A/N: Thanks to Phosphorescent, CookiesForMe and lolly2222 for reviewing part eight.
x tromana
Part Nine
They scoured Kristina Frye's townhouse together.
When Jane had told her that he was going on a date with the psychic, it had entirely taken her off guard. The last time they had met, the pair had been practically at loggerheads, with her having to mediate. Part of her knew that all Jane was out to do was prove that she wasn't really a psychic. He was so convinced that nothing else could exist, was practically blinded to the very concept, that he ignored anyone else's opinion. Even if they could back it up with a convincing argument, he brushed it aside as coincidental. Still, she regarded it as progress, that he actually wanted to connect with people outside of the workplace. And if he was capable of doing that, then there was the hope that he would live in her pocket ever so slightly less.
Or at least, she had hoped so until Kristina had made that fateful mistake on live television. As far as she was concerned, it was just history repeating herself. She remembered her resentment at having to provide Jane with protection and the sinking feeling afterwards when they realized they'd failed. All she wanted to do was wrap Jane in bubble wrap and protect him from harm, however that was literally impossible. For a start, he was a magnet for danger and his self-imposed quest didn't help either.
Then, there was her annoyance with John. The fact that he just couldn't leave Jane alone was getting beyond a joke. It was almost as if he saw Jane as a rival he had to eliminate through the means of psychological torture. That was a ridiculous concept as Lisbon was fairly certain that her relationship with both men was going absolutely nowhere and even when given the chance, she wasn't going to change her mind about that. Still, she understood their rivalry, it was only natural. She just wished that she could have the guts to do the right thing and stop John. Unfortunately, the only answer she had to that predicament would inevitably result in his death and she wasn't about to sacrifice a dear friend in such a manner. It was bad enough that she knew it was the potential fate of many people she arrested and charged, and something that didn't always sit easily with her conscience.
It was times like this when she wished that California didn't have the death sentence. The law seemed to forget that murderers, whatever crimes they'd committed, however many people they had killed, were still human. They had just made some very grave mistakes in their lives. However, the law, people, appeared to want what was little more than legalized revenge. Jane was doing exactly that, except for the fact he insisted that it had to be by his own hands instead of relying on the law to do it on his behalf. Still, it was her job to do it and therefore, she (mostly) did it anyway. If she really hated the death sentence that much, if it was really that much of a burden to her, she could have always moved to another state.
They took their time, looking around Kristina's home. While he scoured downstairs, she looked around the sleeping quarters. She was horrified when she found out that, for the first time in a long while, John had made a mistake. A leather glove had been seemingly carelessly left in the master bedroom, under the bed. Nervously, she glanced over her shoulder, suspecting Jane to come through the door at any given second. When he didn't, she pocketed it, realizing that it wasn't a mistake. It was intentional. John wanted someone to find it and most likely, that someone was her.
"What was that?"
Lisbon jumped when she heard Jane's voice. She had tried to be inconspicuous, had even checked to ensure that he was still downstairs and still, he had managed to see her. Silently, she cursed at him. The man could move as silently as a cat when he wanted to.
"Nothing," she answered back.
"Really?"
"Yes. Really, I just dropped my notebook."
Jane frowned and dropped the matter. That surprised her; Jane was never usually one to let things go quite so easily. Still, Lisbon let out the breath she had unintentionally been holding. That was altogether far too close for comfort.
xxx
She waited until the case was completely over before she even dared to look at the glove. Mostly because she had been so busy and so concerned about everyone involved. Jane, naturally, was a given and then there was Van Pelt, who had taken the fact that Kristina had disappeared under her watch very badly. That, and she wanted to pretend that John wasn't involved at all, that she hadn't known from the offset that it had been an emulation. From the very beginning, she had known that John wouldn't be impressed about the copycat killers, he never had been in the past. He always sought out to deal with them in his own ways, however much it angered Lisbon. She hated him taking the law into his own hands as much as she hated the fact that Jane was trying to do the very same.
It was the still of the night when she realized she hadn't scrutinized the object. She hadn't been able to sleep, so reluctantly, Lisbon pulled herself out of bed and fetched it out of her jacket pocket. It was obviously leather and she had no doubt that it was pretty expensive. Turning it over, she attempted to ignore the fact that it smelled very definitely of him; his favorite cologne was all over it. It wasn't long until she discovered that there had been a note hidden inside the glove. She read it over and over. John had a way with words and it had been carefully constructed. After all, he couldn't have been one hundred percent sure that she would be the one to find his glove, or that she would have been alone. Usually, it was Jane who noticed the finer details and therefore, it would have taking him seconds to discover it had they chosen to look in a different manner.
It didn't say all that much. As far as she could decipher, it was a confirmation that he had taken Kristina and didn't mean any harm to Lisbon herself. That he was sorry for making work all the more difficult for her, as per usual. He also explained that he would deal with the kids who idolized him, said he'd long worked out who they were. It was something that made her wish she had read it sooner. Then, she would have worked out who had been emulating John earlier. And then, Jane wouldn't have ended up walking into a situation unarmed and nearly gotten himself killed.
It would also have meant that Jane wouldn't have met John face to face. She always knew that that was a dangerous situation. That neither man could be trusted alone with one another. In fact, she was highly surprised when she discovered that both of them made it out of the situation unscathed. When she found Jane, tied to a chair with saran wrap, she was somewhat surprised that John hadn't finished the job. Given the fact that John was happily making Jane's life a misery, she was pleased that she had underestimated him.
Then again, it probably just added to Jane's psychological torture. How was he expected to cope with the fact his nemesishad been the one to save his life?
