Follow The Yellow Brick Road (3/11)
Previous Parts: Part One, Part Two
It didn’t take her long to find out everything that John had been up to since she had last seen him. Already, he had four murders to his name, including the one they had just discovered in San Francisco. It was saddening and she was slowly beginning to realize that John was in it deeper than she had ever believed he was. That first death, the one she had happily covered up for him, had probably given him a taste for blood. Now, he was getting more skilled and therefore, more adventurous. Every time he set out to make his latest murder the most daring of the lot. And that could only mean bad news.
She shuddered as she considered this as being the repercussions of her actions. Instead of berating John when he’d first killed, she’d supported him. That had meant that he now believed that murder was acceptable and that he could always get away with it, simply because he had her on side. It was harking back to their days as kids, where he would always look for her support in whatever antics they got up to. As long as he had her by his side, John didn’t care what he did. And now, he was just doing the exact same thing. Except now, it had greater ramifications and the results were all the more horrifying.
Lisbon heard footsteps in the distance and glanced warily up from the computer screen. As the security guard walked in the opposite direction, she breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t particularly want anybody else to know that she was doing this. It was a little suspicious, after all. However, if anybody disturbed her during this search, Lisbon decided that she would just blame it on sheer intrigue. That seeing a Red John murder in the flesh had naturally meant she wanted to keep up to date on the case. It was only natural; statewide serial killers were big business and not just for the agencies in charge of said cases. It was the responsibility of every law enforcement officer to be on the lookout for such criminals, so wanting to know as much as possible made sense.
Or rather, that was what she hoped her colleagues would believe.
xxx
“It was you who invented the Red John pseudonym, wasn’t it?”
Lisbon almost jumped out of her skin. The last person whose voice she expected to hear from directly behind her, at work, was that of John’s. It was rather arrogant of him to come here, almost proud. She didn’t know of anyone else who would dare kill a man and then waltz into a police station, without a care in the world. She sighed; he probably expected that he could waltz straight back out again as well. He was the only person she knew with the audacity to do such a thing.
And the sad fact was that he probably would. That was unless she finally grew a backbone around him and stopped him from doing so. However, she knew that it wasn’t possible to do so without sacrificing everything she had worked so hard for. If she revealed everything she knew about John, then he wouldn’t be the only one going to jail - she would be right beside him. Lisbon wasn’t quite sure what her problem was with him. Everybody else, she had always brushed aside without a care in the world unless they gave her a reason to respect them. There were very few people she had ever been able to truly say she was close to because she had always been happier pushing them away.
Nervously, she glanced over her shoulder. She had only headed into the archives to get a file on the McTeer case. It was an unpleasant one to be working on - pedophilia and child rapists were always the ones that unsettled people. The thought that anyone could do anything so abhorrent to innocent kids always horrified her. They hadn’t had the chance to make their own mistakes yet, deserved to live a proper childhood instead of having it destroyed by something so senseless. Unfortunately, a lot of criminals didn’t see it like that. They thrived knowing they had such power and found some kind of thrill in carrying out taboo acts. How else could she even begin to consider the prevalence of such crimes, otherwise?
John smiled when he realized just how on edge she was and that irritated her. As far as Lisbon was concerned, her nervousness was entirely justified. Even without the additional crimes she knew about, he had just broken into a police station. He didn’t have any right to be in the building and especially not their archives. However, when she realized that they were the only two down there, she breathed a sigh of relief. It was safe to talk, or at least as safe as it could be for two, well, criminals to conspire in a police station.
“Yes, it was,” she eventually answered.
“I like it,” he said lightly, “a little unimaginative, but it works.”
“I don’t care.”
“You can’t say that.”
“I just did,” she responded, refusing to look at him. “Don’t contact me again.”
“Why not?”
“You made me go against every single one of my principles. I did something I never thought I’d even consider doing for you. I don’t want to be put in that position again. Is it really that hard to understand?”
“When you put it like that…”
“Thank you.”
“So this is it, then?”
“Yes, it is. Goodbye.”
She walked away, gripping hold of the file tightly. Stoically, she ignored the hurt expression on his face. It was his fault, it always was. He was the one who had killed not one, but four people, on three separate occasions. Lisbon had never asked him to do that, who would? Nor did she ever ask him to get her so inexplicably involved with the whole sordid affair. She was a cop, she caught the criminals, she didn’t help them along. It was what she’d been doing for years now. Somewhere along the line, John had gotten his wires crossed and seemed convinced otherwise. And at some point, she too, had forgotten that boundary and was trying desperately to claw back her morals, to a certain extent.
