So a couple of things, this one's a bit shorter, a bit less detailed. Mainly because I don't really like this episode. Also, I couldn't really think of that much to write, and somewhat problematically, Van Pelt's barely in the episode at all. Of course that meant it didn't take that long to write. No idea when the next one'll be up. Probably not that quickly.

Episode 8: The Thin Red Line

Minelli called me from the crime scene. My boss's presence tipped me off that this wasn't going to be just another case. So I grabbed Jane and Van Pelt and headed over right away. When we got there Minelli filled me in on the details. Joe Purcell, the state's witness against the biggest chrystal meth dealer in Davis, Rick Karis, found shot along with a woman, Patrice Maddigan, in a hotel room late last night. My boss was also careful to stress that we had to work with the Davis P.D. on this one, since they were as still investigating the Karis case. Something I personally had no problem with of course, but Jane didn't always play well with others. I put on my gloves and went to have a look around when my Minelli drew my attention to an unmarked bag of white powder. He assumed cocaine, but Jane disagreed. The consultant was right of course, and immediately after pointing that out, Jane walked quickly to the female victim's car.

And emerged holding a baby. "Hello!" I cooed from the other side of the car, deciding to ignore for a moment the whole other layer of problems a newly orphaned child had just added to an already complicated case. After all, she was a rather adorable baby. Oh God. An adorable baby who'd been in that car alone overnight. Thank goodness it hadn't been parked in the sun and the temperature wasn't too high, because otherwise there might have been a third victim to last night's crime.

Minelli went to go inform social services about the kid, while Van Pelt went to go check the crime scene for anything that might be of use to social services when they got here. I stayed with Jane and the poor little girl. I still couldn't believe how placid she was about the whole thing. Unsurprisingly Jane was good with kids, even if seeing him with one was kind of tragic. Still, he didn't seem too affected by it, so I didn't let it worry me too much. The pair of them did look cute together.

"So what happens to her?" he asked suddenly.

"Social services have foster moms who specialize in babies. They'll take care of her until we can find Patrice's family." Not a perfect system by any means, but it got the job done.

"If she has a family," he clarified. Yes, okay that was true. But it was all that we could do. Besides, most people tended to have families of some kind. Just because she was friends with a drug dealer didn't mean she didn't have loving parents somewhere who could raise their granddaughter. It was possible, and until I hear otherwise I'm choosing to believe that's the case.

Still, Jane seemed a bit reluctant to hand the baby over to social services. She was a sweetheart, but it needed to be done. Now that little Kaylee was taken care of we needed to get down to business.

"Lisbon, Jane and Van Pelt." my boss made the introductions to two men who I assumed must be from the Davis P.D. "Detectives Blakely and Presciado. Davis Homicide. They will be your liaisons with Davis P.D."

Jane noted that the first responder and one of our new liaisons had the same last name. Turned out they were father and son. Good old cop families. Despite my boss's call to work harmoniously it seemed to me that the two detectives from Davis were worried we were going to swoop in and steal their case.

"Listen, just so we're clear," Detective Blakely told me, "you can call us liaisons if you like, but this is still a Davis P.D. case. Our narcotics unit's been trying to bust Rick Karis for years."

Why do I have a feeling all of the cooperation's going to have to come from my side? Ah diplomacy, my old friend. "We appreciate your position. Have you checked the liquor store over there for surveillance cameras?" You never know, might get lucky.

"Not yet." Detective Presciado told me. "We're still questioning the guests." So I sent Van Pelt over.

Jane decided to make his presence known, "I got a dumb question. How come you guys let Joe Purcell slip away?"

Oh God. What's the opposite of diplomacy? Besides Jane of course. I needed to jump in before they did, "Hey stuff happens right?"

"Yeah, stuff happens." Presciado agreed condescendingly.

But then his partner topped him in the condescension department, "Yeah when we bring in Rick Karis we'll give you a call."

"You're confident it was Karis who did this?" I asked. Are we going to even look at anyone else just out of curiosity? "Purcell seems like the type of man who had quite a few enemies."

"Yeah, we're confident." Presciado told me.

Jane had another theory, "What if Purcell wasn't the target? What if the girl was the target?"

