Chapter 1

When Maura went to work that morning, all she could think about was the dream she'd had the night before. It wouldn't be such a big deal if it had just been a sex dream. She'd had a few sex dreams about Jane in the past, and had never thought much of it. Jane was an attractive woman, and she was the person Maura spent the most time with, so a dream like that was no surprise. Maura wouldn't even have minded acting on one of those dreams in the interest of scientific inquiry if Jane were willing, and if she could be sure it wouldn't hurt their friendship. But she was pretty sure Jane would not be willing, and even bringing it up might hurt their friendship, so Maura had simply brushed the dreams aside. Last night's dream was going to be more difficult though. It was much, much worse than a sex dream.

It was a cuddling dream.

Jane and Maura had cuddled up under a blanket in front of the TV in real life, but not quite like this. In the dream, Maura had been leaning against Jane with her head on Jane's shoulder and her arms around Jane, and Jane had been slowly running her fingers through Maura's hair. Maura had felt unbelievably happy in the dream, and she knew Jane was happy too, because they were in love. That wonderful, crazy feeling of being in love had stayed with her even after she woke up. She couldn't shake it, and it worried her.

Instead of looking at the speedometer to see how far over the speed limit they were going, Maura kept stealing sidelong glances at Jane as they drove to the crime scene. Beautiful, lanky Jane was hunched over the steering wheel impatiently. She was wearing a leather jacket thrown over a t-shirt, and, as usual, her long hair was a glorious mess. Maura fought the urge to reach out and touch those unkempt curls.

What if I had that dream because I really am in love with Jane? she thought. What should I do if I am? Would she be really mad if I told her?

"You okay?" asked Jane. "You're awful quiet this morning."

"You mean I'm awfully quiet. But I'm fine."

Jane rolled her eyes. "Did you have a late night or something?"

"No, I got exactly eight hours of sleep." Complete with cuddling dreams.

Jane chuckled, putting the car in park. "Of course you did."

Korsak met them as they got out of the car. "Brace yourselves," he told them. "We've never seen anything quite like this before."

"What, a body in a dumpster?" joked Jane.

"You'll see what I mean when you look at the body."

At first glance, the body looked like so many others they had seen: a blonde woman, perhaps in her thirties, with bruises around her neck. She was completely naked and had bite marks on her breasts, but unfortunately, that wasn't anything new either. But it didn't take long for Maura to see what was so unusual about this case: there were tally marks carved into the woman's skin, all over her body. Some of the marks were white scar tissue, while others still looked red and angry.

"What the hell?" mumbled Jane.

"We've been speculating over what the tally marks might mean," said Frost. "Some of them look old, so we think the killer must have had her for a while. Maybe there's a tally for each day of her captivity."

"Couldn't she just draw marks on the wall like a normal person?" complained Jane.

"I don't think she did this to herself," said Maura. "Some of the marks are in places that would be very difficult for her to reach, like her upper back. Even if she could reach with the sharp object, it would have been nearly impossible for her to make such precise tally marks without being able to see."

"That was my thinking," said Frost. "I think whoever did this was carving tally marks into her skin each day."

"She's in the early stages of rigor," said Maura, dutifully taking the liver temperature. "It looks like she's been dead for about seven or eight hours."

"Well, if she's been missing for a while, there should be a report," said Jane. "We'll see if we can find her when we get back to the station."