Lie To Me Fan Fiction ❯ Suffering Consciences ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: All characters introduced in the television series `Lie To Me' are owned by Fox and are not mine. All other non-recognizable characters are mine unless other wise stated in an author's note.

 

Chapter 1

 

Dr. Cal Lightman's house was situated in a comfortable part of Beverly Hills, surrounded by palm trees and parks, along with the occasional restaurant or other business. The houses next to his were built in the usual Beverly Hills fashion, with numerous large windows and rounded-top doors. His ordinary house therefore stood out among these multi-million dollar behemoths, with its slanted, shingled roof and unassuming front view. The inside of the house, however, was a completely different story. The expensively decorated front hallway stretched away from the front door to lead visitors to either the gourmet-like kitchen, situated on the right side of the hallway and twelve feet away from the door, or the living room, complete with a 52” plasma screen TV, a straight fifteen feet from the entrance door. Two doors leading off of the living room led either to Dr. Lightman's room or to the guest room, depending on whether the left or right door was chosen, respectively.

As always, when Cal entered his house and locked the door behind him, he completely ignored the kitchen, living room, and right doorway, heading straight to his room. Putting his suitcase down on his ordinary desk next to his black Dell laptop, he sat on his king-sized bed and removed his shoes and socks. He also shrugged off his black jacket and laid it on the desk chair, then lay down on the bed, ignoring the fact that his starched white shirt was slowly being wrinkled under his slight frame. His eyes gazed up at the ceiling, focusing on nothing in particular, instead seeing images from his day in the office. Today Agent Reynolds had brought in a young woman suspected of being involved in a drug ring. The young woman had left an impression on him, her unyielding eyes and never-softening features impressed on his mind's eye. He'd guessed that she was around twenty, since the police files had nothing on her and she had refused to give him anything. She'd had red-gold hair and hazelnut eyes, in both shape and color, and her delicate hands hadn't twitched a bit during her interrogation. Cal Lightman had found himself irresistibly drawn to her, even under such a cloud as she was.

The ringing of his cell phone brought Cal out of his dizzying reveries, and the renowned body expressions expert flipped open the handheld. “Hello, Dr. Lightman speaking.”
“Dr. Lightman, it's Special Agent Reynolds,” Cal heard his bodyguard say. “We've got a situation. The woman I brought in earlier is being held captive by the drug ring leader, and he's threatening to kill her if we don't halt the investigation.”

“Well, you can handle that yourself, can't you? I mean, you were an FBI agent before you came to work for me, so-” The man cut him off.

“The guy's insisting to see you, so I thought I'd better call,” Reynolds replied. “He's holding a gun to the woman's head, and Ria Torres said to call you.” Smart girl, Cal thought.

“Ok, I'll be right over,” the slightly shorter man responded, rising and putting his black jacket back on. “Tell everyone to wait for me before they do anything.” He could see the other man nodding as he replied.

“Yes, sir.” Cal hung up, grabbed his keys, and hurried back to his car.

~

Dr. Lightman exited his car and briskly walked over to Agent Reynolds. “Has anything changed since you called?” he asked the black man, looking up at the Lightman Institute's third floor, where the drug leader and young woman were standing on the balcony. As Reynolds had said, the ring leader had a handgun held to the woman's head.

“No, sir,” Reynolds answered. “He just keeps yelling that he'll kill her if anyone moves, and that he wants to see you.” Cal nodded, then cupped his hands around his mouth and called up to the two on the balcony.

“Hey! Come on down, we'll talk about this,” he yelled, seeing the man's eyes immediately focusing down on him. “You don't need to kill anyone to talk to me.”

“Come on up `ere and we can talk!” the man's gravelly voice yelled back down. “Just you, Lightman! I don't want no black man shooting my brains out on the pavement!” Lightman felt Reynolds stiffen beside him, but he put out a hand to restrain the FBI agent from saying something that might have endangered the woman's life.

“Fine!” Cal called back. “Go inside and I'll come up!” As the man yanked the woman inside, Cal whispered to Reynolds. “Stay down here, but keep your men's guns trained on that window if the guy tries to get past me. Got it?” Reynolds nodded and radioed his men instructions over his walkie talkie.

Cal's mind whirled as he took the steps two at a time. What did the man want with him? Surely this had more to do with things than just the investigation...maybe he'd see something in the man's body when they talked. A nagging voice in the back of his head hoped that the woman was all right.