Page 15

Oddly enough, while facing his own death, Ten had gotten the best night sleep he’d had in weeks. After the meeting at Jude’s house wrapped up, with everyone getting their assignments, they’d all headed back to his house where Deb and Kaye had cooked an incredible dinner. It was the best chicken and dumplings Ten ever had in his entire life. He wasn’t sure if the meal was that good or because it could very well be the last chicken and dumplings he ever ate. Either way, the meal had been fantastic. The kids spent the rest of the night watching movies in the living room, while the adults played Cards Against Humanity. It turned out Kaye had the dirtiest mind of the bunch.

The nightmare hadn’t returned, which allowed Ten to get seven hours of uninterrupted sleep. Ditto for Everly and Ezra. He supposed now that he understood what the nightmare was warning him of, its work was done. Ten found himself almost wishing it had come back, wanting to see if there was anything else it revealed, like more details or the events leading up to him getting shot.

Ten found himself sitting in the third row of Fitzgibbon’s SUV as they drove into Boston the next morning. Ronan rode shotgun, with Jude and Carson in the second row. Each of the detectives had taken turns revealing what they knew about the murder of Jumping Jack. Which wasn’t very much.

When they arrived at the Boston Garden, everyone got out of the SUV. Ten bounced around, stretching his legs. The third row was made for kids, not grown men.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything like this,”

Carson said, as everyone headed to the door.

“What, gone to a circus rehearsal?”

Ten asked.

“No, helped to solve a cold case.”

Carson smiled at Ten. “I remember the days when we’d all sit around Mom’s reading table with some of Cassie’s muffins and talk over cases you and Ronan were working on with the Boston Police.”

“I miss those days sometimes. Everything was simpler back then. Ronan and I weren’t married. We weren’t even dating. I could just go home at night and listen to the silence.”

“True, but you didn’t have Ezra and Everly bringing joy into your lives. I don’t think I could ever live without the controlled chaos the Velociraptors create.”

Ten chuckled at the nickname Ronan had given Carson’s triplets when they’d learned to walk. When it was time for a nap, each of the babies would scatter, making it nearly impossible for their parents, or Ronan to round them up. “I feel the same way, but the more you love, the more you have to lose. I’m about to lose everything here.”

Carson stopped in his tracks. “That’s why every single one of our friends has answered this call. We’re all here for you. To do whatever we can to make sure that nightmare doesn’t become a reality. You said last night that we needed everyone on board, well, that includes you . If you’ve already given up, we’ll lose for certain.”

“Come on, Tenny, buck up!”

Bertha Craig said, materializing beside her son. “We’ve been up against tougher odds before.”

Bertha was right. Ten’s mind cast back to when Ronan had been shot three times on their front steps. The doctors had to put him in a medically induced coma in hopes that he’d recover. It had been a long road to recovery, but Ronan had been dogged in his determination to come back stronger than ever. Would that be Ten’s fate? Or would he end up in the morgue instead of the ICU? “You’re both right. Let’s get inside and see what’s going on.”

“I’ll be doing my own detective work. See you later. Toodles!”

Bertha vanished. Ten knew she’d do everything she could to keep him safe.

Fitzgibbon flashed his VIP badge to security and everyone was ushered inside. Ten knew the three detectives had their eyes on the prize. Their first and only suspect in Jumping Jack’s murder was Ying Yang. He was an intimidating man under the best of circumstances, but Ten knew the clown’s absolute worst was going to be on display when Ronan accused him of killing Jack twenty years ago.

“Imagine living your life thinking you got away with murder, only to have everything come crashing down around you twenty years later?”

Ronan asked, taking Ten’s hand.

“That’s why I could never be a criminal. I’d be looking over my shoulder constantly waiting for the police to nab me. The anxiety of waiting for that moment would kill me.”

The anxiety of this situation was already overwhelming.

Ronan gave Ten’s hand a squeeze. “Yeah, well, some people aren’t wired like you. If you’d killed Jack, would you come back here to the place it happened?”

