Chapter 1 : Return of the Mummy

Cursing Bertram for landing them with this latest case, Lisbon idly flicked through the files from SAC PD. Eventually she pulled herself together, rationalising that the sooner they got this one out of the way, the sooner they could get back to investigating more serious crimes.

The story had been doing the rounds in the media for months and had spawned endless tacky feature stories. The SCU was now in the full glare of the media, and Lisbon wasn't liking it one bit.

Had the perpetrator not chosen to target Judge Manchester, the case would have been left with SAC PD. The Judge had been quite distraught when his beloved pooch Rex had disappeared, but that had turned to cold eviscerating fury when the corporeal remains of Rex had been delivered to the court house.

By chance Cho was giving evidence that day and had witnessed proceedings. The whole courthouse had been evacuated when a suspicious parcel addressed to Judge Manchester had been delivered. Once the bomb disposal unit were happy that it contained no explosives, the package was opened to reveal a mummified dog sprayed gold, and bearing the name tag Rex.

Manchester had gone straight to Bertram to demand a crack team were put on the case, and that was how the SCU found themselves handling a series of dognappings. Trying to ignore the usual cop humour going on in the bullpen, Lisbon set about the task in her usual professional manner. Jane was just a distant speck on the horizon, having decided to take refuge in his man cave. It was hard enough trying to get him involved in any of their more serious cases, so Lisbon held out little hope of him helping with this one.

Lisbon wearily made her way up the stairs; her face screwed up with some venom, when she realised the door was locked again. She rapped the door none too softly. "Jane it's Lisbon, we need to talk."

The pacing inside the room stopped. "I'm busy."

Lisbon puffed her cheeks out; this was getting beyond a joke. Pleading voice. "Jane, let me in now."

The bolt slid across and the door slid open slightly, Jane's disgruntled face appeared. "I'm not working the case, I've told you that."

Lisbon's face darkened. "This is getting beyond a joke. We don't ask much of you these days, and I'm damned if I'm going to beg you to help."

"Good, glad that's sorted." The door slammed closed and the bolt slid back in place.

Counting to ten to control her temper Lisbon backed away from the door, determined not to give Jane the satisfaction of making her grovel. "This isn't over Jane, if you want to remain part of the team you have to pull your weight."

Jane leant back heavily against the door as he heard the retreating footsteps. He was conscious of the fact that he still needed Lisbon's support, but he needed one final push in his attempt to identify all the men he had shaken hands with.

His relationship with Lisbon had hit rock bottom after Lorelei's revelation. Jane laughed ironically – it had only been once and it had been Lorelei who had done all the running. But there was no denying that he did have sexual relations with that woman.

Angrily he kicked out the chair as he made his way toward the window, what on earth had made him let his guard down after Vegas, it had just made it worse when the truth finally came out. On reflection, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing putting some distance between them. Red John was in his sights, and no one was going to stop him exacting his revenge. No matter how many times Jane spelt it out to Lisbon, she naively thought that when the time came Jane wouldn't be able to go through with it. Her faith in him was really quite touching, but completely misplaced. If it was the last thing he did, which in all probability it would be, Jane would have his revenge. The further Lisbon was away from him when that happened, the better it would be for her.

Any assumed romantic entanglement would put Lisbon in Red John's sights, and Lisbon was such a poor actress the estrangement had to appear real. Besides romance was out of the question - maybe in a different world but not in this one, and quite frankly if Jane had believed there was another world, he'd have booked a one way ticket there years ago.

Still he needed the resources of the SCU, and if he pushed Lisbon too far she could make things very difficult for him. He sat down at his desk and ran his hands through his hair before resting his head in his hands, reflecting on his predicament.

Lorelei had stitched him up completely by shooting Lennon; Jane hadn't seen that coming. His last vestige of hope was that he could narrow down the pool of suspects, when he finally identified everyone he had shaken hands with. A herculean task even for him, but not beyond his formidable intellect.

Sighing, Jane knew he'd have to broker some kind of peace deal before he pushed Lisbon too far. Whatever friendship they had was on a knife edge, and could well be lost forever.

Determined to get this case out of the way as soon as possible, Lisbon went back through the files in an attempt to identify any common parameters between the case files. Whoever was perpetrating these crimes had a sick mind. Stealing a beloved pet was bad enough in itself, without rubbing salt in the wound by returning the remains months later.

Laying the files out in front of her she systematically went about categorising them, so she would have a head start when the others came back in tomorrow. At least they could hit the road running if she had established where they needed to be looking. They still had a few ongoing cases, so they couldn't afford to be running round like headless chickens. Especially as they were now under the scrutiny of the media, who may well jump on this on a quiet news day in order to keep the 24 hour news juggernaut rolling.

Thank heavens Karen Cross had moved on; Lisbon could just imagine the populist furore she would have raised. Cross would have galvanised the dog owners of Sacramento to lay siege on City Hall. A flicker of a smile crossed Lisbon's face as she imagined Bertram talking down the legion of barking dogs, and their angry owners. Would have served him right for taking on the case in the first place, when SAC PD were perfectly capable of dealing with it.

Her head rose slightly at the sound of approaching footfall. Jane no doubt wanting to use the kitchen, now that all bar the overnight contingent had departed. Lisbon returned to her files, ignoring his presence as he slipped by. If they had to solve this one without him so be it, they'd picked up some of his skill set from working with him, even if it took them longer to get to the end point.

