A/N – Thank you everyone for the wonderful reviews and PM's. Trying to arrange a funeral I've discovered around this time of year is a nightmare. Added to that complications caused by ineffective Solicitors (lawyers), and nightmare ratcheted up another notch entirely. Again, I apologize for not replying to everyone individually, but I needed a distraction, and this was to do some writing when I found the time. I will try and respond to people as soon as I can. Because of the funeral arrangements plus other red tape and paperwork around it – I'm not entirely sure when I might be around to update again.
Finally of course I couldn't do this without my co-helpers, Honorcpt and Oasiso, both of whom gave up valuable time during the Christmas season to read, amend and generally help me out. Any mistakes are mine, and mine alone – these two on the other hand both deserve a medal for putting up with my crap! Now, where were we? Oh yes, right about...
Here...
Chapter twenty one
Frost hit the door with his fist, while Korsak stood off to the side, gun drawn. "Police, open the door."
A few minutes later the door opened, with a very shy looking woman peeking around the security chain. "Can I see some ID?" Her voice was trembling as she spoke, and with a sigh, Frost held out his identification, Korsak mirroring his actions. Within a few seconds, the door was being pushed back so the chain could be released. The woman opened the door up properly, before standing aside to allow them access.
"Can I ask what this is about?"
"Do you know Ellie Trench?" Korsak asked, keeping his voice low, sensing the nervousness from the woman. She nodded quickly, bringing fingers to her mouth, as she then began to bite her nails.
"Can you tell us the last time you saw her?" Frost asked, also keeping his tone soft.
"A few days ago, maybe a week... actually, no, it won't have been that long... I'm not too sure." She replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "She was here with Bill."
"Bill?" Korsak and Frost both perked up as Korsak then asked the question. "Do you mean William Anderson?"
"Yeah, she and Bill knew each other from way back. Ellie even dated his sister Sue for a while. Why? What's going on?"
"So you knew Sue as well? Did Sue call you a lot when she came back to Boston?" Frost asked.
"Sure. We were pretty good friends, and she wanted to hook up again. It wasn't like we saw a lot of each other, but we spoke on the phone a fair bit. Sue's been busy so it's been a bit more sporadic of late. Listen, will you please tell me what in the hell is going on?"
Frost looked at Korsak, both immediately aware she had no idea of Sue's death, let alone William's. Korsak nodded ever so slightly to show he was going to take this on. "Please, I think we should sit down." His voice softened even more and she frowned.
"No, not until you tell me what I want to know!"
"Please..." Korsak moved towards the doorway where he could see a couch just inside, assuming it was the sitting room. He pushed the door fully open, and gestured for her to follow him in, which she did. Without another word, she sat down on the couch, while Frost and Korsak both found chairs to sit in.
"Meagan, both Sue and William are dead. Both deaths are being treated as suspicious, most likely murder, which is why we're here."
"What?" Her hand flew up covering her mouth as tears almost instantly began to fall. "No, I saw Bill just the other day... "
"We understand this is difficult for you, but we have some more questions." Frost spoke up, looking sympathetically towards the now crying woman.
Meagan sniffed, and wiping the tears, she nodded. "I'll help in any way I can."
"We tracked you because of Sue's phone records, and they also showed she called this number a lot..." Frost handed a print out over, and Meagan read it quickly. "Do you recognize it at all? Or do any other numbers stand out for you?"
"That's Bills cell number. I don't know any of the others apart from mine." Meagan said as she reached across to pull a tissue out of a box on a coffee table close to where she was sitting, wiping her tears before blowing her nose. She crumpled the tissue up and pulled a fresh one out of the box, putting the old one in a small bin that they now noticed was alongside the couch.
"Good, thank you. His cell phone wasn't with him, so we can't begin to track it down." Frost said, looking pleased with the latest information. "Can you tell us exactly when Ellie and William came to visit you last?"
"Bill, call him Bill. He hated William. It was his father's name and he didn't have the greatest of relationships with his parents." Meagan said as she tried to remember what was being asked of her. "I guess it was five, maybe six days ago when they came around. Bill had come to visit Ellie and Sue, or so he told me. It was always very difficult for him because he got on with Ellie, and when she and Sue split up, he was torn between his sister and their friendship. He didn't really talk about it much, but I knew he hated that he was having to hide the friendship from Sue."
