Chapter 7:

(Jane's POV)

I was sitting next to Grace in the black SUV which Lisbon was driving. I could see Grace growing more anxious as we got closer to her house. The neighborhood really was quite charming; I almost wished that I grew up here. Lisbon parked the car in the driveway and we all piled out. My smile grew bigger as I became more excited to meet Grace's family. Wayne kept wiping his hands onto his jeans, his breathing speeding a bit.

"You'll be fine." I whispered.

He looked at me mockingly and stepped onto the porch. Cho knocked on the door twice, and a few seconds later the door flew open to reveal a man I assumed was Grace's father. He was tall with wide shoulders, but a beer belly that expanded his jersey. A small blonde woman bent under his shoulder and walked forward introducing her self as Leanne. I noticed she shook our hands with her left hand instead of her right. That's when I noticed the enormous diamond ring on her fourth finger. This must be Grace's stepmother, although they looked to be the same age. As she saw Wayne she winked and smiled at him, flirtingly. When she shook my hand I extended my right one and smiled thoughtfully.

"I'm terribly sorry, but my left hand broke and the doctor advised me not to use it on a regular basis."

I could see Lisbon trying to hide her smile, obvious to the reason she shook with her left hand. Leanne frowned and dropped her arm, motioning for us to come inside. Grace gave her dad a quick kiss on the cheek and whispered something in his ear. He nodded and smiled at her warmly. As we sat on the couch and chairs two men came from the kitchen.

"These are my brothers, Chad and Gerald. Where are Derek and Yolanda?" Grace asked in confusion.

"Oh Derek went home, and Yolanda's staying at your aunts house." Her dad said and sat down drinking a beer.

"Would ya'll like some tea? I got some new ones this mornin' from the market." Leanne said.

I raised my hand and followed her into the kitchen. She took out a blue kettle, filled it with water and placed it on the stove.

"So Mr. Jane, what's a handsome man like you doing at a boring job like this?" she asked stepping closer until she was only a foot away from me.

"Well my wife and daughter were murdered by a serial killer, and by being on the team I get to help find him." I said opening a cabinet and taking out two mugs.

"Oh and I also close cases." I said to her shocked face.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry, I had no idea. Gracey always said you could do cool things like know someone by reading their body language, and looking at them. Is it true?" She asked removing the kettle and pouring the steaming water into the mugs.

"Well I suppose so." I said moving around the bag of tea until the water had changed color.

"Could you do it to me?" she asked hopefully.

"Okay. It's obvious that you married Grace's dad for the money, he just got lots from his father's death, right?" she looked at me, her face fuming with anger.

"You're also unhappy in the marriage, even though you get whatever you want. But you've been unhappy for a while. There's something that someone did to you that you'll never forgive them for. You then left your small hometown, probably in Alabama and moved to L.A trying to be free. When you were broke, you decided to take advantage of your looks and started marrying and divorcing rich men all over California." I said sipping my tea.

She stood stunned and terrified.

"How, how did you know that?"

"Well the ring is so big, that you probably begged your husband to buy you, showing he's got dough. And the way you prepared your tea."

"How is preparing my tea have anything to do with my life?"

"Well when you moved the tea bag in your mug, you did it quite aggressively, trying to make it seem like you were calm at the same time. That shows you are angry at something, probably something someone did to you, but never did anything about, or tell anyone."

"Well how'd ya know the rest?"

"Oh, I guessed." I turned and walked back into the living room, and sat on the empty seat on the couch. Lisbon and Chad were chatting about something that had happened on the news, while Cho and Grace's dad talked about some baseball team they both liked. Gerald, Grace and Wayne were sitting next to each other, clearly uncomfortable in each other's presence. Grace was doing most of the talking, as Gerald kept glaring at Wayne. I reminded myself to ask what they had done to get him so upset. I took a seat next to Lisbon on the couch and listened to their conversation.

"…but they never found actual proof of the poisoning. I just don't get how a jury can ignore that." Chad said looking pleased with himself.

"It is weird that they ignored it." Lisbon said looking bored.

"So you're a lawyer?" I asked Chad.

"Yes, I work at the Trope Trope law firm in Los Angeles." He said looking at Lisbon to see if that impressed her. She gave him a fake smile and started talking about a different case that had appeared in the newspaper. I moved to where Gerald, Grace and Wayne sat talking.

"Hello everybody." I said cheerfully, trying to get at least one of them to smile. They all sat as expressionless as Cho.

"Gerald, I'm Patrick Jane." I said shaking his hand.

"Ooh, strong handshake." I said. Gerald was almost as tall as his father. He was built largely, his biceps flexing at any possible chance.

"So I see you're the athlete of the family." I said.

"Yes." He said. I expected him to say more, but he sat there staring at me. None of Grace's family even remotely reminded me of her. They all had boring personalities. If Grace was even a little like this out side work, I couldn't believe why Wayne was even with her.

"Don't these two make a cute couple?" I said.

"Jane! Shut up." Grace whispered.

"Talk any louder and Lisbon will here you." She said.

I grew quite bored after a while. Nobody here was any fun to pick on. I went into the kitchen and picked around in their fridge until I found something decent to eat. I searched around for a fork and sat down at the island and ate my food.

"What do you think your doing?" Lisbon asked walking inside the kitchen.

"Oh it's so boring there, and I got hungry. Maybe after I eat I can get something out of those brothers of hers." I said.

"No one mentioned the murder, do you think they even knew Stacey." I asked.

"Well I think Grace didn't tell them."

"Why wouldn't she?"

"I don't know." She said grabbing a spoon and eating with me. As I took huge mouthfuls, she only took one piece of pasta at a time and ate them carefully.

"I can't wait to get out of here; we need to be up early tomorrow to start interviewing family and friends." She said.

"How about we don't think about that until tomorrow?"

"Fine." She said irritated.

We heard a loud laugh coming from the living room. I tilted my chair sideways until I saw Grace's dad smacking Cho on the back, both of them laughing and smiling.

"Seems like Cho found a new friend." I said.

"Yeah." Lisbon said distracted. She stood up and headed to the living room. I followed after her, setting the pasta on the counter.

"It's been really nice meeting you, but we have to head over to the hotel. We need to wake up early tomorrow and start working." She said.

"Oh no, nonsense, you guys can stay with us!" Grace's dad said patting Cho on the back again. I became excited again, having more time to observe the Van Pelt family.

"Oh no dad, we don't have enough room, its fine." She said panicking.

"Of course we have room! You can stay in your old room, Cho can go in the guest room, and the rest can sleep in your brothers' old rooms. It all fits perfectly." He said happily.

"We'd love to!" I said, getting stares of such hatred from Lisbon, Grace and Wayne.

"Great, let's get your luggage from the car!" He said excited.

I went outside and opened the trunk of the car.

"You're going to regret ever being born." Grace said slapping me on the arm.

I rubbed my arm and grabbed as many suitcases as I could, walking into the house. I smiled as I saw the annoyed expressions of everyone besides Cho. He and I would be the only ones enjoying this little sleepover.