Chapter 7.
Everything is a blur, there are red and blue lights flashing in the distance and sirens are crying. Smoke billows from the fire behind Lisbon, who is lying halfway between Jane and the car. He's frozen, everything happened so quickly that he can't remember what happened. Snapping into action, he runs towards her, ignoring the pain in his shoulder, tears stream down his cheeks, images without her flash in and out of his mind, the physical agony he is in is nothing compared to life without her. When he reaches her, he kneels down beside her, hoping for any sign that she is still alive.
"Lisbon? Can you hear me?"
He doesn't get an answer, panic surges through him.
"Lisbon, please," he sobs, taking hold of her hand and squeezing it, "don't leave me please." Flashbacks of what happened that night float back to him, the image of the red smiley face painted in his wife's blood, that same feeling of dread pulsates through his body.
Rigsby suddenly appears beside him, takes her hand other hand and tries to find the pulse in her wrist. He looks up from her hand and faces Jane, "she's alive, but her pulse is very weak."
His words help Jane focus, she's not gone, he tells himself, pull yourself together!
Two paramedics appear from the entrance of the car park, along with Van Pelt and Cho. The two agents sprint past the jogging paramedics and join Rigsby and Jane.
"What happened?" Cho asks.
"She…" Jane pauses to wipe the tears away, "the car was booby trapped, the killers… they took Lisbon's keys and wired the explosive to go off when the door was opened."
"The fire department are on their way," Van Pelt tells them.
Rigsby's phone begins to ring; he leaves them for a moment to take it.
The medics join them seconds later, setting down their equipment.
"Move aside please," the older man says, placing the stretcher beside her body.
Cho, Rigsby and Van Pelt move aside, but Jane doesn't move, he doesn't want to let go, he never wants to let go.
"Sir, please," the other paramedic tells him.
Jane leans forward and whispers something in Lisbon's ear, and then moves back to let the paramedics get to work. The paramedics put Lisbon on the stretcher and take her back to the waiting ambulance. As soon as she is in, fire engines rush into the car park and fire fighters jump out, ready to tackle the blaze.
"Cho, just got the call from Bertram, you're working point on this," Rigsby rejoins them.
Discretely, he reaches for Grace's hand and gently squeezes it. Cho turns to Jane, "you need to tell us exactly what happened."
"I was over by my car," Rigsby interjects, knowing that Jane is still in shock, "I heard Jane shout, then there was an explosion."
"I should have stopped her," Jane mumbles to himself.
"It's not your fault, Jane, okay," Cho tells him, then he addresses them all, "it's no-one's fault."
"The best thing that we can do now is find who did this," Van Pelt adds.
"I'll get forensics on the car as soon as the fire's out," Cho tells them, "meanwhile…" he trails off as Jane runs off to follow Lisbon.
"Rigsby, go with him, you two go to the hospital," Kimble decides, "Grace and I will stay here."
Wayne lets go of Grace's hand and sprints to catch up with Jane.
"So, what are we going to do?" Van Pelt asks Kimble.
"We're going to go back to the precinct," he tells her, "and we are going to fill in that timeline."
Rigsby and Jane follow the ambulance in Wayne's car, the journey seems to take forever, every turn feels miles away from the next, every second passing like an eon. Patrick's heart sinks lower than ever before, I could have stopped her, the words circle around his mind.
"Hey," Wayne breaks the awkward silence, "she's gonna be okay, she's got through worse than this."
Jane can't bring himself to answer, but just continues to focus on the ambulance in front of them. Both the ambulance and the car have their lights and sirens flashing on and off, making the city's traffic part like the Red Sea as they speed down the main streets.
Back at the precinct, Van Pelt manages to fill in several more minutes of Walter's night. He had gone down a few backstreet roads on the outskirts of Sacramento, from what she can tell from the CCTV, and then he disappears.
"Hey, Grace!" Cho shouts from his desk, "Forensics have got something for us."
She races to join him at his desk, butterflies starting to make themselves home in her stomach.
"They've found a metal tag in Lisbon's car, one that wasn't part of the explosive device," he informs her, showing the photograph on his computer screen.
"Is that a military dog tag?"
"No, it's smaller, the size of a quarter and there's some writing on it. They're working on it now."
"I might have something too," she replies, "I've been tracking Walter's whereabouts from last night. The roads that he was travelling on have few side roads coming off; he must have headed down one of those to whoever he was meeting. And it can't be that far, because he only had about 8 minutes between getting there and then back to Lisbon's by 11.15."
"So we are looking for something within a 4 minute radius down these side roads, great work Van Pelt, I'll get a team together," Cho reaches for the desk phone, whilst Grace retrieves her firearm from her desk drawer.
We're catching up with you, you sons of bitches, Cho smiles to himself, he knows they are.
When Rigsby and Jane make it into the hospital, after finally finding a parking space in the already packed car park, they head straight for the ER department and after asking several members of staff, find one of the doctors who is treating Lisbon.
"How is she?" is Jane's first question.
"Are you her husband?" Doctor Harper replies.
"No, we're her colleagues," Wayne interrupts, "I'm Agent Rigsby, "he shows her his badge, "and this is Patrick Jane, one of our consultants. We were there when it happened."
"Follow me," she leads them into one of the empty visitor rooms, and then closes the door behind them for privacy; "she has gone straight into surgery."
Jane immediately turns away, trying not to let them see him cry.
"She has suffered serious injuries, the head wound alone should have killed her, but something is keeping her heart beating," she tries to give them hope, "she's strong, that gives her a good chance of recovering. Her other injuries are less serious, if she can get through the next 24 hours, she'll be okay."
"Thank you, doctor," Rigsby answers.
"I'll leave you two alone," she replies, and then makes a quick exit.
"Jane, she's going to be okay," Wayne reassures him, "look…"
They are interrupted by Rigsby's phone going off, he pulls it out his pocket and answers it.
"Hey Cho, what is it?" he asks, "…really?… that's great…uh huh… uh huh….yep…okay, thanks."
"What?" Jane turns around, tears forming in his eyes.
"They've got a lead, something about side roads and a small area to search," he informs Patrick.
"You should go and help them," Jane prompts him into leaving.
"Nope, I'm staying here with you," he replies.
The search into the first, second, third and fourth side roads end up fruitless, only farms and ranches were scattered down those mud tracks. But a few minutes up the road, off the beaten track, down a long meandering potholed road, is a dilapidated house. The white paint on the outside is peeling and the blue window shutters hang on by a single hinge. Behind the main house, hidden by
