Page 15 of Dead Drunk (Cold Case Psychic #36)
Tennyson
When Ten and Ronan got home from the interview with Bob Oliveri, Ten called Cope to ask if he could take Everly and Ezra, while the detectives had their meeting. Cope agreed to keep them for the night, which took a load off Ten’s mind.
Jude met the kids at the door when Ten rang the bell. Cope had called out for pizza which was scheduled to be delivered at any second. Without so much as a wave, Everly and Ezra ran to their friends. In a way, Ten was relieved Everly hadn’t said anything to him about this case. She loved Cisco and it would break her heart if he were arrested and convicted of murder.
Over the years, Ten had seen many criminals be convicted of the crimes they’d been charged with, but none of those crimes hit this close to home. All he could do was hope the detectives found some shred of evidence that would prove Cisco wasn’t the culprit.
A solemn Fitzgibbon opened the door when Jude rang the bell minutes later. He waved everyone back to the kitchen, which smelled like bacon.
“I got everything for BLT’s. Help yourself. There were plates on the counter filled with fresh lettuce, bright tomato slices, and thick cut bacon.
Ten wasn’t particularly hungry, but the scent of the fried bacon quickly changed his mind.
“What’s our next move?”
Fitz asked when everyone was seated at the table with their sandwiches.
“I was kind of hoping you were going to tell us,”
Ronan said.
“If we’re doing something this monumental, we all need to be in on the decision.”
Ronan knew Fitz wanted to make sure they were all comfortable with whatever plan they put into action.
“I think we should do something like this. Invite Cisco over for dinner, explain to him what we know and see how he takes it.”
“Not well, I imagine,”
Jude muttered.
“I like that idea, we don’t want to do this in the office, but how do we keep him from bringing Luca and Frankie. The last thing we want is for them to be there for whatever happens.”
“That’s easy,”
Ten said.
“Luca takes Frankie to an early evening swim class twice a week. The next class is tomorrow night. Luca raved about how much Frankie learned, which was why Cope and I decided to sign our kids up for lessons there too.”
“I’ll text Cisco and see if we can get him to come to dinner tomorrow at my house.”
Ronan grabbed his phone and tapped a message. He’d barely set the phone down when the response came in.
“He says he’ll be here.”
Ronan swallowed hard.
Ten set a hand on his shoulder. He could feel everyone’s agony. Tomorrow wasn’t going to be easy for any of them.
“I hate to ask, Ronan, but has Everly said anything about this case?”
Fitz asked, as he pushed away the plate with his half eaten sandwich.
“Not one peep.”
Ronan shook his head.
“I was surprised that she didn’t say anything when we walked her and Ezra to Jude’s house.”
Ten didn’t need his gift to know what Fitzgibbon was going to ask next.
“Are you going to talk to her about this?”
Fitz sighed.
“I know you don’t want her exposed to this kind of thing, but it’s Cisco. Once we let this cat out of the bag, there’s no stuffing it back in.”
“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’re not out 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 doubt this was 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 behind this, 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.