Sorry for the long wait but here's a brand new chapter, I hope you'll enjoy.
Thanks to firstdown, my beat, who takes the time out of her busy schedule to edit this fic. You're the best!
No warnings, but it's still a bit angsty, I guess.
Teresa had observed her boyfriend during the whole time he'd been engrossed in his thoughts. It hadn't escaped her notice that at some point something had changed fundamentally in his demeanor. While he'd obviously pondered serious matters all throughout their visit to his mother's grave, she'd still seen a smile or two appear on his lips, even as he shed silent tears. But now his contemplative mood seemed to have turned into despair and she decided that she'd given him enough space.
Patrick flinched at first when two arms snaked around his torso and pulled his back against a very familiar chest. "Shh, love. It's only me," she whispered in his ear. "You look so sad all of a sudden, Patrick. And you're crying. What's going on in your mind?"
He visibly relaxed and a small smile returned to his face, but his voice sounded raw and raspy when he answered, "Just trying to get my head around this whole mess, Emy."
"I figured as much, but something changed a few minutes ago, something that made you unhappy," she told him, stroking his chest tenderly.
He leaned into her. "You're getting really good at reading me," he replied.
"I don't think so, Patrick. I'm afraid it's more a matter of you allowing yourself to let more of your emotions show," she said warmly, continuing her caresses. "But that didn't answer my question. Tell me what's bothering you."
"You mean apart from the fact that my uncle is California's most notorious serial killer who happens to hold a grudge against me the size of Sacramento?" he inquired in a sarcastic tone.
She didn't acknowledge his obvious attempt to provoke her into dropping the subject. "Yes, that's what I mean," she answered dryly.
He sighed in resignation. This was a typical Teresa-equals-terrier-with-a-bone situation. In other words, nothing but the unvarnished truth would satisfy her. "I guess I was on my way back into thought patterns that I've only recently started to overcome," he admitted sheepishly.
It took her a moment to decipher his statement and she cursed him a bit for his habit of never saying things plainly, but she got the meaning eventually. Her first impulse was to scold him for debasing himself again, but she didn't follow it. She focused instead on the fact that he'd actually stopped his sinister train of thought the moment she'd hugged him. This was definitely a good thing, a great thing even. He hadn't allowed himself to get completely immersed in his feelings of unworthiness this time. No, he'd come out of his blue funk immediately, when her presence had reminded him of the change in perception of himself that had occurred during the last weeks.
She released her hold on him and stepped around so he could see her face, which bore the most affectionate smile she could muster. Then she cupped his face and pulled him down into a kiss. "I love you so much, Patrick," she mumbled against his lips. "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me and I'm awfully proud of you. Never forget that, okay?"
"I'll try to remember it. Sometimes it still seems to slip my mind, but it's getting easier to retain it," he replied quietly, before he resumed their lip-lock eagerly.
Teresa broke the kiss a moment later, a bit afraid it might get out of hand. In front of the grave of your dead future mother-in-law wasn't exactly the best place to make out. Patrick growled in protest, but at her pointed look behind her he remembered their whereabouts and grinned sheepishly. "You alright now, my love?" she asked gently, playing with the curls at his neck.
"Well enough," he answered with a wistful glance at the grave.
"She would have loved you with all her heart, Patrick, and she would've been very proud of her son. And she would hate what became of her little brother," Teresa said.
"Probably," he replied.
"No, definitely," Cho suddenly chimed in. "If she was a good person and a normal mother, that's exactly how she'd feel." The male agent stepped closer to the pair and squeezed Jane's shoulder. "My mom loved me even when I was in juvie. She wasn't very proud of me back then, but it didn't stop her from loving me. Nowadays she's even prouder of me for it. And believe me, you'd be your mother's whole pride and joy today," Cho added, uncharacteristically open and wordy, but he felt the situation warranted it.
"Thank you, Cho," Jane replied, voice hoarse with emotion.
Lisbon cast her subordinate a grateful look before she addressed her boyfriend, "Do you need more time here, Patrick, or are you ready to leave? We should probably get back to Sacramento soon."
Jane didn't answer at once. He stepped up to the headstone and touched the images of the lamb and the tiger gingerly. "I'll make sure you get a decent stone, mom," he whispered. "Not this travesty."
He went back to Lisbon's side, took hold of her hand and said, "I'm ready to leave now."
