Her head hurt, no, that was an understatement. Her head was in agony, she must have hit it. But when? She remembered leaving her apartment, heading to her car and then nothing. She tried to move her head, hissing in pain as blood had stuck to whatever she was resting on. Instinctively she raised her hand to her head but she was stopped short. Something was wrapped around her wrist, she shook her arm. It was heavy and metallic. She was chained.
"Maura?"
A deep voice answered her.
"You wake up, bleary eyed, and with no doubt a very sore head and that's the first thing you say? Not, where am I? Not, who are you?"
She lifted her left hand to rub at her eyes, to her surprise that arm was free. It was dark wherever she was, and cold. The concrete floor numbing her limbs. Her senses sharpened doing her best to identify her surroundings, but it was no good.
"Alright I'll bite, who the fuck are you?"
"Who I am is of no consequence to you Jane."
She was sobering quickly, "Well whoever you are, you may as well kill me. When the BPD finds me you're going to wish you had."
The laugh was bitter and sharp. "No one even knows you're gone detective. What makes you think you're that important. With your history they'll put it down to a mental break, after all it's not out of character for you to shut yourself away. Just this time no one knows where."
"Don't be so fucking sure, I was being called in before you did whatever the hell you did to me. Someone knows I'm gone."
She twisted to try and see more, a surging pain through her side made her wince and bite down her cries. There was no way she would show this creep any satisfaction.
"If I were you detective I'd try and get comfy, you're going to be here for a while."
She heard footsteps and tried to follow them in the dark, a door opened shining light into the entry. He was cloaked in shadow, identity still a mystery. The heavy door slammed and the darkness returned.
After Maura and her techs could get all they could from Jane's car she drove home to quickly drop off Jo Friday. She could hardly turn up at the station with her. Cavanaugh had already been informed of all they knew before she left the scene. He had agreed to inform Angela and Frankie while she did everything she could. If she could find anything to identify Jane's attacker maybe it could help them find her.
She had retreated deeply into her rational self, there was evidence to collect, tests to run. She would be of no help to Jane if she let emotions stop her. Years ago this transformation would have been effortless, yet now there were niggling thoughts fighting to the forefront of her mind. What if Jane was hurt? What if Jane was dead? And just how could she carry on without her.
She had fought these questions the entire time she was processing the scene, even when she left an unbearably happy dog in her home. Yet as she marched into her office to find Angela sobbing onto Frankie's shoulder her emotions won out. Clamping a hand over her mouth she choked on a sob as she met the younger detective's glassy eyes.
Walking over Angela had lifted her head enough to see the doctor walk in. The hand that she had grasped Frankie's shirt with was outstretched to her. Without hesitation she accepted the hug no longer fighting against the clinical mind. The three stayed together for a few more moments until the elder Rizzoli drew herself up. She was trying very hard to keep her composure.
"What happened to my baby Maura?"
She offered them both clean tissues before speaking, her voice cracked a little from the tears.
"We know Jane left her apartment, it was locked and Jo was there when we checked. She's at my house right now, I couldn't leave her there."
Frankie nodded along as she wrapped his arms around himself.
"We found her cell phone on the road under her car, I hypothesise that she was holding it in her hand before someone attacked her causing her to drop it. There was some blood and hair near the roof of the car, we're confident it's Jane's. She hit her head, hard. No doubt disorientating her. That's really all we have right now. Nina is trying to go through any security cameras around the building, but it's going to take time."
"Jane had just closed a case two days ago, she wasn't working on anything current. That's why I was assigned to cover Marston's leave. So chances of an active suspect trying to take her out are very slim. But then that leaves us without any real motive or even a list of suspects. Who stands to gain anything by taking her?"
A little while later Maura was upstairs trying to help Nina find anything of use in the cc tv footage. All they had so far was Jane leaving the building before walking out of camera shot. They were working on contacting anyone operating security cameras nearby. The blonde's phone rang, looking at the caller ID she tried to sound chirpier than she felt.
"Jack, hello. I'm sorry I've not had time to check my messages. Tonight? I can't, I, I'm sorry Jack. There's been a serious incident at work and I'm needed here. I hope you can understand, I'll call you if I don't get home too late."
She sighed heavily as she placed her phone away.
"Not that I want to down play your technical skills Dr Isles, but you don't have to stay if you have plans."
Maura nodded lightly with a tight lipped smile. "Jane is more than my colleague Nina. She's my best friend. I can't go home without having done all I possibly could to find her. It's the least she would do for me."
"I apologise Dr Isles, I didn't mean to imply that you wouldn't do everything possible,"
"You didn't. Are there still officers doing door to door canvassing by the building?"
"One or two I think. What are you thinking?"
"The mini mart right there, I sometimes get beer for Jane there when she runs out. There are two cameras outside, if we can call one of the officers out there maybe they can see if the manager will let us have his tapes."
"I'll make the call,"
In the dark Jane pulled on the chain, the cuff on her right wrist was rubbing harshly against her skin. Her head was still throbbing and her side burned. Following the chain she surmised that there was four foot of chain between her and the wall, the end was padlocked around a secure anchor. Wrapping the chain around her forearm and bracing a boot against the wall she pulled as hard as she could. Grunting with exertion and pain, but nothing budged.
"Ok Rizzoli, brute force isn't going to get you out of here. What would Maura do? Other than tell me how the chain was welded together. Maybe if I can find something to wedge in the links? Ok so you've been in a dark room for a few hours and you're already talking to yourself. This doesn't bode well."
In a moment of clarity her left hand leapt to her hip expecting to find her side-arm, she groaned loudly when it wasn't there. Neither was her shield, in fact all of her belongings were gone. She had to find something, anything to damage the chain. With her palms out she did her best to scour the area for anything helpful.