Disclaimer - The Mentalist belongs to Bruno Heller and CBS. Not me. Obviously.

A/N- Hello my faithful readers! Sorry that its been so long since I last updated this story, but life has been busy and my mind has been otherwise engaged. Hopefully this chapter will make up for the wait, though just to warn you, there is some violence coming up, so if you don't like that sort of thing, you might not want to read on. For those of you who do want to continue...enjoy!

~ Chapter Nine ~

A Break in the Case

"Got it!" called Grace excitedly, pointing to her computer screen. Lisbon's eyes darted over to the younger woman and her heart began to beat very loudly in her chest, hope swelling inside her even as she tried to quell it. Dropping the case file she had been reading – another one of Jane's old ones – Lisbon immediately stalked over to her young agent, trying desperately to keep her face painfully free of the concern that was beginning to consume her.

Be strong, she told herself. Just for a little bit longer, just until he's back…

"You've found Jane?" Lisbon asked, barely daring to believe it. She leaned over Grace's desk to look at what the young woman had discovered, heart beating loudly in anticipation.

"Not exactly," Van Pelt replied with a frown, though her excitement was still clear as she pointed to a section highlighted on a map on her computer screen. "His phone signal wasn't very strong even before we lost it, so I couldn't pin it down to an exact location, but I did manage to narrow down our search."

"He's still in Sacramento," Lisbon breathed, squinting as she tried to make sense of the map. "Only an hour or so away."

"But he could still be anywhere in a 20 mile radius," Van Pelt pointed out hesitantly. "That's still a lot of ground to cover."

"But it's a place to start," Lisbon replied with a deep breath, trying to stay optimistic, even as her hope began to dwindle away. She shrugged away her pessimism, knowing that it wouldn't do anyone any good for her to start moping now.

"Boss?"

"Get into contact with Sac PD," Lisbon continued, thinking hard. "Ask them to start co-ordinating a search of any deserted or disused office buildings in that area. If Jane's right, he could be being held in one of them. Tell them to use caution though, and if they think they've found the place, I need to know immediately. They don't go in without my okay."

"Okay, boss," Van Pelt nodded, immediately picking up the phone.

Lisbon let a deep breath go, a small amount of relief entering her mind for the first time since Jane had been taken. As she walked back to her desk, leaving Van Pelt to concentrate on organising the search, and intent upon doing her own search on the computer system, Lisbon felt like she'd received her second wind. All previous exhaustion was pushed aside, adrenaline and hope replacing it. At last, they were getting somewhere…

She sat down at her desk, ready to get to work, but before she could even turn the computer on, her phone rang shrilly from her pocket. Without even glancing at the screen to see who it was, she picked it up straight away, part of her hoping desperately that Jane had somehow managed to find yet another phone. They had lost contact with Jane over twenty minutes ago, and nothing had been heard from him since. He had to be okay…

"Lisbon," she said, pushing away her doubts once again.

"Boss," replied Cho, and Lisbon felt her heart sink slightly, even though she had known all along that another call from Jane would have been a long shot.

"Cho," Lisbon replied, trying to inject some confidence into her voice to cover up her growing sense of desolation and fear. God, her feelings were all over the place at the moment. "What is it?"

She had sent her two male agent straight back to the Judge's residence after the phone call from Jane, along with strict orders to keep pressing the family – particularly the father of the kidnapped boy – until something useful came out of it. Somehow, this kidnapping was connected to that man, and Lisbon knew that they needed to find out how.

"We've got something boss," Cho answered. "Judge Garrison, the kidnapped boy's dad, has been looking over his recent cases for us."

"And?"

"Big Tommo Keane," Cho said bluntly.

A thrill of fear entered her heart. "The mob boss?"

"Yeah," Cho replied solemnly. "FBI got him on fraud charges and he's being tried in Sacramento. Judge Garrison was given the case to preside over. Apparently, there have already been some accusations that Keane has been trying to intimidate the jury. If Jane is right that this kidnapping has something to do with one of the Judge's cases, this is our best bet."

"Okay, Cho," Lisbon replied, "You and Rigsby head back here as soon as you can. I have a feeling we're going to need the extra man-power if we're going to take on the mob."

"Okay, Boss," came the reply, before her agent cut off.

Shoving the phone back into her pocket, Lisbon left her desk and marched straight back to Van Pelt's station.

"Grace," she began, once Van Pelt had finished her call. "Can you cross-reference our location with a list of properties linked to Tommo Keane."

"The mob boss?" Van Pelt asked, brow furrowed.

Lisbon nodded grimly. "Jane was convinced that Liam was taken in order to pressure his father into making a favourable ruling in one of his cases. This is the best fit."

"I'll do it now," Van Pelt nodded.

As she watched the young woman work her magic, hopefully bringing them a step closer to finding Jane, Lisbon took a deep, steadying breath. No matter how quickly the leads kept coming, however, Lisbon couldn't shake the feeling that they were quickly running out of time.

