Chapter 10 - And So It Is

Rigsby picked up the box from its dusty corner and balanced it on a nearby top of a filing cabinet. He looked at Van Pelt and sighed. Whatever Lucy Jane had gotten into wasn't good. And the mystery was deepening. So far, they had their latest Red John victim, Kari Rollins, being a part of Visualize and having conversations with Lucy here at the newspaper. The confirmation from Annette that Lucy had indeed been kicking around the idea of doing the story on Red John was likely the reason both women died. That was the connection from Lucy to Kari in a string-theory point of view, but it still begged a lot of questions to be answered.

"Do you think they were killed to silence them?" Rigsby asked, pushing items aside in the box strategically. "It's just... why did Red John wait so long to off Kari and try to off Lisbon?"

Van Pelt peered into the box and took out a three-ring binder from the bottom of the pile and shrugged. "The logical reasons would be that Kari was going to come out with whatever information she knew, despite Lucy's death. As far as Teresa is concerned, who knows."

She pawed through the binder and didn't find anything useful. It was filled with Lucy's outlines for her reports and was essentially, for all intents and purposes, her notes and information on the things she would be submitting for print. But on further examination, she found that some of the pages were taken from the binder. She pushed the binder to her partner and pointed at the corner of three sheets of paper near the end of the binder.

"Look, Wayne," she told him. "There are several pages missing from this binder. Strange, no?"

Rigsby took the binder from her and looked over it. "Hmm. This is hinky."

"Hinky?"

"Yeah. When I read Lucy's file, the date of her death falls within the missing pages. Someone must have deliberately taken them out of here. Why?" His face screwed up in concentration.

"Didn't Annette say that Lisbon was the 'psychic lady from TV'?" Grace asked. "Maybe that is the connection."

"Maybe..." Rigsby relinquished.

"This is getting stranger and stranger," Van Pelt said. "Two murders, years apart, connected by some kind of investigation Lucy was doing for the newspaper, and then we still have Lisbon's role in all of this. I wonder how Cho is making out with Jane."

"I think we got away easier, Grace," Rigsby told her without humor in his voice. "There is nothing else of use in this box. Let's go ask Annette if we can take this with us."

They put the box back where they got it and left the storage area. They made their way back to Annette's office. She stood and greeted them again, waving them into her office.

"I hope you found something of use, Agents," she said. "I see you have," she added as her eyes found the binder that Rigsby held in his hand.

"We wanted to take this with us," he told her. "If that is all right with you."

"Yeah," she nodded instantaneously. "You can take it. Whatever helps." She was silent for a few seconds. "You asked me earlier if I knew or heard of a Teresa Lisbon."

"Yes," Grace answered. "Why? Have you thought of something?"

Annette nodded. "As a matter of fact, I have. I remember one of the last times I saw Lucy, she was telling me that she was speaking to someone who seemed to be very interested in hearing about this Red John story of hers."

"You think it might have been Teresa Lisbon she meant?"

Annette sat down at her desk and slumped back in her seat. "Lucy told me that her source was someone who would make people pay attention. Be interested in her story. I thought she meant Kari. Now that you mention a connection, it jogged this particular memory for me that makes me rethink my notion."

"You think maybe Lucy called on Teresa Lisbon for her skills on TV?" Rigsby inquired.

"I think this woman may have implemented herself into the case. Publicity with that kind of story would have been major for someone who pretends to be psychic, no?" Annette said, tilting her head. "I, myself, don't believe in that phooey, but there are plenty of others who do."

"You think it might have been a publicity ploy on Lisbon's part?" Grace asked horror in her voice.

"In short, yes. Lucy was very eager; very impressionable. But there had to be something to it if she came to me and asked. She would never just dig into it without facts."

"You think Kari came to see her with proof?"

"Possibly. She never came to me with anything if she found any. What I am saying, Agents is Lucy was talking to Kari, but I suspect that this Lisbon woman inserted herself into the situation somehow."

