Chapter 7

Jordan didn't know what to expect when Woody pulled onto an older residential street along the lake front. She'd always just pictured him living in that two room walk up near the nineteenth precinct in Boston.

If he could read her thoughts Woody said, "You can buy a house here for less then I paid in rent for my old place in Boston..."

Her heart broke a little at the word buy. It meant he was home here in the middle of Southern Georgia.

He smiled proudly when they pulled up to a tiny brick front and cinder block bungalow. It was further dwarfed by the humongous live oaks towering over top of the dirt pack yard. The faded green door was flanked by two windows with old white aluminum awnings.

"It kind of reminds me of a bomb shelter," Woody said looking out the windshield at his little house.

Jordan couldn't deny that observation. The little house had about as much charm as a shoebox. "It's ...cute."

"Wait until you see the back."

Woody hopped out of the vehicle and up to the front door. Jordan hung back a few steps still trying to come to grips with Woody actually settling down. Maybe it for the best...

...maybe she was a little jealous. Not of another woman...but that he seemed to have found some kind of contentment in his life. "Roots" for lack of a better word. Something that he was apparently lacking in his life in Boston.

"Let me...double check." Woody half expected to find a big pile of dog poop in front the door like he did the night before.

"I haven't left Alice alone this much before...I'll put her out back... She's a little hyper."

"Hyper? Why doesn't that surprise me?"

Jordan heard of few excited yelps and the scramble of toenails scraping on hardwood floors before they disappeared.

She peeked her head in the door. The house was just as simple inside as it was outside. In just one look she could see the house was like the many old daisy chain houses in Boston...just smaller.

A small living room opened up into a wide kitchen with two bedrooms off to the left with a Jack and Jill bath between She'd seen houses like this. There were doors in each room that opened into next and if all opened it would make a big loop circling the inside of the house. She could only assume they were designed like that to keep the place cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.

She called out Woody's name.

"I'm sorry Jordan. We're out here!" Woody said leaning in the back doorway. Jordan walked around an old chrome and formica kitchen table to the back door. Woody was standing just outside smiling at an orange and white speckle dog rounding circles in the yard.

"That must be Ally," Jordan smiled.

"Yep," Woody nodded. He held open the door for Jordan to step outside. She noticed the back yard was as grassless as the front. Keeping with the theme of the house there was a cement patio with a small brick fireplace. All in all, Woody was right...his house could serve pretty well in case of a bomb.

...but Jordan completely understood why Woody bought it when she looked out and saw the softly ripping waves of the lake just twenty feet away.

"You like it?" Woody asked expectantly. Jordan is the first visitor he's had to his house and he was nervous on how some like her would react.

"Wow..." she said taking a step out.

Woody pointed down a newly repaired deck and to the outboard motorboat tied next to it.

"I just got that last week. I haven't had a chance to use it yet..."

Jordan wasn't looking at the boat. She was busy studying his profile as she had found herself doing quite a few times during the day. This man standing next to her wasn't the "Woody" she met in that bank all those years ago. He was gone. But this "Woody" wasn't the burnt out emancipated cop she knew in Boston either. A lakefront cottage, a few healthy pounds, a less stressful job...a dog. This Woody was living on some different plain...

...and she didn't know him from Adam.

There was a "quack" from the water and Woody let out a panicked groan. "Oh no."

Jordan looked down at the dock just in time to see two duck land in the water next to the boat.

"Alice...don't..."

Before he could stop her Alice was flying down the dock at full speed, sprinting off the short boat dock and into the lake.

"I just gave her a bath..." he mumbled.

Jordan felt her mood lighten watching the barking dog circling around in the water chasing a pair of ducks that didn't seem to think she was any threat.

"I never pictured you as a dog lover..."

"I'm not," Woody said offering her the lone chaise on the patio. Jordan sat down and listened as Woody disappeared into the kitchen to grab a chair from the table.

"Alice just kind of happened. On my first week on the job, I drew the short straw and was sent to help the ASACP shut down a puppy mill over on the eastside of the county."

He tossed a pile of charcoal in the pit and dowsed it with lighter fluid.