"What makes you think that?" Blakely asked him.

"What makes you think she wasn't?" It was a fair point, but maybe not the best way of making it.

"Either way, she's the place to start with the investigation." I told them. "Now she was only here for a moment so the shooter came in as soon as she arrived, which suggests that he or they followed her here. So we'll retrace her steps. What's Patrice Maddigan's current address?"

"Don't know. We checked the address on her license and registration, but she hasn't lived here for several months." Blakely told me.

Presciado jumped in angrily. "You're making this more difficult than it needs to be. We know who done it. This was a hit ordered by Rick Karis. If he's in town we'll round him up. You guys relax, see the sights. We'll call you when there's any news." And with that our liaisons from the Davis P.D. left us in the motel parking lot.

Ah the spirit of goodwill and cooperation. Gotta love it. Of course, not that it was entirely their fault. "When are you going to learn to cool it without being told?" I asked the man sitting beside me.

"Oh come on, they pissed you off too, the sexist pigs."

"They were." I told him angrily.

He looked confused. "I just said they were."

"You were saying it ironically." I told him. You have no idea what it's like being a female in charge in law enforcement Jane. No idea.

He decided to change the subject and handed me a couple of magazines. "Here. There were a couple of issues of that in her car."

Why on earth would Patrice have bridal magazines in her car? Course, Jane was the one to point out that it didn't matter. They had a mailing address on them.

xxxxx

Patrice's roommate was pretty torn up by her death. I doubt she's a suspect. But she did give us some pretty useful information. Seems Karis had called Patrice to bring him some food and that's why she was at the motel that night. That would seem to support our theory that whoever killed both of them was following her. And Lacey also told us that Patrice always had money, and a knack for making little things like being arrested for drug possession go away. That was interesting, and I really didn't like the obvious implications. Lacey suspected a rich boyfriend. A rich boyfriend whose description matches about a million other people, but at least if we get a suspect we can compare.

Speaking of getting a suspect, Rigsby and Cho apparently got a lead on Karis. I tell them to let Davis P.D. know, and that Jane and I will meet them there.

"What's going on? What are they doing?" I asked Cho as Jane and I pulled up and saw that Davis P.D. was already going in.

"Detectives Blakely and Presciado wouldn't wait for the entry team." Cho told me as I put on my vest.

"We tried to talk to them but they wouldn't listen." Rigsby confirmed.

"They're out for blood." Cho added.

Oh great. Just great. I swear to god if anything happens to my team because of their idiocy I'll kill them myself. Luckily Cho was able to subdue Karis himself and not a member of the Davis P.D.

"That's our bust!" Presciado told me angrily. "Hand him over!"

"The hell we will. Walk away." No way am I giving him to you after the crap you've been pulling. Not to mention I think you guys might just kill him, mood you're in.

Back at the CBI Karis of course denied everything. Tried to play it all cool. God I'm sick of being condescended to by men today. So I can't resist telling Karis I'll just hand him right over to the Davis P.D. to talk to then, if he's got nothing to say to us. The flash of fear that appears in the man's eyes before he asks to speak to his lawyer makes me feel just that much better about this whole case.

And hey, at least I can always count on Cho to keep his cool, no matter what the other lunatics around m decide to do.

xxxxx

I'd been reviewing security tapes all day like Lisbon asked. Still hadn't found anything useful, but at least that meant I didn't have to deal with the hotheads on the Davis P.D. Today that was Lisbon's job, and I didn't envy it of her.

Suddenly I heard Jane call out that the food was here.

"Hawaiian." I observed when I saw the pizza. "Cho hates pineapple." I told him.

"Well he can take it off can't he?" Jane asked me.

"Uh, I guess. I don't complain when he and Rigsby order Mexican."

"What is it you don't like about Mexican?"

"Cilantro. Can't stand it. But I don't make a fuss." Unlike the rest of you, who can be such babies sometimes.

"No you don't do you? Why is that?" He asked me. Um, because I try to get along with the people around me? I thought that was obvious.

"Sometimes you have to go along to get along." I told him.

"It's nice to be nice, but if you want to get ahead in life sometimes you have to be a bitch. I know you know how."

