Prison Conversations Part I
0I. Prologue
He stared at the ceiling, drifting in and out of consciousness as he counted backwards from one thousand, one of Bach’s symphonies was playing on the cheap alarm clock/radio near the hotel bed. He tried to focus on the knock-off Monet that was hung on the wall across from his bed. But the drugs he had taken were causing the whole entire room to spin around, and the painting was just an ugly smear of grey colors.
He closed his eyes and clutched the burgundy Gideon’s Bible to his chest. He had been repeating Father forgive me for I have sinned over and over again since he had unscrewed the caps on the pill bottles. He knew that reverting back to his childhood faith wouldn’t do him any good; his transgressions were far too great for religion to save him now. Still the prayer gave him a little comfort.
For a fleeting moment his thoughts turned to Rosalind Harker, the woman that he loved. . . the woman that had loved him in return. He was worried about her, he knew that when his body was found, and the police was called, she would be under fire. It was the last thing that he wanted for her, but it was just one of the many consequences to his actions.
Beautiful, sweet Rosie. . . forgive me for I have sinned he thought as the Bible fell from his gasp and went crashing to the floor.
He hoped that one day when she knew who he was - what he was - that she would understand that this was the only way. . . the only way that he would be able to get to his archenemy once and for all.
His death would be Patrick Jane’s downfall.
.
i. “Did you do it, Jane?” Lisbon asked, looking at him seriously. “Did you really kill Roy Tagliaferro?”
Jane waited a beat before answering her, drumming his fingers on the table, before leaning in and meeting her steady gaze. “I swear on my life that I didn’t kill him, I was with you at the time of his death.”
“There’s evidence suggesting otherwise,” Lisbon replied smoothly, never blinking for a second as she leaned away from him and studied him like she was really seeing him for the first time. “There’s enough proof to put you in jail for life, Jane. You got away with murder once, I don’t think you’ll get away with it again, no matter how victimized you try and make yourself look.”
“I was framed!” Jane insisted, pulling away from her slightly. “Why do you find it so hard to believe that could be the truth?”
“Because you always said that you were going to kill him. That when you found him you were going to cut him open and watch him suffer, just like he had done with your wife and child,” she relayed out to him, watching him wince as he recognized some of the phrasing that he had once used himself.
“Need I remind you that Roy Tagliaferro died of a drug overdose,” Jane pointed out, leaning forward again. “They didn’t find this so called evidence until days after they had cut him open. Why don’t you believe me?”
Once more, Jane pulled away from her. Hurt feelings bubbled up inside his very being as he wondered why she thought it was him. They had worked together that night!
“You know that I was with you the night that he died. We were investigating the Anderson case, and you were getting irritated because you knew the boyfriend was good for it, but his alibi kept checking out-”
Leaning back in her seat and rubbing her temples, Lisbon said, “I know you were with me the night he died, but that still doesn’t mean you couldn’t have done it.”
“I didn’t do it!” Jane repeated, looking at her desperately. “After everything we’ve been through together, why are you finding it so hard to believe?”
“It’s not that I don’t believe you,” Lisbon said, releasing a long breath. “Honestly, I have no idea what to believe.” Lisbon leaned her head against her hands once more.
“You have to believe me,” he replied, grazing her hands with his before jerking away and putting them in front of him. “Look into that night if you’re not all the way there yet, but please don’t just write me off. It isn’t like you.”
“I have Cho and Rigsby investigating that night,” she confessed. “I just wanted to hear you say you had done it, because I didn’t want to hear it from anybody else but you.”
“You have to believe me when I say that I didn’t do it,” he repeated, looking at her earnestly.
There was a period of silence, where Lisbon looked down at her hands and then at the man sitting opposite her. Taking in a deep breath, she came to the conclusion that she really did believe him. “I do,” she told him.
Jane sighed as he closed his eyes in relief. “Thank you.”
“I have to go now, Jane, I need to get back to the office,” Lisbon said. “But I promise that I’ll be back soon.”
When he finally opened his eyes again, she was gone, leaving a hint of a spicy cinnamon scent and a white paper bag in her place.
.
ii. “What brings you here today?” Jane asked, whilst smiling and looking at Lisbon curiously. “You haven’t proved my innocence already, have you? It’s only been 24 hours since your last visit-”
“No we haven’t found anything out yet, I just came to see you,” Lisbon replied, smiling at him warmly. “I brought you tea; it’s probably tough getting a decent cup in here.”
Jane didn’t reply, he just accepted the Styrofoam cup gratefully and took a deep sip of the liquid while she watched him, placing her hands on the table and folding them loosely. He found that the tea tasted dreadful.
“Don’t look at me that way, Lisbon,” Jane said wearily, shuffling the Styrofoam cup in his hands before he continued, “Like you’re afraid I’m going to break at any given moment. There’s nothing to worry about, I’m fine.”
She could barely keep the concerned expression off of her face. “Are you really sure?”
“Really,” Jane assured her, the handcuffs around his wrists rustled against the table as he reached out and touched her knuckles with uncertainty. “You’re wasting your energy.”
