Jude rolled his eyes. He was completely unappreciated by his husband. “I don’t remember you complaining about my special skill set. At least not until we needed a new sofa.” It was at that point that Jude finally understood why grandparents used plastic slipcovers on their furniture. Which also made Jude realize that Boomers were getting a shit ton of action. More than he’d expected, which boded well for his golden years. “I’m not shy, but I don’t want some constantly horny ghost watching and grading my performance. I’m also not too keen on the idea that he might try to join the festivities.”
“The one thing I can tell you about Cyrus is that he’s all about consent. He needs to be invited to ghost fuck people.”
“I still don’t understand how ghost fucking works.” Jude shook his head. He wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know the details. Cope said Cyrus had ghost orgasms, but did his living lovers have them too?
Cope opened his mouth to respond when the kids shouted his name and ran toward him. “Saved by the bell.”
“Daddy, we want to ride the pirate ship! I could see it from the top of the wheel. You and Dad looked like tiny ants!” Wolf gasped, out of breath.
“Da! Da!” Lizbet called from Ronan’s arms before he passed the baby to Jude.
“Did you have fun up there, little girl?” Jude pressed a kiss to his daughter’s temple.
Lizbet screeched in response and pointed up to the Ferris wheel. Jude didn’t need a PhD in baby speak to know his daughter wanted to ride again.
“I’m getting too old for this shit,” Ronan said when they were in the line for the pirate ship.
“Which shit?” Jude asked.
“Being seventy feet in the air. When I was a kid, I used to think the Ferris Wheel was a baby ride. Now, it’s scary as hell.” Ronan gave his head a shake. “I guess when you spend every day seeing the dark side of humanity, you want to keep yourself and your family as safe as possible.”
Jude knew where Ronan was coming from. He’d had similar thoughts during the course of working cold cases. “This thing with Cyrus Longfellow’s got you tied in knots, huh?”
“Yeah,” Ronan agreed. “I’ve been to hundreds of murder scenes over the course of my twenty-plus years in law enforcement. All I’ve ever seen are broken remains of the dead and families that will never be whole again. Before I met and started working with Tennyson, I had never seen crime through the eyes of murder victims. To a man, every victim I’ve spoken with through Ten has wanted their killer brought to justice and the burdens of their loved ones eased. With Cyrus, he just keeps the good times rolling. For the life of me, I don’t understand why he isn’t more upset about being murdered.”
Jude had been thinking along the same lines. “Cope said Cyrus sounded pretty happy-go-lucky when they spoke, but I’m not so sure that’s always the case. It’s the end of summer. Most of the big crowds will be gone after Labor Day. Locals will keep coming here until the middle of October when everything shuts down for the season. What do you think happens to Cyrus then?”
“I would imagine he gets pretty damn lonely.”
“Me too,” Jude agreed. “His death could have been an accident. His killer could be a person he knows, loves, or is trying to protect. Lastly, what if Cyrus made a deal with the devil, so to speak.”
“What do you mean?” Fitzgibbon asked, leaning over Ronan’s shoulder.
“Well, what if Cyrus wanted to die at the Four Star and become a permanent resident? He’d live in perpetual summer, getting his kicks watching the drama going on between the people who stayed and played at the motel.”
“I don’t think that’s it,” Fitzgibbon said. “I mean, wouldn’t you want to keep the party going for as long as possible and then go out on your own terms later? Hell, this guy was in his twenties. I sure as hell wouldn’t have wanted to be forever twenty-five. Forty-five, maybe, when my knees started giving me trouble, and there’s that one spot in my back that aches when I sneeze too hard.”
Jude laughed. He had a spot like that too. There were a lot of things that sucked about getting older, but being there for his kids and Cope made those things not suck as much. “From all accounts, he didn’t have a steady boy or girlfriend. He was an only child with a dead father and a mother who couldn’t be bothered to leave her Manhattan penthouse. The thing that has surprised me the most about this case is Alexandria Longfellow’s seeming disinterest in catching her son’s killer.”
“That doesn’t necessarily mean anything.” Fitz shrugged. “Lots of parents are estranged from their children. Cyrus was found murdered in a no-tell motel after spending weeks here spreading money around and fucking everyone in sight. Alexandria Longfellow is a New York socialite. She’s got a reputation to maintain. High-placed friends. It could be that she’s ashamed and embarrassed of how her son died. Finding out why might be too much for her to take.”
Jude could never imagine a time when he would put his own reputation and social status above his children. Unless he missed his guess, it was most likely those two things that caused the rift between mother and son in the first place. “I’ll have Cope reach out to her.”
“Wait! What?” Cope asked from in front of Jude. “Who do you want me to reach out to?”
“Cyrus Longfellow’s mother. Maybe you can tell her you made contact with his spirit.”
“Jude, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Cope shook his head.
“Why the hell not?” Jude asked, louder than he’d intended. Several people ahead of him in line turned around to see what was going on.
Cope pinched the bridge of his nose. “Cyrus Longfellow was killed fifteen years ago. There haven’t been any new leads in years. We are not affiliated with this case at all and were not invited to lend our expertise by the Old Orchard Beach Police. Cisco thinks we’re on vacation. If he starts getting phone calls from the police up here because you three are poking your noses where they have no business being, your asses are grass, and Cisco’s the lawnmower. The last thing I need is for your stupid ass to get suspended. “
Jude opened his mouth to say something idiotic and funny as hell but decided he was in enough hot water as it was.
“I’ll grab the back row!” Fitzgibbon called out as the gates swung open to let them on the pirate ship ride.
Jude pulled up the rear, sandwiching Cope, Jace, and the kids between himself and Fitz. Wolf was practically bouncing out of his seat with excitement, while Everly held Aurora’s hand and told her she was going to have so much fun. He wasn’t much of a praying man, but he asked for a little help for Aurora, all the same.