So far there had been five reported incidents plus Judge Manchester, the preponderance of women hinted at a repressed personality.

A waitress in a diner had lost her cat; it had been returned to the diner positioned with a saucer of milk in front of it.

The car park attendant at the CBI hadn't been immune from being targeted, her dog's remains had been found tied to a lamp post just outside the building.

The other victims a shipping clerk, a cable show host, and a motel receptionist had also had their pets returned to them in a public arena. There was something particularly cruel about the way the pets mummified remains were returned in such a public manner.

Lisbon guessed that with their limited resources SAC PD hadn't thrown a lot of manpower at this; it would hardly be top of their list of priorities. Each case would have been looked at on a one off basis, rather than trying to take an overview of the situation. With all the cutbacks in resources they were just spread too thin, and they would have done the bare minimum. Lisbon on the other hand had a vested interest in getting this off their books before it garnered too much adverse publicity.

Jane had decided to go out for a quick bite to eat and to replenish his stocks, in the hope that Lisbon might have gone home by time he returned. He simply hadn't got the heart to face her again tonight. On his return an hour later, he grimaced when he saw her lights still on. There was no way back to the attic without passing her office, and this time she would be facing him. Pressing his lips thinly together he made his way through the bull pen, her head was resolutely bowed. A vestige of a smile crossed Jane's face, Lisbon was well and truly pissed off with him; her eyes had never lifted from the papers as he made his way past.

Cho looked over to Lisbon's office; it was going to be a testing day judging by her irritation at Bertram's early morning call. She was already rubbing her temples to try and mitigate the onset of a tension headache. Best to try and keep on the right side of her today.

Rigsby made his way back, sliding a coffee onto Van Pelt's desk as he passed. Cho just wished they'd get on with it, all this mooning around was driving him mad. There again, maybe requited love would be even more nauseating than the unrequited version. After all Rigsby had a tendency to share everything, and Cho really didn't want to know anything more about his co-worker Van Pelt than he could find in her file.

Rigsby jerked his head towards the couch. "No Jane again?"

Cho shook his head.

Rigsby glanced at Lisbon's office. "Boss doesn't look happy. They had words again?"

Cho shrugged. How the hell was he supposed to know? Both Jane and Lisbon put up a good front for the benefit of the rest of team, Lisbon might venture into sarcasm, but was rarely outwardly critical of Jane. However it didn't take a psychic to work out things weren't right. Jane had lost the goodwill of the team when the Lorelei story came out. Logically he could do whatever he wanted. But they had all put their necks on the line for him professionally, no one more so than Lisbon, and they were wondering whether that loyalty was reciprocated.

Lisbon strode purposefully towards the bull pen, handing the prepared notes to Cho to distribute them. Van Pelt had already started placing out the case details on the interactive white board.

Lisbon sipped on her coffee as the team read the notes she'd prepared. "So far as I can see SAC PD were unable to establish a motive for any of these incidents. Apart from Judge Manchester the victims are all female. The acts have been designed to both hurt and humiliate them."

Cho raised his head "You thinking a spurned admirer?"

Quick shake of her head. "Not necessarily, just someone with a thin skin who has a problem dealing with women."

Van Pelt laughed "Well that covers most of the people in the CBI. Present company excepted."

Lisbon couldn't help but smile. "Quite. But maybe this is more psychologically ingrained, someone socially awkward who has troubling dealing with women."

Van Pelt mumbled. "Well that still leaves half the first floor as candidates."

Cho smirked. Van Pelt's good looks made her a target for every chancer, married or not. "So you think it's not necessarily something that would readily come to mind, just some slight that has been allowed to fester in the mind of the perpetrator. But what about Manchester? That seemed very personal."

Lisbon glanced at the board."I agree, that falls into a different category. We need to go through Manchester's cases in the weeks leading up to the abduction. That looks like pure revenge."

"So why the delay, it must be three months between the abduction and the return?" Rigsby was puzzled.

Lisbon shrugged."I don't know, process time? We're waiting for forensics to come back to us on that. Maybe worth you doing some research on that in the meantime Wayne."

Cho groaned inwardly, with his love of technical detail Rigsby would know everything about the process by tomorrow. They would never hear the end of this. Cho caught Van Pelt's eye, she was clearly thinking the same; they exchanged a silent smirk.

Lisbon chewed her bottom lip as she thought out loud. "There something narcissistic about the way the pets were returned. A need for affirmation and admiration."

Lisbon took up the marker pen. Recalling Narcissistic Personality Disorder from her psychology studies, she wrote down some bullet points

* Lack of empathy

* Problems sustaining relationships

* Hypersensitive to real or perceived criticism

* Over inflated opinion of their self importance

* Detesting people who don't admire them

Rigsby looked on approvingly "Who needs Jane? Come to think of it that could be Jane." Lisbon shot a frown in his direction.

Cho could see how Lisbon's mind was working. "You think they were there when the pet was returned. They needed to see their revenge enacted before them."

"Well it's certainly a possibility. Van Pelt can you see whether there is any CCTV coverage of any of the incidents. If SAC PD were doing their jobs properly, they should have covered that. I'd be surprised if the original footage hasn't been recorded over, but it's still worth checking. Cho and Rigsby check whether the victims can think about any incidents that stand out in the weeks leading up to this. They all interact with the public in their jobs, maybe they can recall someone acting strangely."

Lisbon rolled her eyes when she saw Bertram's number on her ringing phone. She'd be glad to see the back of this case and get back to what they were supposed to be doing.