A/N: Thanks for still following along! I've never had more than half a dozen peeps read my stuff, so that's kinda cool. :-) Will be uploading another chapter in a few minutes because this one here's only investigation stuff (yeah, I know, boring.. but part of the show). Hope that's not considered spamming (I have no idea if there's something like fanfic etiquette), so just make sure you read them in the right order.
A few minutes later, Jane stepped out of the elevator and into the homicide squad room. Since Frost and Korsak weren't at their desks, she marched straight to the BRIC, where she found the two detectives behind one of the computers. They both greeted her with a look that revealed much more than Jane was ready to deal with today. Obviously, the situation was critical.
Jane stepped closer and peeked at the new e-mail on the screen in front of the two men. "So, the whole thing starts anew, huh?"
"Apparently, yes," Frost confirmed and opened the e-mail's attachment. Everything looked eerily similar to the photos from the day before. Three pictures showing the bruised and battered body of a blonde woman filled the screen, her hands tied with white zip cuffs and the lower part of her runner's shirt soaked in blood from an apparent wound to her abdomen. "He got another woman, but everything else is still the same. Anonymized e-mail, no traceable data, and the same caption," Frost explained and pointed at the large letters written beneath the photos: SAVE ME.
Jane scowled at the sight of the familiar plea. Save me. Save me. And with those two words, all her doubts and worries from the day before washed over her again. I want to save you, but I don't know how. You have to help me so I can help you. Tell me how to save you.
Suddenly, Korsak bent forward to take a closer look at something on the floor next to the blonde woman. "Can you enlarge this part?"
"Sure," Frost said and immediately scaled the image detail to an appropriate size. "What is it?"
The gray-haired sergeant pointed at a piece of clothing next to the woman, partly hidden by her legs. "See that? Looks like a sweatshirt with a logo on it."
"Yes!" Jane exclaimed and a touch of hope flashed over her face. "That's the color and logo of Boston College. She looks like she's in her thirties… probably too old for a student. Maybe she works there?"
Korsak shrugged. "Could be. It's the only shot we have right now. Let's check."
Frost quickly pulled up the relevant Boston College contact information and reached for the phone on his desk. "I'll call them and have them send us their staff directory. Maybe she's listed in there."
Jane nodded, and while her partner made the necessary phone calls, she focused her eyes on the woman in the photos again, as if the images would somehow reveal more valuable information if she only stared at them long enough. Korsak noticed her tense posture and worriedly studied her face. "Jane, are you alright?"
"Yeah," she said and almost convinced herself. "Why does everybody keep asking me that?"
"Maybe because you look like you haven't slept in months?" Korsak whispered with fatherly concern. "We've had some really tough cases lately. Everybody would understand if you wanted to take a few days off."
Jane resolutely shook her head and pointed at the photos of the bleeding blonde on the screen in front of her. "No, she wouldn't." Noticing the uncertainty in Korsak's face, she gave him an appeasing smile. "I'm fine. Really. And I will be even better once we've found this woman. So, let's focus on her, alright?"
"Okay," her former partner agreed. Several years of working with Jane had taught him that there was no point in arguing with her once she had set her mind on something. "Let's find out who she is."
They both turned towards Frost as he hung up the phone and then once again let his fingers fly over his keyboard to bring up a multi-page Boston College staff listing. "This one includes all regular faculty members of most departments. It's missing a few visiting professors and those who have joined only recently, but let's start with what we have right now." With a few additional key strokes, Frost sent the listing to the two computer screens next to his own.
Jane sat down in one of the chairs and glanced at the file's contents. "How about you check Arts and Sciences…?" she suggested to Frost, then turned to Korsak next to her. "You take the School of Education, and I take the School of Management and whatever else there is?"
The two men nodded and they all began to browse through various profiles of faculty members, hoping they'd find the one that would reveal the identity of the blonde woman waiting to be saved.
Twenty minutes later, Jane had almost given up hope but then suddenly froze at the sight of a profile from the Chair of Economics. "I think I got her!"
Frost and Korsak looked up and read the information on Jane's screen. And indeed, the woman smiling into the camera in the faculty profile of Brenda Williams bore a striking resemblance to the kidnapped blonde woman in the photos attached to the anonymous e-mail BPD had received this morning.
For a moment, Jane forgot everything around her and thoroughly studied Brenda Williams' profile. The professor appeared friendly and encouraging, and Jane wondered what her classes were like. Given her parents' lack of financial resources, Jane hadn't gotten the chance to attend an expensive institution like Boston College herself, and every now and then, a regretful voice would haunt her and remind her of everything she had probably missed out on. Damn it. Just focus! This is not the time for regrets. Jane took a deep breath and got up. "Alright, let's go and find her!"
Right before the three detectives left the BRIC, Jane caught one last glimpse of Brenda Williams' photos on the screen and her eyes filled with worry. I'll save you. I promise.
A few minutes past 10 a.m., Jane and Korsak arrived at Brenda Williams' house in Chestnut Hill in Jane's unmarked sedan, closely followed by a patrol car and a CSRU van. Korsak and the other police officers and techs immediately got out of their cars and examined the surroundings. Jane followed closely behind while still talking into her phone and absentmindedly glancing around.
As Korsak stepped onto the house's front porch, Jane ended her call and caught up with the older sergeant. "Frost talked to one of the office assistants at BC's Economics Department," she filled him in. "Brenda Williams didn't show up to her class this morning and they haven't reached her yet."
