Chapter 8

In the next couple of days, they had two new cases. Nothing related to Red John thankfully. Jane closed the first one quite quickly; it was the ex-husband of the victim the one who killed her when he found out that the victim started to date with a longtime common friend.

The second case was a different story; the victim: Sara McGee, daughter of a congressman, was found dead in her room when his mother went to wake her up for school. Sara was in her senior year, popular, with a lot of friends and the president of her class. There weren't any signs of a break-in and her mother didn't hear anything during the night. All the household employees and close relatives had strong alibis for the time of the crime.

Bertran was driving her crazy because he wanted to close the case right away, and now every time that she talked to him couldn't hide her nerves. Jane complained about it saying that she should put a better front like when she was shutting him out. Lisbon looked at the floor for one moment struggling to explain herself before admitting that it was easier with him because she trusted him.

Jane looked at her surprise; his head tilted to his left side and he opened his mouth two times before closing it again; he was speechless. The senior agent enjoyed that huge accomplishment but the blond recovered quickly and looked at her softly. Lisbon felt the blood going to her cheeks and looked to the file resting on her desk.

Jane took her chin making her looked him directly in the eyes. "Thank you for still trusting me after everything, Teresa." He said softly letting go of her chin. The brunette didn't feel butterflies in her stomach, she felt a damn circus in her all body. Lisbon nodded uncomfortably and thankfully Jane let the conversation go.

The next day, they still didn't make any progress on the case and their list of suspects was pretty short. Lisbon was quite stressed out and the fact that Jane basically became her shadow since their conversation in the attic didn't help.

To be fair he was with her around eighty percent of the time on a regular basis and in the firsts days Lisbon allowed it remembering the expression on his face that day in the attic, but now they were struck with the case and it was getting annoying; Jane was floating around her, watching her. Refusing to go with the rest of the team to interview suspects, following her to Marie's or the coffee car every time that she went to get a bear claw or coffee. Texting her every night silly things before she went to bed. It was safe to assume that he was in a mood to hover.

They were discussing several theories in the bullpen but no one seemed to hold. Lisbon was resting against Van Pelt's desk looking at the crime border hoping that she would find the missing link, but so far no luck. "Maybe we should talk with her classmates. Her best friends weren't very helpful." Rigsby suggested after a moment. Cho sighed annoyed about the prospect of interviewing teenagers. Lisbon thought about it for a second before agreeing with him. They didn't have any lead at the moment.

"Jane go with Rigsby and Cho to the high school." She ordered. The blond was laying on his couch with his eyes closed.

"I rather not, Lisbon." He answered without moving. She rolled her eyes. Grace looked at him amused, Cho and Rigsby just stood up from their desks getting ready to follow her orders, unlike others.

"Jane, I'm your boss." She reminded him.

That phrase caught his attention. Jane immediately sat on the couch and looked offended for a second. "Nah, you aren't my boss. You are my partner." He declared looking at her with a smile.

Lisbon rolled her eyes not wanting to show how deeply his comment warmed her heart. "Whatever. I need some good coffee, I'm going to Marie's. Does anyone want anything?" She asked the rest of the team. Cho and Van Pelt refused but Rigsby asked her for a glazed donut which made Van Pelt rolled her eyes.

Jane stood up from his couch stretching, looking quite relaxed like he was on a spa. He was a child sometimes. She resisted the need to scoff at him.

Jane started to talk in a patronizing voice that managed to put her on edge at once. "You know what? I'm quite famished maybe —"

"Stop!" she interrupted him. "Don't. I'm going to Marie's. Alone. If you want to eat something you can go to another place or better you can do your job and go with Rigsby and Cho to the high school." She declared before quickly leaving the bullpen.

Jane looked at her back and the swing of her hips with his eyebrows furrowed until she disappeared from his sight annoyed by the fact that she actually escaped before he could do something.

"Man, just come with us. I'm sure that she will be happy with you again if you close this case." Rigsby said trying to help to calm down the boss. She usually ended snapping at them when she was arguing with Jane.

"She will be happy if you quit hovering over her," Cho stated crossing his arms. Van Pelt looked at him with knowing eyes and Rigsby just looked uncomfortable.

Jane wanted to take exception to Cho's statement but on reflection, he had to admit it wasn't entirely wrong. He has been hovering but if the rest of the team knew that reason why he was doing it, they would probably be on his side.

