Crossing Jordan: Second Chances
“Politics”
Jordan wondered through Boston heading toward her destination. It had been a busy week since they had returned, topped off with a case involving Duncan Murphy, the leader of a huge crime family. That case had gone unsolved as there was no real proof of Duncan’s involvement. The last case she had worked on was open and shut, and she was thrilled to be able to bring someone some justice.
She headed through the streets and into a building, coming to a stop in front of a door. She knocked on it and waited for someone to answer. The door opened as someone called, “You always have to be so stubborn.” The girl behind the door smiled when she turned and saw Jordan standing there. “Hey. You here to see dad?”
“Yeah.” Jordan replied looking Abby over. “Something going on?”
Abby shook her head no. “You know dad.” she said gesturing for Jordan to come in. She motioned for her to follow as they headed into her father’s room. “You have a visitor.” she informed him as she ducked her head in
Jordan walked into the room and gave Garret a slight wave. The chief medical examiner looked up at her and smiled. “Jordan, hey, it’s good to see you.”
“I’m going to run out dad, I’ll be right back.” Abby said as she waved at her father
“Fine.” Garret called after her as she left
“Everything ok between you two?” Jordan questioned glancing from Garret to the door where Abby once stood
“No different than usual.” Garret said smiling at Jordan, who gave him an odd look in reply. “Well better than usual.”
“That’s good. So how are you doing?” she asked sitting down on the edge of the bed
“Good. The doctors are hoping that I can be back at work in the next week or two.” Garret told her
Jordan smiled. “That’s great. We miss you around there you know.”
Garret couldn’t help but laugh. “Is Kate driving you crazy?”
Jordan laughed as well as she shook her head no. In reality Kate wasn’t that bad as a boss. She was a little pushy, but it was the Kate that they had all gotten used to. “Kate’s alright. She’s no Garret though.”
“Well I miss everyone too. How are things going at the morgue? You haven’t driven everyone insane yet have you?”
She shrugged and smiled at him. “No more than usual. We’ve all been working our cases, keeping things going.”
“I heard you had a run in with Duncan Murphy.” Garret said. He had spoken to Nigel earlier in the week to see how he was doing. Nigel had just finished up his part on the case with Duncan and was more than eager to share all the details.
“Yeah. Bastard got away with another murder.” Jordan said, her anger from the case coming back. “But we’ll get him next time.” she added
“He’ll slip up. They always do.” Garret assured her. He had worked on several cases involving the Murphy family. Each time he was positive that he would be able to bring them down, and each time he was wrong. Jordan nodded and Garret switched topics. “What about you and Woody? How are you guys doing?”
“How do you know anything about me and Woody?” Jordan asked slightly surprised by the question
“Jordan I’m injured, not dead. Trust me I still get the office gossip.” Garret said smiling at her
“From who? Bug? Or Nigel? It has to be Nigel.” Jordan said as she smiled and looked at her friend. Garret laughed and Jordan continued. “And Woody and I are dating. And it’s going good.”
“I hear you’ve been getting pretty close lately.” Garret said looking up at her. Jordan smiled and rolled her eyes getting another laugh out of Garret. It was nice to see that Jordan had found somebody. He always worried about her being alone for the rest of her life because she wouldn’t let anybody in. He thought JD got through to her, but that all ended the morning he was found dead in his hotel room. That was for the best, it didn’t take an idiot to see the sparks that flew between Jordan and Woody. Although Jordan said they were just dating now, it would be interesting to see where this would lead.
“Anyway how’s,” Jordan started to ask a question just as her cell phone rang. She apologized and picked it up, listening intently for a few moments. The call ended with Jordan assuring the person on the other end that she’d be there shortly. She sighed as she put the phone away. “So much for a day off.”
“Why did they have to call you in?” Garret questioned. He tried his hardest to keep it so that the medical examiner with the day off actually got to take a day off.
“There’s five bodies. Bug is already on a case with Woody. Kate and Nigel are heading over to the crime scene but they need help.”,Jordan explained as she stood. “Sorry to cut this visit short.”
“Work comes first.” Garret said. He understood, any case with multiple homicides they needed as many people on it as they could get.
“I’ll come by later.” Jordan said with a smile as she waved and headed toward the door. Garret said goodbye as Jordan took off, giving him some quiet time to rest.