"Do you have a phone number or address for Ellie?" Korsak asked.
"No, sorry. I used to talk to Bill, and Ellie was always so secretive about stuff like that. If I'm being honest, I wouldn't be friends with her at all, but for her friendship first with Sue, then Bill."
"Anyone else in Sue's life that you might know of?" Frost hated asking the question, but he knew they had to show they'd covered all bases for any possible prosecution. A defense lawyer would immediately pick up on the fact if no effort was made to question a witness in the same way they would usually. While Jane was clear of the murders, to not show they were looking at other interests in Sue's life would jeopardise anything else they might do.
"Sue didn't say, but I sensed there was someone new in her life." Meagan finally smiled as the memory came back to her. "I asked about it one day a few weeks ago, and Sue just gave me a little smile and said 'maybe there was someone.' I knew it had to be someone special because she'd been so badly upset over the breakup with Ellie that she had sworn off relationships. So, whoever the new girlfriend was, Sue undoubtedly loved and trusted her implicitly. I knew she'd tell me once the time was right, but I could tell... She was happy, the happiest I think I'd ever seen her and whoever it was, they were good for her."
Frost couldn't help but feel a warmth spread through him as he heard the words, knowing that Jane had indeed been in a meaningful relationship, and it wasn't one sided. He almost felt sorry that he couldn't impart that information to Meagan.
"Anything else you can think of?" Korsak queried, fighting his own smile at Meagan's last words.
"Nothing comes to mind. I hate that I can't help more." Meagan's sadness returned as did the tears.
Korsak nodded. "That's okay you've helped us a lot already." He reassured her, as Frost took some notes. "I know I keep asking, but anything you can think of that happened recently apart from what you've already told us?"
"I don't know how relevant it might be, but like I've said, I do know that Sue and Ellie's break up wasn't a good one. Sue didn't tell me much, other than she came back to Boston to get away from her. Then Bill turned up one day with Ellie, and I found out she'd also moved to Boston. Ellie swore it had nothing to do with Sue, and Bill pleaded I didn't tell Sue, so I didn't. I hated that I was keeping it secret from Sue. I wish now..." Meagan began crying again.
Korsak looked at Frost and sensing they weren't going to get anything more of use, they both stood up, "We'll let ourselves out, if there is anything else you might remember, you can contact me on these numbers." Korsak handed over one of his business cards that Meagan took with a shaky hand and a nod of her own. Frost and Korsak walked out slowly, trying to piece together what they had just learned.
"I'll get a subpoena on the phone records for William's cell as soon as we get in." Frost said, "We might get lucky and they might supply ahead of that. At least we've got something concrete to begin working on. We know Ellie has been in the area, and that she and William had contact with each other. Seems strange they had this friendship considering the problems Sue had with her and the injunctions against Ellie. Something doesn't quite make sense."
"Not forgetting that William gave us the impression he'd travelled in with his parents, and wasn't already in Boston. I don't like the way this is headed." Korsak said with a sigh. "I still think that Sue was the main target and somehow William is collateral damage, either to throw us off, he knew something, or was involved somehow. Whatever it is, he wasn't just a random target any more than Sue was. So far the only connection is Ellie, but while I can understand motive for Sue, I cannot understand motive for William apart from what I've already mentioned. We need to dig even more in to the family, see what gets thrown up."
Jane took a deep breath and opened the apartment door up, before taking a second. She felt Maura's hand on her forearm and smiled as she then walked in. She and Maura had slept without incident through the night, and even though Jane was hesitant to admit it, she had felt lighter in herself after the talk she and Maura had. Now, all she had to do was try and maintain some time in her own apartment working. Maura had agreed to come with her, before leaving Jane on her own, citing that it would defeat the object of the exercise for Jane if she were to stay, and that she was only a phone call away if it got too much.
Jane put her laptop down on the couch as Maura moved to place some things in her fridge that they had picked up on their way over. Taking another deep breath, Jane remained standing as Maura then moved back towards her, standing close.
"I'll be fine." Jane said with a slight smile as she saw the concern cross Maura's face.
Maura sighed, surprised to find she was feeling as nervous as she was about leaving Jane. "I'll only be in work doing my own paperwork. Call me if you need to." Maura said, once more putting her hand out to grasp Jane's own hand.
"Go..." Jane pulled Maura in to a hug, "Go keep an eye on Korsak and Frost for me. I'll expect a full report when you get back."
