The wait has come to an end: you'll find out who the Red John of this fic is. I hope you can follow my/Jane's conclusions...
No warnings.
Patrick nodded. "Okay. But hear me out before you start protesting – and you will, I assure you. Can you promise me that?" She nodded her consent and he went on. "Red John is none other than our beloved ex-director Gale Bertram."
Four loud gasps could be heard in the small space. Lisbon opened her mouth, but he raised his hand and put a finger on her lips. "You promised to let me explain, Teresa." She sighed and nodded again. "It's all very plain to see, once you've figured it out. Let me start at the beginning, well not really the beginning, but the first time I actually met him. Red John, that is."
Lisbon cast him an impatient look and he realized he was rambling. "Sorry, I'll try to be concise. Anyway, when I encountered him in that abandoned hotel, he recited a Blake poem, as you all know. First clue. Bertram shows up as the new director only a short time later and – as Teresa witnessed – he recited a verse from a Blake-poem right after it became clear that Hightower, his scapegoat, had been firmly established as the Johnson-killer. And today? Another Blake, and one taken from another Cradle-song, just like the first one Bertram quoted in front of Lisbon."
He let this first bomb sink in before he continued. "Coincidence? I don't think so. Back at the time when he recited that verse after Madeleine's escape he didn't know that I was aware of the connection between him and Todd Johnson. Unfortunately, yours truly hadn't shared that little tidbit about the Blake-Tyger-poem with anyone yet – a stupid oversight on my part, I have to admit." He looked very sheepish and apologetic.
"So at the time Lisbon couldn't see the significance of that second Blake-rendition. Maybe I would've been more suspicious of Bertram, if I had known about the second poem earlier?" He shrugged. "But onwards. During our operation to expose the real Todd Johnson killer, we actually had him – can you imagine?"
He cast them all pointed looks. "But unfortunately for us, Red John hadn't been acting on his own - O'Laughlin and Bertram were both on LaRoche's suspect list for a reason. Both had cause and opportunity to torch Johnson. They might've even done the deed together. And what a brilliant move – got me off track like a charm. Never even crossed my mind that two people could've been involved." He paused and took a deep breath, shaking his head.
"And do you remember when the bastard personally asked us to deal with that so called bomb-robbery situation before it was clear it was even murder? He got us involved at a point where everybody assumed it was essentially a closed case with the perp blowing himself up at that gas station. He wanted us to look into it - allegedly of all things for reasons concerning-" he painted quotation marks in the air, "-public relations." He snorted. "Instead he had us actually assisting in his own search for Hightower's whereabouts. And the bastard is responsible for Lisbon ending up with that bomb belt." He shook his head again in remembered panic.
"But back to our plan to exonerate Hightower. After contacting Craig and comparing their notes pertaining the hotel room numbers, Bertram knows, we're at least somewhat suspicious of him. He sends the hitman, well, hitwoman, I guess, to his own hotel room and orders her to take along a rope, to implicate O'Laughlin if necessary but primarily to confuse us, which he – unfortunately – did and quite spectacularly so."
A deep sigh escaped him and Teresa took hold of one of his restless hands. "When it becomes clear that he won't get to Madeleine at the hotel that night – not that he truly expected to - he can rightly assume that with the course of events at Pacific Palms, O'Laughlin would be beyond suspicion. And as a matter of fact: Van Pelt takes him to Hightower's true hiding place – exactly the way Red John had hoped for."
Jane took another deep breath, all the other occupants in the room following his explanation attentively and with growing horror. "Bertram himself is with me, knowing fully well that Hightower won't show up at the mall, but uses this as a chance to mislead me even further. And he succeeds, because I foolishly assumed that he was merely a confederate, not the bastard himself. But he knows that we are distrustful of him – we found the killer in his room after all. It's therefore he mentions a rope to plant the suggestion of Craig actually being the 'real suspect' in my mind, which in turn makes himself appear innocent. And it works like a charm."
