9 Cope
Cope, Ronan, and Fitz had been driving around Salem for nearly an hour. In that time they’d been to Greek Life, West Side Magick, several clothing stores Jude liked, and the Hawthorne Hotel. No one matching his description had checked into the hotel that morning and hadn’t been seen at any of the other locations. All of Jude’s favorite clubs were closed during the day and two had signs that said they were going to be closed tonight due to the snowstorm. His car wasn’t parked in any of the lots belonging to the venues.
Cope was starting to run out of hope, and not just because they hadn’t found Jude. He’d been trying to speak with someone at AT&T who could turn on the location service on Jude iPhone so that Cope could see where he was. It was proving impossible since Jude hadn’t done it himself when he’d gotten and registered the phone.
“I understand what you’re telling me, Mr. Forbes, but without Mr. Byrne’s permission, I cannot enable that service,”
the representative said, sounding a bit annoyed.
“My husband is missing!”
Cope half shouted. “He can’t give you permission because he’s vanished.”
“Perhaps he was sick of you shouting at him?”
The customer service rep took a deep breath. “Look, sir, I’m sure that your husband has just taken a ride to clear his head. He’ll be home before you know it. Call us back when and if a missing person’s report is file on Mr. Byrne’s behalf. We might not be able to help you then either, without a warrant.”
Ronan stuck his arm into the backseat and made a “gimme”
motion with his hand. Cope gave him the phone. “Hello, this is Captain Ronan O’Mara from the Salem Police Department. Who am I speaking with?”
Ronan’s voice was cold, but not angry.
“My name is Susan. How can I help you, man who is obviously not a cop?”
“My badge number is 745512. Place a call to this number, Ronan rattled off a series of numbers. That will connect you Cisco Jackson.”
“Another friend of yours?”
Susan asked, sounding bored.
“No, Cisco Jackson is the Chief of the Salem Police Department.”
Ronan took a deep breath. “I need to speak with your supervisor, Susan, as you are obviously not qualified to help me.”
“Fine,”
Susan muttered. Seconds later, hold music began to play.
“Please keep your cool, Ronan,”
Fitzgibbon said softly. “That woman might be an asshole, but she’s right about needing a subpoena. We each know a judge or two who owe us a favor, but even still, it could take hours before it would be drawn up and signed by the right people. It’s going to start snowing soon and will be dark in two hours. We need all the help we can get.”
“I know. I’ll behave.”
Ronan let out a heavy sigh.
“Hello, Captain O’Mara? I’m Stephine Jones, a supervisor here with AT&T. How can I help you?”
“A member of the Salem Police Department, Detective Jude Byrne, has gone missing. He walked out of his home around nine this morning and has not been seen or heard from since. I’m with the detective’s husband, who’s trying to turn on the location service for Detective Byrne’s phone. We have a BOLO alert out on the detective and his car, but he hasn’t been located. I also need to tell you that we’re expecting blizzard conditions in Massachusetts to commence within the next several hours and it will be dark soon. Any help you can provide us would be welcome, Miss Jones.”
Ronan winked at Fitzgibbon. He wore a look that said, “See, I can be civilized.”
“Unfortunately, without a subpoena or Detective Byrne’s permission, I cannot turn on the location service.”
Cope wanted to scream at the stupid woman, but he held his temper. Yelling wasn’t going to help anyone, Jude especially.
“But,”
the manager continued, “since this is an emergency, I went ahead and traced the phone myself. It’s showing in the region of Ocean Street and Shore Road, in Salem Massachusetts. I’m sorry I can’t be any more specific than that.”
“The Salem Willows,”
Cope said.
“Sounds like it to me,”
Ronan agreed. “One last thing, Miss Jones, can you tell me the last time the phone pinged at that location?”
“11 A.M.,”
she said. “The phone hasn’t transmitted any data since that time. It’s my guess the phone was turned off or the battery died. Oh, God, I mean it ran out of power.”
“Thank you for your help, you’ve done a great service for the Salem Police Department. Be well.”
With those words, Ronan hung up the phone. “Let’s go.”
“Jude loves to go to Dead Horse Beach when he needs some time alone to think about things. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before. What the fuck is wrong with me?”
“It’s okay, Cope.”
Ronan offered him a smile. “You’re scared out of your mind for Jude. I would think there was something wrong with you if you were clear headed at a time like this.”
