Deep in the Night

This is one part of a longer crime/romance story that is connected to the other parts. To fully appreciate the story, please start at Part 1 and read through. Thanks.

Part 6 Jordan Falls for Raven and They Take a Ride

Jordan slept fitfully the rest of the night. She was alert to every noise and awoke every time she heard something. She thought someone else was in the room, but other than crickets chirping and an occasional car on Main Street, the remainder of the night was quiet.

As dawn began to brighten the eastern sky, Jordan arose, stretching her muscles, which had been limited in their movement on the couch. Raven emerged from her bedroom, "How did you sleep Jordan?" "Not good," came the reply.

"I'm sorry. I should have taken the couch and let you sleep in my bed." She wasn't going to mention the strange episode during the night.

"The couch wasn't so bad. I was just listening for every sound and assuming they were all suspicious. Besides, what if that guy came back? I wouldn't have done you any good if I was back in your bedroom and couldn't hear him."

"It's nice to know I have an FBI agent here to protect me. I'll fix breakfast for you."

"Silly. Please, don't go to any trouble."

"It's my pleasure, Jordan. It is the least I can do for my personal bodyguard." Raven winked at her and retreated to the kitchen before Jordan could protest anymore.

"I am going to run to my room to shower and change first." Jordan announced. When she returned to Raven's apartment the place was filled with the aromas of a hearty breakfast. Jordan was wearing a dark skirt and a white knit sleeveless blouse. She carried her handgun in her purse in case the rock thrower came back.

"It smells wonderful in here." Jordan announced as she entered Raven's small kitchen.

"God, Raven! How much food are you fixing?" She asked laughing.

Raven was in the midst of pouring pancake batter into a nonstick skillet. Bacon was sizzling in another skillet and coffee was dripping in the brewer. "How do you like your eggs, Jordan?" Raven smiled at her when she saw the agent. Jordan looked refreshed and very appealing to Raven in her woman's tailored suit and make-up.

"Over easy, and light on those pancakes, I only have the clothes I came with." Jordan replied, laughing.

"There's some juice in the refrigerator if you like. Just help yourself." Jordan opened the door to the refrigerator next to the stove and pulled out a carton of orange juice. As she closed the door, she glanced side wards and noticed that Raven's silk robe had gaped open while she was cooking. A partial view of a dark patch between her legs and the luscious curve of Raven's right breast was in Jordan's line of vision. Raven turned her way.

Jordan quickly looked away, not wanting Raven to see her blatant stare. She found two juice glasses and poured some of the orange juice for Raven and herself. Jordan moved away and sat at the kitchen table.

A realization came to her;

she's not wearing anything under the robe now, so she must sleep in the nude.

Raven finished fixing the eggs and scooped two platefuls of eggs, pancakes and bacon. She leaned across the table to hand Jordan a plate and gave Jordan another view of her goods. She was completely aware that Jordan was taking in everything.

Only after Raven sat down across from Jordan did she bother to adjust her robe. She discreetly noticed that Jordan was blushing slightly, but she didn't say anything. It made her feel sexy that she was having this affect on the other woman.

"Uh...Raven, I'm going to need you to come to the sheriff's office today so we can get a set of your fingerprints."

Raven stopped eating and asked quickly, trying to disguise her alarm, "Is that really necessary, I suppose it is?"

"Yes...Raven." Her thoughts were disturbed and she remembered a phone number that she had which was filed safely away in case of problems. There hadn't been any reason to use the number...until now.

Jordan's thoughts were disturbed in another manner. Her heart seemed to be beating a little faster this particular morning as the image of Raven's breast lingered in her mind. She was willing to bet that Raven had let her robe hang open on purpose when she had leaned across the table; she wanted me to see her.

The notion encouraged Jordan and she decided to go ahead with a plan. After finishing her meal, she offered to help clean up from breakfast. They loaded the dishes into the dishwasher, both women finding a certain comfort level working side by side.

When they finished, Jordan announced that she had to get over to the sheriff's office. She would much rather have preferred to stay with Raven. Raven got up to see Jordan to the door, but Jordan stopped when she got to the motel's office door and turned to face Raven.

Well, here goes, and taking a deep breath, she asked, "Would you like to have dinner with me Raven?"

