So, here I am again and I have a new chapter. I hope you like it. Of course feel free to tell me what you think.

T73

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I have put on the same clothes of yesterday in a flash after Frost has called me to tell me that there is a new body at a secluded shore of the Charles River.
I haven't wait for Maura who has offered me a ride.
I bring my Triumph to an halt at the police cordon and get off of my bike.
I stare at a officer and don't blink even once. "Would you let pass through?"
"And who are you?" he asks me.
I hate rookies, I really do. Because normally I would already be by the victim if he knew me.
I sigh and show him my badge, "Rizzoli, Homicide. May I?"
He nods his head and lifts the police tape.
Frost comes immediately up to me. "You're wearing your clothes from yesterday? Did you had an hot date? And the more important question is, are you sober?"
I glare at him and furl my eyebrows, "Do I look like I am drunk? What do we have?"
He looks at his notepad, "Another body washed up. He also was shot, just like the others."
I put on a pair of latex gloves, "Do we have an ID?"
He presses his lips to a thin line together.
That's the answer I need.
The answer is yes.
Frankie is talking to another officer and glares at me.
I stare back at him and rub confused my hands as I walk to the shore.
I see all the CSRU's bustle around the crime scene and frown as I see Maura.
Great!
She looks up at me and smiles a little. "Hello, Detective."
I force my facial muscles not to twitch. Only Frankie and Ma knows that Maura and I have something going on, "Hey, Doc. What do we have?"
She frowns deeply and points at the corpse that lies on its belly. "The body wasn't long in the water. He has a distinct exit wound of a heavy-calibered bullet in the back of his head." she looks back up at me. "Can you help me turning him around?"
I nod my head and help her to turn the body on his back.
Immediately, I'm in one of my worst nightmare.
I stare in the wide-open, empty eyes of Liam Sullivan. I stumble a step back.
What the hell?
Last noon, he was still pretty much alive.
What happened after I went to Maura's?
Maura looks questioningly at me, "Detective Rizzoli, is everything okay?"
I start breathing again and lick my try lips, "Yeah, I ... I just thought that I would know him."
"Do you?"
I look over to Frankie who still talks to the same officer, "No." I lie.
She focuses back on the body and points at Liam's bruised face. "Hm, it looks like he have been beaten up recently. His lower jawbone is broken." she starts to pat his body down and stops at his ribs. "Also, two of his ribs are broken. Maybe his left lung was punctuated. It could be the cause of death."
I have to act like myself again, "Or maybe he died because of the gunshot wound in his head."

Maura glares at me and presses her lips to a thin line together.
I lift my shoulders and a smile tugs on the corners of my lips, "Just a suggestion."
She huffs and continues her task. "I'm just thorough, " she mumbles.
I smile a little but it disappears immediately when I look down at the lifeless body of Liam.
Frost comes up to me again and nods to a spot that is out of earshot.
I follow him on his heels without complaining.
Korsak and Frankie joins us immediately.
"Do you know him?" Korsak asks.
Frankie and I nod our heads.
"His name is Liam Sullivan," I tell him
He writes the name down in his notepad. "Where do you know him from ?"
Frankie still glares at me like I have killed Liam myself, "Tory Bennett has put us on him."
"He has put me on Liam," I correct my brother.
Frankie snorts angrily.
"What," I growl low. "Do you want to make a false statement?"
"If I can save your sorry ass with that!" he replies.
I make a face, "Oh shut up, Frankie."
"None of you is under suspicion." Korsak says and looks at each of us. "I just want your statements. But I can't interview the two of you at the precinct. So calm down, would you?"
I take a deep breath and glance at my brother.
"Why did Tory put you on Liam, Jane?" Frost asks.
"Tory said that Liam owes him money," Frankie answers.
"Yeah," I agree and stuff my hands in the pockets of my jeans. "But then Tanja called me the yesterday in the morning and we met in Franklin Park. During the meeting she has told me that it is just long-standing rivalry between Terry and Liam."
