A/N: This is for Shelly, who didn't like my evil, evil cliffhanger and requested that I updated this. *nods* Of course, as she asked so nicely, I listened. I'm actually getting a little sad as I only have three chapters left of this. *tear* This has been one of my favourite fics to write in a very long while so I'm actually getting very sad to see it so near the end.

Thank you to: Divinia 'rocks' Serit, Simonisthecuttestmentalist, mtm, Koezh, WildDaisies10, yaba, Frogster, boutondor, Queen Em, phoenixmagic1 and Famous4it for reviewing part ten. You guys completely rock!

x tromana

Part Eleven - The Kill

Painting my face up for the kill

They remained in a deathly silence as heavy footsteps walked away from the basement door. Jane glanced over at Lisbon, who had scurried over to the window and sat beneath it. She was hugging her knees again and looked utterly torn. He didn't blame her, she had great respect for the person they both swore they heard speaking to them and therefore the confliction she must have been going through must be utterly devastating. It didn't affect him to quite the same extent. Jane had always been somewhat ambivalent to pretty much every other agent outside the SCU, superiors or otherwise. Such a reveal was never going to hurt him as much, unless it had been Lisbon herself, of course.

"It can't be him," she muttered and Jane's heart broke a little when she looked up at him through tear-stained eyes. "It just can't."

"Lisbon, you need to calm down…"

"Yes, you're right," she answered, dabbing her eye with the sleeve of her jacket. "I'm sorry, I'm being irrational."

"Don't apologize."

Lisbon shook her head and took a deep breath while Jane watched her with a quizzical expression. She really was a funny creature; she absolutely hated the idea of appearing weak in front of others, regardless of the situation. This was the closest Jane had seen her to breaking down since the McTeer debacle. She could easily justify breaking down both then and now, but of course, Lisbon being Lisbon, she wouldn't be able to justify it to herself.

"There's not much we can do right now…"

"D'you… d'you want to sleep?"

"Nah," Jane replied, shaking his head in response. "Not tired. You?"

"No."

She looked physically and emotionally drained, but Jane wasn't in the mood to argue with her decision for once. Instead, he leaned up against the door, mimicking her position and facing her. Maybe, if he'd had a little more confidence, he'd have wrapped his arm around her instead. For now, he'd just have to watch her instead, rather guiltily taking solace in the fact that he didn't have to be Red John's hostage alone.

xxx

Van Pelt sighed as she pulled out her makeup case and slowly went about her morning routine. She wasn't quite sure why she felt the desperate desire to put on her makeup, it wasn't as if anyone of any importance was going to see her. In fact, if she could get away with it, nobody was going to see her apart from the motel staff bringing her the occasional meal. They certainly didn't care about what state she looked, but then again, they probably suspected that she was waiting to meet someone for salacious reasons. She knew she was reasonably pretty and people did jump to conclusions so very quickly. Sighing, she zipped up the flowery bag once she had finished applying the cosmetic products. It was just routine which she'd succumbed to and besides, at least it killed a few minutes.

She switched on the television and snorted when some wildlife program about lions flickered onto the screen. Funny how that seemed to be the only thing available in places like this. Still, she left it blaring, knowing full well that it was going to provide her only entertainment excepting meal times and her nightly routine. In a couple of days time, she'd move on from this shabby motel, but for now, she felt safer purely remaining in her room. The more she moved around the town, the more likely someone could spot her and get either the police or Red John on her tail. Frankly, she preferred the former to the latter. It had been proved several times that Red John's power didn't expand to jail and therefore, if she had to go anywhere, at least she'd be safer there And even though being a cop would mark her out amongst the other inmates, being alive was far preferable to not. She was terrified about the outcome for both Jane and Lisbon. Neither of them deserved to be preyed upon by Red John, but if she did anything, it would put her in the line of fire even moreso than she already was. Besides, she had faith in them. They'd be able to get through it without her meddling - she'd done enough damage as it was.

A floorboard creaked outside and Van Pelt jumped out of her reverie, quickly checking that her gun was in reach. She made note to complain about it when the elderly lady came up to take her lunch order. But somebody was at her door, roughly pulling at the handle and obviously not in possession of a key. She knew it wasn't the team, or any other cops for that matter, because nobody had called to announce their entrance. That meant it was him. Red John. He'd obviously managed to track her down and she seriously regretted that latte she'd brought on the road. That was probably how he'd managed to track her down to this location and this was the cheapest motel in town. Grabbing her gun and standing flush to a wall, Van Pelt held her breath as the door swung open.

