Chapter 5
It had been an eventful day. Jordan wasn't sure she had processed everything that happened yet.
"So she just jumped?" Woody asked.
"Yeah, I tried to stop her, but she jumped. She said she was already dead. Someone was forcing her."
"I'm sure you'll get to the bottom of it. " Was his dismissive reply. Jordan was surprised he didn't ask more questions, but she didn't feel like getting into it. She definitely didn't want to mention that the girl worked at the Montecito or that she had called Danny McCoy.
"How was work?" She asked.
"Fine." He replied too quickly. Woody had wanted so much to get back to work, but the realities of desk duty were not what he had been expecting.
Anyone who was part of the Riggs task force seemed to tiptoe around him. And while there was a large show of support, there were still people that tried not to stare at him as he moved around the precinct. He sat at a desk all day, but he was exhausted.
They finished dinner in silence. Neither of them wanted to discuss the details of their day.
Later that night Woody and Jordan were fast asleep when there was a knock at the door.
"Who in the hell?" Woody muttered sleepily.
Jordan huffed and got out of bed. She looked through the peep hole to see Danny McCoy. She leaned against the door and let out a breath before opening it. This was not good.
"One phone call and you just hop on a plane?"Jordan tried to play off her surprise.
"Nice jammies." Danny said with a slight chuckle.
"Yeah, ducks, thanks."
"I would have pegged you for the extra large t-shirt type."
"Nope, ducks. Quack."
"It's very nice. Not what I expected, but nice."
"You didn't just come all this way to check out my ducks." She tried to reroute the conversation back to why he was here, and hopefully he was here for the case.
"No."
Just then Woody made his way out of the bedroom. Jordan closed her eyes briefly, wishing this was not happening.
"Woody!" Danny said surprised.
"Danny." Woody answered flatly, the irritation clear in his voice.
"So that photo you emailed me of Bram Rittenour." Danny said.
"Don't tell me, he's not really a mild mad carpet salesman from Buffalo?" Jordan asked.
"Our facial recognition software matched the photo to this. Video surveillance footage of Bram Rittenour, or whoever he really is meeting with Jimmy Ning 10 days ago at the Jacaranda. " Danny explained as he showed them the video.
"Who's Jimmy Ning?" Woody asked.
"The worst bad guy in Vegas. As a sideline he's been known to finance some pretty spectacular heists usually involving gems or fine art." Danny responded.
"So Rittenour meets with Ning and a week and half later he's dead in Boston." Jordan chimed in.
Which leads us to Bridget Sparks, a Montecito showgirl. One night she stole forty grand from Ning's house and then she was gone. We thought she was buried in the desert somewhere just like everyone else in that crosses Ning." Danny said.
"But she runs off to Boston." Jordan offers.
"Where Ning finds her and makes her a deal.
Set a corpse on fire to hide evidence of a murder." Woody adds.
"Yes." Danny confirms. "So all the roads lead to Ning. Ed Deline would like to assist in any way possible to get Ning out of Vegas and into a nice cozy correctional facility."
"Well, not my case, best of luck." Then Woody turned and made his way back to the bedroom. Danny looked at Jordan and she just shrugged.
Once Jordan saw Danny out, she went to the bedroom. Woody was already back in bed, facing away from her.
"Woody, please. I only called him because the showgirl was from the Montecito. I did not ask him to come here and I didn't think he'd just show up here in the middle of the night."
"Well, I'm sure Vegas Boy will insert himself into the case. It's late. I need to be well rested to sit at my desk." The dejection was clear in his voice.
"Woody…"
"I'm tired Jordan."
The next morning Nigel and Jordan were examining the body of the now John Doe.
"Was Danny McCoy of any help?" Nigel asked.
"Yeah, he stopped by last. He's pretty convinced this thing has roots in Vegas." Jordan replied quickly.
"Stopped by?" He asked
" Nige."
"How did Woodrow handle that?"
"He wasn't thrilled, okay? But I'm not interested in Danny. He knows that."
Nigel silently replied with a raised eyebrow
"Run this through the gas chromatograph, would you?"
Just then Danny came in with Seely, who'd been assigned to the case. After finding the airplane hanger, Seely said he was going to the precinct to work on some leads. Jordan went to her office before examining the bodies; Danny followed her.
"So, I'm sorry about last night. Woody seemed pretty unhappy to see me. I didn't realize you two were together. I hope I didn't cause a problem."
"It's a fairly new development. Things changed after he was shot." Jordan did not respond if his appearance had caused a problem.
"Yeah, I didn't want to ask, considering he wasn't thrilled about my visit. How's he doing?"
