A/N: I am elated because I just finished the last chapter of Boston Kama Sutra last night. This story has been an epic labor of love, and I've finally completed it! All told there are 35 chapters. Expect updates to be much more frequent now, until we reach the end! Thank you as always for reading and reviewing.
At the sound of cries carrying from down the hall into the main bedroom, Jane shot up from the sleep she had precariously constructed only two hours before. Maura, who had just jolted from her position on Jane's shoulder, groaned. "What time is it?" she asked, starting to stir, pulling her robe up from the corner of the bed where she had thrown it the last time she got up.
"Don't worry 'bout it," Jane said, her voice all gravel and whisper. "I got it." She scratched the back of her head and heaved her lower half into the cold, out of the sumptuous warmth of the bed she and Maura shared.
"But you took the last shift," Maura said half-heartedly, dropping her robe back to the floor before even waiting for Jane's response, happy for the reprieve.
Jane shook her head and fell backward so she was laying on her back across the bed, her legs hanging off the edge from the knee down. "Yeah, but I don't cut up dead bodies for living. I need you as sharp as I can get you. Literally and figuratively. It's integral to the success of my work."
Maura smiled, saw what Jane wanted. She leaned down to kiss Jane softly, upside down but still satisfying, still oxytocin-inducing. "Thank you."
"Yeah, yeah," Jane teased. She raised her eyebrows at the way Maura's bare breasts bounced so close to her face, smirking as she pushed herself off the bed.
"Formula's on the counter," Maura said, ignoring Jane's crude charm, instead laying down and burrowing deeper under the covers, pulling them all the way up to her shoulders. She peeked from behind the hem of the duvet and watched Jane stumble until her spine and her hips seemingly aligned into working order under her disheveled shorts and t-shirt. Jane was taking Maura's shift with the baby under the pretense of preserving what she could offer professionally, but Maura knew the real reason was far softer, far kinder. Jane was taking her shift so that she could sleep. Because Jane loved her. "You're very handsome like this," she said, the top of her ruffled head poking out near their pillows.
Jane wanted to shrug coolly, but she jumped when the baby wailed again, signalling his distress. She stopped in the doorway and looked down at herself. "Like I passed out on the lawn at my softball team's rager?" she asked, staring pointedly at her twisted Nike socks and the way the waistline of her shorts rested below the one of her underwear because all the elastic had disintegrated.
Maura smiled. "The way you're taking care of this baby. Getting up, feeding him, being a responsible adult."
Jane hummed in what would have been laughter if she weren't so deprived of sleep. "I wouldn't get too comfortable callin' me a responsible adult," she warned, turning toward the hall again. She took one last look back, and her eyes changed: they moistened and softened. "It's good practice, though, isn't it?"
She didn't stay to see the effect her statement had on Maura, the way it made her hug Jane's empty pillow in delight.
Maura, now in a nightgown and her matching robe, floral and bright, followed the scent of coffee down the stairs and into her kitchen. Jane leaned over the counter, sipping from a steaming mug, and pushed an identical one towards her. "Thank you," said Maura, taking the mug and letting its warmth tingle against her cold fingers. She sipped without thinking, and the sour, chemically taste overpowered her sensitive taste buds. She spit the coffee back into the cup in disgust. "Instant? You served me instant?"
Jane barely registered Maura's annoyance. "Baby I'm so tired, you're lucky I didn't serve you drano."
"Ugh. God." Maura scrunched her face, swabbing her mouth with her tongue to banish the taste. Then, she noticed the silence of the living room and the absence of the Similac Pro-Advance on the table. "Where's the baby?"
"Tommy took the last shift," Jane said as she rubbed one eye furiously with the knuckle of her index finger.
"I didn't even feel you come in after the last time," Maura said.
Jane bit her tongue at the unintended innuendo. Sort of. "You're welcome."
"My hero," Maura said, rolling her eyes, but accepting Jane's lips on hers all the same. She accepted Jane's hands on her hips, scrunching up the silk on their way toward her backside, feeling their way into an embrace that ended with bodies pressed together through the thin barrier of clothes and Jane's quickly-withering self-control. Someone's tongue dipped into the others' mouth, neither was sure whose, because as soon as it happened, the back door clicked open and they flew apart.
"Why would people have more than one of these," Tommy said, oblivious to their kissing. He carried the baby inside of his car seat into the living room and then placed him onto the counter.