Maura couldn't help but laugh. "I don't think I'll be able to gather than much information since I'm only going in for an hour."
"You're better at this gumshoe thing than you give yourself credit for." Jane replied, pulling out of the hug. "Now go... get out of here so I can work."
Maura nodded and moved out of the apartment. Jane followed and slowly closed the door, as Maura watched in the hallway, a nod of her head in Jane's direction as Jane pulled the door and closed the last of the gap. Jane then turned and lent back against the door closing her eyes. "Here goes nothing." Jane said softly, having opened her eyes and moved towards the couch, picking up the laptop and powering it up. She also then pulled some files over that she'd brought with her, searching for the one she wanted to look at first, and began her work, feeling some satisfaction that she was finally doing something constructive with her time.
Maura walked in to the bullpen with a smile on her face when she spotted Korsak and Frost, who also looked up, their own smiles breaking out when they saw her arrive.
"Doc." Korsak stood up and resisted the sudden urge he had to hug the M.E. Frost also said hello, as Maura sat down on a chair close to where they were.
"How's Jane doing?" Korsak asked, having not spoken to either Maura or Jane since he'd dropped them off the other night, not wanting to intrude.
"She's at her apartment for a short time and doing well." Maura said, sending Korsak a reassuring smile, and she could see the tension leave at her assurance. "It's given me this opportunity to come and see you, as well as check in at the morgue."
"What, you couldn't keep away?" Frost asked, his voice light as he joked.
"No, your charming personalities have been missed." Maura joked back, a laugh breaking out. "Although, I also wanted to make sure that you hadn't broken anything while I've been away." Maura raised her eyebrows, looking around the room carefully. "It appears as if all is still intact. Either you've not been playing hallway hockey or Jane is the only one who tends to be destructive."
"Yeah, well, we cleaned up after the last mishap." Frost said with a grin. "Although we could always blame it on Jane since she isn't here."
"If you wish to try that, so be it. Just don't expect me to patch you up once Jane finds out, because you know she will... So, is there any news?" Maura then asked, her tone turning more serious.
Korsak shook his head. "Not as much as we'd like. We've found a friend of William and Sue... and his parents came in and did an ID on some of his personal items. They confirmed that William was already in Boston when Sue died, and didn't in fact travel in with them like we thought. Beyond that, they didn't have anything of use for us. I didn't deal with it, I felt it would be best if Frost saw them since they didn't know him."
"I would agree that was a wise decision." Maura inwardly flinched as she remembered the scene at the cafe. "Whatever their belief, to have lost both children so close together like that is a tragedy that I wouldn't wish on anyone."
"Yeah I must admit they looked defeated when they came in and you can't help but feel sorry for them, even when the Mother opened her mouth and began blaming Jane, just as Jane had predicted. As for news, the one thing we have discovered is we know that Ellie, Sue's ex is in the area." Frost spoke up, pulling some information up on the big screen in front of them. "We know that William also had a cell phone that wasn't on him when he died, but we've got the records and there is a lot of activity to a number that tracks back to a burn phone. We suspect that it's Ellie he's talking to. The last call was to that number less than an hour before he died."
"So, perhaps they arranged to meet up?" Maura questioned as she looked at the list Frost had brought up.
"Maybe." Frost shrugged. "Without the actual phone, and evidence to link it conclusively to Ellie we can only speculate at this point, but it does appear that Ellie is currently the front runner in the suspect stakes."
Maura stood up and turned to look at the board behind them which had the paperwork and written information down. She moved in closer, taking note of the new information that they had gathered. "Is Jane in any danger?" Maura's questioned as she turned around to look back at the detectives.
Korsak shrugged. "Honestly, I haven't got a clue." he admitted. "If this is Ellie, her history shows she's unstable enough to possibly want to remove Jane from the picture completely even if Sue is now dead. She certainly had problems with other people who were close to Sue after they broke up, even if they weren't romantically involved. Since the only person who could really give us the answer is Sue... or we find Ellie... I can't tell you Doc."
"So, what do we do?" Maura sounded and looked worried. "Warn Jane she might still be in danger?"
"You wanna be the one to tell Jane?" Frost said with a look of horror crossing his face. "I value my life."
