The air conditioning was a boon as Elizabeth entered the BPD, heading to the lowest floor where the morgue was located. Although it was only eight in the morning, the sultry heat was already weighing heavily on the city again. On days like this, Elizabeth longed for the cool rush of air from her car's air conditioning.
After all her time as a cop, Elizabeth was hardly a stranger here. Doctors and staff were old friends. Today, however, was different. She wasn't supposed to be here. None of the bodies in the coroner's refrigerators 'belonged' to her.
But her sister's phone call, a good hour after they left the diner, despite her mother's warning to stay off the case, now led her here. Their conversation had been brief. Katherine had given her sister what she needed and was about to explain to Elizabeth why when the detective interrupted her.
"I don't need to know," Elizabeth had said, thinking her sister must have a good reason for asking. "I'll get it for you tomorrow." Then she hung up.
Elizabeth's problem now was finding someone to help her fulfill Katherine's request.
She barely arrived in the basement and are a tiled, brightly lit hallway with rolling stretchers along the walls. Involuntarily she thought it was a quiet night here in the 'Chop Shop', on a busy night these stretchers would have been loaded with body bags containing the bodies of Boston's newly deceased. The body she was now on the lookout for, however, was not that of a murder victim, but that of a certain coroner named Pam. Pam with the awesome body, who had made it unmistakably clear that Elizabeth need only ask if she ever had other business. But since her face was more suited to the radio, Elizabeth had not yet taken advantage of the offer. She was about to turn the corner into another hallway when she heard a female voice behind her.
"What's the matter, don't you love us anymore?"
Elizabeth didn't have to turn around to know who the voice belonged to. "Who said I ever loved you?" she replied, turning to Dr. Maggie Ross, a medical examiner whose thick dark red mane and pointed features always reminded Elizabeth of a fox. The remark was a joke between the two; for Elizabeth had not fallen in love with this woman years ago, but had been in her debt ever since because Ross had provided the crucial lead in one of the biggest cases in her career.
The two women embraced. "I was beginning to think we'd never see you again," Ross said.
"You didn't see me now," Elizabeth replied. "I'm serious," she added when Ross looked at her questioningly. "If anyone here finds out I'm here, I'll be quartered."
"So our gold princess is in trouble again," Ross said with friendly sarcasm.
Elizabeth shook her head. "No, but I need your help."
"Oh then you want to get me in trouble," Ross quipped, and Elizabeth knew running into this woman was a thousand times better than having to ask Dr. Pam for a favor. Ross lowered her voice. "As long as it has nothing to do with that sack of bones that didn't come in here yesterday."
Elizabeth just looked at her blankly.
"I was afraid you weren't going to say that," Ross joked again.
"I saw the damn thing in a garbage scoop."
"Funny how you're not one of the three people on the list of those I'm allowed to inform, then."
"The ones you're allowed to inform? They gave you the case?" asked Elizabeth, hardly able to believe it.
"Yeah, I'm a lucky girl, aren't I?"
"Is the victim's name given?"
"No," Ross said, lowering her voice to an almost conspiratorial whisper. "The bones officially belong to a Jane Doe."
"Is there anything interesting about them?"
"Aside from the secrecy, you mean? I haven't examined them yet. All I know is that they came in late last night and my boss picked them up for me. Remind me to thank him when this is all over." She smiled at Elizabeth and shared the best news at the end. "Oh, and it's a complete skeleton."
That's what Elizabeth was hoping for. "Any chance you could get me some x-rays?"
Ross let out a cynical laugh. "You know, Liz, if this job doesn't kill me, certain difficulties you're going to get me into will. Do you want the films before I send the bones to the lab for DNA extraction, or after?"
"They may not have to take anything at all if you get me those x-rays."
"You fucking know who she is, don't you?"
"Yes, and the three people on your super-confidential list know it too. But I can't tell you the name because if it accidentally slips out, the three of them will know who you got it from."
"Oh, so this cloak-and-dagger nonsense is taking place for my sake." Ross shook her head. "Okay, sure, what the hell. Breaking a few federal privacy laws is no big deal, right?"
