Chapter 9
Having handled the conversations with Riley and Barry, Jane turned her attention to the two cases at hand. She needed to get both detectives in the loop as to the developments and she needed Frost's help in furthering her investigation into Devin Sanders. She made her way back to the bullpen and pulled a chair up in between Frost and Cooper.
"Ok, so there were some developments last night about the Boston Harbor Hotel case. We have a lot of things to work on today and this case is now considered High Priority. Barry, I've been asked to take point here. Sorry. Cavanaugh's request."
"What's with the High Priority status?" asked Riley.
"Turns out our victim has been positively identified as Dr. Paul Turner. And he gets High Priority status because he was a friend of DA Patrick Hagan."
"You mean Governor Hagan," Frost said without hiding his sarcasm.
"More than likely yes he will be Governor in November. So we will have extra scrutiny on this case. Hence Cavanaugh requesting that I take point. Hagan's already ID'd the body and Maura confirmed last night it is Turner. Hamilton is involved in this case now too. So we can't screw any of this up."
"What did Dr. Rizzoli-Isles learn last night from the initial autopsy?" asked Cooper.
"Several things. First, time of death was Sunday morning between 3-4 am. So, we need to review the hotel video footage for the lobby, hallways and elevator footage in that time span to see if we can see anyone coming to or leaving Turner's room. Also, we need to speak with the hotel staff that was on duty during that time frame to see if anyone saw anything. Our suspect had to leave the hotel at some point so maybe someone will remember seeing someone leave.
"Second, cause of death is the blunt force head wound. Maura doesn't know a weapon yet and will be working on wound patterns with the head injury today. But it was the head injury that killed him. Which leads to the third thing. The stab wounds on Turner were inflicted post-mortem. There were fifteen of them. Guys, this is personal. Someone stabbed Turner fifteen times after he was already dead. Maura called the pattern scattered, frantic. I would call it a possible fit of rage.
"Fourth, Maura was able to recover some skin tissue under Turner's fingernails. We are waiting to get a hit from CODIS and may hopefully have a DNA identification of a possible suspect. Looks like he put up at least a little bit of a fight before he was killed. I'm hoping to have an identification of the skin DNA by the end of the day.
"Fifth, Maura thinks there is a link between Turner and Natalie Givens. She was reviewing Pike's notes last night and thinks the stab wounds on Givens match the nature of the stab wounds on Turner. Givens died of asphyxiation but she was also stabbed twelve times and those stab wounds were also post-mortem. That's why Maura thinks there could be a link. She is going to re-examine Givens later today and see what Pike missed. We all know he will have missed something.
"Lastly, there is also a chance that Maura knows our possible suspect. At least for the Turner murder. Now, this isn't for common knowledge. I have not told Cavanaugh this yet. Nor Korsak. Not yet. But Turner is a doctor that specializes in medical imaging and Maura had an encounter with an old friend who is in town that seems off and could tie him to Turner. I want to investigate that possibility further before I tell anyone else. Maura's not certain but what we know looks bad."
Frost and Cooper just looked at each other. "Damn Jane, all of this happened last night?" Frost was surprised how quickly things had developed.
"Yes. Maura pieced together the possible tie between Givens and Turner which could be confirmed later this afternoon. I think she just needs to examine Givens herself to conclude the connection. In the meantime, we need to move on reviewing hotel footage and speaking with the hotel staff now that we know time of death. And I need to investigate Maura's friend. I have a bad feeling about his role in all of this. But I'm not going to discuss a suspect with Cavanaugh without more to go on."
Frost and Cooper nodded. "Jane, if you have a name for Maura's friend I can run him and see what I can find. That will be a good place to start," Frost offered.
"I agree. Maura already started some initial research. Turns out most of what he told her on Friday when they ran into each other at the medical conference was a lie. He claimed to be a tenured professor at UCSF at the conference to deliver a paper on Virtual Autopsies but none of that is true. He also lied to her when he said he had speaking engagement here at Harvard and at Johns Hopkins. Neither has heard of him and he isn't set to do any lectures."
As she was explaining this to both detectives her phone vibrated an incoming email message. When she finished her last sentence she looked down at her phone. She was surprised the email had been from Maura. Maura normally sent her text messages. It took Jane a second to realize that Maura had forwarded an email for her to look at.
The charade continues. I don't understand this. Should I reply?
Jane read the body of the email Maura had received from Devin. She couldn't believe it either. It sounded so normal. So casual. But Jane knew none of it except maybe the dinner reservations was true. It all was a tab bit creepy. She typed a reply.
Don't tip him off that you suspect anything. Reply back that we will see him Wednesday night. I'll be down to see you soon.
She looked up at Frost and Cooper. "Ok, Maura just got a confirmation from our possible suspect that we are supposed to meet him for dinner on Wednesday. I asked Maura to reply that we will be there and to not tip him off that there is anything wrong. I need to know everything there is to know about this guy before Wednesday."
