He dipped his head and cleared his throat. Whatever he had been expecting, it had not been that.
"I came here to tell you that Garret has you on a case with me. Twenty-three year old girl found dead in the park, strangled, with what looks like a man's neck tie."
Jordan looked up from her lap and nodded, noting the fact that he was trying to keep this strictly professional. "I'll meet you in the lobby in five minutes," she said, straightening her jeans from her spot on the couch and running her fingers through her long, dark hair.
Woody nodded and stood up, nodding to her before leaving the room. Jordan instantly regretted telling him the truth. Whoever said the truth sets you free was seriously mistaken. She grabbed her jacket from the back of her desk chair and followed Woody's path out the door and down the hall to where he was waiting in the lobby for her.
He handed her the case file and pressed the call button on the elevator as he explained the case. "Man walking his dog found her this morning. I called and asked Garret to send and ME. He said he would send you but then he couldn't find you. I swung by your apartment but you weren't there so I came here and found you …" he said, a slightly embarrassed look on his face. "Anyways … ID in her coat pocket identified her as McKenna Bishop, worked as a housekeeper in a house up in Taylor Estates," he said as the elevator doors slid open and they stepped in.
"She lived there with the family?" Jordan asked, flipping through the papers in the file.
"Ya. Actually it's just one girl that lives there. House was registered to a Jeremy Ryder, ex-chief of police at the seventh precinct if you remember. But as you probably know he died three years ago on the job and left the house to his daughter Natalie who is currently attending her final year at Harvard. Little sister Carly, who was twelve at the time, is now fifteen and is the only remaining Ryder left in the house," Woody finished in a huff.
They stepped off the elevator and Jordan followed Woody through the parking garage to his car. "I'm bringing the kid in after I take you to the crime scene. You're welcome to join me if you want," he said, turning to face her and giving her a little smile.
She hesitated before saying, "Sure. My dad used to work with Jeremy. And then Max would come home and talk about his day and Ryder and his kids usually came up. I've met her before but that must have been around twelve years ago," she said, smiling at the memory of the cute, sassy little blonde who was two years old but had the mouth of a teenager.
XXXXXXXXXXHe had taken her to the crime scene and now they were done. There was nothing spectacular about it that differed from any other scene she had been to before. Other than the fact that McKenna was found laying face down in a patch of grass, her clothes slightly torn and blood caked in her hair.
Bug had transported the body back to the morgue, allowing Jordan to head back to the precinct with Woody. They stood in the main hall, both looking anywhere and everywhere but at each other. The distinct smell of woman's perfume wafted down the hall towards Woody and Jordan, causing them to look up from their shoes.
"Detective Simmons," Woody said, trying to hide the smile on his face. It was bad enough with him and Jordan, now Lu was here too? 'Damn God must hate me today,' he thought to himself.
"Detective Hoyt, Dr Cavanaugh," she replied, giving a stiff nod to each of them as she said hello. "I've been assigned to this case," she said, a somewhat smug smile spreading across her pretty face.
"Really?" Woody asked. He had always wondered what it would be like to work with her, if only it hadn't included Jordan which made for an awkward situation.
"Should we go into the viewing room?" Woody asked, gesturing to the door and holding it open for the two women. The filed into the room, turning and facing each other in silence.
To all of their relief, the door to the interrogation room opened and an officer showed a young, blonde girl in. She looked around, staring blandly around the room with an expression of mild curiosity mixed with annoyance. She was wearing a dark green camisole top with light green lace trimming for the straps and plunging v-neckline that accentuated her small but tall frame. A simple silver heart-shaped locket hung from a long chain on her neck and her fingers found their way to it, instinctively playing with the chain.
She was wearing expensive jeans, Seven from what Jordan could tell, and Nine West black boots with a two-inch heel. Her long, wavy, beach-style blonde hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail at the top of her head, her multi-toned bangs slipping slightly into her icy blue eyes.
She looked bored, they all noticed, and Woody made a move to leave the room to interrogate her.
"Wait a sec Wood," Jordan said, putting out her arm to stop him from leaving. "Just wait and see what she does."
Woody stopped and turned around, the three of them watching the young girl.
