Chapter 7
Ronan
Tennyson had been up early, getting the kids dressed, fed and out to the bus stop.
Ronan knew he’d spent time with Cope the night before and had wanted to find out what they’d talked about, but there hadn’t been time.
Ten seemed to have a lot on his mind and Ronan hadn’t wanted to push.
He had a feeling the conversation would be lengthy.
Instead of worrying about Ten, Ronan turned his thoughts to the office. Today was going to be Greeley’s first. He couldn’t wait to dive into a case with the young detective. He knew Greeley coming to work with the cold case unit was a dream come true for Fitzgibbon.
Father and son were waiting for Ronan when he walked into the office. “Hey, guys! You both look ready to rock and roll.”
“Hey, yourself.” Fitz walked to the coffee pot and poured himself a to-go cup, adding cream and sugar before fitting the lid. “We started the day in Cisco’s office with Greeley being sworn in and getting his detective’s badge.”
Greeley held up the shiny shield, before clipping it back to his belt loop.
“Congrats, man. I’m so happy to have you on the team.” Ronan pulled Greeley in for a quick hug.
“I’ve got a couple of meetings downtown this morning, so I’m leaving Greeley with you, Ronan. Get him logged into the computer and then start looking for our next case. It’s a new year and I want to start it strong.”
Ronan knew Fitz meant he wanted to prove to the chief and mayor that approving the addition of a fourth cold case detective had been money well spent. “You got it, boss. I’ll make sure Greeley’s settled in.”
“Call if you need anything.” Fitz shrugged into his jacket and walked out of the office.
“I can’t believe this space used to be Carson and Cole’s apartment.” Greeley looked around the large open space, which used to serve as the living room. “You guys did an amazing job.”
“They’re running out of office space at the Salem Police Department and there wasn’t enough room to house us.
Cisco offered us a conference room to work out of, but we’d all be displaced when meetings were held, so Fitz asked if we could repurpose our PI office here at West Side Magick and he said yes.
Hell, we already had desks and office equipment, plus it put off needing to worry about new office space for the foreseeable future.
” Ronan pointed to Fitz’s office. “Did your Dad show you our offices?”
Greeley nodded. “He gave me the empty one, but said you guys mostly work out here at the conference table.”
“We do,” Ronan agreed. “If there’s something going on that I really need to focus on or if Jude is driving me crazy, I’ll work in my office with the door shut, but that doesn’t happen all the time.
” As annoying as Jude could be, he was a damned good detective and the two of them worked together like chicken nuggets and barbeque sauce.
“I was so scared for Jude when Dad told me what happened.” Greeley shook his head. “You all have been through so much over the years, the last thing Jude needed was a two week stay in the hospital.”
“We were all scared.” Ronan was still suffering from flashbacks.
His mind would replay the frantic call from Wolf, the way his heart was in his chest when he ran across the street to Jude’s house, and the way his best friend looked, crumpled at the bottom of the basement stairs, lying in a pool of his own blood.
As much as he wanted to forget what he’d seen and focus on the future, his mind wouldn’t let Jude’s accident go.
Ronan studied Greeley. There were so many questions he wanted to ask the young man, but wasn’t sure if now was the time or place to ask.
“Go ahead and ask, Ronan. I know the suspense is killing you.” Greeley offered a grin.
“Ask what?” Ronan thought he’d been playing it cool, but obviously not cool enough.
“What happened in Boston? At work. With Rock.” Greeley took a seat at the conference table.
“Yeah, all of that.” Ronan was silent for a few seconds, watching Greeley to see if he was uncomfortable with the idea of spilling his guts. As far as Ronan could tell, he looked resigned to his fate and maybe even a little anxious to tell the story.
“You know Rock was screwing around.” It wasn’t a question.
Ronan nodded. Fitz had told him. So had Faulk, as well as several other members of the BPD who Ronan still kept in touch with.
“I did my best to forgive him. I really tried. He promised it wouldn’t happen again, but I knew it would. Men like that don’t change their stripes.” Greeley’s voice was matter-of-fact, but Ronan could see the lingering hurt in his eyes.
Indeed they didn’t, Ronan thought to himself. Images of his ex-husband, Josh Gatlin, flashed through his head. The only thing that stopped Josh from fucking around on Ronan was their divorce.
“Anyway, I was about to break up with him for good, when Rock was given an undercover assignment. I know it had to do with drugs, but he couldn’t tell me anything more beyond that.
He was supposed to be under for about eight weeks and I knew it wouldn’t be good if I’d left him before the operation ended.
Rock needed to keep his eye on the ball and the last thing he needed was drama at home. So, I stayed.”
“Hoping that the time away from you would help Rock see the error of his ways?” Ronan asked.
“How’d you know?” Greeley asked, looking surprised. “Am I that transparent?”
“Not at all.” Ronan shook his head. “Any man would have been hoping for the exact same thing. It’s always hard letting go. We always look for reasons to stay, when the reasons to leave are overwhelming.”
“You’re right. I didn’t want to deal with a relationship ending and finding a new place to live and all the bullshit I’d get from the guys at work who knew Rock was a dog.
” Greeley sighed. “Of course all of my teammates warned me about him when we were at the academy, but I was too stupid to listen.”
“No, you weren’t. You were in love. We all do dumbass things for love.” Ronan sure the hell had. “Are things over for good? Or are we going to have to deal with Rock showing up here and trying to win you back?”
“Things are over for good. Rock agreed that we wanted different things in life.” Greeley shrugged. “I called Dad and asked if I could come stay at the house for a while. He said yes, but under one condition.”
“Oh shit!” Ronan grinned. “Let me guess, you’re on snow removal duty.”
