Disclaimer: Crossing Jordan
belongs to Tim Kring and NBC Universal. Any character in the fic
not seen on the Crossing Jordan belongs to me.
Author’s Notes: This is my first strictly Crossing
Jordan fic. I wrote it as my own version of what would have
happened at the start of season seven. I was thinking about
turning this into chapter one of a series that would follow the
characters through what could have been season seven. Please let
me know what you guys think of the fic and if you’d like to
see more.
Crossing Jordan: Second Chances
“Duncan Murphy”
It was a beautiful almost summer afternoon in Boston. The weather was warm, everything was in bloom, and the streets were full of Red Sox fans. It couldn’t have been a more perfect day in the city. To most people that is. Most people tried to be oblivious to the murders and other crimes that were committed around them, such as the one that brought out the Boston Police Department that day.
Detective Woodrow Hoyt was assigned to this particular case. He arrived on scene and headed out to the alleyway were several uniforms were waiting for him. He looked down at the man who was the victim, then looked around the alley. “Who called it in?”, Woody asked
The officer pointed to a young couple who was standing nearby. Woody glanced over at them. “Did they see anything?”, he asked
The officer shook his head no. “They were passing by when they saw the body. We’ve tried to find witnesses but...”, his voice trailed off as he shook his head yet again
Woody nodded. If noone had come forth by now that usually meant one of two things. Either noone saw anything, or noone was willing to talk about it. He looked around, anxious to start the investigation. Of course there was not much he could do until a medical examiner arrived.
As if on cue, Jordan Cavanaugh entered the alleyway, smiling at him. He was thrilled that she had been the one to catch this case. She had been the one woman he loved, and up until their plane crash a few days ago he had thought that she would never love him, not like that. Now since they’ve been back they spent more and more time together and it has been the most wonderful time of his life.
He flashed a smile back at her and she grinned, and any outsider could tell they shared some sort of secret. Although it wasn’t much of a secret as most of the morgue knew, and it wouldn’t be long before their relationship would be leaking to the police department as well.
“What have we got?”, Jordan asked
“Male, Caucasian. No ID.”, Woody started
Jordan interrupted as she knelt down beside the body. “Well that makes my job difficult.”, she said with a smile. Hopefully his prints were in the system or this investigation was already starting out on the wrong foot.
“Cause of death appeared to be gunshots.”, Woody continued, giving her the only information he had
She looked at the man, who had three gunshot wounds in his chest and one going through his head. “How did you come to that conclusion?”, she asked, sarcasm evident in her voice
Woody rolled his eyes as one of the officers brought him a small clear plastic bag. Woody looked inside to see all four bullets in his hand. “What have you got?”, Jordan asked briefly glancing up
Woody showed her the bag in his hand and she smiled. “Well let’s get this guy ready to go back to the morgue.”, she said. Bullets were always a good start, and hopefully they could get enough off of this guy to find out who he was and why someone would want to kill him.
Nigel sat in front of his computer, working on his blog. He had sworn off of it after it inspired a serial killer, but now that he was lucky to be alive he felt like it was time to start it back up. His arm was in a sling and he had trouble typing, so this blog was a video blog.
“So that’s what it’s like to live through a plane crash. We were lucky. Not everyone on that plane was so lucky. And yours truly”
“Nigel.”, Kate snapped cutting him off. Nigel spun around to see her standing behind him. “Does this have anything to do with actual work?”
Nigel flashed her a smile. “Of course it does.”, he replied
Kate knew there wasn’t too terribly much that needed to be done at the moment, but half the fun in coming in here was to get on Nigel. “You know you promised Garret you’d treat me with the same respect that you treated him with while I was in charge.”
“Of course. And I’m giving you nothing less.”, Nigel assured her
Kate rolled her eyes and walked off. She didn’t know why, but she loved messing with Nigel. What was fun was that he loved to get under her skin as much as she loved to get under his. It was odd, she’d always had so much trouble trusting people, making friends. Yet with Nigel she had this whole strange relationship that made her want to trust him.
As Nigel watched her leave, he turned back to his video blog. “What she doesn’t know is that I do this to Garret all the time.”, he said with a smile, turning the camera off to do some real work.
He thought about how weird it was to not have Garret there as he posted the blog on his site. They knew their boss was going to be gone for a bit, but the reasons why turned out to be totally different from what they had suspected initially.
