Maura closed the file folder and tossed it onto the pile on her desk. Was it really her? The gardener? With the arm touch, and the laughter? Maura truly hated speculating, but this conflict with Jane was eating her up. There wasn't much empirical evidence for her conclusion but she just… Ugh, God. She unfortunately had a hunch. Her face screwed up with distaste and tried to push the thoughts away. There was little reason to reach this conclusion. And either way, what did it matter, which woman it was? Maybe it had nothing to do with this case. Maybe she met this mystery woman a week before that, or the week after. It didn't change anything if she figured it out.
What truly should have been bothering Maura is how little she had been able to contribute to this case. Just as she was pulling the folder back over to herself to take another look, there was a knock on her door. "It's open."
The door opened to reveal Susie Chang, the crime lab's senior criminologist.
"Doctor Isles, I'm sorry to interrupt."
Maura looked up at Susie with a faint smile before looking back down at the folder. "No apology necessary, Susie. How can I help you?"
"Well, uh, it's almost two p.m.," she offered, and stopped talking. For some reason, the senior criminalist seemed to think that was enough information. Maura flipped her wrist to glance at her watch, confirming the time.
"So it is, Susie. And…?" Maura trailed off, uncertain of the significance. Susie reluctantly offered more.
"Oh. Well, uh, as you may recall from Lieutenant Cavanaugh's email, there's an all hands meeting today to discuss the community garden murder. Everyone is going to be briefed on where the case stands by, uh…" Susie cleared her throat nervously, "Detective Rizzoli. He, Cavanaugh, wants everyone on the same page with up to date information, so he wants uh… all relevant personnel in attendance."
Maura stared at Chang. With anyone else it would have been annoying how hesitant she was to even say Jane's name in her presence. In Susie's case, the detective had made her nervous from the jump, so Maura could easily convince herself it had nothing to do with their falling out. She stood up smoothly from behind her desk.
"I appreciate the reminder. You can go ahead without me, and I'll catch up."
Susie smiled with relief and hurried off. Alone once again, Maura threw her head back and stared at the ceiling. She had mostly avoided these briefings. In fact, not many of them were necessary lately. Maura and Jane had both thrown themselves into their work and were hammering out cases at a record clip. The thread that would pull apart this particular case, however, had so far eluded them both.
Maybe if she wasn't so distracted catching up with friends.
Maura smirked to herself, but felt immediately guilty. Whatever else had happened, Jane was a consummate professional. It was just a tricky case. Maura hadn't found the smoking gun either. And while she certainly wasn't looking forward to it, she did hope the briefing could be productive. She grabbed her bag, and headed for the door.
For some inexplicable reason, the briefing was being held in one of the smaller meeting rooms in Division One. Maura looked helplessly at the large, spacious, and empty bullpen before she wedged her way inside the room. There was one seat available, of course, just one chair down from where Jane stood at a white board. Maura considered hanging back and standing with the uniformed officers and less senior staff, but she knew the expectation associated with her position was that she'd take that chair. With her best unbothered smile, she took a seat and turned attentively to Jane, a vision of professionalism. She had generally been avoiding her, but she was actually grateful for an opportunity to see her. Or really, an excuse to look at her. Maura was curious if any of Korsak, Frost, or Angela had come running to let Jane know that Maura was now in the know. Looking at the detective, she really couldn't tell. Jane had looked at her briefly, but had quickly looked away to have a quick sotto voce conversation with Lieutenant Cavanaugh.
"Thank you everyone for attending," Jane began. "As I'm sure you're all aware, the investigation into the community garden murder of Arthur Hill, fifty-three, has been stalled for a while now. We haven't had a new lead in a week. All thirty-four members of the garden have been interviewed. Thanks to the magic of compost, time of death took some work, but we're pretty confident it happened one week prior to the discovery of the body," Jane flicked her eyes to Maura, who looked back impassively. She'd narrowed down the time of death to twenty-four hours, which she thought was decent work given the variables. Compost wasn't 'magic', it was science, and based on the temperature and contents and density of the waste piled on the body, plus interview reports of how often the compost was turned, Maura had come up with a decent window for the death. Nevertheless, not that many people are completely occupied for twenty-four straight hours, so very few of the community garden members had been able to eliminate themselves completely as persons of interest. Maura wondered if the woman she had seen Jane talking to had been cleared. She must have been. If she was actually dating Jane, there's no way she could be an active suspect in this investigation.
