DISCLAIMER: I do not own this show, the books, or these characters. I only borrow them.
Chapter 19
Monday after her discussion with Dr. Zucker, Dr. Isles was about to go out in the field for the first time since the debacle at headquarters. She was walking out her office door when her cell phone went off, "Dr. Isles."
"Hey Doc," Detective Frost's voice came out strongly over the phone, "I heard your coming out with us to the latest crime scene. You might want to change. I've been told the scene is a wreck...so jeans and tennis shoes worthy." Frost actually regretted having to tell Maura to change as it was always interesting to watch her navigate around the mess and horror of a crime scene while looking like a million bucks. The dressed up Doc was always more fun to look at than the gruesome sights that always sent his stomach churning.
"Thanks for the heads up. I'll meet you over there." She was going to ride along with one of the ME techs.
"No problem, we wouldn't want you to trip over the mess and break your neck or anything." Then quieter as he was hanging up, "because Jane would kick my..."
Maura grinned thinking he was probably right as she made sure the door was locked before walking over to the restocked closet. She kicked off her heels and draped the dark blue dress she had been wearing over the nearest chair. She pulled the blue jeans and the comfortable black square necked longed sleeved shirt off their hangers and quickly slipped into them. The shirt color was good for a couple reasons: mourning, and it didn't show many of the stains that might get on them at a messy scene. She hung the dress up on one of the empty hangers and then grabbed the tennis shoes before heading over to the couch. She sat down and tied the laces. She smiled remembering a joyful time of wearing them: running through the yellow police tape slightly ahead of Jane, both out of breath as they came to a halt; the parental hugs while Frankie literally rode circles around the group. Maura wasn't dating him at that time, but she remembered the bright smile he sent her way. She missed that smile.
She went over to her desk and grabbed an elastic band out of the large middle drawer so that she could put her hair up in a quick, low ponytail. Then she grabbed her identification to get her through the crime scene tape and quickly walked out the door to find an ME tech twiddling his thumbs to drag on the case with her.
Dr. Isles had been to many a messy scene, but this was nothing like what she was imagining. Blood, guts, and decomp was her idea of a messy scene, but she did have to admit that the charred building, blackened debris, and hazardous structure would definitely qualify. She put the offered blue paper booties on her feet before carefully stepping through the house to the back bathroom.
Various people were congregating in the small, smokey room. Detective Korsak was squatting near the blackened body. A man in the normal uniform of a firefighter was near the window. Another man wearing khaki pants, a light blue button up shirt, and wearing a hard hat, while checking out the walls and roof, was filling out a form on the clipboard in his hands. A couple crime scene technicians, one male and one female, were taking pictures of the room and the placement of the body. Six people, not including the dead body, did not fit well in the small bathroom, so Maura told her assistant to wait outside the door with the black body bag.
Detective Korsak's joints cracked when he stood up and stretched. He walked over to the arson investigator and started talking about what possibly happened in this room. "I don't get the feeling there is anything off about the scene. The body's position makes me think she fell or fainted, and the timing just sucked as the fire started. What do you think?"
The older gentleman with tufts of gray hair sticking out around the sides of the hard firefighter's helmet added, "From what I can see so far, I'm thinking the fire was accidental rather than arson. I've seen various puddles of some waxy substance so I think there were numerous candles burning and one was too close to the curtains. The window was up and last night was really windy, and from the burn patterns as the charring is worse around the window, I know the fire started here." He pointed toward the tub, "There was a flare up over there. The individual was probably hoping to relax in a nice environment, with some type of alcohol which acted like an accelerant. It's definitely tragic... and really bad timing."
