Epilogue

Sacramento, two years later

Finally it was over. Fulfilling the death sentence was never a nice job, and it also was not really appropriate to sit in the audience and watch it. No one of the CBI had been there; in fact there had been nobody; except the prison chaplain. No one had been there who wanted to say last words to Lazar Levine, no one who wanted to say goodbye; not even anyone who really wished to see him die. No one cared for this man anymore, and maybe, in these last minutes, he really understood what he had done and what a monster he had become. He was alone, had no friends or relatives, and also his victims seemed to have forgotten him. The governor did not interfere with the death sentence. Since that bad, last shootout with the police at the Delanor crime scene it was as clear as crystal that Levine had his hands in this, and a lot of other things.

Lisbon sighed, when she put the last file map into the card box that contained everything they had about Lazar Levine. Then she closed the top, fixed it with tape, and wrote the words "Case Closed" at the front of the box.

For a second she was back at this night, but it were only flashes of memory; loose, apparently having no link to each other, and also the chronological order of the events was completely disturbed – as it often happened with old memories.

She saw herself next to the body of Delanor, and in the next flash she was running after Levine, who put all his hopes into his flight. Cho was running besides her, and he was apparently faster than her, catching up to Levine like a cheetah on the hunt.

Next thought. Rigsby had found the sniper on the bridge, but there was no help for this man – he was dead already. Later they had found out that Cho´s bullet had hit him in the right knee and shattered it; making it impossible for him to run away, and that he had committed suicide with his own gun, ere he could be taken to prison.

Suddenly she remembered a scene of the first day at court – the words that the other sniper said: »Mr. Levine did not only offer us payment, but threatened all of us with cruel torture and death if we did not follow his orders. We had to hang this man in the woods, and torture the other one and his wife.« He had got life-long for his doings. Flash back in time. This sniper had been caught by Van Pelt, and her arm had been still broken at the time when they were at court. She had used her plaster to knock the man down and hurt herself again because the shattered two pieces cracked her still unstable bone again, but she had him unconscious, so he had not been able to kill himself. A good move; not usual, but efficient.

Lisbon shook her head, and put the heavy card box to its final place in the file store room, and left the room. While she was closing the door, she cast a last look at this card box, and swore to herself that from now one Levine was a ghost of the past, and not worth any more thoughts. Teresa locked the door and went back upstairs, to the others.

It was bright sunshine, a nice summer day, no clouds in the sky. Down in the cellar she almost had forgotten how nice that day was. Rigsby, Cho and Van Pelt looked back at her. All were relieved that the case was finally closed, and they all knew that she had been down in the cellar to take the file box away. When she looked over her shoulder to the small kitchen, she saw Agent Price and Agent Hollyman, talking; while both were waiting for the coffee machine to be ready.

Price also smiled at her. For him, this case had been even longer, because he had been working at it for years… long before Lisbon´s team first had made contact with Lazar Levine and his associates.

That moment, a young, ambitious woman joined Price and Hollyman; she was there to get some water. It was Agent Clara Harker, one of the two new teammates of Price.

Lisbon walked on, to her own bureau, noticing the empty place of Jane with a short sigh. She was used to it now; but when she had returned from maternity it had been really strange, sometimes almost unbelievable that he was not there.

Shaking her head, to get finally free of this dark thoughts, she opened her door of her own, smaller bureau and sat down at the table. Although the big case was over now, there were still the other ones that kept them busy. Luckily there had been no murders in the last two weeks – boring for Agents, but in fact, that was a good thing. No job meant no dead people. She could use the time to catch up with all the things that were still waiting. Since she had returned from maternity she had only carried half-day shifts, mostly from nine a.m. to one, or two in the afternoon, if it were regular days. Of course, when there was an investigation where she had to be at the crime scene, she had also full days, but she tried to be at home as much as possible, to spend time with her daughter Stella.

Thinking about her, she looked at the little photo in the frame on her desk. Her baby was growing so fast! This photo was only about three months old, and the girl had changed so much in this time, that it was hardly unbelievable. She smiled. Everyone from the team knew her daughter, and they liked her very much.

