Chapter Text
Another slow day for the Whiteridge Police department, that’s what today was. That’s what every day was, really. Because who was going to commit any major crime in such a small county? Jordan Alec, a detective for the WPD, sat at his desk, bored out of his mind. He’d had nothing to do for ages, honestly he wondered why he’d kept coming in to work when all they’d had him do this week was trace someone who’d been fishing illegally to see if it was their first trespassing charge. He looked out the window of the little corner room he called his office, staring out at the dull gray sky. It was rainy again today, like it had been all week. For a Friday, the mood was pretty depressing, or at least he thought it was. Lieutenant Cross had said he found the weather peaceful. Jordan didn’t quite understand how it could be, but maybe that was just the fact that his roof had a leak talking.
Jordan heaved a sigh and spun around in his chair a few times, counting the seconds until he could clock out. At least he was getting paid to basically do nothing, so that was a bonus. He put his head down on his desk, may as well just sleep off the rest of his hours right? He un-tensed his body, letting himself slump down in his chair. Slowly the sleep took over his body, he had a dream, though what it was about was blurry. The moon, a dark forest, eyes all around him.
He must’ve slept longer than he’d meant to, because when he did wake up, he woke up to someone pounding on his office door. Jordan yelped and fell out of his chair, scrambling to his feet as he called to whoever was at the door. “C-come in!” Jordan straightened up as the Chief walked in. “Chief! Sorry- I was just uh…I was really focused on work! Yeah. Uh…detective things!” The chief chuckled a bit at Jordan’s attempt to cover up that he’d been napping, though the sound was dry and didn’t carry any joy.
“Don’t worry, Alec, you aren’t the only one who sleeps his boring hours away. Levi is still asleep at his desk, crashed so hard even I couldn’t wake him up.” He laughed and Jordan joined in awkwardly. “Speaking of him, would you mind waking him up? I’ve got something major for you two to handle.” Jordan looked at him, quirking a brow “Oh yeah? What is it this time, old man Jacobs stealing from the store again?” he smirked at his joke, though his expression dropped when the chief remained serious. “No. Now, go get the lieutenant, Alec.”
Jordan nodded and slipped out of his office, heading a few doors down and entering the lieutenant’s office. He walked over to the other man’s desk “Pssst, Levi. You need to wake up, the chief needs us for something.” Levi shifted a bit, grumbling something that could’ve been ‘five more minutes’ but was too quiet to really be discerned as words. “Hm. I guess you don’t want to get late night coffee with me while we investigate. Oh well.” As he turned to leave, he heard Levi sit up. “Wait- I want coffee! Don’t leave me un-caffeinated at this hour..” The taller man whined, standing up from his desk and rubbing his eyes. Jordan laughed, turning back around “We can get coffee on our way to investigate whatever the old man needs us for, sound good?” Levi nodded, yawning. He stretched and then headed out of his office, Jordan following behind
“So, any clue what he needs us for?” Levi asked as Jordan caught up with him. “Nope, but judging by how he looked? It’s worse than someone hunting illegally.” Jordan shrugged as he spoke, flicking his cherry-red ponytail from its place on his shoulder. “Christ above, he loves keeping us in suspense, huh?” Levi sighed, heading to Jordan’s office where the chief waited for them. “So pops, care to cut the tension and tell me what you had J wake me up for?” Levi asked tiredly, one hand on his hip as he leaned against the doorframe. The chief looked from the lieutenant to the detective, then he shifted his gaze out the window to the setting sun, his expression stern and flat. “Well, you two. This may be the biggest case Whiteridge has ever seen…” Jordan’s eyes widened. He looked to his work partner, who met his gaze with an excited half-smile, and then to their superior with curiosity. “What is it? Do we have any leads? Who’s the victim? How bad is it?” Jordan asked, his jumbled thoughts spilling out a mile a minute before he was cut off by the gruff but quiet voice of his boss. “It’s a murder.”
