“I’m not sure if I can make my father see me, but I’ll try.” Seconds later, a barely there Bash appeared.
Paul Stark started to cry.
“I don’t have a lot of time. I can feel myself getting weaker by the second.”
“Can you tell us what happened the night you died?” Ten asked.
“I’d managed to get through pledge week. The party I was at the night I died was the final step before I was initiated into the frat. I was assigned to be Simon’s gopher. I had to get him cups of beer to drink and whichever girl he chose to… Well, you know.”
“I know,” Ten said. “Your autopsy said you had three times the legal limit of alcohol in your system.”
“Yeah, for every drink I brought Simon, he made me drink two. It was his version of Darwinism. Survival of the fittest. Whoever was still standing at midnight would be initiated.”
“Did you make it to midnight?” As Ten spoke, Sebastian began to fade from view.
“Love you, Dad,” Bash called before disappearing completely.
“Wait! Come back!” Paul shouted. “Bring my son back. You have to bring him back.”
Ronan wrapped an arm around Paul Stark and led him out of the living room. A few seconds later, Ten heard the sound of a can cracking open and knew it was beer and not soda. “Fitz, can you go help?”
Without saying a word, Fitz got up from the sofa and moved toward the kitchen.
“Is he gone?” Jude asked.
“Yeah. He is.” With Bash having a hard time materializing, Ten had known they weren’t going to be able to get a lot out of him. “I should have asked him who killed him. I’m so stupid.”
“You’re not stupid, Ten,” Jude said earnestly. “How were you supposed to know he would leave the house when he couldn’t maintain his visibility? I assumed when he faded out that the two of you would keep talking.”
“I thought so too,” Ten admitted. “Not every spirit has the kind of mastery over themselves like Bertha Craig does. When she showed up in our kitchen last night, she was solid enough to hug Ronan and Everly. Obviously, Bash hasn’t learned those skills yet.”
“We’ve lost Paul Stark for the day,” Ronan said, walking back into the living room. “He’s on his second Bud in the last two minutes, and there’s a lot more in the fridge. I left Fitz with him. To be honest, I think he’s more distraught now after being able to see his son than he was before Bash’s spirit made contact.”
Jude sighed, stretching his arms over his head. “We should get back to the office and go through the documents Paul gave us. That way, in the morning, when he’s sobered up, we can let him know what we’ve gotten done.”
“Good idea, Jude,” Ten said, feeling buried under the weight of guilt. He should have gotten straight to the point with Bash rather than lollygagging around.
“I’ll go grab the file and will meet you back at the car.” Jude left the room, leaving Ten and Ronan alone.
“Do you think you’ll be able to contact Bash again?” Ronan asked.
“I hope so. It might not be for a while, but I have a secret weapon at home that might be able to help us out.” After dinner, he’d see if Everly could reach out to Bash and ask him to tell the rest of the story. With any luck, she might be able to get Bash and hismother back together. It killed Ten to think that Maya had been dead for two years and hadn’t been able to reunite with her son.
“Well, if our little miss is going to put in some work on this case, it’s only fair we have ice cream for dessert.” Ronan waggled his eyebrows.
“No arguments here.” Ten picked up the friendship bracelet with Simon’s name on it. “Do you think Paul will mind if I bring this with us?”
“With the way he’s drinking, I’m sure he won’t even notice it’s gone.”
“I was thinking the same thing. Let’s get out of here.” Ten slipped the bracelet into his pocket. He wanted to dive into the documents Paul Stark had given them. He knew Ronan would be interested in finding Simon and setting up an interview with him. When that happened, Ten would be ready for him.
11
Ronan
Back at the office, Ronan quickly made copies of the information Paul Stark had given them. After Fitz brought up sandwiches from Cassie’s shop, they’d dug into the file. Ronan couldn’t decide if he wanted to plow ahead and read everything or to get into Bash’s phone and go through his text messages and pictures.
Fitzgibbon made the decision for him. He slid Bash’s phone across the table to Ronan. “It’s all yours. Figure out who he was messaging with the night he died. Look into his social media apps. See if there are any hidden files or emails he’s stowed away. See if there were any messages from the frat. How did Bash know what was expected of him. And then—”
