Disclaimer: They are not mine....at least not most of them.
I just can't fight the urge to throw them all into the preverbal blender and see what comes out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quick Note: I got the idea for this story when we were doing 'Causa Mortis' and it wouldn't go away.
The story started out to be something totally different (No, don't worry nobody dies). I started and stopped on it a dozen times and threw out more than I kept. I decided to just sit on it since I couldn't get a handle on it.
A few weeks ago I was chatting with Madam Beth and she asked me whatever happened with it. I told her I had a usable first chapter, maybe a second, and the LAST chapter. The task of getting from point A to Point B was proving to be the challenge. She offered to help...I sent them to her. She said great start.....but, this ending is NOT going to work.
She convinced me to change "the ending" to the middle and the story took off....with her prodding.
From that point on it was daily emails and IMs. Sometimes two, three times a day!
I really need to give her co-author rights with this because she's probably put in as much time with the story as I have. Half the story came straight from her saying...wouldn't it be nice if....
When it was all said and done (well not quite) the story ended up.... long...about twice as long as I had anticipated. (I guess that happens when the original ending falls in the middle) I hope you don't get too bored with it.
I just thought you'd all like to know....
Thanks Beth! jmkw
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The explosion lit the predawn sky, shooting a plump of smoke and flames spiraling over the roof tops around it.
"I kind of liked that car." Woody said looking down at the man next to him.
He noticed, in the glow of the flames, his angler face lightened to the color of newly minted pennies.
"You won't need it anymore Detective Hoyt. We need to be going."
Woody reluctantly turned away from the burning car. His companion watched the flames. Something went wrong. They should have heard the explosion in Cambridge.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The crime scene was a mass of organized chaos when Jordan arrived. Fire trucks and police cruisers competing for space on the narrow street connected to the parking lot.
A car bombing.
The smell of burning rubber and smoldering automobile oil hung in the air. A slight, underlying scent of burning flesh reminded her of why she was there. She began to pick her way over the discarded fire fighting equipment looking for an officer in charge.
"What are you doing here Jordan?"
Garret. In the pale early morning light she could see he was not pleased to see her. She brushed it off. He had been acting like he needed to get laid for awhile now.
"I was paged."
"I thought Peter was on call."
He ushered her to the rear of a near by fire truck.
"We traded....so what?"
Jordan wasn't in the mood to put up with his shit.
"Fine" Jordan noticed his cheeks puff out with the force of his sigh. "So far it looks like we have only one body. The arson team is in there right now. Be careful there could still be some hot spots."
She pulled on a pair on gloves as she walked toward the scene. She got her first real good look at the damage. The burned out shell was obviously a sedan, the color and make were not easy to determine because of the damage.
"Do they think it's another mob hit?"
Garret only shrugged his shoulders. Jordan approached the opened driver side door. She looked at the body slumped on the driver' seat. The skull clearly defined in the charred remains. The dehydrated skin stretched around it reminding her of pictures she had seen of Egyptian mummies. The lips were burned away presenting the darkened heat cracked enamel on the teeth.
"Handsome...Is there an ID yet?"
Jordan heard Lois Carver behind her.
"We haven't got anything yet. The tags are missing. We're running the VIN number on the car right now. I was kind of hoping you might be able to tell me something."
Jordan looked back at the body.
"We'll do what we can Lois. What do you got so far?"
"Not much. There were no eye witnesses. But one of the tenants in the building across the parking lot said that he heard a couple of cars pull up a few minutes before the explosion. He heard a car door open and close and then ...boom."
Jordan made a few notes in a hand held tape recorder. She noticed the skull was remarkable well intact, only a slight venting fracture in the back. The fire apparently was not long enough or hot enough to consume all the flesh. But from the upper chest cavity on down the damage was extensive. Apparently the incendiary device was underneath the vehicle.
Lois must have been reading her mind.
"It looks like the bomb was under the engine block. The team seems to think it was probably triggered remotely. Something must have gone wrong. There was enough fire power underneath that thing to leave everything pretty well scattered. We're lucky we've got something to work with."
Jordan looked back at the body. Some luck, she thought. Garret stood strangely silent. She fought the urge to tell him to go home for the amount of input he was offering. With a sigh she began her assessment in earnest.
