CHAPTER 1

Jane stared at the line. A long, hard stare, willing it to disappear. She knew, in the pit of her stomach, that it wasn't going to change, or better yet, disappear all together.

She had lost count of the time. How long had she been in here? How long had she been staring at it?

She heard a sharp knock at the door. "Jane, are you all right? You've been in there a long time. Is something wrong?" Maura's voice had a different tone. Did she know? You never knew with Maura. She had this uncanny, intuitiveness about her. She could easily guess a person's deepest, darkest secret just by the way they cocked their head; or maybe it just felt that way.

"I'm alright Maura!" Jane's normally gravely voice took on a stronger tone than she meant to. "Just ate too much."

"But you barely touched your linguine." Maura said through the closed door.

Knowing that Maura was not going to let go, Jane quickly stuck her hand in her pocket, let go of the item, washed her hands, and yanked the door open. All within about five seconds. "Maura, I'm alright. Probably just a bad clam."

Bad move on Jane's part. Maura would take that as an immediate insult on her clam linguine. "Jane, I made sure all the clams were properly steamed at just the right temperature and opened. Besides, food poisoning takes at least six hours before symptoms present."

"Then maybe it's just a flu bug. Who knows. Now stop interrogating me like you're a detective or something."

Maura was about to say something when her cell phone rang. Maura hesitated before she turned away from Jane. She wasn't finished with this conversation.

Thank God! Jane thought and rolled her eyes up to the Heavenly Father. She mouthed the words "Thank You."

Maura was on the phone for another two minutes before she hung up. She returned to Jane. "That was the office. I need to go. Can you lock up? Your mother's out tonight."

Jane was about to ask Maura who her mother was with when her own phone rang. "Detective Rizzoli."

She listened and finally said, "I'll be right there." She turned to Maura. "I think you and I are going to the same place."

"Harold Street?"

"Yup."

"You up to driving?"

"What, you afraid I'll puke all over your nice dress?"

"Well, you do look a little green around the gills."

"I promise you. I won't puke all over your nice dress."

Jane turned serious. "Did they tell you anything about it?"

"Not much, just that they were calling extra ME personnel. Area hospitals are on standby. Numerous victims. They tell you anything?"

"No, just to get my ass over to Harold Street ASAP."

"Then I guess we better go."