A/N: Thanks for all the lovely reviews for the last chapter! That was one of my favorite ones to write. To reward you for taking the time to send such kind feedback, I am posting a second chapter tonight. :)
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"I'm afraid not," Lisbon said. "Can we come in?"
Hightower stepped back and gestured for them to enter.
Once they were inside and Jane had gratefully accepted the offer of tea on behalf of both of them, the three of them settled on the battered sectional couch in the living room, Jane and Lisbon next to each other and Hightower diagonally across from them on the other section.
"How are you?" Lisbon asked Hightower. "It's been awhile since we've spoken."
"Can't complain," Hightower said. "We're finally getting settled in here, and I've got a good job."
"How are the kids?"
She smiled. "They're good. They're asleep now, or I'd have them come say hello."
"They're doing all right, though?"
"It's been an adjustment, but they're doing okay now. Mimi's in a ballet class she likes, and Will is on a soccer team, so they're making new friends, and they're in a good school."
She looked at Lisbon. "How about you? No offense, Teresa, but you don't look so good. Has this one finally worn down your last nerve?" she said, nodding to Jane.
"Red John is poisoning her," Jane informed her.
Hightower's eyes widened. "I see." She turned to Lisbon. "Is that why you're here? Do you need a safe place to hide? You're welcome to stay here if you like."
"Thank you for the offer, but no," Lisbon told her. "That's not why we came."
Hightower regarded her with her piercing gaze. "In that case, what can I do for you?"
"We'd like to talk to you about Red John," Lisbon said. "Jane mentioned something awhile back that I've been thinking about a lot, and I think you could shed some light on it."
"What's that?"
"Jane made the point that Red John seemed extraordinarily determined to find you. He went to great lengths to discredit you, and when that didn't work, expended a great deal of effort trying to kill you."
Hightower shrugged. "I guess he doesn't like to lose once he sets his sights on something."
"That's what I thought at first, too," Lisbon said. "But I'm not sure that quite explains his determination in your case. There have been other times we've foiled his plans where he's backed off as a result. If it ever looks like we're getting close, he usually cuts his losses and retreats for awhile. But he kept going after you even after Jane helped you escape. At first we thought he set you up just because you were a convenient scapegoat. But if that was the only reason for targeting you, why would he keep going after you once you'd fled the CBI? Pretty much everyone thought you were guilty of Johnson's murder at that point. Red John should have been content to let you disappear quietly."
"Maybe he just didn't want any loose ends."
"But continuing to pursue you so aggressively ultimately exposed him even more than the original frame up," Lisbon pointed out. "Can you think of any reason Red John would have wanted so badly to kill you, specifically?"
Hightower thought about this for a moment. "I'm sorry, I can't think of anything," she said. "I first came into contact with the Red John case when I hired on as division chief at the CBI, and even then I was on the periphery of the investigation. My main interaction with the case was discussing the case with you, Teresa, and reviewing your reports on it. My only connection to Red John was through my position at the CBI. I can't think of anything from my time there that stands out as a reason for him to want to come after me."
"What about O'Laughlin?" Lisbon asked. "Any connection to him?"
Hightower shook her head. "Just working with him in his role as FBI liaison."
"Todd Johnson has to be the connection, then," Jane said. "Red John framed you for his murder by making it known that you'd been involved with one of his victims, that police officer, Rance Howard. You know," he added helpfully. "Your lover."
Hightower glared at him. "I'm aware who Rance Howard is, thank you."
"Red John had Todd Johnson kill Howard for him, but we never knew why. Can you think of any connection Howard might have had to Red John?"
Hightower looked taken aback. "Not that I know of. I suppose it's possible, though."
"Can you tell us a little more about him?" Lisbon asked. "How did you know him?"
"We met when I was chief of police in Placerville."
"You were working on a case together?"
"Not exactly. He was an officer in another county, and our jurisdictions didn't really overlap."
"What did he want with you, then?"
"He was looking into a personal matter and wanted to look into our files. We hit it off and started seeing each other. We were together about six months."
"What kind of personal matter?" Jane pressed.
Hightower looked at him. "The death of his father, Kellan Howard."
"He suspected foul play?" Lisbon asked.
"I'm afraid there was no doubt about that. His father was murdered quite violently when he was a boy."
"They never caught the killer?" Jane asked, his mind already whirring. This was starting to be a familiar story.
"No. The case had been cold for many years before Rance came to talk to me about it." She smiled a little wryly. "I told him it was a fool's errand, but he didn't listen to me."
"Did he find anything in the files he asked to see?"
"Not really."
"What was he hoping to find there?"
"His father was a police officer, too. He used to work for the Placerville police department before the family moved to Sacramento. Rance thought maybe there was something that had happened when he was working there that led to his death. Someone who he put away who might have wanted revenge, that sort of thing. He thought he might be able to find evidence of that in the files."
