I own nothing Rizzoli and Isles

LET SLEEPING BLOOD LIE

Chapter 7 - The interrogation

John is being led into the room first, he is cuffed and looks angry, he gives Jane a bitter stare as he passes her in the hall. She follows them in deciding not to let him sit for long as his anger will just deepen.

"Hi Mr. Howell, I am detective Jane Rizzoli, BPD." She gives him a good once over, he doesn't look surprised at all, just peeved.

Jane leans in closer to him and stares him right in the eyes, speaking low, just above a whisper, "Are they treating you ok in there?"

John's face softens instantly, and suddenly he looks like the 17 year old he is. "I'm fine" he whispers back, "Thanks".

Jane sits down beside him instead of facing him, he will be a lot more compliant if she isn't his enemy. "This is pretty serious huh." she begins, its a statement not a question. He nods glumly.

"What I want to know is what you know about Hamish Jones." He looks up confused, "Who?".

Jane takes a photo of the victim out of the file, pointing to it, "This guy."

John looks at the picture carefully then at Jane then back to the picture, he knows something but he isn't gong to spill the beans till he knows what she wants to know.

"I want to know how you knew him, when you met him, what you sold him, how much, and if you know what happened to him the night he died."

Maura frowns from behind the two-way mirror, she has never seen Jane question a suspect like this before. She knows Jane has superb detecting skills but this is just bizarre. It's like she is giving him the path to take in answers without him having to confess anything. John watches his own hands as he fiddles with the cuffs on his lap.

"I will protect you" Jane affirms.

Maura stands up and walks to the adjoining door, knocking, interrupting the process. "Yeah? What is it." Jane calls through the door, Maura opens it partially, "Can I speak to you outside a moment please." It's not a question. John looks at Maura slight recognition in his eyes then looks down again.

Jane gets up, "I'll be right back", she says placing a hand on John's shoulder before leaving.

"What on earth are you doing?" Maura yells in a semi-hushed tone the moment the door clicks shut.

"My job" Jane replys on the same verbal level.

"No you aren't, you can't ask loaded questions and you can't make promises with perpetrators. This isn't like you Jane."

Jane looks relaxed, calm "Maura, I know what I'm doing."

"Do you? Do you Jane?" She sounds angry, confused, annoyed. "That boy Hamish was drugged by someone, Jane. And then ended up falling from quite a height. There is something going on inside the school. You don't even know how this boy is involved. He could be dangerous, involved, or playing you."

"Maur' are you worried about me?" Jane laughs

"You're leading him Jane those are loaded questions. You're directing his answers making it very hard for a D.A. to use anything said in there. You know this." Maura is flustered and breathing heavy, her eyes glimmer with subtle anger.

"He isn't gonna tell me anything if I don't ask. My job is to find the answers, your job is to find the evidence, his job is tell tell me what I wanna know"

"You can't care for him Jane" Maura went to reach out to Jane but changed her mind.

"Are you ok Maura?" Jane looks worried, it's not like Maura to behave like this.

Maura looks back at her studying her, "Yes Jane." then turns and walks away.
Jane blinks a few times at her departing form, "Ok, good talk Maur." She turns and walks back in, a touch confused.

"Right John, Talk to me."

John looks up, "I don't know what happened to him alright. But he was at our place, with some other dude bout his age. That guy just stood there, it was the other guy did the deal."

"When?"

John tries to think back, "Dunno, two, three days before you showed up." He shrugs.

"What did his friend buy?" Jane sits down and starts taking notes.

"Um...I don't wanna say."

Jane glares at him

"Fine", John growls, "Coke. But I never said the dude he came with was his friend."

"What makes you think he wasn't?" Jane enquires gently.

John swallows rubbing his hands together nervously, "Well that dude...Hamish...he didn't seem like he wanted ta be there...he was scared I think. He just stood in the corner and said nothin' ta no-one. Never seen him before that but the dude that did the buyin...He used to come round all the time till that day then not seen him since."

"Name?"

"Dunno, Jay or somthin."

There is a pause

"Would you recognise him if you saw him again?"

"Yeah, sure. Ya know I was only involved cause my ma's gonna loose my sister to the state if we can't pay the rent. System will screw her up, she's only six. Will break my ma's heart. Blade told me it was gonna be easy money and no danger, all I has to do was act tough an watch his back." He swallows hard, his eyes glistening slightly. "Please don't tell my ma I let her down." John puts his head in his hands on the table.

Her heart breaks just a little, she knows the responsibility of family and feels bad for this kid. She has no idea what to say, she can't promise it'll be ok or that everything will work out. It's not in her hands. So she says the only thing she can
"I will talk to the D.A. ok?. I will do my best to help your sister." He looks up into her eyes and a faint smile appears on his face.

"What happened at the university?" Jane asked changing the topic. John doesn't respond. "It would really help me, John." She said tenderly not breaking eye contact.

John looked down "I ain't supposed to talk about it. I had a friend who had weird stuff happen to him. He didn't wanna talk bout it. His parents were upset tho. Then everyone stopped talking about it. I think...well I heard...that the guys in the Phi Betta Kappa Phi house went too far with the initiate rites. They got told off and shut down. But my friend was weird after that. He quit school an' his family moved away. Neva heard from him again."

"Did anything happen to you there?"

"Nuh, I ain't up to being in those rich frat groups. I couldn't afford to even be at the school really, was just tryin' ta get ahead in life till cash got too tight. I had to drop out."

"How many kids from your school were buying drugs"

John's face turns to fear, "I can't say, I can't be a rat."

Jane understands and nods

"I never knew Hamish but some other kids were regulars, and most of em' belonged to phi betta kappa phi. I know cause my friend that left went there."

