The Detective

  © Copyright 2017 by Darline Joyce - All rights reserved.

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  The Detective

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  The Detective

  By: Darline Joyce

  CHAPTER 1

  “Ok, people. Here is the next case.”

  Captain Fields booming voice filled the conference room echoing off the walls and giving Riley Daniels a bit of a headache. She thought she should have been used to it by now after a year on the force, the last two months as a detective, but some things you could never get used to it seemed. The man seemed to have an impossible struggle with controlling the volume of his voice so that it always sounded like he was shouting at you; it had taken her three months of being on the force to realize he was just a loud talker and that he was not constantly ticked off about something. He was only ticked off about seventy-five percent of the time.

  “Jordan Brady. She was an eighteen year old female who went missing after a barn fire at her parent’s farm six years ago. There were no remains found anywhere on the property and her whereabouts are still unknown. No one has been seriously suspected or apprehended in relation to this crime. It went cold quickly and after all this time it is colder than the darkest region of Pluto.”

  Riley immediately held up her hand. “I want that one,” she said with total conviction.

  She had only been through a few of these cold case audits, where the department opened up cold cases when current casework slowed down enough that they could actually focus on these a bit better. The Captain went through the cases routinely and asked people who wanted to deal with them.

  Riley was a new detective and she was really out to try to prove that she deserved the job. So many in the Oklahoma PD looked down on her for rising through the ranks so quickly, but she chalked it all up to her never ending determination and the fact that she had great instincts. She typically wasn’t one to toot her own horn, but she knew that being a detective was in her blood. It was all she had ever thought about being and it was all she desired to be; she had worked her soul out to get where she was and now was a great chance for her to prove it.

  Not to mention the photograph of the missing girl, Jordan Brady, was so hot. The picture they had of her was from about three months before she disappeared where she was letting one of her horses eat out of her hand. The girl was tall and slender, with some great curves, a tight tush, and beautiful long flowing auburn hair. She also had the most beautiful smile that Riley had ever seen. It was like a beacon calling out to her to be set free with a sweet kiss; Riley would have loved to have been that kisser.

  Riley felt a blush coming on as she stared at it; she was not sure how to deal with this, but as she stared at the photo of this woman she realized that she lusted after her, sexually. Riley had never been much of a dater, despite being beautiful in her own right and having a lot of would-be suitors; she had just never been that interested in dating. She wasn’t sure why, but she’d always preferred other things.

  Sitting there looking at that photo of this gorgeous woman was a new feeling for her; she realized that she lusted after Jordan. She wanted to… be… with her. What did that mean?

  “Wow, that was fast; I didn’t even have to hand out bribes for pizza and ice cream,” Fields said. He almost smiled when he said it but it still sounded like a military officer barking orders during basic training drills. Fields had been a military officer for a number of years before joining the police force; it might have been at this time that shouting became permanently entrenched in his throat to the point that he could do nothing else.

  No one laughed at his joke; they didn’t know that they were supposed to.

  “Ok, then. You can have this one,” Captain Fields said.

  Riley almost jumped up and cheered for herself, but somehow she was able to remain cool and calm about it all.

  As she left the large conference room about a half hour later she practically ran to her office to get started on the case research. She closed the door behind her and settled into research mode. Jordan had disappeared into thin air and no one in her family had heard from her since then. According to the research that Riley spent the afternoon doing Jordan had no obvious reason for running away. Her family said she was in a freshman in college, still lived at home, had excellent grades, was involved in a few social clubs on campus, didn’t have any significant others at the time, but was very happy. It just did not make sense why she would just up and disappear into thin air like she turned into some sort of a ghost.

  There had to be something that everyone was missing; every case had a clue that was staring you in the face the entire time after you knew what it was. It always ended up making you feel stupid for not seeing it more quickly.

  After going through all of the old evidence and still drawing a blank, Riley decided to do a reverse photo search in the database to see if any matches pulled up. Nothing did. Then she ran a search in google to see if she might find any hits on social media. There were none. It seemed that Riley had even taken down all of her old accounts, which was not something that dead people did. So unless someone killed her and did this to further erase this person from existence, odds were that Riley was alive somewhere.

  It had been six years… so she would be twenty-four now. She might look a bit different then the picture that they had.

  Riley went to their forensics division and talked with Cody Kell, their forensic photographer. He used some updated software to make a digital copy of the photo and alter it so that it would add six years to Jordan’s appearance. She became even more beautiful and Riley had trouble keeping her heart from melting every time she looked at it. She practically fell in love with the photo every two seconds; if she wasn’t able to get that under control then it was going to be a harder case then she thought.

  “Let’s run the updated picture through PAV and we will see if it matches,” Cody said.

  After a few minutes it reported no matches.

