Chapter Tw3lv3
"I will scream." Maura threatens holding the results behind her back.
"I had two younger brothers and went to loud public schools. Your screaming won't bother me."
Maura takes a step backwards, "I am warning you Jane."
Jane can only laugh, "Ok. Consider me warned...now let me see them."
Maura takes another step backwards and grazes the wall. In a few seconds Jane is going to know if it was a bluff or not.
"You told me not to let you see."
"I changed my mind."
"You wanted it to be a surprise."
"I. Changed. My. Mind."
"I will scream."
Jane pulls her lips together to hold in a laugh and she watches the look on Maura's face. It's just short of terror.
"Have you ever 'screamed' before Maura?"
Maura straightens herself and her face goes stern. She hates to be the butt of Jane's humor and she is pretty sure the nerd who never joined in on games that were higher than 50 decibels would be the topic of humor for some time.
"Screaming is not proper behavior." She says as she presses her back against the wall pinning the folder between her body and the wall.
"I can't imagine you screaming. I can't even imagine you having a tantrum."
Maura glares at her friend wishing she had a fantastic comeback.
Jane takes a final step forward and her body is almost flush with Maura's and she licks her lips.
Maura blinks but makes no move to fight.
Jane leans forward slowly to whisper in Maura's ear, the air tickling Maura's neck, "That is a very quiet scream Maura."
Jane is so close Maura can feel the heat from her body. Her heart speeds up and she swallows.
She feels Jane's arm circle her waist and the tug of the folder on her fingers as it leaves her grasp.
She is sure her temperature has increased significantly and she feels light-headed.
Jane leans away and Maura can take a breath and watches Jane.
Maura watches as Jane flips the folder open. She watches Jane's eyes as they sparkle. She see's the brightest smile appear that she has ever seen Jane wear.
"I'm having a boy. Maura. I'm having a baby boy." She squeals in excitement.
Jane pulls Maura into a hug and spins her around before planting her feet back on the ground and letting her catch her breath.
"Omg. Maura. It's a boy."
Maura screams as loud as she possibly can.
It's a scream that she hopes Jane can hear.
It's a scream that causes Casey to drop his gun and spin around in complete surprise.
It's a scream that makes her throat and lungs burn.
It's the sort of scream that might reach into your ear and poke a hole into your brain.
If this is screaming then Maura knows she has never truly screamed before.
It's the sort of scream you hear in a park and panic that someone is in danger.
And through the glass barrier of the car and across half a carpark and up a small rise fighting against a strong breeze...it is a scream that catches Jane's ear.
Jane turns her head to the right the moment she hears it.
Casey instinctively punches Maura in the mouth to stop her screaming and it works, she is momentarily stunned and sore and blood runs down her chin dripping in a pool on her neckline. The shock passes quickly and she knows she has to get Jane's attention, but Casey is all over her, almost sitting on her.
She fights and he tells her to stop, but she won't, she already started and this time she won't stop. She still tries to fight him off with her arms, the only part she can move in the confined space. Her arms just bounce off him like they are made of foam and he doesn't even flinch. She tries to scream again but only gets out a squeak before Casey manages to grab a fistful of hair on her scalp and tugs it hard. Hard enough to almost lift her from her seat. The pain shoot across her skull and she tries to reach up and grab the hair to stop the pain. His arms are in the way and he tugs again. Maura whimpers and stops wiggling as he uses her hair like reins to maneuver her to where he can control her again.
Maura doesn't resist, the burning is too much, she follows his hand as he moves to climb off her and sit back in the drivers seat. And for a moment neither move, Casey quickly assessing the situation and Maura holding as still as she can.
He holds her tightly and the tears that trickle down her cheeks have already affected her vision. For the next few moments, at least, she cant see what Casey is doing.
Jane did hear something like a scream, distant and muffled. It was short and ended suddenly. Maybe it was a kid or a baby, she can't be sure where it came from or how far it carried exactly. She stands up and scans her surroundings carefully.
Frankie stands up beside her and looks around them as well.
Jane spots a light silver grey car a few hundred feet away with two people inside that appear to be having some sort of a fight. She sucks in a breath. She wonders if that was the cause of the scream. She wonders if she should go over and see. Frankie turns to look in the direction his sister is looking.
Jane's legs begin to move towards the offending car without her thinking logically about it, and her hand moves to the handle of her gun of it's own accord.
Casey see's the siblings looking at him and he knows he has to leave...immediately. If it was just Jane he might play it very differently, but there are two of them. Two on one with him disadvantaged by an unsecured hostage. He played to win and these were not good odds. This little game is over for today.
