Wednesday, 12:55 P.M.
Jane waited for the elevator to take her back down to the homicide unit, excitement recharging her batteries. The press conference went well; none of the reporters asked any questions that would have created a great sound-bite to embarrass the BPD and everyone seemed willing to ignore that the hastily put together press conference was instigated by the Boston Daily's sensationalized morning headline. Despite the bright lights and the pressure of being put on display for the public, Jane felt as if she handled the situation appropriately.
Each lighted number of the various floors slowly passed with no hurry, ignoring the anxious detective bouncing on the balls of her feet while releasing herself from the suffocating grip of Jane's dress jacket. The dinging of lowering floors brought Jane back to her main priority, getting this serial killer off the streets. She had purposefully left out some details to the public regarding the reasonably high risk of losing the serial because of the lack of time but it was a necessary risk she had to take. Playing a gamble with the press is risky, but I know I can catch this guy before my gamble comes back and bites me in the ass. If anyone can do it, it's me. A final ding of arrival echoed through the small space and Jane slipped through the doors before they could even open fully, focused on nothing but returning back to her case.
Before she could return back to her desk unnoticed, Korsak and Frost stepped into Jane's way with proud smiles. "Who knew Jane was so photogenic, Frost? For someone who hates wearing her dress blues, she looks awfully nice in them." Korsak joked toward his ex-partner, ignoring the woman's look of extreme irritation upon being blocked.
Frost, sensing the playful mood coming from Korsak, followed suit with the ribbing, eyebrows rising in mock surprise. "I totally agree. Maybe she'd look into making a career change? It'd be big news to have a homicide detective turn into a model…like America's Next Top Model!"
Rolling their eyes together at the young African-American detective, Jane and Korsak proceeded to walk off toward their desks, leaving Frost baffled by their responses. "Come on," he pleaded, breaking off slightly as the other detectives in the squad room stared at him with a chuckle before walking to their desks. "It was a joke…I mean, not like a joke regarding your attractiveness, Jane, but like that you'd be a model. Not to say that you couldn't be a model, though. You know what I mean, right?"
"No," Jane deadpanned, turning back to give her partner an icy stare, "I don't. Please tell me we have something new with this case. Actually, anything remotely helpful would bring a smile to my face."
Just as Jane got back to her desk, Cavanaugh came from his office to address the entire squad. In response to his sudden appearance, her guard came up as her mind quickly processed all of the potential reasons why the Lieutenant would decide to show his face. Damn it, what is it now? Motioning toward Korsak to announce Cavanaugh's arrival, she took off the dress jacket and slung it across her unused chair, turning back to the Loo. Judging from his deep frown, she knew immediately that whatever he was going to say wouldn't be good if he felt the need to address the entire unit.
"The mayor has asked me to congratulate the homicide unit and, in particular, Jane Rizzoli for showcasing the department to the public in a dignified manner." Cavanaugh said, ignoring the eye-roll of annoyance from Jane. "But the feds feel as if it would be in their best interest to get involved in this case. And before some of you get on my back, I tried to go to bat for this unit, but the feds have more juice. You know that and I know that."
Jane's hands clinched in frustration, her eyebrows furrowing. "This is my case, sir."
"I know that, detective. Trust me, I know," he said, voice rising in response to Jane's tone. "That's why I requested that my unit have another couple of days to work this case before getting the feds involved. They promised me they would remain hands-off, but I wouldn't be surprised if we end up having differing definitions of how many days constitute a couple. I want everyone working this case as priority one, no exceptions. My experience with the feds tells me that they'll ignore their promise if they sense an opportunity to get their claws into an opportunity to take the glory. Jane, you're still running point on this case. I want this guy off the streets; preferably with my men taking him in. Get to work."
With little fanfare, the Lieutenant left the homicide detectives to return back to his office. Jane watched him go, feeling a level of respect for her Lieutenant that surprised her. She'd been through her share of commanders, both good and bad, but he was one of the first to actually respect her decisions as an experienced detective and not because of the amount of juice she did or didn't have. Not only had Cavanaugh allowed her to be lead on this case since the beginning but, even now, he was endorsing her continued efforts to work it until the feds got involved. He's putting his trust in me to get this guy, the public is now going to be expecting to see someone they can throw their blame on, and I need to prove to myself that I can handle this level of pressure. Everything is dependent on me, time to get to work.
