A/N: Hi there, I forgot to put a note on the last chapter about the Chemical equations and formula's I've been quoting. The only correct formula is the formula for Ibuprofen. The rest is completely and utterly fictitious. Zn0 is a component of Anthrax but again I'm using a significant degree of poetic license. If there are any chemists reading this story I apologise.
To those still on this journey with me thank you. Not far to go now and all will be revealed.
Jane stands quickly and races out of the room. They all just stare at her. Maura follows as Jane races into the lady's room. Maura can hear Jane losing her stomach contents. She waits patiently. When Jane exits the cubicle she's in a lather of sweat and looks a greenish grey. She goes straight to the sink and rinses her face and mouth with fresh water. Jane doesn't say anything but she finally looks at Maura and the look on Jane's face is pure fear.
"Come with me Jane" Maura says and they take the stairs down to the basement and walk to Maura's office. She closes the door. "Sit down" Maura instructs Jane to sit, pointing at the couch in her office. Maura closes her other office door. She watches Jane for a moment before speaking. Jane has a bruised forehead from the gunshot. She has sutures in her chin from a fall. She's running a fever again and by the way she's playing with her hands they're obviously bothering her. Now Jane is also afraid; Maura can see it.
"Jane, listen to me." Jane looks from her hands to Maura. "You've jumped straight to focusing on Hoyt. The whole team has but it could just be a coincidence. You have to keep perspective and you have to help the others to do the same." Maura sits beside Jane.
Maura is looking at the beads of sweat on Jane's forehead. "Gosh I wish I knew that was making you sick Jane. You looked so well when you left the hospital last night." Maura pauses thinking that statement through. "Well; you know what I mean."
"Yeah I know what you mean and you're right. Now I feel terrible, I feel like I'm dying Maura." Jane looks at her friend; the fear present in her eyes. Maura feels Jane's forehead. She stands and goes to get a thermometer from the autopsy room. When she returns she pops it gently into Jane's ear. When it beeps she looks at the reading.
"It's up Jane; you're nearly at 102 degrees. What did you do when you got home last night?"
Jane looks at Maura. "Nothing, I had a shower and changed. Had pizza and beer with you and then went to bed. I didn't sleep real well and by three am I was feeling hot and sick."
"Jane I have a friend in Infectious Disease Control, I'm going to get him to have one of his techs do a scan of your place and see if there is something in your premises that might be making you sick. Is that OK?" When Jane doesn't argue, it tells Maura just how sick she really is. "Jane I'd like to take some of your blood and have pathology run some tests on it too; is that alright?"
Jane looks at Maura and Maura recognises the concern. "It's OK Jane, it will be anonymous. No one will know it's your blood." At Maura's assurance Jane puts out her arm. Maura goes and gets what she needs to take some blood samples from Jane. "This won't take very long" Maura wipes a disinfectant rub inside Jane's elbow. Jane's too sick to even be concerned about the needle. Maura would feel a lot better if Jane was squirming like an infant. "There will just be a slight sting Jane" Maura says as she inserts the syringe. Jane doesn't flinch and Maura takes five vials of blood. She labels the tests she wants done on each and walks out to her lab.
Korsack walks into the squad room; his right arm is wrapped tightly around his body. It's to stop him moving his arm the wrong way and over extending his broken ribs or tearing the stitches still in his chest. Frost, Cooper and Frankie are sitting at their desks looking lost. "What, I'm away for a few days and the place grinds to a halt" Korsack announces himself.
Frost, Frankie and Cooper are pleased to see him. When they each get through their greetings Korsack asks for an update. Frost fills him in on everything; even Jane running out of the room about half an hour ago. Jane and Maura walk in as Frost is finishing up. "Yeah sorry guys, I was sick" Jane explains. "And before you all say it; yes I look terrible; I feel worse than I look." She pauses, "OK, we really need to find a reason to keep investigating Hoyt or a reason to cross him out of this investigation; am I clear?" They all nod.
