15 Cope
Cope spent the night on Ronan and Ten’s sofa, wearing Jude’s t-shirt. With the kids tucked into bed upstairs with Everly, Aurora, and Ezra, Cope was free to roam the house. He found that he couldn’t sit still for very long and knew there was no way he’d be able to sleep.
He’d ended up passing the cold lonely hours of the night going through his photos and videos of himself and Jude. He started back at the beginning when he and Jude first met. There were pictures of them together making Jude’s favorite chocolate chip cookies. Both of them ended up gaining ten pounds thanks to all the sweet treats they’d baked together.
The pictures moved on to when they first started dating, their vacation to Key West, and the trip that changed their lives, to Arizona to pick up Wolf. Cope felt tears dripping down his cheek when he saw pictures of Jude snuggling the baby. There were shots of Jude and Wolf smiling at each other and more with Cope in on the action, his arms wrapped around both of them.
His wedding to Jude in Running Eagle’s hogan were next. Both had been dressed in jeans and tee shirts and were surrounded by Jude’s family. His favorite pics were of the three of them together, both of their rings visible as they held Wolf between them.
The rest of Cope’s camera roll was filled with selfies of himself with Jude and with the kids. Some of his favorite pics were snapped by Wolfie. He taken lots of pictures of himself, some with only half of his face in frame. He was always laughing and having the time of his life. Looking at his son’s happy demeanor, he couldn’t help but wonder if those days were over. Would Wolf ever smile again if Jude didn’t come home? He was ready for another good cry, when he heard footsteps on the stairs. It was Ten and Ronan. Neither of them looked like they’d slept much either.
“Hey, Cope.”
Ten sat beside him on the sofa and gave him a hug.
“Morning.”
Cope tried to summon a smile.
“Ronan’s gonna make a big breakfast for the kids. I’ll stay with them here today, so that you, Ronan, and Fitz can keep looking for Jude.”
“Thanks, Ten, I appreciate it.”
Cope smelled fresh coffee brewing in the kitchen and stood up, stretching his tired limbs. A text jingle caught his attention. His first thought was that it was Jude finally making contact, but then Cope remembered Jude’s phone had been collected as evidence when the police searched his car. They’d also brought the Thunderbird to a tow yard for further examination.
Cope grabbed his phone from the coffee table and tapped the screen. It was a text message from an unknown number with a video attached. The message that accompanied it simply read “Ransom.”
What the actual fuck? “I’m not sure if I should open this.”
“Let’s bring it to Ronan,”
Ten suggested.
Nodding, Cope headed into the kitchen where Ronan was mixing French toast batter. “I need you to look at this.”
He handed the phone to Ronan.
“What is it?”
Ronan focused his attention on the phone.
“We think it could be a ransom request.”
Cope’s voice shook as he spoke. Maybe this meant they were going to get Jude back. “Whatever they ask for, I’ll pay. I don’t care what it is.”
Ronan turned to Ten. “Are you getting anything?”
“It’s legit. That’s all I’m getting.”
Ten wore a worried look.
“Let’s do this.”
When Cope and Ten crowded in beside him, Ronan pressed the play button.
The first thing they saw was Jude in a cage. The image didn’t last long, before it was replaced by Jerry Dunkirk’s face.
“That dirty son of a…”
Cope trailed of when Jerry began to speak.
“Hi, Cope! It’s Jerry! Remember me? Yup, I’m Jude’s once and future lover! I’ve got him here with me and we’ve been getting reacquainted. Wanna see?”
Jerry waggled his eyebrows at the screen. “Heeeeere’s Jude!”
The image flipped to Jude stuck in a cage. He looked worn to the bone. Dark smudges were under his bloodshot eyes. His hair stuck up in crazy directions. It was definitely Jude, but he looked like he’d been put through the ringer. “Cope! I’m sorry, I love you! Tell the kids I love them!”
Cope’s heart broke listening to the anguish in Jude’s voice. “Oh, my God,”
he whispered.