Garret was severally hurt in the plane crash. He was bleeding internally, and any longer sitting out there without medical attention he’d have been dead. He was going to have a long recovery before he was ready for work again. Everyone at the morgue was willing to step in and help him, but much to their surprise they didn’t have to. Abby and Maggie, his daughter and ex-wife, volunteered.
Abby recently got out of rehab. One thing that helped her though was her father being there for her. Now it was the least she could do was be there for him when he needed it. And Maggie, well that was surprising. Not that she hated her ex, in fact it was far from it. She still loved him, she just couldn’t be married to him.
Nigel stood and caught a glimpse of his best friend walking by. He opened the door and watched as Bug entered the conference room door. Nigel had something to share so he followed, pausing when he got into the doorway of the open door. He smiled as Bug stood with Lily, ooing and ahhing over baby Maddie. He thought of how Bug was such an amazing father to her, despite the fact that she wasn’t biologically his.
Lily glanced up and saw Nigel standing there. She smiled at him as she spoke. “Hey Nigel.”, she greeted
“Sorry to interrupt.”, he replied
Lily brushed him off. “You’re not interrupting.”, she assured him. “Want to come say hi to Maddie?”
Nigel made a face and walked up behind Bug and Lily, before peering over their shoulders and giving the baby a slight wave. “Hello.”
Bug laughed at his friend as he waved the giant plastic keys in front of the baby. “So what brings you here?”, he asked
“I was coming to talk to you, but I can see your busy.”, Nigel replied
“No it’s ok. I’m listening.”, Bug said although it was obvious Maddie occupied more of his attention
Nigel thought for a moment before continuing, “Well you’ll never guess”
“Hey guys?”, Jordan questioned, popping in and interrupting Nigel. All three heads turned toward Lily. “Oh hey Lily.”, she said in a more cheerful tone with a wave
“Hi Jordan.”, Lily replied with a smile
“Anyway I’ve got a body in trace. I could use some help.”, she said. Neither Bug nor Nigel looked like they were ready to jump. “Four bullet holes, it could get interesting.”, she said with a smile
That interested the conspiracy theorist in Nigel. Usually gunshot victims had one bullet hole. Multiple bullet holes meant there could be an interesting story to tell. “I’m in.”, he said as he exited the conference room and followed Jordan over to trace. “What do we know about our vic?”
“Not much.”, Jordan said as she entered and gestured to the body. “Caucasian male, appears to be in his mid thirties. Four gunshot wounds.”
Nigel felt giddy to see three in the torso and one in the head. That was definitely not normal. “Well then let’s get started.”
Kate walked through the hallway, looking for someone to start running trace on a body while she worked on the autopsy. It was an apparent suicide, so it should be open and shut. But the parents asked for a full autopsy because they refused to believe that their little girl had killed herself.
Detective Seely was a bit agitated. He had enough work on his plate without launching an investigation into a sure fire suicide. Kate was inclined to agree, she also had enough work on her plate at the moment without taking this on. But the parents were well connected, and neither Matt nor Kate felt like fighting that losing battle.
She passed by autopsy and saw Nigel standing with Jordan. They had just gotten the body in there and were prepping to cut it open. Which meant that Nigel was unable to help her. As she headed past the conference room she caught a glimpse of Bug and Lily. Bug was about to get volunteered. “I have a body I want to get in and out. I need some help in trace.”
“I’m on my lunch. Ask Nigel.”, Bug said. Of course his lunch had lasted nearly two hours, but he had completely lost track of time.
“Nigel’s with Jordan. Which means you’re with me.”, Kate said. Bug gave her a look. “I’m the boss now, so when I tell you to help, you help.” If being mean was the only thing people would understand, she would do it. Without feeling guilty. It was how she was.
Bug smiled at Lilly and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Bye Lily.”, he said before looking down at the baby. “Bye Maddie.” He then turned to follow Kate out of the room. “A simple please would have sufficed.”, Bug said as he followed her into trace.
“A please doesn’t remind you that you have to do what I say.”, Kate pointed out as she walked and stood by the body
Bug looked at the young woman on the table. “Gunshot victim?”
“It appears to be suicide. Our job is to prove one way or the other.”, Kate explained
“Is there any evidence that suggests murder?”, asked Bug
Kate shook her head. “Just two grieving parents who think their daughter is above this.”
Bug looked at the victim. He couldn’t help but wonder what would drive a beautiful young girl to suicide. He hoped that by the time they were done he’d have some answers for the family.
Woody walked through the hallways of the Boston morgue, heading to see if Jordan had any answers for him. He smiled at the thought of seeing her again. Even under these circumstances, seeing her was exciting.
