The sun had already begun to fade in the skyline as Jordan pulled up to the curb in front of the precinct. She watched as Woody stood at a nearby coffee vender. He handed the man behind the stand a couple bills and took two cups from the counter. As he approached, she reached across the seat and with her outstretched hand opened the door.
"Jordan do you really think this is such a good idea?" Woody said handing Jordan a fresh coffee as he climbed into her passenger seat. She took one of the cups from his hand as she pulled into traffic.
"Coffee is always a good idea" she smiled then swiftly taking in a quick gulp of the hot liquid before making a right turn in traffic.
He shook his head. He didn't know why he even bothered to try to talk her out of going with him, much less argue about who would be doing the driving. He looked at her out of the corner of his blue eyes. Next time he would know better.
"Tell me Jordan, exactly what did you plan on saying when you get there? 'Hi there, can you tell me why all of your clients are dropping dead?' This is a police investigation. I do the talking. I am only letting you come along as a courtesy." He waved his finger toward her.
"Courtesy?" Jordan said raising her eyebrows. "Oh come on Woody. Nigel was the one who found this family search thing and . . . "
"And I am grateful for that but this is still a murder investigation." He said sternly.
"An investigation that I am still a part of." Jordan shot back.
Woody shook his head yet again. "You do this every time Jordan. You take too much interest in a case and you get me into trouble. Do you really think that I will just let you do it again?"
"How else can we fight and make up afterwards?" She said with a crooked smile. "So what do we have on this Connections place?" She asked making another turn onto a side street.
"Looks like it started up about five years ago by Alexis Kelly. It started out pretty small, but she has built a bit a name for herself. The business was featured in a couple of local papers last year. Other than that there isn't much. The building is just up there." He pointed toward the end of the street. "Remember Jordan, I take the lead on this."
She brought the SUV to a stop in front of a small brick building. "Whatever you say detective."
"I mean it Jordan. Let me do this without any of your help. You are just here to observe." He shut the door and stepped onto the curb.
"Like that will happen." Jordan said under her breath. She looked up at the two story building. In the fading daylight the old red bricks with delicate ivy crawling up the sides seemed to have an old charm to it. It looked more like a family home and would have been mistaken for one had it not been for the small wooden sign that hung over the door with the name "A. K. Connections" scrawled across it.
"Are you waiting for an invitation?" Woody called. Jordan walked past Woody and went inside. Woody sighed and followed suit.
Stepping inside Jordan looked around. The entry way opened into a foyer area with a large set of stairs. Just to the right of the stairs sat a white-haired woman at a desk talking on the phone. She looked up from her desk and waived them in. "I'll be right with you both." she said and turned her attention back to the phone.
Woody stepped from behind her and looked around the room. Across from the foyer was a large waiting room with plush furniture and a fireplace. Jordan watched as Woody walked through the entryway and around the room as if he was expecting some clues to jump out at him. He stepped over to a fireplace that held a warm glowing fire. On the mantel was a series of pictures. He noticed the pictures were mostly family portraits, some candid poses. After examining them he turned over to a coffee table that had a series of informational and promotional pamphlets.
"Take a look at this." He said picking one off of the table and reading it out loud. "Our many services include and are not limited to complete family history, coat of arms and crest information as well as long lost people searches. We also offer classes and seminars for first time genealogists and assistance for those who prefer a do-it-yourself approach."
"Is there anything that I can help you with today?"
Jordan turned to see the woman from the desk standing behind her with an expectant smile. Woody looked at Jordan with a warning, but Jordan ignored him and plowed ahead.
"As a matter of fact you can. I'm Dr. Cavanaugh and this is Detective Hoyt. We are here to see Alexis Kelly." Jordan smiled politely.
The woman studied her for a moment. "Ms. Kelly just had her last appointment for the day. We she expecting you?"
"Yes, she just told us that we could stop in at the end of the day." Jordan fibbed. "She said that she that should could fit us in." The woman looked at her for a moment before her face softened.
"She had mentioned that she was helping a detective friend with a missing person case. Well, she is on the phone with a client, but she should be nearly done." She lead them back to the foyer and pointed up the staircase. " I'll let her know that you are here. Just go on up. It's the last door on the right."
They climbed the stairs and continued down a short hallway. On either side of the hall there was a set of doors each with its own plaque with a name engraved on it.
"Guess there is a lot of money in this stuff " Jordan whispered over her shoulder to Woody. "Here it is. Last door on the right."
She peered in and slowly they stepped into the room. It looked like a typical office, with bookshelves and filing cabinets lining the back and side walls. A thin woman dressed in a tailored grey suit with her hair pulled into a neat twist stood behind a large desk. Her back to them and she was holding a file and was flipping through it.
"Yes, Mrs. Phelps, I have everything all set. I will be sending it out tomorrow and you should receive everything within the week. Remember to call me if you have any further questions." She pushed a button on the phone and turned around, her head still down in the file.
"Ms. Kelly," Woody said pulling out his badge. "This is Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh of the Medical Examiner's Office and I'm Detective..."
