Outside of work Jordan’s only family member was her father, Max Cavanaugh, a disgraced cop who now runs a local tavern. He was forced into early retirement by the police force for taking the law into his own hands. Jordon's mentally disturbed mother, Emily was killed mysteriously when Jordon was ten years old. Her death has haunted both Max and Jordon, who seek to find the real truth behind her murder.

Whenever Jordan needs help with a case, Max puts away the booze and delves into the murder investigation using a role playing game that he taught Jordon years earlier. It goes: "Who do you want to be: killer or victim?...You be the killer, and I'll be the victim and we'll figure out how this happened."  The game was a bit eerie and borderline incestuous in its intimate mental nature, but it got results and helped filter out the clues to solve the crime.

Jordan's later discovered she had a troubled half-brother named James Horton who some how figured into the death of their mother. He was apparently given up for adoption soon after his birth. Years later, James kidnapped Max and held him hostage in an abandoned building that he claimed was his childhood home. He wanted to know why Max had abandoned him  When the police broke in on him,  James fell through a window into the Charles River. He is assumed dead. As Jordan furthered her attempts to solve her mother's death, Max seemed hesitant to offer help and often tried to thwart Jordan's attempt at solving the crime. Does Max know something he's not telling?

In 2002, Jordan disappeared for six weeks while pursuing a murderer named Herman Redding who held clues to her mother's gruesome murder. The police felt that Herman was guilty and framed him with bogus evidence to put him behind bars. Jordan uncovered the frame up and had the man released from jail on the condition that he reveal what he knew about her mother. Instead, he gave Jordon a map to a cabin that where the bones of murdered victims were found beneath the floor boards. In the end, Detective Woody Hoyt shot and killed Herman Redding to save Jordan's life.

Later, we learn that Jordon's half-brother, James was fathered by Max's former partner (now police chief) who probably took advantage of Emily, Max's mentally disturbed wife. Murder ensued, but the storyline is still murky. Did Max's ex-partner kill Emily to keep their affair a secret?  Did Max kill a police officer or was the body dead before he shot his gun? Confused? Stay tuned.