Halfway through lunch, Cope changed his mind. He was the one who’d seen Frankie bound and terrified. She was begging not just for help, but forhishelp. Cope would be damned if he didn’t see this case through to the end. “Ten, can you go get Snowball?”
“You got it.” Ten smiled and left the room.
“Get it? Where did you leave Frankie’s old stuffie? It’s not still in the SUV is it?” Jude asked, looking alarmed.
Cope found his first smile in what felt like forever. “Carson has a lead-lined lock box behind the check-out counter. We usually use it for special order items with dark energy, so that energy doesn’t influence us. What we all learned is that the lead works as a barrier to our gifts. None of us can see or sense anything when it’s inside the box, just like Superman.”
“I remember that creepy D-O-L-L someone asked us to hold for them.” Jude shivered. Ronan did too. “Does Frankie’s stuffed cat have that same kind of energy?” Jude asked.
“No,” Cope said, as Ten walked back into the room carrying the stuffed cat. “I didn’t want to speak to Frankie until it was time.” What Cope actually meant was that he didn’t want to see her, bound and terrified, until he was surrounded by his friends. If anyone could help him get through this reading, it was Tennyson.
Setting the battered stuffed toy in the center of the table, Ten took the seat beside Cope and held out his hand.
Cope grabbed onto it like a lifeline. “Frankie, this is my friend Tennyson. I’m hoping that with his help, we’ll be able to better communicate with you. What you showed me this morning terrified and overwhelmed me. I’m hoping that together with my friends, we can turn down your pain and focus on what happened that awful day so we can catch the bastard who hurt you and baby Amelia. Are you here with us now?”
The room was silent. Cope was afraid that Frankie wouldn’t appear.
“My daughter, Everly, has a stuffed unicorn that Jude gave her when she was a baby. It was white with a bright pink mane and tail. She carried that animal with her everywhere, usually around the neck like she was choking the poor thing. By the time she was three years old, it was so battered that I was afraid it would fall apart completely. Ronan and I bought every unicorn stuffie we could find in hopes that we could switch out Pinkie and get her to focus on another toy.” Ten laughed. “Seeing Snowball reminded me of how much love our daughter gave her unicorn. The same kind of love you gave to your cat. All of us gathered here today want to help you find peace. We want to reunite you with your family. Please let us help you.”
Cope heard Frankie’s terrified scream a second before she appeared, bound and begging for help. She sat in the empty chair beside Ten, across from Jude.
“Oh, my God,” Jude whispered. “Frankie.”
Cope knew his husband could see the frightened spirit and based on the look of shock on Ronan’s face, he could see her too. Her screams echoed in the small room, so loud and strong that the family picture on his desk tipped forward and landed face down. Much more of this and Frankie might shatter the glass. “Twinkle, twinkle, little star,” Cope began to sing. “How I wonder what you are.”
The others joined in singing the lullaby. Frankie’s screams began to quiet as Cope finished off the second chorus. Instead of screaming, the spirit was rocking back and forth with her knees pulled up to her chest. “Frankie, I know you’re scared. I can feel your fear in my bones. I know this might be the only way you think you can communicate with me, but you can move out of this memory. Come back to us. We all want to help you.” Cold sweat trickled down Cope’s spine. All of the feelings blasting out of Frankie were buffeting against him, like rough waves pounding the shore.
“Let us help you break free,” Ten said gently, offering his hand to Frankie.
Cope found himself wishing Everly was in the room with them. Her soul would be able to speak to Frankie without words. It was a skill he hadn’t quite mastered himself. “Take yourself back to earlier that day. You can do it. I know you can.”
Slowly, as Cope watched, the pain and fear melted away from Frankie’s face, as did the duct tape over her mouth and wrists. Appearing behind her was Bertha Craig. “I can only give youboys a few more minutes.” With those words, Bertha faded from view.
“I’m dead?” Frankie asked Cope, looking completely bewildered.
“I’m so sorry but you were-” Cope’s sentence was interrupted by Ronan holding up a hand to silence him.
“Can you tell us the last things you remember?” Ronan asked.
Cope knew what Ronan was doing, trying to get the information Frankie had before telling her what they knew.
Frankie’s dark eyes slid closed. “I was at home alone. Oliver and I were supposed to get take out that night. We’d been fighting since Italy. He was angry about the-” Frankie’s eyes widened. Her visage started to dim.
“Angry about what, Frankie?” Ronan asked.
“My baby.” Frankie’s hands flew to her midsection, wrapping around what should have been her growing bump. “Where’s my baby? Where’s Amelia? Did Oliver take her? Hurt her?” She stood up, looking frantically around the room.
Cope shook his head. “Amelia died with you.”
Frankie’s eyes filled with anguish. “My baby is dead?” Frankie sat down hard. “I’m dead. My baby is dead. Is Oliver dead too? Please tell me he’s burning in hell.”
“No, he’s alive and well. We met with him this morning,” Jude said. “He said he didn’t know you were pregnant.”
Frankie barked out a bitter laugh. “He gave me an ultimatum in front of the Trevi Fountain. Get an abortion or a divorce. The choice was mine.” Frankie frowned. “It wasn’t much of a choice, was it?”
“No, it wasn’t,” Ronan agreed. “Can you take us back through that day?
“It was a normal day. I’d volunteered at the food pantry and had gone home. I was going to spend the rest of the day figuring out how to tell Oliver I was done with the marriage. I was supposed to give him my answer to his ultimatum. Wait,” Frankie paused, her eyes widening, “I didn’t volunteer. I was going to see an attorney. Marcia, Marcy, Merry?”
