Chapter 14

Jane couldn't remember quite when Maura became the most important person in her life. She could not remember exactly when Maura had gone from being just someone she worked with, to a friend, to her best friend. She couldn't remember exactly when she had fallen in love with her, or when Maura had become someone she couldn't live without. But she knew when the letter came that she was going to do exactly what it said.

It came the day after the picture had arrived. Jane had spent two sleepless nights without Maura. She remembered Maura telling her once about the horrible things that happened to people who didn't sleep, something about hallucinations and eventual death, but it all seemed pretty minor compared to the ramifications of being without Maura. The letter, like the picture the day before, was addressed to Jane. It read:

Det. Jane Rizzoli –

She keeps calling your name. If you would like to see her again, I would be happy to reunite the two of you. It can happen only if you follow my instructions to the letter:

1. Meet me at Carson Beach tonight at 11 pm. Wait near the water. I will come only when I see you.

2. You will come alone. If I see anyone else on the beach, I will leave, and you will not see her again.

3. You will come unarmed and without a cell phone or wire. I will search you.

4. You will not be able to find her without me. Don't try anything stupid.

5. You will come with me to my vehicle. If anyone follows us, I will kill you.

"I have to do it," said Jane immediately. The others were silent, no doubt trying to think of a way to use the unsub's plan against him.

"I don't like it," said Korsak. "It sounds like a trap. Why would he want you? You're not his type."

"He wouldn't want me on my own, but I'm sure all sorts of pervy ideas popped into his head when he found out Maura was in a lesbian relationship."

"It's too dangerous," said Frankie. "We can't let you do it, Jane. If we try to monitor you, he may find out and kill you. If we don't, he'll take you away and we may never see you again."

Jane shrugged. "I'm willing to take that risk. At least I'd be with Maura."

"If you did do it, we'd have to find a way to monitor you," said Korsak. "We can't send you away, unarmed, with no idea where he's taking you."

"If we don't do it the way he says, we might lose our only chance of finding Maura alive," insisted Jane. "Look, I'm pretty good at getting myself out of situations. I mean, I got away from Hoyt twice, with my hands tied." Korsak met her eyes, and she knew he was thinking of the time when she couldn't possibly have gotten away on her own. She held his gaze. "I can't just leave her there alone," she said quietly.

Frost had been silent the whole time, looking through his desk. Now he rejoined the group. "I think I know a way we can track her and still follow the directions," he said. He held up a small chip. "This is the kind of GPS tracker people use when they run marathons, so their families can track their progress. If you put this in your shoe, he probably won't find it when he searches you, but we'll be able to see exactly where you are on our computer. So you can actually meet him on your own, and we can give you guys a head start, but then we can follow and get you and Maura out."

Jane stepped forwards and threw her arms around Frost. "Thank you," she said in his ear.

Jane felt anxious when she went to the beach that night, but she found she wasn't really scared of what might happen to her. She felt pure hatred towards the man she was going to meet; there wasn't any room left to be frightened of him. Her only fear was of something going wrong with the rescue operation.

They had prepared as much as they could. Frost got the tracking chip working. Jane had put it in her sock and walked around the neighborhood for a bit to make sure they could track her successfully. She and Frankie agreed not to tell their mother what was going on, but he did volunteer to drive her to a point a half mile from the beach. She left her phone and gun with him before getting out to walk the rest of the way.

"I'll see you soon," she promised him.

"You'd better," he said. "Otherwise Ma will kill me. You know she'll find out I was in on this plan."

"Don't worry. The bastard's clearly getting overconfident. I mean, we're going to be two against one. He doesn't stand a chance."

"But Maura's being drugged, and he'll try to drug you too."

"And I know it's coming, so I'm ready for him. And I have backup. You know how you said he'd make a mistake eventually?"

Frankie nodded.

"Well, this is his mistake." Jane hugged her brother and took off without looking back.

She couldn't see her watch in the dark, so she didn't really know how long she spent pacing around by the water before she saw the dark figure coming towards her. She froze and waited, resisting the urge to tackle him and strangle him the way he'd strangled his victims. She had to keep her anger under control until she knew where Maura was.

"Detective Rizzoli, I presume?" he said as he got closer. She noticed that he was pointing a gun at her, but she didn't mind. It just gave her a weapon to potentially turn on him later.

"That's me. I assume you heard about me from Maura?"

