Author's note - Another update here you go! More to come, I promise this story isn't done yet. We still have some more investigating to do! Thank you for sticking with the story and being such awesome readers. I've enjoyed this journey with you, please keep letting me know if you want the story to continue and I promise I'll keep writing.


"I'm a little worried about this body Maura. Can we start? My senses have been on edge since we got to the crime scene earlier." Jane commented

"Of course," Maura said and got to work. She knew Jane needed a minute and she was happy to finally get started.

Maura started her autopsy like she does every autopsy. Reviewing the body from the outside. Taking great care to look at the clothing, fingernails, and outside wounds. Her meticulous scrutiny to detail and way of always reviewing the body from head to toe was something Jane always took comfort in. Jane always thought that it was potentially strange that she found comfort in this routine, but when you spend most of your relationship surrounded by cases you tend to find comfort in very strange things.

"Jane before I undress her I think you should take your own thorough look through," Maura stated.

Both Korsak and Jane moved forward. Frost staying back working on the computer and thankful to not get any closer. Korsak and Jane were old pros at this. There was nothing strange about this request, in fact, Jane almost always wanted to be down with Maura when she did an autopsy. She wanted the clues Maura found as quickly as she found them. Waiting for a report always felt way too long for Jane.

The unfortunate reality was nothing stuck out to Jane. She reviewed the woman's clothing again. Her hair, her face. Nothing felt like she should know her. While she was blonde and slender like Maura, she otherwise didn't remind Jane of her. She didn't understand the point of this kill. This guy was killing with purpose so why her? Why this message?

"Ok I think I've come up with a theory" Korsak stated. "It feels a little far-fetched, but it's all I can think of right now." He looked at Jane as if to say don't shoot me down until you hear me out.

"Well, out with it Korsak. I've clearly got nothing" Jane said

"Jane I mean... just don't get mad," Korsak said with a warning tone.

Jane gave him a cross look and then attempted to soften her body language, "Ok. What?"

"What about her undergarments?" He put his hand up when he saw Jane's body stiffen and Maura start to flush. "Don't get embarrassed or upset - look this isn't easy to ask. But what about what she's wearing under her clothes. Could that be what he means? He's obviously playing off of your romantic feelings for Maura, could that possibly be it?"

Jane stared at the body for a while. From her face down to her toes and back. She was thinking. Neither Korsak nor Maura moved, they just watched. Something was happening in Jane's mind. They knew her process.

"While I have preferences." Jane's face blushed as she tried to get the words out, "of undergarments as you call them. That isn't something Maura would exactly know." Jane stole a glance at Maura who had shot up a playful eyebrow and was clearly intrigued. "It's also something I would never have shared out loud with Derek nor written down. But your question got me thinking Korsak. Not about her lacey stuff, but about her jewelry. She has on earrings, a necklace, and two bracelets. Don't get me wrong, I don't wear jewelry - it's not my thing. But I know when things don't match and these..." Jane stepped closer and motioned up and down to the different pieces "Don't go together. And they feel out of place with her outfit."

Everyone looked at the jewelry taking in Jane's assessment.

"Maur, what do you think?" Jane asked realizing she was the expert on the beautifying of women in the room.

"Jane you are absolutely right. These pieces don't really go together and her jewelry is far more sophisticated than her outfit." Maura said.

"What do you mean more sophisticated?" Korsak asked.

"I believe what she means to say is that this is how he dressed her up for me," Jane commented. "I don't think these are hers. Though, as weird as this might sound, I feel like I've seen that bracelet before."

"You have," Maura said, her voice meeker than normal. The tone surprised Jane and she met worried hazel eyes. "Jane I think this is mine."

"What do you mean you think this is yours?!" Jane responded.

"Well, I obviously cannot be certain without checking my home. But to be honest, all of these pieces are similar to some I own. What's interesting is that most of these are pieces I wear more casually." Maura stated back.

At this point, Frost had gotten up and was looking at pictures. He began picking up four or five of them with what looked like purpose. "Jane take these pictures and compare them. Maura is wearing jewelry in these."