Lisbon screwed it up and along with the glove, locked it in her safe. If she ever did change her mind, she needed to keep the evidence untarnished and therefore, it was the only thing she could think to do with it. Technically, she knew she was breaking the law by withholding evidence, but what was new? With the Red John case, she had been doing that for so long that it was now pretty much second nature to do so.
xxx
"What was he like when you met him?" Jane stated lightly
"Who?" she asked, thoroughly confused.
"Red John, of course."
"Oh."
"Well?"
"I don't remember much," she answered, lying through her teeth. "It all happened very quickly. And it was dark."
Truth be told, she had expected this line of inquiry a long while ago. For some reason, Jane had never thought to bring up the fact that it was relatively common knowledge that she had indeed interacted with Red John once in the past. In fact, some people had labeled her as the victim that wasn't, the one that fell through his fingers. The only difference was she knew that Red John had never intended to shoot her, never mind kill. Though, the longer she could maintain the image otherwise, the better.
"Really?"
"If you like, I could hypno-"
"No way. Once is enough."
"But you never know what you might recall; it could provide us with integral details about the case!"
"I'm not having you messing around inside my head, again. If you are so interested, why didn't you ask last time?"
"It must have slipped my mind," he said lightly.
"That's unusual for you."
"I had more important things to worry about at the time."
"Such as?"
"Your taste in music is shocking."
"I wish I hadn't asked."
"There's no shame in liking the Spice Girls, really," he called as she stormed off. "Everyone has their own guilty pleasures!"
xxx
After he returned from the hospital, there was something different about Jane. Lisbon already knew that Todd Johnson had died, that whoever had set him alight within the four walls of the CBI headquarters had murdered him. The question on everybody's lips had been why. Who would do such a thing? It was only natural that people thought it was a revenge killing for all the cops who died in Vineland. JJ LaRoche, who had been put in charge of the investigation into Johnson's case, seemed to agree with the general consensus. Normally, that would have been good enough for her. Though she didn't know LaRoche that well, she did know that he had a good reputation for getting to the bottom of complex cases. However, there was a look in Jane's eyes, just something that suggested he was holding out on her, that there was something more to it than cold-blooded revenge.
That worried her and made her think twice. Mostly because Jane usually had one case and one case only on his mind, and that was Red John. Sometimes, she wished he would just switch off from it for half a second and give her a chance to relax. Their other cases always provided Jane with a brief distraction, but it was never enough. He always ended up right back where he started. Lisbon had lost count of the number of times she had found him holed up in his attic hideout, poring over old information, as if the seven thousandth read would give him new insight. It was moments like this when she wished she could travel back in time, change that decision she had made. Jane was a shadow of a man, living a half life, all because of one person. Somebody she could have stopped, theoretically. And it broke her heart to know that.
But then, she only needed to see John's face, his crooked smile and bright eyes to realize that she would never have been able to sacrifice him for the greater good. It was selfish, she knew that, but she couldn't help it. Everybody deserved the right to someone who cared about them, even a serial killer like him. And even if people disagreed with such a concept, human emotions were complicated. Nobody could help who they loved, or at least, cared about. Often, people had very little choice in the matter. Lisbon was evidence of that herself.
"Do you know where the Red John case files are?" Jane asked, not even bothering to knock on her office door as per usual. "They're not in their usual place."
"What's Red John got to do with anything?" she asked with a furrowed brow.
They were in the middle of another case, something relatively mundane. An apparent suicide, where a teenage boy had appeared to have drowned himself, though the evidence pointed towards him being pushed into the swimming pool. They had only been dragged into the fray because the pool's manager was best friends with the Mayor's wife. But then, it was connections like that that led to them getting the majority of their cases. Still, it was blindingly obvious that Red John had nothing to do with it and yet, Jane was still thinking about it. Then again, whenever cases weren't particularly taxing, he always took a back seat, simply because he felt it wasn't worth his time and energy.
"It's an important case!"
"All of our cases are important," she retorted angrily.
"To you, maybe."
"Not just to me, to-"
"Sometimes, I wonder if you ever want to close the Red John case at all!" he interrupted and she glared at him. "Whenever he's out of the picture, you don't seem like you care at all."
"I care!"
"You could have fooled me."
"I'm sorry, Jane, but if there's no new evidence, I have better ways to spend my time than going over old ground!"
Naturally, she was annoyed. Lisbon worked as hard as any of them on all of their cases. It was just that whenever Red John slipped through their fingers, she was silently pleased. That always meant that she had another chance to try and persuade John to give it all up before she had no choice but to arrest him. Really, they were lucky that she had managed to work the case for so many years and yet, to everyone else, his identity remained a mystery.
"There's always the hypnosis," Jane suggested quietly.
"Oh no, not that again," she said with an insufferable sigh. "How many times do I have to tell you? No!"
"But-"
"I was unconscious before I had a chance to see his face. And even if I had-"
"Yes?"
They both fell briefly silent. That had been altogether far too close for comfort. She had nearly let slip about his styling, the long coat, the leather gloves, the mask he had taken to wearing. If Jane realized she knew more than she had let him know, he would have had a field day.
"It was dark and therefore, an unreliable account."
"Or so you say."
"It's all in Bosco's report."
"Ah yes, but his report says that Red John had already disappeared by the time he found you," Jane said simply. "Ergo, that makes you and I the sole survivors of any of Red John's killings. Isn't it about time we exchanged notes?"
She ran a hand through her hair. Of course Jane was going to be persistent. He always was, whenever he got a bit between his teeth.
"And I've already told you everything I know. Stop wasting my time, Jane. Unlike some people, I have work to do."
TBC...