Jordan pulled up to the address she was given over the phone. The house was huge, and looked like your typical suburban home. It was a two story home with a brick front, and was surrounded by a white picket fence. As Jordan approached the front door she could see straight through to the kitchen and out the window into the backyard, where the swing set, pool and spa were located.
Jordan opened the door and walked inside, and was greeted by Detective Matt Seely. “What have we got?”, she asked
“The Davis family, murdered. Husband, wife, eighteen and thirteen year old sons and a nine year old daughter.” Matt quickly caught her up
Jordan swore under her breath as she thought about the poor family, and how more than anything she wanted to catch the bastard that did this. As she stood there and looked around the house, she realized who the Davis’s were. “You mean Councilman Davis?” she questioned looking over at Matt
Matt nodded in response. “Yup. It’s about to be a media circus so we need to get started on these bodies and get them out of here.”
Jordan nodded absentmindedly as she wove her way through the uniformed officers and headed into the kitchen, where she found Kate standing over the body of the wife. “Where do you want me to start?” she asked
Kate looked up, startled by Jordan’s appearance. She had just gotten there as well and was just now getting to examining the wife’s body. “Pick your poison.” Kate said as she frowned. “The daughter’s over here,” she said pointing to the back of the island that sat in the middle of the kitchen, “and the Councilman is in his office. The two boys are upstairs.”
“I pulled this off the Councilman.” Nigel said as he entered the kitchen, plastic evidence bag in hand. He glanced and noticed Jordan standing there. “Hey Jordan.”, he said quickly before turning back to Kate
“What is it?” Kate asked glancing up at the bag in Nigel’s hand
“A letter opener. With blood on the tip. I think he tried to defend himself.” Nigel said as he looked at her
“That’s good news. We can get it back to the lab and hopefully get some useful DNA from it.” Jordan said feeling like at the very least this case was already starting in a good direction.
Nigel nodded as he turned and went back to the office. Jordan sighed as she prepared herself to deal with the murder of this family. “I’ll be upstairs.” she called to Kate as she headed out of the kitchen. Kate muttered something in acknowledgment as Jordan headed back out toward the door and rounded the corner, climbing the flight of stairs.
It wasn’t hard to find the bodies as all she had to do was follow the trail of police officers. One was standing in front of the oldest son’s door, while the other was standing in front of the bathroom. She went into the oldest son’s room first and looked around. He was eighteen, and was supposed to graduate highschool this year. The walls of his room were covered in posters of rock bands and women. The boy himself was laying on the floor by his bed, surrounded by a pool of his own blood.
Jordan approached the boy and looked him over. His life was cut short by this tragedy. There was nothing she could do for him now, but she would do everything in her power to bring justice to his family and put their killer behind bars.
Lily stood in Garret’s office waiting for Kate to come back. Kate had temporarily set up shop there, and was the one Lily needed to talk to. She had seen the tragedy on the news about Councilman Davis and his family. There was going to be a lot of family to talk to, and a lot of people who need help. Noone in the morgue was equipped to handle that, and Lily was here to offer her services. Her heart went out to this family. No matter what they did, they didn’t deserve to be slaughtered in their own home.
Kate stopped short as she flew into her office. She was there looking for something, then she had to fly back over to autopsy as the bodies of the Davis family were now coming in. She was surprised to see Lily in her office, and she looked at her strangely as she spoke. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to help.” Lily told her
“Correct me if I’m wrong but you quit this job therefore we don’t use your help.” Kate pointed out. She wasn’t sure what Lily thought she was going to accomplish by being here.
“Yes but there was a huge tragedy today. There are going to be a lot of members of both Mr. and Mrs. Davis’s family who are going to need someone to talk to. There’s nobody more qualified around here than me.” Lily said as she looked Kate in the eyes
Kate sighed. Lily was right and she didn’t have time to deal with this right now. “Fine. But since you don’t work here you’re doing this all on a volunteer basis.” Kate said as she walked out of her office
“Thank you.” Lily called after her
Kate didn’t here her thanks as she was already marching down the hallway toward autopsy. When she got there, the last of the Davis family was being wheeled in and Jordan and Nigel stood ready to go, along with Matt who was anxious to see if they could find anything. “I don’t think I have to tell you people that this is huge. So let’s take our time and not miss anything.” Kate said looking from Nigel to Jordan
Jordan turned from Kate and rolled her eyes as Nigel gave her a mock salute. “Yes mam.” he said as he went to get to work.