Once she reached the door, she stopped and turned on her heels to face him. He was still standing there, alone, doing a very good impression of a little, lost puppy dog. A pang of guilt hit her system and quickly, Lisbon attempted to brush it aside. After all, she was right to try and cast aside his toxic influence. But still, she needed to know.
“What the hell are you doing here, anyway?”
“I thought you said that was it?” he queried, with a smirk.
“John…”
“I needed to see you.”
“Oh.”
He brushed past her and headed up the steps, leaving her feeling somewhat disconcerted. Desperately, she also tried to ignore the fluttering of her heart and the quickening of her breath. Damn it, John didn’t have that effect on her. She’d be damned if she ever fell for a lowlife criminal like he had become. If he was still the person she’d once known, then maybe. But what he was now? Right now, all Lisbon could think was that she would rather have never known him at all.
“It was good to see you again; you’re looking well,” he admitted, with a wry smile. “And I’d suggest you invest in better security.”
xxx
Being the newest member of a team always had its downsides. Lisbon had expected that, by now, somebody would have replaced her in the rookie position, that she would have moved on from it, but unfortunately, they hadn’t. Nobody had particularly wanted to move on from their police department and therefore, promotions were hard to come by. It also meant that she was still stuck with all the dull jobs that nobody else wanted to do, such as manning the phones, doing background checks or the mid-morning coffee run.
And that was the exact reason why she found herself waiting in a bustling coffee shop to be served at eleven am.
She found the job a little demeaning sometimes. Of course, she understood that the once or twice weekly treat was meant to boost morale, but for her, it was always an inane, dull task. Instead of being entrusted with something pertaining to cases, she was stuck, waiting for the elderly gentleman to make up his mind whether or not he wanted coffee or tea and the screaming kids running riot when they should really have been at school. Lisbon wouldn’t have been quite so annoyed with it had she still been only two months into the job, but now, she had been pressing on for two years. As far as she was concerned, it was about time the responsibility was shared out. Buying coffees wasn’t a skill she had wanted to hone by moving to San Francisco.
The bell above the door jangled and automatically, she looked around to see who else had come in. A couple, a man with curly blond hair and his vaguely pretty partner, were obviously in the middle of a fight. Lisbon cringed in response. She was already annoyed enough as it was, without having been forced to endure listening into them arguing.
“Patrick, we’ve left the carnival now, do you have to continue-”
“Darling, you never really leave.”
“That’s not what you said a year ago,” she answered back with a furrowed brow.
“How else do you expect me to make money to support us?”
“By doing an honest days’ work instead of pretending to be a psychic, perhaps?”
Lisbon pinched the bridge of her nose in attempt to stave off the oncoming headache. Briefly, she pondered the decision about getting a decaf instead; caffeine never did her head any good. Then again, neither did listening to two people rowing down her ear. If they had been speaking quietly, then she would have been able to blot them out. It didn’t matter that the pair of them were both pretty in their own way; looks only got you so far. They certainly didn’t have the right to treat everybody else with so much disregard. There was a time and a place for heated debates and as far as Lisbon was concerned, this was most certainly not it.
“Excuse me!”
“Yes?”
“You’ve cut the queue.”
“And?”
The woman looked deeply humiliated by her husband and Lisbon couldn’t blame her. Had she been with the egotistical jackass, she wouldn’t have tolerated such behavior. However, having overheard their previous discussion, Lisbon couldn’t help but think that she had more important things to worry about. Not that it was any of her business. All she was here for were some coffees and donuts.
“You think that because you’re a cop, you’re always in the right?”
Lisbon pulled herself up to her fullest height, not that it made all that much difference. Being relatively petite always meant that when it came to sizing people up, she always had a bit of a handicap. Still, she was slowly learning how to intimidate people in other ways, thanks to her job. A steely glare, when used correctly, could work wonders on occasion.
“No, not because I’m a cop, but because there’s a queue for a reason.”
“He’s sorry,” the woman said quickly, “aren’t you, dear?”
The man shrugged his shoulders, but acquiesced because his wife said so. Still, Lisbon was relieved when she was finally able to place her order. The sooner she could leave and get away from the nutcases in the café, the better.
xxx
A blood-curdling scream filled the general vicinity. Across the road, a pair of dogs barked in response and a baby started crying. However, Lisbon and Bosco didn’t care. They had received a tip-off and therefore, had a job to do. Instead, the pair of them carefully removed their guns from their holsters and edged closer to the front and back door respectively. Things were getting dangerous and the wrong move, the wrong decision could cost an innocent person their life. It was a little foolhardy, even considering to enter without backup, but they didn’t have the time to waste. The sooner they got in there the more likely they were to save a life and that was the only thing racing through both their minds.
