Harriet's office was at the end of a long corridor in one of Oxford's more modern colleges. The industrial white walls and plain wooden furniture stood in stark contrast to Kaplowitz's gaudy college office. The room reminded Jane of her own office back in DC.
"As far as we know, Harriet had only been to Bletchley once since Rachel was killed" Detective Greenly explained as they stood in the doorway, looking into the relatively bare room. "If someone else is involved, or had been giving her information, they could be in grave danger. We need to find them as soon as possible."
Taking the order, Jane pulled on a pair of blue gloves and offered a second pair to Maura.
"I'll be interviewing the people in the department" Greenly said, remaining in the doorway as the two women began their preliminary search. "The team are on standby if you find anything of importance. Call me if you need me."
Reaching into her jacket, Jane pulled out the photograph she had found the night before in Harriet's bag. "Whoever it is looks so much like the professor" Jane reasoned, hoping Maura was listening as she rummaged through a nearby filing cabinet, "but he's too young."
"Vladimir Kaplowitz." Jane's head flew around in shock as Maura spoke. "Born 1921 in Krakow, Poland."
"How did you…"
Maura opened the folder she was holding, labelled "Rachel's Work", to reveal a handful of sepia-toned photographs, each one captioned with the subject's name, date and location.
Examining each one carefully, Jane's mind began to make links.
"These are surveillance photos", Jane explained with a tone of conviction. "From all over Europe."
"Rachel must have taken these from the archives. Or someone gave them to her. And… did she give them to Harriet? Did Harriet take them?"
Jane nodded. "But why didn't she say anything? We've been spending every waking hour trying to work out what happened and- what- Harriet had the answers the whole time? Was she hiding it from us deliberately?"
Maura shook her head, placing a calming hand on Jane's shoulder. "If she had these when we were all together, she would have said. I…. I don't like to theorise, but I wonder if these images- this information- is why she ended up hurt."
Jane looked up at Maura, her eyes wide. "Harriet was meeting Kaplowitz for dinner the night she was poisoned. Do you think she took the photograph with her to confront him?"
Maura shrugged. "Possibly. But confront him about what? We have nothing to suggest motive."
"Well, there has to be more. Keep looking."
The manila folder Maura had found seemed to be the only connection to Kaplowitz in Harriet's office. Drawers, folders and filing cabinets produced nothing else that would connect the young historian to Bletchley Park, the professor or any crime. Slumping into Harriet's uncomfortable desk chair, Jane let out a comically loud sigh.
"Is there a problem?" Maura asked, raising an eyebrow at the mass of brown curls now covering the desk as Jane threw her head dramatically into her hands.
"I hate this" Jane mumbled from within her cocoon of frustration.
"We'll find something, Jane. We always do. Plus, we're closer today than we ever were before. Maybe we just need to sit back and think for a moment?"
Jane shook her head. "Waste of time" her muffled voice returned.
"Then stop moping. Get off your ass and be a detective!" Maura covered her mouth with her hand as soon as her final word had escaped, as if to prevent any more truths from spilling over. Jane sat up quickly, brushing her hair back from her face as she stared at her friend.
"Well" she raised her eyebrows, her tone aghast, "if that's what the doctor suggests".
Rising from her chair, Jane stretched her neck from side to side. It was a yoga tip that Maura had instilled in her early into their friendship, and was one of the many small ways in which the doctor had impacted her life.
Maura stayed quiet, resting her back against the wall as she observed Jane. The tall detective seemed to catalogue everything in her mind. In the absence of a working wall to focus her attention, the institutional white of Harriet's office seemed to allow Jane to map out everything in her mind.
"Has Harriet's computer already been checked?" Jane asked, looking over at Maura.
"Her laptop? Yes, they looked at it when she first went missing. Why?"
Jane shook her head. "She has another computer. The charger on her desk is for a different laptop."
Maura pulled her phone out of her pocket as she walked into the centre of the room. "I'll call Greenly. Oxford's system is quite sophisticated. If we can't find the computer, we should only need her university login to access her files."
/
"And… we're in." The police technician pushed the connected laptop over to Maura and Jane before leaving their room.
After a long conversation with Detective Greenly, in which Maura had used a handful of complicated scientific terms to explain how the constant moving around was affecting the progress of the case, the two women had found themselves alone, in a small conference room at police headquarters. With a large pane of glass, copies of every piece of evidence and every suspect, and multi-coloured markers, they both felt more at home.
"So… we know that Harriet got this information from someone. It could have been Rachel, but most of her stuff is in evidence and there's nothing in her emails to show she spoke to Harriet about this stuff or shared this much information."
"So do you think Harriet was speaking to someone?" Maura asked. "She did have contact with Rusieuc, which we know is a cover."
Jane opened Harriet's emails, searching methodically through each one. For all her boisterous energy and impatience, when it came to solving a crime, Jane was safe, systematic and careful. It was one of the elements of her personality Maura admired; she truly cared about the lives of the people she came into contact with and would fight fiercely for justice.
"Who is Simon Uxbridge?" Jane finally spoke, after filtering through numerous departmental memos and news from, seemingly, every historical society in the country.
Maura searched through the papers piled high in the centre of the table. Finding a master list of people who had been spoken to by Greenly and his team, she scoured until she found his name.
"PhD student. He worked in the same department as Rachel, and had been her research assistant in a previous project."
"What is his specialism?" Jane asked, looking over the computer to meet Maura's questioning eye.
"Nazi arms trading in the second world war."
Opening the email thread, Jane began to read. "Oh, hello. Maur, I think Harriet was onto something big here. Can… can you call Greenly and ask him to get O'Neill on a live chat as soon as possible?"
Picking up the phone, Maura dialled his now-familiar number and waited.
"Detective, we…" Maura held up her hand, looking directly at Jane as she absorbed everything the detective told her. As soon as he had spoken, she relayed Jane's message adding in that- given the time difference- they would be best to schedule a conference call in four hours' time to avoid waking O'Neill too early.
Hanging up the call, Jane caught Maura's eye.
"What's up."
"Harriet's awake."