"Alright, we don't have much time on our hands to work this case so we're going to have to push hard. We believe the killer will have one more death based off of the messages he leaves at the scenes in the victims' blood. Based off the previous victims' timelines, that gives us about 24 hours to find some kind of connection to nail this guy." Jane commanded to her other detectives, taking a brief breath before continuing. "Korsak, bring everyone up to speed on this case. Frost, start looking at those messages. I'm going to change back into some normal clothes and check up on CSU to determine where they are with our evidence."
"You're going to harass the techies again, aren't you?" Frost asked with a smile.
"I find that it makes them work faster." Jane said, grabbing her folded yet wrinkled clothes from last night off her desk. "Call me if something breaks."
*!*!*!*!*!*!*
After taking a couple of minutes to change, the harried detective moved with long strides toward the CSU, hoping to pressure them into rushing their evidence from last night. Even though she remembered Maura saying something about an officer involved shooting that had taken the techies attention, Jane had the Lieutenant on her side. If his juice can't make these MIT graduates work a little faster, then I don't know what will.
As Jane was picking up speed, Maura walked out of her office, colliding directly into the detective's path. With a yell of frustration, Jane stopped in her tracks. "What are you doing?"
"I work here?" the chief medical examiner asked quizzically. "Should I be somewhere else? I guess I could set up an office in the elevator since that's where I've been spending most of my time lately, but I don't think that would be very conducive to thorough autopsy results."
"Maura…" Jane growled, failing to keep the building anger over the events of the last couple of days in check. "You know what I mean. Why aren't you autopsying or trying to find a lead in this case? I've been working my ass of trying to find a way to get this guy and you're just walking around? Come on, are you serious?"
Maura's body tensed in response to Jane's tone, hands coming across her chest as she returned Jane's frustration back at her. "Why do you insist on doing this, Jane? Do you honestly think I'm just sitting around, staring at the walls, and not trying to help out? I want this serial off the streets just as much as you do and I've been working just as hard as you to find something to connect this guy back to the artistic director. Just because I don't become obsessed with my cases and lose focus of anything that doesn't directly relate back to said cases, doesn't mean I don't care or I'm not working as hard as you, Jane. Sometimes I don't think you realize how much your actions hurt people." Suddenly, a group of CSU techies came out from across the hallway, laughing happily about something or other, ignoring the two women as they got onto the elevator.
Speechless, Jane tried to come up with a clever response before realizing the truth of Maura's statement. She's right…I lose perspective when I get on a case like this. It's never been a problem before now because I've never had anyone but myself to worry about. Now that I'm with Maura, I can't be so self-involved, unless I'm prepared to lose the only thing that means this much to me.
"I'm sorry, for everything," she muttered, wanting nothing more to lower her head in shame but, with a herculean effort, kept her saddened eyes on Maura's heated glare. "And I know that sorry doesn't mean much when I've said it as much as I have but I genuinely mean it. I've been a jerk to you, lately; but I want, no need, to change for…us, our relationship. But, this is neither the time nor the place to talk about this." Jane calmed her nerves with a deep sigh. "So, why are you coming out of your office?"
"Umm…" Maura mumbled in surprise upon hearing her girlfriend's sudden admission before her earlier enthusiasm returned, her hands moving of their own accord. "CSU finished analyzing the evidence from the two victims from last night. By the way, nearly all of the investigators hate me. They hate being rushed and I can't blame them-"
"Then fire them after this case is over and get new techies to boss around. They're replaceable. I'm not." Jane interrupted. "What do you got?"
Beckoning the detective into her office, Maura returned back to her office and Jane followed right behind her girlfriend's heels. After closing the door, she sat across from the blonde on her comfortable couch near the hallway facing window. As anxious as Jane was to keep busy with the serial case, the brunette was glad to see her girlfriend, regardless of what the circumstances were of the meeting. Ordinarily, Jane would have been uncomfortable even sitting next to the blonde in a friendly manner at work, but the events of the past couple of days had made her more comfortable being with Maura. If she could survive going out with Maura's upper-crust elite friends as a couple, then what was the worst that could happen if they came out as a couple at work. Jane knew that there were no rules against interdepartmental affairs but Maura's position as chief medical examiner and her being a detective could be a potential issue. I can't believe I'm thinking about this in the middle of a case. Wow, our relationship has grown a decade in a day, it feels like.
Maura opened the folder in her hand, taking her heels off to sit cross-legged in the lotus position, reflecting her love for yoga. "The bodies found the same level of concentration of atropine in each of the two victims. Their blood-alcohol content was extremely high for women of their size. I highly doubt that these women could have gotten away from their killer, Jane. Whether they were forced to drink this much or did it of their own volition, the victims would have been extremely truncated in their ability to defend themselves."
