Oops, I Did It Again – Chapter 27
Tuesday morning when the alarm went off Jane said, "Five more minutes, Maur." Maura smiled to herself as Jane tighten her hold on her. She didn't even try to get up she knew that she had set the alarm for earlier so she could enjoy this morning routine with Jane. She thought it was so cute. Jane was so adorable before she had her morning cup of coffee.
They had slept all the way through the night with no interruptions. Jane felt well rested and loved. She loved waking up with Maura in her arms.
Jane had to inform Lt. Cavanaugh about what the forensic genealogist, Nick Bailey, had told her and Cavanaugh said to list him as a contract employee for this job so that his cost will be covered. She appreciated this because she knew that Nick was putting in quite a few hours researching this information for her.
She sent Nick an email asking him to bill them for his services. She received almost an instant response from him. He acknowledged that he was now working as a contract employee for BPD. He informed her about what he had found out that the couple that adopted the little boy was killed in an auto accident a few days after they took possession of the baby from the hospital.
The baby was not found in the vehicle. The car was burned up in the accident but the police report and the coroner's report had stated that a male and female approximately age 30 were found burned in the vehicle. There was no baby. Foul play was not considered at the time. Now that they know that they had just adopted the baby twin boy, he was curious. He would continue to work on the trail of the baby twin boy.
Nick had already requested the police report on the accident as well as the coroner's reports for the adoptive parents and the death certificate of the twin boy for Jane. The adoptive parents had lived in Groton, Connecticut so he requested the records from the New London County Clerk's office. The twin boy's death certificate was requested from the Suffolk County Clerk's office as he was born in Boston.
They had done a pretty good job of keeping the news of these death's out of the media. However, the first suspect was a partner in a large prestigious law firm and her office had filed a notice to all of her clients regarding her death. She had previously worked in the DA's office as a prosecutor. At the time she left she was the DA's top prosecutor and had worked on some pretty widely publicized cases and had put away some well-connected criminals.
The information of her death was leaked out by the media as one of her family members was a newspaper reporter. The family had been asked to keep the knowledge of her death to themselves as the case was being worked on. The reporter thought that it was crazy that his cousin's death was being hushed. They had a very small private funeral for only immediate family as the police didn't want to draw attention to the case they were working on.
Once the cousin had found out that there were additional deaths that were strongly related to his cousin's case, he couldn't keep his mouth shut. He believed that the police were trying to cover up his cousin's death and he felt she deserved to be treated better than this after all the years she had given to the DA's office.
Jane was so pissed when the information leaked. She now had reporters hounding her for additional information. Jane had been in the newspapers far too much for her liking. Boston considered her a hero and she considered herself just a police officer doing her job, nothing more. She didn't like all the attention. She knew she would never be able to work an undercover job again because of the publicity that followed her around.
Jane had the cousin brought in and gave him quite the lecture about how he was now impeding their investigation. The media circus was all his doing and now it would be harder for them to obtain factual information on the case, because so many people would call in with what they thought was pertinent information and the police would now have to spend so many hours following up on every lead that was called in. Jane didn't have time for that.
Lt. Cavanaugh set up a team of officers, mainly patrol officers to work the phones. He had a few detectives working with the team to comb through any leads that might required Jane's attention. Lt. Cavanaugh hoped this would help keep Jane, Frost and Korsak's time free to continue working on the course of action that they were following.
Jane's most promising leads so far were coming from Nick and his associates at Bailey Investigation Services. Nick had a team of ten investigators that worked for him. They worked quite a few cases with various police agencies. His investigators were top-notch, many of them were former detectives and federal agents. All trained in all types of investigations.
Nick just happened to like genealogical investigations. He liked figuring out people's pasts, who their relatives were and where they came from. The majority of the cases he worked on were people wanting to find missing family members. Only about five percent of the cases that he was assigned were like this one that he was working on for Jane. He enjoyed this type of work though, finding out who the people were.
His investigators still had connections in the agencies they use to work for and this came in handy. Jane thought if she ever stopped working for BPD she might work for someone like Nick. She loved investigating crimes and working with someone like Nick would be great.
Maura was fascinated with what Jane had told her about Nick and his company. Jane had a meeting schedule with Nick and Maura asked, "Can I go with you? I think what his company does is fascinating and would love to meet him." She smiled so widely at Jane that her dimples appeared. How could Jane say no to that face.
"Okay, but just remember, I am there to get him to sign some agreement forms as we are formally hiring his company to augment our investigation. This is a work visit not a personal visit with an old acquaintance."
"Okay, I understand. I would still like to meet him."
Jane nodded her head and agreed to take Maura with her to meet Nick. She loved Maura's enthusiasm, it was often contagious. Jane really needed to find out if these seven victims were tied together in any fashion. No links to each other had been found. They didn't use the same gym, or hair saloon, they didn't go to the same schools. Heck they weren't even the same age, there was a ten-year difference in their ages.
For all Jane knew six of the victims could have been random and the only intended victim could have been the third victim who was related to the DNA found at the latest crime scene. There were so many unanswered questions. There was one thing Jane knew for sure, the releasing of the first victim's death to the media was going to slow down their progress in solving this case.
Jane and Maura left work at 5 PM with Lt. Cavanaugh's blessing. Jane had informed him of the dinner with her parents at 7 PM and he said, "You need to have some sense of normalcy during this investigation, so go have dinner with your parents and be back at 8 AM ready to get back to work."
With that Jane and Maura went home to change and get ready to drive to Revere to have dinner with Jane's parents. Jane hoped that her father would continue to be civil. She understood that he is having to deal with the fact that his daughter who he thought liked men was now dating a woman, and that went against his strong Catholic beliefs. It was new to her also but as she told her mother, love is love and she definitely loves Maura. She just wants her father to accept that.
