3 #2
“I’ll go get my kit.” Jude left the room. He returned several minutes later and began to gather forensic evidence. When he was finished Jude marked and tagged the evidence. He exchanged a look with Ronan.
“Can you touch the letter using gloves?” Ronan asked. “Will you still get the same information?”
“I can try,” Carson said.
Jude handed him a pair of gloves, which Carson struggled to put on.
He set his hand just above the paper and shut his eyes.
Ronan watched, riveted, as Carson slowly lowered his hand.
The frown on his face grew deeper. With a sigh, he set his hand on the letter itself.
“I see prison bars, a nightstick, and a man on the floor.”
Ronan didn’t like the implications of Carson’s vision. “Did you use a nightstick when you worked as a corrections officer?”
Jones nodded. “Not very often, but yeah, I did.” He wore a guilty look.
“Out of those men, are there any who’d be looking for revenge against you?” Ronan knew it was a shot in the dark. He’d been in law enforcement for twenty years and there’s no way he’d be able to provide a comprehensive list of people who’d be gunning for his head.
“There’s one inmate. Gianni Franco. He was connected to the Andruzzi crime family, or so I was told when he came to the prison.
Franco bellyached day and night that he was innocent.
That he’d been railroaded and that a man named Bruce Jennings was the real killer.
” Jones shrugged. “If I had a nickel for every inmate who’d ever told me they were innocent I could buy my own island in the Mediterranean.
There’s always an exception to the rule and in this case, Franco was telling the truth.
His family hired some high-powered lawyer and a private investigator who dug up additional information on the murder.
The lawyer got Franco’s conviction overturned and he was released from prison.
I was there the day he walked out a free man.
He called me an asshole and said Karma was coming for me. I guess he was right. Karma’s here.”
“Jude and I will get to work on this. We’ll get in touch with your ex and her husband and see what we can find on Gianni Franco. We’ll be in touch.” Ronan stood up.
“In the meantime, you might want to pack a bag just in case it’s safer to spend the night away from home,” Jude said. “Let me walk you out.” Carson followed them out the door, shutting it behind him.
“Are you okay?” Ronan asked. “Your gift is still down, right?”
Ten nodded. He wore an embarrassed look. “I’m sure I’ll be fine in a few hours. Carson knows what he’s talking about.”
“I know, but you’re my ride or die. I trust you above everyone else.” Ronan wished there was something he could do to speed Ten’s recovery. He felt helpless.
“I hear you.” Ten rubbed his hands together, as if to warm them up.
“You wanna tell me what happened with that other guy?” Ronan got out of his seat and walked around the table to Tennyson.
“He was just one of those skeptical assholes who wouldn’t give me any information about who he was or why he was here. He enjoyed taunting me. I was just about to kick him out when he grabbed my hand and fried my gift.”
“How did he do that?” Even after all these years, Ronan was still learning about the limits of Ten’s gifts. These situations didn’t present themselves very often, but when they did, Ten was off-balance for hours or even days.
“At first, he flooded me with rage. Jesus, Ronan, I’ve never felt that level of emotion in my entire life.
If his hate were candy bars, I’d own the whole damn chocolate factory.
After the rage came a series of images. I only caught a few of them and none made sense.
” Ten shook his head. “I saw a headstone, flashing police lights, a cop kneeling beside a body on the ground and you.”
“Me?” Ronan yelped, alarm flooding his body.
“I could see you standing with your hands fisted, looking like you were ready to take on all comers. Before Rogers grabbed me, he said you were the reason he couldn’t reunite with someone he loved. His mind was very well guarded, as if he’d learned how to shield himself from me.”
Ronan sighed. “I’ll have Carson go through the video footage to take screen shots of this guy, and we’ll see if I recognize him. Did he threaten me or you in any way?”
Ten shook his head. “No, nothing like that, but then Warden Jones burst into the shop and started screaming, so I walked out of the room to see if I could help. By the time you and Jude got him settled in here, my client had left.”
“I hate to say this, but this client is low on my priority list at the moment. We need to get to work on Warden Jones and find out what’s going on with this letter. Once he’s safe and out of harm’s way, then we can revisit this Rogers guy.”
“Okay,” Ten agreed.
Ronan noticed the relief on his husband’s face. It wasn’t like Ten to be ruffled by client readings, but there was definitely more to this particular client that Ten was letting on. He promised himself to question Ten more thoroughly about Dan Rogers when he had more time.