CHAPTER 2

MEET ALISON

"He said WHAT??"

Garrett Macy tried to calm Alison Winslow – as her driver's license clearly ID'd her – but wasn't very successful. "I'm sorry but Dr Winslow did say you were dead. We had no way of knowing any differently."

Alison remained indignant. "Do you realize it took more all this time to find out he was working here? And now to find out he's been lying, telling everyone I'm dead. And what's worse – he's not even here to take his medicine! Where did he say he was going?"

Jordan replied, "We don't know. It's been about a month now. All we know is that one day we saw him get his belongings out of his locker. He told everyone he was going to pursue a new opportunity out of state."

"And you didn't think that was suspicious?"

Nigel spoke up. "Of course we did. But we weren't able to check it out."

"But I thought you had ways of checking things out."

"We do, Mrs. Winslow," Garrett replied. "But we need to have proof that there was foul play. There was no such proof here. I'm sorry, but that's all we have to offer."

Alison was about to turn and leave when Lily Lebowski stopped her. "Alison…this is my business card. It has my cellular, home phone and e-mail on it. Please contact me if you hear anything."

Alison eyeballed her suspiciously. "And if I hear anything?...."

"We'll call. No worries."

Jordan was at her father's bar after work. As usual, no Max. Woody walked in and sat next to her.

"So. I hear Peter's been putting us on."

Jordan shook her head. "I can't believe he'd lied to us."

"I believe it. He's shaded the truth before."

Jordan turned to Woody. "But not like this! Why would he lie about something like his wife being alive?"

Woody shrugged. "People lie about a lot of things. One of the fun things about being a cop is you get to decide if someone's lying or not."

Jordan smiled, except it wasn't a real smile. "You don't really have a good BS detector."

"Woody….it's been a rough week. No one's seen dad, the caseloads been heavier than usual, now this stuff with Peter. I'm not sure how I'm going to get through this. (heavy sigh) Does this ever happen in Wisconsin?"

"Maybe not in Kiwakee. Milwaukee, on the other hand – home of Jeffrey Dahmer. Bet he had a lot of stress. And don't forget Ed Gein."

Woody's phone rang. "Hoyt….yeah, I'll be right down." (hangs up) "Jordan, I think we're going to need you."

"Why? Someone dead?"

"Yep."

10 minutes later they got to an alley behind a local hotel – one of the less expensive ones. The uniforms and EMT crew were there already and too late. And it was there they saw her – Alison, lying dead. She had clearly been shot, execution style.

Woody said in his best deadpan, "I guess she's dead now."