Ronnie Masters | the MENTALIST (COMPLETE)

RED HANDED : pt I

Nearly a week after Ronnie was abducted by the recently-incarcerated Kyle Johnson, the team got called out to the California-Nevada state line where a severed hand was found on the interstate highway, right on the dividing line. The call to the CBI had been received with unbelieving stares followed by a macabre display of enthusiasm to pack up and see the mangled appendage for themselves. 

Rigsby and Jane were more excited than anybody, with Cho as a runner-up; taking the lead in the utterly disgusted category was Van Pelt, and Lisbon still held the undefeated champion title of Annoyed With Jane Enabling Rigsby. 

Ronnie was not only indifferent to the issue, but also disturbingly okay with it. When Lisbon said, 'chopped hand on the freeway,' Ronnie said, 'then I guess now would be an awesome time to mention that I brought finger foods for lunch.' It wasn't often that she interacted boldly in front of the entire team, preferring instead to remain largely unnoticed, but when she did it was always unsettling and concerning. 

Rigsby in particular always responded to her grisly remarks with a disturbed sideways glance and an awkward shuffling of his feet.

Jane subsequently made a comment about Ronnie's apparent experience with dismembered appendages, to which she made no comment. Explaining herself was not included in her list of special skills.

She had been waiting for Rigsby to ask questions for the whole ride to the scene, and as of yet, he never did. 

State troopers and cops surrounded the area of the hand when the CBI team arrived. Ronnie all but fell out of the car, buttoning in black dress shirt over her t-shirt and rolling up the sleeves. She tucked the ends into her waistband and tucked her badge into her pocket. She wasn't all that jazzed about huddling over a chunk of someone's arm which probably smelled like roadkill and was probably sticking to the asphalt. 

Lisbon split off to speak to the officers in charge while the others approached the sun-cracked hand inquisitively. 

"That damn GPS is gonna put us in California," Cho grumbled as he approached. Evidently he had no desire to be personally in charge of tracking down the owner of a hand. She didn't blame him—she knew for a fact how hard it was to follow the trail of properly discarded body parts. 

Ronnie sipped at an energy drink, dropping down on one knee to further inspect the ugly hunk of flesh. She identified the laceration markings as the result of a handsaw—too clean to have been broken and ripped off in an accident, and just uneven enough to rule out something dramatic like a sword or an axe. 

"Think positive," Rigsby urged in agreement. "It's Nevada. Definitely Nevada." 

Ronnie took a mental note of the number 43 scrawled in blocky, lined script on the palm and got back to her feet, waiting to see what Jane would say about it. His brain worked better in the blistering heat than hers did.

"You're dreaming," Cho crossed his arms pessimistically, "We won't catch it. Stone cold mystery."

Van Pelt said something about running the fingerprints, but Ronnie was too busy watching Jane circle the hand to pay much attention. She wasn't sure she liked the look of childish amusement on his face. 

She glanced over at Cho to see if he made anything of the scene and paused suddenly when she noticed that he looked particularly good for some reason. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary—his short-sleeve button down, dark tie, and business pants were all normal. Maybe it was the way the sunlight glowed in his skin, but Ronnie felt struck indescribably by his presence. She couldn't put her finger on it. 

"Why all the gloom?" Jane was asking. "A case is a case." 

Rigsby looked significantly less enthused than he had when he first heard about the appendage. "We are in the middle of nowhere, windy as all hell, I haven't, eaten anything,"