The living room had been restored to its original state. Mr. Donald O'Neil sat in his livingroom on the overstuffed sofa. The balding man sat with his hands folded in front of him, his shoulders hunched over. He started dejectedly at the floor rug in front of him as if looking at the pattern would make everything fade away. Jordan watched him for a bit. She wanted to tell him that they were making great progress and that they had the man who murdered his wife behind bars. Instead all she could do was watch him.
"Mr. O'Neil" Woody began, "thank you again for seeing us once more."
"Don is fine" he said hoarsely. "Or Donny. Lorna liked to call me that." He still hadn't looked at Jordan or Woody. "You know she was always so sweet and kind. I used to say that wherever she went never met a stranger because she made friends so easily. I don't know how anyone could . . . " Donald shoulders began to shake for a moment before he took a deep breath. It was then that he raised his blue eyes to the pair sitting across from him. "Tell me what I can do. Tell me how I can help."
Woody nodded to Jordan. "Donald, er Don, we may have found something, but we need to ask you a few things. Was your wife trying to find a lost relative or searching her family roots?" She asked slowly.
Donald looked at her for a moment with a puzzled look on his face. "Yes, it was her hobby. Something to keep her busy. She wanted to have something to give to our children someday. Both our son and daughter are fighting overseas. I think it was a way for her to try to stay closer to them, if that makes any sense."
"Mr. O'Neil," Woody began leaning forward a bit in his chair, "did your wife use a genealogy service or a family search service of any kind?"
Donald nodded his head. "Yeah, lately she ran into a snag of some kind and she thought that maybe a professional would be able to help her or point in her in the right direction. She didn't really tell me much about it unless she found something that she thought was really important." His lips broke into a small, lopped sided smile. "She always thought that it bothered me when she told me about every little detail, so she usually tried not to talk about it all the time with me. But I loved to see the way her eyes lit up when she would talk about it"
"Do you know the name of the service that she was using?" Jordan asked slowly. Donald's smile disappeared and he shook his head. "I don't think I do. She just started working with them a few weeks ago."
Jordan pulled the list out of her bag and handed it to Donald. "Do any of these names look familiar to you?" Donald's hands took as he took the paper from Jordan's hand. She couldn't help but notice how defeated he looked. Yet he seemed to have a determined look in his eyes.
Donald's eyes traveled slowly over the short list before he fell onto one that looked familiar to him. He took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. "I think this one is it." He pointed his finger at a name on the list and looked at Woody and Jordan. "A. K. Connections. That's the name of the service that she was using." He handed the paper back to Jordan.
"What exactly did the service do for your wife Mr. O'Neil?" Woody asked slowly taking his note pad out of his suit pocket.
"Well," Donald thought for a moment before speaking. "Like I said, she didn't tell me much. But I guess that they would gather information for her or find more documents or something. I don't really know." He ran his hand over his scalp slowly as he shook his head. "I wish I had asked her more. Maybe I could help you more. Forgive me for asking, but how does this service . . . I mean, how does this help find the person that did this to my wife?"
"We think that your wife may be connected to another woman who was murdered the same day." Woody explained. "We are trying to find anything that we can to catch the man who did this." Donald nodded his head.
It was at this moment that both Jordan's phone and Woody's pager went off. They both looked at each other and then to Donald.
"I know. You need to go." He said looking at them. He stood up and walked with them silently to the door pausing only as they stepped out side. "Just catch him." He then shut the door behind them.
"Jordan, don't you ever answer your phone?" Garret's voice rang in Jordan's ear moments after she called the morgue.
"Sorry Garret, we were speaking with Mr. O'Neil." Jordan said climbing into her SUV. Woody was already checking his pager for the number as he climbed into the passenger seat.
"We? I would assume that means that Woody is with you?" Jordan glanced over to the detective who was busy making a call on his phone. She guessed that it was to check in with Eddie at the precinct.
"Yeah, he's right here." She could almost hear Garret shaking his head at her and pinching the bridge of his nose on the other end of the line.
"Good, then you can both go down to South Proctor Street the 520 block. There was another body found at and apartment complex there. Dispatch said that it was called in by . . . "
"Let me guess" Jordan sighed. "An anonymous caller?"
"You guessed it." Garret answered. "Look. Jordan we have to find this guy soon. So be thorough on this one okay. We need everything we can get." The line went dead. She shoved her phone into her pocket and watched Woody write an address on his ever-present note pad.
"Yeah, we're on the way . . . that's what I said Eddie." He closed his phone and laid his head back. "Here we go again."
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The afternoon sun shined down on the back of Jordan as she leaned over the most recent victim. She gazed over the body of the woman, looking for anything new that could help. She grew frustrated as she realized that just like the previous two murders, this woman had been killed within the last two or three hours. She had been strangled as well, likely with the same type of rope. And as before there was an ominous note resting in her hand with her ID. She stood up to survey the scene. Police officers had taped off the area and the usual gawking crowd had amassed. Woody stood talking with a young blond. The girl was struggling to talk through her tears. Woody placed a hand on the girl's shoulder and she nodded and wiped away a few strands of hair from her red face.
Jordan's shoulders sank as she turned back to the young woman's body. The grass had already turned brown in the October weather. As she looked around, she noticed marks on the ground nearby.
"Drag marks" she murmured. She signaled for the nearest officer. "Get some pictures of these will ya." She stepped out of the way as the officer called for the photographer. The first victim didn't have drag marks near her.
"I just spoke with Bridget Hogan, the victim's granddaughter. She said that they usually have coffee together after she is done with work and that she arrived at her grandmother's apartment to find it empty. She said that she found her grandmother when she was coming out to her car." Woody looked at Jordan as she carefully studied the scene. Her honey eyes searching the ground.
"What was her name again? And what did the note say?" She looked at Woody's pad as he read off of it.
"Miriam Hogan. The note said 'She was bitter." He glanced back at the crowd that ad built up behind them. "I'm going to talk with her more at the station if you want to come with me."
Jordan shook her head. "I'm going to go find out what out Mrs. Hogan can tell us." She looked at the ground again, surveying the marks. "Woody, is it possible that the killer dumped the body here after Bridget went into the apartment building? That would certainly explain why she didn't see her until after she came out."
"Sure" he said nodding. "But it would have to be pretty hard to do. It's broad daylight. He could have been easily spotted. It was sheer luck that he did it after Bridget went in to check on her.
"Unless the killer knew Miriam's schedule." Jordan said looking at Woody then at Miriam's body on the ground. "Look, there's drag marks. She was laid out perfectly just like the other two. But the first victim was small and she could have easily been carried. Mariam here was larger and he was in a hurry so it was easier to drag her here. Not only that, but there are only a few defensive marks. She knew the person who killed her." She looked back at Woody. His eye were focused near the ground, deep in thought.
"Back that up agin. Why didn't we find any drag marks near Paula Andreas?"
"Because she must have been carried." Jordan answered trying to follow his train of thought.
"And why was she carried?" He said looking her in the eyes.
"She was smaller and..." Her voice trailed off. "She was small. That's what the note said. And Lorna O'Neil was alone when she was killed, just like the note said." She looked down at the woman in front of her. "But this doesn't make sense. How does that connect the women?"
"I don't know." Woody looked back at Bridget once more. "But maybe I can find out."