"So" Jane continues. "John Hoyt is Hoyt's half-brother. If he's alive today he'd be thirty-six. He was eighteen when Hoyt was expelled from medical school. It was then that he seemed to just disappear."
Korsack chimes in "so let's find out everything we can about him before he disappeared. Frost in your searches, have you found any pictures of him?"
Frost taps a few buttons on his computer and the printer whirrs into action. "John Hoyt went to Odyssey High School; here's a school photo of him then" Frost explains as he picks up the image from the printer. He walks over and sticks it on to the evidence board.
The images are light on, on the suspect side. It's a source of frustration for all of them. Maura follows him and sticks a photo of Shannon O'Reilly on the board. On the victims side of the board there are now pictures of Lilly, Maria, Rosie and Shannon. Their similarity is uncanny. "I know Shannon's rape and murder does not fit the M.O. of the person who attacked Maria and Lilly. Consider this though; Shannon's face was crushed. If our perp is poisoning his victims through food, Shannon would not have been able to eat" Maura explains. "She certainly matches on the physical attributes." Maura looks at everyone in the room.
Frankie stands up; "my God, so does Jane! Oh this has to be Hoyt. Janey you can't stay at your apartment until we get his sorted, OK." Frankie looks to speak to Maura but Jane cuts him off.
"It's OK Frankie, I'm not staying at home until we solve this; I'm going to stay with Ma and Maura. Here's the thing though. This Hoyt thing could be a red herring to throw us off. Maura said our perp is very clever so we have to be clever too."
"Right" Korsack adds. "We cover all bases and we take extra care but we also keep an open mind. Jane's right our perp might be using Hoyt as a distraction."
"So what else do we have" Jane looks at the team.
Frost speaks up. "I collected Maria and Lilly's computers and scanned all their files. I don't believe they knew each other but they did have one thing in common." He looks up from his computer and sees everyone is waiting for him to continue. "Oh, they were both registered on an elite on-line dating service; 'Sweet to Elite Dating'."
Maura chimes in "that's very interesting Detective Frost. Can you please see if Rosie Darren and Shannon O'Reilly are registered as well?"
Frost taps away on his computer and then nods at Maura. "Yeah they are both on here."
Jane gets animated, "Frost are there any other women who fit the criteria living in the Boston area?"
"Yeah there is Jane, there are another three" Frost replies.
Jane's mind is ticking over and the team is watching her for directions. Jane subconsciously shakes out her hands and clenches her fists as she thinks. "Cooper; I want you to see if you can find anyone living from Frosts searches who knew and remembers John Hoyt. If you get lucky try to paint a picture of his relationship if any, with his brother."
"Sure," she walks over to Frost who hands her a file. She heads to her desk.
Jane continues. "Frankie I want you to assign cruisers to keep an eye on the addresses and work places of those three girls that fit the profile on 'Sweet to Elite Dating'."
"Sure thing Janey" Frankie leaves.
"Oh and Frankie if you can, call each of the women and just warn them to be careful would you. Don't panic them though."
Frankie turns back to Jane, "will do."
"So if Shannon is part of this, then he's got to be pretty pissed that he messed up with her and Rosie" Jane states.
"Could be he's getting sloppy Jane, he could be close to the edge" Korsack adds.
"Yeah that scares me," Jane stares at Korsack.
Maura's phone rings, she greets and listens to her caller. After she hangs up she looks at them. "I have to go; I'll call you later Jane" Maura leaves.
It's late afternoon when Jane walks into the morgue. Maura has two brains in front of her a microscope to one side of her and a computer screen to the other side. She's deep in concentration and doesn't notice Jane enter. "You nearly done Maura" Jane asks.
"Oh my goodness" Maura jumps. "Jane you frightened me."
"Sorry," Jane plonks down on to one of the chairs at Maura's bench.
Maura looks at her very sick friend. "I can finish now; give me a minute to tidy up." By the time Maura has packed the brains away and cleaned and locked up her microscope Jane has her arms folded across the bench and her head resting on them. Maura gently taps Jane's shoulder "come on let's get you home."