Dr. Isles hated when investigators would speculate about a crime scene. The body would tell her what she needs to know. She took in the scene with a professional eye. The blackened body lay beside the soot covered, clawfoot bathtub. With the face charred and the hair burned away, Maura was not able to tell if the body was female or male. She heard Korsak mention to one of the technicians that it was a female who rented the house and lived by herself according to the landlord; but without X-rays of the pelvis and teeth, the sex and identity of the individual could not be determined. There were no outward signs of trauma, well, other than the fact that all the skin layers and some of the muscle were burned through. The limbs weren't at an unnatural angle, and no bones were protruding from the body, and so only X-rays would tell her if there were any broken bones. There wasn't much she could do on scene as there was no way to do the normal external examination; she couldn't note bumps, bruises, superficial wounds, or even bullet wounds when the palette on which they would be painted was burned to ash.
Fire, as with water, helped destroy forensic evidence, so it wasn't long before the crime scene technicians left and the ME tech came in with the body bag. There was no way to try and get the gurney through the house, and so they were going to need help to slowly and gently carry the body out. Finally Maura turned to Detective Korsak, "Do you have everything you need here so I can move the body?"
"Yep, not much to do here. Going to be an interesting case on your end I think. Granted if the arson investigator changes his mind about foul play," he nodded over to the man in the firefighter uniform, "or you do...it will be an interesting case for Frost and myself, too."
"They are all interesting cases," she glanced back at Korsak. "So where has your temporary partner gone off to?"
Korsak couldn't swallow the laugh that erupted. "You know Frost. He said he'd do the tiring legwork by talking to some of the neighbors, but when he left he was green around the gills and not looking at the body. I think he was trying not to breath deeply either as the smell of burned flesh was not helping his weak stomach."
The body was gently loaded into the body bag and Korsak called out for an officer to come help carry the occupied bag to the medical examiner's van. Before Maura could follow the procession out, Korsak asked quietly, "How are you doing?"
"Okay...day by day," she placed her hand on his elbow and gave a thin smile in thanks before carefully working her way through the burned mess.
Back at the morgue, Maura had the technician wheel the body straight to the imaging equipment. First to get dental X-rays in order to get them over to the renter's dentist to see if they could identify the body through that. It was easier than asking a doctor to betray confidentiality by sending dental X-rays to the morgue and quicker than getting a warrant for the information. Most dentists she had ever interacted with were okay with just giving a 'yes' or 'no' until the warrant for more information could come. As she couldn't do an external examination, a full body X-ray was the only way to look for injuries and would also help so she could determine the sex of the deceased.
Dr. Isles went to check out the X-rays as they were being developed. When she finally saw the X-ray of the pelvis, she knew that the body was female. So it didn't rule out the need to check if the body was the renter, Susan Walker. She was glad to determine sex though as she hated having to call a body on her table 'it'. The dead already had so much depersonalization as it was when in front of her...not knowing how to talk to them seemed an additional insult. Luckily it didn't happen too often. However, she would have to be okay with being called 'the female.' Ever since she started working with Jane Rizzoli, Maura had a strong aversion to calling anyone on her table Jane Doe.
The other images didn't show any trauma until she saw the skull. She could see a fracture on the hat brim line, which often occurred in falls as the individual went from standing and fell back, hitting the back of the head on the ground. She noted the break on the forms and knew that she would have to do a very thorough cranial exam. It didn't rule out foul play though as there was still much to check out. She didn't notice any dark white spots in the shape of a bullet, or any shattered bone that would suggest that a bullet went through and through the dense skeleton. So the head wound was the only information about injuries that jumped out at her from the images.
Before starting the internal examination, Dr. Isles had Yoshima help her turn the body to check the burn pattern over the entire body. She noted that there was less burning on the body's back; as the pattern was uniform she knew that for whatever reason the person didn't move during the fire. After the normal Y-incision, and pulling back the skin, the exam was back on usual footing as the charring didn't effect the deeper muscle and organs. Organ weights were within normal range, and were in great shape. It was sad that a life would end so tragically when she could see that the female took care of her body: the liver was the normal color and not spotty so Dr. Isles knew that the female wasn't a heavy drinker; the heart wasn't larger than usual that would show the heart had to work harder than normal; the lungs were those of a non-smoker, at least until the smoke and soot from the house fire. She spoke her findings into a recorder to transcribe later about soot in the trachea and lung tissue; the female was still alive and breathing during the fire. Cause of death would be inhalation of smoke and carbon monoxide, and global charring due to a fire, but she still needed to rule if the cause of her being unconscious on the floor was accidental or something more. Before she finished up that part of the exam, Dr. Isles took a blood sample and got the stomach contents to see if the female was using something that could have impaired her to cause a fall, or if there might have been a disease to cause dizziness and fainting. After learning the identity of the individual, she might learn from medical records that the female had seizures or some other condition...there were still many possible reasons for the fall that caused her to not move while the fire burned.
