A few days after the carnival visitors had graced her doorstep, Lisbon returned home from the grocery to see her apartment complex covered in confetti; at least that was the visual effect of what she was seeing. She didn't remember the county fair being so prolific with their marketing in the past, but this year, every single door in her building had a colorful flyer tucked inside. She grabbed the leaflet on her way in the door, tossing it on the entry table with her keys and continuing to the kitchen where she unpacked her bag of frozen processed dinners and ground coffee.
It wasn't until she was sitting down to a meal of microwaved lasagna that her mind got nostalgic about the fair; playing the memories of her first visit to that place with Jane, as they'd searched for his brother-in-law Danny. It had been years since, but she could swear she smelled the unique combination of funnel cakes and animal dung wafting through her kitchen as she smiled, remembering the feel of Daisy the elephant's trunk. She couldn't suppress a spontaneous puff of laughter when she remembered how Jane had left her there, taking her car while she'd been distracted, in one of his typical pranks. God, she missed that troublemaker. The memory soon had her careening back into a sullen mood, realizing that today was no different than that day; she'd been left behind by Patrick Jane once again. And just like that day, the result was her spinning her wheels in the mud of frustrated worry. Where was he? What was he doing? Was he putting himself in danger? Was he being taken advantage of?
Something crossed her mind then that softened her tensions: That same trip to the fair was her first time meeting Pete and Sam. They had been the ones to give her a lift when she'd been abandoned by Jane then, and in the present day they were once again his proxies, caring for her in a way while he was pursuing some plan. Teresa's eyebrows slowly pressed together in curious thought: Why was it this year that the fair decided to advertise so overwhelmingly? Quickly, she shot up from her kitchen chair, trashed what remained of her excuse for dinner, and marched to the front door to look more closely at that flyer.
She pulled the ad out from under her keys and studied it thoroughly, turning on an overhead light for a better view. Absolutely nothing leapt out at her. No words out of place. No discolorations. No secret codes. Nothing. But her gut wouldn't allow her to let it go; she was convinced this year's showering of carny energy on the grounds of her residence was no coincidence. "There are no coincidences, Lisbon," she heard her partner's voice in her mind. Frustrated, but undeterred, she carried the leaflet back to the kitchen table, dropping it on her placemat while she poured a mug of after-dinner decaf.
Sliding the coffee pot back onto its burner, she flashed back to a story - one of many Jane had told her after he'd worked that farm case with Agent Darcy. Always the showman, he'd used lemon juice on a paper placemat at the local diner to create a hidden message, ensuring the dramatic appearance of Red John's mark at the perfect time to reveal truths in the case.
Having run out of ideas, but remaining suspicious, Teresa pulled the carafe back off of the warmer, wiped the base with a damp cloth to clean any coffee stains, then rested the warm pot on top of the ad for the county fair. After taking a few leisurely sips from her mug, she lifted the coffee pot and replaced it on the burner, quickly stepping back to her seat to see if there had been any effects on the paper underneath. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw those effects: nearly all the color had been deleted from the previously technicolor page, leaving only a few smudges, and a clearly handwritten message: "TL, Not safe there. Ball at 7. Daisy says hi."
Her jaw was hanging open in amazement that she'd successfully revealed this clue. Years of working with Jane had strengthened her confidence in her own cop instincts, but invisible ink had seemed like a long shot. Her mind immediately began working on the pieces of this new puzzle.
"TL is me, obviously," she said to herself. "Not safe there? Is that here?" After a moment, her eyes got wide. What if there were eyes on her right now? What if her apartment was bugged? The FBI had been quite thorough in their takeover, and though they hadn't been top of mind these past couple months, she wouldn't put it past them to have long-term surveillance set up for her whole team. That would mean they'd seen, when a couple of Jane's carny friends had visited her. It would also mean they had possibly heard her conversation with them - and the things they'd shared about Jane. She prayed they hadn't inadvertently put him in danger.
Teresa determined that there should be no more thinking out loud until she could do a full sweep for listening devices. Meantime, she memorized the clue before shredding the flyer, and threw a few items in her bag. Still pondering the words from the page, she grabbed her keys and started for her car. Feeling a bit paranoid, she threw together a plan that she thought Jane might be proud of:
First, she pulled her CBI-era SUV into a Ford dealership. She walked the rows of shiny new Mustangs, carefully eyeing a fire-engine red version, touting a Shelby GT500 under the hood.
"Looking for some muscle?" The salesman inquired, with hope and commissions dancing in his eyes.
Glancing at the man's name tag, Lisbon nodded sharply. "I've got all the muscle I need, Brad, but I could sure use a car!"
Brad laughed jovially and asked if she had questions he could help with.
"Actually, I'm in the mood for a test drive. Think you can set that up?"
"Absolutely!" the salesman gushed, before running to grab a set of keys and a temporary plate.
