Chapter 3
Ronan
Ronan was still fuming as he drove through Salem on the way back to West Side Magick.
He knew he was biased, but Everly was the absolute sunshine in his life.
Her laugh made everything better. When her gift and the things it revealed tormented her, Ronan was always there to hug her tight and help fight back the visions and nightmares.
When people maligned her character, he was going to be the first one to stand up for her.
Ronan was about to tell Ten as much when his phone rang.
“It’s Cisco,” Ten said, after glancing at the screen. “What the hell have you done this time?”
“Nothing that I know of.” Which wasn’t exactly true, but after the meeting with Miss Stanton, Ten didn’t need to know the details. “Answer it, please.”
“Hey, Cisco, this is Ten. We’re driving. Let me put you on speaker.” Ten tapped the button.
“Hi, boss, what’s up?” Ronan prayed that whatever Cisco was about to say wouldn’t get him in trouble with Tennyson.
“I’ve called a meeting about Head Doe,” Cisco said, not bothering with small talk.
“Who?” Ronan asked, relieved he wasn’t about to get his ass handed to him by his boss and his husband.
Cisco sighed heavily. “The frozen human head that was found in a freezer last night.”
“Ah, yes, I got you. Let me drive Ten back to West Side Magick and I’ll be right there.” Ronan had a feeling Cisco was going to ask them to take the case, but he hadn’t thought it would have been this soon.
“No need, Ronan, bring Ten along with you, if he’s got the time to spare. We could really use him on this case.” The smile in Cisco’s voice was apparent.
“I sure do, chief,” Ten said. “See you in a few minutes.” Ten tapped the phone to end the call.
“Sounds like the case has developed since this morning. I wonder if this means he wants us to partner with homicide?” Ronan hated the idea.
Homicide had egos as big as Texas and thought Cold Case was the junior varsity squad.
The last thing he wanted was to play second fiddle to a bunch of amped up assholes who thought they were kings of the world.
“I think he’s gonna give the investigation to cold case.” Ten sounded pretty certain.
“What do you think of working it with us?” Ronan knew what Ten’s answer was going to be. It was written in Ten’s glittering eyes.
“It’s been a while since we’ve gotten to investigate something from scratch. The only work that’s been done was last night at Maria Cullen’s house.” Ten grinned. “I’m excited. I’ve been in the office for too long.”
“I was thinking the same thing.” Ronan had gotten used to working cold cases which always started with reading and familiarizing himself with the prior work that had been done on a case by the original detectives.
This time, Ronan and the cold case team were gonna get to do the heavy lifting themselves.
Fifteen minutes later, Ronan and Ten walked into the Salem Police Department. Fitz, Jude, and Greeley were in a conference room waiting for them.
“How did things go with Everly’s teacher?” Jude asked.
“She suggested we take Everly to a shrink to diagnose childhood-onset schizophrenia because she talks to people who aren’t there in class.” Ronan couldn’t believe he was actually saying those words out loud.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jude cracked his knuckles.
Ronan loved it when his bestie was on Everly’s side. “Ten set her straight with one of his little demonstrations, which was particularly savage. Deservedly so.”
Ten grinned and patted himself on the shoulder. “We invited Max Preston to dinner next week if you all want to come. I’m making parmesan wings.”
“Sold!” Fitz said, practically drooling.
Cisco breezed into the room, shutting the door behind him. “Glad you’re all here.” He set a folder on the table and took a seat. “I assume you all saw the story in this morning’s paper about the frozen head?”
Everyone nodded.
“After the crime scene unit finished photographing the head, it was picked up by the Essex County Morgue and was scheduled for autopsy this morning, which was performed.” Cisco tapped the folder beside him. “The reason this case is being handed to you is because of the victim’s hair.”
“His hair?” Ronan asked, not understanding what the hell a hair had to do with anything.
Cisco flipped open the folder and passed out photographs, like a blackjack dealer. “Sorry to do this to you Ten.”
“Oh, wow!” Ronan said, as he got a look at the picture. He understood now why the case had been handed to them. Even with frost coating the victim’s hair, the style was unmistakable. “He’s a dead ringer for Vinnie Barbarino, from Welcome Back, Kotter.”
“John Travolta was smoking hot on that show with that perfectly feathered, longish hair.” Fitzgibbon sighed. “God, I miss the 70s.”