"So the victims were presumably wined and dined by the serial killer first and then taken somewhere where the killer felt comfortable enough to take his time with each of the women," Jane contemplated, putting together the practical elements of Maura's theoretical connection, "anything else?"
Maura nodded, flipping to another page in the folder. "As you know, all of the victims were dancers with connections to Boston Ballet. Well, I was looking at some of the pictures of the messages written over the bodies at the two crime scenes and you know what I figured out?"
Jane leaned in expectantly, their arms briefly touching, eliciting a barely audible sigh of pleasure from the two women. "Please, don't make me guess, honey."
"All of the victims, according to the records I got of their official website and my own knowledge of the company, are principals of the company, Jane. The messages on the walls next to the victims are all references to specific ballet productions. The first victim, Alina Bobrova, had the message: The Beauty slumbers peacefully awaiting the kiss that will set her free amongst the Sin, referencing the events of 'The Sleeping Beauty'. The last two victims, Irina Dotsenko and Natalia Gerasimova, had the messages: Star-crossed lovers meet upon a balcony, their fate sealed with the kiss of time. No matter the thousands of tales spun by the loyal third, nothing could retell this tale of woe and tragedy. Hope lost, melancholy gained, which is also a direct reference to the events of 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Scheherazade'. Don't you see the connection?" Maura asked, grabbing her girlfriend excitedly by the arm. "Whoever the killer is, he has to work inside the company with extensive background knowledge of ballet. 'Scheherazade' hasn't been performed by Boston Ballet in years so, I did some digging, and I found out that the only company that has "Scheherazade" in their current repertoire is Mariinski, a ballet company in Russia. There's only one person, according to their roster, who has the knowledge and credentials to be able to get a principal to leave the stage for something trivial like getting a drink, Jane. Principals are extremely busy. Their entire lives revolve around the stage. When I was dancing, there were days when I didn't even see the sun. I highly doubt that any of our victims would have left the stage for a casual drink with just some random person off the street."
A moment passed as Maura caught her breath while Jane put together the connection that the medical examiner established in her head, making sure each fact fit correctly in the blonde's theory. "Who was it, Maura? Who was the only person who matched up?"
She looked down at the forgotten folder that had fallen between them in her excitement. "Yuri Grigorvich, the artistic director of the company who you've liked for these murders. Jane, he has access to any dancer he wants and they would all readily do anything he asks them to. An artistic director of a ballet company is like the father of the entire group. Everyone strives to impress the artistic director because he is the one who can make or break a dancer's career. I hate to assume but he has to be the killer. It's the only thing that logically makes sense based off the evidence." Maura said, taking a breath before gripping onto Jane's arm tighter. "Did I help?"
For the first time in days, a bright smile of pure joy crossed the brunette's face. Maura really is a genius…and she's all mine. A similar smile mirrored itself upon her girlfriend's face in response. "And you're all mine, Jane." She whispered, reading the detective's mind.
"How do you that?" she asked, inching ever closer to the relaxed medical examiner. "It's like you can read my mind…and I don't know if I like that."
Maura laughed, uncoiling her legs from their position before moving subconsciously toward the inviting lips of the detective. "I don't think you have much choice in the matter, Jeddy-Bear. Love changes people…makes them more open for interpretation, especially by the one they love."
"Mmm...You might be right, Maubie, because you are coming in loud and clear," Jane whispered back before her words broke off in sweet surrender to Maura's soft lips upon hers, igniting flames that had been carefully held in check. As the surprise of being seduced by her normally more submissive girlfriend wore off, it was replaced with the growing acceptance of Maura's sudden dominant side, helped by the sensation of her tongue asking for admittance into her closed mouth.
Before Jane could allow the eager blonde inside, her hands searched for more connection to the hardened flesh that she knew was underneath the expensive layers of fabric. Unhurried acceptance met with unhurried searching; the importance of time ignored with the growing importance of satisfying a need that had been festering since their spat on Monday. The preoccupied detective noticed as Maura pushed her down onto the couch that they were perilously exposed. The blinds were still open, the door was unlocked, and the door leading into the darkened autopsy room was even more wide open to anyone who happened to want to talk to the chief medical examiner. A door from the CSU office opened and closed, fear shooting a near lethal dosage into her veins, but all that was forgotten as Jane's shaking hands, frustrated at the slim access to the skin she so desperately craved, looked earnestly for another opening and finding it on the blonde's toned ex-dancer legs.