"You don't have any idea the connection between Visualize, either?" Rigsby asked. "The church or whatever they call themselves."

Annette laughed. "While we have done several stories and exposes on that particular divinity, it wasn't anything to do with your case. I am sorry."

"Thanks for the information, Annette," Van Pelt told her. "We appreciate your cooperation and the information you could provide."

Annette stood and placed her hands palm-side down on her desk. "I hope you find the monster who killed Lucy."

"Thanks," Rigsby answered. He fished a card out from his inner pocket and slid it across the desk. "If you can think of anything else, please call me."

"Thank you, Agents."

They left themselves out. Rigsby looked at Grace and shook his head. He knew she was thinking the same thing. Teresa Lisbon was not an innocent victim that just happened to survive Red John. She had brought Red John to her. To Lucy. And to Kari. For that, they were certain. How? That was the million dollar question going forward.

The three of them sat down, Jane making a point to sit on the other side of the kitchen island, next to Cho. Both men looked up expectantly at her, waiting for her to explain herself. Most of the contents of the box were spilled out between them, almost in a taunting fashion, daring her to explain what they were all about.

Her eyes instantaneously found Jane's staring hard at her. The look in his eyes from earlier, as he made love to her was gone; it was replaced by anguish and betrayal. She sighed and put a hand haphazardly through her hair and off her shoulders. She saw Jane's eyes quickly take in her bare shoulder as her nightshirt fell off it, and it was quickly raised back up to her green eyes one again.

"You are going to have to explain yourself to me," Cho told her. "This is a murder investigation, Ms. Lisbon. If you know something about all this, now is your chance to speak up."

"You knew my wife the entire time," Jane told her in a harsh tone, "You—we would have never done what we did if I had known. You lied to me. Mislead me."

"I didn't mislead you, Patrick," she told him, studiously ignoring Cho's look. "I didn't put it together until that day we found the photographs in that house."

"So you only lied to me some of the time," he shot back.

"I wanted to tell you, Jane," she told him. "I did," she added off his scoff. "But I didn't want to hurt you, either."

"So, you lured my wife into this bullshit of yours and then after you get her killed you want to play comforter to her widower?" he spat, his eyes dark and hollow. "Well, isn't that thoughtful of you, sweetheart."

"I didn't want to comfort you," she replied back. "You came to my bed. I didn't go to yours!"

Cho opened his mouth but closed it and pretended to read the papers between them. He took the contents from the box that was loose inside and looked at them. He shook his head and raised his head at Lisbon. She could feel his judgment clearer than the raindrops that were starting to fall outside.

"I didn't know you were the cause of my wife being murdered!" he told her, leaning forward and tilting his head at her. "Sleeping with you was the biggest mistake of my life. No, the second. But don't look for me to make the same mistake twice, sweetheart!" He pulled the contents Cho was holding out of his hand and lifted them between them and pointed to them with his other hand. "Exhibit A!"

He slammed down the five polaroid photographs that someone had taken from afar of Lucy and Lisbon meeting at the Newspaper. On each of the bottoms of the photographs, in red typewriter ink, was five words: SHE MADE THE GAME FUN. There was no doubt where the box and its contents—including the photographs—had come from. Each picture depicted Lucy and Lisbon on different days meeting. The color photographs proof that Lucy and Lisbon had indeed known each other. They were circled with a red dripping smiley face. But that wasn't the only thing in the box. Besides the three pages of transcripts and the photographs, there was a page in black ink. It was Lucy's handwriting, and it outlined the expose she planned to print. Lisbon's name was highlighted in the same red liquid that her transcripts were.

"You were conning my wife into doing the expose, weren't you? Career maker?" Jane accused. "This would be your ticket to stardom, wouldn't it? And that's what you promised Lucy, too, right? That if she consulted you and wrote the expose, she'd skyrocket to the top of the list?" He was disgusted. "How did you get her to believe your bullshit, huh?"

