Blue

Chapter 13

Disclaimer: Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles do not belong to me. No infringement intended and no profit will be made from their use.

After the shooting range Jane and Maura stopped to grab some sandwiches before going back to Maura's house where Jane disappeared into the guest room. Maura knew Jane would want to look into the new information she had learned and that Jane had been very patient at the shooting range when Maura wanted to stay and shoot over and over until she felt confident that she knew how to use the gun.

On the drive back to Maura's house they had discussed whether Jane should still stay at Maura's house for safety. Jane seemed conflicted, Maura thought, about whether it was safer for Maura if Jane was there or not there. For her part, Maura felt better about the two of them sticking together. Jane seemed less likely to do something rash if Maura was around, so Maura asked Jane to continue to stay.

Jane was upstairs for about an hour. Maura didn't really know how the detectives did background research into people, but she decided it was probably better she didn't know how easy it was to invade people's privacy.

"Well," Jane said when she came downstairs, "Bernard Sullivan seems to have checked out and be who he says he is. Nothing sketchy came up on him. Robert Petrozelli, on the other hand, is a little more interesting. Former police, homicide detective, and eventually Lieutenant. Retired in 1993 at age 52 with thirty years of service. Did some security consulting work for a few years after that, but seems largely to have had a quiet retirement living in West Roxbury. I'm gonna go out for a little while. I can bring back dinner if you want."

Maura was surprised. "Where are you going?"

"I want to talk to Korsak."

"You can't use the phone?"

"No. I won't be gone long."

Jane drove to Korsak's house in South Boston, the home of equal numbers of cops and criminals going back at least a hundred years. Korsak opened the door shortly after Jane's knock. "Jane, is something wrong?"

"No, I just wanted to ask a question about a former cop you may have known."

"Oh, well come in." Korsak directed her to his living room.

Jane dove right in and asked, "Did you work with Robert Petrozelli?"

"No, he retired before I got to Homicide. Why are you asking about him?"

Jane had put on her interrogation face. "I'd rather not say."

"You can trust me Jane."

"I'm not sure if I can trust anyone right now. And we haven't exactly been close recently."

"You know that's mostly on you. But look, Petrozelli was in Homicide when they didn't do shit. When he retired they brought in new leadership from other divisions and forced a few other detectives into retirement. But he must have had some dirt on somebody because the brass never tried to get rid of him. Or if they tried, they weren't successful."

"Anything else you can remember?"

Korsak shifted uncomfortably. "There was talk, rumors, that Homicide was dirty, that they weren't guys to cross. But nothing specific."

Jane was confused. "How can homicide be dirty? There's nothing in Petrozelli's information to suggest he was getting money, unless he's very good a hiding it or has been sitting on it for twenty years."

"I don't mean money. There were rumors that the reason their clearance rate was low was because they weren't trying very hard to solve certain murders. I don't know any more than that."

"That's fucked up. Someone was snooping in my office and got concerned about something I found. And Petrozelli was tipped off because somehow it involves him. The problem is I don't know what it is that I found. Do you know anyone still around that would have connections to Petrozelli?"

"No, I don't. There can't be too many people."

Jane got up to leave.

"Jane, whatever you've gotten yourself into, be careful."

Jane nodded and then left. She stopped by her usual Chinese take-out place and picked up dinner before returning to Maura's house. Jane didn't notice anything suspicious or anyone following her. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Was Petrozelli backing off or gearing up for something bigger?

At Maura's, Jane updated Maura on the conversation with Korsak while they ate dinner. On the drive back, Jane decided that she needed to give Maura all the information she had with the hope that Maura's brain could help her get to the bottom of what was going on faster.

After they ate, Jane brought down all of the files and the personnel information she hadn't shown Maura yet. She spread everything on Maura's dining table and they sat down across each other and started going through files again.

Four hours later they were still at it. At some point Jane moved to the couch. After her third time through the files, Maura looked around and realized Jane was asleep. Maura was about the wake Jane up but stopped and just looked at her. Jane had curled on her side and dropped the file she was reading on the floor. She looked so peaceful and content sleeping and Maura felt what had become a very familiar pull towards Jane.

Times like this Maura thought it would be so easy to give in to her feelings and forget about the risk involved in entrusting her heart to Jane. How different could it really be from where they were now? "Jane," Maura said softly."

"Mmm?"

"Come on, it's time for bed."

Jane cracked an eye open. "Why did you wake me up then?"

"Because you're on the couch and your back will hurt tomorrow if you sleep there."

Jane slowly swung her legs to the floor and sat up. She ran her hands over her face and through her hair. "Did you find anything?"

