Chapter 19 – Game Reveal

"He's not at any bar or casino," Cho panted, barging through the entrance of the interrogation room. His hands came to rest at his waist as he eased still.

It had been Lisbon's idea to search at those places. The last time Jane had lost it, he had ended up arrested in Las Vegas. Well, feigned to have lost it. She didn't know which the case was now. She just hoped this time it wouldn't involve hurting himself or hooking up with a criminal. Or maybe she had simply misjudged the insanity she'd caught in his eyes. Maybe he had simply left. No reckless behavior. He couldn't wait for the case to be over after all, making an earlier departure instead. Her heart hollowed at the thought. If she were alone, she would allow her eyes to wet with tears.

Shouts emerged from the anteroom. A football game was on-going and the little town cops had obviously nothing better to do. Their yells sparked Lisbon's irritation, startling her every now and then.

"Traffic cameras and hospital admissions are also a no-see so far," Van Pelt said, looking over her laptop.

Abbott sat crossed-leg on one of the chairs, leaning back, propping one arm on the other, face resting on his palm. His expression was pensive, a little vexed. He sought Lisbon's gaze.

"My predictions weren't that far off after all, were they?" he remarked.

Lisbon tightened her jaw. "He hasn't done anything to risk the team's safety," she defended stubbornly.

"Oh come on!" shouted one of the cops in the other room, sending a jolt to her feet.

She had enough of it.

She huffed through her nose, turning on her heel to address the noise. She found the three cops sprawled around the entrance desk, heads raised to the TV hanging over at the top. They reminded her strongly of her brothers. The program had gone over to a break because of a special news report. Lisbon caught Karen's familiar face, surprised she was in Central News now. She was ready to grab the remote from one of the policemen and turn off the TV, when she heard his name. Her gaze snapped to the screen, her heart skipping a beat.

"…Patrick Jane, to give us his own insight. Patrick, what does the FBI know so far?"

The camera shot changed and there he was, groomed and policed, wearing his striped vest. He looked directly at the camera, his gaze deep and sincere, as if somehow he knew she would be looking.

"Thanks Karen. Well, I must admit, the killer has certainly set an intricate puzzle. I myself have a hard time solving it, what with the pictures and all." His voice was trained, his words sounded careful and Lisbon felt as though he was manipulating the questions, in the way Jane's words always aimed at a result.

"The pictures?" Karen frowned. "You mean you're actually following the crumbs this psycho has left for you? Playing his game exactly as he has set it, that's your big smart plan? Patrick, I must say, I am disappointed. Even for you, that's weak."

Steps echoed on the timber floor, the rest of the team slowly joining her side.

"What the hell does he think he's doing?" Abbott fretted.

"Trust me, I know Karen. But unfortunately every other path has led to a dead end. Hence, we're following his crumbs as you said. Hopefully to outsmart him in his own game."

"And how exactly do you plan to do that?"

"Well, for one thing, we already know which the next two locations will be."

Karen's eyes lit like a hawk's. "Do tell."

Jane addressed the camera again and Lisbon knew he would do it, recognized it as the result he aimed at.

"Mary's Violet Farm and Indigo Hotel. Both places in San Diego, California."

Abbott turned at her. "You were saying?"

"What the hell were you thinking?"

Lisbon was furious.

Jane had stepped over the door of the precinct around 5:00 in the afternoon cradling a package full of sugary donuts, a happy note in his pace. She and Abbott met him before he had barely taken a few steps.

"Do you even begin to realize how much you have depleted our chances of winning? Lisbon's chances of winning?" Abbott reprimanded him.

His eyes locked hers, sending a ripple of emotion down her body.

" I did what I had to do," he answered, more to her than their boss. "If Lisbon's gonna risk her life," he started, then looked at Abbott mid-sentence. "I'm gonna make sure she has every back-up needed."

"Fool!" Abbott scolded. "What makes you think he's gonna follow on his initial plan now that you have outed him? He's just going to choose two new locations and now we won't have any clue on how to find them."

"Relax," Jane said, ever calm. "He's not gonna change his initial plan. It would be like admitting we actually outsmarted him. He is indeed gonna try to use subtler methods, but his movements will be restricted, and that's exactly what we need to have the upper hand."

"So you say," Lisbon pointed out.

Jane gave her a straight look. "It's a 90 percent call."

She shook her head in dejection. Van Pelt was suddenly under the threshold of the interrogation room, her lips parted, her features pulled in alarm.

"Guys, he has sent a message."

They all followed her inside. Cho and Rigsby were both standing upright, staring at the screen of the laptop. Their figures pretty much filled up the entire space, let alone the rest of them.

Van Pelt took her seat and cited the killer's words, her smooth voice smearing it with contrast. As if a horror story sang like a lullaby.

