Chapter 3
Finally satisfied that her mother wasn't going anywhere, Jane walked over towards where Korsak, Frankie and Maura were with the victim.
"Security guard found her an hour ago, lying there," Korsak said of the vic, who was dressed in a Boston Pilgrims T-shirt and yoga pants. "We've questioned the guard, other employees pulling into the parking lot over the past hour."
"No one heard anything out of the ordinary. No one saw anything unusual, other than the girl in the middle of the lawn," said Frankie.
"So, the guard finds her lying there, dead," Jane mused, looking over the victim. "No blood. Any idea how she was killed, Maura?"
Maura looked up at Jane with a quizzical look.
"Care to guess, Dr. Isles?" Jane teased her wife.
"Her heart stopped beating." Maura said, straight, as Korsak and Frankie chuckled, while Jane grinned.
"Maura Isles, making a joke at a crime scene," she said, winking right at Maura. "What will she do next?"
"One thing I will not do, Detective Rizzoli, is guess," Maura replied, seriously. "And you know I cannot determine a cause of death until I complete my examination at the morgue."
"God forbid you guess, Dr. Isles," Jane quipped. "Do you see anything out of the ordinary on the vic - besides her heart not beating."
"No, I do not," Maura replied. "No wounds of any kind, no external bleeding. No marks on her body."
"Maybe she was poisoned," Frankie guessed.
"Or she simply dropped dead of a physical defect of some kind," Korsak said.
"Looks like you guys have your work cut out," Jane said. "Korsak. I'm gonna borrow Frankie for a minute."
Jane and Frankie walked a short distance away, stopping next to the stadium, and she filled him in on their mother's arrival. "Ma's convinced Giovanni is up to no good and is some kind of threat to me," she said. "She showed up here to talk to you."
Frankie looked over towards Jane's sedan, where Angela was sitting in the front seat, next to Officer Manathos. "I agree with you she shouldn't have come here, but I agree with Ma, a little bit—"
"It's Giovanni," Jane said.
"Look," Frankie replied. "I don't think he's a real threat either, to do anything other than be an annoying pain in the ass. He does keep coming back, again and again...he's like that dog, from the battery commercial. Never stops."
"Giovanni's not a dog," Jane said.
"You're defending him."
"No, I'm not!"
"Yeah, you are. How big was that Cuddly Bear, anyway?"
"About as big as Matt Ryan's giant picture right above us," Jane said. "Frankie, you're right about him an annoying pain in the ass...but that's all he is."
"Don't you think it's time to put a stop to it?" Frankie said. "Tell him you and Maura are married."
"Tell him? Frankie. Our engagement and wedding announcements were in the Dispatch. Maura was on the front cover of The Advocate. We marched in the Pride parade. And neither of us date men."
"Well," Frankie said, before pausing a beat. "He only reads the Sports section of the paper, the only magazines he reads are ones with girls, engines, or both, and he was probably at a drag race when the Pride Festival was going on. And after Maura turned him down? He fixated on you."
"Arrrgggghhhh!" Jane said, exasperated. "Frankie. What am I gonna do?"
"Tell him you're married," Frankie said. "Pull out the wedding album, take him to the clerk's office and show him the marriage certificate, I don't know-"
Jane's phone buzzed, and she held up her hand. "Let me take this," she said, tapping a button on her Rocket phone to answer the call.
"Rizzoli...yes...yes...WHAT?!...WHEN?!"
Jane's yelling got the attention of Maura, who motioned for her assistants to get the body and load it on the gurney, and of Korsak, who had just finished taking photos of the scene.
"How long?" Jane said with her eyes bugged out. "No, no. Keep it there. I'm on my way. Thanks, Frost." She put her phone back in her jacket pocket and looked at Maura, her brother and Korsak. "You're not going to believe this."
"Believe what, Jane?" Maura said.
Division One HQ
"A genuine 1965 Industrial Motors Detroit," Jane said, as she, Maura, Frost, Korsak, Frankie and Angela surrounded the car, parked in front of the police station. "One of the classic North American sports cars."
"And how do you know this?" Frost said. "You're not even into cars. Much less a muscle car like this."
"DiNozzo. He's a movie nut, told me that car's been in 39 different movies from 1965 through 2012," Jane said. "And now it's mine."
