Alright, so I know there was another huge delay. But I promise I haven't forgotten about this story. It's just going to be slow. That said, I'd forgotten how much I loved some of the early episodes like this one. It's really important character-wise (in my opinion at least). I'm kind of looking forward to writing the next chapter as well (it's the one with Jane's former psychic I think).

Anyways, here we go. I still own nothing.

Episode 9: Flame Red

When I walked into the office that morning Cho and Jane were already there. I could see that Cho was working while Jane appeared to be taking a nap. Despite the fact that Jane's eyes were closed and he looked asleep he greeted me the second I stepped in the doorway, "Morning Van Pelt," he said.

"Morning guys." I said to both of them. Cho looked up and nodded in response before going back to what he was doing, so I turned my attention back to Jane. How had he known it was me? I hadn't had a chance to walk towards my desk. I could see him being able to tell the difference between me and Rigsby by the sound of our footsteps, but surely there wasn't much of a difference between my walk and Lisbon's. And there was always the chance I could have been someone completely different, someone totally unexpected. "How'd you know it was me?" I asked Jane curiously.

Jane grinned and opened his eyes. "How do you think?" he asked me.

Sometimes I think that man is incapable of giving a straight answer. "Well, you always insist that you're not psychic..." I started, knowing it would irritate him.

"Nope, not psychic," he paused, "though if you like I could read your mind."

Cho snorted at that and I shot him a grin. "If you're not psychic than how will you read my mind?" I asked Jane curiously.

"It's easy. Anyone can do it. Let me show you." And getting up from the couch quickly he walked over to my desk. He stood on the opposite side facing me, "Now Grace, I need you to concentrate. Can you do that for me?"

His grin was charming and innocent, but I'd been working with him for a while now, and that look wasn't nearly as disarming as it might have been a month ago. I nodded and Jane grinned, and started reading my mind, "Alright Grace, I need you to picture a screen between the two of us..." I watched in amusement as Jane made me think of a pair of shapes and mentally transfer them to his brain. I picked the first two shapes that came to mind and, feeling slightly ridiculous, sent 'em on over to Jane.

Jane's grin grew when I'd finished. "Alright," he told me. "Are your shapes a triangle inside a circle?" he asked.

I couldn't believe it. "How'd you do that?" I asked shocked. Even if it was a trick it was still an impressive one.

Jane's grin just grew, which I didn't think was even possible. "Now Grace," he told me, "that would be telling.

Before I could question him further Rigsby walked in. He looked at Jane and I staring at each other, and glancing between us asked, "Uh..., guys, what's going on?"

I turned to him with a smile, "Jane was just reading my mind."

"No way!" Rigsby said. He turned to Jane, "I thought you said there were no such thing as psychics!"

"There aren't," Jane told him. "But I can still read your mind."

"That doesn't even make any sense man." Rigsby told him.

"Why don't you let me try?" Jane asked him.

So I watched in amusement as Jane went through the whole thing a second time with Rigsby. Of course he got it right.

"How'd you do that man?" Rigsby asked him, looking impressed. I had to admit, it was a good trick, even if it seemed to just consist of getting people to think of a triangle inside a circle.

"Secret." Jane told him quickly. "Wish I could tell you really, but you know how it is."

Rigsby and I looked at each other. "Of course," the other Agent told him sarcastically, "Wouldn't want you to lose your psychic-magician-cred now would we?"

Jane grinned in response. "Nope." Then his grin widened, "Hey, who wants to bet I can get Lisbon?"

I looked at Rigsby and we both grinned. Oh this was going to be funny.

xxxxx

"Knock, knock." Jane said in my doorway by way of greeting.

"Morning Jane." I told him.

"Good morning Lisbon. Got a minute?" he asked.

I looked up then, but he certainly didn't look like something was wrong, so I decided to just go with it, "Sure, what's going on?" I asked him.

"Not in here," he told me.

"What?" I asked, half confused, half amused.

He just grinned and gestured for me to follow him out into the bullpen. It was a slow morning so I figured I could spare him a few minutes. "Alright, what is it?" I asked when we got into the other room. I couldn't help noticing that that Rigsby and Van Pelt were looking at me expectantly.

"Bet I can read your mind." Jane told me.

I snorted. "What? Jane, you called me out here to try and read my mind?"

