The thanksgiving weekend had gone fast. Nothing new had happened and Maura was sitting in the lab with Michael scratching her head. She felt that they were still on the right track with the assumption about the illegal tests. She went through the list of medications which Michael had given her and compared it with a list of drugs that were to appear soon according to the medical journals from the last two month.
Vivaldi's four seasons were playing silently in the background as she focused on one special name: Folaclyotrocopine. It contained almost all the substances found in the last victim's body. Maura wondered if they were ever be able to give that woman a name. she hoped so. No one deserved to be buried as Jane Doe.
But there was another question on her mind: if the probands were killed, where did the riddles bury the bodies? She had seen many things in the course of her career. Bodies being buried in foreigners' graves or on a body farm – just to name some. Maybe there was a dumping spot somewhere in the woods.
She sighed when brushing her questions away and turned to another list on her desk. Women and man who had disappeared under suspicious circumstances over the last months. Some people from this list could be victims from the riddles she thought, reading through the names. She sighed one more time as she glanced over to Michael who was looking into his favorite microscope hopefully finding some new clues.
Right now he was trying to find out how the substances had come into the victims, and how they reacted in their bodies and how they deteriorated. It was still a big mystery which had to be solved.
By midday she felt very hungry and texted Jane asking if she was up for a meal. Janes reply came almost immediately containing just one word making her laugh: "Yessssss!"
They walked to the dirty robber in silence, their minds still focused on the riddles.
"Just like in old times eh?" Jane said grinning when slipping into a booth.
Maura smiled. "It's a shame though that Korsak sold the dirty robber. It was much nicer back then." She remarked pushing some breadcrumbs off the table.
"Shame." The brunette repeated Maura's word with a thoughtful mind. "Hard to believe. Its not so long that we left, and it seems like most of things we were used to are gone."
"Also shame that no one wants to abduct Mrs. Rover. Don't get me wrong. I don't want anything happen to her. But it's been almost a week, and nothing suspicious occurred." The brunette added with a smirk.
Jane told Maura that they had let Bradley write the riddles, that he wanted to know if they had planned anything yet, stating that he was tired of living with his wife. And if they wouldn't act soon, he would want his money back to hire someone else.
"He was very nervous." Jane said, absently playing with some left fries on her plate. "Always rubbing his hand on his jeans, sweating and stumbling."
"Well that doesn't surprise me." Maura replied. "He probably realized that his wife knows something and the police is on his tail all the time…. He must also fear that the riddles harm him, if they suspect that he's a snitch. Wouldn't you be scared too?"
Jane took a deep breath. "Yeah. Especially if I stole money from my wife to pay someone to murder her." She chuckled. "That would scare the shit out of me." she joked.
Maura shot her a quick look when Jane said the word wife and spoke up again changing the direction. "Maybe that's why they got so quiet, because they know, that we are close. They probably earned enough money to sit still for a long time until they feel save again."
"Maybe" Jane replied thoughtful. "The hint with the pickup truck also led us nowhere so far. Frankie assumes that the car was stolen as well. So, he narrowed the search down to white pick-up trucks which were stolen around the time of the shooting."
"What about the senator?" Maura asked.
"He lawyered up. And we don't get a search warrant for his house. The warrant for the telephone records was all Korsak could get. I hope that you found out something helpful, otherwise this is really going to be a cold case soon."
Maura swallowed and then told Jane, that Michael was pretty sure, that there was some medicine testing going on because there of the substances in the blood tests they had from the victim.
"That's good but how will this lead us to our murderers?" she asked frustrated.
"You have to hire a hitman yourself." Maura said after some thinking.
"To kill who?" Jane asked. "You? Besides no way this is going to work, because if they suspect something and sit still, they are not going to say: Hell yeah, we kill someone for you!" she smirked.
"Well, I hope that you don't want to have me killed." Maura stated dryly and frustrated. "I don't know Jane. This might be one of the few cases we can't solve."
The brunette snorted. "Hell, of course I don't want you to get killed. Crazy woman! How would I survive without seeing your beautiful smile each morning?"
