The entire team arrived at the scene of the fire around the same time. Lisbon flew from her vehicle, already barking orders, running up on the scene as though there was anything she could do. The entire house was up in flames.
"Masters," Cho wouldn't release the power lock. "Hey, look at me."
The nerve he had to delay their response to an actual house fire for the purpose of chatting absolutely blew her mind. "Cho, let me out."
"Not until you swear you won't do anything stupid."
They could hear the fire through the bulletproof confines of the CBI vehicle. "Fine, Cho, I swear. Let me out!"
The locks clicked.
Ronnie bolted out of the vehicle like a bat out of hell, just in time to see Rigsby bolt into the burning house.
That idiot. Her promise to Cho instantly forgotten, Ronnie took off after him, ignoring the shouts of the team behind her.
She knew the doorknob would be hot, but the wood of the door burned her hand all the same.
The smoke rolled in front of her, plunging into her lungs. Ronnie lifted her arm over her mouth, shouldering past toppled furniture.
Before her, Rigsby had Piller over his shoulder, headed back out the way he came. He looked shocked to see her, but was coughing too hard to tell her off for following him in.
Spotting a dining chair laying before a big bay window, Ronnie pointed. Rigsby followed her finger and caught onto her plan, quickly changing course. She grabbed the chair and hurled it out the window, shoving Rigsby directly out into fresh air.
The sudden influx of oxygen puffed flaring life into the blaze, billowing it up, big and bright, around her.
Careful of the glass, Ronnie threw herself out after Rigsby.
The hot, humid California air felt like a gentle ocean breeze compared to the inferno she'd escaped. Ronnie rolled onto her back, wheezing against the residual smoke, blinking away the ash that clung to her eyelashes.
Her lungs flared with irritation, an awful taste pouring over her tongue as she coughed up smoke.
A hand gripped her shoulder, awakening her abruptly to the realization that her shoulder had been burned. Lurching away, her blue eyes met brown ones, and she fell limp once more.
Cho eased up when she moved away in pain, but leaned back down to check her out. "Are you kidding me?" He demanded, turning her arm over and examining her blistering palm.
Ronnie sputtered, the taste in her mouth rancid. "Rigsby went in."
"Rigsby is a senior agent."
"Rigsby is an idiot."
Cho sat back on his heels, exasperation taking over the worry that had consumed him the moment she'd gone in. "Are you out of your mind?"
"I think so, yes." Ronnie sat up but found herself unable to support herself with her burned hand. "Gotta keep 'em guessing."
The MENTALIST
Van Pelt sat with a very drugged Rigsby, wrapping his busted arm while he stared longingly at her hair.
His filters were very quickly melting away.
Ronnie sat on the motel couch, wrapping her own hand. She listened to their barely coherent conversation with great amusement and moved on to treating her shoulder.
Her work blouse had burned through in a number of places. Taking it off and committing to spending the rest of the hot day in her black wife-beater tank top, Ronnie discarded the ashy garment.
Cho sank down on the couch next to her, watching her gingerly place a bandage over a big, bubbly burn.
"Stop breathing on it," She grumbled, tossing her bandage wrapper at him.
"Are you ok?" Cho wasn't looking at anything but her shoulder.
Ronnie frowned at him, confused by the intensity of his stare. "I'm good. What's wrong with you?"
Cho snapped out of it, looking away. "I'm fine."
Lisbon and Jane came through the door then, letting in a stream of light. At the sudden intrusion, Cho leaned in protectively closer to Ronnie, as though the fire had come back to take another bite.
Lisbon carried a bottle of orange liquid, the mango Sunny D juice that Rigsby was crazy about. She spared Ronnie a soft glance before stepping up to the bed to deliver her gift.
Behind her, Jane extended a bottle to Ronnie. It was her favorite chocolate protein milk.
"Oh, sweet, thanks, Jane." Ronnie took the bottle with a grateful smile and put the rest of her med kit away.
Jane grinned, pleased at her reaction, and tucked his hands into his pockets. "How you doing, kid, you okay?"
Ronnie cracked the seal on the bottle and took a swig. "I'm great. Just got a little warm."
Jane gave a breathy laugh and reached out to ruffle her hair fondly. After he'd made sure she was okay, he moved after Lisbon to stand and talk with Rigsby.
Ronnie noticed Cho watching him go with an odd look on his face. She nudged him with her elbow. "Relax, Cho, you can share mine." Holding her chocolate milk out to him, she expected him to grumble and drink half the bottle.