One by one they examined the bodies. The cause of death in each case was stab wounds. Most of the wounds were in the chest, however some such as the daughter and the mother, had defensive wounds on their arms and legs. As they cleaned the bodies Nigel worked his magic to try and determine the type of blade that was used.
There wasn’t much evidence on the bodies that they could use for trace. They did find a fiber from the inside of a glove, which Nigel was running to see if he could figure out who the glove’s manufacture was. The best evidence was the blood on the letter opener, which was going through DNA analysis as the autopsies were going on. As soon as they got the DNA, they were going to try to run it through and see if they could find a match.
As the tedious work continued, the doors to autopsy flew open and Bug and Woody walked in. “Need any help?” Bug asked as he looked at his coworkers
“I thought you had a case you were working on?” Kate questioned looking over at him
“It was a robbery that turned into a homicide. The guy wasn’t too bright. He’s behind bars as we speak.” Woody explained
“In that case we can use all the help we can get.” Kate replied
Bug wasted no time running over to see what he could do to help. Woody went to stand beside Matt, arms crossed over his chest. Matt looked over at him oddly. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to help.” Woody replied, a sly smile on his face
“Too bad I don’t need your help.” Matt snapped
“That’s not what the captain thinks.” Woody told him
“What?” Matt questioned. “The captain thinks I’m not good enough to handle this on my own?”
“No the captain thinks this is a high profile case with five deaths and he wants to make sure nothing is missed. Which is why you and I are partners on this one.” Woody explained. He wasn’t any more thrilled about having a partner than Matt was. But he could see the captain’s point of view, and what he said was the final word anyway.
“Just great.” Matt said shifting and crossing his arms over his chest as well. The first high profile case that has come his way and he doesn’t even get to do it on his own, he has to have a partner.
The autopsies themselves didn’t take long. There was no questioning that each of the five was stabbed and eventually bled out, and that’s what led to their deaths. As the autopsies were ending, Nigel headed to the computer and started to do some work on the knife marks found in the victims and on the DNA that had just finished running.
“So do we have anything useful?” asked Matt looking around at everyone in the room
“Not yet.” Jordan replied. They knew about as much as they did at the crime scene, it was what Nigel was doing that would give them some answers.
“In that case I think we have some interviews we can start with.” Matt said flipping through his notepad.
“I’m going to interview Michael Drake.” Woody said before Matt had a chance to get his thoughts together. Michael Drake was the well known, slime ball assistant to the Councilman. Although there wasn’t any real proof, it wasn’t a secret some of the things he did to help make some of the Councilman’s ideas a reality.
“Fine.” Matt said not bothering to hide the icy tone in his voice. “I’ll take Melissa Sanchez.” Melissa was the Davis’s housekeeper who had conveniently not been seen all day. Michael was the best to interview, but Melissa certainly made a better suspect. And if he was going to be forced to work on this case with Woody, he wanted to be the one to crack it.
“I’m coming with you.” Jordan said glancing over at Woody. She wanted to be involved in every aspect of the case until it was solved.
“Fine.” Woody said declining to argue with her. There was never any point to arguing anyway, he always lost.
“Ok great. So let’s get started.” Matt said as he looked around the room. He was waiting to see if anyone wanted to volunteer to join him, but he wasn’t expecting it. He and Bug didn’t exactly have the best relationship, and Kate wasn’t one to jump into investigations past her part in the morgue. Nigel had too much work to do to even think about joining Matt.
Kate nodded. “Let me know if you find anything out.” She said as she walked out of autopsy and headed back to her office.
Woody walked toward the door as well. “You coming?” he asked looking toward Jordan
She gave him a look as if to say he was crazy if he thought otherwise. She quickly followed him out the door. Matt sighed and was not far behind the duo, letting them lead the way to the elevator. As he walked in behind them the elevator doors shut.