  “Ugh…” Riley groaned.

  “We still have one other thing we can try,” Cody said. “Have you heard of the DET?”

  “Not right off hand,” Riley said.

  “It’s awesome. Basically it runs the picture and cross references it to see if it matches any known video online or in our databases. It saves time when analyzing surveillance equipment.”

  “Wow, that sounds interesting.”

  Riley watched as Cody pulled up the new software and ran the scanned and updated photo through it.

  “Yeah, we just got this software about two weeks ago; it’s blowing doors wide open. It’s pretty major.”

  Riley had the impression that Cody was trying to impress her with his smart techno geek talk; it wasn’t working.

  A few minutes later they had a match.

  “Bingo!” Cody said.

  “What? You have one?” Riley asked. She could not believe it.

  “Yep, looks like there is a match on a convenience store and a department store security footage in Miami, Florida. Wow, that’s a ways from Oklahoma.”

  “This is fantastic! Thanks, Cody.”

  Before Cody could even say “You’re welcome” she was running back up the stairs. She had to talk to the Captain ASAP.

  She had to get to M
iami.

  “You want to go where?” The Captain asked after she told him the news.

  “I have to go to Miami; this girl is there.”

  “Well, it’s fantastic that we found this girl, but Miami is a bit out of our jurisdiction in Oklahoma City.”

  “I know that,” Riley said. “But I think her family would appreciate if someone from her own backyard found her instead of someone out there. Besides we don’t know why she is there or what she is running from. I don’t want to alarm the family yet; if we hand it over to Miami Metro then we might lose her.”

  “I think you should give Miami Metro some credit; they do have a lot more citizens than we do.”

  Riley took a deep breath. She really wanted this case; it was hers and she had to convince the Captain.

  “Let me do this,” Riley said. “I really think I can solve this quickly and reunite this girl with her family.”

  The Captain thought it over.

  “Ok. I’ll make the arrangements for your flight. You should go home and pack.”

  “Thanks, Captain!” Riley said.

  Little did she know that this was going to be the adventure of a lifetime.

  CHAPTER 2

  Riley was in culture shock overload. She had been to a few beaches in Miami on vacation with her family when she was a kid, but she had never actually been to the heart of Miami. Everywhere she looked she could see people wearing next to nothing; strange hair, tanned bodies, people obsessed by image, status, and money. It was like a celebrity paradise for people who were not celebrities but wanted to live like them.

  From the surveillance photos that had matched in the database, Riley could see that Jordan was carrying a shopping bag from a shoe store called Blaze Shoes Inc. After doing a search for the area that the convenience store was located in Riley found that the only one close by was in the Merrick Park Mall.

  So that was the place to start.

  As Riley entered the mall she continued to be shocked by the way people were dressed and how they were all staring at her dressed slightly conservative in polo shirt and a pair of jeans. It was like they could instantly spot someone who was not one of them; Riley could not help but feel kind of frumpy and out of place, whereas she was always considered stylish and modern in Oklahoma. It was almost like a different world out here.

  But she thought she could get to like it; the warm sunshine, the smell of the ocean breezes, and the beautiful bodies that were walking around everywhere. The most amazing looking women were just everywhere as if they had their own assembly line here; but none of them compared to the way she felt when she looked at the picture of Jordan. There was just this extra spark that she did not know how to deal with.

  The shoe store was located in the middle of the mall on the first level. It was a more upscale store and the prices were insane. As she walked through the doors pretending to be just an ordinary customer browsing for a new pair of work shoes. She did not want to scare Jordan and have her run from her; but it was not going to be easy because Riley knew that she projected a very “cop” vibe sometimes. It was the sort of thing that was just really hard to turn off; it had become like an extension of her personality and it was just second nature.

  As Riley looked around at the different pairs of way over priced shoes that would cost her a week’s salary, she kept her eyes peeled for any sign of Jordan. There was only one girl working behind the counter; she was a perky and cute girl but younger than Jordan would have been now. She was waiting on another customer. Riley waited until she was done before approaching the counter. This girl appeared to be high school age possibly or eighteen at the most.

  “Can I help you find something?” the young lady asked Riley.

  “Maybe,” Riley replied in her sweetest voice, hoping to keep her Oklahoma accent as sparse as possible. “I’m looking for this woman; have you seen her?” Riley held up the picture to the young girl and waited as she stared at it blankly.

  “Oh, that is Miss Donovan; she owns the Cuban restaurant a few doors down from here.”

  “Oh, well thank you for your help.”

  Riley walked into the restaurant and pretended to be another customer. She did not see the woman she was looking for anywhere close by. She needed to find out where Jordan or “Miss Donovan, as she was now called” was, but then again she did not want to upset the establishment or cause a scene at all.