"The reason we believe the killer is likely a member of the garden is due to the vic's repeated thefts and acts of destruction against other plots. Thanks to the crime lab, we are also fairly sure that the murder weapon is a pair of garden sheers, though no weapon has been recovered yet. The angle of attack suggests someone who is between five-foot-ten and 6-foot-two, and we doubt it was premeditated, but we haven't conclusively ruled out a random attack. However, our vic was a longtime member of the community garden, who had frequent, and, in the last year, escalating conflicts with the other members. Members of the team are investigating Hill's life outside the garden for any indication of someone else who may have wanted to hurt him." Jane continued on with the facts of the case, going over the limited evidence and any leads that the interviews had provided. Maura had kept herself informed of the details of the investigation, so she set her face in a paying attention expression and allowed her thoughts to drift just a bit while she observed Jane. She wasn't sure why she had dreaded the briefing, as there weren't many opportunities to just look at the detective these days. Not without being weird, anyway.
Jane looked good. Very good, in fact. She never lacked for confidence or charisma, but Maura couldn't help but notice that there was something different. She seemed more comfortable in her clothes. She leaned back just a little, taking in Jane's whole outfit. Clothes never mattered much to Jane, and for someone who had been out of official uniform for several years, she still basically had one. Suit jackets, sleeves rolled up, t-shirts over white tank tops, ugly boots. She was a bit more dressed up today, presumably because of the meeting, and wearing a silk button-up shirt. Maura's brow furrowed and she stared at the lapel, noticing which way the buttons buttoned.
That's a man's shirt! Well. A men's shirt. It probably didn't belong to a man in particular. But it was certainly not purchased in the women's department. It looks nice on her.
The shirt had a boxy cut, but the high quality materials clung and hung on the detective's long frame in a way that complimented her far more than the boring synthetic shirts she almost certainly purchased five at a time in different colours.
And what are those boots? They're very nice. The whole outfit is nice. Casual, yes, but thoughtfully put together. She thought about this outfit. Or someone did.
Maura fumed internally, just a little. Somehow, the thought of Jane suddenly caring about clothing, or letting someone else dress her up, was particularly annoying. She shook off the irritation and continued her observations. Jane was moving smoothly around the room, writing occasionally on the white board, pointing at someone when she particularly liked their point. She was in her element. Serious and in charge, occasionally gregarious. She looked beautiful. She looked handsome. Maura felt her cheeks redden slightly, and glanced quickly around the room in order to tear her eyes away from Jane. She wasn't sure how many other people knew about the recent change in the detective's life, but either way, everyone was observing her with respect and giving her their full attention.
Except for me.
With a pang of remorse, Maura dropped her eyes to look at the pictures covering the table. Some of them she hadn't seen before, as they were just pictures of the other garden plots. No obvious evidence pertaining to the death had been found in any other plot, but pictures had been taken to catalogue the accusations of produce theft and damage committed by the victim, Arthur Hill. She was looking at the flowerbeds from which wide swaths of flowers had been cut as she canted her head to the side thoughtfully. Jane noticed.
"Do you see something, Doctor Isles?" she raised both brows at Maura, leaning over the table to see which photographs Maura had in front of her.
Maura placed one hand against one of the photos, and looked up, unexpectedly looking Jane right in the eyes.
"Oh," She cleared her throat. "Not anything I can speak to, Detective." Her neck went a little warm, and her other hand fluttered to her clavicle in an effort to conceal it. But at least by her scientific standards, she hadn't seen anything. And it had nothing to do with forensics, and she wasn't about to guess in a room full of detectives.
Jane exchanged a quick glance with Frost, then looked back to Maura, considering whether to push. But she knew better than to try and drag it out of her in front of the whole assemblage of people.
"Right," Jane continued, dragging the word out just the slightest bit. "I want people going over these interviews, seeing if there's any leads we haven't followed, anyone that it seems like we should bring back in for another round of questioning," she kept talking, and Maura once again checked out.