Lisbon peered inside the tinted glass of the gorgeous vehicle, then took a quick look around her, wondering if the dark sedan by the curb was stock, or the FBI. Her stomach lurched when she remembered that any spies could instead be Blake Association… or maybe a combination of both. She was relieved to be interrupted from such thoughts when Brad returned, slightly winded from his brisk jog for keys.
"Ready to go!" He grinned in that plastic salesman way, handing the keys to Lisbon before walking around to attach the dealer tags.
Lisbon got comfy in the driver's seat, adjusting the seat and mirrors before rolling down her window. "Thanks Brad! Be back in a jiff!" She winked as she started to pull away, leaving Brad stuttering in shock. It was 'standard for test drives to involve a member of the staff,' he delicately explained, still smiling.
"Well, Brad," she held the brakes to talk, "if you don't trust me then just say so, there's another dealer across town," she challenged, eyebrows up.
Brad stood frozen, unable to render a response.
"Listen, here's a hundred bucks for your trouble," Teresa crowed confidently. "I like to have some alone time with a car before I make any serious decisions. You know, let the engine speak to me and such?" If only Jane could see her now. She was quite proud of her acting skills, her allowance of bribery, and her fortitude in not backing down over the solitary test drive; not to mention the ridiculous aside about engines talking.
"Well, you have a great drive then ma'am!" Brad hesitatingly pocketed the money, backing away awkwardly with a stilted wave.
Lisbon drove until she was confident she hadn't been followed. She parked quickly and pulled out a flip phone she had grabbed from the hidden compartment in her kitchen cupboard. After a couple rings a jovial voice answered: "Rigsby here!"
"Possible biker trouble - hit me back," Teresa spoke in a businesslike tone, before immediately hanging up.
On the other end of the line, Wayne Rigsby stood, wide-eyed, still holding the receiver from his home phone in San Francisco. Breaking from his shock, the man slammed the phone back into its cradle, and began nervously digging through a nearby drawer, making his pregnant wife quite anxious.
"What's wrong, Wayne?"
"Biker trouble."
"Oh!" Grace's eyes widened.
"Where'd we put the…"
"Oh! Yeah - it's in this one." Grace hurried to the kitchen, pulling open the junk drawer furthest from them, and feeling around in the opening above. With the stretchy sound of adhesive tape pulling away from the surface, she took a mobile phone out of the drawer casing, and slapped it into her husband's open palm.
Within minutes, Lisbon's flip phone began buzzing. She answered: "Virgil? That you?"
"Yup, it's me, May!" Rigsby crowed with overacted confidence.
"Oh, thank God! Rigs I was worried you'd forgotten the plan!" Lisbon exhaled into the phone.
"Sorry for the delay - the burner phone got put in a safe place recently, but Grace forgot to tell me which safe place that was," he chuckled nervously. "What's going on though Boss?"
"First, I'm not your boss. Second, I need a bug sweep of my car and apartment, but it needs to be on the way down-low. I have reason to believe I'm being watched."
"Watched? By who?"
"Not clear just yet, but if there are spies, I'm guessing FBI or," she gulped, "leftover minions from the Blake Association."
Wayne grimaced silently before answering matter-of-factly, "Understood. Want me to bring Cho into the circle?"
"Not yet, Rigsby. I plan to reach out to him, but not until I'm sure my spaces are audio-safe."
"Sounds good, Boss… er… Lisbon. We'll get someone over to the apartment tonight. Expect a hardware update from your cable company, wink wink."
She chuckled at her former coworker's goofy sense of humor - she'd missed the dork. "That's a relief, thanks Wayne! What about the car?"
"Bring it by the full-service car wash on 4th and Riverfront. That's our place. We wash, detail and debug vehicles there. The general public doesn't know about that last part though, wink wink again!" He chuckled at himself.
"Perfect! I'll head over there right after I drop off this loaner car!"
"I'll let them know to expect you! Still driving the CBI-mobile?"
"Still that one, yes."
"Ok - I'll check you in as May, okay?"
"That works, Virgil! Thanks again, and give my love to Grace and the baby!"
"Will do Boss! Be safe and we'll be in touch when the results are in!"
"Great! Bye!"
Still smiling from the emotional boost of hearing her old friend, and greatly relieved at having enlisted the Rigsbys' capable help, Lisbon worked up the courage to face Brad again; mulling over a couple different ways to brush him off and quickly leave in her SUV without raising undue suspicion.
"So, what'd you think, ma'am?" A visibly relieved Brad ran up as Lisbon parked the Mustang.
"Meh, I'm not really feeling it, Brad." Lisbon said, unimpressed.
"What's not to feel?"
"I'm sorry. It's just that… well… I just found out that my ex's new girlfriend drives one of these, and I can't very well be seen driving around a copy now, can I?" She gave Brad a look that projected the ridiculousness of such a thing.