In a swift movement that was the epitimy of grace and beauty, she took a seat on top of the table, her back to them. Swinging her legs so they were on top of the table as well, she laid back until she was lying on her back, booted legs swinging over the end of the table. She let her head hang back off the other end of the table so it was upside down, popping her bubblegum through her pearly white teeth.
"That's the daughter of the bad-ass cop Jeremy Ryder?" Woody asked in awe. Jordan laughed.
"I'm gonna go talk to her," Woody said, leaving the room to be closely followed by Lu.
The door to the interrogation room opened and the two walked in, Carly's attention turning to them. She sat up and spun around to face them.
"Miss Ryder if you could take a seat … in a chair if you would," Woody said with a smirk. She slightly returned the smile and sat down in a chair, Woody and Lu sitting across from her. "What was your relationship with McKenna Bishop?" Woody asked, looking at Carly with a kind smile on his face.
"McKenna? She works at my house. Takes care of the place since I can't do it by myself," she answered. Her voice was brimming with confidence and self-assurance, but not to the point of being egotistical or full of herself.
"Did she live with you?" Lu asked, leaning across the table to stare her down.
"Ok seriously … what's going on?" Carly asked, cocking her head to one side and trying to stare them down. She maintained eye contact with Woody who was still trying to stare her down, trying to make her break first. But she was tough, and her eyes remained on Woody's waiting for him to break the contact first.
And he did. He finally looked away from her icy blue eyes which were somewhat distant and cold. She smiled in satisfaction. "Now someone better tell me what's going on or read my rights or I'm leaving," she said, smirking at them.
Woody and Lu exchanged a look. She was a lot tougher than her happy-go-lucky, bubblegum popping, expensive clothes wearing exterior let on.
"McKenna Bishop was found murdered in the park early this morning," Lu said swiftly. Her expression remained emotionless but her eyes told a different story. A flicker of deep sadness rushed over her and her lip quivered, hands trembled.
But her need to seem tough and untouchable won over and she closed her eyes, stopping the trembling and regaining her composure. When she spoke, her voice was low and husky, a small crack of emotion pushing through.
"What happened to her?" Carly asked, cupping her chin in her hand and resting her elbow on the table.
"Dr Cavanaugh is working on that. We'll get you some answers Carly. We will," Woody said, placing his hand on top of her smooth, pale one.
"Wait?" she asked, her voice perking up slightly. "Dr Cavanaugh? Jordan Cavanaugh? Max's daughter?" she inquired, her posture straightening up in her chair.
Woody and Lu exchanged another look and behind the glass, Jordan narrowed her eyebrows.
"Ya. What do you know about Jordan?" Woody asked.
"My dad used to talk about Max all the time and Max must have always talked about Jordan because she would always come up," Carly said.
Woody turned behind him to look at the mirror where he knew Jordan was standing watching.
"Is she back there?" Carly asked, noticing the movement and commenting.
Woody turned back to look at her, contemplating on whether or not to lie to her. "No," he said, dropping his eyes to the table.
She tilted her head to the side again, her eyes hardening and boring into his that looked quite similar to hers. "Don't lie to me," she said, her voice demanding and rough.
"What makes you think he's lying?" Lu asked, intrigued by the girl.
"He couldn't look me in the eyes when he said it," she said, never moving her eyes from Woody's. "Damn I can't believe they got to her," she whispered to herself.
"They?" Woody asked. "They who?"
"I wanna talk to Jordan. No one else," she said, another small smile on her face. She loved being stubborn and calling the shots.
"That's not necessary Carly," Woody said, his expression turning from kind and caring to slightly impatient.
"Yes it is. I either talk to Jordan or I leave and don't talk at all," she said, her small disappearing.
Woody and Lu looked at each other before pushing back their chairs and leaving the room and walking into the viewing room where Jordan was waiting.
"You're giving into her?" Jordan asked, turning to Woody and Lu stunned.
"You heard her Jordan," Woody said, pulling up two chairs and sitting down, motioning for Lu to take the other. "She either talks to you or she doesn't talk at all. And she knows things. I think she knows a lot more about McKenna's death than she's telling Lu and I. If she's going to open up for you and give us the information we need, than I need to do what she asks. Like it or not, she's calling the shots … and she knows it too," Woody said, turning his eyes back to the interrogation room where Carly sat waiting.