"He's making good progress. Not as fast as he'd like, but he is back at work on desk duty. He's anxious to get back to case work."
Danny really did feel bad. He had alternative motives for coming to Boston and specifically to Jordan's door late at night. Suddenly he had an idea to try to make things right, or at least better. He told Jordan he'd be back soon.
Woody looked up from his paperwork to see Danny McCoy standing in front of his desk.
"What are you doing here? Waking me up in the middle of the night wasn't enough?" Woody asked, looking back down at his paperwork.
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I thought…"
"Jordan would be alone." Woody said flatly.
"Listen, I didn't know and that's not why I'm here. I could use your help."
"Detective Seely is the detective assigned to the case."
"Yeah, Seely's not really a team player. I might have mentioned that to Ed and he contacted your captain."
"No."
"Looks like we're working together again." Danny said, offering Woody a smile.
"No."
"Woody."
"I don't need your pity." Woody spat.
"Woody, it's not pity. You're a good detective and I could use your help, okay? Even if you don't believe me, it is a chance to work on a case, you want to pass that up?" Danny offered
"Okay." Woody reluctantly agreed. As much as he didn't want to work with Danny McCoy, he desperately wanted to work on a case
Woody came into trace evidence behind Danny. Jordan tried to hide her surprise that the two men were together.
After examining the bodies, Jordan, Danny, Woody, Nigel and Bug tried to sort out the facts of the case in the conference room. As they fought over who should be on the board and the colors of markers, Jordan saw a spark in Woody's eyes. A spark she hadn't seen in months.
The next morning came early and abruptly with a phone call. The next shift of uniform officers showed up to discover the hanger had been cleared out. They went to the warehouse and Nigel made the connection to Ning's shell company.
Woody knew what his next would be, but that wasn't possible. He grabbed his phone walking away from the group gathered around Nigel's laptop. Once he was done with the call he came back over.
"What was that?" Jordan asked.
"I called Seely." She gave him a look.
" He's going to Vegas. He's going to try to nail Ning there. I told him to contact Sam when he gets there, hopefully she can help him with access and he can find some evidence." He gave her a sad smile.
"Woody…"
"I literally can't do the leg work on this. Seely will get the credit, we catch a bad guy. It's fine." He walked away. His crutches seem to make extra noise, almost emphasizing his point.
Once back at the morgue, Jordan went back to examining the bodies. With the hanger empty this was all the evidence they had to work with.
Woody was ignoring the pain in his back and the fatigue in his legs. He watched from across the room as Danny talked with Jordan. He walked out of the room and down to Jordan's office. He sat down at Jordan's desk. Just then his captain called for an update. After hanging up, he lingered in the chair. He needed a minute. He knew he was pushing himself too hard, but he needed to solve this case. He had to prove he could and he needed Danny McCoy to go back to Vegas.He realized he'd been gone too long; he needed to get back.
"Shit!" He uttered as he attempted to stand up. When he went to put his weight on the crutch his legs buckled and he fell, hitting his head on Jordan's desk on the way down.
"Damn it!" He yelled once he landed on the ground.
It was then that Nigel made it to Jordan's door.
"Woody, are you okay? What happened?"
"I fell." He replied without looking at Nigel.
Nigel moved towards him. He allowed Nigel to help him back into the office chair. He was too exhausted and embarrassed to put up a fight.
"Damn it." He said again as he touched the cut on his forehead.
"It doesn't look too deep. I'll get the first aid kit." Nigel rushed out.
Woody let out a frustrated breath. Nigel came back quickly.
"Where's Jordan?" Woody asked. He was surprised Jordan wasn't with him.
"She and Danny McCoy went to check out the summit. We found evidence that whatever is happening tonight is happening at Chancellor Square. That's why I was coming to find you."
"Of course they did." Woody said, rolling his eyes as he took an antibacterial wipe out of the first aid kit. He dabbed his forehead and was thankful there wasn't too much blood.
"You're not worried about him, are you?"
"He showed up at the apartment in the middle of the night looking to hook up with her. How do I even compete with that?" He asked as he opened a bandage and covered the offending cut.
She's not interested in him." Nigel stated simply.
"She was interested the last time he showed up."
"A lot has changed since then, don't you think?"
"Yeah." Woody said nodding to the crutches still laying on the floor
"I don't mean that, not at all. I mean Jordan."
"I wanted to get back to work so bad, and now that I am, I just don't know. It feels so different, like I don't belong. Then Danny McCoy just shows up. I can't lose her Nigel, not now. "
"Woody, she loves you." Nigel replied seriously.
"Thanks." He trailed off.
There was a beat of silence between the men. Woody thought Nigel was so weird when they'd first met, but somewhere along the way Nigel had become a real friend. He was very grateful for that right now.
