Author's note:
I'm so sorry for disappearing on you, my readers, for most of the year. 2015 has been pretty much crazy and I couldn't write at all. Now I'm back and alongside me, my motivation. I hereby promise I will update regularly from now on again, as I have a story to tell. A story I want to finish it (don't worry, there is still a lot of chapters left). I am very thankful for every reader, who hopefully likes my little story and I enjoy your reviews: they are always most welcome.
So let's go back to the hiatus in the last season and to when Jane jumped off the bridge…
Jane sat down at her desk, only to get right back up and walk over to Nina's and ask for the victim's phone records. Nina informed her that they had received them only minutes ago and that she was still looking through the dozens of incoming and outgoing calls the busy CEO had received and made every day.
"I still haven't actually identified any of the numbers yet, except for his wife's of course. But what I can already show you is that there is one number that stands out." Nina brought up a cell phone number on the big screen. "There's incoming and outgoing calls alike, at least one every day, often more, and the duration of these calls varies from one minute to up to 30 minutes. Without knowing who this number belongs to, I would guess it's someone that the victim was close to."
Jane stared at the number and connected the possible dots in her head: Maura had determined that Johnson had had sexual intercourse right before he died and now there was this mysterious number. "Run it right now, Nina. I bet it's his mistress' number."
While Nina typed the number into that magical search engine of hers, Judith joined the two women and nodded towards the screen: "Are we getting closer to the receiving end of Johnon's sexual… prowess, or what?" She couldn't help but laugh about her own way of referring to the sperm they found on the victim's underwear.
"Ew, Lewis, ew. You're being way too graphic. Please, Nina, tell us you got something", Jane grinned weakly and rolled her eyes, pretending to be disgusted.
"No, sorry, Detective Rizzoli. The number belongs to an unregistered burner phone that could have been bought by anyone anywhere. There is no way to know whose number this is." Nina looked at the two detectives apologetically.
"Well", Judith said, "there's only one way to find out. We should call the number. What do you think, Rizzoli?"
It was direct, it was creative – it was a good idea. Jane grabbed her phone, quickly typed in the number and put it on speaker. With every ring, the three women became more hopeless, before, at last, someone answered the call: "Yes?"
Shocked from hearing a clearly male voice, Jane almost forgot to react and barely managed to hide her surprise: "Yes, sorry. Who is this?"
"You called me. Who are you?" The stranger answered impatiently.
"I'm Angela and I found a wallet with your telephone number in it. There was no ID, only cash and your number so I assumed I'd call and see if it's yours, Mr. …?" Jane improvised and shrugged at Judith, who gave her a thumbs up.
"Oh", the man mumbled and took a moment to reply, "My name is Michael Rhay. It's not mine but there is only one person who has this phone number. So I guess it must be his wallet. I can pick it up and return it to him, if you want me to. Greg will be happy to get it back."
Jane looked at her colleagues in disbelief. Michael Rhay, as in the Michael Rhay, actor and supposed dream of all girls and women between the ages of 20 and 35? What the hell was the connection between him and "Greg"?
"That's very nice of you, Michael. Maybe you could give me his number and I call this Greg directly? After all, it's his wallet and I would feel better returning it to him directly. No offense." Jane tried to find out whether Rhay knew anything about the victim's death.
"Yeah, of course. He hasn't answered his phone since yesterday, though. To be honest, I have no idea where he is, that's why I suggested taking the wallet until he gets back." Rhay continued to give Jane a cell phone number that she identified as Johnson's. The man on the other end of the call seemed honest, at least so far.
"Thank you, Michael. I will try to get in touch with him and call you again if I fail to meet up with him. Bye." Jane hung up quickly.
"Well, that was weird", Judith said, "Was that really the actor? From that zombie TV show? Why would our victim be close to this guy?"
Jane shrugged and looked at Nina for confirmation: "What do you think? It might be possible it really was him; I mean, he sounded nice and honest, and like he had no idea why he hasn't been able to reach Johnson. The only thing I can think of right now to connect the two men would be Shield working for Rhay, providing him with personal security. Nina, do you have access to the company's files yet?" Celia Johnson, who had taken over her husband's position, had promised them full cooperation and thus granted them access to anything they needed.
"Yes, Detective Rizzoli and I am searching their data base for Michael Rhay as we are speaking. In any case, how would a professional relationship explain the numerous calls between them every day? Isn't that a bit much even for personal security?" Nina said as her fingers seemed to fly over her keyboard.
"Besides", Judith added, "Johnson was the CEO of his company. He wouldn't even be responsible for one client in detail like that. So something is definitely weird here."
Jane shrugged and stared at the screen, on which Nina was working her usual magic. "Okay, we can at least establish a connection between Michael Rhay and Shield. They installed an alarm system at his house a while back and have also been providing him with a body guard. In the file, it says that Mr. Rhay had problems with an unknown stalker and needed protection 24/7 because he was afraid the stalker would try to hurt him", Nina explained.