"She does seem to miss you quite a bit. I remember your name from the newspaper, though. You're one of the detectives investigating my case. I trust you've been enjoying my pictures?"

"It's nice to be kept up to date." Jane stood still while he patted her down. She was careful not to react even when he lingered too long in unpleasant places. She didn't even complain when he tied her hands behind her before walking her to his car. He took a lot of unnecessary turns as he drove, no doubt trying to make sure they weren't being followed. Jane hoped her tracking device was still working.

"She's sleeping at the moment," he said conversationally. "But I'm sure she'll be pleased to see you when she wakes up."

"Her name is Maura. Why won't you say her name?" He didn't answer. "Is this how you are with all of them? Does not saying their names make it easier to kill them?"

"If names are so important to you, why haven't you asked for mine?"

"I don't actually give a fuck what your name is."

"See? You understand." He parked behind an old, dilapidated house and ushered Jane inside with the gun to her back. Once indoors, he untied her hands. "You go first," he told her. "Up the stairs, to the room at the end of the hall."

Jane walked slowly up the stairs, hoping he would continue to believe he was controlling her with the gun and the promise of Maura for just a little longer. As soon as he decided to break out the ketamine, she was going to be as defenseless as all his other victims. But she could not go on the attack until she had confirmed that Maura was there.

She froze at the top of the stairs. There was a light on in the room at the end of the hall, and she could see Maura lying motionless on the same iron bed they'd seen in the pictures. She couldn't tell from where she stood if Maura was alive or dead, but her next move had to be the same regardless.

In one smooth motion, she spun around and punched her captor between the eyes, knocking him down the stairs. She ran down after him and grabbed his gun, which he had dropped halfway down the staircase. Without waiting to see if he was injured, she raised the gun and shot him through the heart, shot him three times just to make sure. Then she put the safety on and ran back upstairs to Maura.

Maura still wasn't moving, even after the gunshots. For one horrible moment Jane thought she had arrived too late, but then she felt Maura's pulse. She was alive; just heavily drugged.

Jane gently pulled the blanket back to assess Maura's injuries. A part of her had still been hoping that he hadn't actually touched her, but that hope was quickly dashed. She had angry bruises on her shoulders and arms, the same bite marks as the other victims, and six ugly tally marks cut into her skin, just above her heart. The last one was still bleeding. Jane instinctively wiped the blood away, wanting to make her better somehow, and saw one of her own tears splash onto Maura's chest. It made her think of fairy tales she'd heard as a child where the tears of one person magically healed the wounds of another, and she fervently, absurdly, wished it could be true in real life. She wanted to make it all go away, to make Maura whole and happy like she was the last time she saw her. She wanted to kiss her and make her wake up.

She noticed then that Maura's right wrist was swollen and discolored, and for some reason, this enraged her more than anything else. He broke her damn wrist, she thought. How could he possibly have needed to break her wrist? She was tempted to go back downstairs and shoot him again, even though he had to be dead already, but her desire to stay by Maura's side won out. She gently covered Maura with the blanket and sat beside her, stroking her hair, until she heard the others arriving.

Frankie's relief was palpable when he saw his sister coming down the stairs, but Jane went past him to Korsak. "I need your coat," she told him.

"My coat?" He began taking it off in spite of his confusion.

"I need it for her. She's alive, but…"

"Take it then." He pushed it into her hands and she ran upstairs to put it on Maura. She didn't want to move Maura's broken wrist, so she just put her left arm in the sleeve and buttoned up the coat. It looked huge on her, but that was good; it meant she was covered. It meant that, no matter how humiliating the experience might be for her, at least her coworkers wouldn't see her naked.

"Is it okay to come in?" Frost called from the hallway.

"Yeah, I guess so."

He stepped through the doorway, saw Maura in Korsak's coat, and averted his eyes. "I'm sorry, Jane."

"She's alive. That's the most important thing. I was so scared I would never see her alive again."

"You did a good job. We thought we were coming to rescue you, but you had it under control. And you killed him, just like you said you would."

"Yes, but not slowly enough." She tried to smile at him, but found she couldn't yet. "If you didn't have that tracking device, I might not have been able to do this. I'm going to tell her that, that you saved her just as much as I did."

"You can tell her, but you know she's going to see you as the hero anyway. She always does." They heard sirens approaching. "That'll be the ambulance," said Frost. He put a hand on Jane's shoulder. "I know it doesn't look like it right now, but she's going to be okay. She has you."

Jane nodded, but she didn't know if it was true.