Chapter Text
It’s morning break and while sipping on a cup of Pu-erh tea Maura glances up to see Angela heading over to her table.
"Care to join me Angela?" she asks as Angela's already pulled out a chair. Soon as she's seated, Angela looks intently at Maura and asks, "Have you got a couple minutes Maura?"
"Sure.” Shortly followed by, “Did you know that there was a study done on the effects of four types of tea on group of male rats and they discovered that Pu-erh tea lowers both triglycerides and LDL-C while increasing the level of HDL-C?"
"Yeah well, I'll be sure to remember that Maura," Angela replies having already forgotten it. She purses her lips, hesitates a moment and then begins, "Do you know if Jane is...you know? Uh, seeing someone now? I'm only asking because I'm concerned. I mean, ever since the…" Jane's mom looks up to her right and grimaces a bit. "Since the ah... shooting"
"Her miscarriage you mean?" Dr. Isles infers and Angela gives her head a small nod.
"Yeah, since then... That was quite awhile back now and I wonder if she's found someone that she's gotten close to." Angela rests her arms on the table and grasps her hands together. "Since you're her best friend I thought you might know something I don't."
Maura gives Angela a sweet smile and then replies, "You know Jane loves you Angela and I am sure you would know if she was romantically involved with anyone. However, and to be perfectly honest with you, I don't know when Jane is going to have an intimate relationship with someone again."
"Well I know the loss- Oh I don't seem to be saying what I want to," Angela sighs, "I just keep hoping she'll finally find the right guy and settle down. Have a family before it's too late for her."
Maura looks right into her eyes and responds, "Oh Angela, I can't imagine Jane ever settling down. She and I are alike in some ways. We absolutely love our jobs. What we do - while it can be very tiring and frustrating at times - it makes us feel we've accomplished something very important. Catching a murderer or saving a life is exhilarating. We both know that when it comes to a choice between work and a long-term relationship, work is going to win."
Angela lets out a deeper sigh, "I hope you're wrong Maura. I know you two are dedicated to your jobs. But I'm going to hope that both you and Jane can become dedicated to another person too!"
Sensing the conversation is over, they happen to stand up at the same time.
"Well I need to get back to my office," Dr. Isles says.
"And I need to get back to my customers," Mrs. Rizzoli responds.
Minutes after Maura's back in her office, Jane appears in her doorway. Maura looks up as her phone rings. "Okay, I'll be there shortly," she says to the phone. "That's probably why I'm here," the detective adds, "dead guy and missing boy?"
"I'll drive," Jane states as Maura picks up her bag and heads to the door.
Once at the scene they go immediately to the officer first responding to be briefed in more detail. As he leads them under the yellow tape, through the doorway, and up two flights of stairs, he's speaking.
"We got the 911 about an hour ago from the lady - Mrs. Talmadge - who lives in the apartment opposite.She said that she noticed his car was still parked out front just after 9. Said the deceased, Nick Bonadetti, usually drives his son to school in the mornings on his way to work. She knocked on the door and when she didn't get a response she called the super. They walked in together and saw Mr. Bonadetti face down on the carpet in his son's room. He was 41 years old and had custody of his son, Nicky Jr., who just turned 10. The son is missing. A couple uniforms are canvassing the neighborhood. No sign of forced entry. No assault weapon found. Only thing is the bedroom window's wide open - but there's no window ledges or fire-escape. Nobody saw anything - or if they did - they aren't talking."
Dr. Isles immediately moves over to the body. It appears that he fell straight forward from a standing position with nothing to break his fall.
"Natural causes?" the detective asks as the doctor after a minute.
Maura looks up, “Jane, be realistic, we just got here!”
Rizzoli makes a face at Maura and then silently watches as the Medical Examiner does her job.
Eventually Dr. Isles states "Judging by body temperature and small signs of rigor in his face and neck, I would estimate this man has been dead for about twelve to fourteen hours. He is wearing a watch that is still running. No rings on his hand although the discoloration of the ring finger of his left hand would indicate he was married not too long ago."
"Probable cause of death?" The detective asks as she walks around the room looking at everything - floor, furniture, photos, possessions, walls, ceiling. Her first instinct is to grin when she sees the Red Sox baseball cap but it turns into a grimace and then a frown. The boy has lots of video games for Xbox and Nintendo DS. There are several super-hero comic books. It looks like a typical adolescent boy's room. Actually, it is neater than most. The bed covers are tossed aside so he was probably in bed and maybe asleep.