"That sounds a lot like the case that Mrs. Johnson mentioned earlier, right? Local celebrity, stalker, security system? Maybe it's time we go talk to Mr. Rhay officially." Jane said and looked for Vince in order to bring him up to speed.
On their way to what could only be described as Rhay's mansion, Jane, having voluntarily retreated to the passenger seat, stared out of the window and tried to focus on the case instead of brooding over Maura again. Just as she was about to give up on this impossible task, it was her new partner who saved her professional integrity, or at least the fraction of it she had still left after a month of mauralessness: "Tell me what you're thinking about. What's the connection between our vic and Michael Rhay? Why would they call each other every day, sometimes several times a day? I seriously doubt it was about Shield. How much security can a guy need?"
Jane nodded and directed her gaze towards Judith, who was driving and simultaneously looking at the GPS for directions: "I'm pretty sure you're right about that. Now, I have no idea what the nature of their relationship may have been; hopefully, Mr. Rhay will shed light on this matter. I'm thinking, maybe they were best friends, you know. Met on the job, realized they hit it off, grew close, became best bros."
"So, what you're saying is, he will hopefully shed a… ray of light on their relationship", Judith giggled as she pulled up in front of Rhay's front gate and identified herself upon ringing the bell. Even Jane couldn't help but grin at her colleague's sad attempt of a pun. After holding their badges into a small camera for what seemed like minutes, a very surprised Michael Rhay buzzed them in and told them they could park further up the driveway.
"Okay, let's assume that your theory is right, Rizzoli, and these two grown-up men were best friends. Is it really normal, or rather, realistic that they would call each other constantly, sometimes for just a minute, sometimes for a seemingly endless conversation? Every day?" Lewis wondered, apparently oblivious to the blatant parallels.
Maura's face flashed before Jane's eyes and for moment, all the sadness she had been fighting so hard to get over was back. To hell with professionalism and patience! She wanted nothing more than getting her friendship back; a friendship as close as what seemed to have connected a CEO and a zombie fighting actor. She shrugged, masking her passionate opinion on the matter: "I believe it's entirely possible. Friends can become very close and multiple calls may be absolutely normal for them; a way of checking-in when they couldn't see each other in person, for example. The only thing that strikes me as odd, though, is that Johnson's wife didn't mention Rhay at all – at least not with reference to a friendship. You'd expect she'd know him if he was such a close friend of her husband. My family, for example, knows my best friend and would never fail to mention her."
"You're right. Let's ask Mr. Rhay. Maybe he can enlighten us, after all", Judith laughed again at her own pun as the two women got out of the car and walked towards the front door, where he was already waiting for them.
After leading them into a luxuriously decorated living room and offering them a white couch to sit on, Michael Rhay placed himself on an equally white armchair across from them and made no effort of hiding his confusion about their sudden visit.
Before private Jane could ask herself what kind of person could possibly live with a white couch and not ever get ketchup on it, professional Rizzoli took over, and she cleared her throat. "Mr. Rhay, thank you for seeing us. We are here because of your connection to one of our cases. We have been informed that you knew a man named Gregory Johnson. Is that correct?" Rizzoli explained, deliberately vague and without mentioning their earlier call to Rhay's burner phone.
It didn't take a lot of detective work to see all color disappear from Rhay's face as he struggled to answer even this apparently simple question: "Uh, yes. Yes, I knew Greg. Of course. What happened to him? Is he alright? Please, tell me. Nothing happened to him, right?"
"I'm very sorry to inform you that Mr. Johnson was murdered on Saturday", Judith informed him to which he responded by tearing up, "Could you please explain the nature of your relationship with him? It seems you are very upset."
Jane subconsciously leaned forward to study every emotion on Rhay's face. You'd expect an actor to be better at hiding their feelings, but he wasn't even trying. Did that mean that his grief was real? Were they really best friends? She was very keen to hear his explanation, considering he couldn't know that they knew about the burner phone and its countless calls. He could only assume that they had found about the trouble with Shield and the supposedly faulty alarm system.
By now, Rhay was crying and unable to answer for a couple of minutes. Judith handed him a tissue and lightly squeezed his hand. Finally, he looked up and rather whispered than said: "The nature of our relationship? Can I trust that what I am about to tell you will not hit the evening news today?" Judith squeezed his hand again and Jane promised him as much discretion as possible.
"Well, then let me be honest at least once in my life, now that it is too late anyways. Greg and I were in love. We were together and I have never loved anyone as much as I loved this goddamn man. And now he is gone forever and I have never been more alone", Rhay moaned and buried his face, contorted with pain, in his tembling hands.