A/N: So, I completely failed at updating during Summer Secret Santa, didn't I? I'm sorry. Good news: I have a little backlog of chapters to update. Bad news: I have no internet and all the updates are at home, on my laptop and haven't even been beta'd by Div yet.

Thank you to: yaba, boutondor, lisbon69, namedone, Koezh, phoenixmagic1, anthropologist, Famous4it, The Mentalist Rules, Ebony10, Divinia Serit, forthecoast, PhoenixWytch, Viktorija, autumnftw, Jisbon4ever and ch19777 for reviewing and Divinia Serit for betaing. And everyone for being so patient as I completely suck at updating this. Things will be better from now on. I hope.

x tromana

Part Ten

The Serious Crimes Unit's area of the bullpen was unsurprisingly silent and sullen. Special Agent Madeleine Hightower expected that with one of their number conspicuously missing, all of them, even Jane, were working desperately to locate her. Therefore, there was little time left over for mindless chit-chat. They barely even noticed the fact she had entered their workspace at all until she politely cleared her throat. Van Pelt was the first to notice; despite having worked for the CBI for a decent spell now, she was still yet to relax into her position. Always too eager to please and too concerned about putting another toe out of line. Especially since the Rigsby incident, something which had been cleared up very well. Almost too well for Hightower's liking. She'd been expecting them to relapse sooner or later; office romances often had a tendency of doing so, especially when the break up was due to the hand of somebody else. But they hadn't and given the recent occurrences, it was one less thing on her plate. With the CDU's lead agent leaving imminently and Lisbon kidnapped, work could be a lot easier.

"No," Cho said, glancing up and noticing the manila folder clasped in her right hand. "We're too busy."

"Slow down, Cho," Hightower replied, her lip twitching in amusement. Cho was always straight with his opinions, a trait she liked in him. "You may find this interesting."

"Why?"

"Andrew Carling has been murdered."

Hightower relished in the effect her words had. Rigsby was already on his feet, Van Pelt was pulling her jacket on and even Cho's expression changed slightly. Lisbon's second in command held out his hand expectantly and she immediately passed over the folder. The case would normally fall under Narcotics' jurisdiction as the victims had apparently been trading illegal substances. However, because Andrew Carling was one of the unfortunate victims, she decided to push it onto Serious Crimes instead. Besides, it was likely to be interconnected with one of their current cases. After all, even she, who only knew the bare bones of what they were doing - enough to feel hands on at least, could see that it was highly likely that Red John had killed not only Carling, but the whole gang of poker players in order to extinguish yet another link between himself and the CBI. Carling was too unreliable; given the opportunity, they would have been able to squeeze him dry for facts on Red John.

Cho, as expected, absorbed the information in the folder eagerly and swiftly, desperate to know all he needed to and get moving before the lead dried up. This was obviously Red John's way of telling them that he was still completely in control, that they weren't above his mind games. Before they'd even had a chance of approaching Carling for information on Lisbon's whereabouts, he'd been killed like an lamb at a slaughterhouse and his friends just got caught in the crossfire. At least, that was Cho's interpretation of the information supplied by the director. They couldn't be certain whether or not any of the other victims had links to the serial killer as well until they checked them all out. That would be Van Pelt's job, as usual. She would hate that; if the young woman was feeling anything like Cho was, she'd want to be in on the action, doing something more proactive than just sitting behind a computer desk, looking up mundane, but necessary, facts.

He was absolutely right. Seconds later, once he told her what he wanted her to do, Van Pelt stormed over to her desk and switched on her computer with more malice than usual. Cho swore that she had never acted so violently whenever Lisbon told her to do it - merely pulled a couple of faces and suppressed a sigh or two. Then again, they usually didn't know the victim personally so were emotionally removed from the case. Still, Cho hoped that she would settle down and realize she was doing good once they had left. Besides, none of them were anything like as fast as she was on the computer. The hours she spent left behind at the office had meant her technological skills were now second to none and even other units were eying her up eagerly. Not that that was a particularly necessary thought to be having at that very moment; they all had more important things to be worrying about.