Jane knew that Lisbon realized pretty quickly his strategy and he wished sometimes that she wasn't quite so good at reading him, years ago he would have been able to weasel his way past her on this, but it was the price of actually being close to someone again.

Being around her was easy; chatting with her, spending time alone together again, napping in her couch but it wasn't solid yet. Not like before Vegas and he needed to make it solid again. No matter how much hovering it took.

Jane decided not to acknowledge Cho's comment and took his jacket from his desk. "I'll see you all later." He said walking out of the bullpen ignoring Rigsby's tired sigh and Grace's smug expression.

"Here is your coffee and bear claw, Teresa."

"Thanks, Samantha. Keep the change." Teresa said taking the order from Samantha's hands.

Samantha smiled softly and looked around. "And where is Patrick?" She asked. Lisbon almost groaned. Samantha was one of the many women who had a crush on Jane. She was only 19 years old and the poor thing hasn't developed any defenses against Jane's charm yet.

Lisbon opened her mouth but before any word came out, the door opened and Jane walked in with a soft smile. "I'm right here, Sam. How are you?" He said walking to them. Lisbon this time didn't hold her groan and walked to the other side of the restaurant, leaving them without any word.

The brunette sat down at the corner table and took a big bite of her bear claw looking at the people passing by through the window trying to contain her anger. She just wanted a quiet moment. Why Jane had to make it so difficult?

Lisbon felt him approaching her after a couple of minutes but she kept ignoring him. "Well, that was quite rude, my dear. The poor Samantha thought that it was her fault, I had to reassure her that she hadn't said anything wrong." Jane said after sitting down with his tea.

A flicker of annoyance crossed her face but she kept her silence sipping her coffee. Jane sighed tiredly when he read her mood. She was really annoyed with him. He couldn't blame her, he should give her a break but he didn't want to. He had missed her during the last couple of months; missed her arguing, her needling, and her fatalistic sigh when she went along with his plans, her pleasure at figuring out what he was thinking.

She won't give in and Jane knew that he had to riled her up if he wanted a response. "Come on, Teresa. You don't need to overreact."

The brunette just rolled her eyes and let a low growl. Jane realized how much better she was getting at controlling her temper after all these years. Not long ago Lisbon would have been yelling at him so close to the boiling point. Jane tilted his head going for the heavy weapons. "What if I tell you that I have a solid theory of how Sara McGee's killer broke into the house?"

That immediately got her attention, she looked at him untrusting but he knew that she was hooked. The consultant had to hide his cocky grin behind his tea. He waited until she gave out her silent treatment. "Well, I'm waiting," Lisbon said inpatient gesturing him to talk but Jane who just loved to see her angry with her sparkling eyes and red cheeks couldn't resist teasing her one more time.

"I thought that you didn't want me to talk, Lisbon." And just like he wanted to: her eyes fired up and her brows furrowed.

"Seriously Jane, don't push me." She treated him quite annoyed. He raised his hand in a mockery surrender before the consultant explained how he saw a basement window in the house backyard that looked brand new which probably meant that it wasn't added to the house security yet.

She immediately called Grace and told her his theory asking her to find out if that window was on their security system. Lisbon looked at him again already feeling some relief at the possibility of having a solid clue that may help them to close this case.

The consultant was looking at her with a soft smile and made her hesitated about the subject that she was going to bring in but Kirkland told them about the secret cops organization almost a month ago and they hadn't done anything yet. "Jane we need to do something about this organization." She stated. The effect was immediate; his smile disappeared and his eyes turned dull.

He hummed acknowledging her statement and his left finger went to his lips, a gesture so familiar indicating to her that he was thinking. She took another bite of her bear claw letting him process his thoughts.

"As much as it pains me to admit it, we will need some extra help," Jane said after a few minutes.

She looked at him shook not quite believing that those words were coming from his mouth. "You want help?" She asked in disbelief.

Jane shrugged softly and took another sip of his tea. "To the best of our knowledge, the FBI hasn't been touched by the organization yet but Red John has a friend there. We should find someone from DC just to be safe. I don't see another solution to this situation."

Teresa thought about the idea for a moment. "It sounds good but we have a couple of problems: one we don't know how to identify them, we can't go from officer to officer saying tiger, tiger hoping that we will get some reaction from them and two we don't have any evidence of this organization. Kirkland died and the evidence died with him."

