Author's notes: thank you so much for your reviews, they are much appreciated. I bit of relief in this chapter - no torture and some answers. I hope you like it.
Jane regained consciousness to the feel of something rubbing hard against his face, he tried to move away but an arm tightened around his throat and voice spoke in his ear.
"Just be still, I'm cleaning you up."
Jane then had to endure the indignities of being washed and fed. His body still stings from the force of the power washer. Afterwards his captor sat down with food and more beer. As he began to fall asleep, he left the house and in a few moments was back with a cot bed which he unfolded and is now snoring away on. Music to Jane's ears.
Then pain is at a more manageable level, he remembers his wife being asked to measure her pain from a scale of one to ten when she first entered the hospital in labour. He would rate his pain at an eight. He knows his captor has plans to up that and doesn't like the new items he's placed on the floor beside his chair to taunt him.
He looks a cross at his captor through the one eye he has available to him. The right side of his face he prefers not to move, the area under his eye swollen enough to make looking out of it impossible. He wonders what happened? How the man got to the point where he thinks that he's responsible for his wife's death. Not just a murderer, but Red John. And he said his wife's name's Angela, surely that isn't a co-incidence. He has to form a plan to calm the man down, to stop him from hurting him, to give himself, not only some respite, but the opportunity, if not to build a rapport, to at least find some answers, and maybe formulate a plan. He thinks back on their past conversation and realizes that he needs to choose carefully the questions he asks and he knows where to start. That done he turns his attention to resting, to gather his strength for whatever's coming.
He closes his eye and allows himself to think of Teresa. He pictures her face, her flawless skin and captivating eyes. Her eyes, when they flash with anger when he irritates her, or when they sparkle as they banter with one another, one of his favourite past times. How he loves that face. All the time he wasted denying his feelings for her. If he gets out of here, he's not wasting any more time, he going to ask her to marry him. He's more or less certain she'll say yes. He laughs to himself, who can resist a man looking like this. He hopes she's doing okay. He knows she'll be working tirelessly to find him, Abbott needs to make her rest. He just needs to hang on, she'll come.
He imagines her fingers caressing across his skin, the magic of her touch taking his pain away. Her soft lips kissing tenderly each of his wounds, he can feel the heat of her breath warming him up. Her hair tickling his neck. She makes her way in front of him and takes his face gently in her hands. He can see the pain in her face as she's cataloging his injuries. She brushes her fingers across the swellings under his eye and his nose, being careful not to touch. She leans in and kisses his eyes, making her way gently down his nose, her lips barely making contact until they reach his lips where she gives him all the comfort and courage he needs.
Lisbon's engrossed in looking through the reports of the phone calls catalogued since Jane's kidnapping was reported on the news. She's unaware of Abbott approaching until he places his hand on her shoulder, making her jump. She looks up at him.
"I think we may have a live one, come to my office."
He sees Cho and Wiley looking his way and nods to them.
"You too."
As they make their way to his office he fills them in on what he know so far.
"A call came through from a psychiatrist in California, she says she used to work in Meadowbrook Recovery Center where Jane once was a patient."
Lisbon nods her head.
"Yes, after finding his wife and child butchered, he spent some time there."
Cho mumbles under his breath.
"So would any man."
"She says there was a man there who had a grudge against Jane, and he was recently released. I have a call into her and she should be on the line."
Kim is there as they enter the office.
"I have her sir."
Abbott moves around to his chair and invites Lisbon to sit there, she at first refuses but he insists. Abbott and Kim stand at her shoulders and Cho and Wiley take the other seats. The woman is on the screen waiting. Abbott speaks up.
"Doctor Pattison, we are grateful for your time. Can you tell us more about this patient?"
The woman on screen looks in late fifties, maybe sixties, stylishly dressed in a skirt and jacket suit, medium grey, with a white shirt underneath. Her light blonde hair, dyed, in a short but gentle cut that gives her a soft look. When she speaks her voice is pleasant and soothing, and Lisbon feels she's probably very good at getting her patients to open up to her.
"Obviously there's only so much I can tell you about him, only things that are pertinent to Mr. Jane's disappearance."
"We understand Doctor, and appreciate you contacting us."
"Ralph Dennis and Patrick Jane were inpatient's at the same time. Ralph had been with us for a while. He developed a fixation on Mr. Jane, I think he saw him as a sort of celebrity, he'd seen him on TV. Ralph didn't communicate with anyone, he had a favourite chair he would spend his days in. A couple of years after Mr. Jane left, Ralph began to talk about his dead wife, he was never married. He gave her the name of Angela. As we delved in to it he said that she'd been murdered by a man who left a painted face on her wall. Eventually he described her attacker, and then he gave that attacker a name, Patrick Jane.
That's when I was brought in on the case because I'd supervised Mr. Jane's treatment. Of course I recognized the similarities straight away. Ralph began to talk of revenge, he talked of the things he would do to his wife's murderer, they were not pleasant."
Abbott interrupts.
"Surely the man is still hospitalized?"
"I left Meadowbrook three years ago. I called a former colleague a few hours ago and he told that Ralph Dennis was released three months ago. I felt it was too much of a coincidence and should give you a call."
"Thank you Doctor Pattison, you've been very helpful, we will look in to it straight away."
Abbott looks at Wiley as he's speaking and he gets up and leaves the room with a nod.
"You're welcome and I hope I'm wrong, for Mr. Jane's sake."
The call ends, there's silence in the room. Lisbon's the first to speak.
"Jane's in the hands of a psychopathic version of himself."
She looks up at Abbott her eyes full of anguish.
"We need to find him boss, now!"