Author's Note: So much work to do... I thought I'd write a chapter as a way to procrastinate. Lucky you. ;p
Disclaimer- Don't own the show. No profit had. Blah, blah, blah- the usual technical jargon.
Chapter Twenty-Five-
"Jane, we've got to do more than get information on Hoyt. If we really want to take a run at someone as influential as him, we have to find a way to get close to him. We need proof." The gruff man from the previous night spoke from the other room beside the young cop, sitting in a chair near the doorway where Vianne was standing, all of them watching the two of them.
Maura let go of Jane self-consciously. She didn't want the officer's colleagues to assume any impropriety on Jane's part. Or to feel it when Jane's skin came into contact with her. She was too sensitive, too raw not to notice how good she felt around the other woman. How safe.
The two men exchanged a look, but Vianne didn't seem particularly concerned.
Jane looked a little embarrassed, but gave her a tiny smile of encouragement that said everything was okay.
When she peered into the woman's comforting brown eyes, she almost believed that everything would be.
"Maura... can you tell us, how often does your father contact you about... uh, going to the hotel?" The young man asked, his dark brow puckering up with question and no little awkwardness.
Staring down at her feet, Maura canted her head from side to side. "It depends. The schedule isn't set in stone. It's... it's been a lot more often lately though." Between her fingers, she worried the edge of her dress, feeling the heat of shame curling up her throat. "More men, and the regulars more often. I don't know why."
"And how do you know where to go each time?"
"It's always the same hotel."
"But the room..." The young man looked confued.
"It's the bartender, Paul? He gets the information right?" Jane asked.
It felt like too much of a barrage of questions. Maura shook her head to push away the overwhelmed feeling creeping up her throat. Paul was only a pawn, she didn't want him to get in trouble. "He only gets the room number."
"But he talks directly to Mauvais?"
"To Hoyt, yes." Mauvais. What a strange name to call him by... she couldn't say it didn't fit though.
"How do you know?"
Looking up, Maura frowned at Vianne. "What do you mean?"
"You said that I worked for Hoyt. Jane seems certain Mauvais is Hoyt because of zat. But how do you know?"
"My father never works with the clients. He is removed from them. There's no one else that knows besides my father, Hoyt and Paul." She tread carefully. "Paul is, he's... he's very close to Hoyt. Calls himself an apprentice. He wouldn't work for anyone else, he wouldn't even listen to anyone else."
That covered all their faces in odd looks.
"An apprentice? What, he wants to be a pimp for escorts like his boss?" Jane asked.
Giving the woman a put out expression, Maura shook her head. "It's more than that. I don't know the specifics though." She lifted one shoulder. "I don't ask."
"Asking breeds trouble." Vianne summarized for her, speaking from experience.
Maura nodded. "I- I don't know how I'm going to help you with anything else. I don't really know any more than what I've already told you."
"It's okay, Maura." Jane put a hand on the side of her face, against her cheek and she felt herself lean into it instinctively and she missed the touch the second it was removed.
What an odd sensation.
"We've first got to do more background on this Paul fellow." The older man murmured.
"That's my queue, I suppose." The younger one sighed, going back into the other room with a small put upon smile he directed at Jane.
The woman smirked in answer, but it quickly fell away, replaced with a thoughtful countenance. "What-" Jane stopped and glanced at her. "Uh... What exactly do we need to get on this guy for a solid arrest, Korsak?" She moved her hand to settle on Maura's knee.
It was enough to calm the flurry going on in her stomach.
"I mean, I get why Maura's testimony won't be enough..."
Feeling a stab in her gut, Maura flinched. "Because I'm a prostitute." She murmured as dryly as she could get her voice to be.
"Hey." Jane objected indignantly. "You're a victim in all this, Maura. Don't think I don't know that."
Shaking her head and slipping her hand to Jane's, Maura just squeezed it back. "You're sweet, Jane. But we both know they wouldn't see it that way. A jury wouldn't listen to me. Especially against a man like Hoyt." She looked up at Korsak. "How are you going to get close to him? I don't know anyone besides Paul and my father that have regular contact with him."
"Paul would be suspicious of anyone, even Jane's undercover persona, poking around about Mauvais' true identity. The only reason he let Jane in last night waz because I told him I haz a new girl for his boss. If she starts with ze fishing, he would get rid of her right away, like the other girl."
"That just leaves Maura and her father." The young officer said from the other room.
They all looked at her.
"Maura, what do you think it would take to get your father on our side?" Jane asked gently. "What would get him to turn on Hoyt?"
