Soulless
Chapter Six: One Way or Another
Rating: PG-13 (I think)
Word Count: 1,581
Disclaimer: I own Crossing Jordan. Um, right. That was a lie. I don't own anything. Except my own insanity. I can't even claim to own DVDs for Crossing Jordan.
Summary: A serial killer takes a twisted interest in a certain detective.
Pairing: Woody/Jordan
Author's Note: While my previous fics were more humorous than dramatic or suspenseful, this isn't. It's a pretty big divergence from the others. And my life is unbearably busy, so I won't be able to update as often as I have in the past.

Finally had some brainstorms tonight for this, so I took the best parts of the stuff I'd written for this chapter and put it together. Hope it came out okay. Oh, yeah, and I don't own the lyrics to the song Jordan quotes.

One Way or Another

Operation Jordan Watch was in full effect.

She knew they all thought she was on the verge of a breakdown. They were probably right. She stared at the clock, watching the minutes tick by, unable to see past the blinking double zeros of the imaginary countdown clock in her mind. The deadline had past. It was over. He was gone.

He had been gone for two days. Had been dead perhaps for three. They had jumped at every phone call, held their breath until every body was identified. One after another, the dead were brought back to the morgue. None of them were Woody.

Bug was on his way back in with another body. Someone had already called Lily. Lily had already told Jordan. It wasn't him. Again.

Jordan knew that she had received at least three messages from the killer. She knew that they had come, but she hadn't actually read them. She had seen Garret and the other arguing over them. Jordan was aware of more than they realized. She saw and heard everything, even if she didn't react.

Someone had tried to get her to eat once every four hours. She didn't, but that didn't stop them from trying. She would drink the water they left her long after it was warm, the coffee after it was cold. She couldn't taste anything, so it wasn't like it mattered to her.

She hadn't felt anything since Woody disappeared.

She wasn't sure she would ever feel anything again.

She'd never gotten over her mother's death. Of course, that was tangled up in the lies that everyone kept telling her, in her father, her brother, in Malden, in a quest for justice that would never be satisfied.

She would not let that happen again. She would not let Woody's killer go free. She knew that they could find this woman. They could, and they would.

She stood up and walked out of the conference room, past Nigel, who breathed, "Sweet Nancy, look who is back among the living."

"Jordan," Garret called, catching up to her. "Jordan, wait. Let Lily take you home."

Jordan shook her head. "No, Garret. I've played along with her game too long. I let her hold all the cards, and I let her win. No more. I won't sit around waiting, wondering."

"What do you mean, Jordan?"

"He's dead. She killed him," Jordan insisted. "And I will make her pay."

"We look like asses," Seely said, coming up behind Jordan as she made her way down the short hill, carefully trying to keep her balance and preserve the scene.

"Newsflash, Seely, you are an ass," she muttered as she rubbed her hands together, trying to ignore the chill of the early morning. It might only have been five in the morning, and she might have pulled a double, but she was glad to be out on a call for a change. She'd gotten nothing but hospital transfers and vehicular deaths for the past three weeks. If it could be related to the Bleeding Heart Killer, it went to someone else.

If Jordan was the one who found the Bleeding Heart Killer, she swore that they'd never find that woman's body. Not, of course, that it made up for the pain the bitch had caused everyone, but she would make Woody's killer pay.

"I mean it, Cavanaugh," Seely went on. "We don't need the FBI dicking with our case."

She shrugged. She wasn't happy with any of them. The APB, the media coverage, the taskforce, none of it had helped any, and everyone had shut her out of the case. "Two months. No leads. No arrests. Just twenty dead men, including one cop."

Seely looked at her. "There isn't a single person on the taskforce who hasn't busted his ass to find this bitch. And you know what, Cavanaugh? Every damn one of us wishes he was still here to do this."

She held up a hand. "I know, okay? Just don't expect me to be happy when Woody's killer is still free, and we can't do a damn thing about it."

"You really think the feds can get something that we can't?" Seely demanded.