Jane had called her mother and let her know that they were on their way and should arrive shortly before 7 PM. Her mother had told her that her father seemed to be in a good mood, so hopefully he would stay that way. Jane could only hope.
Jane held Maura's hand for the entire drive. They didn't talk. Jane had squeezed Maura's hand a few times and Maura glanced over at her, seeing Jane deep in thought. She didn't say anything just lightly squeezed her hand back. She saw Jane glance at her a few times and they both smiled.
When they arrived at Jane's parent's house, Jane got out of the car and opened the door for Maura. They walked hand-in-hand up the pathway and Jane knocked and then opened the door like she had on Sunday for family dinner. Angela was in the kitchen putting the final touches on dinner and greeted the two ladies when they entered the kitchen.
"Hi, Ma." Jane said as she hugged her mother.
"Hi, baby." Angela said as she hugged Jane and then Maura. Maura was trying to get used to being hugged by Angela whenever she saw her. This was new for Maura as her parents didn't really hug her. Her mother did the European kiss on each cheek. She rarely saw her father and he did hug her when they greeted each other.
Jane led Maura into the living room where her father stood as they approached. "Hey, Pop." Jane said as she gave her father a hug.
"Hi, Jane and Maura." Frank said and sat back down. Jane and Maura sat on the couch. Not a word was spoken for the few minutes before Angela entered and told them that dinner is ready. All three of them rose to go have a seat at the dinner table. Jane scooted Maura's chair out for her and then sat down beside her. Frank watched the interaction between his daughter and her girlfriend. Jane was so polite and treated Maura well. Aside from the fact that she was a woman, Frank was proud of the manners that Jane was demonstrating. He could only hope that his sons were as polite to their dates.
Angela had cooked chicken parmigiana and had made a salad along with some garlic bread. She poured a glass of wine for Maura and herself and had grabbed beers for Jane and Frank. No conversation was taking place so Angela asked the first question, "So Maura where did you go to school?"
Maura answered, "I attended Boston Academy until I was 10 and then I went to a private school in France until I graduated high school at the age of 15. After high school I attended BCU. I graduated after 3 years and then went to Harvard where I also graduated early."
"That is impressive. So, you were about 18 when you graduated from BCU?" Angela asked.
"Yes, and 21 when I graduated from Harvard with my medical degree. Because of my age, many people did not think I had the experience that I claimed to have had. They didn't know that I had graduated so young."
"What are some of your hobbies?" Angela continued with her questioning as she wanted to get to know the woman who had grabbed her daughter's attention like no one had before.
"I like visiting art museums and taking pictures and traveling." Maura said as she smiled at Angela. These were easy questions, she was expecting harder questions.
"Janie, what do you have in common with her? You don't like art museums or photography." Frank asked, curious as to why his daughter liked this woman.
"Pop, we both like to put the pieces together to solve crimes. We both enjoy coffee. We watch sports together and interesting documentaries on various subjects." Jane felt as though she was having to justify her relationship with Maura. Maura reached over and took Jane's hand under the table and gave it a light squeeze. Jane smiled. Maura knew it was hard for Jane to express her feelings. Jane felt comfortable with Maura. She could tell Maura anything and there wouldn't be any judgement. She didn't know how to explain it to her father. Maura was her person and that was good enough for her.
"I am trying to accept your relationship but I am just finding it hard. The two of you are so different in almost every way." Frank stated.
"Well, pop that fact that you haven't thrown us out of the house is good enough for me. I love Maura. I feel at home with Maura. I have never felt this way with anyone before. It is hard for me to explain. I have never been attracted to a woman before. I didn't set out to fall in love with a woman, it just happened. I have been doing quite a bit of readying on the subject and basically it comes down to love is love. You can't help who you fall in love with. You fall in love with the person not their gender. If I had found a guy with the same qualities as Maura, I probably would have fallen in love with him, but none of the guys I have dated have ever made me feel this way. There is just something special about her and I want to explore that with her. I hope that you can appreciate that and not let the Church's beliefs hinder our relationship with each other. I love you pop." Jane's grip on Maura's hand tightened as she said this to her father.
Frank looked at Jane and then at Maura. He could see the genuine feelings they were expressing for one another. "It will take me time, Janie but I do not plan on ever kicking you out of our house. I am your father and I love you. I just need time to come to terms with this new part of you. Maura, you seem like a nice enough woman, please don't take my actions as disrespectful to your relationship with my daughter. I am Catholic and I have been going to my Church and believing in what the Church has said for all of my life. We raised our three children in the Catholic Church, so it will take time."
"Thank you, Mr. Rizzoli. I do understand your position and I am not trying to force our relationship on you. I love your daughter so much and I want to spend the rest of my life with her if she will have me." Jane squeezed Maura's hand as she said that. Jane felt the same way. They both could see themselves being married and having a family down the road. They hadn't talked in great detail about it but it is what they both wanted based on the conversations they have had.
"Please call me Frank. Thank you for not being all kissing face in front of me also. I know Jane and you are holding hands under the table. Just know I am working on accepting your relationship."
"Thank you, Frank. Does it bug you if we hold hands? We are trying not to shove our relationship in your face but we figured holding hands would be okay."
"I am fine with you holding hands. I know plenty of women who hold hands with their friends and they are not in a relationship." Frank stated.
They continued talking for a little while and then Angela brought dessert out and then Jane and Maura needed to leave as it was after 9 PM and they had work in the morning. They said their goodbyes and walked out of the house hand-in-hand. They both thought the evening had been successful and that Frank was making progress in accepting their relationship.
