"You are a good detective you know?"
"Thanks. I think actually I've just been lucky. Surrounding myself with good people who then know other good people."
"Humble too. Your wife would be proud."
"She's probably getting out about now, actually. Now that she's been cleared."
"There should be one of you left to raise the children, I suppose."
"You care about them? That's surprising given that you didn't seem to care for your own niece and nephew."
"The boy was a slow learner. My sister coddled him."
"Is that why you killed her?"
"You know it isn't. There's a saying that American's have that I like very much. 'It is and it is not. Grey Area.'"
"That's an expression that's always bothered me a lot, actually. So many people use it as an excuse to drift into the black."
"And here we are."
"Here we are."
Jane leans back in her chair, studying the woman before her. Looking for clues about how the situation might be deescalated.
"Brisby's going to pull through."
Sofiya makes a motion like she is flicking off a fly.
"Tucker Carlson didn't even have to go to the hospital. Barely needed a Band-Aid."
This seems to bother the other woman more. "That is unfortunate," she says darkly. I would say I hope that karma will finish my job…" She sighs heavily, "but the world is not so just as that."
Jane frowns. "If I'm going to die here," she reasons, "I deserve the entire story."
"I cannot argue," Sofiya says, but she doesn't continue.
"Shura set the fire that killed your parents," Jane prompts. "And then she blamed you."
"No."
"No?"
"Sofiya set the fire. That was clear. The blaze began in her room She lit a notebook on fire in her trashcan."
Jane contemplates this response before answering, ultimately deciding not to comment on the way the woman speaks about herself in the 3rd person.
"Why seek revenge on someone who did nothing?" She asks. "Did you just want to ruin her life?"
The other woman smiles, and it makes her look ugly. "Did you know that your wife is an imposter?"
The change in conversation catches Jane off guard. "What?"
"As bad as my sister," the twin nods seriously. "As bad as Brad Adams. Putting her in jail was a happy accident, but well deserved." Sofiya looks down into her lap. "If you deserve honesty before you die, then hear this. I wish it was her here instead of you."
"Dr. Isles is not an im-"
"You mean Dr. Doyle, don't you detective?" The woman is watching for a reaction, and she laughs when Jane stares at her, dumbfounded.
"How many people at the station know that their prim, fancy Medical Examiner is really the heiress to one of the most powerful mafia organizations in Boston?"
"How did you-"
"Adams," The twin says carelessly. "A liar, and a cheat as well, but useful. His death is one that was more convenience than pleasure." She looks at Jane. "And your death…that might be a real sorrow."
Jane takes a step towards her, and her smile fades. She looks sad for the first time since Jane encountered her.
"There are so few people left like us, Detective Rizzoli."
…
…
When Jane looks up at the knock on the study door she is surprised to see Nadia on the threshold alone.
"Hi Detective Rizzoli," Nadia says to the floor.
"It's Jane, Nadia," Jane says with a little smile. "Come on in. I thought you and Levi were going out."
Nadia takes the tiniest of baby steps into the room. "I…are you busy?" She glances up and then downwards again. "I wanted to talk to you if you had a moment."
Jane spins the seat away from the desk, beckoning the girl closer. "Okay," she says. "Come and sit down."
Nadia does so with the expression of someone about to be executed. Jane can't help her chuckle.
"I'm not gonna bite," she says, watching the girl sit down. "You don't have to tiptoe around me like that."
Nadia shakes her head, not looking up. "I…have something important to tell you," she says quietly.
Something occurs to Jane. She leans forward urgently. "Are you pregnant?"
Nadia shakes her head, looking horrified. "No!" she bursts out. "We haven't even done anything since the banana! I mean," Her pale skin turns a deep, dark red. "I'm not pregnant," she says, clearly resisting the urge to bury her face in her hands.
Jane breathes a long sigh of relief. "Okay," she says. "Then whatever you have to tell me, it's going to be okay. I mean," she pauses, waiting for Nadia to look up. "You being pregnant would not be ideal, but even that would be okay. Okay?"
A smile tugs at Nadia's lips for a moment, and then she appears to remember her mission, and her face sinks into despair again.
Jane wishes Maura was there. She is better with their children's significant others than she is.
