Body Double: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel

early morning she awakened, shivering from the chill air blowing out the vent. Her dreams had been of Paris. Of strolling under blue skies, past buckets of roses and star-gazer lilies, and for a moment, she did not remember where she was. Not in Paris any longer, but in my own bed, she realized. And something terrible has happened.
    It was only five A.M., yet she felt wide awake. It’s eleven A.M. in Paris, she thought. There the sun is shining and if I were there now, I would already have had my second cup of coffee. She knew that jet lag would catch up with her later today, that this burst of early morning energy would be gone by afternoon, but she could not force herself to sleep any longer.
    She rose and got dressed.
    The street in front of her house looked the same as it always had. The first streaks of dawn lit the sky. She watched the lights come on in Mr. Telushkin’s house next door. He was an early riser, usually heading off to work at least an hour before she did, but this morning, she’d been the first to awaken, and she saw her neighborhood with fresh eyes. Saw the automatic sprinklers come on across the street, water hissing circles on the lawn. She saw the paperboy cycle past, baseball cap turned backward, and heard the thump of
The Boston Globe
hitting her front porch. Everything seems the same, she thought, but it’s not. Death has paid a visit to my neighborhood, and everyone who lives here will remember it. They will look out their front windows at the curb where the Taurus was parked, and shudder at how close it came to touching any one of us.
    Headlights swung around the corner, and a vehicle drove along the street, slowing down as it approached her house. A Brookline police cruiser.
    No, nothing is the same, she thought as she watched the cruiser drive past.
    Nothing ever is.
    She arrived at work before her secretary did. By six, Maura was at her desk, tackling the large stack of transcribed dictations and lab reports that had accumulated in her in-box during the week she had been at the Paris conference. She was already a third of the way through when she heard footsteps, and she looked up to see Louise standing in the doorway.
    “You’re here,” Louise murmured.
    Maura greeted her with a smile.
“Bonjour!
I thought I’d get an early start on all this paperwork.”
    Louise just stared at her for a moment, then she came into the room and sat down in the chair facing Maura’s desk, as though she was suddenly too tired to stand. Though fifty years old, Louise always seemed to have twice the stamina of Maura, who was ten years younger. But this morning, Louise looked drained, her face thin and sallow under fluorescent lights.
    “Are you all right, Dr. Isles?” Louise asked quietly.
    “I’m fine. A little jet-lagged.”
    “I mean—after what happened last night. Detective Frost sounded so sure it was you, in that car . . .”
    Maura nodded, her smile fading. “It was like being in the Twilight Zone, Louise. Coming home to find all those police cars in front of my house.”
    “It was awful. We all thought . . .” Louise swallowed and looked down at her lap. “I was so relieved when Dr. Bristol called me last night. To let me know it was a mistake.”
    There was a silence, heavy with reproach. It suddenly dawned on Maura that she should have been the one to call her own secretary. She should have realized that Louise was shaken, and would want to hear her voice. I’ve been living alone and unattached for so long, she thought, that it doesn’t even occur to me that there are people in this world who might care what happens to me.
    Louise stood up to leave. “I’m so glad to see you back, Dr. Isles. I just wanted to tell you that.”
    “Louise?”
    “Yes?”
    “I brought you a little something back from Paris. I know this sounds like a lame excuse, but it’s packed in my suitcase. And the airline lost it.”
    “Oh.” Louise laughed. “Well, if it’s chocolate, my hips certainly don’t need it.”
    “Nothing caloric, I promise.” She glanced at the clock on her desk. “Is Dr. Bristol in yet?”
    “He just got here. I saw him in the parking lot.”
    “Do you know when he’s doing the autopsy?”
    “Which one? He has two today.”
    “The gunshot from last night. The woman.”
    Louise gave her a long look. “I think that one is second on his schedule.”
    “Do they know anything more about her?”
    “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask Dr. Bristol.”

THREE
    A