Jo Friday barked as Kate Beckett entered the apartment. It was just as Jane had left it. Maura's bra was hanging from the ceiling fan, and one of her expensive skirts was on the bar stool. The scene depressed Jane. She threw her blazer on the leather chair, and strode toward the kitchen. Kate knelt down and petted the terrier mix, trying to ignore the strewn clothes. Jane went into her bedroom and changed into her pajama pants, and she tripped.

"Damn it Bass! Why are you always sneaking up on me?" Kate followed Jane's voice into the bedroom and had the same reaction to Bass as Jane had the first time she had seen him.

"What is that?"

Jane looked up at Kate. "Oh! Uhh, it's Dr. Isles' tortoise. He stays here from time to time." Usually on the days Maura does. Which was supposed to be tonight.

Kate was wary of the tortoise, side stepping it before sitting on Jane's bed. Which was unmade, and the rest of Maura and Jane's clothes were scattered around the room. "Why?"

"He has some connection with my dog, Jo Friday. I can't explain it that well, Maura could do it better."

"You sure talk about her a lot."
"She's my… She's my best friend. Come on, let's go look at the case files." She led the way back to the living room, but halted at the kitchen. "You want a beer?"

"Yeah, thanks."

Jane brought the two beers to the table and sat on the couch next to Kate, but not too close. The last time she had been on this couch was last night was with Maura… Fuck it Jane! Stop thinking about her! Jane decided to break the silence. She dove right into it.

"You got shot?"

Kate almost spit up her beer. "Yeah. At my captain's funeral."

"Ah."

Kate glanced once more around the apartment, and Jane regretted not cleaning up. She thought that was what the other detective was noticing, but it wasn't.

"What made you a hero?" Jane followed Kate's gaze to the framed newspaper clipping. 'Hero Cop'.

"I shot myself." Jane downed another swig of beer.

"How does that make you a hero?"

"That's what I said."

Kate had a confused look on her face. "What happened?"

"I don't really want to talk about it. Why don't you read the clipping?"

"Talk."

Jane put her beer down on the table. "Fine. Uh. That day a cop was killed. I had a pack of cigarettes to log into evidence, but I decided to get the dead cop's partner coffee first. I was with a witness when the power went out, and I went into the stairwell with her. Someone started shooting at us and… the witness got shot. She was dead in a matter of minutes. The dead cop's partner, Bobby, he came into the stairwell and helped. He was already shot in the leg. I heard my brother Frankie, at the bottom of the stairs, he had gotten shot, but he had his vest. I thought of Maura, and what I'd do if she was killed, so I got Bobby to help me get Frankie down to the morgue.

"Maura was down there. A couple of guys had come down and she had hid herself. She said they looked through evidence storage. They were trying to find something, and at the time, I didn't know what. The walkie connected with Korsak, but then a guy burst in and he demanded the pack of cigarettes. I tried to give them to him, but he said, 'Why don't you hand them to Bobby?'" Jane downed another drink of beer.

"And then you knew."

"Yeah, and then I knew. I asked him how he could do it and he explained that he was the dirty cop. He was going to kill us and waltz out of there, saying he tried to save the day. Did I mention that Frankie at this point has severe internal bleeding? He was going to die. And then Maura, fucking amazing Maura, had held the walkie button the whole time. With her heel. The heel of her fucking stiletto. Korsak said next that Bobby shouldn't do it, and that he's caught. He… He grabbed me, the gun to my head. He dragged me out in front and yelled that he was just going to walk away. No one could shoot; he was using my body to block their shots. I grabbed the gun and pulled it down to my stomach. All I was thinking about was getting Frankie medical help. I pulled the trigger."

Kate was silent as Jane picked up the first case file, then the next. Soon she was shuffling through each one comparing them. Kate knew she had found something.

"What is it?"

"I think I may have found a pattern… In the first case, the man had two daughters, which every dead guy has… But, the first vic had daughters that were one and two, and the second, one and a half and three, the third, 2 and 4. Do you see it? Their youngest daughters are half the age of the older one. That's his pattern!"

Kate connected the dots. "Jane! You are a genius!" She had to admit that Jane was pretty clever. It didn't lead them anywhere new, but who knows, it could help them along the way. Kate looked at the most recent case files.

"Woah, look at this… These victims have either an older sibling twice their age or a younger one half their age. Do you think the killer has a sibling that he blames for … something?"

"Kate, I think we're on to something."

Author's Note: Hey, I'm trying for one chapter a night, and so far that's going good. Thanks for the reviews! They're really keeping me going! Sorry for the recapping, but I kind of felt it was necessary. Stuff is in store for chapter 7!