“Red John is gone, Jane,” Lisbon said as she moved her hands away from his shackled ones and looked at him. “You’re in jail for killing him, are you seriously going to tell me that you’re fine?”
Jane sighed tiredly. “I thought this was just a social visit.”
“It is!” Lisbon rushed to assure him and looked away in slight embarrassment.
“Then please, talk to me about anything other than how I’m doing now that Red John is finally out of my life.”
“Fine,” Lisbon said, sighing feebly. “What do you want to talk about?”
“How’s the team?” Jane asked.
“We’re doing fine,” Lisbon answered, rolling her eyes. “I know you always find it hard to believe, but we can close cases without you.”
“I don’t find it hard to believe,” Jane answered. “I just find it hard to believe that you can solve as many cases without me.”
“What about you?” Lisbon asked, changing the subject quickly. “How are you holding up without us?”
Jane shrugged. “Fine, I guess. I mean, being in prison isn’t exactly the Governor’s Ball, and the people here aren’t as half as friendly as you guys are. But I’m used to it by now; this isn’t my first stay in jail, you know.”
“I know,” Lisbon answered quietly.
“And there you go worrying again,” Jane said as he produced a pack of playing cards from his prison uniform. “I need somebody to play with, all of the other jailbirds have sworn off playing with me.”
“I don’t know why,” Lisbon said dryly as he dealt a game of War, she looked at him evenly. “You better not cheat.”
“And what if I do cheat?” Jane asked lightly and raised an eyebrow.
“If you cheat, I won’t come back and visit you.”
He snorted. “Don’t say things that are groundless.”
“But I do mean it,” Lisbon insisted as she picked up her stack of cards and shuffled through them. “If you cheat, I won’t come back and visit you.”
“Okay.” He smirked at her and moved his hands over his stack.
Lisbon rolled her eyes and decided not to indulge him anymore as they both threw their cards down on the table at the same time. Jane flipped his card over and revealed a king of spades. Lisbon pursed her lips and then turned her own card over and found an ace of clubs. She just looked at Jane and shook her head disapprovingly. He smiled.
By the time visiting hours were up an hour later, Lisbon had beat Jane mercilessly at three rounds of War. She stood and stretched, flexing her fingers as she tried not to smile at him. “You let me win.”
Jane smirked mysteriously, not admitting to anything. “Don’t try and lie to me,” Lisbon replied firmly. “I know that you cheated so I could win.”
“I barely did anything,” he finally confessed. “But I had to do something to make sure that you’d come back again.”
“I would have come back if you won fair and square,” Lisbon told him. “I just didn’t want you to win because you cut the deck to your advantage or something like that. But you knew that already, didn’t you.”
“Meh.”
This time Lisbon didn’t force herself not to smile. She looked at him, her eyes sparkling underneath the fluorescent lighting of the visitation room. “You better prepare yourself, because next time I’m bringing the cards. No cheating whatsoever.”
Jane returned her smile and started to shuffle the deck of cards before slipping them back into his pocket. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Lisbon started to walk towards the exit, but took a second to pause and turn around to take another look at him. She smiled at him wistfully before pushing the door open and disappearing from view.
iii. “I brought UNO today.” She took the cardboard box of cards from her pocket and tossed them on the table along with two paper bags from Marie’s.
“You know that UNO isn’t any safer than any of the other card games that we’ve been playing,” Jane warned her. “Did you bring blueberry muffins?”
“Of course,” Lisbon replied, sitting down across from him and picking up the pack of UNO cards. “I’ll deal the first game, if you don’t mind.”
“Lisbon, I’m hurt. . . after all the games that we’ve played together the last few days, you still don’t trust me?”
She smirked at him as she shuffled the cards and dealt out the required hand. “If your fellow liars and cheaters don’t want to play cards with you anymore then why should I trust you? They probably don’t want to play with you for a reason.”
“Because I’m better than they are at playing cards,” Jane replied firmly.
Lisbon shook her head over and drew a card from the top of the deck. “Go on and take your turn.”
Jane glanced at the yellow eight and then placed a red one on top of it. He glanced at her over his handful of cards and sighed. “So. . . .”
“So. . . what?” Lisbon asked, dropping a red five without looking at him.
“How’s the investigation going?”
“It’s-it’s going all right,” Lisbon replied slowly, still not looking at him. “Granted, it isn’t going as quickly as we’d like it to, but there is good progress being made.”
“Good progress,” Jane repeated. “Okay, what kind of good progress is good progress?”
“Cho found out that Brett Partridge was at the scene of the suicide,” Lisbon said, looking at him finally.
“How is that piece of information progress?”
Lisbon sighed. “Well, Partridge never really liked you.”
“I never really liked him, either,” Jane added dryly, tossing down another card. “How does Brett Partridge being at the hotel have to do with anything?”
“Well,” Lisbon answered. “It could have plenty to do with it, especially since he wasn’t assigned to work on the Tagliaferro case.”
Jane drew his lips into a thin line. “Are you saying that Brett Partridge is one of Red John’s disciples?”
Lisbon shrugged. “Could be. He was always a little obsessed with him.”
