“We’re all fathers, Mr. Stark.” Ten pointed around the table. “We understand where your emotion is coming from. I promise we’ll be in touch as soon as we have information to pass along.” Ten stood and escorted the man out of the room.
“What do you think?” Ronan asked Fitz. He knew he wanted to barrel into Cisco’s office right this very second and demand that they be assigned this case. Of course, Fitzgibbon would advise caution.
“I’m not sure how much we can do,” Fitz said. “It’s been three years since the crime. Some of the frat members there that night could have graduated or dropped out of school,ifthey remember what happened that night at all. My years of police experience tell me someone knows what happened to Sebastian. I’ll call Cisco now and see if he’s free for a chat.” Fitzgibbon stood and was halfway to the door before he turned back to Ronan. “In the meantime, you need to get your head out of your ass too.”
“So that my anger doesn’t get the best of me?’ Ronan asked sheepishly.
“No, because you could use a breath of fresh air.” Jude snickered.
Tennyson had always been the empath in their family, but today, Ronan could feel Stark’s pain as if it were his own. He admired the man for fighting for his son for as long as he had, with as many doors slammed in his face as he’d encountered. Ronan wasgoing to do everything in his power to find out what happened to Sebastian Stark, with or without Cisco Jackson’s approval.
4
Tennyson
It didn’t surprise Ten one bit that Cisco Jackson agreed to meet for lunch at Greek Life. The chief was under the impression Ronan and the others wanted to speak with him about a sensitive subject but hadn’t told him that subject was an open case assigned to other detectives.
When Ten and the others got to the restaurant, Cisco was already there, sitting at a table in the back with a half-empty glass of iced tea in front of him.
“Hey, guys,” Cisco greeted when Ten and the others filled up the other seats at the table. Their waitress came by and took everyone’s orders. Pizza for Jude and Fitz, while Ten, Ronan, and Cisco ordered sandwiches.
Ronan and Cisco talked about the Red Sox’s pitching woes until their waitress returned with their food.
“Okay, Ronan, you’ve buttered me up. What’s this meeting really about?” Cisco asked before taking a huge bite from his meatball sub.
“We had a visit from Paul Stark this morning,” Tennyson said, figuring Cisco would take the news better from him as opposed to Ronan.
“Paul Stark,” Cisco said softly. “He’s been through more pain than any man should ever have to bear, losing his son and wife within a year of each other.”
Ten nodded. He’d spent their entire meeting this morning feeling the weight of those losses. “He came by the shop to seeif I could connect with his son and to ask if Ronan and the guys could look into Bash’s case.”
Cisco was silent. He took another bite of his sandwich before looking back up at Tennyson. “It doesn’t surprise me that Stark came to you. What does surprise me is that it took this long. Sebastian died nearly three years ago.”
“Like you said, Paul Stark was dealing with the enormity of his wife’s illness and then her death. To be honest, it doesn’t shock me at all that it took him this long to walk into West Side Magick.” Grief worked differently for everyone it affected. He’d worked with widows who’d been on the phone to him minutes after their husbands died. He’d also spoken to people whose losses were decades old.
“Were you able to connect with Sebastian Stark?” Cisco asked, looking as if he didn’t want to hear the answer.
Ten shook his head. “No, but I let his father know that the conditions might not have been right for him to appear. I gave him some advice to follow and let him know we’d try again later, when Paul wasn’t so angry.”
“Where do you chuckleheads come into the mix? Or are you just here for the free lunch?” Cisco pointed between the three detectives.
Ronan grinned at his boss. “Ordinarily, I’d say I was here for the lunch, but I could feel Paul Stark’s pain. It made me wonder how I’d cope if anything happened to Ten or the kids. It’s unbearable to even think about, never mind to live through. I know the case is assigned to the homicide unit, but there’s been no work done on it in nearly a year. The only new additions to the file are stacks of unreturned messages from Stark to the detectives onthe case. I know it’s a breach of protocol to even ask to have the file transferred to cold case, but I’m asking all the same.”
Tennyson had to admit he was impressed with Ronan’s speech. It was well thought out and calmly delivered. Who was this imposter-Ronan, and what had he done with Ten’s husband?
Cisco sighed. “You know there’s nothing to go on, right? Just a bunch of drunk frat brothers who were too wasted to have seen Sebastian fall.”
“We know,” Ronan agreed.
“If I assign this case to you, and that’s a mighty big if, what’s your game plan?”
“I want to start with the autopsy. There were no signs of a struggle on his body at the time of the autopsy, but there might be now.”
“Jesus Christ,” Cisco muttered under his breath. “You want to exhume him?”
Ronan nodded. “Maybe. Especially if Ten can’t connect with Sebastian’s spirit. The ME at the time was Vince Walker, you know, the doc who was caught drinking and performing autopsies?”
“Don’t fucking remind me.” Cisco shook his head. “Do you know how many convictions were overturned on appeal because of that asshat?”
