The sky was red again on Thursday morning. Maura wasn't sure if it was beautiful or ominous. She walked to the tube station, buying a cup of coffee on the way, and thought about the day ahead.
She had checked her emails before leaving the house. Yesterday had been fairly quiet, but today A&E was short staffed, and after checking in with her team, Maura expected to be there. Despite her seniority, Maura liked covering emergency patients. They were mysteries waiting to be solved.
She arrived at the hospital and checked on Mr Smith. He was sleeping, but his charts were acceptable. He would require several more days of hospital care, but he appeared to be out of immediate danger. As she left the room, Maura turned back to look at him again.
Are you really a killer? she wondered. Jane used to say that anyone could be a criminal. She'd said it only took one moment, one decision, one action, to make someone a murderer. Maura had thought about this in different contexts, too. How a single choice could affect a whole life, or even several lives.
She gave herself a shake. Now was not the time.
She changed into scrubs, pulled her hair back, and put her head around the door of the break room. Dr Chang was there, eating microwave porridge and reading a magazine.
"Good morning," Maura said, ignoring the voice in her head, which sounded suspiciously like Jane's, telling her she should have eaten breakfast.
"Morning, Dr Isles!" Susie was a little surprised, but pleased to see Maura. "How was your date on Tuesday?"
Maura pursed her lips. "It wasn't a date."
"Okay, my mistake," Susie said, not believing her for a second. "But how was it, anyway? Chief said you were assisting with a police investigation?"
"Yes, relating to Mr Smith," Maura confirmed. "It was intriguing. I've told you before that I used to have an interest in forensic pathology. I visited the morgue at New Scotland Yard. I think I may even have been helpful."
"I'm sure you were. I saw your email, are you sure you want to cover A&E all day? You really don't have to, we can get one of the junior doctors to do it."
"That would be taking an entirely unnecessary risk. Besides, I need to work. Use Dr Foster to support you on the surgical ward instead. He appears to be quite promising. If the opportunity arises, challenge him with an appendectomy."
Susie nodded. "Okay. Page me if you need anything."
"Same to you. Have a good day, Dr Chang."
Susie echoed the sentiment, and wondered if Maura had always been so formal. Susie knew she was a nice person. She was kind, thoughtful, and Susie had even known her to be funny from time to time. But at the hospital, all she ever talked about was work, and although Susie had tried, on several occasions, to find out more about her, she'd never had much success.
Maura went down to A&E. The red zone was quiet - no patients currently requiring resuscitation or emergency surgery. The yellow zone was quiet too, to the point where Maura became suspicious. When she saw how few people had been admitted even to the green zone waiting area, she realised the problem - and sure enough, the waiting room and checking in desk were chaos, even at this time in the morning.
Behind the desk, the single administrator, who was finishing her night shift, looked on the verge of collapse. Maura fetched her some water and read the screen. There were patients still waiting for triage who had arrived six hours ago.
"Who is currently doing triage?" Maura asked.
"No one," the administrator said desperately. "I mean, I can call a code if someone walks in and they're dying, and the paramedics took a stroke patient upstairs for me, but I've been diverting ambulances away since around 3AM when the nurses who were supposed to be down here got transferred to the ICU."
"Bank staff?"
"No one available. I think someone will be coming for the morning shift at 8."
It was 5.30AM. Maura took a deep breath.
"Page Dr Chang, she will come down and assist. Give me the registration notes for the 5 patients who have been here the longest. When Dr Chang arrives, give her the next 5. And page Dr Foster to call in, then when he calls, tell him to bring two double espressos and whatever your coffee order is, and he will come and assist too."
"Yes, Dr Isles," said the administrator, looking slightly calmer.
Maura took the notes, and went out into the waiting area. Two hours, four shots of espresso, and three fresh sets of scrubs later, it was looking much more reasonable, and Maura had located doctors to manage the red and yellow triage zones. There was still no doctor allocated to green, but Maura was covering this herself until the morning shift arrived. There was satisfaction to be found in setting broken bones, stitching minor lacerations, and even providing laxatives for acute constipation.
Each time she made a diagnosis, cured an ailment, discharged a patient, Maura felt the sense of purpose which had brought her to this hospital in the first place. And even when a three year old vomited all over her, Maura felt her usual sense of calm returning. This was a place she understood. These were situations she knew how to navigate. It was predictable, even boring, and that was exactly what she needed.
BREAK
"You're making me nervous," Maura complained.
Jane chuckled. She was standing behind Maura at the shooting range, helping her aim at the target.
"We agreed," Jane murmured in her ear. "One thing you like, one thing I like. Besides, it's good for you to be out of your comfort zone."
Maura took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and aimed at the target.
"Next you'll be telling me I shouldn't be afraid of guns. I've seen what a gun can do to a body, Jane."
"I know, you showed me the diagrams. But you gotta know how to defend yourself, Maura."
"Why? Who would be interested in shooting me?"
"You never know. Anyone can be a killer, Maur."
"Not you," Maura argued.
"Sure I could be. If I got mad enough, or, say someone was coming at us, right now, and said they were going to hurt you. I wouldn't hesitate."
Maura paused. "Is it wrong that I think I would?"
"Hesitate?"
"Yes. Even if someone was running towards us, while I hold this gun. Even if they were a real threat. I don't know if I could do it."
Jane gave her a squeeze. "And that is one of the many wonderful things about you. But it's also another reason you should practise this. You should know how to protect yourself. Plus, it's fun."
Maura narrowed her eyes and adjusted her position as Jane had shown her.