As she was finishing checking out the thoracic and abdominal cavities, she asked Yoshima to use the circular bone saw to cut through the top of the skull so she could remove the calvarium and look at the brain. Dr. Isles watched him finish the cut and then walked over to the top end of the table in order to remove the skullcap. Right away she was able to see two areas of interest: a primary impact at the site of the skull fracture and a secondary impact of the brain against the frontal bone. Nothing else from the brain or bones grabbed her attention other than those two subdural hematomas and the fracture she noted earlier on the X-ray.
She took off the soiled latex gloves in order to dial up Korsak to let him and Frost know that she had a preliminary report for them.
Moments later the two men wandered into Dr. Isles' domain. Frost was engrossed in the file of information that he brought down with him to help provide a barrier between his eyes and the burned body. Korsak walked straight over to Maura and therefore the autopsy table with the deceased, "So, what's up, Doc?" He just smirked knowing that she really got tired of that line from him.
Maura tried not to roll her eyes. "So far everything points to an accidental death. Something occurred to make her fall backwards. According to the hat brim line rule, if someone falls from standing to flat on their back, the contusions are usually in a straight line around that area." She pointed out the skull fracture on the X-ray. She couldn't help adding some interesting information she read in a Journal of Forensic Science in 2008, "Researchers found that fractures above this line are more often from blows to the head then falls; the majority of contusions to the left side of the head were found to be homicides, while those on the right side were most often caused by falls."
Frost finally looked up and stated, "Thanks, when I need to commit the perfect murder I'll remember to hit someone on the right side." He regretted looking up and quickly had to look back down and swallow bile back down before he finished his thought, "You're better than all those shows about forensics for ideas on how to get around the system and commit the perfect murder." He felt two pairs of eyes burn into him, "Well, as long as Rizzoli's not the one on the case." He grinned at Maura's heated response.
"Don't get me started on the fallibility of all those medical and scientific television shows!"
Korsak chuckled and couldn't help from jumping into the off-topic conversation, "Aww, you're just jealous. I bet you'd be a good adviser on those type of shows."
Maura smirked, "But of course. When either the writers put impossible situations in a scene or the actors don't get the movements correct, I could show them what it'd really be like to end up on my table."
"Nice. First hand experience," Frost peaked over the edge of his file to see Maura as she shook her head wryly and heard Korsak's chuckle turn into a full out guffaw.
Maura shook her head at the odd turn of the conversation. She usually tried to keep humor out of the autopsy suite as much as possible, but even she occasionally needed the release of tension through a good amusing idea. But all too soon, Dr. Isles reined in the discussion to the topic of the deceased. "When I performed the cranial exam, I noted the start of two subdural hematomas from the fall. The person has what is known as a coup-contrecoup injury," at Korsak's puzzled look she pulled him over to the body to help explain. "When she fell, the brain impacted the skull at the fracture site. That's the coup or the primary impact on the brain. The rebound force caused the frontal lobe to impact the skull in a secondary impact, or contrecoup."
"So bouncing around like a pinball?" Korsak questioned to make sure he understood correctly.
Crude but affective to help non-medical personnel understand what happened. "In a sense. The head wound could have been treated if she reached a hospital in time."