To her astonishment, Raven burst into laughter, "At the diner, Jordan? Sure...I can't wait to hear what rumor they will come up with after I will have been seen all over town with you!"

Raven instantly regretted her statement when she noticed a hurt expression on Jordan's face. She quickly added, "Jordan, did I misunderstand something?"

"Well...I though we could have a nice dinner. At Geronimo's."

"Geronimo's? Jordan, that's a four star restaurant in Santa Fe!" Raven exclaimed.

"Yes, I know. I was hoping you would be interested in going there. With me. For dinner."

Raven looked puzzled and asked cautiously, "Jordan, are you asking me for a date?" Raven saw another side to Jordan, as the cool, collected agent seemed a bit uncomfortable.

Jordan seemed to be considering Raven's question and finally answered, "Would you mind?"

Raven's voice was deeper and quieter as she spoke slowly and deliberately, "I would love to go with you, Jordan."

Jordan raised her eyebrows in wonder and a smile played across her face, "Excellent! Is Friday okay? At 6, so we have time to drive?"

"That will be fine Jordan."

Jordan was visibly relieved and smiled at Raven again, "Then I will make reservations for us. I will talk to you later Raven." She left the motel in a jubilant mood.

Raven shut the door and grinned to herself. She couldn't believe it and was ecstatic that Jordan would arrange a date. She went to her closet to see what she had available to wear.

Jordan was certainly happy about it too. Her rejection of Gary's try at dating her was forgotten, along with her reasoning for it. She also was forgetting the first principal of detective work; everyone's a suspect until eliminated. Raven was certainly not eliminated, not with her mysterious background still unexplained. Jordan was seriously near breaking a lot of rules.

***

Jordan burst into the sheriff's office, "Good Morning, Sarah. How are you today, sweetie? Where do you shop for nice clothes around here?"

"Well the best place is Cottonwood Mall in Albuquerque. They have Macy's. It's on the other side of the Rio Grande by Coors Blvd NW."

"Thanks, Sarah." Jordan plopped herself down into a chair in the conference room which had become her makeshift office. Whatever am I going to wear, she moaned to herself,

I don't have time to go to Albuquerque to shop for clothes before Friday.

She remembered that she needed to go to the dry cleaners and she dashed out of the office yelling to Sarah over her shoulder, "Be right back, forgot I had an errand to run."

She returned to the sheriff's office after dropping her clothes off.

Jordan called a meeting that afternoon of everyone to assess where they stood on the case. Gary began with a report of the interviews that he and Casey had conducted. "We interrogated everyone and their brother who was either related to or acquainted with the victims. The first victim, Amber, had a cold when she was murdered, but she was not sick enough to miss time at her job. She hung around the Ranch Pub occasionally. Wasn't involved with anyone and had an amiable break up with her boyfriend two months prior to her death."

"Wait a minute," Jordan interrupted, "Amber was sick too?"

"Yeah, she just had a cold." Gary replied.

"I am wondering why each victim was sick at the time of her death. Let's take a look at that perspective. What can you tell me about the second victim, Ellen Bentley."

Gary continued, "She liked to lead a healthy lifestyle. She was an expert horse rider. She broke and trained horses at the ranch where she worked. Along with being a vegetarian, she was a non-smoker, rarely touched alcohol, exercised several times a week. Her family stated she was an active, healthy woman, so they were a little concerned when she was ill last May. They did tell me that Ellen had thought it was something she ate from the diner two days prior to her murder."

He continued, "If you ask me Jordan, the asshole just hung around the victims houses, noticed they were ill and took advantage of that fact to gain control of them."

Jordan kept her opinion to herself, but she completely disagreed with Gary's conclusion. She scribbled a note to call the Medical Examiner's office after the meeting. Just then, Sarah knocked on the conference room door.

"Come in." Jordan called. Sarah opened the door and gestured for Jordan to step outside the office.

Jordan excused herself from the meeting and was delighted to see Raven standing by the front desk, "I am here to give you my fingerprints. I hope I am not interrupting anything," she said.

"Just a meeting. I am glad you stopped by. Follow me." Jordan led her to a back room where she opened a fingerprinting kit. Raven had made a call after Jordan had left her apartment earlier that morning and was reassured that her fingerprints shouldn't be a problem.