Once again, the screen flipped back to Jerry’s crazed face.
“There you have it, proof of life. In return for that touching video, I want one million dollars. Don’t give me that, ‘I don’t have any money,’ bullshit. I know you’re Buford Forbes’ son. He was loaded when he died, but not as loaded as your friend Jace Lincoln. One million dollars, Cope, and for that, you get Jude back. I’ll be in touch with a drop off location. If you involve the police in the ransom drop, Jude dies. I’ll send him back to you in pieces. I’m in my Dexter era!”
Jerry laughed. “Don’t fuck with this bull, you will definitely get the horns. Byeee!”
“I’m calling Fitz and Cisco,”
Ronan said, handing Cope’s phone back.
“Wait!”
Cope half-shouted. “Jerry said not to call the police.”
“I’ll tell Cisco to keep this to himself and to show up here without lights, sirens and marked vehicles. We’ll keep this between us. I promise.”
Ronan cleared his throat. “Can you gather the kind of money Jerry asked for?”
“Maybe, but not quickly. Everything my father left me is still tied up in the company. I’ve got stock options and dividends and that kind of thing. We’ve got about fifty grand in savings. I’m sure I could lay my hands on that pretty quickly.”
Christ, Jude was going to die if he couldn’t round up enough money.
“Keep one thing in mind, Cope,”
Ronan said, sounding cautious, “paying a ransom is no guarantee that we’ll get Jude back.”
“I understand.”
Cope walked back into the living room while Ronan called Fitzgibbon. Truth be told, Cope didn’t understand. How the fuck could an eight year old friends with benefits relationship turn into an abduction and ransom demand?
Ten followed Cope into the living room. “We’re going to figure this out. I promise you. I’ll talk to Everly when she gets up. Sometimes her visions work themselves out in dreams. She might have new information for us when she wakes up.”
As much as Cope appreciated what Ten was saying, he hated the thought of Everly getting deeper into this situation. “She loves Jude so much.”
Ten smiled.
“I remember Jude wanted to come with us when we took our surrogate to the doctor’s office to find out if the IVF took.
Jude cried harder than Ronan when we got the positive test results.
It was snowing like this when Everly was born.
Jude was the one who drove us all to the hospital with the SUV slipping and sliding all over the place.
He and Kaye stayed in the waiting room.
After Everly was born, and we had some time with her, we invited Kaye and Jude into the room.
Kaye instantly wanted to hold the baby, but Jude stood there gobsmacked with this look of awe on his face, like he’d just witnessed a miracle.
When Kaye finally handed him the baby, he had such a look of peace on his face.
He started whispering to Everly telling her that he’d always be there for her and he would love her endlessly until his dying breath.”
Ten swiped at tears flowing down his face.
“Fitz is on his way. We’re going out to clean off the stairs and dig out the SUV,”
Ronan said. He headed out the door.
From where Cope sat, he could see the neighborhood was blanketed in snow. There were no cars on the street, no plows either for that matter. “Jude’s always had a special place in his heart for Everly. What’s going to happen to her if-”
Cope couldn’t bear to say the rest out loud.
“What’s going to happen to Everly if Jude doesn’t make it home?”
Ten asked.
Cope nodded. “The idea of Everly blaming herself or hating her gift because it didn’t give her answers when she needed them the most. It breaks me.”
“So far, whenever one of us has been in danger, Everly’s managed to somehow find the answers we needed. When things have gone poorly, it’s never been anyone she knows or loves. Part of me hoped a day like this would never come. The other part, the more pragmatic side of me, has been preparing her for a situation like this one. I’ve told her again and again about how our gifts don’t work so well when strong emotions like love are involved and that I can’t read myself or her for the same reasons. She understands that concept, but hasn’t had to face real world consequences.”
