Thank you to two great writers and friends, make-mine-a-kiaora and Sue Shay, for their help. Be sure to check out their stories - I have favorited them in my profile for easy access.
I do not own the TV show The Mentalist and get no compensation from it. This story is written purely for entertainment purposes only.
Chapter 3 - "Stepping Out With My Baby"
"Henry! Look outside." Henry Karson's wife Annabelle dropped the glass she was holding and it shattered on the floor in a spray of milk and broken glass. Lifting her hands to her mouth, she took two steps back from the window to stand next to her husband. Glancing at his wife, he saw her whole body shaking in fear. Then he looked up.
The last thing Henry Karson expected to see outside his kitchen window at 3am was an object floating in the air.
For the past five nights Henry and his wife had risen from bed at the same time due to the nausea that plagued Annabelle for weeks. And each night they both heard a low humming noise outside. Now they saw something to go along with the sound. Stepping in front of Annabelle, he held his arms wide to shield her. From what he had no idea. Fear gripped Henry too, but his police training - and curiosity - kicked in. He studied the meter-long object.
On the other side of a pane of glass the metallic gray oval-shaped thing hovered. A gentle breeze buffeted its wings as it rocked back and forth. At the end of a long, slender tube at its front, an aperture clicked shut. The object rose slowly then accelerated as it streaked off into the mists of the night.
Henry threw open the window and peered around. Fog obscured his view so he couldn't even see the ground three floors below him. Only at that point did he notice that he was shaking. He gripped the windowsill so tightly that he feared he would break the wood off in his hands at any moment. Taking a few deep breaths to regain control of his heartbeat, he shut the window and turned to find that Annabelle was beside him.
"Have you ever seen anything like that before, Henry?"
"Only in some graphic novels that I had growing up. Science fiction ones. How about you, A.B.?"
"Nothing I've ever seen before."
Henry noticed his wife still quivered. Reaching out, he pulled her into his arms.
"How are you? Are you okay? Is the baby okay?"
Henry gently rubbed his wife's stomach.
"We're fine, but what are we gonna do about that? We both saw what we saw, Henry."
He didn't answer at once. After cleaning up the spilled milk and broken glass from the floor, Henry sat down in a chair at the kitchen table to think. Annabelle took the seat next to him and stroked his arm. Resting his elbows on the table, he rubbed his face with both hands.
Had they been dreaming? No, he and Annabelle were both awake and had both seen the object.
Were his eyes playing tricks on him? No, his police training had steadied his nerves so he could imprint a clear image in his mind - and he couldn't explain that image.
Was it a threat to someone, Annabelle or Henry or others? Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't.
All Henry could conclude was that they had glimpsed something odd outside the window of their third-floor apartment. Odd enough to take action. What should they do?
As with so many things in his life, he settled on one answer.
"We need to talk to Teresa Lisbon and Archie Marbray about it, Annabelle."
Walking down the hallway of the faculty office building at Deverell College the next morning, Henry heard a familiar sound as he neared Professor Archie Marbray's office. Light crying noises mixed with a low male voice greeted him as he arrived at the door. Fumbling in his pocket, Henry took out his key and opened the door to reveal a familiar scene.
"It's okay, Charlie. There's no need to cry. It's not that bad. We'll turn your frown into a smile in a jiffy," said Marbray.
"Good morning, Professor. I see you're dealing with a disgruntled young person yet again."
"Good morning, Henry. Yes, I am. Could you hand me my travel kit over by the doorway?"
"Of course." He grabbed the kit and brought it over the professor's desk where Marbray was busily at work. After Henry handed it off, he went to his own desk in the corner of the office to drop off his messenger bag.
"Thank you." The professor looked from Henry back down at Charlie. "Now to get you cleaned up, little man. Yes, sir, we will!"
