Chapter Eight

Hours slid by. Hours that she could be anywhere with anything happening to her. Garret was beating himself up over allowing her to work the night shift for so long…for not talking to her to see how she was doing working those hours. She had seemed fine…other than notes from her about the cases, copies of her dictations, a question or two here and there, she had seemed to be coping fine. He had no idea she was being watched…followed. He had no idea she was frightened.

To most people the thought of Jordan Cavanaugh being frightened was a novel idea. She just didn't seem like the type that got scared. But she was. Jordan wasn't as strong as she let on. She was frightened of a lot of the typical things most women were ….snakes….mice…spiders. He remembered the time she had yelled for him to come into her office…a note of urgency in her voice he had never heard before. He had run in…to find her pointing to something in the corner and ordering him to "Kill it….kill it now." It was a spider…not a very big one…he had laughed and teased her about it for days.

But this man….the one thing she had probably seen truly frightened over…and justifiably so….she hadn't breathed a word about. Not to anyone but Lois. And he could understand why she would turn to a female detective, but why hadn't she turned to him at all?

The answer was obvious. She was just as scared he would revoke her probation and fire her because he wouldn't believe her…he would think that she was making it all up. He downed the rest of the coffee that was in his Styrofoam cup and shot it in the trashcan. When she got back, they were going to have a long talk….

It was dark and cold in that box. She had scrambled around enough to find a blanket…and the bottles of water…and some packs of crackers. She wrapped the blanket around her the best she could. She only used the flashlight for brief intervals….despite everything in her that said to keep it on…the light at least provided some refuge. But she was careful only to check the time on her watch and turn it off, saving the batteries for as long as she could.

She would lie on her back for a while… until staring up at the top of the box made her claustrophobic. Then she would flip to her stomach. She tried to sleep, she knew it was night time, but in these conditions, did it really matter? Did anything really matter? The stuff he had sprayed her with to make her unconscious made her slightly ill. Dozing in and out of sleep, she wondered just how long she could make it in here….would she truly go crazy before this was over….

Would she end up giving into his demands just to get out of the box and keep her life?

Her mind automatically went to her friends…her morgue family and the strained relationship she had with all of them. She was sorry it had come to the point where they were barely speaking. But the Levinson case had driven her hard…the girls….they had been so young…..and despite the fact that Jordan's faith was in tatters, she couldn't help but think there but by the grace of God go I, every time another young prostitute was brought in. She could just have easily been snatched when she was their age.

Maybe she should have backed off…maybe she should have let the police take care of it. But that wasn't her nature. She had to see it through to the end. And she had. But it had cost her far more than she realized. More than she may have been willing to pay. Garret had been furious with her….the angriest she had ever seen him. Later, someone had told her that the reprimand came at the same time he found out Rene' was pregnant…and it wasn't his child. Things had just built up on Garret and they came crashing down on her.

She had pushed Nigel and Bug hard on the case, too. In trace…in autopsies…running down leads. She had kept Nigel on his computer for hours….she had stayed on Bug's back in trace. She had to have answers….for these girls.

She had been too hard on them all. She should have backed off….she knew that, too…even then. She had hoped once the guilty verdict came down, she could go back and apologize and everything would go back to normal….only it hadn't. Her co-workers, especially Nigel, had seemed to reach their limit with her. She found only frosty receptions at her apologetic attempts.

As a result, their relationships went to strictly professional standards. She figured this would last a while until tempers had cooled down. And even though she had switched to the graveyard shift to avoid her abductor, deep down she had hoped that this time away from each other would eventually bring them back together…absence makes the heart grow fonder, and that sort of thing.

At least Nigel had seemed to miss her and want her back. She sighed. It was difficult for her to accept that the fact she may never see them again was a very real possibility.

"It's the number to one of those throw away cell phones," Nigel called out…he had traced down the unknown incoming call to Jordan's cell phone.

"Throw aways?" Wood asked.

"Yeah, you buy the phone and it has a certain number of minutes on it….when they're out, you simply throw it away. You can't re-up the minutes."

"Can you find out the make….where it was sold?"

"Give me a little while, Woodrow….just a little while and you'll have it." It was the first break they had caught on the case. And Nigel delivered. "It was part of a lot that was bought by a series of convenience stores...but I can't pinpoint which one. I have a call into their corporate headquarters now….all we can do is wait. I'm sorry Woody," Nigel concluded, looking at the detective's crestfallen face.

Woody nodded. He knew, at least on a cognitive level, that these things took time. Only he wasn't sure how much time Jordan had left. A few days ago, he would have bet any amount of money she had all the time in the world and so did he…time that would pass and eventually they would at least be able to work together again on a civil level. He wished he would have paid more attention to her when she came into his office asking for help. Her eyes had told him something was wrong…something serious. But his professional pride was still hurting from her actions….and he only had wanted to get her out of his office…and out of his life.

But she still must have trusted him on some level…to come to him before going to Lois. That thought kept the hope flickering in his stomach. It kept him moving…looking…searching for her. She must have felt that at least he could have kept her safe. If only he would have taken a few minutes to hear her out. No…he may have had trouble believing her completely…but Jordan wouldn't have talked about something this serious just for attention. He knew that. He would have at least been sufficiently enough concerned to request that the security guards patrolling the parking deck be made aware of the problem and to walk her to and from her car.

Hell, who was he kidding? He would have walked her to and from her car. He wouldn't relinquish her safety and care to another person. Not as long as he was breathing….and no matter how upset he was with her. They may not have spoken to each other during the walk, but he would have kept it up until that person was caught…then he would have faded away again. Maybe.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed when she finally woke up. Groping around, she found the flashlight and flicked it on …. 3 a.m. She had been asleep five hours. It felt like days. She flipped over on her back. In one way, she was glad it was dark…at least it didn't seem quite so claustrophobic, because she couldn't see the sides of the box. But in another way, the darkness itself was a torture. She had nearly always welcomed the comfort of night…a chance to close her eyes and forget for a few hours about everything that troubled her….her father…her mother's murder…..work….Woody. She could slip away into a dream world where everything was warm and welcoming.

Only this darkness wasn't warm and welcoming. It was cold. And frightening. Just as frightening to her as when the man had his arm around her throat and was cutting her hair. Just as frightening as this evening when he took her away. She realized she had never been this scared before in her life…not even when she found her mother's body…not even with Digger. Even if she got out of this box, unless someone found her…her future still didn't look promising. She pulled the blanket up closer around her. It was winter in Boston….and she only had on her camisole, jeans, and socks. She was freezing. She wondered if it was possible for her to freeze to death before she starved to death….if he didn't come back. Rationally, she thought to herself that freezing would be the quickest, less painful way to die. If she had to go, that was the way…..

But then it hit her. She didn't want to die….not give in that way. She began to yell…she knew no one could hear her, but it made her feel better….like she was doing something for herself. She yelled until she was hoarse…but accomplished nothing but gaining a huge thirst. She pulled out one of the water bottles and drank half of it….she better not do that again unless she was sure she heard something or someone outside. She didn't want to use up all her water.