“And I’ll reach out to Kate,” Fitzgibbon reached for the case file.
“We’ll work on the best friends.” Ronan pointed between himself and Tennyson. He had a feeling those girlfriends knew a lot more than what they’d told the police back in ’85. Ronan hoped that after all this time, they still remembered the details.
“I want to go to the crime scene after lunch,” Ten added. “We can all go together, or Ronan and I can go alone. It’s up to you.”
“I think we all should go, and maybe bring Cope, Carson, and Cole with us if they’re available,” Jude said carefully.
“That’s a good idea, Jude,” Ten agreed. “Who knows what the other psychics might pick up that I don’t.” He got up from his seat and headed toward the door. “I’m also going to reach out to Bertha today. She might have more insight into what hell is going on with Skye than I do.”
“Good plan. Come get me when you’re done.”
“You don’t want in on the conversation?” Ten looked surprised.
“No.” Ronan shook his head. “This is going to be a serious conversation, and you don’t need me and my tight ass serving as a distraction. Tell Bertha I send my love.”
Ten nodded as he headed out the door. He shut it behind him.
“Damn, I haven’t seen him like that since he lost his gift.” Fitzgibbon shook his head.
“Ten lost his gift?” Jude’s mouth dropped open.
“He did,” Ronan agreed. “It was shortly after we started dating. He’d somehow managed to slam the door shut on his powers and didn’t know how to open them again. It was a wild time.” One Ronan didn’t want to ever experience again.
He wasn’t overly concerned with Ten at the moment. Skye Washington not wanting to help solve her own murder was a function of her personality and had nothing to do with Ten’s gift. Not knowing what the girl’s spirit knew was only going to make solving her murder that much harder.
14
Tennyson
After Ten grabbed a coffee from West Side Sweets, he locked himself inside his own reading room. When the business expanded two years ago to include a second storefront, Ten had been overjoyed to have his own space to work, think, and dream. Things weren’t so dreamy today.
“Cheer up, Tenny,” Bertha Craig said, materializing in the chair in front of him. “Things aren’t as bad as they seem.”
“Usually I agree with everything you say, Bertha, but not this time. You didn’t see Skye Washington last night.” Twelve hours later, Ten’s chat with the reluctant spirit was still bothering him.
“The hell if I didn’t.” Bertha cackled. Her laughter shook the walls.
“What? I didn’t see or sense you in the house last night.” Ten would have known if Bertha was there. “You couldn’t have been there.”
“Bullshit, kiddo. I’ve been at this being dead thing for a long time. I know how to keep myself hidden when the situation calls for it.”
“I’m confused.” Ten was a lot more than that, but he could only handle one thing at a time. “Why didn’t you do what you usually do and butt in. I could have used your help with Skye. I’ve never encountered a spirit like hers in the thirty-something years I’ve been doing this.”
“That’s exactly why I kept to myself. I wanted to see and hear what was going on before jumping in with both feet. I’ve come across some spirits like that in my time. I read one of them once before my dirt nap, but Skye’s the absolute worst case I’ve seen.” Bertha smiled at Ten, but it wasn’t her usual happy grin.
“I still don’t understand.” Ten felt more muddled now than he had last night when Skye disappeared from his room.
“I know you don’t, and I’m going to do my best to explain it to you.” Bertha paused for a moment, seeming to be mulling things over. “Did you ever know someone who left a job or a town and never looked back? One of those ‘Later, suckers’ types?”
Ten nodded. “A couple of times. Kids who were a few years ahead of me in high school. They left Union Chapel on graduation day and never came back. I asked my mom about one man in particular, and she said the guy didn’t even call his parents anymore. He was completely done with his roots and that was that.”
“I would say that’s exactly what happened with Skye. Her reasons for turning her back on her family might have everything to do with her murder, or they may have nothing to do with it at all. She could have been one of those spirits who embrace heaven and move forward with no regrets and nothing left unsaid.”
“I get that attitude, Bertha, I really do, but have you ever seen anything like it in a murder victim?” Ten sure as hell hadn’t.
“No, I haven’t, and that’s the reason I kept my mouth shut last night. I wanted to learn everything I could about her based on her answers to your questions and the way she treated you.” Bertha’s look turned sour. “If she were alive, I’d call her a stone-cold bitch. You know, one of those Devil Wears Prada types.”
“I’d agree with you there. What’s your next step?” Ten was hoping the other reason Bertha had stayed out of things was because she had a plan for how to go forward with this investigation from her side of the veil.
“I want to see how things go with the girlfriends first, but after we get a temperature check from each of those women, I’ll go and introduce myself. Skye had a grandmother who grabbed her like a chicken nugget up against the five-second rule. Her attitude now could be a result of the way her spirit was coddled when she first got here, or a defense mechanism built up over what happened while she lived with her parents and went to high school.” Bertha shook her head. “High school was awful for every kid from prom queen down to the runt of the litter. No one gets out of it unscathed, not even someone like Skye with her three best friends.”
Something niggling at the back of Ten’s mind finally clicked into place as Bertha spoke about the friends. “You know what was interesting about the diary?”
“What’s that? I read it over your shoulder, so I’m up to speed.”
“Of course you did.” Ten rolled his eyes. “Skye mentioned one friend barfing over the biology frog and another with a cafeteria mishap and the third with bad hair days…”
“But she never mentioned what high school troubles she faced,” Bertha finished for Ten.
“Exactly. That was just one more bizarre thing about this case. Skye was faithful with her entries, but she almost never wrote about herself. Well,” Ten amended, “not until she mentioned this Kyle person.”
“Keep this between the two of us, but when Cole was little and I kicked Corny out, I went to see a psychologist.”
Corny, short for Cornelius, was Bertha’s ex-husband and father to Carson and Cole. He was a deadbeat and a grifter. He’d promised Bertha he would cut the shit when Cole was born, but was only able to keep his promise for a month or two. Bertha kicked him out and never saw him again, which meant neither did Carson or Cole.
“I can understand why you did that. You were a single mom of two, trying to keep yourself, your family, and your business afloat.”