Disclaimer: "WOEICS" is copyrighted to DIC Entertainment. The story is mine.
"Hey, did you hear what happened to Lee Jordan?"
"Yeah, I heard he really got it from the Inspector."
"I overheard him say the Moroccan police botched the case. What do you think went wrong?"
"I don't know, but I heard he's a really good detective. He's kinda dreamy, too, don't you think?" One of the rookie agents turns to look at me. "Come on, you worked with him before."
"Back when he was a junior agent, and that was years ago," I shrug. "I don't work with him anymore." I glance at the clock. "Oh, would you look at the time. Gotta head over to the K-9 division, I heard Acme's got some new dogs and the Chief wants someone to train them." Before the rookie agents can say anything, I get up and leave.
News of Lee Jordan's latest case has become the hottest gossip with the rookie and junior agents. Although everyone knows I used to work with Lee Jordan back when he was a Junior Detective, few people know the fact I still work with Lee, behind the scenes.
To answer that rookie's question, Lee Jordan may fancy himself a Casanova among the female agents, but having worked and putting up with him, he's more a diva than a gentleman.
I haven't seen Lee Jordan for about two weeks now. The Chief told me Lee Jordan was recently passed over in favor for another detective due to his conduct on his last case.
"You haven't heard about Lee Jordan, have you?" Davis asks as he walks up to me.
"Just that he didn't get the promotion he'd been hoping for. Other than that, nothing new," I answer. "I hate to admit it, but I don't know whether I should feel sorry or gloat about Lee's loss. A lot of the other girls seem to revere Lee as some sort of demi-god, and the boys because of Lee's brilliance. But they've never worked with him as he is now. Lee Jordan as a rookie back then was much different than Lee Jordan today."
"People change," Davis shrugs.
"In such a short time?" I wonder. It seems like yesterday he was a junior agent and looking forward on working his first case with me. Now he seems to have an unhealthy obsession with catching Carmen, even moreso than Ivy. His last case says it all. "Even four years ago he didn't seem much different. But now his head's been really inflated."
"It was a hard case for him, either way you look at it," Davis says. "Even with the Chief's help, it took weeks for that tipster to tell us where Carmen was. Remember, it's not often that Acme will take over investigations from other police agencies, even if it involves Carmen. Even Interpol had a hard time with this case. Remember, we're a private organization, and we're usually seen as the last resort for extremely difficult cases."
"True..." Lee's last case had been particularly hard, come to think about it. He had been trying to track down Carmen for three solid months hoping to see if she or one of her V.I.L.E. henchpeople was responsible for a rash of musuem robberies involving Moorish artifacts in Spain. Judging from the gossip spreading through Acme, it must've been a hard blow.
"Why so silent?" Davis asks.
"Hm? Oh, I was just thinking about Lee's case," I answer quickly. "Why was Lee passed over for promotion, anyway? I remember hearing him brag to me about how this case and Carmen's capture would put him in the Hall of Fame."
"Do you still want to hear about it? You could look this up in the network after your training session with the puppies."
"It's okay. You can talk about it while we walk to the K-9 division."
"When Acme got the case four months ago, the Spanish police had filed a possibility that V.I.L.E. might be involved, but the claim couldn't be substantiated. The robberies were very sophisticated, too -- the security system had been disabled in advance of the thefts, and where the security couldn't be disabled, the surveillance tapes were stolen outright.
"There wasn't much evidence left at the scene of the crimes, not even a single clue as to how the break-ins occured. There were no signs of forced entry, no signs that police were ever summoned. It did look very much like something V.I.L.E. would do, and with no other possible suspects, we began to look into the theory it was V.I.L.E.'s work. I guess that's what tripped Lee Jordan up. Lee assumed straightaway that the robberies were Carmen's work," Davis theorizes.
"Huh..." Was that the fatal flaw of the case? I remember one of the first lessons I learned at the Training Academy years ago was to never make assumptions when the details are less than crystal clear.
"After Lee took on the case, we waited weeks, hoping to see any V.I.L.E. activity. Six weeks passed before we got a tip from Acme Rabat that a few of Carmen's henchmen had been sighted near Tangier, in Morocco. Lee went there, and although several V.I.L.E. henchmen were arrested for stealing a boat, they denied any knowledge that Carmen or V.I.L.E. was behind the museum thefts. Lee dismissed their claims as lies, and continued to work under the assumption it was V.I.L.E.'s work.
"Didn't you--or even the Chief--warn him about the consequences of letting assumptions rule the case?" I ask.
"Oh, the Chief and I tried. Believe me. But sometimes I get the feeling I'm talking to a brick wall when it comes to Lee." Davis sighs. "Anyway, another six weeks passed while Lee was in Tangier. His surveillance work finally paid off when he caught sight of Carmen near the harbor where some of her men had been arrested earlier during the case. Lee quickly put her under arrest, and the Moroccan police took over the situation."
"What went wrong?"
"During Lee Jordan's flight back home because of mandatory C-5 maintenance, one of the agents called Headquarters and told me that Carmen had broken out of jail. But that wasn't the only surprise, the second piece of news she told me was that a recent reexamination of the crime scenes by the Spanish police, along with the recovery of one of the stolen items and a surveillance tape on one of the museum robberies, showed it was a group of professional cat burglars behind the thefts. They had been stealing the artifacts in hopes of selling them on the black market to private collectors. V.I.L.E. was not involved at all--corrobating the henchmen's story that Carmen had nothing to do with the crimes," Davis explains. "Well, here we are. The K-9 division."
I think I understand now. Lee's rising reputation and ego added together resulted to his current state. "Let's see...Lee Jordan just assumed it was Carmen all along, and never gave the other options a possibility..."
"...and that's why Lee Jordan didn't get the promotion he thought he deserved. No matter how many times he'll say it was the Moroccan police's fault, he was the one who botched the case big time," Davis finishes. He unlocks the door for me.
"So it was a combination of pride and stupidity. Ugh...I thought I taught him better," I sigh. "I should've known. I clearly remember telling him to stop bragging about how this case, his 100th case, was going to put him in the Hall of Fame. He wouldn't listen."
"You didn't botch this case, he did. Lee could've become one of the greatest detectives in Acme history. Instead, he chose to ruin it for himself," Davis consoles.
"Still..." I kneel down as the puppies run up to me, wagging their tails and pawing at me.
"I have to get going, I've got a new class of rookies to train. Remember, don't blame yourself," Davis adds.
I get up and turn around to call out to Davis, only to find that he's gone. Damn, and I wanted to continue talking about this issue with him.
No matter. Now's not the time to continue thinking about Lee's future. It's time to start training with the puppies. "Fetch!" I shout, throwing a Frisbee across the room.