“Let’s meet back here in an hour.” Matt said trying to take charge
“Sounds good to me.” Woody replied. There was silence as the elevator descended, taking them to the ground floor. The two detectives exited and each went their separate ways, trying to find answers for their case.
Jordan and Woody stood in front of the huge glass building that Councilman Davis worked in. Woody put an arm across Jordan’s chest and stopped her as she started to walk in. “I’m going to ask the questions.” he reminded her much like he pointlessly reminded her on every case they worked on together
“Of course.” Jordan said as though she was shocked that he would think otherwise. Woody’s arm dropped and Jordan headed into the office building, with Woody on her heels. Jordan went over to the elevator and hit the button, waiting for the doors to open up so she and Woody could head in and ascend to the Councilman’s office.
It didn’t take long for the elevator to arrive. They rode it up as Jordan made a few comments about the drab elevator music, the doors finally swinging open to the Councilman’s floor. They walked out and headed for the smaller of two offices, the one that Michael Drake worked out of.
“I’m sorry Mr. Drake is not to be disturbed.” the secretary called from behind her desk as she stood
Woody quickly flashed her his badge as they walked by, then he knocked on the office door his badge still out. Michael Drake cracked the door open and looked first at Woody, then at his badge.
“Detective Hoyt, Boston PD. This is Dr. Cavanaugh from the medical examiner’s office. We’ve come to ask you a few questions about Councilman Davis.” Woody said as he looked the man standing before him in the eyes
“Yes of course.” Michael replied as he stood back and gestured for the duo to come in. “It’s such a tragedy.” he said as he sat behind his desk and waited for Woody and Jordan to sit as well
Jordan smiled at him and nodded, although she didn’t detect much sincerity in his voice. For a man who’s boss and supposed best friend was just found brutally murdered in his home, he seemed to be holding up alright.
“You must have a lot to take care of with the Councilman’s death.” Woody said as he noticed the stacks of papers sitting on the desk. Michael said nothing, only nodded, so Woody continued. “Do you know of anyone who would want to hurt the Davis family?”
“No. Noone would want to harm Daniel. He was working so hard in the community, everyone loved him.” Michael said
“Obviously someone didn’t.” Woody pointed out. He hated when people claimed that noone in the world would want to hurt the deceased. Either they were lying or stupid, and Woody didn’t think that Michael Drake was a stupid man. “Was there anything he was working on? Anyone in the community that called and made any kind of threats toward him?”
“Not to my knowledge.” Michael replied giving him a smile
“Is there anything you could tell us about any of the family? Any reason why someone would kill them?” Woody asked trying once again to get information out of him
Michael shook his head. “No they were the perfect suburban family.”
“Just out of curiosity, where were you this morning?” Woody asked looking him over
Michael frowned. “What am I a suspect?”
“Everyone is until proven otherwise.” Woody replied. Although the more time he spent sitting in this office talking to this man, the more he was inclined to believe that he really was a suspect.
“Well I’ve been here since seven this morning. You can ask Becca.”, he said gesturing back out toward his secretary
“I’ll do that.” Woody replied with a smile
“If that’s all I’d like to get back to my work.” Michael said with a forced smile plastered on his face
“Actually no, that’s not all. We’d like to go through all your files to see who the Councilman has been dealing with if you don’t mind. There may be clues in there to who his murderer is.” Woody said giving him the same fake smile back
Michael looked Woody dead in the eye, his smile not faltering. “Actually yes, I do mind. In fact I think now would be a good time for you to leave the office.”
“Why are you hiding something? Maybe the identity of the killer?” Jordan asked looking him square in the eyes
Michael shot his attention toward her, giving her a murderous look. Woody shot her a look as well and she just smiled at him. Of course there was no reason to suspect she would actually sit in and listen without a few comments of her own. He turned his attention back toward Michael then continued. “If you don’t grant me access, I’m just going to go get a warrant. You don’t want that do you?”
“Go get your warrant.” he said no longer trying to be pleasant
“Fine.” Woody replied as he stood and let himself out
Jordan was quick to follow him. “I don’t trust him not to make all the files disappear while we’re gone.”
“Neither do I.” Woody replied as he picked up his cell phone. He dialed the station and asked for a uniformed officer to come by and watch Michael, making sure he didn’t touch a single file, paper or electronic, until Woody could get back with that warrant. He hung up the phone and went over to the secretary’s desk.
