A/N - Couple quick things. Yes, for any Doctor Who fans out there, Hoyt's rhyme is a shameless bow to Stephen Moffat. Also, Joyce O'Donnell is a character from the Rizzoli and Isles books. I find her creepy enough that I just had to bring her in on this one :D
Chapter 1: The Hourglass Runs Out
Tick tock goes the clock
All the days he watched her
Every afternoon he got a little time in the rec room under close supervision. Every afternoon he combed the stations for news, and he combed the news for local homicide reports. Usually there was nothing, but every so often he would catch on the screen a glimpse of what he was looking for. Jane Rizzoli. Tall and confident, her eyes bright, her dark curls bouncing whenever she tossed her head.
Even rarer, he would get a close up look at her, the sharp line of her jaw, the soft curve of her throat.
Today, like most days, it wasn't Jane in the spotlight of the cameras but the petite, caramel-haired Dr. Isles, poised, deft with a scalpel, cool-headed.
And that's when he noticed it.
Charles Hoyt let out a soft chuckle and steepled his fingers, pressing them to his lips as he leaned forward to get a better look at the screen. Yes, there it was: a little glance, a little touch, Jane's slender hand (still scarred, of course) lingering just a little too long on the good doctor's back.
"Gotcha, Jane," he whispered, leaning back in his seat.
Tick tock goes the clock
For the detective and her doctor...
Jane didn't need Maura to tell her the exact correlation between heat waves and crime waves. Hot summers made everyone stir crazy. Ma Rizzoli could've told you that. Even Maura was looking a bit flushed as she steered her Lexus through morning rush hour traffic on Storrow Drive. Jane leaned back in the passenger seat, folding her arms over her chest to keep herself from flipping off whatever Masshole was tailgating them.
To their left the Charles River glittered in the morning sun. Today was going to be a scorcher, and judging by how fuzzy the buildings of downtown looked, it would be a nice sticky one too.
"You know," Jane said finally. "I think I'm actually envying your short skirt today."
Maura blinked. "Is the air conditioning not cold enough?"
"No it's...just looking at the city is making me sweat." Jane huffed. Somewhere in the depths of her pocket, her phone buzzed. She made a great, disgruntled show of fishing it out, then didn't bother checking the display before she answered. "Rizzoli." Nothing. "Hello?...Hello? Okay, definitely not in the mood for this shit." She shut the phone off and tossed it into her lap, resuming the folded arm position.
"I'm not sure I want to know," Maura said quietly after she'd navigated her way off Storrow and into the current of downtown traffic.
"Probably just a wrong number."
"No, I meant what's got you in such an irritable mood."
Jane glared at her, then sighed, combing her fingers through her hair. "Nothing. Sorry. Just the heat. And Frankie's been staying late at work, so Ma is on my case about that because clearly that's my fault and it's all 'Jane you need to be looking after your little brother and making sure he doesn't let his job take over his life' except I don't think she realizes…"
Maura patiently listened as she drove. When they finally pulled into the parking garage, Jane drew a deep breath, pressed her hands to her face for a minute, and managed to give her friend a forced smile. Maura just shook her head, slinging her purse over one shoulder as they got out of the car.
In the elevator, Jane asked, "Am I crazy for thinking that something's about to happen? Something bad?"
"No." Maura peered at her. "But the uneasy feeling that we so often call a premonition can be attributed to any number of logical explanations. The feeling of a house being haunted, for example, is often due to anything from sounds that we don't even consciously pick up to unfamiliar smells…It could just be the weather, Jane."
"God, I hope so."
When Jane's cellphone rang barely two seconds after she sat down at her desk, she briefly wondered if something was actually going on. This time she checked the caller ID, but the number was unknown.
"Rizzoli." A minute later she tossed the phone down on her desk and announced to no one in particular, "That's the second time in an hour!"
Frost peeked up from behind his computer. "What?"
"Someone called and then didn't answer."
Korsak appeared beside their desk before Frost had a chance to answer. "You two ready to head out in five minutes? Beacon Hill, double homicide."
"So much for a relaxing weekend," Jane said. She stood and drained the rest of the coffee from her mug. "I'll go get Maura."
Two women in their late thirties had been disturbed during an otherwise quiet brunch at home. One glass lay broken on the polished wooden floor of the kitchen. The obviously lovingly prepared meal for two laid out on the table was juxtaposed by the harsh splatter of red on the butter cream colored wall behind it.
Jane sighed heavily as she knelt by the first of the two women, who lay sprawled in the doorway to the living room, her eyes wide and glassy.
"They were a couple," Frost said from where he stood examining the pictures on the front of the refrigerator. He looked over at Jane, swallowing down thickly as his gaze lingered on the blood splatter on the walls. "Suppose this was a hate crime?"
"Nah," Jane shook her head. "Blunt force trauma to the back of the head, stab wounds and a cut throat…way too much overkill. This has to have been personal. Besides, this didn't happen in a public place…" She straightened and walked through to the living room, where Maura was just telling her team to load up the second body.
"It's Meghan Ashbury," she said, her eyes wide as Jane walked over.