“Shit,”
Cope muttered. The last thing he wanted was for Everly to suffer. “I’m not getting anything either. I don’t know where he is. We didn’t get a lot from Courtney Wilcox last night. All we know is that she and her brother are in on this together, and that the possible motive is unrequited love, which doesn’t really play for me. Fitz said units went to Jerry’s house and Courtney’s on-campus dorm room and found no signs of Jude or Jerry, and nothing that would indicate their whereabouts. So, essentially, we’re back to square one.”
“What do you mean that unrequited love doesn’t play for you? What other reason could Jerry have for wanting to kidnap Jude?”
Ten asked.
“If Jerry had been persistently in touch and stalking Jude, then, yeah, I can see his broken heart playing a role in this, but according to Jude, Jerry hasn’t been in touch with him since we got married, so that’s six years of no contact between them.”
“I hate to ask, but do you think Jude’s kept this from you?”
Ten asked. “I mean, you can’t read him, so that makes it that much harder.”
For about the hundredth time since he realized Jude had been taken, he hated Running Eagle for putting the spell on Jude that kept him safe from psychic attacks. If only he could read Jude, Cope was certain they would have found him already. “To be honest, I don’t think Jude could keep something like this from me. He’d be too guilty. If, by chance, he could keep this a secret from me, he certainly couldn’t from Ronan and Fitz. I know they’d both tell me if something was going on with him.”
“I agree,” Ten said.
Little footsteps on the stairs caught Cope’s attention. Everly was on her way down the stairs. She wore a determined look on her face. “Daddy!”
She flew into Ten’s arms. “I just got a message from Uncle Jude.”
“A message?”
Ten asked. “How is that possible? Do you have Dad’s phone?”
“No, I got the message here.”
Everly touched the side of her head.
“What did Jude say?”
Cope asked.
“Find Nurse Betty.”
Everly looked back and forth between Ten and Cope. “Does that help, Uncle Cope?”
“Nurse Betty?”
Cope asked. “I know that name, but I don’t know why.”
Getting up from the sofa, Cope paced around. “I swear we’ve been to the hospital on so many occasions, for the kids, Jude, Ronan, for cases they’ve worked on.”
“Maybe we should pull up the staff directories for Northshore Medical Center and Salem Mercy Hospitals?”
Ten asked.
Cope didn’t answer Ten. The answer to his question was on the tip of his tongue. All he needed was a few more seconds and he’d have it. “Jude’s surgery!”
Cope said. “Betty was the nurse who took care of Jude before he went into surgery. She was the one who wheeled his bed out of the pre-op room. She was also the one who took care of Jude in the recovery room.”
“I’ll get Ronan.”
As Ten got up to go to the front door, it opened, with Ronan, Fitz and Cisco walking into the living room. “Everly gave us a clue.”
“What clue?”
Cisco asked.
“Uncle Jude told me to find Nurse Betty,”
Everly said proudly.
“She was with Jude in his room at the hospital the night he almost died,”
Fitzgibbon said.
“Are you sure it was then?”
Cope asked. “She was the prep nurse before Jude’s surgery.”
“That’s right, I met her before Jude went under the knife. I told her I was Jude’s brother,”
Cisco said with a grin. “She didn’t believe me for a second.”
“Fitz, are you sure you saw her on Jude’s floor after Armstrong tried to kill him?”
Ronan asked.
“I’m positive. She was the one who came into the family waiting room to let us know Jude was out of surgery and was doing well. With everything that went on that night, when Armstrong came for Jude, it had slipped my mind that she was there during the aftermath. She followed us when Armstrong was handcuffed and marched out of the room, after Jude had been resuscitated.”
All Cope remembered about that moment was when Jude opened his eyes. He hadn’t been paying attention to anything else. Marilyn Monroe could have been in Jude’s hospital room and he never would have noticed her.
“Ronan, get on Betty. Get an address for her. Find out if she’s on duty at the hospital today. What the hell is her connection to Dunkirk and Doctor Armstrong other than the fact that they worked at the same hospital?”
“I’ll find out.”
Ronan went into the kitchen. Cisco and Fitz were behind him.
“I’m so proud of you, honey.”