Lisbon interrupted him at that point. His explanations seemed very plausible so far, but the sheer speed with which he connected the dots was a real challenge to follow. "What do you mean, he mentioned a rope? Why would he mention the rope the killer carried with her? Didn't that make you suspicious of him?"
"No, actually. It wasn't as plain as that. On the contrary, it was the picture perfect classic method of planting a suggestion. He said something along the lines of him being at the end of his rope. You've all seen me doing very similar things dozens of times. It's very effective. And I was too wrapped up in my own scheme to recognize it."
Jane shook his head at his own stupidity. "Anyway. This way he makes sure, I figure out who the 'real' mole is, while he's suddenly above suspicion. Perfect double-double-crossing, I have to give him that. His timing was a bit off, though." He grins with a bit of satisfaction at his enemy's obvious miscalculation. "He didn't give O'Laughlin enough time to execute Hightower, Van Pelt, and Lisbon – which must have been the plan. So I managed to warn you just in time."
He sighed heavily, first now fully realizing how close he'd come to losing both Teresa and Grace that day. His urge to kiss his lover got the better of him and he pressed his lips to hers fervently for a moment before he was able to continue. "And in another brilliant move Bertram had placed Timothy Carter at the mall beforehand - the very person who operated as his go-between with Craig - thus giving me the would-be real Red John. I mean, how else could Carter have known to be at the mall if not from Bertram? We didn't tell anyone else."
He shook his head once again. "I can't believe I didn't realize this before. The whole situation at the mall only makes sense with Bertram being Red John or at least one of his disciples. There's just one other way Red John could've possibly known about our operation at the mall with O'Laughlin as the only mole: namely if Grace had told Craig about that part of the plan as well. As far as I know that's not the case." He paused to contemplate things for a moment and to take in Van Pelt's affirmative nodd, before he continued. "They must have had some sort of communication device – Carter and Bertram, I mean. That security guy, Ron Deutsch, who cleared Carter of his gun and phone must have removed that as well." He stopped his tale at that point.
"This is… I mean… it…" Lisbon stammered.
"That's not the whole proof, Teresa. I'm not finished. But how far are you with the database, Grace?"
"I'm on it. Good news is, Bertram's DNA is actually part of it. I hoped so because it is mandatory for all CBI employees since the, well, the Johnson-case actually. But considering his connections…" Van Pelt replied.
"Ah, but he is so confident he won't ever leave any traces or make any mistakes, he didn't bother to risk any inquiries over something like that," Jane explained. "Okay, on we go. So he has us all fooled with Carter. But he didn't expect me to get out of jail so fast. He even asked Ardiles to go hard on me during the trial, as our beloved ADA has pointed out to me on several occasions. Still didn't work because, as we all know, I was found not guilty."
He grinned before turning serious again. "Which means, he himself has to punish me for killing one of his minions. So he tries to take away the most important person in my life and plans to fire Teresa, placing me with Ray Haffner's team. Once again he didn't fully anticipate my actions-", Jane had to smirk once more, "-and suddenly he's confronted with the choice of either giving up his close game and firing me as well, or reinstating Lisbon. He opts for the latter, but uses the opportunity to humiliate me as punishment for my arrogance… blablabla."
He paused at the confusion on three faces. "Oh, you don't know what I'm talking about. Well, he forced me to sign a new contract in exchange for Lisbon's job. It's kind of, well, a tad unfair." Both Teresa and Cho snorted at that.
"Okay, it's a bit of a farce. Anyway, not important right now. So he's taught me another lesson in humbleness, but soon enough he realizes that I know that Carter wasn't Red John. And in another brilliant move he involves the FBI and Agent Darcy to mislead both us and the Feds, who've also taken a greater interest in the case, which isn't too surprising considering one of their own was revealed as a confederate of Red John."