He pushed through the doors to see Jordan and Nigel standing over the body, autopsy complete. “Tell me you’ve found something more than what I got.”, Woody said looking at them
“Well what did you get?”, asked Jordan
“A whole lot of nothing.”, he replied
“Oh do we have something.”, Nigel said with a huge smile as he headed over to the computer. This case was getting more and more interesting.
Jordan flashed Woody a smile. Nigel always got so involved in his work. Not to say that she didn’t. She walked over toward Nigel, giving Woody’s hand a quick squeeze as she passed by. Woody grinned and followed. “So what do you have?”
“First,” Nigel started pointing toward a computer screen. Half of the screen held the image of a bullet, the other half held images of bullets whizzing by. “Your bullets are from a sniper rifle. We’re running them now to see if we can get any hits.”
“Sniper rifle?”, Woody questioned
Nigel nodded then continued. “Second,” he said pulling up an image with his good arm, “here’s how he died. Four shots. The first was here.”, as he spoke he clicked the mouse, and a laser image of the first bullet passing through his back and out the front came up. “Not fatal. The second shot was here.”, he said as another laser popped up. “Not fatal. The third went through here.” A third laser came up on screen. “Once again not fatal.”
“So this guy was shot three times, and none of the bullets were fatal?”, Woody questioned. It seemed too odd.
“This was the fatal one.”, Nigel said as the laser of the bullet through the head came up
“Someone used a sniper rifle, who obviously had no training before since it took four bullets, and fired at this guy from where?”, Woody asked
“That I’ll have to go to the crime scene and try to rebuild from there before I’ll have any answers.” He told him spinning around in his chair. “But,” he started as the computer beeped and a piece of paper printed out, “we did get a hit off the prints. Shawn Conners. Thirty-four, lives in Boston.”
“Great.”, Woody said snatching the piece of paper from Nigel. “I’ll go get as much info about Shawn as I can, while you head down to the crime scene.”
As Woody started to head for the door his eyes caught Jordan’s. He smiled at her and she smiled back. Nigel smiled at them both. “Do I need to give you two lovebirds some private time?”
“No.”, they said in unison as Woody walked out
Nigel looked up at Jordan after Woody left. Being one handed, if he was going to go back to the crime scene he was going to need help. “Ready to do a little reconstruction?”
She smiled at him. “Absolutely.”, she replied
Jordan and Nigel headed back to the alleyway where the body was found. With a little bit of direction from Nigel, Jordan helped set up the equipment and soon they were ready to go.
Nigel took a 3-D image of the area. First he placed each of the bullets in his simulation according to where the officers said they found them. Then he placed an outline of the victim on the image, with lasers pointing through the victim at the angle that the bullets would have had to come out at. Moving the image around he was able to line it up the lasers with the location that the bullets were found.
From there all that was left was to extend the lasers out of the back of the outline to see which building they went to. Nigel watched and a few seconds later he smiled. “Found it.”, he said
“What the building?”, Jordan questioned
Nigel nodded and pointed toward a nearby building. Jordan smiled at him. “Great, let’s go check it out.”
“Shouldn’t we wait for Woody?”, Nigel asked. It was after all a crime scene.
“Nah we’re just going to look. That never hurt anything.”, Jordan said trying to get him to come with her
Nigel gestured to all the computer equipment. “We can’t just leave this stuff here and hope noone steals it. This isn’t exactly the best neighborhood in Boston.”
“Fine. You stay here, I’ll check it out.”, she said smiling at him as she walked off
Jordan headed toward the building that Nigel suspected the shooter was at. She headed in the door and looked around. It appeared to be an apartment building, however she seriously doubted the shooter actually lived here. Jordan approached the rickety elevator and rode it up to the top floor.
She headed out and took the stairs to the rooftop, walking over to the edge and looking down at the crime scene. “Hey Nigel!”, she called down to the alleyway below
Jordan saw Nigel turn and do something on the computer before turning back to her. “You’re in the right area.”, he said giving her a thumbs up.
She returned the thumbs up before looking around, as she reached into her pocket and picked up her cell, dialing Woody’s number.
“Hoyt.” Woody said as he answered
“Hey Woody. We think we’ve found the rooftop where our shooter was.”, Jordan informed him
“Great I’m leaving Shawn’s place now, I can be there in ten minutes and we’ll go check out the rooftop.”, he said
“There’s not much here. I’m sure we can get some trace but there’s no big piece of evidence.”, Jordan explained
“Jordan!”, Woody exclaimed out of frustration. He trusted her up there but she should have at least waited for him. She could have gotten in trouble or accidentally tampered with evidence.
