The Mute Siren

Pilot [4]

"'Greetings, old friend. It's been a while'." Van Pelt read from the letter that Patrick had just received. "I hope you and your daughter are keeping well',"

Patrick's hold on Serena tightened a bit as he hugged her close, the girl shaking like a leaf now that she understood who had been mere centimeters away from them.

"'I am thriving and happy. I have 12 wives now and will soon begin courting Number 13. Why can't you catch me? You must feel so powerless and stupid and sad. Oh, well. All the best. Red John,'" Van Pelt placed the paper back on the table and looked around the room at the team.

"That sounds like the real deal to me," Cho claimed.

"Sounds like Red John. It's not." Patrick admitted "Red John wouldn't risk capture just to taunt me,"

"So the real killer's trying to throw us off track?" Rigsby wondered.

"Cho, find out where Price Randolph was a half an hour ago. Rigsby, check the hotel security cameras. Get those over to Forensics,"

Once the team left to do their tasks, Lisbon turned to look at Patrick and Serena.

"You okay?"

"Absolutely," Patrick said, not looking up at Lisbon as he looked down at Serena, who had finally calmed down and was messing around with his sleeve.

"Get some sleep," Lisbon nodded as she exited the room.

"You heard the woman," Patrick told Serena as he began tucking her in.

"You're not going to sleep are you?" Serena signed.

Patrick leaned down and kissed the top of Serena's head "Get some sleep," he repeated.

***

Serena sat across from her father as she drew in her sketch pad.

Patrick was busy writing stuff down in a journal.

The team walked in and saw the mess that was Patrick Jane.

Serena kicked her father in the leg to let him know the team was there.

"Morning," Patrick greeted as Serena waved.

"You didn't sleep did you?" Lisbon asked.

Patrick merely sipped his soda.

Lisbon sighed as she picked up her cell phone "Hi. I'd like to make an appointment with Dr. Wagner, please. It's urgent. Jane. Patrick Jane. Yeah, I'll hold,"

"Forensics maybe got a break." Rigsby said after he got off the phone "Blood on the cloth in the envelope is Alison Randolph's. But they found a hair in there, that doesn't belong to her or Tannen. Guess who it does belong to,"

***

"It's yours, Tag." Cho told the man in front of him as he moved the screen for Tag to see the positive match screen "Amazing, huh?"

The rest of the team were in another room watching from the computer monitors.

"Science,"

Tag took off his glasses in frustration "This is insane. I didn't...I didn't kill Alison,"

"How do you explain your hair?" Cho questioned.

"Either it was a mistake, or I'm being framed,"

"Who would wanna frame you? We don't want to if that's what you're thinking,"

Serena tilted her head and tugged on her father's sleeve to get his attention. "Lovers?"

Patrick winked at his daughter causing her to smile.

"Who would wanna frame you, Tag?" Cho repeated his previous question.

"My brother," Tag claimed.

"Why would he wanna do that?"

"Alison and I were lovers,"

Serena's smile grew at the confirmation.

"Mm-hm," Patrick hummed.

***

"So..." Dr. Wagner said as he settled into his seat.

Serena and Patrick took a seat across from him.

"So," Patrick echoed.

"I usually don't allow visitors to one on one sessions," Dr. Wagner said as he nodded towards Serena.

"Well, there was an incident last night and I don't feel safe having her out of my sight," Patrick looked over at Dr. Wagner to gauge his response.

Dr. Wagner merely nodded and moved back to the point at hand "Why is it you can't sleep?"

"Because I can't get the good pills without talking to a doctor,"

"And you don't like talking to doctors,"

"Eh," Patrick shrugged. "They always wanna be the smartest person in the room, don't they? When, in fact, that's me, obviously,"

Dr. Wagner chuckled softly as he observed Patric "You protect your core self very fiercely. What do you think is the reason for that?"

"You know, this is exactly how I imagined it would be. You gonna ask me about my mother?"

"Do you want me to ask about your mother?"

"I just wanna sleep,"

"So, what is it that keeps you awake?"

Serena felt her breathing become labored as she squeezed her eyes shut. Her mind went back to the fateful night:

Her sister and she had decided to ride their bikes inside since it had been raining. Her mother smiled at the duo until there was a knock on the door...that fateful knock. After that everything was blurred in red and screams. At some point Serena had found herself under the bed, watching as Red John painted his signature smiley face using her mother's blood as if it were nothing more than store-bought paint.

Syrena was brought back to the present by Dr. Wagner calling her father's name.

"Mr. Jane?" Dr. Wagner asked. "What is it that keeps you awake?"

Patrick looked over at Syrena and squeezed her hand, knowing what she had just relived. He sighed as he turned towards Dr. Wagner. "You know, when I was a boy, we had a farm. There was a lot of work. I was kind of a lazy kid,"

"Yes?"

"I'd always be trying to get my little brother, Jimmy, to do my chores for me. One day, I promised him a dollar if he'd cut the firewood. Well...he opened up an artery in his leg on the saw, and he bled to death. Died...doing my chores for me,"

"You know...that's almost exactly the same thing that happened to Johnny Cash,"

"Is it really?"

Dr. Wagner nodded.

"Wow." Patrick marveled. "That's spooky,"