“In three,” Bosco mumbled down the intercom and Lisbon steadied herself. “One, two…”
As soon as the number three crackled through, she pushed her entire weight against the front door and was pleasantly surprised that she had immediately gained access to the townhouse. Realistically, she knew that the door had probably been weakened or at least, not locked properly by the original intruder, but she couldn’t help but be pleased with herself. She wasn’t exactly the biggest - or strongest - of people. With practiced ease, she crept along, desperately searching out for signs of the disturbance. The house had fallen deathly silent, apart from the sounds of Bosco doing his rounds at the other end of the building and that was worrying in itself. Within fifteen seconds, she had made it into the lounge.
“Clear,” she heard Bosco yell from another room, possibly the kitchen.
She was too late. The girl - in her early twenties - was dripping with blood. As far as she could tell, there were no signs of life left. However, that hadn’t been the first thing she had noticed in the small room. On the wall, only half painted, was an all too familiar motif. That of a smiley face, daubed with the victim’s blood. A familiar figure was standing in front of her too, shaking as he placed a gun back in the waistband of his pants.
Without even noticing, she had dropped her own firearm and slowly but surely, Lisbon glanced down at her abdomen. There was blood, too much of it considering she had indeed been wearing her bulletproof vest. Obviously, the SFPD’s equipment wasn’t quite as up-to-date and well maintained as she had assumed it was. Automatically, she staggered back a couple of steps before being unable to stand any longer. Her knees buckled and she found herself lying on the floor, clutching at her stomach in attempt to stem the flow of blood.
“Teresa?” John said, his fingers shaking as he removed the plastic formed mask he’d been wearing.
John quickly closed the gap between them. He was shaking as he did so. Her breaths were rasping and although she wasn’t in much pain yet, she knew that was purely because of the dose of adrenaline that was running through her system. The moment that that subsided, the situation would become completely different.
“I’m sorry. If I knew it was you I would have…”
“Go, just go,” she mumbled, hoping that he could get away before Bosco arrived. He had seconds, if that.
As she slowly slipped into unconsciousness, she wasn’t sure whether or not to be relieved by the sound of footsteps filling the space around her.
To Part Four
It didn’t take her long to find out everything that John had been up to since she had last seen him. Already, he had four murders to his name, including the one they had just discovered in San Francisco. It was saddening and she was slowly beginning to realize that John was in it deeper than she had ever believed he was. That first death, the one she had happily covered up for him, had probably given him a taste for blood. Now, he was getting more skilled and therefore, more adventurous. Every time he set out to make his latest murder the most daring of the lot. And that could only mean bad news.
She shuddered as she considered this as being the repercussions of her actions. Instead of berating John when he’d first killed, she’d supported him. That had meant that he now believed that murder was acceptable and that he could always get away with it, simply because he had her on side. It was harking back to their days as kids, where he would always look for her support in whatever antics they got up to. As long as he had her by his side, John didn’t care what he did. And now, he was just doing the exact same thing. Except now, it had greater ramifications and the results were all the more horrifying.
Lisbon heard footsteps in the distance and glanced warily up from the computer screen. As the security guard walked in the opposite direction, she breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t particularly want anybody else to know that she was doing this. It was a little suspicious, after all. However, if anybody disturbed her during this search, Lisbon decided that she would just blame it on sheer intrigue. That seeing a Red John murder in the flesh had naturally meant she wanted to keep up to date on the case. It was only natural; statewide serial killers were big business and not just for the agencies in charge of said cases. It was the responsibility of every law enforcement officer to be on the lookout for such criminals, so wanting to know as much as possible made sense.
Or rather, that was what she hoped her colleagues would believe.
xxx
“It was you who invented the Red John pseudonym, wasn’t it?”
Lisbon almost jumped out of her skin. The last person whose voice she expected to hear from directly behind her, at work, was that of John’s. It was rather arrogant of him to come here, almost proud. She didn’t know of anyone else who would dare kill a man and then waltz into a police station, without a care in the world. She sighed; he probably expected that he could waltz straight back out again as well. He was the only person she knew with the audacity to do such a thing.
And the sad fact was that he probably would. That was unless she finally grew a backbone around him and stopped him from doing so. However, she knew that it wasn’t possible to do so without sacrificing everything she had worked so hard for. If she revealed everything she knew about John, then he wouldn’t be the only one going to jail - she would be right beside him. Lisbon wasn’t quite sure what her problem was with him. Everybody else, she had always brushed aside without a care in the world unless they gave her a reason to respect them. There were very few people she had ever been able to truly say she was close to because she had always been happier pushing them away.