“What there’s no harm in coming up here and looking around.”, Jordan reminded him
Woody sighed. “Fine just stay put and don’t touch anything until I get there.”
“Promise.”, Jordan said as she hung up the phone. Of course promise was a lose word to Jordan. As she slid the phone back into her pocket she continued her search of the rooftop. There were shoe prints in the loose gravel on the roof, but as she bent down to get a closer look it was evident that the print itself was useless. They could however get a shoe size out of it. Then they would have a gunman, or woman, who wore size tens. That only ruled out half of Boston. But it was a start, and it was better than what they had now.
Jordan continued to walk around the roof of the apartment building until Woody got there, not coming up with much other than the shoe print. She looked up as she heard footsteps approaching. “Hey. Learn anything about Shawn?”
Woody shook his head. “His wife said he had a meeting downtown and that he was the sweetest guy you’d ever meet and nobody would want to kill him.”
Jordan smiled and raised an eyebrow. “Well obviously she didn’t know her husband too well.”
“Did you find anything up here?”, Woody asked. He knew Jordan, and he knew regardless of what she promised she probably looked around after they hung up the phone.
“We can get the killers shoe size. But other than that, nothing.”, Jordan replied
Woody sighed. “Great. I’ve got a forensic team on their way over. Hopefully they can pull something out of this.”
“In the meantime I’m going to help Nigel get everything together and head back to the morgue.”, she said with a smile. She leaned up and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before waving and taking off.
“Be careful.”, Woody called after her. The hardest thing about knowing Jordan was that with every case she worked on she tended to put herself in the worst of situations.
Jordan nodded in acknowledgment as she headed back to the street so that she and Nigel could get back to work.
Matt walked into autopsy and looked from Kate to Bug. He watched as the gloves Kate was wearing snapped as she took them off to throw them away. “You finished yet?”
“Autopsies aren’t fast you know.”, Kate said referencing the fact that he’d barely been gone long enough for them to do their job. “But yes we are. And there’s no doubt it’s suicide.” There was gunshot residue on her hands, the bullet came from her gun, and all the evidence on the body, including the trajectory pointed to her pulling the trigger.
“Great. I’ll tell her parents.”, Matt said as he turned to walk off
“Wait.”, Bug said. Matt stopped and spun around. “What are you going to tell them?”
Matt looked at him strangely. “That she killed herself. Which is what happened.”
“They’re looking for closure. They want to know why in the world that their daughter would commit suicide. You have to give them that.”, Bug said staring at him
“And what exactly do you expect me to do? She didn’t leave a note. And it’s not like I can get into the mind of the dead girl to figure out what was going on.”, Matt pointed out. He was under enough stress, he didn’t need to worry about this case. It was a suicide and he was done with it.
“I expect you to do some detective work.”, Bug said sharply
“Bug.”, Kate said in a warning tone. She didn’t know what was up between these two but Matt was right. There wasn’t much more that anyone could do for this case.
“Look if you’re not going to look at least let me. I can search the internet sites, see if she had a page or a blog or anything. Let’s just have something more to tell this girls parents than she killed herself.”, Bug pleaded
Matt sighed. He wanted to get this over with but if Bug wanted to look into it he’d give him some time. “Fine. But tomorrow morning I’m inviting her parents down to the station and I’m going to talk to him.”
“Thank you.”, Bug said, watching as Matt turned and exited autopsy
“What was that all about?”, Kate asked once she was certain Matt was gone
“Nothing.”, Bug replied
Kate shrugged and headed out to get some of her other work done, leaving Bug to find a computer so he could try and search for answers to this girl’s death.
Nigel and Jordan finished putting the equipment away as soon as they got back. Jordan headed off to her office while Nigel went to check on some things. The first thing he did was come across Bug, who was busy working on the computer.
“What are you working on so hard over there?”, Nigel questioned
Bug looked up startled. He didn’t even see his best friend enter the room. He welcomed the interruption as he sat back and rubbed his eyes. He had been searching for information for over an hour and had yet to come up with anything. “It has to do this case. This girl committed suicide and the parents want to know why. Seely’s not interested so I thought I’d give it a shot.”
Nigel walked up behind him and glanced at the search engine he was looking at. “Well have you tried faceplace?”
