Author's notes:
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.
Please note: The final four chapters, Chapter 16 ("One For My Baby"), Chapter 17 ("Gimmie Three Steps"), Chapter 18 ("Cheerful Little Earful"), and Chapter 19 ("Something With A Ring To It") are published all at the same time.
Chapter 18 - "Cheerful Little Earful"
Where was he? Henry felt as if once more he had awoken from a stupor. He tried to move yet was hemmed in on all sides.
In semi-darkness, Henry felt something - someone - soft next to him. His guess that it was Annabelle proved correct. He heard her familiar voice groan. He tried to reach out to her, but a weight pressed down on him from above.
The weight shifted and Henry heard a grunt. Someone moved above Henry, and the weight rolled off of him. He felt relief when he heard Marbray's cough.
Slowly the situation made sense to Henry. The basement had collapsed all around them, and the professor threw himself on top of Henry and Annabelle to protect them.
Professor Marbray raised himself up and turned around. Extending both his hands, he pulled Henry and Annabelle to their feet. With the professor's help and a shard of broken glass, Henry and Annabelle shed the ropes that had bound their hands. The first thing Henry did was to rub his hand across Annabelle's stomach. She nodded to him that she and baby were alright.
Henry hadn't expected there to be any light, but there was - one bare bulb dangling from a cable as it swayed back and forth above them. The three of them stood in a tight cavern surrounded by debris - wall board, mortar, and building stones. At the same instant, the trio began to brush dust off their clothes and faces.
"How are you guys?" asked Marbray.
Henry saw Annabelle check herself over. Her EMT training came in handy at a moment like this, and after a few moments she nodded to the two men. Reaching for Henry, she pulled him close to examine him. When she touched the side of his face, he flinched.
"Ouch."
Annabelle turned his head so she could kiss his uninjured cheek, and then she circled her arms around Henry to pull him close. Henry decided her embrace was just the medicine he needed to start his recovery.
"We're okay for now. How about you, Professor?" asked Annabelle.
"Never better, folks." Marbray looked around. "We can thank Fitzgerald Cummings for this. Your late landlord did indeed booby-trap his vault. Like I told Trumble, he did the same thing for a vault in Isadore Totty's office."
"Look!" Annabelle pointed to a corner of the open space.
The upper third of Dirk Trumble's body poked out from a pile of rocks. One arm extended outward. In his hand he clutched a 78 rpm record.
Annabelle maneuvered her way around a large rock that jutted out to get to the tight crevice where Trumble lay. Once beside him, she knelt down to press her fingers against his neck. In a moment she looked up to Henry and the professor to shake her head "no."
After Annabelle had made her way back to the open area where Henry and Marbray were, the professor crawled over to Trumble's body. With a gentle motion, Marbray lifted the 78 record from Trumble's fingers. When he returned to the lighted area, he blew dust off it. Holding it near the light bulb, the professor read aloud its label.
"'Cheerful Little Earful' by Perk Perez and the Duluth Swing Orchestra."
"That's what he was looking for, wasn't it?" asked Henry.
"Yep. After all Trumble did, in the end he only grasped at what he sought. A sad end to a sad life." Marbray sighed then rallied. "I suppose we should focus on getting out of here."
"We need to get Henry checked on." Annabelle rubbed her husband's arm as she further inspected his face.
Professor Marbray pulled out his cell phone as Henry and Annabelle sat down on the remnants of a work bench.
"I'm sure Teresa will have us out of here in a jiffy."
"We're buried pretty deep, Professor. Do you think a cell signal can get out?"
"Have confidence, Henry." Henry and Annabelle exchanged glances. "I saw that."
"Saw what, Professor?" asked Annabelle.
"The two of you rolling your eyes. Oh, ye of little faith."
Marbray scowled at them then walked around with the phone to his ear. Every few seconds, he would frown, move two steps to a new spot, and dial again. After six fruitless tries, he at last scrunched his body next to the debris where a window had been. He punched redial. When the professor's expression changed from glum to glad, Henry squeezed Annabelle's hand.