Henry watched in awe as the professor pulled out a package of wet-wipes and in a well-practiced routine removed the offending mess, threw away the dirty materials, and secured a fresh new pull-up diaper on his son. Charlie's sobs changed to coos at once. The job complete, Marbray reached into his mini-refrigerator to retrieve a bottle of juice and gave it to his son while he held him on his shoulder. With Charlie now focused on the bottle, Marbray reached into the kit to extract a small jar of baby food.
"Professor, I need to talk to you about…"
"Henry, have you ever eaten one of these jars of baby food?"
"Not since I was your son's age."
The professor pulled a spoon from his desk drawer, opened the jar, and ladled a scoop of food into his mouth.
"Some of these are quite good. I recommend this sweet potato mix. It's delicious. Charlie's favorite, believe it or not, is the spinach. Must of gotten that trait from Teresa."
"Yes, sir. Professor, I need to talk to you about…"
Marbray cut him off.
"Oh, I almost forgot, Henry. Good news! You and I got another paper accepted for journal publication."
For a moment, Henry forgot about the object he and Annabelle had seen during the night. The thrill of yet another publication, the fifth Henry had co-authored with the professor since he had started working as Marbray's assistant, overwhelmed him. He had to know the details.
"Which one, Professor Marbray? We've got three out for review right now, at least by my count."
"The one titled, 'Visualize the Con: The Use of Imagery in Deception.' I think it's our best work so far, Henry. At least, I enjoyed us writing it the most."
"I did too, Professor. Shall I put the acceptance notice on 'the wall of success'?"
"Please do."
Marbray handed the sheet of paper to him, and Henry taped it next to the other four. He took a moment to reflect on them as a group:
"The Con Artist As Trickster: A Historical Study"
"Apocalypse Sometime: Mass Hysteria As a Tool of Manipulation"
"Showing the Mark What He Wants To See: How the Con Artist Gets Buy-In From the Victim"
"Nitwits, Halfwits, and Dimwits: How the Con Artist Sees the World"
Henry shook his head. The projects all centered around Marbray's pet topics for research. Why did he always focus on these? He couldn't fathom why, but he enjoyed seeing the professor get that gleam in his eyes as a new paper took shape. And Henry of course had benefited too.
"So, Henry, you wanted to talk to me about something?"
He snapped back to reality.
"Yes, sir. Last night Annabelle and I…"
Movement at the doorway distracted them.
"Oh, look guys. We're in luck. There's the big-time college professor doing his academic type of stuff!"
Grace Van Pelt ambled in with her husband Wayne Rigsby and their friend Kimball Cho in tow.
"Well, hello to our three house guests. Where's Teresa?," asked Marbray.
"She stopped by the Campus Security office to talk to the staff there. She'll be along in a few minutes," said Wayne.
Grace reached out to pat Henry on the shoulder as she spoke to him.
"We just met your delightful wife, Henry. She's a real charmer. Annabelle came by the station to talk to Teresa, and she invited her to lunch with us. What a lovely woman."
"Yeah, how did Annabelle end up with an ugly mug like you?" asked Wayne, a broad grin stretched across his face. His wife slapped him on the arm.
"Hush, Wayne. He might not realize you're joking with him." Grace turned back to Henry. "Forgive my husband. We just feel so comfortable around you, and it's obvious how well you and your wife get along with Teresa and Archie. It's almost like you're part of our old gang."
"Annabelle described you as being the 'factotum' for Teresa and Archie," said Wayne.
"Yeah, that's what Annabelle called me the first time she and I talked. She had to explain that factotum meant 'jack of all trades', and I guess that sums up what I do for the chief and the professor - a little bit of everything."
"He's the new us, guys!" Grace said.
The three exchanged knowing glances. Then as if on cue, they all sat down in the guest chairs in the office and stared at the professor.
"Have a seat, why don't you?" Marbray glowered at the trio.
"Thank you…Arch." Kimball Cho glanced over at Henry as he spoke to the professor. "Don't mind if we do."
