A/N: One more chapter after this one. Thanks to all who have reviewed.
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CHAPTER ELEVEN
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Aside from the deep tire tracks left by the junk removal team, the outside of the house was just as immaculate as the first time they saw it. The two women approached the door, but in anticipation this time, rather than trepidation. Jane turned the handle and they walked into the empty house.
It literally was empty. Not a stick of furniture nor a scrap of garbage was left behind. And, just as Jane had noted the last time she'd been there, once nothing remained, it seemed cavernous. White squares gleamed on walls where pictures had once hung, only to be hidden by mountains of debris. Wooden floors showed similar voids where heavy objects must have stood for decades while the areas around it rotted away.
Maura raised a gloved hand to her nose. "What's that smell?"
"I think it's just decay," Jane said.
The blonde looked around, seeing it all for the first time. "I can't believe this is the same house. What do you think will happen to it now?"
Jane pointed to some rotted areas in the floor. "They'll have to get someone to check the foundation, make sure the rot doesn't go all the way through. Rip out the floors. Gut out the walls. Probably get an exterminator in here for mice." She shook her head. "It might just be better to tear it all down and start again."
"That's kind of sad, don't you think?"
"I think the whole thing is sad." Reaching out, she took Maura's hand. "C'mon, I can take you to the kitchen now without you falling on top of me."
Maura followed behind and said, "If I'm not mistaken, it was you who fell for me."
"Is that really the lie you want to tell our grandchildren?" The blonde stopped abruptly. She opened her mouth to object, but no words were forthcoming. Jane could only smile. "The kitchen?"
They entered the room and stood in the centre, slowly circling the area. If anything, with the exception of the fingerprint dust, it was even cleaner than it was the last time Jane saw it. She nodded her head in approval.
"The guys did a great job," she said.
"They dusted the front door as well," Maura noted.
"Couldn't have come up with anything. Kowalski's prints are on file." Jane put her hands on her hips. "What are we not seeing?" She looked off to the side and tried to reconstruct the moment. "So the killer comes in, presumably through the front door."
"He's let in, which is why there's no prints."
"Right," she said, pointing at Maura. "No prints going out, because he's realized what he's done and he's at least smart enough to know not to touch anything."
Maura nodded. "Which is why he must have taken the bat."
Jane continued her reenactment. "He makes his way through the mess- she's made a small path or something. They get here, in the kitchen, because it was the cleanest room."
"That's a generous definition."
Jane acquiesced with a bend of her head. "It had two chairs and a TV. And Matt knew the journals were here, so this had to be the place she saw people. So they come in, they start talking. Maybe it's all 'how's the weather' at first, but then the topic starts to shift." Jane began to pace, oblivious to Maura's admiring gaze. "He's found out about the Ted Williams bat. Asks her about it. She either flat out denies it because she doesn't think he has a right to know, or she shrugs it off because she's never felt it was that important to her." She softly punched her palm as she warmed up to the scenario. "He wants it, or he wants something else, thinking if she's got that bat, she's gotta have more, right? She says 'no', he doesn't believe her."
Jane abruptly stopped and began sweeping the room with her eyes. When they fell on something she knew, she nodded and smiled at the discovery. "In all that mess, I didn't recognize it at first."
Maura frowned and followed Jane's gaze. She tilted her head as she tried to place the item in a more familiar setting. Jane watched as the wheels turned. At last, the blonde said, "It's a bat holder."
"That's my girl," Jane replied. "At first, I thought they were just hooks. But you can see that one is bigger than the other."
"To hold the barrel. You have a set for your Nomar Garciaparra bat."
"Hell yeah, I do." She picked up her train of thought again. "She tells him she doesn't have anything of value, he looks up and sees the bat. Thinks she's lying." She snapped her fingers. "It's #14, Maura." Seeing the blonde's patient expression, Jane explained, "You saw the storage unit. Millie-Rose had everything catalogued. I mean, everything. Right down to numbering balls and bats and photos. She had a footlocker of bats from 1947. Number 14 was missing. That was the last year they were all together as a team."
"Okay, but what would make him think it had any value?"
"She had it autographed by the entire team. Maybe he thought it was worth something."
Maura's mouth opened slightly. "Ah. That would explain the presence of the ethylene glycol monobutyl ether. It's ink."
"So," she walked over to the holder. "He sees the bat, accuses her of lying, they argue, he grabs the bat," she mimics the motion, "hits her with it, and takes the only thing he thinks is worth anything."
"I think it's a plausible theory," Maura agreed. "But we still don't have any physical evidence that puts him in the house, let alone in that situation."
The two women stood in silence for several minutes. Jane wiped her arm across her forehead. "I don't know, Maura."
"Maybe in looking for what we think should be here, we're forgetting what was here."
Rather than ask her what she meant, Jane watched the doctor walk over to the wall.
"Pretend to grab for the bat," Maura directed.
Jane took four steps to stand beside her. Reaching up slightly, she grabbed for an imaginary weapon.
"But remember what the room must have been like when William Kowalski was here," she reminded the detective. She touched Jane's forearm and gently repositioned her about three feet back from the wall.
"He would have had to stretch over a pile of garbage," Jane said, suddenly realizing the point of the pantomime. As she attempted to reach the bat again, her weight shifted forward and her hand automatically touched the wall for support.