“Becca, right?” he asked smiling at her. She was a young girl, and although she may have been well qualified, just looking at her Woody could tell that she didn’t get the job based solely on her qualifications.
“Yes,” she replied smiling back, “Can I help you?”
“Could you tell me, what time did you come in this morning?” he asked
“Oh I’d say I was in here a little after seven this morning.”, Becca replied batting her eyelashes at him
“And was Michael here?” asked Woody
Becca nodded. “Oh yeah he’s been here all morning locked up in his little office.”
Woody was about to be finished but he figured he might as well ask her about the family. “Did you know the Davis family?”
“They were such nice people. The boys were, well, teenaged boys. And the little girl was absolutely adorable. Mrs. Davis used to bake cookies and stuff and bring it by the office. I can’t imagine why anybody would want to kill them.” Becca said. Unlike with Michael you could hear the sympathy in her voice and see her eyes water as she spoke.
“So I don’t suppose you know of anybody any of them were having problems with?” Woody questioned
She shook her head no. “I’m sorry I wish I could be of more help.”
“That’s alright.” Woody replied as he and Jordan headed back toward the elevator. They hit the button and when the doors swung open a uniformed officer walked out. “That was quick.”
“I was in the area.” the officer replied
“Well he’s in his office. Just don’t let him touch anything until I get back.” Woody ordered. The officer nodded and headed toward Michael’s office as Woody and Jordan headed into the elevator.
The doors shut and Jordan laughed. “What?” Woody asked looking over at her. Jordan batted her eyelashes over dramatically as she smiled at Woody. “Becca?”
“I didn’t know what was worse, her cheap attempt at flirting or your eyes fixed on her cleavage.” Jordan replied. She was amused watching their interaction as Woody interviewed her.
“I see. The great Jordan Cavanaugh is jealous.” Woody said as the doors swung open to the elevator. It would amuse him to no end to know that this little secretary got under Jordan’s skin.
“Please.” Jordan replied as she walked out of the elevator and headed toward the door
Woody sprinted to catch up to her. “Jordan. Jealous. Who would have thought.” he said as they exited the building
Jordan rolled her eyes. “I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.” she said as they headed over to the car
“Fine.” Woody said dropping the topic and switching back over into detective mode. “We need to get a hold of a judge and get a warrant.”
“It’s going to be interesting to see what Michael’s hiding.” Jordan said as she climbed in and closed the door.
Woody started the engine and tore off, hoping it wouldn’t be long before he would be back.
Nigel sat at the computer as the results of his tests started coming in. None of them were any good. Well he wouldn’t say that, his findings had the potential to be helpful. At the moment though they weren’t going to help Woody or Matt solve the case any faster.
Matt walked in and looked over at Nigel as he sighed. “I hope you have something useful.”
“Well that depends on how you look at it.” Nigel replied swiveling in his chair to look over at Matt. “The glove fiber was basic. We got DNA from the blood on the letter opener, but there were no hits in the system. I can tell you what kind of blade made the marks on the bone.” he said turning back and pulling up an image over the computer
“Great.” Matt said sarcastically as he looked over Nigel’s shoulder and realized it was a basic hunting knife.
“How did the interview go?” Nigel asked
“Melissa had a doctors appointment that morning which I verified, then she just decided to take it upon herself to have the rest of the day off.” Matt replied. Melissa had been a dead end. She was conveniently at the doctor during the murders, and unless she knew something about the case she wasn’t telling him he had no way of connecting her to the crime.
“Well then let’s hope that Woody had better luck.” Nigel said. Anything Woody could bring back at this point would be better than the useless tidbits they had already collected.
Kate stood in the lobby of the morgue with Sharon Davis’s parents. As soon as they heard the news they had left their Manhattan home and taken off for Boston. They tried to enter the house but the police said that it was still a crime scene. Mr. and Mrs. Matthews were adamant about seeing their daughter and their grandchildren and one of the officers escorted them to the morgue.
