- Chapter 3 -

This is going to be a long day, Maura told herself miserably as Jane drove up to the wrought-iron gates of the cemetery. A quick flash of Jane's badge and Maura's laminated medical examiner's card to the bored rookie tasked with keeping the growing waves of reporters working the beat and they were soon rolling through the entrance. An elaborate maze of roads extended outward from the main road, all carefully maintained. It wasn't as if they could have gotten lost amongst the various pathways and byways in the large complex; all Jane had to do was follow the yellow tape and meandering detectives and crime scene techs who had decided to park to make the short walk up to the nexus of the action: a squat, ornately designed mausoleum placed adjacent to the busy access road full of mid-morning traffic.

Leaving Bart was still so incredibly difficult. Even though Angela was the perfect definition of what a grandmother was supposed to be, hearing her son's rambling voice get smaller, smaller, smaller until the door closed upon him made Maura's heart race and her palms sweat. Bart was a helpless, little baby. He couldn't even talk, nonetheless take care of himself. He needed his mother and what was she doing? Leaving him just like her own mother used to do whenever she had to go to an art exhibition or teach her students. The only time Constance brought her anywhere was whenever it had been convenient for her adoptive mother to do so. Leaving Bart during these early callouts felt like a return to those old memories of feeling abandoned as a child, made even worse when she recalled how much she had pushed to have a child with Jane to right those wrongs. Bart seemed perfectly unaware of the separation anxiety brewing inside of his mother, however. With his usual exuberance, the little boy had waved bye-bye to his two mothers before babbling like a brook to Angela's eager ears.

Maura turned in the passenger seat of Jane's squad car, immediately noticing the fine lines of tension that had been building subconsciously since they had left. To the casual observer, Jane was perfectly fine, readying herself for another day at a gruesome crime scene but Maura could see the emotions she was trying so hard to keep in check. Frustration, disgust, and even a touch of fear were all playing themselves out with each tight clench of her jaw as she parked near the well-tended path leading up to the open doors of the mausoleum.

"Hey," Maura whispered, placing her hand on Jane's as she moved to exit the vehicle.

"What?" Jane asked, brusquely, unaware how aggressive her tone sounded. Realizing the slight slip in her mask, she shook her head and exhaled deeply before returning her gaze to her wife. "I'm sorry. What's up, honey?"

Maura beamed, knowing exactly what to say to get Jane to relax somewhat. "I love you."

And, with three simple words, Maura watched her tough-as-nails detective melt into the woman behind the mask, the woman that she had fell in love with nearly half a decade ago. Jane never liked to reveal that she had a functioning heart underneath the pantsuit and masculine aura she gave off without even thinking. According to her, it would ruin the façade she had spent so long trying to create in order to do what she does on a daily basis. I'd rather be feared than thought kindly of, Jane had confessed to her back when they were still in the dating phase of their relationship. Everyday Maura watched her lover become this other woman that she had grown to appreciate as a piece of Jane Rizzoli, the woman, but she secretly enjoyed knowing that she could flip the switch on her wife with just a simple phrase that always managed to shock Jane as if it was the first time she had had the privilege to hear them come from Maura's lips.

"I love you, too," Jane replied, smiling. "Did I do something right to deserve that?"

"Just wanted to remind you that you have someone in your corner before you tackle," Maura tilted her head toward the group of detectives obviously waiting outside of the mausoleum for Jane and Maura to get out of the car and start the investigation, "them, your squad. You ready?"

"No, not really. But thanks for asking. Just saying the words to someone that isn't gonna judge me makes it a little easier to process."

With a don't worry smile, Jane breathed in deeply before opening the car door. Maura followed suit and the two headed up to the bustling mausoleum. Just as Jane shifted into her work persona, Maura also shifted her focus to the body she would be investigating to help the team find the murderer. Mentally registering two men – one older, the other younger – being held in custody by a security guard being questioned by the newest detective in the homicide unit and Jane's middle brother, Frankie Rizzoli, Maura turned her attention to Det. Frost who stood near the entrance with Det. Riley Cooper, another recent recruit into Homicide. Frost smiled warmly and Riley nodded absentmindedly to the medical examiner.