Jordan didn't say a word. Instead, she turned on her heel and walked into the room, pushing open the door and sitting across from Carly. "The last time I saw you you were two and begging your dad for ice cream," Jordan said, narrowing her eyes and looking at her.
"It's been a long time Jordan," Carly said.
"That it has," she replied. "Why me Carly? Why not Detective's Hoyt and Simmons?" Jordan asked, resting her elbows on the table and placing her chin in her palms, mimicking Carly's body posture.
"They don't understand," she said, dropping her eyes to table between them.
"Don't understand what?" Jordan asked, reaching out one of her hands and placing it on top of Carly's cold, pale one.
"What it's like to loose everyone you love," she replied quietly. "What it's like to have you mother murdered and to find her on your kitchen floor … to spend the rest of your life searching for ghosts from your past; for the killer you'll probably never find. What's it's like to have a cop of a father who throws his whole life into his work and then dies because of it. I know your dad didn't die … not like mine did; not in the line of work shot down by a nineteen-year-old punk robbing a liquor store. But yours did leave you. He abandoned you just like mine did," she said.
For possibly the first time in many years, Jordan found herself speechless. This girl was like a reincarnation of her; her mother murdered, determined cop of a father, spending so much time and energy on chasing ghosts from the past.
"Maybe they don't. Maybe they do. But Carly …" Jordan hesitated, wondering how to draw the young girl into a web of trust in order to get the information they needed.
On the other side of the glass, Lu's blood boiled in jealousy. She wondered why she hadn't been able to connect with Carly on the same level that Jordan had within seconds of sitting down. She was a psychologist; she should have been able to see right through the girl's tough exterior to the hidden pain that lay deep within her veins. But she hadn't.
"We need to know who 'they' are. Don't you want justice for McKenna?" Jordan asked, pulling the guilt card.
"Of course I do. She was like a sister to me, always there was Natalie wasn't. But it's just …" she hesitated, unable to find the words which had lodged themselves in her throat. "I can't tell you what happened; I can't tell you who they are."
"Carly you can trust me. You can trust the detectives. We're here to help you."
"The last time someone told me that they pulled and gun and threatened to kill me," Carly said, her eyes still on Jordan.
"Carly …" she didn't know how to proceed. "You can't keep this to yourself. I know first hand what keeping things bottled up inside does to a person. You run out of time and when you finally burst, a lot of the time it's too late," she said, just trying to convince Carly but ending up talking about her relationship with Woody.
"There's a whole bunch of them," Carly said, taking her head out of her palm and leaning back in the hard chair.
"Whole bunch of who?" Jordan pried.
"People … men. They're a gang of guys, all having been in prison one time or another, most of them put away by notorious cops … like my dad. I guess they met there and promised each other that when they got out, they would get revenge. One of the guys that my dad put away; his son was the one the killed my dad. But now a whole group of them are out and they're terrorizing the families of the cops who put them away. About a month ago I got a call from one of them, saying that if I didn't come up with fifty thousand dollars within the hour he would kill someone close to me.
"I was stubborn and I refused. Twelve hours later my ex-boyfriend is dead, found face down on the bank of the St Charles River," she said, her eyes clouding over with grief.
"Nicholas Lorenzo?" Jordan asked, sitting up as well.
"Ya," Carly replied.
Jordan nodded her head. "It was my case," she explained. Woody's eyes narrowed behind the glass. It had been his case too … and they hadn't solved it.
"Anyways," Carly continued. "I didn't hear from them again until three days ago. They told me I had another chance to make things right and said that if I didn't pay them they'd kill someone else. But I'm still so damn stubborn and when Nick was killed I convinced myself it was just a considence and that they were empty threats. And now McKenna is dead," Carly said, hanging her head in grief.
Jordan hung her head as well, hundreds of similar cases running through her head. In a swift movement, Jordan wheeled around in her seat and turned to face the glass.
"Hey Woody," she said to her reflection. "They're back."
XXXXXXXXXXXOk now I PROMISE the next chapter will be from the preview. I wanted to explain a bit about who the people that hurt Jordan and Lu are gonna be. Carly' s gonna play a really big part in this story and she's gonna draw Woody and Jordan closer cuz they're so much alike. So there you have it.
Don't forget to review …
Megan!