“Explain this to me.” Ronan’s voice was gentle.
Ten took a deep breath. “Do you want the long version or the short version?”
“Ordinarily, I’d say short.” Ronan snorted. “But this time, I want to hear the whole story.”
“When you retired, I thought we were done with cold cases, dead bodies, and police procedures. I loved the idea that you were home with Everly and picking up work at the Magick shop. These last eighteen months have truly been the best times of my life.”
“Mine too,” Ronan agreed. He didn’t want to interrupt the flow of Ten’s thoughts, but his husband needed to know how he felt.
“Don’t get me wrong, Ronan. I know you’re a cop down to the marrow of your bones, but I thought I was done with blood and horror and death.” Ten looked up at Ronan. Tears shimmered in his eyes.
“I’m so sorry I pulled you into this, babe.” Ronan was going to tell Ten how much he loved him, and that he didn’t need to continue with this case if he didn’t want to, but he was stopped by Ten holding up his left hand to keep Ronan from continuing.
“We all have gifts. Some people can sing or act. Others can write or crochet a blanket. Our gifts are helping people. I now realize that while I was in my perfect life bubble, people around me were suffering. People didn’t stop getting murdered just because the two of us hung up our detective hats.”
Ronan couldn’t believe what Ten was saying. He would have bet the house that Ten was done with murder cases and the gore and pain that went hand in hand with those types of cases. “I’m stunned. I don’t know what to say.”
Ten laughed. “Well, that’s certainly a first for you.” He leaned forward to smack a quick kiss against Ronan’s lips.
“I can’t argue with you there.” Ronan returned the kiss in a slow, deliberate fashion. “What I don’t understand is what the hell happened in there.” He hooked a thumb back at the Blake house.
“To be honest, I don’t know either. If I hadn’t seen a vision of Jennifer’s grandmother making the lace tablecloth, I would have thought there was something wrong with my gift.”
“I hate to say it, but I wondered the same thing. Cisco did too.” Ronan felt guilty as hell saying that, but he’d read the police chief’s body language, clear as a bell. Cisco was angry. “What would cause Jennifer to be blank like that or not show up to talk to you?”
“It reminds me of what Skye told me. Her grandmother was waiting for her and she followed her to the other side. There was no weeping over her lost life, no visits to her grieving family. Nothing.”
“Do you think you can reach out to her?”
“I can try. I’ll talk to Bertha about it too. She’s supposed to be working on Skye, but I haven’t heard back from her in a few days.”
Ronan snickered. “You know, I was expecting to come out here and listen to you tell me how you couldn’t do this anymore. How you didn’t want me to do this anymore. I’ve gotta say you shocked the hell out of me. That doesn’t happen very often.”
“I had a feeling you’d be surprised.” Ten reached a hand out to the side of Ronan’s face. “This is our life. Some things are out of my control, but I can control what I use my gift for…like helping people.” He pulled his phone out of his back pocket. “I’m going to call Carson and have him come get me. I’ve got work to do back in the office. You stay here as long as Cisco needs you.”
“Speaking of Cisco, what the hell do I tell him?”
“Cisco’s a big boy, Ronan. He knows how my gift works. If he was expecting me to come here today and tell him Colonel Mustard did it in the conservatory with a candlestick, then shame on him.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t Miss Scarlet in the library with the knife?” Ronan started to laugh.
“Tell Cisco whatever you want. I don’t work for him. I’ll be working on this case from my angle back at the store.”
“You got it. I’ll handle things from here.” Ronan leaned forward to kiss Ten, again, when banging on the window stopped him.
“Jesus Christ, you two! This is a fucking crime scene not an outtake from The Bachelor!” Cisco looked like he was about to go nuclear.
“I’ll handle this.” Ronan rolled his eyes.
“I’ll see you later.” Ten grinned before waving to Cisco.
“Thanks, Ten!” Ronan shut the car door behind him. “Come with me.” He grabbed Cisco’s elbow and dragged him away from the SUV and the front door of the house.
“Take your hand off me!” Cisco yanked his arm free. “I didn’t pull the two of you in on this case only to have you making out like schoolboys in the back of Fitzgibbon’s ride.”
“Calm down, Cisco,” Ronan began.
“Don’t you tell me to calm down. This is a murder case!” Cisco fisted his hands on his hips.
“I understand that. Tennyson does too.” If Cisco didn’t slow his roll, he was going to end up with a fat lip.
“So why the hell is he walking out on us?” The anger in the chief’s eyes turned to bewilderment.
“Ten isn’t walking out. He wasn’t getting anything from Jennifer’s body. He isn’t sure what’s going on with her spirit.”
“I’m not sure what the hell you’re trying to say.” Cisco sounded mildly calmer than he had a few seconds ago. Anger still burned in his eyes.
“Jennifer’s spirit wasn’t here. Ten couldn’t talk to her because there was no one to talk to. Carson is coming to pick him up so they can do some research and possibly speak to Bertha Craig. Maybe she can reach out to Jennifer from the other side. It’s just odd that this had happened to both of the murder victims in this case.”
Cisco shook his head. “I’m not sure I understand what you’re talking about now, either.”
“When Ten was able to speak with Skye Washington, she said she never looked back once she was on the other side. She didn’t stick around after her murder like Patrick Swayze in Ghost. She didn’t visit her family or go to her own funeral. She just turned the page.” Ronan had already decided he’d be sitting in the front row at his murder trial. If he got murdered. “He’s going to try to find out if something similar happened to Jennifer.”
“Shit,”’ Cisco sighed. He paced off from Ronan a couple steps before taking a few deep breaths. “I’m sorry. Tell Ten I’m sorry too. I just—”
“You just thought that with a P.I., two former members of the Cold Case unit, and a psychic, that this case would be solved by the end of the week, right?” Ronan couldn’t help but think back to Ten’s remark about Colonel Mustard and the candlestick.
“Something like that. You know when you have the right tools in place to do the job…” He trailed off. “Now, not only is the cold case still cold, but we’ve got a fresh body.”
“Ten said something like that last night.”
“What do you mean?”
“This crime is thirty-five years old. There hasn’t been a new lead in it for almost as long. Now, like you’ve said, you’ve got the four of us on this case. Men who have solved cold cases like this in the past. If I were the killer, I’d be shitting a solid gold brick.” Ronan mentally kicked himself for not thinking of this sooner.