Chapter Text
“Look. Alls I’m saying is–”
“I heard what you’re saying, and alls I’m saying is you need to mind your own damn business.” Detective Jane Rizzoli stepped back with a hand on her hip. “Now I’m going to notify this woman,” she said, placing a family photo on the desk in front of her former partner, “that her husband is dead.”
Sergeant Vince Korsak dropped his eyes to look through the reading glasses on the tip of his nose. Jane’s finger pointed to a family of four. Five if you included their labrador. “Janie…”
“Come on, Frost.” She snatched the photo and started to make her way from the room. “Unless you’d rather stay behind and keep gossiping with Korsak.”
“No, ma'am." Frost stood and grabbed his gray suit jacket from the back of his chair. “You good here?”
Jane turned back in time to catch Frost and Korsak shrugging and miming to each other. “Let’s go!” Frost’s hurried pace gave her at least a small sense of satisfaction. Her ability to intimidate wasn’t completely gone, even if her closest coworkers talked about her romantic life behind her back. “Can you believe that guy?” she said, more to the opening door of the precinct than to her partner.
Frost caught up to her side and straightened his navy and gray striped tie. “He means well and you know it.”
Jane stopped with her hand on the driver’s side handle of her cruiser. “But to imply…” Her dark eyes locked with the honey brown ones across from her. She hated Frost’s smirk. “Shut up and get in the car.”
Midday traffic in Boston could be a bitch. Jane eased up on the brakes and they crawled, slower than a snail’s pace, towards yet another red light. She needed to move faster than this. Slow meant she had time to think and the more she was allowed to think, the more she heard Korsak’s too-soft tone in her head: I’ve never seen you care for someone like this, never mind let someone care for you at all.
“Jane?”
Jane tightened her grip on the steering wheel. “Yeah?”
“Did you hear what I said?”
“No. I got lost in thought.” She wouldn’t look at Frost or acknowledge his low hum. “Just say it again.” She sped them through a yellow light.
“Suspect number one had an ironclad alibi. We got receipts and camera footage putting him at the TD Bank on Winter Place at the time of the murder. He was telling the truth.”
“That’s great.” The synthetic fiber of Jane’s blazer was trapping summer heat against her body. She turned up the air conditioning for relief. “That leaves us with a whopping zero suspects!”
“We can’t rule out the wife.”
Jane pulled the cruiser up to the curb in front of the victim’s home. “I guess we’re about to find out if that’s true.”
The impressive Victorian home stood tall amongst its neighbors, with it’s bright blue exterior and bright white trim hinting at how well it was maintained. Jane whistled as they stepped up the stairs of the wraparound porch.
“How much do you suppose one of these cost?”
“Median cost is around nine hundred thousand in this area.” They both reached for their badges.
“How do you know that?” Jane said with a small laugh. “You’ve been spending too much time with M–” she stopped herself from saying the name. Jane cleared her throat and knocked. It took a moment, but the door finally creaked open. The petite redheaded woman from the photo stood in the entryway. However, her brilliant photographed smile was missing now. “Mrs. Williamson?”
“Yes?” She rung a dish towel between her hands.
Jane held up her badge and saw the glint of Frost’s in her peripheral. “I’m Detective Rizzoli and this is Detective Frost. We’re with the Boston Police Department.” She took a deep breath. Jane hated this part of her job. “We’re here about your husband, Frederick.”
“Oh,” she said, looking over her shoulder. “He’s not home right now.”
“May we come inside?”
Mrs. Williamson stepped aside and let the detectives pass. “Is everything okay? He’s usually home by now, but he’s had a lot going on at work which means more late nights than he ever expected.”
“Are your kids home?” Jane looked down a long hallway and into a white kitchen.
“No. Joey started track practice already and Olivia is at her friend’s house.” Mrs. Williamson looked between the detectives. “What’s going on?”
“I’m sorry. It appears your husband was in a car accident late this morning. He didn’t make it.” Jane felt the woman collapse against her before she even saw her move. She motioned to Frost for some help. Together they managed to get her onto the couch. “Mrs. Williamson–”
“Sharon. Please call me Sharon,” she said between soft cries. “I knew something was wrong. I knew it!” A harder cry punctuated the sentence.
“How do you mean?” Jane grabbed a few tissues from a fancy holder on a side table and handed them to Sharon before taking a seat beside her. Frost stayed standing at their side. Jane knew he was taking stock of their surroundings.
Sharon stared at her hands for a long, quiet moment. “We talk. All day.” She wiped her nose and held the tissues against her mouth.
Jane placed her hand on Sharon’s shoulder and said, “Take your time.” She watched as Sharon shook her head over and over, and Jane would be willing to bet she was trying to shake away reality. “You didn't hear from him today?”
“No.” Sharon’s voice came out deep, raw. “But I wrote it off because his work had been so busy.”
“What did Frederick do?” Frost said.
“Immigration lawyer. With everything going on right now…”
Jane nodded. “When was the last time you saw him or heard from him?”
“When he left. He kissed me goodbye, said goodbye to the kids and even found Stanley.”
“Stanley?” Jane said curiously.
“Stanley!” Sharon said with an unexpected amount of strength.
A commotion sounded from behind the group. A large golden dog came bounding into the room. Sharon started petting the dog and then held her head against his. She continued crying harder against her companion.
Jane made a mental note to give Jo Friday an extra squeeze and an extra treat when she got home. “Sharon, did your husband have any enemies? Considering his line of work.”