"You? You're Red John?"

"Oh don't look so surprised, Van Pelt."

"But… how?"

"How? Honestly? I thought you were meant to be bright."

Van Pelt kept her gun trained on the new arrival in her room. He approached her, his knife blade glinting in the morning light and she briefly wondered how many of his other victims had this much of a warning before their death. Luckily for her, she was armed and swiftly, she clicked off the safety catch and narrowed her eyes.

"Don't come any closer."

"You do realize you're just stalling the inevitable, don't you?"

"A bullet is faster than a person with a knife blade."

"Try it," he leered (though she'd never imagined him leering at her before) and took a step closer. "Go on, try it."

As instructed, she squeezed the trigger, to no avail. Swiftly, she checked the weapon to see that the bullets had been removed and the man edged ever closer, tapping his pocket, filling the room with a metallic rattle. The young woman's mouth formed an 'o' as she realized that he'd obviously managed to deal with it at some time, probably by visiting the CBI and 'catching up' with things that had happened since he left.

Half an hour later and Van Pelt's body fell to the ground in a crumpled, bloody heap. He'd grown bored of taunting her, something which happened quite a lot lately whenever he was taking the life of individuals. Red John stretched his arms, relishing in the feeling of the muscles moving in his upper back and relaxing slightly. Young Van Pelt had really given him quite a fight. It should have been an enjoyable death and stylistically, it was one of his better ones. And he knew full well that the cops should be all over it like moths to a flame, but knowing that Lisbon and Jane were trapped in his basement bought him time.

Really, he was getting far too old for this. Two more murders and then he'd give it up. Slip back into his happy, respectable family life as if he'd never lived a dual life in the first place.

Just two more and then he would hang up his blade for good.

xxx

Cho looked up at the clock for what felt like the thousandth time that morning. He was alone in the bullpen and frankly, concerned. There was nobody to distract him either, considering the fact that Rigsby was on suspension. It was ten to ten and still no sign of Van Pelt, Lisbon and Jane. Jane, he wasn't worried about. The consultant came and went as he pleased and it wasn't unusual for them not to see him for days on end or for him to suddenly turn up somewhere unexpectedly. But the other two? Well, Van Pelt was obsessively punctual, desperate to make a good impression and as for Lisbon herself, she would arrive on time to the second and even if she had a meeting, she liked to make her presence known to the rest of the team. Cho glanced at his cell phone and fingered it gently. He'd rang Lisbon's cell phone and she hadn't answered, something which was strange in itself. Still, he couldn't help but worry that he was being too jumpy. Was it too soon for him to call Rigsby for a second opinion?

With a sigh, he dialed the number and waited for Rigsby to answer. It couldn't hurt and besides, Van Pelt may have decided to have a lie in with her boyfriend or something. Wouldn't shred any light on Lisbon (or Jane, for that matter) but better to check on one of them than none at all.

Rigsby sounded overly tired and snappish when he eventually answered Cho's call, obviously having just woken up from a very lie in. Cho wasn't surprised, if he was on extended leave, he'd take the opportunity to sleep in as much as physically possible too. After informing him of the conundrum, Rigsby announced that he would be at the headquarters within half an hour. Telling him that Van Pelt appeared to be missing was more than enough to get him into action and adding the fact that the boss had disappeared too only added to Rigsby's concern.

True to his word, the tall agent rounded the corner at twenty past ten with two black coffees in hand. It didn't take long for them to settle into work. With some level of guilt, Cho opted to scout around in Lisbon's office while Rigsby took to Van Pelt's computer, hoping that because he was dating her that it would make some of her passwords more obvious to him. It didn't take him long to find the recorded message from Red John and just as he started listening to it for the second time, Cho emerged from Lisbon's office with the CD-rom from Van Pelt.

"Hey, I think Jane and Lisbon have been lured into a trap by Red John," Rigsby stated, running a hand through his head. "We don't even know if…"

"Don't say it," Cho said a little forcefully.

"Did you find anything useful?"

"This."

Rigsby tentatively took the note from Cho and quickly scanned the piece of paper. He recognized the handwriting, of course, but could barely process the words. Quickly, he handed it back to Cho and shook his head disbelievingly.

"No. I don't believe it. Van Pelt wouldn't do something like that."

TBC…