“No I haven’t.”, Bug said. He quickly keyed in the main page and did a search based on the victim’s name. In a matter of seconds it popped up with a result.
“It’s a shame.”, Nigel said as her site downloaded and the picture of the smiling girl at a school dance came into focus. Suddenly another computer beeped. Nigel turned toward it and went over to see what it was. Results of the ballistics match from his case were printing out.
Nigel didn’t know what to think as he rushed the results over to Jordan. “You have to take a look at this.”
Jordan took the printout from Nigel’s outstretched hand and read it over. She wasted no time reaching for her phone and dialing Woody. He answered on the third ring and Jordan got right down to business. “I got the ballistics results back from Nigel.”
“And?”, Woody questioned
“Remember that case a few months ago. Where the man was gunned down, no shooter was ever found. The guy that worked for the Murphy’s.”, Jordan explained
“Yeah what about it?”, Woody asked as he could feel his mood sink as he thought where this was probably going
“Same gun killed Shawn.”, Jordan finished
“Just great.”, Woody said with a sigh. The last thing he wanted to do when he woke up this morning was get involved with the Murphy’s. They were one of the largest crime families in Boston, and try as they might Boston PD had yet to be able to touch them. “I’ll take his picture over to Duncan.”
Duncan Murphy was the oldest of three sons. Although their father was technically in charge, it had now become more of a title than a position of power. Their father was too old and too frail to continue the daily operation. Duncan had taken control with his father’s blessing and brought the Murphy’s into more power than they had ever seen under his father’s reign.
“I want to go with you.”, Jordan said, her tone suggesting it wasn’t a request
“Jordan I...”
“Woody either I go with you now, or I go on my own later.”, she said. There was silence on the other end. Woody knew Jordan, and he knew she wouldn’t think twice about going to talk to the leader of one of Boston’s most powerful crime families alone. Jordan took Woody’s silence as an agreement to let her join him. “Good I’ll meet you at the bar in twenty minutes.”
Jordan hung up the phone and said goodbye to Nigel before heading out of the office.
Twenty minutes later Jordan pulled up in front of the bar that was owned by the Murphy’s. The bar was well known as their source of operations, with a never ending flow of criminals through it’s doors. Of course to those who didn’t know the place, it was just a bar, and the police were having difficulty proving otherwise. The books were clean and no crime happened there, so until they could come up with something solid it would be allowed to operate.
Jordan stepped out of the car as she saw Woody pull in. She walked over to him and smiled. “Hey Woody.”
“Now let’s not forget. I’m the cop here, so let me do the talking so we can both walk out of here with our heads still attached.”, Woody said looking her over. The last thing they needed was for Jordan to piss off Duncan Murphy. Again. The last case they had that tied to the Murphy’s she had a few choice words for him and was lucky that she didn’t get them both killed.
Jordan threw her hands up in the air and smiled as if to say Woody had nothing to worry about. He nodded and they both walked over toward the bar. Woody held the door open for her and she headed in, with him following close behind. The duo walked past the bar and spotted Duncan sitting at his booth, speaking with some associates.
“Duncan, hey, hope we’re not interrupting anything.”, Woody greeted as they approached
“Detective Hoyt, Dr. Cavanaugh, what a pleasant surprise.”, Duncan said with a smile. His two colleagues tensed up at the titles given to the man standing in front of them. “What brings you to my humble establishment?”
“Well you know. Same thing is usual.”, Woody said as he glared at him and got serious. “Murder.”
“I can assure you that no one here has killed anyone. Am I right?”, he said looking over to the duo sitting with him, who smiled and nodded.
“I never said you did.”, Woody said flashing them a smile back and putting Shawn’s picture on the table. “Do you know this guy?”
Duncan glanced down at the photograph. “Never seen him before in my life.”
“Check again.”, Woody said pushing the photograph closer
“No, sorry.”, Duncan said barely giving it a glance
Duncan’s attitude was working Jordan’s nerves. She could tell by the smug look on his face that he not only knew him, but gave the order to have him killed. “We’re going to catch you this time. You think you’re above the law but not anymore.”
“Jordan.”, Woody said in a warning tone
“It’s fine I like a feisty woman.”, Duncan said looking her over. If she wasn’t so determined to put him behind bars, she was the kind of woman he would make his.