"Yup." He told me amiably. "And I think you should just let me. Come on Lisbon, it's not like you're really busy, and you know it'll be faster if you just go along with it. It'll only take a couple of minutes and then you can get back to work."

I rolled my eyes, but figured he was probably right. If I said no he'd just keep pestering me until I gave in anyways. "Alright fine," I told him. "What do I need to do?"

Jane's smile widened. "Just relax, and face me. Good, now look at my eyes." I had to admit, there were worse ways to spend your morning than facing a smiling Jane. "Are you ready?" he asked me.

"Yes." I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing, but I was ready.

"Feeling awake? Mentally alert?" he checked.

"Yes."

"Fantastic." If anything his smile widened then. "Okay, I want you to imagine a screen between you and I. On that screen I want you to project a basic shape, like a square but not a square. Got it?"

"Okay." Well that didn't seem to hard. Just think of a shape Teresa. Triangle. Good.

"Lock it in. Now I want you to project another shape and put that shape around the shape you already have."

I paused as I tried to think of something, something that would actually go around a triangle. Circle. That'd work. "Okay."

"Excellent." Jane told me. Apparently an overly positive attitude and making odd finger gestures between the two of us speeds up the psychic connection. "Now here's the fun part. Now concentrate, and project that onto the back of my mind. Look right here," Jane said, gesturing to his forehead. "Open up your mind and send it to me. Okay, now I'm starting to feel it. It's a triangle inside a circle."

What? Well that was ridiculous. Well no way was I giving in that easily. Time to have a bit of fun of my own; "Nope," I told him cheerfully.

"It's not?" He sounded confused and disappointed. Hee!

"Nope. I was thinking of an octagon inside a rectangle." I told him, pleased that I could think of another pair of shapes so quickly.

Jane actually looked put out for a second and a bit uncertain before deciding to call me on it. "Liar."

I couldn't resist smirking. "Alright," I told him with a smile. "Alright, you got me."

"Pretty good huh?" Van Pelt asked, clearly amused by the whole situation, not that I blamed her in the slightest. "He got me and Rigsby the same way."

"How did you do that?" I asked, even though I knew he probably wouldn't answer.

"Oh that's nothing," Jane told me airily (and irritatingly). "That's just a calibration key to real mind reading. Now I have access to all your innermost thoughts."

"Yeah right." I'll buy that you can come up with some trick that gets people to think of two basic shapes, but I won't buy that you can read my mind.

"I'm serious."

Sure you are. It's a good thing you're kidding otherwise I'd be in real trouble. "Okay, so what am I thinking right now?"

"You're thinking I am so glad Jane is joking around and he can't actually read my mind."

"No..." Okay even I knew that didn't sound convincing, so may as well own up to it. "Well, actually, yes." Oh crap, the way that sounds he'd better not get the wrong idea, "But... but not for the reason you think!" I added quickly.

"What reason do I think?" he asked calmly. Damn him and his ability to always remain perfectly calm whenever you don't want him to.

"Never you mind." I told him. Damn, damn, damn. I could feel my face getting hot. No way does Mr. Hyper-Observant not notice. He's been staring directly into my eyes for the last two minutes now! I couldn't help glancing away.

Oddly enough it was Rigsby who decided to point out the fact first as he walked by me. "You're blushing," the younger agent told me.

"You are blushing." Jane agreed. And then the idiot had the nerve to laugh at me, after I decided to give into one of his stupid little games. Why do I encourage him? Why? It always seems harmless, all look into my eyes and concentrate, but noooo...... Luckily I was saved by Cho, the only one of my Agents not drawn into this silly game of Jane's.

"We're up." He told me, handing me a case file. I was almost glad of the murder. Body was found, looked like arson, locals wanted us to check it out since they didn't have the resources or the experience. I shooed my team out the door, but I couldn't help noticing that Jane still had that amused grin on his face. Man I wish I knew a way to wipe that thing off of there.

xxxxx

Wow. I've got to say, that was definitely the most flustered I've ever seen my boss. I mean, I figured out pretty quickly that Lisbon isn't necessarily as stern as she appears to be. She's reserved yes, but she's still got a sense of humour. Still, she doesn't often let it show when Jane gets to her. In fact, she seemed to make an art of not showing it. I'm kind of surprised she even let him read her mind at all... I wonder what he said to convince her. She'd never admit it of course, but she does seem to let him get away with an awful lot.

