„Oh no, not you two again!" Dr. Nasari groaned as they walked into the morgue like the previous week.
"Oh yes, its us again." Jane grinned at him being in a good mood after receiving a text from Frankie, that Gabriel had brought Marcella home to Angela.
"This time the death is really of natural causes." He insisted while Maura already grabbed some gear.
"We'll see." She mumbled while approaching the corpse on the steel table. This time she knew exactly what she was looking for and Jane followed her movements attentively. When the part came where Maura poked around in the open cave to find the bullet, she averted her eyes feigning to write something into her notebook. She didn't want to get nauseous over it again. What would Dr. Nasari think or worse Maura?
Dr. Nasari watched the doc with a scrunched-up nose. "Dr. Isles, I'm not sure what you are hoping to find." He said with a mischievous grin. "I did my work properly."
"Not proper enough it seems." The blonde stated after pulling out a similar small bullet like she had found in the last victim. The man gasped. "I swear we even did some x-rays!" he exclaimed, pointing to a wall where the pictures were hanging.
"This bullet is so small, that its probably hard to see on the x-rays you made." Maura said.
"But how could it kill? It's so small." he asked after picking up his jaw from the floor.
"I have my suspicions. Would you please do me a favor and run some tests for poisons?"
"Which poisons?" Dr. Nasari asked making a helpless gesture with his hands. "There are so many."
Maura gently took the notebook out of the brunette's hand and scribbled some Latin words onto an empty page. "Try these. If the test comes back negative, we'll try other ones." Maura said with a smile while handing the man the sheet.
Dr. Nasari read the names and nodded. "And oh, we would also need the man's fingerprints please." Jane added, turning in the doorframe. Why the hell did they keep forgetting the fingerprints? He nodded. "I'll bring it to your hotel later."
"So, no stealing of evidence today? How boring." Jane stated while they were walking out of the hospital. By now the legal problems had been solved and they could investigate officially. Maura laughed heartedly. "Not today Jane. Its very bad for your criminal energy and I take it that its not satisfying for you, I guess. But its much better for my soul." The doc winked.
"My criminal what? Stop saying such things." Jane played to be shocked.
"Come on detective. Its lunchtime. Lets get something to eat. Something else than the boring food they serve at the Hotel. "Jane who in the meantime didn't only find the weather boring also began to hate the food which they got served each day. It always tasted the same. So she was immediately on board when Maura asked her to have lunch somewhere else.
"Great! Lets go and look for a good restaurant then. Maybe we find one which serves burgers." Maura who was a few steps ahead of her stopped in her tracks and shot her a deadly glare. "Burgers, really, Jane?" she asked and the brunette shrugged.
"Why not? I miss a real good burger with fries and a cold blue moon." Her mouth became watery by only thinking about it and her eyes took on a dreamy look.
Maura smiled at her antics, then shook her head. "We are in Nairobi. Why don't we try some of the local food? I read that there is a restaurant only a few blocks away. We could take a relaxing walk and enjoy some traditional cuisine."
"Some what?" Jane asked just to make Maura say the world cuisine again. She found it very sexy when Maura used French words. "Traditional food, Jane." The blonde said a bit unnerved as they were standing in the burning sun.
"All right!" Jane huffed. "Please lead the way Dr. Isles." She muttered deceived.
Maura studied her with a raised eyebrow. "Am I missing something here?" she questioned.
"No, it's just that I like it when you speak French. Its uhm nice." The brunette decided to be honest.
"Well, I might say more things in French, but only if you show me your Italian." The blonde giggled. Jane gave it a thought. "Dove e il ristorante Dottore Isles?" she threw out a sentence and Maura wasn't only surprised but also impressed. "I didn't know that you spoke Italian so well. Have you ever been there? Its such a beautiful country."
"Nope. I have never been there. But my grandma, nonna Raffaela, used to speak in Italian with me all the time." Jane explained. "Guess I remember bits and pieces." She shrugged as they began to walk.
"Anyways, your turn now." Jane nudged her friend who furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you want me to say?" Maura asked.
"Dunno. Just say something."
"Tu es vraiment jolie." Maura mumbled shyly while looking away from Jane. The brunette chuckled softly. "Merci, tu es aussi tres belle."
Maura blushed at the compliment. "Now you know French too?" she exclaimed to deflect from the fact that they had just told each other that they were beautiful. Jane laughed softly. "I have always been a loner as a kid. My mother had this brilliant idea to help me socialize by bringing a French exchange student into our home. Her name was Juliette. Man, did I have a crush on her. I think that it was the first time I knew that I was gay. I learned a lot of French just to impress her." Jane chuckled.