A surprised groan of delight came from Maura's lungs as Jane furiously clawed for an opening in the barrier separating the eager brunette from her main goal, at the moment. With an annoyed growl, Jane stopped her search, broke the live connection between their lips and looked up at her girlfriend.
"Maura…stop," she moaned, the sensation of the blonde's weight upon her lower extremities making it difficult to focus.
Maura shook her head out of the fog of lust that had descended over the both of them before, finally moving away from the blushing detective with obvious embarrassment.
"I…I don't know what came over me. I just," her voice cracked as she moved away from the still detective, her eyes lowered, "needed you so badly that I couldn't think straight. It was like I took some kind of a hallucinogenic drug. I don't understand how I can hate you so much one minute and want nothing more than your body the next. This feeling…defies all of my previous experience with men, Jane. I…don't know how to deal with this."
Jane moved toward Maura's crumpled frame, massaging the blonde with slow circles on her back. The blonde's eyes remained glued to the floor despite her efforts, confusion setting in as Jane moved away from the withdrawn woman. What does she want from me? God, please don't cry. If you cry, I'll cry, and I hate to cry almost as much as I hate seeing you cry, Maura.
As much as she wanted to stay to comfort her, Jane knew that she had spent too much time away from her current goal of getting Yuri off the streets before he killed again. "Hey, it's alright, honey. It's natural for you to react like that, you're my," she said before her throat closed, "girlfriend. At least you didn't fall asleep in the middle like I did last night. By the way, did I, now, don't laugh, but did I drool on you after I fell asleep? God, if I did, I'll never be able to live it down."
Maura's answering laugh brought a smile to both of their faces. "Yes, you did. But sialorrhea is usually related to a natural side-effect of sleeping on one's side with an excess production of saliva. It would be unfair of me to hold a medical condition against you for blackmail purposes, Jane. A proven solution to sialorrhea is sleeping on one's back, if you're truly concerned."
"Hmm…how could I ever learn to sleep on my back?" Jane asked, theatrically. "You could always tie me to the bed, offer up some positive reinforcement."
The medical examiner's frowned, her mind processing her girlfriend's words. "No, I think you mean that it would be negative punishment, because I'd be taking away your freedom to move during sleep, in order to decrease the unwanted behavior, in this case, your sialorrhea. But, I don't think that would work. You'd enjoy your punishment far too much, thus taking away the point." Maura's head nodded slightly, her eyebrows rising in curiosity. "I do know a sleep specialist from college who was basing her dissertation on the connection between common sleep ailments and gender. We could ask her to look into your problem for you?"
Yeah…she'll be fine. "Honey, I'm flattered, but the last thing I want is another woman trying to figure me out. Only you are allowed to do that. I got to go, but we'll talk later, alright? After we catch this guy, I promise you we'll do something together, just the two of us." Jane said with a smile, leaning over to give a quick romantic kiss full of possibilities for the future. Just as she began to move away, Maura's hands came up to frame her girlfriend's face, effectively taking away Jane's ability to leave. She could have pushed the weaker woman away, but Jane wanted nothing more than to remain lost in Maura's hazel eyes. A barely audible whine came from one of the two women, everything ceasing to exist.
"I'd like that," the blonde whispered, licking her lips subconsciously, issuing a purr from the enthralled brunette. "I'd like that a lot. If all goes well, we're having dinner at my place."
Jane's mind struggled to form a logical sentence even with Maura's heated gaze burning through her lame attempts to remain focused on anything but her presence. "What about…my mother?"
"We'll lock her in the guesthouse with food and water; tell her to watch Bass or something." Maura deadpanned with a playful wink, releasing Jane from her gaze. Oh my god, she's serious…New Maura, what happened to the old Maura? I'm a little scared and a lot excited. I'll gladly switch wardrobes with her if it means I can get more of this. Jane laughed nervously, standing up, rushing toward the elevator and away from the potential negative influence that was horny Maura Isles. Her fingers pushed the down button with more force than was necessary, feeling her girlfriend's eyes on her with each passing second. Wanting nothing more than to turn around and determine if her girlfriend was checking her out, Jane ignored the impulse, gladly running into the open door of the elevator as it binged its arrival to the entire floor.
Silence covered the space as the elevator began slowly crawling up the various floors of BPD. The detective whisked away the sweat forming on her brow before calling her partner's cell, excitement obvious. "Frost, get everyone together, including Cavanaugh. We got this sonovabitch. He was right under our noses the whole time."