"Oh, I see… absolutely not acceptable at all!" The salesman reluctantly agreed.
"Well, I'll take my keys now, please. I gotta go find a Maserati to buy or something - can't let that homewrecker drive a better car than me," she growled.
"No ma'am, right away ma'am!"
Within seconds, Lisbon was making her way to the Rigsbys' secret car wash, while employing some of Jane's biofeedback breathing, greatly relieved to have left the dealership unscathed and undetected.
By the next morning, the Rigsbys had given a clean bill of health to both car and home; though their technician had reported another 'dark sedan' sighting near her apartment. Grace texted pictures of the car and the plates to Lisbon's burner phone.
Feeling slightly more relaxed, secure in the knowledge that her conversations about Jane had not been intercepted, Teresa turned her attention back to the secret message she'd uncovered yesterday. According to the metric ton of flyers still littering the sidewalks surrounding her building (honestly, didn't anyone use trash cans anymore?!), the fair was slated to begin today.
"So, hmm…" she spoke freely to herself, processing ideas out loud and scribbling notes on a dry erase tablet for easy deletion later. "If the thing starts today, then I should get there early… Maybe find a burger and funnel cake for dinner?" She continued pondering, slowly figuring out the meaning of the message: She should get to the fair in time for a ball at 7 tonight (whatever that meant), and she should go see the elephant while she was there - unless someone named 'Daisy' showed up before that.
With thought and deliberation, the trained agent walked from room to room, gathering whatever items may come in handy during her evening of detective work and careful surveillance. She cleaned her gun, loaded it, and took along her backup, too. She left her regular phone in a drawer, in case it was being tracked, but packed her burner phone, plus a couple extras for emergency use.
Teresa parked at the dusty county fair parking area just in time to hear the ceremonial fanfare opening the grounds. She hoped to walk around calmly, mapping out the place a bit, leaving plenty of time to assess where a dance party might happen, before 7:00 rolled around; at least, she hoped she'd guessed correctly on that. The whole 'Ball at 7' line was the most cryptic part of the invisible ink message.
She was temporarily confused when a clown carrying a giant daisy stopped to squirt water at her from the center of the plastic flower. Was this the Daisy who supposedly said hi, and not the elephant? Lisbon wondered quickly. But the clown thing seemed to be a fluke - and one that unleashed another Jane memory: Teresa giggled warmly to herself as she recalled the blue hydrangea Jane had given to her during the symphony murder case. She would never forget the look on his face when she'd asked him if the thing squirted water. Poor guy, she thought, with a sad snort. Even when he was trying to be nice, I still always expected a trick…
About that time, the Grand Opening parade was starting. Lisbon grabbed a spot and stood along the path to watch. There, at the very top of the parade, right behind the 'Grand Opening' banner, walked a huge pachyderm wearing the biggest 'Daisy' headband Teresa had ever seen. The robed mystic seated on Daisy's back was wearing a turban with a replica of a crystal ball on top, throwing packets of candy as they passed. For a dizzying moment, the fortune-teller seemed to look directly at her, then he winked. Lisbon jumped slightly, and was considering whether she should run for cover. But before she could, the mystic took a bag from a separate basket, and gently tossed it precisely at the furloughed agent's chest. It landed in her arms with a thump, jolting her reflexes enough for her to catch the thing neatly. In the cheers and relative chaos that followed the procession, Lisbon quietly slipped away, wary of her public surroundings. Taking advantage of the fact most carnival-goers were still at the parade, she found a deserted spot and opened the bag that she'd just caught from the fortune-teller.
Inside she found: a pre-paid ticket to have her fortune told at the Crystal Ball tent at 7pm; that's pretty obvious, she thought. Maybe too obvious? Shaking her head for reading too much into the possibility, she continued to empty the bag, finding next: two apples, "one for your stomach, and one for Daisy!" read a note pinned to the larger of the two fruits; and there were also coupons for ice cream and a funnel cake, which made her smile. She suddenly looked around, half expecting to see Jane himself, waving with a grin, having constructed this list - he knew her favorite things so well, he definitely could've had a hand in this.
She hungrily ate one of the apples, having forgotten to get that burger she'd planned for dinner. As she started looking for the funnel cake stand, she noticed the time: 7:05. With a panicked grimace, she threw everything from the table in front of her into the fortune teller's bag and hurried to the midway. Teresa managed to skillfully dodge all the crowds as she swiveled her head side to side, nearly sprinting down the main aisle at the fairgrounds - hoping the Crystal Ball tent wasn't too far away, and that she hadn't blown her chance to solve the mystery of what exactly all the subterfuge was about.
