When he opens the lid, the first thing he sees isn’t an intake form or a doctor’s examination notes. It’s a copy of a police photograph.
In the picture, a small girl lies twisted in a half-filled bathtub. Her mouth is open in a scream and her body is covered in stab wounds. Blood stains her skin, blood darkens the water.
Jordan knows exactly who this is.
It’s Mary.
He grabs the trash can next to his desk and vomits into it. When he wipes his mouth, he picks up a newspaper clipping.
THE BRONX SENTINEL
A Lost Child Leads Police to a Horrific Crime Scene
BY ALIYAH JACOBS
Heart-wrenching questions about a sweet 7-year-old girl found lost, sobbing, and bleeding in a Bronx park Tuesday morning were grimly answered today. After being treated for multiple stab wounds at Jacobi Medical Center, little Hannah Dougherty was able to tell authorities her name and address. When officers went to her apartment in the Soundview neighborhood, they discovered a scene of utter horror: a woman, a man, and a child dead, in an apparent murder-suicide.
Alana Dougherty, 32, and her 4-year-old daughter, Mary, were discovered in the bathroom, lying in pools of their own blood. A man identified as Brandon Mills, 39, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the living room.
A senior Bronx police official who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “Going into that apartment—it shook me. I’ve seen a lot. I haven’t seen anything like that.”
Neighbors reported that they had heard screaming from inside the apartment, including the words, “No, no, don’t hurt us.”
But no one, it appears, ever called the police.