I was thinking of leaving this story with the last chapter, but then I decided another chapter or two was needed, as per the request of some reviewers. Let me know what you think.
Waking up to the sensation of a strong arm slung across her stomach was something Jordan had not experienced for a while. She found it extremely gratifying. Especially when she opened her eyes and looked over to see Woody sleeping next to her, lying on his side facing her direction. His hair was sticking in every direction. Noticing that he was sleeping with his mouth curved into a contended smile, she blushed thinking that she probably had something to do with it. She just looked at him for a few minutes, enjoying the intimate moment. The fear that gripped her so many times in the past when it came to a relationship with Woody was gone forever. The whole ordeal of reliving all her memories made her recognize how precious every moment of life was. She only got one chance at this. She couldn't waste life by hiding anymore.
Eventually, Jordan realized that they both had their phones shut off all night, and well into the morning. Someone must have tried to call them by now. They would probably be worried. Reluctantly, she broke her gaze away from his face and gingerly rolled to her right to reach for her phone, trying to move as little as possible. Her caution didn't work, though, and she felt Woody's arm tighten around her waist just as she was about to grab her cell, pulling her back to him and out of reach of her phone.
"Where do you think you're going?" he murmured teasingly, his voice thick with sleep.
"I was just going to check to see if I had any messages – Woody!" she laughed as he lowered his head to kiss the curve of her neck, his arms sliding around her protectively.
"Mmm, what?" he smiled.
"What are you doing?" she said innocently, feeling a little shy in the daylight.
"Teaching you a lesson for watching me while I sleep."
"You were awake?" she asked self consciously.
"Yup," he said. He then shifted so that she was lying on her back looking up at him, propping himself on an elbow. With his left arm draped across her, he stroked the hair away from her face, his eyes dancing. "You are the most exquisite woman I have ever laid eyes on."
If Jordan hadn't been lying down, she would have fallen over. It was the sexiest thing any man had ever said to her. Before she could say a word, he kissed her gently, teasing her with the lightness of it. He lowered his mouth next to her ear and whispered, "Leave the phones off."
His breath made her skin tingle, and the temptation was killing her. But her practical side was arguing that staying cut off from people this long was not a good idea. Not unless she wanted them showing up on her doorstep. That was an interruption she was keen to avoid.
"Woody, they might be worried, it's almost ten," she said.
"Let 'em worry," his voice hummed seductively into her body. He kissed her again, and she smiled against his lips.
"Hm, you are trying so hard to distract me," she breathed in between kisses. He just kissed her more in response. Trying not to lose her head, Jordan reached out and felt around the bedside table for her cell phone, hitting the on button when she located it, all the while savoring in the attention he was lavishing on her. After only a few seconds, her message tone rang through the air. "Ah ha," she said triumphantly, kissing Woody one last time before pulling the phone to her ear.
Woody smiled down at her, defeated but amused. He traced a circle on her shoulder with his fingers while she listened to her voice mail.
"Ah, see? Five new messages," she stuck the phone in his face quickly before punching in her code. Three of them were from Nigel, and one each from Bug and Lily. The first four were just them wanting to make sure everything was okay, saying they understood that Jordan and Woody needed some time to sort things out, but call them back when she could. The last one was from Nigel. The second he started talking, Jordan could tell he was excited about something. When she shut off her phone, Woody was looking at her with curiosity.
"What was that last one all about?" he asked.
"They caught Charles Quinten," she told him. "We pulled his DNA from under the latest vic's nails. They're questioning him early this afternoon."
"That's great," Woody said happily.
"Sooo," Jordan started suggestively, "I guess we're not in all that much of a hurry to get over there, are we?" As she said this, she shut her phone off with barely enough time to drop it back on the table before Woody's mouth found hers again.
Lily looked down at the screen of her cell phone to find it blank. She hadn't really expected that fact to change, given that her phone had not rung at all. She just hoped that maybe she had missed something. She let out a disgruntled sigh and leaned against the wall in the hallway of the police station. In less than ten minutes, the lead detectives on the Gomez/Torrance case were supposed to start questioning Charles Quinten. She was there as spokesperson for the morgue in the event that they needed any of the information regarding evidence found on the bodies. Tapping her foot nervously on the ground, she lifted her phone up again to flip it open.
"I doubt that they called in the last twenty seconds, Lebowski."