"If I showed you pictures of classmates would you try to point out who Hamish was with?"

John nods "Sure".

"Thanks", Jane says waving in an officer who had photos of almost every kid in the school.

"That's him" John finally pointed to one, his face hopeful, hopeful his co-operation would keep him out of jail or reduce his sentence, maybe community service.

The picture John Howell pointed too was Jared Stevens. His body language to a few other students pictures had Jane quietly mark them down to keep an eye on also. It was more helpful than she expected.

She felt the sick feeling in her stomach when John was lead away still in cuffs, his future was uncertain, because he was behind bars his families' future was uncertain also. She wanted to save him, she wanted to protect him. The best she could do was keep any jerks away from him while he was locked up. This was her fault, she had got him caught. She clenched her fist trying to direct the frustration and pain away from her heart to her palms.
Maura was right, she shouldn't have cared for him, she was sure she had from the moment she met him, now she knew his life, why he had done what he did, the connection was there, forever. Her heart had another stake in it that she would have to carry around with the others. Now 'shouldn't care for him' was too late. Now she was close to wild with anger and guilt and she didn't know who to take it out on...

"Who is he?" Jane asks aggressively sternly staring into the stubborn eyes of young Pete. A picture of Jared on the table.

He laughs evilly, "You lied to me. You think I'm ever gonna help you?" he scoffs.

"I never lied," responds Jane holding her anger in as much as possible, "But I'm not going to be able to help you if you don't help me. You are in serious trouble and I am gonna make it extra hard for you if you don't tell me what I wanna know."

Pete was upset finding out Jane was a detective, probably a lot of hurt pride that he had mistakenly trusted her.
All she had from him so far was that he dropped out of school and wasn't going back. He claimed that his 'business' was legal and she couldn't charge him on anything because she had no proof, it was ridiculous yes, but unhelpful. He claimed he didn't know Jared or Hamish and he had never dealt or touched drugs in his life. And this interview was going nowhere fast.

"I ain't telling you nuthin" he finally screams at her, his cuffs connected to the table stopping him from moving to far towards her

Luckily Korsak had just walked in because she was seconds away from making sure he never could say another word.

He walked over to her and whispered in her ear that they had just discovered where Hamish had met his untimely demise.

"You can't hold me, I ain't done nothing" Pete hollered as they walked out the door.

Jane turned around and pointed her long finger at him, "You are under arrest, for pissin' me off. Twice." And turned to leave slamming the door after her.

"He fell here." Maura looks down between her feet at the stony ground with trace amounts of blood, "From up there" She looks up at the building a meter in front. It is 5 stories high. One of the campus dormitories. Jane and Korsak follow her gaze. "Thank you for that, Captain obvious." Jane smirks causing Korsak to chuckle. Maura looks unamused.

"This distance from the wall does not indicates he was pushed but it would also depend on several factors," Maura looks around the quiet campus taking in the layout.

"Was he alone?" Jane asks enjoying how close Maura is to guessing.

Maura looks around for a clue, an answer, "I am not sure"

"Well, he didn't exactly drag himself from here to over there Maur." Jane looks at her incrediously

Maura lips curl into a confident knowing smile, "He was moved by someone, Jane, That doesn't mean they were here when he hit the pavement or were responsible for his death."

Jane stares at Maura who stares back, she may have won this round but Jane will keep fighting.

Korsak looks between them, both their faces comically stubborn, "I'm um...going to check out the roof. Bye."

From the top of the building is a rather fantastic view across to the city, the edge of the building is a foot high stone wall with no rail. The school advised that roof access was not permitted to students and was locked with the grounds-keeper and the principal having the only keys. The door was not locked when Korsak had made his way up.

Korsak and Jane, leaning over the edge looking at the ground below. Maura is 6 stories below them examining the ground for evidence. She is small from up this high but easy to pick out with her loose honey blonde hair, and the way she moves methodically and delicately, everyone else is in blue and flustering around like ants. Jane watches her for a moment but pulls back the moment vertigo tries to kick in. She is as keen on heights as she is in falling. Korsak continues to stare over the side, "Quite a view from up here." Jane lightly punches him in the arm, "Not funny, so what happened? He fell, He was pushed, He tried to fly like a vampire bat?"

Korsak strokes his stubble pretending that might be a possibility. "Well there were no defensive wounds so he didn't put up a fight, the edge has no rails so even wandering in the dark could be fatal, and the moss layer up here is slippery too. It's impossible to know"

Jane looks around, "Looks like there might have been a scuffle here, the moss is damaged. Oh and bingo..." She exclaims picks up a hypodermic needle lying behind a roof vent and pops it in a bag "...this could be where the vic' was drugged. Could have wandered straight over the edge if he was alone. Disorientated."

"Maura doesn't like guessing" Korsak laughs

"Maura's not here." Jane pokes out her tongue

"Maura can hear you", Maura's voice comes from behind them as she walks towards Jane, "This is definitely the location of his homicide. Have you determined if he was pushed or fell yet?"

"Not yet, but Jane found a hypodermic needle and some scuffles over here." Korsak responds, "Ill get CSU up here to photograph it."

"There are no marks on the ledge" Maura observes leaning over the edge looking straight down at the crime techs below them.

"What we need is a witness." Jane groans "Ok lets get this back to the lab, test for DNA. I want another go at Pete." Jane growls handing Maura the evidence bag and stalks towards the exit...

to be continued...

Thank you for reading. Thank you for reviewing.
(P.S. I do not live in America so the U.S. setup of colleges, principles, fraternities, dorms etc I am not very familiar with. I only know what I watch on tv and have researched. It is a completely different system where I am. Let me know if there are errors that need corrected.)