But he pushed her proffered hand back into her own personal space, turning on her suddenly.
She flinched at the frustration in his expression.
"Do you think Jane still considers himself married?" He wondered stiffly.
Ronnie blinked. "Well, I dunno--he still wears his ring--"
"He's been real flirty lately."
"I know, right? He and Lisbon--"
"Right. Lisbon." Cho abruptly stood from the couch, walking away and leaving her gaping, utterly confused.
Honestly, his mood swings seemed to be getting more and more hormonal.
He headed over to Rigsby, one hand in his pocket, tension loosening from his shoulders. "Hey, it's the mummy."
Ronnie threw a hand up in confusion. What the heck.
"So," Cho continued, facing Lisbon. "The fire at Piller's house--same M.O. as the one that killed Rich Garcia. Accelerator's ethyl ether. That's a signature."
Jane shot an almost smug look back at Ronnie.
She stared back, puzzled both by his behavior and Cho's.
Jane winked at her and then tuned back into the conversation.
"--Tricky stuff to work with, too. Takes skill; finesse." Cho was saying.
Lisbon thought on his findings for a second. "Why don't you take Masters and see what Susan Garcia has to say about all this?"
Cho didn't hesitate to accept the directive and send Ronnie a glance to make sure she was keeping up with the conversation.
She was. She popped him a thumbs up.
Lisbon turned to a smirking Patrick Jane. "And let's you and me check out this Alton's Grove place where David Martin died."
Suddenly, Rigsby got a short burst of lucidity, his clammy face lolling over on the pillow. "Oh, the mummy. I get it. Bandages."
Ronnie snorted at the face Van Pelt made at him.
"And no more painkillers for him," Lisbon snapped, already halfway out the door. Snickering, Jane hustled out on her heels.
The MENTALIST
Cho loosened up a little on the drive out to Susan Garcia's place. He glanced over at Ronnie's bandages two more times before, finally, he broke the silence. "You have got to stop running into burning buildings."
Ronnie felt a flash of annoyance. "It's not a hobby, Cho. I didn't wake up this morning and decide to get first degree burns like it was Bingo, the bucketlist edition."
Her stoic partner let that one sit in silence for a minute. "Your mother used you as a shield, didn't she?"
She knew what his concerns were, but she'd already coped with it on her own. Yes, her mother had used her as a shield, and, no, Ronnie had not completely abandoned that frame of mind.
She was still a shield.
A self-appointed shield.
She would keep her team safe no matter what.
"You're not a shield anymore, Masters."
"I know, Cho."
The MENTALIST
"Why didn't you tell us about Dave Martin?" Cho stood, squared up, on Susan Garcia's front porch.
Ronnie stood slightly behind him, watching the grieving widow get progressively more intimidated by her encroaching partner.
"What about him?" She looked exhausted.
Cho's voice didn't soften. "Same national guard unit. Same death by fire. That's a pretty spooky coincidence."
"But Dave's death was an accident, and nearly three years ago, besides."
"An accident?" Cho's gaze finally turned gentle.
Ronnie remembered the last time he'd used those big, imploring doe eyes on her, that night that the park ranger abducted her and he came searching by himself.
But Susan only cared about ending the conversation. "Passed out with a cigarette, poor fool. Burned his place right down to a cinder."
Ronnie's mother had almost done that once, but she didn't say so.
"There wasn't a thing left of him. We had to bury ashes." Susan had to sit down.
Cho relaxed, seeing her distress. "There any other connections between this Dave Martin and your husband?"
"Dave was kind of in business with them. With Rich and Trey and Ben."
"What kind of business?"
"Mar Verde Real Estate Corporation, they called it. It started out as just a way to give Dave Martin a place to live. No man left behind, and all, even Dave."
"He had problems?"
"He was an ornery drunk, basically." Susan said, like a woman who had never actually said the word 'ornery' out loud before. She explained that he never really got along with his guard buddies, even though they all went in together and bought property at Alton's Grove, where Lisbon and Jane had headed off to.
After he'd died, the rest of the buddies had run into legal clerical issues, at which point she'd tried to convince Rich to give up on the whole business nightmare. She said that a caretaker lives on the property for them, by the name of Tommy Olds.
Ben Machado was the only business partner still standing.
The MENTALIST
"Give me a call after you speak to Machado."
"Copy that," Cho hung up he phone, rolling his sleeves up past his elbows, fighting the heat that prevailed despite the 70mph winds buffeting through the rolled down windows.
