Author's Note- Because someone asked, I took the time to write another chapter, even though it's just a filler between my other writing and I'm drowning in school work. :)
Disclaimer- If it were mine, this is what would have happened... I think. So it's obviously not.
It was the sound of shrill ringing that woke him and Jane looked around blearily, wondering for a frantic moment why he wasn't on his couch. This was... Lisbon's? He sat up slightly and looking over his shoulder, spotted Lisbon still seated behind her desk exactly where she'd been last night when he'd fallen asleep.
Of course, he was on Lisbon's couch.
He breathed tired sigh. Was his brain so muddled that he couldn't remember where he'd fallen asleep now? Waking for the second morning in a row on Lisbon's couch, grasping at straws in his lacking memory, made him feel a little ill. This was becoming a habit he really didn't want to have. Not that any morning with Lisbon wasn't something to look forward to.
Was it morning though?
Rolling over a little, he got a proper look at the room's other occupant.
She had her hair up in a loose ponytail but it didn't mask the rumpled look of it. Her eyes seemed dull and the shaded half-circles under them were so dark they appeared to be the result of bruises rather than a lack of sleep. When she picked up the ringing phone, her hand fumbled with it a little before getting it to her ear among the strands loose from the band. Her eyes blinked slowly as she answered. "Agent Lisbon."
Had Teresa stayed up all night long working?
Jane groaned. Most likely. Well now he just felt like a slacker, laying around while she was hard at work. He tucked his knees up and pushed himself up into a semblance of a sitting position. One that gave him a head rush. At least the headache was lessened by a night's sleep. He felt a little less like a walking zombie.
"We'll be right there." Lisbon said quietly. She hung up the phone and for a long second, sat with her hand on it, not moving.
He could tell she was looking at him though, watching him.
He raised his eyes to meet hers.
She didn't need to say anything.
Just from her expression, he already knew.
:(
They were up high. High enough that the breath of wind rolling about, which held just the barest hint of water-doused vegetation, whipped at their clothes. Somehow, even the breath-taking view before them didn't hold as much of his attention as it usually would. The slight overcast day seemed dimmer up here rather than brighter.
Rigsby tried to hold his notebook paper still as he met them coming up the incline and addressed his superior. "ID was found right out in the open next to the body again, boss. Victim's name is Camryn Greae. Female, single. Local girl. Guy left her like the first. Like she's on display for someone."
"We know if this is the same guy?" Lisbon asked sharply, calling the agent to task. Obviously, she was feeling stressed already and wanted to avoid a public panic. If they might have a serial killer on their streets, the news stations would hound every aspect of this investigation.
Jane listened with half a mind to Rigsby's apologetic response as they approached the new body, picking their way past pools of blood with chunks of dark blonde hair dried in it that crime scene techs were already bagging. He crouched next to the young woman when he reached her, and bent down closer to Camryn's face to get a better look.
He already knew the answer to Lisbon's question. The tells were all there, as plain as the gaping wound dominating the victim's middle or the blank stare of her whitened, open eyes. Hair cut short like it was hacked off in the heat of the moment. Body posed, this time so that it looked like she was running away from something, even in death. Blood speckled on fair skin.
It had to be the same guy. After all, how many people could manage to saw a young woman almost in half while she was still alive?
He sincerely hoped that the answer to that question was not many as he looked over the gruesome body. Edging away from the spilled entrails, he concentrated on seeing her as a whole. Alive.
Once again, the victim was a subtly beauty. Like Joanna. Plain in most regards, but there was a certain downturn of her lips that seemed to enhanced the lines around her eyes, which accented her cheekbones and brought them into sharper relief. Her wide, staring brown eyes were disquieting though. Jane wanted to reach out a hand and close her eyes, but he didn't dare disturb her. Not for this psychopath.
Most of what the Rigsby was saying over his head, he could already tell with one glance over Camryn's body. Track star, health nut, although the fact that she was majoring in Clinical Biochemistry at a local university was a surprise. She didn't have the air of some scientists, perhaps because her once beautiful and intelligent eyes were now cloudy, chasing it away.
"Who found the body?" Lisbon growled.
Looking up at her, Jane caught the flash of her eyes as Rigsby led her away. He knew that look, and it wasn't meant for Rigsby. This killer was starting to piss Lisbon off. He almost pitied the man at the other end of it.
Almost.
Cho replaced the other two agents at the other side of the body.
"Have we swept the scene? Have we found it?" Jane asked, knowing the man would be one of the few who might actually already know the answers to his questions.
"Area's been swept. No sign of the guy's symbol." Cho replied. "No sign of anything."
Jane glanced at Camryn's body again. Then he sighed and apologized to her. Before Cho could stop him, he hauled on one of her sides, angling it up far enough to see her back where she was missing a patch of skin as big as his hand.
"Jane! Put the damn body down." Lisbon's voice cut across the crime scene, making everyone freeze. She was already coming toward him, anger making her steps jerky and fast.
"She's missing skin on her back, just like the first victim." Jane answered, standing and backing away as he pointed at the body. What the hell did he care if the public started to panic? They didn't have time to pussyfoot around the subject. The sooner they moved the closer they got to this desciple and the closer they got to Red John. "We need to find it." He started twisting around, looking at their bare patch of hilltop grass before he spotted the old, decrepit barn at the bottom of the other side, right where a chain-link fence separated the empty field from the houses down below. Without a word, he headed for it.
Lisbon cursed and came after him. "What'd I tell you about running off?" She scolded when she caught up to him at the bottom, already with one hand of her firearm as they approached the officer who was standing before small door leading in.
"Already swept it, ma'am." The man intoned seriously, watching Jane coming toward him. "Nothing inside really but some old equipment and a broken lawnmower."
"Well we'll just double-check, okay?" Jane brushed past him.