"My people are gonna come to take what I need at dawn," chanted Van Pelt. "You could kill them on spot if you want, only that will render your friend useless to me, in which case I don't know how I'll dispose of her. Or, you could let them come to me in peace and have a chance of saving your friend later. With the right guess of course."

Van Pelt's voice eased to silence, her eyes rose from the screen.

Abbott turned to Lisbon. "See, this is the exact situation I was talking about!" His gaze flicked to Jane. "I should have you fired! You provoked a serial killer and now we have no time to get ourselves prepared! Haven't you learned your lesson already?"

All heads in the room jerked at Abbott's words, surprised he would go as far as touching Jane's past. In all the years they had known the consultant, they had tiptoed around his tragedy, never quite stepping on it, never touching him there, unless the case demanded it.

Lisbon lowered her head. "Sir, I deeply apologize—"

"No Lisbon, don't," Jane cut her off, staring at Abbott. "You wanna know my lesson? Pure police work never catches the bad guys. You wanna know why? Too much obsession with the rules. In my experience, if you want something done, you take care of it yourself. So that's what I did today and I won't apologize for it. In fact, instead of wasting our time in petty arguments, we should look at the real clues I got here."

"What clues?" Lisbon asked.

"Karen provided me with the information I need to approach the veteran, Ren Fontane."

"Do care to tell," Abbott scoffed.

"He is a poker addict, often spends his time at Seven Mile Casino."

Jane addressed the rest of them.

"So, who's up for eating donuts and winning some cash?"

Lisbon wore his emeralds. They were his gift from a few months ago. She had protested of course. Just like that first time. But he had longed to give her a precious gem. A pure stone for a pure soul. She should own emeralds, he had thought. But, he hadn't really expected she would ever wear them. Now she gleamed all over. With her dark green gown and smoky eye. The perfect woman to escort.

They strolled across the patio of the casino, a cozy area with sofas that looked at the bay. The dusk light shed through the glass curtain wall. Tall palm trees stood like shadows against the last sun rays. He glanced at her cold profile. The aura almost reminded him of Miami.

A girl with a white shirt and black vest came to meet them at the entrance of the game arena. She smiled, a contrast to her tanned complexion, her dark hair tied in a high ponytail. After the greeting rituals were over, Patrick turned to her mid-walk.

"Who do I need to pay to be seated in the same table as Ren Fontane?" he asked.

"Uhh…" the girl hesitated.

Jane pulled a packet of dollars from inside his jacket and gave it to her. "Here, can you fix me up?"

Her fingers curled around it, despite her wary gaze. She finally hid the money in her pocket and smiled professionally.

"This way, please."

He turned and winked at Lisbon, which earned him an involuntary smile and a glorious blush. Though she soon fought against a lighter mood.

Seven Mile Casino had a unique personal touch unlike other casinos. It was based on table games. Poker, mainly. So the area wasn't crammed with single-player machines and the annoying electronic sounds. Instead, people sat around small and larged tables, while the noise was filled with soft blues and the more quiet sounds of chips clicking and trickling.

Their assistant excused herself for a while to make the arrangements. A few minutes later she was escorting them to the desired table. It was an elongated table, square at one side and oval at the other. The players that occupied the chairs wore suits, some fatter whales than others. Jane counted in a retired doctor, a shrewd businessman, a man with his work suitcase who had come to overcompensate for what his office job wouldn't offer him and his wife demanded, a blond woman who had probably grabbed the single old red dress she owned and had come here to change her luck. And there, at the square end of the table, sat Ren Fontane, their gambling veteran.

Ren was a man full of bones and lax skin. His graying hair combed, his figure tall and lean. He wore simple jeans with a tucked-in green t-shirt, still he looked clean and elegant. Jane also cut him as a man with a corrupted intensity, like he would get off watching weird things. He wrinkled his nose in disgust.

He and Lisbon sat at the oval end, once the girl introduced them. The game started and as the night painted stars on the window walls, he and Lisbon inched closer and closer to their target on either side, Jane beating the players one by one. First the businessman, then the doctor, the lady. Lisbon also dealt out her fair share.

He didn't realize when straight business became a game of flirt and challenge between them. It started with her reading him silently whenever he picked a card, which was adorable, her thinking she could read his poker face. Or maybe she could, he considered, when they managed to beat another player by subtle cooperation. It escalated to the point she would flush her provoking smile at him, raise her eyebrow. Her eyes were full of eroticism. That aura of Miami again. Tables always had a manner of finding their way between them. It took all his restrain to stay in his seat and not lean over, settling instead with playful gapes and shy smiles. Straight business had become a blast. They were tossing everyone out, while simply enjoying themselves. In moments like this, he knew he had chosen the right woman by all means.

Around 12 pm, the table consisted of him, Lisbon, suitcase man, the dealer—a man dressed in an orange shirt and dark vest—and Ren.

