Chapter 7
The station was quiet this late in the evening.
'Just what the hell were you thinking!?'
Jane stared at the sketch she held in her hand, glanced at the half dozen others scattered across her desk, while the memory of Maura's angry words rang in her head over and over again.
'Just what did you think she was going to do to me, Jane?'
The sketch she held was rendered as a standard mug-shot: right-profile and front-face. It was the sketch that brought a shit-ton of red flags up on her suspect as soon as she ran it through the NCIC facial recognition software.
'What? Did you believe just because Bobby is a lesbian, she would... would... attack me?!'
The man was hispanic, short military haircut, large dark eyes, thin angular nose, full lips, square-shaped face. Had Jane passed him on the street, she might have considered him attractive. With a disgusted sigh, Jane threw the sketch on the desk with the others and ran a hand across her face and up through her hair. The other sheets of sketches were filled with the same man snarling, yelling, scowling, jeering, and generally looking pissed. A gamut of facial emotions one might see when fighting off a killer.
'She SAVED me, Jane! If Bobby hadn't come looking for me... if she hadn't been there...'
The suspect was La Sombra, or, 'The Shadow' in Spanish. Also known as Roberto Espina. Carlos Oso's enforcer and all around fun guy to know. The guy had a rap sheet longer than she was tall. Petty larcenies, car thefts, possession and distribution were the least of his crimes. Arrested for assault and battery a score of times, and lead suspect in at least seven murders, and three rapes...
'... if Bobby hadn't come looking for me...'
Jane's heart clenched at the terrified, angry tone of Maura's recrimination. At the truth behind them. Closing her eyes, she rested her head against her hands, peering through her fingers once more at the sketches, but not really seeing them. Trying not to think about the fall-out of this morning, while remembering every moment.
The truth was, she didn't know what she was thinking when she barreled into Bobby this morning. All she knew was when Angela's call woke her this morning, shouting that Maura may be in danger, the detective's protective instincts kicked her into overdrive. Maura only lived a couple of miles away, an easy run. But time was of the essence - she drove to the park, thankful that most of Boston was still asleep at the ungodly hour Maura liked to go jogging. By the time Jane got to the park, her cop's brain had conjured a dozen different scenarios. Running down the path Maura loved the most, when she finally saw the artist hovering over the obviously distraught doctor, Jane's vision turned red.
'Maura may be in danger!' With her mother's frantic voice echoing in her ear, an intense feeling of rage overcame Jane at the sight of Maura huddled over, bruised and disheveled, leaving no doubt the redhead gripping her shoulders was to blame. Her mind blanked to anything beyond protect Maura! The thought of anyone harming her friend - Her friend - Her best friend - even now it made her blood boil.
But of course Bobby wasn't the one that attacked Maura.
The quicksilver anger that flashed through her now while sitting at her desk instantly cooled to doubt, then fear at the thought of losing her best friend over such a stupid, stupid mistake. By the time she made it back to the path where she'd left the women, EMTs were on site. Jane was surprised to see them loading Bobby, and not Maura onto a stretcher while the doctor stood to one side, blood on her hands and fear in her eyes. When she spotted Jane, the relief in her eyes was quickly replaced with anger.
'Maura?'
'They are taking her to Boston General. I will come by the station to file a report when we're released,' Maura stated, then raised a red hand to forestall any further questions. 'Don't. Not now. I'm...'
'Maura, what the hell?'
The short blond whirled on her, eyes narrowed and fists clinched in fury.
'Just what the hell were you thinking!?'
Not understanding at first, Jane thought Maura was angry that she ran after the suspect without backup.
'Just what did you think she was doing to me, Jane?'
With a clarity that made the pit of her stomach ache, Jane realized what she'd done and how badly she may have screwed up.
'What? Did you believe just because Bobby is a lesbian she would... would... attack me?!'
The detective didn't know what to say. Couldn't find the words to explain how she felt seeing Maura lying there, hurt. Didn't know how to correct the misconception she'd created by roughly shoving Bobby aside, accusing the other woman of hurting her friend. Wished desperately to take it all back, because the implications were too awful to face. In a flash, she could see how Maura's big brain would relate her over-reaction to Bobby as an indication how Jane felt about homosexuality and by extension, Maura herself.
'Because I'm a lesbian, Jane. Or at least bi. Do you think just because I'm attracted to women, I'd just - just - randomly attack another woman? Attack you?'
'Maur, NO! I...'
'She SAVED me, Jane! If Bobby hadn't come looking for me... if she hadn't been there...'
Jane felt her heart sink as the hurt and anger grew in Maura's hazel eyes.
'... if Bobby hadn't come looking for me...'
'I didn't mean-'
'No!' The finger Maura jabbed in her direction was like a stab to her heart. 'Save it, Jane. This is not okay. You don't get to act like that and then say you didn't mean it. And until you can act civil, instead of like a - a - a neanderthal, I don't want to speak with you.'
She tried once more to talk to the doctor, but her friend was too angry to do more than glare, and Jane knew not to press her luck.