He starts the car and gives it some gas pulling it turns towards the exit.
The car has no plates and when Jane hears the engine start she feels like it must mean something. Her gumshoe thing. Her gut says to find out and she picks up her pace un-clipping the button on her belt that locks her gun in place.
The car turns so that the passenger window is parallel to them and for a moment, when the glare is gone, Jane can see into the passenger window. A face. A woman. Terrified. Blonde hair holding her in place by a large fist. The woman's eyes meet hers just for a second and a small bloody hand presses against the glass on the inside.
"Maura" Jane screams.
The events from yesterday flood back. She thought that dead woman was Maura. She could have believed it was. Maybe everyone will look like Maura. Maybe for the rest of her life she will see glimpses of her friend everywhere. Maybe it's a trick of her mind...like with Frost.
She blinks but the woman doesn't change.
Frankie who was moving at the same speed right behind Jane pulls out his phone, "It looks like Maura."
Jane, hearing confirmation that it isn't all in her head, starts to sprint as fast as she can. The car picks up speed and moves away from them faster than Jane could possibly run.
Even if she hadn't paused for a moment there was no way she could catch up to them.
Every second beyond that the distance increases.
Every second causes Jane's heart to pound faster, only not from exertion.
But because, every second, Maura is torn further away from her...once again.
Jane doesn't stop running even though the car has vanished into the horizon somewhere.
Disobedience equals harsh treatment.
It reminds Maura of how a child learns. A smack on the hand for reaching for something out of bounds. A tug of the arm that says you aren't moving fast enough. When you hear you full name and you know you did what you were explicitly told not to do.
Casey pulls Maura by her wrist across the drivers seat and out of the car so hard that she wonders if her shoulder is still in the socket. She loses her footing twice on the stairs but he just drags her behind him like a rag doll. He pushes her against the wall to unlock the door and she knows there will be bruises. There is no gentleness, there is no form of care.
Two steps inside the door and she is no longer behind him, he propels her towards the mattress. Her old lumpy friend catches her and she feels safe again. As safe as she can feel in this tiny fear-filled world of Casey's.
The lesson is that disobedience will hurt...a lot.
She watches as he approaches her again, the safe world shattering against the look in his eyes.
Sharp. Gleaming. Like steel.
Hostile. Malevolent. Astringent. Supercilious.
His eyes squint as he lunges forward. Maura rolls into a tight ball hoping to protect her vital organs and hide her face from his gleaming eyes.
She feels the mattress dip under his weight and his hand grabs her ankle. She wants to kick. Blindly kick and hope to break his nose or simply to get him to leave her alone. But she knows she is no match for him in strength or skill.
She feels the shackle thrusted against her leg with unnecessary force and hears it clang shut and the click of the bolt sliding into the shackle.
And then his presence is distant again. She can't be sure how distant until she untangles herself to look for him and for a few moments she stays curled up with her back to him.
For a few long moments she just doesn't move.
Jane knows it's mostly hopeless as she lost sight of the car more than ten minutes ago, but her brain hasn't caught up with her feet yet.
She keeps going even though her calves and lungs burn. She is too tired to think. Too sore to cry. Yet she feels too guilty too stop.
Korsak pulls his car in front of her and she finally stops running to avoid colliding with the door. "Get in" Korsak yells and she obeys without a word.
Korsak squeals his tires as he gets his car back on the road and carries on in the direction Jane was running.
He knows he won't catch them now, but he knows they won't give up either.
A sliver of hope that is much too large to ignore.
Jane rocks back and forth looking at everything and nothing, her eyes darting left and right like a terrified animal.
"It was her, it was her, it was her."
When Maura finally moves she does so cautiously. But Casey isn't interested in her. He sits in his chair looking at his papers and tapping his fingers against his knee.
Maura firstly tries to tend to her mouth. She can't tell the damage done until the swelling goes down so she just pats the swollen area with a damp towel and hisses in pain at the touch. The dried blood doesn't come off easy in cold water. She isn't sure if she should feel a little happy that all her teeth feel intact considering she might not live long enough for anyone to see her smile again.
On the drive back Casey had calmly informed Maura that he won't take her outside again and that he will make her pay for her insolence. Maura can only hope he doesn't direct his anger, or whatever it is, at Jane.
She is fairly sure Jane heard her. She can only hope it helps somehow.