Immediately Jane was engrossed, drawn to him as if by trance. "How'd you get him to stop crying?" she asked, her usually hard brown eyes so open and warm for the child in the seat. "Hi baby," she greeted in an inviting whisper. "Hi baby."
Tommy made an exaggerated swinging motion with his arms. "I did this for two hours. My arms are wrecked."
Jane smirked, and then turned back to the baby. She sighed and put a finger to his blanket-wrapped chest.
"He'd be better if he were breast-fed," Maura stated, peering over Tommy's shoulder to get a good look at him. He was new and he was sleeping, but he was definitely a Rizzoli. He looked just like them.
"Don't look at me," Tommy quipped.
Maura ignored him and looked right at Jane instead. "Newborns need a lot of human contact to properly attach. Take him out of the car seat, my love."
Jane didn't need the scientific explanation or the pet name to be persuaded. She was happy to pull him out and hold him in her arms.
"No, no. He was almost falling asleep!" Tommy hissed, but Jane was already rocking the baby back and forth.
"Come here. Hello. You're such a good baby," she mumbled at him happily, nonsensically.
"His name's Mario," Tommy said, admiring both his sister and his maybe-child together.
"Oh hell, you can't name him Mario!" said Jane, turning the baby away from Tommy like he burned him.
"Why not?" asked Maura, "It's Latin. It means 'manly.'"
"Yeah," said Tommy, grateful for the backup. "So there. Hey Maura, you ready to swab me?"
Maura nodded and moved toward her medical bag on the counter. "What, do you two want some privacy?" Jane teased, winking at Maura and glaring at Tommy over the baby's head.
"I'm glad you told me you wanted to do this last night, Tommy. I'm happy to run the test for you," Maura said.
"I'm gonna find out if he's my kid today. Let's do it," Tommy followed her until she pulled out the long swab for sample collection. "Wait… is this gonna hurt?"
"Oh my god, Tommy. It's a giant cotton swab," said Jane.
Maura smiled reassuringly at him. "No. Open," when Tommy did, she put her fingers gently against his jaw and with one swipe, she was done. "Okay, now it's Mario's turn."
Jane glared at the name, but brought him over to Maura, who was equally as gentle with the baby. Mario stared up at her dreamily, none the wiser to the swab entering and exciting his mouth.
"You're not a Mario," Jane cooed to him. Then she looked at her brother. "He looks just like you, Tommy. We should name him TJ for Tommy Jr." Tommy shrugged, standing next to Maura, all three of them in disarray and exhausted. None of them could deny the joy that suffused the sunlit room, however, as they listened to the baby breathe peacefully.
"It's weird that she's so good with babies," said Tommy of Jane. He squeezed Maura's shoulder heartily, and she patted his hand in return.
"Yeah, it is a little surprising, isn't it?" she said indulgently. "Wasn't it wonderful the way we tag-teamed the feedings all night? You know, baby elephants are raised by the female relatives in the herd. The aunts, the sisters, grandmothers."
"Mmm," Jane hummed in approval. "Don't repeat this 'cause I'll deny it, but I wish we were elephants so we could keep him," she whined.
"Maybe me and Lydia could share him," offered Tommy.
"No," Jane said firmly. "Lydia abandoned him."
"Well, technically, she didn't abandon him. She left him with family. Whether you are his siblings or his aunt and father," Maura pointed out.
Jane snarled. "Which is why I can't arrest her."
"Maybe she was just scared," Tommy said quietly in Lydia's defense, knowing it would fall on unsympathetic ears.
Before Jane could rip into Lydia for at least the tenth time in the past twelve hours, her cellphone buzzed on the counter. She narrowed her brow and then shifted Mario to one arm, bouncing him and reading the text to herself.
Tommy's face lit up in awe. "Wow! One hand! Can I try?"
"No!" Jane shushed him. Then she looked at her phone in confusion. "That doesn't make any sense. Suspicious death at the Division 1 cafe? I hope Ma's alright." She dialed her mother's number, growing concerned when no one answered. "It's goin' straight to voicemail. Maura, come on. We gotta go."
Maura looked down at herself and then to Jane, shorts and socks still all askew, but already handing Mario to Tommy and heading toward the door. "But I'm in my robe and you're in your pajamas."