"The professor got a signal," he whispered to his wife.
When Chief Lisbon answered Marbray's call, the professor spoke in a halting voice. Henry recognized it as the tone the professor used when Marbray knew that Lisbon would get stern with him.
"I've got good news and bad news, Teresa…The good news is that the case is wrapped up…The bad news is I'm standing in a caved-in basement with Henry and Annabelle. Oh, and there's also two dead bodies nearby." Marbray held the phone away from his ear as he winced.
"Sheep dip!" Those were the only words that Henry could make out clearly from the other end of the call, but they told him everything he needed to know about the chief's reaction to Marbray's news.
I can only imagine what Chief Lisbon is saying to her husband thought Henry. He watched Marbray as the professor filled in the details for the chief. As he spoke, Marbray's countenance relaxed. Henry took that as a sign that Lisbon had relaxed as well.
"Teresa, does it make a difference that Henry and Annabelle are getting anxious?…Yes…They're sitting here looking at me right now. You should see their mournful faces."
Despite their dire situation and his throbbing temple, Henry snarked at the professor.
"If your wife won't come dig you out, tell her that Annabelle and I would like to get out as soon as we can."
"Did you hear that, Teresa?…Oh, really…You want me to tell them that?" Now the professor was smiling broadly as he looked at Henry and Annabelle. He lowered the phone from his ear. "My wife says I'm in luck. She says since she's digging you two out, she'll let me out of here as well."
Henry recognized the lilt in Marbray's voice. Even though he could only hear the professor's end of the phone call, the couple fell into that light-hearted banter that always reassured Henry. When Lisbon and Marbray talked like that, Henry knew everything would work out just fine.
They were like Henry's parents. When he was a child, the soothing tones of his mother and father chased away any boyhood fears he had. Now Lisbon and Marbray did the same thing. Henry pulled Annabelle close to kiss her then whisper in her ear.
"We'll be safe."
After he finished his report to the chief on all that happened, Professor Marbray ended his call and took a seat on a wooden tool chest across from the couple.
"Teresa's put a team together to dig us out, and we're doubly in luck. Our friend Wayne Rigsby started out his career as an arson investigator. In that job he had to dig around a lot of rubble like what we're in now. He's leading the team."
Only moments after Marbray finished speaking, the sound of shovels clanged above them.
"That's music to my ears, Professor," said Henry.
"Mine too." Marbray looked over at Annabelle with concern. "How are you and your baby holding up, young lady?"
"We're doing fine. I just want a doctor to look at Henry's cheek."
"I'm alright, A.B."
"That's what you always say, Henry. If it wasn't for me watching out for you, there's no telling what trouble you'd get into. You'd be just like Professor Marbray."
The three of them shared a laugh, then fell silent for a few minutes.
Something had gnawed at Henry for a long time, something he wanted to say to Professor Marbray. With all they had gone through, now seemed like the right time. Clearing his throat, Henry got Marbray's attention.
"Professor, I used to wonder about who you really are."
He saw Marbray tense.
"Who I am?"
"Yeah, you've always been a mystery to me - what Chief Lisbon calls you when she's mad at you, why you write papers about conmen and scams and manipulation, and how your wife's friends act around you. But I've found out."
"What have you found out?"
Henry glanced at Annabelle before he answered.
"I've found out that you're a man who loves his family and looks out for his friends. That's all I need to know."
Marbray relaxed then shook his head.
"If you knew the real me, you'd have mixed feelings."
"Like I said Professor, I know all I need to know."
Henry heard the noise of metal breaking through debris. He, the professor, and Annabelle all looked over to where the stairs had once ended. A shovel poked through and began to wallow out a hole. In a few moments the shovel pulled back through the hole, and a metal ladder lowered to the floor of the basement. A smile of triumph appeared on Marbray's face as he pointed to the ladder.
"Henry, Annabelle, in just a few moments Wayne Rigsby will climb down to get us out of here."
Teresa fidgeted behind Wayne and her officers while they dug through the debris. Was Patrick alright? How badly was Henry hurt? How was a very pregnant Annabelle holding up?
