The Nightmares You Chase

The Never Ending

As Jane Rizzoli arrived on the Unit ranch the reporters were already buzzing around outside of the Boston Mounted Unit stables, waiting for any detail they could get that would make their story a front page article. It disgusted her to think that anyone would be so jubilant about someone's loved one being dead; she didn't understand it. Heavy hearted, Jane stepped out of her car into the street lamp bathed dirt road and slowly made her way through the sea of reporters.
"Detective Rizzoli! Do you think this will reflect badly on the Mounted Units otherwise spotless reputation?" Asked a pesky reporter as he shoved a mic in her face, causing Jane to jolt back.
"Detective, do you think the person was murdered in there ?" Another mic flew into her face, as a camera snapped from behind her.
"Rizzoli! Who is the new M.E.? Is he going to be working this case?" Asked the woman to her left as the mics began to pile up in her face one by one. The world began to spin in the sudden bombardment of questions.
Jane threw her hands up in the air to try to stop the spinning and bickering at all sides,"Okay! I'm going to say this nicely. You are all," she said as she swept the mics out of her face. "Going to be arrested in you do not leave immediately. You are standing on a secondary crime scene, which is a U.S. Code 18 violation I could arrest you for right now. Leave this scene, now!"
Everyone gave Jane a glare and left sullenly, tracking back to their cars. Jane let out a breath of air and looked around her observing the scene. She saw nothing out of the ordinary except for the officer standing guard out side the doors, just a red barn with white trimmings and a worn picket fence surround it. The dog leaf oak trees swayed in slight breeze that came of the coast, wafting the scent of the up coming Autumn through the air. Her black tennis shoes collected dew as she walked across the short distance to greet the officer. She shoved her thumbs in her pants pockets as she said sarcastically,
"Hey. Nice night for a body to show up huh."
The man gripped the front of his belt and let out a slightly, breathy laugh as he shook his head and said, "Yeah. I was at home about to lay down for the night."
"I'm sorry man,"Jane gently slapped his shoulder three times. "But where's the body at? I haven't see a soul out here besides you and those damned reporters."
"That's because the body's in there," He threw a thumb behind him. "The place looks like an Equestrian version of the movie Saw with blood and shit splattered all over the stalls."
Janes eyes widened in shock as she peaked around the man trying to see inside the slightly open barn doors. Not able to see anything, she her attention back to the man and said"So it's safe to call this a murder, then."
The man reached into his back pocket and tossed Jane a pair of booties as conformation.
"Thanks." Jane put them on as she walked around the man, opened the barn door and was temporarily blinded by the bright fluorescent lights. Once her eyes adjusted, she saw what the officer had meant; the stalls had blood all over them in what seemed like a deliberate pattern. It was like a big top circus tent with the victim being the center post and the blood the red stripes coming from it. The male victims shoulders slouched against the back of the metal chair as his chin rested limply upon his chest. Blood had stained the collar of his pale pink Polo t-shirt and spotted the front. There was no blood that Jane could see on his kaki cargo shorts or the floor around him. What she did see was a single long stemmed red rose with a card attached to its stem under the victim's military style boots. Her blood turned cold at the sight of it. She looked to Korsac and Frost, who were documenting the details of the scene, with panic clouding her eyes. Her hand flew to her weapon, ready to draw at anytime as she asked,"Was his throat cut?"
Frost looked up from his iPad and frowned,"Yes."
"Jane, all of Hoyts victims are women and that card attached to that rose says, 'For Alex. The love of my life.' It's not him," Reasoned Korsac as he walked near to Jane. He had noticed the hand on her pistol, ready to shoot the demons hiding within this small four stall barn, and rested his hand upon hers. "He's been in prison a year now. There's no way he could have done this."
