I own nothing Rizzoli and Isles

LET SLEEPING BLOOD LIE

Chapter 16 - Suffering

Where am I? She holds in the tears that try to escape. She tries to swallow the sharp pain of a lump in her throat as she looks around her new prison.

The four square meter room has no windows, one steel door with no handle. A single light bulb hangs from a high cement ceiling, it is too high up to reach, the walls are grey cement, the floor matches. There is no mattress, no bed, no toilet, just a bucket in one corner of the room which had she seen it she would have used. Instead a foot away from the bucket is her own vomit, the smell burns her nostrils and eyes for several moments until she begins to get used to it. She pushes herself into the corner of the room facing the door and pulls her knees to her chest wrapping them up in her arms. She won't sleep she already knows, even if she could she doubts they would let her. They probably won't feed her either. Isolation and depravation are tactics used to break someone. Mostly psychological.

What do they want

Why don't they kill me

The thought nags at her

They want me to call it an accidental death, will keep me here until I agree, how will they know I will stop. Where am I, would anyone find me here. No-one is looking for me...

She whimpers at the thought, closing her eyes she tries to stay calm, she can't cry, she won't cry, she has to be tough, she has to fight. They want her to believe their lies, their tricks, but she won't. Of course her friends will be looking for her.

She tries to rub her sore wrists but the exposed raw fresh screams at her touch.

It could have been hours or days, she didn't know. The cold hard floor. The light in the room bright, annoying her senses and emitting an constant buzz. She can't shut off the brightness or the sound, the occasional waft of vomit stench still making her stomach turn.

Every so often she hears a distant scream, or banging. Right outside sometimes.

Is this part of the torture are they trying to scare me

Eventually Jane pulls her tee-shirt up over her head to hide from the light and she rests her chin on her knees. She allows a few silent tears to escape her eyes leaving wet spots on her shirt

No one can see me anyway.

Wednesday 8:55am

Adrianne Harris finally answers, "I don't know what the number 13 means, we don't do occult stuff."

Jane walks around behind him, "We hear brotherhood is a secret pact for life, you do all that weird coffin stuff there?"

"No, no nothing like that" he blurts out sincerely, "Not that I know of anyway."

Harris feels the hair on his neck prickle, he doesn't like it when they stand behind him and when they stare right at him either, right now he has both as Korsak eyeballs him. And Korsaks right eye twitches occasionally making the kid even more anxious. It's a bit of gas but Vince is keeping that secret to himself.

"Ever walk around with water bottles tied to your testicles?" Jane asked still standing behind him, grinning at Korsak, she knew Harris was sweating

"What? No. Seriously? Why aren't you asking normal questions?"

Korsak leans forward slightly, if his eye twitched from this distance Harris might need a new pair of underwear, "Normal...questions, Harris?"

"Yeah, like, um, If I was with Hamish on the roof?"

"Were you with Hamish on the roof?"

"No of course not"

Jane leans down behind him, "Then what would be the point of asking?"

"I uh..."

Korsak chimes in, "Unless he's trying to distract us. Playing games."

"Are you playing games with us Harris?" Jane breathes near his neck

Harris shudders slightly, "No, no, I wouldn't do th-"

"Did you kill him or move him or touch him?" Korsak's eye twitches

"No" Harris cries out barely holding himself together

""It would be ok if you had?" Jane says standing up stiffly behind him

Harris's his eyes darting side to side horrified, "Seriously? how would that be ok?"

"hmmm," Jane begins to walk back in front of the desk, "Maybe it wouldn't"

"Look please, I'll tell you whatever you wanna know"

"Really?" Korsak looks surprised, "Ok. Tell me...what's the punishment for possession of narcotics for a 17 year old?"

"Huh?"

"Oh I'm sorry. Would you like a simpler question?"

Harris gulps

"You haze the pledges?"

Harris is relieved at a question he can answer, "Yeah we fool around a bit, nothing harmful or anything. It's a brotherhood so we look out for each other."

"Not harmful. What about Hamish?" Korsak prods

"I didn't hurt him, I swear. I didn't get involved in that side of it. Some of the other's were a bit harder on him. But we are brothers, we care about each other. We all got hazed, that's why we care bout each other"

"Hamish wasn't your brother yet, was he? He was a still a pledge. You could still turn him away right?"

"Yeah he was pledging, but it makes no difference. He was still one of us. Sometimes things go a bit far but when someone gets upset we stop or do it different."

Korsak scribbles on his pad before looking up slowly

"Who was hard on him?"

Harris looks down at the table murmuring the names, "Ricci, Shawn, Oliver and Joe run the rushes and the house. I just do what I'm told really."

"Ever been to the basement?"

Harris looks up his face sad, desperate maybe, "Yeah, when I was pledging. I couldn't forget it if I tried. They don't us it anymore tho..."

Jane and Korsak both stare at him

"...I don't think."

Saturday 8:40pm

Maura cries loudly not bothering to hide it, her heart feels like it's breaking.

Her hand clutches around the photo of Jane. It had been slipped under her door in a plain white envelope and was discovered when she arrived home.
From when she opened it she had collapsed onto the floor unable to move.

Jane's cheek bruised and swollen, eyes closed, bound to a chair, lying against a metal table her hair splayed around her looking wet, sweaty. Some metal instruments near Jane's head on the table. Maura has watched Jane before, when she was awake as well as asleep, many minutes, many times, many emotions. She had watched Jane both awake and asleep, joy, pain, fear, half-awake from nightmares, relaxed, happy, sad, content, lost. But Jane's face in this picture is something she has never ever seen. She doesn't understand it but it looks un-natural. It looks like some of the faces of some of the cadavers on her morgue table. Empty, pale, void of expression, strained with residual fear, yet calm in that fear. She couldn't from this picture determine if Jane was even alive, she could only assume she was as there was no chance she would obey the message that came with the photo if Jane was dead. It would be a manhunt led by herself, every resource at her disposal, cost not an issue if they had killed Jane.

The note with the photo that was now a little crumpled in her grip, typewritten on a small strip of plain white paper,
Destroy the evidence, His death will look like an accident

She hadn't cared about gloves, or preserving prints as they wouldn't have left any, she hadn't contacted anyone, she didn't know what to do. Jane had been missing 3 days and there was no clues to where to even begin looking. Maura hadn't slept in two days, was barely eating, and now she knew Jane was alive at the time at least the photo was taken, but not safe just as she had feared. There was no guarantee she would get Jane back, there was no guarantee even if she followed these instructions. She didn't care about her job at all, but she knew that whoever took Jane was trying to force the investigation to end, they were serious about what they were doing, they were bullies, and if she obeyed then Hamish would die without justice and she would be arrested for tampering with evidence, not that she cared when Jane's life was on the line and they would win.
She wanted Jane back and would do anything for her.
Hamish was dead, nothing could bring him back, Jane however was alive, for now.

Her ambivalence was causing her to feel sick, head over heart.

Of course her heart would win in the end...

...to be continued...