“Are you sure you want to see the bodies?” Kate asked as she looked over the older couple standing in front of her
“I have to say goodbye to my daughter.” Mrs. Matthews said as her eyes watered and she nodded her head
Kate flashed a sympathetic smile as she gestured toward the door of the morgue. “Right this way.” she said. She wanted to show them the bodies which were still sitting in autopsy, then take them back out and let them talk to Lily. Whether or not Kate thought Lily was needed in the first place, the former morgue councilor was doing a fantastic job with Daniel Davis’s parents and sister.
Kate led them through the hallways and pushed through the doors to autopsy, where the bodies were laid out and covered by a sheet which exposed only their faces. Tears started falling down both of the Matthews’s faces as they saw each of their grandchildren sitting there. As they approached Sharon, Mrs. Matthews started openly weeping over her daughter’s body.
After a few minutes Mrs. Matthews looked up at Kate. “You’re going to catch the man who did this?”
“We’re doing everything we can.” Kate assured her. She was not going to promise her the criminal behind bars. She learned a long time ago that you didn’t always catch the bad guy. “Why don’t we go over to the conference room?” Kate suggested
Mrs. Matthews nodded and her husband draped his arm around her as he led her out of autopsy. They followed Kate down the hallway as Kate opened the door to the conference room where Lily was already sitting with the Davis’s.
The Matthews entered and Mrs. Matthews’s eyes got wide. “You! I knew your son was no good for our daughter! He got her killed!”
“How dare you say that about my brother!” Courtney Davis exclaimed immediately jumping to his defense
Fresh tears formed in Mrs. Matthews eyes. “I kept telling her the people he dealt with would come back to haunt her.”
Mr. Davis jumped up. “Noone knows what the hell happened and you can’t blame this on our son.”
Before anyone could say anything else, Lily stood. “I know you are all grieving over the loss of your family. But now is not the time to be at each other’s throats. Now we can all sit down and calmly talk about what has happened here and how we’re feeling.”
A few angry looks were exchanged between the Davis’s and the Matthews’s before both parties sat and allowed Lily to take over. Kate just shook her head as she exited the conference room, shutting the door behind her.
Lily sighed as she walked into the break room and poured herself a cup of coffee. She was so wrapped up in the situation that she hadn’t noticed Bug sitting there. “Everything alright?” he asked
Lily jumped when she realized she wasn’t the only one in the break room. “Bug, you startled me.” she said as she smiled over at him. “And everything’s fine. Except the fact that I have two feuding families who are so wrapped up in hating each other that they’re not stopping to grieve.”
“Eventually they’ll have to address the situation.” Bug replied smiling at her. “If anyone can get them to talk about what’s going on it’s you.”
“Thank you for the vote of confidence.” Lily replied. “But it’s been a while since I’ve done any counseling and they’re starting to drive me crazy.”
“You’ll be fine.” Bug assured her with a smile. He glanced out the door just in time to see Woody and Jordan, along with a slew of officers, bringing in boxes. He glanced at Lily and stood as both of them followed them into the lab as they threw the boxes down.
Woody looked up as Bug and Lily came in followed by Nigel. “Ok people we’ve got all the files from the Councilman’s office. We need to start going through them looking for anything. Nigel?” he questioned looking over at him
“Yes?” Nigel replied
“Can you handle that?” he asked pointing toward the computer that was brought in
“But of course.” Nigel replied with a smile on his face. He always loved hacking computers, and it was especially exciting to hack into the Councilman’s computer.
“Alright everyone, let’s get to work.” Woody said as he opened up a box to start going through the paper files.
The doors swung open and Matt walked in. “You needed me?” he asked. He had received a phone call from Woody and let it go to voicemail. The message said to meet him in the morgue lab ASAP.
Woody turned toward him and nodded. “I think Michael Drake is hiding something and I think it’s in these files. Would you like to pick a box and get started?”
“Let’s do it.” Matt said as he grabbed a box. At this point he would do anything to find some answers.
Woody stood up and stretched after sitting in a pile of files for a little over two hours. They had been picking through everything with a fine toothed comb and had gotten nowhere. He glanced around at the morgue staff and Matt, who were each going through piles of their own. Sighing he went to find Nigel to see if he had found anything.
“Any luck with the computer?” Woody asked as he went to stand behind him
“Not much at first glance.” Nigel replied turning just enough to see Woody frown. He smiled at him. “Now these encrypted files are starting to look promising.” Nigel had gone through all the files he had easy access to before he started hacking the computer. Now that he had come across Councilman Davis’s secret files, things were starting to get interesting. “It looks like our friend the Councilman kept some shady contacts.”
