Jordan carefully placing the Stephenson report's in her bag "What are we
waiting for?" She turned and walked out of my office.
"Sounds good. I'll catch up.... Woody, go home, get some sleep. I'll give you a call when we are done." Cal said as he slapped my shoulder.
Before he could step out of the door I slammed it. "Just what in the hell do you think you are doing?"
"Dude, don't worry....boundaries remember?" Cal punctuated the word 'boundaries' by making air quotes with his fingers.
"I don't mean that you jackass...."
I couldn't get another word in because he opened the door and escaped into the hallway. His long strides quickly caught up to Jordan who was just rounding the corner on her way back to the squad room. I had to run to catch up.
"Wait up!" I yelled as they were signing out at the desk sergeant's desk. "Jordan, don't do this. We'll call in the morning. You may have something here. But breaking and entering is not the way to handle this."
"Cal, was he always like this?"
"Like what babe?"
"Whiney and misunderstood."
"Beautiful, have I got stories on Woodrow's poor misunderstood life."
"Maybe you can tell me some over breakfast. Let's get going. It's two o'clock right now. I don't think we have to worry too much about having company in the basement."
"Breakfast?! Breakfast?!" I muttered to myself. I stuck close as we all walked outside.
Jordan unlocked the doors of her SUV and turned to me. "Woody, you don't need to do this. I understand. In fact it probably would be better if you stayed out of this."
"You're probably right." I jumped into the passenger side of the vehicle, effective cutting off Cal. If he was stupid enough to get involved in one of Jordan's plans then he deserved to wad those ridiculously long legs into the back seat. "Someone needs to stand by to bail you both out of jail...again."
"What? He's had to bail you out too? You know Jordan we have way too much in common..."
"It's not too late to stop by the airport and see when the next available flight is." Cal didn't comment. He was too busy looking around the interior of Jordan's SUV.
"So Jordan do you put dead people in here?"
Jordan pulled out of the parking space and has a half a block away before she answered "Ah, no Cal they have different units for that."
"Cool"
Cal began to play with the back window. I knew I had an opportunity to find out what exactly Jordan had in mind.
"What are planning on doing if you find this Chordane in the accountant's storage unit?"
"Leave it of course and wait for you to arrange for a warrant. I want to nail this guy if he did it."
"I just don't understand why he used the Chordane to start with." Cal said from the backseat. "The D-con would have been enough. I mean...well, if you going to knock off someone, why use something that can be traced right back to you?"
"That's a good question Cal. And as soon as we can bring this guy into questioning we'll find out."
"This guy is sounds pretty stupid."
"True, my money says he tried to kill her with the Chordane. It doesn't take much to be fatal especially to an old woman. I think he was capitalizing on her phobias to make it look like she died accidentally. Only I think he didn't do his homework. He never found out that Chordane is banned stateside."
I listened with interest to the exchange. What if Jordan had a point? What if this guy was just incredibly stupid? There was one big hole in her theory. "So why did she die from the rat poison?"
"Maybe because she didn't die quick enough."
Jordan pulled up in front of the building and put the vehicle in park. The three of us looked out at the bay front apartment building rising out of the well light manicured courtyard around it.
"Here we are!" Cal announced and grabbed the door handle.
"Stop! We can't just go barging in there. We need a plan." I called out. Cal's hand stopped. He looked up at me in surprise.
"Dude, it almost sounds like you up for a little breaking and entering."
I could only shake my head at him. Calvin never really thought of unauthorized entry as a big to do. As far as I knew his life of burglary was restricted to a series of panty raids in high school, but this time we were looking at a building with a security system.
"We have to get through security Calvin. Do we have any ideas?"
Jordan reached into her bag and produced a piece of paper. "Here"
She handed me the paper and looked back out at the building.
"What is this?" I looked at the paper there was a series of numbers on it.
"The keypad code."
"And I suppose you got it the same place as you did the key."
She rolled her eyes as if to say 'of course'. Cal grabbed the number out of my hand and read it. After a second he looked up at Jordan.
"I'm a little rusty at this intrigue stuff am I suppose to eat this paper now?"
"No, I don't think that's necessary."
Cal opened his door and jumped out on to the curb with a bounce. "Come on brub, it will be like old times. You, me and the cheerleader's.......pom poms"
Jordan, I thanked all that's holy, decided to keep her mouth shut. But the effort apparently pushed her limits by the look that was on her face. I knew, without a doubt, this little tidbit of brotherly gossip would rear its ugly head sometime in my foreseeable future and in front of as many of my acquaintances as possible. For the second time in one night I wanted the earth to open and swallow me whole.
I cleared my throat and said "Jordan you stay here and call my cell if you see anything."
"Sure thing, Woody...um, the storage units are down a stairwell by the side exit over there..."
I stepped out onto the curb. "Just how did you get all of this.... information Jordan?"
"I looked into leasing an apartment today. I asked for a little privacy from the realtor..... A little polymer mold of the master key and a test drive of the security system and here we are."