Maura turned to look at her. A slight blush crept over the otherwise olive skin and this time it was Jane who glanced away.
"What happened?" Maura asked curiously.
"Nothing. Nothing happened." Jane made a helpless gesture, her face showing regret. "It wasn't as if Juliet hadn't been interested in me, but I wasn't ready. After years of learning that being gay is a sin and that you will rot in hell if you kiss a girl, I just let the chance pass."
"You regret it?" It sounded like a question, but Jane knew that it was a statement. She shrugged. "Who knows, maybe it was for my best." She caught a sad look from Maura.
"What about you? I mean I don't even know if you're into woman or men or both." Her brown orbs observed Maura who still had a hard time of giving up personal information.
"Both. But my tendency to like women is higher." Jane heard her say.
"Who was your first love?" she continued. It was only fair after she had told Maura so much about herself to ask some questions which had been occupying her mind lately.
"It was actually a French girl too. We met at the boarding school in Switzerland. She lived three doors down the hall and used to listen to this crazy French music."
Jane gave her friend some minutes to remember. "What happened?" she asked cheekily adding that Maura didn't have to answer in a more serious tone.
"Is it true what they say about French women?" she nudged the blonde who chuckled.
"This my friend I cant tell you because we never got that far."
The conversation stopped when they finally arrived at the restaurant. Jane opened the door for Maura. She had to admit that it smelled heavenly and the decoration of the room was very pleasant.
"It's nice here, isn't it?" Maura asked and Jane shrugged, trying to appear grumpy. But seeing Maura's face she couldn't hold her laughter much longer. "Yeah. I like it. Thank you for making me come." She winked at the blonde who rolled her eyes.
The food was as delicious as the smell had promised and so the conversation stalled completely while they enjoyed their meal. "I really hope that we will get lucky with the fingerprints this time." Jane expressed her thoughts.
There was so much more running through her head which wasn't related to the murders, but fact was that they still had a case to solve. Maura cocked her head slightly to the left after wiping her mouth with a napkin. "I hope so too. So far, this has really been more of a holiday than something else. Not that I want to complain. I really enjoy the time with you." A meaningful glance found its way to Janes direction.
"I have to say that its been really nice so far. And if you add the fact that the BPD is paying for it all…"
Jane chose her words carefully. The flirting had become far less subtle over the past few days. And she really didn't want to fall to deep into it, scared of making a mistake like Maura had called it. They had a bit more than one week left. And then they would be miles apart. No one knew how their story would continue and if she was honest, she was afraid of losing Maura.
If Maura had noticed Janes insecurities she didn't show. Instead she calmly led her wineglass to her lips. It seemed as if they were always on opposite sides on a carrousel. One of them was always nervous while the other one was playing it cool. And sometimes the roles switched several times a day.
Jane played it also cool when she brought her bottle of beer to her mouth. They grinned like they had made a joke which only they understood. They were both playing with fire and Jane knew it. And by the look on Maura's face, the blonde knew it too. she actually enjoyed it. For the first time in ages Jane felt alive.
Realizing that she had missed so much of the fun part of life she asked Maura if they would go to a bar this night. Maura agreed to join her for a night out.
R&I
The perspective of going out with Maura and the fact that Gabriel had brought their daughter to her mother put her in such a good mood that she didnt mind an afternoon full of dull and boring interviews.
They had talked about a strategy about how to investigate and interrogate people on their way to the hotel after their delicious lunch. The target was to get as much information as possible out of them without letting them know about their mission in Nairobi.
"Can I come with you?" Maura had asked during their ride in the taxi. Jane briefly thought about teasing her with the protocol that her friend had stated the previous night. The protocol demanded that detectives only could approach the body if approved by the ME or when the ME was done.
It was also an unwritten law that ME's never joined interrogations or mettle in any other way with the detectives' work.
"I would like that." Jane simply said and smiled at Maura's excitement which showed in sparkling hazel eyes. "But you know how it goes: let me do the talking." She wiggled her eyebrows, recalling their first visit to the morgue when the blonde had said the exact thing to her.
"I will, I swear!" Maura promised with a wide grin.
Now they were sitting on the terrace of Mrs. Canes room and drinking tea. The strategy was to invite themselves for a beverage and begin with an innocent chat.
