“Sweet Jesus,” Ronan muttered, unable to comprehend the thought process behind this woman’s actions. “At least she didn’t open the remains, the bag is still sealed.”
“Why did she bring the box to you?” Jude reached for the coffee with his name on it and took a long sip.
Ten frowned. “She was hoping I would be able to speak with the spirit who belongs to the remains. I assume she wanted to be able to tell her book club about asking for my help and meeting a real ghost. Neither of us were able to contact this spirit.” He pointed between himself and Cope.
“She was pretty pissed when Ten couldn’t contact the spirit and threatened to expose him as a fraud,” Cope continued the story. “Ten called her a grave robber and insisted on keeping the box.”
“She stormed out of here shouting that she was going to sue us.” Ten shrugged. “I’m not sure on what grounds, but I wasn’t about to let that woman walk out of here with these remains. Can you just imagine her slicing the bag open and dumping the ashes into a colander to see what shakes out?”
Ronan shivered. The thought of the bag of remains being opened was enough to send him into a blind panic. This moment brought him right back to the day of his grandfather’s funeral when he was twelve years old and was afraid his grandfather’s ashes would spill in his mother’s car.
“Are you okay?” Fitz asked, setting a hand on Ronan’s shoulder.
Ronan nodded. “This just reminds me of when we brought my Gramps home from his funeral. I was completely freaked out when the priest handed his ashes to my mother. I assumed he was going to be buried, and he was, later, after my grandmother passed, but I was terrified of having his remains in the house.”
“Why?” Ten asked, gently.
“I didn’t know if he would haunt me or if he’d be able to see the things I was getting up to with friends, or, um, alone in my room.” Ronan felt himself blush.
“You were afraid your dead grandfather was going to see you choking your chicken?” Jude asked.
“Something like that.” Ronan cleared his throat. “We didn’t talk about death in my house. I was raised to believe that when you die, you go to heaven, unless of course you’d done something to deserve a one-way ticket to hell. According to my Sunday school lessons, I knew there was no way his spirit could have been in the house with me, but I was still pretty freaked out.”
“So I guess that means you and Ten aren’t taking the box home with you.” Jude said, sounding serious, rather than snarky.
“I’d prefer if we didn’t,” Ronan said, wearing an embarrassed look.
“We can leave the box here, locked up in the conference room,” Ten offered.
“Or upstairs in our fireproof cabinets,” Fitzgibbon suggested.
“That’s a good idea, Cap.” Ronan took a deep breath, happy that the remains would have a safe place to spend the night thatdidn’t include bunking with him and Ten. “What’s our next step here?”
“We need to go speak to Laura and see if she can show us where this house is. If we can find out where the box came from, then we have a much better chance of locating someone who’d be willing to take custody of the remains. If we can’t locate where they came from then I’m thinking we’ll need to talk to Cisco and go from there.” Fitzgibbon wore a troubled look.
“We could get the media involved as a last resort,” Ten said. “Maybe someone is missing the remains. It’s possible that the box was put out with the trash by mistake.”
“Ronan, get on the Salem Squawks page on Facebook and see if anyone’s asking about the box. I’ll call Laura and see if we can go over and meet her.” Fitzgibbon pulled his phone out of his back pocket.
“Why? We’re the police, not vampires who need an invitation. Let’s just show up.” Jude waggled his eyebrows.
“I’m not seeing anything on the Salem Facebook page asking about missing remains. I agree with Jude, let’s just go see this woman. I’ll call dispatch on our way over there and see if anyone called the police to report the theft.”
“Good plan.” Fitzgibbon drained his coffee and threw the cup in the trash. “Let’s roll. Ten are you coming with us?”
“Yeah. I’ll call Mom and let her know she’ll need to get the kids off the bus.”
“I’ll do that,” Cope said. “You guys go get Laura.” Cope headed for the door, but stopped and turned back to Ten. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I can’t wait to hear the dirt on this woman.” With a grin, Cope left the room.
“Yeah, me too,” Ten said. “She won’t be expecting to see me again so soon.”
“What the hell kind of person steals human remains to use as a book club prop?” Jude asked.
“An even better question is what kind of person steals human remains in hopes there will be valuables for her to steal?” Ronan asked, a shiver tearing through his body.
Over the course of his law enforcement career, Ronan had met a lot of deplorable people. Murderers, rapists, kidnappers, and swindlers, to list a few, but he couldn’t name anyone as despicable as the woman they were about to go meet.
Ronan rubbed his hands together with anticipation. Laura Cooper wasn’t going to know what hit her.