"I saw that guy on TV last night?" Nadia states this as a question, continuing when Jane nods. "They ran this story on Doctor- I mean…on, uh, Maura, and it said that the, um, the dead man's name was Brad Adams."
Jane nods slowly, trying to dissipate the lump in her throat enough to be able to answer this girl's questions.
"Maura didn't-" she begins, just as Nadia speaks again.
"But that's not his name."
They stare at each other, both shocked, and then at the same time, they speak again.
"What?"
"I know that Maura would never!" Nadia says.
Jane shakes her head, waving this away. "That's not his name?"
"Right," Nadia says. "I mean…It wasn't his name when I knew him."
Jane frowns deeply at Nadia. "What are you talking about?" she asks. "You know the man that was killed at the at Foundation's dinner?"
Nadia nods. "I mean…not like knew him. He – I…I used to live in Juvenile Detention Center," She looks down into her lap. "You know…that one out near Worcester?"
Jane can only nod, unable to find her voice.
"Well, he used to come around there sometimes. He'd…offer kids money to run errands for him."
Jane blinks at Nadia. "Errands?"
"Yeah," Nadia gives her a significant look. "He wasn't called Brad then, though. He was called Borya Agapov. He thought I'd do what he wanted because we were both-"
"Russian." Jane stands up, the rush of adrenaline this news pushing her to her feet. Nadia stands too, looking nervous.
"I'm sorry," she says. "I don't watch the news a lot. I should have said-"
But Jane waves this away too. She knows that she is being curt, possibly even a little bit harsh, but Maura has been behind bars for seventy two hours, and this is the first real lead they've had in more than a day.
"Did you ever do an errand for him?"
Nadia hesitates. "I…"
"You're not in trouble," Jane says immediately. "You're not in trouble, but I need to know if-"
"Yeah," she says. "A couple times."
…
…
"How did you know Brad Adams?" Jane asks.
"Tucker introduced me to him," Sofiya says shortly. "He was his muscle even before he came to Russia.
"Did you know that he was a con artist when you met him?"
The twin smiles her unpleasant smile once more. "Yes," she says. "No one assimilates so convincingly for non-ominous reasons, Detective. Look at your wife!"
"Leave Maura out of this," Jane growls.
Sofiya laughs. "You think she would be so successful had she kept her father's name? You think Borya Agapov would have gotten anywhere near Tucker Carlson?" she scoffs. "Your fooling yourself."
"How did you get near him then," she asks, and she can tell she's hit a nerve by the way the other woman turns to look her in the eye for the first time.
"What?"
"That's what this is all about, right?" Jane presses, "Revenge on the man who pushed you to the side? Revenge on the sister and brother who got the lives you though you deserved? It can't have felt good to be carted off to that juvenile work camp for the murder of your parents. It must have felt worse to get out and see your sister, your twin, living a fairly luxurious life in America."
"I did not kill my parents!" Sofiya raises her voice. "I belonged in that hole less than that boy detective should have taken Tucker's bullet."
She spins away from Jane, ranting in her native language for a moment. Jane watches the pattern of the police lights outside play off of her white blonde hair. She knows that there are SWAT teams in every surrounding building, looking through their scopes for an angle.
She hopes they will see the Deadman's switch in her hand before they get the order to pull the trigger.
"The people out there," Jane says after a moment. "The cops? They want to negotiate with you. They're willing to listen to demands."
The woman turns just her head back to Jane, looking amused. "In vain," she says quietly. "There is only one thing I want, and it is not possible."
Jane can't help but lean forward. "What is it?"
The smile again. "I want Tucker Carlson to come and take your place," she says, and she must be able to read Jane's expression, because she chuckles. "He will not do this though," she continues. "You know it as well as I do."
She does. There is nothing she can say to contradict this. Even if she could justify changing places with a civilian, Jane knows that Carlson, of all people, would never willingly trade places with her.
"He impersonates a good man," Sofiya says, watching Jane's face. "A noble man. A man who is good, and kind. He rescued me, you know. One of his brute teammates tried to take advantage at a party, and he stepped in."
"How chivalrous."
"He said all the right things," the twin continues like she hasn't heard. "It wasn't hard. I was naïve. I thought that when he went back to America, he would take me with him. I thought, 'ah good. Life is fair after all. My struggles were a mistake."