She allowed Jordan to press each of her fingers onto the inkpad and roll them onto paper. It gave her a few moments of enjoyment while Jordan gently held each of her fingers. Standing next to Jordan, she could smell the scent of Jordan's shampoo from the same brand she herself had put in her room. She watched the gentle swell of Jordan's breasts underneath her sleeveless knit top.

"All finished," Jordan announced all too soon. "There's a bathroom across the hall, you can wash the ink off in there."

Raven was familiar with the process having already been through it before, but she pretended it was her first time. While Raven was in the bathroom, Jordan ended the fruitless meeting and gave the deputies and detectives some more assignments. Raven emerged from the bathroom and walked by the conference room on her wait out of the building. She saw Jordan sitting at the table alone and poked her head in the doorway, "I can't wait till Friday night."

"Neither can I." Jordan agreed and she waved goodbye to her new friend.

Jordan suppressed a shiver of delight at the thought of their date as she dialed the number to the Medical Examiner's Office. She got through to Dr. Adams, the chief examiner. After stating who she was, Dr. Adams immediately knew why she was calling, "This is in regard to the Shawnee murders."

"Yes, Dr. Adams, I wanted to inform you that each of the victims was sick at the time of her murder. I don't know if that is significant, but I have come to learn that no clue, no matter how pedestrian it seems, is insignificant."

"Well, Agent Connor, Ellen Bentley was cremated, so her remains are gone, but I wouldn't think we would need to exhume any of the bodies anyway. I have tissue samples from each of the victims. I can look for microorganisms, but I have to tell you, anything we find will be dead, so to speak. It has been over a month since the last murder. Bacteria and viruses can't live long without a living host."

"I would appreciate whatever you can do. At the very least, it will eliminate a potential motive."

"And what motive is that agent Connor?"

"I have no idea. I am fishing for causes right now. Please let me know what you find as soon as possible."

"Will do."

Jordan hung up the phone and got up to close the door to the conference room. Sitting back down, she opened her laptop and accessed confidential databases. Jordan felt a bit guilty searching Raven's personal records, but her curiosity had to be satisfied. She needed to find out who Raven Summers was. She was happy to find nothing. Raven had a clean driving record and no criminal record. Vital records revealed that she was born in South Dakota in 1978 to a Midwestern farmer of Irish descent and an Sioux mother. So that's where her black hair comes from, she's part Native American.

Jordan closed her laptop when she heard a knock at the door, "Come in."

Casey walked in, "Jordan, some of the prints on the rock match Raven's prints. There are some other prints too, but I can't distinguish if they are Raven's or not and I can't get a match on them."

"All right, fax a copy of them to Quantico. The FBI can get an experienced agent to look at them. If there is a match for them in the database, he will find it."

"Yeah...sure." Casey was irritated that Jordan did not trust her expertise to match the fingerprints. She left Jordan's office in a huff.

"Casey, wait." Jordan called after her. Casey turned and stood just inside the doorway, "Yes?"

"Look, Casey. Your assessment of the prints is probably right. I just want to verify it. It is not a reflection on your police work that I want a federal agent to look at them too."

"Thanks, Jordan." Casey seemed satisfied with Jordan's rationalization. "What about having a drink with me Jordan? Friday night good?"

"I'm sorry, Casey. I already have plans for Friday."

"You don't say. Did Gary get to you?" Jordan shook her head smiling, "No, it wasn't Gary." She didn't elaborate further.

The rest of the day was unproductive. Jordan thought she might get a chance to make a drive to Albuquerque for a short shopping spree during the evening.

She was just about to leave the office when Sarah forwarded a call to her from the medical examiner's office, "This is Agent Connor." "Agent Connor, its Dr. Adams. I have amazing news! I don't know how you came up with it, but all three of the victim's tissue samples contain unknown bacterial spores!" Jordan was quiet for a moment as she tried to comprehend the significance of Dr. Adams report.

"What does that mean Dr. Adams?"

"It means each victim was ill with some sort of bacterial infection that we can't identify. It looks a bit like streptococcus, but it has different properties. Agent Connor, I have faxed the info to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, they are sending a team first thing in the morning."

"What!" Jordan nearly shouted into the phone. "Tell me if these bugs are contagious!"

"I wish I could tell you that, but I have no idea. We have to identify the germs first before we determine that."

"That's just great!" Jordan sighed. We could have a full blown panic on our hands if this news gets out. Please keep it quiet on your end Dr. Adams."