Jane, Barry and Riley decided on a plan of action for the first part of the morning. Barry and Riley would go speak to the hotel staff and review the video footage from the hotel for the estimate time of death time frame. Frost inputted Devin's information into several queries that would run while they did the follow-up at the hotel and Jane would stay at the station and go through Maura's information as it became available as well as observe the re-examination of Givens. Frost and Cooper would return to the station after finishing the follow-up at the hotel.
Jane stopped to give Korsak a quick update before heading down to the morgue. "Vince, we may have a possible suspect. I don't want to tell Cavanaugh until I have a little more to go on but I'm hoping we may be able to piece a few things together by mid-afternoon. Mostly we are just waiting for some reports to start coming in."
"Who's the suspect?"
"Believe it or not, a former student of Maura's from San Francisco. Like I said, we aren't completely sure yet but there are some things that don't add up and he may become our primary suspect here. I'll keep you posted."
Jane rode the elevator down to the morgue. Maura was just starting to examine Givens when Jane arrived. "Frost and Cooper are headed out to do the follow-up at the hotel with the staff and video review. Frost entered Devin's information and we are running queries to get some background on him. How's it going here?"
"I'm just getting started here. About half the reports we are waiting for should be ready in about two hours." Maura paused and looked up at Jane. "And I can't believe he sent me an email like everything is fine. It's a little disconcerting."
"I agree with you. I would say that there is something really not right with him if he actually believes that he is telling you the truth. It will be interesting to see what we turn up on Devin Sanders after Frost's queries run."
Jane watched Maura re-do Givens' autopsy. Maura made a few notes and Jane could tell by the look on her face the times she found things that Pike had clearly missed. After an hour she was finished. Jane had been pretty quiet while she watched Maura work. She was stuck in waiting mode for reports or Frost and Cooper to return.
"Jane based on my initial exam I can state that the stab wounds on Givens match the pattern of the stab wounds on Turner. The pattern, depth and edges of the wounds on both are consistent with not only the same person being responsible but both were inflicted by the same type of instrument."
"So we are looking for one killer for these two cases not two separate killers?"
"In my medical opinion, yes." That was good enough for Jane. It always had been.
"Ok. I need to speak with Korsak. Can you bring up the lab reports when you get them?"
"As soon as I have anything I'll bring it up to you."
"Thanks," and Jane headed back up to speak with Korsak.
Frost and Cooper were finishing up at the hotel. They had made some good progress. Frost was able to find video of a male walking through the lobby at 3:57 am on Sunday. He was exiting with some haste. Using that time marker he was able to track the male throughout the hotel. The male entered the hotel at 2:50 am and headed straight to the elevators. He hit the "8" button on the elevators and got off on the 8th floor and walked down the hallway where Turner's room was located.
Based on cameras it was hard to determine exactly which room he had knocked on but at 2:56 am the male knocked on a door and allowed entry to a room on the 8th floor. At 3:51 am he exited the room he entered and quickly walked down the hallway. He took the stairs this time and stairway cameras show him winding his way down to the lobby where he exits at 3:57 am. There is enough good footage to make a positive identification if a suspect is identified.
Cooper spoke with the hotel staff on duty but that wasn't as helpful. No one could remember much of anything and no one claimed to see a male walking through the lobby at either 2:50 am or 3:57 am. In fairness to the staff, Frost video review didn't show any indications that anyone had seen the male in question. Frost copied the video and requested that the hotel copy or hold all the surveillance for the entire week leading up to the murder. A copy would be made of everything and sent to the station.
As Frost and Cooper were leaving the hotel Riley had grown quiet. She hadn't been overly chatty during the first two months they had been partners but she was quieter than she normally was. Quiet enough for Frost to ask about it.
"You are awfully quiet? What are you thinking?"
Riley decided after her talk with Jane and Korsak that she did need to go back to being herself. To look at things not from what she thought would have been Jane's perspective but from her own. So she was replaying her recent conversations through her mind, especially the interviews her and Frost had done with the prostitutes Rondo had recommended they speak to on Friday. Her mind kept drifting back to one of the girls and something she had said.
"I was just replaying the interviews we did on Friday through my head. I think I missed something on Friday with one of the girls. I think we need to go back and speak with Valerie again."
He looked at her and waited for more details. She didn't offer any. "What do you think you missed?"
"I'm not sure. It's just a gut feeling really. But the more I think about how that conversation went the more I think I missed out on asking her the right question. I think maybe she saw Natalie's killer. I was so wrapped up in asking about her tricks I didn't ask about any men that weren't Johns. We were assuming Natalie was killed during a trick gone bad. What if that wasn't the case?"
Frost thought for a second. She could be right. "Ok. Let's go talk with Valerie again." He made a lane change and they headed not back to the station but back towards the Back Bay in search of another teenage prostitute.
Time. So much can change so quickly. Events, changes in circumstances, important decisions, life changes all can happen in a split second. Decisions made or not made. Actions taken or not taken. All with the power to determine the direction someone's life would go from that second forward. A second. Sounds quick. Sounds fast. But, under the right set of circumstances, a second can last forever. Under the right circumstances.