"Welcome to the club. We have club jackets, too."
"Don't make me laugh. You mean those pretty orange jumpsuits, don't you?"
Elizabeth just grinned silently.
"What good are x-rays if you don't have anything to compare them to?" the doctor asked irritably.
"What makes you think I have nothing?"
"You bitch. Let me see it."
"I don't have it," Elizabeth replied.
"Just now you said you had something."
"I said I have something to compare to the x-rays."
"Okay, stop jerking me around. Bring in what you have, I'll compare it, and we'll give this woman a name," Ross said, growing impatient.
"I can't do that," Elizabeth sighed.
"Why the hell not?"
"It's because of where I have it."
"Oh, so that's what you meant by 'welcome to the club.' We'll both end up in the vacation club at the Corrections Department."
"Nobody's going to jail if you do what I say." Ross looked skeptical, so Elizabeth reached deep into her bag of tricks. "We speak for the dead, right? Well, this woman deserves someone to speak for her, her family deserves to know where she is, and the monster who dismembered her and cooked her bones deserved to be publicly dismembered himself, but I'll settle for putting him behind bars for life. I don't see the downside here."
Ross' facial expression made it clear that this last piece of information was new to her. "Excuse me, but did you just say 'cooked'?"
"Indeed I did," Elizabeth confirmed. "And the sooner we identify this woman, the sooner we get this son of a bitch off the streets before he does it again."
"How do you know he'll do it again?"
"Because he's done it before. Over twenty years ago. And I guarantee you that someone in this office is looking for the bones from that time right now." Elizabeth knew she had Ross when the other woman was finally speechless.
"You owe me, Rizzoli. And by that, I mean a real dinner, not a pizza or grilled cheese. A steak in a fancy restaurant with candlelight and all that shit."
Elizabeth grinned mischievously. "Deal."
"Go to the coffee shop across the street and give me half an hour and I'll bring you the damn x-rays myself."
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Dolan appeared in the doorway to the bullpen and gazed aimlessly inside, where about a dozen detectives sat at their desks going about their work. Dolan could put on a poker face as well as anyone, and although he smiled at one of his men who went to get something, he was seething inside because already, at lunchtime, his day was beyond repair. It had started with a call from the captain at 8:30 a.m., asking if Dolan knew why Elizabeth Rizzoli was late for work and not bothering to call. Dolan would have liked to answer that if Jane hadn't acted like an asshole toward Elizabeth and kicked her off the case, the woman might have shown up on time. He himself had trusted Elizabeth, and she had not only led him to the bones but also made the connection to the eerily similar murders of twenty years before. It was the second time Dolan had taken a chance and put his faith in Elizabeth, who had justified the trust both times. And both times had been punished for it. But of course, Dolan kept his mouth shut, assuring his boss that he hadn't spoken to Elizabeth since they were all together in Back Bay yesterday. As it happened, it was the truth, and it soothed Jane enough to drop the subject.
But now Dolan had a difficult problem on his hands. Thirty minutes ago, at 11:32 a.m., Maggie Ross of the ME's office had called about an 'extremely important matter,' as she put it, 'that she would best discuss with him in private.' Before Dolan could complain, Ross had said she had until noon and had hung up without waiting for a response from Dolan.
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When he was in a good mood, Dolan liked to joke that he was 'maybe an idiot, but not a fool.' At the moment, however, he felt like both.
There were no bodies for Dr. Ross to examine, he knew of Ross's relationship with Elizabeth, and he, like most experienced detectives, didn't believe in coincidences. So when Ross strolled through the bullpen to Dolan with a large brown envelope in her hand, Dolan couldn't shake the feeling that Elizabeth Rizzoli had a hand in what was about to befall him.
"Dr. Ross," Dolan said, extending his hand and smiling like a Cheshire cat that knows it's about to be struck by lightning.
"Thanks for letting me come in, Detective," Ross replied as they shook hands. Dolan pushed the doctor toward his desk. "I'm sorry I was so curt on the phone, but I wanted to get here as quickly as possible."