"But you said he didn't find anything?"
"Not in the files, no. But he didn't give up. He went back to Sacramento and kept looking."
"Did he ever find anything?"
Hightower nodded. "He finally thought he was onto something right before he was killed."
"What was that?"
"He was convinced his father's death had something to do with a young woman named Janine Taylor who was stabbed to death in Sacramento back in 1969."
Lisbon frowned. "What gave him that idea?"
"It was this piece of evidence he came across in the course of his investigation. It had trace amounts of blood on it that didn't match his father's blood type. Rance was convinced it belonged to his father's killer, but he could never find anything to test it against."
"What does that have to do with some woman who was killed back in '69?"
"His father worked the case. Taylor was a working girl, killed in her apartment. Kellan was the first one on the scene, and ended up catching this guy Joseph Callahan and arresting him for the murder. Everyone figured it was a john that killed her, and Callahan was a known client of hers. Rance tracked Callahan down, thinking that maybe he might have been involved in Kellan's death as revenge or something, but Callahan was still in jail when Kellan was killed. But Callahan was all hot to talk anyway. He swore he was innocent, and that Kellan had framed him. Callahan said if he would just go check the evidence, now that it could be tested for DNA, he would be proven innocent after all these years. Rance dismissed it, of course, but he ran the DNA test anyway."
"And was Callahan cleared?"
"It ended up being a moot point, because there was no DNA evidence to be had. The only DNA found on the murder weapon belonged to Janine Taylor."
"So then where's the connection between her death and Howard's father?"
"Evidence found at Kellan's murder scene had DNA on it that shared genetic markers with Janine Taylor's DNA."
"What, like someone who was related to her?" Lisbon said, startled.
"Exactly. Rance did some digging and found out Janine Taylor had a son."
"A son?" Jane asked carefully. Lisbon reached out and grabbed his arm, and he could tell she was thinking the same thing he was.
"Yes. He would have been about eight years old when his mother was killed."
"Where was he when his mother died?"
"No one knows for sure. He disappeared for a few days right after it happened. The police found him hiding in an abandoned building a few streets away from where they lived. Some of the notes from the file imply the officers who found him thought that he might have seen something, but he was too traumatized to talk. They questioned him for a few days, but he refused to say a word. The authorities couldn't find any living relatives, and eventually he was bundled off to foster care."
Lisbon's grip on Jane's arm tightened. "What was the boy's name?"
Hightower looked at her blankly. "I have no idea. His name was suppressed in the file, presumably because he was a minor at the time."
"Do you know anything else about him?" Lisbon asked. "Do you know where he ended up in foster care?"
"No," Hightower said, staring at her. "Why would that matter?"
"Did Rance think Janine Taylor's son might have killed his father?"
"Rance didn't know what to think. He didn't even know if the DNA belonged to Taylor's son in the first place. He'd just found this connection was going to try to find him and see if he could shed any light on the situation."
"And Rance was killed shortly thereafter, is that correct?" Jane asked.
"Yes. Very shortly after he did the test on Janine Taylor's DNA, actually."
"What about the evidence?" Jane asked, his mind working rapidly. "You said Rance found a piece of evidence connected to his father's death. What was it?"
"It was this rusty old nail," Hightower told him. "Rance thought his father's killer used it to slit his throat. It had some of the killer's blood on it, too, which was how Rance was able to run the DNA test. Do you want to see it?"
Jane stared at her. "You have it here?"
"Yes. Rance gave it to me shortly before he died, asked me to hold onto it. He thought I might be able to pull some strings at the CBI to maybe run the DNA results against some of the secure databases the CBI has access to."
"And did you?"
"I did. It didn't turn up any matches, though. And then Rance was killed, so I hung onto it. Honestly, I didn't know what to do with it." She grimaced. "It's not the most romantic keepsake, but it was the only thing I had that belonged to him."
Jane swallowed. "I'd like to see it, if you don't mind."
"Sure." Hightower got up and disappeared into the back bedroom. She returned several moments later with a plastic evidence bag in hand which she handed to Jane.
Jane held it up to the light and he and Lisbon stared at it. A rusted nail with a jagged point, caked in crusted blood. "An iron nail," Jane commented.
"Cut iron," Lisbon breathed.
Hightower watched them warily. "You think this has something to do with why Red John had it in for me?"
Jane didn't take his eyes off the evidence bag. "I'm pretty sure it has everything to do with why Red John had it in for you."
He stood abruptly. "Lisbon, we should get going. It's late, and we've got a long drive ahead of us." He held up the evidence bag and addressed Hightower. "Can we take this?"
"I guess so," Hightower said. "If you think it can be useful to you. It's not doing anybody any good here."
"I think it will be very useful," Jane said.
Hightower sighed. "I can see you're not planning on explaining this to me. But if that really is the reason Red John decided to destroy my life, I'll probably be better off without it."