Jane did not ease at all. She still felt the eyes of a predator stalking her from the unseen darkness all around her. Even though he was recaptured a year ago by NYPD, he constantly let her know he was watching by putting regular mail envelopes filled to the brim with photos of her on the steps leading up to her apartment. The first one had Jane received, she burned right on the steps where she had found it. She had not told anyone of the photos because she did not want anyone trying to uproot her from the only normal part of her, besides her job, that she had left. To her, if she had left, that was a sign of weakness and fear. No one ever sees Jane in fear or pain. She doesn't let them.
Jane roughly removed her hand from the pistol, knocking Korsacs hand away, and rested it instead on her hip as she walked over to the body.
"Who is this?" Jane husked.
"This man is Jarred Davenport, 23 years old BPD Mounted Unit Officer. He's been on the force for two years now." Responded Frost as he brung up a photo of Jarred smiling in his BPD uniform. He was a handsome man with sandy blonde hair and altruistic emerald eyes. Whoever Alex is is a lucky woman, thought Jane.
"Have you searched around for a knife or anything that could be the murder weapon?"
"No. The new M.E. called just a few minutes before you arrived and asked that before we touched anything or start searching that she assess the victim first. She sounds stuck up, if you ask me." Frost said with clear distaste for the new M.E. Not even three seconds after frost had spoken, the barn door squeaked as the new M.E. walked inside.
"It's about time. How long were you going to make us wai-" Jane gruffed as she turned and stopped when she saw who it was. The red dress Maura Isles had worn earlier was now replaced by a firm fitting, light grey silk blouse with ruffles running down the front and heathered grey slacks. Jane could not see the shoes that were hidden underneath the long legs of the pants, but she knew that the doctor would have on a pair of heels with out fail. Maura's hair was styled flawlessly as if she were about to do a fashion walk. Janes eyes went wide in shock, slightly because of what Maura was wearing but mostly because she was at her crime scene holing a dark leather bag.
"I thought you had a jo-," Jane shook her head and mused her hair as she continued. "What are you doing here? This is a crime scene."
"I'm the new M.E., Detective Rizzoli," Maura tilted her head slightly and smirked; she was ecstatic that this was the first case she knew someone that was on the homicide team she was working with but she did her best to not let it show. She had a job to do and since she was a woman, respect to be earned. She spoke calmly as she shuffled the bag she was holding into her left hand. "I had been hoping that you were working with homicide when you said you were a detective. It's a pleasure to be working my first case with you, Jane." Maura extended her hand and waited for Jane to get over the shock that was plastered across her face.
Jane was dumbfounded. She didn't think, even after Maura said she dealt with dead people, that she would be the new M.E. All the M.E.'s she had known were men. Jane was somewhat relieved to have another woman that she was working with but the woman that had been attacked earlier had changed her personality completely.She was still kind but she was professional. As if playing around never crossed Dr. Maura Isles mind at any time in her life and the woman Jane had met earlier never existed. Underneath the seriousness, Jane could see the hint of excitement buried just under Maura's professional bravado. She frowned and her eyebrows drew together in disgust as she spoke," I think you have a job you need to do, Dr.Isles. Since you insisted that we wait for you to arrive before we look for evidence. If you would," She let her arm swing behind her to point at the body as she placed one hand on her hip and side stepped out of Maura's way. " have some respect and try not to look like all you want to do is cut him open. That man was one of us." She turned her attention to the body as she gritted her teeth in misplaced anger. Jane hated people who couldn't wait for someone to be murdered. This just caused all previous impressions she had of Dr.Isles to be shaded in darkness.
'I was sure that she wasn't one of those.' Jane thought sourly as she recalled the time she had spent with her this evening. Just as she was about to move to the body maura pulled her shoulder, causing her to turn her head in her direction.
What Jane saw yet again surprised her. Maura's smirk had been replaced by pursed lips and fiery look that bore not one hit of remorse because of Janes previous comments. Maura tightened her grip on her shoulder and spoke boldly and lightly.
"Detective Rizzoli, I do believe that you have mistook the reasons behind my emotions. I am neither excited nor jovial because of the early death of who ever is sitting in that chair. It causes remorse to swirl in my heart for his family and makes me eager to find out the happenings of his quietus. I am merely ardent to find anything that would be helpful for you in finding who murdered him. Please don't mistake the reasoning behind my emotions again, Detective. It would be detrimental to this investigation if you were to be caught up in trying to figure out my emotions rather than this murder."
