Did Everly think she was going to investigate a cold case triple murder with him? Yesterday, he would have thought this scenario laughable, but now it almost seemed like a foregone conclusion. “Don’t forget, we’ve also got lots to do to get ready for Easter dinner on Sunday.”
“The kids’ spirits are more important. Night, Dad.” Everly wrapped her arms around Ronan’s neck and gave him a kiss. She did the same with Ten before hopping off the bed and going back to her room.
“How do you like that?” Ronan asked. They were raising one hell of a daughter.
“She’s your mini me,” Ten agreed. “I know I don’t have to say this, but let’s try to keep the gory part of the kids’ deaths from her.”
Ronan nodded. “There’s no need for her to know any of that. I want to talk to the spirits, and I’ll need her to tell me their answers, like you did when we spoke with Michael Frye.”
Ten wore a wistful smile. “You thought I was a nutjob, remember?”
“The most handsome nutjob I’d ever met, Nostradamus.” Ronan laughed and bent to kiss Ten. “Over the last few years, I’ve seen enough to know that what Everly is telling me is real.”
“Where do we start?” Ten asked, sounding as if he were completely on board with investigating the case with a little help from Everly.
Ronan’s head was spinning with the ramifications of looking into this matter. The Salem, New Hampshire Police Department had closed the case over fifty years ago. As far as they were concerned, there wasn’t a case. Not to mention the fact that Ronan had no jurisdiction to investigate in the Granite State as a member of a Massachusetts police department. When it came to his PI license, there was no reciprocity with New Hampshire, so unless Jude was certified, they were shit out of luck. “I want to read as much as I can about the kids’ deaths and the murder of Miss Fairbanks. Then I want to talk to the spirits, if Everly can get them to agree to speak with me. After that, I’m not sure.”
“What do you mean?”
“Like we said, this case is over fifty years old. I can try to speak with the old detectives who worked the case back in the day, if they’re still alive. Same goes for the kids’ parents and Miss Fairbanks’s husband. There’s one thing I can tell you though. It’s one thing for grieving families to demand a case be reopened, but it’s another thing altogether to show up on someone’s doorstep wanting to talk to people out of the blue. Then throw in the part about my daughter being able to speak with ghosts, and we might get more than one door slammed in our faces.” With the more lenient gun laws across the border, a door might not be the only thing shoved in their face.
“But it’s worth giving it a try if we can give those kids some peace at long last.” Tennyson wore a hopeful look, which Ronan always knew meant trouble. He could never deny his husband anything.
“I agree completely. I’m just saying it might not be easy.” Ronan sighed. Half an hour ago, he was falling asleep while reading to his daughter. Now, he felt like he’d be up all night trying to figure out the best way to come at this case thatwasn’ta case.
“I have complete faith in you, Detective O’Mara.” Ten shut off his light and rested his head on Ronan’s chest.
Ronan wrapped his arms around his husband and pressed a kiss to his forehead. Ten’s love always made him feel like he could move mountains, but to solve a casethiscold, he was going to need a little something extra.
Everly.
10
Tennyson
Ronan had been right on the money when he suspected Ezra was cutting a tooth. The baby had woken them up around half past three, and Ten had spent the last few hours trying to soothe him. He’d finally fallen back to sleep around seven, and Ten headed downstairs for breakfast. He could hear Everly and Ronan mixing batter for pancakes.
“Good morning, handsome.” Ronan pressed a kiss to Ten’s cheek. “How’d you sleep?”
“Okay until Ezzie woke up. I’ve been awake ever since. I tried to reach out to the kids’ spirits while I was soothing Ezra, but they didn’t respond.” It had been a frustrating morning for Ten in more ways than one.
“They don’t want to talk to you, Daddy,” Everly said from her perch on the kitchen island.
“Why is that?” Ten asked. He’d dealt with spirits over the years who would only speak to him rather than other psychics, so he sort of understood what was going on, but he’d never faced this problem with child spirits before.
“Because they trust me. The kids know I’ll do my best to help them.” Everly wore an earnest look.
“Can’t argue with that.” Ronan grabbed Everly and flew her through the air before setting her on the floor. “Time to eat.”
Ten and Everly took their seats at the table. Ronan brought the plates loaded with food.
“What about you, Dad? How did you sleep?” Everly dumped what looked like half a gallon of maple syrup onto her strawberry pancakes.
“Would you like some pancakes with your syrup?” Ronan snickered when Everly rolled her eyes. “I had a hard time falling asleep last night. I was trying to figure out how to handle this investigation. There are a lot of roadblocks I don’t usually face because the kids died in New Hampshire. The laws are different between the two states.”
Everly shook her head. “That doesn’t matter. We need to find a way to clear Miss Fairbanks’s name so that she and the kids can rest in peace.”
Ronan frowned. He looked like he was contemplating Everly’s idea. “I suppose we can investigate what happened all those years ago with an aim to get to the truth rather than finding a suspect to arrest and prosecute. Doing it that way would alleviate the jurisdiction problem working in New Hampshire presents. It’s not the worst idea.” Pulling his phone out of his back pocket, Ronan started tapping. I’m going to text Jude and Fitzgibbon and ask them to come over and help speak with the kids.”
