Bio for Xanadu
Carol Jordan is a maze of emotions and masks. As a woman in Bradfield's Criminal Investigative Division, Carol has to always play the part of being up to the task of a detective inspector and, later, a detective chief inspector. She is a fearless leader whose intelligence and cunning are unmatched until she gains an unlikely sort of partner - Dr. Tony Hill, Clinical Psychologist. The bumbling doctor single-handedly turns her world on edge and pushes her to her limits and beyond. In the course of all this, Carol becomes a better detective and, much to her initial horror, falls in love with Tony.
Carol had a fairly normal childhood. She has one sibling - her younger brother, Michael. Micheal and she appear to share a close relationship as they live together when Michael first arrives in Bradfield. Carol was transferred to Bradfield from a post in the South not long before her brother arrives.
The young detective inspector finds life in the North to be a major change. Her personal life takes a hit when her boyfriend grew tired of the three hour drive it took to visit her. She seems to hold little esteem for the bloke at this point in her life and has moved on. Still, for a time the only company she keeps is her brother and her cat, Nelson.
Her mother, it appears, would very much like Carol to find a proper man to settle down with and start a family. Carol, career-minded and driven, really can't be bothered to make time for a social life. If you're not willing to work on her schedule then you're not worth her attention.
Carol is content to be married to her work and be a loner. She works in the Major Incident Team of Bradfield Metropolitan Police's CID which is headed by Superintendent Tom Cross. Cross seems to have little regard for his young, female subordinate but the Assistant Chief Constable John Brandon sees something in Carol he likes and often gives her a chance to spread her wings a little. Maybe it was that knowledge that caused Carol to throw caution to the wind when a murderer begins tearing through Bradfield and no one in the police department thinks the murders are connected - except Carol.
Determined to follow her hunch that the murders Adam Scott, Paul Gibbs, and Gareth Finnigan were all committed by the same person, Carol seeks an opinion outside of the police - a psychologist. After a bit of research, she stumbles upon the work of Dr. Anthony Hill, a clinical psychologist and lecturer at the local university. Seeing that Dr. Hill has worked with serial criminals in the past and come up with accurate profiles, Carol tracks him down and asks him to have a look at the murders.
Tony is, at first, reluctant to join the investigation and Tom Cross is infuriated that Carol went behind his back. Back against the wall, it looks like Carol has run out of luck in spite of her sheer gut. But then the unlikely happens - Brandon comes to Carol's aide and fully endorses the idea of Tony helping with the murder cases with Carol as liaison.
Even though Tony is different Carol finds herself strangely drawn to him. In the psychologist, the police woman finds an equal and it isn't long before the two become friends. As their first case together progresses tensions run high and Carol begins to doubt the wisdom of getting herself so involved with the murders - and with Tony. When Tom Cross gets himself thrown off the case and off the police force, Carol is put in charge and the weight of the world comes to rest on her shoulders. She leans on Tony as the weight becomes unbearable until he disappears.
Furious and concerned, Carol pushes on with the case only to finally realize that the murder's latest victim is, in fact, Tony. In a race to the finish, Carol and her team track down the murder's hideout and manage to save Tony - but not before he is horribly injured. Overcome with guilt at not figuring out the solution sooner and being responsible for Tony's abduction, she withdraws from all contact with Tony and attempts to go on with her life without him.
Of course, the new DCI cannot help but attract the odd psychologist to her side. As time goes on, Carol calls on Tony for her most baffling cases and each time he manages to see that which no one else has. At the same time, though, she is drawn more and more into Tony's life - and he into hers. There is a fact that they both know without anyone ever saying a word - that no matter what he would always be at her side and she at his.
But it was never to go beyond that. Tony, being daft when it comes to women, never follows through on what he feels. When she nearly loses Tony to a brain tumor, Carol realizes the depth of her feelings for Tony and that they will never be returned - or at least never acted on. Needing some kind of certainty in her life and knowing Tony will never be the man she could bring home to meet her parents, Carol leaves England forever when given the opportunity for a promotion and transfer to Johannesburg, South Africa. It is a clean break and the only way she could ever leave Tony - never giving him a chance to talk her out of it.