Since they had arrived in town, Henry rarely saw one of the three without the other two. In his mind, he had dubbed them the Three Musketeers. Henry knew that they all had worked for Chief Lisbon in California, and they displayed that same fierce loyalty he himself felt for the chief. He gathered that helping Lisbon and Marbray move into their new home had been a pretext for a reunion.
On top of that, the Three Musketeers readily embraced the professor as if he were one of their own, and Marbray got as much enjoyment out of their guests as Lisbon did. Although Henry saw a difference in the way the Three Musketters dealt with Marbray. In Lisbon's case, they treated her with a respect that bordered on reverence. Often one of the trio would slip up and call her "Boss." She took it in stride, and they all laughed when she reminded them that now she was "Teresa" to them. How they treated Marbray was another story…
"Don't let us interrupt you, Archie. We just came by to see you do your college professor thing-y," said Grace with an odd glint in her eye. "We thought we might watch you teach a class or something."
"Yeah, Arch, show us what you do." Cho leaned forward in his chair like he awaited Marbray to perform a magic trick.
Henry must have looked bewildered at the Three Musketeers because Wayne noticed and spoke to him.
"Don't get the wrong idea, Henry. We like Archie. As a matter of fact, we always figured that Teresa would end up getting together with someone just like him."
"We just never figured she'd marry a college professor." Grace put an odd emphasis on the words "college professor."
"Well, she did, and if you wanted to see me doing something you just missed me changing Charlie's diaper." Again, Henry heard that whiff of sarcasm in Marbray's voice.
"I'm sorry we missed that. It would have been a change of pace to see you cleaning up a load of…" Wayne didn't get a chance to complete his thought because of a new arrival at the door.
"There's my two favorite fellas!" Teresa Lisbon walked over to embrace her husband and her son. She kissed Marbray while Charlie reached out his little arms to his mother. She lifted up her son to clutch him close.
"Our son is all cleaned up and ready to go out on the town with his mother," said the professor.
Seeing Lisbon and Marbray together reminded Henry that he needed to talk to them. He cleared his throat to speak when the chief spied him.
"Ah, Henry! It's good you're here. You, Arch, and I need to talk. Let's go out in the hallway." Lisbon's tone of voice signaled that there was only one response she wanted to hear.
"Yes, ma'am."
Lisbon handed Charlie over to Grace, and Henry followed the chief and the professor into the hallway. She motioned for the men to follow her away from where people were passing by. Once they were by themselves in a corner, Lisbon turned to face them.
"Annabelle told me what you saw last night, Henry."
That got Marbray's attention.
"What?" he asked.
"Henry and Annabelle saw a strange object hovering outside the kitchen window at their apartment."
The professor crossed his arms while he scowled at Henry.
"Why didn't you tell me, Henry? This sounds serious."
"I tried, sir, but…"
Lisbon waved her hands.
"That doesn't matter right now. We've got a problem, and it's not just with Henry and Annabelle. Four calls came in to 911 last night from the same neighborhood. Two of them from other residents of the River Manor Apartments. And there's been at least one 911 call on each of the previous three nights."
"Something's going on, Teresa." The professor looked at his wife with concern.
"I agree, Arch. And the last thing we need is for this mystery object to make the news or social media. Then we'd have every crackpot and his brother descend on Cannon River."
"Agreed."
"What's the plan of action, Chief?" asked Henry.
"Annabelle and I talked. Before you saw the object last night, you'd heard it for the four nights previous. Is that correct, Henry?"
"Yes ma'am."
"It sounds like it's on a regular schedule, at least where you live. I want Archie and me to get a look at whatever this thing is. Henry, you and Annabelle are staying at our house tonight. At the same time, Archie and I will stay over at your apartment. Annabelle and I already worked things out."
Rocking back and forth with excitement, Professor Marbray beamed like a child on his first visit to the zoo.
"Teresa and I are going on a stakeout!"
To be continued.
Author's notes:
Irving Berlin wrote "Steppin' Out With My Baby." Fred Astaire recorded my favorite version for his album, Astaire Story.
Up next: "Too Darn Hot"