"I knew it! The fire was just at the worse possible time." Korsak had inferred as much at the crime scene. He caught the glare from the doctor for the interruption, "Sorry, I'll keep quiet." He mimicked locking his lips with an invisible key and tossing the imagined key over his left shoulder.
If only Maura believed that the invisible lock could hold. "The female was still breathing though when the fire occurred. There was soot in the trachea and the lung tissue, which could only have happened if she was still breathing at the time. But the fall, or maybe a medical condition that caused her to fall, had her deeply unconscious. Either that or the smoke had killed her by the time the fire reached the body. She wasn't responding to pain or she would have moved to try and get away from the cause." She didn't mention that the probability of the female being dead before the fire got to the body was minimal as the arson investigator believed the fire started in that bathroom. The fire would have moved faster than she would have suffocated on the superheated, sooty air. Dr. Isles knew that that fact would have most definitely sent Frost over to one of her sinks, and she didn't want to join him. She was already on edge from this first case on scene after Frankie's death; she didn't think she would be able to add hearing someone being sick to the picture without falling apart herself.
The lip-lock miraculously popped open as Korsak asked, "How do you know she didn't move at all?"
Dr. Isles motioned to the loitering assistant to come over as she put on another pair of latex gloves. They rolled the body slightly so she could show the proof to the detectives, well, at least Korsak as he would look at the body. "Do you see the difference in the burn pattern? How the burns on the back aren't as deep or as blackened?" When he nodded that he saw, she went on. "The less severe burns are where the body was against the floor so the fire couldn't get to it directly. As there was less oxygen there, the fire couldn't burn as well. And as the burn pattern is uniform, it shows that the body never moved from it's position against the ground. If she would have thrashed to try and get away from the fire, parts of the back would have burned more."
Korsak nodded again as the explanation made sense. He even looked over to Frost and saw the intelligent man trying to learn this bit of information with the quickest glance possible.
"I won't give a definite ruling until I see the tox reports. If they come back clean so I can note that she, or someone else, didn't put anything in her system that would have caused the loss of consciousness, I'll finalize the report to say accidental death due to inhalation of smoke and carbon monoxide and global charring due to a fire. So based on that preliminary report, and the one from the arson investigator on scene, there is a good chance you two won't be needed anymore." Maura tried not to smirk as she watched them shuffle out. She knew that the two men really wanted an interesting case to help fill the void of not having their friend and partner around for awhile. But this wasn't going to be the one.
"Yoshima, will you close up and get the blood and stomach samples over to Toxicology." It might have been worded as a question, but they both knew differently.
"Sure, no problem," he had already started as he had worked with her long enough to know the request was coming.
"Thanks," Dr. Isles was taking off the blackened and bloodied paper garments as she headed over to the biohazard waste container. She then grabbed the recorder and notes about the deceased so she could get to work writing up her preliminary report.
The long day was finally coming to an end. Dr. Isles turned off her computer, grabbed up the bag containing the now soot covered jeans, shirt, and tennis shoes that she removed when she first came back to her office after the autopsy of the still unknown female. She was back in the blue dress and heels, but she left the ponytail in. She grabbed her purse, then slowly and slightly wobbly walked to her car while digging out her keys.
The ride back home was soothing to her weary soul. The few stars she saw twinkling in the darkness reminded her of the twinkling in Frankie's dark eyes as he would laugh. The quiet classical music that was playing on the radio seemed to fit her mood as it started out sad, but very slowly the tone and tempo changed to a more upbeat melody. She knew her feelings were still more in the sad end of her song, but eventually there would be a tempo change...she just hoped it didn't take too long.
She finally pulled into her two-car garage and just sat in her car with her head on the steering wheel until she worked up enough energy to stand up and walk. She staggered into her bedroom to grab the first pair of comfortable pajamas that she came across. She smiled sadly as she saw they were the silk, forest green ones that Frankie really liked...even though he would have sworn that he preferred her out of them if the choice was up to him.