“No way,”

Ten said. “Boston is the last place I’d want to be.”

“It takes some pretty big balls to come here,”

Jude added with a grin. “But mine are bigger.”

Ronan rolled his eyes. “Now is not the time to have a ball measuring contest.”

The last thing Ten wanted was to get drawn into this debate, but needs must. “Let’s hope we can use those big balls to our advantage. Vincent already knows we’re looking into Jack’s murder. He’s going to be prepared for whatever questions the three of you plan to throw at him.”

“Agreed,”

Fitzgibbon grinned. “Vincent knows we’re coming, but not Carson.”

He slapped a hand on the psychic’s shoulder. “You’re our secret weapon.”

“Fitz sent me the case file last night. It wasn’t my favorite bedtime story in the world, but if me seeing those awful pictures and reading the witness statements helps to save Ten, then it’s all worth it.

Ronan pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to Carson. “You’re one of us today.”

“This is a real police badge.”

Carson turned it over in his hands.

“It sure is,”

Fitzgibbon agreed. “I hereby deputize you as a member of the Salem Police’s Cold Case Squad.”

“Wow,”

Carson beamed, as he attached it to the waistband of his jeans like Ronan had done with his own badge.

“Okay, Deputy Carnac the Magnificent, let’s do this.”

Ronan slung an arm around Carson’s shoulders.

Ten found his first laugh of the day. Carnac the Magnificent was a character the late, great Johnny Carson used to play on the Tonight Show . Ten had to admit, the name was fitting.

“Carson, follow our lead and keep the psychic thing under your hat,”

Jude said. “Like Fitz said, you’re our secret weapon. Jude reached into his messenger bag and pulled out a small notebook and a pen. “Write your impressions in here while we question Vincent. If you have any questions for him, feel free to ask them, but I’ll warn you now, he’s a strong man. You need to stand up to that.”

“I can sense him from here.”

Carson shivered. “It feels like he’s ten feet tall and bulletproof.”

“You’re not far wrong.”

Fitzgibbon paused at the locker room door. “Everyone ready?”

Ten wished he could run as far and as fast as he could from this place, but instead, he steeled his spine. “Ready.”

The smell of greasepaint assaulted Ten’s senses when they walked into the dressing room. Several clowns were in the process of applying their makeup. One of them was Kent. Ten and the others approached Jack’s lover.

“Captain Fitzgibbon, how is the investigation going?”

Kent asked, looking nervous.

“We were able to get access to the original case file, including the interrogations you and the other members of the circus were subject to. We’re here to conduct interviews today. Where’s Vincent?”

Kent let out what looked like a sigh of relief when Fitz named their target. Ten focused in on him and found there was something the clown was hiding. “Remind me again, what was the state of your relationship with Jack the night of his murder?”

Ronan shot Ten a questioning look, but stayed silent.

“Well, uhhh…”

Kent stammered for a few seconds, seeming to have trouble formulating an answer. “We were fighting.”

Ronan’s eyes darkened. “There was no mention of that in the interviews you gave to the Boston Police.”

“Those stupid cops were trying to frame me for Jack’s murder, saying we were having a lover’s quarrel and all that bullshit. All they were doing was trying to make a fast arrest so they could go back to being racist, homophobic, donut-eating assholes.”

Kent’s hands were fisted at his sides. Ten knew the man was itching for a reason to use them against Ronan and the others.

“Take a breath, Kent.”

Ten took the man’s arm and pulled him away from the detectives. “You realize all three of them are gay. None of them are racist. I will admit to Ronan and Jude loving donuts.”

He’d once seen the two of them put away a dozen glazed donuts in ten minutes.

Kent offered a half-hearted laugh.

“What happened between you and Jack that night?”

Ten asked gently. His gift was still telling him Kent was hiding something. He’d somehow locked the information away in a place Ten couldn’t access. He hoped Carson was having better luck reading the man.

“They’re just going to try to frame me. I’m not under arrest. I know my rights. I don’t have to talk to you.”