Jane frowned. "I don't know who that is."
"Very successful private attorney," Maura said. "She specialized in legal defense for white collar crimes…"
"Okay, so it could've been someone she went up against in a trial, we should get in touch with her clients, and check out what she's been up to lately." Jane turned, scanning the people moving about the luxurious apartment. She spotted a young, bright eyed officer and snapped her fingers to get his attention. "Hey. Officer Riley."
"Yes Jane – I mean, Detective Rizzoli?" He hurried over to her.
"Did you –"
"Just checked to make sure they've started dusting for latent prints, and I'll personally see that the evidence is delivered to your desk ASAP." He swallowed, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"Yeah," Jane said, drawing out each letter the way she did when someone was trying her patience. "Coffee, large, black and a cappuccino for the Doc."
Riley hesitated for a second before nodding. "Yes, Detective, I'll be right back with those." He turned and bounded out.
"God, someone needs to stop giving that kid sugar or something," Jane grumbled, turning back to Maura as she stripped her gloves off. "He was a friend of Frankie's from school, only just got out of the academy. Hence the name slip." She caught the amused grin Maura gave her. "What?"
"That wasn't very nice, Jane," Maura chided softly. "I'm sure he's got more important things to do…"
"He's a newbie, it won't kill him to get us coffee." Jane wrinkled her nose. "Let's just call it punishment for his slip in professionalism. That and how freakishly obnoxious him and Frankie used to be..."
While Maura went to help her team with moving the second body, Jane walked over to a large oak desk beneath the front windows. She pulled on a fresh pair of gloves to nudge through the haphazard piles of papers and other miscellanea. She found a little metal business card holder and popped it open, finding it full of different cards, no doubt from Ashbury's clients.
One in particular made Jane pause. "Korsak!" she called, looking over her shoulder. When her old partner made his way over to her, Jane held up the card. "She knew Joyce O'Donnell."
"Who's Joyce O'Donnell?" Frost asked as he joined them.
"Doctor who's almost as psychotic as her patients." Jane looked up at Frost darkly. "She's worked with Hoyt. She finds him…fascinating."
Jane entered autopsy a couple hours later to find Maura quite literally elbow deep in Meghan Ashbury. Having just gotten off the phone with some egotistical jerk at the dead woman's law firm, Jane had half a mind to text him a picture of the scene before her. But that might have been a bit harsh.
"Hey." Jane wrinkled her nose as she approached the autopsy table. "You find anything?"
"Nothing unusual for someone who was so brutally attacked."
"…She says oh so casually." Jane shook her head and laughed.. "Anyway, I got the files on her if you want to see them..."
Maura nodded and stepped back from the table, tugging off her gloves before following Jane into the office. Jane sat down and brought up her email, scrolling through the lists of Ashbury's latest cases. "I don't see anything that seems like it would be worth killing the defense attorney over, not in the last couple years. I still don't want to rule it out though."
"She definitely sustained worse injuries than her wife," Maura said.
Jane glanced up. "Seems like the attack was probably directed against her, then." Giving up on the files, she closed her email and followed Maura back into autopsy.
"Jane!" Maura's voice took on a startlingly worried tone. She hadn't even gotten a fresh pair of gloves on yet, but was looking down at the body, her eyes wide. "There's something in her mouth. There definitely wasn't something in there a minute ago!"
"Well she didn't just hack it up, Maura," Jane said, moving to her friend's side. "You probably just -"
"No, I checked her mouth, I know I checked her mouth!" Maura looked up and they stared at each other for a few seconds.
"Well..." Jane watched Maura pull on her gloves and pick up a pair of tweezers. "Where...also, what..."
"Lavandula angustifolia." Maura held up the tiny sprig of purple flowers for Jane to see. "Lavender." Swallowing, she deposited the plant in an evidence bag, then once again held it up to the light. "It was definitely placed there post-mortem, and the flowers are fresh so it was done recently..."
Jane raised her eyebrows. "So someone snuck in while we were on the computer and stuck a piece of lavender in her mouth? Why?"
"You use a lavender body spray," Maura pointed out.
"So what?" But Jane was already not liking the implications. A connection to Hoyt via Joyce O'Donnell. The smell of lavender and fear, she could practically hear him whispering it. I really need to get a new perfume, she thought glumly. "It's a coincidence, Maura."
Maura nodded, but set back to work a little more stiffly than before. "So are you going to talk to her? O'Donnell, I mean."
"Huh? Hell no. According to the files, she just kept Ashbury on retainer, hadn't used her in a couple years." Jane made a face. "No way I'm talking to her if I don't have to. Anyway, I'm gonna go grab another cup of coffee..."
"You really shouldn't have more caffeine, you're already shaking," Maura said without looking up.
Jane scowled. "I'm not shaking." But she clenched her fists at her side as she strode out anyway.
She had just hit the up button on the elevator when her phone buzzed. "Again?" Jane breathed, tugging it out to see 'Unknown Caller' on the display. She huffed and answered, "Rizzoli."
"Hello, Jane. It's so nice to hear your voice again."