Present Day~
Lily stood patiently outside Jordan's closed office door. She didn't notice Nigel standing only a few feet away. She was clutching on her ever-present clipboard like a frightened child would a security blanket. He always wondered if she unconsciously used it as a shield from the realities of this place. The morgue was never sunny, but now it had a black cloud that hung in the air and Lily was showing the stain.
Nigel cleared his throat. Lily jumped and dug deep into her psyche to find her game face. After all she was a professional.
"Nigel. How are you doing?"
Nigel could only nod. Lily's face was freshly scrubbed but it was obvious she had been crying. At least she was accepting the fact Woodrow was gone. Nigel worried about Jordan. All morning she has been working like a caged animal. He stood by, waiting; while she performed the gunshot autopsy she was assigned. Her actions were clipped and methodical. She was a spring so tightly wound up that he thought for sure she'd break.
But the spring didn't snap. She held a tight lid on her emotions. Earlier, Nigel showed her the ballistics report from the bullet they had taken out of the victim's chest. It matched the slugs dug out of four other bodies that have laid in the crypt over the last month. The mob had erupted into a major turf war. The players were littering the streets.
Nigel watched her read the report and thought at that point she would break. But she only looked at the body split open on the table and muttered something about one less waste in the city.
"I'm waiting for Jordan." Lily said showing Nigel a sad smile bringing him back to the present. "I tried to talk to her earlier and she told me to come back later. She's not facing the reality Nigel. I'm concerned."
"As are we all. Come on love, I'll back you up."
Nigel opened Jordan's door and waved Lily inside. Jordan was staring at the cellphone in her hand as if it were Hamlet's Yorick. If took her a split second to realize they were in the room. Jordan carefully set her phone down and looked at the blank commuter screen in front of her. "I'm busy right now. Can we do this later?"
"Jordan." Lily said laying a hand on Jordan's shoulder.
Jordan looked up and gave her a forced smile. At that moment Nigel thought if Woodrow hadn't have got himself blown up, he would be tempted to do it himself.
"I know you mean well...Both of you. It's just...."
Jordan stood and walked over to the window. The sky was a delirious cloudless blue. She abruptly turned back to face her friends.
"I need your help. Garret is watching me like a hawk. I need to get out of here. That little prick Worthington is not returning any of my calls. I need to see him."
"Jordan, I don't think that's a very good idea."
"He's got to know what the hell is going on."
Jordan grabbed her bag out of her desk.
"Oh, and Nigel can you check out something for me? The agent that came in and shanghaied the scene is a guy named Bernard. I talked to Lois earlier and she did some asking around. Nobody seems to have ever heard of this guy before."
"Do you think he's involved?"
"Up to his beady little eyeballs."
"Jordan, don't you think you should let..."
"You sound like Garret. No. They want us to believe Woody's dead and I want to know why."
"Jordan" Lily cut in "His personal affects were there. You saw them yourself."
Jordan ignored Lily.
"Oh yeah, Nige, I need those scene shots. Can you put them on my desk? I'll look at them when I get back."
"Jordan, Jordan!"
Jordan walked passed Lily and out the door. She knew she was being inconsiderate. She made a mental note to apologize later.
Later became sooner when Jordan returned to the office a couple hours later....
Jordan had forced her way into Worthington's office, ironically breaking up a meeting of the task force the mayor's office recently formed in response to the mob war.
She was quickly ushered out by Worthington himself and unwittingly became a photo op for him with the mass of press that had descended on the steps of police headquarters. He reassured Jordan and the press that everything was being done to see that justice, in the bombing death of a police officer, would be carried out. Before Jordan could respond she was physically escorted off the premises.
She thought she'd have better luck at the FBI field office when she was directed to the office of an agent named Tillman. She realized she wasn't up to her A game when he affectively brushed off her questions about the bombing, Agent Bernard, and status of the investigation.
Jordan walked into Lily's office feeling quite dejected. She wasn't prepared for the face she would see.
"Hi, Dad."
Max stood awkwardly from the chair in front of Lily's desk and faced his daughter. Their relationship had been strained for weeks. Their arguments about Woody and Cahill left their mark.
Jordan didn't quite know if she was going to hear some kind of commiseration or 'I told you so'. She got neither Max opened up his arms and she walked into them like she had all of her life. Lily quietly let herself out.
"Oh, baby girl."
Standing in her father's arms drove to home everything that has happened in the last twenty four hours. She felt death everyday.
When Jordan's mother died she knew. She knew before she even saw the body that her spirit was gone. That morning she watched her mother wave good bye as she left for school, just like she saw Woody drive away from Pogue the night before. Now when she thought of the body in that automobile she only felt the professional indifference of a medical examiner.