"Yeah so? We'll change in the car. C'mon," said Jane. She gave Maura her medical bag and herded her toward the door.
"Wait! W-what do I do with him?" Tommy actually reached out as if doing so could make Jane stay.
"Use two hands, brother," Jane deadpanned. She pointed back at him in warning.
Mario started to cry. "Wha… I… alone? Jane."
"Shh," Jane quieted him. "Two hands."
"Wait. I can't. Jane? Jane!"
Jane, now fully dressed in a suit and a tucked-in blue-gray v-neck, rubbed calming circles on her mother's back. "You sure you're ok, Ma?"
Angela spared a glance to the man who had coughed up blood onto his breakfast, and then promptly collapsed dead onto the cafe floor. "He… he was enjoying his breakfast special, and, boom… he just drops dead." she sighed.
Jane smiled in commiseration. "I'm sorry."
"How's the baby?" Angela asked to distract herself.
"He's fine," Jane assured her. "We left him with Tommy, though, so…"
Angela smacked her shoulder. "Leave Tommy alone, Jane. I was so proud of the way he hung in with you girls all night."
"Yeah he didn't do too bad," said Jane. "That was rough. Stayin' up all night."
Angela chuckled. "Believe me, I know. I did it with all three of you kids."
Jane crossed her hands in front of her belt buckle and swallowed nervously. "Uh. I don't know how, how a detective could do that long term. With our hours."
Angela's smile was so wide and so sweet that she couldn't help the hug she enveloped Jane in. It compelled her. "You're gonna do just fine, if that's what you want, Janie. And you have someone to help you. Who would love to help you."
They both turned to see Maura then, hovering over the body, purple latex gloves on, eyes scrutinizing physical details and the trace evidence on the middle aged man lying dead on the tile. "Yeah, that's true," Jane said. "I just keep wondering how the hell Pop did all this and lived to tell the tale. He was grumpy on a good sleep day."
"Oh honey, your father didn't do a damn thing," Angela said, rolling her eyes. "He slept like a rock while I woke up and fed you."
Jane glared, less at the woman still next to her and more at this news about her father. "Jesus, really?"
"Really. I was lucky I had your nanna to help out every once in a while. But you know she had heart problems so I couldn't really lean on her," Angela said. "Not like you could lean on, oh I don't know, a doctor."
Jane blushed furiously. "Ma."
"What?" Angela whispered harshly. "You know what I would have given to have a walking, talking, medical encyclopedia when I was trying to keep you quiet at four in the morning? And this one is in love with you!"
"A'right a'right. We're done talkin' about this. We're actin' like this is not in the very distant future."
"It better not be that distant," Angela threatened under her breath.
"Ok, ok," Jane put her hands up in a rare moment of retreat. "Work first, though. You sure you never seen him before?"
"No, never," said Angela, eyes only on Maura as she rose from her perch near the body and walked toward them. "you don't think it's something that he ate here that got him sick, do you?"
Maura raised her eyebrows in the way that said most anything is possible. "Botulinum causes death in two to ten hours, but the hemoptysis suggests all kinds of causes."
"What's hemoptysis?" Jane asked.
"It means he coughed up blood. I'll know more once the techs get him to the morgue, but I'd like to test the food he was eating," Maura replied.
"Ok. Hey, Ma, where's his plate?" Jane turned back to Angela.
"I, uh, I don't know," Angela said. "It should have still been on his table."
"A'right well where's Stanley?" Jane asked her.
"He said he needed to take care of something in the back."
"Can you ask him where this guy's last meal is? We need that food. This is a suspicious death, which means the breakfast special is evidence."
"Yes, baby. I'll find Mr. Stanley and ask him what the hell happened to that food," Angela, agreeing to Jane's request, got up and went to the kitchen to find Stanley.
"Kinda weird that that plate just disappeared, right?" Jane said in a sideways hush to Maura.
Maura nodded slowly. "I would say so, yes. I'll start the autopsy as soon as they take him down. See you soon?"
"Yeah," Jane said. "I'll get us some bougie coffee first." She winked and Maura smiled all the way down the elevator ride.
Someone banged impatiently on Maura's front door and Tommy had never felt more relieved to hear it. When he swung the door open, Frankie stood on the other side in his uniform. "Oh, thank god, bro. Thanks for coming."
Frankie stepped in and immediately looked for Mario. "I gotta get back to work. Is the baby ok?"