Immediately the energy in the room shifted, the excitement dropped and it felt as if the air suddenly grew cold. Jordan subtly stepped closer to Levi, reaching a hand out for reassurance. Levi took Jordan’s hand in his own as he spoke, breaking the momentary silence. “A murder? Here? You sure it wasn’t an accident, maybe a suicide?” The chief nodded gravely, “I’m positive, Lieutenant. As far as first responders have reported, it’s impossible for the wounds to have been self-inflicted. What’s worse is that there's more than one.” Jordan took in the information, processing it carefully before he spoke. “What? But who the hell would do that all the way out here? Should we get someone else involved?” He was interrupted by a dismissive wave of the chief’s hand. “No, not unless you want our entire county on lockdown.”
Jordan couldn’t help but be unnerved by his boss wanting to keep such a major string of crimes a secret, biting his lip a bit and trying to keep himself grounded. “But…why not have us put on lockdown? It’d keep the guy within county lines, wouldn’t it?” He questioned, tilting his head curiously. “It would, but it could cause them to panic and go into hiding or off themselves before we can figure this out.” The older man stated, his tone was blunt and left no room for disagreement or argument. “I…alright, whatever you say, sir..” Jordan backed down, shrinking in on himself slightly as Levi took over the conversation.
“Okay, but if there’s a sudden suicide and the dead guy has matching DNA or fingerprints or whatever to the crime scenes, then we have our guy, don’t we?¨ Levi’s voice was shaking a bit at what he perceived as a lack of care from the chief, stepping forward with one hand in a fist. The chief held a hand out to stop him. “Son, this is something worse than anything we’ve ever seen. I suspect it runs much deeper than someone gone crazy from being in the middle of nowhere.” He sighed, avoiding eye contact with the two now. “You two need to be careful, please. I can give you the address of the most recent case, the bodies have been removed, but the scene has yet to be cleaned.” And without another word, Chief Cross slunk off into the hall, head held low.
“Hooollly shit-” Levi breathed, his body trembling as he turned to Jordan. “You wanna go do this? I can just go if you don’t want to-” Jordan shook his head, wordlessly tugging Levi outside and to his cruiser. “You drive” was all he said, looping around the car and sliding rather harshly into the passenger seat. Levi let out a sigh, breath fogging slightly in the cold autumn air, and then got in. The engine stuttered to life as he turned the key in the ignition, the old cruiser seeming to like the dreary weather as much as the redhead beside him.
“So…you okay?” Levi turned his gaze just a bit to meet Jordan’s. “You got like…. Really fuckin’ jittery when dad told us what was goin’ on.” Jordan just looked away, staring out the window at the rural scenery as they drove. “It’s a murder case. Here. Of course I’m nervous.” He half-snapped, watching with a twinge of guilt as Levi flinched. “Right, yeah. Makes sense. Sorry.” He gripped the steering wheel tighter. “...You still wanna go get that coffee?” Levi asked, he was practically grasping at straws to lighten the mood. He hated seeing Jordan so upset, and even worse was the feeling of dread that had settled in the pit of his stomach
Jordan let out a humorless bark of laughter at the question, “Really? We just got told we’re solving the biggest crime this county has seen since like, the seventies, and you still wanna go get coffee?” he huffed and rolled his eyes, “But yeah, sure. Might help my jitters.” Levi sighed in relief, the dread that had coiled in his gut, like a snake ready to strike, beginning to subside. It took no more than five minutes for them to arrive at the small coffee shop. Levi pulled into the drive-through and ordered them both their usual, watching as Jordan visibly untensed after the first few sips.
“There we go, you already look better!” he teased, elbowing the detective slightly. “Mmhm. Maybe it was just the cold getting to me.” Jordan felt his phone buzz in his pocket, pulling it out and looking at the message. “Boss just sent me the address. 1243 Cherry Avenue. Shit, that’s really close to my place..” he murmured the last sentence, a wave of anxiety hitting him again. That was barely four houses down from his. A thought, the worst possible scenario, crossed his mind. Jordan grabbed at his arm with his free hand as he spoke, “Let’s just get this over with..” he bit the inside of his cheek, he was completely unprepared for whatever they’d find, but somewhere in his chest was the sense that he already knew what this was.