Jane cleared her throat. "What do we got?"

Frost and Riley looked awkwardly at each other, unsure of what to say to Jane's request.

"Are we tongue-tied today?"

"Well," Frost began, "we don't know because you just got here. The first detective to respond to a high-profile homicide investigation has to be the lead sergeant for the unit and…well, that's you, starting today."

In the flash of a second, Jane's face went from confusion, anger, and then to resignation as her new role and the responsibilities that came with it began to rear its ugly head. No longer could Jane hide behind the familiar father-figure that Korsak had become ever since she had been assigned to the older detective too many years ago. Jane had risen to sergeant before their wedding several months before Korsak's departure but she was still being groomed for the position via tests, dog-and-pony shows to the public, and guidance from both Cavanaugh and her former partner. Now, for the first time, Jane was forced to rise to the occasion, whether she was ready to or not. Maura's heart began to race in sympathy. She'll do fine, Maura told herself in a mantra. She is Jane Rizzoli, after all.

"Then let's get in there," Jane said, radiating self-confidence. With her leading the way, Maura and company marched into the mausoleum's inner depths, lit by the crime scene techs' facilitative placement of flood lights. The bright beams centered on a small table where the charred remains of a skeleton were posed for display. When the detectives stopped near the perimeter of the lit circle, Maura continued forward, her mind excitedly focusing on the task placed before her.

As Maura began her preliminary walk-through of the body, Jane looked around. "Where's the first responding officer to the scene? He still around?"

Riley nodded to someone off in the distance and a middle-aged officer dressed in ill-fitting blues strolled forward. The man with the id tag of Willis displayed proudly on his chest yawned as if he hadn't slept in decades, a large Big Gulp of steaming coffee in one hand.

"Sgt. Rizzoli," Willis began, lifting a spare hand in greeting, "I was first responding officer to the scene. Name's Matt Willis, everyone calls me Willis. I was on patrol with a rook who needed some night watch time. This area's pretty quiet early in the morning so I figured it'd be a good spot to let the kid stretch his legs a little. Around five in the morning, a couple of hours into our shift, we get a call from dispatch saying a 211 and 63 was reported at the cemetery in the area."

"What's a 211 and 63?" Maura frowned, looking up from the body.

"Burglary and criminal trespass, Dr. Isles," Frost stated, simply.

"I thought it would be a good teaching experience for the rook until I called to clarify and dispatch added the potential of a 30 – sorry, ma'am, it's a habit, a homicide, as well. We put on the sirens and rushed here to find those two," Willis motioned toward the two men standing near the harried security guard berating Frankie for something or other as Frankie struggled to calm the man, "taken into custody for the burglary and criminal trespass but the body was still in here. The rookie stayed outside while I checked the body in question to make sure it was an actual body and then I came back out to call you guys."

Jane opened her mouth to begin asking the responding officer questions but quickly shifted to signal Riley to handle the interview. Supervising was still new to the freshly minted sergeant used to taking the lead.

Riley took out a small notepad as Jane observed, her fingers twitching with the need to actively investigate instead of supervise. "Did you perform a preliminary interview with the suspected burglars?"

Willis scoffed. "Tried, ma'am. The security guard was having a hernia about losing his job and never having an incident like this on his so-called spotless record and the burglars look more like homeless who figured they'd found a quiet place to stay warm for the night."

"That's baseless conjecture, by the way," Maura said, just loud enough for Jane to hear, bringing a Mona Lisa smile to her wife's face.

"Riley, go help Frankie finish up whatever he's attempting to do over there."

"Maybe you should tell Frost to do that," Riley said, slightly panicked.

Lowering her eyebrows, Jane crossed her arms across her chest. "Something you want to share with me, Riley? About you and Frankie?"