Korsak shrugged his shoulders. "As much as I know you're gonna hate this Doc, there is nothing we can do. There is no direct evidence to suggest she might be after Jane, and even if Ellie is behind this and was after her, can you see Jane allowing anyone to protect her? Or even see her being any more careful, or change her routine? Christ, she didn't even do that for Hoyt, so she sure as hell ain't going to do it for a possible threat like this." Korsak saw the worry still etched on Maura's face, and his stance softened. "If it's any consolation Doc, you know as well as I do that Jane is good at what she does. She'll be careful whatever."
Maura looked at Korsak as if he'd grown two heads. "Jane, careful? Vince how can you say that! You know what Jane's like. She'll walk in to a hostage situation when no-one else will. She'll cite wearing her vest makes it okay, when you know as well as I do that a bullet to the head would be fatal and no vest in the world would save her. Or when she'll do something reckless against the rules to save someone she cares about. Need I remind you about when I was taken... 'Whatever you want, I can get it.' is hardly standard operating procedure under such circumstances. Jane is rash when her emotions get the better of her... and if Ellie did kill Sue, and if she does come after Jane in any way, Jane's not in a stable enough place right now to deal with it." Maura stopped, having said more than she intended, as Korsak's eyebrows went up at the last admission on Maura's part.
"Doc, what aren't you telling us about Jane?" He asked quietly, standing up, pulling himself in closer to Maura so there was no chance of them being overheard. Maura looked around at him and Frost.
"This isn't the place for a discussion of this nature. We'll go down to my office." Without waiting for an answer, Maura walked away, Frost and Korsak following her, both looking worried.
Once Maura closed her office door, she turned and faced the two detectives. With a sigh, she carefully pulled down the turtleneck she was wearing. The bruising was now as vivid as it was going to be. Korsak and Frost both looked shocked.
"Who did that to you?" Korsak demanded, stepping in to Maura's space. Maura shook her head and moved away to sit down behind her desk.
"What I'm about to tell you I do not want discussed ever again. This is the one and only time we talk about it, do I make myself clear?" Maura said with a stern look. Frost and Korsak glanced at each other before both nodded. Closing her eye's quickly, Maura waited for them to both to sit down. As she heard them settling down, Maura opened her eyes again. "Jane is suffering with PTSD, and she caused the bruising. It was entirely accidental on her part, I most certainly do not blame her for the incident that lead to this, but... I'm not sure she could cope with much more at the moment. Now can you understand my concerns?"
Korsak and Frost both sat there slack-jawed at Maura's admission. Korsak was the first to recover his composure. "What can we do to help, Doc?"
"Just find who is responsible." Maura replied slowly. "And... just make sure you're there for Jane, whether she realizes it or not, she's going to need all the help she can get once she comes back to work properly. I know you won't be able to do too much otherwise she'll catch on, but I just want her to have some extra eyes keeping an eye on her. Make sure she doesn't do anything rash. I'll give you both signs to look out for as known triggers for people with PTSD, and also how to handle the situation if God forbid something happens while she is at work."
Frost blew out a breath. "Easier said than done, you know Jane, she'll pick up something is going on straight away."
"I know." Maura admitted, with a wry smile in his direction. "However, I trust you both to be there and to manage it."
The laptop was on, and she frowned as the phone rang and picked it up with a huff. She could hear someone crying as she answered. "Oh, for God's sake, man up!" She sounded exasperated.
"You didn't have to do that." He finally replied, his sobs lessening.
"Oh, for fuck's sake. I told you, you play by my rules." She said looking annoyed. "You're just paying me, I do what you want, and since he knew too much, he had to go."
"Couldn't you have done it any other way?" His voice quivered as he asked. "He didn't deserve to die. I didn't want anyone to die..."
"Not a chance. He'd already called wanting to meet up and told me on the phone what he knew. Neither one of us can afford to be caught over this. You'd be charged just like me, so I was protecting your ass as much as my own. You said you wanted Sue out of the way, to end her deviant lifestyle... you said nothing about how... and you paid a handsome amount for me to do it. No one is going to believe for one second you didn't mean for her to die, especially when using words like 'end her deviant lifestyle'. Now I've got other more important things to be worrying about."
He didn't get a chance to reply as she ended the call and threw the phone down on the couch pillow next to her with a frown. "Fucking amateurs, I should have known better than to get them involved." she muttered, as her attention came back to the laptop she had open. "Now, let's find out a little more about you, Detective Jane Rizzoli."