  “Just one today?” the hostess asked as she entered.

  “Actually, I was wondering is Miss Donovan was in today?”

  “Oh, sure; she is in the back. I’ll be glad to get her.”

  While the hostess was gone Riley took the time to look around at the décor of the restaurant. It was very festive and kind of dark, atmospheric, but at the same time it seemed to hold good cheer. The food smelled delicious and Riley found herself getting really hungry. She had never had Cuban food, but she definitely wanted to try it out before she left town.

  “She is right over there.”

  The voice of the hostess flooded her ears from a distance. Riley turned and stared down a long corridor that led towards the kitchen area

  She could not believe her eyes.

  Standing there about twenty feet from where she stood was Jordan Daniels. She was even more beautiful than any photo could ever do justice; it was like a dream had just come to life before her eyes and Riley could not breathe. Her heart felt like it was trying to come to a stop inside her chest. The legs she usually relied on and had foot chased down over ten different perps in her career seemed nailed to the floor and refused to obey her commands to move.

  Jordan approached her slowly with a smile on her face. Riley had never seen such an angelic smile on anyone before and she felt her whole body getting tingles at the thought of even shaking this woman’s hand. Sweat began to trickle down her back, adding to her sexual awakening, which was happening right then. She wanted this woman more than she had ever wanted anyone before. It felt good… it felt right… it felt perfect. Finally, it felt perfect.

  But as Jordan approached, moving closer and closer to Riley her smile began to fade, the sweet look of open friendship and grace disappeared in a flash to be replaced by a look of total fear and panic as she realized who Riley was. It was impossible to know what might have tipped Jordan off, but she suddenly turned and ran out towards the back of the restaurant.

  Riley’s legs became unfrozen as she ran after Jordan, past the hostess who was suddenly very confused and through the busy kitchen and finally out a back door into an alleyway that ran behind the mall.

  “Wait! Stop!” Riley yelled, ignoring the futility of such commands. She did not have a gun on Jordan and had no reason to pull one; Jordan was not considered armed and dangerous. And she was much faster than Riley had anticipated, those long, sexy legs of hers could move, pumping the pavement with long strides where her feet barely even touched the ground.

  Luckily Riley ran five miles every day and was in great shape; she wasn’t sure she could out sprint Jordan, but she was hoping her endurance might give her the edge she needed.

  She chased Jordan down the street yelling for her to stop, but Jordan kept running harder, and harder. Riley was at full speed, full on sprint mode and she actually thought Jordan was starting to tire as she began to gain on the leggy redhead.

  Jordan got lucky and hit a red light at an intersection and ran to the other side and then rounded a corner. Riley hurried, pumping her arms and her feet faster and faster. She had to make the light or else she would have to wait for the traffic to get out of the way.

  She hit the light as it turned yellow, sprinting past the cars still standing still and then rounded the corner. Jordan was up ahead still running hard and turning into a lush, beautiful looking park. Riley was definitely gaining on her as Jordan’s endurance began to slow down. This excited Riley and she found a way to tap into the reserves of energy she had deep inside and flip the switch of adrenaline to propel her body forward even faster.

 
She was getting closer… closer…

  Jordan glanced back, the absolute terror still evident on her face as she tried to push her body harder. She did not see the edge of the park bench and by the time she turned her head back forward she did not have time to move out of the way as her toe caught the edge of it and she hit the ground.

  Riley was there a second later, as Jordan struggled to stand up. Riley tackled her to the ground and placed her in a strong judo hold so the girl could not move.

  “Let me go!” Jordan screamed.

  “No! “Riley yelled, producing her badge to display to the shocked people who were now starting to gawk at this scene.

  “Why? Why don’t you let me go?”

  “I don’t want to take you in; I just want you to talk to me. Your family is worried sick about you. They think you might be dead.”

  “You’re police?” Jordan asked, the fear in her voice subsiding a bit.

  “Yes. I’m Oklahoma City police.”

  “Oklahoma..”

  “Here is my ID,” Riley said flashing her photo ID in front of Jordan’s face.

  “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Can we please go over here and just talk?”

  “Ok,” Jordan said as Riley helped her to her feet.

  They found a park bench in the middle of the park and took a few minutes to catch their breaths.

  Riley could not help but be somewhat turned on at the sight and the sound of Jordan’s hot breath moving in and out of her body at a rapid rate, her large, full, chest undulating up and downward.

  Riley tried to calm her heartbeat down, but being this close to the epitome of sexy made it almost impossible.

  She had it bad for this woman.

  CHAPTER 3

  The boardwalk on the beach was beautiful; the gorgeous sunshine, the clear blue skies, the warm ocean air, and the beautiful bikini clad bodies everywhere she looked; Riley could not have imagined paradise being any nicer than this.