Jane nodded. "Yes, but at least now we have a route of action. I can investigate the people involving in suspicious cases from other units and maybe I can find a pattern and the class of evidence that you cops like so much." She nodded in agreement but the idea that the CBI was full of corruption was a bitter pill to swallow, all these years of dedication to her job were in danger and it stung more than she cared to admit.

Her train of thought was interrupted by Jane who took her hand. She looked at him, starlet. "It will be ok, Lisbon. We are a team." He said softly looking at her directly to the eyes. Jane could tell by the way her eyes softened that she was more than concerned, she was scared.

She nodded accepting his words but not quite calm yet. "It seems lately like the only thing that you do now is comforting me," Lisbon said trying to lighten the conversation.

She tried to smile but it came off, not really reaching her eyes and Jane decided to follow her lead not wanting to add tension. "Well my dear, you have been rubbing on me all these years. I learned one thing or two." He joked making her laugh for real this time.

"Yeah right." She said still smiling. Her phone rang breaking their stares. It was Cho with a new lead from the victim's best friend.

Jane stood up and threw their empty cups in the trash can. "Time to work, no rest for the wicked." He walked to Samantha and asked for the box of donuts that he ordered before. Lisbon caught up with him and looked at him with a soft smile when she saw the box of donuts for the team.

Yes, he was getting to solid ground again, Jane thought satisfied.

Three days later they finally closed the case. Sara had a stalker who broke into the house through the basement window that hadn't been included in the security system just like Jane predicted.

Jonathan Meyer saw her once in a park with her friends and became obsessed until the point of showing out in her school. Sara's best friend was the only one who knew about it and finally confessed under Cho's cold face. After that, they only had to identify the guy and his ADN was found in the basement window. And the best thing about it was that Jane behaved during the case not causing her any headaches or extra work. She even received public congratulations from Bertram.

Sadly, the next day, her good humor disappeared with the arrival of a new case. It wasn't the case itself, it was the guests that it brought.

The victim, Chad Parkman was found dead on the floor of his hotel room stabbed by another individual although he appeared to be alone in the room.

Lisbon looked at the body. "Do we have a murder weapon?" She asked at the hotel head security.

The man looked at his notepad for a moment. "Uh, no, ma'am, nor have I been able to establish any means of egress used by the killer. When I was outside the room, I heard them struggling, then heard the victim cry out when he was stabbed. But then I got the door open... He was all alone."

"Window's open." She said but doubted that the killer could get in and out that fast in such a high.

Jane denied with his head voicing aloud her thoughts. "It's a long way down, and a long way up to the roof. I don't think he went that way."

The head of security chuckled nervously. "So, what? Magic?"

Jane shrugged softly. "Nope. Just a trick."

"And we all know how good you are at those, don't we? Tricks, I mean. Hey, Teresa." Ray Haffner said coming into the hotel room followed by Jason Cooper. She felt quite uncomfortable under Ray's eyes and Jane noticed it, he stood up and walked to her standing next to her in an aggressive display of nonchalance.

"Ray. What are you doing here? You don't work at the CBI anymore." She asked surprised.

"I'm with a client. Visualize and this is a Visualize matter." Ray answered with a smile. She had to force herself not to react.

The head of security looked at the new incomers confused. "Who are they?"

"Uh, this is Jason Cooper, errand boy for cult leader Bret Stiles, and Ray Haffner, who is a member of the cult," Jane answered with false ease. Lisbon could see that he was evaluating Haffner and if she read his eyes correctly, he didn't like his presence at all. Great.

Jason Cooper looked at Jane upset by his introductions. "Visualize is not a cult, and it is exactly bigotry like that that leads to murders like this."

"What are you talking about?" Lisbon asked looking confused.

"Chad Parkman was a prominent member of the Visualize community. We view his murder as a hate crime. Mr. Haffner is to be included in your investigation." Cooper started reaching for something in his briefcase.

Haffner talked before she could say anything. "Purely as a victim's advocate, but I do like the idea of working with you again, Teresa." He expressed with a smile on his face.

Lisbon saw through the corner of her eye how Jane rolled his eyes at Haffner's last comment, she decided to ignore it for everybody's sake. "I appreciate your concern, Mr. Cooper, but we never let civilians in our investigations—ever," Lisbon responded politely to Cooper.

Ray cleared his throat and pointed at Jane with his eyes. "Never ever?"