Ten hugged his daughter. “Why don’t we go upstairs and get dressed. We’ll have French toast for breakfast, okay?”
“Okay, Daddy.”
Everly let go of Ten and moved to stand next to Cope. “Uncle Jude is so strong. Don’t tell him I said so, but he’s stronger than my Dad.”
Cope chuckled at his niece. He’d always thought the same thing of Jude, not that he’d tell his husband. Words like that would have gone straight to Jude’s head.
“We’re gonna find him. I know we are and when Uncle Jude comes home, we’ll have a big party with cake and a million hugs.”
“Cake with pink frosting?”
Cope asked, feeling better about the situation.
Everly nodded. “Uncle Jude loves pink!”
She held her hand out to Ten. “Come on, Daddy. Let’s get ready.”
Cope watched as Ten and Everly went up the stairs.
“Cope?”
Ronan called from the living room door. “We’ve got some information.”
Getting up, Cope followed Ronan into the kitchen. Fitz and Cisco wore serious looks. Whatever the news was, he imagined it wasn’t good.
“You’re not going to believe this but, Betty Wilcox is Courtney and Jerry’s mother,”
Cisco said.
“What?”
Cope asked. He took a seat at the table and tried to puzzle out what Cisco was telling him.
“Yeah, and it gets stranger from there,”
Ronan added.
“How could any of this possibly get stranger?”
Cope asked. A frisson of fear shivered down his spine, in that moment, Cope found that he didn’t want to hear the answer.
“Betty is Jerry Dunkirk’s mother.”
Cisco folded his hands in front of him on the table.
Cisco’s words were like a kick to the stomach. Cope took a deep breath. Now wasn’t the time for him to break down. “Hold on. Last night when we interviewed Courtney Wilcox at the library, she told us she was Jerry’s half-sister. Before we went to see her, Everly told us the person who was holding Jude and controlling Jerry was angry at Jude and you.”
Cope pointed to Ronan.
“Right,”
Ronan agreed. “Where are you going with this?”
“Jerry is Armstrong’s son.”
“Whoa!”
Fitz said. “How the hell did you get to Armstrong from Jerry being angry at Jude and Ronan?”
“During Armstrong’s trial. Evidence was brought forward that he’d told his lock-up cellie that his biggest regret was not killing Jude and Ronan. The cellmate told the jury he was sure Armstrong would go after them if the doctor was acquitted of the charges.”
Cope could see all the pieces coming together in his mind. “I told Ten a little bit ago that I didn’t believe the reason Jerry had come back into Jude’s life after seven years was because he was still in love with Jude. This is what ties it all together. Obviously, Jerry is trying to finish his father’s work and was using his past relationship with Jude to take the first step. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if Jerry were to call back and say that he wanted Ronan to deliver the ransom.”
The table was quiet in the wake of Cope’s theory. Fitzgibbon was furiously tapping on his phone, with Cisco looking on. Ronan was out of his chair and pacing around the room.
“Cope’s right,”
Fitzgibbon said. “We’d gotten a warrant to obtain Armstrong’s DNA after he tried to kill Jude that night at Salem Mercy. It was entered into the national database. I just ran a search on familial hits and one name came up, Jerry Dunkirk. According to his record, Jerry was arrested after a bar fight three years ago. He broke some guy’s nose and the man pressed charges. His DNA was collected as part of the investigation. The samples confirm that Jerry is Armstrong’s son.”
“I’ll get units out to Betty Wilcox’s house,”
Cisco said, reaching for his phone.
“Make sure they check basements, crawl spaces and old bomb shelters. In Everly’s vision she said she could smell freshly turned earth and rotting leaves,”
Ronan said.
“You got it.”
Tapping the phone, Cisco got out of his seat and shut himself in the laundry room.
“It’s all coming together. We’re gonna get Jude back, Cope. I can feel it.”
Ronan patted Cope’s shoulder.
Cope wasn’t as certain as Ronan. There were a lot of moving pieces and he felt further from Jude than ever.
Time was running out for Cope to find him.