"We're looking for something specific. Something that may be hard to spot Officer... Duehy. Thank you." Lisbon once again trying to sooth ruffled feathers.
He didn't know why she bothered.
"Jane, come on. Are you really trying to find the same thing as the last sc-" She cut off when she stepped inside the dark barn, coughing a little at the displaced dust the opening door rained down on them.
Leaving her there by the door, he continued on inside.
The barn was old, the timbers weathered. It looked as though it had only been used for storage for the past few decades at least. A large lawn mower sat in the middle and either side was piled with everything from hoses to oil-smeared overalls.
Jane stepped lightly over the dirt floor toward the left side, shifting things about with the toe of his shoe.
"See? Nothing but an abandoned building." Lisbon said, peering after him.
"It can't hurt to take a look then." He reasoned, giving her his best winning smile.
She sighed and her shoulders slumped, but she took out her flashlight and clicked it on before moving to the other side of the building to make the process go faster.
He was grateful, because there really was a lot of stuff in here. Rakes and shovels, a broken car battery charger. Piles of old wood sat against the wall on his side. All it was covered in dust though, undisturbed for who eve knew how long. For several long moments as they looked they were silent, using their eyes rather than their mouths, but Jane decided eventually that he didn't like the silence. Not in a place this creepy. "So, how'd you sleep?"
A pause in the bustle from the other side and more silence answered him.
"Didn't think so." He looked upward into the rafters, where ancient cobwebs gathering in corners. "You call me a hypocrite." He teased her, wanting to elicit some kind of reaction.
"Only because you are." She shot back.
"Changing the subject, Lisbon? How telling."
"Jane?"
Picking up the end of a stack of wood, he peered behind it. "I mean I get it, the first murder is getting a lot of attention and people are on you to solve it, but-"
"Jane." Lisbon cut in sharply. "There's a ladder over here."
He put down the stack of wood he'd lifted and looked her way. Her shadow was not far opposite him, silhouetted by her light in the gloom. "So?"
"So- it's clean. No dirt, no dust, no... nothing." She sounded pensive.
Coming over to where she was, Jane spotted the ladder for himself.
It was an old wooden one that was leaning against the rafter up above near the wall, like it had just been used. The thing was also clean, probably cleaner than the day it was bought, the wood practically gleaming next to the other dingy things in here. Sitting among the other detritus, it was like a waving red flag.
He looked up.
Where it met the ceiling, in the gap right next to the rafter and just barely visible in the shadows cast by Lisbon's light, was small square. It appeared as though someone had cut out a piece of the roof and then replaced it right back where it had been.
Maybe it was a roof access.
Placing one foot on the first rung to go up, he was stopped by a gentle hand on his forearm. He glanced down at Lisbon, and then followed her gaze further downward where her light was shining now. Something was glittering on the floor.
Bending down, he plucked whatever it was from the dirt and held it up to the light.
A small golden cross.
"Just like the first scene." Lisbon breathed.
He peered up at her, noticing for the first time that she had gone white. "You think it might be a connection? That it was placed here on purpose?"
Without answering, she shook her head to signal that she wasn't sure and set her jaw determinedly.
Jane held the little cross up closer to his eye against the light and for a second, the tiny thing dangled in front of Lisbon's own cross around her neck. His stomach dropped. He didn't like when cases reminded him of Lisbon.
Turning her concentration up to the same square he had seen, Lisbon eyes narrowed. Suddenly putting the end of her flashlight in her mouth, she started to climb the ladder.
"Lisbon." He stood and pocketed the cross, coming back to the other side of the latter and looking after her.
She didn't respond. She didn't really need to. When she reached the top, she balanced precariously against the rafter and she pressed her shoulder into the square. With a groan, it popped opened upward into the dim sunlight.
Jane hurriedly followed as she disappeared through.
The open hatch led to a small lip on the side of the barn where a lean-to sat against it's wall on the other side of the fence. By the time he reached the top, Lisbon had crawled out onto it, crouched on her feet with a hand to the roofing shingles to keep her balance. She let him take the hatch from her to hold it open.
"What do you see?" He asked against the whipping wind, eying the edge and ready to grab her if she slipped.
She was already squinting this way and that. Overcast day or not, it was still much brighter out here than it had been in the barn below. "Nothing. Let me go up a little, maybe I'll be able to see something from there."
"Be careful." He warned.
She just shot him a faint smile and started edging her way up the slanted roof, keeping her feet turned so she didn't slide.
He watched her carefully.
Only a few feet up, she glanced back at him and froze with a look grim disgust on her face.
He knew that look. "Lisbon?!"
"Get CSU up here, Jane." She gestured toward him, or rather, to the hatch he still held over his head. "We found the killers mark."
:)
"He pinned it to the top of the trap door?" Rigsby asked as they walked past, his disgust plain.
"Yes, complete with the black frown he's adopted as his signature." Lisbon grunted, following behind Jane as he strode from the building. "Make sure they get it down and to the lab a quickly as possible!" She called back to him.
The whole barn was already teaming with officers and field techs, going over every inch of the buildings contents now that they knew the killer had been here.
Jane figured it was a waste of time. There wouldn't be any more evidence there, than there had been at the first scene. This guy, whoever he was and whatever his connection to Red John, was clearly no amateur at this.
Instead, he was thinking about the first victim and her family. They had found Red John's mark at the first of kin's house, Joanna's brother and nieces clearly targeted at the same time they were scrambling to get their heads around their loss. Like Red John was playing a game of clue, bathing it in red so that they knew they were missing something. Some kind of sign.
"Hey, Jane." Lisbon finally caught his attention. "Where are we going?"
He turned back to her, not stopping his stride back toward her car. "Does Camryn have family in the area?"
Eyes going wide, Lisbon picked up her step.