"You met Tanja without me?" Frankie barks through clenched teeth.
I give him a warning look.
Frost sighs heavily, "What happened next?"
I kick my lips and frown as I look briefly to Maura and the body, "I ... did a spin with my bike before I got an text message from Tory. It was a instruction of where and when I should meet with Tory's thug."
"Toben," Frost states.
I nod my head again. "Yes. We met at the docks where the fish market takes place. Liam worked there."
Frost frowns deeply, "Did you know that Liam should be killed?"
"Of course not," I answer with an high-pitched voice. "We just should beat him up. The last time I saw Liam, he was still alive."
Korsak looks long at me. "Have you noticed something strange?"
I think shot, "Toben had a gun, I know neither brand nor caliber. But he aimed it at Liam."
"You remember that now," Frankie yells and several heads turn to us.
I give him a hard push with both of my hands, "Would you keep it down, idiot?" I hiss and our whole colleagues look at us. "I'm sorry that I was busy to save Liam's and your ass."
"You have been really successful," he snaps.
That's it.
I can feel the anger about my own failing boiling in the pit of my stomach.
I need a valve to let off steam. Now!
I grab my brother at his collar and pull him close to me and bare my teeth.
It doesn't matter to me that we are at a crime scene or that chaos breaks loose around us.
"Say that again," I snarl.
My eyes promises him that I'll give him a good whipping.
But Frankie isn't scared. Quite the contrary. He dares me.
My facial muscles twitches and I clench my jaw tightly.
Frost grabs me at my shoulders and pulls me away from Frankie.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Jane?" he yells and gives me a shove. "Pull yourself together!"
I blink once and look in the shocked faces of the other cops and CSRU's ... and Maura.
My eyes stick to her.
Her mouth is hanging open as she slowly gets up to her feet.
I can see the confusion in her eyes and my stomach drops.
I just want to shrivel up when I realize what I have done.
There it is. The aide in me that I've always feared most. My bad temper side.
A legacy of my dear father.
How ever, Pop only gets hot-tempered when he's drunken.
I have no excuse apart from the fact that Frankie really has provoked me.
Not that drunkenness is an good excuse for beating someone up.
I look embarrassed at the other cops and swallow hard.
I can't stand the questioningly looks right now.
I curse myself and turn on my heels to leave the crime scene.
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I sit at the counter of the Dirty Robber and stare into my coffee mug.
Frankie is right. I have failed.
If I had been quick-thinking, I would have disarmed Toben at the docks.
Maybe Liam would be still alive.
Maybe.
This will always hovering over my head. Like my own sword of Damocles.
I've always been my own severe judge.
Mistakes are unforgivable.
Especially now.
I made too many mistakes already, there is no more space on my tally.
I ...
"I hope that's not Irish coffee," pulls me a familiar voice from my train of thought.
I straighten up on my chair and turn to the intruder, "Shouldn't you perform an autopsy right now?"
"Liam Sullivan will still be dead in an hour," Maura replies and sits down next to me. "So, is that Irish coffee?"
I stare again into my mug. "Actually it is coffee ... without the Irish."
She glances at the bartender, "Can I have the same, please?"
He nods and pours her a cup of coffee, without Irish whisky.
"How did you find me?"
"Frankie."
"Of course."
"He's worried," she says. "I'm worried."
I sip my coffee and stare ahead, "I'm fine."
She places a hand on mine. "You sure?"
I jerk my hand away, "Don't ..." I say louder. "touch me."

"I'm sorry," she says and places her hands in her lap.
No, I'm sorry. She is only here to comfort me and hasn't done anything wrong.
But I don't deserve soothing touches.
And I want to punish me by refusing me endearments.
Maura can't know that. How could she?
And yet she respects my needs.
She hesitates but places an hand on my shoulder.
Peace flows through me and I look at her.
Courage seize me by the collar, "I love you." I croak.