For a second she let herself think...maybe it was true, maybe he was dead. But for only a second...any longer than that would be admitting he was gone and she wasn't ready for that. It was easier to think he was going to walk through the door any second.
"Why?"
It was a question she voiced a hundred times over in the last twelve hours. It was the same question she's asked herself over the last few months.
"Sweetheart, There's never an easy answer for this."
Jordan stepped out of her father's arms and up her hands in her back pockets so she wouldn't be tempted to touch her face to check if she were crying or not.
Jordan found her voice and told her father about being called to the crime scene and finding the physical evidence that she didn't trust. She told him about the doors that where slamming in her face all over town.
"What I don't understand is way everything is being brushed under the rug. You wouldn't believe what happened this morning, Dad."
"I can imagine." he said darkly.
Jordan told him about the mysterious FBI team that swarmed the scene before the fire was barely out. How when she finally got a hold of Lois later in the day, she told her that the scene was washed clean before rush hour was over. Jordan told him she had verified that fact herself when she drove past the scene only to see a stray news truck parked nearby while the reporter stood in the middle of the discoloration on the tarmac.
The more she talked the angrier she became.
"I agree with you Jordan. This stinks to high heaven. But Hoyt made his own bed."
Jordan only shook her head. She has had this argument a number of times before.
"Don't tune me out Jordan. The stakes have just gone up. Let it go now. Now before you get hurt anymore."
"What if I can't? Somebody has gone through a lot of trouble to make me believe...."
"Damn it Jordan, he's dead. He messed around with the wrong crowd and got himself killed....you need to face it. It's over."
For weeks Jordan has felt like she's been on the outside looking in on her life. At that moment she realized she was on the outside. She felt utterly alone. She's been hitting her head against a wall.
Jordan lifted her hands in front of her and studied the slight bruising on the palms from pounding on an empty apartment door. Maybe Bernard was right. He wasn't there because he was on his way the FBI forensics lab.
For the first time in a long time the tears came.
"Come on honey, let me take you home."
=============================================================== .... Thanks for putting up with my jumping around with these first few chapters. I promise I'll try and get everything on the same timeline in the next few. I few more jumps coming up later...but I'll try to make them clearer.....I hope you like the story so far...Jo
Lily stood patiently outside Jordan's closed office door. She didn't notice Nigel standing only a few feet away. She was clutching on her ever-present clipboard like a frightened child would a security blanket. He always wondered if she unconsciously used it as a shield from the realities of this place. The morgue was never sunny, but now it had a black cloud that hung in the air and Lily was showing the stain.
Nigel cleared his throat. Lily jumped and dug deep into her psyche to find her game face. After all she was a professional.
"Nigel. How are you doing?"
Nigel could only nod. Lily's face was freshly scrubbed but it was obvious she had been crying. At least she was accepting the fact Woodrow was gone. Nigel worried about Jordan. All morning she has been working like a caged animal. He stood by, waiting; while she performed the gunshot autopsy she was assigned. Her actions were clipped and methodical. She was a spring so tightly wound up that he thought for sure she'd break.
But the spring didn't snap. She held a tight lid on her emotions. Earlier, Nigel showed her the ballistics report from the bullet they had taken out of the victim's chest. It matched the slugs dug out of four other bodies that have laid in the crypt over the last month. The mob had erupted into a major turf war. The players were littering the streets.
Nigel watched her read the report and thought at that point she would break. But she only looked at the body split open on the table and muttered something about one less waste in the city.
"I'm waiting for Jordan." Lily said showing Nigel a sad smile bringing him back to the present. "I tried to talk to her earlier and she told me to come back later. She's not facing the reality Nigel. I'm concerned."
"As are we all. Come on love, I'll back you up."
Nigel opened Jordan's door and waved Lily inside. Jordan was staring at the cellphone in her hand as if it were Hamlet's Yorick. If took her a split second to realize they were in the room. Jordan carefully set her phone down and looked at the blank commuter screen in front of her. "I'm busy right now. Can we do this later?"
"Jordan." Lily said laying a hand on Jordan's shoulder.
Jordan looked up and gave her a forced smile. At that moment Nigel thought if Woodrow hadn't have got himself blown up, he would be tempted to do it himself.
"I know you mean well...Both of you. It's just...."
Jordan stood and walked over to the window. The sky was a delirious cloudless blue. She abruptly turned back to face her friends.
"I need your help. Garret is watching me like a hawk. I need to get out of here. That little prick Worthington is not returning any of my calls. I need to see him."
