Chapter 11
The sun was beginning to rise as Jordan laid her head on Woody's bare chest and let out a sigh. Woody kissed the top of her head and ran his hand up and down her back.
"You know we were supposed to go running this morning." She said, trying to sound annoyed.
"We still got exercise, Jo." He said as he kissed her.
"Uh huh." She said, rolling her eyes. She maneuvered out of his arms and went to the kitchen. She came back a few minutes later with two cups of coffee. They sat together drinking their coffee until Woody's cell phone cut through the comfortable silence. Woody finished writing down the details and snapped his phone shut. They didn't know it yet, but it was the start of a very long few days.
The morning started off normal for Jordan, but that soon changed. Garrett called and told her to be ready to examine four bodies. There was a Mass Pike copycat killer on the loose. The day moved quickly after Woody and Jordan met with Ryan Kessler. Soon there were plans to take the serial killer out of prison so she could lead them to the rest of her dump sites and hopefully they catch the killer.
The next morning came too soon. Per Kessler's request, Jordan sat across the van from the serial killer. The only comfort was Woody sitting beside her.
"Do you mind? Some of us are trying
to breathe here." Woody asked with annoyance.
"It's been seven long years that I've waited for one of these.Going without something for so long, you'd think you'd lose your taste for it." Kessler said after savoring a drag of the cigarette between her fingers. She then offered Jordan one.
"Oh, no, I don't smoke." Jordan replied
"But you used to." There was certainty in her words.
"Nothing like cutting someone open and seeing the green tobacco stains on their lungs to help you kick the habit." Jordan quipped. Woody couldn't help but smirk.
"You two been together long?" This was the second time in as many days that she had inquired about their relationship.
"None of your business." Jordan replied matter of factly.
"Well, you'd make an attractive couple. But really why bother with commitment? Men are really only good for one thing, right?"
"Well, that and playing out your sadistic fantasies." Was Jordan's retort.
"You make me sound like some kind of monster. Those men deserved it."
"How do you figure that?" Woody asked.
"I'd be sitting in a bar and minding my own business. And one of them would eventually sidle up next to me,offer to buy me a drink, with their wedding ring in plain sight. Made me sick." Kessler took a long drag of her cigarette.
"And for that they deserved to die?" Jordan asked.
"I did the world a favor." There was no doubt Kessler believed that. Jordan did her best to hide her reaction as Kessler calmly told them to take the next exit.
Jordan approached Kessler's hotel room. She planned to use the killer's fondness for her to her advantage. She just needed to get some information from her. Jordan took a breath before entering the motel room.
"He show up?" Kessler asked from the bed.
"Not yet." Jordan lingered just inside the door.
"I got a little bored out there crouched under a bush." Jordan offered.
"You're not gonna catch him. Not tonight, anyway. It's a kill night. His senses are too sharp. Like a razor. He's not gonna make a mistake." Jordan took in the serial killer's words.
"Buy a girl a drink?" Jordan raised an eyebrow.
"Come on, I did my part today." Jordan silently agreed and took a bottle from the cop that was emptying the mini bar.
"I prefer vodka. Sentimental reasons." Jordan tossed her the small bottle.
"My dad was a traveling salesman for a liquor distributor. He'd be gone for weeks at a time. And when he'd finally come home, he'd give my mom a bottle of her favorite vodka. She thought it was so sweet. 'Till she found out what he was really doing on the road. A woman in every town." Kessler downed the liquor and handed back the empty bottle to Jordan.
"Your dad cheated? So all men are evil,
men must die? Isn't that kind of a cliche?"
"My mother blew her brains out. I was fifteen."
"A lot of people lose a parent. Doesn't give you a right to play God." Jordan replied.
"Way I see it, I'm just human. Haven't you ever hated someone enough to want to kill them?"
"I suppose so." Jordan answered truthfully. " It just never really occurred to me to, uh, act on it."
"Why not?" Kessler asked sincerely.
"Oh, I don't know. Fear of eternal damnation, hellfire." Jordan suppressed a more sarcastic reply for something that should be obvious.
"Under the right circumstances, everyone's capable of murder, Jordan. Even you." Kessler looked right at her.
"And what were your circumstances? Your mom died when you were fifteen. All those years later, what finally set you off? Your boyfriend cheat on you? Let you down like your dad did? You weren't gonna become like your mom. You were gonna destroy every lying, cheating bastard before he could destroy you." Jordan countered.
"My mother was weak. I'm not." Kessler replied, looking at her reflection in the mirror.
"Well, some people consider addiction a sign of weakness." Jordan smirked, coming up behind her.
"I can quit anytime I want. Take them." Kessler turned and handed her the pack. They stood there for a minute, Jordan holding on to the cigarettes.
"Tell me about Detective Hoyt?" Kessler asked.
"This isn't a sleepover." Jordan defected. She wasn't about to share anything personal with her.
"But there's a history there, right? You were friends. I bet he wanted more, but you pushed him away? I'm not the only one who doesn't trust men." Kessler said matter of factly as she sat back on the bed.
"Don't pretend like you know me." Jordan leaned against the windowsill.
"You've had a lot of men in your life, but you keep things casual. You have sex, let them sleep over, but it's a false sense of intimacy. Why? I bet because something horrible happened a long time ago. It left you hurt and you've never gotten over it. You never really let anyone in. But you're right.I don't really know you."
Jordan tried to keep her face neutral. Kessler was a psycho, but her ability to read Jordan was unnerving.
After confirming the drunk that delivered the body to the woods was not the killer, Woody found Jordan in the makeshift examination tent.
"You okay?" Woody asked as Jordan was wrapping up examining Kessler's seventh victim.
"Yeah… fine." She replied without looking up.
