"What do we got?" Jane asked as they approached the crime scene.
"Victim's a young woman. Found her in the bushes on the corner of Huntington Avenue and Louis Prang Street," Frost informed them as they walked to the spot where the young woman's body lay. The girl looked like a typical college student: blonde hair, blue eyes, casual clothes. Maura kneeled down next to her and gently moved her head from side to side, lightly pressing the gaping red wound at the side of her temple.
"Looks like a single gunshot to the head."
"Check this out," Frankie called from a few feet away. Jane met him where he stood in the middle of the crosswalk. "The blood trails from the bushes to here."
"What's that?" Jane asked as she bent down next to a small skeletal-looking figure painted next to the white lines of the crosswalk.
"That? That's a boogeyman. They're all over the city."
"A 'boogeyman'?" Jane scowled. "Sounds pretty ominous to me."
"It's just street art."
"Nothing's 'just' anything in a crime scene, Frankie," Jane admonished. "You wanna make detective, you've really gotta start thinking like one."
"Right," he rolled his eyes.
"Get a picture of this. Run it through the database when we get back to the station."
"Okay, boss," Frankie snarked under his breath as Jane returned to Maura's side.
"Looks like she was hit by a vehicle," Maura reported. "Bruising all along the left side of her body."
"That doesn't make any sense," Korsak shook his head. "Why shoot someone if you've already killed them with your car?"
"I didn't say hit-and-run was the cause of death," Maura corrected.
"Watch it, Korsak," Jane warned. "You know how she gets when we jump to conclusions."
"So they hit her, but don't do enough damage for her not to make an ID. That might be enough reason to take her out," Frost contributed.
"Enough hypothesizing," Maura finally stood. "I need to get her back to the lab, and then I will tell you what happened."
"You heard the woman!" Jane smirked. "Let's get this girl wrapped up."
"'Wrapped up' is such a gruesome way to put it," Maura scolded as she and Jane returned to the car. "It makes her sound like a submarine sandwich."
"Can't you just say a 'sub'? Why do you have to..."
"The term originated in a restaurant in Scollay Square, right here in Boston, at the beginning of World War I. They were created to entice the navy servicemen stationed at Charlestown. It was intentionally meant to look like a submarine."
"Gee, I never could have lived with myself without knowing that story," Jane seethed.
"When you use slang, you erase the history associated with the etymology of words. Your history. The sandwiches were first created by Italian Americans."
"Oh yeah, I'm sure my great, great grandfather was just the guy who first thought it up," Jane rolled her eyes. "Because all of us Italian Americans are related."
Maura shook her head and leaned against the window as Jane pulled away.
"Racist," Jane smirked.
Maura looked back at her and scoffed, punching her in her arm.
"How dare you…"
"I'm kidding, Maura! Come on. Let's get back to the station safely. We don't need another accident today. Or ever."
"The trauma from the hit-and-run was not the cause of death," Maura concluded as Jane stood by, watching her move between the body and the computer. "It was the gunshot wound to the right temple. No other signs of trauma or sexual assault."
"Frankie found something," Frost said as he entered the lab. "The skeleton marking from the crosswalk came back in the database as a gang symbol associated with Bonesucker, wanted for battery, grand theft and hit-and-run."
Jane looked down at the photo paper-clipped to the manila folder.
"Looks like we've got our boogeyman," she sighed. "Do we have locations on the other hit-and-runs?"
"Yes. All with the same skeleton tagged on the pavement."
"So this guy's taking credit," she noted, biting her nails as she leaned back against the table. "I'll call Rondo and see if I can get anything else on him."
"Good idea," Frost said. "Jane, all of the victims were young, blonde women. All of them died at the scene."
"Except for this one," she shook her head. "She must have seen him, maybe even tried to get away."
"There's no sign of struggle," Maura chimed in.
Jane glared at her.
"Still…she could have crawled…or…yes…tried to get away," the M.E. admitted.
"Thank you," Jane nodded. "I'm gonna go with Frost to talk to Rondo. If you speak with my mother, ask her if she needs me to pick anything up for Nico on my way home."
"Home?" Maura smirked. "Are you moving in with me too?"
Jane froze. She felt her neck heat up, but otherwise kept her cool.
"I think you've got a full house already," she played it off. "But I might spend some more time there, if that's all right with you."
Maura made a ridiculously cute face back at Jane. Jane tried not to melt visibly as she left to seek out her favorite neighborhood CI.
"Vanilla!" Rondo called when he saw Jane approaching. "What do I owe this sweet, sweet…"
"You know anything about Bonesucker?" Frost cut to the chase.
"Bonesucker? Hmm. Let me think. I got so many goons to keep track of, you see, it's kinda hard to pin it down to…"
Jane handed him a twenty and glared.
"Ah, Vanilla, you don't have to play so hard all the time," he smiled, then whispered. "But I kinda like it."
"Give it up, Rondo."
"Okay. Bonsucker. He's a really bad dude. Really bad. Not the kind to be seen in daylight kind of bad."
"How can we find him?"
"If I knew that, I probably wouldn't be standing here breathing right now!" Rondo laughed. "But I tell you what. I may be able to find someone who might know where his posse tends to do business."
"Well?"
"I said I might. I don't know if…"
Jane sighed loudly and handed him another ten.
"That's all I've got, Rondo. You better make it worth coming out here, or else I've got other folks I can…"
"Nah, nah, nah!" Rondo shouted. "You don't have to go looking to anybody else, Vanilla. I'll get you what you need. Might take me a day or two to track him down, but I got you. You know I got you, baby girl!"
Jane rolled her eyes but couldn't help smiling at the strangely lovable, reliable man before she and Frost called it a day.