Woody put his arm in front of Jordan and pushed her back before she got into it with Duncan. “We’ll be back.”, he warned as he turned and started pushing her out of the door
“Always a pleasure.”, Duncan called after them as they left
“He makes me so angry I just want to”
“Jordan calm down.”, Woody said as they exited the bar. Duncan got under his skin too but there wasn’t much they could do about it, not without evidence.
“There’s got to be something concrete linking him to this case.”, Jordan said as she started racking her brain for answers. “I think I’m going to go back to the lab, reexamine the trace, reexamine the body.”
“And I’m going to get a copy of that.”, Woody said pointing to the camera that faced the bar’s door
“When did that get there?”, Jordan asked. She didn’t remember it from the last time she worked a case against the Murphy’s.
“The people who own the building got a hefty sum of money from the police department for putting a camera up to guard their alleyway.”, Woody told her. It was Boston PD’s way of monitoring who entered and exited the building. Not that they could bust anyone for going into a bar, but it was better than nothing.
“Does Duncan know it’s there?”, asked Jordan as she walked over to her car
“Probably. I’m sure he doesn’t care, we can’t get much useful from it and he knows that. But it’s worth it on the off chance we can get something. Such as Shawn going to the bar.”
“And if Shawn was there, then we can prove Duncan lied to us about not knowing him.”, Jordan said although she knew that would be a stretch
“If we’re lucky.”, Woody replied. He leaned over and gave Jordan a kiss before opening her car door for her. He watched as she started the engine and took off, then he climbed in his car and followed.
Matt walked into the morgue searching for Bug. He had received a phone call saying that he had found her reason for killing herself, her suicide note. Apparently she left it on her blog on faceplace for everyone in her high school to see. Matt searched around until he came across Bug.
“You said you found something for me?”, he asked
Bug said nothing but handed him a piece of paper. “Here.”, he said
Matt read the piece of paper in his hands. He let out a sigh as he finished, he couldn’t believe what he read, and he knew her parents would have trouble believing it as well.
The young girl’s name was Victoria Worthington. She was a high school cheerleader, a pretty young girl. She fit in with the popular crowd, but never felt like one of them. She always felt like an outcast, like she never really belonged. Dating one of the captain’s of the football team improved her self-esteem. She thought he was her one and only, she had even given up her virginity to him.
Seven months into her relationship Victoria’s boyfriend dumped her for the captain of the cheerleading squad, who was also her best friend. Her boyfriend had claimed she was a minnow in the pond and now he was moving on to the real thing. Her life quickly fell apart, and her fears of being an outcast were grounded. As she was no longer friends with the cheerleading captain, and no longer with her boyfriend, the rest of the popular crowd begin to shun her. No one wanted anything to do with her anymore, and after a few weeks of this she had become depressed. That was when she decided to take her own life.
The blog stated these struggles and went on to say goodbye to everyone at the high school. She also apologized for hurting the ones who cared for her, but justified it by saying she couldn’t go on living. The blog was stamped at nine thirty that morning, which would have made her dead for an hour and a half before her mother got home, and two hours before Kate got there. Kate’s time of death confirmed that the blog was written just before she died. The pieces had now come together and the suicide was starting to make sense.
“Thank you Bug. I’ll show this to her parents.”, Matt said folding up the piece of paper and putting it in his pocket
Bug nodded and smiled. Good or bad, at least her parents were going to get some sort of resolution. It was unbelievable that this girl would take her life over boys and popularity. But years as a medical examiner has taught Bug one thing. And that was that nothing anymore was unbelievable.
Matt said goodbye and left. Bug sighed and sat down in his chair. He thought for a moment before reaching over to grab the phone, dialing Lily’s number.
“Hello.”, she said picking up after the first ring
“Lily, hey.”, Bug greeted. After a case ending like that, it was nice to hear her voice. It reminded him that not everything in the world ended badly.
“Something wrong?”, Lily asked sensing the sorrow in his voice
Bug sighed. “Rough afternoon.”, he replied. He proceeded to tell Lily about the case and about the results, and listened to her as she responded. Her words were exactly what he needed after spending most of his day dealing with a teen suicide.
Jordan sat in her apartment late that night. She had spent the rest of her afternoon analyzing trace from her case. Now all she wanted to do is try and relax before she had to get up and dive right back into it.
As she sat there she heard a knock at the door. She got up and walked over, and looking through the peephole she found Woody standing outside. Jordan opened the door and he held up a bag of food and smiled.