Not that I think she shouldn't take part in Jane's little games. I mean, Lisbon loosening up a bit could be kind of fun. I never even thought of lying to Jane and trying to convince him he hadn't been able to read my mind. Of course, I also don't seem to have some sort of little unofficial (and as far as I can tell one-sided) competition going on with the crazy consultant. But Lisbon really doesn't like to give an inch, which is probably partly how she got where she is.

Still, she did seem to be enjoying herself during the mind-reading. I wonder exactly what she was afraid Jane might have thought she was thinking...

xxxxx

Body was found in the burnt wreckage of a garage in the middle of a cornfield. The whole area was obviously suffering from drought, perfect for either a freak accidental fire or a psychotic arsonist. I hoped Rigsby could get to the bottom of things while I let Jane speak to Chief Piller. Until the Chief thought Jane was the arson specialist that is. "Ah, no." Jane told the man. "Our arson specialist..."

"That would be Agent Rigsby." I told the Chief, emphasizing my position as head of the team. "Mr. Jane is a consultant."

Rigsby started to explain to the Chief how he would be able to tell if the fire was arson or not. Of course, by the time he'd finished speaking he'd made up his mind. "It's arson alright, and murder."

"How can you tell?" Van Pelt asked.

"This was part of the garage door." He told her, holding it up.

"Yes." She agreed.

"The lock's on the outside. Someone locked Garcia in, lit the place up. Your friend was murdered. I'm sorry."

Locking someone into a garage and setting it on fire. In what appears to be a fairly close-knit small town where everyone knows everyone else. Lovely.

"Don't they usually like to watch their work, arsonists?" Cho asked Rigsby.

"Yeah," he confirmed, "even more so when it's coupled with murder."

"Maybe this guy's different. What do you think? Jane? JANE?" Oh crap, where did he go? He'd better not have decided to play impromptu corn maze out here because now is not the time! "JANE!" He's like an inquisitive three-year old. I should get a harness.

"Over here!" I turned and saw the arms of the scarecrow moving. "He watched from up here! He was here!" I grinned, if he were closer I'd be sorely tempted to make a joke about asking the wizard for a brain, but at least we had one question answered though.

As it was I needed to talk to Rigsby about the description of the bomb. Say what you will about his eating habits, the man knew his fires and it came in handy. He seemed to think it was pretty sophisticated stuff. Whoever our murderer was, he knew what it was doing. Which should at least narrow down the suspect pool I guess. Cho was less optimistic. "So we have a pro at work, or a very gifted amateur. Great." I sent Rigsby and Van Pelt to interview a witness, and called Jane in off his tractor to talk to the widow. God he was a child.

I sat down to ask the widow the standard questions while Jane wandered off. I let him. I knew if he found something important he'd call me, I'd gotten used to hearing "LISBON!" bellowed from the other side of a building. The widow hadn't said anything out of the ordinary when Jane came back. Shortly after his arrival we were interrupted by Tommy, obviously a local who had some sort of mental disability. His arrival was only noteworthy because it caused the daughter to lash out at her mother.

Jane of course had something to say about that, "You know why she's so angry?" he asked the poor, grieving woman. "She suspects that your lover is responsible for the killing her father."

I think it was a testament to how far we'd come that I didn't immediately hit him for that statement. First of all it wasn't worth it, he'd do it again anyways, and second of all... he was probably right. Widow sure wasn't pleased of course.

"My lover? How dare you?" she asked.

"The policeman." Jane clarified for her.

"Chief Piller?" I asked and Jane nodded.

"Yup."

"Maddie suspects no such thing!" Mrs. Garcia claimed.

"Well that wasn't very convincing." Jane told her. "You want to try that again with a little more feeling?"

"You just cannot come in here and make wild accusations like this," Mrs. Garcia told us.

Of course within minutes Jane had explained why it wasn't a wild accusation and gotten the woman to confess to the affair. He didn't seem to think she was involved in her husband's murder though, which was always nice. It's always depressing when so-called grieving family members turn out to be killers for one reason or another. What was less clear was whether or not her lover, also her husband's best friend the lovely police chief, was in on it. Mrs. Garcia claimed no, but Jane seemed less certain.