Nervously, she glanced over her shoulder. She had only headed into the archives to get a file on the McTeer case. It was an unpleasant one to be working on - pedophilia and child rapists were always the ones that unsettled people. The thought that anyone could do anything so abhorrent to innocent kids always horrified her. They hadn’t had the chance to make their own mistakes yet, deserved to live a proper childhood instead of having it destroyed by something so senseless. Unfortunately, a lot of criminals didn’t see it like that. They thrived knowing they had such power and found some kind of thrill in carrying out taboo acts. How else could she even begin to consider the prevalence of such crimes, otherwise?
John smiled when he realized just how on edge she was and that irritated her. As far as Lisbon was concerned, her nervousness was entirely justified. Even without the additional crimes she knew about, he had just broken into a police station. He didn’t have any right to be in the building and especially not their archives. However, when she realized that they were the only two down there, she breathed a sigh of relief. It was safe to talk, or at least as safe as it could be for two, well, criminals to conspire in a police station.
“Yes, it was,” she eventually answered.
“I like it,” he said lightly, “a little unimaginative, but it works.”
“I don’t care.”
“You can’t say that.”
“I just did,” she responded, refusing to look at him. “Don’t contact me again.”
“Why not?”
“You made me go against every single one of my principles. I did something I never thought I’d even consider doing for you. I don’t want to be put in that position again. Is it really that hard to understand?”
“When you put it like that…”
“Thank you.”
“So this is it, then?”
“Yes, it is. Goodbye.”
She walked away, gripping hold of the file tightly. Stoically, she ignored the hurt expression on his face. It was his fault, it always was. He was the one who had killed not one, but four people, on three separate occasions. Lisbon had never asked him to do that, who would? Nor did she ever ask him to get her so inexplicably involved with the whole sordid affair. She was a cop, she caught the criminals, she didn’t help them along. It was what she’d been doing for years now. Somewhere along the line, John had gotten his wires crossed and seemed convinced otherwise. And at some point, she too, had forgotten that boundary and was trying desperately to claw back her morals, to a certain extent.
Once she reached the door, she stopped and turned on her heels to face him. He was still standing there, alone, doing a very good impression of a little, lost puppy dog. A pang of guilt hit her system and quickly, Lisbon attempted to brush it aside. After all, she was right to try and cast aside his toxic influence. But still, she needed to know.
“What the hell are you doing here, anyway?”
“I thought you said that was it?” he queried, with a smirk.
“John…”
“I needed to see you.”
“Oh.”
He brushed past her and headed up the steps, leaving her feeling somewhat disconcerted. Desperately, she also tried to ignore the fluttering of her heart and the quickening of her breath. Damn it, John didn’t have that effect on her. She’d be damned if she ever fell for a lowlife criminal like he had become. If he was still the person she’d once known, then maybe. But what he was now? Right now, all Lisbon could think was that she would rather have never known him at all.
“It was good to see you again; you’re looking well,” he admitted, with a wry smile. “And I’d suggest you invest in better security.”
xxx
Being the newest member of a team always had its downsides. Lisbon had expected that, by now, somebody would have replaced her in the rookie position, that she would have moved on from it, but unfortunately, they hadn’t. Nobody had particularly wanted to move on from their police department and therefore, promotions were hard to come by. It also meant that she was still stuck with all the dull jobs that nobody else wanted to do, such as manning the phones, doing background checks or the mid-morning coffee run.
And that was the exact reason why she found herself waiting in a bustling coffee shop to be served at eleven am.
She found the job a little demeaning sometimes. Of course, she understood that the once or twice weekly treat was meant to boost morale, but for her, it was always an inane, dull task. Instead of being entrusted with something pertaining to cases, she was stuck, waiting for the elderly gentleman to make up his mind whether or not he wanted coffee or tea and the screaming kids running riot when they should really have been at school. Lisbon wouldn’t have been quite so annoyed with it had she still been only two months into the job, but now, she had been pressing on for two years. As far as she was concerned, it was about time the responsibility was shared out. Buying coffees wasn’t a skill she had wanted to hone by moving to San Francisco.
The bell above the door jangled and automatically, she looked around to see who else had come in. A couple, a man with curly blond hair and his vaguely pretty partner, were obviously in the middle of a fight. Lisbon cringed in response. She was already annoyed enough as it was, without having been forced to endure listening into them arguing.
