Walker (Cordell Walker x Female!Reader)

Witt's End

At Ranger HQ, James, Trey, Beau, and Brianna are looking over all the evidence found at the zoo when Cassie and Luna joined them in the conference room. "Holy Moses. Is this all from the Jackal bust?" Cassie asked.

"Good morning. And, yes, everything we seized." James replied. "Yeah. These, too. Potential next victims." Trey said, handing Cassie a notepad. "Have they been notified?" she asked. "Already in protective custody." James replied.

"Any connections? Establish M.O.?" Luna asked. "I've already started looking, but nothing yet." Brianna answered. "Yeah, we're a man down. I'm gonna need the five of you to triple your efforts. All right?" James instructed as Cordell begins to pass the door of the conference room but backs up when he sees everyone gathered inside.

"Hey! Morning." He said with an enthusiastic happy smile. "Hey, partner. How you feeling?" Cassie asked as everyone else gave Cordell warily looks. "Great." He replied. "Walker, what are you doing here?" James asked.

Cordell clears his throat as he drops his duffel bag on the floor and hands him a folded up piece of paper. "CT scan came back normal." He said and James reluctantly takes it. "I'm glad to hear it."

"Yeah. Soooooo, uh... Catch me up. Where are we at with Boyle? Uh, he's probably still in the area, right? This has to be an interagency operation now that we..." Cordell begins to say. "Walker..." James said, trying to get his attention but Cordell kept going. "...know who the Jackal is and we have all this evid..."

"Walker." James said again, finally getting him to look up. "Yeah?" He asked. "Boyle's dead." James announced. "What?" Cordell asked, dumbfounded. "They found his body buried at the zoo."

"That doesn't make sen... H-How did they not figure that out?" Cordell asked. "Well, zoo closed down a couple of years ago, then he disappeared. His family filed a missing persons report, but nothing ever came of it. I guess they weren't looking for a homicide." Trey explained.

"Autopsy is being done right now, but we do know he's been dead for a while. He's not the Jackal." Beau chimed in. "Could he be another victim?" Cassie asked.

"Uh, likely, but no Jackal teeth. The body wasn't left somewhere to be found. Given that it's abnormal for serial Killers to break their M.O., working theory is the real Jackal killed Boyle. Maybe it was a crime of passion. Maybe convenience. Either way, killer has been using the zoo to operate out of." James explains, trailing off when he notices Cordell is now looking over at the whiteboards, searching for another lead.

"Um, would you guys give us the room real quick?" James asked the others and Cordell whips his head back around, looking around in confusion as they walk out of the conference room. "Thank you." James said to them, turning his attention back to Cordell.

"Cap... CT is clean. I'm good." Cordell stated. "That's great. That's great. The second part of my order was for you to take it easy." James reminded him and Cordell smiles as if such an order was ridiculous.

"The five of them can run this down for the next couple days. Okay? It's fine. Best thing you can do right now... for yourself and for this case... is to not be here." James told him and Cordell scoffs. "I hear you, but, Captain, I can do this."

"This is not a negotiation. It's an order. Go home." James instructed and walks out of the conference room, leaving Cordell fuming at being pull away from the very case James asked him to take point on.

At the farmhouse, Cordell is staring at his crime wall, looking over the photos and posted notes as he searches for connection only to be startled out of his tunnel vision when he hears a knock at the door.

He turns his head right as Trey opens the door and walks in. "Hey." Trey greeted. "Uh, thanks for coming." Cordell said, holding up his fist which Trey bumps with his own.