I had a feeling this was going to be a bit of a messy case.

xxxxx

On Lisbon's orders Rigsby and I were trying to get the local mechanic to tell us what he knew, although he wasn't exactly being forthcoming. Do people not realize not cooperating just makes them look guilty?

"Come on, help us out Mr. Reese," Rigsby coaxed. "You might have been the last person to see Rich Garcia alive."

Reese looked up from the car he was working on in contempt, "How 'bout that?"

I tried a different approach. "What's the problem?" I asked. "Electrics shot I bet."

"Yeah," the guy said quickly.

"Always the same with the early 70s models huh?" I learned in high school that car-guys tended to respond to a woman who knew her way around an engine. A bit sexist maybe, but it tended to work so I couldn't complain.

"Yep." Reese told us. "Gotta get the pig running smooth for the old parade. That's what Rich and I were talking about the night he died."

"Did you notice anyone else around? Anyone waiting nearby for him?" I didn't get an answer so I continued on. "What time did he leave?"

"It was kinda late, around ten maybe. You thinking this was murder, someone cooked him deliberate?" the mechanic asked. It was a bit of a stupid question. Would we really be investigating this thoroughly if we thought the whole thing was an accident?

"Yes, looks like." Rigsby told the other man.

"That's weird."

"Why weird?" Rigsby asked for clarification.

"Another man killed by arson in the same town, from the same guard unit. That's weird."

"Hang on," Rigsby asked quickly, "another man?"

"Didn't Chief Piller tell you? Three years ago, a guy called David Martin. Burnt to a crisp."

"And he was with the 192nd as well?" I double-checked.

"Yup. That's what I heard anyhow. It was before my time, only been in town a year. David Martin lived up at Alden's grove. I'm surprised Chief Piller didn't mention him."

Suddenly my phone rang. It seemed there was another fire, this one at Chief Piller's house. Rigsby and I ran to the car and got there at the same time as Lisbon and Jane. We could see the smoke pouring out of the building, and no one seemed to be sure if the Chief was still inside. Suddenly we noticed movement at the window, and before anyone else could do anything Rigsby rushed in.

I heard Lisbon and Cho calling his name from behind me, and I couldn't help rushing forward a few steps myself as I called his name. What was he doing? Being an arson specialist didn't make him a fireman! He could be killed! Suddenly a table came flying through the front window followed by Rigsby himself, carrying the chief out to the front lawn before collapsing in a coughing fit. Oh God he was on fire!

"Don't move! Don't move!" I told him, as I took off my jacket and used it to put out the flames on his arm. I told him he'd be alright, because I was sure he would be. He had to be.

xxxxx

Rigsby was going to be fine. That's what the paramedics had said when looked at him at least. Said they'd take him to the hospital to get his arm looked at. Van Pelt was going to meet him there. I decided to take care of getting a hotel room that he could rest in for the day and letting Minnelli know what happened. Jane insisted on tagging along.

Not that I needed it, Rigsby was going to be fine! He'd better not have gone and gotten himself seriously injured or done permanent damage or something or I'd kill him myself. When I saw him run into that building I froze, terrified. I know agents die in the line of duty, but I've never lost someone on my team, and that's not a record I want to break. I know he saved a man's life, but we aren't trained to rush into burning buildings! What if the house had collapsed?

Jane turned to me as he hung up his phone, disrupting my thoughts, "Van Pelt says they're done at the hospital. Rigbsy's going to be fine. Apparently they wrapped up his arm, gave him a couple of painkillers, and recommended plenty of rest."

I nodded, relieved. "Fine. Good." I said as I pulled into a nearby variety store.

"What're we doing here?" Jane asked.

"It's Rigsby," I told him. "He's going to want snacks."

Jane smiled, "Of course. It wasn't your fault Lisbon. There was nothing you could have done. He was the one who decided to run headlong into a burning building."

"I know it wasn't my fault!" I shot back. "Doesn't mean I wasn't worried. Besides, he's on my team, he's my responsibility."

"Still, don't beat yourself up," Jane advised.

"I'm not beating myself up!" I snapped back as I rummaged through one of the store's drink coolers. "I just want to make sure he feels better."

Jane just sighed and said, "They have the strawberry stuff he likes over there."

"I know, but he likes the mango stuff better." I told my consultant absently. "Here it is," I said, finally finding what I was looking for. "Come on. Let's go check in with the invalid. And we better get a straw, that'll proaably be easier for him to handle."

