Chapter Ten: Timing
"This man, John Mosely, what do you mean he knows me?"
"He mentioned you by name, and if I heard right, he mentioned Agent Lisbon by her first name too." Peter looked at Jane warily, he and the CBI Agents had finished giving their statements and answering questions posed to them by the LAX Port Police. All of them were on edge, especially Patrick Jane.
"He's right Jane, I heard him, he said, drop the gun Teresa." Van Pelt added. "What are we going to do?"
Peter shook his head. "You need to understand something, John Mosely isn't like anyone you've ever dealt with. It would take hours to explain everything and even then none of us would completely understand, but don't waste your time trying to make any sense out of this, Agent Lisbon is in danger and you need to find her, and fast."
"Tell us what you know about him, anything is better than nothing." Rigsby demanded.
He faltered for a moment, nothing he could tell them would be of any help, but he knew they'd never be satisfied with an answer that vague. He swiped his hand through his hair and he took a deep breath. "He was wanted for a double homicide in Seattle, most likely drug-related and he is responsible for the death of a retired Marine Colonel, Henry Jacobson. Colonel Jacobson's death is directly linked to the Beacon."
Cho was the first to speak up. "Okay, the Port Security and local authorities are on alert, they have their descriptions, but with the fallout of the collapsed terminal, they're squeezed for time and manpower." He looked at Jane, Risby and Van Pelt. "Where do we start?"
Jane paced the floor, his hands in his trouser pockets. He knew it wasn't possible to reconcile everything that had happened over the last few days, but he understood the gravity of the situation, Lisbon's life was in danger, and for whatever reason, he was responsible. "We should search between here and the parking garage, he'll head that way now that he knows we're after him."
The group nodded to each other, but Peter held back. "Look, I still need to find Olivia… Agent Dunham. If I see anything that will lead you to Mosely or Agent Lisbon, I'll call." Jane watched him walk away, they were as different as night and day, but they had one thing in common, the same priorities. He followed the CBI Team toward the terminal exit.
"Bones! You all right? Answer me!" Booth yelled out from the floor of the cockpit.
"Agent Booth, not to seem ungrateful, but OW!" Castle moaned, he lay on the helicopter floor, shards of glass from the shattered windshield were scattered on and around them. Booth had drug him away when the windshield exploded from the bullets.
"Kate?" Castle turned his head. "Kate!"
"I'm all right? What the hell is going on?" Beckett answered, struggling to unlatch her seat belt.
Brennan groaned, she unbuckled herself and almost fell to the floor. "Booth! Where are you?" She kept herself low and stumbled over toward the two men. Booth instinctively held his arms out and Brennan reached out to him.
"Booth... I have to tell you something." She clung to him and buried her face in his shoulder. She realized this was it, this was what he wanted her to understand. "Listen to me... what we have between us is real and I am very sorry it took being buried alive, kidnapped and in a helicopter crash before I finally saw it."
He held on to her and felt her hair against his cheek. "Sshhh! It's gonna be okay." He whispered so quietly, she barely heard him.
"No! It's not okay... we've let countless opportunities get by us, and if we let this opportunity go by, l will regret it forever!" She lifted her head and looked into his face. "That wasn't a kiss of friendship." She felt defenseless and hid her face against his shoulder again and wondered, how was it possible to feel another person smile, but she did, and it was warm and knowing.
"Like French people... or kissing your brother?" He hugged her tighter "Bones... I know." Booth kissed the top of her head, but his surge of joy blew apart and he cursed to himself when they felt more shots penetrating the outer shell of the helicopter.
They ducked down and held themselves low to the ground. "When we get out of here alive, I promise you, we will perfect page 187." Brennan mumbled between gunfire.
Booth covered her with his body and grit his teeth. "Then we are getting out of this alive."
Beckett had inched her way over to Castle. "Are you hurt? I mean are you hurt worse than before?" She flattened herself next to him, aware of the gunfire peppering the chopper. He reached out to her with his hand and she grasped it in hers.
"Kate, they say timing is everything and this may be the wrong time, but I need to know something, if we get out of this one..."
"When we get out of this!" She looked grim.
"Yeah, when we get out of this, would you go out with me? Like on a date?"
Even while dodging bullets, Beckett couldn't help but smile, Castle had a sweet side to him and she had to agree, really lousy timing.
His question was left hanging unanswered, and they both cringed when they heard pounding on the chopper door and voices ordering them to stand down.
The doors slid open and three men outfitted in camo entered, pointing their assault weapons at them. Booth could have sworn they looked perplexed and even a little let down when they peered at them from behind their goggles and helmets.
Broyles' entered the chopper and raised his eyebrows at the battered looking foursome. "You all look like hell."
Beckett lifted her head up and looked at Broyles and the SWAT team "What happened to the creepers who kidnapped us?"
"Good question, we thought they were in here." He signaled to the others and the team helped Booth and Brennan up.
"Agent Broyles?" Booth walked up to him, his voice was thick with venom and he narrowed his eyes at the DHS Agent. "What the hell were you thinking? You could have killed us!"
Brennan recognized the alpha-male tendencies in her partner and she placed her hand on his arm. "Booth... I am quite sure Agent Broyles will fully debrief us, but right now, I really want to get out of here."