Jane is going to repeat herself, and she knows that it will infuriate her captor even more, but she is unable to stop herself.
"You killed your parents," Jane says. "You killed your brother and sister, who had done nothing to you."
"They took EVERYTHING from me!" She walks up to Jane until their noses are inches apart. "They took everything from me."
"Sofiya-"
"Do NOT CALL ME BY THAT MURDER'S NAME," she bellows. "I have done you the small courtesy of telling the truth, and now you will do the same."
Jane has flinched away from the other woman, and now she blinks at her, disoriented. "What?"
"You will call me by my name," she says. "My real name."
…
…
The drive to Brad Adams second apartment is quiet and slightly awkward. Jane has the time to text Frost the details, and so when he arrives, he only shakes Nadia's hand and holds the door of the cruiser for her.
He glances in the rearview mirror a couple of times as they get on the highway, as though he wants to say something and then thinks better of it. Nadia tells them to head towards Springfield.
"How about some music?" Frost says finally, breaking a tense five minute silence. He reaches out and turns the dial on the radio, and at once a song by The Killers comes blasting through the speakers.
"Nope!" he says quickly, flipping it off again. "Silence is better. Silence is fine."
Nadia smiles at her lap, but doesn't look up.
"Sorry you have to ride back there," Jane says a while later, aware that this might be the third time she's said the same sentence.
Nadia glaces at her, and then away. "It's okay," she says quietly. "Um, detective Frost, take this exit, please."
Nadia guides them to the correct location with only one minor slip, and when Jane looks at Frost, she knows that he is thinking the same thing: how well did Nadia know Brad Adams.
Jane spends the majority of the ride trying to decide how she feels about her son dating this girl, and wondering if she is victim or assailant, both, or neither. She watches Nadia in the rear view mirror, looking out the window at the increasingly depressing landscape.
How did she come to be in Boston, and not still living in a juvenile detention center outside of Worcester.
Jane had told her daughter Sofia that if she wanted to date her classmate Oliver, that she and Maura would have to meet his parents. The same hadn't been the case for Levi. Did that make her a bad mother? Biased? Sexist?
"It's that one," Nadia says, pointing out the passenger side at a dilapidated multi family townhouse, beige siding bent at the corners.
There is a gaggle of scruffy looking children sitting on the front step smoking something that is too fat and short to be a cigarette. As the cruiser rolls to a stop, the kids look up and take flight, scattering in all directions.
Frost leaps out, thinking to round one of them up for questioning, and Jane spins in her seat to face Nadia.
"You have to stay in the car," she says in what she hopes is an apologetic yet firm tone.
Nadia nods. She looks up at Jane. "Okay." Jane starts to get out of the car, but Nadia says her name, and she swivels back, eyebrows raised.
"Thanks," Nadia says after a minute. "For not, you know, asking me about why I was here. Or, like, about what the errands were. I...just thanks."
Jane smiles and finds that she really means it when she says. "No problem. But I mean what I said, okay? Stay in the car no matter what. Frost and I won't be long."
Nadia looks at Jane for a moment longer, but not because she wants to disobey.
"Yeah," she says. "Okay."
…
The apartment door that Frost ends up kicking in gives way as though it is made of tissue, and the two detectives find themselves standing in a two room apartment that smells like cat litter and mold.
"Classy," Jane says, striding over to one of the windows and snapping up the shade. There is a pull out sofa, pulled out, the thin mattress covered with a threadbare quilt. Against one wall is a tall, wooden bookshelf, and in the corner, a wobbly looking writer's desk.
Jane takes the desk, while Frost moves toward the bookshelf. On the desk, there is a chipped mug with three pens, an unopened pack of post-it notes, and a hard cover journal. Jane drapes a glove over her hand and flips it open.
The pages are crammed with names and dates. Some of them have check marks next to them, some of them have exes. Many, if not all of them have numbers in a column to the far right.
"Guess Nadia was right about the errands," Jane says. She turns around to see Frost still standing in front of the bookcase. When she comes to join him, she sees he has the look on his face that means he's seen something of interest.
She doesn't prompt him, knowing that he will share when he's ready, and sure enough, he soon turns to her, brow furrowed.
