“Oddly enough, I do know that. You seem like you were a cool guy when you were alive. My husband was promiscuous before we got married. You two would have gotten on like a house on fire.” Just looking at Cyrus, Cope knew he was Jude’s type exactly.
“He seems like he’s a good guy and a good dad.” Cyrus sounded a little envious of Cope’s family.
“Jude is the best.” Cope reached out for his husband’s hand. “I’ve got one last question for you.”
“Go for it.” Cyrus laughed, sounding like he was really enjoying being able to speak with someone who could see and hear him.
“Do you know who killed you?” It was the most obvious question to ask. Cope wasn’t seeing the answer in Cyrus’s mind. He supposed it was possible that the killer was a stranger or that his death was so traumatic that he might not remember.
“Oh, I absolutely know who killed me, but I’m not telling!” Cyrus laughed.
“Huh.” Cope sat with Cyrus’s answer for a few seconds. “In all the years that I’ve been speaking to dead people, I’ve never met a murder victim who didn’t want justice and for their killer to rot in prison for what they did.”
“I felt that way at first, but now that I’ve had over a decade to think about it, I deserved what I got. I played the game, and Ilost. I have no wish to out my killer. They got what they wanted in the end. As far as being dead goes, this is a great gig. There’s plenty of entertainment at the motel. People fight, fuck, and get up to all sorts of trouble. The best part is that I’m still getting plenty of sex. Ghost orgasms, oh, mama, wait until you have your first one. It will blow you away.”
In all his years of speaking to dead people, Cope had also never heard of ghost orgasms. It turned out Cyrus Longfellow was full of surprises. “I’ll take your word for it. Okay, one last question, and this time I mean it. Have you ever seen the white light?”
Cyrus snorted. “Almost every damn day. I’m not interested in walking into it. I’m having too much fun here.”
“I don’t understand.” Cope wondered if Cyrus was suffering from some sort of afterlife mental illness. If the man could have orgasms, then anything was possible.
“Look, before I was brutally murdered, no one knew my name. My family and former lovers did, but now the whole world knows who I am. There have been documentaries made about me, an episode ofUnsolved Mysteries. Ghost hunters, kooks, ghost fuckers, and the like come to see me all the time. Why the hell would I want to walk into the light when I’m more famous in death than I ever was in life?”
For the third time that night, Cope was blown away by Cyrus Longfellow. He’d never heard a spirit say anything remotely like this before. Cyrus was certainly one of a kind. “I’m going to regret asking, but what are ghost fuckers?”
Cyrus laughed. “It’s just what it sounds like. Ghost groupies who offer themselves up for my pleasure.”
“You can have sex with the living?” Cope sputtered as he spoke. He’d heard of people claiming to have had sex with ghosts, butthis was the first time a spirit had told him it was actually possible.
Jude shot Cope a fascinated look. Filling his husband in was going to have to wait.
“Only if they’re willing, so your husband is safe.” Cyrus laughed again. “For now!”
Cope’s head was spinning. “The other detectives were going to dig up whatever they could find on your murder and on Chet Hines. I can’t believe I’m asking this, but what do you want us to do about him?”
“Good question. He wants to know who killed me. I’ll never tell. He also wants to fuck me, or at least he did when I was alive. We met at a gay club in Ogunquit a few years before I died. He wasn’t my type. He was too needy and had no self-confidence. It would have only made things worse if I fucked him and was gone in the morning. I didn’t do repeat performances. One night only.”
Cope remembered Jude saying something similar when they’d discussed his past. Jude had never said the words out loud, but Cope knew he’d done that so he didn’t fall for anyone. Well, until Jude met him, of course. “We’re going to make arrangements to speak with Chet tomorrow. Do you want me to fill you in on what happens? I’m at a complete loss before. I’ve never met anyone like you.”
“I’ve always been one of a kind, baby! Oh, and by the way, you’re totally my type. Blond, handsome as fuck, with a tight ass.” Cyrus let out a low wolf whistle Cope was glad Jude couldn’t hear.
“Thanks, I think.” Cope couldn’t wait to fill Jude in on all of the details of this bizarre conversation.
“I’m off like a prom dress. I promise to watch if you and your hubby get down to Poundtown.” With that last promise, Cyrus was gone.
Turning to Jude, Cope was at a loss for words. “You’re not going to believe this, but Cyrus knows who kills him, and he won’t ever name them. He also doesn’t want to go into the light. He’s having too much fun playing the role of voyeur and having ghost sex, which I’m still not sure I completely understand, although if Cyrus can be believed, he wouldn’t mind showing me. I’m completely blown away.”
“Why don’t we get some sleep?” Jude slid under the covers and rolled to his right side. “We can figure out what to do in the morning after we hear what Ronan and Fitz dug up about Chet Hines.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Cope slid into bed beside Jude, who threw an arm over him and fell asleep. Cope had a feeling sleep wasn’t going to be that easy to come by, thanks to his meeting with the strangest ghost of his entire life.
7
Jude
Jude woke refreshed as usual, but he couldn’t say the same for Cope. After his nocturnal visit from the ghost of Cyrus Longfellow, Cope had been awake for several more hours and had only fallen asleep for about two hours when Lizbet woke up wanting breakfast. Jude tried to take care of the baby while Cope slept on, but with them all being in one room together, it just wasn’t possible.
To make up for Cope’s rough night, Jude had gotten him the biggest cup of coffee he could find. It hadn’t helped Cope’s sleepy eyes, but he had more energy, and based on what happened last night, he was going to need to be wide-awake to figure out what the hell was going on with Cyrus Longfellow and Chet Hines.
