Chapter 15:
The shadows were deepening when the trio arrived and parked in Lisbon's driveway. She wasn't at all sure what Jane's purpose was for having her re-create the events of the night she was found unconscious in the woods. She was also scared—wondering if the person who sent her the text message was watching, scared of what they might find, scared of the implications of all of this—of what it might mean for her and for her career. She took comfort in the fact that Jane was, as promised, on one side and Cho was on the other.
Jane led Lisbon up the small staircase to her front porch and stopped. He turned her around to face him and placed his hands on her shoulders. "I want you to go into this with an open mind, Theresa. The smallest detail may help us find the answers we need." Lisbon nodded, searching his eyes for anything that would tell her what he was thinking or why he was doing this, but all she saw was a softness generally reserved for her, a softness she hadn't seen in a while.
"So you came home, parked in your driveway, walked up the steps to the porch and into the house. Then what?"
"I was pretty wound up, so I went to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of Jack, and then went upstairs to soak in a hot bathtub."
"I want you to do everything you did that night, exactly as you did it that night."
He followed her into the kitchen, and Cho lagged behind. She took a glass down from an upper cabinet, poured Jack into it, and started sipping it as she headed up the stairs. When she got there, she said, "if you are wanting me to change into my night clothes, it'll have to be a different set. The others have disappeared."
"You changed the next morning in the downstairs bathroom. Why don't you get into the bath, and I'll leave them on your bed."
Cho spoke up quietly. "You can't. We took them to the crime lab to test for gunshot residue and anything else we could find on them that might help her."
Of course her clothes were evidence. "All right, Lisbon. Pull out another pair of pajamas to put on after your bath. Cho and I will wait in your room until this part is done."
Thirty minutes later, she came out into her bedroom, wearing a clean pair of pajamas with a robe on top, and a towel wrapped around her head. She sat down in the chair in front of her dresser, toweled her hair until it was damp, and then began to comb the tangles out. When she was finished, she turned back the covers, got into bed, stretched out and closed her eyes. A moment later, she opened them, took her mobile phone from her bedside table and looked at it as though she had a text message.
She got out of bed and looked at Jane. "I put my pistol in my jacket pocket, the government issued one in the other jacket pocket, and took the shotgun from the closet, along with a couple of boxes of different sizes of ammunition. I'm not sure where they are now."
Jane stared at her for a moment, almost as though he were in shock, if such a thing were possible for Jane, and then he looked at Cho. "The shotgun is at the crime lab. That's the one you are being accused of shooting night before last—the night you went into the woods. Your government issue weapon is in the possession of internal affairs, as it was recovered when the two uniformed officers found you, and they are testing it to see what role it played in the events of that night. That's SOP. As for your personal pistol, it has not been recovered. Neither has the ammo."
"All right. Let's just pretend for now. What I'm most interested in in re-tracing your steps through the woods."
"Why?"
"We've already learned a couple of things we didn't know. There may be more. Maybe there's something we're missing. Maybe we'll find the missing handgun."
"Okay." She led the way down the stairs, and out the back door, careful to leave it open as she went. "I had walked all the way around the house, and when I got to the front, I looked for the uniforms. I saw them in a car a couple of doors down. There was no sign of anyone who might have sent me the text message, so I wanted to go back inside, but then I realized that the front door was locked, as I went out the back, so I went back around the house to go back inside. That's when I saw the light in the woods. Right about here." She had been walking while they talked and she stopped a few feet from the back door, staring at the woods.
"I went out to see who had a light in the woods, and as I walked, it never seemed to get any closer—always stayed the same distance ahead. Then, suddenly the light went out. I turned my flashlight on, but it didn't help much. I went as far as I had seen the light go, but there was nothing there, and I couldn't go any further without knowing where to go." She stopped at the place in the woods where she saw the light turn off. She was right. There was nothing there.
"So I turned around and started walking back to go back inside. I was starting to get sleepy."
"And then what happened?"
"Someone hit me in the back of the head right here, and I fell."
She crumpled at the knees as she vaguely remembered doing the night she was hit, and then laid all the way down.
After a moment she stood up and said, "I don't remember anything else until I woke up on the porch."
Jane didn't say anything. He was biting his lip and thinking. After a moment, he said, "You were hit in the back of the head, so of course you fell forward. But under hypnosis, you sounded as though you were lying on your back."
"I was. At least, I thought it was my chest that the weight was lifted from."
"So someone would have turned you over. Let's look around and see if there's any evidence of what it was with which you were hit."
Cho looked around and spotted the broken end of a 2x4. "This doesn't look big enough."
"It could have broken like that when it hit someone, and whoever did it recovered the big piece but couldn't find that one, and just hoped no one would."
Cho picked it up carefully and placed it in a bag to go to the crime lab. Jane led Lisbon back around the house to the car, with a hand on the small of her back. When they were all settled, Cho spoke up.
"My question is, 'Who made the bed and locked the door?'."
"What?" Lisbon asked.
"You haven't been back since that night. The crime scene technicians would have stripped the bed, they wouldn't have made it up. And if you did everything tonight exactly as you did it before, you would not have had to unlock the door, as it would still be open from that night. But you unlocked it. Now, it is possible that one of the investigators locked the door for security purposes, but they would not have made the bed."
"So who did?" Lisbon asked, shuddering at the implications.
The question hung in the air, until it grew into something with a life on its own. After a moment, Jane said, "Let's get you back to the hotel and let you get some sleep. You have an important meeting tomorrow."
As they headed back to the car, Cho diverted for a moment to talk to the uniformed officers.
(0o0)
Lisbon sat in a chair in a starkly furnished room, alone, waiting for the investigators from Internal Affairs. She turned her head when she heard the door open, and was surprised to see Jane.
"How are you feeling?" He asked.
"Nervous. Ready for this to be over."
"Well, Abbott arranged for you to be questioned in his office. Come on."
With those words, he escorted her up to Abbott's office. When Jane opened the door, Lisbon stiffened. The room was filled with people. There were three IA agents seated on one side of a table, and Abbott sat behind his desk. Jane held the chair on the other side of the table facing the IA agents for Lisbon, squeezed her hand, and then he seated himself in a chair in front of Abbott's desk.
"Agent Lisbon, you're under suspicion for firing your shotgun two nights ago—a gun found to have the blood of another agent on it. This hearing will determine whether Internal Affairs finds sufficient evidence to recommend any form of disciplinary action, including suspension or termination. Your cooperation is expected and appreciated."
She nodded, not really trusting herself to speak.
"We have a few questions—'
"Okay."
"What made you go out into your yard that night?"
"I had received a text message that made me think someone was watching me."
As they asked their questions, Lisbon realized it wasn't as difficult as she expected it to be. That was mostly because Jane had already asked all of the same questions, so she found herself with ready answers. After she finished with the interview portion, the lead investigator looked at her and said, "I've already spoken to Agent Cho and to Mister Jane, and their testimony, together with your account of what happened that night, makes me think you are innocent of the charges against you. However, there is still the matter of the shotgun found with Millie Pott's blood on it, and the gunshot residue found on your clothing. Can you explain either of those things?"
Lisbon shook her head, looking like she was going to be sick.
"I have you scheduled for a polygraph test in," he looked at his watch, "just under half an hour. If the test shows you are telling the truth about what you told us here tonight, you'll be provisionally cleared to go back to work. We'll speak again after your test. For now, I want you to take this time to rest a bit."