Chapter 18

The next day Jane was stretched out on his couch staring at the ceiling and appeared to the undiscerning eye to be daydreaming while his partner in all things sat at her desk pulling up victim profiles looking for commonalities. However, while she was working that part of the case he was trying to come up with an explanation for the face visible only with luminol at the crime scenes. The more he thought about it, the less he believed it had anything to do with the serial killer who had caused him so much unbelievable pain.

"It's less a signature and more like a secret message," he muttered quietly not realizing that he had done so at least three times.

Not turning her eyes from her screen, Lisbon returned, "That's obviously significant in your opinion so do you want to share with the rest of the class?"

"He's not interested in having just anyone see the face. You have to look for it and you have to be equipped to find it. A signature would be something he wanted everyone to see. No, this is a call for our attention."

"Because the dead and mutilated body wasn't giving him enough?" she asked in a confused tone as she looked over her shoulder at him.

He sighed, "C'mon. Think about it. A signature would be seen by anyone who stumbled across the scene. He obviously isn't interested in having just anybody see it. He goes on this cross country odyssey killing people- for reasons we don't know yet- but he knows if he links the crime scenes with the face, the FBI will be involved. More to the point- we'll be involved."

Teresa turned and watched him closely, "But you said you weren't sure this was related to Red John. If the message is for us, doesn't that mean it must be?"

He slowly sat up and returned her regard. "The face is the quickest way to get the cases sent to us, but that doesn't mean it has anything to do with Red John or the Blake Association. That's why the first case we know of was very violent but not the same as the others."

"He still had to learn more about the signature," she concluded.

Jane nodded, "He may have only come up with the idea after the murder- maybe to cover up something that he didn't want found."

Lisbon turned back to her computer and pulled up the files on the Pierce Thorton murder. "It appears that Thorton must have known his killer. There were no signs of forced entry and the violence didn't seem to start until he was in his home office. So what was there in the office that caused the fight? And how does it relate to the other murders?"

"And how does that relate to or cause the killer to move on to his next victim?" Jane added to the list of questions.

Lisbon began opening windows on her screen as she suggested, "Let's see if there's a connection between Pierce Thorton, accountant, Nathan Mosely, lab technician, AND the CBI."

"The CBI?" he questioned.

"If it's a message that is for the two of us and he's co-opting Red John's trademark, I think it's safe to say that this has more to do with something from our CBI days," she explained.

He thought for a moment then conceded her point, "Okay, that makes sense."

She looked closely at the data side by side on the screen, "I don't see a link between the two men or between Thorton and the CBI, but I do see a link between Mosely and the CBI. His lab handled a lot of testing for the CBI when the state lab was too backlogged."

Jane walked over and bent to read the screen. "Were any of the cases ones we worked on?"

"Don't know. I'll have to contact the lab and see if they can tell me what if any of our cases they processed." she answered with a frown.

Jane saw her looking at the screen as if she was trying to see something that wasn't there. "What are you thinking?"

She explained hesitantly, "I feel as if I should know something about this but I can't put my finger on it."

"Like you may have sent evidence to the lab?"

She shrugged one shoulder, "Maybe. I'm going to call the lab and see what they can tell me."

As she looked for the contact information, Cho came over carrying a cup of coffee. "So have you two come up with anything yet?"

Jane replied, "Well, we're not sure."

Lisbon asked Cho, "Do you remember any CBI cases that we sent to Mosely's lab for testing?"

He frowned, "Not off the top of my head, but if we were going outside the state lab, that was something you would have done with permission of the director or assistant director. Do you think that happened?"

"I'm not sure," she explained. "I know that Mosely's lab acted as an outsource for the CBI and the more I think about it the more I think I remember seeing an email from the director telling supervisors to use them or a couple other labs if we were too far down on the list the state lab. However, I'll need to see some files to be completely sure."

"Okay, see what you can find and we'll go from there," Cho watched Lisbon pick up the phone to make the call then turned to Jane, "Anything else?"

Jane sighed, "I definitely think the message was meant specifically for us. Only those of us who worked together at the CBI would be aware of the significance of what was going on at the crime scene and by making it hard to find, the killer is making sure that we're the ones most involved."

"Is it Blake Association?"

"Very doubtful," Jane answered and explained, "The first couple of murders and messages were not as clear as they would have been if it was one of Red John's disciples. They would have taken pride in getting it exactly right. I don't think any of them would have done such a poor job of it."