Maura watched the exchange with a smirk. Ever since the undercover operation, six months ago, the two junior detectives had gotten progressively closer. She had even been pretty sure the two had been dating when they had come to the wedding. Frankie had tried to convince everyone that taking Riley was nothing more than a simple combination of luck and opportunity: she had wanted to go and Jane had told him he was free to bring a plus one, so naturally Riley was an obvious choice. The suspicion reached a fever pitch given Riley's obvious refusal to talk about the entire situation, more interested in getting a new tattoo in a Grecian style to mark her first time in Santorini. Regardless of the couple's efforts to keep things low-key, by the time the family had come back from their honeymoon, the tentative couple had gained a teasing nickname: Super-Size Friley. The way the two blushed whenever the issue of their relationship came up, it was obvious that they were duly embarrassed. Maura understood the embarrassment. She could recall numerous incidents in which talking about her relationship with Jane caused both her and Jane a similar amount angst in their early dating stages.

Following the unit policy of making fun of any detectives brave enough to get together while working together in Homicide, Jane poked fun at the two whenever the opportunity presented itself. She'd even taken to calling them by their nickname whenever the two worked cases together. Regardless of the teasing, Jane never threatened to split the two up despite precedent giving her the ammo to do so. The department's somewhat vague rule concerning fraternization between two detectives placed the issue up to the individual in determining whether the relationship warranted a hard approach. Dating the medical examiner had colored Jane's opinion on the matter, but on a strictly case by case basis. As long as they kept things professional at work and didn't let their personal activities in and out of the bedroom interfere with the job, the relationship could continue unabated.

"No," Riley said, vigorously shaking her head. "No problem. I just…don't think it would be wise to have two recent additions handle an interview as important as this one given the impact it could potentially have on the case."

Jane released a loud laugh. "Nice save."

"Thank you, Sergeant."

"But I still want you on interview duty. Working with difficult individuals is your strong suit, after all. Pour on the charm."

Riley sighed heavily, trudging reluctantly over to the crazed security guard that was now slumped into the fetal position near the wall of the mausoleum, crying heavily about being fired as soon as his boss heard about what had happened while he had been on duty. Jane moved next to Maura after motioning to Frost to join them.

"You know, given the state of this corpse, I don't think you're gonna be able to give me much other than: a) he/she is dead and b) he/she was burned."

Maura smiled. Jane always had a habit of pushing for information from her before she could make definitive statements, knowing it got on her nerves. It was a game they played during every investigation. Jane would push and push and push for more information while Maura would flit away using her love of deductive reasoning to justify her inability to give the detective anything other than a loose outline of the facts as they were presented. Maura wondered if maybe Jane got off on being rejected by the one woman who could consistently do so on a daily basis.

"I can't even say that's true until I do a detailed analysis back in my lab, however, if you give me a minute to work my magic, I might be able to reveal some information that will be useful in guiding your investigation until I can complete the autopsy."

"Will do," Jane said, turning her attention to her former partner as he struggled to quickly wipe a thick layer of petroleum jelly over his nose to block the smell of the burnt flesh wafting up from the body. "You know where Korsak ended up?"

Frost frowned. "He didn't tell you?"

"No…I guess he didn't."

"Are you sure? You are taking his spot as lead sergeant in Homicide, after all."

Jane ran her hand through her curls, a trait signaling her annoyance. "He's been avoiding me, like he can't bear looking at me, like he's guilty or something. Normally I'd go and talk to him but with everything that's been going on, I don't even have time to think, nonetheless play detective in my own life."

"Then maybe he should tell you then, instead of me."

"Frost…"

"Fine, fine," Frost said. "Last time I checked he was working as a special liaison with Internal Affairs that might get rolled over to a full time gig if he chooses to accept the offer."

Jane frowned. "But why wouldn't he accept? IAB is a nice appointment, certainly not as intensive as homicide. Even though not in their little club thinks of them as rats in expensive suits. Korsak should be glad, right?"