Jordan sighed. She studied the overturned dirt and braced her nose. Whatever this was, it had been dead for a long time. "No. This case is nothing to the feds. It's everything to us. Woody was a friend to us—more than a friend to me—and that matters. He was doing everything he could to solve this case, working too hard, not sleeping or eating... That won't matter to anyone else. To them, he's just victim number sixteen. An unproven victim at that."

Seely cursed. "You think those assholes are going to say she didn't take him? That he just left because he couldn't hack it?"

"Not in front of a bunch of punchy, trigger happy cops like you and the taskforce, I hope," Jordan said, bending down next to the body. "What do we have?"

"Usual story. Early morning jogger with her dog. Dog uncovered... this."

Jordan looked over the body. A man, she'd judge him to be about fifty, allowing for decomposition, but what caught her eye was the object jutting out of his chest. A knife. Cheap. Comes in packs, available at any discount store. Impossible to trace. She pushed the thought aside. She might have a connection to the Bleeding Heart Killer, but she wouldn't say anything. She wanted this case, even more so if it was the killer.

"So...got anything for me?" Seely asked.

"Well, for starter's, unless he somehow grew a knife in the middle of his chest, our smelly friend here was murdered," she answered, getting back to her feet. "He's been here for a while, though. Decomposition is pretty far advanced."

"Great," Seely muttered. "Just what I need. Another murder. Like I'm not busting my ass on the taskforce, I've got seven other open cases and now this. You think you'll get anything from Mr. Stinky?"

More than you'd guess, Jordan thought. If this was the killer's victim, there was a reason why he had been dumped here. All the other victims had been returned to his family, all but this one and Woody. Why? Did the killer not want this body connected to her? Had she struck too close to home? Made a mistake?

"You know, I thought it would be bad working with you again, Cavanaugh," Seely said. "Figured you'd be a nutcase or something. But you seem to be holding up well."

"This?" Jordan snorted. "This is an act, Seely. I'm not okay. I can do my job, but I am not okay."

"They took it."

Jordan looked up from "Mr. Stinky" and over at Nigel, who had just burst into autopsy two like a madman. Then again, it was Nigel. She set down her scalpel. "They took what? And who are they?"

"They. Them," Nigel said, causing her to roll her eyes. She was supposed to be the conspiracy nut, after all. Still, Nigel gave her a run for her money. "The government. The feds. They took everything."

"So... The FBI has all the evidence in the Bleeding Heart murders?" Jordan finished. Almost all the evidence. She had already confirmed that the blade in her John Doe's chest was the same as the ones the killer used, but she hadn't mentioned it to anyone, and she was glad she hadn't, or this body and all its clues would be in the hands of some ignorant Federal prick.

"They do. Can you believe it?" Nigel asked. "I do all the work, and now they're second-guessing it."

"Have they gotten to the part where they start looking for Woody's hideout for the past twenty-five days?" Jordan asked with a false smile.

"Yes, they have, and no, they haven't found anything," Bug said as he came into the room. "Because we all know there's nothing to find."

"Woody didn't run. He was taken." Jordan was glad she'd already put down the scalpel. "Did those idiots even read the threats? The killer said she took him, and she wasn't giving him back."

"Yes, well, try telling that to the FBI," Bug muttered. "Those ignorant asses not only don't believe that Woody was taken by the killer, they don't believe we have a real suspect."

Jordan felt a smile tugging at her lips. She looked down. "I guess we just have to concentrate on the cases we do have."

"What do you mean?" Nigel asked suspiciously.

"Well, I need an analysis of this knife, for one thing," she said, feigning ignorance as she handed the bagged murder weapon to him.

"What is this?" Bug demanded. "Jordan, do you know what this is?"

"A knife that killed my John Doe?" she supplied. "What? Is there a reason why this knife means something to you two?"

"Hell, yes," Nigel said. He rushed out of the room, Bug on his heels. Jordan turned back to the body, humming.

"One way...or another... I'm gonna get you," she whispered, singing along, feeling optimistic for the first time since Woody disappeared. She lifted the heart out of the body and smiled as she saw the pacemaker.

So much for John Doe.