“Hey, kids!” Cope pasted on his brightest smile. He walked into the kitchen where Ten and Ronan were sitting at the table. “Any word from Jude?” he asked, sounding hopeful.
Ronan shook his head. “What’s going on, Cope?” His tone was accusatory, which made Cope feel even worse than he already did.
Ten smacked Ronan’s arm. “Let us help, is what Ronan was trying to say.”
Cope pulled off his heavy winter coat and took a seat at the kitchen table. He couldn’t help thinking of all the happy dinners they’d had in this very spot over the years. “You all saw Jude last night.”
“He was feeling no pain, to say the least,” Ronan said, not sounding as upset as he had moments before.
“Right. When we got home, we argued about his flirty behavior a bit, and then he got sick. Really sick.”
“You mean he was throwing up?” Ten asked.
Cope nodded. “Yeah, but there was more to it than that. He was dizzy, off-balance, and was having a hard time remembering things that had happened earlier in the night.”
“Sounds like he had way too much to drink,” Ronan surmised.
“It also sounds like he’d been drugged.” Ten sighed when he finished speaking. “I was supposed to mention it to you, but with getting ready for the storm and whatnot, it slipped my mind.”
“Jude said he thought he’d been drugged. I didn’t believe him. I thought he was just making excuses for the way he’d acted, you know flirting with everyone and letting his old lover lure him away from the crowd.”
“Is that who that man was?” Ronan asked. “The one I had to pull Jude away from when we were leaving.”
Cope nodded. “Jude said his name was Jerry Dunkirk. They’d spent some quality time together in the past. I tried not to read too much into it, but with me not wanting to go to the party in the first place, having a shit meal and a shit time, I was angrier at Jude than I ordinarily would have been. Then I was angry because he was so drunk and out of control and I guess it carried over to this morning.”
“You looked okay when I came to pick up Wolf,” Ten said.
“Our argument started after that. When you dropped off your tuxes for me to return, it reminded me that mine and Jude’s were piled on a chair in our bedroom. I went upstairs to get them and checked through the pockets. I found a twenty in my pants,forty dollars in Jude’s and a cocktail napkin with Jerry’s phone number, which sent me over the edge.”
“I would have been really upset by that too,” Ronan said, with Ten agreeing. “What happened then?”
“I threw the napkin down in front of Jude and asked what the hell it was. Just as I did, a text came through on his phone. It was from Jerry and said, ‘Hi, lover.’ There was no stopping my anger after that. I yelled a bit and intimated that he’d broken my trust. Jude got up from the table, kissed the baby and walked out of the house. That was about fifteen minutes after Ten left with Wolf for the library. I haven’t heard a peep from Jude since. He’s not returning my calls and hasn’t even read my texts.”
“Maybe his phone is dead?” Ten asked.
Cope had considered that possibility as well. “He’s pretty anal about his phone, not wanting to miss any calls or texts from Ronan and Fitz.”
“Well, he’s been missing my calls all day,” Ronan said, reaching into his back pocket for his phone. “I’ve called him twice and sent four texts. He hasn’t read any of those either.” He tapped the screen a few times and the sound of a ringing phone filled the kitchen.
“Hey, Ronan,” Fitzgibbon’s cheerful voice answered. “You ready for the blizzard heading our way?”
“Only if you’re going to dig out my car.”
Fitz laughed. “Not a chance asshole! What’s up? Please tell me Everly wants Aurora to come for a sleepover. She’s driving me nuts this morning playing beauty salon. There’s not enough soap in this house to wash away the metric ton of blue eye shadow she put on me.”
Ronan didn’t laugh. Neither did Cope or Ten.
“What’s wrong?” Fitz asked, flipping instantly into cop mode.
“Have you heard from Jude today?” Ronan asked, wearing an unsure look.
“No. I texted that asshole an hour ago to ask if he was interested in a pre-blizzard barbecue and he didn’t get back to me. Is something wrong, Ronan?”
“We don’t know.” Ronan quickly recapped what Cope had shared with him. “Cope is here with us now. We were trying to decide what to do. I wanted to check with you to see if you’d heard from him.”
“No, not one peep from him. Cope, do you have the ability to track Jude’s car or his phone?” Fitz asked, all business now.
“Maybe. I might need a minute to figure it out.” Cope knew he could use the app to track his own phone, but had never done that with Jude’s before.