"Gee thanks." I told him with a smile. Sometimes I wonder how much Jane thinks about the things he says and how people might take them, or if he really just doesn't care.

"It's all about the balance Grace. Yin, Yan. Nice. Bitch. Little bit of nice inside the bitch, little bit of bitch inside the nice."

"Yeah, I'll work on that."

"Keep 'em guessing." I couldn't help laughing. At least Jane wasn't boring.

Of course what's the first thing Cho says when he walks in? "There's pineapple on it."

"You can take it off." I told him.

"I'll know it's been there." Apparently Cho is afraid of getting pineapple germs. I've heard they're deadly, so he should be very concerned.

Lisbon ignored us and decided to get right to the case. Karis' alibi checked out. But, nobody really seemed to think he'd done it anyways, especially Jane. Apparently not his style. Which I'll buy I guess, but then who killed our two victims?

Turns out Jane had a theory about that as well. "I'm saying that maybe Patrice Maddigan was the target."

"That's the second time you've said that." Lisbon told him.

"Well, Patrice she was an attractive young woman, but didn't work, and had a regular supply of money from somewhere."

"Boyfriend." Cho supplied.

"And was able to make a very serious drug charge disappear." Jane added

"Cop boyfriend." Rigsby corrected.

"Skinny cop boyfriend with dark hair that drives a blue car if you listen to Lacey Wells." Jane concluded.

"Detective Presciado is skinny with dark hair." I pointed out.

"He had crossed my mind. And a hot-tempered man as we now know. Who probably carries what a .38?"

"Yeah, yeah I think he does." Rigsby agreed.

"Joe and Patrice were shot with a .38." I couldn't help adding. Oh things were looking worse and worse for the detective from Davis.

"Yes they were." Cho agreed.

"Slow down!" Lisbon stopped us suddenly. "What's his motive?"

But Rigsby had that too. "Well it's a simple crime of passion isn't it? He comes upon the woman he loves with another man, kills them both Oh damn."

"He couldn't have been that surprised. I mean she had Joe Purcell's baby." I said though. I mean, hiding an affair is one thing, but hiding a pregnancy?

Jane interrupted us then to ask how Kaylie was doing. Like I would know. I assume she's fine. I mean, she's a baby. I'm sure social services know how to take care of her.

Cho's all for talking to Presciado, but Lisbon forces us to stop. She doesn't want to tick off the Davis P.D. any more than necessary, even though they seem to have no problem whatsoever doing it to us. Wants us to confirm our theory with some facts. See if the detective drives a blue car, and if Lacey Wells can identify him. Rigsby doesn't seem thrilled with the work, but we all get up to do it anyways.

At least confirming what colour of car he drives won't take too long. Yup. There it is. Blue.

xxxxx

Detective Presciado was a charming as ever when I took the boys with me to go pick him up. Always good to have some back-up when you're going on an errand like this. And given Presciado's attitude earlier I guessed he'd be a bit less of a jerk to the boys than say Van Pelt. Man what I wouldn't give to punch that smug smile off his face. But I'm going to be the bigger person here, because it's pretty clear he's not going to (despite the fact that he might be a full foot taller than me). At least Blakely's still pretty calm. Fairly hostile, but still calm. Not like Cho, but no one is.

When we tell him we can place him with the victim Presciado decides to come quietly. I really hope there's a simple explanation for this. Really hope. Arresting cops is never fun. At least I've got Jane to tell me if he's lying.

"Hey." Jane greets us cheerfully as he comes in the interrogation room.

Presciado seems a little put off by Jane. Course he doesn't realize Jane's taking his pulse, but it's still pretty funny.

I decide to ignore his questions about my consultant and get right to it. "How well do you know Patrice Maddigan?"

"Let's not screw around here." Presciado asked. "Just tell me what you have. Cop to cop."

I decide to do it, even if I'm not sure I'd get the same treatment if our positions were reversed. "Cop to cop? We know you were giving her money. We know she got off of a meth bust last Christmas. Evidence was lost right? From the Davis P.D. lockup?"

"Happens," he told me.

"We figure you took it."

"That's what you figure."