He took the hand in his and led her toward the chopper doors. "Bones, if you can glean a rational explanation out of the last three days, I will give you not one, not two, but three guns to play with."
"Kate?" Castle mumbled as Beckett arranged his head in her lap while one of the SWAT team members checked the splint on his leg.
"Dinner and a movie sounds fine, but only if I get to pick the movie." She smiled down at him as a stretcher was brought over to take him away.
"Agent Dunham, my colleagues and I are witnesses, we are not here to interfere, but there are times when destiny has been altered and the consequences are many and very far-reaching." The Observer spoke quietly.
"You ask, Why me? As I told you before, we have been watching you since you were a small child. Although every being is significant, we chose you because of your willingness to believe and your courage to act on your beliefs. You are special."
The Observer reached over and turned the page in the book that lay open on the table in front of her.
Olivia looked down at the image, it was an aerial photo of a forest of dead trees and gray underbrush. The decay spread for miles and miles, gloomy and desolate, it moved her to sadness and despair. She looked up and met the Observer's eyes before turning the page and finding an image of a young man. He sat behind a desk and suspended in front of him, as if they were floating, were mathematical equations and formulas. He used a stylus of some sort and appeared to be writing on air. On the corner of the desk was a name plate and reading it made her skin prickle, Dr. S. Booth-Bishop, Dept of Horticulture, Infectious Diseases.
Here was yet another link, one that weaved its way back to Peter and herself, she knew she was looking at her grandson and she knew, without a doubt, whatever he was responsible for, was very important.
The Observer closed the book, and she watched him take his hard sided brief case, open it and place it inside. "Fate is always at work. The day Agent Booth met Dr. Brennan was such a day. The day you met Peter Bishop was another."
His blank expression never changed, even when he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and placed it to his ear. "I see." were the only words he uttered. He stood and looked down at her. "I must go now."
Olivia watched him make his way across the food court, the Observer never looked back. She suddenly felt the shackles that had held her to her chair had dissolved and she pushed the small table away. She stood and found herself walking toward the other end of the room on wobbly legs.
John Mosely had moved quickly down the concourse, pushing Lisbon ahead toward the parking terminal. He had one arm around her waist and the other hand held his gun against her back.
"What do you think you're doing? How do you know my name?" Lisbon asked under her breath.
"Teresa is a very pretty name. You've come a very long way since you first met Patrick." He dug his fingers into her arm. "I want you to do exactly what I say. Take out your badge and ID, show it to the security guard and don't make any stupid or sudden moves. I have absolutely nothing to loose, you on the other hand stand to loose your life." He placed his gun in his pocket and loosened his grip on her arm when they approached the security exit.
Lisbon cooperated because she knew, if she were to be found alive, time was what she needed. Once they walked past an ambivalent looking guard, he grabbed her arm and maneuvered her toward the escalator and the bridge that would lead them toward the multi-story parking garage.
"Where are we going? You know how many witnesses there are? Let me go!" She pleaded. "If you hurt a CBI agent, the penalties are severe."
He chuckled at her. "Teresa, your naivete is quite charming, I wish I had time to explain this all to you, but I'm not sure you would ever truly understand. Let's just say, I have a unique agenda and an exceptional background."
He had guided her across the bridge and onto an elevator where they got off on the third floor. They wound their way around the parked cars and he finally stopped behind a van.
"Get down!" He pushed her and she hit the pavement, grunting with pain as she fell to her hands and knees. He took a plastic zip tie out of his pocket and bound her hands behind her back.
Mosely held his gun on her and opened the back doors of the van. An overhead light came on and when she looked inside, Lisbon felt the color drain from her face.
On the floor of the van, she saw several knives and a sharpening stone and next to them sat a bucket and a pair of rubber gloves, all of which were covered in blood. Behind the macabre looking tools lay the naked body of a woman, an expression of terror was frozen on her face and the bluish tinge to her skin told Lisbon she was dead.
"Dear God! You're Red John?" She murmured to herself.
He smirked. "You know, when I heard your team was following up on a possible Red John murder, I knew I needed to pay a visit. My, my, these copycats are such amateurs." He motioned toward the dead woman and picked up a knife and turned it so the light hit it and made the blade glint.
"Let me go!" She shouted at him, her voice echoed against the concrete floor and walls.
He reached over and grabbed her hair, pulling her head back with brutish force and forcing a rag in her mouth. She gagged, it made her light headed, but once she stopped struggling, she found she could still breath through. Lisbon willed herself to stay calm and to focus.
Mosely chuckled and chattered on as he arranged the items in the van in an orderly manner. "I really enjoy modest women, they get so excited when I cut their clothes off." He hummed to himself as he dipped a small artist's paintbrush into the bucket of blood on the floor and carefully applied it to the dead woman's toenails. "They say my obsession with Patrick is sick, but I think he's the sick one. What do you think?"
When he turned around, Lisbon rolled onto her side and used her legs to kick out, Mosely stepped away just in time and when he laughed it echoed throughout the parking garage.
"Tsk Tsk! You be that way." He walked towards her, avoiding her legs, and slammed his gun against her head, knocking her unconscious.