"Yeah. I, I think so," Tommy said guiltily.
"You think so?" Frankie interrogated.
"I fell asleep on the couch. He was sleepin' on my chest and… Frankie, he… he rolled off," Tommy whispered.
Frankie threw his hands up. "Oh my god. Did he hit his head?"
"No, he landed on a pillow," said Tommy.
"Oh Tommy, Jesus," Frankie cursed in equal parts relief and disbelief.
"I know! What if he can never ride a bike now? God, I can't be a dad!" Tommy groaned.
"What?" Frankie was still swept up in the whirlwind of Tommy's story when Mario began to cry.
"And now he hates me!" said Tommy, trying to cheer up the baby with a stuffed elephant to no avail. When someone else's knuckles rapped on the front door for the second time in as many minutes, both Rizzoli brothers froze. "Oh crap. What if the neighbors called social services?"
Frankie considered it for a moment, not willing to put anything past Maura's rich, white neighbors. "Calm down, would ya?" He opened the door, anxious to get it over with.
Lydia and her mother pushed into the house. "Lydia?" Tommy said as she walked past him to the baby.
"Hey, Tommy," she said sadly, and then she picked up her child and bounced him, tears already falling. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry Tommy Jr. I love you so much," she said in between wet kisses to his face.
"Tommy Jr.?" Frankie asked aloud.
Tommy shrugged. "I wanted to call him Mario, but…"
Lydia continued to talk to her baby. "Can you forgive me? Can you forgive Mommy?" she asked him, begged him, even though he couldn't reply to her.
Tommy stood behind her and put his hand on the small of her back, rubbing in small circles. "Looks like he does," he said softly.
Lydia looked up at him, still crying. "You think?"
Frankie's voice cut between them. "Lydia, you abandoned that baby."
"According to my probation officer," Lydia's mother, considerably more put together than the last time a Rizzoli had put eyes on her, said as she pointed her finger in Frankie's face, "all she did was leave him with his father. You the father?"
"No." Frankie grimaced.
"How about you?" she asked, turning to Tommy.
"I might be," he proclaimed, putting both hands on his own hips.
"Ok, now we're getting somewhere," said Lydia's mother.
"You can't just leave a baby on a doorstep and then waltz in when you feel like it," Frankie said to her. He tried to communicate all the authority invested in him as an officer of the law, but she seemed undeterred.
"Did he get frostbite?" she asked forcefully.
"What? No! But it's mid-December, he-"
"She rang the doorbell! Paperboy hit him with a paper? Raccoons attack him?"
"No…" Frankie said.
"Ok, then there you go. He wasn't abused. Let's go Lydia," they started to walk towards the door as the baby cried.
"Wait, wait a minute! Frankie, do something! Will you arrest her! Not… not Lydia though," Tommy pleaded for his big brother to help, to get him out of this mess, as he had a thousand times in his life before.
Frankie shook his head. This was a mess he couldn't clean up. Not even as a cop. "I can't. There's no legal grounds, Tommy. We can't prove abuse. Technically, all she did is leave him with family."
"So move," Lydia's mother said, face in Frankie's, "unless you're gonna shoot us."
Lydia sighed. "I'm sorry," she said, looking at both of them, now with no baby in either of their sets of arms, "I thought he might be better off with the Rizzolis. But I… I can't. I just can't. He's my baby."
Tommy rushed over to her, sensing the opening of her heart for him. "Well, he might be my baby, too," he said, the toy elephant still in his hand. "You know, I-I was up all night with him, takin' care of him with my sister."
Lydia's mother shook her head, seeing what he was doing. "Hey, leave her alone. She's been up bawling all night. Now, c'mon Lydia. And, don't think you're gettin' out of child support."
"I'm sorry for all the trouble," Lydia whispered with her eyes still trained on Tommy, his square jawline and his broad chest. "We're just gonna go." And just like that, the house was quiet and TJ was gone. Tommy and Frankie shared twin looks of confusion and despair.
Jane had her elbows on a countertop in the morgue a few inches from Maura, who catalogued blood samples from their suspicious death, writing data as she went. "You need to let me do my fair share tonight," said Maura, not moving from her task. "That way you can sleep."
"I look that bad, huh?" quipped Jane, but she blinked rapidly to banish the sleep away.
