Chapter 6

He couldn't believe it, Lisbon never acted like this before! He turns to find Catherine sitting on the couch, jotting down numbers slowly as though she were sidetracked. She kept glancing at the clock and then tried to focus on her numbers, three seconds later she looks back up at the clock.

"If your anxious about your mother I'm sure she'll be fine."

He's rewarded with a quick glance.

This girl knows things. He thinks to himself. She spent THREE years with HIM, she must know who he is, maybe even more than that. He needs that information but she hasn't said a word for the past four years and he already knows from experience that she won't let him go relatively near her. But she knows what's going to happen next, and he needs to get something out of this girl.

For a while he's stumped, but then he gets an idea. A brilliant idea.

"Have you ever played with cards?"

No response but Jane isn't even fazed as he grabs a deck of cards and invites her over to the table.

"It's called the Math Card Trick."

That got her attention. She sets down her notebook and sits across from him at the table. Watching with fascination as he deals out 27 cards face up into a grid of 9 rows and 3 columns. He puts the remaining cards away.

"Pick a card and tell me which column it's in."

She shows three fingers and then points to the middle column.

"Alright so 3 of hearts in the middle column."

Jane shuffles the 27 cards again and then does them vertically, afterwards he picks up cards from the top of the column to the bottom; keeping them in the same order. Then to Catherine's surprise Jane deals the cards again just this time horizontally across the rows first.

"So Catherine tell me which column contains your card."

She points to the last column at the right, where Jane finds her card. She knew exactly where he had placed it. He deals again and starts over, they replay the game a few more times and she continuously gets it right.

The first game: 3

The second game: 5

The third game: 2

The fourth game: 6

"So the next numbers are 3526"

Her eyes widen.

"It's just a card trick a lot of people fall for it. I can gain information from people through cards. You don't talk you just write numbers so I played this one and you fell for it."

Without warning she shoots out of her seat, grabs the deck of cards and throws them at Jane. She bolts out of the house before he can even get to her.

"Catherine! Catherine wait!"

He can just make out her running down hill towards the beach. Racing towards her Jane gets to the beach and she's...gone? That's not right, he takes a guess and goes left on the shore. Eventually he reaches a WARNING sign that's all about staying clear from the rocky shore due to rip tides. At first he ignores it but a second look reveals the numbers 3526 in tiny word print.

It doesn't take long for him to reach the large black boulders and he searches extensively for her.

"Catherine?"

Waves pound against the rocks, splashing Jane and making the rocks slippery underneath his feet. He slides down one and onto another, only momentarily losing his footing. The waves are becoming relentless, he's going to have to speed up the progress. After a while he sees a red scarf flapping madly in the wind, a red gloved hand reaches out and pulls it back out of sight. It's Catherine, she has hidden herself in the darkness between two large boulders.

"Catherine!"

He gets up to where she is and holds out his hand.

"Common it's dangerous out here. Let me help you get down."

Instead she slides down onto the beach and starts walking along the shore. She stops after reaching a fair distance and turns to watch him, waiting for Jane to catch up. He gets a little too close for comfort and she backs away in an instant.

She looks afraid and rather small due to basically being soaked to the bone. But it's her eyes that say something different. They're accusing, they have that same intensity as her mothers eyes. Hot, fiery green.

"Catherine I had to know the next set I need to catch him!"

She roles her eyes and crosses her arms, another trait she picked up from her mother. He tries again.

"I used to have a daughter named Charlotte, she was the light of my world."

He has to take a breath.

"Charlotte was spontaneous and creative, she was always in her fairy outfit casting magic spells on everything..."

He lets out a hollow laugh.

"She was so convinced that I was a magician that she'd try to mimic my 'magic'. Charlotte was a psychic in the making. But then he took her away."

This gets Catherine's attention.

"Red John murdered my wife and daughter he tore them away from me! That's why I tricked you, I wanted information. Don't you see Catherine? I've spent years hunting him with no reward. Nothing. I keep just missing him so I played a game with you, and I got the next numbers."

There's a brief moment of silence.

"Red John belongs to me. I will find him, and I will have my revenge."

She relents and nods her understanding. Then she grabs his hand and writes in sharpie:

Roy=76

"Thank you."

The poor girl starts shivering.

"Yeah I'm cold to, let's go back home and warm up."

The both of them walk towards his house in silence. She is still keeping her distance but is now just half an inch closer.

After cleaning up and changing Catherine finds two black leather gloves in one of her drawers and puts them on. She's in a light purple long-sleeved shirt and blue jeans, she puts on her shoes.

"Where are you going?"

Catherine blinks, looking at Jane standing in her doorway. She merely shrugs and finds her black notebook, writing down more numbers.

For the most part the two of them relax: Jane watching animal planet and Catherine writing numbers. But at precisely 9:15 she races towards the door and waits impatiently for her mother, who comes in completely exhausted with a envelope in her hand. Jane quickly meets up with Lisbon and Catherine follows faithfully behind her.

"So?"

"I got the letter and there are a lot of conspiracy theories floating around, no one actually took notice that I took the letter so we might get a call tomorrow about the disappearance. But yes it was utter chaos in there."

"Sounds pretty bad. How did you get out?"

"Someone else was there, I caught a glimpse of him turning a corner into another hall. So I followed him but by the time I got to where I saw him the EXIT door shut. When I went outside he was just...gone, so I went to the parking garage and drove home."

She runs her forehead.

"There were so many people, they just filled the hallway. But you know, when I saw that guy it was at 8:50pm..."

She looks up at Jane.

"Maybe it was him?"

"Show me the letter."

"I can't give it to you, it's addressed to Miss Catherine Sinclair."

Catherine shakes her head and starts backing away.

"What if I opened it for you? You have Jane and I here, Red John can't hurt you."

She begins to open the envelope which is when Catherine snatches it away from her and tears it in half, drops it on the floor, and runs off to her room. Lisbon picks up the pieces and takes out the letter:

1236 7865 3181 5437 9923 4436 4980 7564 1890 2837 7438

I'm waiting.

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