"Maura is always wearing jewelry, Frost. The only time she doesn't is yoga and running." Jane said. Again her detail around Maura's habits made Maura smile lightly, even despite the creepy circumstances of someone potentially taking her things.

"Yes, but most of the pictures Maura is wearing very expensive jewelry - diamonds, emeralds - you know the good stuff. These few, specific pictures are all of Maura dressed down. Or what Maura calls dressed down." Frost handed them to Jane.

Sure enough. Frost was right about four the pictures. They matched the jewelry on the body.

Something expected but unexpected happened then. Maura couldn't really explain it. While the action surprised her, at the same time did not surprise her at all. She watched as fear washed over Jane's face but was quickly replaced with anger and then escalated to rage. With Jane yet speaking Maura could tell the woman was about to explode.

"I swear to fucking god if this piece of shit stepped foot in her house," Jane said as she threw the pictures back at Frost. "Has there or has there not been a fucking unit sitting outside her house at all times?" Jane's tone was accusing and harsh.

"There has" Korsak responded. He knew this was the scariest Jane of all - protective Jane. And not just protective of her family - her mother or brothers. No, this was a Jane they didn't see often but when they saw her you did not fuck with her. This was 'protective of Maura' Jane - the absolute fiercest version that came up from Jane. To be completely honest, Korsak was glad to finally see her. At times during this whole horrible fiasco, he saw more Jane than Detective Rizzoli. She was the victim over and over again - and rightfully so. But there was only one Detective Rizzoli - the youngest and most decorated detective Boston PD had seen. She was the only person who was going to catch this son of a bitch before something happened to Maura. And she was the person Korsak had been waiting to show up. Pissed off, don't touch the person I love the most, Detective Rizzoli. She had... arrived.

"Well let's see if they were actually doing their fucking job. Frost keep working on this phone thing and for now, if you don't mind, don't leave Maura's side." She looked at Frost who simply nodded as he continued to work.

"An acknowledgment would be great here Frost, I really don't want mixed signals because I swear to god if I come back and a single hair on that beautiful head is out of sorts I'll have your balls." Frost looked up to realize what Korsak had noticed a few moments before. Jane was blazing anger and had just gone into the deep end. He knew better than to push back at her, though he was a little pissed she assumed he had to be asked to have Maura's back.

"Of course Jane," Frost said. He kept a straight face knowing it just wasn't the time or place.

"Jane you don't have to be..." Maura was cut off by Korsak's hand on her shoulder.

He softly whispered in her ear, "Let her go.."

"I don't have to what?" Jane said sharply but her eyes showed she had wished she didn't. She had originally told her not to be so rude. Maura took a breath knowing she couldn't lie but trying not to stir the pot Korsak just warned her not to stir.

"You don't have to worry about me," she said. She made the right call. Jane's posture softened if only slightly.

"Maura, of course, I have to worry about you" She simply pointed to the body on the table. "Please just be careful, ok? While I'm gone just stay here, with Frost. I won't be ale to focus if I think you are out there at risk." Jane commented. She watched Maura nod and then turned to leave. As she was exiting the door she yelled, "Come on Korsak I don't have time to wait for your old ass"

Korsak turned to Maura who had worried eyes. "You focus on this, I'll focus on her. We need Detective Rizzoli right now Maura. This is getting more serious by the minute. He's escalated and if we come to find this is your jewelry, well we need to start thinking about moving you to a safe house."

Maura's eyes flashed fear and Frost noticed it from across the room.

"One step at a time Dr. Isles. You focus on the body and I'll focus on the phone while they are gone. Ok?" Frost said.

"I can do that," Maura said. She rolled her shoulders, cracked her neck, and got back to work.

As Korsak passed Frost he leaned in and whispered, "I've got a bad feeling about this. Worse than before."