"Jane, calm down," Cho said, breaking in. He looked at Lisbon. "You really need to start speaking up. Don't make me take you back to the CBI. I will do that."

"She's going back either way," Jane told him. "But the least you could do is tell me how you got my wife killed. Give me that much respect." Jane took the polaroids and put them face down, unable to look at them anymore. "I'm listening."

Lisbon sighed and shook her head, placing her head in her hands. "It wasn't my intention to bring harm to her. I did tell you before that my husband said I needed to stop. He was right. But I didn't. My ego was too big. But my show was suffering. People weren't as interested anymore."

Jane scoffed. "I wonder why."

"Jane..." Cho warned. "Go on, Ms. Lisbon."

She cleared her throat and raised her head, looking at Jane. Though his face still showed the anger he was feeling inside, she thought she saw a glimmer of the man who touched her so gently just a few hours before. As soon as he saw her trying to read him, however, he closed himself off and glared at her. She shrugged and raised a hand.

"I'm sorry, Jane," she told him. "I really am. But you have to know that some of what you think about me is wrong! It—it is complicated."

"What do you mean by complicated? You just said-"

"I didn't go to Lucy," she told him, crossing her arms on the island counter. "She came to me. Long before any of this Red John stuff happened."

"What are you talking about?" he said with a growl. "Are you insinuating my wife was asking you to do your hooey or whatever the hell you call that crap?"

"She came to me for the first time a few years before she was murdered," Lisbon started. "She told me she was having problems with her husband. I didn't ask her to elaborate. That's how the trick works. You reel them in with a good cold opening. Make them think you already know what they are there for."

She closed her eyes and shook her head. She could remember that reading very well. She opened her eyes and looked at Jane, her eyes pleading with him to understand.

"You expect me to believe you?" he asked, suspecting she was stalling.

"No. Which is why I will tell you what I cold read from her. She said her husband was cold and distant lately. She told me that when she tried talking to him, he closed off. Became invalid. I told her to tell me nothing else. I did my cold reading of her. I started with something obvious first. The way she fidgeted with her cross necklace, I guessed it was passed down from someone important. A sister or mother," Lisbon explained. "I told her that, and she was very interested in me after that. As I was talking about her mother being the one who gave it to her before she died, which I guessed at based on the logical choices, I noticed that she went from the cross to her wedding band. She made it move to and fro, to and fro." Lisbon looked at Jane's ring finger, she noticed that his ring was gone. Something she hadn't noticed before. "It meant she was upset and worried."

Jane kept his eyes on her, unable to speak. Could it be true that his wife came to seek out some kind of reading because he was closed off? And Lucy was right if she had. He had been cold and distant from her. But his reasons were pure. Though he would have loved to have spoken to Lucy about what was going on in his mind, he couldn't. Even more so on the days leading up to her death. Suddenly, it dawned on him just why Lucy had come to see Lisbon.

"She thought I was having an affair," he told Lisbon, his voice dropping. "That's why she came to see you. She associated me being distant with her as cheating on her. She wanted you to give her a reading or whatever it is you do."

"Yes." She nodded. "She told me she caught my show sometimes. I did what she asked."

"You mean what she paid you to do," Jane spat back.

"No. I didn't take payment from her. I took something much worse," Lisbon admitted. "I took her trust."

"You conned her into paying you with an exclusive, didn't you?" Cho cut in. "You promised Lucy Jane stardom and happiness with her husband, but only if she printed an expose on Red John. The hottest thing in the papers at the time."

Lisbon nodded her head in shame. "I am not saying what I did was right. I know it wasn't. But that doesn't mean I didn't have my own sources with information. Lucy hadn't stopped to see me in a while, and I told her I'd call her for a favor instead of paying me cash. But I asked a friend I was doing readings for to contact her. You know? Play up on Lucy's abilities."

"Kari Rollins?" Cho asked.

