Please see Ch 1, 5 & 9 for disclaimers… enough disclaimers that they almost need their own chapter…
Thank you, thank you to everyone that took time to review, raw spots and all. Thank you to all who are reading. I wasn't sure what to expect, but if I was sipping on sambuca just trying to edit chapter 9 on Sunday night, KNOWING the storyline then I can imagine as readers you deserved for me to at least share the bottle.
Since I can't quite do that, I did what I could and went to bed sometime after 1am last night, staying up editing this next installment. That said I raise my two mugs of coffee and now my espresso cup to all of you.
Special thank you to Hex for having my back, unexpected and appreciated ;)
It was the damn K9s fault.
Jane had pounded the dummy until sweat had soaked her clothes and left her chilled as she sat downing her third beer, flipping the cap between her fingers, reveling in the burn and ache in her body. Now this was some good pain.
Standing up as she drained the last from the bottle, she raised a bare fist to punch the dummy again as she walked by and slid the bottle up on counter to clink against the other two before she pitched the cap at her blue cloth adversary watching it bounce off the head before hitting the floor.
Jane slugged it again as she walked by and watching it sway, raised her fourth beer in salute. "I dub you, Vince Judas Korsak."
Damn dog and its superior olfactory system and vomeronasal organ.
Slightly buzzed she tersely stopped. What the fuck? Why in the hell did she know or even need to know that a dog had an olfactory system, never mind some shitty thing called a vomeronasal organ. Fucking Maura. Jane had been perfectly fine without that kind of crap in her head. Dogs could smell good, end of story.
Tossing the beer down on an end table she marched back to imitation Korsak ready to blast him a new sense of hurt because didn't he understand that the last thing Jane Rizzoli had ever needed was to have some running crap like a dog's olfactory system in her head? She needed to forget anything like that before her brain exploded. She'd had all she could take of useless bullshit that didn't serve any purpose but to dig its way into her, taking up space in her head. She'd been doing alright too, until today.
She hadn't even had time to slip her second boxing glove back on before there was knocking on her door. The glove dropped to her feet. Oh no, no, she knew that knock. It paused for a beat before starting up again with vigor. And the voice, oh the voice, grating her nerves right through the door. The sound of the key in the lock and then the door hitting the security chain. Jane rubbed her face with her hand. Oh god, had she done up the chain? That was not going to go over well.
Jane sprinted to the door and quickly slid off the chain, jumping out of the way as Angela swept in. She watched her mother survey her apartment as her hands came to her hips and narrowed eyes focused her.
Angela watched as Jane's arms crossed over her chest and she cocked her hip to the side and stared back at her. Alright so it was going to be like this today.
Jane tried to pull away but her mother had her and spun her towards the hall.
"Jane Rizzoli this place is disgusting! You look like a disaster. And you stink." Jane was struggling and Angela saw her draw in a deep breath ready to yell back.
"Oh no you don't." She gave her a shove towards the bathroom. "Don't you dare yell at your mother. Get your ass into that shower and clean up your attitude while you're in there. I'm going to put on some coffee and cook dinner." She held up a hand to shut Jane up. "Because I'm hungry and I've had a long day. I don't care if you eat or you don't, but I'm cooking."
Jane tossed up her hands and widened her eyes as she backed up. "Really Ma? Really?" but she was already halfway down the hall.
As the warm water ran over her Jane was almost willing to concede that her mother had been right about the shower. The last couple of weeks had just been hell.
First that stupid dog had failed in finding the missing finger. Which really didn't surprise anybody. Whatever psychopath that killed her either had it or tossed it someplace. That was just the way this kind shit went down.
But no, good old Fido had to make up for the finger by making a hit and surprising everyone because there wasn't a finger just lying there. Nope the grass was undisturbed. And of course they all thought the vic just been left there for a bit. And since the dog's ability to smell was something like 44 times greater than a humans of course he was going to hit there.
Jane bounced her forehead on the shower wall. Great, fantastic, there her head went again. Who in the hell cared that a dog could exponentially smell 44 times greater than man when you included training? She did not need to know stuff like that to get by, yet there it was, no matter how hard she was trying to forget.
She started washing her hair vigorously wishing she could just start scrubbing out parts of brain along with it.
