Hi all and welcome to my latest story. I know I should be finishing Book 2 of Intersecting Lines, but a throw away line between characters there sank its teeth into me and wouldn't let go (pun only partially intended).
There will be one update a day until this is complete.
This is an AU story obviously, with no relationship to Intersecting Lines. It contains a number of adult themes, including power and dominance and non-consensual sexual content, in addition to lesbian sexual content. I understand that may not be everyone's thing, but stories involving this setting generally tend to have erotic undertones, going all the way back to Carmilla Karnstein.
Besides, when I write sex scenes, I get lots of reviews and PM's so who am I to not give the audience what they want? :)
Running in the Night Part 1
New York wasn't Jane Rizzoli's town, she had enough crazy in Boston without looking for more in the big, rotten apple; unfortunately she didn't have too much choice in the matter.
They'd been chasing a serial killer for almost two weeks, not that they'd known what they were dealing with at first. Homicide had been called to a body found fished out of the Charles River, so badly decomped Maura hadn't been able to find much; the guy had been in the river for a couple of days and between the water and the fish, there hadn't been much forensic evidence left for her to discover.
Four days later they'd fished another out; this one was a lot fresher, enough so that Maura could confirm that the vic had been mutilated post death. Half the throat and shoulder had been ripped out, god knows where that was or what had done it. Maura had tagged cause of death to blood loss, it seems the poor son of a bitch had bled out and been ripped up afterwards.
Bad enough someone let the guy bleed to death, mutilating the body afterwards was just sick. Mind you, that covered a lot of the people they convicted, what was yet another crazy?
Jane kept on telling herself that as another body turned up five days later, once more pulled out of the river, same cause of death, same damage to the throat and shoulders.
All three were male, but their ages differed, one was a party goer, dance parties, raves, that sort of thing. He'd disappeared after leaving a nightclub well after 1AM; another was a homeless guy, Rondo had identified him as someone he'd met from time to time, kept to himself, stayed out of trouble mostly, until trouble found him.
The third was a security guard; he'd disappeared from a warehouse he'd been patrolling. His car was found where he'd left it; someone had jumped him while he'd been doing his rounds, so quick he hadn't been able to radio anything in.
Jane had been catching flak from Cavanagh; he was passing it down from the brass who'd been catching it from the Mayor, who in turn had been taking a pounding in the media. Like they say, shit runs downhill, ending up on her desk. The 'River Ripper' was what the media had dubbed the killer, screaming from every outlet about the Boston PDs inability to catch this guy; needless to say no one was getting much sleep.
In the middle of it, they'd caught another couple of murders all on the same morning, one guy burned to death, doused in kerosene and set alight; a truly miserable way to go. The next one had been wrapped in chains and hung from a construction site crane. Apparently he'd also been burnt, though this time Maura couldn't tell what with, he'd apparently just burnt to a crisp; his body blackened and shrivelled up like meat left on the grill, forgotten till all that's left is gristle and cinder.
Just as everyone was afraid we were dealing with a second serial killer, a third body had turned up that morning. This one had been tossed into a garbage truck and crushed and mangled into small pieces; that one had been bad, naturally Frost had lost his breakfast on that one and even Korsak had been a little green when they'd opened the truck up.
Maura though, she'd been so calm about it, most people couldn't work her out, how she'd be so refined and lovely on one hand and on the other work elbow deep in something like that, all without it getting to her. Well, it did get to her, but you wouldn't know it, everyone thinks she's this emotionless 'Queen of the Dead', but a few people know better. Frost, Frankie, Korsak and Jane, they see the real Maura. God knows she's ended up curled up on Jane's couch often enough, letting her help Maura deal with the stuff they see.
Everyone else see's the cool professional, the impeccably dressed woman who doesn't flinch at anything. Jane saw the vulnerable woman coming apart on her sofa, sometimes crying her eyes out, seeing her like that ripped Jane's heart out.