"We'll let you know anything we find out as soon as we can."

Van Pelt glared in response. "You better. I care about her as much as you do, you know."

Cho nodded and walked determinedly towards the elevator. He didn't spot the way Rigsby's hand gently brushed Van Pelt's shoulder nor the way she scowled back at him and pulled away from his touch. Even when they were safely buckled into the state-issued SUV, Cho didn't notice or care about the way Rigsby was acting due to Van Pelt's reaction. He had a job to do and nothing was going to distract him from it.

And when he had time, he was going to corner Patrick Jane and see if her had any plans to move this case along faster. He didn't even care about foul play. Cho had a feeling that, if she was still alive, Lisbon wouldn't either. Being trapped with Red John couldn't be anything short of living hell.

000

Lisbon tried pulling haplessly at her right arm again. She knew it wasn't going to do any good, but she hated being not only trapped in such a small, dingy basement but chained up as well. Red John had been leaving her alone recently; merely dumping food down in front of her and leaving as soon as feasibly possible. She scowled and picked at the remnants of a limp salad that had been left for her lunch. It tasted as unappetizing as it looked, but it wasn't as if she had any alternatives to sample. At least she had something to eat and he hadn't completely forgotten about the woman he was holding hostage in his basement.

And at least he hadn't killed her either.

She glanced, yet again, at her broken watch, forgetting for what felt like the millionth time that it had stopped before she'd even found herself in this predicament. Lisbon wondered how long she'd been held captive exactly; she knew it had been a couple of nights at least, but she hated the idea of losing track completely. With four unchanging walls and nothing to mark the passage of time with, it was something that was very plausible.

It also didn't help that she knew that unless things significantly changed, she would be relying on her team to get her out. She knew they were a competent bunch, but still, she'd had enough problems trusting them to submit their paperwork on time in the past. Lisbon hadn't forgotten that it was Cho who had given Jane the key to releasing Carling either and he was meant to be the one she could rely on the most. Her second in command, her right hand man. He'd broken her trust once and she was reluctant to trust him again. Lisbon had spent far too much of her childhood accepting apologies and promises of change only for her faith to be crushed time and time again. She shook her head, briefly wishing that she had a comb or something to tease out some of the knots in her hair. It was ridiculous. They would find her. They had to.

The question was whether or not Red John would grow bored with her and kill her first though.

She froze as the door opened.

Red John was still wearing that completely ridiculous wooden mask and that was a plus sign. It meant he didn't fear her finding out his identity still and therefore was confident things were unlikely to change. Her body stiffened as he approached her and automatically, she screwed her eyes shut, waiting for one of her body parts to feel pain of some variety. Why? She wasn't sure. Lisbon knew that she had been a perfectly amicable hostage and apart from the plate incident, hadn't even tried to escape. She'd just looked after her physical wellbeing the best she could with the objects he provided her - and with one arm handcuffed to a wall.

It surprised her when he just sat down beside her, simply observing her as if she was some kind of work of art. Lisbon squirmed a little; she didn't like male attention at the best of times and knew that she must have been looking particularly rough anyway. Red John didn't seem to care though, he just kept staring at her silently, happy enough just to sit in her company.

"What do you want?" she asked when she could bear it no longer.

"Nothing in particular," he answered with a slight shrug. "I'm sorry about the handcuffs, but it's a necessary precaution."

"Yeah, right," she snapped sarcastically, not even caring what the inevitable repercussions would be. "Not only do you feel the need to keep me locked in here, but tied up too. How powerful that must make you feel."

His fist came flying out of nowhere and struck her in her jaw. Her head collided roughly against the wall she had been leaning against and old wounds re-opened, spreading a spattering of blood against the white plaster. Yet again, Lisbon slipped into unconsciousness, having absolutely no time to worry about the amount of damage untreated head wounds could be causing her.

