Chapter 1
It was 10am by now, but Detective Jane Rizzoli still could not shake the tiredness from her shoulders, nor could she escape the swirling nausea currently at war with her stomach. She sat hunched over, her elbows resting on her knees, a coffee cup clutched between both hands keeping them warm on this particularly cool March morning. She bent her head and her black mess of hair tumbled in front of her face.
"Hey, Rizzoli," Frost coaxed her head up with his urgency. He was looking at a message on his phone.
Great, thought Jane, not only do I have all this paper work, now somebody's gone and killed someone. It was days like these Jane wished she could just fall asleep for a year; undisturbed by anybody, especially dead bodies.
"Who died?" Jane asked without feeling.
"Multiple stab wounds... Business man... Downtown, that's all I got."
"Kay, let's go," Jane grumbled, grabbing her dark grey blazer from the back of her chair and marching after Frost to his unmarked.
The crime scene was a dingy back alley framed by an ugly apartment building and an even uglier nightclub. Two uniformed officers were already taping off both entrances and backing off the curious crowd from this rough area who were so interested in death they'd come almost immediately.
"Who found the body?" Jane asked one of the unis.
"Uh, that guy," he said, pointing. "Says he's only gonna talk to a Detective Vanilla. Got a screw loose."
Jane sighed and pulled a face before walking over to Rondo, the opposite of thankful now that she'd lose half of today's pay check.
"Hey, Vanilla!" Rondo seemed very excited to see her, which only played on her nerves more.
"What did you see, Rondo?" Jane snapped, though she tried to level her voice.
"Well I was just passing through to look for a snack outside that bar there, when I notice this dude sitting on my turf!"
"That's terrible. I meant did you see who killed him?"
"Uh... no."
"Goodbye Rondo," Jane said and started to head back to the dumpster the body was slumped against.
"Hey, wait! Vanilla!"
Jane ignored him, feeling that anything he had to say probably wasn't worth her only twenty right now.
"Any I.D?" she asked Frost, who was holding his head at a very awkward angle as he removed his hand from the vic's pocket with a wallet.
"A Professor Brian Ewell for Boston University–"
"Dr. Ewell? Oh, no!"
"Maura?" Jane turned, surprised to see her friend here. "I thought you were on vacation?"
"I was. But Dr. Pike–" she said his name through gritted teeth "–is feeling 'under the weather' today. So here I am."
"I'm sorry, Maura. So you knew this victim?"
"I knew of him. He is a professor of anthropology at the Boston University – if I'd known about him when I was younger I would have just moved here for university, instead of staying close to home."
"Huh. Where did you study?"
"I did my medical degree at Stanford, did my forensics and my residency with San Francisco University."
"Oh. Well, that's good," said Jane, disappointed that she never knew this. Maura and she really were strangers. Still.
"Okay," Maura said, snapping on latex gloves. "Apparent cause of death, multiple stab wounds. There are lacerations on the hands and wrists suggesting a struggle. Liver temp says... he died between three and five hours ago, he's still pretty warm."
"He was stabbed in broad daylight? And nobody saw anything?" Frost muttered.
"Yeah. Friendly neighbourhood," Jane retorted.
"Should we canvass the area?" one of the unis asked.
"Yeah, I was just thinking about that; Korsak's not back till tomorrow..." Jane thought for a moment.
"Go ahead, he can work the computers for us," Jane compromised.
"Really?" Frost asked, and Jane had to let out a quiet chuckle.
"Oh, Maura, your ride's here," Frost announced, spotting the coroner's van pull up in front of the alley's entrance.
"We'll do this autopsy later this afternoon; we'll have to cool him before rigor advances any further."
"Sure thing, Maura," Jane said and left with Frost to arouse some neighbours, inquiring as to whether anyone had seen or heard anything.
It took an hour of 'I ain't seen nothin'!' and 'You wanna talk to Billy the Weasel!' and 'Can I see the body?' before Jane finally gave up and insisted they drive back to the precinct.
"Okay, let's run background on this guy, I wanna know everything about him," Jane said. Frost started typing, searching for anything about this guy online, while Jane phoned the A.D.A requesting a subpoena for the guy's phone records and financials.
When she hung up the phone, Jane resumed her earlier posture; head bent, back slumped, knees apart. She massaged her aching temples and swallowed, once again fighting nausea. She needed something to do, something to occupy her mind and deter it from this sickly path like the crime scene had. Or she just needed to go home and sleep.
"You know what, I'm going to go and see if Maura's found any evidence on that body before she cuts it open."
"Sure thing," Frost said, his eyes never straying from his computer monitor.
Jane grabbed her box of fluff-and-peanut-butter sandwiches and headed for the morgue, where Maura sat in her office munching a salad.
"Hey," Jane greeted the medical examiner as she took a seat across from her.
"Hello, Jane," Maura said happily.
"Huh, you're in a good mood for someone dragged into work when they're supposed to be on vacation," Jane observed.
"Well the truth is I was bored. I thought I'd do all my chores, which I did, plant another herb garden and hop it grows this year, which I did, and read a book or something, which I did. But I can't sit around too long and read."
"Oh, well. Good for you, I guess."
"You look tired."
"Thanks."
"Is there a reason you're not sleeping?"
"No, I am sleeping, I just feel... run down. It's probably just a bug, it'll pass."
Maura eyes her with scrutiny before diving her fork back into her green-filled Tupperware container.
"Anything on the body?" Jane asked, trying to change the subject.
"Truthfully, I haven't even undressed him yet. I told the movers to put him straight in the freezer."
"Oh, no, that's fine; I just needed to get away from my office. It's so busy and... loud." Jane winced as her temple throbbed again.
"Are you alright Jane?"
"Like I said, it'll pass."
"Do you have any other symptoms?"
"Really, Maura, it's nothing."
They ate in silence for a few minutes before Jane's cell phone buzzed in its holder on her belt, announcing a text message.
Jane groaned.
"What is it?" Maura asked.
"Another stabbing victim. This guy's obviously on a mission – killing someone at midday? Isn't he worried people will see? I hope there's a security tape at this one.
"C'mon, I'll drive."