"Not even to confuse us?" Cho argued.

"That would defeat the point of putting it there in the first place," Jane rebutted.

Cho agreed, "Got it. Let me know when you have more. Thanks, guys."

Cho walked away as Lisbon finished her call. She looked up at Jane and said, "The assistant is going to cross check the files and get back to me later today."

"Okay," Jane said as he looked at his watch, "It's just about 12:30. I thought I'd go downstairs and see Clara and then get lunch, want to come with me?"

Lisbon sighed, "I'd love to get out of here for a while but I really want to give these cases another look. How about I go with you to see Clara and then could you bring me something back from the deli?"

Patrick smiled. There was a time when he never would have been able to get Teresa out of the office for anything at this point of a big case. The fact that she was willing to leave long enough to see their daughter told him that her priorities had definitely changed and he was thrilled. She was a terrific mother, a fact that he never doubted would be true.

"Sure," he said as he stepped back to let her get up from her desk. They stopped at the conference room and Jane took deli orders for Wylie, Calvin Sutton, and Tork before leaving.

Penny Paulson, a housekeeper at the Bellamy Hotel, pushed her cart down the fifth floor hallway. She was tired but grateful that the day was almost over. The extra money she'd made in overtime for working on Saturday and Sunday, plus the tips that the gorgeous man had given her to make sure his room was perfect for his wife, were going to come in handy but it hadn't been easy. Between the genealogists' convention and all the other guests it felt like she had been cleaning rooms even in her sleep.

At least today she wasn't as rushed to get the rooms turned over for check-in. That was the best part of the early week, she thought as she came upon the door with the "Do Not Disturb" sign on it.

She shook her head. According to what another housekeeper had told her, this room had been like this all weekend and even through yesterday. The room that connected to it was emptied Monday morning and had been a real mess with liquor bottles everywhere and trash that had missed the waste cans. It was apparently two young women who were looking for a good time and she bet neither one even remembered it today. Two of her co-workers had been tasked yesterday with clearing it out and said that it had taken forever to clean it.

Penny knew that the couple in this room had checked out very early this morning so she ignored the sign and put her passcard in the lock. "Housekeeping!" she called just to be on the safe side and pushed the door open with her hip as she reached behind her to the cart to grab a large trashbag she was sure she would need. She turned completely around and saw the room only after she had stepped in a couple feet.

She would later say that she couldn't tell you if she saw the body of the petite brunette or not. All she saw was red and brownish red covering the floor, walls, and ceiling. Her sneakers squished on the carpet as more red surrounded them oozing up through the carpet where she stood shivering. The stench of copper and sourness and something akin to the smell of roadkill assaulted her nose and filled her mouth. Her one thought as she ran from the room screaming was that she had always been told that Hell burned with the flames of sin but they were wrong. It was really icy cold.

He sat in his room at the little dumpy hotel next to the highway listening to a local radio station as he cleaned his gun. He preferred to keep the knife for the kills he was presenting to them and to use other methods to get rid of the loose details. There was a chance that the blondes had been so drunk that they wouldn't remember anything but he didn't want to count on that. No, he had made the right call. Eventually, someone would find their bodies but by that point it would be too late. He finished cleaning the weapon as he quietly hummed along with the music until there was a news update at the top of the hour.

"We have breaking news that squad cars, an ambulance, and the coroner's van have arrived at the entrance of the Bellamy Hotel. No word yet on what has occurred but stay tuned for further details," the newsreader announced before an update of the weather came.

He stopped humming and began chuckling. Things were starting to happen now.

Wylie, Tork, and Sutton had been joined by Lisbon and Jane when he returned with the lunch orders. They were starting to clean up their mess when Cho walked into the room.

"There's been a murder at the Bellamy Hotel," he announced.

"The Bellamy?" Lisbon said as she stood up. "We were just there Saturday night."

"I know," Cho said.

"Why are we going to it? I thought we were working on the serial case?" asked Tork who was still cleaning up the ketchup that he had squirted on the table by mistake.

"We are," Cho said as he turned around. "Wylie told Austin PD to let me know if they got a particularly violent homicide that they thought matched at least part of our guy's M.O. They have."

Everyone started grabbing what they would need and heading for the elevator. Each hoped the police were being overly cautious and each worried that they weren't. It appeared that things were escalating.

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I solemnly promise to post more soon - as long as life doesn't get in the way. Cheers! ~~ archijenn