He took another break to collect his thoughts. "Well, the rest until after Vegas should be rather obvious. Bertram offers me a deal through Lorelei, I decline, well in a manner of speaking anyway, and then he lets the Feds take hold of his trollop while pretending to support us, knowing full well that the only one who could've possibly turned her was me."
Another sigh later he continued, "But then something unpredictable occurs: Alex attacks me and one of Red John's moles in SacPD happens to be one of the first ones at the scene. He reports to him that I was injured with a knife by my own father and that I and Lisbon seem to have grown even closer."
He swallowed audibly and Teresa squeezed his hand. "He finds out that Alex will cause a lot of trouble and he's appalled at the audacity of that unworthy man to touch me with a knife – like another Jane spiting him. So he decides to punish Alex personally. It's sloppy work because he didn't have enough time to plan ahead, and the unthinkable happens: my father pulls out some hairs during the struggle for his life without Red John realizing it." A small smile appeared on his face.
"He doesn't have much time, maybe was disturbed even, so he has to leave the scene prematurely without taking his usual precautions. And another thing happens that is to his disadvantage: his disciple Keen basks in his new importance and wants more attention. And Red John makes another mistake and sends the weak-minded officer to the crime scene to check it over for any plunders. But Keen gets caught and he actually gives Bertram away, only we didn't understand it."
At this point Patrick shook his head in dismay. "It was so obvious, but I didn't get it until earlier when Grace mentioned Bertram wasn't in office anymore. That's when I knew! God, how could we've been so stupid!" He groaned and tore his hair.
Lisbon got a bit irritated at that. "Well, Jane, I'm afraid we other mere mortals here still don't get it. Keen didn't give us anything, did he?"
"Oh yes, he did. That's why he clammed up afterwards. And it was only a matter of time, before he would've broken completely. Bertram must have realized it too, probably read the protocol from that interview and decided to act. That's why he transferred Keen on Friday. It made it a whole lot easier to kill him. Even as the director of the CBI he would've taken a great risk getting through all the security Lisbon installed." He grinned and looked at his lover with pride.
"You've still not told us how Keen gave him away. We all read the protocol and we didn't find anything in it," Rigsby chimed in with impatience. "Come on, tell us, Jane. We're dying here."
Patrick sat up straighter and smirked. "What? You still haven't figured it out? I thought with all the additional information I gave you..."
Teresa slapped his arm lightly without any protests from the others this time. "If you want our adulation for your brilliance, forget it. Just spit it out, Jane," she grumbled.
"Alright, alright. No need for violence. Well, Keen said, and I quote him here, 'He's your boss too, Patrick. And her's as well'. The last part was aimed at Lisbon of course, as you all know." His teammates made sounds of sudden comprehension. "Yeah, I know, it's incredible, how we could've missed this. But I never bothered to take him literally. I automatically assumed he was talking about Red John dictating our lives."
Teresa suddenly blanched. "Oh my god! Bertram is really Red John." She'd only now fully realized what Patrick had revealed. But his reasoning was sound. It truly made sense. She got up and started to pace.
"Yes, he is. And he's mightily pissed, because I cost him his job. That's why he made his move last night, and I'm just so, so glad he didn't hurt you, Teresa." Patrick had turned very serious and his eyes expressed the shear terror he felt at the thought of what could have happened to the woman he loved only hours ago. He left his seat on the cot as well and stepped in her way. Then he pulled her close and latched onto her as if she was a lifeline.
"I've got a match," Van Pelt announced at that moment. "It's true," she whispered. "It's really true."
TBC
I'd really like to hear your opinions. Did the conclusions convince you? I'm not claiming that this is what Heller has in mind for the show. I actually wrote this part long before the famous list of seven was revealed, but I'm still very happy that "my" Red John for this fic is on it. I know that some of Jane's reasoning comes from things that have only happened in my story arc (which is quite AU by now), but most of it is actually taken directly from the show. Anyway, please let me know what you think - I love RJ speculations!