"Alice was in a litter of newborn Brittney pups. Most of the animals eventually had to be put down. Alice was iffy. I don't know. The next thing I know I'm volunteering to foster her until she was old enough to be adopted. My uncle had a pair for quail hunting when I was growing up. They were alright...for dogs."

He lit a match on the side of the house and tossed in the fireplace.

"She went everywhere with me that first few weeks and before I knew it ...it just never came time to take her back to the pound. She's good company."

He gave her a little shrug and smile like he was embarrassed by saying he had bonded with this dog. Those first few weeks here in Derry were tough. He was lonely and hurt, but most of all he was afraid he'd lost touch with his human side. Like the Alice before her, the little puppy had landed into his life like she fell through the same rabbit hole he had.

She was there, with an abundance of unconditional love, when he was ready to start healing.

Alice gave up the hunt when her quarry swam out of range. She came bounding up the yard and stopped short when Woody warned her not to jump. She dropped a muddy tennis ball at the side of Jordan's chair. Jordan looked at it like it was toxic waste, but when the dog gave her playful yap Jordan gingerly lobbed it off the patio and into the yard.

Unimpressed with the wimpy throw, Alice retrieved the ball and shifted gears. She trotted a wide berth around Jordan and dropped the ball at Woody's feet, her whole body stiff with anticipation.

Jordan could almost hear the soggy dog's thoughts: 'Throwthebal...pleasssse...throwthe ball...'

Woody hurled the ball toward the water. It landed in a loud ker-plunk just left of the boat.

"That should keep her busy for awhile," Woody smiled as Alice took a second flying leap of the end of the dock. He looked at the grime on his fingers and said, "Can I get you a beer?"

Jordan nodded and he disappeared in the house. She leaned back in the chair listening to him moving around the kitchen. She leaned back in the chair catching a small breeze from the lake watching to the dog playing down by the water.

She thought about Kayla and their time together. It was a stretch to compare an abused puppy to a traumatized girl, but Jordan couldn't help herself.

Kayla was happy with her mother. They'd developed a loving relationship that left Jordan feeling more and more like an outsider everyday. They still spent time together but not like they used to. Woody's turn at a "foster parenting" gave him a companion that was clearly as happy and .

Woody let out a sharp whistle from the doorway and Alice came running up the yard tripping over her feet in efforts to answer his call.

Once again, the little dog stopped at the edge of the patio dripping, wet waiting almost patiently for someone to acknowledge her. Jordan instinctively knew if she even twitched she'd be a doggy towel.

Woody came out juggling a couple of longnecks, a dog bowl and a platter of steaks. Jordan reached out and liberated the beer from his hands. If anything was going to fall she didn't want it to be the cold beer. She's needed a drink since Garret talked her into this trip.

"Please tell me the meat is ours..." she smiled.

"Unless you'd rather," Woody teased holding out the bowl of kibble.

Alice let out a pathetic yap trying to remind everyone she was sitting there as nicely as she could. Her impatience caught up with her master's distraction and she started performing every trick in her arsenal. Jordan had to laugh at her antics.

"I bet she keeps you entertained."

"Aggravated is more like it," Woody smiled, his tone telling a different story. He set the bowl down just off the patio and took his beer from Jordan's outstretched hand. Alice made short order of her chow and found a dappled patch of sunlight to lay down on and digest.

As the streaks broiled over the charcoal, the conversation ranged from the status of the case to what Jordan was working on in Boston.

But soon, they both found themselves picking at their food while Jordan caught Woody up on the gossip that his occasional talks with Garret left out. They were consciously dancing around the subject they both needed to get out in the open. Jordan was the first to break the ice.

"What happened?"

Woody shifted in his seat looking to the world like someone just told him that Christmas was going to be postponed this year. "What? Is there something wrong with the steak?"

"No, it was delicious. The best steak I've had in ages." Jordan said pushing her own mangled steak away. "We needed to talk about what happened a year ago..."

Woody had the good grace to look embarrassed. He picked the plates up off the table and set them in the sink before he spoke.

"I was what 'happened' Jordan. I lost my temper..."

"I'm not talking about that. Why did you leave when I needed you?"