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Part Two: Call to Action

May 14, 2006

Garret thrust his head in the doorway of Autopsy One. "Jordan?"

She looked up. "Hey, Garret."

"I know you're just finishing up here, but I've got another body in Trace that BPD is screaming their heads off about."

She sighed. "And I'm the only M.E. around?"

"I was going to take it, but I got a call from Abby. She was in a car accident."

Jordan gasped. "Is she okay?"

"She's fine. Scared more than anything. But, you know-"

"Go. I'll take care of it."

He smiled gratefully. "Thanks." For a moment, he looked down. "The detective is Woody. Sorry."

Jordan set her jaw, her lips pressed into a thin line. Then she waved a hand in Garret's direction. "I'll live."

Fifteen minutes later found Jordan pushing open the door to Trace. Nigel was well into his examination. Woody stood at Nigel's computer, his back to Jordan. "It's about time."

"Sorry," Jordan replied tersely. "I thought the Malvaney family might like it if I sewed up their father before sending him on to the funeral home. Next time we'll just have Lily tell the family we only do that on request."

His shoulder dropped a fraction. He turned, his face set, annoyed. "I thought Dr. Macy was doing the autopsy."

Jordan shrugged. I don't care what you thought. "Abby was in a car accident. She's fine, but wanted her father." She gave Woody the most ironic look she good. "So, you got me."

Nigel sighed softly. Listening to them snipe at each other was grating on everyone on the morgue staff. Even Seely had commented on it and Seely's sensitivity level to that sort of issue was almost nonexistent. It wouldn't be so bad if Jordan and Woody hadn't been so close and hadn't come so close to more. It also wouldn't be so bad if it hadn't been so clear to everyone – except the two of them apparently – that they still cared deeply for each other. Taking a deep breath, Nigel stood up, holding aloft a long dark hair. "I think we may have something."

"The victim is dark haired," Woody observed.

"Yeah, but the victim's hair was nowhere near this long. Her mother is blond and her father is nearly bald. This just might be something helpful, Woodrow."

Jordan was studying the girl. "How old is she?"

Nigel began listing the basics for Jordan. "Kristy Douglas, aged twenty-one. Just finishing her junior year at UMass in fashion design. Lived at home with her parents."

"We've still got rigor. She's barely been dead twenty-four hours. Who found her?"

"Patrol," Woody answered, reading from notes, more to avoid eye contact with Jordan than from any real need. "Her parents called her in missing."

"But…?"

"Kristy went out last night to pick up an ice cream cake for dessert. She never got to where she was going. Instead her parents got a phone call from someone using a scrambler asking if he could take their daughter out."

Jordan shivered.

"Kristy's car was found by the side of the road about four miles from her house. No sign of her. The responding patrolman went into the woods nearby and found her."

Jordan leaned over and studied the girl's neck. "Strangled?"

"Looks like," Nigel confirmed. "The ligature is pretty well defined."

Jordan's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, but what would make a mark like that? There's a pattern to it."

"Rope?" Woody suggested unkindly.

Ignoring his tone, Jordan shook her head. "It's – It's not like anything I've ever seen."

Nigel joined her. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Wider in places and this-" He pointed gently. "This almost looks like writing."

Jordan put her hands on her hips, her fingers trailing down. Her nails scratched against her belt. "Oh, hey!" Without regard to the perplexed and concerned looks from Nigel and Woody, Jordan unbuckled the leather and pulled it from the loops. Her eyes lit up with inspiration she held up the belt.

"Ah… interesting," Nigel commented.

Woody drew closer for a better look. He brought his gaze back up to Jordan's face. "You think-"

"I got it at this little place out in Cambridge – local stuff mostly. Look!" She put the belt just above the girl's neck.

Nigel whistled. "That's a pretty close match."

"Where'd you say you got it, Jordan?" Woody was poised to write down her answer, which she gave him. Once upon a time she'd have volunteered to come with him, teasing him some line about the place not being his style or whatever. Now she simply reeled off directions in a dispassionate voice.

Nigel had taken the leather strap for Jordan and was studying it, comparing it with the marks on the girl's neck. "Did you notice, luv, if all the belts were the same?"

Jordan shrugged. "But if they're different…."

"If they're different," Woody continued as he joined them in peering at the ligature. "And you guys could get some detail from those marks-" He looked up. "- I might have a solid lead on who killed her."

Nigel clicked his tongue. "Uh, well, unless of course she was strangled with her own belt."

Woody did not thank him for that suggestion.

Later, while Jordan formulated her report, Woody returned to the morgue. His face was dark with a sense of failure. He stopped at Jordan's partially closed door and then took a chance she wouldn't throw something at him.

She didn't even look up. "I'm working on it, Detective."

"X ray vision these days, Jordan?"

Now she looked up. "What?"

"How'd you know it was me?"

Woody could have sworn she blushed. Her eyes darted away from his. "I can tell – Everyone walks a little differently, opens doors a little differently." Her voice concealed the thudding of her heart and she managed not to mention that hard as she'd tried to unlearn his tread, she hadn't been able to. She wasn't even going in to the fact his aftershave made her stomach do flips still.

He gave her a single nod. "So – uh – when will you be done?"

"I don't know. I'm working on it."

"Can you tell me anything?"

"Aside from what we knew a few hours ago?" Jordan shrugged. "Not a lot. No sign of rape. No obvious signs of drug use, but we need to wait for a full tox to rule everything out. Stomach contents were consistent with what the parents said they'd had for dinner. Organs were healthy and normal. The only thing wrong with Kristy Douglas was that someone choked the life out of her."

"I'd like to find out who."

She shot him a look that made him step back. "So would I. If we get anything, you'll hear about it. I promise."

The case went unsolved.

END Part Two