Red Silences
Thanks to lucy for the review, and of course, as always—the readers and alerters of the story—the end of this chapter deals with the same person we've seen from Chapter 10, and the beginning of Chapter 13 (I just wanted to clarify that without giving too much away)
Chapter Fourteen:
Violet Hill
"Come in," Hightower greeted as Lisbon stepped into the office, her arms down to her sides as she came to stand in front of her bosses' desk. Hightower had her brown eyes focused on her paperwork below her and after a few moments of silence, Hightower allowed her pen to fall from her fingers and hit the desk. "I need you to focus on your other cases at the moment."
"Come again, ma'am?" Hightower blinked.
"You heard me Lisbon," Hightower gave. "I want you to focus on your other cases at the moment, you're slacking." Lisbon brought her arms to rest against her chest, crossing them as she stared down at the Special Agent.
"I can't do that, ma'am." Lisbon allotted, quietly. "We have conclusive evidence that proves that two people have kidnapped…"
"Lisbon, I've seen the report." Hightower interrupted. "However, we have no evidence that proves that Alyson is dead or…" Her phone rang, and she held up her finger to interrupt the disagreement about to come. "Hightower…" Hightower nodded for a few minutes and kept her eyes on Lisbon, which spelled disaster. "I see." Hightower nodded once more. "I'll tell her that, thanks." Hightower hung the phone up and glanced down at her desk before she glanced at Lisbon. "I spoke too soon."
"What do you…?"
"That was my contact in the Anaheim office." Hightower explained. "They need you to get down there right away."
"Why?"
"There's been a murder, and the murderer is asking for you."
OoO
It wasn't until Rigsby had pulled the SUV past the large blue sign did the sinking feeling hit her again, Disneyland had been another one of those odd coincidences that she couldn't quite ignore especially as what had seemed like forever ago (when in reality it had only been two weeks ago) Jane had confessed to her about his daughter loving Disneyland.
"You think that we might be able to get some cotton candy." Rigsby threw aside and Cho glanced at him.
"Someone died, and you want cotton candy."
"My stomach knows no bounds." Rigsby responded, as he parked the vehicle and the group of four relinquished the comfort of the SUV air conditioning to tackle the early August heat wave.
"Do you know what we have, boss?" Van Pelt asked, as the four crossed the almost ghost-like parking lot of Disneyland.
"I was told to come here, and the officials would fill me in." The four continued in silence, until the four came across the sights of uniformed officers.
"Agent Teresa Lisbon?" One of the many uniformed officers greeted, and she nodded. "Thank you for coming; I'm Officer Jackie Elliston…"
"What do we have here?"
"Jaime Everland, one of the park's employees came into start her shift when she found this…" Jackie answered, as they neared the main square of the nearly deserted theme park except for the uniformed officers who stood around the yellow-taped area. Jackie lifted the tape up for the four to cross, and Lisbon could immediately see why someone had specifically asked for her.
The woman, with her shoulder length dark hair and glossy wide green eyes with her mouth open in a silent scream almost screamed Teresa Lisbon, Rigsby had to do a double take in disbelief as he glanced between his boss and the gory corpse below them all.
"When Everland caught sight of the corpse, she called 911—and the officer on the scene was Ted Kelvin." Lisbon knew why someone would call her from this office then; Ted Kelvin was someone she used to work with back during her SFPD days with Sam Bosco. "He of course called your office, and I can see why now…the resemblance in uncanny."
"Was there anything on the body?" Jackie nodded.
"When the ME swept the area, he found this." Jackie relinquished another black note card, similar to the one that had been shown on the urn. "It was addressed for you, which was another reason why we called your office." Lisbon nodded, and was handed a pair of gloves before handling the note card.
"Walk Away.
Walk Away.
You couldn't save me.
I look a lot like you Watch the steps you take For two others will be committed
Does this frighten you?
Make you more careful?
For three is all I have
Alive, well and working—
Before the eve of dawn's tomorrow,
Unless you repent for the sins you've taken
Of loving two men before your time is done."
"At least we know Red John isn't behind this," Rigsby stated. "I doubt he'd write you something close to love poetry, boss." Lisbon didn't tell Rigsby that Red John had recited a poem to Jane, it's possible for any serial killer to change motive after a while, especially someone who's MO is ripped off all the time; she also couldn't refute the idea that Jane committed this murder, the idea that firstly, they're taken to Disneyland where Jane bought the necklace for his deceased daughter and second, the woman on the concrete ground looked eerily identical to herself.
"What can you tell me about the way she was killed?" Jackie shrugged.
"Our victim, from the ME's reports was beaten to death." Jackie explained. "She was most likely starved for a few days, which means she could have been missing anywhere from two days to a week." Lisbon glanced down at the woman, and wondered if Jane and Rhys were involved.
"Do you know if they have camera footage guarding the park at night?" Jackie nodded.
"They do."
Ten minutes later, the officer and the senior agent remained seated in the security center while Jackie forwarded the tape on the feed from around 7 PM to the time they found the body.
"Here," Jackie revealed and Lisbon focused her eyes on the small screen with a colorful night vision image—at around 2:52 AM, three figures (without any masks) carried the body in.
"Three?" Lisbon asked. "On our kidnap victim's feed there were two…"
"It seems then, whoever is behind this gained another helper." Lisbon knew she had seen all three before, especially as the night vision picked up two males but the last one, Lisbon wasn't sure if the person were a female or male.
"Would you like a copy of this, ma'am?"
"Yes, I would."
OoO
Terror was something many people never truly felt, and fear was something that made someone frightened for the moment but eventually, that fear faded into adrenaline however, terror remained behind. Three figures huddled together for warmth, terror oozing from themselves in the form of lack of control from their bladders.
The door clattered open, and the figures shivered—clothes dingy, scarlet stained and slightly soiled.
"Congratulations to the three of you, especially our new recruit." The figures didn't respond. "I think you deserve a reward for a job well done." The newest recruit stared up at the man with blank eyes. "Come along," the newest recruit pulled themselves up from the other two figures and grabbed the gloved hand of the man as he led her along with the soft mummers of cold comfort.