Introduction


»Jane, are you ok?« Lisbon looked from the road over to him.

They had just solved a case in Elk Grove and were on their way back to their base, taking the CA-99 south towards Fresno. Lisbon and Jane were alone in the black SUV. Jane had been particularly quiet since they left. All he had done was gaze absently out the passenger window and not say a word. Left and right of the car, the houses of suburban Sacramento were passing by, one by one, smoldering in the unrelenting summer heat. They had the car windows closed and the air conditioning running full blast. Dressed appropriately for the weather, Jane was only wearing his vest, the sleeves of his dress shirt were pulled up to his elbows.

»Hm?« He pulled his eyes and attention back inside the vehicle and turned to her.

»If you're okay.« she repeated with eyebrows raised, this was exactly her point.

»Do you know how many types of clouds there are?« he asked and looked back out while keeping his posture more open this time, not shutting her out.

»Ten, I believe.« she answered casually, to Jane's surprise. He looked at her intently now. She'd managed to intrigue him.

»Now, that's what most people believe« he said playfully, denying her any recognition for her answer, »but that is actually not true. There's many more, in fact. There's new ones being discovered till today, in every corner of the world. Did you know there's a cloud formation called Mackerel Sky?«

»Like the fish?« she asked incredulously.

»Yes, like the fish. Mackerel sky and mares' tails make tall ships carry low sails.« he looked back out the window.

She glanced over confusedly.

»Old mariners' rhyme. The very distinct pattern the the clouds that resembled the skin of a mackerel told them that a storm is coming.«

She opened her mouth to say something when her phone rang. She picked up immediately.

»What is it, Van Pelt?«

Jane watched Lisbon on the phone. From the way her eyebrows furrowed and the corners of her mouth moved, he knew that the phone call wasn't exactly provoking positive emotions in her. He didn't know that because he read body language for a living but because he had worked with her for such a long time that he just knew what her every facial expression meant without even thinking about it.

He hung up and he raised his eyebrows at her in a silent question.

»Arnold has escaped.« she said between tight lips, »He's injured two policemen.«

The case they had been working for over a week now had finally come to a close just minutes ago, when they located the prime suspect, Jane's prime suspect who hadn't been on anyone else's radar before. But because Jane tended to be right and because the team tended to stand in front of a cognitive brick wall, they trusted him blindly and arrested the man. Jane had been right and the suspect, upon further questioning at his house in Elk Grove, had fled the scene. Luckily, the local PD had been on standby and had quickly caught the culprit who was then swiftly taken into custody by them. The last time Jane as well as Lisbon had seen him had been behind the locked doors in the back of the police car. Well, maybe those doors hadn't been locked that well at all in the end, as he had somehow managed to escape.

At the next stoplight, Lisbon turned the car back around and headed north, back to Elk Grove.

»Do you have any idea where he would go?« Lisbon asked.

Jane shrugged and held his palms up, »How would I know?"

» I feel like someone who knows about Mackerels floating up in the sky might know a few things that I don't.« she quipped and accelerated the car.

A few minutes later, they got another call; they had found him but it had come to a standoff.

Not much later, though still the last to arrive, they pulled up near a rather small bridge going over a creek no more than perhaps 50 ft wide. The suspect was, classically, in the middle of the bridge. Van Pelt, Cho and Rigsby were standing, weapons drawn, on the side Lisbon and Jane were arriving from. The local PD was on the opposite side, cornering the suspect. Jane stayed back by the car, behind its door for shelter, while Lisbon threw on her bullet proof vest, drew her weapon and positioned herself alongside her team. Jane watched the suspect. He was nervously aiming his gun from left to right, not knowing who to target, all the while looking down behind himself to where the creek ran under the stone bridge. Jane thought that he would jump. Jane himself wouldn't, if it was him in that predicament, but he was sure the suspect would. It was obvious that he wasn't familiar with handling a gun, much less shooting anyone, let alone police. He didn't come from this Milieu the most young offenders came from. He lived in a good neighborhood with his two parents, his twin brother and younger sister. He was going to high school, getting good grades and from talking to him, Jane knew that he had good manners and treated other people with respect. So no, he would not shoot at the police but neither would he surrender. He knew that on that fateful day, he hadn't lost his brother to the knife in his hand, but that he had lost his entire family that day, just like that. His life as he knew it was over. Not only was his family broken but his future as well. He knew he would get a harsh punishment. So no, surrender was not an option either. Suicide? No, Jane thought, again the problem with the gun handling. Although Jane was not especially adept in handling one of those things either, he did know how to fire one of time came. Looking at the suspect, he wasn't so sure.

Albert glanced down at the creek again. He was trying to see how deep the water was and whether it was deep enough to conceal him and fast enough to get him out.

All the policemen and agents were taking turns trying to get him to surrender. Telling him that it was over, done, that he'd get a good deal coming with them willingly now, to just put the gun down to the ground. But it all did nothing. Suddenly, Albert dropped the gun and turned to jump over the stone banister into the running water below. But before he got a chance to even leave the ground, a shot rang out.

Jane got back into the car and closed the door.


To be continued!

A/N: Thank you for reading! Feedback is my bread and water (can you even say it like that? haha) so feel free to comment/PM me. This story is not beta-ed, so forgive me for my mistakes. This is only the Introduction to the story so don't worry, it'll get more exciting soon :D I don't even know whether the community of The Mentalist is still active and people still care but I do hope so! I love the show forever 3