Protocol was protocol and Pike had to send one of his techs back. They had to make sure the finger wasn't just buried under the perfectly undisturbed grass. Undisturbed, fingerless grass. It was illogical to waste the money digging a hole to nowhere. If Maura had been there she would have made some remark about how to assume made "an ass out of you and me". But Maura wasn't there as Pike pointed out so Jane could assume whatever she wanted.
Frankly now that she remembered, she was still kind of pissed Frost wouldn't let her make the call to Pike telling him to get his ass back to the scene. Those sorts of back-at-you bastard moments didn't come around every day.
Pike sent some pathetic sacrificial tech in his place and Jane had to wonder what the poor man had done to get sent back to her or what Pike had said to him before he left. The poor guy looked like he wanted to vomit every time Jane asked a question.
When the finger hadn't been under the first layer and super dog kept hitting on the same place even as the dirt was removed, Jane started asking his handler if the animal had even passed remedial tracking 101. Which might not have been smart considering it was aggravating the guy and the dog was trained to use those teeth for more than eating biscuits.
Of course animal loving Korsak had pulled rank and started in on her and maybe she should have shut her mouth but it was just a dog, it had no idea she was insulting it. He finally gave her a choice of heading back to the precinct or getting them all, including that handler with the obviously dim dog, coffee. She seriously wanted to punch Korsak. Jane Rizzoli was nobody's coffee bitch.
Two blocks later she was willing to admit she was angry at Pike and the dog probably could smell something and it probably wasn't decaying bologna from some construction worker's lunch. She had thought briefly about buying Korsak some foo-foo concoction just to make a point but that seemed mean, even for her. He most certainly did, however deserve for her to forget one of his sugars.
When she got back it turned out that the damn dog wasn't super dog but Einstein dog and the hit had been unearthed. And it wasn't a finger; the freaking dog had found a whole skull. From that moment all it was all downhill. The dog had 2 other hits in rapid succession and they were all good.
So 4 bodies in one rather public setting? Brass and every politician was all over this and of course the first skeletal identification was Marilyn Roberts from missing persons and the MO from the current vic did match the New Bedford Highway Killer.
Then some political genius, pissing his pants because the words serial and killer were getting plastered in the Globe, brought in a profiler from the FBI.
So she even had to deal with the fact that Agent Dean's FBI clones were around and the idiots kept trying to talk to her. Slimy bastard had ruined her life and it was like he'd split into 100 more drones and literally invaded her space. And she still wasn't sure exactly what happened but some big wig FBI suit called Dr. Pike's skills into question. Which really, Jane had to give him props for but it started some sort of turf scuffle this morning that ended with Lieutenant Sean Cavanaugh calling Korsak into a meeting with the governor.
Cavanaugh had rounded them all up that afternoon with Big Wig FBI man at his side and announced they were holding any forensic work on the case until a specialist was called in. Then he suggested that everyone use this time to recharge and get some rest while they could.
When most of the Dean Drones had left to go plug themselves into the wall or whatever else they did at night Jane was left with Korsak and Frost. Neither one was talking and neither one was looking at her. Jane stared at Frost until Frost mumbled something about needing a snack and almost running out. Suspicious she pushed away from her desk and stalked over to Korsak and just stood behind him. He sighed before he closed the cold case folder from Deborah DeMello's autopsy and braced his hands on his thighs.
"Janie, they're going to try to call Maura back in"
Time seemed to stop. "What the fuck Korsak? She's not even in the country."
"Jane, I suggested it."
He turned to look up at her. She was rubbing her hands reflexively, eyes dark and feral. It was a lost cause but he was going to try to explain anyhow.
"Doc is the perfect compromise. FBI already uses her as a consultant. Pike is screwing up. He has some personal issue with the vics being prostitutes. You know it and I know it. FBI was going to pull this all into their Boston office and Sean doesn't deserve that kind of press."
She had her jacket in her hand before he had even finished speaking and shouldered Frost out of her way as he was walking back in, muttering coward under her breath at him as she charged out of the building.
Now hours later as Jane stepped out of the shower, anxious at even the idea Maura might be back, she realized whatever progress she thought she'd made at moving past their friendship was a lie. Vigorously she dried off trying to muster at least the pretense that she was okay before facing the banging and clanking of Angela Rizzoli in her kitchen.