“Bad Daddies!” Everly agreed.
“Well, that’s our cue to leave.” Ronan rolled his eyes. He pressed a quick kiss to Everly’s forehead and nodded at Kaye. She took damn good care of his daughter, but she was still way too opinionated about his and Ten’s life.
“Bye, cutie.” Ten kissed the baby and gave his mother a quick hug.
“Bye, Dada! Bye!” Everly waved as Ten and Ronan hightailed it out of the room.
“I’m glad we’re taking our own car today,” Ten said. Ronan was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs. “I like Kevin, don’t get me wrong, but I’d rather have our own ride home.”
Ronan couldn’t agree more. Plus, with the leads he was going to talk about today, he had a feeling they were all going to go their own way. “Jude told me last night that he thinks afternoon naps are making me soft. What do you think?”
“Jude said that?” Ten hummed under his breath. “Do you want to know what I honestly think? About all three of you?”
“I do.” Ronan trusted Ten to be straight with him and tell it like it was.
“I think all three of you are softer now that you’re done with the BPD. Think about the kinds of criminals we dealt with, a child molester, serial killers, mob bosses. Not exactly the cream of Boston society.”
“True,” Ronan agreed. “But how does working with those people make us softer?”
“It’s the not working with them anymore, Ronan. When we were with the BPD, we were always on edge, waiting for the next case and the next killer to apprehend. Ever since you retired, we don’t think like that anymore, we’re not constantly in a heightened state of awareness waiting for the phone to ring with the news of another murder or a break in the case. You got to relax with your life as a father. Same with Fitzgibbon. Jude was working cases of hauntings, but he and Cope were never in physical danger with guns and knives the way we were before you retired. If you ask me, Jude’s the softest one of the bunch now. I’ve never seen such a transformation in a man. He was a gruff man-whore when we met him, now he’s a husband, a father, and has cats.”
Ronan thought over Ten’s words. He knew what his husband was saying was right on the money. “Do you think my instincts will come back?”
“No, I don’t.” Ten set a hand on Ronan’s knee. “They don’t have to come back because you never lost them. Yesterday was hard on all of us. It was the first time we looked at a murder case through the eyes of a parent. If we’d worked this case three years ago when you and I first met, the interview with the Washingtons would have been much different.”
“I can’t argue with you there. I know Kevin and I would have pushed those parents harder, regardless of the fact that their dead child’s hoodie sat on her vacant seat at the table.” Ronan knew he should have pushed harder about the siblings. Skye got out of the house somehow, and the brother and sister were not only up late that night, but both had cars to drive her to the woods. “Damn,” Ronan muttered under his breath.
He pulled the car into an empty space in front of the Magick shop. “I want you to promise you’ll give me some kind of sign if you see me slipping.”
“Ronan, don’t be ridic—”
“I’m serious, Tennyson.” Ronan’s eyes pled with Ten’s. “Promise me you’ll jump in or ask the hard questions if I’m pussyfooting around.”
“I promise,” Ten agreed.
When they walked into the store a few minutes later, Carson was helping a customer in the crystal section of the store while Cole tried to wrangle Brady and Laurel into their winter jackets.
“Uncle Ro!” Both kids shouted. They dashed out of Cole’s grip and raced toward Ronan.
“Good morning, monkeys.” He pressed his cold nose against the side of Laurel’s neck before doing the same thing with Brady. Both kids shrieked. “It’s cold out, so you need to bundle up.” Ronan was quick to zip Brady’s parka and pulled on the little boy’s mittens. Laurel had done the same for herself.
“Thanks, Ronan. I’ve got to get these two on the bus, but if you need any help with the Washington case, I’m available.”
“Thanks, Cole.” He turned back to the kids. “Have a good day! Make your friends smile.”
“Bye, Uncle Ro!” Laurel waved as Cole tugged her toward the door.
“Are you going to play with the kids all day, or are we going to get any work done?” Jude asked from the office.
“You know that promise you just made to me? I’m adding to it. Promise you won’t let me punch Jude in the face.” Ronan would show Jude just how soft he was with a right hook to his nose.
Ten snorted. “Nope! You’re on your own there. I might slug him myself if he doesn’t calm the hell down.”
Ronan prayed for patience. Fitzgibbon and Jude were waiting for them when they walked into the reading room. “Ten has some information to share, Kevin. Jude was at my house last night when it happened.”
“Jude already filled me in. I can’t believe Skye is so callous toward her parents’ feelings.” Kevin shook his head. “Do you think her parents had something to do with her murder?”
“I don’t know. Skye didn’t want to discuss anything with me. She wouldn’t even say if she knows who killed her.” Ten took a seat at the table. “If she’d just told me she didn’t know, I wouldn’t have to worry about reaching out to her again. The only thing worse than not knowing is knowing someone has information pertinent to the case that they refuse to share.”
“Do you have any idea how to reach out to Skye again?” Jude’s earlier sour look was gone. He seemed to be back to his usual self.
“I have no idea. We’ll deal with getting back in touch with Skye if worse comes to worse and we have no other choice.” Ten flipped to a heavily notated page in his notebook. “What I think we need to do today is work on getting in touch with Kate and Butch, Jr. We also need to reach out to the three remaining best friends. I want to know what’s on their social media and what Google says about them before we reach out. Let’s have as few surprises as possible. I want sit down interviews with the friends and the siblings.”
Kevin snorted. “He sounds like someone, but I can’t put my finger on who.”
“Oh, please.” Ten rolled his eyes dramatically. “I spent enough time in your office listening to you bark out orders. I’m not the new kid in town. I didn’t sleep much last night, so I had plenty of time to figure out what our next moves should be. There’s one last thing.” Ten’s eyes moved from person to person around the table.
“The next interview with the Washingtons needs to be tougher,” Kevin said.
Jude nodded. “We didn’t get much from them yesterday that wasn’t already in the file.”
“Thirty-five years is a long time to work on a story,” Ronan said.
“Or it’s a long time for a grieving family to remember the details of the worst time in their lives. Just like with Skye, I only want to go back to the parents as a last resort.”
“Agreed. I’ll take the brother,” Jude said.