Now and then, one of them had taken care of the little baby for a few hours, and they always asked for some more "baby-sitting-time", and were always happy when they saw her.

Stella looked so much like her father – even more now, than those three months ago. She had his blonde, slightly curly hair, and his eye color, combined with his wide, one-million-dollar-smile. And she already knew how to use that smile properly, although she was only one and a half years old. Maybe this was the first thing ever she learned from her experience – to get everything what she wanted with that sunny, overwhelming smile.

The first look at her had been enough to prove a thousand percent who was the father; everyone said that. To see the parts Stella got from her mother, one had to cast a second look; but then it was also clear. She had her face-shape and nose; ears and lips. But the most important thing was, that Stella was healthy and happy.

One thing Teresa remembered very closely now. Once, when she was still in maternity but very close to her return, she had brought Stella with her into work; because there was an immediate call from Wainwright and she had not found a babysitter so fast. Somehow Stella had managed to escape from her bureau, although at this time she had still been crawling on hands and knees to get forward. But the little girl was quick, almost as quick as her father in disappearing, when something bad had happened. The whole team had searched for her; and when they finally found her she was fast asleep at the couch in Bertram´s CBI-Headquarter bureau; and the director personally kept an eye on her.

Again Lisbon shook her head. She had to concentrate on the work now, to prepare everything that had to be done this afternoon. Sighing, she looked at the clock. She loved her work of course, and had tried to come back as fast as possible, but on such a nice summer day it would be also fine to be at home and plan a short trip to the next "Aqua-Park" or an evening trip to the sea. Stella would love it. Since a few weeks she could walk without help. She had started to try to get up and walk maybe some time later than other children, but she had learnt it so fast that there had been almost no time to get the house safe for a "walking and running" baby which could get to much more places now. And totally like Patrick, everything was interesting. Everything she could touch or try out was worth a visit, and she always found new interesting things.

Again Lisbon looked out of the window. Yes, an evening at the sea, at a quiet corner on the sandy beach would be nice. She concentrated on her work and noticed that she got through it with a real good speed. One hour later she picked up the telephone and called her own land-line-number.

The call was answered with a short: »Yup?«

»Hi. Do you know what I thought of?« Lisbon started to explain. »It would be nice to spend the evening at the Courtaly Cove Beach, or somewhere like it. Could you come over here with Stella? To the CBI I mean? It would need too much time if I´d come home first. If you get her here, we could spare at least one hour.«

The answer came immediately: »Of course come. It´s a good idea. See you there, but when? When would you be ready to leave?«

»I should be ready at one p.m. Can you take the little swimming-device for Stella too? Maybe the water´s warm enough to jump in.«

»No problem.« There was not much more to say, so they ended the call again.

Now Teresa concentrated even more on her work and was ready half an hour earlier than planned, so she started to clean up her bureau a little bit; had a short call with Wainwright, and then she went outside.

»Folks?« she asked into the big bureau with a smile.

Rigsby, Cho and Van Pelt looked at her.

Teresa said: »Pack up your things, all of you. It´s such a nice day, and I talked to Wainwright. He gives you the afternoon free. If you are ready with the current page of your work, or whatever, you can go too.«

Rigsby exclaimed: »That´s great, thank you!«

No one left immediately; they all remained at their places to finish the work first.

Then Teresa said, to make them move: »If you want to see Stella, they are coming here, to pick me up at one. I think she´ll be happy to see you again.«

After these words, the other three Agents worked much faster and went down with Lisbon to the parking lot. It was not too late, but exactly the right time. The white, SUV-like car stood at the parking lot´s barricade. The guard there also knew Stella and waved through the window, then he opened the barricade and let the white SUV pass.

When the car stopped, Patrick opened the front door, got out and freed his daughter from the child´s seat. She waved her hands at her mom, came running towards her and embraced her for a moment.