"No. We'll keep looking tomorrow. Come to bed." Maura reached out her hand to help Jane off of the couch. Once Jane stood up, Maura laced her fingers with Jane's and led Jane upstairs.

Maura didn't let go at the top of the stairs and pulled Jane into her bedroom. Just inside the doorway Maura stopped and turned around. She smoothed her hands over Jane's shoulders. "Do you think you would be willing to stay in here with me tonight?"

Jane sighed. "I wouldn't want to get the wrong idea. You're kinda sending mixed signals, Maur."

"Just, after our day, it would make me feel better." It wasn't a lie, just an omission of critical facts. Jane would assume that Maura meant she was feeling uneasy after discovering she was being followed. Maura simply selfishly wanted to see what felt like to go sleep and wake up next to Jane.

Jane relented. "Just let me go change and stuff."

When Jane came back, in shorts and a t-shirt and her hair pulled into a ponytail, Maura was already lying on her back under her fluffy white comforter. The bedroom was freezing and Jane quickly slid under the covers and settled on her side facing Maura. Maura turned towards Jane and studied her face. She tucked a stray lock of hair behind Jane's ear. "You look tired. Are you taking care of yourself at all?"

"Jesus," Jane rolled her eyes. "The past few weeks I think I've been doing better. Since we've been talking again. I think that's helped. And these cases have given me some focus."

Maura returned to lying on her back and was silent for a few minutes before saying, "I do love you, Jane. I just...I just don't know if I can be with you."

"What am I supposed to do with that information?"

"I don't know," Maura said softly.

"Am I supposed to wait for you to figure it out?"

"I didn't say that."

Under the covers Jane put her hand on Maura's upper arm. "Goodnight, Maura."

In the morning, Jane woke up in an empty bed. She was slightly disoriented until she remembered she had slept in Maura's bed. She looked at the clock. It was only 7am. Jane got out of bed and shivered. It was freezing. She went into the guest room and put on pants and a sweatshirt before going downstairs to find Maura.

Maura was at the table. "What are you doing?" Jane asked.

"I think I have something. I woke up and had a thought and came down here to see what happened. I made a timeline of the murders and and a timeline of when the detectives you have the files on started working in Homicide. Look, when the two are combined the murders match up to within a week of the start dates of the new detectives. Not all the murders are matched, but seven are and you may not have a full list of detectives."

"Holy shit, Maura," Jane said looking at the lists. "How did you figure this out?"

"I don't know. While we're sleeping our brains process information from the day. Something must have clicked in my brain."

"This can't just be coincidence, right?" Jane muttered.

"It seems improbable that this could be a result of chance."

"This is bad. This is really, really, bad. What the fuck is going on here?"

"The explanation that seems most logical based on this evidence is that somehow the homicide department was involved in the murders. It's almost too terrible to even consider. What are you going to do now?"

"I don't know. I need more evidence."

"I need to go to work this morning. Are you coming in too?"

"Um, yeah, I should, but you go ahead and I'll see you there."

Jane spent some more time looking over the details Maura put together and trying to figure out her next move. When she was finally ready to go to the office she remembered she didn't have a car so she took the subway. She went straight to her office where she found someone already occupying her desk chair.

He appeared to be calmly waiting for her. Jane looked him over. He looked to be in his early seventies. He had white, thinning hair. He looked like he used to be a big guy but had lost some of his stature with age. "Robert Petrozelli?" Jane said.

"Detective Rizzoli. How nice to see you?"

"What do you want?"

"Since you seemed so unimpressed with my note and with Bernie, I thought I should pay you a visit myself. Let me make myself as clear as possible. If you don't drop this investigation immediately, you are going to get hurt."

Jane sat down in the other chair the office. "You may want to reconsider whether you still have friends you can trust in this building. Someone upstairs assigned me to these cases and if they knew what I going to find then they want to take you down."

Petrozelli barked a short laugh. "They'll never risk the embarrassment this would cause and you won't risk it either."

"I think you may been misinformed about me. Look around you. I can't go any lower than this. You have nothing on me."

"Really? You wouldn't want anything to happen to your pretty friend would you?" he smirked.

"I would suggest that you don't underestimate her. But if I hear that someone so much as cuts her off in traffic I'm going to hold you responsible. You're not the only one who knows how to make a homicide unsolvable."

"You sure are a cocky bitch. Back in my day they didn't let lezzie bitches like you be detectives."

"From what I understand, back in your day there weren't too many murders getting solved either."

Petrozelli rose and headed to the door. "I'll see you around Rizzoli."

"Why those women?" Jane called after him.

Petrozelli eyed her. "They were cocky bitches too."