Of course, Ronan would never do that.
Right?
5
Ronan
Tennyson had really outdone himself with dinner. He’d made a big batch of tomato sauce with meatballs. Everly had chosen the curly pasta and everyone had several helpings, including Ezra, who ended up splattered with sauce. While Ten gave the little boy a bath, Ronan had been reading to his daughter.
“What’s grave robbing?” The six year old asked.
“Where did you hear that term?” Ronan knew neither he nor Ten had mentioned anything about Laura Cooper and trash pile find.
“In Daddy’s head.” Everly wore a confused look. “I don’t know what it means.”
This was yet another instance of Ronan having to explain something he never imagined to his daughter. “In the olden days, people were buried with jewelry or had gold teeth or other valuables in the grave with them. Robbers would dig up the graves and steal from the dead person.”
Everly wore a horrified look. “That’s so bad.”
“Yeah, it is,” Ronan agreed. He was still appalled over Laura Cooper thinking there would be gold in the bag of remains.
“You said that happened in the olden days. Why is Daddy thinking about it now?”
Ronan took a deep breath. How much should he actually tell his daughter? “Do you know what cremation is?” He had a feeling that if Ten walked in on this conversation, he wouldn’t be happy with what he was hearing.
Everly nodded. “Timmy Bowman brought his nana for show and tell. He told us all about cream-nation.”
“He brought hisnanato school?” Why was this the first Ronan was hearing about this? Shouldn’t there have been a letter that went home with all of the students?
“Yup, in her pretty vase. Mikey wanted to open it up and see the ashes, but, Mrs. Robbins said that wasn’t appropriate” Everly grimaced. “I’m glad she said no.”
Ronan was too.
“What does cream-nation have to do with grave robbing?” Everly asked.
Ronan sighed. “A woman was out walking in her neighborhood this morning and found a box with human ashes in someone’s trash. She took it home with her and later brought it to West Side Magick, hoping Daddy could speak with the dead person’s spirit.” There was no way Ronan was going to tell his daughter that Laura didn’t want to help the spirit, but rather wanted gossip to spread at her next book club. “Daddy wasn’t able to speak with the spirit and the woman wanted to leave with the box in case there was jewelry inside she could sell for money.”Which now that Ronan said it out loud didn’t make sense. He’d been to Laura’s house. It was huge and in an exclusive neighborhood. They were rolling in cash, weren’t they?
“Marcus is a gambler. I don’t know what that is, but they’re busted.” Everly said, looking confused.
Ronan was absolutelynotexplaining to his daughter what gambling was. Christ, what a family.
“Who’s a gambler?” Ten asked, walking into Everly’s room, with a freshly scrubbed Ezra in his arms.
“Marcus Cooper,” Ronan said. “Everly picked up some new words from you.”
“You know about the box?” Ten asked, sitting on the side of her bed.
“Yeah, Dad told me a little bit.” Everly wore a solemn look.
“Are you getting a name or an address of the person in the box?” Ten asked.
Everly shook her head. “No, I’m not getting anything, but I’m tired. I’ll try again in the morning.”
“Sweet dreams.” Ronan kissed the top of Everly’s head.
“Night, Daddies!” Everly grabbed a unicorn stuffie and snuggled under her covers.
After putting Ezra to bed, Ten and Ronan walked downstairs. Ten headed for the kitchen and turned on the electric kettle.