Sealy's voice made her jump, and she quickly regained her composure. He had only startled her, but Lily had a feeling he would take it another way. One which would probably place her in the position of losing control every time she heard his voice. She was not about to satisfy his day dreams.
"Since when do you call me 'Lebowski?'" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.
"Since you started referring to me as 'Detective Sealy' this morning when I visited the morgue," he responded evenly. Lily rolled her eyes.
"Because we were standing right in front of Slocum. I swear, I think the guywould havefired me if I called anyone by their first name again," she said gloomily.
"Fire a cute little thing like you?" he questioned, stepping just a little closer to her. "He'd be crazy."
Lily was struck by the sincerity in his voice. Sealy had flirted with her quite a bit, but she had never heard him be this serious about it before. She searched her mind for something to say, and was glad when she heard Woody's voice call out.
"Sealy, I might've guessed you were on this one," he said as he and Jordan came walking down the hall. Lily did a double take. Woody was walking perfectly.
"Woody, you're all right!" she exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around him in a hug. Jordan noticed the look of envy that flashed across Sealy's face as Lily did this.
"Yeah, I'm doing okay, Lil," Woody smiled. Lily stepped back and looked him over happily, clearly relieved to see for herself that he was all right. "A little extra care always helps," he added, winking slyly at Jordan. She tried rather unsuccessfully to hide a smile.
Lily then turned her attention to Jordan, who was still attempting to act normal. "What about you, are you okay? Woody told us what happened after you left the morgue yesterday. We tried calling," she said hurriedly.
"I'm doing just fine," Jordan insisted.
"So you're all right now? Completely recovered?" Lily went on.
"Yeah I am," the smile was evident on Jordan's face now. She was always amused by Lily's concern over other people. For someone who had seen so much sadness in the last few years, Lily still managed to bring a little sunshine where there wasn't any. Jordan had a feeling they might be needing her enthusiasm with this case.
"Detective Sealy, they're ready for you," a cop popped his head out of the nearest door.
"Ok, guys. Time to find out if Quinten took the cannoli and left the gun," Sealy said. Lily gave him a questioning look. "The Godfather," he explained.
"I know," she said defensively. "I just didn't know you liked that movie enough to quote it."
"Well, you could've known that if you would just accept my dinner offer for once," he told her, leaving her blushing and unable to think of a comeback as he walked into the room where Quinten was waiting.
Woody made a face at Jordan as if to say, 'I am so not getting involved in this.' He hastened to the door of the observation room and disappeared. Jordan looked at Lily, still standing in a shocked silence.
"He's not a bad guy," Jordan stated sort of ambiguously. She wasn't too sure how Lily felt about the whole situation, and she was trying to be subtle. "I mean, he has his moments, but for the most part – not too bad."
"He's never said anything in front of other people before," Lily said quietly. "It's only ever been when he caught me alone. I don't know what to do with this."
"Well," Jordan smiled wistfully. "You should give it a try. It certainly has its benefits. Believe me," she added pointedly. Lily seemed to come out of her trance as she looked from Jordan to the door that Woody had just gone through.
"You mean…you two…you didn't…did you?" she stammered, resembling a school girl more and more with every word. Jordan just nodded discreetly. "Oh my God!" Lily exclaimed as she gave Jordan a congratulatory hug. "Took you long enough."
"Lily!"
"Well it did!"
Jordan shook her head, laughing. "I'll tell you more later. Right now we better get in there so we don't miss anything."
The two women joined Woody, who was reading up on the information they had on Quinten. He looked up as they walked towards him, standing in front of the one way mirror.
"So what's the deal with this guy?" Jordan asked.
"Well, looks like he used to work with Gomez," Woody told her, looking at the file. "They were partners in the drug trade. But Gomez got greedy and kicked Quinten out of the loop, cutting him off from prime business."
"They arrested him early this morning for a DUI, and only figured out once they got him in here that it was the man we were looking for," Lily added. "We're lucky he didn't slip through the system. The police didn't even have the evidence you found until just after they brought him in," she told Jordan seriously.
"Why?" Jordan asked, her brow furrowing. "We matched the DNA more than twenty four hours ago, they should have had it."
"Slocum told the staff that no one but him was to bring that evidence to the police," Lily said bitterly. "He didn't want the credit going to you, seeing as he has a certain distaste for your methods. But Nigel called Sealy early this morning to ask if Slocum had brought the DNA in, and we were all pretty shocked to find out that he hadn't."
