Chapter 3: Silhouette

It had been seven weeks since the ring happened. Life continued on at both the morgue and the precinct. People died, people were killed. The morgue did autopsies and collected evidence. The police investigated and evaluated evidence, made arrests. Professional life went on as normal.

Personal life, on the other hand, had been turned inside out. Jordan and Woody carried on professional, courteous conversations. Everyone noticed. It was almost always a variation of the same.

"Hey, Jordan, can you give me a cause of death? Murder weapon, maybe?"

"Well, no obvious external cause of death. I haven't opened the body up yet, but based on the liver temp at the scene, I'd put time of death at about eight hours ago."

"Anything interesting on the body itself?"

"No, no prints or anything, but I'm waiting on some hairs I found on her hands. Plus, based on lividity, and the position of the body at the scene… Unless one of your guys moved her before we got there, I'd say she wasn't killed where you found her."

"Oh joy. That pretty much rules out accidental death or suicide. Well, let me know when you get anything. We've got basically nothing right now, and we're hoping she can tell us something. Oh, by the way. Have you determined c.o.d. on the bouncer from the bar?"

"Knife wound to the spleen. The guy was high on PCP, so he didn't even feel a thing as he bled out internally."

"Chalk another one up to drugs. Great. Thanks, Jordan. I'll see you around."

And so it went. Life was just static, just kind of happening. Everyone around them had noticed the change. But no one said anything, to afraid to upset the balance or be the cause of a permanent falling out between the two. Even Jordan herself was tentative around the detective from Wisconsin.

Garret would watch Jordan and Woody together, every time wondering what had happened. Neither Nigel nor Jordan had told him about the ring, so, like everyone else, he was left to wonder what had happened to their relationship. The two worked as well together as they ever had. But there was no banter, no teasing, no easy arguments. He tried to pinpoint the day everything changed, try to figure out what happened. He got as far as the case with the pregnant nun, but no further.

But Jordan and Woody both knew the exact day. Their entire relationship had been defined by and directed by days. The day they met, the day they kissed in the dessert but then decided to stay friends, the days in L.A. after he gave up his Kinks ticket, the day Cal put her in danger, and the day Woody tried to give her the ring.

Nobody knew it yet, but fate had one more pivotal day. May 26, 2005.