"Yes, and we could dig in and prove it, but I don't want to spend any time doing that. I'd rather just talk straight with you. Avoid dragging other good cops into this mess right?" I figure at this point the only way he gives me anything is if I threaten to make a big stink back at the Davis P.D. headquarters.

"Go on…" he tells me. But at least this line of questioning is getting through to him. Hopefully he decides to just tell us what happened.

"We figure you and Patrice were having a sexual relationship."

Detective Presciado seems to find that funny, and oddly enough so does Jane.

"She was, she was a confidential informant."

Yeah nice try buddy. "We considered that, but then she'd be on file right? And you would have put in for the money as a CI expense, but you didn't do that did you? Why? My guess, because you're an honest man." You're a jerk, but I'm not sure you're dirty.

"Yeah, sure. Okay. I was banging her. So what?"

"Did you know she was also in a relationship with your missing witness?"

"We had a business relationship. I paid her for sex. I didn't know or care what she did when I wasn't there."

"You paid her a lot of money. A lot. Good looking man like you, there had to be more to it than that." I ignored the look Jane shot me there. It's true, unfortunately handsome and arrogant often go hand in hand. Surely he understands that. Besides, he should be concentrating on Presciado. We need to know if this guy's lying, because I think he might be. "Did she have something on you?"

"Well she was punctual and clean, didn't say much. I liked that in a woman."

I ignored that as well. "Did you know your man Joe Purcell was the father of her child?"

"No."

"A lowlife junkie dealer with your woman. How'd that make you feel?"

"Couldn't care less," he told me. I don't buy it. Not if you were really sleeping with her.

"Do you ah, want the rest of my sandwich?" Jane asked him suddenly. "I can't finish it."

"What?" Presciado asked, clearly surprised by the rapid change of subject. You think that's bad? Try living my life buddy. You wouldn't last a day.

"It's a good sandwich. Try it," Jane pressed him.

"What is wrong with him?" Presciado demanded.

Oh nothing, he's just taking your pulse for me. "Where were you at 12:45am Monday morning?"

"I was at my partner's. We watched the game. I was too drunk to drive so I slept on the couch." Now that I actually believe.

"At Blakely's, just you and him?" I'd love another witness, one who wouldn't back you if you claimed the sky was purple.

"And his wife." That'll work.

"D'you have your weapon on you?"

"Yes I do," Presciado admitted reluctantly.

"Mind if we borrow it for a while, have ballistics take a look at it?" When he didn't answer right away I continued, "Look, I don't want to have to make this official, talk to a judge or anything. Once we do that the cat's out of the bag for good. If you're clean on this, here's the way to prove it."

He sighed and handed over his gun, and I let Jane take his pulse one more time (to his extreme annoyance) before we left.

"Well?" I asked Jane once we were in the hallway.

But Jane of course is incapable of answering a question directly. Instead he led with a statement that could only have been designed to needle me. "Oh it's just funny what bad liars cops are. I guess they're not used to concealing themselves under questioning."

Oh, I beg to differ my friend. "I'm a cop and I lie to you all the time. You never catch it."

"Well sorry to burst your bubble but you're translucent my dear. I always know when you're lying. Sometimes I let you think you fool me just so you don't feel bad."

"Name one time." I challenge him.

"Last Thanksgiving you said you were going back east to your brother's house, but I knew you were actually planning on having three days at home alone to watch old movies and eat ice cream."

"Okay. So that's one time." How could he possibly have known that? Idiot probably has a key to my office somehow and goes through all my stuff. Damn him over there, looking all superior. "What about Presciado?" I asked him quickly to change the subject.

"His stressed pulse rate was thready, dishonest."

"Thready?" I asked him.

"Hard to describe pulses. A dishonest pulse feels different to an indignant pulse. In this case he was signaling deception from first to last. There's something off about his whole story. Where we going?" He asked suddenly.

"To the zoo. They have new tiger cubs."

"Oh. Liar."

I just laughed. "Very good. I'm gonna go and speak with Blakely."

"Blakely's not going to tell you anything." Thanks Jane, for explaining to me how relationships between cops work.

"Nah, Blakely's old school. He'll back his partner to the moon, but his wife might be less steadfast. I'll keep the husband in the office while you go and talk to the wife."

