Chapter Text
…..
A small collision occurred outside the elevator that opened to the morgue, and a young woman in a lab coat jumped back in alarm.
“Sorry, Detective Rizzoli!”
Jane smiled away the apology. “Don’t worry about it, Dr. Chang.”
“Oh, I’m not a doctor.”
“I know,” she said. “It’s just ‘Senior Criminalist Chang’ is a mouthful. Anyway, you’re just the person I wanted to see.”
“Really?” Chang asked, suspiciously. “If this is another Mentos and soda experiment, the answer is ‘no’.”
“Come on. We got him off the ground for 3 seconds! Isn’t science all about discovery?”
“And we’re still ‘discovering’ sticky spots throughout the lab. There are stains on the ceiling!”
She tried to cover her snort. “Then it’s a good thing I’m not here for that.” Chang’s raised eyebrow prompted her to continue. “Do you still have the blood samples for Mindy Paulsen and Chester Buschini?”
The criminalist frowned. “I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific. I really only know them by case number.”
Jane nodded and pursed her lips in thought. “How about two victims Pike signed off on as blunt force trauma to the head caused by high level of alcohol or barbiturates in their systems? Another one came in last week; he thinks it’s the same cause of death.”
“Ah, I do remember those,” Chang said. “Yes, we keep blood samples for one full year from the time they were taken. Why?” Jane looked around before pulling the young woman off to the side. “Oh, I’m not going to like this, am I?”
Ignoring her concern, Jane said, “I need you to run the toxicology tests again.”
“What? No. I mean, why?”
Rather than answering the question directly, Jane asked one of her own. “What do you think of Dr. Pike’s methods?”
“They are…adequate. Have I mentioned how uncomfortable this is?”
“Did you find the toxicology reports on those two victims adequate?” The criminalist hesitated and Jane smiled. “Look. I know this puts you in an awkward position, but believe me when I say all I want to do is make sure we’ve done everything in our power to give the victims 100% of our attention.”
Chang glanced at her feet, then over her shoulder before whispering, “I would rate Dr. Pike’s thoroughness to be approximately 72%.”
Jane didn’t bother asking how that specific number had been calculated. “So not quite adequate?”
“The toxicology report was pretty thin,” she admitted.
Taking a deep breath, Jane knew she had all but agreed to help. “Would you consider...making it not so thin?”
“You want me to re-run the tests,” she stated. “What is it you’re looking for?”
“I don’t know,” Jane conceded, “but I want to make sure there’s nothing more than what Pike was looking for.”
Chang pondered this for a moment. “I could run the immunoassay again, then a gas chromatography with a mass spectrometry for good measure.”
“Slow down, Thelma, Scooby doesn’t understand geek speak.” This received a confused look and Jane shook her head. “Forget it. How long will all this take?”
She seemed to do a quick calculation in her head. “Normally I’d say I’d have it by the end of the day, but due to the covertness of your request, I don’t want to draw attention to what I’m doing. How about tomorrow morning?”
“Sounds perfect, 007.”
Chang’s face lit up. “I get that reference!”
…..
The bullpen was filled with a quiet hum as Jane entered. A coffee cup and a small stack of papers sat on her desk.
"What's this?" She gestured towards the items.
"Detective Korsak brought the coffee. Said I should use it as a peace offering." Frost looked at her sheepishly.
"Uh-huh," she replied. "And this?" she asked, holding up the paper.
"I thought a better peace offering would be following up on that case you asked me about."
Jane scanned the top page. Sure enough, it was information on the Pennsylvania case. She sat and leafed through the pages. “So what’s your take on it?” Frost looked across the conjoined desks and hesitated long enough for Jane to smile. “It’s not a trick question. Just tell me what your first impression is.”
“Well,” he tapped a pen against the top of his desk. “Looks pretty straightforward. Guy gets behind the wheel, has some kind of heart problem, crashes, dies.”
“Yep, looks pretty straightforward,” Jane agreed. “But…?”
“But…I take it the person who sent you the file thinks there’s something more.”
“She does.”
“And she’s not the kind to assume things without reason?”
Jane shook her head and softly chuckled. “I’m pretty sure the answer is ‘no’.”
“Okay. But no evidence of vehicle tampering. Nothing in the tox report.”
“Nope.”
Frost scratched the back of his neck. “The financials are a bit off on the husband, if you know where to look.”
“And you know where to look.”
He grinned. “I might have a magic shovel, know where to dig. Take a look at the third page.”
She flipped to page three. Brows furrowed as she quietly read. “He opened a separate bank account last year.”
“I went back 12 months on the joint account. Take a look at the family expenditures.”
She ran her finger down the bank statement. “$6500 a month,” she whistled. “Wish I had that kind of money to expend.”
Frost smiled. “See anything that stands out?”
“Yeah,” she said. “$1000 was withdrawn every month.”
“Now look at the husband’s bank statement.”
She nodded at the reveal. “$1000 deposited into his account every month.”
“Now, that might not mean anything on its own, but it got me thinking. So I took a closer look at the husband. They were pulling in over 15k a month, but everything was in his name."
"Kept a tight rein on the money."
"For good reason," Frost said. "This was his 2nd marriage. His first wife took him to the cleaners. Got this one to sign a pre-nup."
Jane whistled. "He wasn't taking any chances. They get divorced, she gets nothing."
"I don't know if she was thinking about it," he continued, "but she had reason to - travel bills show he was probably having an affair."
She scanned the pages until she found the relevant information. "He booked two trips at a time. One for business, one for pleasure?"
He nodded. "Travel docs show he only ever went for pleasure."
"So, he told the wife there was some kind of conference in Phoenix and went to Hawaii instead," she hypothesised.
"That's what I'm guessing. Never paid for the mistress' ticket though, so she'll be hard to track down."
"Pennsylvania cops can cross-reference the passenger list of all the trips he took. Won't take much to see what other name stands out."
"Wait. Pennsylvania cops?"
"Yeah. I told you it was a favour for a friend."
"Well, yeah, but we got leads."
"They've got leads," she corrected. She could tell he had the bit between his teeth and was raring to go. She smiled at his enthusiasm. “You did some good work here. There’ll be other chances at glory.” As if summoned by the words, her hip buzzed and she looked down at her phone. “Maybe you’ll get your chance now.” She swiped her thumb across the screen and said, “Rizzoli.”
…..