Hazel.
Hazel wood, hazel shoes, hazel dust.
Hazel paper owning words of attempts at comfort.
It was a tradition of Heritage Oaks for the rare occasion when a patient passed away. All the patients wrote notes of peace and encouragement to the roommate of the one who passed. Patrick Jane smoothed his thumb over the course craft paper, knowing they would never be able to replace the soul that was lost. The evening sun illuminated the dust above the widowed bed, floating in the heavy, silent air.
A soft knock echoed within the white walls.
"Patrick?" The door slowly creaked open, Sophie revealing herself from behind. "There's a detective who wants to speak with you."
"No," he quickly retorted. "No more."
She showed herself into the room, lightening the air with her presence. "This is the last one, I promise."
"Peter killed himself. Nothing else to it." Patrick retracted into his bed, tossing the stack of letters onto his night stand.
"He's involved in the Red John cases."
Patrick's ears perked. /why is he here? Do they know?/
"He was hoping you'd talk to him?" She kindly gestured.
"Peters death has nothing to do with Red John."
"Okay. That's okay. He just wants to talk with you, that's all."
The disheveled man took a moment. He couldn't reveal anything he speculated for fear of Red John getting to anyone else.
But maybe this man knew those involved with the case elsewhere.
"Thank you for meeting with me, Mr. Jane. I'm sorry for your loss."
"You can call me Patrick." He fidgeted his hands in his lap. Something about the detective sitting comfortably on the bed across from him was unsettling.
"Alright. Patrick. I'm Detective Elliot. I know you've had a hard few days with your roommates passing so I wanted to thank you for meeti-"
"Yes. You're welcome. Can we please move on?"
Heavy set. Confident and experienced. Has experienced tragedy, thus why he's so careful. Short tempered but tolerant.
The dark haired heavy set detective cleared his throat. "Ah, yes. Yes we can. I'm Detective Elliot. I'm working with the CBI with devouring this case."
"Devour? There's nothing to 'devour', detective. Peter was unstable and he hung himself. End of story."
"Patrick, I believe you're aware of a serial killer named Red John?"
Jane nodded in lieu of the plethora of sarcastic responses that flooded his tongue.
"We have reason to believe that this may have a tie to Red John."
"Who is 'we'?"
"The agents at the CBI and myself."
"Who specifically?"
The detective exhaled at Patricks persistence, but knew he needed to tell him what he wanted to hear. "Agent Lisbon is working with myself and a few others on Red Johns case as a whole."
Agent Lisbon.
"We think he may have targeted Peter since he lived with you."
"That's not true." Patrick lied.
Silence fell between the two as Detective Elliot continued to write on his notepad.
"If...if you don't mind me asking..." Patrick held his stare down at his hands gathered in his lap. "Where are you in regards to Red John?"
"I can't discuss that with you, Patrick. I'm sorry."
Jane nodded, holding his gaze down. Tears filled his eyes as the memories revisited his mind.
"Did Red John have any contact with you, Patrick?"
Do hallucinations count? "No. No contact at all."
"No packages? Letters? People giving you messages?"
Lisa...in the piano room. He shook his head to get the memory out.
"Patrick, you know that any information you have potentially connecting Red John to Peter's passing could help us immensely."
He nodded, confident in his decision to keep his mouth shut for fear of anything happening to anyone else. "Detective, please? I have had a hard time. I never mentioned anything regarding Red John to Peter so he would have no reason to be on his radar." He stood up from his bed. "Now if you'd excuse me, I'm going to head to lunch."
"Detective Elliot says that you were cooperative." Sophie began.
Patrick nodded.
She sat in the quiet, observing her silent patient. "Anything going on?"
Patrick shook his head. "Not at the moment."
Another lingering pause. "Anything you want to talk about?"
Another shake of the head. "Not at the moment."
Sophie nodded, sitting back into her chair. She took a moment to really take in Patrick Jane. It wasn't odd that he had nothing to say but it wasn't normal either. The blonde man was relaxed in his chair, comfortably sitting across from her familiar desk. Content. Keeping eye contact with Sophie.
"What are you thinking, Dr. Miller?"
Sophie laughed a little. "Don't you think it's my job to ask you that?"
"Yeah it's been a while. I think I'm used to the whole routine."
"Well then what are you thinking, Patrick?"
"I'm thinking I'd like to get away. I'm thinking I'd like to start new."
Dr. Miller took a second to take this in. "A while ago you said that you weren't sure you could move on, Patrick." A pause lingered between them. "Are you sure you're ready for that?"
The blonde man looked down at his hands, delicately twisting his wedding ring around his finger.
A/N: Sorry for the short length of this one! My next chapter, being the last chapter, is going to make up for it I promise! Thank you again to those who have held with me through my on and off writing sprees. With the actual series coming to a close, I've been trying to hold onto this as long as I could!