A/N: Now that The Wolf and the Warrior and Toxic Illusions are both published, I looked at some of my old stories. I need to get into an AU mindset and forget everything I know about that final season before I tackle them. I can do that, and I have a couple of oldies I'm considering, but I'm not in that mental zone yet. I'll work on DIID until I get there. After eight months of nothing but editing, I'm so ready to WRITE again. ~Calla
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Jane watched Lisbon record the stop sign incident over steepled fingers. Since there wasn't much to say, she'd decided not to leave it hanging over her head. He agreed. It was better to knock out the report, save it, and forget it. They could focus on the Landry case if she did. He checked his watch and figured the diner would be empty in the next twenty minutes. The perfect time to mosey on over to pick Pauline's brain. They could talk without interruption, and the woman would have plenty to say. She'd lived in Cannon River for a long time and, knowing Pauline; she hadn't forgotten Audrey Landry or her death.
"I'm done." Lisbon sat back in her chair. "It's meatloaf Monday, but I think I'd rather have chicken pot pie."
"I'm with you." Jane refused to roll his eyes at the banality of the moment. "As good as the meatloaf is, it's time for a change. Now that we have that decision out of the way, what's the game plan for picking Pauline's brain?"
"What's the plan for keeping the conversation on track, you mean?" The woman would ramble indefinitely otherwise.
"Something like that." Jane agreed. "This is a case that should never have grown cold. I don't think that was caused by laziness or incompetence."
"What do you think?" Lisbon didn't like what he was insinuating. "I hope not what I think."
"Exactly what you think." Jane was unrepentant. "This isn't a case of sloppy police work."
"You're saying Prescott deliberately buried evidence?"
"Not necessarily." He wouldn't go that far. "I will say he deliberately impeded the investigation until it went cold. I don't think he had the nerve to break the law, but he was willing to play with shades of gray."
"I don't like what you're saying." Lisbon stood up and grabbed her jacket.
"You'll like it even less when I'm right." Jane rose to his feet.
"Yeah, I will." Lisbon agreed. "While Prescott was lax, I never thought he was dirty."
"I don't know that he is." Not without proof. "I suspect it was more a desire to protect someone he cared about than outright corruption."
Jane flipped the out-to-lunch sign knowing Dusty would be back before they were.
"How's that different?" Lisbon walked through the open door.
"I don't know." Jane quirked an eyebrow. "You tell me."
"It doesn't apply." She refused to muddle justice in her new position as she had in the past. "Not since I'm no longer trying to save your ungrateful ass from yourself, a deranged serial killer, and his crooked cohorts. However, Red John nor TBA were around here in 2006, so I don't think Prescott had that excuse."
"Neither do I." Jane agreed. "I think his justification was even more personal."
As was his handling of Red John.
"What do you think?" Lisbon opened the door to the diner. "That the missing link was a family member?"
"Or a close friend." Jane nodded. "Prescott wasn't married?"
"Divorced in 2005." Lisbon supplied. "Not by choice, from what I hear."
"Interesting." Jane filed that away for later. "Children?"
"Nope."
"Okay." Jane followed Lisbon to their favorite booth in the back. "While that's interesting, we may be on the wrong track. Hello, Pauline, two chicken pot pies and two slices of blueberry pie a la mode."
Watching the woman walk away, he knew they'd start with salads, a soda for Lisbon, and hot tea for him.
"Prescott's wife was ten or twelve years younger than him?" Jane unfolded his napkin. "It must have been hard being married to the deputy police chief at such a young age."
"They were married four or five years, and Hannah wasn't that young." Lisbon took a sip of soda. "She was a middle school guidance counselor in her late twenties when they married."
"Right. A pretty young thing married to a stuffy police chief in his forties." That sounded like a recipe for disaster to him. "Did anyone compare the yearbook photographs between Hannah Prescott, the high school student, and Hannah Prescott, the guidance counselor?"
"She was Hannah Adams back then." That was in the report. "And no, why? Oh."
Checking for noticeable cosmetic surgery was an easy way to see if Hannah knew Dr. Markham without tipping their hand. While possible she'd used another surgeon; it wasn't likely. Markham was the big fish in a small pond.
"Yeah, oh." Jane agreed. "Does Hannah still live in the area?"
"Her named is Hannah Dean now." Pauline set their drinks on the table. "She married Jerry Dean back in '08. He was the assistant principal at the high school back then. He was promoted to principal two years later."
"Interesting." Jane digested the information. "So it didn't take Hannah long to remarry after she left the police chief."
"Hannah emotionally checked out of their marriage almost as fast as she entered it." Pauline volunteered. "Being a cop's wife wasn't nearly as glamorous as being the pampered girlfriend of a handsome deputy pc, and she couldn't handle it."
"How did she last four years if she felt that way?" Lisbon unwrapped her straw.
"How do you think?" Pauline cocked a brow.
"With friends on the side to help her through." Jane set his tea bag aside.
"Possibly one special friend the last couple of years." Pauline waved at the family walking through the door. "While she was always discreet, you hear things. While I don't know who she was seeing, she believed things would work out with her lover when she left Sam. They didn't. She should have known better."
Pulling out her order pad, Pauline headed for her new customers with menus in hand.
"Well, what do you think?" Lisbon visibly perked up at the sound of the little bell that signaled their pot pies were up.
"That we see if our randy little guidance counselor was ever a patient of the good doctor or his spa." Even if she wasn't, that didn't mean they didn't know each other. "If she was, we have our link. If she wasn't, we're missing something because the link is there."
"I agree." Lisbon breathed in the scent of hot pot pie as Pauline set their lunch before them. "We start with Dr. Markham. With any luck, he'll be honest with us."
"That's doubtful." He wasn't honest with Prescott for one obvious reason. "I suspect Markham was seeing both women in the beginning. He cut Hannah loose when he developed feelings for Audrey he didn't expect."
"You think Hannah found out about Audrey." Lisbon savored her first bite of flaky crust. "And acted on it?"
"Not at first." Jane halted that train on the tracks. "I don't think she knew about the other woman for a while. I think she hoped to rekindle the fire. I think her feelings changed on the day she followed her lover forty minutes down the road and discovered he had another lover."
"You're saying Hannah stalked the doctor?" Lisbon snorted. "She suspected there was more to the story than he'd grown tired of her."
"I think so." Jane set his empty pie pan aside. "I also think she wanted to know why she'd been dumped. It wasn't enough to know he was a player with an open marriage. She'd deluded herself into believing they were more. She was the woman to change his mind when she wasn't."
"But you think Audrey was." The pieces were clicking into place.
"Yeah, Lisbon, I do." Jane agreed. "I think Hanna knew that too."