“I thought I’d bring dinner.”, he said
Jordan moved out of the way and ushered him to come in. “Great I’m starving.”, she said
Woody walked over to the counter and Jordan followed, helping him pull food out of the bag. She grabbed some plates and they threw together dinner, then went to have a seat to try to enjoy their meal. It didn’t take long for Jordan’s mind to go back to the case. “So did you have any luck this afternoon?”, she asked taking a bite of food
Woody shook his head no as he swallowed. “We got absolutely nothing off the roof. I’ve got any records with Shawn’s name on them being pulled up and sent to me, and there’s a team working on the surveillance video, but nothing yet. You?”
“I ran all sorts of trace but nothing helpful. I can tell you where he died. But other than that I hit a dead end.”, Jordan told him
“This doesn’t look like it’s going well.”, Woody said as he sighed. He didn’t know why in the world he would think that he could tie the Murphy’s to this one when he’d never been able to tie them to anything else.
“We’ve got to catch Duncan.”, Jordan said a look of determination in her eye
“I know he’s guilty. You know he’s guilty. But a whole lot of good that’s going to do us without evidence.”, Woody pointed out. As much as he’d love to run into the bar and put Duncan in handcuffs, he couldn’t do that without proof. At least he wouldn’t be able to keep him and he’d probably loose his job over the charges Duncan would file against him for wrongful imprisonment.
Sighing Jordan concentrated on her dinner. She knew Woody was right. Duncan was slick and he knew the system well. Shawn isn’t the first person he’s killed and he probably won’t be the last. Duncan knows what to do and he knows how to cover his tracks. But every criminal made mistakes and she would be there front and center when Duncan made his.
Dinner continued on with no mention of the case. Instead Jordan and Woody filled the silence with small talk. As they finished eating, Jordan took their plates and put them into the sink. Woody came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her on the neck. She turned around and gave him a kiss back before letting him whisk her away into the bedroom.
Woody walked into the station the next morning feeling refreshed. He had spent the night at Jordan’s, getting up early enough to run back over to his place for a shower before work. He headed in hoping he could find something that would help him with this case.
As he walked into his office, he noticed the papers sitting on his desk. The first thing he saw was a photo pulled off the security camera of Shawn entering Duncan’s bar. He would have to take that back to Duncan and see if he had any answers.
The second thing he saw was a folder with all of Shawn’s background information. Most of it was worthless. His records showed nothing that you wouldn’t find if you did a search for the average American. The one thing that did catch his attention was the large deposits made into his bank account. The deposits were made in cash, which meant there was no way to trace them. Woody spent a few minutes on the phone with Shawn’s wife, who claimed not to know the deposits existed until she received the statement in the mail the previous night.
This brought Woody back to Duncan. He picked up the photograph and headed back over to the bar, flinging the front door open and heading straight back to Duncan.
“Back so soon?”, Duncan questioned as the detective looked him over. He watched as Woody threw Shawn’s photograph back out on the table. “I thought we’ve established that I don’t know him.”
Woody grabbed the photograph that showed Shawn entering the bar and slapped it down on the table beside Shawn’s picture. “Do you still not know him?”
Duncan smiled and shrugged. “This is a bar. A lot of people walk through my front door. Am I supposed to know them all?”
“I thought you made it your business to know all your customers.”, Woody pointed out. Duncan once told him told him that when he had questioned him about the last murder he suspected him off.
“I know all of my regular customers.”, Duncan said emphasizing regular. “I’m a busy man, I don’t have time to meet every Joe who comes in off the street for a beer.”
Woody felt frustrated. This was going nowhere fast and he didn’t have anything solid to make Duncan talk, so he started grasping at straws. “So what was it? He was working for you, finished the job, and you had him shot? Or maybe things got out of hand, or he found something out he shouldn’t have, so you had him shot.”
“I like a detective with a good imagination.”, Duncan said smiling at him and not giving him anything. “Now that story time is over, I do have real business to attend to.”
“This isn’t over.”, Woody warned collecting his photos and turning to walk off. He had nothing, and he could exchange banter back and forth with Duncan all day and he’d never get anywhere.
Duncan watched him walk out the door. Of course he knew who Shawn was and of course he had him killed. He was also smart enough to know how not to get caught by the police. How did they think the Murphy’s managed to do so well all these years? It wasn’t because people working for them got thrown in jail.
He knew Woody wouldn’t be coming back anytime soon. He had nothing, as was evident both times he questioned him. Business would run as usual and the police wouldn’t be able to get close.