"I cannot see any evidence of malfeasance," Maura states while still looking over the body, "but I don't guess." A few minutes later she adds, "He's wearing a well-made business suit, white cotton heavily starched shirt, unbuttoned at the top and he's not wearing a belt or tie. He still has his socks and shoes on and laced up. What I can tell you is that there are no visible flesh wounds, bruising of exposed areas or signs of blunt force trauma. However, I'll need to examine the body more thoroughly."
Jane sighs heavily, walks over to the open window, looks around the window frame and then out. Clearly no-one could get in or out of the apartment through the window without a fire-truck's ladder. "Nice view," Detective Rizzoli says to no-one in particular, checking out the street below and the small but inviting park across from her. The typical cluster of lookyloos are around the apartment complex and police cars.
Feeling that she has a good mental picture and inventory of the bedroom, she strides past Dr. Isles who is now standing upright and on her cell phone arranging for the relocation of the corpse.
"I'm going to look at the other rooms and then question Mrs. Talmadge," Detective Rizzoli announces. The Crime Scene Unit is there now and trying to find places to mark for possible evidence and photos. They aren't having much luck. Nothing is broken or looks out of place except for the open window. And the dead guy.
All the other rooms look completely normal. They suggest that Mr. Bonadetti and his son had home-cooked pizza for dinner and then, later that night, Junior went to bed.
Jane walks out the door into the common hallway and stops right behind brother detective Frankie who is smiling while talking with an attractive young woman that is probably in her late twenties.
"Hi Detective Rizzoli," Jane says. Frankie turns around and grins at Jane, "Hello Detective Rizzoli!" The woman is surprised and Frankie quickly tells her, “This is my older sister Mrs. Talmadge, we both work Homicide." She smiles and says, "It must get pretty confusing!"
Jane gets a better look at Mrs. Talmadge and greets her, "Hi Mrs. Talmadge. You already know who I am. Do you have the address for the boy’s mother?"
“I got it,” Frankie says while handing Jane a slip of paper, “It’s not far.”
As Jane takes it from him she says, “I’ll call Korsak and have him meet me there.”
Once outside the building again Jane looks up to the window. It was kind of chilly last night, what is with the open window? Maybe the perp repelled down from it?
Jane calls and arranges the meet. She gets in her squad car and drives away as the coroner's van pulls up.
The detective thinks about different scenarios as she drives. Junior saw dad has a heart attack and runs to his mother’s. Nah, the boy should have known to call 911 right away. Even if he didn’t he should have knocked his neighbor’s door. Even if he didn’t do that and made it to his mom’s then she would have called. The boy was kidnapped – maybe by his own mom. Dad didn’t fight to stop them, no one heard any yelling and nothing is broken from a recent struggle. Maybe the son opened the window as a signal to his mom. Maybe the dad had a heart attack after the son and mom left. Maybe they don't know he's dead. Perhaps he just ran away from home...
Jane parks across the street and is thinking the dad was probably a Type A personality - he didn't even kick his shoes off.
Sergeant Vincent Korsak pulls up behind Rizzoli’s car and they get out and meet in the middle.
“You take lead Jane, start with we’re investigating Mr. Bonadetti – ask her when she last spoke to her ex. I'll take a look around while you're talking."
Claire Bonadetti is pretty quick to ask what happened to Nick and when Jane tells her that he’s dead from a possible heart attack, Claire’s voice shoots up an octave and several decibels.
“Oh my god! Nick’s dead! Please tell me you’ve got Nicky in your car right now waiting!”
Before either of them can stop her Claire has run out the front door looking at the cars calling “Nicky!” When she sees he’s not out there she turns around to face the detectives, “Please tell me you have him at the station!”
Korsak reaches out to touch Claire’s elbow to coax her, “Please come back inside Mrs. Bonadetti”.
The FBI arrive at Claire’s home about 15 minutes later. Jane lets them inside.
“We’ll take it from here,” Agent Schiff tells her as he and two other agents come inside and head to where Mrs. Bonadetti is seated on the sofa, crying into a handkerchief Korsak had offered. Leave it to Vince to have a handkerchief - like do they even sell those anymore?
Korsak and Jane stand and listen for a bit before leaving Claire with the feds.
“One of the agents will stop by our office this afternoon,” Vince says as he and Jane walk back to their cars,” Maybe the doc will have something on the dad by then.”
“Yeah, see you there Vince,” Jane responds while closing her door.