"A spider builds its nest between two trees," Ren commented, looking at his cards. His voice was quiet and throaty. "So that all preys that pass through may be caught and devoured. Sometimes it might also happen that two spiders co-operate, building an even larger nest." He glanced momentarily at Jane and Lisbon, the hint of a smile on the corner of his lips.

Jane was amused. "One," he asked the dealer.

"I'll change one, too," Lisbon concurred.

The dealer took their cards and gave them new ones. Jane felt the veteran stare as he studied his cards. He calmly raised his gaze to meet his. "And what kind of prey are you? The simple or the venomous one?"

Ren raised his finger and the dealer dealt him as well. Then he tilted his head. "Pretty confident to assume you're the spider, Mr. Jane."

"Me?" Jane frowned. "No thank you, I don't want to be part of your twisted fantasy of insects torturing their prey."

Lisbon smiled knowingly. She bet two chips, just how much suitcase man had. They all called in.

She won with a two-pair. Suitcase man scraped his chair on the floor as he pushed to leave. The cards were dealt again and Jane started rubbing his fingers. It was only known to Lisbon that he was actually revealing his cards through finger counts. She raised two fingers and the dealer gave her two new cards. They put their bets.

And then the game was revealed and the veteran beat Lisbon. Her mouth opened in shock, her eyes filled with disbelief. Jane stared at Ren's full house and swallowed. The latter was grinning, pleased he had dismantled their little confederacy.

"It's okay, darling. You were quite impressive," Jane consoled her.

Lisbon took a moment to recover from her defeat, then rose on her feet, fixing her dress. "Whatever, I'm gonna get a soda."

Ren studied him. Jane returned his gaze unaffected.

"Let's see how you perform, now that your sidekick is out of the picture," he taunted Jane.

Jane looked at him calmly, betraying no emotion in his expression. Now that Lisbon was gone, he was the one sitting at the dealer's right, so he would be the one to cut the deck of cards. He did so and the dealer distributed five new cards to each of them, first to the veteran then to him.

"All in," said the veteran.

Jane pushed all his chips at the center of the table. "Call."

He raised two fingers, and Lisbon's previously discarded cards were in his hands.

Ren showed his cards. Four aces.

Jane held his gaze for a moment, then smirked and placed down his straight flush.

"Impossible," whispered the veteran.

"Yet true," Jane bragged.

It was easy to manipulate Ren into thinking him and Lisbon were helping each other out. Then the veteran would simply have to make sure Lisbon was off the game, hence letting Jane manage the cutting of the deck. Of course, Ren would never imagine Jane had memorized the exact two cards Lisbon had discarded for him.

The veteran had lost five million.

"How did you do that?" he asked him, crestfallen.

"Easy, I memorize the cards."

Ren frowned. "I don't believe you."

Jane shrugged. "It's the truth."

"Perhaps I could replace the bet with something else that you desire," suggested Ren.

Jane leaned closer and lowered his voice. "How much money would you lose to the other guys unless you replaced the bet with giving them access to your collection?" he questioned.

Ren blinked, realization washing him. "How…? You're with the FBI?"

"No, I am simply a consultant. Was it a million?"

He hesitated.

"More? Two million?" Jane pressed. Ren averted his gaze. "Oh, my friend. That's a lot of money. Not as much as five million though."

Ren pursed his lips. "What do you want?" he asked through gritted teeth.

Lisbon appeared at his side then.

"Well, my beautiful partner Lisbon here thinks she should arrest you for aiding criminals."

"You had to have heard the news. You saw what he did to those girls, and yet you agreed to help him," Lisbon said in disgust.

"I don't watch TV, Ms. Lisbon. I don't know what you're talking about."

"It's okay, Lisbon," Jane soothed her. He looked at the veteran. "Here's what I want. You will let us stay at your mansion overnight and you will turn a blind eye when we sneak into your collection first thing in the morning. You don't have to cancel your deal with the criminals, but if you warn them about us, I'm not sure they'll be willing to keep their part of the deal and return your money. You do that and in return, Lisbon won't pursue the matter of your involvement further. Plus five million is yours."

Jane extended his arm. "Do we have a deal?"

Ren pursed his lips in thought. "You're playing a dangerous game, Mr. Jane," he remarked, before he gripped his hand and shook it.

A/N: Sorry for my long absence. I had to graduate so fanfiction was set aside, except for the occasional new idea that never took flesh.

I want to finish this story, so I'll try to take it to the end this time. The plot is already set, it just waits to be written, and inevitably new ideas always come up.

Disclaimer: I have no clue of poker. I hope that was not too obvious lol. And Seven Mile Casino is a real place.

P.S.: to you (my very big fan), I dedicate this chapter. Thanks for an awesome comment that made my day.