"Alright, come on Mother Lisbon, check-out's this way." Jane teased.

"He ran into a burning building without any protection Jane." I said quietly.

"I know," Jane said quietly, placing his hand on the small of my back and leading me towards the counter. I assumed he meant it as some form of comfort so I decided to allow the contact.

Besides, I was still a bit shaken up. One of my boys hadjust risked his own life being a hero.

xxxxx

"I'm just going to lift your arm okay?" I told Rigsby quietly. "The doctor said we have to change the dressing pretty often at first."

"How's Chief Piller?" he asked me. Figures he'd be concerned about the other guy. I have to admit, running into a burning building was pretty heroic.

But it still wasn't good news, "The burn unit in Sacramento said it's touch and go"

Lisbon and Jane walked in obviously carrying snacks and Rigsby perked up. Obviously he couldn't be that badly hurt.

"Hey, check out Dr. Van Pelt." He told them as I ignored him and continued wrapping up his arm.

"Here," Lisbon said to him, ignoring his comment as she handed him a drink, "It's that mango crap you like."

"How you feeling?" Jane asked.

"Took some kick-ass painkillers man," Rigsby told the consultant cheerfully. "I guess this lets Piller out as a suspect."

"Yup, especially as the doctors at the burn unit found tranquilizers in his system. He told them he woke up and found smoke and fire all around him." Lisbon told him by way of confirmation.

"Interesting new level of cruelty," Jane added, "dousing someone so they wake up just in time to burn alive." I had to agree. Anyone who did that didn't just want their victim dead, they wanted them to suffer.

Cho walked in then, "Hey, it's the Mummy. So the fire at Pillar's house, same MO as the one that killed Rich Garcia. Accelerant's ethel ether. That's a signature. Tricky to work with, takes skill, finesse."

"Why don't you go see what Susan Garcia has to say about all this?" Lisbon told him.

"Okay," Cho said before heading out on his assignment.

Lisbon turned to Jane next, "And let's you and me check out this Alden's Grove place where Dave Martin died."

As the rest of the team turned to leave Rigsby seemed to catch up with the conversation. "Oh, the Mummy!" Rigsby said with a laugh. "I get it, bandages."

Lisbon turned back to me, "And no more painkillers for him."

No kidding.

I had a feeling it was going to be a long afternoon.

xxxxx

As Jane and I approached Tommy's trailer Cho called and updated me about what he'd heard about the ownership of the land. Apparently Alden's Grove was the property of three former National Guard members who'd bought it for a friend, one Dave Martin. I told him to go pick up Van Pelt and sent the pair of them to speak to Muchado, the only remaining partner in the venture who hadn't been targeted. When I hung up the phone I realized that Tommy had seen us from the window of his trailer and was coming out to greet Jane and I. He invited us into his trailer immediately. He'd known the victim, but I wasn't sure he'd have much other information. He just seemed to live on the land as a sort of perpetual caretaker.

And then Jane found Tommy's little oasis. Turned out Alden's grove was on top of a natural aquafir. Worth millions in the middle of a drought. Well that was interesting.

xxxxx

I was in the middle of research when Rigsby interrupted. "Van Pelt?"

"Yes?" I asked.

He continued on as if I hadn't spoken. "Grace. That's a lovely name. Graceful."

"Ahhhh...." Oh crap. This wasn't good. For one I was pretty sure whatever Rigsby was about to say was against regulations, and secondly he was right out of his gourd thanks to all the pain medication.

"I've been wanting to say something to you for ages now." Oh this was not good. "I think now's a good time,"

I DON'T! Oh dear, what do I do now? What would Lisbon do?

"Cause I nearly died. I love you Grace."

Well... I wasn't expecting him to just up and say that. I mean, I like you Rigsby, I really like you, I mean, maybe if we had different jobs... But I love you? I can't deal with this right now. And I probably shouldn't even be listening. No way he'd say it if he was in his right mind. So I did the only mature thing, I put my hands over my ears and started to hum.

"That's right, I love you." The humming seemed to jar him out of his train of thought and unfortunately wasn't drowning out his voice, "Are you okay?"

Ummm... well, that's debatable. "Yes." I told him.

"Why are you making that noise?" Rigsby asked innocently.

