they could hear one another. She was nice. Always up. I never saw her in a bad mood. I never saw her do anything other than smile and...” He broke off.
He didn’t quite sob, but he looked as if he might cry any minute.
Raina wasn’t sure she’d ever seen Jordan appear quite so lost or bereft.
“I, uh...” He broke off. He shook his head again. “Oh, God! She’s the one you found in the Everglades! How could anyone...?” He stared at the two of them. “Her coworkers? Did you talk to them? They all worked somewhere near here. And they knew her at the coffee shop. I just saw her there.”
Again, he stopped speaking.
Raina wasn’t sure what, but she thought something in him changed slightly. She thought there was a growing anger in him.
“What is it?” she asked. “Jordan, do you know something?”
He shook his head. His jaw looked to be locked.
“I don’t know how anyone could have done something like that to her. It would be like killing a kitten. If I knew who did it...”
“Okay,” Axel said. “Tell us about meeting her. Everything. Anything you can think of.”
Jordan started to talk. He described Jennifer much as they had already heard her described. Raina realized she was watching the crowd again.
The front, the players on the stage.
Then she noted someone else coming in who she knew.
“Excuse me. It seems we have other friends here tonight. Well, old teachers, anyway. I suppose we’re friends now.”
Jordan looked across the room. “Yeah, Frank Peters and Loretta Oster. They come here all the time. Well, I assume. I’ve seen them a few times. I come maybe once a week, depending on work.” He shrugged.
“Do you talk to them?” Raina asked.
Jordan shrugged. He had grown into a handsome man with his dark good looks, and that night he’d dressed in jeans and a casual jacket that added to his appeal. But at the moment, he was sunk down into the chair and his face appeared drawn and sallow.
He didn’t seem interested in the newcomers.
“Jennifer,” he said softly.
“You didn’t see her likeness on the news?” Raina asked.
“What?”
“We had a sketch of her on the news. That’s how she was identified,” Axel said.
He shook his head. “We’ve been busy at work. I wasn’t all that concerned to tell you the truth, sad though that might be. I mean, it’s terrible. It is sad, when we hear someone has been killed. But this is Miami. We’re not a particularly bad big city, but we’re a big city.” He looked at Axel and then at Raina. “I didn’t know I knew the victim in the Everglades.”
Raina couldn’t help herself; he’d been her friend forever. She stood and reached out to him. He stood, as well, and she hugged him, and to her surprise, he started to cry. “I didn’t know... I just didn’t know,” he said.
“I’m so sorry, Jordan. I’m so sorry.”
After a moment, he regained control. He nodded, wiping his face. An old-football-player-turned-attorney shouldn’t cry, she thought.
He sat. She had one eye on him, another on Loretta Oster and Frank Peters.
They’d chaperoned in the Everglades together a long time apparently. And now here they were together for a night out.
Were they a couple?
“Excuse me. I’ll be right back,” Axel said.
He stood and walked over to Frank and Loretta, leaving her with Jordan.
Jordan didn’t notice him go.
He opened his mouth to speak, but then paused, staring downward, looking for words, and then looked up again. “We’d never been alone. I mean, nothing had gotten serious. I just knew her. I was seeing Sara, but that wasn’t a serious thing yet, either, you know? And maybe I shouldn’t be taking this the way I am. Maybe I appear ridiculous to you. But Jennifer didn’t deserve to die. She deserved the best. She was a rare kind of person, just a really good human being wanting the very best for others. Does that make sense to you?”
“Absolutely,” Raina assured him. “I didn’t know her, but I’ve learned a lot about her. Everyone loved her. She was a good person. It’s okay to be upset, Jordan. It’s really okay.”
He was silent a minute and then he stared at her, shaking his head. “It’s not okay,” he told her.
To her surprise, he stood and started to walk away from her, heading toward the door. He stopped halfway there and came back.
“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I can’t stay here. I didn’t mean to be so rude. Good night.”