Despite her husband's cheery words, she worried about the three of them. Hearing Wayne break through into the basement, she crawled forward to where he was. Wayne peeked through the hole, turned his face around to Teresa's officers, and yelled to them.
"Somebody get a ladder. An eight-footer should work."
Soon enough there was commotion behind Wayne and Teresa. Warrick Albury slid forward an aluminum ladder that clanged against the floor as it moved. After Wayne lowered the ladder into the basement, Teresa tugged on his sleeve to let her go down first.
Moving through the tight opening, she swung her legs onto the rungs of the ladder and climbed down. The light from the only lamp still working cast an eerie glow around the cramped cavern she found. Looking across the debris, she saw Henry and Annabelle huddled and hugging on one side and her husband sitting across from them - beaming at her. He stood up to greet her. Before he spoke he winked at Henry and Annabelle. Then he turned back to Teresa.
"You don't know how good it is to see you again…Wayne."
That was all Teresa needed to hear to reassure her. She walked over to hug Patrick.
"Ha, ha. Where have I heard that before?" She scrunched down to move over to Henry and Annabelle, kneeling in front of them to look at Henry's bruise. "Are you guys alright?"
It cheered her to hear Henry's voice as strong as it was.
"We're fine, thanks to the professor, ma'am." Annabelle nodded her agreement as she held Henry's hand.
Shovels clanged louder as Wayne and her officers enlarged the hole.
"Let's get you guys out of here," Teresa said to the young couple. Holding each other, Henry and Annabelle made their way to the edge of the open space.
Teresa and Patrick watched as first Annabelle then Henry climbed the ladder. As soon as she got within reach, Wayne grabbed Annabelle's arm to hoist her out. Henry scrambled out next. Teresa called up to Wayne.
"We'll be along in a moment." Alone now, she turned to her husband. "I really should be mad at you."
"I did kind of get into a pickle again, didn't I?"
"'Kind of'? Just 'kind of'?"
"All right, it was a big pickle. But Annabelle, Henry, and I came through safely. Well, aside from that bruise on the side of Henry's face." Her husband pulled on a blackened and torn section of his turtleneck shirt, exposing the skin of his chest underneath. "And this turtleneck you got for me last week."
Teresa moved her hand to stroke his skin where the fabric had split.
"I suppose I could buy you a new shirt."
He smiled.
"I'd like that very much, Teresa. I like wearing a turtleneck shirt. For you."
Teresa realized that her hand had continued to stroke her husband's chest without her even thinking about it.
"I'll get you another one…if you promise to take better care of it."
"I will, Teresa, I will."
She patted him on the chest.
"By the way, what does 'Cheerful Little Earful' mean? I never got around to hearing that song."
"According to the lyricist Ira Gershwin, it's three little words. As a matter of fact, it's those three words you whisper to me every day. The ones that make me smile," said Patrick.
"Ohhhhh. Just to be clear, you mean, 'Jane, you idiot'?"
Her husband was rubbing her arm now.
"No, those other three words we say to each other."
"Oh, you mean those words," said Teresa.
"Yes, those words. Say 'em again."
His eyes sparkled as he waited for her to speak. Instead of saying anything, Teresa placed a hand under Patrick's chin and drew his lips to hers. How long did they remain in the smooch? Teresa lost track of time until she heard a tapping noise from the hole at the top of the cavern. Then the voice of Wayne Rigsby in a mock-stern tone rang through the air.
"Hey, cut that out."
Teresa and Patrick both looked over to find that Wayne and Grace were peeking through the hole. And laughing at them.
Before they walked to the ladder to climb out, Teresa brought her lips beside her husband's ear.
"Patrick, you idiot. I love you."
"And I love you too, Teresa."
To be continued.
One more chapter titled "Something With A Ring To It."
Readers interested in the music used as chapter titles in the story can check out the playlist "Mentalist - Cheerful Little Earful - playlist for fanfic" in Youtube.
Thank you for reading the story and I'd love to hear from you.
