Chapter Six

Treatit Personal

"Can I talk to you a minute?" Woody asked Lu, after knocking softly at her office door.

"Sure, come on in," Lu answered with a smile. It had taken Woody a while to warm up to her as both a detective and a "shrink," but once he did, he had used her expertise in several of his cases. "Tough case bothering you?"

Woody came in and sat down in one of the chairs in front of her desk. Leaning forward with his elbows resting on both knees, he clasped his hands loosely in front of him. "Yeah….sort of," he said tentatively… "and no."

Lu gave him a puzzled look and waited for him to explain. If she had learned one thing when dealing with Woody Hoyt, it was to let him go at his own pace. Pushing him only resulted in an exercise in pure frustration for him and a migraine for her.

"It is a case…a particularly terrifying one. Do you remember the case in Michigan years ago involving Father John Curtis?"

Lu nodded. It was a case involving a cult leader, his blindly obedient female followers, and torture. She had been a freshman in college then and the school she attended had upped the security of the female students…a knee-jerk reaction to the possibility that some "nut case" could come onto their campus and whisk away co-eds to follow him…even though she was in school in Pennsylvania. The dean had figured if it could happen in Michigan it could happen anywhere.

"We have reason to think….no, we know….he's now in Boston doing what he did in Michigan years ago."

Lu took a deep breath. "You're sure?"

"The lab pulled a latent print off a laptop that we feel one belongs to one of his victims." Woody went on to give Lu a sanitized version of the details involving the alert and the man calling from the Purple Pawn. Lu listened quietly and made a few mental notes.

"So….are you using me to try to get inside the mind of this alleged murderer?"

Woody shook his head. "I don't need to get inside his mind…at least not yet. I just need to find him. And the case is moving pretty fast right now…my problem….my issue ...is who the laptop belongs to and the fact that she could be the next victim…."

"Who does it belong to?" Lu asked, looking Woody directly in the eyes.

"Jordan."

The hot, humid air stuck around Jordan like a second layer of skin. While Boston was known for cold winters, the summer could be just as harsh with high temperatures and humidity at times. And now was one of the times.

And when she was able to open her eyes, she could see the clouds rolling in, eating up the night sky and the stars….It's going to storm… she thought, and no sooner had the words crossed her mind than the sky sizzled with lightning and the thunder began to boom. Then the wind began to pick up as the rain began to pour from the dark clouds…the water blowing on her already pain-filled and weakened body. She was dimly aware of hearing footsteps coming to the window near where she was at. Glancing over, she saw the worried face of Sarah for a split second before John roughly pulled her away.

Closing her eyes once again, Jordan tried to imagine herself anywhere but where she was at right now….the warm beaches of St. Thomas….working with Garret and Nigel….being held by Woody while they danced at the Pogue. God…that seemed like a lifetime ago and in so many ways it was. He was a different man then….and she was only beginning to acknowledge in her reluctant heart the extent of her love for him. She swallowed hard and let the tears finally come that had been building up inside. Please, dear God, let him find me…she silently prayed to a God she still hoped listened to those in trouble. Please…Woody. Just one more time…I need you…please…

A pop of lightning occurred so near the house now she flinched. The thunder boomed overhead again, the reverberations making the porch shake. The wind picked up once more and blew the cold rain on her already soaked body. Please God…and Woody…

"The laptop belonged to Jordan?" Lu asked evenly. Inwardly all the yellow caution lights were flashing in her mind. This woman was a particularly sore spot for the detective…who seemed to have a love/hate relationship with the ME. He claimed to have loved her at one time, but had felt Jordan pushed him away on one too many occasions. So Woody had finally given up on any type of relationship with Jordan at all.

Eventually, Woody had turned his attention to other women, but had been no more successful in those relationships than he had with Jordan. It was only though long hours of intensive work with Lu that Woody had learned that he had been just as much as fault as Jordan was with the relationship…he still had areas in his life he needed to deal with besides the sniper incident that had nearly cost him his legs and his career. The anger that had seemingly budded from that one event had actually been a seething volcano barely hidden beneath the surface. The bullet that he took just allowed all the rage to come rolling out. It took some time, but Woody had finally admitted to himself that if Jordan had taken his friendship ring all those months ago when he offered it, the relationship would still have probably been doomed. His fury would have killed it at some point.

But now he was dealing with the resentment he had felt for his mother's death in his life at such a young age…his father's treatment of his sons after that death…his own father's untimely murder….and the burden of raising a brother who was constantly ungrateful and uncooperative. Not to mention being shuttled from one relative to another to live, feeling constantly unwanted and unloved most of his life. It was no wonder that when Jordan had finally whispered to Woody that she loved him, he just didn't believe her. No one else really ever had, why should she? While he had wanted so much to hear Jordan say those words, his past wouldn't allow him to accept them or believe her. So he unceremoniously and very hurtfully, turned the ME away.

However, Lu felt that Woody had never really stopped loving Jordan. Despite the fact that he assured her that whatever he and Jordan had was now too dead to revive, Lu knew that deep down, the detective still longed for Jordan. And in many ways was incomplete without her.

Which made what she now had to say to Woody difficult…and needed to be put delicately under the best of circumstances. "And does that make a difference in you trying to find her? Are you trying this hard to find her because it's Jordan or would you be working this hard if it was any other citizen of Boston?"

Woody nodded. "I've asked myself that question a thousand times since I realized that this creep could have her. And the answer is I'd be working this hard if it was anyone…"

"Then that's good…"

"But…it makes this case personal. It's Jordan…and…and…"

"And?" Lu raised an eyebrow.

Woody stood suddenly and walked over to the window in Lu's office, staring unseeingly out the wind. "And it's Jordan…" he said quietly. "I'd go to any lengths to get anyone away from this guy….but Jordan…all the feelings this is pulling up, Lu. I shouldn't care for her…I shouldn't hate her either, but I shouldn't have such an intense reaction to this case like I'm having…"

"She's a colleague. You've worked with her since you came to Boston. Even though you may no longer care for her the way you once did, there are still emotional ties there, Woody. It's okay." Lu watched him carefully. Woody normally held nearly a stoic expression…intense sometimes, sometimes nearly dour, and sometimes sad, but could be incredibly difficult to read most of the time.

But not now. His emotions were playing all over his face like a pinball machine. "What feelings are being pulled up?" she finally asked after a few moments had passed.

"That I have to find her…before she gets hurt. Because if she gets hurt…or worse, I don't know how I will live with myself. And what's worse, I don't know if I'd really have any kind of life without her. I've tried…since I've was shot…to live without her. But I was only fooling myself. It's not really a life…not when my soul…my heart…feels so empty without her."

Lu sat back and hid a smile. The final breakthrough with Woody…she had been trying to get him to admit that he still had a missing piece in him for months. She would have bet her pension that missing piece was Jordan… and now she knew for sure. Clearing her throat to hide her triumph, she asked, "Can I offer a suggestion?"

Woody turned his attention away from the window and back to Lu. "Sure. What?"

"Treat finding Jordan the way you would treat the case if it were anyone else – with the same amount of dedication and relentlessness I've known you to have. And afterwards…when she's safely back home….treat it personal."