They'd just reached the car when Lisbon's phone rang. It was LaRoche informing her that they'd found the foster father Keith Taylor who currently lived in Modesto. They'd called and were expected at his residence. Lisbon reminded him to ask the man about anything unusual he might have noticed with young Joseph, whether he'd talked about his sister and how. LaRoche assured her that both he and agent Van Pelt were very much aware of the fact they would be talking to a man who'd had a part in raising a serial killer and that they would act accordingly. They agreed to meet and talk about everything later at Hightower's.
Four hours later they all reconvened there, the last ones to arrive being LaRoche and Van Pelt. The rest had already been there for about two hours – enough time for their consultant to prepare another delicious meal, which they devoured while exchanging information.
The visit to Mr. Taylor had been very illuminating. "It's a wonder, they kept Joseph longer than one day, let alone put up with him for years," Grace told them, her face showing disgust. "He harassed the whole family including the little daughter the couple had, playing cruel games all the time. But it seems like he managed to charm them into keeping him in spite of it all, again and again. How he did that is beyond me considering the stories the man told us about Joseph's atrocities."
"But he was also eerily intelligent, aced his classes and more often than not he didn't even get caught in his schemes. Taylor told us that for the most part they KNEW that Joseph had been the culprit, but they could never really prove it. And the boy used their pity with him and the situation with his biological parents to guilt-trip them into keeping him," LaRoche added.
"Yeah, but only until he went too far right after his 18th birthday. He almost managed to force himself on his 13-year-old foster sister, threatened her with a knife. Fortunately, the parents came home earlier than expected and prevented the rape almost at the last second," Van Pelt spat out. "They called the police but also threw him out of the house, so when the cops arrived, Joseph was already on the run. They never found him and the foster family didn't hear from him again, at least not verifiably."
J. J. took over again at that point. "It's now that it turns really ominous. In 1990, exactly to the day ten years after his attempted rape of his foster sister, the foster mother, Abigail Taylor, was raped and murdered in her home, while Keith was out on a business trip." He paused to let it sink in. "Her throat was slit and a letter was found on the body, written in her blood." He had to stop again due to all the gasps around the table. He nodded. "Yes, it's very close to Red John's later MO. The letter, which makes it even more clear in my opinion that this was Joseph's doing, said: 'Not quite as young, but delicious all the same'." He cleared his throat and continued in his usual monotonous tone, "And as a conclusion to my little research session with Patrick this morning: his first victim's name might just be the explanation for that mysterious name he chose when creating his Gale Bertram identity."
"Getting away with that one might have actually been the trigger for his career as a serial killer," Jane mused, breaking the silence that followed Van Pelt's and LaRoche's report. "It must have given him an immense sense of power to execute this piece of - in his eyes – justified revenge without repercussions. It might even have shown him that he gets off more on the actual killing than the sex, because as far as we know, he's never again raped one of his victims." He paused and took a deep breath, his superior mind going at a hundred miles a minute. "As we know from his relationship with Rosalind amongst others, he's actually capable of having sexual relations that can only be described as inside the norm."
He stopped and looked up, seeing all eyes on him, listening to him sharing his insights into the personality of Red John for once. Intellectually they knew he'd studied the case as no one else had and that he was a top-notch profiler in his own right, though he wasn't in the possession of any official certificate to prove it. But he'd never really been willing to part with his own conclusions in the past and only ever divulged bits and pieces when it couldn't be avoided. So this openness was a very welcome change in the opinion of the others and their gazes encouraged him to go on.
"Well, a lot of criminal psychologists are in agreement that serial killings, at least those committed by psychopaths, almost always have some kind of sexual component, even in those cases where there's no direct sign of it in the actual crime. It's only logical considering that in approximately 85 percent of the cases a male is the culprit. Men as a rule connect sex with power. It varies in degree, but the fact remains that their role as the, well, penetrator, if you want, leads men to believe in their own physical prowess and their superiority in means of power." He took another breath and then a sip of water.
"It's actually normal behavior, very much in accordance with our evolutionary history where the males had to ensure the safety of the tribe. Should it ever come to a physical conflict, believing in your own power and prowess is de facto more important than your real strength. As we all know from all kinds of sports and martial arts, the power of intimidation usually wins the fight."
He cleared his throat. "This often causes men to turn to acts of violence when they're – for whatever reason – unable to express their needs sexually. In many of the cases we deal with on a daily basis it's an underlying feeling of powerlessness that makes the perps use other means to re-establish their male identity."
He looked up again and saw that he still had the others' undivided attention. "You know most of this already of course. You've all sat through classes on criminal psychology after all. Tell me if I'm boring you, alright?"