"You look tired," Maura responded with a smile. "You know, cuckoo birds are brood parasites."
"Ok, I think you're the one who needs sleep." Jane rose to a standing position and was now taller than Maura again.
"I'm thinking of creative child-rearing solutions," Maura said.
"Ok, what do cuckoo birds do?"
"They lay their eggs in a host bird's nest, and then they let that bird raise the babies," Maura explained. Then she shrugged. "However, they first destroy the host bird's eggs."
Jane snorted. "So, all we need to do is sneak into some nice family's home, drop off TJ, and get rid of the other kids."
"Tommy named him Mario. But, maybe elephants are a better example. I mean, we're a nice family, right?" asked Maura, eyes trained on Jane as they walked over to the table with the decedent on it.
"We can be," Jane said cautiously. "We're nicer when you're around," she teased. Maura blushed.
"Thank you," she said. She picked up a sterilized steel bowl and held it out to Jane. "Look, barely digested stomach contents."
"Mmhmm," Jane peered into the bowl. "What is it… eggs?"
Maura looked back and dropped her mouth open in pleasant surprise. "Good for you! Yes. Can you tell what that is?" she asked, moving the forceps around in the goop.
"Only if there's a prize," Jane quipped.
"What kind of prize?" Maura purred, already knowing. Her eyes were half on Susie milling about just outside the double doors and half on Jane, thumbs through the front of her belt.
"I'm pretty tired, but if you climb on top-"
"Jane!"
"What?!"
"We're at work! Those doors are not very soundproof," Maura chastised, but her heart wasn't in it as her eyes sparkled and she smirked.
Jane bobbed her shoulders. "Sleep deprivation, remember? Lemme see that." When Maura held out the bowl again, she said, "pancake."
Maura gasped again. "Excellent, baby. Smell this."
And just like that, moment ruined. "I'm totally good."
Maura smelled it anyway. "It's a mint leaf. And this is chocolate. And… this could be whipped cream."
Jane scrunched her brow in concentration. "Maybe from a milkshake?"
"No… it was a coffee drink. Likely frozen," Maura answered.
"But Ma doesn't serve frozen, chocolate, minty cappuccinos," Jane said.
Maura nodded. "Frappuccino is a portmanteau of 'frappe' and 'cappuccino.'"
Jane looked sleepy and puzzled. "Do you ever worry that you'll sound pretentious?"
"No," said Maura honestly. "What about Tank? Another portmanteau: Tommy plus Frank equals Tank."
"Ugh, no. We're gonna find out who the baby daddy is and that person is going to take full responsibility. No sharing. I just hope like hell that it's Tommy," Jane said.
"Well, results should be coming in any time now, Jane," said Maura. "Then we'll know where to go with this."
"Yeah," Jane said. She crossed her arms and sniffed. When the suite doors opened to reveal her brother Frankie, she knew instantly that something was wrong.
"Hey, can I talk to you two for a minute?" He asked. His shoulders slumped and his eyes looked like he had been rubbing at them.
"Yeah, bud. Let's go to the office," Jane put her hand on his back and the three of them moved into Maura's office, closing doors as they went. "What's the matter?"
"Lydia took the baby," Frankie said. The news was clean, direct, and devastating. Jane's brow plunged forward like she suddenly could not understand English. Her mouth settled in a hard line and Frankie knew it was what she could do to keep from crying. She dropped to the couch and put her head in her hands.
"What the hell do you mean, Lydia took the baby?" she finally choked out.
"I was by the house this morning, helpin' out Tommy, and her and her peach of a mother showed up," Frankie explained, his voice raising and the little vein on the side of his forehead starting to pop. "She walks in and takes him, saying sorry and all this stuff about how she tried to let him go but she's his mother and she couldn't be without him."
"Well, she should have thought about that before she abandoned him!" Jane growled. Maura, still standing, went to Jane and put a hand on her shoulder. She didn't speak.
"I know! I know that," Frankie sighed. "I couldn't do anything. All I could do was watch her take him. And listen while her ma pestered Tommy about child support."
"We don't even know if Tommy's the father," Jane spat out. The vitriol spilled out into the air, making it thick with tension.
"Let me check on that," Maura said, walking out of her office and into the crime lab. She returned shortly with a nondescript, purple file folder. "Just came in," she said, holding it up to them.