"I'm sorry," he told her. "I'd explain if I could. I don't think it's the best idea to tell you our theory until we have something a bit more solid, though. Right now, all we have is a lot of guesswork."
A corner of her mouth turned upward. "Guesswork. That's what you do, after all."
Jane smiled, remembering the reference. "Yes."
"All right. I'll leave you to your guesswork. But if you end up finding out your guesses are right and you finally close this case, promise you'll explain it all to me someday."
Jane shot her a grin as he pulled Lisbon up off the couch and herded her towards the door. "You can count on it."
Lisbon escaped his grasp and gave Hightower a quick hug. "Don't worry, I'll make sure he makes good on his promise."
Hightower smiled ruefully. "You always do."
"We'll come down here when it's over and tell you the whole story over a couple of glasses of wine," Lisbon assured her.
"Forget wine, we'll do it over a bottle of tequila," Hightower said. "Top shelf."
"If this pans out, I'll buy you both the finest tequila money can buy," Jane said fervently.
"It's a date," Hightower said.
"Make your list of your favorite tequilas now," Jane told her. "It may be sooner than you think."
Xxx
When they got back in the car, Lisbon was fairly buzzing with excitement. It seemed the adrenaline of catching a major break in the case was making her feel much better. "Oh, my God, Jane. Do you know what this means?"
"I know what I think it means. What do you think it means?"
"Red John had Todd Johnson kill Rance Howard to prevent him from looking into his father's death."
"That would be my guess," Jane agreed.
"Red John killed Kellan Howard and he knew he left DNA evidence behind. He must have found out Hightower ran the DNA through the CBI mainframe and that's when he decided to go after her."
"So it would seem."
"Red John is Janine Taylor's son."
"I'm inclined to think so, yes."
"So why do you think Red John killed Kellan Howard?"
"I know exactly why he killed him. Kellan Howard killed his mother. It's the only possible explanation."
"What about Callahan? He was convicted of Janine Taylor's murder."
"He was framed by Kellan Howard, just like Callahan said, to cover his own tracks."
"Okay, fine, then why would Kellan Howard kill Janine Taylor?"
"Because he was having an affair with her. He was a young police officer. He had a new family and a promising career ahead of him. He slept with a hooker, and then panicked for some reason; maybe the vice department was cracking down, or he was under scrutiny from internal affairs. Or maybe they just had an argument and she threatened to expose him. Whatever the reason, he panicked and killed her because he was afraid she might tell someone. Red John witnessed the murder, and he either ran away because he was afraid, or Kellan Howard threatened to kill him if he told anyone. When the police found him, he refused to talk because he knew it was one of them who killed his mother."
"Beginning his lifelong hatred of law enforcement," Lisbon realized.
"Exactly," Jane agreed. "He was too small and scared to do anything about it then, so he waited until he was a grown man. Then he tracked down Kellan Howard and made him pay for what he'd done. But he was still new to killing then—he underestimated Kellan Howard. He probably planned to stab him like Howard did his mother, but Howard managed to wound him. I bet Howard grabbed the nearest thing to hand to defend himself and managed to cut him with the end of the nail. Red John must have wrestled it away from him, and then used it to end the altercation."
"Why wouldn't he have taken the nail with him, then?" Lisbon wondered. "It seems like the sort of trophy Red John would have liked to keep."
"Who knows? If I'm right and he was still new to killing, maybe there was something else that didn't go according to plan—maybe he heard someone coming and ran for it without thinking things through. He might have just dropped it. He's very careful now, but presumably he had to learn to be so by learning from his mistakes. But there's no doubt that this was a hugely significant kill for him. That little rusty nail became a symbol of his triumph over his mother's killer. It's no wonder he chose iron as a theme for the names of his professional endeavors. It's a deeply personal symbol of power for him."
Lisbon punched him on the arm, which he knew was her way of expressing excitement. "It fits, Jane. It all fits."
He rubbed his arm surreptitiously. She hit really hard, even when she was doing so in an affectionate manner. "Yes. It certainly seems to tie neatly together with the other pieces of the puzzle we've managed to piece together."
"You don't seem that excited. Aren't you pleased?"
"Of course I'm pleased. This is a major breakthrough. I'm just thinking about what comes next," he told her. "We have a busy day tomorrow."
"Yeah. I'm going to see if I can get my hands on a copy of the police reports on the deaths of Janine Taylor and Kellan Howard. Then I'll see if we can't track down the birth certificate for Janine Taylor's son, see if we can get a name." She turned to him eagerly. "This could be it, Jane. This could be the break we've been waiting for. We could finally find out for sure who Red John is."
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Lisbon," Jane said. "First things first."
"Jane, we're so close now. What could possibly take priority over this?"
"I don't know about you, Lisbon, but my number one priority is pretty clear right now."
"What's that?"
He looked at the road. "We have to find out how you're being poisoned and put a stop to it."