Maura had given no further comments, although she felt flattered by the compliment. When coming back to the lab she found Michael behind the microscope still, mumbling something incomprehensible as he stared through the glasses. The blonde decided to let him do his work in peace and went over to her own working space. She pulled some medical files of some victims from the missing persons list. She would have preferred to go through the files of their Jane does. But as this lead seemed to be a dead end, she tried to find some things the missing persons had in common.
Meanwhile, Jane leaned back in her chair staring at the ceiling and let her mind drift around the pieces of the puzzle. Every time they had an evidence or a clue it vanished into nothing and led nowhere. This was just incredible. The police chief had already pulled many officers off the case hinting that the FBI could replace them if they needed more people. And Jane knew that it wouldn't be long, before the FBI also would order her back to Quantico.
Maybe Maura was right, and the riddles would disappear for a while. The case would get cold. She was sure, that the senator knew more than he told them. But he had too much to hide. So, they would need a miracle to get to the information he had.
It was frustrating when a case remained unsolved. Especially one like this. These people would never cease to kill. There would be a new website on the dark net, another name and the business would continue. Innocent people would become victims of these crazy killers.
The frustration started to get the better part of her, and Jane looked at the blue figure, which had once stood on Frosts desk. Frankie had borrowed it to her for the time she was here. Therefore, it was standing on her desk, right next to the phone.
The brunette missed Frost and his ability in the field of research. But most of all she missed joking and talking with him. On a day like today, they would have teased each other like the friends they had been. And maybe an idea would come along after loosening up.
The clock over the door was just changing to 7 pm and Jane decided to go home after texting Maura about her intentions.
"I want to hang up a picture of Frost." she later told Maura in the car.
"That's a sweet idea" the blonde said and gently touched Janes hand which was on her thigh. Jane focused on the street, still thinking about Frost. The scars on her hands hurt but she tried to ignore the pain through gritted teeth.
They settled in the living room after dinner. Maura reading a book, Jane lying stretched out on the couch with her feet on the blonde's legs. She almost had fallen asleep when her phone buzzed.
Jane was tempted to let the call go to voicemail, but finally decided to check for the caller ID.
It was Angela and she sounded a little bit lonely. Korsak and Kiki had gone out to celebrate their wedding day. So, Jane invited her to come over.
She was glad that Maura was ok with it. The blonde offered to open some wine while Jane was responsible for finding a good movie on TV.
„Jane?" the brunette could barely hear Korsak because of the noises in the background.
"Korsak? What's up old man?" she shouted louder, disturbing Maura and Angela whose eyes were glued to the TV screen.
"Shhhhhhh!" Maura whispered and shot her a scolding look which made the brunette move to the kitchen.
The connection was suddenly very bad and she could only hear words and pieces. "…. House…bu.. Where… Angela?"
The brunette glanced to the couch where her mother was sitting under a blanket, laughing at the movie.
"Ma is with Maura and me." she shouted, suddenly attracting puzzled looks from the couch.
And then the connection suddenly got crystal clear again and she could hear Korsak say that she needed to come to Angela's house because it was on fire.
When they arrived at the scene the fire was already out, but Jane saw right away that it was a total loss. The roof hat crashed and there were only pieces of the walls left.
There was a letter in the mailbox, addressed to the team saying: This is our last warning. Leave us alone or next time someone of you dies. Shame that the queen of death survived, but next time we won't be so sloppy.
"Of course, you can stay in our guesthouse, Angela." Maura said, steadying the elder woman who was shocked, realizing that she could have possibly died if she hadn't gone to Maura's and Jane's.
Maura looked over to her girlfriend who just stood and looked at the smoldering ruins.
Jane didn't talk much that evening and neither did Maura. They felt tired and sore from this case. Too many bad things had happened since they had been assigned to it. Good things too of course as Jane kept reminding herself, when pulling Maura closer that night. She felt the blondes tiny body lean against hers and placed a gentle kiss to her neck.
"Good night, baby." She whispered into the darkness which filled the room, knowing that Maura was already asleep. And soon also her eyes closed, giving her mind some peace.