The Keepsake: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel

locked together, their flesh melding into one, and the flames consumed them.
    Medea rose unhurt to her feet. But her gaze was not focused on the burning bodies of Jimmy and Carrie Otto; she stared instead toward the woods.
    Toward Barry Frost, who had sagged backward against a tree, his weapon still clutched in his hands.

THIRTY-SIX
     
    The label of hero did not sit comfortably on Barry Frost’s shoulders.
    He looked embarrassed rather than heroic, sitting in his hospital bed, wearing only the flimsy johnny gown. He’d been transferred to Boston Medical Center two days earlier, and since then a steady stream of well-wishers, everyone from the police commissioner to the Boston PD cafeteria staff, had made the pilgrimage to his hospital room. That afternoon, when Jane arrived, she found three visitors still lingering amid the jungle of flower arrangements and Mylar GET WELL balloons. From kids to old ladies, everybody liked Frost, she thought as she watched from the doorway. And she understood why. He was the Boy Scout who’d cheerfully shovel your sidewalk and jump-start your car and climb a tree to rescue your cat.
    He’d even save your life.
    She waited for the other visitors to leave before she finally stepped into his room. “Can you stand one more?” she asked.
    He gave her a wan smile. “Hey. I was hoping you’d stick around.”
    “This seems to be the happening place. I have to fight off all your groupies just to get in.” With her right arm now in a cast, Jane felt clumsy as she dragged a chair over to the bed and sat down. “Geez, will you look at us two,” she said. “What a pathetic pair of wounded war buddies.”
    Frost started to laugh, but caught himself as the motion set off fresh pain from his laparotomy incision. He hunched forward, grimacing in discomfort.
    “I’ll get the nurse,” she said.
    “No.” Frost held up his hand. “I can handle this. I don’t want any more morphine.”
    “Screw the macho stuff. I say take the drugs.”
    “I don’t want to be doped up. Tonight I need to have my head clear.”
    “What for?”
    “Alice is coming to see me.”
    It was painful to hear the hopeful note in his voice, and she looked away so he could not read the pity in her eyes. Alice didn’t deserve this man. He was one of the good guys, one of the decent guys, and that was why he was going to get his heart broken.
    “Maybe I should leave,” she said.
    “No. Not yet. Please.” Carefully he settled back against the pillows and released a cautious breath. Trying to look cheerful, he said: “Tell me the latest news.”
    “It’s been confirmed. Debbie Duke was really Carrie Otto. According to Mrs. Willebrandt, Carrie showed up at the museum back in April and offered to help out as a volunteer.”
    “April? That’s soon after Josephine was hired.”
    Jane nodded. “It took only a few months for Carrie to become indispensable to the museum. She must have stolen Josephine’s keys. Maybe she was the one who left that bag of hair in Dr. Isles’s backyard. She gave Jimmy complete access to the building. In every way, brother and sister were a team.”
    “Why would any sister go along with a brother like Jimmy?”
    “We caught a glimpse of it that night.
Inappropriate sibling attachment
was what the therapist wrote in Jimmy’s psychiatric file. I spoke to Dr. Hilzbrich yesterday, and he said Carrie was every bit as pathological as her brother. She’d do anything for him, maybe even maintain his dungeon. The crime scene unit found multiple hairs and fibers in that Maine cellar. The mattress had bloodstains from more than one victim. Neighbors on the road said they’d sometimes see both Jimmy and Carrie in the area at the same time. They’d stay in the house for several weeks, then they’d disappear for months.”
    “I’ve heard of husband-and-wife serial killer teams. But a brother and sister?”
    “The same dynamic applies. A weak personality coupled with a powerful one. Jimmy was the dominator, so overwhelming that he could exert total control over people like his sister. And Bradley Rose. While Bradley was alive, he helped Jimmy in the hunt. He preserved the victims and found places to store their bodies.”
    “So he was just Jimmy’s follower.”
    “No, they both got something out of the relationship. That’s Dr. Hilzbrich’s theory. Jimmy fulfilled his teenage fantasies of collecting dead women while Bradley acted out his obsession with Medea Sommer.
She
was what