“What do you think?” Ronan asked Ten. His look, for once, was unreadable.
“You asked me earlier if I’d ever felt anything off about Cisco. I told you I hadn’t, but your question got me thinking about Everly. If she thought there was something evil lurking in him, she wouldn’t hesitate to tell us. She’s never once not wanted to go to their house or asked us not to invite Cisco to ours. I think if she knew something, she would have told me.”
“I absolutely agree that she would have let us know if there was a problem, but do you want to bring her into this case?” Ronan asked, wearing a heartbroken look.
Ten weighed the options. “If we keep Everly out of it and she could have found information that would have proved Cisco’s innocence, we’d never forgive ourselves. On the other hand, it will be pretty devastating if she’s the one who sees that Cisco is behind these murders. I don’t know how we’d help her come back from that. She’s known and trusted Cisco her whole life and for her to discover he’d been a wolf in sheep’s clothing all along…” Ten didn’t want to finish his thought.
“If Cisco’s the killer it will break all of us,” Jude said, “but what if he isn’t? We need to be able to present what we know in a way that won’t enrage him and show him that we’renotout to get him.”
“I agree,” Fitz said. “We present this like it’s any other case we need guidance on.” He pointed back and forth between Ten and Ronan. “You’ll explain what happened with Madam Aurora’s friend and how you went to the Salem Jail and spoke to McGrath’s spirit and that I asked you both to look for any similar deaths that fit the pattern. Jude, you’ll talk about the autopsy, Dr. Winetrap’s role, and what Dr. Spaulding told us about insulin poisoning. I’ll talk about the rest. The information Bradford Hicks brought us about our potential suspects, our interviews with Kirkpatrick, MacBain, and Oliveri. We’ll have to wait for Cisco’s reaction to determine what happens next.”
“I hate to say this,” Ronan began, “but at some point we’re going to have to tell Cisco he’s a suspect.”
“I know,” Fitz muttered. “I’ll do it. You’re my team and I’m the captain. I’ll take any and all flack that comes from our conversation and our detective work.”
“I’ll talk to Everly tomorrow about what’s going on,” Ten said, feeling like he was going to throw up. “I won’t give her any details. We’ll send Ezra and Aurora to Cope’s house so that she won’t be distracted by her brother or her friends. Ronan, what do you think?”
“I agree. We can also give her a code phrase, like yelling for another drink or more pizza, if there’s something she needs to tell us.”
Ten nodded. “Okay it’s settled.”
“Not just yet,” Jude said, softly. “What comes next? What do we do if he confesses? What do we do if he doesn’t?”
“If Cisco says he’s innocent and we can’t prove it, then we take the case to Internal Affairs.” Fitz shook his head sadly.
“Fuck me!” Ronan said. “Those fuckers will want to see him hang no matter if he’s guilty or innocent. There has to be another way.”
“We could call in the Massachusetts State Police. Fitz’s rank would get us a meeting with one of their captains at the very least, right?” Jude asked.
“If there are suspects from out of state who paid the extortion money to have their cases dropped, that would make it a federal offense and we’d be able to call in the FBI.” Ronan sighed. “We don’t have the kind of evidence we’d need to take this step and I can’t imagine we’ll be able to gather it in twenty-four hours.
“I imagine we’d also have to call the mayor,” Jude said. “We don’t want to blindside her with this, especially in the event the media catches wind, or if Kirkpatrick, MacBain, or Oliveri make waves about what we’re working on. I can call her. We really hit it off at that charity gala a few months back. She told me to call if I ever needed anything, although I very much doubtthiswas the sort of scenario she had in mind.”
Fitz nodded. “You’re right, Jude. I want that to be your first phone call if we have to take Cisco into custody. Make the deputy chief of police your second.”
“Sweet Jesus, Fitz, do you really think it could come to that?” Ronan asked, his eyes misty.
“It might and we need to be ready in case it does. We afford him every courtesy, no perp walk, no cuffs. If he is the one behindthis, finally being caught might be a weight off his mind. Now he won’t have to be constantly looking over his shoulder waiting for this day to come. I don’t like this any more than you do,” Fitz said. “Ten, is there anything else you can think of to help us out here?”
“I could reach out to Bertha Craig, I know she visits Frankie when she’s on her nightly rounds of visiting her grandbabies. Any information she gathers couldn’t be used against him, same as with Everly, but it could be the thing that forces a confession.” Ten gagged. Just the thought of Cisco confessing to these crimes made his stomach roil.
“Do it,” Fitz said. “Let me know the instant you hear anything of note. I don’t care if it’s the middle of the night. Call me.”
“Okay,” Ten said.
Jude had said earlier that Ronan and Fitz had to get their heads out of their asses. Ten needed to do the same thing. Was it going to suck to ask Bertha to spy on Cisco? Yes! Was it going to suck even more to ask Everly to do the same thing? Yes! He needed to find some courage and do what needed to be done.
Whatever information he helped uncover could be Cisco’s downfall, but could also be his salvation.
15
Ronan
Ronan felt like time had stood still or was in fact, moving in reverse. He was certain at least a month had passed in betweenthis moment and the one almost a day ago when they’d decided how to interview Cisco over the Jefferson McGrath case.
The idea of grilling his friend and boss about these murders was going to be hard, there was no doubt about that, but there was something else that would be even more difficult; telling Everly what was happening.
Ten and Ronan sat their daughter down at the kitchen table. Neither seemed to know how to begin, but Everly took care of that herself.
