Boston
Detective Jane Rizzoli walked into the Dirty Robber restaurant, hungry, thirsty and anxious for this worst-day-ever to come to an end.
She saw her best friend - Dr. Maura Isles - sitting at their customary table, with a salad and drink on Maura's side, and a double cheeseburger, fries and beer on Jane's.
"I owe you big time," Jane said, looking like she needed a few days' sleep.
"Don't worry about it," Maura replied. "I would say you ought to be in bed. But, you probably would starve."
"I'm not that bad off," Jane said, biting into her burger. "Everything's just...crazy and hectic right now. Ma's calling me every half hour, Frankie's trying to cover for me when I don't need to be covered, Korsak and Frost are busy as hell with their own-"
"Jane. Say no more," Maura said, pointing to Jane's plate. "Eat."
Jane ate her dinner, while Maura picked at her salad.
"Everything okay, Maur?" Jane asked, between bites.
"Yeah," Maura answered. "Just had the most unusual feeling, which probably doesn't mean anything, given that it's a feeling without a logical nor a factual basis in reality-"
"Maura," Jane said, "sometimes feelings mean something."
"But it doesn't make any sense-ohmigod!" Maura gasped, looking over towards the bar.
"You're freaked out about the bar?" Jane said.
"No," Maura said. "It's who's at the bar."
There was just one person at the bar, a young woman with her hair pulled back.
"You're overreacting," Jane said. "There's nobody there except the bartender."
"And her," Maura said of the young woman. "Doesn't she look suspicious to you?" Maura whispered to Jane.
Jane rolled her eyes, then had a thought, leaning in over her plate.
"Why yes, Maura," Jane answered, looking back and forth between Maura and the bar.
"I'm sorry I couldn't say anything due to the investigation. But that woman over there...she's one of the Feds."
Maura looked at Jane, and back at the woman at the bar, then back at Jane...then back at the woman...and back to Jane.
"The Feds?" Maura said.
"Yes," Jane replied. "She's one of their agents. The investigation. Which I can't talk about."
Maura leaned in. "Who's being investigated?" she asked, in a very low whisper.
"Him."
"Him?"
"Yeah...him."
"Who's him, he?"
Jane leaned in. "I can't say," she said in a low whisper, then leaned back with a wink and a smile.
Maura finally grasped that Jane was completely joking around, and smiled.
"Oh, she's nobody," Maura said, going back to eating her salad.
"Well I wouldn't say that, but she's not one of the feds," Jane said. "Not that I know of...now what's going on that you were...feeling so freaked out?"
"I can't say for certain, logically," Maura said. "As I told you, it has no basis in fact nor logic. It was almost like...I was being watched."
"Watched? By whom?"
"Nobody, at least as far as I could tell. As I said-"
"-no logical or factual basis," Jane finished the sentence, grabbed her bottle of beer for a drink, and stopped in mid-swallow, before putting the bottle down.
"There was something," Jane said, "that Ma was talking about today. When we were in the cafe, and rushing to get some coffee before going back upstairs. I remember Ma saying something about a woman with a ponytail-"
"Now that you mention it, I remember the same thing," Maura said. "We were in a rush...I didn't notice her there, but I did see someone outside the morgue, briefly."
"WHat did she look like?" Jane asked.
"Just a glimpse, someone with a leather jacket, and a...ponytail...like...her."
Maura pointed towards the woman at the bar.
"I'll call Homicide," Jane said. "Korsak should still be there."
The woman at the bar got up, and began walking towards their table.
"Jane-"
"We're covered," Jane answered, reaching for her handgun.
The woman got there too quickly for Jane to get out of her seat and in front of Maura.
Instead, Jane pulled out her gun, pointing it directly at the stranger's head.
"I would not do that if I were you," the woman with the ponytail said.
"Who are you, lady?" Jane said. "And you better not pull anything here - on anyone."
"I am not here to pull anything on anyone," the woman continued, speaking with an accent.
"May I ask you something?" Maura said.
"Maura, I got this," Jane interjected.
"No, it is alright," the woman said.
"Were you outside the morgue at Boston police headquarters this afternoon?"
The woman paused. "Yes."
"Were you in the cafe?" Jane asked.
"Yes," the woman said.
"Why." Jane said, with a firm tone.
"Are you Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles?" she asked them both. "If you are, I have a message for you, Detective."
"Who are you, lady?" Jane said, "and if you try anything, and I mean anything-"
"The only thing I am trying to do is deliver a message!" the woman said, exasperated, throwing her hands in the air. "Americans! הם יכולים להיות כל כך מרגיזים!"
"Say what?" Jane said.
"Hebrew," Maura said. "I thought your accent sounded Israeli."
"Israeli?" Jane said. "That true?"
"It is," the woman answered.
"Then what in hell does an Israeli want with me?"
"To deliver a message," she said. "Casey Jones. Your fiancee. The man who asked to marry you. Do NOT marry him. He is NOT whom he claims to be. You are putting your own life and the lives of your friends and family in danger if you do so."
Then the woman kicked the gun out of Jane's hands, and kneed Jane in the stomach.
It was enough to knock the wind out of Jane - and allow the stranger enough time to speak to Maura before making her escape.
"Your friend will be fine," the woman said. "Tell her when she comes to she must heed my warning...Doctor Isles. If things go badly with Casey Jones, call the man on this card, and tell him Zee-vah sent you."
The woman ran off, seconds ahead of the Boston Police squad cars arriving on the scene.
Detective Frankie Rizzoli and four uniformed officers ran in, with customers pointing them to Jane and Maura's table.
"Jane! Maura!" Frankie yelled. "Are you two okay?!"
Before Maura turned her attention to Jane, she looked at the card.
ANTHONY DINOZZO
NCIS
What on earth is going on, Maura thought. NCIS? Israelis? And Casey presenting a danger to Jane?
