Jane looked at the blonde standing by her side and physically refrained herself from loudly exhaling. She found some kind of satisfaction in a discreet roll of her eyes and bent once again over the corpse lying on the ground.

It was not pretty. She had seen a lot of crime scenes but this one was particularly bloody – a jugular had been cut open – and there were guts spilled – there was one deep cut in the belly. She did not usually mind but, still, this was a little gory for a Thursday early morning.

"His throat was cut by something short and very sharp, maybe a Swiss knife," Jane said, examining with attention the wound on the neck of the victim. "I'd say it was a scalpel."

"You can't possibly know that, Jane."

The tall brunette voluntarily ignored the comment and resumed thinking out loud.

"I'm guessing we'll find traces of a fight when we cut his clothes, possibly ecchymosis on his arms."

"You really shouldn't be guessing."

This time Jane let out a sigh.

"Maur, I'm the Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and I've been working on dead people for more than ten years. I am allowed to guess. Plus, I'm always right," she added with a grin.

This was something truly odd about Jane Rizzoli. She was an impeccable scientist, with guts. In her profession people usually needed strong facts to support a theory, but Jane was not afraid to form hypotheses. The oddest part was that she had an impressive tendency to be right.

"Almost always," the blonde felt the need to precise.

"Okay, so I was wrong once. Big deal. Still a pretty good record."

"Twice. There was also the time you guessed that that man killed in Boston Common had been hit by a baseball bat."

Jane glared at her.

"To be fair, the crime weapon was a pylon that looked exactly like a baseball bat. I have to admit it was a wild guess, though."

Maura did not say anything more but she beamed a little. Yes, Maura Isles liked being righ.

"Dave,' Jane said, motioning at one of the lab techs "Can you take the body back to the lab? I'm done here."

The technician nodded and executed the order.

Jane turned to Maura.

"I'll process the body as soon as I can."

"Thanks," Maura said.

The ME felt the blank tone in her voice.

"What's wrong, Maur?"

"Nothing."

"Hives," Jane assessed with a finger pointed at the blonde's cleavage.

She did not answer but put a hand flat on her chest.

"Really, Maura, I don't know how you can keep up with the detective job when you can't even lie to me."

"I manage well, thank you."

"I know, I'm not criticizing your abilities," Jane assured with sincerity. "I mean, you were not the youngest Detective of BPD for nothing. Just tell me what's wrong."

"I don't like it when you guess. You cannot be sure of what happened for sure if you don't have all of the evidences and proves."

"I'm allowed to have a hunch."

"You have way too many hunches for my taste."

"I'm sorry about that."

Jane had said that with a soft voice.

Maura looked at her.

"Stop analyzing me," the blonde warned her.

"I wouldn't have to if you told me what is wrong with you."

"Nothing is wrong with me," Maura answered courtly. "I have to get back to work. I'll see you later."

Maura didn't wait for Jane to say goodbye. She turned heels in her designer boots – Jane would never understand how she could wear fancy shoes at the job – and left her standing there to go talk to a suspect.

Jane knew how scientific Maura's methods were and she knew sometimes her habit of guessing drove her friend out of her mind, but it was never a reason for her to be so distant.

The Detective was known as much for her bright intelligence as she was for her mathematical methods that she applied with brilliance to her job. Both made her a great Detective and, however uncommon her ways were, not a single person could have argued that she was bad at what she did.

Because she was good. Possibly one of the best.

Of course, she did not have everyone in her good graces. Being a cop was not a notorious way to make friends and, along her career, she had accumulated a few enemies that would have gladly shortened her time in the Police Force, if only they had something to bring her down. Fortunately enough, Maura was impeccable in everything she did. Of course, nobody is perfect and the Detective, like any other human being, had a few secrets.

Jane cast another at Maura before heading out of the crime scene. There was something wrong with the blonde but she couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was. She would have to find out before it got out of proportions.