see beyond that, but it's still hard to reconcile such angelic looks with a cold hearted killer."

The accuracy of his statement was unnerving; Lisbon just hoped he hadn't read her earlier thoughts, but the knowing look on his face made her feel transparent to him.

Finally he broke the spell. "Do tell my dear. Is he guilty or not?"

"You tell me, you're the expert. How can a man erase all memory of his family?" Lisbon countered defensively.

"Well of course they're not erased, they're still there waiting to be brought back with the right therapy." Rubin eyed her up speculatively, as if wondering how much she'd understand.

"You mean like regression therapy where you take someone back to help them recall the past?" Lisbon was rewarded with a look of approval.

"Top of the class Agent Lisbon. That's exactly what I mean." His interest was piqued by her ability to make lateral connections.

"But isn't there a danger of planting false memories by doing that, and if it were so obvious why didn't Dr Miller follow that route?" Lisbon was thinking on her feet now, trying to retrieve her scant knowledge of the subject.

Rubin cleared his throat . "I'm sure you'll understand professional etiquette prevents me from giving you a straight answer to that question. I'm sure Dr Miller had her reasons."

He finally stood up and towered over Lisbon, not stooping like so many tall people did."Anyhow Agent Lisbon I must bid you farewell for now, but I'm sure our paths will cross again over the next few weeks. Adieu." She watched as he made his way across the quadrangle, his book tucked under his arm and his head held high. Lisbon's eyes followed him until he disappeared into the building, she determined to find out more about Dr Rubin, so she was better prepared should their paths cross again.

Dr Miller had been keeping a low profile since the trustees had been on site. Luis and Eric had been suspended over the drugs, and she was wary that they might start singing to save their skins. It could all fall apart very quickly. To compound her problems, her publishers weren't happy with the preliminary chapters submitted, apparently they lacked bite, and there were rumblings about her returning the advance that she'd already spent.

The last thing she wanted was an encounter with Patrick Jane at this juncture, but she had to try and push things forward. Not wishing to be overheard, she surreptitiously made her way down to his room and entered unannounced, quietly pulling the door closed behind her.

"I believe it's customary to knock before entering a gentleman's room." Jane was stretched out on his bed, focussing on an interesting stain on the ceiling.

Miller dragged a chair over and sat next to him. "I always knew you were a charlatan, but gentleman is stretching it a bit too far. Besides there's nothing I haven't seen before."

"Well I assume you haven't come here to ravish me, so what brings you to my humble abode Sophie?" He quirked an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Oh, you think you're so clever don't you? You may have fooled the others, but I know who engineered the attack on Jerry. The police said the offenders seemed distant and unresponsive, when they picked them up." Miller was determined to let Jane know she had his measure.

"I have to admit there was a certain Karma to it. How is poor Jerry by the way?" Jane didn't insult Miller's intelligence with a denial, but his mock politeness was starting to grate.

"As if you care. Look, if you want out of here, you're going to have to co-operate. I'll never sign you off until I get what I want out of you." Miller saw no point beating about the bush.

"From what I've heard it may not be up to you for much longer." Jane's eyes were firmly fixed on the mark on the ceiling.

"I only have to say the word and we can step your treatment up. Drugs will soon loosen your tongue, and one way or another I'll solve this conundrum. With or without your help. You think the trustees can save you? Think again Patrick. They're not interested in individual cases. You'll rot in here for as long as I say so." The words were delivered with a monotone efficiency, the effect was chilling.

Jane swung his legs round and pulled himself up so he was right in her face, so his words had maximum impact. "There's a special corner of hell reserved just for you Dr Miller. You'll rue the day you admitted me to your facility mark my words."

"I do hope that's not a threat Patrick?" Miller kept her cool, eyeballing him back unblinkingly.

Jane leant in menacingly. "Call it more of a promise. Let me go or live with the consequences."

"That sounds very much like a declaration of war to me Patrick. Very well don't say I didn't warn you." Miller stood up to leave, sounding very much cooler than she felt. Her insides were in turmoil, she hadn't wanted to go down this route, but with everything closing in on her what choice was there?

She passed Dr Rubin in the corridor, wondering what had brought him snooping round this part of the facility. There was no time to lose, as soon as she sat down at her desk she logged into her computer and brought up Jane's case notes, then reached for a book from her bookshelf. She needed to brush up on her skills before trying this, Patrick Jane would be a hard nut to crack.