Woody looked at some of the files Nigel was looking at. “You think these are Davis’s contacts or Drake’s?”
Nigel shook his head. “It’s hard to say.” Both men’s computers were on the same system and accessed the same hard drive so those files and contacts could easy have gone to either man.
Woody sighed. “How are we going to narrow it down?” There were dozens of names popping up, some of which he recognized. Some of them he had even processed for crimes that thanks to people like Shelly Levine they weren’t doing time for. Woody shook his head as he thought about how many of the guys on the contact list should be in jail. Shelly’s run in with an ambulance was a start, but when one falls there’s always another scummy lawyer waiting to take their place.
“Well we do have the killer’s DNA.” Nigel said speaking as he was thinking. “And if some of these guys are already in the system, we can rule them out as killers. That should narrow it down some.”
“Good. Do it.” Woody said. That was certainly a start. Hopefully they could narrow the list of names down to where it was manageable for him and Matt.
Nigel spent an hour going through the names he had found and pulling their records from Boston PD. Most of them had a record, and most of those had DNA on file easily ruling them out as killers. The ones that didn’t Nigel quickly printed out the files they were mentioned in and passed them on to Matt and Woody.
Each detective took a stack of papers and started looking at it. Once Nigel was finished, there were ten good suspects left. Although they could bring them all in and get DNA samples, they were hoping that they could narrow it down even further.
Some of the files hadn’t been touched in years and they were able to cast those aside. Although not impossible, but it was highly unlikely that a contact that old would suddenly be out for vengeance. As Matt was thumbing through some of the papers one in particular caught his eye.
“Hey Woody check this out.” he said passing the paper over to the other detective
Woody took one glance at it. It was something about a Tony Hardy, and there was a name of one of the proposals on there and indication that Hardy was paying either Drake or Davis for something. Woody found it hard to believe Davis was involved because he was one of the most vocal people against the proposal. He claimed it would make it easier for Boston’s filth to run the city.
“You think Hardy was paying Drake to get Davis to change his mind?” Woody asked
“That would certainly be my guess.” Matt said. “Maybe we should bring Mr. Hardy in and see what he has to say for himself.”
Woody nodded. “I think we should.”
It didn’t take long to find Tony Hardy and get him into one of the police department’s interrogation rooms. They were bringing him in for questioning, but they couldn’t really hold him for long without something solid.
“So, Mr. Hardy, you friends with Councilman Davis?” Woody asked as he and Matt each sat down in a seat across from Tony
“Never heard of him.” Tony replied
“What about Michael Drake?” Woody asked and watched as Tony shook his head no
Matt gave a slight smile. “Funny since your name was all over their hard drive.”
“You’re bringing me in because my name was on someone’s computer?” Tony questioned in disbelief
“You know this may just be a big misunderstanding, right Detective Seely?” Woody said smiling and glancing toward Matt
“You’re probably right. If you could just give us a sample of your DNA we’ll clear this right up.” Matt promised flashing him a smile
“I’m not giving anyone a sample of my DNA.” Tony growled
“That’s too bad.” Matt said as he turned to Woody. “Say do you think we can get a warrant and come back and get one?”
“I think so.” Woody replied. “So Mr. Hardy if you want to just sit right here we’ll be back.”
“You can’t keep me here for nothing!” he yelled
“Actually we can. At least for a little while.” Woody replied. He and Matt stood up and exited the interrogation room, leaving Tony Hardy in there by himself.
It didn’t take long for Woody to return with Jordan to collect the DNA sample, as well as search Tony. They removed a knife from his back pocked and rushed both the knife and the DNA over to the lab at the morgue. An hour later Woody and Matt returned with the results.
“We’ve got good news.” Matt said as he and Woody sat down across from Tony once again. “Well good for us anyway. We matched your DNA to DNA we found on a letter opener that Daniel Davis used to defend himself. I imagine that’s the cut.” he finished gesturing to the gash on Tony’s arm
“That’s not the only good news.” Woody said with a smile. “Your knife matches the one used to kill the Davis family. We even found blood caked in the crevice. There’s DNA on it from the Davis’s daughter and one of their sons. So now we have you for killing the Davis family.”