"Come on Woody, I know who you are." She smiled and raised her green eyes to look at the pair. "I heard you had come to Boston, but I never really got around to looking you up."
Jordan looked over at Woody. She saw the confusion play across his face. She looked suspiciously at Alexis Kelly. She had set down the file and had come from around her desk approaching them with a warm smile.
"Gosh, it has to have been, what, about seven years. How's Cal?" she asked.
"Uh, he's good." Woody said slowly. "I'm ...I'm sorry, have we met before?"
Alexis raised an eyebrow and grinned. "C'mon Woody. Don'tcha know a fellow cheese head, eh?" she said in a mock Wisconsin accent.
Woody studied her for a moment before his face lit up. He stepped up to her and engulfed her with him arms. "Alexis Wilichowski. Wow, you look so ..."
"Old?" She laughed lightly. "Yeah, a couple of years will do that to you. So how have you been?" She asked as she broke away.
"I've been good." He turned to Jordan. "Alexis and her older brother, Alan, went to school with Cal and me. We all grew up together." He turned back to Alexis. "Why didn't you call? I didn't know that you were here. Hey, I didn't know that you had even gotten married."
"I was going to college here in Boston when I met Colin. After Mom died I moved to Boston permanently. It just seemed right since I didn't really have any other family there. " she explained.
"What about Alan?" Woody asked. Alexis just shook her head.
"Alan decided to move to Milwaukee. He had a position in a law firm there."
"Are you two quite done playing reunion?" Jordan interrupted. Alexis looked over to Jordan as if seeing her for the first time.
"I'm sorry. You're absolutely right. Sit down." She said going into business mode and pointing to the chairs in front of the desk. "Please tell me what brings you here."
"We are investigating a series of murders. All of the victims were clients of yours." Jordan said carefully studying Alexis.
Alexis nodded. "I heard about Miss Andreas and Mrs. O'Neil. I know that they had been assigned to one of my assistants. I wondered if it had meant anything."
"Alexis," Woody leaned forward in his chair. "There has been another victim that was a client. Do you remember a Miriam Hogan?"
She thought carefully for a moment. "I don't remember the name." She said shaking her head. "Let me check something." She turned to her computer and started clicking at the keyboard. "I have all of my assistant's computers hooked up to a main database. That way I can have access to all the information that comes and goes in the office. If she was a client here I will have her complete account history. It might take a minute."
She continued typing for a minute until she found what she was looking for. "Well, I can tell you that she was a client here. But you won't like what I have to say, Woody." She looked over at them. "This is a business that deals with a lot of personal information. So we sign a confidentiality agreement with all of our clients. I can give you all the information you want on Miriam's account and the others, but not without breaking those agreements. And that would put me in a lot of hot water. If I can get permission from the families or if you can get a warrant, I can get all the information for you. I could get copies of the files for you too."
"Is that so you can write new files and cover up things you don't want seen?" Jordan asked narrowing her eyes at the woman.
The woman shook her head. "Dr. Cavanaugh, was it? Look, Woody can tell you that I'm not like that. I believe on finding the truth in everything. And I want to do everything I can to help, but I need to be sure that it is all done by following the rules." She leaned forward on the desk. "Look at it this way. If I was looking for your family, would you want anyone to be able to come in off of the street and know your personal information? I do this for their protection. I'm not hiding anything."
"If we can get permission from the families yet tonight, would you be willing to over them with us later this evening? Colin wouldn't mind you staying out late, would he?" Woody asked.
Alexis' smile faltered a bit. "I highly doubt it. Colin died a few years ago."
"Oh, I'm sorry." Woody said quietly. Alexis only nodded.
"It's okay, Woody, It's not like I kept in touch. Anyway," she said taking a deep breath, "We should call the families and see what we can do. If you give about an hour to contact the necessary individuals I can pull everything together and we can meet to go over everything."
Jordan pulled a post-it and a pen from the holder on the desk and scrawled and address on it. She stood up and handed it to her. "Once you have the files meet us here. It's easy enough to find."
"Great," Alexis stood up and held out her hand to Jordan. "I'll see you in about an hour." Jordan just looked down at the outstretched hand.
"Yeah," she said as she nodded and walked out of the office.
"Uh, thanks Alexis. I'll see you later." Woody said backing out of the office as Alexis sat down and picked up the phone.
"'Let me take the lead.'. Seems to me like you let her lead you." Jordan said slamming the SUV door shut and staring the vehicle.
"First of all Jordan, did you really have to be so rude? Alexis is an old friend from home. She just surprised me. And secondly..."
"An old friend that you didn't even recognize." Jordan shot at him. Woody took a deep breath.
"Secondly, she offered to help. She may have information that could catch this guy." Woody said.
"Do you always hug all of you old friends like that?" Jordan asked accusingly.
"Like what? I haven't seen her in a long time. Besides we were always real close." Woody shot back. "Look, she is going to help us on this investigation. She has information that will be useful, so try to be a little nicer to her tonight okay?" He crossed his arms and watched the buildings pass as he gazed out the window. Jordan just stared straight ahead as they drove back in silence.