"You have something you want to show me?" remarked Dolan, looking at the envelope Ross placed on the desk. "I suppose it has to do with the bones from Back Bay."
"Yes, and if you don't mind, I'd like to show it to you right now," Ross said with a frown.
"Of course, Doc," said the sergeant. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
"Can we use the lamp on your desk?" asked Ross.
"Go ahead," Dolan replied with a nod.
Ross turned on the desk lamp and pulled out an X-ray. "Do you know what an occult fracture is, Sergeant?" she asked.
"Sorry, I must have missed medical school on that one," Dolan replied, grinning mockingly.
Ross didn't elaborate. "That's a fracture inside a bone that can only be seen by x-rays. I just got your bones this morning, and the first thing I did was take x-rays of the larger ones: the Skull, pelvis, extremities. Everything was clean except for your victim's right tibia, where I found the occult fracture." She pointed to a marked area of a bone, and Dolan nodded.
"Are you going to wait until I ask, or are you going to tell me what this is all about on your own?" growled Dolan, who was at the end of his patience.
Ross looked at Dolan, who had always been polite to her and whose biting demeanor now shook her. "I'm sorry," she said, pulling a second X-ray from the envelope. She held it up and pointed. "Here's the exact same fracture on a second x-ray," she explained, placing the first one over the second. "The fractures on the two images match. One hundred percent."
"I can see that, Doc," Dolan growled again. "And now you're about to tell me that the two x-rays were not made at the same time."
Ross admired Dolan. The man was more intelligent than he looked. "That's right, sergeant. The second x-ray was made in February in the Corrections Department's infirmary when an inmate was injured in a sexual assault."
Dolan had enough. "And the name of the inmate?"
"Former inmate," Ross replied quickly, putting the slides back in the envelope. "Her name is, or rather was, Rosa Castillo."
Dolan was speechless but nonetheless impressed. "So you're telling me you can positively identify the victim as Rosa Castillo from this one little feature?"
"To be sure, I had Dr. Wagner take a look at it," Ross explained, referring to the Chief Medical Examiner. "She confirmed it, so the answer is yes. And she sent me here to tell you in person."
That was the moment Dolan realized something wasn't just being revealed to him. He was being tricked. "Okay, Doc," he said, trying hard not to explode. "Just so I know everything is kosher, why don't you tell me how you miraculously got your hands on this x-ray from prison? Or do you want me to tell you?"
"That's what I was about to explain to you, Sergeant. I made the assumption that the bones belonged to a homeless person who may have been in jail at some point, so I sent my x-ray to the Corrections Department, and a doctor there recognized it and found the match that belonged to Miss Castillo."
"And if I call Dr. Wagner, she will confirm all of this?" asked Dolan.
"Yes, she will," Ross replied.
The sergeant contorted his face into a smile, thinking that Ross was a lousy actress but knew how to cover her ass. "I've got to hand it to you, Doc. That hair-raising story rivals the best lying alibis I've ever heard." He propped himself up on the desk and leaned so close to the woman that she pushed her chair back in intimidation. "But we both know it wasn't that way, right? Because in reality, your crappy friend Liz Rizzoli got those x-rays from her annoying sister Katherine Isles. Rizzoli talked her way into snapping off those X-rays, those bones, and when the X-rays coincided, the two of you came up with this abstruse confusion."
When the woman didn't answer, Dolan knew he was right. And suddenly he admired Ross for covering for the same woman he, Dolan was also trying to protect. And Ross had also given him a trump card to play. Dolan relaxed and sat back in his chair. "Come on," he said amiably, almost conspiratorially. "I don't like this any better than you do. There's too much at stake here to bury it under political dodges. Believe me, I have more than enough of that in this job."
Ross couldn't tell if Dolan was serious. "You're not pulling my leg here, sergeant, are you?"
"Look," Dolan began, "I may not like the way she's doing it, but Rizzoli's not giving up. And by coming to me this way, you've done me and her a huge favor."
"I ... we did you a favor?"
"Yes, of course. You've put enough in my hand that I can go to my lieutenant without having to expose Liz."
