Disclaimer: Neither Rizzoli & Isles nor Scott & Bailey belong to me. I am merely borrowing the characters. A/N For US readers: the first season of Scott & Bailey was on PBS recently, not being in the US I don't know if it is still available. Manchester UK It was 08:00 local time which made it 3am in Boston. Rizzoli and Frost had cleared customs and were walking tiredly out into the arrivals hall looking for two female detective constables whose pictures they had been given before leaving. "I feel like a right twat standing here with a sign saying "Rizzoli and Frost", sounds like a bloody Italian ice cream!" moaned Rachel. "Aww won't be for long, the plane has landed so they will be with us soon. Hopefully." Janet tried to sound soothing but was actually getting irritated with her friend who had been moaning like this all morning. Just then a tallish white woman with very dark brown hair and a slim black man of apparently similar height walked into the hall. They glanced around and then seemed to see what they were looking for. They then walked straight towards Janet and Rachel holding out their free hands. "Jane Rizzoli" Jane offered her hand to Rachel who took it "Rachel Bailey". "Barry Frost" He offered his hand to Janet who took it "Janet Scott". Jane then shook Janet's hand and Frost shook Rachel's. "Welcome to sunny Manchester. Follow us. The car's just outside." said Rachel. The rain was falling almost horizontally. "Comes from living on the west coast of an island off the west coast of a continent." said Janet who got a sharp look from Rachel. "Her ex-husband is a geography teacher." explained Rachel. All four then went to the car and after loading the luggage into the boot they all got in. Janet driving with Rachel beside her. Jane and Frost in the back. "Schedule for today." said Rachel, "We're taking you straight to the station where you'll be given the chance to freshen up. Then at 09:30 you'll be welcomed officially by Assistant Chief Constable Zalinski. Don't worry if you find her intimidating, everyone finds her planet sized brain intimidating. Then at 10:00 you meet Detective Superintendent Dodson who will be the Senior Investigating Officer for the task force hunting Patrick Doyle and Detective Chief Inspector Murray who will be her deputy. At 11:00 there'll be a briefing for the task force at which you'll be introduced to the rest of the team. Refs will be at 13:00. After which you'll be taken to your hotel to rest up if you want." Gill had texted her the updated schedule the previous evening. "Excuse me but what are refs?" asked Jane. "Sorry, its short for refreshments. Lunch basically. Oh if your not too tired after do either or both of you fancy a 'welcome to Manchester' drink? Won't be till about 9 o'clock tonight when we finish work though." asked Rachel. "Yeah that'd be good." said Jane. "Kind of you to offer but I think I'll take a rain check and rest up." said Frost. "How many people will be on this task force?" enquired Frost after a pause. "Not sure, they'll be our syndicate, we've got a detective sergeant and 10 detective constables. DSI Dodson's syndicate of two DS's and 20 DC's. But others will be there as well: anti-terrorism command will keep a watching brief as will MI5. Also the Serious Organised Crime Agency, they're usually referred to as SOCA, will probably be providing advisers. In addition their will be the usual help from the Police Search Agency, POLSA for short, technical support, Crime Scene Management, CSM for short, and firearms as and when." "Sounds like a lot of inter agency crap." Jane had never liked dealing with other agencies, she found they got in the way. "No! No, DSI Dodson will be firmly in charge. The people from the other agencies are seconded to the task force under her command. I'd like to see someone try to... They'd be out on their ear in 30 seconds." said Janet. "Be entertaining though! She'd burst a blood vessel!" laughed Rachel. "She sounds intimidating too!" Frost was looking worried. Rachel laughed then said "Don't look so worried! You're guests, you can't be fired by her." Frost looked even more worried. XXxXX Boston Maura had finally got to sleep at 2 am, so she wasn't in best form when she was awoken at 4 am by her phone. "Isles!" She was expecting it to be some Boston detective calling her to a crime scene. "Hello Maura!" It was Constance, the woman she had been adopted by. 'Mother' was now a complicated concept for Maura. "Constance, it's 4am!" "Sorry, sorry. I forgot about the time difference." "Where are you?" "Manchester, England" Maura was thrown at first, then a chill struck her heart. "What are you doing there?" There was an edge to Maura's voice. "Patrick needs help." "Wwwhaaatttt?" "Patrick needs help." "NO! He's wanted on both sides of the Atlantic. And the British might look all gentle and easy but they don't mess about where suspected terrorists are concerned." "Patrick's not a terrorist." "They think he might have raised funds for NORAID, in there eyes that makes him one." Maura thought quickly, panic seizing her, clouding her judgement. "I'm coming over!" "Good I hoped you'd say that, a car will pick you up in half an hour. Don't bring your passport." The line went dead, Maura was stunned and dressed in a daze. She was still in a daze when the car picked her up. XXxXX Manchester It was now 10am, Jane and Frost were being introduced to DSI Dodson. "We've done a little search and found your Mr Doyle arriving at Manchester Airport off a flight from Cancun, Mexico two weeks ago. He was met by this woman." Julie passed CCTV images of the woman to Jane and Frost. Jane's hand went to her mouth. "That's Constance!" she said, "Constance Isles. She adopted one of his children." "Right! Well we followed