Chapter 5

Jane walked briskly into the doorway of the morgue and immediately began.

"I spoke with her parents again, Dads a religious nutball, mum could barely speak for herself. Dad says he was unhappy with the kids she was hanging out with thinks this is down to them. Not much he did like, her clothes, her friends, says she was bringing shame on him."

Maura processed the information silently knowing that Jane was just thinking aloud and didn't need any response.

"Frost and I spoke to her friends, they didn't seem like bad kids, but they say she had a boyfriend, not at college. We have to find him, but of course it was all secretive, wrong clan..."

"Caste" Maura corrected.

"The friends say her father was sending her back home to marry her off, she didn't want to go."

"That is a common practice in their community Jane, It must be very difficult to see a child turning their back on a culture and way of life that you want for them and even more difficult to be a young woman trying to keep obligations to your family and yet wanting to fit in with the world you are living in." Maura said reasonably.

Jane sighed "So, you got me a cause of death Doc?

Maura noted that Jane hadn't come all the way into the room and stood with her arms folded defensively almost wrapped completely around herself.

"There are some faint contusions around her neck, consistent with someone gripping her tightly around the neck with their hands, they are older than the other injuries and there was not enough damage to kill her, the windpipe is intact." Maura pointed out the marks.

Jane nodded, her whole body loosening up slightly as both women concentrated fully on the girl in front of them.

"The blunt force trauma to the head caused an intracranial hematoma which was the cause of death. It would have taken some time for her brain to swell like this, so it is unlikely that the attack took place at the scene."

Maura crossed to the film box and flicked on a switch illuminating the image of a skull.

"Any idea as to the weapon?" Jane asked finally moving into the room to study the image.

"There are some oblong indentations here" Maura pointed "There is also damage on the face which is consistent with the shape on the skull."

"So she was hit about the face and head with something." Jane joined the dots. "But what?"

Maura was silent but shot Jane a look before biting her tongue. Jane waited, almost patiently.

"The shape and size of the object mean that it could be a number of things..." Maura broke off as Jane rolled her eyes.

"It could be a cell phone; I am already running tests on the one found at the scene, there was no obvious trace evidence." Maura was not looking Jane in the eye.

"But you don't think it's that one." Jane concluded, nodding.

"I didn't say..."

"You didn't have to, I know by now what you are thinking before you do." Jane grinned.

"I wouldn't assume.."

Jane turned to leave. "Let me know when the results are in, I gotta go get a warrant for some cell phones."

...

That evening Jane was due to have dinner with Casey, Jane had stayed at work probably a little longer than was reasonably required of her and was only leaving now that there really was no more she could do until Maura got back to them with results on all the phones she had collected.

They had found the boyfriend through a friend of the family that Saba had confided in. Jane thought he was a nice guy, couldn't see why Saba's dad wasn't happy, he clearly loved her, he had a good job, he even prayed to the same god as Saba, that is more than most parents get. Jane couldn't rule him out as a suspect of course; plenty of seemingly nice guys kill the girl they claim to love, in Jane's experience.

Jane hadn't seen Maura since they had discussed the case earlier in the day and she had really tried not to think about her which was some of the reason she had stayed at work so late, but now as she sat with Casey on her sofa eating takeout and chatting, she couldn't get Maura off her mind.

The way that Maura had looked at her in her dress, the way it had felt when she kissed Jane, almost like she was kissing her goodbye. It had taken every ounce of self control Jane possessed, not to take hold of Maura and kiss her like there was no tomorrow, but there was.

Jane kept telling herself that this wedding stuff was making them both crazy and that once she and Casey were married things could go back to normal, nothing would really have to change, sometimes she even believed it.

"You okay Jane? you've been quiet tonight." Casey asked pulling her towards him slightly with the arm he had wrapped around her back.

Jane smiled and leaned into him giving him a light kiss on the cheek. "Sure, just tired, this case is going nowhere."

"You wanna go to bed?" Casey asked planting a kiss on the top of her head.

"Yeah, I'm beat." Jane got up from the sofa and took Casey by the hand.