Halloween at the CBI

Goodness to Betsy! It has been a long time and I do apologize. Here is another installment of Halloween at the CBI. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Mentalist or any of its characters.

Chapter 14

This was not going well—it was all Jane could think about. The team and him were searching the building and everybody was exhausted. It was almost two in the morning on the first of November and no one on the team had had any time to rest. But they had to keep going. They had to find something; anything that would help them find Lisbon. They just had to.

But even being the mentalist he was, in the current situation, Jane was having a considerable amount of trouble trying to focus on the task at hand. Too many things were tugging at the back of this mind. Things like the note and the phone call from Red John. Things like timing.

There was one thing he just couldn't figure out. How had Red John taken Lisbon? To the average person this might have seemed like an obscure question seeing as they were pretty sure that it was clear how she'd been taken; by force. But to Jane there were a few things that didn't make sense. For one, Jane was absolutely sure that the man who had followed him from the bar earlier, wearing the devil's costume, was Red John. The symmetry of their voices from the phone call and their exchange outside the buildings fire exit had proven that theory. But the timing wasn't right.

Lisbon had left the party and gone home where Red John had kidnapped her. But Jane already knew that after Lisbon had left, Red John, still clad in his devil outfit, had been sitting across from him at the bar at the same time, as Lisbon would have been attacked. The only plausible explanation was that Red John had an accomplice. Why send someone else to take Lisbon and do his dirty work while he stayed at the bar? Red John always did everything for a reason, so there must have been a reason for why he would stay instead of taking Lisbon himself. There had to have been some clue; some message he had wanted to send Jane by doing so.

But he hadn't sent him a message. Had he?

Jane massaged his temples; the beginnings of a migraine making the edges of his mind go fuzzy. Why couldn't this just all disappear? Suddenly the idea of running away and disappearing seemed awfully appealing.

The team followed the Chief officer of the Sacramento Police Department down a hidden stairwell at the south end of the building. With the tension of the situation pulling at his mind, Jane couldn't help but try and entertain himself by reading the Chief: Late fifties, bushy mustache to draw attention away from his balding head. Dark circles under his eyes showed he was probably just staying with the job for the upcoming pension and he had problems at home. Marriage issues? Jane guessed. No, it was his wife, but there was something else. An illness? Breast cancer.

Jane sighed. Even the usual pride he got from being able to read people's lives like open books, couldn't even begin to blitz his mood at that moment. Lisbon was in trouble and nothing was going to be able to lighten his mood until he found her. He had to find her. He was going to find her.

"This is where your guy made the call." The team spread out into a small basement room. The walls and floors were all hard concrete and there was only one piece of furniture, a wooden table in the far corner of the room. Other than that the only other point of interest was the long sewage pipe that ran across the lower half of the far wall and the massive pool of blood beside it.

Lisbon's blood.

The chief went on. "This is the only room in this basement with cell phone reception."

"Over here," Cho motioned to the team from the wooden table across the room. Two identical devil costumes were laid nicely across the table. Not only did it confirm his earlier theory that Red John had an accomplice, it also showed that Red John wanted Jane to know that he had been the one in that costume, following him. He wanted him to know that whatever clue or message he had sent Jane, it was from Red John and not some random guy in a devil's costume. But Jane still couldn't recall any clues that the devil had sent him. Maybe back upstairs…

With that thought, Jane was on his way upstairs, almost knocking someone from the Forensic team over on their way in.

After five minutes of useless searching the kitchen, buffet tables and the circling the entire ballroom, Jane settled for a seat overlooking the dance floor. The ballroom was still exactly the way it had been before the Police Department had secured the venue and rounded up all the partygoers outside. The orange and black streamers and balloons were scattered all over the place. Disco balls hung under ceiling beams and sparkling beams of coloured light were scattered across the dance floor.

Jane turned and spotted the place where, less than a few hours ago, Lisbon and he had shared a dessert. He stared at it remembering the way her eyes sparkled under those very lights and how her face lit up when he'd read her mind by ordering a cherry cheesecake; her favourite. He'd spent more time watching her in her adorable kitten costume than actually eating the cake, but it didn't matter now. The idea that he may never see Lisbon again alive, hit him like a ton of bricks.

He knew that he cared about his boss. But he also knew that, that feeling ran much deeper that just 'caring.' He loved Teresa Lisbon. She was his best friend, his crutch and, during his lowest of lows, his shoulder to cry on. But what had he done for her? Sure he'd saved her life once or twice, but that wasn't anything compared to the amount of times she'd saved him physically, emotionally and mentally.

Regret clouded his mind and suddenly all Jane wanted to do was find Lisbon and show her the same affections she'd shown him. He wanted to be her shoulder to cry on, her crutch and her lifeline. No, no, no, he wanted to be much, much more than that.

He wanted to be Lisbon's company for old movies and ice cream on late nights. Jane wanted to buy her popsicles at the park and to be the one to take her grocery shopping on weekends. He wanted to cook her dinner…. No, wait. He wanted to cook her all three meals and the snacks she craved in between. He wanted to be the last one she saw at night and the first one she saw each morning. He wanted to be the one who held her when she cried and kept her warm when the electricity went out during a storm. Jane wanted to be Lisbon's anything and everything; He wanted to be her soul mate.

Jeez, thought Jane. I sound like a sappy lovesick puppy.

Reviews please? Now that summer holidays are in full swing for me I can start typing up some more of my pre-writs. More soon

- Jamhead