Finally, I got another chapter done!
Disclaimer: I do not own The Mentalist.
"Welcome to Cart&Carter! How may we help you?" A kind, pretty, and fake lady asked at the reception desk. Patrick gave her a disarming smile and leaned on her desk.
"Hi, we're looking for Cart Carter? Can you help us?" The girl leaned forward a bit and smiled, this time it was real.
"I'll help you…" Lisbon quickly stepped up and hooked her elbow through Patrick's, quickly relocating him from the receptionist's desk. She swung him around and put him back behind her.
"Calm down, will you?" she hissed at his eternal smile. It only grew bigger.
"…he's on the top floor," the girl said, backing back up with a disappointed look on her face. Lisbon turned back around and matched her fake smile with one of her own.
"Thank you, we'll see ourselves up there," Cho said, eyeing the girl before being dragged away by the ever charming Lisbon. The whole factory, Patrick noticed, seemed to smell like everything. Leather, pizza, beef, fried chicken, burning plastic, and above all, the sweet, seductive smell of honey. His head exploded with a sneeze.
"Bless you," all four said simultaneously.
"Thank you," he took out the stolen handkerchief and rubbed his nose.
"There's the elevator." VanPelt said, pointing off to the group's right. They took a turn and Rigsby pressed the button. It dinged after a couple of seconds and the doors slid open soundlessly to reveal a cushioned, bright, and empty elevator. With an elegant arm gesture, Patrick stood aside and motioned to the door.
"Ladies first," he said, genteelly making sure the door didn't close on anybody. He waited for everyone (even the guys) to go in before following suit and allowing the door to close behind him.
"Tres classe," VanPelt whistled, looking around the small room. That's basically what it was. It was so roomy that nobody was pressed up against anybody, though Rigsby looked kind of depressed about that. The elevator made not a sound as it sped upward, defying gravity and Patrick looked up to see that the light was coming from a minuscule chandelier. The only thing that's missing is a butler.
It finally gave out a regal 'ding' and the doors slid open. It revealed more expensive carpet and even more chandeliers. Patrick struck out of the elevator first, stepping down and almost losing a shoe in the thick carpet. It felt more like a swamp then an office.
"Hello?" came a question from the desk. Patrick looked up from the carpet and met the receptionist's green stare in the eye. "Can I help you? Do you have an appointment?"
"Yes, we're here to see Mr. Carter and no, we don't have an appointment, we're CBI," Lisbon stated dryly, holding up her badge. The attractive lady looked at the badge for a few seconds before pressing an intercom and speaking sideways into the black microphone:
"You have visitors."
"Do they have an appointment? I don't remember having any appointments today." He replied, his voice cracking over the intercom.
"They're CBI."
"Well then, let them in!" Lisbon found Patrick's gaze and shrugged before stalking over to the French doors and opening them. They opened to reveal more sparkle, more regal, and more expensive stuff.
"Looks like Neiman Marcus had a kid with Bloomingdale's," Patrick muttered, eyeing the small flute's of bubbling champagne and sprinkle-covered chocolates on the enormous desk that sat on the far side of the oblong room. A stereotypical huge chair had its back to the incoming group with a stereotypical conversation coming from the chair's contents.
"Like I said… I've got shipments going out and everything's fine. The only thing we need more of is honey." A pause. "Yeah, those people love honey! Uh-huh, Greenland's is the best so far. It's really cheap, too."
As Cart Carter continued to ramble about honey and somehow got onto the topic of aerosol air fresheners, the five of them creeped up on the desk and finally, Cho cleared his throat obnoxiously. Almost as though the chair were talking, it jumped slightly and swirled around, revealing the shiny and expensive looking body of Cart Carter, the everything tycoon.
"Hi!" he said, grandly revealing a pair of pearl-white teeth. He set down his phone on the table and eyed the small procession. "Welcome to my company. And why, might I ask, are you here?"
"You may ask." Jane said, almost robotically and with a small nod. Cart looked at him and the left side of his face seemed to twitch for a moment before returning to its upright manner.
"You look familiar, what's your name?" he laughed. Lisbon gave Patrick a strange look before he could answer.
"Patrick Jane, and I'd ask yours but I already know it." He shot back. Cart struggled with his faltering smile before covering his mouth, sneezing, and returning with an even bigger smile, rivaling even Patrick's.
"Nice, strong name young man," he laughed. Patrick nodded, slowly bringing his head up then lowering it even slower.
"We have some questions for you," Lisbon cut in. "You seem awfully… happy for someone who's niece just died," she pointed to a picture frame on the desk that revealed itself to hold the smiling face of Mia Carter. His eyes seemed to flash and his smile drooped.
"I'll answer anything that'll help you find her murderers," he said, his face suddenly serious. Patrick smiled and gently rested a hand on the desk, feeling the grooves and intricate patterns in just one touch.