Greeley laughed. “That, and he told me I needed to take some time to find myself again after the breakup.”
“Good advice. I was always the type to jump right back into another relationship when my last one ended.” Ronan hated to think back on it, but when his divorce was final, he lost himself in Hennessey and random hookups. He hoped to hell that Greeley would avoid his mistakes.
“Same,” Greeley said. “But I know Dad’s right. I’m gonna concentrate on this job and spending time with Aurora.”
“How did that go last night when we left?” Ronan loved his niece with all his heart, but knew Aurora had a hard time with change. Greeley moving into the house and evicting her dolls from the spare bedroom were huge changes.
Greeley flashed a cat-who-ate-the- canary grin. “I sat down with her and explained that I’d be staying at the house and how excited I was to play with her dolls.”
“No, you didn’t!” Ronan snorted.
“I did!” Greeley snickered. “Her little nose scrunched up and she told me they were her dolls and would I help her move them back to her room!”
“That’s perfect!” Ronan had to hand it to Greeley. He knew how possessive Aurora was of all her toys. Being an only child, so to speak, she never had to share with anyone. Even Everly knew to ask permission before playing with Aurora’s dolls.
“Dad and Jace thought so too! They were both so worried about how she’d react to me being home, but I knew what to do.
I showed up with presents and abided by my little sister’s rules.
We played with her dolls for a while and Aurora read me the first chapter of one of the books I brought her. It was a pretty perfect night.”
“I’m so glad to hear it. Aurora can sometimes be a tough nut to crack, but you seem to have the combination.
” Ronan snickered, but quickly sobered. There was one more question he needed to ask.
He could have asked Fitzgibbon, but wanted to hear the answer straight from Greeley.
“I hate to ask, but what made you want to leave the Boston Police Department? I know how excited you were to join the force. It was your dream job.”
“It was,” Greeley agreed easily. He took a deep breath and seemed to be considering his answer.
“About four months ago, I got called to homicide in the Back Bay. Rich homeowners. Dead young man, from the wrong side of the tracks, in the living room, with a kitchen knife buried in his chest. Their teenage son covered in blood.” Greeley’s eyes slid shut.
Ronan knew he was reliving the crime scene. He did it all the time himself and wished it was something he could stop seeing, but no matter how hard he tried, those scenes stuck with him, like the stubborn five pounds he seemed to gain every Thanksgiving.
“I took in the scene. The parents were beside themselves. They’d been at some fancy $10,000 per plate fundraiser. The father was in finance, the mother did volunteer work. Posh. Elite. You know?”
Ronan nodded. He’d worked several murder cases in wealthy neighborhoods. The people were all the same, moneyed, privileged, and acting like their shit didn’t stink.
“When I checked out the son, it didn’t take long to figure out what happened. The boy’s eyes were wide, but instead of being filled with fear, they were filled with rage. I could see the victim’s jeans were undone, as if he’d been in the act of putting them back on when the fatal blow was struck.”
“Orgasm remorse?” Ronan had seen several murders over the course of his career that were committed because the killer wished they could take a sex act back.
“No, because of the victim’s pants being undone, my thought was blackmail.
The vic mouthed off about telling kids at the killer’s elite private school that Reginald Finegold III was an ass bandit.
I’m sure he threw in a little lip about Reg’s parents finding out as well, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the kid freaked and stabbed the lover to keep his secret intact. ”
“Were you right about the circumstance of the murder?” Ronan already knew the answer, he could see stubborn pride reflected in Greeley’s eyes.
“I was,” Greeley confirmed. “Of course, my partner and I did all the leg work, spoke to witnesses, waited for the DNA results from both the killer and the victim, which confirmed they’d had sex, oral, and anal, that evening.
We spoke with the DA, got a warrant for the boy’s arrest and brought him in. ”
“I have a very bad feeling about how this is going to end.” Ronan knew there was a different set of laws for the rich and the poor and he knew which side of those laws Reginald Finegold III would fall under.
“You’re right.” Greeley shrugged. “The DA, who happened to be a member of the elder Reginald Finegold’s exclusive golf club, cut the kid a sweetheart deal.
Five years of probation, with a suspended sentence.
The kid was a minor, so if he kept his nose clean until his eighteenth birthday, not only would he never serve a day in prison but would also have his record expunged.
Rumor had it that the victim’s family agreed to the plea bargain after a hefty amount of money was deposited in their meager bank account.
” Ronan could see the anger burning in Greeley’s eyes.
“I’d never been more pissed off in my life.
I spoke to my supervisors, other lawyers in the district attorney’s office lobbying for the deal to be retracted and to have the boy serve time in a juvenile facility.
I was told to let it go. Word of what I’d done got back to the Finegold family, who had a word with the chief of police, who promised I’d be demoted for my insolence. ”
“Jesus!” Ronan felt like he’d been gut-punched. “Were you?”
Greeley nodded. “I put in for all my paid time off and came home to talk with Dad. We agreed getting the hell out of Boston was for the best. He spoke with Cisco Jackson, and bing, bang, boom, here I am.”
“Thank goodness for that. I can’t promise that something similar won’t happen here with entitled parents demanding your head, but I absolutely can promise that if history repeats itself, Fitz, Jude, Cisco, and I will all have your back.”
“There’s no place like home!” Greeley snickered.
“You got that right. Now, let’s get you settled in.
” Ronan knew Greeley was going to be an incredible asset to the Salem Cold Case Unit.
If the assholes running the Homicide division in Boston didn’t see his potential, then fuck them!
There was no doubt in his mind that Greeley was going to rock this new job, pun intended.
Hell, he might be a better detective than Jude and Ronan.
Well, maybe better than Jude, anyway.