Ronnie couldn't wait for colder weather. She'd acquired quite the enviable tan, but the smell and feeling of living in a constant state of perspiration was getting old. "We're going to Machado's?" She confirmed, draining the last bit of her chocolate milk.
"Yep." Cho glanced in the rearview mirror. "You put the tactical gear in the back, right?"
"Of course I did," Ronnie let an arm hang out the window of CBI sedan. "I'd never leave you hanging out to dry, Cho, dear."
Her ribbing earned no reaction.
"Oh, come on, Cho, you're not still mad about the fire, are you?"
"You're not still burned, are you?" He shot back grumpily.
"When are you going to stop being an old woman about this and just let me do my thing? You run into danger all the time."
"When you start being tactically competent."
Ronnie flinched at the words that cut like a knife. First he griped about her being too emotionally dependent on him, and then he calls her tactically incompetent.
She pulled herself closer to her side of the car, utterly peeved by his whiny behavior. Her brain refused to even concoct an answer to his accusation, unwilling to provoke him into saying something even more hurtful.
Her phone rang in her pocket.
Grateful for the sudden distraction, she snapped her phone open, recognizing a CBI office extension. "Masters,"
"Ronnie, I've got bad news." Minelli's voice sighed in her ear. "Your mystery woman is dead."
"Excuse me?"
Cho's eyes flashed to her at the rigidity in her tone.
"One of our staff brought her a meal. Twenty minutes later she was dead at the table. I'm sorry, Ronnie. I'd say Carla isn't too fond of loose ends."
Ronnie hung up, stuffing the phone back into her pocket. Frustration boiled under her skin, turning her ears pink.
Carla Masters.
The most efficient criminal on the wanted list.
"What was that?" Cho questioned, eyes darting back and forth between her and the road.
"I'm not sure I'm tactically competent enough to reliably relay that information."
The MENTALIST
Ronnie and Cho approached Machado's house cautiously, protectively garbed in ballistics armor. Staying back to scope out the yard, Cho sent Ronnie up to knock on the door.
No one answered, not even when she called out to him by name.
At Cho's suggestion to check the barn, they started around the corner of the house. Having taken only a few steps, the agents were suddenly driven back under cover by a rush of gunfire.
Gasping at the sudden burst of adrenaline, Ronnie pinned her back to the vehicle they'd hidden behind. "Found him," She drew her sidearm and saw Cho do the same.
Stationed behind his tractor, Machado persisted in firing, even as Cho shouted at him for a cease fire. Instead of surrendering himself, Machado elected to hurl threats at them.
"Cho, get back under cover," Ronnie snapped as he peeked around the corner of the house and nearly got his head shot off. "You're such a freaking hypocrite."
Her partner ignored her, and informed Machado of their credentials. Finding out that they were police seemed to make the hostile homeowner hesitate. He demanded a badge, which Ronnie produced cautiously.
Machado gave himself up immediately, apologetic, and allowed Cho to take him into custody and put him into the car.
Ronnie stood by, watching over Machado, while Cho made a quick investigation of the property.
Moments later, he returned with a chemical container. He held it up to show Ronnie, shaking it damningly. "Six jugs in the barn."
Ben Machado, found in possession of the same accelerant used in both previous fires.
The MENTALIST
Machado was brought back to the CBI, where Rigsby interviewed him about the ethyl ether found in his barn. Cho sat with him, while Ronnie went to speak with Minelli.
She didn't find out much.
The pathologists had just received legal grant to perform a toxicology screening, and wouldn't have results for another couple days.
They hadn't been able to learn anything from her before she died. They hadn't found out how she had gotten into the CBI.
Minelli promised Ronnie that he had people currently investigating who had facilitated the murder. "I think you need to go home, Ronnie."
Leaving his office, the girl tried to refuse his offer. "Thank you, sir, but my team is on a case right now."
Minelli shook his head kindly. "It's an order, Masters. I'll talk to Lisbon. I can talk to Cho if you like."
Ronnie thought for a moment, remembering Cho's behavior towards her, and the hurt swarmed back into her gut. She didn't want to talk to him. Nodding, she took the boss up on his offer. "Thank you, sir."
Minelli put a hand to her shoulder with a soft smile. "Go home and get some sleep, Masters.You need."
Ronnie couldn't go home.
Morning found her in the CBI parking garage, sleeping in her car.
[end of episode 9]