Jordan hung up and went to relay the disturbing news to the sheriff. "Good God!" he exclaimed, "What if some lunatic is trying to infect Shawnee with anthrax?"

"I'm not sure it's anthrax, Bill. The medical examiner seems to think it's in the strep family. Let's keep this to ourselves right now. I'm not aware of anyone getting sick in town, hopefully it won't spread."

"You're right about that Jordan. No one is getting sick or we would know about it. I'm going to call the doc just in case and see if any Shawnee residents have been paying him a visit with flu like illnesses. Might as well call the local hospital too. I'll let you know what I find."

Jordan left the office, her happy mood dashed. She called the detectives on their cell phone; they were both at the El Rancho. She informed them of the latest events and urged them to keep it to themselves. Guess I won't be going shopping tonight, she thought.

Her mood picked up again, though, as she reached the motel. Raven was outside by the pool. Jordan quietly walked up and waited till Raven finished her conversation she was having with a young man. She turned to head back to the office and saw Jordan.

"Hi, darling. I'm getting the pool covered up tomorrow. How are you?"

"I'd be happier if I could put this case behind me. There are some new developments that don't look good. By the way, thanks for letting us get your prints. It helped eliminate some of the prints off the rock." "And?" Raven asked.

"And nothing. I'm glad I saw you out here tonight. My day started out great then went downhill, but now it's gotten a lot better again." Jordan smiled at Raven.

"I have something that might be an interesting diversion for you, Jordan."

She led Jordan to the rear of the motel where there was a large 3 bay garage/storage shed. One of the bay doors slid open and Raven reached inside to flip on a light switch. There it stood, gleaming with chrome and a polished black finish. Jordan's mouth dropped open at the sight of the shiny motorcycle.

"Raven, I never would have guessed you to be a biker chick!"

"This is my Harley Fat Boy. I don't know if anyone in Shawnee even knows that I have it. I mostly ride it just for fun...but only at night....to avoid more gossip. I wanted to show it to you."

"I have a feeling you are going to be full of surprises, my dear."

"Want to go for a ride, Jordan!" Jordan giggled, "That may be a bit difficult since I am wearing a skirt."

"So go change." Raven ordered.

"What the hell, it's been a crazy kind of day. Give me a few minutes, Raven."

Jordan dashed off to her motel room only to happy to take Raven up on her spontaneity. She hurriedly ripped off her clothes and put on a pair of jeans, a pullover top and her running shoes. She stuck her pistol in the waistband of her jeans covered by her top. Returning to the garage, she saw Raven had changed as well into black jeans, heavy boots and a short black leather jacket.

She wheeled the bike out of the garage, closed the door and handed a helmet to Jordan. "Put this on, I don't let anyone ride without one."

"So you regularly take women for rides on the bike with you, Raven?" Jordan teased.

"No, you are the first one, Jordan. At least, the first since I moved to Shawnee. And, the first one on this bike." She wrapped her long hair around her hand and tucked it into her helmet as she slipped the helmet over her head. She turned the key in the ignition; the bike roared to life with its characteristic loud exhaust drowning out any chance of further conversation.

Jordan put the helmet on and closed the darkened faceplate. She straddled the bike behind Raven.

"Ready?" Raven yelled back to her, "Hold on!" She couldn't see Jordan's grin under her helmet, gladly Raven. Jordan scooted as close as she could behind Raven and wrapped her arms around Raven's waist, grasping her taut abdomen over her jacket. Raven eased the bike out into the alley that ran parallel with Main Street.

The sun was hanging just above the horizon in the west so Raven gave the bike some throttle and headed north. Everyone on that side of town knew Raven was riding her Harley.

When she got to the outskirts of town on the farm road she went only a short distance then veered off to the right onto a side road. There was no traffic and Raven flew like the wind. After driving several miles, she pulled off onto another road; only this one seemed more like a dirt trail leading up into the pine tree forested hills. She slowed the bike down and stopped beside a flowing river lined with trees on each side. By this time, only a sliver of the sun was visible above the horizon and a full moon was rising in the east. Raven turned off the ignition and swung off the bike. She took her helmet off and shook her head letting her long hair fall free. Jordan did likewise and the only sounds were coyotes howling, crickets and the gurgling of the river.