Frost softly nodded, "me too"


Jane and Korsak stood in Maura's driveway as they prepared to walk inside. Jane had demanded that the unit wait for her to arrive. She wanted to see things as Maura had left them that morning and she wanted to look for any small minuscule changes that someone could have made if they actually came into Maura's house. Jane's intention was to put Maura on facetime once in her closet where Maura keeps all of her jewelry.

Entering the house Jane inhaled, the immediate smell of home to her - Maura. The faint smell of perfume and coffee still lingered. Jane hated that this space had been invaded, her sacred place. Even before heading to Maura's room, in fact, the entire drive over Jane had prepared herself. She was quite sure they would be finding out that was Maura's jewelry. She just... she felt it.

As they climbed the stairs, Jane in front of Korsak, Korsak spoke. "You think we are going to find that it is her jewelry don't you."

"Ya, I do," Jane said in a slightly defeated tone.

"Then why didn't he take more fancy things like you mentioned before?" Korsak asked.

"I've been wondering the same, running a few scenarios in my head but I think it's the obvious one. Maura has a safe in her closet, for her more expensive jewelry. My guess is he would have taken the more expensive jewelry if he could have broken into the safe." Jane stated.

"So he grabbed what he could," Korsak spoke it out loud but clearly was still thinking through what Jane said.

"That's my theory right now, but let's see what we find," Jane said as she stood in the doorway of Maura's bedroom.

They walked in slowly. As Korsak walked around the room looking, but not touching it finally occurred to Jane this was, of course, the first time Korsak had been upstairs in Maura's house - he wouldn't have had a reason to come up here. And of course, Korsak was a gentleman. He would have never sought up Maura's bedroom and invaded her privacy. She enjoyed, for a moment, watching him look around. Trying to see this room through a new set of eyes. For Jane, this was her favorite room in the entire house. It was the absolute most Maura. It was simple even with its large space and beautiful high ceiling. Maura had a few frames on her large vanity - one of her as a child with her mother, another with the Rizzoli clan, and one of the homicide team after winning their softball tournament a year back. Jane smiled at them, the pictures Maura looked at every day when she was putting on her finishing touches.

Maura did everything with a purpose, Jane knew that. Which led her back to watching Korsak who was now standing on Maura's side of the bed looking down at her bedstand. On the bedstand were a silver lamp, clock, and a single frame. In the frame was a picture of Maura and Jane - Jane standing behind Maura with her arms wrapped around her front both of them lost in their own moment neither looking at the camera. It had been a moment Frost had caught one evening when everyone was standing around in the backyard. The opposite bedstand, that had been deemed Jane's side without either of them talking about it, had Jane's favorite picture of them framed - the same picture on her own dresser.

Korsak looked back at Jane who was still somewhat in the doorway with a soft smile. He picked up the frame and with that same hand gestured over to the other picture of them framed. "And you had no idea she was in love with you. For a detective, you are pretty dense sometimes." He laughed and Jane shrugged with a laugh as well.

"I'm serious Jane. Look at this, a subtle testament to who means the most to her." He said it like a father figure, not a fellow detective.

"I mean sure Korsak, in retrospect, but she was dating other people. More specifically once I got my own head out of my ass, she was with Jack. Frames aside, that's a pretty clear indication she was focused elsewhere. At least I thought so." Jane.

"God, that poor man. I can't imagine trying to get busy with your face staring at me." Korsak said.

Jane hadn't really ever thought of that. Maybe that played a part in the fact Jack always didn't like her. She spoke before she had fully thought it through, "He never did like me much"

"Of course he didn't Jane. You snarled at him whenever he even touched Maura." Korsak laughed. Jane smiled.

"Oh oops," Jane said partially laughing. "Anyway, let's take a look at this closet."

Jane walked to the walk-in closet, next to the bathroom on the right side of the room. She clicked the light on and they enter the mini-room.

"This is bigger than my main bathroom," Korsak said in awe as he viewed the back wall that was top to bottom full of shoes.

"You haven't seen her master bath. It's bigger than my bedroom." Jane deadpanned which got a hearty laugh out of Korsak.

