Chapter Text
Jane Rizzoli jerked as she felt something smack into the side of her head. “What the hell?”
Boston had been going through a hellacious heatwave that had everyone, even the criminals, lying low. Rather than crawling over crime scenes she had spent the past week perusing a pile of cold case files she had retrieved from archives to try and find something useful to do given the lack of any current crime. She then found herself wading her way through hundreds of pages of badly organized notes from a particular cold case the badly-polling mayor of Boston was suddenly finding politically expedient to get solved. She couldn’t have cared less about his political hopes but the chance to find and bring a young woman’s killer to justice was worth her energy and at least gave her something specific to focus on. Across the aisle, however, her partner Barry Frost raised an eyebrow in challenge and then looked pointedly at her frantically vibrating cell phone. “Are you going to get that? Because if you don’t I’m going to shoot it. It’s been going off and on for ten minutes.”
Jane scowled as she grabbed her phone. “I was trying to think.”
“Yeah I could tell from the smoke coming out of your ears.”
She waved an upraised middle finger at him as she raised her phone to her ear. “Rizzoli.”
“Really, Jane?” The polished upper-crust English accent had an amused lilt. “Well, to keep things equitable I suppose I should say ‘Collingsworth.’”
“Hello, Mugsie,” Jane sighed. “To what do I have this honor?”
Across the aisle, Frost perked up and started gesturing frantically at Jane. His nerd crush on Lady Margaret Elizabeth Anne Collingsworth, Baroness of Montfort, aka Mugsie, aka Mug-C, Chief Computer Hacker for Her Majesty’s government, was as strong as ever. She rolled her eyes and waved a shushing motion at him.
Mugsie sighed into Jane’s ear. “Well, I find myself in need in your particular brand of talent.”
“What,” Jane drawled. “Devilishly handsome with a sophisticated wit?” She grinned at the immediate sound of scoffing.
“Not even on your best day would I describe you as such,” Mugsie assured her. “Unless it was to see Maura try not to laugh.”
“Ouch,” Jane said sourly, thinking of her girlfriend attempting to politely smother her reaction. “Probably accurate though.”
Mugsie chuckled and continued. “Actually, I have a bit of a mystery. Murder most foul, a cast of unusual characters, blackmail, the whole lot.”
Jane sat up. “Seriously? Are you okay? Why aren’t your cops on this?”
“Down, girl,” Mugsie laughed. “I’m fine, the events in question happened over thirty years ago, and it’s safe to say it’s terribly complicated.” She paused and when she spoke again her voice had dropped a bit and she sounded much more serious. “I was wondering if you and the wife might want to come have a visit soon? I wasn’t going to bother you but…” she sighed. “Chas told me I was being an idiot and this was a reasonable application of a spotted dick alert.”
Jane considered this. Chas Lennox, Mugsie’s erstwhile boyfriend but still close friend and colleague, was not usually one to express strong opinions about Mugsie’s life choices out of a reasonable sense of self-preservation, so him having an opinion about whatever was going on was telling. The last time the spotted dick alert had been invoked had introduced Jane to the hacker noblewoman in the first place, and she well understood the gravity of the request.
“Maura’s deputy examiner just came back from vacation, so she might be able to swing something,” Jane said after a moment. “I’ll need to talk to my Lieutenant, but I’m on a case right now that has politicos watching me. How urgent is this?”
“Well,” Mugsie drawled. “The most immediate problem, that of some idiot attempting to blackmail me, has been resolved.” She kept going through Jane’s sputter. “So, nothing that means you need to fly out tonight or anything ridiculous like that. But, if you two could manage to come out in the next month or three I would be exceedingly grateful.”
Jane glanced at the explosion of paperwork on her desk and winced. “Let me get back to you.”
—————
Maura Isles, Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, examined the mildly smoking cocktail before her. The liquid was blue with a creamy froth threatening to spill over the rim of a chilled cocktail glass . Its creator, a bespectacled young man, wore an anxious expression as he waited for her to take a sip. He had been recently hired as a new bartender at the Dirty Robber, the cop bar Maura frequented since her friendly adoption by Jane and rest of the Boston Police Department.
Maura pursed her lips. “What did you say this cocktail was called, Mister…”
“Nathan Hughes, Doctor Isles,” he replied, his tone nervous. “My friends call me Nate. And this is a Corpse Reviver.”
Maura’s eye twitched, and Nathan went on hurriedly. “Missus Rizzoli heard me talking about it. My great-great grand-dad invented it, according to family legend. It’s in the Savoy cocktail book and everything!”
He beamed with familial pride, but then shrank back at Maura’s raised eyebrow, pulling anxiously on the shoulder strap of his apron.