She opened her eyes like a deer in front of lights, surprised that Ray called her out and babbled the first thing that came to her mind. "Well, he's— he's different."

Jane followed her lead. "I'm different." He said with a soft shrug. Haffner rolled his eyes annoyed.

Cooper interrupted them giving her the paper that he took from his briefcase. "I have a letter here signed by the Lieutenant Governor inviting Mr. Haffner to join the investigation. To observe. That's all. Read the letter, Agent Lisbon. I am confident you'll want to grant the Lieutenant Governor's request." She took the paper surprised, seeing the signature there. Jane hummed behind her, his eyes read briefly the paper, and then stared at Haffner coldly.

"Sure. Mr. Cooper." She replied tightly annoyed by the prospect of sharing their case leads with one of the Red John suspects.

"Well... if there's nothing else to do here, we should let forensics do their job." The blond said putting his hand on her low back pushing her to the door. Lisbon felt the tension in his hand and decided to stay quiet. They walked to the elevator and she pressed the elevator button.

They shared a look and Lisbon was shocked to see frustration simmering under his well-worn mask. She tilted her head questioning him but Jane just denied with his head.

"So... any ideas on the case yet?" Haffner asked catching on with them and cutting their silent conversation.

Jane smiled but it never came near his eyes, his smile had more edge in it than congeniality. "Just questions." The consultant said.

She was hoping that Haffner let the conversation go or that the elevator arrived but none of the options seemed to happen soon enough.

"It's a stumper, isn't it? Speaking of which, how's your Red John investigation going?"

Teresa looked at Jane on her left side noticing how his posture changed slightly; his shoulder squared, he dropped his hand from her low back and stuffed them into his jacket pockets. He was staring coolly at Ray. "In the bag." Jane finally said.

Haffner chuckled and looked at her. "I don't know how you deal with this guy, Teresa. You know, we study him in Visualize now."

Well, that was disturbing. "Oh. Really?"

"Oh yeah," Haffner answered. "You know, his blind struggle against fate. So heroic. So fruitless. Bret says there's a lot to be learned from watching Patrick Jane, so... we all do."

Jane's eyes sharpened and examined his face. "So much anger. It's not good for you."

Ray scoffed but it was clear as glass that he wasn't fooling anyone. "Anger? I'm not angry."

"Annihilating rage. About what, I have no idea." Jane was riling him out on purpose studying Ray's reaction. The blond was trying to find something that could confirm or discard Haffner as a Red John suspect.

"Jane." She warned him. The senior agent didn't want to break out a fight. Jane looked at her for a moment but there wasn't any acknowledgment of her warning. Maybe she should let Ray hit him in the nose for a moment.

"You don't know anything about me," Haffner said almost spitting on. Lisbon had the feeling that he forgot that she was present.

"Just what's written on your face," Jane said with that condensed attitude he adopted around people who acted at least a little superior toward him.

"You're so much smarter than everybody else, right? But it isn't helping you catch Red John, is it?" Haffner said getting upset, he was walking straight to Jane's trap. "Here's a switch for you. I'm gonna predict your future. There's a comeuppance headed your way and Teresa I just hope that you are far away from him when it happens. My job offer still stands." Ray finished looking at her thoughtfully. Jane scoffed and tilted his head annoyed.

She swallowed her nerves quickly, talking before Jane could say something. "Thank you, Ray but I'm good." The elevator finally arrived and Jane guided her inside. Thankfully Ray stayed on the floor probably waiting for Cooper.

"You're a worse psychic than you were a cop," Jane replied smoothly before the elevator door closed leaving Ray angrier.

Lisbon hit Jane in his stomach slightly irritated. The consultant complained but the brunette ignored him. "Don't do that thing." She said.

"What thing?" He shrugged, feigning innocence.

"Pocking people just to study their reactions." She said rolling her eyes.

"Well, Lisbon. If I stop, then I won't be able to close your cases that fast." He answered carefreely.

The brunette dropped the subject knowing that she won't convince him of changing his behavior. "Did you find out anything new on Ray?" She asked looking at him from her shoulder.

Jane hummed for a moment. "Too early to tell. I just noticed the same things; The general anger that he carries, his resentment at me, his obsession with you." He answered looking at her eyes deeply. Lisbon started to get flustered and avoided his eyes.

"He is not obsessed with me." She denied.

