Chapter 33

Woody, on the other hand, did something he had never before done in his life. He poured himself a drink to help dull the pain he was feeling and then another when the first didn't do it's work.

The hangover he was suffering the next morning reminded him never again to laugh at what he had always thought of as an over exaggeration in the movies. His hair did hurt! The only thing he was truly glad about was that Jordan was in a very un-communicable mood that morning. They barely said two words to each other before both going their separate ways to work.

Jordan had a slow boring day at work which gave her all too much time to think. The fact that everyone else at the office seemed to be in happy moods only made it worse. She tried to avoid them as much as possible, but the only place to do that, was her office where she was faced with the pile of paperwork on her desk. That only served to make her mood worse than it was.

On the other hand, Woody's day was busier that he wanted, with the hangover nagging him. Mac was aware there was something wrong as soon as she saw him and it didn't take long at all to figure out what it was when he clutched his head as someone dragged a chair across the floor close to him.

She could remember having many mornings like that back in her drinking days. As they got down to business, she could only hope that this was a rare occasion for the Detective, not an on going problem.

They had just discovered the cab driver they wanted to talk to, had retired to a small suburb just north of town when Woody was called out to a new homicide. Mac was about to say she would go with him so they could head north as soon as he was done, when Woody handed her his car keys and said, "I can get a ride out to the scene. Take my car and go talk to Mr. Rollins. There are maps in the glove compartment if you need them. We can meet at Max's for lunch, I'm sure he would love an update on what we have so far."

Mac nodded her agreement and they went their separate ways. She saw the flowers for Maggie's grave on the passenger seat of Woody's car and wondered if she should take them to the cemetery when she was done or wait for Woody to be with her for that. Pulling up in front of Rollins' house she saw a man kneeling at a flower bed in the front yard.

"Mr. Rollins, I am Colonel Sarah Mackenzie and I am looking into the murder of Marine Captain Kellson Manors. I was wondering if you could spare a few minutes to talk to me?"

"I never mind talking to a pretty lady as long as my wife doesn't find out about it, but I don't know anything about a murdered Marine."

"I guess I should have been a bit more clear," Mac said with a smile. "The murder happened thirty six years ago. There was a shooting and kidnapping outside the airport and you reported that a Marine got into your cab asking you to follow the car the kidnapped child was in. The next day there was a body found in an alley that we managed to identify as Captain Kellson Manors. We believe that he may have been the Marine you had in your cab the day before. Do you think you could identify him from a picture?"

Slowly rising to his feet from his kneeling position, Rollins wiped his dirty hands on the back of his pants. "You don't forget something like that, young lady. Cab driving can be interesting at times, but I doubt if one in a thousand drivers ever get asked to follow a killer. Your Captain was just under six feet tall, with sandy brown hair, in the proper military cut of course. Wasn't really close enough to see eye color, but he had a small curved scar over his right eye and he was in uniform."

"Well this picture I have doesn't show a scar, but he could have gotten that in Viet Nam," Mac said as she handed the service picture to Rollins.

He took one look at it and started nodding, "That's him. Your Marine is the one that got into my cab that day. So he was killed then?"

To be continued…