Oh, no reason, a colleague just declared his love for me while high on painkillers. I took a breath, "It's not that I don't like you, I do, it's just... We work together, and there are rules. And if we were to get together, one of us would have to leave the unit, and I'm junior agent so that would be me, and this job is so important to me." I was cut off by the sound of snoring. He was asleep? Really? I was insulted! Then I realized it meant he might not remember the whole thing, which would really be best for everyone.

Luckily Cho arrived to distract me from my thoughts. "Hey. You want to go to work or you want to play nurse for King Tut?"

"Work. Definitely work." Nursing just got a whole lot more complicated.

Although work is no picnic either when a routine visit ends up with gunfire. Muchado claims he didn't know we were cops, but that became much harder to believe when we found the accelerant used to start the fires in his barn.

xxxxx

Jane and I watched as Cho and Rigsby interviewed Muchado. He wasn't telling them anything useful, other than denying he was the arsonist and the murderer. I watched in interest as Jane walked in and suggested that Dave Martin might still be alive, and might be targeting his three former business partners out of revenge for trying to kill him for the rights to the aquafir on Alten's Grove.

My interest changed to horror when, immediately after suggesting Muchado might be a murder target, Jane continued with, "Well, let this creep go, we don't have anything on him." With that Jane walked out of the interrogation room. What had I told him about that? I was going to kill him! I was the one in charge of the unit in case he hadn't noticed.

I caught up to him in the hall. "Two notes here. We already have plenty on him, one, armed assault on Cho and Van Pelt and two, a barn full of fire accelerant."

"The assault was self-defence and the accelerant was a plant." Jane replied easily. Then he paused, surprised, "Only two?"

I had to admit, he had a point there. "Actually, no. Where do you get off giving orders in the first place? I say who goes and who stays, not you."

"Uh, that's fiery but calm, very good. Why don't you try it with a more forceful hand gesture?" "Like," Jane pointed to himself and raised his voice, "I say who goes and who stays," then he pointed a finger in my face, "not you!"

He responds by critiquing my delivery when I give him orders? He thinks this is a game? There are rules! "I'm serious." I told him, and I knew I sounded it to.

"So am I." Jane told me. "If he's in here how's the killer going to get to him?"

What the hell kind of logic was that? "He could be the killer and even if he's not we don't want the killer to get him!" Don't know if he's noticed, but here at the CBI we try to stop people from getting killed, not the other way around.

"Yes we do. Muchado is our bait, he's our tethered goat."

"And too bad if the bait gets killed?" Yeah because that's acceptable. I'd love to explain that to Minelli, or have that on my conscience.

Jane on the other hand was unconcerned with such scruples, "Well yes, that's why you use goats and not babies or virgins for that matter."

"Muchado's not a goat," I told him as I walked into my office. I was sick of his nonsense.

"Well you're right, he's not actually a goat. He's goat-ish. He deserves to suffer a little."

"Nobody deserves murder." I told him.

"Muchado helped burn Dave Martin alive out of greed."

And even if that was true, it wasn't up to us to decide his punishment. "Jane, we're officers of the law."

"You are. I don't care about the law; I care about justice. And justice says Muchado deserves to suffer."

Was he serious? Good lord, I think he was. "That's not justice; it's vengeance!"

"What's the difference?" Jane asked, apparently genuinely confused.

Again Cho prevented me from answering Jane's question as he poked his head in my office. "What do you want us to do with Muchado boss?"

"Let him go," I told Cho, but glancing at Jane.

"Really?" my senior agent asked. "Let him go let him go?"

"Really, like that." I confirmed.

"Okay." Cho seemed sceptical, but I knew he'd do it.

Jane was grinning, the idiot. "Trying some reverse psychology?" He still thought this was a game? That this job, my job, was a game? What did he think would happen if no one did it? There were rules for a reason. And I had to follow them.

"You talk tough. Maybe it's time you learn that there's consequences. If Muchado gets hurt it's on you." Which was all well and good for me to say, but in the end I knew that was a load of crap. Whatever happened in this case, it was on me. Just like it always was.

"Fine with me." Jane made it as far as the door before he turned back. "We've never discussed this because I thought it went without saying, but when I catch Red John I'm going to cut him open and watch him die slowly, like he did with my wife and child. Now if you have a problem with that we should talk."