Korsak nodded, his face lacking his usual shrewd smirk. Over the span of his long career, he had already dealt with the Boston Irish mob, with rapists and murderers, and even with psychopaths like Charles Hoyt. But never before had a killer teased him with photos of his next victims, taunted him with their agony and desperate hope to be saved in time. This was something new. And Korsak didn't like it at all.
"Watch out," Jane pulled him from his thoughts. "We might have another set of footprints here," she said and pointed at a dried set of prints on the wooden porch. She carefully tiptoed around the prints and rang the doorbell, then knocked at the door. There was no answer.
"Let's go in," Korsak said and put on a pair of nitrile gloves.
"Yeah, no point in dragging this out longer than necessary," Jane agreed and slid her hands into a pair of gloves as well. Just to be sure, she signaled their presence with another loud knock on the front door. "Police!" she shouted, then turned the knob and furrowed as the door swung open. Korsak waved towards the CSRU techs before following Jane into the house.
Without touching anything, the two detectives looked around. The white couch, the piano in the corner, the orchids — everything looked neat and tidy.
"The assistant at BC told Frost that Williams usually does a 5-mile run in the early morning before class. Maybe she got kidnapped somewhere along the way?" Jane peeked into the adjacent rooms, which were as quiet and clean as the living room.
"Hold on, I got something," Korsak cut her off and crouched down to reach for a small object in a corner next to the front door. With an annoyed groan, he heaved himself back up, turned around and presented Jane with Brenda Williams' MP3 player.
The brunette stepped closer and examined the device. "Hmm…" With well-trained eyes, she studied the entrance area, then gently pushed her former partner aside so he wouldn't block the light coming in through the front door. As soon as the few glimpses of sunshine that had broken through the morning clouds lit up the floor, more dried footprints became visible. Jane knelt down and signaled the CSRU techs to focus on this part of the house.
"Looks like our killer got to her in her own home," she said to Korsak, who was just about to stick his head outside through the front door to check the distance to the neighbors.
"Yeah. And he couldn't have picked a better place," the sergeant agreed. "Fence and trees hide him from view… secluded area… not really the ideal place to live for a single woman."
Jane got up and stepped outside. "Well, let's talk to the neighbors anyway." She pointed towards the property to the left of Brenda Williams' house. "You take the one over there, I'll take the other one over here." Without waiting for Korsak's answer, Jane marched over to the estate to her right.
When she had passed the trees and bushes and turned towards the neighbors' porch, the weather-worn front door opened and an elderly lady stepped outside, barely able to contain her curiosity regarding the police presence in front of the house next door.
"Hello, I'm Detective Rizzoli, Boston Police," Jane introduced herself. "I'd like to talk to you about your neigh—"
"Oh, no! I knew it," the elderly woman exclaimed and almost tripped over her slippers as she scuffled towards the picket fence separating the two properties. "What happened to her?"
Slightly confused, Jane followed her and tried to win back her attention. "What do you mean, you 'knew it'?"
The agitated old lady warningly waved her finger in Jane's face. "I always told her to be more careful, but she wouldn't listen to me. I told her to find herself a decent husband so she wouldn't be all by herself all the time." She shook her head and sighed. "A woman shouldn't live alone in a house like this. Are you married?"
The sudden change of subject caught Jane by surprise. "I… uh…"
"I hope you're not one of those career-driven women who forget about their domestic duties," the lady ranted on.
"Domestic dut—," Jane gasped but then took a deep breath and regained her composure. "Listen, your neighbor is missing, and I need to know if you have noticed anything suspicious around her house between last night and this morning."
The elderly woman shook her head and peeked over the fence again. Clearly, the flurry of activity next door was the highlight of her week.
"Maybe a car that you've never seen around here?" Jane tried again to get some information out of the distracted senior. "Some stranger sneaking around?"
"No," the woman declared while observing the CSRU techs photographing the house next door. "Do you think I have nothing else to do than to sit around the house and watch the neighborhood?"
Jane arched her eyebrows and had trouble not to snort. "I'm just trying to—"
"So, tell me, what happened to her?" The elderly lady stepped closer and expectantly looked at Jane.
Instinctively, the detective rose her hands in an attempt to fend off the intruder in her personal space. "I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to talk to you about—"
A croaky voice from the house interrupted her. "Agnes? What's going on?!" The male equivalent of the old lady hobbled outside and curiously stared at the scene next door.
"I told you to stay inside!" the woman yelled and then cursed under her breath as she scuffled back towards her house. Suddenly, she seemed to remember that the detective was still standing on her front lawn. She briefly turned back around. "Excuse me. He has just had the flu and really should be staying in bed."
As the old lady made her way back to the porch and then dragged her husband inside with her, Jane watched in amusement and shook her head. "Domestic duties my ass."
She hurried back to Brenda Williams' house, where Korsak was already awaiting her. "Nobody home next door," he informed her. "Mailbox is brimful… Looks like they're on vacation. Got anything in the house over there?" he asked and nodded towards the elderly couple's house.
Jane rolled her eyes. "Other than a prewar fossil of a woman who lectured me on my domestic duties? No." As Korsak frowned in confusion, the brunette smirked. "Don't ask," she added and marched towards her sedan. Even though they had identified the second victim, they still didn't have any clue regarding her whereabouts. I will find her. I will find her, Jane repeated to herself as she got back into her car.