Next Maura runs her hand up and across her shoulder, it's tender but not dislocated. Her other shoulder and arm are tender with bruising but she doesn't care about that right now. The throbbing on her scalp is her current priority. In part because of vanity but also because the pain is moving behind her eyes and down her neck.
She tries to run her fingers through her hair but finds it is matted in a clump on top of her head and it is too tender too poke.
There is a little blood but she isn't sure if her or Casey transferred it there from her mouth during the struggle. At least there is no fresh blood.
She spends the next few hours cautiously watching Casey who is either sitting or pacing the room, while she gently de-tangles the dread careful to only cause herself minimal pain. A few small clumps of hair have come out in her hands but nothing as concerning as she had expected.
Two helicopters fly back and forth over the city looking for the silver grey car.
Frankie searches the car park itself and then carefully checks every street along the original route Jane ran checking side streets as he goes.
At the same Nina checks camera's in the area for any silver grey cars with no plates.
Jane and Korsak continue to drive around partly at random.
They don't speak except for the occasional 'check down there'.
Nina reports any suspicious vehicles from the camera's and Korsak immediately goes to investigate. Several silver grey cars later, none are the one they are looking for.
Every moment that passes Jane's heart sinks a little further and her brain continuously tries to make sense of everything, to link the random clues into some conclusive theory or order.
"Anything Nina?"
"Sorry Jane. Nothing yet. I promise i'm not leaving until I found something."
The silence is so unusually long that when Casey does speak, Maura is startled by it.
"I suppose you've done me a favor Doctor. Now she will think you're alive...for a little bit."
"She thinks I'm alive?" Maura says feeling her heart beat faster.
Was it worth it after all? It hadn't been a waste of effort.
It's only then that Casey realizes Maura wouldn't have seen Jane chasing after the car because she had been pinned to the back of the seat. He studies her for a moment rubbing his finger over his bottom lip in thought.
He watches the sparkle of hope in her eyes. He also see's it disappear when he stands up and faces her. He notices her swallow. He sits down again and see's the relief cross her face. He would care that he could toy with her this way if it's wasn't Jane that was his intended target.
If it was Jane sitting there chained to the bed under his control, he knows her reactions would be different. Her feelings would be hidden, her outward persona strong, her thoughts calculated. Or would it?
Maura was an open book right now. Yet Jane had told Casey of Maura's interview with Hoyt and how careful she was to mask everything, to hide her feelings and force the truth out of him without him even knowing because she could read his face, his reactions, while hiding her own. Jane had said she 'admired' Maura's lack of fear of her personal tormentor, and also Maura's psychological skills, and not just with Hoyt. Jane had said Maura was even teaching her to read people's micro expressions better. Jane had annoyed him by going on and on about Maura's big brain and skills, her charities, and also her wardrobe. Yet this Maura sitting before him was not the Maura Jane had so often described to him. This Maura was showing insecurity, uneasiness and fear, unrestrained hope, anger and distrust. He wondered how different Jane would be if she were his captive for the same amount of time and if it was Maura that Jane knew he was taunting. He wonders if Jane would be this openly vulnerable to his face.
After two and a half hours everyone went back to the station to go over the developments.
An hour after that Nina's computer alerted her that the cleaned up image of the thief from Arcroft Funeral Home had failed to be identified through facial recognition on any local databases. The cleaned up image was not great but still better but the sunglasses still made him indistinguishable. Nina still started a broader search on all databases.
And after Jane had been unable to find any person that had a grudge against her, it was time to call in more manpower before whoever had Maura could try to get out of Boston.
"This is personal," Jane says to a room packed with officers, "This person is following me personally. It is someone that also knows personal details about Dr. Isles. This un-sub is local and knows the Boston area well, including parks, funeral homes, the city streets. He can steal a body and move it halfway across the city in a car with no plates. He is not afraid of us.
A few officers take notes while Jane makes sure to eyeball every one of them, letting them know how serious this really is.
"He drives with his abducted vict...with Dr. Isles...around the city in broad daylight."
Her voice catches in the back of her throat, this is the worst profiling on the worst possible case and she hates it.
"We have gone through all my cases, past and present, past and potential grudges, my history and my emails and none of them fit this abduction. But there are no coincidences. None..."
Jane pauses, she knows they still have very little to go on, the whole case has been like this.
Korsak steps forward, "So, be vigilant. Whatever you are doing, you need to be on the lookout as well. If you assigned to tail detective Rizzoli then look out for anything suspicious. If you are driving the streets check out every person, every car, every store. This person will come back out of hiding and we need to be ready this time. Now get to work."
...to be continued...