She is staring at me like I am out of my mind, "What?"
I hold my breath and furrow my eyebrows. "I ... I love you, Maura."
She opens and closes her mouth like a fish out of water. "I ..."
I close my eyes and shake my head. How stupid am I really? What makes me thinking that a woman like Maura could love me back.
I bury my face in my hands and groan, "I'm sorry."
I feel a sharp punch against my arm and I stare at her in disbelief.
Maura glares at me, "Would you please let me finish the sentence?"
I lower my chin and rub my arm. "Sorry." I mumble.
She laughs briefly and sighs, "I love you too."
A frown crawls up on my forehead, "You're kidding me, right?"
She furls her eyebrows and tilts her head to the side, "I see no sense to fool another person with an confession of love."
I drop my hands to the counter and chuckle. "I ..." I begin and see her confused face. I place a bill in the counter and get up from the chair. "Never mind. Come in, we've got a body that wants to be cut open."
She gets up too and grabs her purse.
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We both arrive at the precinct and I tell Maura to start the autopsy already and that I will join her after I've talked the procedure over with Korsak and Frost.
She agrees and take the other elevator.
I wait until the door is closed and look around.
I'm glad that it's already late at night, or early in the morning.
Anyway, it's not much going on in the BPD.
I glance at the door of the stairway and decide to take the stairs to the third floor.
It's just a little extra exercise.
I arrive on the floor of my department and get welcomed by Frost and Korsak.
Frost opens his mouth as the elevator door opens.
A read-faced Cavanaugh emerges and runs almost into Korsak.
He glares at him and then at Frost and me. He points at each of us. "You! In my office!"
I look at Korsak and he shrugs his shoulders.
We do as we were told and follow our Lieutenant on the heels.
"What the hell happened?" he asks louder as soon as the door is closed.
I press my lips to a thin line together and look down at my feet.
Frost raises his eyebrows.
"We just arrived her to talk about our findings," Korsak tells him.
Cavanaugh glares at me, "And why did you go on at Frankie at the damn crime scene?"
I exhale through my nose. "He provoked me."
"That's it? This is your goddamn explanation?"
"Liam Sullivan is ... was a close friend of a suspect." I tell him. "Tanja Stiller. I was instructed to go to Liam with a bully of Troy Bennett."
Cavanaugh sits down on his desk chair, "Why?"
"To beat him up," I mumble.
"What?"
"To beat him up, Sir."
His face becomes almost purple, "Were you also instructed to kill Liam Sullivan?"
I glance at the three men, "No. The last time I saw Liam Sullivan, he was still alive."
"I called the lab on the way to the BPD," Frost states. "A lab tech will come up here to perform a PDR-test with Detective Rizzoli's hands."
"Do you have any objections?" Cavanaugh asks me.
I shake my head, "I have nothing to hide, Sir."
"I hope, Rizzoli." he says as someone knocks on his door. "Come in."
A young man enters the office and glances at us. "I should perform an PDR-test?"
I lick my lips and nod my head, "Yes, on me."
He looks at me like I have lost my mind. But then he shrugs his shoulders and places a tool box on Cavanaugh's desk. He opens it and put on a pair of gloves.
He takes a cotton pad and pours a clear liquid on it. "Which is your dominant hand?"
"I'm left-handed," I say and hold my left hand out.
He takes it into his own and dabs the back of the hand with the pad.
We all hold our breathes while we wait for an chemical reaction but nothing happens.
He saturates another pad and does the same with my right hand. Then he looks at Cavanaugh. "There are no traces of gun powder."
Cavanaugh nods his head. "Thank you."
The lab tech nods too and gathers his belongings before he leaves the office again.
Cavanaugh sighs heavily and leans back in his chair, "Why would Tory Bennett let get killed Liam Sullivan?"
I feel Frost's and Korsak's eyes on me and start to explain the new state of affairs and he groans.
"I thought that they only would be a harmless subgroup." he says.