Frankie looked at her, a little bit crazed. "Well?"
"Tommy is the father," Maura breathed out as she analyzed the results.
"Thank god," Jane said, eyes up to the ceiling and a small smile on her face. It didn't reach her eyes.
"So… what do we do then, Janie?" Frankie asked her, searching out her counsel and her help. Leaning on her.
Jane's shoulders showed the weight of it as she put her elbows on her thighs and kneaded the scars on her hands. "I have an in with Dan Stevens. I could call him."
"The ADA?" Frankie asked.
"Yeah. Me and him have a pretty good close rate. He likes workin' with us because we get the job done. I'm sure I could call him for some free legal advice," said Jane. The formation of a plan calmed her, gave her some purpose. "I'll do that now."
"Good idea," said Maura. She put Tommy's results in her bag, intending to give them to him later in the day.
Jane dialed Dan and he picked up, thankfully. "Hey Dan, it's Jane Rizzoli, from BPD. Yeah, yeah. I'm doin' alright. Listen, I've got a brother who's in a little bit of a pickle, though, and I need some advice," she said. "Yeah he's fine, he just, well, he's got a baby with a woman he's not with. She left him on our doorstep last night, but came by this morning and took him. What kind of recourse does he have to get the baby back?" She paused; waited for his answer. "No I know, that's what I told him. Technically she left him with family. Ok, that's what I thought. No that's it. Thanks, Dan."
When she hung up, she lowered her head again. "It's what I thought. As his mother, Lydia has a legal claim. She holds all the cards."
"What about Tommy?" Frankie asked.
"He'd have to fight her in court. A relative can file a motion for temporary guardianship while they duke it out," Jane replied.
"Ok, then let's do that," Frankie said, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"But it's a three-month wait for a hearing, brother," Jane said glumly.
"Which means TJ goes into foster care," Maura thought out loud.
Frankie sighed. "We can't do that to him."
Maura agreed. "Lydia is a bit hapless, but she doesn't seem evil."
"I mean I don't like her, but TJ's definitely better off with her than being bounced around in the system," Jane said. "Frankie, you don't think she'd hurt him, do you?" Her voice was small, timid, and there were all her worries laid bare: that someone would harm the baby she'd grown to love as her own blood.
Frankie felt the same. "No way. I wouldn't have let her take him if I thought something was gonna happen to him."
"What about Lydia's mother?" Maura asked, "Lydia said that she doesn't like babies."
"Maybe we should try to get him," Jane said impulsively, staring straight at Maura. She watched the breath fly out of Maura's lungs and pepper the air around them. She watched her eyes blow open in surprise.
"Wh-what? You would like to raise Mario?" Maura asked.
"Sort of… yeah," Jane said, clarifying when she saw the incredulity on Maura's face. "I mean, not full time. Just… some of the time. I don't know! We should tell Ma."
Maura laughed softly. "Tommy wants to tell her himself, as soon as he gets the results," she said.
"Well let's get the results to him so we can tell her," Jane said, standing. "You gonna call him or you want me to?"
"I'll do it," Maura said, worried by the mask that had just dropped over Jane's face, blank and unfeeling.
"Alright. Thank you," said Jane kindly, blandly. She offered Maura a kiss, which was accepted, a quick and unremarkable peck, and then she and Frankie left for the homicide bullpen.
"This is from the doorway into the Boston Joe's right by St. Avitus," Barry Frost rubbed his chin before pressing play on the video queued up at the front of the room.
Jane sat with him in BRIC, at the desk diagonal from his own. "That's where Phil went to AA, right?" she asked. "Maura said his minty fro-cap probably came from there. Someone slipped warfarin into his cup that morning, poisoned him. Hopefully we can find out who on this video."
Frost nodded. "Ok, so that's Phil there. And see the woman?"
Jane sat up straighter in her chair. "Yeah. Who's she?"
"I'll see what I can do with facial recognition," Frost said, punching keys and pulling up the program.
"Ok. I'd like to know what they're arguin' about, too," said Jane.
"No help there, Jane. No audio," he replied.
"Shit," Jane cursed their luck and her own with the day she was shaping up to have. When she noticed her brother coming toward them, she waved him in through the open door. "
Maybe he could drum up a little good fortune for them. "Hey Frankie, come in here."
"Yeah?" Frankie asked.
"Frankie can read lips," Jane said to Frost. "Maybe he can help us out with this."