On the drive home Jane's had her eyes closed and not said a word. When they get to Maura's Jane goes straight to the guest room. She grabs her bag and goes and has a shower. Maura pulls the bed back for Jane, then goes to organise some food she might be able to keep down. When Jane returns she crawls into bed, grabs a dab of hand cream and rubs it in, pulls the blankets up to her shoulders and tries to get some sleep. Maura walks back in with a tray of food for Jane but she's not interested. Maura leaves a glass of water for her and turns all the lights out as she leaves.
Not ten minutes later Angela walks in. "Where's Janey" she asks. Maura explains she's sick again and already in bed. "Oh" Angela says and goes to check on her daughter. Maura packs away the bags of groceries she's just brought in. When Angela returns the concern for Jane is written all over her face. "Maura should we get her back to the hospital" she looks to Maura for answers. Answers Maura doesn't have.
"Angela I'll keep an eye on her tonight; if it's OK with you I'd like to wait until morning before taking her to hospital" Maura explains.
"I guess that makes sense" Angela thinks about it. "I mean she's already in bed and nearly asleep."
"Yes and I want to see if being here helps; it might prove there is something in her apartment making her sick" Maura adds.
Maura and Angela sit down to a quiet dinner. As they are tidying up Angela notices that Maura is looking exhausted. "Sweetie you're not coming down with something, are you" Angela asks.
Maura is caught off guard by Angela's concern. She's touched. "No, no I'm not Angela; it's just this case. It's getting to me more than most."
Angela asks nervously "do you think Hoyt is somehow involved?"
"I honestly don't know Angela but whoever it is, is as clever and as evil as Charles Hoyt. We need to catch him and we need to do it quickly."
Angela shudders at Maura's words. "Try and get some rest Maura. I'll pop in and check on Janey through the night OK. You need your sleep." Maura smiles at Angela and heads off to bed.
He's waiting patiently for Pauline in the Somerville Starbucks. As she walks in he notices a police cruiser go by. That's interesting he thinks. He makes a note to be watchful as he abducts this woman. Pauline waits by the entrance. He relaxes his shoulders and paints on his charm. When he's ready he goes to her, "hello Pauline, I'm Jack." He smiles at her as he puts out his hand to shake Pauline's. She smiles warmly and returns the handshake.
"Hello, how lovely to meet you" she says as Jack escorts her to his table.
"What would you like Pauline and I'll order it for you" he asks.
"Oh, just a lightly sparkled water please."
He returns with the water and a black coffee. "How long have you been a personal trainer; you look fabulous" he opens.
"About five years now. I love what I do I meet so many nice people" she explains. She has a sip of her water. "So what are your fitness expectations; I have to say Jack you look good to me."
He smiles at her all the while feeling total disdain. "You're too kind. No I just feel like I need someone to help keep me focused on my health and fitness."
"I understand; that's a common reason for taking on a personal trainer." She looks around the Starbucks.
He notices and it bothers him. "Are you meeting someone Pauline" he asks trying to keep the mounting anger out of his voice.
"Oh, I'm sorry. No, I'm not meeting anyone. I had a call from the police today. They were warning me that I fit the victim profile of the rape murderer that's been taking women around Boston. You've heard of him haven't you" She asks.
His rage almost burst through his demeanor. He takes a deep breath. Keep control he tells himself. "I have heard about him, it must be terrifying for young women to know there is someone like that on the loose in Boston."
"I honestly never gave it a thought until the police rang" she says.
"Well you must let me walk you to your car after asking you to meet me so late" he says with all the charm and self-control he can muster.
"I would like that; thank you" she smiles at him.
He takes her on the ride for a little longer, putting together a training schedule with her. He's watched her all afternoon and he knows where she's parked. She won't make it to her car. Police cruisers or tip offs won't save Pauline. So the clever bitch detective is on to where he's sourcing his women. It's not enough Rizzoli he thinks to himself. You're too late; nothing is going to save you!