A/N- I have been enjoying writing the last few chapters that I almost forgot that there was a case to be solved in here somewhere, so here it is. I'm not a crime writer but I did my best. Thanks for all the reviews, they have been great!

Chapter 12

The next few days passed fairly quietly. Angela had eventually stopped harassing Jane and agreed to try and forget what she had walked in on and would probably never forget. Jane had seen Maura as usual every day at work and they had even had an after work drink with Frost and Korsak on one occasion without any awkwardness between them. There was the odd time that Jane had caught herself gazing a little too long and some may say, dreamily at Maura but she was sure that nobody else had noticed and of course Maura was ever the classy example of being cool and collected, which made things easier.

So, it had somehow reached the eve of Jane's wedding. It seemed that her Ma and Casey had everything under control and she just had to show up and say I do.

Jane tried to focus her attention on the never ending case of Saba Kahlid which seemed to just keep taking her round in circles. It had been a tough case, not much evidence but Jane firmly believed that the Father had killed his own daughter, maybe with help from the mother. An honour killing, she just couldn't prove it yet and they still hadn't found the missing cell phone that had been used to beat her to death.

The only avenue she had left to explore was to speak to the girl's sister. So far the father hadn't let them get anywhere near her and it bothered Jane that she was in that house with who knows what going on. Jane had managed a few words with her a couple of times and each time the girl had seemed terrified, like she didn't have a clue what was going on. Today Jane planned to try a more gentle approach and had asked Maura along, she got the feeling Frost and Korsak were scaring the girl as much as anything else and who could resist Maura's charms?

While Jane thought long and hard about Maura's abundant charms she failed to notice that Maura had reached the car where Jane waited. Maura slipped in beside a red faced Jane.

"Hi...are you okay Jane?" Maura asked as she studied the now beetroot face of a flustered Jane who snatched at the keys to start the car.

"Sure." Jane nodded looking at the road ahead. "Sure, I'm swell!"

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Jane pulled over on the opposite side of the road to the house and looked over at it. Looked like a normal, cosy, suburban family home. Jane turned off the engine, stifled a yawn and stretched her arms up over her head.

Maura stared at her. "You look unusually tired, Jane. Give me your hand." Maura held out her own hand expectantly.

"Why?" Jane asked suspiciously, offering Maura a hand anyway.

"I'm checking to see if your finger nails are pale." Maura replied lifting Jane's hand for closer study.

"Can I ask why?"

"Checking for iron-deficiency anemia. During pregnancy the amount of blood in your body increases by 50 percent, iron is essential to produce the extra haemoglobin for all that blood." Maura said, dropping Jane's hand and looking intently into her eyes. "Have you noticed that the undersides of your eyelids are pale?" Maura asked seriously. Jane had been wearing an expression of disgust since Maura had begun her explanation.

"Gee, I haven't checked the underside of my eyelids today Maura." Jane blurted. "Come on."

"Jane, have you been given all the correct pre-natal supplements by your OBGYN?" Maura continued as Jane rolled her eyes and glanced out of her window taking the door handle in her hand. Jane paused as she spotted movement and saw Mr Kahlid leaving the house and getting into his car.

"Bingo." Jane whispered victoriously, punching the air with a fist before discreetly turning her body and face away from the window and covering them slightly with an arm. Mr Kahlid's car passed them and Jane straightened up. "That was the dad." Jane explained to a slightly bemused looking Maura. "He is out of the house, now is our chance to speak with the girl, let's go."

Maura followed Jane across the street and up to the front door where Jane knocked firmly.

"I hope she's here. They may have already shipped her off for the wedding of her dreams." Jane smiled sardonically.

"You know Jane, the divorce rate in the US and Canada is somewhere between 40 and 50 percent, while arranged marriage statistics look to be somewhere between 5 and 7 percent. Now, I'll admit that the data is not completely reliable as we can never eliminate the influence of religious or cultural norms and attitude toward divorce, however there are many examples of arranged marriage being fulfilling and loving for both parties."