"Ok, so there's the safe." Jane pointed to the right wall of the closet where the safe was subtly set into the wall amongst the shelves of accessories. Jane pulled out a drawer right beneath the safe where she knew Maura kept her less expensive items. Jane proped her phone up on a shelf and started a facetime call to Maura.

When Maura's face appeared on the screen, clearly still working on the body in the lab, Jane watched Maura's eyes light up when the call connected.

"Jane!" Maura said. Relief laced her voice.

"Hey Maur" Jane commented back. She took a moment to run her eyes of Maura's features - her eyes, her adorable hair back in a ponytail, her lips. When she refocused and looked back Maura, Maura had been watching her and was softly smiling.

"I miss you too" Maura said as if to respond to Jane's watchful eyes.

Korsak cleared her voice.

"Oh hello to you too Detective Korsak," Maura said showing she was unbothered by him hearing her moments to Jane.

"Ok Maur, I'm looking at the drawer where you keep some of these items. Any specific places or boxes in here I should be looking at?" she said.

"The necklace would be in the long silver box towards the front, left of drawer," Maura said. "You draw a baseball on the box when it was sitting down on the counter when I first bought it." Jane smiled at the memory and immediately identified the box. When Jane opened it she dropped her head. She had been right. The necklace as missing - or I supposed not missing at all. It was in the lab, currently, with Maura.

Maura's face showed discomfort like she was trying to be calm but she was clearly upset and was dealy with the internal struggle of it.

"So they are mine," Maura said as a matter of factly in her tone as possible.

"It looks to be the case," Jane commented back.

Just to be sure Jane looked through the other boxes to confirm, with Maura's directive, to find that each item that was removed from the body in Maura's lab matched the items they feared were missing from Maura's home. Their fears were confirmed one by one. While Jane was finishing that and trying to keep a neutral tone for Maura's sake Korsak had been staring just above her head at the safe.

"I had been wondering why he didn't try to get into the safe, but this looks like something he would have been unable to crack" Korsak stated.

From her view on the phone, Maura looked at him and responded. "That's correct Korsak. It's a double entry safe - meaning you, as I'm sure you know, there are two steps. First, there is a thumbprint entrance, once that is confirmed, you have to have the 8 digit code that changes monthly"

"Jesus that's pretty secure for a home safe. What do you have in there Maura a million dollars?" Korsak questioned slightly jokingly. Maura missed the humorous notion of his question so her natural instinct was to simply answer her colleague.

"I can't be 100% precise detective as I have not recently had it evaluated but at the last appraisal, there was 4.8 million dollars worth of jewelry and diamonds in the vault," Maura stated simply as if it the dollar amount didn't matter as much as the fact she could not give Korsak the perfect evaluation.

"I see," Korsak said, trying to keep a straight face for Maura, not wanting her to know he was sure he'd never seen that dollar amount of jewelry in one place before."Well sounds smart to keep your valuables secure. Does anyone else have access to the vault?"

"Jane" Maura stated, Jane felt her eyes get red knowing Korsak was looking at her head. "Her thumbprint and mine were both registered as main users. I inform her the code change verbally every month."

"Which is slightly irrelevant, since he clearly took jewelry not in her safe" Jane said, defensive that Korsak was butting into Maura's personal decisions.

"Jane, I'm not trying to dig in here to be nosey. I just want to keep following any line of questioning that pops up. Ok? Like I would for anyone else." Korsak stated trying to calm the storm before it started.

"It's quite alright Korsak. I'm happy to answer whatever you need" Maura answered from the phone. "To be honest I'm finding myself a bit spooked someone was in my home and dressed my things onto this poor woman."

Her admission snapped Jane back to reality. "Gosh Maur I'm so sorry. We failed you here. We should have someone watching the house more carefully. I will make sure to find out what happened."

Maura smiled as softly as she could, putting aside her own fears to try to calm her overprotective best friend, "I know you will, Jane".

Korsak stepped up to stand with Jane at the still open drawer. "This drawer looks very organized, down to a science."

