The three detectives continued to throw around ideas of who and how many people were attacking these woman and why they had a preference of young brunette girls who looked extraordinarily similar. Doctor Isles had retreated back to her office to finish some paperwork on the autopsies she had performed, after a few hours of focused typing, Maura heard the distant noise of her phone ringing. She rummaged through her back to find her phone "Doctor Isles?"
"Ok, we will be there shortly."
Maura made her way out of her office after grabbing her coat and bag and moved to the elevator. As the doors slid open on the ground floor, she spotted Jane exiting the other elevator. Their eyes met and they shared a smile and a silent conversation. Both medical examiner and detective slid into the police cruiser as they made the short journey to the crime scene.
Jane placed a quick kiss to her girlfriend's cheek before she once again put on her mask of professionalism. They entered the gym together to find a petite, brunette in the same position they had found the other three women. Jane surveyed the scene whilst Maura went about examining the body which was hanging from the ceiling of the small gym before they moved her and took her back to the morgue. Maura made quick sufficient work of the body. As she moved down the ladder, she noticed a newspaper behind the running machine. She crouched down to see today's date on the paper and a red circle around one of the articles. With gloved fingers she picked it up and called out for Jane.
Hearing her name, Jane rushed over to Maura "What's wrong?" her head tilted to the side curiously as she noted the newspaper, Maura was currently studying.
"What have you got there?" Maura handed it to the detective as she too studied it. "What does that even mean? It's just numbers" Jane's eyebrows furrowed as she looked closer, still not understanding what interest this could be to the case but put it into an evidence bag for later review.
They finished up at the crime scene and returned to the precinct. Jane to the bullpen to work on finding the killers and Maura to the morgue to start the autopsy. She was preoccupied with thoughts of the newspaper. 'The advert was just a jumble of letters. Why was it circled? It must be a code. How can I decode it? Does it even have anything to do with this case or is it just a coincidence? But it had today's date on it and the gym wasn't open to the public so there is no way for anyone to have put it there and the instructor who found her said it wasn't his.'
The many questions and theories running through the doctors head caused her to finish up her autopsy quickly. The results were the same as the others, however the bladed edges of the knife matched those of the second victim, as did the depth of the fatal wound. This only caused Maura to be sure that there were two killers. She retrieved the newspaper from the evidence locker and retreated back into her office. With gloved fingers, she removed the paper from the evidence bag and opened it out on her desk, locating the circled advert and studying it closely.
'Ahn fvb'yl pa. Pa'z nlaapun ova huk zdlhaf pu olyl. Fvby ulea svjhapvu pz aol fvbao jluayl.'
The blonde turned to her computer to search for the different possible codes that could have been used in the hopes that they used an existing system.
"ROT1? So rotating the letters by one would give you Bio gwc'zm. That's definitely not right." She turned back to the computer to find another code.
"What about transposition?No..No that's not it either. The Caesar shift cipher? But then I have to figure out how many times they've moved it." Maura worked on the many different ways to move the alphabet before she deciphered the code. Quickly she pulled up the newspapers for the same days the other victims were killed to find very similar coded messages, she used the same system to decode these messages too. She jumped up with elation and ran to the elevator, taking it all the way up to Jane.
"Jane? The newspaper. I did it. I know where the killers will be next."
Jane swivelled in her chair as she heard the sound of her girlfriend's voice coming into the bullpen, her head tilting in curiosity at the doctor's words. "What do you mean you know where they will be? What? How? Why? Who? Where?" Jane's eyebrows furrowed, a mix of emotions running through her: excitement, relief, confusion, worry and interest but she need Maura to explain exactly what she was talking about before she let any of those emotions come out. The blonde strode over to Jane with the grace of a goddess in high heels. She put down the newspaper in her hands down on Jane's desk with another piece of paper with the elegant scribble of Maura's handwriting which said
"Tag you're it. It's getting hot and sweaty in here. Your next location is the youth centre."
Jane read it aloud and looked up to the blonde who currently had a smug grin plastered to her face with her arms folded across her chest, as if this simple sentence made all the sense in the world.
"Maur, what is this? I don't understand." The blonde huffed and rolled her eyes, a trait she had clearly picked up from her girlfriend.
"This is the Caesar code. I remembered it from my Latin class years ago. You can actually use any number for that code but they chose seven. You move the alphabet left seven times. Come here, I'll show you" Picking up a pen and a piece of paper, Maura wrote our the alphabet "Then you move the alphabet left seven places" She started writing out another alphabet below but this time starting with the letter H and ending with the letter G. "So if you match up the letters in the newspaper with the letters in the second alphabet, you get this coded message. " Maura moved aside her handwritten message to reveal a few more small pieces of paper with three other messages. "And these are all decoded messages from the last four days when the killings started."
Jane looked on, dumbfounded at how absolutely genius this finding is. She studied all the pieces of paper and took them all to the murder board. "They all match up with the places the women were killed but there is one more. The youth centre? That must be where the next victim will be found but when are they choosing these women? Where? How? Is it already too late or do we still have time to find them before it happens?" Jane rambled to herself as all of these questions reeled through her mind. She called Korsak and Frankie to come up to the bullpen to fill them in on the new findings. She kissed Maura quickly, thanking her before the detectives rushed in.
After filling in the other detectives, they located the only youth centre in the same perimeter as the other bodies were found. They set up surveillance on the building to ensure they didn't miss the killers during the night and a chance to possibly save the next victim. It was getting late and Maura insisted on taking Jane home to get some rest as she hadn't stopped working all day. Jane tossed and turned restlessly as she was too anxious, as she was each time before she caught a killer.
Waking from her slumber, Maura sleepily rolled over, placing her arm across Jane's chest, her muscular thigh slipping between Jane's own legs. "Sleep, baby." With Maura's comforting body resting against her own, Jane fell into a deep and peaceful sleep….but not for long.