Tony glared at them for a moment. They were right, he had snuck in to kill the councilman. As he exited through the kitchen the wife and daughter saw them and he had to kill them too. One of the sons was coming down the stairs and he chased him back up, and ended up killing the two boys. It was a mess and he hadn’t intended to kill the entire family, but he was promised to be rewarded and was promised that noone would ever find out.
“It wasn’t my idea.” Tony said finally speaking
“Oh really? Then whose idea was it?” asked Woody raising an eyebrow
“I want a deal.” Tony said glaring at Woody. “I’ll tell you everything.” he added. He knew he was going to prison a long time for the murders, but if he could turn over his accomplice they may cut him some slack.
“If you give us the information, we’ll see what we can do.” Matt promised
Tony shook his head. “That’s not good enough.”
Woody let out a small laugh. “You see we don’t make deals based on what you may or may not know. We need something before we can ask the DA to cut you a deal.”
Tony was hesitant but desperate. He waited a few seconds before he gave in. “Michael Drake.” Tony replied looking over the two detectives. “Davis wasn’t listening to Drake’s suggestion to push the proposal through. If they had made those changes I would have been a rich man. Drake too. He said if I killed Davis he would take over and see to it the proposal went through.”
“So Drake had you kill Davis?” Woody asked for clarification
Tony nodded. “He told me when the maid was gone, when the house was supposed to be empty of everyone except Daniel. He gave me the security code to the house. He promised I would be a very rich man when this was all done.”
“See that wasn’t so hard was it?” Matt asked with a smile as he and Woody stood and headed for the door
“What about my deal?” Tony said
“We’ll talk to the DA, see what we can do.” Matt replied with a smile. They heard Tony smash the table with his fist as they exited the room.
That night Woody and Jordan sat at a table in a nice restaurant in the middle of downtown Boston. They had just finished eating and were waiting for the check. Jordan smiled at Woody as she took a sip of her wine. “The look on Drake’s face when we arrested him, that just made my day.”
As soon as they were done with Tony, Matt and Woody and rushed to get the warrant for Michael Drake’s arrest. After their earlier conversation with the man, Jordan was anxious to be there when he got arrested. And it was well worth it.
“I hate it for the family. Those kids... none of them deserved what happened.” Woody said as he ran his thumb along the side of his glass
“Victims never do.” Jordan replied. Although as she thought about it there were some that did. Noone was happier than her when a murderer or a rapist ended up on a slab at the morgue. “At least we put the bastards behind bars.”
“Both for a long time.” Woody added. “Although Tony will be eligible for parole a lot earlier than Michael thanks to his help catching him.”
“Yeah well he’s still going to get a good bit of jail time.” Jordan said shrugging. She hated seeing the bad guys get deals, but at least deals usually meant people who didn’t deserve to live got to go to prison as well.
Woody raised his glass. “To putting more scum behind bars.” he said as Jordan clinked her glass against his.
“I think I can drink to that.” she replied with a smile
Woody took a sip and held up his glass one more time. “And to more dinner dates with the most beautiful, talented woman I’ve ever met.”
Jordan was stunned for a second that he was toasting her, but she did raise her glass and took another drink before setting it down. “So what do you want to do after we leave here?”
“It’s been a long day. I was thinking about going home and relaxing.” Woody said smiling at her. Jordan nodded and he continued. “Care to join me?”
“So you want me to come to your apartment?” Jordan asked trying not to smile as she pretended to clarify the situation
Woody shrugged. “It was just a thought.”
“I suppose I could work you in to my busy schedule.” Jordan replied flashing him a smile
“Sheesh Jordan don’t do me any favors.” Woody said as the waiter dropped the bill on the table. Woody picked it up and put cash down to cover it.
Jordan finished her glass of wine and walked over to the other side of the table, hooking her arm into Woody’s and pulling him up. “You’re lucky to be able to spend some time with me.” she joked as she walked him out of the restaurant
“Well I can’t argue that.” he replied smiling down at her. As they exited the restaurant Woody leaned in and gave her a passionate kiss before taking her to his car and driving the two of them back to his apartment.
The End