Vanish

sank back against the couch, her hospital gown drenched in sweat. Too exhausted to fight back, even to save her own life. How could she fight back? I cannot even get up off this soft couch without a helping hand. Defeated, she watched as Joe picked up her medical chart and flipped open the manila cover.

“Rizzoli, Jane,” he read aloud. “Married, address on Claremont Street. Occupation: Detective, Homicide Unit. Boston PD.” He looked at her with dark eyes so penetrating that she wanted to shrink from them. Unlike Olena, this man was utterly calm and in control. That’s what scared Jane most-that he seemed to know exactly what he was doing. “A homicide detective. And you just happen to be here?”

“Must be my lucky day,” she muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Answer me. How did you just happen to be here?”

Jane’s chin snapped up. “In case you didn’t notice, I’m having a baby.”

Dr. Tam said, “I’m her obstetrician. I admitted her this morning.”

“The timing, that’s what I don’t like,” said Joe. “This is all wrong.”

Jane flinched as Joe grabbed her hospital gown and yanked it up. For a moment he stared down at Jane’s swollen abdomen, her heavy breasts, now bared for everyone in the room to see. Without a word, he let the gown fall back over Jane’s torso.

“Are you satisfied, asshole?” Jane blurted, cheeks burning from the humiliation. “What did you expect, a fat suit?” The instant the words were out of her mouth, she knew it was a stupid thing to say. First rule of hostage survival: Never piss off the guy holding the gun. But by wrenching aside her gown, he had assaulted her, exposed her, and she was now trembling with rage. “You think I want to be trapped in here with you two whack jobs?”

She felt Dr. Tam’s hand tighten around her wrist in a silent plea to shut up. Jane shook off the hand and kept her fury focused on their captors.

“Yes, I’m a cop. And guess what? You two are royally screwed. You kill me, and you know what happens, don’t you? You know what my buddies do to cop killers?”

Joe and Olena looked at each other. Were they making a decision? Coming to an agreement about whether she lived or died?

“A mistake,” said Joe. “That’s all you are, Detective. You’re in the wrong fucking place at the wrong fucking time.”

You said it, asshole.

She was startled when Joe suddenly laughed. He paced to the other end of the room, shaking his head. When he turned back to face her, she saw that his weapon was now pointed at the floor. Not at her.

“So are you a good cop?” he asked.

“What?”

“On TV, they said you worked a case with a missing housewife.”

“A pregnant woman. She was kidnapped.”

“How did it end?”

“She’s alive. The perp’s dead.”

“So you’re good.”

“I did my job.”

Another look passed between Olena and Joe.

He came toward Jane, until he was standing right in front of her. “What if I was to tell you about a crime? What if I told you that justice wasn’t served? That it can never be served?”

“Why can’t it be?”

He reached for a chair, pulled it in front of her, and sat down. Their gazes were now level. Dark eyes met hers with unwavering focus. “Because it was committed by our own government.”

Oops. Cuckoo alert.

“Do you have proof?” Jane asked, managing to keep her voice neutral.

“We have a witness,” he said, and pointed to Olena. “She saw it happen.”

“Witness reports aren’t necessarily sufficient.” Especially when the witness is crazy.

“Are you aware of all the criminal acts our government is guilty of? The crimes they commit every day? The assassinations, kidnappings? Poisoning their own citizens, in the name of profits? It’s big business that runs this country, and we’re all expendable. Take soft drinks, for example.”

“Excuse me?”

“Diet soft drinks. The US government bought ’em by the container load for its troops in the Gulf. I was there, and I saw cans and cans, sitting in the heat. What do you think happens to the chemicals in diet drinks when they’re exposed to heat? They turn toxic. They turn to poison. That’s why thousands of Gulf War vets came home sick. Oh yeah, our government knows about it, but we never will. The soda pop industry’s too big, and they know just whom to bribe.”

“So… this is all about soda pop?”

“No. This is much worse.” He leaned closer. “And this time we’ve finally got them, Detective. We have a witness and we have the proof. And we have the country’s attention. That’s why we’ve got them scared. That’s why they want us dead. What would you do, Detective?”

“About what? I still don’t understand.”

“If you knew about a crime committed by people in our government. And you knew it had gone unpunished. What would you do?”

“That’s easy. I’d do my job. The same as always.”

“You’d see that justice is served?”

“Yes.”

“No matter who stood in your way?”

“Who would try to stop me?”

“You don’t know these people. You don’t know what they’re capable of.”

She tensed as another contraction squeezed its fist around her womb. She felt Dr. Tam take her hand again, and Jane held on tight. Suddenly everything went out of focus as the pain roared in, pain that made her rock forward, groaning. Oh god, what had they taught her in Lamaze class? She’d forgotten it all.

“Cleansing breath,” murmured Dr. Tam. “Find your focus.”

That was it. Now she remembered. Take a breath. Focus on one spot. These crazy people weren’t going to kill her in the next sixty seconds. She just had to get past this pain. Breathe and focus. Breathe and focus…

Olena moved close, and suddenly her face loomed right in front of Jane’s. “Look at me,” Olena said. She pointed to her own eyes. “Look here, right at me. Until it is over.”

I can’t believe it. A crazy woman wants to be my labor coach.

Jane began to pant, her breath quickening as the pain mounted. Olena was right in front of her, her gaze fixed on hers. Cool blue water. That’s what those eyes reminded Jane of. Water. Clear and calm. A pond with no ripples.

“Good,” the woman murmured. “You did good.”

Jane exhaled a sigh of relief and sprawled back against the cushions. Sweat trickled down her cheek. Another five blessed minutes to recover. She thought of all the women through millennia who had endured childbirth, thought of her own mother who, thirty-four years ago, had labored through a hot summer’s night to bring Jane into the world. I did not appreciate what you went through. Now I understand. This is the price women have paid for every child ever born.

“Whom do you trust, Detective Rizzoli?”