3. Pretty Red Balloon

Complete story — includes the ending

Jane and the CBI team are assigned the kidnapping case of 9-year old Conner Flint. He is the son of a former client of Jane's, Elisabeth Flint ( Kelli Williams ), who believes Jane and her son share a psychic connection, since Jane "predicted" his birth several years ago. Jane butts heads with Elisabeth's new "spiritual advisor", Nathan Glass, who has been leeching money from her. Elisabeth is emotionally and financially vulnerable and lives off of her grown stepson's fortune with her son, Conner, and brother, Deke. The team is misled to believe Conner has been kidnapped by a serial kidnapper, "The Balloon Man", who kidnapped two more boys, left behind a balloon animal, and killed both boys within 12 hours of the kidnapping. The team tracks down the killer as a local electrician whom Van Pelt shoots dead. Jane reveals that Conner was not taken by the Balloon Man and fakes a dramatic psychic reading to trap the real kidnapper, who turns out to be Elisabeth's stepson, who was in love with his stepmother and wanted to be a hero before her. Conner is rescued and his stepbrother confesses that after Jane's reading, he panicked and was going to kill Conner. Psychic Glass finally snaps and accuses Jane of trying to steal his action. Jane records the conversation to share with Elisabeth, who finally accepts that Jane is, in fact, not psychic.