I felt like I'd been hit in the head with a two-by-four but I tried not to let it show. "Then let's talk. Because when we catch Red John, we are going to take him into custody and he's going to be tried in a court of law." No way am I going to let you use an investigation as a way of furthering your quest for vengeance.

"Not if I'm still breathing." Jane told me calmly. I don't think I'd ever seen him this serious, it was creepy as hell.

Still, I kept my cool and made my position as clear as possible. "If you try and do violence to him I will try and stop you. If you succeed in doing violence to him I will arrest you."

"I understand." Jane told me with a grin.

"I hope so." I really do. And why are you smiling? Stop that!

"Well, I'm glad we talked. I had no idea you were so bourgeois and conventional on the issue."

He was smiling now, but he hadn't been earlier. That was honestly one of the more disturbing conversations I've ever had with someone who wasn't a criminal. Serves me right for wishing I could see Jane without the stupid grin on his face. I can't think about this right now. I'll worry about it later. Right now I'd better get Rigsby and Cho on stakeout. Muchado might be our tethered goat, but that doesn't mean I can't keep a couple of shepherds watching, just in case.

Of course not half an hour later I got a call saying they were leaving to go talk to the mechanic. Even if it is a viable lead, does nobody do what I ask them to anymore? Did that interview have to happen right this minute? Unsurprisingly I got a second call from Cho about fifteen minutes later saying the mechanic was a dead end. Muchado's house better not be on fire when they get back is all I can say. Jane's there, and as far as I know he doesn't have anything planned, but let's face it, that doesn't really mean much.

xxxxx

Jane and I were again watching Cho interrogate a suspect from the other side of the glass. I've got to say finding Tommy at the crime scene covered in accelerant was a bit of a surprise. I watched Cho in the interrogation. "It doesn't make sense," I told Jane. "All the evidence says it's him. There was ethel ether traces all over him, but the arsonist used an electronic timer and rocket fuel and Tommy's wearing Velcro sneakers. Call him challenged, retarded, whatever you want, there's no way he's capable of this."

"What if he had a partner?" Rigsby asked me.

Well, that made more sense at least. "Maybe that's it. Somebody's manipulating him, someone he trusts."

"Give me a moment with him" Jane asked.

I nodded as he walked into interrogation. I could only watch in shock as Jane conned Tommy, (or Thomas I guess) into revealing who he really was, and what he was really capable of using a copy of Moby Dick he'd read. Even though Tommy was apparently a fool, he was also an act. Thomas was a cold-blooded killer fully in control of his faculties.

After revealing that Tommy was an act Jane handed Thomas his book back. "I confess, I never really did get to the end of it. Ahab does die doesn't he?"

"Yes," our killer confirmed. "But so does the whale."

Jane seemed to agree. "That's my point, revenge doesn't come cheap."

But Thomas would have none of it, "Oh spare me your moralizing. I know what revenge costs. It's worth the price. David Martin had many flaws, no doubt, but he was my friend, my friend. Those animals, they deserve what they got. It was justice."

And then Jane got his full confession. Laid out in full. "It was redemptive." Thomas told him. "You wouldn't understand." I could feel the chill go up my spine. Oh god, this was the last thing I needed, another lunatic fuelling Jane's drive for vengeance with crazy-talk. And Thomas wanted us to apologize to the man's daughter for killing her father. Well, that'd be fun. Although I had to talk to the widow anyways, so I may as well take Jane along.

xxxxx

Needless to say the girl didn't take it well. Jane tried to talk her out of her anger towards her father's killer when she threatened vengeance of her own. "Revenge is a poison. Revenge is for fools and for madmen." Huh, well, that sounded promising at least.

"I don't care," the girl claimed.

"Yes you do." And before we left he made mother and daughter hug each other, hopefully starting the road to healing, before he hurried me out the door. Okay, so occasionally the lunatic could be thoughtful.

"So?" I asked him.

"So."

"Seems like this whole thing changed your mind about vengeance." I told him with a ghost of a smile.

"It has?" he asked me.

I quoted his earlier words back to him. "Revenge is for fools and madmen?"

"Yeah, it was rather good I thought." Of course. "Total nonsense, but quite good nonetheless." I guess I had until the next Red John case to change his mind, either that or make sure he was never alone. "Shall we?

I nodded and we ran through the rain to the SUV.

xxxxx