"Jordan, I don't think that's a very good idea."
"He's got to know what the hell is going on."
Jordan grabbed her bag out of her desk.
"Oh, and Nigel can you check out something for me? The agent that came in and shanghaied the scene is a guy named Bernard. I talked to Lois earlier and she did some asking around. Nobody seems to have ever heard of this guy before."
"Do you think he's involved?"
"Up to his beady little eyeballs."
"Jordan, don't you think you should let..."
"You sound like Garret. No. They want us to believe Woody's dead and I want to know why."
"Jordan" Lily cut in "His personal affects were there. You saw them yourself."
Jordan ignored Lily.
"Oh yeah, Nige, I need those scene shots. Can you put them on my desk? I'll look at them when I get back."
"Jordan, Jordan!"
Jordan walked passed Lily and out the door. She knew she was being inconsiderate. She made a mental note to apologize later.
Later became sooner when Jordan returned to the office a couple hours later....
Jordan had forced her way into Worthington's office, ironically breaking up a meeting of the task force the mayor's office recently formed in response to the mob war.
She was quickly ushered out by Worthington himself and unwittingly became a photo op for him with the mass of press that had descended on the steps of police headquarters. He reassured Jordan and the press that everything was being done to see that justice, in the bombing death of a police officer, would be carried out. Before Jordan could respond she was physically escorted off the premises.
She thought she'd have better luck at the FBI field office when she was directed to the office of an agent named Tillman. She realized she wasn't up to her A game when he affectively brushed off her questions about the bombing, Agent Bernard, and status of the investigation.
Jordan walked into Lily's office feeling quite dejected. She wasn't prepared for the face she would see.
"Hi, Dad."
Max stood awkwardly from the chair in front of Lily's desk and faced his daughter. Their relationship had been strained for weeks. Their arguments about Woody and Cahill left their mark.
Jordan didn't quite know if she was going to hear some kind of commiseration or 'I told you so'. She got neither Max opened up his arms and she walked into them like she had all of her life. Lily quietly let herself out.
"Oh, baby girl."
Standing in her father's arms drove to home everything that has happened in the last twenty four hours. She felt death everyday.
When Jordan's mother died she knew. She knew before she even saw the body that her spirit was gone. That morning she watched her mother wave good bye as she left for school, just like she saw Woody drive away from Pogue the night before. Now when she thought of the body in that automobile she only felt the professional indifference of a medical examiner.
For a second she let herself think...maybe it was true, maybe he was dead. But for only a second...any longer than that would be admitting he was gone and she wasn't ready for that. It was easier to think he was going to walk through the door any second.
"Why?"
It was a question she voiced a hundred times over in the last twelve hours. It was the same question she's asked herself over the last few months.
"Sweetheart, There's never an easy answer for this."
Jordan stepped out of her father's arms and up her hands in her back pockets so she wouldn't be tempted to touch her face to check if she were crying or not.
Jordan found her voice and told her father about being called to the crime scene and finding the physical evidence that she didn't trust. She told him about the doors that where slamming in her face all over town.
"What I don't understand is way everything is being brushed under the rug. You wouldn't believe what happened this morning, Dad."
"I can imagine." he said darkly.
Jordan told him about the mysterious FBI team that swarmed the scene before the fire was barely out. How when she finally got a hold of Lois later in the day, she told her that the scene was washed clean before rush hour was over. Jordan told him she had verified that fact herself when she drove past the scene only to see a stray news truck parked nearby while the reporter stood in the middle of the discoloration on the tarmac.
The more she talked the angrier she became.
"I agree with you Jordan. This stinks to high heaven. But Hoyt made his own bed."
Jordan only shook her head. She has had this argument a number of times before.
"Don't tune me out Jordan. The stakes have just gone up. Let it go now. Now before you get hurt anymore."
"What if I can't? Somebody has gone through a lot of trouble to make me believe...."
"Damn it Jordan, he's dead. He messed around with the wrong crowd and got himself killed....you need to face it. It's over."
For weeks Jordan has felt like she's been on the outside looking in on her life. At that moment she realized she was on the outside. She felt utterly alone. She's been hitting her head against a wall.
Jordan lifted her hands in front of her and studied the slight bruising on the palms from pounding on an empty apartment door. Maybe Bernard was right. He wasn't there because he was on his way the FBI forensics lab.
For the first time in a long time the tears came.
"Come on honey, let me take you home."
=============================================================== .... Thanks for putting up with my jumping around with these first few chapters. I promise I'll try and get everything on the same timeline in the next few. I few more jumps coming up later...but I'll try to make them clearer.....I hope you like the story so far...Jo