Jane jerked her shoulder away and stalked away to look for evidence in the stalls, now infuriated by Maura's words.
"Just do your damned job Doctor, so we can do ours."
Maura closed her eyes and sighed, trying to clear her mind; she could not afford anything to go wrong tonight. Taking a deep breath in she opened her eyes and found Korsac and Frost staring at her with confused looks on their faces. No one had ever grabbed Jane that way before and gotten their hand back. They were shocked that all she had done was walk away.
Maura walked over to Frost who was the closest to the body at the moment and stretched out her hand solemnly.
"I am Dr.Maura Isles. I'm the new chief Medical Examiner. I look forward to working with you Detective-?"
Frost reached his hand out and shook hers as he said,"Frost. My name is Barry Frost and the other man is Detective Vince Korsac."
Maura turned to faced Korsac and saw that he had made himself busy studying the blood splatters across the wall.
"I look forward to working with you too, Detective Korsac."
"Me too. Since your here now, can we start looking around for evidence?" Korsac asked bluntly. He wanted a closer look at the splattered blood on the walls.
"Yes. It was just the body that I requested not to be searched around. Everywhere else is absolutely fine." Maura smiled. She missed the glare Korsac shot Frost for getting the information wrong as she bent over and put on gloves to examine Jarred's body.
She looked at the slit in his throat and the puncture wound he had on his lower neck. Tilting his head to the side she noticed drops of dried reddish brown substances on his throat leading to his blood soaked collar. Fallowing the drops, she saw serval spots only on the front of his shirt. Not a drop was on his shorts from what she could see at the moment or on the floor below them.
"Mmmmmhhhh. This is something new. The blood that came from his carotid arteries should be on his shorts and floor below him not just his shirt. It should have sprayed on the walls just not as much as it is. It's almost as someone splash painted it on." Maura studied the walls from where she stood and tried to put together why the blood was missing from the floor and so much was on the walls in such a weird pattern. That's when she saw it. Her eyes swept over the blood right to left as she made out the symbols, "الحصول على أي أقرب و قالت انها سوف تموت أيضا - ح"
Maura couldn't believe what she saw.
She spoke in Arabic as she read aloud the writing on wall, causing all eyes to be directed on her.
Jane snorted sarcastically and swaggered closer as she spoke,"First homicide and the M.E has already lost her mind."
"No, Jane. It's Arabic. That's what is written in blood on that wall." Maura said as she pointed to what looked like regular splotches on the wall to Jane and the others.
"You really have lost it." Jane shook her head and gave Maura an ludicrous look. "Okay, if that really is what ever language you just said, translate it."
"It says,' Get any closer and she will also die.' Signed by Hoyt."
A chill surged through Jane as Maura spoke the name of the man who was supposed to be in prison. She should have known he would find a way out. She should've known that he would find her as soon as he did. The feeling of being hunted swept her away as the world began to spin and black dots mixed with the red ones against the wall. She stumbled backwards and caught he self on one of the stall doors, sliding down the door until she sat firmly on the compacted dirt. She stared out into nowhere trying to right the spinning world around her.
Numbly, Jane breathed,"He's out."
"She's going to pass out if she doesn't get out of here. Grab under her arms and help me pull her out." Mauras E.R. training kicked in as she grabbed under one arm and Korsac the other, pulling her outside into the crisp night air. They leaned her against the barn as Maura check her pulse; it was astronomical. Maura glared at Korsac and Frost with the heat of a thousand suns. She was not going stumble through this case worried that her teammate would shut down at any moment. "This is ridiculous. Some one better explain what the hell just happened, because this is the second time she's done this today. I want answers. Now."

Thanks for reading and being patient with my late posts ! I hope you continue to enjoy my story :) vote and leave a comment if you like it ❤️