The warm shower she took helped remove the smell of burned wood and flesh and removed the bits of soot that she didn't realize were still in her hair and streaked on her cheek. It also helped wake her up enough to do what she promised herself she would check before the day was over. She wandered out to the hallway and to the closest fire alarm and carbon monoxide alarm. The green light let her know that the battery was still working okay, and a quick push of a button let her know that they were working properly as the shrill sound blared out. She wandered to the next pair in her kitchen and repeated the process.
Maura watched as Bass pulled his head into his shell to try and hide from the scary sounds. Grabbing a strawberry from the fridge, she went and knelt in front of her friend. "Here you go. Sorry about the noise." She patted the shell that reminded her of the feel of smooth wood. Before she could stand back up, Jo came over to see what fun was going on without her. Maura grabbed the pesky puppy up before she could once again steal the strawberry from her friend as he was often slow to brave coming back out. Jo definitely took after his owner – fearless and full of energy. Maura let the small dog out the back door so she could run around the backyard and take care of her business. All too soon the little dog was back in the house and glancing around for her owner. "You'll both be home before you know it," she grabbed a dog biscuit hoping that the treat would curb Jo's desire to steal Bass's. Maura doubted it though. As she all but fell into her bed, she smiled thinking about the antics of the two very different friends...again, just like their owners.
The mail was pushed through the small slot that the food usually came through, or his hands were put through if he needed to be cuffed before a guard would take him out of the cell. Charles Hoyt looked at the opened envelope from some female who wanted to learn about him and what made him tick. She was a bit of an annoyance, but he might find some use for her later so he decided to keep up a general correspondence. That piece of mail did not interest him as much as the still closed large manila envelope. Only mail used to communicate between an attorney and inmate was not searched as they still were afforded that privilege – attorney/client privilege was it when in solitary.
Hoyt's lawyer was a good defense attorney who wanted the fame that would come with the trial of a alleged serial killer. He was a good lawyer, but he was a fool when it came to knowing people and when he himself was being played. Hoyt had asked his lawyer to send him any information he could get on Jane Rizzoli. He said it might be able to help his case, and so the man had been sending pictures, new information, and even newspaper articles when he could hide it between other court documents that Hoyt might need to look over. The package was better than any Christmas present. The giddiness that he felt when he wondered what treasure might be wrapped up in the legal documents.
All too soon the 'wrapping' was off, and Hoyt was left with a newspaper article from a week ago. The article stated in it's bold heading, Boston Police Reeling From Another Tragic Death. It included two pictures: a smiling Officer Rizzoli, and a picture of a grieving family. As he stared at the picture of Frankie, he was pissed that someone was able to hurt Jane this way...and it wasn't him; but then knew that blow was just the completion of what he wanted 'Lola' to do a little over three months ago. Next he glanced at the other picture. He couldn't move his gaze from the family picture as he hungrily took in every tiny detail of the family at the cemetery: the father holding the mother holding a folded flag, beside his Jane...who was holding Dr. Isles' hand while trying to look strong. He glared at the insufferable doctor. The emotionless bitch he talked with awhile ago was pretending to feel for her friend and offer comfort. He thought about that he schooled his features into a sympathetic gaze...the hand she was holding was his...had his mark.
Hoyt thought about that time after he talked to the annoying doctor. The lovely time when Jane barged into the interview room and started yelling at him. His lawyer wasn't present, and he was accosted by one of his 'victims' who was also a cop...she could have set him up in retaliation for his actions in the musty basement. It wouldn't be enough to get him out of jail, but he and his lawyer might be able to spin it to get him out of solitary. He gathered up his few pieces of clean paper and the stub of a pencil and started writing a hurried note back to his lawyer telling him all about the police brutality. He smiled menacingly as the words bled from the pencil...he loved brutality.
AN: I know this one was different then most chapters so far, but the story is outlined for 9-12 months and some things take a really long time to set-up; Hoyt will pop up in tiny bits for quite some time. Plus working on getting the work stuff going as that's where much of the fun interactions happen.
Happy season premiere Monday...yea!