Instead, after watching Maura climb into the back of the ambulance with the redhead, Jane cordoned off the crime scene, canvased the area, talked to the officers on duty, found a footprint impression, and generally made a nuisance of herself at the site until the VCU detectives had to tell her to take a walk in no uncertain terms. Reluctantly, she returned to the bullpen to report to Cavannauh what happened and try to find some way to be useful. By mid afternoon, Frankie came by her desk, grim faced and apologetic when he handed over the large envelope addressed to her.
'Maura called and asked me to bring this to you. Geezus, Janie, you really pissed off the doc. What the hell happened out there?'
Jane merely glared, snatching the envelope from his hands to spill the contents across her desk.
'Wow. Damn, these are good,' Frankie enthused over the sketches while Jane read the short letter written in Maura's elegant script.
'... While I did not see my attacker, Bobby was able to produce these sketches of the suspect. If he has a record, these should be sufficient to trigger a match via facial recognition. My written statement is included. I shall deliver a formal statement to the Violent Crimes Unit detective this afternoon. ...'
Frankie wasn't exaggerating. The sketches were damned good. And once scanned into the system, they lit up the FBI's National Crime Information Center facial recognition program like a fucking christmas tree. The file she finally compiled for La Sombra/Espina was almost as thick as Carlos Oso's, but scarier. Oso may have been a greedy, manipulative drug dealing scumbag, but he could never be tied directly to another person's murder. Espina, on the other hand, apparently killed and tortured for fun and profit. The NCIC profile labeled the man a classic sociopath with sadistic tendencies. Jane immediately tried to get Maura to go into protective custody, but the stubborn woman refused.
'If I run and hide every time one of Paddy Doyle's enemies thinks I'm an easy target, I'll forever be a victim. I refuse to live the rest of my life in fear just because the man who fathered me is a criminal. I have an excellent security system at home. I am sure we will be perfectly safe there until this individual can be apprehended.'
Jane wanted to tear her hair out in frustration.
She also wanted to know how it was that Maura's friend, who was supposedly just a sketch artist, was able to fight-off someone with Espina's deadly reputation. If even half the file in the NCIC was correct, by all rights both Maura and Bobby should have been on a slab down in the morgue right now, instead of recovering back at the doc's home.
So Jane did a little more digging. Initial background checks on Bobby came back clean. She was a model fucking citizen. Not so much as a parking ticket. But there was more than one way to find information about a person. Eventually, it was the financial and employment history that provided the most leads. And when she found the background checks from Bobby's time with the DOD, it painted a different picture than the 'wandering artist' the redhead pretended to be.
Oh, she was an artist, alright, as evidenced by the drawings spread across Jane's desk. And as she'd said when they first met, she really had worked for several law enforcement agencies across the country at one time or another. Her employment record showed her working steadily from coast to coast for the past three years. But it was who she worked for before that, and the odd gap between that job and her cross-country employment tour, that made Jane sit up and take notice.
BLACKWATER, defense contractor, US Defense Department, United States Army, Oct 1998 - Feb 2008. Iraq, Afghanistan.
Damn. Well, that would certainly explain how she could fight off a drug lord's hired muscle - the self defense training that company put its people through was legendary. But what the hell would an artist be doing for a US defense contractor for ten years in a war zone? Drawing cartoons of Uncle Sam for troop morale? Not very likely.
Digging through the records, however, didn't provide a better answer, which was frustrating to no end. Bobby's exact job for Blackwater was sealed. All Jane could find was a rough timeline, no real details. It appeared after her stint with the infamous private security firm, Bobby returned to the US after February 2008. But after that... she disappeared. There wasn't a single record from that time she could access. Searching through financial statements, Jane found a steady, though paltry income being deposited to the artist's account through the remainder of 2008 until January 2009, but then it too dried up and disappeared. Absolutely nothing from February 2009 through June 2011. Then, in July 2011, she popped back into the system when she was hired by the Charlotte, NC police department, and worked there for six months. Then began the first in a series of moves with a fairly consistent paper trail. Work three to four months in a location, then move. Work another three or four months, then move again. For the last three years, Bobby never stayed in one place longer than four months, addresses always a string of PO boxes.
For the better part of her afternoon and on through the evening, Jane continued to follow the paper trail, trying to get past the endless string of PO box addresses, trying to find the reason for those missing years. She also wanted to know how someone who dropped so completely off the grid was still able to gain employment with local law enforcement. It just didn't make sense.
Until...
Jane sat back in her seat, totally stunned when she finally found what she was looking for.
Wait...
What the actual...
Really?
Not sure if she should be pissed or grateful, Jane debated with herself for several minutes before finally deciding she really needed to know what the actual fuck was going on. Grabbing her cell phone, Jane called the one person she never would have suspected in a million years of having the answers she needed.
She dialed Mrs. Constance Isles.
AN - Just wanted to say, thank you to everyone who has added this story to their favorites list. I'm really glad other people are enjoying this. The story should start to pick up a bit more from now on. There is still some major background story to cover, but I think our villains are a little frustrated and likely to be back sooner rather than later.