"Jordan?" Woody questioned, coming closer.
"Kessler… she's just acting like she knows me. " Jordan responded, continuing to look down.
"I know you're trying to get information from her, but don't let her get in your head."
"It might be too late for that. She can read me. She was saying all this stuff about me pushing men away and having intimacy and trust issues."
"Jordan, that's not who you are anymore." Woody offered.
"I don't want to be that person, but I was that person for a long time. They say old habits are hard to break for a reason. I don't want to run, but could I?" She said, finally looking at him.
"Do you love me?"
She nodded.
"Say it, Jo." Woody could see the wild look in her eyes. He knew she needed to say it out loud for her sake
"I love you." She said quietly.
"And I love you. I know who you are and I trust you. She doesn't know you at all." He said putting a hand on her shoulder.
Jordan gave a small smile. The conversation had been more serious than she intended.
"Now, let me drive you back to the hotel."
"If it wasn't 3:45 in the morning, I'd say screw it and let's just get a beer. " She joked
"Yeah. That's what mini bars are for." He replied with a smile.
"It is going to be weird, not sleeping with you tonight." Jordan offered as she grabbed her bag.
"All the more reason to catch this perp quickly."
Jordan was right. It was strange not having Woody next to her. That, plus her conversation with Kessler was making it next to impossible to fall asleep. She rolled over and saw Kessler's cigarettes. She leaned over and grabbed them. For a moment she seriously thought about taking one, but then she thought better of it. Eventually she did fall asleep, only to be greeted by Kessler in her dreams. She had a knife and was quickly on top of her plunging it into her chest.
She woke up screaming. Her brain was assessing the situation to have only been a dream when she saw the bloody knife stuck in the nightstand. The killer had been in her room. Just then she heard Woody's voice calling to her through the door. She quickly ran to the door and opened it. He gathered her up in his arms.
"Woody, the killer was here."
She was getting her bearings after the incident. She needed to test the blood on the knife. She readied the test as she watched Woody pace back and forth in front of her.
" How'd he even get in your room? I had half a dozen cops 40 feet away!"
"Exactly, they weren't guarding me."
"It's not happening again." Anger laced his voice.
"I'm okay, Woody."
"But he could have.."
"But he didn't." Jordan cut in before Woody could verbalize his fear. "Okay, the blood group matches victim number seven. This is the murder weapon."
" I get the knife, he's messing with us, but why take Kessler's cigarettes?" Jordan gave him a look and Woody realized why. He was done with her manipulating them. He turned and made his way down to Kessler's room. Jordan could hear Woody's yell from where she stood.
In the end Kessler had managed to get away. Her carefully constructed plan worked. Jordan entered her apartment. She really should have taken Garret up on his offer to take the body of Martin Cooper back to the morgue, but part of her hoped to find something to point to where Kessler went. No such luck. Now she was physically and emotionally drained. Before leaving the scene, she had encouraged Woody to go home. It had been a long couple of days and she could see his limp and knew his back must be bothering him. Of course he pushed through, but Jordan was glad when the bedroom area of the apartment was dark. His shoes were kicked off by the couch. His bottle of muscle relaxers were on the counter. As tired as she was, she knew she couldn't sleep yet. She quietly opened a bottle of wine. She'd have a glass then maybe be able to join Woody. Jordan turned, and out of the darkness came Ryan Kessler. Jordan' s glass of wine shattered on the floor.
"Well, I thought you'd be long gone by now." Jordan stood in front of Kessler noticing the blood on her shirt and the gun in her hand.
"Me too." She replied sadly. "For seven long years I've dreamt of being free. Planning the perfect escape.Starting a new life somewhere. But I can't. Martin proved it to me."
"How?" Jordan asked cautiously.
"'Cause he wasn't like any other man in my life. He never did anything to hurt me. And I didn't want to kill him. I just…"
"You couldn't help yourself?"
"I slit his throat!" Kessler yelled. "And the look in his eyes...You were right. I am a monster. And I'm never gonna stop." She took a shaky breath.
"So you're gonna kill me just to prove that you can't?"
"No. I want you to kill me."
"What?" Jordan asked dumbfounded.
"I don't wanna live like this."
"You already have the gun, okay? You do it yourself."
"You understand me. Consider it poetic justice." She slid the gun across the floor.
"Pick up the gun."
"No." You wanna die, that's one thing. But I'm not a murderer."
"I told you, Jordan. Anyone could be a murderer under the right circumstances."
"Just then she flipped on the light to reveal Woody unconscious and tied to a chair with duct tape over his mouth."
"I knew you two had to be more than colleagues." Kessler said holding up Jordan's ring that she had strategically left at home. " I got lucky. When he got home he took some muscle relaxers. It made him much easier to subdue. "
"Let him go…please."
Kessler ignored Jordan's plea and stuck smelling salts under Woody's nose. Jordan watched as he regained consciousness. There was clear confusion, then panic as the situation registered in his mind.
"This is between you and me."
"Pick up the gun."
"Either you kill me or I kill him." Kessler cocked the gun as she said it.
"You don't have to do this." Jordan tried to reason with her.
"Pick up the gun now." Kessler ordered.
Jordan picked up the gun. She locked eyes with Woody. The panic she saw in his face a second ago was gone, he seemed calm now. He was staring intently into her eyes. Even as Kessler demanded Jordan shoot her she could almost hear Woody tell her it was okay. His words from the night before repeated in her head. I know who you are and I trust you. He never broke eye contact with her. She raised the gun and fired. She shot Kessler in the shoulder and the serial killer fell onto the bed behind her.
After grabbing the gun Kessler dropped she went to Woody. She quickly untied him and removed the duct tape from his mouth.
" Good shot."
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I told you, I trust you, Jordan."