“Now, Maura,” an arm encircled her shoulders, and she turned to find the culprit grinning next to her. Angela Rizzoli wore the same apron as Nathan, a small stylized masked criminal embroidered on the pocket. “Nate is helping us upgrade the menu. I thought law-enforcement themed cocktails would be fun!”
“Ma,” said Jane as she appeared, sinking heavily onto a stool on the other side of Maura. “The only thing cops drink is beer, the cheaper the better for the most part. If it wasn’t for Maura, I don’t think Vince would even keep any wine.”
Angela waved this away with a huff. “Which is why I’ve also invited the lab. We could use a little more variety here than you grumpy cops.” Angela pushed the cocktail glass closer to Maura with a stern look. “But I think you should have the first taste. We added this for your department, after all! Remember that man who came back to life last year?”
Maura’s eyes widened. “That man had been incorrectly assessed as deceased by the paramedics on scene. He most definitely did not come back from death.”
“Wow, that’s super interesting,” said Nathan, clearly fascinated. “Did they misread his vitals or was there equipment failure? Or,” he paused, “I suppose if they did a manual test and his respiratory rate or pulse was exceptionally low…”
Maura’s expression went from pained to pleasantly surprised. “Excellent considerations, Mister Hughes. He had in fact been part of a multi-vehicle collision involving numerous casualties. The misdiagnosis was due to a rushed field triage, and while regrettable not entirely without justification.” She picked up the cocktail glass and examined it more closely. Beside her Jane smirked at Maura clearly upgrading her opinion of the young bartender due to his biologically-themed nerdery. “We of course updated triage procedures to minimize the likelihood of a repeat occurrence.”
Nathan zeroed in on Maura taking a cautious sip, his expression a mixture of anxiousness and hope.
“Oh!” Maura said, her tone showing her surprise. “The flavors…” She took another sip, closing her eyes as she concentrated on identifying ingredients. She hummed with appreciation at what she detected.
Nate looked like he was about to faint.
Maura took another long drink and let out a quiet moan of appreciation.
Jane fanned herself.
Finally Maura set her empty glass onto the bar, looking immensely pleased. Her gaze turned towards the young bartender. “Mister Hughes, this is a delightful concoction. One, I am confident saying, is absolutely something I would order and enjoy at the Savoy, the next time I’m in London.”
Nathan was clearly ready to explode with joy. Angela hustled herself around the bar to wrap him in a hug.
“In the meantime,” Maura continued, waving at her colleagues from the crime lab as the walked through the door. “A round of Corpse Revivers for everyone!”
The bar cheered and the lab techs look confused but happy to be congratulated with a free drink, however mystified they might have been at the provenance.
Mugsie’s “murder most foul” scenario was temporarily forgotten until Frost arrived, Detective Sergeant Korsak in tow. Ostensibly Jane’s supervisor, Korsak wisely operated for the most part as if they were peers, only rarely pulling rank, usually to keep his best detectives from likely harm. In exchange (and in huge part due to Maura’s increased influence), Jane had gotten better at avoiding scenarios where Korsak would feel obligated to pull rank, and thus peace within the team was maintained, and Korsak was currently a shoe-in for Lieutenant for overseeing the team with the best case close rate in entire Northeast.
“So,” Frost said after selecting a French fry and dipping into his special side of BBQ sauce. “What’s up with Mugsie?”
Maura perked up. “Jane. You didn’t tell me she called?”
Jane glared at Frost before turning to Maura. “Sorry, it slipped my mind once you started moaning over Nate’s blue fizzy stuff.”
If Maura was the sort of person who rolled her eyes, she probably would have at this comment. As it was, she merely looked at Jane and waited.
Jane cleared her throat.“I don’t have a lot of details, but she’s invoking a sort of non-urgent spotted dick alert. I was thinking we could call her tomorrow before we go to the farmer’s market, to get more info. She said somebody tried to blackmail her, and it sounds like the blackmailing bit is no longer an issue, but whatever was going on with regard to said blackmail might still be? Anyway,” she concluded, taking another sip of her beer. “She was hoping we could make a trip to see her sometime soon.”
Maura’s eyebrows had been steadily climbing during Jane’s explanation. “Alright.”
“‘Alright’?” Frost sputtered. “That’s all you got?”
Maura’s lips twitched as she took another sip of her wine. “Yes, Detective Frost. Jane has clearly given me the information she knows, so questioning her further at this point would only result in frustration for both of us.” Maura winked at Jane, who felt a sudden anticipatory chill. “And, I for one am hoping to get lucky tonight, so I’m loathe to do anything to put that at risk.”
Korsak and Frost paled and Jane dropped her head to the table.
“Maura!”