Rizzoli & Isles 8-Book Set

just the tip of the iceberg.”

M AURA PAUSED IN THE ICU CUBICLE DOORWAY, UNNERVED BY THE sight of all the tubes and catheters and wires snaking around Rat’s body, an invasion that no sixteen-year-old boy should ever have to endure. But the rhythm on the cardiac monitor was reassuringly steady, and he was now breathing on his own.
    Sensing her presence, he opened his eyes and smiled. “Hey there, ma’am.”
    “Oh, Rat.” She sighed. “Are you ever going to stop calling me that?”
    “What should I call you?”
    You called me Mommy once
. She blinked away tears at the memory. The boy’s real mother was almost certainly among the dead, but she did not have the heart to break the news to him. Instead she managed to return the boy’s smile. “I give you permission to call me whatever you want. But my name is Maura.”
    She sat down in the chair beside his bed and reached for hishand. Noticed how calloused and scabbed it was, the fingernails still stubbornly stained with dirt. She, who did not easily reach out to touch anyone, took that battered hand in hers, and took it without hesitation. It felt natural and right.
    “How’s Bear?” he asked.
    She laughed. “You’ll be changing his name to Pig when you see how much he’s been eating.”
    “So he’s okay?”
    “My friends have been spoiling him rotten. And your foster family promised they’d look after him until you get home.”
    “Oh. Them.” Rat’s gaze drifted away from hers, and he looked up listlessly at the ceiling. “I guess I’ll be going back there.”
    A place he clearly did not want to go. But what alternative could Maura offer him? A home with a divorced woman who knew nothing about raising children? A woman who was carrying on a furtive love affair with a man she could never acknowledge as her partner? She was a poor role model for a teenage boy, and her life was already troubled enough. Yet the offer trembled on her lips, an offer to take him in, to make him happy, to fix his life. To be his mother. Oh, how easy that offer was to make, and once made, how impossible to retract. Be sensible, Maura, she thought. You can’t even keep a cat, much less raise a teenager on your own. No responsible authority would grant her custody. This boy had already known too much rejection, too many disappointments; it would be cruel to make promises she couldn’t keep.
    So she did not make any. She merely held his hand and stayed at his bedside as he drifted back to sleep. The nurse came in to change the IV bottle and whisked out again. But Maura remained, pondering the boy’s future, and what part she could realistically hope to play in it.
I know this much: I won’t abandon you. You’ll always know that someone cares
.
    A knock on the window made her turn, and she saw Jane beckoning to her.
    Reluctantly Maura left the bedside and stepped out of the cubicle.
    “They’re about to start the first autopsy,” Jane said.
    “The Kingdom Come victims?”
    Jane nodded. “The forensic pathologist just arrived from Colorado. He said he knows you, and he’s wondering if you’d care to observe. He’s doing it downstairs, in the hospital morgue.”
    Maura glanced through the window at Rat, and saw that he was peacefully sleeping. The lost boy, still waiting to be claimed.
I’ll be back. I promise
.
    She nodded to Jane, and they left the ICU.
    When they arrived in the morgue, they found the anteroom crowded with observers, Sheriff Fahey and Detective Pasternak among them. The sheer number of victims had made this a high-profile case, and nearly a dozen law enforcement and state and county officials had gathered to witness the autopsy.
    The pathologist saw Maura walk into the room and raised a beefy hand in greeting. Two summers ago, she’d met Dr. Fred Gruber at a forensic pathology conference in Maine, and he seemed pleased to spot a familiar face.
    “Dr. Isles,” he called out in his booming voice. “I could use another set of expert eyes. You want to gown up and join me in there?”
    “I don’t think that’s appropriate,” said Sheriff Fahey.
    “Dr. Isles is a forensic pathologist.”
    “She doesn’t work for the state of Wyoming. This case is going to be watched closely, and questions could be raised.”
    “Why would there be any questions?”
    “Because she was in that valley. She’s a witness, and there could be charges of tampering. Contamination.”
    Maura said, “I’m only here to observe, and I can do that perfectly well