"He still wanted to pin this on Gomez," Jordan said in disbelief. Lily just nodded.
"That son-of-a-bitch," Woody muttered.
"Needless to say, Slocum got a notice for a conduct meeting," Lily said. "But he quietly resigned as Chief ME just over an hour ago. I guess he decided it was better to cut out than have something like this on his record."
The words hit Jordan like thunder. She didn't say anything out loud, but she was praying that Slocum's resignation would mean that Garret could be brought back in. This had to prove that Garret was a better candidate overall for the position. She glanced up at Woody and the look on his face told her that he was thinking the same thing. He placed a comforting hand on the small of her back. Their attention turned to the mirror as they heard Sealy start to talk.
"Any guesses as to why you're here, Quinten?" he asked firmly.
Quinten was sitting smugly at the table, looking perfectly at home in the interrogation room. He had no doubt been in this position before.
"Ya just couldn' live without me, right detective?" he said facetiously. Sealy gave him a withering smile and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Let's get to the point," he stated. "We found your DNA under the fingernails of a drowned girl. And you were babbling about the crime when we first got you here in your drunken stupor. Wanna listen?"
Sealy punched the play button on a cassette recorder and Quinten's voice was heard, slurring his words together.
"'I finally got 'im, the bastard is gonna get wha' he deserves. Screwed me for eigh' years, now he's going away because I figured it out. I killed her, jus' like he was killin' all the other -hic- the other girls.'"
Sealy stopped the tape and looked at Quinten, who now appeared to be a great deal more uncomfortable.
"They got him," Woody said under his breath.
Finally, after several moments, Quinten spoke. "Fine, you got me confessin.' So what's the point a this?"
"The point of this is to find out how Martin Gomez' hair was found on the girl's body," Sealy told him, his voice revealing that he was starting to lose patience.
"Well ya see, detective," Quinten said slowly. "We all keep our little tokens. Just in case we need 'em somewhere down the line."
"Are you telling me that you had the means to frame Martin Gomez?" Sealy asked point blank. There was a heavy silence that followed his question. Sealy slammed his palm against the table, startling Quinten. "I'm not playing games anymore, Quinten!"
"Yeah, I had the means! And a damn good thing for you guys, too, or you never woulda figured this out!"
Sealy grabbed a file off the table and stormed over to the door, ripping it open. They could hear him bark, "I'm done with him!" to the guards before the door to the observation room swung open and he walked in. He shoved the file at Lily.
"You can tell your staff the good news," he said gruffly, heading towards the door almost immediately.
"Hey, Matt?" Lily started uncertainly. Sealy stopped and looked around at her. Lily shrugged bashfully and asked, "Would – would you like to have dinner tonight?"
Sealy was rendered speechless for the first time. He struggled to formulate a sentence before finally managing a simple, "Yes."
"Great, I'll call you later," Lily beamed.
Sealy left the room looking like he didn't know which way was up. Lily bit her lip and smiled after him. She turned around to gather her things and was met with the knowing looks of Jordan and Woody.
"Oh, shut up," she told them, though she was still grinning.
The three of them headed back over to the morgue, Jordan and Woody being respectfully quiet about Detective Sealy. In the elevator, Woody gamely took Jordan's hand in his and was happy when she didn't pull away or attempt to hide it. He had been a little worried that, despite everything she had told him, she would be hesitant to make their relationship public. When the three stepped out of the elevator, they caught sight of Nigel standing at the front desk talking to a secretary. Nigel took one look at Jordan and Woody and smiled with the same 'I-told-you-so' look that Lily had.
"So, things went well?" he asked, not even bothering to hide the double meaning in his question.
"Yes, things went very well at the precinct," Lily jumped in to save the couple any embarrassment. The group started walking through the morgue. "As usual, the Boston PD managed to get to the bottom of…"
But Jordan didn't hear the rest of Lily's explanation. The second they walked into the office area, she heard it: the sound of jazzy blues playing in one of the rooms. Her head whipped around to find the source of the noise, her heart skipping a beat. Then she saw him, facing the other direction, still in his black leather jacket. Jordan walked determinedly away from the group, her steps quickening the closer she got to the office door. She burst into the room, giving Garret barely enough time to register who it was before flinging her arms around him. She heard his small, 'Oomph,' knowing that she very nearly knocked the wind out of him.
"Where the Hell have you been?" she choked through the tears that were starting to form.