"Don't forget about the pushback," Jane warned.
Maura pulled the trigger. The gun jolted in her hands, and it was LOUD. She realised she had closed her eyes, and peeked through them at her target.
"Nice one," Jane said, cackling. The bullet had hit the paper target at the join of the legs. "Maybe aim a little higher next time. Unless this is what you were going for?"
Maura put the safety on, then gingerly put the gun down. Her hands were shaking. Spending time with Jane often challenged her, and it was usually a good thing, but this had been a bit too much.
"I think I'm finished," she said.
Jane caught her mood, returned the gun to the desk, and met her in the parking lot. Maura was leaning against the hood of Jane's car.
"Sometimes," Maura said, struggling to find her words, "sometimes I miss… Predictability."
Jane sat down next to her. "You mean, when you're with me?"
Maura nodded. "Yes. I love our friendship, Jane. But before I met you, I studied at the weekend. I kept to my routine, I didn't eat chips or chocolate, and I would never have agreed to shoot a gun."
"You say that as if those are all good things."
"They are. What's wrong with being organised, being healthy, not wanting to kill anyone?"
Jane reached for Maura's hand. "Nothing. You're an awesome person, you're smart, and you do great with your life. But… Look, don't take this the wrong way. But didn't it feel a bit boring, only eating healthy food, never doing anything risky?"
"I think I might like being boring."
"Bullshit. You like M&Ms and avoiding your homework. And I bet you even liked shooting that gun, and that's why you're freaking out."
"You're frustratingly good at guessing what I'm feeling," Maura muttered. "I have to admit, I did get a rush of adrenaline. But that doesn't mean I'm ever going to do it again."
"Hey, I'm not gonna force you. But we do have the lane for another half hour, just so you know."
Maura looked at her. "I never wanted anything to change, until I met you."
Jane smiled. "I wanted everything to change, until I met you."
BREAK
Jane stood in the cordoned-off section of the gallery. The lights were off, and she was holding a UV lamp. Something wasn't right, and she was going to figure out what.
There were patches of blood on the wall, with a break in the spatter pattern where the painting had been removed.
"So he was stabbed," Jane said to herself. "And blood splashed on the wall. And then he fell…" she pointed the lamp at the floor. To her surprise, only a few drops of blood had been wiped up. Had the killer done a better clean up job on the floor than on the walls? And when had the killer had time to clean up, if they were taking the body out of the gallery? And why hadn't the cameras been activated?
This, Jane was determined to check. She wrote a note about the blood on the floor, then went to the security office. The guard, whose name was Kevin, was reluctant to tell her anything at first, but a few smiles, a bit of small talk, and an overpriced coffee from the cafe, and he was telling her all about the system.
"It's this great new energy saving thing," he explained. "And when they iron out the glitches, it'll save a lot of time and money. It only records when it needs to, so it saves storage space, electricity, and if you're looking for footage it's much easier to find."
"It sounds neat," Jane replied with a smile. "So what's with the glitches?"
"Well," he said conspiratorially, "it's supposed to turn on at any movement, right? But some of the sensors aren't working. It's okay, because we know which ones and we can turn them on manually instead, but the gallery director doesn't even know."
Jane nodded along, feeling the cogs in her mind turning all the while. "Who does know about it?"
"Only the security team," her new friend told her. "But it's pretty juicy gossip, so they might have told their friends. Amir," he said with a grin, "is secretly dating Paul from the gift shop, and I know Paul knows because I caught them sneaking into one of the dead zones last week."
Jane made a mental note, then had another question for Kevin.
"Okay, so say I was in one of these dead zones, right? And I didn't want someone to catch me coming out, like maybe I brought in someone who didn't work here - how would I get out?"
Kevin shook his head. "You can't. There's some valuable stuff in here, you know?"
"What about fire escapes?"
"All alarmed. Or, they should be," he said, making a face. "Gina, she's working the exhibition, sometimes uses them to go out for a smoke. She showed me once, you can trick the sensor and open the door without setting the alarm off. Saves going all the way round to the front, if you do that you have to sign out and everything."
"Anyone else know this smoke break trick?" Jane asked.
Kevin shrugged. "I think only staff. We'd get in the shit if visitors found out about it."
Jane got him to show her on a floor plan, and sure enough, there was a fire exit right next to the sensor dead zone in the exhibition.
She left the security office with mixed feelings. She was getting much closer to figuring out what happened. The problem was, if Kevin was right, there were a whole lot of people who knew about the glitches and the fire escapes, and any one of them might have told someone. It was possible that Smith had found out on his own, but Jane was beginning to suspect that he must have had help on the inside. An accomplice would explain the clean up as well, and nothing getting discovered even though the alarm had gone off.
She checked the time. She wasn't particularly optimistic about interviewing Smith again, but at least she could ask him who his accomplice was, and gauge his reaction to her knowing about the sensors and the fire exit. And she'd get to have lunch with Maura, which she'd been looking forward to all morning - although her feelings about that weren't exactly simple either.
BREAK
Notes:
I wrote several different versions of this and I wasn't crazy about any of them, but here we are. The main issue is that it has to get worse between J&M before it gets better, which is all part of the plan, but when I go to write I just want to write fluff - I procrastinated a lot today! One of the versions has way more of Maura's hospital stuff - I can do more of this if you like, but there's no Jane and it doesn't contribute to the mystery plot, it's basically just Maura dealing with her feelings, some character development, and more between the lines political commentary about the lack of funding for healthcare.