She had noticed something, but she wasn't sure if it mattered. A lot of the garden plots that had been photographed had large sections of flowers missing. They were cut with a degree of expertise, as if prepared for a long stem arrangement. Was the victim stealing flowers in addition to produce? His handiwork in the other plots was destructive and messy, it didn't really match with the carefully cut flowers she was seeing in the photos. Perhaps they were all just cut by the individual owners of the plots. Still, Maura made a note to find Frost when he was alone, and pass the thought along.
Right now, however, she had to plan her exit. She could tell the meeting was wrapping up. As Jane turned it over to Lieutenant Cavanaugh, who began thanking everyone for their attendance, Maura grabbed her things, murmured a quick excuse about a meeting to Chang, and made an expedient escape before anyone else could get moving.
"So what was that about? You noticed something during that meeting, I saw you cover your neck."
Jane pushed her way into the morgue's doors as she spoke, and Maura sighed, turning around. Jane had attempted to stop her before she left the meeting room, but the doctor had evaded her best efforts, and slipped back down the basement. Jane got caught up in a conversation with one of the beat cops who had gone door knocking in the neighbourhood around the garden, and Maura thought that she'd successfully avoided the face-to-face that Jane was seeking, as she rarely came to talk to Maura downstairs anymore.
Alas.
"You're right. I did notice something small. I just didn't want to speak up there," She tilted her head upward, "because it's pure speculation, and I can feel the way they all stare at us when we talk now," she said pointedly. "I promise I was going to come find you." She felt her neck itch and added, "Or Frost."
Jane stood there for a long moment, and then her shoulders slumped noticeably. "Listen. Can we just... call a truce. For an hour. Two hours, tops. I know we've figured out a way to work together and for the most part the distance has been fine, even productive." Maura winced at the notion that, at least professionally, they'd been doing so well apart. She'd made a similar observation, but it still stung. Jane continued, "I think because we've replaced teamwork with competition, not wanting to be outperformed by the other?" Jane shrugged, a little helpless. "But this one is too tricky, I need a little of the old sauce, the collaboration. Please let me just talk through this case with you, figure out if we missed something."
Maura looked at Jane for a long moment. It had been a while since she'd seen the detective lower her defences, and Maura found herself relenting a bit.
"It is a tough shell to crack," Maura agreed reluctantly.
"Nut."
Maura stared at Jane in confusion.
"Nut," Jane repeated. "It's a tough nut to crack."
Oh," Maura pondered. "I guess that makes sense. Shells can often be quite fragile sometimes. Although, certainly, larger conch shells would be harder to crack than even the most stubborn walnut."
Jane stood there for another long moment, then flailed her arms a little, gesturing at everything and nothing. "What is going on? Is that a yes? Can we do this?"
Maura nodded once. "Yes, we can do this." Jane perked up, and Maura continued, "Tomorrow."
"What's wrong with right now?"
"I think we should have all the case files in front of us. I want to review my notes, and I want to look at the stuff I don't usually look at, the photos and interviews."
Jane raised her eyebrow, and Maura could tell she was trying not to smile. "You want to play detective?"
Maura huffed. "No, I want to be the Chief Medical Examiner. But I've gone over my own findings a dozen times and I'm certain there's nothing we've missed in the autopsy or toxicology or anything else. We're both just running around in the circles, so we should look at things in a different way."
Jane appraised the other other woman, and then nodded. "That makes sense. You bring all your stuff and I'll bring all of ours. We can meet in the bullpen—"
"My office," Maura interrupted.
"—your office."
Maura nodded. "Noon?"
"One o'clock," Jane offered. Maura tilted her head at the time adjustment, wondering if Jane was changing it just because Maura had changed the location. The detective just shrugged, "I have something earlier. One p.m., and we'll crack this shell." The taller woman ventured a grin. Maura almost smiled in return, but she caught herself. Falling back into snappy banter without an apology wasn't going to suffice. She forced her features into impassive lines. This was for the case, in order to maximize their performance.
"I'll see you here at one p.m., Detective Rizzoli."
Jane gave her a long look, and Maura thought there was perhaps a flash of hurt. But it was gone almost as soon as it appeared. With a nod and without another word, Jane departed.