Hello readers! Some of you may have read my other fanfics, others maybe not but either way here you go. Here's chapter one of my new story End Game, and I made it pretty good if I may say so myself. So as always thank you for reading, don't be afraid to tell me what you think and enjoy.
Chapter 1: Boom
I tapped my foot impatiently as I waited for my coworker and friend, Dr. Maura Isles, to get out of the bathroom. We had received a call from Cavanaugh (my boss) that we had a crime scene we needed to get to- and of course it was before Maura had a chance to take a shower. Normally it wasn't a problem for her to jump in the shower and be ready in fifteen minutes, today however I had given her five minutes. I glanced at my phone to check the time, cursing under my breath when I saw we were running late.
"Come on Maura, we gotta go!" I shouted annoyed.
"Calm down, I'm ready," Maura said walking into the kitchen. "The crime scene isn't going to go anywhere."
"It may not be but I will," I growled moving towards the front door. "Get the keys."
"You've been in a bad mood since yesterday," she said following me out to her car. "Did something not go well with Internal Affairs?"
"I'm just getting screwed by the department," I said sliding into the passenger seat. "I followed protocol, went by the damned book, and they want to take my shield because a suspected ended up dead… A suspect I might add who shot at me with an automatic rifle."
Maura backed the car out of the driveway but didn't say a word. Both of us had been thrown under the bus when I was told, and I use that term lightly, that there was an Internal Affairs investigation over my conduct at the end of the case. Apparently when a cop's life is in danger and they follow protocol to the tee the obvious situation is thrown out the window and the cop gets to take the heat. In my entire career as a cop, homicide and vice, I had shot suspects and stabbed suspects when I was in danger of being killed- never once had a server investigation been started. But this one guy, a druggie from New York City, was apparently more important to the Department then one of their best cops. Because of that man I was at risk of losing my shield, losing everything I had worked so hard to obtain.
"The second they bring in character witnesses for you Jane, the whole case will fold," Maura assured me as we continued down the street to the coffee shop where our DB was.
"If we're lucky," I muttered. "Even if it disproves everything they're saying I bet- no I guarantee they'll still take it to court."
"What are the charges again?" Maura asked, pulling to a stop at a stop light.
"The question is what the charges aren't," I corrected her.
"If worse comes to worse I'll call my dad and have him represent you," Maura's hand found mine. "He's a good lawyer."
I smiled before turning my attention back to the street ahead of us; we were coming up on the scene. The buildings were painted in the blue and red of the police cruisers light. Maura pulled her car to the curb behind an unmarked police car I guess was either Korsak's or Frost's. Together the two of us walked up to the uniformed officers behind the yellow tape and showed him our identification before moving into what I know realized as Boston Locals, a coffee shop I had frequented back at the academy. The shop was a surprisingly large size for a family owned business, the counter was set back from the front door and tables were spread far enough apart to give people privacy but close enough to be able to talk to other patrons. But today the shop no longer had that friendly air about it. Instead it was dismal, because of the burn marks concentrated in the center of the shop and the charred remains that lay in that circle.
Maura already had the blue booties on and was pulling the latex gloves over her hands as I took in the scene. It was hard to see Boston Locals like this after spending so much here studying while in school. What made it easier to stand there in the destruction was seeing the elderly owners and their sons standing well and alive over by an ambulance. I pulled my own latex gloves and booties on and followed slowly behind Maura, taking time to look at the ceiling and the rest of the shop. From what I could tell the damage was localized in the area where our victim was, which was odd for what I had been told happened. I looked up from the mess on the floor and nodded to Korsak as he came up to me.
"According to the owners this guy came in with some other men around 7AM, then they left and he stayed here. Next thing they know there's a loud explosion and this guy got fried," Korsak informed me, looking at his note pad. "One person was taken to the hospital with minor injuries from shrapnel; everyone else who was here is without injury."
"Did anyone see anything? A strange bag or briefcase?" I asked kneeling down to get a closer look at the floor.
"No, all everyone remembers is one second it was quiet the next all hell breaking loose," Korsak replied. "From the looks of it the bomb was only a foot or two away from him, but the blast was relatively small. One our Vic didn't go flying somewhere else and two he's still in one piece."
"What are we looking at?" I scratched my neck and lifted up a piece of wood that must have been from a table. "Pipe bomb?"
"One weak pipe bomb," Korsak said.
I straightened up and walked over to Maura, careful not to step on any of the debris. Maura was examining the victim's hands, looking at the fingers- or what was left of them, before she shifted her weight and turned her attention to the head. She turned the head so she could look in the mouth, the neck cracked and made noises in protest as she did so. I leaned down to get a better look with her, scrunching my nose at the smell of burnt flesh.