Jane was Maura's ferocious protector, she'd die before letting anything bad happen to her, for reasons she wouldn't admit to anyone, let alone herself, she'd lay down her life to protect Mura.
Which is why they'd driven up from Boston together; they'd had a call from the NYPD, two kids who'd turned up dead up there, same MO as the vic's back in Boston, or so it seemed. They'd asked Maura to come up to meet with their ME and brief her in on what she'd found so Jane went with her, partly to bring the NYPD up to speed and partly because she wanted to come along with Maura. Dead kids hit Maura hard and Jane wanted to be there in case her friend needed her.
Maura on the other hand was just as quietly glad that Jane had accompanied her; Jane was her rock, her source of strength, whatever happened, with Jane accompanying her, she would be safe.
They'd been taken through to meet the ME on the case, a Melinda Warner. Maura and Melinda were soon lost in a technical discussion, Jane was listening with half an ear when the door opened and in walked a female detective, attractive with short hair, a solid, powerful build, jacket, jeans and boots, all practical stuff for what they did. She looked round, her eyes taking Jane in, before she walked over, holding out her hand.
"Hi, Olivia Benson, SVU, you must be Detective Rizzoli" Jane nodded and straightened up, reaching her hand out to take Benson's.
"Yep, good to meet you" She half turned. "This is our Medical Examiner, Doctor Maura Isles"
Jane saw Benson's eyes widen slightly, mind you lots of people have that reaction when they first meet Maura. She was wearing some god awfully expensive dress and heels combo that would cost Jane more than a month's salary and despite sitting in the car for hours, still looked fresh as a daisy. Honestly, Jane had no idea how she did it, maybe something they teach at those fancy European boarding schools? Benson turned and took several steps over to greet Maura.
"Hi Doc, thanks for coming in…" Her eyes flicked back to Jane. "…both of you. When we got the hits in the system on a similar MO to our victims, I was glad to hear you'd be coming in to talk to us" Maura was charming as usual.
"Oh, it was our pleasure Detective Benson, Doctor Warner was kind enough to fill us in on the victim's, I have yet to examine them however it does seem as if there may be some similarities between the victim's" Warner nodded.
"We were just about to have a look at your vics, if you'd like to walk this way?"
Ten minutes later it was confirmed, both these kids had been killed in exactly the same way, bled out, then their throats and shoulders ripped open and the bodies dumped in the East River.
While Maura and Doctor Warner chatted about evidence, the detectives walked up to the Special Victim's Unit; it'd come to them in the first place because of suspicions that it had involved sexual assault as well as murder. Unfortunately the effects of immersion in the pretty toxic sludge of the river had erased any evidence of rape, same as back in Boston.
Jane was introduced to some of Benson's co-workers before they sat down and Jane briefed Olivia in on what little they'd learnt Benson in turn explained the little they had on the latest killings. The only clues she had were reports of a single male in the vicinity of the last known sightings of the victim's, but they'd found nothing more. Turns out they had surveillance footage of a male lurking in the vicinity of the site of the first kid's disappearance, too indistinct to get an ID from though. Jane grimaced.
"What was a nine year old girl doing walking home alone?" Benson shrugged.
"Poor family, her mother worked as a maid for a family on Fifth Avenue, the kid's home was only three blocks from the school, they thought it was safe" She looked over at Jane. "We know better but they thought it was ok. She was a single mum, it's not like she had a choice"
"Yeah, I kinda get it, but still..." Benson nodded; for all the reasons, it still didn't feel right. Jane looked up.
"What you got on the second vic?"
"Not much" Liv admitted. "The girl was on a school excursion down at Battery Park, two teachers, forty kids. One minute she's there with the rest of them then she's missing and no one saw anything" Jane frowned.
"I take it a search turned up nothing" Benson nodded slowly.
"Nothing, there one second, gone the next"
"Shit"
"Yeah"