“But he didn’t know a fake Red John from a real one,” Jane reminded her.
“He could have been pretending, trying to say what most people would think,” she told him.
Jane paused for a second, reflecting on her comment and then he shook his head. “I guess you could be right.”
“Thank you,” Lisbon said, groaning when she saw the card that he had put down. “Really, Jane?”
“Yes, really!” Jane answered. “Draw four, Lisbon, and the color is green.”
Lisbon huffed and picked up the offending four cards as Jane smirked at her.
“Don’t look so smug,” she retorted. “You know what they say, pride goes before the fall.”
“I’m not being smug,” he replied smoothly as he put down another card down. “Now take your turn.”
Lisbon did, and they played in silence for a while until they were both down to the last card.
“You win,” Lisbon said, sighing slightly in defeat.
“You don’t know that,” Jane answered. “Besides, it’s your turn. And unless you need to draw a card because you don’t have a blue, wild, or a draw four card then you win.”
Lisbon looked at the single card in her hand and then back at him. “Well. . .”
“You have a horrible poker face, my dear,” Jane said, smirking. “You beat me; all I have is a yellow draw three.”
“But Jane-” she tried again.
“Nope!” Jane said, scooping up the cards and shuffling them before putting them back in their box. “Congratulations on beating me.”
Lisbon’s cheeks turned pink. “You let me win, because the only card that I have is a yellow reverse. I should have drawn a card.”
“And then - depending on what card that you had gotten - I would have had to draw a card, and it would have been a whole tedious cycle. So, I’m calling game and letting you win. Do you want to play Life?”
“Really Jane?” Lisbon asked. “Life?”
“It’s better than Monopoly,” he answered. “If I see the Get Out Of Jail Free card one more time. . . .”
Lisbon arched her eyebrows. “You do realize that it is just a game?”
“A very boring game.”
“But Life isn’t any better-”
Jane sighed. “Fine, we don’t have to play Life then. How about we play Hangman?”
“Are you trying to keep me here?” Lisbon asked, her lips twitching slightly.
“Oh, no,” Jane answered, a smile quirking his lips up. “You’re free to come and go as you’d like-”
“Just admit it, Jane, you’re trying to get me to stay.”
“I won’t admit to anything,” Jane said stubbornly. “If you have something that you need to do, or somewhere else that you’d rather be then by all means, go and do it.”
A huge smile erupted on Lisbon’s face and she produced a pen from her jacket pocket as she took an empty paper bag and flattened it out. “I don’t have anything that needs my urgent attention, and I certainly don’t have anywhere that I’d rather be right now. I think I could play a couple rounds of Hangman with you. . . but only if you let me go first.”
“Sure,” he said, fighting back the urge to smile. “You can go first if you’d like.”
Lisbon chewed the end of her pen thoughtfully and then uncapped it, making lines quickly. “Okay, eighteen letters, three words and it’s a song title.”
“Is it ‘More Than Words’?” Jane asked.
“Jane!” She said in exasperation.
“What?” He asked innocently. “It isn’t my fault that you’re completely predictable!”
“I want a redo! And this time, I’m going to think of a something really hard!”
“Good luck,” Jane said.
“Just you wait,” Lisbon warned as she mentally calculated the letters in her next word. “Okay, it’s still eighteen letters and three words. But this time, it’s a movie title.”
Jane sighed and propped his elbows up on the table, looking at her carefully drawn lines. “Is there a J?”
“Nope!” Lisbon answered smugly, writing the J near the hangman and drawing a circle.
Jane pursed his lips together thoughtfully. “Is there a T?”
“There are two,” Lisbon answered.
His guessing letters and her confirming if they were right or not went on until most of the letters of the puzzle were filled in.
Jane smiled triumphantly and said jokingly, “I’d like to solve the puzzle Pat.”
“Go on,” Lisbon said, rolling her eyes.
“Little Miss Sunshine,” Jane answered.
“Correct!” Lisbon answered with mock enthusiasm as she pushed the paper and pen towards him. “It’s going to take me a while to figure out how you solved that one, Jane.”
Jane chuckled as he started to make lines on the paper. “What can I say? I guess I just have the magic touch. Okay, eight letters, two words and it’s a phrase.”
Lisbon thought for a second and then smiled. “Is there a K?”
Jane nodded and slowly put the K on the last line. “Next.”
Lisbon bit her lip and smiled at him. “Is there an H?”
“There is an H,” Jane replied.
Her pulse quickened slightly as her smile grew a little wider, suddenly realizing the answer to the puzzle. Honestly, it wasn’t quite that hard. Jane seemed to notice the smile etched across her features, perceiving correctly that she had already discovered the answer.
“Already?” Jane asked, pretending to look disappointed. “And I tried so hard to stump you. Go ahead, solve it since you know what it is.”
“Thank you! It’s thank you!” Lisbon said loudly, drawing the attention of the other cell mates and their visitors.
“Correct,” Jane answered, filling in the rest of the letters.
“Jane?” Lisbon asked, bumping his hand to get his attention.
“Yes?”
“You’re welcome.”