Ross noticed her tension easing. "Liz wanted nothing more than to see justice done to that poor woman," she blurted out, relieved because she could end the drama. "But she was afraid your lieutenant would hold you responsible for her actions. Yes, she brought me the x-rays from Dr. Isles. But the call to the Corrections Department and the idea of having my boss confirm everything, I did that to myself -"
Dolan interrupted her by reaching for his cell phone and dialing. "Lieutenant, I need to talk to you. Right now." After a brief pause, he said, "Okay, I'll be right there." He hung up and looked at the medical examiner. "Thanks, Doc, you've been a big help."
Ross almost didn't dare ask, but she did anyway. "What are you going to tell the lieutenant?"
Dolan took the X-rays and got up from his chair. "What I should have told her yesterday," he replied, leaving Ross at his desk with the hope that Elizabeth wouldn't get railroaded in what she had set in motion here.
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The harsh sunlight streaming through Jane's window blinded Dolan as he sat across from his lieutenant, who was looking at the X-rays and turning them every way like a pubescent studying the foldout of a nudie magazine. "We're sure about this?" asked Jane, looking at Dolan with furrowed brows.
"DNA will confirm it, but forensics says it's enough to positively identify the victim as Rosa Castillo," Dolan relayed what he'd heard from Ross. "They'll leave the disclosure to us."
Jane put the X-rays on her desk. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves," the lieutenant said in that politician's tone that made Dolan cringe inside. "We'll wait forty-eight hours and see if your people come up with anything regarding the perpetrator by then. Who do you trust enough to work the case?"
At this point, Dolan had to be very careful. "I trust all my people, Lieutenant," he said. "But if you want the story to go down quietly, with the option to deny everything if necessary, Liz Rizzoli would be the right person in this case."
Jane got out of her chair as if she were uncomfortable. She looked out the window. "Liz isn't even theoretically a homicide detective anymore," she said.
"All the more reason to use her," Dolan countered. "This isn't something where she has to run around town chasing leads."
When Jane didn't answer, he stood up as well and joined his lieutenant at the window so she couldn't avoid the subject. "I know she's your favorite," she said with a sigh. "But -"
"You know, Lieutenant, I held back yesterday, but I'm going to say it today," Dolan blurted out, not caring about the consequences. "If it wasn't for your daughter, we wouldn't know about this whole thing. She's a risk because she's the best and she's stopped cold by her own misfortune. You've given your daughter a chance several times, and she's proven herself. Give her another one now, and we all will benefit."
Jane didn't look at him. "If anyone out there finds out about this, they'll pour buckets of dirt on us."
"That's exactly the point," Dolan hooked in. "The more people who know about it, the greater the risk of it leaking out. So we keep the circle small and the information under wraps. Liz handles it off the record, she and Savarese work perfectly together. If a third person is needed, I'll step in myself. And I don't need to tell you that Liz will keep her mouth shut."
Jane looked at the sergeant, sensing there was something else. "What else?" the lieutenant asked. "Or should I better ask who else?"
That was the risky part, and Dolan feared any answer might raise the lieutenant's ire. But there was no turning back now. "We have two days to solve this case. Two murders that hardly anyone knows about, going back three decades. With an MO identical to the Rosa Castillo murder. We have to assume it was the same perp, and we have to get ahead of him so he doesn't kill another woman."
Jane knew what Dolan was getting at and closed her eyes briefly. "You want to bring in someone to profile this son of a bitch. And I'm assuming it's my other daughter, Dr. Katherine Isles."
Dolan was impressed. Jane had figured him out. "Lieutenant, I can't believe I'm saying this myself. But Dr. Isles has saved our asses time and time again. She and Liz work well together, and Kate isn't going to write a book about it or go on TV with it. If we get the FBI involved, they'll leak it, and that's the last thing you or I need."
Jane knew he was right. She and the FBI were like oil and water. Asking the FBI for help in any way was practically forbidden in BPD. She didn't like Dolan's idea, but she trusted him, and she couldn't think of anything better. "Then do it this way," she finally said.