"What do you have for me?" I asked.
"The victim's fingers are missing," she looked up at me. "It doesn't appear to be trauma received during the explosion."
"How is that possible?" I looked at the hands and saw she was right; it looked more as if they had been cut off.
"That's not the only thing that's odd," she continued. "Look at his neck, there's a deep gash as if someone took a knife and slit his throat."
"I don't see any blood," I glanced down then rose. "And if his throat was cut someone would have seen something, so… what? Someone killed him, dressed him up and carried him here just to blow him up?"
"Not carry," Maura turned the body on its side. "You see this metal here? This man was in a wheelchair, when the bomb went off it was hot enough to melt the metal to his skin. From the looks of it Jane, the damage cause by the bomb was post-mortem, but I won't know for sure until I get him back to the morgue."
I moved away from Maura and the victim and went over to the counter trying to get an idea of what people could have seen. After a minute I found myself standing at the register looking out at Maura, Korsak, Frost and the rest of the crime scene. I could see everything from that spot, from the corner booth over to the two person table on the far side of the shop. Looking down at the register I saw a slip of paper sticking out of the machine; I realized it to be the receipt from the last costumer. I ripped it off and read it over; the last costumer had bought a Vanilla latte and a bagel.
"Hey Korsak, do we have an ID on the guy who was taken to the hospital?" I asked. "And where was he standing when the bomb went off?"
"Houston Berkley," Korsak responded. "And he was standing at the counter; owner said he bought a latte or something."
I nodded to myself and slipped the receipt into an evidence bag and put it in my pocket. Our victim was probably killed before the bomb… Why the hell would someone kill someone, bring him to a public place and blow him up? I thought to myself as I looked around behind the counter. Finally I came up to a metal door that most likely lead to the kitchen and from what I could tell no one from the department had checked it out yet. Behind me I could hear Frost and Korsak talking to one of the owners and the body being wheeled out the door on a gurney. From what I could tell Maura was still standing there looking at the floor, most likely searching for a finger that had manage to make it here. I put my hand on the door handle and twisted it, pulling the door open in my direction. That's when I heard the click of a pin being pulled out of something; I only had seconds to realize it was a trip wire that had been tied to a grenade pin, and I had just pulled it.
"Shit!" I cried, the second I heard the pin hit the ground. "Everyone take cover!"
Everything went in slow motion after that. I leapt over the counter and sprinted over to Maura before slamming into her. We both crashed into the ground a second before the grenade went off and sent a ball of fire rushing towards us. I covered my head with my arm and shielded Maura with my body, hoping the blast wasn't large enough to bring the building down on top of us. I felt Maura grip at my blazer as the shock of the explosion reverberated through the building. In what felt like minutes, but was only second it was over. I didn't move off of Maura though, I held her closely and waited for another minute. Maura's hands had gotten to my shoulders and she was pushing me up, trying to get some of the dead weight off of her.
"You're crushing me," she breathed as I feel off to the side.
"Sorry," I said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she said, pushing herself up into a sitting position. "What about you? What just happened?"
"Trip wire, went off when I opened the door," I told her, scanning the area to see if anyone had been hurt. "I'm alright."
From outside I could hear people shouting and scrambling to get people away from the building in case it collapsed.
"Janie! Dr. Isles?!" I could hear Korsak shouting for us.
"We're here Korsak, we're alright," I called to him and waved my hand so he could find us in all the dust that had been stirred up.
As I helped Maura up Korsak and Frost came running into the building, completely ignoring the danger they were putting themselves in. Together we all ran out to the street passing the yellow tape and stopping when we reached the uniformed officers who had been stationed to watch the perimeter.
"Christ, are you two okay?" Frost asked spinning around to see the fire that had spread to the building next to the coffee shop.
"We're fine, I just landed on my arm funny," I assured him.
"You mean you landed on me funny," Maura corrected me, offering up a friendly smile.
"What the hell happened?" Korsak asked, as fireman ran in to suppress the fire. "Frost and I went to talk to the sons and then the kitchen blew out of the side."
"I can't be positive but I think there was a trip wire attached to the door and grenade pin, when I opened the door I tripped the mechanism," I explained, rubbing my shoulder.
"Bomb squad will be here within an hour," Frost said turning back to face us. "We should get back to the precinct and go over the evidence we collected and wait for their report, and hopefully obtain the remnants of the bomb that just went off."