“I don’t understand what any of you are talking about!” Greeley eyed the picture with a confused look on his face.
“Google 1970 John Travolta, Greeley.” Fitz rolled his eyes. “Hairstyles like these were out in the 1980s, so I’m guessing the consensus on these remains is that this person was murdered in the 1970s.”
Cisco nodded. “Right. That’s the assumption we’re running with, unless or until you all can prove something different.
I want Ronan and Jude to go to the morgue.
See what the medical examiner has to say.
Fitz, I want you and Greeley to go through missing persons reports for that time period.
Start local and branch out from there. See if anyone matches our head.
Then I want you all to visit the owner of the house, Maria Cullen.
Talk to her, the family, neighbors, anyone you think can give you information about Maria and this man.
Who was he and why did he end up in the deep freeze? ”
“You got it,” Fitz said, jotting notes on his pad.
“What do we think this is?” Ronan asked. “Mob hit or is Maria Cullen the killer?”
“I don’t even want to guess.” Cisco looked at each of the detectives. “Homicide is pissed that I’m giving this case to you. Don’t fuck it up.”
“Great pep talk, boss!” Jude said, getting out of his seat.
“You’ve been on desk duty since you were reinstated. Are you sure you’re good to go on this case?” Cisco asked, seeming to study Jude.
“I’m good as new. My dumbass sense of humor was the last thing to come back to me.” Jude offered Cisco a bright grin. “Let’s go find out who killed Chilly Willy!” With a snort, Jude left the conference room.
Walking out to the parking lot, Ronan tried to wrap his head around this case.
They had no leads and almost no evidence to go on.
It was going to be a tough solve. Ronan couldn’t wait to dig in.
This investigation reminded him of his time in homicide when he partnered with Tony Abruzzi. Those were the good old days.
“I’ll ride in the back,” Ten said, opening the door to the Mustang and climbing into the backseat.
“Thanks, Ten,” Jude said. “I have to turn myself into a human pretzel to get in the back of this car.” He climbed in and buckled his seat belt. “Tell me what the hell happened at this teacher meeting.”
Ronan sighed. “Miss Stanton wouldn’t tell us why she wanted to meet with us when she booked the appointment yesterday. I understand now why she did that.”
“It felt like an ambush.” Ten shook his head. “I was worried that Everly was getting bad grades or had gotten in trouble for standing up for her classmates, but then this woman starts mentioning Everly staring off into space and talking to people who aren’t there.”
“You do that all the time,” Jude said.
“I do, but I don’t have someone watching me and reporting back what I’ve spent the day doing.” Ten wore a grumpy look. “If I could, I’d get her out of that woman’s class today, but I don’t want to separate her from Wolf and Aurora.”
“I can deal with the fact that Miss Stanton was bringing these concerns to us,” Ronan began, trying to keep his anger under control. “Everly needs to pay attention in class and do her work, but when Ten tried to explain what Everly was doing, well, that’s when the shit hit the fan.”
“Did Miss Stanton not believe in Everly’s gift?” Jude asked, looking as if he were loving every minute of this conversation.
“Not just hers, but mine too.” Ten winked at Ronan in the rearview. “I broke out the big guns and told Miss Stanton about the dog her father gave her when he left the family, how the cheer leading squad put Nair in her shampoo, and all about the mama’s boy she’s dating.”
“No holds barred!” Ronan snickered. “It was a thing of beauty to watch. Of course it would have been a lot more fun if the reason for Miss Stanton’s evisceration didn’t have to do with our daughter.”
“No kidding,” Tennyson agreed. “Before all of that happened, Miss Stanton started talking about what Ronan and I should do to help Everly. I don’t know how I managed to stay in my seat.”
“You?” Ronan asked. “When she said we should take Everly to a pediatric psychotherapist, I swear I saw red. Women like her are the ones who burned witches back in the day. They’re afraid of everything different and want to destroy it.”
“What kind of experience gives her the right to say that?” Jude asked. “Is she a social worker or a doctor on the side?”
“I don’t know, but we’ll find out when Max Preston comes to dinner.” The thought of explaining what happened in the meeting gave him warm fuzzies all over.
No one was going to mess with Everly, not if Ronan had anything to say about it.