"Detective Matthew Seely. Boston PD. Cause of death - an apparent gun shot wound to the head," Detective Woody Hoyt read off to Jordan and Garret Macy as they entered the townhouse. Seely's body was in the middle of the floor, covered with a sheet.
"The back door was busted in. There's no evidence of robbery but we'll have his belongings inventoried to make sure." Woody stooped down to the entryway floor, pointing at a discarded purse. "The only thing we found out of place was this."
"It's Lily's," Jordan stated quietly. Woody nodded.
Garret looked over the room. "The only blood pool is around Seely." He looked towards the wall. "Blood splatter is indicative of a gunshot. We'll screen it. Make sure that it's all Seely's."
"We got a call from the next door neighbour," Woody explained, standing up. "She said she saw Seely and Lily enter the townhouse, heard the gun shot and then saw three men leaving out the front… with Lily."
"Who are these guys? Has she seen them before?" Jordan asked quickly.
"She didn't recognize them. We'll have her look at photo line-ups. Maybe we'll get lucky." Woody turned towards the interior of the house where two guys were dusting for prints. "I'm checking with the PD supervisor. We'll look through Seely's caseload; see if anything matches the description the neighbour gave us." Woody walked off towards the back of the house, letting the MEs get to work.
Garret nodded. "Let's get Seely's body photographed and to the morgue. We need to get him to trace."
Jordan knelt down beside Macy, peeling back the sheet and revealing a gaping head wound. She pulled out a camera and began to take pictures. "You know," she said to Garret. "Lily was looking forward to this date."
Garret raised his eyebrows, a little uncomfortable with the conversation. "Oh really?" he said quietly, swabbing the blood on the floor.
Jordan stopped photographing for a moment, looking thoughtful. "Yeah. She was supposed to give me all the details about it this morning."
Garret looked at Jordan. "We're gonna find her, Jordan," he said, trying to convince himself as well as her.
Jordan swallowed hard and went back to the camera. "Yeah, of course we are. Of course we are."
XXXXX
"The blood found at the scene was Seely's," Bug said, marching through a set of laboratory doors and towards Macy who was finishing up with the autopsy. "Splatter, everything… The PD couldn't find any unexplainable prints but discovered two shoe prints at the backdoor. They match none of the shoes in Seely's house." Bug stood beside Jordan who pulled a bullet from Seely's skull.
"Shoe prints? Anything substantial?" she asked, dropping the piece of metal into a plastic container.
Bug opened a file. "One is a size 10, the other, an 11. Both look like a military or hiking boot. But there were some foreign substances imbedded in the prints." He flipped through a couple of pages. "It's a type of gravel, limestone. I'm having it analyzed. We'll see what comes up."
Jordan wandered over to one of the several computers and scanned the extracted bullet into the system. "I'm going to check the ballistics database. See if we can tie this to a previous crime."
"No need," Woody announced, strolling into the room. "I've got some good news right here." He wiggled a small file in front of Jordan's face. "Gabriel Martinez, Ricky Waynes, and Tyler "Little T" Harris. Previous assault and drug charges. Were paroled nine months ago. The next-door neighbour positively identified all three men as those who were leaving Seely's townhouse."
"Where can we find these guys?" Bug asked anxiously.
Woody sighed. "Well, that's where the good news ends. There's no existing address for any of them. Their parole officer hasn't seen them for 8 weeks. For all we know they've run off. Left the state… or the country." Woody looked around a little sheepishly.
Jordan grabbed the file from Woody and flipped through it. "I don't get this." She tapped a fingernail. "Why did they target Seely? This says that the arresting detective was someone named Dickson. I don't see Seely's name in this at all."
"That's the other bad news," Woody began. "At this point, we've got no connection between our suspects and the victim. No motive."
"I think we need to have a little talk with this Dickson," Jordan suggested. "Maybe he can tell us where to find these guys."
XXXXX
The room was cold. Lily could feel the dirt beneath her cheek as she began to wake from unconsciousness. She opened her eyes to darkened surroundings, to what looked like a large dirt basement. The pain in her head struck as she attempted to sit up. Reaching for the sore spot, she realized her hands as well as her feet were bound with what she recognized as duct tape. Lily awkwardly touched the side of head, noting the hair clumped together with dried blood.
"You awake?" a rough voice asked from the other side of the room. A flashlight suddenly blinded her while Lily tried to make out the owner of the voice.
"You scream, I'll kill you," he said, coming closer. "Same if ya try to escape."
"I don't have many options, do I?" Lily snapped. The flashlight finally revealed Ricky Waynes, the same man who had ordered Seely to be shot.
"A little bitchy, aren't we?" he snarled, stepping towards her. As he approached, Lily noticed the pistol in his other hand.
"What are you going to do with me?"
Ricky laughed. "Ah Sweetheart, you're going to get us what Seely didn't."
Lily shook her head, tears in her eyes. "You've made a huge mistake. Seely's a detective and they'll be looking for me."
"That's what we're counting on." Ricky swooped down in front of Lily. "And as for Seely, he ain't a detective no more. But he had good taste in chicks," he slithered, reaching over to caress Lily's cheek.
She batted away his hand and lunged towards him, hoping to knock Ricky off balance. He merely swayed before pushing her back into the wall.
"Not smart," Ricky mumbled. He reached over, grabbing Lily's neck, choking her.
Lily struggled against him, finding the world getting hazy as she began to faint. Ricky roughly let her go, leaving her gasping on the floor as he got up. "I told you not to try anything." Lily heard him mutter before she succumb to the loss of air and passed out.