"The lower extremities are pretty damaged. We're going to need copies of the crime scene pics sent over to the office."
"Mike sent them right before you walked up"
"Good, tell him to hang around. We may need him. The bottom half of the body is almost dust. We may even have to call in the pathologist before we can move the body."
"Sure thing..."
Lois's beeper went off and she excused herself to walk back toward a police cruiser.
Jordan shined her flash light around the coils that were all that was left of the driver's seat. The hips and leg bones were white and partially calcified by the heat. Two very distinctive objects came into view. Her heart landed into her stomach as she looked back down at the fire blackened barrel of a handgun and the telltale shape of a police badge.
"Dr. Macy, Dr. Cavanaugh!...We have an ID on the owner of the vehicle."
Garret stood and walked over to Carver. Jordan pulled an evidence bag out of her kit and placed the shield inside. She tried to formulate of a hundred different reasons for it being on the body.
"Jordan"
She looked over at Garret when he called her name. He motioned her to join them. The look on both their faces verified that what she had in her hand was not a simple twist of fate.
They had a dead cop.
"Lois, here, I found this on the body."
Jordan handed her the evidence bag. Lois took it.
Garret put his hand on Jordan's arm.
"Jordan......."
"Who is the officer in charge here?"
They all turned at the sound of the deep commanding voice. The first thing Jordan noticed was the deceivingly small size of the man walking directly toward them. The second thing was his wingtips.
"I'm Detective Carver."
"I'm Agent Bernard, FBI." He flashed his ID in her face. "May I speak with you alone please?"
"Were you guys just waiting around the corner?" Jordan cut in.
A ringing began in Jordan's ears. She had forgotten that Garret had his hand on her arm until she felt him pulling her away. Jordan began to balk when she realized he was leading her away from the crime scene.
"Garret, we probably only have a few minutes left before the Feds muck it up. Let's get back to work."
A trickle of cold sweat ran down her back.
"Jordan, stop it for a minute. We have to talk."
The look in his eyes said it all. Not now, not this way, she thought to herself.
"No, we don't Garret."
The ringing in her ears was becoming unbearable. She had to get back to the scene.
"Jordan, we've all known something wasn't right for weeks. Jordan I'm sorry. It's ..."
Jordan looked back over to the scene and noticed it was swarming with federal agents. The forensics team was being ushered out of the way. Something was very wrong. Funny, she didn't recognize any of the federal faces. Not one of them. She began to panic when she saw evidence being destroyed.
"Hey..Hey! What the hell do you think your doing!?" She yelled out to them.
Jordan felt Garret's hand tighten around her arm. She shook it off and began to walk toward the car yelling out again.
"Jordan, you're not helping matters."
Before she could reply Agent Bernard stepped in front of them his arms ineffectively blocking their view.
"I understand you both were acquainted with the deceased. You have my condolences."
Jordan looked into his piercing black eyes. What she saw there did not look like condolence.
"As you can see we have everything under control. I will need any evidence, reports, photographs you may have gathered from the case."
Jordan began to tell Agent Bernard what she thought of him and his department's intervention when Garret stopped her.
"We will turn in everything before we leave."
"Very good. I'll walk you both to your vehicle." Bernard held his hand out to for them to proceed out of the taped perimeter.
Jordan couldn't believe it. They were being dismissed. The pressure of Garret's grip on her arm increased. She was not given a chance to turn back to the burnt out car as he lead her across the yellow tape police line.
"Garret, something really wrong here. We can't just stand by..."
"We don't have any choice Jordan."
Jordan thought she needed to stay in control. She began to recite the shopping list she wrote up last night in her head. Eggs....Coffee... She needed a touch of reality in this surreal situation.... Shampoo....Paper towels.... Jordan handed over the tape from the hand held recorder she was using to Agent Bernard....Pasta....Toothpaste.....She could finally feel her heart beat slowing down, but not her temper.
"Jordan?"
Jordan couldn't look at his pale face.
"I'm out of here."
She jumped into her Explorer and put the keys in the ignition. She could hear Garret slapping the side of the vehicle. She pulled away from the maze of police and fire vehicles and didn't look back. She didn't want to think about the body in that burned out shell of a car. There had to be another possibility.
"Hoyt, you better have a damn good explanation for this one."
