Chapter Eleven

Jane stepped out of the small restaurant onto the sidewalk and squinted in the sun. She checked her phone; still no call from Detective Day. "Asshole." She rested her hands on her hips. She needed to make a plan.

Jane decided to forgo seeing Detective Day for now and instead conduct her own investigation. She wanted as much ammo as possible before meeting with the idiot who had arrested Maura.

She would make her first stop the hotel where Maura and Candace were staying to talk to as many people as possible before they left and scattered to the wind. Jane looked over the list of witnesses from Detective Day's notes. She had nearly a dozen people to talk to before the end of the day. She gnawed on her thumb. How in the world was she going to find all of them when there were nearly 300 participants at the conference?

Jane had to make a decision on where to start, and quick. She flipped through the notes again. She realized it wasn't who was on the list that she needed to speak to; it was who wasn't on the list. Since Detective Day hadn't taken time to really listen any of Maura's statements on what had happened over the couple of days before Candace's death, he didn't have any notes on the waiter or bartender who saw Maura and Candace interact. Jane jumped in her rental car and headed for the restaurant inside the hotel where the conference was taking place.

"Hello. Welcome to La Mesa Grill. How many in your party?"

Jane flashed her badge quickly; hoping the hostess wouldn't notice it said Boston instead of Las Vegas. "I'm Detective Jane Rizzoli. I need to speak with the server who waited on Dr. Isles and Dr. Monroe yesterday."

"Let me check the computer records." The hostess pulled up the receipt history from the day before. "That would be Ronnie. He's…" the hostess craned her neck to look through the restaurant, "yes… that's him in the back. I'll get him."

"What's this about?" Ronnie had approached the hostess station.

"Hi Ronnie. I'm Detective Jane Rizzoli. I just need to ask you a couple of questions and then you can get back to work. You waited on Dr. Isles and Dr. Monroe yesterday?"

"Yes." Ronnie stiffened. Jane was sure that it was public knowledge by now that it was Dr. Monroe who had died and that Maura had been arrested.

"What can you tell me about their lunch together?"

"Seemed pleasant enough with each other, talked mostly about the conference. Dr. Monroe didn't eat much, kind of looked sick or something."

"And at some point Dr. Monroe received a phone call?"

"Uh… yeah… yes. Someone called for her…" Ronnie was snapping his fingers and closed his eyes as he tried to remember the name. "It was a Greek sounding name… Augustus something… said he needed to speak to Dr. Monroe immediately."

"Okay. Good. Thank you. Is there anything else that you can tell me about the phone conversation?"

"Just that Dr. Monroe was talking kind of loudly. I couldn't hear anything specific, but she sounded upset at the person on the other end of the line. Slammed the phone down when she was done talking to him."

Jane went to the hotel's lounge next. It was where Maura and Candace had met. She approached the bartender and hoped again the quick flash of the badge would suffice for a line of questioning. It did. The woman behind the bar was cleaning and inspecting wine glasses when Jane sat down in front of her.

"Yes, I remember them. Both drank the most expensive wine we had that evening." The bartender smiled as she remembered the sizable tip that she had received.

"Did you hear anything that they discussed?"

"Family mostly. Pretty sure they were both gay." A smile crossed the bartender's lips.

Jane suddenly felt a blush coming across her. "Why do you think that?"

"Well Dr. Monroe definitely was. I saw her show Dr. Isles a wedding picture of her and her partner."

"And Dr. Isles?" Jane swallowed hard.

"Mostly a feeling. I pride myself on my finely tuned gaydar. And… I did overhear her say something about a woman back where she was from that she thought there could be more with… but she also said that she didn't think the other woman could handle it. I hear a lot of that kind of talk once people start drinking. Loves lost and those not realized. Same theme, no matter gay or straight; and always the same remorse in the voice. You start to pick up on it after doing this for so long."

Loves not realized… Jane suddenly wanted to know every word exchanged but felt guilty to hear this information from a stranger since she didn't know whether Maura would want her to know it.

"Um… thank you. Other than the conversation about family, did anything seem out of sorts?"

"No… really it seemed quite pleasant; completely platonic though. I really think it was just two people who met and enjoyed conversation about work and family… not looking for a hook up or anything. Something else you pick up on quickly after working this job for so long." The bartender winked at Jane in a knowing way.

Jane dialed Frost from her new phone as she exited the hotel and walked back to her rental car.

"Jane. We were expecting to hear from you earlier. What's going on, partner?" Frost again showed his genuine concern for the doctor and his partner through the soft eagerness in his voice.

"Ugh… not so good, Frost. The case is crap, but I need some help. Something is telling me that there's foul play even though it wasn't Maura. Can you get me phone records for La Mesa Grill in Las Vegas and for Dr. Candace Monroe's cell phone for yesterday around noon time? I'm looking for a call from Dr. Monroe's office or from someone named Augustus, no last name."

"Um… yeah. It will take a little work since we don't have a… well you know."

Jane regretted pulling Frost into this but she didn't want to call Mr. Selsi if she didn't have to and she knew Frost was good enough with computers to get the information she needed without breaking too many rules. "That's okay. I'm confident in your abilities. I'm heading over to see Maura now. Call me when you get something."

Jane trotted back to her rental car, musing all the while about all of the rule breaking she had done that day, knowing it was about to get worse. You do what you have to do, to protect family. It was turning into her motto today.

Jane checked her watch again. She was more than pissed that Detective Day had not attempted to return her message. She wanted so desperately to get to the jail but she had one more thing on her list to look over and she was going to need Officer Perez's help.

"You want me to do what?" Officer Perez couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"I need you to get me a copy of your M.E.'s autopsy report on Dr. Candace Monroe." Jane repeated.

"You're nuts! Why don't you just come to the station and ask for it?" If Jane could see Officer Perez she would have seen him ducking quite comically into a janitor's closet at his precinct.

"Because you and I both know that Detective Day isn't going to hand it over to me willingly."

"Have you even talked to him yet? You know… make friends or something? Interdepartmental camaraderie and all?" Perez was now speaking in a harsh whisper.

"I will once I get the report. Can you get me a copy or not?"

There was a long pause. "I'll meet you outside your hotel in an hour."

There was a knock at Jane's door an hour and a half later. The concierge handed her an envelope. "This was dropped off for you, I'm sorry but the deliverer did not leave his name but he stated that you were expecting this."

"Thank you." Jane took the envelope and opened it to find a photo copy of the M.E.'s report. I guess he didn't want to be on camera dropping this off to me Jane thought. She gathered up her jacket and rushed out of the room on her way to see Maura. Finally.