"What have you got for me little brother?" Jane asked. She stood behind Frankie, looking up at the large screens on the wall opposite. An image of a driving license was on screen which bore a photograph of their victim.
"Charlotte Connolly. 35, from Dorchester. Reported missing by her husband 4 days ago." Frankie reeled off. "Janie, she really looks like Maura…" he added in a small voice.
Jane nodded. She stood with her hands clasped over her belt and her hips thrust forward. Concern was written over her face.
"She does. Anything suspicious in her financials? Strange texts?" She asked.
"Nope. Everything checks out, it's weird." Frost answered. "It looks like she was living her normal life one day and then poof, she was gone the next. Until we got the call that someone found her in the park."
"And the witness who found her was just minding his own business, walking his dog." Frankie explained.
"The only other thing is the cold case Frankie pulled from last month." Frost clicked and the images on the screen changed. "One Kate Jones, 37. Everything normal until she also vanished and turned up dead with next to no evidence." He said. The room went quiet.
"Frost, she looks like Maura too…" Jane said. Her voice was small and an edge of fear crept in. Jane's instincts were strong, that's what made her such a good detective. Her hunches often turned out to be correct and her terrier like determination was often how cases were cracked wide open. Once her teeth had sunk into a lead, it was rare for her to let go without shaking every possibility from it. She didn't like the hunch that was forming as she looked at the images of the women before her. Their blonde hair and hazel eyes bored into her chest and she began to feel nauseous.
The sound of Maura's heels crossing the hall and entering the bullpen brought her back out of her thoughts. She turned and smiled as she watched the other woman cross the rowdy room. Her half smile faltered when she saw the look on Maura's face. Worry knotted her brow and she grasped a file.
"Detectives." She began. "I have some extremely concerning, and frankly embarrassing news."
Jane touched her elbow lightly. A small gesture of comfort that didn't go unnoticed in the room of Boston's finest detectives. She continued,
"Evidence has gone missing from the crime lab." She stated. "Overnight last night, samples and fingernail scrapings appear to have been mislaid or stolen. Can you review the security footage and lock records to see who accessed the basement after we left?" She asked Frost. Her "we" had been accompanied by a small hand gesture between herself and Jane.
As Maura left, Jane turned to follow her.
"I'm not letting her out of my sight." She told her brother and her partner.
"Oh I bet you aren't." Said Frost as she left. The huge grin on his face went unnoticed by Jane as she followed after Maura.
Maura paced her office and ran her hands through her hair. Jane had rarely seen her in such distress. She closed the door and tilted the blind before crossing the room and taking Maura in her arms.
"Maur, breathe. We'll find out who did it. We know your department isn't responsible." Jane soothed.
"What if it is?!" Maura protested. She leaned back and placed her palms on Jane's shoulders. "What if someone has been careless and mislaid evidence that will get justice for her?" She nodded her head toward the covered body in the autopsy suite.
"Then we'll find it and it will just have been put some place where someone forgot. You guys are humans, you know." Jane said and squeezed the smaller woman's sides with a little smile. She placed a kiss on her forehead and brought her into a tight hug.
Maura allowed herself to revel in Jane's strong arms for a moment while she breathed in the faint smell of floral laundry detergent and coconut shampoo.
"I should at least finish the autopsy report." She mumbled into Jane's curls. "But your cause of death is strangulation. The bruising indicates it took a while so I would hypothesise that the assailant wasn't very strong and could likely be female."
Jane paled and looked to the ceiling.
"I think we need to tell Cavenaugh about this." Jane said in a strained voice.
"About the missing evidence? I assumed someone would already have told him!" Maura replied. Her voice rose an octave with surprise.
"Nah I didn't think he needed to know." Jane laughed a deep throaty laugh "About us, Maur. I'm serious about us and truth be told, I'm worried. We have two victims who have died in similar circumstances who both look like you. I don't believe in coincidences like that." She ran her hands down Maura's arms. Maura nodded before stepping away and taking a seat at her desk.
Jane's palms were clammy as she stood outside the door to Cavenaugh's office. She wrung them together then scratched her forehead. She had almost bailed twice already. Taking a deep breath and steeling herself, she knocked and opened the door when the Lieutenant called out to come in.
"What can I do for you, Rizzoli? Found that missing evidence yet?" He asked in his rough Boston drawl.
"No sir, unfortunately not. We're still looking though. Frost said the security footage has been tampered with and he is trying to recover the original."
Jane sat on the edge of the chair opposite his large mahogany desk. Her leg bounced involuntarily and she ran her hand through her hair nervously. She could have sworn her heart was trying to beat right out of her chest and land on the floor in front of her.
"Sir, I need to inform you of a relationship, as per department guidelines." She mumbled.
"Rizzoli, you only need to inform me if the relationship is with another member of staff and could affect investigations or court cases." He replied in confusion. "Is it someone in this department?"
"No sir, not exactly, but if I don't disclose it it could definitely affect things if it were to be brought to light after being kept secret." she added air quotes to the word secret.
"Well who?!" Cavenaugh asked irritably.
She took a second to process the knowledge that when she released this truth, their moments would never truly be their own again. The testosterone fuelled department would make jokes and leer. They would imagine and discuss her and Maura in bed while they stirred creamer into their coffee and chewed with open mouths on donuts in their squad cars. Looking Cavenaugh square in the face, she spoke.
"Doctor Isles."
She exhaled deeply as soon as the name had left her. Relief washed over her like a warm breeze and she felt the tension in her shoulders melt away.