She stopped dead in her tracks after turning a corner near the Funhouse. Was that Reede Smith reflected in the mirror in front of her?! Before her mind could process whether or not she'd seen correctly, she was grabbed from behind and wrapped in a bolt of fabric.
The next few seconds were heart-pounding. Teresa started to scream but immediately thought better of it - a scene was the last thing she needed right now. She couldn't reach for weapons, because her arms were pinned to her sides by the tightly-wrapped cloth. Her hearing was a bit jumbled, with the fabric surrounding her, rubbing against her ears and obfuscating the voices of her captors. She thought she heard someone mention an elephant, but there were so many voices in the cacophony of the midway it was impossible to tell if she'd heard her captors or a random passing conversation. Suddenly she felt herself being lifted up onto a step or something, and things got very quiet. Soon, she was aware of some whispering:
"Were you followed?"
"No, I was careful."
A chair was pushed up behind Lisbon, just touching the back of her knees.
"Okay, unwrap the poor woman," a melodic voice commanded.
Teresa blinked as the fabric was whisked away, revealing a glowing orb on the table before her. Smiling on the other side of that orb was none other than the mystic who had tossed her a bag of apples from the parade. As she reached for her Glock, the man raised his hands and waved her off, shaking his head without losing his smile.
"So sorry, Agent Lisbon, for the cloak… Gratefully we did not require the dagger." The olive-skinned man said with a chuckle and an eastern accent; which was probably fake, if her long-ago experience with Sean Barlow's front woman was any indication of the norm.
Lisbon looked to her sides and saw that the fortune teller was right. The fabric she'd been taken away in was still hanging on the chair underneath her. It was one of the mystic man's robes. "And why exactly did we require the cloak?" She asked pointedly, hand still touching her holster, her irritation coming through at being strong-armed in such a way.
A familiar voice answered from the dark, behind her: "Yeah, sorry about that, Lisbon. It was for your safety."
She turned her head in recognition of the voice of Danny Ruskin. "Danny?! What the?! What's this about?!" Her voice held more surprise than anger, and her mouth was frozen in a partly-open, amazed smile.
"When you were late, we got worried, and then we noticed some suspicious looking dudes taking notice of your panicked running, so wanted to get you undercover - literally!" He pulled up another chair and sat to the side, facing both Teresa and the fortune teller, making a triangle of chairs. "Okay Jack, you can knock off the act now."
"Oh, thank God. I hate this makeup and I'm terrible at the accent!" In minutes, the mystic man had washed away his olive coloring and revealed himself to be Jack Hellion - Jane's old magician-friend whom they'd run into at the Golden Fox Casino years ago. Turning to Teresa, Jack added: "and for once and for all, I do not nor have I ever owed Patrick Jane fifty bucks!" He and Danny laughed hard at that comment.
Lisbon rolled her eyes, good-naturedly. "I'm glad to hear that. Now why am I here?" Her eyebrows shot up with impatience.
"Because it's safer than meeting at your place again," Pete Barsocky's voice boomed. The large man peeked out from behind a false wall that had seemed to be a mystical apothecary, completing the 'fortune teller' facade to give the gag added authenticity.
With the recent sightings at her home and at the car dealership, Pete's explanation made total sense to Lisbon. "Dark sedan?" She guessed.
"Yes!" Sam joined them, rolling the apothecary scene out of the way for now. Was exactly two car lengths behind us for an hour. Even followed us through a cemetery and two drive-throughs."
Pete shared that they had been en route to deliver a new 'Jane message' when he'd noticed they were being followed. "Plan B was the 'coded spy messages' tucked in all the doors!" He snorted. "Might have been overkill but we wanted to be sure and completely sell the gag - couldn't afford to give any reasons for suspicion."
"Understood. It was a really good plan, Pete! And enough like Jane, that I made all the correct assumptions!" Lisbon chuckled. "So, where's the new message?"
"Oh yeah! Sam?" He looked to his wife, who instantly began digging around in her bag.
"Hmm… let me see… I think…" She mumbled as she continued to dig through the significantly full satchel, "Yes! Here it is, Teresa," she held out the envelope, which was labeled identically to the first one.
"Great, thanks you two!" Lisbon beamed, digging out something from her own bag. "And here," she handed a phone to Sam. "This isn't traceable and my burner is programmed into it. We can communicate safely this way for now. Might be best to never meet in the same place twice?"
"Smart thinking - thanks Lisbon!" Pete shouted, giving the former agent a strong pat on the back.
Coughing from the slap, but feeling proudly like 'one of the guys' after it, Teresa safely tucked the new treasure from Jane into her purse and slipped out the back of the fortune teller tent. Enjoying the cover of night, she ran on her toes to her shiny-clean SUV, and drove back to her recently-confirmed, un-bugged apartment.
Once home, she noticed the same damned dark sedan, still parked in the exact place it had been when she'd left that afternoon. It was time to call Cho.