Jane nursed her tea, which she had only chosen because she already had had three coffees before. The first one at Mr. and Mrs. Juveniles because she felt tired, the second at Mr. Bails because Maura had given her that cute scolding glance that said caffeine is bad and she wanted to see it again. And the third one at the Johnes to tease her.
Mrs. Cane was also deceived when she refused her third piece of cake of the day. But of course, Mrs. Cane didn't know that she had already had two.
They had made a list of the persons who had been closest to the spots when the victims had died. There were five more people on the list, and it was already 4pm. She could only imagine how long this day would be and that they would probably not be able to talk with all of them before dinner. Old people talked too much, and it took them too long to get to the point she thought and scratched her head.
The only thing that kept Jane alive during the fifth interrogation was Maura's encouraging smile and the fact that she didn't want to look weak in front of the doc. But truth was, that the interrogations had given her nothing but a headache and an overdose of caffeine and sugar.
After dinner she made sure that Frost got the fingerprints and then slumped onto the bed. This investigation was getting nowhere she thought while rubbing her eyes.
"What if they all know each other somehow?" Maura suddenly asked while pacing the room. Jane followed her movements in silence for a while and then spoke up.
"Its an interesting theory. Please continue." Her gut was saying that Maura could actually be right. What if they or at least part of the group knew each other? It sounded unlikely, but stranger things had happened.
Maura stopped pacing and Jane could see the wheels turning in the blondes' head. She knew that the doc wasn't guessing but rather deducting from her observations and she was curious what Maura had seen that had made her come to this conclusion.
"Well, I was also a loner in school. Therefore, I became a good observer. I watched my classmates and their interactions." She began as if to justify herself. Jane nodded, not wanting to interrupt her. Maura gauged her friend's reaction and then continued when feeling that Jane was taking her serious.
"I also read many books about body language over the past years, which of course doesn't make me an expert. But I would like to think of myself as someone who can still interpret one or the other thing correct." There was another pause which probed Janes patience. "Aaaaaand?" she asked curiously.
"The first thing I noticed when we arrived at the scene yesterday was how they changed subject when we walked out of the elevator. There was even some sushing. At first, I thought that I was just imagining it, but I gave it another thought this afternoon. Their body language has definitely changed the moment we stepped into the corridor. I don't know how to put it, but to me it feels like they began to wear this old people's attitude which wasn't there before. It seemed to me that before, they were much more serious if it makes any sense?"
"Of course, they didn't stop chatting, but I could feel that they were talking about something different than they had before we arrived. The next thing was how they – especially Mrs. Cane tried to convince you that we didnt need to see the body or the scene. And I found it strange how today all of them took their time to come to the topic of the murder. Remember the snake in my room? They were jumping into this conversation immediately. And if only one or two would have dragged the conversation about the murder out it would have been far more credible to me than all of them doing it. It felt as if they were all trying to hold us up as long as possible and that it was fun to them." Maura continued her reasoning when Jane didn't interrupt. The brunette was sitting on the bed and had a pensive look on her face as she followed Maura's words. "Am I paranoid?" the blonde muttered and misread Janes facial expression.
Jane sat up a bit. "No, I think that you are right." She began slowly. Now that Maura had finished her monologue, she knew that she had witnessed the same behavior and at a certain point equally thought how odd it was. But she had never picked up or followed the line. Her eyes fell onto the blonde who was gauging her reaction and realized what had been distracting her: this beautiful ME! Jane took a deep breath - this had never happened to her before.
"They were all smiling at us and making fools out of us by acting like old quirky people. And I don't like it." She stated in a determined tone.
"Jane, we still don't know this for sure." Maura said with a doubtful expression. "That's all observation. And observations can be very subjective which means that its no proof."
"We'll find some. Believe me." Jane said with a smirk, slumping back onto her back to think while staring at the ceiling.
"Speaking of the snake…" the brunette began cautiously after clearing her throat a few minutes later. By now the doc had settled down onto the bed next to Jane. Jane saw that she had Maura's full attention. "That night we found the black mamba in your room, I had the hunch that somebody put it there on purpose to make you leave. Maybe someone knows about your job and tries to scare you away. First the spider, then the snake… The receptionist was right: snakes don't take staircases or elevators. But yet a snake ended up in your bed. It can't be a coincidence."
She watched Maura's eyes widen in shock. She concluded from this reaction that the blonde had never even considered this possibility. "That's horrible!" she exclaimed with a horrified look.
"But how could they know?"
"I don't know." Jane said, "but they aren't the only ones who can play this game. We are going to fight them with their own weapons." Janes voice was now even more determined than it had been before.