"You didn't use the contraction, Lisbon. It was obvious." Jane said making fun of her, not wanting to let her know how upset he was by that fact. Haffner had looked at her like a piece of lamb and the fact that he was one of the main suspects of his investigation didn't sit well. He wanted Lisbon as far away from Haffner as possible.

"What about you? Did you see something?" He asked cleaning his mind.

"I don't know," Lisbon said with a shrug of her shoulders; Jane caught a hint of her perfume. He knew if he stepped closer he'd be able to feel her body heat, the temptation was too high, he had to resist the impulse of surrounding her in his arms. Lately, it was more difficult for him.

It was an odd case. No murder weapon. No suspects. The victim was alone in the hotel room. The victim's workplace was a good place to start. She sent Jane with Cho to investigate needing some alone time. Not long after they left, Jane called with a lead but it wasn't quite useful.

Cho was interrogating the gym owner when Van Pelt came with a folder. "Boss? I just got Frost's phone records. Look at this."

"That's Ray Haffner's cell phone," Lisbon said looking at the paper with furrowed eyebrows.

"Frost called it three times the week before he stabbed Parkman." Van Pelt said.

"Well, let's go see what Brother Ray has to say about that," Jane said with a satisfied smile.

She looked at him with suspicion before answering. "He's not here. He went to the hotel. He said he had to check on something."

"Then we'll go there." Jane started to walk to the elevator but she stopped him.

"No, you stay here. Grace and I will go."

"Absolutely not. Don't be ridiculous." Jane stated looking dead serious. Lisbon rolled her eyes and Grace looked at the folder in her hands quite uncomfortable. Jane almost rolled his eyes, sometimes he believed that the rest of the team thought of them as daddy and mommy.

Lisbon knew that Jane was going to react in this way so the brunette just looked at him in the eyes calmly. "We'll be fine. He's more likely to let something slip to us than he would to you."

Jane looked at her for a few seconds before giving up but just because Grace was going with her. There wasn't any chance of her spending time with one of the suspects from his list alone. "All right. But what am I supposed to do, just sit around?"

"Well, we still haven't figured out how Frost got out of the hotel room after he stabbed Parkman."

"Except Frost couldn't have been there in the first place, could he?" Jane stated annoyed.

"You said it was a trick. Figure it out." She answered with a smile leaving him behind.

In the end, Jane did figure it out. Their victim: Parkman killed his old lover Frost who was blackmailing him, a few blocks away from the hotel but Frost before dying stabbed him in the stomach which caused Parkman's death. Case Closed.

"So you're telling me that nobody came in or out of the room. It was just Mr. Parkman the whole time?" Cooper asked curiously.

"Yeah. The trick was that there was no trick. Et voilà." Jane said with a smile.

"Good-bye, Agent Lisbon, Mr. Jane. I hope you won't be insulted when I say that I hope I won't be seeing you again." Cooper said pressing the elevator button. "I was hoping that your office could be discreet. You know what I mean."

The elevator bell dinged and the door open Cooper was going in but Jane called him one more time. "Yes. Uh, speaking... of discreet, it was stupid of you to try and bug the CBI."

"What are you talking about?" Cooper asked confused. Jane told her that he found a girl that had been paid by Visualize to plant a bug in Cho's desk.

"Hiring someone outside Visualize might have made you feel safe, but she admitted that you hired her. Agent Cho told me."

Cooper sighed annoyed. "I don't know what you're talking about. But all I can say is that if someone did bug you, it wasn't me. Good-bye, Agent Lisbon."

"Jane? Are you okay?" Lisbon asked when she noticed the expression on his face.

"Grace needs to trace this bug immediately," Jane said walking back to the bullpen.

"Why? What's going on?"

"Cooper wasn't lying. He didn't bug the CBI, it was Red John. We need to find Kira Tinsley. She either works for Red John, or she's about to become his next victim." Jane explained.

In the end, they arrived too late, they found Kira Tinsley dying in her house. She whispered something in Jane's ear before finally passing away.

"What did she say?" Lisbon asked as soon as they were alone. Jane looked at her with excited eyes for a moment.

"She told me Red John has a tattoo on his left shoulder. Three dots. That's my leverage." He said.

Hi, I hope that you enjoyed it. this was a plot chapter but hopefully, the next one with have a lot of focus on Jane and Lisbon's relationship. I wrote the first chapter of another mentalist story but I want to finish with this story first. let me know your thoughts and thank you for all your support.