"Do we have pieces of the first one?" I asked.
"Yeah, crime scene crew took it back to the lab already. They'll test to see what was used to make it and they'll send a 3D model of the bomb when they put it back together," Frost explained. "You two should probably be checked out by the medics."
Maura and I both agreed and found our way over to the remaining paramedic who had been examining the owners of Boston Locals Coffee Shop only half an hour ago. He sat me down on the bumper of the ambulance and started the basic physical exam; flashing a light in my eyes, taking my blood pressure and heart rate as well as checking my lungs. I stood there with my arms crossed as Maura went through the same procedure and was given a clean bill of health. The two of us finally made our way through the large crowd of uniformed officers and pedestrians who were trying to see what was happening to get to our car.
Because the bomb squad had been called in to search the remainder of the building for any other explosives as well as help deem the place structurally sound the decision to go back to the precinct was a no brainer. Maura handed me they keys before she went over to the passenger's side and got in. I sighed to myself about the turnout of the crime scene knowing full well that my ma would have something to say about it. With all that was currently going on the last thing I needed was my ma telling me to transfer to a safer division, which did not exist in the police world unless you took a desk job and I wasn't about to do that.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
I parked Maura's car outside the front of the precinct when we finally got back and together we headed up the stairs and entered the lobby. Instantly my ma was on top of us, hugging us both so tightly I thought I was going to be crushed. If there was one thing I could always rely on it was the uncanny ability of word to spread in less than 30 minutes. I guess it made sense though since the Boston PD Bomb Squad had been called out Cavanaugh knew what was going on therefore most of Homicide knew so my ma knew. News spread faster than the flu in the department, which is how I had probably ended up tangled in the Internal Affairs mess.
"Thank God you two are okay!" she cried. "Frankie told me that there had been a bomb at your crime scene, I was so worried."
Frankie you are so dead… I thought as I tried to push me ma away.
"Ma you're crushing us," I gasped. "Please… let go."
"I'm sorry," she said stepping away. "You scare me sometimes with these close calls."
"We know ma," I sighed.
"Are you two hungry?" she asked.
"I've got to get to the morgue and start on the autopsy," Maura told her.
"And I've got to get upstairs and piece through the evidence we picked up," I added.
She nodded understanding that it was a murder case and it was Maura and I's job. We left her and headed to the elevators; Maura pressed down I pressed up. For a minute we just stood there staring at the doors, but the bell rang on both at the same time and opened up.
"I'll come down in an hour to get the report."
"No promised I'll have anything."
I smiled and stepped into the up elevator, waiting for the doors to close and it to take me up. When I stepped out on Homicides floor I could see Korsak and Frost working on the computers in Brick, sorting through the crime scene photos. I walked in and crossed my arms as I bit my lip and examined an image of the DB at the scene. Korsak glanced up at me but remained silent as Frost continued to click forward through the images. Finally I turned to them.
"So what do we know?" I asked.
"The bomb squad confirmed your hunch, the method used for blowing up the kitchen was a method commonly used during the Vietnam War," Korsak explained. "They would tie a trip wire around a tree or branch and then set a grenade with the other end of the trip wire attached to the pin, when a soldier would walk into it he would pull the pin and then boom."
"So why that door?" I asked. "What was so important about it? What was the killer trying to do?"
"Maybe he was hoping he could get a cop?" Frost asked. "Or he was targeting someone in the shop?"
I picked up the notes Korsak had taken while at the crime scene and looked for the witness accounts. According to the youngest son, Blake Gillespie, when the explosion happened he and his father ran out the kitchen to get to safety while his mother and older brother ducked behind a booth then ran out the front door. If the account was right, which it probably was, then the second bomb would have had to have been set after the first one went off. This meant that whoever had dropped our DB off and blown him up had stuck around to go in and place a second device as the police were heading there.
"No, according to Blake Gillespie he and his father had escaped through the kitchen, the second bomb would have been placed afterwards," I shook my head.
"Why the hell would someone do that?" Korsak asked. "Even if he was after a cop he would have no idea who would open that door."
"So why use the grenade?" I asked. "Another thing that bothers me is Maura believes our victim was killed before he was taken to the coffee shop and blown up. Why would someone take that risk? What was the point of taking a dead body to a public place and setting off a bomb?"
"Doesn't make any since to me," Frost shrugged.
On the desk the land line rang Korsak picked it up and turned his back to Frost and me to talk to whoever had called. Frost and I left him to it and instead looked through the images again not looking for anything in particular but hoping we would find something. There was nothing that would direct us toward a suspect, from the looks of it he had ran before the bomb had detonated. Behind me I heard Korsak set the phone back into its cradle and heave a sigh.