Blinking owlishly, Maura tried frantically to think of her father, to look at the world from his perspective, but she had never been very good at that. "I- I don't know." She wet her lips and stood up, moving across the room where she could face the wall and not have to see Jane's face fall in disappointment. "I really... I don't know. My father isn't someone that I spend a lot of time with. Neither of my parents are, or ever were. I can't say what he would want, what he would do-"
"It's okay." Jane cut off her stammering. "We'll figure that out together."
Maura turned back to her. "Jane..." Whatever she had been about to say, for even she didn't have a clue, she was cut off when her phone rang again from her hand.
Jane was up on her feet in the blink of an eye, coming around to her side to look at the phone as she lifted it. "For not spending much time with them, you sure are popular today."
When she looked down at the trembling thing in her hand, Maura felt her stomach drop.
'Mother' was flashing across the screen.
What was she going to do? For a wild moment, she imagined ignoring it, shoving it back in her bag and telling Jane that it wasn't important. She would, only her mother would probably never forgive her the impropriety.
"You gonna get that?" Jane asked in amusement a moment later, stepping away on the pretext of granting her space. "Put it on speaker this time."
Hesitating, Maura swept her thumb across the screen to answer and put the thing on speaker like she was told. It made her feel queasy to do so though.
"Maura, darling?" Her mother's voice sounded much too cheerful in the dim room only just brightening with outside light.
She winced involuntarily, but kept her head bowed and the thing out in front of her, trying to hide from prying eyes in the next room. "Mother... I- yes?"
"I'm just calling to remind you that your dress has arrived at Van Clar's and will be waiting for you to pick it up."
"My dress." No matter how she shook her head, Maura couldn't get her thoughts to unjumble enough to fill in the blank.
"Oui. For tonight? The fundraiser? Don't tell me you've forgotten, mon dieu."
Of course, that's what her father had meant about seeing her tonight. The Boston Arts Council annual fundraiser. She vaguely remembered it being mentioned in amongst the small talk of lunch the other day. She should have known. "Non, bien sûr que non." Maura glanced at Jane, who was watching her while half-sitting on the dresser pretending not to. She lowered her voice, even though she knew they would all still be able to hear her, and turned her back to make their eyes feel less invasive. "I haven't forgotten. I- just wasn't aware you would be ordering my dress for me." Her throat itched uncomfortably, but it wasn't a lie per se, merely a half-truth. She could get away with half-truths.
"I told you I would be ordering your dress so that it matched mine and your father's." Came her mother's impatient reply. "Oh, Maura. I do wish you'd pay more attention. Work isn't everything, you know. You have social obligations-"
Her patience snapped. "My social obligations, such as they are, are not more important than my work, mother. Forgetting a simple thing like a dress isn't going to keep me from fulfilling both. I said I would be there and I will." She stopped abruptly, startled by her own vehemence. It wasn't like her to lose her cool with her mother, even over the telephone. She was just exhausted and didn't feel like she had the wherewithal to go round about the truth of the conversation this early in the morning.
"Well, there's no need to strike a tone with me, young lady." Her mother sounded offended.
Maura had to take a deep breath, shifting to try and pull her frustrations back under control. "I apologize, Mother. I'm just tired."
Constance made a sound that was between consolation and acceptance. "Very well. Please dear, do try to gather yourself before the party. So many of your father's business associates will be there, as will most of my buyers and artists. We must make a good impression."
Yes. Always a good impression. "Certainly, Mother." Maura closed her eyes again briefly to fight off a headache. She felt too drained to even be on her feet.
"Your father will be a little late, I'm afraid. He has an emergency business meeting with someone. He even convinced him to come to the party to donate."
"Oh?" Maura milled a little, uninterested.
"Yes. You remember Mr. Hoyt, don't you? Or I suppose it's Dr. Hoyt now. I'm not sure which he would prefer."
It was like a bucket of ice had just been dumped over her head. In shock, Maura dropped her phone, her hand numbly letting it fall without even trying to stop it. The world tilted off its axis.
Jane was there at her elbow suddenly, catching her when she stumbled. "Maura?" She sounded alarmed.
It sounded like it was coming in through clothe.
Hoyt. At the party. Hoyt, near enough to touch.
She was going to be sick.
Carefully, Jane drew her back and had her sit on the bed.
She did it numbly.
The sound of her mother's voice emerged from the din, muffled against the carpet.
Jane hurriedly picked up the phone, looking at her in panic.
"W-What was that?" Maura cleared her throat. "Sorry, Mother, I didn't quite catch that."
"I said Mr. Hoyt asked your father if you would be there. We told him you would, he seemed very pleased. He always did have a soft spot for you."
Yes, she was definitely going to be ill.
"He also made a strange request. He said something about a young lady he saw at your apartment with you? Said you would know the one. He wanted you to bring her along. When would he have been near your apartment, dear?"
All she could do was stare at Jane's horrified expression with one of her own. She didn't have an answer for her mother.