Hey guys! So, so, so sorry for the almost two week late update! I have been trying since I posted the last chapter to write this one, and I made so many drafts of it! But I'm happy with this final version of the chapter, and I hope you guys like it too! Also thankyou to all of you who have reviewed and given feedback, I do read the reviews and even though I don't reply I do appreciate them! So thankyou, heaps! :) I've decided, because I'm swamped at the moment with uni work, that I'll update every weekend, the latest being Monday, and that includes this weekend (hopefully). The story, I think, is nearing its end now, but I have had so many other ideas while writing this story for other rizzoli and isles fanfics so I'm going to start working on them and hopefully have one ready to post by the time this story ends.
Anyway, enough with my rambling. Enjoy this chapter and like always, please review and give feedback :)
Chapter 21:
The moment they got back to headquarters Korsak and Frost went into interrogation, while Frankie stayed back behind the mirror. Cavanaugh had arranged last minute for Susie to be brought in from protective custody so they could see if she, hopefully, remembered or knew anything else from her time with Hoyt when he manipulated her.
As Frost and Korsak sat down at the metal table, facing Susie, Frankie shut his eyes for a moment and silently prayed that Susie would be of help. They had so little time, if any at all, and he could literally feel the seconds ticking away. It was maddening. Even the slightest detail from Susie could be the difference between finding Jane and Maura alive or…no, I won't think about that. Stay focused. Frankie opened his eyes to watch the interrogation, pushing back his emotions to stay focused.
"Susie, please. Anything at all, even something as small as the colour of a doorknob could help. Because at the moment we have nothing except a note with two lines on it." Frost said. Susie glared at the two detectives warily. She so badly wanted to help them, but could she trust them? She knew all too well how easily people could be killed when they were targets, even when they were in protective custody. Offenders who wanted witnesses dead always found ways to eliminate those who they saw as a potential threat. If Susie told them, would she be safe? Would her boyfriend be safe, who was being held in protective custody at a different precinct for security reasons?
Sensing her hesitation, Korsak decided to try a different approach.
"Susie, I need you to listen to me." He started and placed a gentle hand over hers for reassurance. "I know this is hard. I know you probably don't trust us or the officers guarding you to keep you or your boyfriend safe. I've been a cop for a very long time now, and in all my years I have personally known people who were placed in protective custody who were kept safe and alive thanks to the officers protecting them. It's not easy to trust others with your life, I know. But you have to trust us this time. Whatever you know that you didn't tell us earlier could be the difference between life and death for Jane and Maura, and right now we're almost out of options and especially time. So for their sake, trust us." Korsak said. He meant every single word that he had just said, and it wasn't just for Susie he said it. It was for all of them.
Susie, astonished that the sergeant could read her so easily, just stared at him. How could this man, who didn't know much about her apart from their brief meetings in the morgue, know her so well? Unwillingly she felt tears start to fall down her cheeks.
"I…thankyou." Was all she could say at that moment. She took a minute to compose herself. Removing her hand from Korsak's to place it in her lap, she looked at the two men.
"They contacted me a second time, when I wasn't drugged. I know I wasn't drugged because I can remember it clearly. I arrived home from work and found a phone, a burn phone, in an envelope outside the door. It said to meet at a park, the one just near BCU. Westgate, I think it was? When I got there they took the burn phone off me and gave me new instructions. But…but this time they had pictures of my boyfriend being beaten by some thugs, and I…I couldn't let anything happen to him. This whole thing was my fault and he was being dragged into something he didn't need to be a part of." Susie broke down again but tried to remain calm as the tears continued to spill. "I'm sorry." She said, suddenly unable to meet their gazes.
"No, that's great. It gives us a place to start looking." Frost said and paused, waiting for Susie to calm down more. "Do you mind if I ask you one more question?" He asked. Susie shook her head. "Can you remember where abouts in the park you met them?"
"Yes, it was the middle of the day so there were a few college students passing through. I met them on the main track in an open area that is prone to lots of people, near the main gate that leads to the college campus. The older man had make up on to hide his scars and both were wearing wigs in an attempt to hide what they really looked like. It must have worked." Susie replied, shrugging.
"Thankyou Susie. You have been a bigger help than you know. And thankyou for trusting us. You and your boyfriend will be kept safe, I promise." Korsak said. He hugged Susie before leaving with Frost. Frankie joined them in the corridor and together they walked back to the office.
Now we need to let Cavanaugh know and go search that area of Westgate!" Frankie exclaimed. Korsak and Frost nodded, but before they could respond Korsak's phone rang. He answered, listened to the update then hung up.
"That was two detectives from the drug unit who have been temporarily transferred to Homicide to help with the case. They think they figured out what the message on the note means." Korsak said. He and Frost sat down at their desks, but Frankie remained standing, too anxious to sit.
"The first line is pretty obvious; Hoyt was once the hunted, but now he's got the hunter, meaning Jane, at his mercy. So the roles are reversed. But the second line, 'As the prey falls, so does their nest', they think that Hoyt is implying that he's holding Jane and Maura in a park or forest, based off the wording."