"This is weird," he says.
Jane just raises her eyebrows.
"I mean," he gestures at the bookshelf. "This bookshelf is the most expensive piece in this hole. But it's empty."
Jane looks back at the shelf. It holds a framed photo of Brad Adams and Tucker Carlson arm in arm, a work copy of Oliver Twist, and seventy two cents.
"You think something was here?" She asks.
Frost shakes his head. "There's no dust pattern."
They stand in front of the shelves for a moment longer, until Jane is struck by an idea. She moves around to the side of the bookcase.
"Move back a little," she says, and gives the piece of furniture a massive shove to the side.
The bookshelf skids down the wall about six feet as though following tracks worn in by repeated movement.
Frost is standing in front of what is revealed, and so he is the first to get the full effect. He staggers backwards a couple of steps, eyes widening.
"Holy Shit."
Jane steps level to him and lifts her eyes to look too.
"Holy...shit."
…
…
Jane stares at the Kohut twin in front of her, trying to make sense of what she's being told. "You're...Shura," she says slowly.
The woman nods. "No one has called me that in over two decades," she says. "But yes. I am Shura Kohut. And I have spent years waiting to live outside of my sister's crime."
What is this? Psychosis? Dissociation? Jane frowns, genuinely flummoxed, and unconcerned for her safety for the first time since tracking this woman back to her Condo.
"If you are Shura…" she says, still speaking slowly. "Then the woman who died in the fire was-"
"She lied, detective," The woman says angrily. "You have children. I'm sure you can understand it. The KGB came to get my sister. To take her away for starting that fire. Only they thought to separate her innocent sister and brother from her, to create less of a scene."
She pauses, and Jane understands. It hits her suddenly, and she grimaces.
Her captor doesn't notice. "They found my sister, Sofiya, playing with my brother in the main room of the house where they were keeping us. She never played with him. Not until after the fire.
"They mistook her for me."
Jane stares, wide-eyed.
"She did not correct them."
For a moment, there is complete silence in the Condo. Jane tries to think of something to say. Something that will talk this woman down from the murder and suicide that she has planned.
"Imposter," Shura hisses. "She came to this Country in my name. She had the children I should have had. She took my life. And I served her time!"
Jane closes her eyes. "And then Carlson promised to rescue you, and left you behind."
"A fake," she sneers. "I give up everything to follow him here. To be with him, and he moves on like I am nothing. Like I am scum. Like I am...Sofiya."
"That's why you killed his girlfriend."
The woman, the Shura they did not expect, she swallows, suddenly looking tired. "All they had to do was to admit it," she says, still speaking in her hoarse whisper. "All Sofiya had to do was to say yes, my sister, I took these things from you. Here they are, back for you now."
Jane takes a step closer. "She didn't."
"She didn't," Shura spits. "And he didn't, and your beautiful impostor wife didn't. She spoke to Brad Adams for hours, and does she ever mention who she is? That she is blood of a felon? No. She talks about her fancy wines and her knowledge of paintings like she didn't steal the life of some girl who deserved it."
"Maura deserves her life."
Shura looks at her with something like pity. "People like you will always stand up for people like them because you don't know any better. I was like you before. Not anymore."
Suddenly, on the wall just behind Shura, a small, red dot. Jane glances at it, and then away, trying to keep the surprise off of her face.
She has just one more question. "Lililya?"
Shura shakes her head. "Naïve and righteous and young. She tried to stop me from going to shoot Tucker. She tries to tell me that Martyn still needs a mother."
Jane steps right up to Shura. She puts her hand right over the Deadman's switch, her hand not shaking. Shura is not going to kill her, not unless there is no other choice.
"She wasn't wrong," Jane says, whispering now too.
"I did not have a mother," Shura says, and perhaps her eyes are shiny with tears, and it is not just the light from outside. "Sometimes, children have to raise themselves."
"Shura," Jane says. "Let me take you out."
Shura smiles. "Once more please, Detective," she says quietly.
Jane shakes her head, but she inadvertently gives the woman what she wants. "Shura," she begins, "don't-"
But then Shura Kohut has stepped backwards, in front of the little window, and the red dot shows squarely on her temple.
And it is over.