»Mummy!« she said. »We go beach?«

»Yes, darling.« Teresa answered, but her daughter did not listen, she had spotted the others behind her mother.

»Cho! Ribsy! Vanbelt!« she exclaimed. Although all of them knew that she already was able to say their names totally right, they did not complain. Maybe it was just another, new trick of her, to talk like a babbling baby – to be more "sweet and lovable".

Jane stretched his arms, and also came closer. »The day on the beach is a good idea… she´s like hurricane today. There was no quiet minute – she always wanted to learn or do something. We started with that Music-Domino thing, and then she saw a butterfly at the window, and so we went outside for a little walk in the park. She had a little nap in the buggy and once we were at home, she was wide awake again. I thing she won´t sleep until the evening. But that's ok, we´ll build a big sand castle at the beach, I´ve got all the beach equipment in the trunk. She´s already covered with sun-blocker all over.«

»Ok, then let´s go.« Teresa decided. »Stella, you coming?«

Van Pelt and Stella were playing catch me – if you can in this moment; the legs of Rigsby and Cho were the hiding places. They were laughing like mad. Patrick rushed forward and grabbed his giggling and squealing child from behind, picked her up, and held her at eye-height to the others. She stretched her hand out and said. »Bye-bye.«

»Bye, Stella.« Cho said for all of them. »Hope to see you soon.«

When they were back in the car, Lisbon was driving, and Jane sat at the second front seat, next to her. Stella was busy looking at the pictures of a little children´s book.

»So you closed the Levine case?« Jane asked. »You found my notes at the table?«

Teresa replied: »Finally, yes. I´ve added your notes to the case, and put it down to the storage. I am so happy that this is over.«

Patrick nodded: »Yes, me too. I still can´t believe that Red Jon joined our side somehow in this case. And that it took almost a full year ere you told me about this. The others still do not know, do they?«

»No; I think it is better that way. And the case is over now. Let us try to forget this man… Levine, I mean. I told you that Red John only kind of helped us, because he also wanted revenge. He was not really on our side. It only seemed so.«

Jane smiled: »He told me that too, when we met after the shootout. But he saved your life, and Stella´s… what if that madman Levine had really hit you with his bullet?« He cleared his throat. »And… he saved my life too, somehow.«

Teresa startled: »Why that, Patrick, you never told me…«

»Yes, I never told you the last words he said to me. I said I could not remember them properly. But that was not a big lie; I was almost unconscious by then. But yes, he saved my life. I am pretty sure about that.«

»Don't try to talk me in, tell me, what it was. Is it so important that you kept silent for two years? Wasn´t that really hard? Or did you think that it would disturb or scare me?«

He nodded: »Yup, because he used a very strange way to keep me alive. He reassured me that I do not have to worry if I´d die. He told me that he´d take care of you and my child instead of me; if I am not able to do it.«

Teresa was silent for a while: »I never expected that.« she finally said. »I thought that he did something to stop your bleeding or something, because he was a doctor… but this… sounds really weird.«

»It was.« Patrick replied. »It was really scary, and threatening. But in fact it gave me more strength than if he had tried to comfort me or if he had said something nice. It gave me the strength to hang on to life, not to give up, because I never wanted that to happen. I never wanted him next to you or my baby. You remember – by then I did not know that you had talked to him before, and that you already knew him. I thought that he planned to creep into your life somehow, making friends with you, and... whatever.« he smiled and shook his head. »It was the worst and the best thing he could say to me in this situation. Maybe everything else would not have been strong enough to keep me alive until the paramedics arrived.«

Teresa sighed: »And you kept this secret for so long?« she also smiled.

»Yes… sometimes I wanted to tell you, but… then I decided the other way round.« He sighed. »Now that Levine-case is finally over; and this was a part of it. It had to be said.«

»I know.« Lisbon answered. »But let us put that back now; put it also to the storage room, now that the Levine Case is closed. We´ve got a turbulent future to come, and first of all, a nice afternoon at the beach.«

»You are right.« Jane said.