I'm Trying - Chapter 2
Disclaimer: : I don't own any of the characters from Rizzoli and Isles - the credit goes to Tess Gerritsen and TNT. I'm merely borrowing them for a fan fiction idea. I've seen a lot of story alerts and favorite story alerts (which warm my heart!) and those are great and so appreciated, but please also review! :-) Thanks.
"So how's the morning been?" Maura asked, taking a forkful of salad.
"Eh, it's been okay. Just had a shitload of meetings. I think I've been at my desk for all of fifteen minutes," Jane said, pouring ketchup on her plate and on her burger.
"You used that term on the phone too - what exactly is a shitload?"
Jane smirked. "A lot of meetings."
Maura rolled her eyes. "You can't just say that?"
"Really? This coming from you, little miss en ... " Jane struggled to remember the word Maura used in the park " ... tomology."
"You mean etymology. Entomology is the study of insects, Jane."
It was Jane's turn to roll her eyes. She playfully tossed the balled-up paper cover from her straw at Maura, who successfully dodged it while laughing.
They ate their lunches in companionable silence for a while. Maura watched as Jane swirled a French fry around in her pile of ketchup. She didn't say anything, she just made a mental note of how long Jane repeated the action.
"Jane. What's wrong?"
"Nothing, why?"
"Well, you've been swirling that fry in ketchup for the last minute and 39 seconds."
Jane raised her eyebrow at her, in disbelief that she knew exactly how long Jane had engaged in the repetitive action while deep in thought.
"Sorry. I just kind of spaced out," she said, finally eating the fry.
She wasn't quite ready to tell Maura what was bothering her, but she knew that sooner or later she would have no choice.
"How's your day been, Maura?"
"Pretty slow, actually. I've just been catching up on some files and such. Updating and logging into the computer. Fun, fun."
As if on cue, Jane's phone started buzzing. "Oh, I think you can say goodbye to your slow day," she said, looking at the screen. "Rizzoli."
"Hey, it's Frost - need you and Doc at 900 Wister Ave. I'm on my way there now."
"Okay. On our way too, we'll meet you there," Jane said and hung up the phone. "Better finish up that rabbit food quick, Maura, we got a body."
...
When Jane and Maura pulled up to the scene, she saw Frost to the side with his head between his knees. As soon as they got within ten feet of the house, Jane figured out exactly why Frost had probably just lost his breakfast.
"Oh, Jesus Good God," Jane said, crinkling her nose and trying to immediately start breathing out of her mouth. Maura handed her the Vicks rub she kept in her body examination bag. Jane gratefully took it and put a thin layer under her nose. She usually never had to use that stuff but knew this time if she didn't, she and Frost would be dueling for the title of who could puke the furthest.
"You need some of this Korsak?" Jane asked, holding up the jar.
He scoffed. "Wuss."
She smiled and shook her head.
"What do we have?" she asked, as Maura walked into the house ahead of her. Jane's eyes started to water the closer she got to the door. "Jesus," she muttered to herself.
"Mailman went to ring the bell due to the fact that the mail hadn't been picked up. The smell as he got up here alerted him something may be amiss and he looked in the window and saw the body on the floor. It ain't pretty in there, Rizzoli. No forced entry, there's probably a GSW somewhere on the corpse. We know it's a guy, Jack Harrington."
"How do we know that?" she asked, walking through the threshold, surveying the room as Korsak followed on her heels.
Korsak held out the guy's wallet. Jane looked at the ID and checked it against various photos in the house. She steeled herself and knelt down across from Maura to look at the body. From what she could see of the facial features, it looked like an ID match.
"This look like the same guy to you?" Jane asked Maura, holding up the identification.
Maura went back and forth a few times between the face and the ID.
"Well?"
"It could be. There's a lot of decomposition here. I'd need to - "
"Yeah, I know - confirm it. Okay, if you had to make a guess - "
"I don't guess."
Jane sighed and rolled her eyes.
"MAURA! Please."
Maura cracked a smile. "I'd say the chances are pretty good it's the same guy. I'll know for sure later."
"How long's he been dead?"
"Judging by the odor and the stage of the decomposition, I'd say between five and six days."
"You're guessing?" Jane asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm making a scientific hypothesis."
"No, you're making me crazy! That's a fancy name for a guess."
Maura looked up, her annoyance starting to show by the way she narrowed her eyes at Jane. "Rizzoli, don't you have something else you could be doing around here," Maura said, sweeping her arm in dramatic fashion to indicate other parts of the room.
Jane looked stunned for a minute at the use of her last name then broke into a big smile.
"As a matter of fact, Dr. Isles, I do," Jane said, putting on her best hoity-toity accent. She rose back to a standing position, laughing, before gently placing her hand on Maura's head as she walked by her to get a pair of gloves.
Maura smiled and watched Jane for a minute as she sauntered around the room. Traces of her friend were starting to shine through - traces she wasn't sure she'd ever see again. She looked back down at the body, able to work undistracted. She found the gunshot wound at the back of the head.
"Jane, there is a GSW, at the back of the head. It wasn't at a very close distance though. In fact, it looks like a very precise shot from a very far distance," Maura said.
Jane knelt down next to her to inspect the wound. "This looks like the mark of a sniper rifle. Hey Frost, over by that window, do you see any broken glass?" Jane asked, pointing to indicate the front window.
"Nope, but let me check the other ones," he said.
"No, it would have had to come from that one," she said, getting up to inspect it herself. She didn't see any broken glass, but she took a very close look at the window.
"Look, see? Right there," she said, showing Frost a small hole in the screen and glass.
"Why is there no broken glass then?"
"Officer," Jane said, beckoning over a uniformed cop. "Let me see your flashlight please?"
The uniform dutifully handed over the light. Jane knelt down and shined it around on the floor, as she suspected, a few feet from the window was where the glass had landed.
"The force and speed of the bullet forced the glass to fly upon impact," Maura chimed in, getting up to see where the glass was. She eyed the distance from the window to the broken glass to the position of the body. "Also, look at the trajectory. This wasn't a straight shot, but someone aiming down from a window or something. I'll be able to better tell that when I do the autopsy."
"I think we need to pay a visit to the house across the street," Frost said.
TBC