Jordan nodded. “I’m sorry to just throw it out there, but I do. Somewhere along the way, you got inside me.”
Rebecca felt her chest clench tightly. It wasn’t hearing the words or seeing the look on her face. It was a feeling. Somewhere deep inside. A sense that everything would be all right because this woman loved her. And with that knowledge came the realization that her heart belonged to Jordan. There would be no pushing her away again.
Chapter 24
Jordan grabbed the phone on the last ring. “Gray.”
Rick’s gravelly voice came through the phone. “It’s Detective Jones.” He paused a second. “We got a problem.”
Jordan’s blood froze. “What? Rebecca?”
“No.” She could hear muted voices in the background, and she knew he must be at the precinct. “We got a call this morning. They found another body.”
The color drained from Jordan’s face. The nightmare was repeating itself. “Where?”
“Alley near Adams off Michigan.”
“Give me twenty.” Jordan grabbed her keys.
“We got a small break this time. We’ve got video of the alley. Hopefully, we can get something to identify this bastard.”
Jordan sighed. “I hope so. We can’t afford to be wrong again.”
“Well, you know what they say. Third times a charm.”
Jordan ended the call as Rick’s nervous laughter faded into the background. She pulled her coat on and ran to the garage. Within minutes, she had called Matt, picked him up and was pulling latex gloves on searching for Rebecca’s red hair among the crowd gathered around the body. She knew she would find her at the crime scene despite being shot only ten days before. She had one thing right about herself. She was as stubborn as they came.
She stopped next to Rebecca and lowered her voice. “What are you doing here?”
Rebecca flicked her eyes to the yellow tape. “It’s my case.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Jordan’s voice lowered to a warning tone. “I mean, why are you here? You shouldn’t be here after you know.”
“Jordan, I’m fine. Really.”
“Detective.”
Rebecca pulled her gaze away from Jordan’s face. “What do you have?”
“I think you will want to see this.”
Jordan pulled the crime-scene tape up and she and Rebecca stopped over the body. The M.E. pulled back the victim’s hair. A large bruise discolored the right side of her face from her forehead to her jaw. “This one got the shit beat out of her. These wounds are perimortem. She sustained them right before she died.”
Rebecca leaned over and tried to hide the wince of pain in her abdomen. She hadn’t had the stitches removed yet and pulling against them hurt. “Damn.”
“And look at this.” The M.E. lifted her hand and held out her fingernails. “We’ve got skin and blood under the nails. Probably the perp’s.”
Rebecca studied her hands. “Bag ‘em. I don’t want to do anything to compromise the evidence. In case you didn't notice, the CDD is pretty much the laughing stock of Chicago. Fucking this one up again isn’t an option.”
The M.E. nodded. Rebecca tried to stand up, but the pain stopped her and her breath caught in her throat. Jordan slipped her hands under her arms and pulled her up before anyone else noticed she was struggling. “Thanks.”
Jordan looked at her askance. “This is why you don’t need to be out here. You’re not ready.”
Rebecca’s eyes flashed, and she opened her mouth then shut it just as quickly when Jordan shot her a look. “I’m sorry, babe. I had to be here.”
“You know Rick can handle it.” Jordan cupped her elbow and held the tape up, so she could walk under it. “And there isn’t anything that you will see here that you can’t see in the crime scene photos.”
Rebecca wanted to object, but she couldn’t. Jordan was right. In one last attempt to show her independence, she rolled her eyes. “Take me back to the precinct. Let’s see if there is anything on the video that can identify this guy.”
Rick and Matt were watching the video by the time they walked into the bullpen surrounded by boxes of donuts and coffee.
“Anything yet?” Jordan passed the box around then grabbed a donut for herself. She had eaten more donuts in the past three months than in her whole life.
Rick pushed a couple of buttons and paused it on a woman walking across from the Institute. He advanced it several more scenes and stopped again. “That’s him.”
The footage was grainy, but Rebecca could see him in the dim lights of the jewelry store. His head was turned and he was obviously watching her. “Roll it forward slowly. I want to see if we can make out his face.”
Rick advanced it frame by frame with no luck. He had a dark hat pulled low over his face, and the collar of his coat pulled up over the lower half of his face. The description was dead on though. Tall and lanky, and from what they had witnessed on the previous victims, he was incredibly strong.
They watched in horror as each frame played out the scene they had just left. He caught up to her and when he grabbed her, she whipped around and swiped at his face. His hand flew to his cheek, and in the same breath, he stepped back on his right foot and dropped his right shoulder. His fist flew into her face with such force that they wouldn’t be surprised if there were shattered bones beneath the bruising.
“Roll it back.”
Rick stopped and rewound the tape slowly.
“There.” Jordan pointed at the screen. They watched her swipe at his face again and then saw her reel backwards from the crushing blow. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she felt a slight nagging, but couldn’t place it. Something in that few seconds bothered her. “Again.”
Rick obliged again, and they watched it a third time in slow motion.
“What do you see?” Rebecca stepped closer to the TV.
Jordan shook her head. “I’m not sure.” She pointed at the paused video. “Here. See this. That’s a boxer’s move. The drop in the shoulder. I’ve seen it before. I just can’t remember where.”
Matt shrugged. “Probably on TV. We watch fights all the time.”
Jordan nodded. He was right. They got together all the time at Frank’s. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” She looked over her shoulder at Rick. “I’m sorry, you can start it up again.”
Rick started the playback again. In slow motion, they watched him wrestle her to the ground, slit her throat and sexually assault her. The last few minutes of the attack were almost too much, but they forced themselves to watch. They watched as he brutally ripped the last vestiges of her clothing away and stole from her the very life that she had nurtured and died protecting.
They couldn’t ignore the change in his demeanor as he wrapped the fetus in a small cloth and tucked it inside his coat. He was gentle, where only moments before he had brutally taken a life. He turned, and on the way out of the alley, pulled his hat down lower and pulled his coat tightly around his prize.
“God.” Rebecca breathed quietly. “It’s almost eerie to watch. Julien was dead on with his take on the murders. This man is exacting revenge on women, but the babies are precious. Who is this guy? What happened to mess him up this way?”
Jordan tapped her temple. “Guy’s a fucking nut job, but you won’t know it to look at him. I feel like we are back to square one.”
Rick nodded. “Every lead has turned into a dead end.”
Matt snapped his fingers. “The Dawsons. He had a rap sheet, and wifey lost her chance to get a kid when