Jordan sat in the morgue’s break room sipping on a cup of coffee. She watched as Kate entered and smiled at her. “So I hear your case involves the Murphy’s.”, she said as she went to pour herself a cup of coffee
“Yup.”, Jordan replied pretending to be interested in her caffeinated beverage. She wasn’t sure about Kate, even though she had been so good to her the day she stayed with her. She knew she didn’t like the fact that Garret left her in charge, regardless of how much he said he had faith in Jordan as a medical examiner. She knew small talk wasn’t Kate’s thing, and she figured she was just trying to get a feel for her case as her boss.
“You think you’ll get to Duncan?”, Kate asked turning and leaning against the counter, coffee in hand.
“It would be nice but it’s not looking good.”, Jordan replied
Kate nodded at her as she stood up straight and headed out of the break room. “Good luck.”, she called as she left. She had heard rumors Jordan was working on a case involving Duncan Murphy, but she wanted to confirm it for herself.
Jordan watched as Kate left, going back to her coffee. “Hey.”, Woody said walking in and startling her
Jordan looked up at him as he walked in and took the seat next to her. “Anything?”
He sighed before he spoke. “Officially it’s going to go as unsolved for now. But we’re definitely filing it with the cases we’re looking into the Murphy’s for.”
“Great.”, Jordan said sarcastically as her fingers tapped the coffee cup. “What about all the stuff you were looking into?”
“We know Shawn received heavy sums of money that we can’t trace. We know he was at the bar but Duncan claims not to know him, and him being at the bar isn’t enough to prove anything. We have no trace on the body, and no trace at the crime scene. Nothing to prove anything except the fact that Shawn was shot from behind by the same gun that killed another man thought to be an associate of Duncan’s.”, Woody said giving a quick synopsis of the case
“I don’t want him to stay on the streets.”, Jordan said, anger flaring as she thought about Duncan Murphy free to continue to run his crime family, and to continue to kill again.
“I don’t either. But there’s nothing we can do now.”, Woody replied placing a hand on hers. “We have officers assigned to work on the Murphy’s. We’ll catch him one day.”
“Yeah.”, Jordan said absentmindedly as she thought about it
“I think we’re interrupting a moment.”, Nigel said as he and Bug walked in and noticed Woody’s hand on top of Jordan’s
Woody quickly yanked his hand away and smiled. “Hey guys what’s up?”
“Just here for some coffee.”, Nigel said with a smile as he waved his empty cup in his hand
Jordan smiled at them. “Morning guys.”, she said as Nigel walked over to the coffeepot and Bug went to sit with them. “How’s Lily and the baby?”, she asked turning toward Bug
“They’re both great.”, he replied beaming. They were the most wonderful thing that had happened to him and he couldn’t imagine his life without them.
Woody’s phone rang and he reached down to pick it up. “Hoyt.”, he answered. A few seconds of silence passed. “On my way.”, he replied hanging up the phone. “I’ve got to go. I’ve got a case.”
“Who’s the M.E.?” Jordan asked
“I am.”, Kate replied as she stood in the doorway. She had seen Woody come in and when she got the call she was told he was going to be the detective in charge.
“Need some help?”, Nigel asked. He loved working on cases with Kate for two reasons. One, they were becoming friends, and two, he loved the opportunity to push her buttons.
“Are you offering?”, Kat questioned glaring at him
“But of course.”, he replied putting his coffee cup down. He quickly followed Kate as she walked off. As they left Woody stood up and said goodbye to Jordan before taking off as well.
“So how are you and Woody doing?”, Bug asked once everyone was out of earshot
“Good.”, she said with a smile. “You know we’re just dating so.”, she said as she gave somewhat of a shrug
“Right.”, Bug replied. He had watched those two dance around each other for almost as long as he had danced around Lily. He had almost given up on them in the last two years but the plane crash seemed to have brought out their true feelings. It was nice to see that those two were finally able to be together.
“So what do you think?”, Jordan asked fiddling with her cup of coffee. “Should we go do some work?”
“That may be a good idea.”, Bug replied with a smile
Jordan got out of her chair and Bug stood with her. She gestured for him to exit first then followed behind him, heading toward her office. It was time for another typical day at the morgue. More bodies to examine, more murders to solve, and more victims to give justice. Jordan sighed as she sat down in her office chair. Things had changed since the recent plane crash. Among other things she had officially started a relationship with Woody and Garret was injured leaving Kate as their acting boss. But fortunately for the crew at the Boston morgue, slowly but surely everything was starting to fall into place around the changes and life was starting to go back to normal.
The End