…
…
Liliya's body takes almost an hour to extract from it's shallow hiding place in the wall. Pike makes Jane want to scream, he is so slow, and so pompous.
While he and the techs work, Jane and Frost examine the pictures, news clippings, and post-its hung on the wall around the hole.
"There's pictures of Maura from like...a month and a half ago," Frost says, pointing. "How long has this been in the works."
"Look here," Jane points out a picture of Tucker Carlson, his arm around a blonde woman in a skin tight dress, Brad Adams in the background. "Shura and Carlson. And Adams. We need to call Korsak and get Maura out of there," she says, trying not to look as the CSI techs lower Liliya's body to the ground.
Frost, pale, moves to the door. "I'll call in now, Jane," he says before fleeing.
"Ah, Detective Rizzoli," Dr. Pike says. "You may want to see this."
Jane moves closer to him, looking in the direction he's pointing. There is a post-it clutched in the dead girl's hand.
"Wonder what it says," Pike muses.
Jane stares at him for a long second before almost yelling. "Well take it out, Doctor!"
He jumps and huffs, but then does as she's asked and reaches forward to pull the small yellow square from Liliya's hand.
What is written on the post-it has Jane pulling her cell from her belt, and running towards the front of the building.
It says. "Carlson. Boston Formal Hall. 3:15pm"
"Bris, It's Jane. Get a team over to Martyn Kohut's school to meet him there, and then take back up down to The Hall. Someone's gonna make an attempt on Carlson's life in," Jane glances at her watch, "Twenty-two minutes."
To his credit, Brisby jumps into action without very many questions, though before Jane hangs up, she can hear his excited nose whistle though the phone.
As she leaves the little apartment and takes the stairs two at a time, she can't help but think of McKenzie's letter again, and all the people that have been lost to the Kohut twin's vengance.
She calls Brisby back, but it goes straight to voicemail.
She leaves him a short message, before beckoning Frost to the car.
"Hey Bris, it's Jane again. Be careful okay? This woman is armed and very dangerous. And she's not just gonna go quietly."
…
…
"Shh," Susie Chang shushes some techs standing next to her. "Dr. Isles is going to be here in 30 seconds."
Jane rolls her eyes, but grins expectantly at the door to the precinct. She'd made an excuse to get in before her wife on her first day back to work, and she hopes that this will be worth the disappointment she'd seen in Maura's eyes when she kissed her good-bye.
True to Susie's prediction, at 9:00AM on the dot, the door swings open to admit Cheif Medical Examiner Maura Isles, and everyone assembled in the hall bursts into applause.
Maura's shocked, wide eyes jump from person to person, and when they land on Jane, it looks like she might be very close to tears.
"Welcome back, Doctor Isles!" a couple detectives call as they pass.
Maura nods at them, swallowing several times. "T-thank you," she says, when the applause dies down. "Everyone. This means…" but she chokes up again, and cannot talk.
The Kohut case is solved, and Maura's name cleared, though Jane thinks the ramifications of the entire incident will last much longer than many of their other cases.
Martyn Kohut, for instance, is now an orphan with no where to go. Frost visits him at least once a week, at the foster home he's been placed in.
And although she hadn't seemed too shaken by the ordeal, Nadia has yet to appear in Jane and Maura's house since everything happened. When asked about her, Levi had just shrugged and mumbled that he didn't feel like talking about it.
Jane steps foward as Maura reaches her, eyes still wide and bright-brimming with tears. "Hi," she says, linking her arm through the doctor's.
Maura gives a little shake of her head. "I wasn't expecting…" she says, trailing off. She presses a finger to the corner of her eye. "My make-up."
Jane knows that under the perfectly applied concealer is the healing shadow of a black eye that Maura is not yet ready to talk about.
She knows that the bed dipping in the middle of the night is the doctor excusing herself to sit in the bathroom alone, and breathe deeply until the panic and claustrophobia pass.
She knows that without this gathering, Maura would never have even considered herself someone worth missing.
"I love you," Jane says quietly, below the chatter. "We love you."
Frost touches Maura's arm as they pass, and then Korsak, both looking like they understand why she only offers them water smiles.
"Dr. Isles!" Frankie and Susie are waiting right by the hall that leads to the bullpen, both of them smiling full, broad smiles.
"Welcome home."