"Hang in there, Jane," she muttered to herself as Van Pelt entered the information into the computer search. "We're on our way. Just hang in there."

SMACK!

Jane's head snapped sideways, the force of the blow almost knocking the sense from his mind. He groaned, his vision swimming as he tried desperately to ignore the growing throb in his brain, a task that was becoming vastly harder with every punch that he endured. He shifted slightly to try and get more comfortable as the pain in his body and head ebbed to dangerous levels, but with his hands tied behind his back, and his feet fixed firmly to the wooden chair, he already knew he wouldn't be able to move far and he certainly knew that he couldn't give himself any relief from the pain.

Who knew getting beaten up would hurt so much…?

Jane felt the air leave his lungs as another fist pummelled into his chest. Pain exploded in his ribs and he found that he had to use every pain-tolerance technique he knew just to stay conscious. He gasped, the sharp white-hot pain rendering him momentarily stunned as he fought with everything he had just to stay in control of his own mind.

Come on Lisbon, he prayed silently, the force of his plea so strong that it almost hurt his head even more than the fists already had. He shook his head slightly, almost trying to shake some sense back into himself, though his efforts were quickly rendered futile when another fist connected with his chin. The pain hit him sharply once again, and Jane clenched his eyes tightly shut as he rode it out.

"Bastards…" he muttered defiantly, though his resolve was becoming weaker and weaker with every blow.

The goons merely responded with laughter, more mocking and another punch, this time hard in the stomach.

His curse was muffled but it hardly mattered anymore. Awareness was quickly leaving him and truthfully his thoughts were barely there anymore; all he could feel was pain, mingling reality with the stuff of nightmares. Jane groaned again as the torture continued, pain overriding everything, even his sense of self. Nothing mattered anymore…

"Stop."

The pounding stopped at once, but the pain left behind was enough for Jane to wish for unconsciousness. Before he could even begin to appreciate the brief relief though, a hand gripped his sweat-soaked hair, pulling his weak head forcibly up to meet the gaze of his captor.

"Please," Jane begged, his voice a mere whisper. "Please, stop."

"We have stopped," sneered Venom, earning sickening laughter from his cohorts. "I'm not sure you've quite learned your lesson yet, though."

"I…have," Jane mumbled, his eyes dropping closed against his will. With a start, he forced them open. As much as it hurt to be conscious, he knew he had to stay awake. Why, though...?

Liam, Jane reminded himself. He had to stay awake for Liam.

That one thought had somehow managed to make it through the painful chaos of his mind, and he clung to it with all the strength he had left. He needed to protect Liam.

The kid, thankfully, was still locked away in their little closet, far enough away from this dreadful office to be completely unaware of the torture going on inside, but Jane knew that it was only a matter of time before both of their lives were forfeit.

There was no way either of them were getting out alive without some sort of miracle - at the back of his mind, Jane knew that - but he'd be damned if he was going to let them kill Liam without a fight…

"Have you really learnt your lesson, Mr Ruskin?"

His throbbing brain took a moment to work out why he was being called that, before it thankfully caught up.

"Yes, I have," Jane replied hoarsely. "I…I won't try to escape again."

"No, you won't."

Venom nodded to one of his lesser associates, gesturing towards the bruised and bloody body of their victim. Jane felt a thrill of fear run through his heart, almost stopping the breath in his lungs.

No more, he thought desperately, his throat too dry to voice his concerns out loud. It was too much. He couldn't take any more pain…

"Please," he whispered, his energy focused almost exclusively on staying conscious at this point.

The ordered goon didn't answer, and as he approached, Jane braced himself for another punch, eyes closed and hands clenched as he prepared for the pain he knew was coming. Seconds passed, but rather than the expected impact, instead Jane felt hands begin to tug at the binding on his hands and feet.

Sensing an opportunity, Jane began to struggle against the goon, using every trick he knew to focus the pain away from his mind. He was too weak though; too little water and food, and the recent beating had made him no threat to the men holding him.

Free - though completely unable to fight - the goon dragged Jane up from the chair with very little resistance and started to pull him towards the door. Jane's heart beat increased to near in-human levels at the sudden movement, sure in the back of his exhausted mind that the goon was leading him to his death. He knew he should fight harder, fight for his life, but his limbs were simply too weak and limp to do anything about it. He just couldn't...

Unconsciousness crept up on him as quickly as a predator lashing out at its prey, and blackness edged onto his vision. Pain ran rampant through his body as he was finally jostled forcibly out of the office, and as the darkness began to swim dangerously in front of him, Jane's last thought was centred on Liam - yet another child that he had failed to save...

Seconds later, Jane closed his eyes, and knew no more.

A/N - Okay, so what did you think? Again, I'm not entirely sure about the ending, but I'll leave it as it is for now. Please, let me know what you think. Your reviews are so encouraging, and since I really want to get this story finished before the new season starts, every little helps, trust me. For now though, thanks for reading!