"Ok, but is there a deeper meaning? Like why use the words "prey" and "nest" if there wasn't something else going on?" Frost asked. Suddenly an idea came to Frankie.
"Hey, do you remember a couple of years back, how we had that case with the guy who was killed in his survivalist shelter in his home?" Frankie asked. Korsak and Frost nodded. "Well what if the second line means that somewhere there's an underground shelter? As they prey falls. What if that means "falls", as in going underground?" Frankie explained. Korsak and Frost looked at him in amazement.
"Frankie, that's brilliant!" Korsak exclaimed. "Ok, so let's start with looking at Westgate. I'll tell Cavanaugh our theory and convince him to do a search. Start getting other officers and detectives together to help us." Korsak said and they raced off. Jane and Maura needed them, if it wasn't already too late.
Maura closed her eyes, not able to look at Jane as Hoyt touched her. She wanted to throw up at his touch but she was frozen by fear, scared that if she moved Hoyt would see that as an invitation to taunt them further. Her heart was pounding and Maura started to fear that the worst would happen. She prayed that it would be over soon. She could hear Jane shouting and pleading for Hoyt to stop. Jane's normal façade of toughness and the 'don't show weakness' barrier had broken down the moment Hoyt had started to hurt Maura. She wanted to open her eyes but couldn't because she knew that she wouldn't be able to stand the desperation on Jane's face.
Maura felt Hoyt lower the scalpel so that it was now resting against her abdomen. Hoyt lifted the bottom of her shirt slightly so that the scalpel was now resting against her bare skin. Maura took an intake of breath as he started to move the scalpel around in slow circles, pressing just hard enough to draw a tiny amount of blood and cause a stinging pain. Maura knew that logically this wasn't enough to be fatal or to cause any permanent damage, but her emotions took over.
Jane was screaming louder now, throwing any insult and threat she could think of at Hoyt and Zach, who was standing in the corner doing nothing but observing Hoyt. Jane knew that her acting like this was exactly what Hoyt wanted, but she couldn't help it. Maura was her best friend and she was not going to let Hoyt take Maura away from her. Rage filled her that one person could cause so much distress and fear in herself and the people she loved. No, if Jane had to die to stop him, then so be it. She wasn't letting Hoyt get away with it this time.
"Hoyt! Stop it! Hurt me instead, do anything you want to me, but stop hurting Maura!" Jane cried. This time Hoyt did stop and straightened up so he was now longer bent over Maura, who still had her eyes closed. Only then did Jane realise the implications of what she had just said. Hoyt walked over to Zach, said a few words, then walked slowly walked over to Jane, making a point of brandishing the scalpel with Maura's blood on it as he did so. He grinned.
"Are you sure you want to make that promise, Jane? Because no matter which one of you goes first, I'm still going to kill you both." The tone of his voice sent chills down Jane's spine. She didn't reply though and just glared at Hoyt instead. She had to stall for time, but how? Nothing she said was going to make a difference, that much was already clear. So how?
"Just then, what did you say to Zach?" Jane asked. Hoyt didn't react, just stood there observing Jane which only infuriated her more.
"Your voice is so much sexier when you're angry." Hoyt said quietly. Jane couldn't keep the surprise off her face. That was one thing she had definitely not been expecting him to say. Hoyt stepped closer to her and leant down so that he was directly at eye level with her. "And you should know me by now, Jane." Without another word Hoyt went back over to Zach and started cleaning the scalpel. Zach picked up a second scalpel from the small table of 'tools' he had been standing near and walked over to Maura. Almost too quickly too comprehend he slashed the scalpel across the right side of Maura's bare abdomen, leaving a narrow but long, clean cut. Maura gasped and tears sprung from her eyes at the sudden pain.
"NOOOO! Hoyt, Zach, stop it right now you bastards!" Jane screamed. Tears once again rolled down her cheeks. Desperate she looked around again for anything that could help the situation. There. Something that she hadn't noticed before. A tiny, sharp looking sliver of glass, no doubt left over from whatever was here before. For the first time she noticed that the door Hoyt and Zach had come from was a rusted metal door painted to look like wood. But Maura's screams brought her back from her thoughts. Zach had slashed Maura two more times so that there was now a cut in the centre of her abdomen and on her left side. Jane gasped and met Maura's gaze as despair and grief washed over her. The sadness and resolve in Maura's eyes shocked Jane. This was real. This was happening. And unless she found a way to get to that tiny sliver of glass, which might be just sharp enough to cut her bonds, Jane had no way of stopping Zach and Hoyt. For the second time in her life Jane felt completely and utterly helpless and useless, and she knew then that she had one hundred percent failed Maura.
Korsak, Frost and Frankie stood with Cavanaugh as the search at Westgate continued. So far nothing had turned up, above ground or under-ground, and they were getting impatient. If this search turned out to be another dead end, well…they preferred not to think about it. Half an hour before Cavanaugh was going to call off the search, his phone rang. Korsak, Frost and Frankie watched as Cavanaugh's expression got darker the longer the call went on. When he finally hung up there was silence for a minute. And then he spoke what they had all been fearing.
"A third body has been found." Cavanaugh said.