Jane seemed to wholeheartedly approve of my plan. Probably because it requires a bit of sneakiness.

xxxxx

Unfortunately I couldn't quite keep Blakely in the office quite long enough. He's no fool, and he figured out something was going on. Luckily I followed him home, just in time to see Jane get punched in the face. "You okay?" I asked him as I ran after Blakely.

"Assault! Assault!" He cried.

"I would re-think this new technique of yours." I told him. This was what, the second time he'd gotten punched in the face in two months?

"I can't disagree."

Great, now I get to go tell Detective Blakely we need to speak to him back at the office. Davis P.D.'s really gonna love us.

Actually, so's my boss. Just once, I would like a case that's relatively simple. Just once.

So Patrice wasn't having an affair with Presciado. Looks like there was something going on between her and Blakely though. I did not see that one coming at the start of this case. Not that Detective Blakely will tell us anything useful of course. Why would he? He's in up to his neck from what I can see, and he's dragged his family with him. But his son, Sam Blakely, on the other hand might be able to help us out a bit… Now there's an idea…

xxxxx

It's been quite the case. I've been working behind the scenes a bit. I feel like I've been watching security footage for about two days straight now. Looks like it's finally going to come in handy though. I hope this plan works. If we get anything short of confession Davis P.D.'ll have our heads. Lisbon tells Blakely's son about the motel's security footage. At 12:40am we show him Patrice driving in, followed by another man. "We know who it is," I tell Sam Blakely. "A thug that works for Rick Karis named Q-tip."

Jane feeds him the rest of the story, that Q-tip claims someone else killed Karis but Karis will get his man to tell us who the real murder is in exchange for his freedom. Blakely doesn't believe it of course, but Lisbon tells him that Karis has set up a meeting with Q-tip and that we want to grab him until we get the real story.

"So, um, what do you need me for exactly?" Sam asks.

"If this is gonna work I can't have a bunch of angry Davis P.D. swarming over Karis and his crew, and the CBI is kind of unpopular with you guys right now."

"Yes you are."

"So, we were hoping you'd have a quiet word with your chief. Let him know what we're up to."

"Well, knowing the chief he's gonna want to know the details. When and where you gonna be meeting this Q-tip, and what personnel you got operating undercover."

"Sure. But this needs to stay close between you and the chief. We don't want to spook Karis."

Blakely seemed to agree, but we'll see. Poor kid. I almost hope Jane's wrong about how this went down.

Rigsby and I were waiting in one car. He was eating of course. I wonder what he'd do if I stole his food? This constant snacking can't be healthy for him. Cho was in the other, quieter car. Course, that probably meant that he didn't have anyone to play hangman and tic-tac-toe with to pass the time. Lisbon called in the information like we planned. Now we get to see if Sam falls for our trap. And there he is, holding a gun pointed at our planted car.

"Blakely drop the gun!" I yell.

Poor kid. Looks like he did kill them.

xxxxx

So Sam Blakely shot Joe Purcell and Patrice Maddigan after he followed her to the motel, hoping to catch her with his father, because he thought she they were having an affair. When he got there, Purcell freaked out and pulled a gun. But Blakely shot first, killing both of them. And the worst part of this case, Patrice wasn't his father's mistress. She was his illegitimate daughter, just like Jane suspected. And just like that, an entire family's lives are ruined. And things could have been ended up so differently, if only Blakely had told his wife about his daughter.

Jane thinks giving the Blakely's their almost granddaughter will help. I'm not sure. As a woman would you be so ready to take that child? I mean, sure, she has no one else, and it's certainly not her fault… but would you really want the reminder of the day your entire life was basically destroyed?

I don't know if I would.

I hate this case. It's too depressing. They were all of them good people. Not perfect, but good. At least all I have left to do is finish filling out the reports then it'll be done.

And hope Jane is right about this. Hope the elder Blakelys do decide to take care of Kaylee.

Maybe I'll just spend this evening watching old movies and eating ice cream. And figuring out how to lie to Jane.

Suddenly I'm distracted by the sound of an e-mail in my in-box.

"Apparently there actually are new tiger cubs at the London zoo. I attached photos just in case just in case it's too far for a day trip. –Jane

P.S. I think they'll keep the kid."

I grin. I can't help it.