“Patrick, we’ve left the carnival now, do you have to continue-”
“Darling, you never really leave.”
“That’s not what you said a year ago,” she answered back with a furrowed brow.
“How else do you expect me to make money to support us?”
“By doing an honest days’ work instead of pretending to be a psychic, perhaps?”
Lisbon pinched the bridge of her nose in attempt to stave off the oncoming headache. Briefly, she pondered the decision about getting a decaf instead; caffeine never did her head any good. Then again, neither did listening to two people rowing down her ear. If they had been speaking quietly, then she would have been able to blot them out. It didn’t matter that the pair of them were both pretty in their own way; looks only got you so far. They certainly didn’t have the right to treat everybody else with so much disregard. There was a time and a place for heated debates and as far as Lisbon was concerned, this was most certainly not it.
“Excuse me!”
“Yes?”
“You’ve cut the queue.”
“And?”
The woman looked deeply humiliated by her husband and Lisbon couldn’t blame her. Had she been with the egotistical jackass, she wouldn’t have tolerated such behavior. However, having overheard their previous discussion, Lisbon couldn’t help but think that she had more important things to worry about. Not that it was any of her business. All she was here for were some coffees and donuts.
“You think that because you’re a cop, you’re always in the right?”
Lisbon pulled herself up to her fullest height, not that it made all that much difference. Being relatively petite always meant that when it came to sizing people up, she always had a bit of a handicap. Still, she was slowly learning how to intimidate people in other ways, thanks to her job. A steely glare, when used correctly, could work wonders on occasion.
“No, not because I’m a cop, but because there’s a queue for a reason.”
“He’s sorry,” the woman said quickly, “aren’t you, dear?”
The man shrugged his shoulders, but acquiesced because his wife said so. Still, Lisbon was relieved when she was finally able to place her order. The sooner she could leave and get away from the nutcases in the café, the better.
xxx
A blood-curdling scream filled the general vicinity. Across the road, a pair of dogs barked in response and a baby started crying. However, Lisbon and Bosco didn’t care. They had received a tip-off and therefore, had a job to do. Instead, the pair of them carefully removed their guns from their holsters and edged closer to the front and back door respectively. Things were getting dangerous and the wrong move, the wrong decision could cost an innocent person their life. It was a little foolhardy, even considering to enter without backup, but they didn’t have the time to waste. The sooner they got in there the more likely they were to save a life and that was the only thing racing through both their minds.
“In three,” Bosco mumbled down the intercom and Lisbon steadied herself. “One, two…”
As soon as the number three crackled through, she pushed her entire weight against the front door and was pleasantly surprised that she had immediately gained access to the townhouse. Realistically, she knew that the door had probably been weakened or at least, not locked properly by the original intruder, but she couldn’t help but be pleased with herself. She wasn’t exactly the biggest - or strongest - of people. With practiced ease, she crept along, desperately searching out for signs of the disturbance. The house had fallen deathly silent, apart from the sounds of Bosco doing his rounds at the other end of the building and that was worrying in itself. Within fifteen seconds, she had made it into the lounge.
“Clear,” she heard Bosco yell from another room, possibly the kitchen.
She was too late. The girl - in her early twenties - was dripping with blood. As far as she could tell, there were no signs of life left. However, that hadn’t been the first thing she had noticed in the small room. On the wall, only half painted, was an all too familiar motif. That of a smiley face, daubed with the victim’s blood. A familiar figure was standing in front of her too, shaking as he placed a gun back in the waistband of his pants.
Without even noticing, she had dropped her own firearm and slowly but surely, Lisbon glanced down at her abdomen. There was blood, too much of it considering she had indeed been wearing her bulletproof vest. Obviously, the SFPD’s equipment wasn’t quite as up-to-date and well maintained as she had assumed it was. Automatically, she staggered back a couple of steps before being unable to stand any longer. Her knees buckled and she found herself lying on the floor, clutching at her stomach in attempt to stem the flow of blood.
“Teresa?” John said, his fingers shaking as he removed the plastic formed mask he’d been wearing.
John quickly closed the gap between them. He was shaking as he did so. Her breaths were rasping and although she wasn’t in much pain yet, she knew that was purely because of the dose of adrenaline that was running through her system. The moment that that subsided, the situation would become completely different.
“I’m sorry. If I knew it was you I would have…”
“Go, just go,” she mumbled, hoping that he could get away before Bosco arrived. He had seconds, if that.
As she slowly slipped into unconsciousness, she wasn’t sure whether or not to be relieved by the sound of footsteps filling the space around her.
To Part Four