"I'm sure you will."
"So what do you know about Johnny Earl?" Cho asked, casually throwing his words over the top of the piece of paper he had thrown up in front of his face. Even though he couldn't see Cart Carter, he left the facial expressions and ticks to Patrick. A sniff.
"That little freak? He's crazy and he creeped me out," Cart answered. Cho dropped the paper.
"You knew him?"
"Knew him? That little brat was a freak-"
"So you said," Patrick cut in. Cart turned to him, and looked at him while continuing.
"Every time I saw him, he was swooning over Mia. James told me what he did, and I wholeheartedly agree to him, he was crazy."
"Sounds like your preaching to the choir," Patrick said. Cart looked him in the eye, staring him down with his raven eyes.
"Look, I don't care what you think or say, but whatever you do, DON'T count that kid out. He did something, I just don't know what."
"Okay, so let me get this straight," Rigsby paced around the office, making Teresa feel tired. "We have two, full-grown men saying a teenager did it and we have a teenage rebel saying he didn't. And there's still a debate?" he stopped and looked straight at Jane. Teresa followed his gaze and met Jane's guarded, thoughtful, glacier eyes. "Well?"
"I can't imagine that a father knows what goes through a teenage boy's brain," he sighed, confusing the people in the room. "Teenage boys these days aren't like they used to be. An older man's version of lust is today's crush. We can't rely on two different age groups, we need to get a closer look at this."
"And how do you suppose we do that?" Jane smiled at her, making a cold shiver run down her spine. But, there was something in his grin that totally screamed 'cute puppy dog with mange, take me home!'
"Field trip?"
"Oh great," Teresa sighed, glaring up at the big, brick walled teenage-asylum. Jane turned, cocked his head at her, and smiled.
"Did you know," he began as they began their trek up the stairs. "The asylum that's just a couple miles out of town was the old high school?"
"Ironic." Her fingers had just wrapped around the handle when the bell rang. A flood of teenagers immediately flowed endlessly out the doors and poured down the hallways, some of them even heading towards the door. The front-runners were a band of girls that popped out of Gossip Girl. The slinked down the hallway and stopped as soon as they got to the door. Teresa wondered for a moment, but stopped as she opened the door.
"Hello ladies," Jane said his voice silky. The girls stopped talking and stared… and stared… and stared. Keep your eyes in your heads, Teresa growled mentally, but honestly couldn't blame them.
"Hi," the one in the middle, obviously the leader, said, exiting out the opened door and stopping mere inches in front of the blond. "The name's Brenna," a cough from behind and the blonde swallowed a sharp comment. "And those two are Tina and Lauren." Teresa noticed as Jane looked at Brenna and her lackeys for a few moments before reaching into his jacket pocket. For some reason, Teresa couldn't shake the image of a teenage Jane walking through a high school, beating off girls with a metal pole.
"Do any of you girls know Mia Carter?" he asked, pulling out a tissue. The mood immediately changed. The lead attack dog's eyes went from seduction mode to watery mode in seconds.
"Oh, poor thing," she said, grabbing Jane's offered tissue and blowing her nose daintily in it. The two girls in the school sighed and wiped at their eyes.
"Apparently so," Jane muttered to Teresa. She felt a rush of satisfaction as the nose-blowing girl glared at her.
"Do you know anything about her death?" Teresa asked quickly. Brenna removed the tissue to reveal a scowl.
"Who are you guys?" she asked and Teresa saw a future victim.
"We're CBI," she threw back effortlessly and Brenna immediately began her charade again.
"I don't know anything about it. I just knew that she was going with this totally hot guy, Johnny. They'd been dating for awhile, but he was too shy to start anything serious," she sighed, almost as though it were a shame.
"Shy?" Jane asked.
"Yeah," Tina finally stepped up. "Mia actually had to ask him out, because he was too shy to ask her."
Brenna's eyes looked between the Jane and Teresa. "You don't think HE did it, do you?"
"He was a little strange…" Lauren suggested shyly.
"I thought you just said he was hot?" Teresa threw in.
"Strange and hot go too good together," Brenna sniffed as though it was common knowledge. Another bell rang through their interrogation.
"Well, we better get to class," Lauren stuttered slightly. The two girls nodded and they disappeared in a cloud of perfume. Brenna stopped and turned to look at Jane.
"Now that I think about it, Mia's dad seemed a little possessive of her. Every time Johnny'd go to give her a hug goodbye, he'd honk his horn and yell at him. They couldn't even talk to each other when he was there." She ended on a note that indicated she was thoroughly finished, turned, and left.
Teresa watched as Jane watched them leave, and matched his glance as he turned to her and chuckled darkly.
"And so, the plot thickens…"
Bwa-ha-ha-hick. Yayz! Cliffhanger! Thanks for reading and please tell me what you thought! Sorry, I know it was short.