"Why don't we see how the facial reconstruction is going, shall we?" Nigel asked handing Woody his crutches.
Woody nodded.
"Geez, it's still going?" Woody commented as they walked into the trace evidence room and over to the desk where the case file was open. He started reading over some of the contents.
"It all hinges on this guy. Who he really is."
"Yep. Jordan ran a test on the one vic's hair. We figured out he worked at a dry cleaner at Chancellor Square. The blueprints of the basement match what was in the hanger. '' Nigel added getting Woody up to speed.
"Right, they had it timed out. Can you pull up a list of events tonight?" Woody asked.
"Coming right up." Nigel said as he effortlessly clicked the keys of the computer. Woody started looking over the list of events.
"The Ambassador of China is giving a speech tonight. He's been working to get Ning extradited. After the speech he's attending a dinner at Ipolita's at 8 pm. We've been assuming this is a heist. What if it's not? " Woody asked.
Just then the computer working on the reconstruction signaled it had results.
"Jukka Johannsen." Nigel said aloud and immediately started typing.
"Woody, he's a hitman. "
"Call Jordan. I need to call the BPD and FBI.
Nigel nodded and grabbed his phone, putting it on speaker.
"Jordan! John Doe is Jukka Johannsen. He's the highest paid hitman in the business. He is a legend of the trade."
" You're telling me that Ning hired a hit man?"
"This isn't a heist, it's a hit. The Ambassador of China specifically "
"The ambassador is the target, Danny. We need to notify someone."
"If we tap some secret service agent on the shoulder, and say assassination we'll be hauled into questioning for two days. '' Danny replied
Woody was still on the phone with the FBI when he overheard Nigel giving Jordan details of how they were moving the ambassador and directions to Ipolita's kitchen.
"No, no. Jordan, wait! I've got people on the way."
"There's no time, we need to get inside now." Was Danny's muffled reply to Jordan from the other end of the phone. Then the phone disconnected.
"Jordan!" Woody yelled.
Woody looked at Nigel. Nigel grabbed his keys and the two men headed for the elevator.
Woody scanned the crowd. He saw Danny first.
"Woody." Danny greeted him.
"Where is she, Danny?"
"She's okay. She's just finishing giving her statement in the conference room over there." He tried to reassure him.
"Do me a favor Danny and go back to Vegas."
"Woody, I'm sorry." He really was.
Woody found Jordan sitting in a chair. He automatically noticed the white bandage on her arm. A result of the attempted assassin's bullet flying wildly when Jordan stopped him with a pizza peel.The FBI agent taking her statement stood up and moved past Woody.
For a minute Woody just stared at her.
"Woody…I'm okay, it's just a graze."
"Jordan, why didn't you listen? Why didn't you wait?"
"There was no time, we had to do something."
"We? Him, Jordan? You went off to play cops and robbers."
"You never had a problem with it before." She challenged.
"Because I was always there to protect you!" He yelled then looked away. "You don't realize how useless I feel, Jordan." He nearly whispered.
Jordan got up and crossed the small distance between them. Jordan looked at him, really looked. She saw the dark circles, the pain lines on his face and the hurt in his eyes. Looking at him now, she knew she messed up.
"I'm sorry, Woody."
"The only reason I'm standing right now is pure adrenaline. I fell earlier because this is too much. I don't know if I'll ever be who I was before, capable of what I could do before. Damn it, this is why…" he trailed off.
"You wanted to push me away." Jordan finished.
"Partly."
"Why else?" She asked genuinely.
"You deserve better." He looked down.
Jordan laughed and Woody's head shot up.
"You're wrong. We both have our issues.
We both have to decide we deserve each other, and that we're not doing the other a disservice by loving them. I love you, Woody. I want you, no one else." She gingerly touched the bandage on his forehead.
"You scared me, Jo. I heard someone was shot, that's all I knew."
She tenderly cupped the side of his face, he couldn't help but lean into her touch.
"I got caught up in this case. I wish I could say that I won't do anything like this again, but you know me. It didn't really matter before, what danger I put myself in. I realize things are different now. I love you and I will try to stay out of trouble."
"I love you. I don't know what I would do if something happened to you. You know that, right?" This time leaning in and resting his forehead on hers
"It's a new concept for me, but I'm beginning to." She whispered.
Danny watched from just outside the conference room. They really did love each other. Jordan had changed a lot since last year. Woody was a lucky guy.
A few days later Woody had a new email. Danny assured him that there would be no more impromptu visits to Boston and that the next time they wanted to visit the Montecito (perhaps for a honeymoon) their stay would be comped.