"That's what we thought too, Lieutenant." Frost says.
"The Bennett brothers are unpredictable, Lieutenant." I tell him.
He thinks short, "Do they trust you?"
I straighten up. "We will know after the next meeting."
He nods one more time, "Be careful. I don't want that my Detectives have to investigate an cop killing too."
I swallow hard and nod my head.
Yeah, these are very encouraging words.
Exactly what I need.
My phone starts to vibrate in my pocket and I take it out.
I read the message and frown, "Uh, would you ... would you excuse me."
I don't wait for an answer and leave the office.
I know I should have wait but something pulls me out of the room.
I literally run down the stairs to the morgue.
I push the double door open and enter the autopsy room, "Hey," I announce my presence.
Maura glances briefly over her shoulder while she peels the scalp over Liam's skull. I stop and scrunch up my nose. "Hi." she says.
"Am I interrupting the funny part?"
"I am about to find out how badly the bullet has damaged his brain."
"So ... I almost missed all the fun?" I say and went to the metal autopsy table.
"Almost," she says and points with an bloody gloved finger at a screen which shows a x-ray of Liam's skull.
The entire wound is clearly to be seen. And the untreated broken jaw.
"I was right," Maura says and looks at me. "He was beaten. A rub punctured his long on the left side. He also has hematomas mainly in the area of his torso. I was able to take pretty good pictures of the bruises.
I suddenly have a lump in my throat and stuff my hands in my pockets, "Were the beats killing?"
She looks at me and frowns, "No."
I slowly nod my head. "So ... death by head shot?"
She straightens up, "I don't see any other deadly injuries."
"Okay," I say and furrow my eyebrows. "Anything else?"
She looks at me long.
I can see the question in her eyes, that she is wondering if I am hiding something else.
"Not yet." she answers my question.
I slowly nod once more and take a deep breath.
I have thought that I would have more time before the problems start.
With that I probably was wrong.
"Anything you want to tell me?" she asks me and places the bone saw back on a metal table.
My eyes snaps up to hers and I frown, "Hm?"
"You are acting weird, Jane."
I try to smile at her. "It's just ... the lack of sleep."
She furrows her eyebrows, "Sure?"
"Yeah. Call me if you find anything else. Okay?"
Maura simply nods her head.
I turn on my heels and leave the morgue again and sprint the steps up.
I need to take off my mind, but ai don't have time for that now.
Now we have to think about the next steps we have to make.
I enter the bullpen and Korsak and Frost look at me.
"A stranger," Korsak says. "It's unusual to see you here."
I roll my eyes and sit down on my desk chair, "It was Toben who has killed Liam."
Frost leans back in his chair. "You sure?"
I glance at him and furrow my eyebrows, "If I'm ... I saw the goddamn gun, Frost. He aimed it straight at Liam's head. If I wouldn't have been the fucking alley, Liam would have been killed already last afternoon."
"He's dead anyway." Korsak states.
I glare at the older man, "Thank you."
Frost glances at both of us, "If Liam was killed by Toben, then let's arrest Toben."
"We can't do that," Korsak says and looks over the rim of his glasses.
"What," Frost replies scandalized. "Why?"
I think short and look at the young man. "Korsak is right. If we arrest Toben now, then Terry knows that his crew is infiltrated by a cop. And I doubt that he would accuse his own brother or Tanja. And I doubt that one of the Bennett brothers would hesitate to harm Frankie or me."
Frost furls his eyebrows, "Then we let Toben get away with murder?"
"For now." Korsak answer and I clench my teeth while Frost shakes his head.
I don't like the idea either. But this belongs to such an undercover operation. "Look around at Liam's apartment. Frankie and I shouldn't be seen there."
Korsak nods agreeing.
I take a deep breath and stand up from my chair again.
Frost frowns. "Where are you going?"
I pause and stare at him, "I'm going home, taking a shower. Want to join me?"
He smiles broadly, "Sure."
"Perv," I chuckle and leave the office.