Last to Die: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel

your mother, too. She’s knitting.
    JANE
    Hmmm … that is worrisome.
    MAURA
    I think it’s a baby blanket. The yarn is 50-50 cotton-acrylic blend.
    JANE
    Okay, now we have a problem –
        (talks into a pretend
          shoulder 2-way)
    All units: We have a woman who’s so desperate to be a grandmother, she’s knitting a baby blanket for the baby of Lydia, the slut who slept with her ex-husband and youngest son —
    As Maura pulls Jane’s hand away from the pretend 2-way –
    MAURA
    She’s worried about what kind of future that baby is going to have.
    JANE
    You think I’m not? Lydia can barely tie her shoes.
    Suddenly Maura pulls up short.
    MAURA
    Oh.
    JANE
    You pull something?
    MAURA
    I smell something … decomposition.
    Jane follows Maura as she sniffs her way to the edge of the pool just as Korsak and the techs start moving the statue.
    KORSAK
    Let’s tilt her sideways first –
    JANE
    I can’t believe you can smell decomp through bronze.
    MAURA
    It’s a a heavy particulate odor detectable to some animals for miles.
    JANE
        (re: statue)     
    Looks like the Venus di Milo.
        (off Maura’s look)
    I’ve been to the Louvre, Dr. Snob.
    Suddenly, one of the Techs LOSES his footing. Korsak moves to help him but it’s too late.
                                     JANE                                                 MAURA
    Oh no.                                                          Oh no.
    CRASH. The statue DROPS onto the concrete around the pool. The HEAD cracks open. REVEALS the face of a DEAD WOMAN.
    JANE (CONT’D)
    It’s not bronze, it’s plaster.
    KORSAK
    (to Tech who dropped statue)
    S’okay, Murph. We had to crack her open sooner or later.
    Maura kneels to inspect the face, reaches out with a gloved hand and touches the woman’s cheek.
    MAURA
    She’s very cool.
    JANE
    A dead woman masquerading as a statue is cool?
    MAURA
    The body. It’s cold and exhibiting signs of delayed decomposition.
    JANE
    So she was frozen?
    MAURA
    No. Likely kept in cold storage.
    JANE
    (trades a look with Korsak)
    So that’s “Refrigerated” not “frozen,” got it?
    MAURA
    The difference between 32 and 33 degrees is enormous, Jane.
    Frost heads over with news.
    FROST
    Park was updating their electrical system. No power to the cameras.
    JANE
    So no security footage.
    KORSAK
    What about the maintenance crew?
    FROST
    Last guy here says he fished trash out of the water just before he left at 7:00. She wasn’t there.
    Jane takes in the body.
    JANE
    No one goes to this much trouble for a single kill …