Secrets & Surprises: Exposed, Accepted & Acted Upon

Chapter 98

Up In the Bullpen-In BRIC

Jane, Frost & Lindsay are in BRIC when Maura walks in.

Maura: Ohh. Maria had a congenital heart condition. Cause of death -- heart attack.

Frost: Maria Korkman was a preschool teacher.

Lindsay: The same preschool that Steve Sanner was calling?

Frost: Yeah. Counted three calls in the last week.

Jane: He wanted to talk to her. Bad. I wonder why.

Maura: Badly.

Jane: I hate it when you correct me.

Maura: Well, I hate it when you forget about Mr. Adverb.

Frost: (Chuckles) It's a Melee Valve.

Lindsay: The one that Steve's company makes?

Frost: Yes.

Maura: There's a fracture at the base of the outflow strut and a number of hairline cracks.

Jane: You said Maria died of a heart attack because she had a congenital heart condition.

Maura: No, I did not. I said she died of a heart attack. But I didn't know why, and now I do. She died because the valve failed.

Frost: The company is in the process of being buy out by C&S Medical.

Maura: If they come to terms, the partners stand to make tens of millions.

Frost: Got the company's list of Melee Valve recipients. Since Graham Medical received FDA approval to start production. Look how many of them are kids.

Maura: Heart-valve repair is a very common pediatric surgery.

Jane: Let's narrow the list. How many recipients have died?

Frost: Still looking at over 700 names.

Maura: Can you isolate "heart attack" as the cause of death?

[Keyboard clacking, beep]

Frost: Damn. 118 deaths across the country.

Jane: We can't assume that if they died of heart attack it's because they had a defective valve.

Maura: I never assume.

Jane: Were any of them Boston residents?

Lindsay: Why, you gonna exhume a body?

Frost: Charles Gordon, 52, and Rene Watkins, 11.

Jane: I'm gonna exhume two.

In the Morgue

Maura: This is Charles Gordon's valve.
This is Rene Watkins' valve. Both have similar fractures along the outflow strut.

Lindsay: So they're both defective?

Maura: Yes. You think the higher-ups at the company knew their valves were failing?

Jane: They've seen the same reports we're looking at. What are those numbers? The serial numbers on the valve. Maura, can you pull up the serial number on the Melee Valve that you removed from Maria?

Maura: Of course.

Jane: Frost, can you pull up the numbers on the list that you found in Steve's phone? [ Keyboard clacking ]
It's the same number. Steve knew they were making defective valves, and he knew one was in Maria.

Maura: That's why he was calling her.
To warn her.

Lindsay: So, Steve told Debbie because she was the only journalist he knew.

Jane: But Debbie, the guerrilla gardener, wasn't exactly Mike Wallace, so she reached out to her friend Jared, the investigative reporter.

Maura: But someone figured out that Steve was about to spill his guts. And if word of the defective valves got out, no big corporate sale.

Jane: Mm-hmm, and bye-bye to Rory Graham's millions.

Maura: Crime lab's analysis of the granules found at the crime scene show it's crushed shale, brick, and glass cullet. It's used on red-clay tennis courts.

Jane: And here I thought clay courts were made of clay.

Maura: And the crime lab matched the sample to the clay courts at the Maple Leaf Court Country Club.

[Keyboard clacking]

Frost: Oh, where Rory and Kate Graham are members.

Maura: Yeah, but it's not enough to arrest him.

Jane: No, but it is enough to bring him in just so I can say hi.

Interrogation Room with Rory

Jane: Sorry to take you away from your game.

Rory: You didn't. It was a fast match. I won all three sets.

Jane: I'm curious why, at the reunion, you didn't mention the fact that you're selling your company to C&S Medical.

Rory: I don't comment on business deals until they close.

Jane: Does C&S Medical know they're spending tens of millions of dollars for a flawed valve design?

Rory: What are you talking about?

Lindsay: We have proof that your Melee Valve is defective. Steve knew that, and he's dead.

Rory: You're trying to bait me.

Janes' Cellphone vibrates.

Rory: I didn't kill my friend.

Jane: Perfect timing.

Rory: Do you want to read your texts on your own time, Rizzoli?

Jane: Hey. It's Detective Rizzoli.

Rory: Whatever. Next time you want to chat, call my legal team.

Jane: You might want to take a cab. Just got my warrant to search your office and your car.