Maura silently unpacked her fingerprinting kit and brought the squirrel haired brush and soot powder to the wall. Jane stepped back and watched in admiration. There was something compelling about watching the doctor go about her work, something attractive about the confidence. Jane couldn't help but lean over and murmur, "I might have to get you to dust me for prints sometime."
Without even looking away, Maura replied, "Why? The only fingerprints that should be on you are mine."
Jane bumped her hip into Maura's. "Oooh, jealous already?"
"I've been jealous for years. Now, may I finish my job?"
She nudged her with a shoulder. "Please don't let me get in your way."
"You're incorrigible," Maura said. Slowly but surely, amongst the black powder, a hand print emerged.
"I've got you, you fucker!" Jane said victoriously. Holding up her phone, she took several pictures at varying distances and sent them off to her partner. "Frost, did you get them?" she asked, foregoing the usual greetings.
"You know, if you had a tablet, you could run them through the database yourself," he replied.
"Yeah, but then what would I need you for?"
Frost snorted. "Clearly, I'm the brains of this operation, Brawny. And yes, I got them. They're running through the system as we speak."
"How did the street cams go?"
"Tell me I'm the brains."
"Yeah, yeah," she complied, "you're the brains. You got something."
His laugh could be heard down the line. "I asked the D.A. to expedite a search warrant for the garage of William Kowalski in order to determine whether or not he's in possession of a 1977 Ford Granada. Based on the camera footage and the info from the RMV, the D.A. figures the court clerk will drop off a warrant within the hour."
Jane clenched a tight fist. "Yes. Great job, Frost. And if those fingerprints come through-" She heard a soft bell in the background and Frost's exuberant shout. With another pump of her fist she said, "I'm on my way to Kowalski's. Meet me there when you get the warrant."
"Will do."
She clipped the phone to her belt and pulled Maura in for an unexpected kiss. The blonde let her hands roam as the detective molded their bodies together.
Slightly breathless, Maura pulled back just far enough to ask, "What was that for?"
Savouring the warmth of the woman's body and her breath, Jane barely moved, and when she spoke, their lips grazed. "We got him, Maura."
"Would it be selfish of me to hope you solve all of your cases? Of course, I want to see you succeed on a professional lev-"
The second kiss was quicker, but no less heartfelt. "I'll do my best to make sure I solve every case, and with only you around."
Maura nodded approvingly. "I think that's fair."
Jane took a moment to gaze openly at the woman. She opened her mouth to speak, and clearly had something to reveal. Instead, she gave her head a small shake and smiled. "Let's go catch this bastard."
...
They pulled up down the street from William Kowalski's house, and Jane put the Prius in park.
"You stay here; I'm just going to go for a little walk." Maura reached for the handle and made a motion to open the door. "What are you doing?" Jane asked.
"Going for 'a little walk'," she told her. "Because I know that's Jane Code for 'I'm going to walk up to the door, attempt to intimidate the suspect without back-up even though my partner is most likely less than 10 minutes away, and perhaps put myself in an unnecessarily dangerous position while my... girlfriend watches helplessly from the car'."
As she was prone to do, the brunette attempted to deflect the moment with humour. "I'm glad it's not Morse Code. That would take forever." It didn't stop Maura from opening the door.
"Okay, okay, close the door, we'll wait for Frost." This seemed to appease the doctor, and the door clicked shut. Killing time, Jane took in the small, economical surroundings of the car and sighed. "Please, please never let me be seen in this car again," she begged. "I feel like I'm sitting in a clown car."
"The Prius has one of the largest interior spaces for a car of its size," Maura objected.
"I wasn't referring to the size. You can't tell me this car is sexier than the Mercedes. Besides," she innocently glanced out the window, "I saw the brochure for the new S-Class on your desk last week, so you can't deny it."
"Hmmm," she mused. "It does have the quietest interior on the market."
"All the better to listen to your Yo-Yo Ma."
"I know you know I don't listen to Yo-Yo Ma in the car, so I'm going to pretend I didn't hear you say that."
"Yet here you are talking about it."
Her glare had no impact on Jane's playful expression. "Anyway," she waved away the comment, "I would have to assess certain additions to the vehicle before I made any decision to buy."
"It's an amazing car. It's not a Prius. What other decisions do you have to make?" She watched as Maura's eyes blatantly roamed over her from head to toe. "Oh my God," she whispered in disbelief. "You're thinking about having sex in the car!"
"No! Well, not this car. This is much too pedestrian for that kind of activity. And not 'sex' per se. More, how sexy you might look in the car, which would then most likely lead to sex. Perhaps in the car. But not necessarily. Oh, look! Detective Frost is here!"
Jane reached for the handle but not before saying, "You'll stay here now, right?"
"Yes," she promised.
The brunette nodded and stepped out of the car. Leaning back in, she said, "And don't think I don't know what you did there. With the distraction."
Maura feigned innocence. "Was it a distraction? I thought we were having a simple conversation about choosing my next vehicle."
"Right. Anyway. I get it. The Jane Code thing. And you're right, so..."
"So... Frost is waiting," Maura said. "Go get the bad guy."
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