"I don't know. Maybe that's why you should talk to him instead of hearing it second-hand from me. Stop being so emotionally evasive. God knows we've seen it doesn't work," Frost nudged Maura in the back, causing her to look up from examining the body with a knowing smile, "or do you need me or Maura to bring up every moment you screwed up your relationship because of your inability to properly connect with those around you?"

"Real funny, guys. We can't all be perfect," Jane said, rolling her eyes. "What did you figure out about the body, Maura?"

Maura felt the mood shift back to the job at hand and she quickly followed suit. A casual finger pointed at several distinctive fractures in several of the charred bones on the table. Each fracture was deep into the bone, curved grooves emanating slightly from the main break. Despite the vomit-inducing odor of burnt flesh, both Jane and Frost leaned forward to follow Maura's hand as it pointed out the distinctive patterns fractures in the bones.

"Are those…chainsaw marks?"

Maura raised an eyebrow. "I can't definitively say that line of reasoning is legitimate. But I can definitively say that someone or something with a lot of force carved into our Doe here. These fractures could not have been made without real effort. And, before you say it, that was not an assumption, Jane. I was simply stating a fact established via my many years as forensic pathologist."

"I assumed as such." Jane turned to Frost with a mischievous smile. "Frost, can you put a BOLO out on the Incredible Hulk or maybe She-Hulk, if she was in town?"

"What about Iron-Man? Or the X-Men? I'm pretty sure Colossus did this. This looks like his M.O."

"I'm glad you have time to laugh it up with your subordinates, Sgt. Rizzoli. Are you even aware how bad this looks to the community, to the press?"

Maura, Jane, and Frost both looked around to face the unexpected voice that had snuck up behind them. The unfamiliar form of a middle-aged man wearing an expensive but well-worn suit returned their gaze. His disapproval was revealed in the tight clenching of his facial muscles and the stress ball twirling in one scarred hand as he gazed upon the three with a look of icy disdain. Despite his diminutive height, the man stood before them with a level of relaxed confidence that could only come from being the center of attention for so long that it becomes second-nature.

"Can I help you?" Jane said, immediately regaining her position of authority. "This is a closed crime scene, sir. I'm really going to have to ask you to leave."

"You…you don't remember me, Sergeant? Really? You were practically crying at my feet when we met."

Jane shook her head in confusion, causing the mysterious man to frown heavily.

"Capt. Ashley Day. You know, the same guy who was at the public medal ceremony in which you were promoted officially to Sergeant. Two months ago. I supervise BPD, the entire department. So that means I'm your boss's boss, the head honcho." Day extended his hand coldly to Jane. "I really hope that rings a bell."

Maura saw Jane's reaction as she struggled to quickly go through her training manual in her head to determine how to handle an interaction of this magnitude. After a brief second of confusion, she gave up, accepting her training didn't prepare her for a meeting with the Capt. Ashley Day of the Boston Police Department. Jane awkwardly extended a hand to the short statured man. Day took the offered hand as if it was nothing more than a dollar given to a five-year-old used to iPads, Wi-Fi, and credit cards. It held little meaning to him. The handshake was a required nicety; nothing more, nothing less.

"Walk with me, Sergeant," Day said, leaving little room for debate. "Reassure me that I made the right choice in promoting you to Sergeant by telling me where you are with this case."

"Yes, sir. Right away, sir."

Maura shook her head with a frown. When Capt. Ashley Day chose to get involved in a case, nothing good would come of it. The last case he had taken a personal interest in had resulted in the largest divisional realignment in decades. Everyone, from the lieutenant to the lead detective on the case, had been reassigned or demoted. The whole incident was legend in BPD given that Day was seen as a demi-god to nearly every cop on the force and the unit that had been upended was one of the most high-profile and feared in Massachusetts: Internal Affairs. Jane would never admit it, but the captain was one of the driving reasons she had decided to pursue being a Homicide detective. Maura hoped Jane wouldn't let her childhood crush get in the way of common sense. This can't possibly end well.