Cal clapped his hand on my shoulder "God, I love this woman." Cal took off in a trot toward the building. I caught up with him as he was punching the code onto the lock pad.
"Cal, wait we can't just barge in. What if someone is in there?"
"It's a building full of people Wood. If we run into someone we act like we belong....."
Cal pulled opened the door and strode in I followed quickly on his tail and came eye to eye with a lady and her little dog. I didn't know who was more shocked, me or the little dog. I didn't have time to think about it. Cal wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me out of the doorway. He gallantly held the door for the woman who was apparently taking her dog out for a middle of the night walk.
I began to mentally calculate the amount of jail time we would be looking at when Cal said "Sorry ma'am. He's had a little too much to drink tonight." Cal's voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper as he leaned closer to the woman. "Between you and me I usually don't bring them home after a first date, but he wouldn't take no for an answer ....."
The woman that out an indignant huff and stormed out of the building. She turned back to look at us once more. Cal smiled at her and slapped my butt as the fire door shut.
"I can't believe you just did that." I said stepping away from him.
"Hey, it will give her something to bitch about in the next tenants meeting. Now where is the stairwell to the basement?"
Cal began to pick his way down the hallway. We soon found the fire door to the stairwell.
"You are just having too much fun with this brother." I said once we were in the stairwell. I couldn't keep that irritated tone out of my voice that had been plaguing me all day.
Cal stopped on the landing and turned to look at me. "Woody, you have had a stick up your ass since I got here. What the hell is it this time?"
I wondered if he wanted the long list or the short list. "This is not the time or place to talk about it."
He leaned back against the wall and folded his arms. "We are not going anywhere until you tell me why."
"Guess again." I started back down the stairwell and opened the fire door into the basement.
"It's Jordan isn't it?" He said as he fell in step behind me. "Dude, I told you. You saw her first...."
"No, Cal it's not Jordan!" I all but yelled back at him. "It's you! It's everything about you."
. "Sorry to rain on your parade but Mom and Dad didn't give me much of a choice on being conceived...." Cal pushed passed me and searched for the chain link partitioned area we were looking for
I began to look at the storage cribs on the opposite side of the room from Cal. "Would you listen to yourself Calvin? You have a smartass answer for everything don't you?"
"It's what gets me through the day bro. We all can't be the golden child...."
I stopped in front of the unit we were looking for. "What the hell is that suppose to mean?"
Cal turned the corner and saw me standing next to the door. He handed me the master key. "You big brother. Do you how hard it is to have to follow in your shadow?"
"Sounds good. I'll catch up.... Woody, go home, get some sleep. I'll give you a call when we are done." Cal said as he slapped my shoulder.
Before he could step out of the door I slammed it. "Just what in the hell do you think you are doing?"
"Dude, don't worry....boundaries remember?" Cal punctuated the word 'boundaries' by making air quotes with his fingers.
"I don't mean that you jackass...."
I couldn't get another word in because he opened the door and escaped into the hallway. His long strides quickly caught up to Jordan who was just rounding the corner on her way back to the squad room. I had to run to catch up.
"Wait up!" I yelled as they were signing out at the desk sergeant's desk. "Jordan, don't do this. We'll call in the morning. You may have something here. But breaking and entering is not the way to handle this."
"Cal, was he always like this?"
"Like what babe?"
"Whiney and misunderstood."
"Beautiful, have I got stories on Woodrow's poor misunderstood life."
"Maybe you can tell me some over breakfast. Let's get going. It's two o'clock right now. I don't think we have to worry too much about having company in the basement."
"Breakfast?! Breakfast?!" I muttered to myself. I stuck close as we all walked outside.
Jordan unlocked the doors of her SUV and turned to me. "Woody, you don't need to do this. I understand. In fact it probably would be better if you stayed out of this."
"You're probably right." I jumped into the passenger side of the vehicle, effective cutting off Cal. If he was stupid enough to get involved in one of Jordan's plans then he deserved to wad those ridiculously long legs into the back seat. "Someone needs to stand by to bail you both out of jail...again."
"What? He's had to bail you out too? You know Jordan we have way too much in common..."
"It's not too late to stop by the airport and see when the next available flight is." Cal didn't comment. He was too busy looking around the interior of Jordan's SUV.
"So Jordan do you put dead people in here?"
Jordan pulled out of the parking space and has a half a block away before she answered "Ah, no Cal they have different units for that."
"Cool"
Cal began to play with the back window. I knew I had an opportunity to find out what exactly Jordan had in mind.
"What are planning on doing if you find this Chordane in the accountant's storage unit?"
"Leave it of course and wait for you to arrange for a warrant. I want to nail this guy if he did it."
"I just don't understand why he used the Chordane to start with." Cal said from the backseat. "The D-con would have been enough. I mean...well, if you going to knock off someone, why use something that can be traced right back to you?"
"That's a good question Cal. And as soon as we can bring this guy into questioning we'll find out."