"Oh yeah? Really?"
"Yeah, he spent a lot of time on the bench when he started little league, reading coaches' lips," Jane explained.
"I got really good at it," Frankie said, smiling despite himself.
"Got good at benchwarming, too, huh?" teased Frost, raising his eyebrows at Frankie, who only coughed.
"Tell him," Jane goaded, punching Frankie in the side.
"Tell me what?" Frost asked.
"Ah, doesn't matter," Frankie said waving Frost off.
"Yes it does! He was an amazing player, and he was on his way to pro ball," Jane stuck up for him, took pride in him.
"Wow," Frost exhaled genuinely, "I'm sorry, bro."
Frankie accepted it. "Blew out my arm. Thrower's elbow. Tommy John at 17, but I was never the same after that. Janie was pretty good, too, you know. All-pro at BHCC both years. So what did you need?"
"Tell us what he's saying," Jane ordered, pointing to the victim on the screen.
"Uh, ok," Frankie squinted as they talked, "He's saying, 'I didn't sign up for this.'"
"Didn't sign up for what?" Jane commented.
"Looks like he's saying, 'I didn't know men in tights would kill people.'"
Frost laughed. "Amazing. How does he do it?"
"Wait, no. 'I didn't know mennonites would kill people," Frankie revised.
"Well, there's a mennonite killer out there," Frost said, unable to help himself.
"Not helping, Frost," Jane shook her head. They all turned back to the screen, however, when the monitor beeped.
"Whoa. Got a hit on the facial recognition. Alice Vanderbilt. Let's go pick her up. You guys in?" Frost asked, sending her address to his phone and grabbing his blazer from the back of his chair.
"Yup," Jane answered easily, and both she and her brother followed him out.
At 1429 Pinecrest Drive, just out front, Jane sat alone in her unmarked car on the phone while Frankie and Frost awaited morgue techs in Alice Vanderbilt's garage. "You'll be gettin' another one soon," she said by way of greeting.
"Hello to you, too," said Maura, her voice crisp and clear, obviously coming from her office landline. "I take it the questioning did not go well?"
"When we got here she was already dead," Jane said, frustration evident in her tight Boston vowels and lax New England Rs. "Car exhaust."
"That is an unpleasant way to die. I sent Alex out for the body. He should be arriving shortly. What's bothering you?"
"Everything," Jane actually felt herself pout. "She was kind of the one lead we had. But I mean this tells us somethin'. She felt bad about those people on your tables getting meningitis from her vaccine. Question is, why would Phil and Alice willingly infect people?"
"A grift, maybe? To sue their company? I don't know, Jane. This isn't my forte."
"No, no. That's good. Maybe. But lawsuits have to be filed by live people. So, why would two relatively healthy adults die of bacterial meningitis?"
"Most likely there were underlying conditions, compromised immune systems."
"And obviously that's something you can't know ahead of time without getting caught. The only thing that they would need to make the scheme complete is a shifty lawyer to take up the class-action suit. And I think I might know who that lawyer is. Someone Frost and Korsak met at Phil's AA meeting."
"Well, it sounds like you've got it all figured out. I can't say I understood any of that, but that's what makes you good at your job."
Jane sighed. The pounding in her head wouldn't stop and her irritability burgeoned with the realization that she was going to have to be here awhile, dealing with the mess that Alice's suicide left in its wake, and then going to have to question the lawyer, and then she was going to have to go home and face her family. Face all that Lydia had done, face a house without TJ in it. "Listen, I need some alone time after work. I'll keep in touch, but let me do the calling."
Jane could tell by the pause that Maura was taken aback. "Uh, ok. Do you know when you'll be home? We should probably talk to your mother and make sure that your brother is ok."
"No I don't. I just need some time to think. I'll come around when I come around, if I don't end up sleeping at my place. Just… don't call me, a'right?" When she said it, she knew she hurt Maura's feelings. She knew that she made Maura sad and made her feel small.
Maura sounded small on the other line. "Ok, Jane."
Jane only sniffed. "Ok. I gotta finish this up now. Somethin' tells me I'll have the lawyer wrapped up before quittin' time. I, uh, I love you."
"I love you, too." Maura had opened her mouth to say something else, Jane had heard the pop of her lips, ready to speak, but then had hung up before Maura could finish it.
