I want to thank everyone again for the wonderful reviews. It really means a lot, and it keeps me going with this, and other stories. I do want to warn you, I have no experience with crime scenes or autopsies or anything like that. What I know comes from watching this show as well as being in Mock Trial last year. So if anything is wrong, please feel free to let me know, and I will correct it.
I really hope that even though this chapter is just the crime scene, that you all still like it. I'm trying to keep the writing up to the standards of the previous chapters.
Disclaimer: I don't own R&I
A Look at the Dead
After driving the fifteen minutes to the crime scene, Jane and Maura got out of the Doctor's Prius and walked over to where Korsak was standing, and Frost was recovering from (almost) losing his lunch. So all in all, it started as another normal day at the job. The dead man was lying on the ground in the park, as if he was sleeping. Jane thought he looked a bit familiar, but she couldn't exactly place his face.
"What've we got here, Korsak?" Jane asked, squatting down on the opposite side of the body as Maura.
"Male, around 60. A woman running in the morning said that she was running along this sidewalk here," Korsak pointed to the sidewalk near where they were standing, "When she saw there was a man laying down in the grass. She took a closer look and saw that he was dead. It's strange, Jane. It looks like natural causes. We couldn't find any stab or bullet wounds, and there also weren't any signs of an injected drug OD," Korsak said, "Have you found anything different, Doctor?"
Maura shook her head, "No Detective, I haven't. I agree with your statement thus far, there appears to be a small fiber on this man's collar," Maura motioned for an evidence bag and slipped the fiber inside, "But the cause of death so far seems accurate. I'll of course have to do some further examining."
"Can you give us an estimated time of death?" Jane inquired.
"Given the state of decomposition being fairly low, I would say within the past hour or so," Maura answered, "But something doesn't feel right about this, Jane. I- I can't put my finger on it though."
Jane searched through his pants pockets as well as the pocket on his shirt for a wallet, phone, or other form of ID. She found his wallet in his back pants pocket.
"Oh my god," Jane said suddenly, staring at the wallet, wide-eyed, "Guys, do you remember that cold a couple of years ago with that guy, Eric Sampson, who just dropped off the face of the earth, along with that other guy he worked with, a George Seaborne, I believe, were both suspected dead after a month of searching, and the only person we got in for questioning was uh," She snapped her fingers.
"His wife, Annie Sampson," Korsak said.
"Right! We better go get the case files, because we just found Eric Sampson," Jane said, looking around at her colleagues.
They finished securing the crime scene. Maura, Jane, Korsak, and Frost stood in a circle talking about the specs of the case.
"Since there was no body produced to me during that case, I have no recollection of you three working to solve this case," Maura said.
"Well basically Maur," Jane started to explain, "A few years ago, there was a man who seemingly left his house late at night, and hasn't been seen since. Well, until now," She shook her head, "Oh my god that sounds like a cheesy horror story. What happened was…
Frankie walked into the Homicide Unit with a woman next to him. She looked very nervous, and out-of-place, like she was almost hesitant to be there. The woman was short, with long brown hair. She looked to be in her late 50s.
"Excuse me, Detective Rizzoli," Frankie called to his sister, signifying that it was something important, "There's someone here who wants to speak to you."
Jane got up, walked over to the woman and smiled warmly, "Thanks, Frankie," Then she stuck her hand out to the woman, "Hi, I'm Detective Jane Rizzoli. What can I help you with?"
The woman looked around nervously again before speaking, "My-my husband has been missing since yesterday morning. He left early, and he wasn't home by the time I was. I figured that he was just working late, he works for the local newspaper, but he hasn't returned yet."
The Detective nodded, "Ok. What's your husband's name, ma'am?"
"His name is Eric Sampson. Oh, and my name's Annie Sampson, if that information is relevant."
"Alright Ms. Sampson, I'm just going to ask you to follow me to the interrogation room. Trust me, you're not in trouble," Jane guided the woman down to the room, "I promise. It's not as bad as it sounds."
Jane asked Annie the usual questions on her missing husband, getting a decent amount of information on him. She managed to find out that he had only one potential enemy at work, a Mr. George Seaborne, but that in general, he was a popular guy, well-respected. He did stories on local Boston news and he did work on articles of the various cases that had been worked by the BPD.
They went to check out Seaborne's house, but he wasn't there. It turned out that he had disappeared around the same time as Eric. The search for the two missing reporters continued for another three weeks, the police involved locally and state-wide, as well as surrounding states. Then, after those three weeks, the police hadn't had any further leads or success finding evidence so they declared them dead. People kept searching locally, though. Friends of the two men, family, wives, children, neighbors. They were both well liked, and the community was affected by the loss. Some detectives kept revisiting the case for about another year, but after that point, the case was declared cold.
Maura seemed very intrigued by the story. By the time Jane had finished recounting what had happened, everyone could see the gears in her head turning to try to figure it out on her own, "There wasn't any evidence? None at all?"
"No, the only lead we got was Seaborne, and he was gone with Sampson," Korsak said.
"Yeah, and we couldn't find anything in either of their houses that gave us any clues to where they were," Frost pitched in.
Maura nodded, "Well perhaps our victim will help us find out what happened. I want to get back to the station and do the autopsy."
Jane and Maura headed back to the ME's car and headed for the BPD. They rode mostly in silence until Maura said, "Jane is your car still at the Dirty Robber?"
The Detective shook her head, "No, it's at the station. Korsak and Frost gave me a ride down to the Robber, and since it's close enough to home I figured that I'd walk."
"I see," Maura said, "Jane something really bothered me about that crime scene. Like I said, I don't know what it was, but it was really bothering me. Something didn't seem right."
"Well was it with the set-up of the crime scene?" Jane asked.
"No, it had nothing to do with that. It was the body itself. It seemed too weird for there to be a body there that died of natural causes. And did you see that the skin seemed to have an unnatural sheen on it?"
"I didn't notice that, Maur. That's why we have you though! You notice things no one else does," Jane said, "But also, that's why we do autopsies. We'll figure out what wasn't right."
Maura nodded, pulling her car into a parking space at the BPD. The two women went into the building, checked in with the on duty cop and headed to their respectable desks/offices and got to work.
Jane walked into the homicide bullpen and sat down at her desk. She had first gone to retrieve the old Sampson/Seaborne case file and was now looking it over. She felt her phone buzz, pulled it out and saw a message from Maura.
Please come down here. Now.
"Guys I gotta get down to the morgue, Maura's got something on our victim," Jane said, heading towards the elevators.
When she got to the morgue, she was confused. Normally there would be intestines on different trays and the probe would be up and running, and Maura's scrubs would have blood on them. But none of that was happening.
"What's wrong?" Jane asked, worriedly, "Why aren't there guts everywhere?"
Maura sighed heavily, "Because there are none. I figured out what was wrong, Jane and I feel so stupid for not knowing right away. This isn't a person. It's a wax replica of the missing person."
Oh my!
Thank you all again for keeping with this story. As always, constructive criticism welcome :)
-RMarie
