“No one’s disappointed or mad at you,” Ten assured Cope. “They both get very intense when they’re working on a case. You’re doing great, right Ronan?”
Cope snorted. He knew Ronan would agree with anything Tennyson said when he used that voice. It was Ten’s warning to Ronan that he’d be sleeping on the sofa if he didn’t answer the question correctly.
“Cope is doing great. So much of what you’ve told us is very helpful.” Ronan paused, his eyes on Ten. “Just in the future, it would be even helpful-er if you told us what you were seeing sooner.”
“Use the code word scone if it happens again, okay?” Jude asked with a bright grin.
“Jude, how the hell am I going to worksconeinto a conversation with a possible murder suspect? Excuse me, Mr. Killer, might you have a scone I could nosh upon?” Cope lifted his drink to his lips with his pinkie finger extended.
Tennyson burst out laughing. “When I would work these cases with Ronan, my safe word was cactus. It wasn’t easy figuring out a way to say it that didn’t sound completely ridiculous. Why don’t you guys figure out a better word that won’t tie Cope in knots when he tries to use it?”
“How about cow?” Ronan suggested. “Or horse. Chicken. Goat. Pick one.”
“What if I just moo?” Cope asked. He did just that. The entire table cracked up laughing.
“We want you to attract our attention, not alert us that you’re in crisis.” Fitz said with a shake of his head.
“I am in crisis,” Cope said, feeling sad he had to bring the mood of the room down. “A woman and her unborn child are dead. I’m only picking up tiny threads of the story. It’s frustrating that I can’t be more help. Right now, Ronan’s thinking about going out for some Funyuns because they always put Ten in the mood. Fitz is wondering if we’ve got any Pepcid because the sausage is spicy and Wolf thinks it would be fun if he were the next projectile vomiter in Miss Becca’s classroom.” He turned to Jude. “Promise you’ll talk to Wonder Wolf about that.”
“You got it.” Jude said.
“What I’m trying to say is that I can read so much about all of you right now. It wasn’t this easy today at Oliver’s house.”
“We’re all relaxing, having dinner,” Ten said. “No one has their guard up. Although I do wish Ronan would make more of an effort to keep some things about our relationship under his damn hat.” Ten rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe you think Funyuns are an aphrodisiac.”
“Hey, I call them like I see them, Hot Pants.” Ronan waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
“You sure do, Hunk of Burning Chub!” Ten flashed a so-there look.
Jude cackled. “Oh, my God!! Is that what you call him?”
“Don’t you dare.” Ronan cautioned, pointing a finger at his husband.
“God, no, it’s what he calls himself.” Ten rolled his eyes. “He puts on Everly’s Wicked Witch cape and dances around the bedroom singing ‘Burning Love’ in the worst Elvis impersonation I’ve ever heard.”
“Is that what happened to my cape?” Everly asked, sounding outraged. “You told me it got lost, Daddy!”
“It did get lost…in my closet.” Ronan smacked a loud kiss to Everly’s cheek.
“The King would roll over in his grave if he heard you ruining his songs like that.” Everly put her paper plate in the trash and walked back to the table. “Ollie is hiding something. I don’t know what, but he doesn’t want any of you to find out what it is.”
Jude held up a hand for a high five. “Can you tell if this thing is an object or if it’s a secret?”
Everly frowned and reached out for Ten’s hand. Cope knew she was sometimes able to get a clearer picture when her own gifts were amplified by Tennyson’s. “Both, actually. The thing has to do with the secret. I wish I could tell you more.”
“Thanks, little miss.” Ronan smacked a kiss to the side of her head. “You’re the bestest.”
“I know!” Everly ran back into the living room.
Cope was continually impressed by Everly’s gifts. He hadn’t been able to tell Oliver was hiding anything. He spent an hour with the man at West Side Magick earlier in the day and another half hour at his house that afternoon and Cope hadn’t gotten a whiff of what Everly was talking about.
“We’ll start tomorrow with Frankie’s parents,” Fitz said. “Jude, do a deep dive on both of them. Check their financial situation. Did they come into any money? I want to be ready to take a run at them. It’s not likely they had anything to do with their daughter’s murder, but we all know it’s possible. Find me something we don’t already know. Hunk of Burning Chub, go back through all of their interviews, see if there’s a nugget ofsomething no one picked up on.” Fitz snickered and Jude started singing “Burning Love,” with Ronan’s lyric change. Before long, the entire table was laughing their asses off. With the exception of Cope. He was busy reaching out to his spirit guides to see if someone could give him any extra information about Sofia and Dante Conti.
7
Jude
After the pizza party wrapped up the night before, Jude helped get the kids to bed and sat down with his laptop. He went through the Conti’s financial records with a fine toothed comb. There were large deposits into their joint account once every month or so. Jude also saw a lot of ATM activity at Foxwoods, a casino in nearby Connecticut. Jude would ask the Conti’s about those deposits, but he’d bet his own bottom dollar that the large deposits were gambling winnings.