I just can't fight the urge to throw them all into the preverbal blender and see what comes out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quick Note: I got the idea for this story when we were doing 'Causa Mortis' and it wouldn't go away.
The story started out to be something totally different (No, don't worry nobody dies). I started and stopped on it a dozen times and threw out more than I kept. I decided to just sit on it since I couldn't get a handle on it.
A few weeks ago I was chatting with Madam Beth and she asked me whatever happened with it. I told her I had a usable first chapter, maybe a second, and the LAST chapter. The task of getting from point A to Point B was proving to be the challenge. She offered to help...I sent them to her. She said great start.....but, this ending is NOT going to work.
She convinced me to change "the ending" to the middle and the story took off....with her prodding.
From that point on it was daily emails and IMs. Sometimes two, three times a day!
I really need to give her co-author rights with this because she's probably put in as much time with the story as I have. Half the story came straight from her saying...wouldn't it be nice if....
When it was all said and done (well not quite) the story ended up.... long...about twice as long as I had anticipated. (I guess that happens when the original ending falls in the middle) I hope you don't get too bored with it.
I just thought you'd all like to know....
Thanks Beth! jmkw
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The explosion lit the predawn sky, shooting a plump of smoke and flames spiraling over the roof tops around it.
"I kind of liked that car." Woody said looking down at the man next to him.
He noticed, in the glow of the flames, his angler face lightened to the color of newly minted pennies.
"You won't need it anymore Detective Hoyt. We need to be going."
Woody reluctantly turned away from the burning car. His companion watched the flames. Something went wrong. They should have heard the explosion in Cambridge.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The crime scene was a mass of organized chaos when Jordan arrived. Fire trucks and police cruisers competing for space on the narrow street connected to the parking lot.
A car bombing.
The smell of burning rubber and smoldering automobile oil hung in the air. A slight, underlying scent of burning flesh reminded her of why she was there. She began to pick her way over the discarded fire fighting equipment looking for an officer in charge.
"What are you doing here Jordan?"
Garret. In the pale early morning light she could see he was not pleased to see her. She brushed it off. He had been acting like he needed to get laid for awhile now.
"I was paged."
"I thought Peter was on call."
He ushered her to the rear of a near by fire truck.
"We traded....so what?"
Jordan wasn't in the mood to put up with his shit.
"Fine" Jordan noticed his cheeks puff out with the force of his sigh. "So far it looks like we have only one body. The arson team is in there right now. Be careful there could still be some hot spots."
She pulled on a pair on gloves as she walked toward the scene. She got her first real good look at the damage. The burned out shell was obviously a sedan, the color and make were not easy to determine because of the damage.
"Do they think it's another mob hit?"
Garret only shrugged his shoulders. Jordan approached the opened driver side door. She looked at the body slumped on the driver' seat. The skull clearly defined in the charred remains. The dehydrated skin stretched around it reminding her of pictures she had seen of Egyptian mummies. The lips were burned away presenting the darkened heat cracked enamel on the teeth.
"Handsome...Is there an ID yet?"
Jordan heard Lois Carver behind her.
"We haven't got anything yet. The tags are missing. We're running the VIN number on the car right now. I was kind of hoping you might be able to tell me something."
Jordan looked back at the body.
"We'll do what we can Lois. What do you got so far?"
"Not much. There were no eye witnesses. But one of the tenants in the building across the parking lot said that he heard a couple of cars pull up a few minutes before the explosion. He heard a car door open and close and then ...boom."
Jordan made a few notes in a hand held tape recorder. She noticed the skull was remarkable well intact, only a slight venting fracture in the back. The fire apparently was not long enough or hot enough to consume all the flesh. But from the upper chest cavity on down the damage was extensive. Apparently the incendiary device was underneath the vehicle.
Lois must have been reading her mind.
"It looks like the bomb was under the engine block. The team seems to think it was probably triggered remotely. Something must have gone wrong. There was enough fire power underneath that thing to leave everything pretty well scattered. We're lucky we've got something to work with."
Jordan looked back at the body. Some luck, she thought. Garret stood strangely silent. She fought the urge to tell him to go home for the amount of input he was offering. With a sigh she began her assessment in earnest.