“No.” Sharon sat up and sniffled. She smoothed out her linen pants and took a deep breath. “Why are you asking that?”
“We have reason to believe Frederick’s accident may not have been accidental.”
“You think someone killed him?” The remaining color drained from Sharon’s face. “Excuse me.” She rushed from the room.
Jane’s heart ached for the woman. “This never gets easier,” she said as she stood. She took the time to walk around the sitting room. Family photos were set everywhere, on every wall and free surface. But next to each group shot was a stand alone of the couple. Every smile was brighter than the next. “They really loved each other,” Jane said, not really meaning for it to come out.
“We did.” Sharon entered the room. “I’m sorry about that. I’m not feeling very well.”
“It’s okay.” Jane approached with her most sympathetic smile. She reached into her pocket and presented a card, the surface rough between her fingertips. “When you’re ready. Please give me a call.”
Sharon held the paper rectangle and let out a strangled laugh. “We’ve been together for twenty-three years.” She looked up at Jane through glossy eyes. “How am I supposed to live even a minute without him?”
“That’s what family’s for.”
When Jane and Frost made it back to the cruiser Jane shook out her arms and stretched her neck. A grunt followed.
“I think it’s safe to say she’s not a suspect,” Frost said quietly.
Jane looked back at the house. “I just shattered that poor woman’s heart and her whole world. Imagine twenty-three years of your life ending.” Jane’s focus settled on her own reflection in the window. “In the blink of an eye.”
“Imagine never even getting your chance at twenty-three years because you’re scared.”
“Watch it…”
Frost put his hands up and looked out the windshield. Traffic had lightened up. “You can be mad all you want, heck you can even be embarrassed. But that doesn’t erase the many good points Korsak made.”
“No it doesn’t,” Jane grumbled, “but I can certainly try my best to erase them.” She tapped her temple. “There. Gone.” She looked at Frost and raised a dark eyebrow. “Do you need me to help you erase them?” Frost’s stare never wavered. “We’re done discussing this.”
“Fine.”
“Because there’s nothing to discuss.”
“Okay.”
“You can’t force things to be true just because you want them to be.”
“Sure.”
Jane gripped the steering wheel and glared at the break lights glaring back at her. She knew life was too short, even when you were gifted the opportunity to live it fully.
The rest of the drive was silent. Awkward but silent. Jane brought the cruiser to a stop a little more abruptly than intended, but she was ready to be released from the confines of a car and caring eyes. She was curious about everyone’s obsession with her personal life.
You two are perfect for each other. We all see it.
“You all really see it?” she said to the steering wheel, but she saw Frost stop with his door half open.
“Don’t you?” A soft smile accompanied his answer. Jane shook her head subtly, barely enough to move her inky curls. “You can have your twenty-three years, you know? And then some because what’ll you be? Seventy? Eighty?”
“Get out!” Jane pushed at Frost’s bulky shoulder. “Get out of my car right now!”
They laughed together as they headed inside. Jane’s appreciation for her partner, her friend, grew three sizes that afternoon. He spoke up when she didn’t want him to, but it was clear he had to. And he knew when to stop talking so Jane could think. He even knew when to step into a different elevator because Jane wasn’t going up to the bullpen.
She stood just outside the door leading to the crime lab and observed her best friend. Doctor Maura Isles had a way about moving, whether she was in her own space or not. In the morgue she moved confidently as the Chief Medical Examiner, her steady hands held cold tools with purpose and analytical hazel eyes scanned everything in front of them, desperate but sure there was something to be found. Jane loved when those eyes fell on her.
Have you ever given it a thought?
Jane lowered her head and chuckled. Korsak, the eldest and wisest detective, also seemed to be the bravest of them all to acknowledge what no one else dared to speak of: The blurriest line between the detective and doctor.
“Jane?” Maura’s voice cut through Jane’s thoughts.
“Yeah?” She looked up to find Maura staring at her, bloody hands up and out of the body she was working on. The eye shield and face mask did very little to hide the concern on her face. “Yeah, um.” Jane cleared her throat and walked toward Maura. She grabbed a pair of gloves along the way, just in case.
“Are you okay?”
She looked into Maura’s eyes and knew she could talk to her friend. About anything. “I just got back from notifying the wife. It’s not that I expect it to get easier…” she felt an uncharacteristic lump start to form in her throat.
“Police officers have been known to lose empathy over the years of a prolonged career,” Maura said matter-of-factly. She tilted her head and regarded Jane. “I’m glad you haven’t.” Maura’s right hand reentered the open chest cavity before them.
Jane grimaced. “Find anything out of the ordinary? Cause of death?”
“Cardiomegaly.”
“Cardio means something to do with the heart! I know that one,” Jane said proudly.
“Very good, Detective.” Maura giggled, which was music to Jane’s ears. “It means Frederick was living with an enlarged heart.”
“Is that what killed him?”
“Unsure.”
“Is there anything you are sure of?”
Maura looked at Jane blankly. “No. Not yet.”
“Time of death and the time of the accident don’t line up, but no obvious signs of foul play.”Jane sighed loudly. “I’d really like to be able to tell the wife this really was an accident.” She looked at Frederick Williamson’s colorless face and had flashes of the family photos peppered throughout his household. “They were together for twenty-three years.”
“Wow. They were just kids when they got together.”
“Sixteen years old.”
“When you know, you know. I suppose.”
Jane stepped away from the table and removed her gloves. “Call me if you find anything.” With that, she left. Leaving a bewildered Maura alone.