Maura smiled as if it was the best compliment she'd heard all day. "Yes, of course" she answered.

"Over the past couple days have you come home feeling it was out of sorts?" Korsak asked.

Maura looked like she was thinking. "I haven't used anything in that drawer in about two weeks. At the time I opened it, no, it was not out of sorts. I also opened it to wear th necklace that is now, well here, with me." Maura looked down. While Korsak and Jane couldn't see, it could be assumed she was glancing at the victim or the necklace itself.

"That's really helpful Maur. That gives us a timeline. The necklace was taken in the last two weeks." Jane said.

"12 days" Maura commented back. "It was 12 days ago"

Jane nodded at Maura's help to be even more specific.

"It tells us something else too" Korsak commented. "Maura is an organized person. Look at her closet and this was on a day she didn't expect guests. She had no idea we'd be here."

"Ya so?" Jane commented, knowing full well this is how Maura's closet always looked.

"Well, think about it, Jane. This person either took his time, not caring if he was caught. Or knew exactly what he was looking for." Korsak said. "To not know what you were looking for and to be worried about time would mean more chaos. Or at least enough for Maura to notice. But there was none. I would assume someone who doesn't know Maura as well, wouldn't know necessarily that her more expensive pieces were locked up. And if they didn't, meaning they had to pivot their approach, they then had time to look around. It's one or the other Jane."

"So either they have an intimate knowledge of Maura or they have an intimate knowledge of how we are watching the house" Jane commented.

"Yes," Korsak said. "Well, I guess we could also suppose both - that they know Maura and the department's processes. One does not exclude the other."

"The deeper we get into this thing, the more I dislike it," Jane said.

"I think that's the whole point" Korsak shot back with a sympathetic expression on his face.

Jane looked up to see Maura still watching her from the screen of her phone. "Maura, can you grab Frost?" Jane said

"I'm here Jane, I was listening in the background" Frost commented.

"Oh, ok good" Jane said, remembering she threatened his life only a little while ago if he moved. "Frost, focus on the last 12 days with the intrusion on my phone. He would have... wait" Jane started thinking. Something just occurred to her. "He was never going after the fancy jewelry Korsak. Remember, the pictures? We established he was going after those pieces." Jane said out loud.

"I still think it's one or the other. Even if those were the pieces he always wanted, which now that you say that I agree with you, he still wouldn't have known precisely where to look. Even when you pulled out that drawer I wouldn't have known. It matches, what, a dozen other drawers around the room? There is nothing indicating that is where to start. He either knew where to go or he had time Jane. I stand by what I said." Korsak stated back.

"Ok ya, you are right," Jane said nodding in thought. "Ok back to what I was saying. Frost, focus on the last 12 days to up to the date we pulled that evidence on my phone. He would have had to pull those pictures before going after them. I don't know if that window helps, but it's worth a shot. Korsak, I want a list of every single person on shift at Maura's house, who shifted when, who even walked past her house and looked at it funny. I want every detail. And then I'll start interviewing." Jane said.

Korsak commented back, "Jane maybe I should do the interviewing. We don't want to scare these guys into not talking, especially if someone accidentally slipped up. Dr. Isles is respected by everyone, even when guys make comments about her, it's not because they don't know she's the best. If anything they are harder on her because of how good she is."

Jane snarled at him. "Maybe. Maybe you can do the interviews, but let's look at the logs first" Jane looked at Maura again, "How are we doing on the autopsy, Maur?"

"I still have quite a ways to go. I'll be here when you get back" Maura said to Jane doing her best to look into her eyes through a telephone screen.

"You better be" Jane commented back. She then looked beyond Maura where Frost could be seen in the background, "And you.." Frost cut her off.

"I know, I know - stay put," Frost said. "She's in good hands"

"I said nothing about using your hands Frost" Jane joked to try to lighten the mood. It worked, everyone laughed just a bit. The stressed circled around them. No one was putting their guard down anytime soon.

"Talk to you soon," Jane said and hung up.