That would be something for her to contemplate once more when she awoke, feeling terribly groggy again.

000

The crime scene looked more like a massacre than anything else.

Cho was glad that he had kept Van Pelt away from this particular one. Not because he didn't think she could cope with dead bodies - he knew that she could. It was just the sheer scale of death and blood that was present this time around. He glanced over at Rigsby, who looked rather pale as well, as if he was minutes away from losing his lunch. There were just some scenes that no amount of desensitization could prepare you for and this was one of them.

Out of everybody present, only Jane didn't look like he particularly cared.

Then again, Jane had barely been himself since he'd come out of hospital. Since before then even, since Lisbon had been taken when he had been with her, because he'd woefully misjudged somebody's character. Cho sighed as he stepped closer to Carling's body - it probably was something to do with the fact that he was right so often, that his mistakes had to have greater repercussions than a normal person's. But they'd sort this out, he decided. This time, Red John wouldn't slip through their fingers and they would get redemption for the poor people staring back at him with soulless eyes. They'd find Lisbon and Cho would apologize for going behind her back and helping Jane instead of supporting her as he should. They'd all be fine and everything would go back to normal.

"Cho?"

Cho turned to face Jane, surprised that the man was even saying anything at all. He'd been so quiet lately, like he had taken a vow of silence because of what he'd done.

"Yes?"

"In Carling's pocket. Piece of paper." Jane waggled his fingers in front of Cho's eyes. "No gloves."

Suppressing a sigh, Cho pulled it out and opened it up.

That hadn't been what he was expecting.

000

Red John punched the brick wall and winced as it made impact. Pulling it away, he started shaking his hand in agony, as if that would be a successful way of ejecting the pain from his body. That wasn't such a good idea and normally, he didn't feel the need to lash out like that. Then again, he usually didn't bother holding his potential victims hostage either. Even Kristina Frye hadn't lasted much longer than a day in his care; he'd simply wanted to kill her and make her vanish off the planet just to wind up Patrick Jane further.

Then again, Lisbon was a special case. Even more so than the Frye woman. It had soon became clear that the supposed psychic was a mere distraction, somebody for Jane to toy with. If anything, he was probably more intent on proving her 'talents' to be false than actually having an intimate relationship with her. It was too late now anyway. Frye was dead and a woman Jane actually cared about was locked safely away inside his basement.

As somebody as precious as Teresa Lisbon should be. Of course, like any human being she had her flaws. Stubborn, abrasive, very quick to temper. Only trusted anything as far as she could throw it and no doubt many more besides. But that didn't really matter. The main problem, thus far, was the fact she made him lash out and hurt her. He didn't want that, didn't want her cowering out the sight of his fists and losing her sparkle. Especially as there was something kind of sweet about her, in a way. He'd watched her, when she thought she was in there on her own, just because really. And on other occasions, he liked trying to talk to her, trying to get her to open up. He was hoping Lisbon had started to trust him, if only a little. In his past life, before he'd embarked on a 'career' as a serial killer, Red John had known just how wonderfully persuasive he was. It was possible for him to wrap almost any woman around his little finger; a skill he still used on occasion now.

It was something he hoped would help him connect with Lisbon.

He'd always been interested in her, so to speak. She was one of the many reasons he was grateful that Jane had attached himself to the CBI. Working out the personalities of the team he worked with had been a fulfilling way to spend time and naturally, Lisbon was the one who intrigued him the most. She had picked a tough career, especially for a woman. And of course, she'd more than risen to the challenge. She worked hard, closed as many cases as feasibly possible and was definitely a force to be reckoned with. Red John's interest in her had only grown. That was why he'd chosen to kidnap her instead of kill her. It was a decision he didn't regret for a second.

He just hoped that one day, she'd find him as alluring as he found her.

TBC…