Lisbon looked stunned that he knew. "Yes. Kari Rollins. She would get a reading every week about if she was doing the right thing with Visualize and if her deceased brother would be proud of her for wanting inner peace, as she called it. One day, she starts talking to me about some strange incidents, and she asked me if I knew about the Red John case. I told her of course I did, and she told me she thought she knew who it was."

"You played along," Jane said matter-of-factually.

"I played along. I told Kari I knew who he was. I even cold read him for her. I said he's an ugly, tormented little man, a lonely soul, sad, very sad. I told her he'd hurt more people if we didn't do something."

"She ate that up, didn't she?"

Lisbon smiled now. "Like pie."

"Enough for you to talk her into calling my wife. You're a con woman, after all."

"Why not call her yourself? Why make someone else do it?" Cho asked.

"Because she wanted it to look like Kari was referring her," Jane told Cho. "Pretty smart, I have to say. It would have been suspicious if you just called Lucy out of the blue and said you had a reading about Red John. Lucy wasn't dumb. So you made Kari ask Lucy about approaching you."

"She never told you who she thought he was?" Cho asked, intrigued and disturbed all at once. "No clues?"

"She was scared. She never told me who. How does Kari fit into this?" Lisbon finally decided to ask the question bouncing in her head since he'd mentioned her.

"The victim's house you and Jane went to? That was Kari Rollins' home. Red John got to her," he told her. "I have a lot more questions, but it's late. I will be back tomorrow to get your statements. Your truthful statements." He got up and put all of the contents back in the box and closed it. "I will take this with me. See if we can get anything off it."

"Wait! You're not taking her!?" Jane said, sitting up suddenly. "I don't want her here! I don't want to see her! I don't want to be locked up here with a liar!"

"I am guessing you slept with her, Jane," Cho stated bluntly. "That's not how you treat a woman you had sex with. Besides, you know Minelli needs to sign off on it. Plus, when he finds out you, uh, played with the lead, he's going to be pissed. You wanna deal with that?" Jane sighed deeply. "Didn't think so. Good luck and goodbye." He turned to Lisbon. "I may not smile a lot, but I do have etiquette."

None of them moved as Cho moved to the front door. Finally, Jane came to lock the door and turned to go to his room. He got to his door when he felt her hand on his shoulder. He spun around and glared at her though his eyes were no longer as angry set as they were earlier.

"What?" he asked her, his voice low and gravelly.

"Yell at me. Curse at me. Please, Jane. Do something. Don't let it go to silence," she begged. " I can read you, Patrick. I know you aren't just angry at me. You are angry at yourself, too. I know what I did was wrong. I am sorry, Jane. I am so sorry. I never meant it to go like this. I know it's-"

She was interrupted by him spinning her into the wall beside them, his hands on either side of her head, his face inches from her own. He looked from her eyes to her lips, tracing the slope of her nose and going back to her eyes. He narrowed them at her and pushed a knee between her legs pinning her to the wall.

"What you did is unforgivable," he told her. "But as long as we are being honest with each other, you aren't the only one with unforgivable things they've done," he said, bringing his lips to her ear. "Sleeping with you was something I will never forgive myself for. It was good, but it always is when it is just a simple itch to scratch."

He let go of the wall and removed his knee from between her legs. He backed up and didn't wait for her reply. He opened his bedroom door, stepped inside and slammed the door behind him. Lisbon slumped down the wall and cried silently. She knew there was something he was hiding, but his anger toward her was filling him right now. Though she had not wanted to look for romance, it had found her. His words had cut her deeply. She opened herself to him and as soon as he found out the truth, he automatically regretted sleeping with her. She wanted no regrets. That all went to shit when the truth came out. Most of it.

She sat there for a good twenty minutes crying soundlessly. When she finally rose, she didn't see the figure standing beside her, a gleaming steel weapon in his hand. She didn't even see when he raised it above his head and swiped downward.