Chapter 9.
Molly Willis.
I'm surprised that three of us are still up; Jane is lying on his sofa, he's been quiet for an awful long time so I guess that he has fallen asleep, how he can do that though is beyond me. Rigsby and Van Pelt greeted us with no news of the boss when we returned and they needed to get going, though they told me to keep them updated on any developments in either case. Cho and I are about to discuss notes on the case, he too looks exhausted, but is gulping down a cup of coffee to keep himself awake. Before we begin, he fills me in as to Fitz's absence and what they had discovered at the restaurant.
"Jane and I had only had time for a quick talk with Cassidy Croft," I inform him, "she freely admitted to having a fight with Gardener that night, but claims that she returned home before midnight."
"Does she have an alibi?"
"She gave us one, but we still need to verify it," I answer, "did you find anything useful your end?"
"We got a photo of a suspect who had tried to use the victim's credit card," he hands over a piece of paper with the black and white photo on it.
The image takes me back a little, "do you have a name?"
"No, why?" Cho asks.
"Because this is the woman we spoke to today," I reply, "this is Cassidy Croft."
"Are you sure?" Cho asks.
"Positive," I reply.
"Let's have a look," Jane murmurs from his sofa.
Cho hands it over and Jane nods to agree with me after looking at the photo for a few seconds, "that's her," he adds for confirmation.
"She has the victim's credit card and motive to kill her," Cho theorises.
"Rick also said that she was possessive," I add, reluctantly I'll admit, and Jane notices.
"What is it Molly?" He asks.
"No, it's nothing," I reply, not wanting to go into detail in case I'm wrong.
"Go on," Cho prompts me, much like he does so effectively in his interrogations.
"Well, when Jane and I left the boyfriend's building, I wanted to check something in the alley," I tell him.
"And?" Cho answers expectantly.
"Nothing turned up," I sigh, trying to remain impassive.
"Okay," Cho diverts the path of the conversation, "forensics should have completed an analysis on the clothing found near the crime scene by morning, as soon as we get that, we'll bring Miss Croft in for questioning. In the meanwhile, I want to go off case for a while and focus on something else. Lisbon."
Jane sits up, looking more attentive than before and a lot more interested.
"Jane, you were the last one to see her, what happened last night?"
He blushes a little, "we...well, we had dinner with you lot and then, when you left, we went to bed."
"Nothing happened during the night? Intruder alarm? Lisbon got up for a drink or something?"
"No, we were both out like lights," he answers, his voice shaking a little.
"Sorry but we needed to know," Cho apologises, "you haven't had any threats or anything like that have you?"
"Nope, no threats or phone calls late at night, if there were I would have told you," Jane replies frostily.
I can feel the tension beginning to mount, so I have to think quickly to stop this from escalating even more.
"We just need to establish a time line, that's all," Cho reasons with him.
"I know!" Jane snaps, uncharacteristically; he takes a deep breath, "sorry, I know you're only trying to help."
"It's okay," Cho replies, leaning back in his chair and clasping his hands over his face.
"I think we all just need to take a minute," I say, looking at my watch, although it is only 9. 30pm, it feels so much later, "who wants a brew?"
"Yeah, that'd be great, thanks," Cho replies.
"Jane?"
He rejects my offer away with a wave of his hand and retreats into a horizontal position on the sofa. I don't accept his decision and decide to make him one anyway; I haven't mastered the art of brew making the way that Jane likes it, but hey, he doesn't have to drink it.
The kettle is boiling now and three cups are lined up, two containing tea bags and the other with some instant coffee, there isn't any point for me to make a whole pot of coffee for one person. We all have our signature mugs, Jane has his usual duck egg blue one, Cho's is beige and mine has a Union Jack on it: this was a welcoming present from the CBI…well Jane anyway. Pouring the water in, I begin to go over the case in my mind; pieces of evidence, persons of interest, the motive. Yes, it's plausible that Cassidy did kill Jenny out of pure jealously - ouch, crap, just poured hot water on my hand – but what I found in the alley doesn't add up. With a spoon I begin to gently help the teabags infuse the water it is swimming in. Yes, I lied to Cho and to Jane, but they'll figure it out sooner or later. But what I found wasn't exactly what I expected; we have a murder weapon and bloody clothes, they'll lead us to who killed her, but we have to wait until morning; it's going to be a very long wait. I finish off the beverages by taking the tea bags out, stirring the coffee and adding milk to them, plus a teaspoon of sugar to mine. I re-join Jane and Cho in the bullpen, along with the three cups of steaming drinks on a tray. Cho takes off his, blows on it before putting two tablets in his mouth and taking a sip to swallow them down with. I place his cup down on the coffee table near his head.
"Thanks Willis, but…" he starts.
"I know that you didn't want one," I but in, "but it'll make you feel better."
He takes a sip before looking up to face me, "this is…great, a lot better than the stuff Agent Rigsby used to make me," he flashes an all too brief smile.
"No worries, if it's anything us Brits know about, it's how to make a decent cuppa!" I put on my best Northern accent, "well, that and football."
"Soccer," Jane retorts playfully.
I sarcastically narrow my eyes at him.
"I'm gonna take the night shift," Cho tells us, "you two can head home if you want to."
Jane puts down his cup, shaking his head, "I'm staying."
Though I understand his reasoning, I have to tell him this: "Jane, you have to go back, you'll need all your strength for tomorrow."
He doesn't say anything but looks at me, his eyes showing his inner turmoil.
"C'mon Jane," I ignore his silent argument, "you'll never shift that car of yours through all this snow, I'll take you home."
He reluctantly gets up, leaving the still steaming cup of tea on the table and walking towards the exit. I down the tea as quickly as I can before legging it after him.
"See you in the morning!" Cho calls after us.
Sitting in the driver's seat of my Defender, I take a deep breath before starting the engine; which takes a few times to get it going. Patrick slides into the passenger seat, arriving a little later after gathering a few provisions from his own car.
"Ready?" I ask him.
"Yeah," he sighs.
I pull away and manage to get onto the main road without too much trouble, Jane remains silent whilst I go over the case; it's not a conversation of sorts, but rather a theorising session. The only interaction that I get from him is the odd nod of agreement or a shake of the head. That's it.
"Jane, snap out of it for God's sake!" I finally flip and it takes him a little by surprise, "we all miss Lisbon and you moping around isn't going to help anyone. We haven't got all the facts yet, I'm sure that she's fine. Maybe she just went out and…"
"And what?!" he interrupts, "went for a stroll? I don't know about it in England, but here we don't go for strolls without any way of communicating a friend, or leaving a note, let alone for nearly 12 hours! Something is wrong and we have no clues as to where she is! She could be de…" his voice dies to a whisper, he's unable to finish the sentence.
"No, Patrick, she's not," I tell him firmly, "don't ever think that again. Something will turn up and we'll find her, the only things that we can do now are not giving up hope and investigate."
Until now, I have never seen such an optimistic person crack under pressure; Jane is unravelling before me and I don't know what to do.
"I'm sorry for the sudden outburst Patrick," I apologise, "Lisbon is fine, just keep thinking that," I pull up outside his house, "get some sleep," I advise him.
And without a word, he wades up the path to the front door and retreats into his house.