The others nodded. "Actually, I kind of know it, but they're not explaining it so clearly at the academy," Rigsby said. "It makes a lot more sense the way you put it, with all the connections you draw." The others nodded again.
"Well, okay then. My real point is, that in what experts outline as a psychopathic personality a lot of those normal behavior patterns are highly enhanced. Many psychologists claim that sexual promiscuity is typical for persons deemed psychopathic. As psychopaths as a rule have a grandiose sense of self-worth, are pathological liars and are highly manipulative, it's only consequential that they're prone to use their sexuality as a means to act this out, you know, like charming females into doing their bidding. It's safe to say that this very much applies to Red John."
He paused a moment to collect his thoughts. "The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder doesn't accept the term as an official personality disorder, but the description of what is called an antisocial personality disorder shares a lot of the pathology also found in psychopaths. The manual specifies it as a 'pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood'." He stopped at this point to let the quotation and its meaning sink in.
"As psychopaths mostly are in possession of at least a superficial charm, people often are deceived by them for quite a while, which in turn gives them a feeling of superiority and power. Also this part is very much in accordance with what we know about Red John," he continued his explanations.
As an afterthought and with a lower voice and sheepish grin he added, "Well, some might say that most of the above also applies to me and I guess it's true in a way. You can't be a successful conman without being a bit of sociopath, but I can assure you that quite a few of the other criteria don't fit."
Lisbon, who sat beside him, narrowed her eyes on him and punched his arm. "Of course you're not a psychopath, Jane. No one here believes that," she scolded him.
"Ow!" he complained, but grinned nonetheless. "Yeah, as is confirmed by the fact that a low threshold for discharge of aggression, including violence, is also very much part of the equation." He cast his girlfriend a pointed look. "That's not really an apt description of MY personality."
With a big smile she punched him once again. He chuckled merrily and the rest of the party joined in. When everybody had calmed down again, Lisbon addressed him, "Well, Jane. Care to go on with your profiling? You've yet to cover quite a bit of ground, if I'm not entirely mistaken."
"Do you really want to hear more of that depressing stuff?" he asked slightly astonished.
"Yes, absolutely," Van Pelt replied. "The more we know about the bastard, the better we'll be equipped to deal with him."
Jane snorted. "Hasn't really helped ME very much so far, but alright. As we all know, Red John takes great pleasure in the suffering of his victims. He makes sure they're awake and stay conscious as long as possible during his killings. This indicates that he delights in the sense of power he holds over the lives and, most importantly, the deaths of others. He gets off on it, to put it crudely. The game he's been playing with me shows the same intentions. But that's beside the point." He swallowed heavily.
"What I wanted to stress is that his sexual urges run deeper than what a normal sex life could ever possibly satisfy. That doesn't mean, he can't enjoy normal intercourse. I'm sure he does, it just doesn't fulfill his needs sufficiently. The power rush simply isn't big enough." He took another deep breath and continued in an even voice, "Traditionally, orgasm has long been characterized as the so-called 'little death'. In a personality that seeks stimulation above the norm, this might be perverted into a situation where death instead provides the ultimate orgasm."
"Gosh, Jane, you almost make this whole thing sound poetical," Rigsby chimed in.
"Well, it's about sex. Of course you'd find it poetic," Jane teased him.
"No, really, Patrick. You do have a way with words, even if the subject is rather bleak," Hightower objected.
Jane sported a smug expression after that, but in light of the similarities with certain other overly arrogant people, which he knew he possessed and had just described in detail to the others, he tried to tone down his reaction. "Why thanks, Madeleine, but I can't take all of the credit. Actually, the term 'The Little Death' or rather 'La Petit Mort', because the phrase originally derives from French, is a recurring euphemistic metaphor for orgasm in literature. My good friend Shakespeare himself was rather fond of the picture. To mention but one of his artistic implementations of it: 'I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes'. Well, that's poetic, isn't it?"
TBC
A/N 1: This was a bit more background information on 'my' Red John. As you might've noticed, the descriptions of a sociopath are authentic and the manual Jane's quoting from does actually exist and in accordance with my own research on the subject I presume it was also the source they used on the show when Wainwright 'analyzed' Jane's personality in the episode "Ring Around The Rosie" (4.04).
A/N 2: Not even two weeks left until the new season starts! Wow! I'm glad the hiatus will be over soon.
Oh, BTW, when it comes to reviews - that matter is actually in inverse proportion to the days left to wait for 6.01: the more the merrier!