"Crime scene crew pieced together enough of the first device to get a positive identification on it," he started. "Like you thought it's a pipe bomb. They guess it was homemade in someone's garage and was purposely built to only have a small blast radius and cause minimum damage to whoever was around it."
"So what our guy wanted to destroy evidence on the victim but keep him intact enough for us to have a chance at him?" I couldn't believe that there had to be another reason for it. "Sounds pretty ballsy to me."
"Maybe Dr. Isles can give us more information," Frost suggested. "She should be close to done on the autopsy right?"
"She's a little behind, my ma blindsided us in the lobby," I explained.
"Alright," Korsak nodded. "How did it go the other day with the IA officers?"
"Terrible. They're pushing to remove me from duty, they want to take my shield," I replied.
"Come on, what the hell did they tell you?" Korsak nearly shouted.
I dove into relaying what had happened at the meeting to Korsak and Frost. Both of them listened closely as I explained that they were saying I had shot before the suspect pulled a gun and had not followed protocol. I told them that they were trying to get me for not calling back up and were also trying to claim I was under the influence while perusing the suspect. None of which was true; I been on duty all morning and had been separated from Korsak when the suspect started firing off his weapon at me. By the time I had gotten done explaining everything thirty minutes had past and both Korsak and Frost were fuming. I excused myself to go down stairs to talk to Maura before they could rant about how much of an asset I was to the department.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
Maura was examining the laceration on the victim's neck when I entered the morgue. She stood over the body with her scrubs on, hair pulled back, hands gloved up and her instruments laid neatly out on a tray. I walked over to her and waited for her to fill me in on her findings.
"I haven't finished yet Jane," she said, pressing her finger into the wound before removing it. "I did confirm cause of death but not time of death or the identity of the victim. I'll have to get his dental records."
"Okay… So what was the cause of death?" I asked, peering down at the wound.
"Exsanguination but he also aspirated," she replied catching my gaze. "You can see the burns on the inside of the laceration, which proved my theory that he was killed then blown up."
"He drowned?" I looked at her confused.
"It's strange because the heart would be pumping the blood up and out he wouldn't have been able to breathe it in. But somehow he did," Maura explained.
"One hell of a way to die," I muttered.
"It took time for him to bleed out as well, even though the laceration was deep," Maura added.
Maura pushed her fingers into the laceration again and looked closely. I caught a glimpse at what she was looking at; a piece of metal that seemed to have been lodged in his throat. She reached over to her tray and grabbed a pair of tweezers. After adjusting her position she used the tweezers to remove the piece of metal (or what I assumed to be metal) out of the wound. She held the object up so both of us could get a better look at it. To me it looked like the tip of a knife, but I couldn't be sure.
"I'll give it to the lab to do testing,"
She reached over and dropped the object into a metal pan.
"So help me out here," I said crossing my arms. "If you were the killer why would you kill a man then take him to a public place and blow him up. When instead he could have just used lighter fluid and torched him."
"Maybe he wanted to taunt the police?" Maura suggested. "Or he wanted to show his power?"
"Perhaps…" I agreed. "But slitting someone's throat, cutting off his fingers then putting him in a wheelchair to take him to a coffee shop, just to blow him up?"
"That's your job to find out not mine," Maura smiled.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
When Jane had left Maura to wrap up the autopsy Maura started to look at the back of the victims head. She noticed that there was an area that wasn't as badly burned as the rest; however there was an unusual burn pattern that didn't match that of an explosion. Maura grabbed her scalpel and made three uniform incisions around the burns and peeled away the skin. She set the scalpel aside and shown some light on the piece of flesh and saw that the burns appeared underneath as well. That's odd… she thought to herself as she looked at the top layer of skin again. Next to her was a tape recorder she used to make her report; she reached over and pressed record.
"Behind the right ear there is little to no scorching from the explosion… However there are two uniform burns approximately an inch to two inches apart. They appear to be electrical burns."
Maura stopped in her tracks; why hadn't she seen it before? A murder where the MO is a slight throat and unusual burn marks behind the ear…? No… Maura thought, not unusual- taser burns. Suddenly Maura felt sick to her stomach she knew who used that method in killing someone. Everyone in the department knew who that MO belonged to. Maura knew he was in prison, and she knew he was on death row but deep down she also knew nothing could keep him from training an apprentice. She stopped the tape-recorder, ran to her office and called Korsak; he was as close to this as Jane and herself were.