"This guy is sounds pretty stupid."
"True, my money says he tried to kill her with the Chordane. It doesn't take much to be fatal especially to an old woman. I think he was capitalizing on her phobias to make it look like she died accidentally. Only I think he didn't do his homework. He never found out that Chordane is banned stateside."
I listened with interest to the exchange. What if Jordan had a point? What if this guy was just incredibly stupid? There was one big hole in her theory. "So why did she die from the rat poison?"
"Maybe because she didn't die quick enough."
Jordan pulled up in front of the building and put the vehicle in park. The three of us looked out at the bay front apartment building rising out of the well light manicured courtyard around it.
"Here we are!" Cal announced and grabbed the door handle.
"Stop! We can't just go barging in there. We need a plan." I called out. Cal's hand stopped. He looked up at me in surprise.
"Dude, it almost sounds like you up for a little breaking and entering."
I could only shake my head at him. Calvin never really thought of unauthorized entry as a big to do. As far as I knew his life of burglary was restricted to a series of panty raids in high school, but this time we were looking at a building with a security system.
"We have to get through security Calvin. Do we have any ideas?"
Jordan reached into her bag and produced a piece of paper. "Here"
She handed me the paper and looked back out at the building.
"What is this?" I looked at the paper there was a series of numbers on it.
"The keypad code."
"And I suppose you got it the same place as you did the key."
She rolled her eyes as if to say 'of course'. Cal grabbed the number out of my hand and read it. After a second he looked up at Jordan.
"I'm a little rusty at this intrigue stuff am I suppose to eat this paper now?"
"No, I don't think that's necessary."
Cal opened his door and jumped out on to the curb with a bounce. "Come on brub, it will be like old times. You, me and the cheerleader's.......pom poms"
Jordan, I thanked all that's holy, decided to keep her mouth shut. But the effort apparently pushed her limits by the look that was on her face. I knew, without a doubt, this little tidbit of brotherly gossip would rear its ugly head sometime in my foreseeable future and in front of as many of my acquaintances as possible. For the second time in one night I wanted the earth to open and swallow me whole.
I cleared my throat and said "Jordan you stay here and call my cell if you see anything."
"Sure thing, Woody...um, the storage units are down a stairwell by the side exit over there..."
I stepped out onto the curb. "Just how did you get all of this.... information Jordan?"
"I looked into leasing an apartment today. I asked for a little privacy from the realtor..... A little polymer mold of the master key and a test drive of the security system and here we are."
Cal clapped his hand on my shoulder "God, I love this woman." Cal took off in a trot toward the building. I caught up with him as he was punching the code onto the lock pad.
"Cal, wait we can't just barge in. What if someone is in there?"
"It's a building full of people Wood. If we run into someone we act like we belong....."
Cal pulled opened the door and strode in I followed quickly on his tail and came eye to eye with a lady and her little dog. I didn't know who was more shocked, me or the little dog. I didn't have time to think about it. Cal wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me out of the doorway. He gallantly held the door for the woman who was apparently taking her dog out for a middle of the night walk.
I began to mentally calculate the amount of jail time we would be looking at when Cal said "Sorry ma'am. He's had a little too much to drink tonight." Cal's voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper as he leaned closer to the woman. "Between you and me I usually don't bring them home after a first date, but he wouldn't take no for an answer ....."
The woman that out an indignant huff and stormed out of the building. She turned back to look at us once more. Cal smiled at her and slapped my butt as the fire door shut.
"I can't believe you just did that." I said stepping away from him.
"Hey, it will give her something to bitch about in the next tenants meeting. Now where is the stairwell to the basement?"
Cal began to pick his way down the hallway. We soon found the fire door to the stairwell.
"You are just having too much fun with this brother." I said once we were in the stairwell. I couldn't keep that irritated tone out of my voice that had been plaguing me all day.
Cal stopped on the landing and turned to look at me. "Woody, you have had a stick up your ass since I got here. What the hell is it this time?"
I wondered if he wanted the long list or the short list. "This is not the time or place to talk about it."
He leaned back against the wall and folded his arms. "We are not going anywhere until you tell me why."
"Guess again." I started back down the stairwell and opened the fire door into the basement.
"It's Jordan isn't it?" He said as he fell in step behind me. "Dude, I told you. You saw her first...."
"No, Cal it's not Jordan!" I all but yelled back at him. "It's you! It's everything about you."
. "Sorry to rain on your parade but Mom and Dad didn't give me much of a choice on being conceived...." Cal pushed passed me and searched for the chain link partitioned area we were looking for
I began to look at the storage cribs on the opposite side of the room from Cal. "Would you listen to yourself Calvin? You have a smartass answer for everything don't you?"
"It's what gets me through the day bro. We all can't be the golden child...."
I stopped in front of the unit we were looking for. "What the hell is that suppose to mean?"
Cal turned the corner and saw me standing next to the door. He handed me the master key. "You big brother. Do you how hard it is to have to follow in your shadow?"