A/N: This is my first attempt at a longer Mentalist fanfiction. I'd appreciate feedback very much (also critical reviews). This story could probably be considered Lisbon centric, but Jane will play a major role in it.

Takes place shortly after the reboot and goes AU after 6x11. (No CBI killer storyline and no Pike).

Prologue

Lisbon climbed the few steps up to the front door. She couldn't really explain why, but she had a very bad feeling about this.

"Agent Lisbon?" The officer shook her hand as she nodded. "Thanks for coming. It's probably nothing, but I thought better be safe." He ducked under the yellow crime scene tape and Lisbon followed him, trying to ignore the knot in her stomach.

"You said it looks like a suicide?" she asked him.

"Yeah, we got the call from the neighbour next door. They were supposed to meet for a run in the park and when she didn't open the door she got worried."

They turned around a corner into the living room and Lisbon felt her blood freeze. It was as if someone had turned back time.

Amanda Shaw was hanging from a chandelier like lamp in the middle of the room. Clad in a white morning robe, a bed linen used as a rope.

Just this wasn't Amanda Shaw.

"Her name's Linda Shaw," the officer said, "she's 26 and from Sacramento. Does she look familiar to you, do you know her?"

Lisbon heard his voice only faintly, as if from far away. She couldn't avert her eyes from the scene in front of her. The resemblance was remarkable.

"Agent Lisbon?"

She shook her head slowly, it took her all the effort to turn towards him.

"No, I don't know her, but I knew her sister, Amanda Shaw. What was she doing in Austin?" She forced herself to look at him.

"Her parents couldn't tell. Apparently she rented the house just a month ago, fully furnished. No one in her family even knew that she was in Texas." He shrugged and walked over the coffee table.

Lisbon followed him, her eyes fixated on the open laptop on the small table.

"I thought you might want to see this, that's why we decided to call you."

A single document was open and it only contained one line of text.

Agent Teresa Lisbon

"You knew her sister, is she dead?" the officer asked again.

"Yes," Lisbon answered, her voice firm despite the tumult of feelings inside her. "She was a murder victim in a case I worked on back in California."

"Do you have any idea what this could be about?" He pointed towards the screen.

Lisbon took a deep breath. "Maybe."

She closed her eyes for a moment. "Did she leave a suicide note? Maybe per E-mail?"

The officer looked at her, astonished. "Yeah, how did you know that? As a matter of fact, she mentions you in the e-mail-"

Lisbon interrupted him before he could finish his sentence ."I've seen this before." She took out her phone. "That's how we found her sister. But Amanda Shaw didn't commit suicide, it was murder."

"Murder? You think it could be the same here?" The officer turned around and stared at Linda Shaw, as if he saw the body for the first time.

"The autopsy will tell." Lisbon dialed a number on her phone. "Could you send me a copy of the files?", she asked the officer, while waiting for someone to pick up.

"Hey. It's Lisbon. I need a case file from a few years back, " she nodded as she turned around and left the house, "Yeah, it might be a bit more difficult than that. It's an old file from the CBI, you think you can get that for me, Wylie?"