Red Rag to a Bull

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Setting: Early Season 4
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CBI Headquarters, Monday morning.

It was not unusual for Jane to be late to work. In fact, unless they had a call, his colleagues were usually glad when he was. Especially on Mondays. It meant he hadn't spent the weekend sleeping on the couch in the bullpen or in his attic upstairs.
On this particular Monday it was late morning before he arrived.

"Morning Jane" Grace smiled as the blonde consultant threw himself onto to his favorite couch.

"Morning!" he mumbled cheerfully in return "How are you all enjoying being inside on this bright sunny day?"

"Not at all" Rigsby interrupted from behind a towering pile of papers on his desk.

"No calls?"

"Not a single one" Grace said cheerfully.

"Meh," Jane grumbled; "boring."

Grace sighed "We've been over this before Jane, it's a good thing when we don't have a murder scene to attend."

"Yes," Jane murmured, "its a good thing when homicide detectives are bored..."

"Mmmhmm," Grace agreed, already absorbed back into her work.

Jane smiled to himself, Lisbon had told him that. If he remembered correctly (and he always did) he had been kidnapped shortly afterwards. If he was superstitious he would have knocked on wood, but he wasn't, so instead he pushed himself up off the couch and wandered over to Lisbon's office. She wasn't there, and he couldn't see her laptop or bag, so he popped his head around the doorway of the bullpen and called out to the others.
"Hey, anyone seen Lisbon?"

"No." Cho replied.

"Not since Friday, she was still finishing paperwork when I left," Rigsby added. "Grace?"

"Same here, but I think she had a meeting with the Director and Wainright this morning, she'll probably be back after lunch."

"Ah, okay then." Jane walked back into Lisbon's office and lay down on her couch. He could wait for her here, perhaps when she got back he could convince her to get out of her office for lunch, she spent way too much time in here.

It was two hours later that a loud knock woke him from his dose. He turned his head to see Wainright at the door before flickering his eyes towards Lisbon's desk to see if she had snuck in without him noticing (which was unlikely). She hadn't.

Jane noticed Wainright noticing his glance. "So you haven't seen her either huh? She was't at the meeting this morning?" He asked.

"No."

"It's not like her to be late."

"She messaged in sick this morning."

Jane paused for a moment, turning his attention to the ceiling again, "Interesting, I think that must be a first. She usually ignores the fact that she's sick and comes in anyway."

"It's a good thing. She could do with a day off."

"Mmm."

"What is it?"

"Nothing," Jane answered, before swiftly throwing his legs off the side of the couch and standing up. "I'll be back later Luther."

Wainright tried not to be ruffled by the use of his first name, "Where do you think you're going?"

"To see Lisbon. If she's sick she'll be at home."

"And probably enjoying not having to deal with you," Wainright added, blocking the doorway.

Jane smiled at him, "Yes, that's probably true. But she could always do with some tea. Anyway, I've got nothing to do here, we don't have a case, no clues to follow, I'm bored."

"Well then you'll be happy to get straight to the crime scene; a call came in a few minutes ago. You can go bother Lisbon later if you must." Wainright responded, unblocking the doorway and heading towards his office.

"Spoilsport," Jane muttered.

"I heard that!" Wainright reprimanded from down the hall, "Remember, case first."

The consultant rolled his eyes and headed towards the bullpen clapping at the rest of the team to hurry them on. "Come on, things to do, bodies to see, murders to solve." he chanted.

Grace couldn't help but be slightly amused, "You really don't have to seem so enthusiastic Jane" she sighed as he pushed them out the door towards the elevator.

Oakland Road, Sacramento, California

"The car seems to have crashed off the road a few days ago, they haven't pined down the exact date yet or what caused the crash but there are signs that it wasn't an accident." Rigsby summarised.

"And the dead guy?" Jane asked, nodding towards the man sprawled out on the ground.

"Jared Silverstein, 32. Two gunshots to the chest, one to the shoulder, no injuries form the crash though, so I'm guessing he wasn't the driver. Lives about 15 minutes away. 87 Falkland avenue."

"Well most crashes occur less then 20 minute from home" Jane mused. He was quite pleased with the location of this particular crime scene. Lisbon's house was about 10 minutes away, meaning he would probably be able to stop by and see how she was on their way back to the CBI...

"He works at a club in the city," Grace announced, checking her phone as more information arrived, "The Red Room.''

Jane started for a second before plunging his hands into his pockets to find his phone.

"The Red Room. The Red Room. Red room, red room, red room. Why does that sound familiar?" Rigsby questioned, eyebrows raised at Jane's sudden activity.

Cho answered; "Its a high end club, been under surveillance for years as a suspected hot spot for crooked activity all over Sacramento; drugs, murder, hit-men, kidnapping, money laundering, the lot. But no-ones been able to find any hard evidence because they haven't been able to get anyone inside."

Jane hurriedly found a familiar number on his phone.

"Murder, arson and jaywalking hey?" Rigsby smiled.

Jane put the phone to his ear; 'Come on, come on, pick up'. The call went straight to voicemail.

"Pretty much," Cho responded, waking away to talk to the SFPD officer that was motioning to him.

Grace noticed Jane's look of concern as he found another number and tried again. "Are you okay Jane?"

He looked up at her as the second call kept ringing. 'Please pick up'; "Lisbon was helping the drug squad with an investigation. She was working undercover on Friday night. At a bar in the city. The Red Room."

Rigsby and Grace exchanged a worried glance, "You don't think...?"

"Hey guys?" Cho called. "Guys look at this."

Three faces turned to see what Cho was bringing towards them; wrapped in its plastic evidence bag was a short black leather jacket.

"That's not..." Grace started.

Jane let the phone drop slowly from his ear as his call continued to ring through

"...is it?" Rigsby asked.

"They found it further away in the woods, signs of a struggle, possibly 3 or more people. No personal possessions in the pockets but there should be DNA so we can find out from that if..."

"No need for that Cho" Jane interrupted, eyes scouring the jacket for details, "It's Lisbon's."

His call finally stopped ringing and through the silence the whole team could hear the message as it connected to voicemail 'Hi, you've reached Teresa Lisbon, I can't make it to the phone right now so leave your name and number and I'll get back to you. Thanks.'

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Authors Note: I started writing this long enough ago that it was originally set during Hightower's time. Basically the idea was to take a number of things I wanted to see happen in a Mentalist episode and make them happen (Lisbon undercover etc). With the new season premiere about to come out I decided that I should begin publishing in case some of my ideas were used in the show, especially with those pesky adds teasing us so!
Anyways, hope you're enjoying it so far...
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