"The lower extremities are pretty damaged. We're going to need copies of the crime scene pics sent over to the office."
"Mike sent them right before you walked up"
"Good, tell him to hang around. We may need him. The bottom half of the body is almost dust. We may even have to call in the pathologist before we can move the body."
"Sure thing..."
Lois's beeper went off and she excused herself to walk back toward a police cruiser.
Jordan shined her flash light around the coils that were all that was left of the driver's seat. The hips and leg bones were white and partially calcified by the heat. Two very distinctive objects came into view. Her heart landed into her stomach as she looked back down at the fire blackened barrel of a handgun and the telltale shape of a police badge.
"Dr. Macy, Dr. Cavanaugh!...We have an ID on the owner of the vehicle."
Garret stood and walked over to Carver. Jordan pulled an evidence bag out of her kit and placed the shield inside. She tried to formulate of a hundred different reasons for it being on the body.
"Jordan"
She looked over at Garret when he called her name. He motioned her to join them. The look on both their faces verified that what she had in her hand was not a simple twist of fate.
They had a dead cop.
"Lois, here, I found this on the body."
Jordan handed her the evidence bag. Lois took it.
Garret put his hand on Jordan's arm.
"Jordan......."
"Who is the officer in charge here?"
They all turned at the sound of the deep commanding voice. The first thing Jordan noticed was the deceivingly small size of the man walking directly toward them. The second thing was his wingtips.
"I'm Detective Carver."
"I'm Agent Bernard, FBI." He flashed his ID in her face. "May I speak with you alone please?"
"Were you guys just waiting around the corner?" Jordan cut in.
A ringing began in Jordan's ears. She had forgotten that Garret had his hand on her arm until she felt him pulling her away. Jordan began to balk when she realized he was leading her away from the crime scene.
"Garret, we probably only have a few minutes left before the Feds muck it up. Let's get back to work."
A trickle of cold sweat ran down her back.
"Jordan, stop it for a minute. We have to talk."
The look in his eyes said it all. Not now, not this way, she thought to herself.
"No, we don't Garret."
The ringing in her ears was becoming unbearable. She had to get back to the scene.
"Jordan, we've all known something wasn't right for weeks. Jordan I'm sorry. It's ..."
Jordan looked back over to the scene and noticed it was swarming with federal agents. The forensics team was being ushered out of the way. Something was very wrong. Funny, she didn't recognize any of the federal faces. Not one of them. She began to panic when she saw evidence being destroyed.
"Hey..Hey! What the hell do you think your doing!?" She yelled out to them.
Jordan felt Garret's hand tighten around her arm. She shook it off and began to walk toward the car yelling out again.
"Jordan, you're not helping matters."
Before she could reply Agent Bernard stepped in front of them his arms ineffectively blocking their view.
"I understand you both were acquainted with the deceased. You have my condolences."
Jordan looked into his piercing black eyes. What she saw there did not look like condolence.
"As you can see we have everything under control. I will need any evidence, reports, photographs you may have gathered from the case."
Jordan began to tell Agent Bernard what she thought of him and his department's intervention when Garret stopped her.
"We will turn in everything before we leave."
"Very good. I'll walk you both to your vehicle." Bernard held his hand out to for them to proceed out of the taped perimeter.
Jordan couldn't believe it. They were being dismissed. The pressure of Garret's grip on her arm increased. She was not given a chance to turn back to the burnt out car as he lead her across the yellow tape police line.
"Garret, something really wrong here. We can't just stand by..."
"We don't have any choice Jordan."
Jordan thought she needed to stay in control. She began to recite the shopping list she wrote up last night in her head. Eggs....Coffee... She needed a touch of reality in this surreal situation.... Shampoo....Paper towels.... Jordan handed over the tape from the hand held recorder she was using to Agent Bernard....Pasta....Toothpaste.....She could finally feel her heart beat slowing down, but not her temper.
"Jordan?"
Jordan couldn't look at his pale face.
"I'm out of here."
She jumped into her Explorer and put the keys in the ignition. She could hear Garret slapping the side of the vehicle. She pulled away from the maze of police and fire vehicles and didn't look back. She didn't want to think about the body in that burned out shell of a car. There had to be another possibility.
"Hoyt, you better have a damn good explanation for this one."
