Vanish

try to make the food this bad?”

“Nothing wrong with a baby girl, no sir,” Frank said. “Daughters are great, hey Gabe? You gotta watch ’em, though. When she turns sixteen, you be sure to keep those boys away.”

“Sixteen?” Jane snorted. “Dad, by then the horse has left the barn.”

“What’re you saying? Don’t tell me that when you were sixteen-”

“-so what’re you going to call her, hon? I can’t believe you haven’t chosen a name yet.”

“We’re still thinking about it.”

“What’s to think about? Name her after your grandma Regina.”

“She’s got another grandma, you know,” said Frank.

“Who’d call a girl Ignatia?”

“It was good enough for my mom.”

Jane looked across the room at Gabriel, and saw that his gaze had strayed back to the window. He’s still thinking about Joseph Roke. Still wondering about his death.

There was a knock on the door, and yet another familiar head popped into the room. “Hey, Rizzoli!” said Vince Korsak. “You skinny again?” He stepped in, clutching the ribbons of three Mylar balloons bobbing overhead. “How’re you doing, Mrs. Rizzoli, Mr. Rizzoli? Congrats on being new grandparents!”

“Detective Korsak,” said Angela. “Are you hungry? I brought Jane’s favorite spaghetti. And we have paper plates here.”

“Well, I’m sort of on a diet, ma’am.”

“It’s lamb spaghetti.”

“Ooh. You’re a naughty woman, tempting a man off his diet.” Korsak wagged one fat finger at her and Angela gave a high, girlish laugh.

My god, thought Jane. Korsak is flirting with my mom. I don’t think I want to watch this.

“Frank, can you take out those paper plates? They’re in the sack.”

“It’s only ten A.M. It’s not even lunchtime.”

“Detective Korsak is hungry.”

“He just told you he’s on a diet. Why don’t you listen to him?”

There was yet another knock on the door. This time a nurse walked in, wheeling a bassinet. Rolling it over to Jane’s bed, she announced: “Time to visit with Mommy,” and lifted out the swaddled newborn. She placed it in Jane’s arms.

Angela swooped in like a bird of prey. “Ooh, look at her, Frank! Oh god, she’s so precious! Look at that little face!”

“How can I get a look? You’re all over her.”

“She’s got my mother’s mouth-”

“Well, that’s something to brag about.”

“Janie, you should try feeding her now. You need to get practice before your milk comes in.”

Jane looked around the room at the audience crowded around her bed. “Ma, I’m not really comfortable with-” She paused, glancing down at the baby as it suddenly gave a howl. Now what do I do?

“Maybe she’s got gas,” said Frank. “Babies always get gas.”

“Or she’s hungry,” Korsak suggested. He would.

The baby only cried harder.

“Let me take her,” said Angela.

“Who’s the mommy here?” Frank said. “She needs the practice.”

“You don’t want a baby to keep crying.”

“Maybe if you put your finger in her mouth,” said Frank. “That’s what we used to do with you, Janie. Like this-”

“Wait!” said Angela. “Did you wash your hands, Frank?”

The sound of Gabriel’s ringing cell phone was almost lost in the bedlam. Jane glanced at her husband as he answered it and saw him frown at his watch. She heard him say: “I don’t think I can make it right now. Why don’t you go ahead without me?”

“Gabriel?” Jane asked. “Who’s calling?”

“Maura’s starting the autopsy on Olena.”

“You should go in.”

“I hate to leave you.”

“No, you need to be there.” The baby was screaming even louder now, squirming as though desperate to escape its mother’s arms. “One of us should see it.”

“Are you sure you don’t mind?”

“Look at all the company I’ve got here. Go.”

Gabriel bent down to kiss her. “I’ll see you later,” he murmured. “Love you.”

“Imagine that,” said Angela, shaking her head in disapproval after Gabriel had walked out of the room. “I can’t believe it.”

“What, Mom?”

“He leaves his wife and new baby and runs off to watch some dead person get cut open?”

Jane looked down at her daughter, still howling and red-faced in her arms, and she sighed. I only wish I could go with him.

By the time Gabriel donned gown and shoe covers and walked into the autopsy lab, Maura had already lifted the breastbone and was reaching into the chest cavity. She and Yoshima did not exchange a word of unnecessary chatter as her scalpel sliced through vessels and ligaments, freeing the heart and lungs. She worked with silent precision, eyes revealing no emotion above the mask. If Gabriel did not already know her, he would find her efficiency chilling.

“You made it after all,” she said.

“Have I missed anything important?”

“No surprises so far.” She gazed down at Olena. “Same room, same corpse. Strange to think this is the second time I’ve seen this woman dead.”

This time, thought Gabriel, she’ll stay dead.

“So how is Jane doing?”

“She’s fine. A little overwhelmed by visitors right now, I think.”

“And the baby?” She dropped pink lungs into a basin. Lungs that would never again fill with air or oxygenate blood.

“Beautiful. Eight pounds two ounces, ten fingers and ten toes. She looks just like Jane.”

For the first time, a smile tugged at Maura’s eyes. “What’s her name?”

“For the moment, she’s still ‘Baby Girl Rizzoli-Dean.’ ”

“I hope that changes soon.”

“I don’t know. I’m starting to like the sound of it.” It felt disrespectful, talking about such happy details while a dead woman lay between them. He thought of his new daughter taking her first breath, catching her first blurry look at the world, even as Olena’s body was starting to cool.

“I’ll drop by the hospital to see her this afternoon,” said Maura. “Or is she already overdosed on visitors?”

“Believe me, you would be one of the truly welcome ones.”