Kent relaxed his hands and crossed his arms over his chest. He looked like a petulant child.

Ten sighed, he didn’t have the time or the energy for this conversation, but have it, he would. “If you didn’t kill Jack, they’ll be able to eliminate you as the killer, freeing them up to find the person who actually committed the crime. If you keep acting like a toddler who was told he couldn’t have a cookie, then all you’re doing is hurting yourself and wasting their time, which is short enough as it is. Some of the members of the circus are scheduled to fly out of Boston on red-eye flights just after midnight on Saturday morning, when the show ends, putting them out of our reach and out of Fitzgibbon’s jurisdiction. Refusing to cooperate only makes you look guilty.

Pulling out a chair, Kent took a seat. “We were arguing about living together. I wanted him to move in with me and Jack thought it would draw too much attention. I wanted to live my life out in the open and all he wanted to do was fly under the radar.”

“Been there. Done that,”

Ten agreed. “I grew up in Kansas, in the middle of the Bible Belt, and there was no way I was ever going to come out while I lived there.”

His decision might have been different if his parents were supportive, but they weren’t. In the end, he ended up on a Greyhound bus bound for Salem.

“Yeah, well…”

Tears fell from Kent’s eyes. He buried his head in his hands and began to cry.

It might not have been ethical, but while Kent’s defenses were down, Ten tried to read the man again. Thankfully, he wasn’t guarding his secret quite so closely now. “Was the argument between you and Jack physical?”

Kent lifted his eye and stared daggers at Tennyson. “Is that how you work? You get people to break down and then you exploit them?”

“How we work is irrelevant in the moment,”

Ronan said. “Answer the question, did you put your hands on Jack that night?”

“Yes!”

Kent shouted. “There! Are you happy now? Jack wasn’t listening to me and was trying to walk away. I grabbed him and pinned him against the wall. I was holding on so tight that I left marks on his upper arms. I’d never put my hands on anyone else in anger in my entire life. When I realized what I was doing, I dropped my hands and stepped away. In that moment, Jack hated me. I’d never been in love that way before and the thought of losing him broke something inside me. When Jack walked away from me, I was afraid I’d lost him for good.”

Tennyson’s heart broke for Kent. He’d been violent with Jack, but did he kill him as well? “Was that the last time you saw him?”

“Privately, yes. I was with him on stage during our performance. I managed to whisper that I was sorry and Jack said we’d talk after the show. He said that he was wrong about hiding in the shadows.”

Kent wiped his damp eyes on the cuff of his costume. “I was so anxious for the show to end so that I could really apologize and hold him again. That was how I noticed he hadn’t come out for the curtain call. You know what happened after that. Celestina found his body. All of my dreams ended that night. I knew I’d be quickly arrested and thrown in jail to rot for the rest of my life if I told anyone about our fight.”

“You’re probably right,”

Ronan agreed. He turned to Ten. “Is he telling the truth?”

“Yeah, the fight is what he’s been hiding from us.”

Ten’s eyes turned to Carson, who offered a barely perceptible nod. He’d been getting the same information as Ten.

“Where’s Vincent?”

Jude asked, cracking his knuckles.

“On stage. He’s choreographing for the first clown number. It wasn’t going well. When he told us to take five, I got away from him as quickly as I could. Vincent was lashing out at us. Shouting at people who were a step off and threatening to kick us out of the show. I can’t stop you from trying to talk to him, but I’d sure as hell watch your backs.”

“He’s the one whose going to need to watch his own.”

Ronan grinned, looking as if he was going to enjoy every moment of the conversation to come.

Ten and the others followed Ronan as he headed for the stage. He was thankful Kent had nothing to do with Jack’s murder. He understood completely why he’d kept the fight hidden from the police back in 1995, but keeping that secret from Ronan and the detectives only served to waste time.

Ten had seen the glint of determination in Ronan’s eyes. He knew that look. It meant his husband wasn’t going to take any shit from anyone. Vincent wasn’t going to know what hit him. Ten couldn’t wait for the fireworks to start.