their car on CCTV until it left Manchester on a little country road. Where we lost it. It turned up burnt out at a disused quarry. We managed to recover a VIN, according to the PNC it was stolen in London two weeks ago. I have no doubt they had another car waiting." said Julie. "Constance is rich. Very rich. She has no criminal history but she does seem to be fond of Doyle. Oh and what is the PMC?" Jane looked a bit puzzled. "Pappa November Charlie:" Julie spelled out the letters using the NATO alphabet, "Police National Computer. It contains many details but for now it is enough for you to know it has the details of every car registered in the UK." Then she turned to Gill "She'll have bank accounts, can we get onto those. Details of any cards she holds and when and where they have been used. Going back ten years." "Won't you need warrants to do that?" asked Frost. "No, the only thing we'd need a warrant for is a search of premisses." said Julie. Adding as an afterthought "And not always then. OK that's all for now." At eleven o'clock DSI Dodson was briefing the task force. "Welcome to operation Silly Season". Laughter. She held up her hand, palm forward. Silence. "Yeah I know but believe it or not that was the least stupid name I was offered! The weather seems to have got to the computer." She then introduced Jane and Frost. "For those of you who are sceptical about the value of this kind of deployment. I have to tell you that Detective Rizzoli has ID'd the woman who met Patrick Doyle as one Constance Isles. Finance are crawling all over her life as we speak." Jane put her hand up. "Yes Detective Rizzoli?" "Can I just say that it a huge surprise to me that she is involved. I'll be asking people in the US to investigate." "We've already put in requests to the FBI, Interpol and Europol. But anything you can dig up in Boston would also be useful." Julie Continued. "Right the DS's will now go through the HP actions for each team. First priority is to identify any connections either Doyle or Isles have in Manchester or the rest of the UK. Also high on the list is to provide background on the victim. We are told that Doyle does not kill people indiscriminately. He kills people he considers deserve to be killed." Rachel held up her hand. "But what I don't get is: why advertise himself? I always thought an ice pick was a axe-like thing carried by mountaineers and polar explorers. This is almost as if he's challenging us to find him." "This is a method of killing he has become used to over the years. Once a killer gets used to one method it can be difficult to change." Everyone craned their necks to see who had spoken, ACC Karen Zalinski was at the back of the room applying her Ph'D in criminal psychology. "But I agree with DC Bailey. We shouldn't be blind to the possibility that somebody else is trying to lead us to Doyle so they can get away with murder." Julie said. Karen Zalinski nodded in agreement much to Julie's relief. After the briefing Jane and Rachel were talking in the corridor on the way back to the office. "That ACC sounds like a profiler." said Jane. "Ph'D in criminal psychology, spent time at Quntico. Rumour is they still ask her opinion from time to time." replied Rachel. "No wonder she's intimidating!" said Jane. They went and got lunch in the police canteen, plain fare but filling. After lunch Jane said "Korzak should be in by now. I'll try ringing him." She phoned from DSI Dodson's office. Korzak picked up on the fifth ring. "Korzak" "Vince!" "Hi Jane fl..." "Vince listen this is urgent. We need all the background on Constance Isles! She met Doyle off the plane in Manchester." Vince was in shock for the second time that morning. "Also Vince, could you please email the list of Doyle's main enemies to DCI Murray?" "Yeah sure, and I've got some news for you too: Maura's disappeared! According to your mother a car came at about 5am, someone got in, and then it left." "Oh can this case get any weirder! Got to go." She put the phone down. "Patrick Doyle's daughter, the one that Constance Isles adopted? She disappeared!" Jane was talking to Julie now. "OK tell me about her!" ordered Julie. "Well she's my best friend for starters. Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for seconds. Extremely rich in her own right for third. Oh and she comes out in a rash when she lies." Explained Jane. "Got a picture of your best mate on your phone have you?" asked Julie. "Yes. Here it is." said Jane handing over her phone with Maura's picture on it. "Get copies of that made, put out an all ports bulletin, including internal flights from Belfast and the ferry. I want her tracked. Hold her in customs long enough to put a tracker on her and then I want her followed everywhere she goes, I want to know if she so much as farts in the UK!" Julie was barking this stream of orders at one of her DS's who replied with meekly "Yes ma'am." and took the phone. "You'll get that back in an hour" Julie told Jane. Jane wandered what the DS's life would be like if he didn't get this right, probably not good! "It's OK, give it to Rachel when you've finished with it. She can give it to me tonight when we go for our 'welcome to Manchester' drink." said Jane before continuing "I'd like to get to the hotel now and get my head down. I didn't get much sleep on the plane..." "Of course, I'll get Rachel to take you, RACHEL … Would you take Detective Rizzoli to her hotel please?" said Julie "Yes ma'am, what about Detective Frost?" asked Rachel. "He's with the tech support comparing hard disc sizes!" chirped Janet. "Probably best if he goes and checks in even if he does want to come back afterwards." said Rachel. So Janet went to get him. After Janet returned with Frost Rachel took him and Jane to their hotel.