Maura was in her element when sharing some study, statistic or scientific knowledge with Jane and instead of Jane's normal sarcastic response; she opted for indulgence and just smiled happily at Maura before turning to bang louder and longer on the front door.

A few moments later, just as Jane was considering kicking down the door or smashing through a window, a face appeared at a thin gap as the door was edged slightly open. Jane flashed the woman her badge as she stepped forward. "Boston PD, I just want a quick chat with your daughter." Jane added more gently. "Zakia, we need to speak with Zakia."

As the woman shook her head fearfully the door suddenly flew open and the young woman Jane had seen shaking in her Fathers shadow on more than one occasion stood tall in the doorway. "You better come in." Zakia said waving her mother away as she began to protest in a language Jane did not understand.

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A few minutes later Maura and Jane were sat in what looked like any American teenage girls bedroom, with Zakia sitting cross legged on the bed.

"Zakia, we just wanted to hear from you about what happened to your sister, you're the only person we haven't had a chance to speak to and you probably knew her best of all right?" Jane spoke as she walked slowly around the room, finally stopping in front of a picture of the two sisters at a younger age wearing extravagant matching Saris, smiling at the camera.

Maura had seated herself on the edge of the bed opposite Zakia and smiled at her encouragingly.

"We were close. Saba always looked out for me, at school, here. She was only a year older but she was a lot smarter than me, more popular and she always stood up to Dad in a way I never could. I am a coward." Zakia's eyes were cast downward and shook her head slowly.

Maura reached a hand out to comfort the girl and spoke quietly. "I am sure that's not true." Maura said sincerely and Zakia looked up into Maura's face.

"What do you think happened to your sister Zakia?" Jane said, right to point.

"She used to tell me everything." Zakia spoke to Maura. "But lately, since she met him, she had all these secrets, she would sneak out of the house and she wouldn't tell me where she was going." Maura waited for her to go on. "I needed her and she was leaving me, she was going to run off and leave me here with them." Zakia's face had contorted with disgust.

Jane took a step toward the bed. "So you knew that she was running away?" She asked.

Zakia finally gave her attention to Jane. "I found out that day. She was rushing around, getting ready to leave, telling me that she was sorry but she couldn't stay." Zakia was staring into a corner of the room as if she was seeing something that wasn't there.

Jane bent down to make herself level with Zakia. "Then what happened?" Jane said gently.

"A phone fell out of her bag, I didn't recognise it, it wasn't hers. I picked it up and flicked through the texts, they were all from him, she didn't even notice she just kept on packing. It was all there, she was leaving and she would never be coming back." Zakia said bitterly.

Zakia looked back at Maura. "Do you know what happens when one daughter dishonours the family in such a way? The one who is left has to marry really well, and quickly." Zakia put her head in her hands for a moment before slowly raising it to look resolutely up at Jane. "I didn't want to hurt her; I just couldn't watch her leave."

Jane frowned. "What did you do Zakia?" She said calmly.

"I hit her. I never, we never fought before, some of my friends they always get into fist fights with their family, punching each other, shoving. We never did. It was like, when I hit her once, I knew I could do it again, and I wanted to. I had the phone in my hand; I think I hit her three or four times." Tears rolled freely down her face now. "But she got up, she was okay, she walked out of the house."

Maura spoke to Zakia now. "Your sister had received some damage to her brain due to the blows to the head, and her brain began to swell and to bleed and this was eventually what killed her a few hours later. Saba probably had a headache and may have been sick but she probably didn't try and get help as she was intent on running away." Zakia listened to every word and edged closer to Maura who put a protective arm around her shoulders.

Jane turned her back on the scene so she could think. They couldn't use this confession, the minute the Father returned this kid would be shut up and out of reach, Jane hadn't expected this.

Then Zakia was up from the bed and crossing to her school bag which hung from the back of a chair. The young girl unzipped a small pocket on the inside of the bag and took out a mobile phone. Jane knew without asking that this was the murder weapon. Zakia crossed the room and handed it to Maura. "Either way I would be spending the rest of my life in a prison right?" Zakia swiped at her face with the back of her hand, trying to wipe away some of the tears and looking more like a child than ever.

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