“Jude’s not the only one whose used that bench to clear his head. Remember?”
Fitz asked, elbowing Ronan.
“Yeah,”
Ronan let out a short laugh. “I’ll never forget that day as long as I live.”
“What happened?”
Cope asked. He welcomed the distraction Ronan’s story would bring.
“Ten and I had only been together for a few months. This happened after we closed the serial killer investigation. It was the only the second cold case we’d worked together, but Ten was burnt out and sad. Christ, he’d been kidnapped during our first case and Fitz got shot during our second.”
Ronan shook his head, as if he were trying to knock traumatic images from his mind. “Anyway, Ten went up north for the weekend. Somewhere in Maine. He wanted to get away and enjoy some peace and quiet. The spirits who came in contact with him, wouldn’t leave him alone. He was swarmed, I guess you could say. Ten lost his temper and wished his gift away and it worked.”
“What?”
Cope had never heard of such a thing. Obviously Ten had gotten in back somehow, but it had never crossed Cope’s mind to even try something like that.
“Yeah, it was awful. Ten didn’t tell me about it at first and tried to fake his way through a case I was working on. He went to see other psychics, got a massage, tried yoga, and finally went to see a shrink after he’d been attacked by spirits.”
“Attacked?”
Cope couldn’t believe his ears. In all the years he’d known Ten, he’d never heard this story before. “How is that possible?”
“Later on, Madam Aurora explained that spirits knew Ten was a medium and they were angry that he was refusing to help them. None of the ghosts believed that his gift was truly gone and one night, they came for him. He woke me up screaming and had several dark bruises all over his body.”
“Jesus, I’ve never heard a story like that in my life.”
Poor Ten, what a horrible thing to go through.
“I’ve got pictures if you want to see.”
Ronan offered.
Cope shook his head. “It’s not that I don’t believe you, Ronan. I’ve just never come across anything like this in all the years I’ve had my gifts.”
“When Ten went to see a psychologist, she saw the bruises on Ten’s arms and asked if his domestic partner was hurting him. She actually started to call the police before Ten bolted out of there.”
“Holy shit,”
Cope muttered.
“When I showed up at the Magick shop to talk to Ten, he blew up at me and blamed me for losing his gift. I stormed out of there and ended up on a bench at the beach. I’d been there for about four hours when Fitzgibbon showed up. I was still working for Boston Cold Case, and had called out sick that day, so you can imagine my fear when he sat down next to me.”
Cope remembered Ten talking in passing about a few knock down drag out fights Ronan and Fitz had gotten into over the years and couldn’t help but wonder if this was one of those moments.
“Instead of being angry though, Fitz brought me lunch and let me cry on his shoulder, so to speak.”
Ronan shook his head. “Christ that was seven, nearly eight years ago. I always go there when I’ve got something on my mind and I need a quiet place to work it out. I know I mentioned that place to Jude a time or two, but I never knew he used it.”
“I know the two of you like to give each other shit, but you’re so much alike, Ronan,”
Cope said. “We don’t fight or even argue very much, but Jude also needs some time and space to work out whatever is going on with him or us. He’s always found the answers he needed on that bench in the past, which is partly why I wasn’t worried about him until he was gone for hours. This is the worst fight we’ve had over our entire relationship. What if he left me for good? What if something happened to him because of me?”
“Let’s not put the cart before the-”
Ronan stopped in his tracks. Fitzgibbon had driven into the park at the Salem Willows. “Oh, shit.”
Cope unbuckled his seatbelt to peer around Ronan to see what he was staring at. It was Jude’s car. “Oh, thank God! Jude!”
Cope shouted, jumping out of the SUV. He ran toward the Thunderbird, every trace of anger gone. He was just happy to have found Jude.
When Cope reached the car, he came to a stop. Jude wasn’t sitting inside of it, but his phone was in the console and the keys were in the ignition. Looking toward the beach, Cope could see the thinking bench was empty and there was no sign of anyone walking on the sand.
“Where the hell is he?”
Ronan asked, when he reached Cope’s side.
“He’s not here,”
Cope looked to Ronan for help, but for once the detective was silent.
Fitzgibbon walked around the car, seeming to inspect it as he moved. Cope assumed he was looking for blood or maybe signs of a struggle. “Cope, do you have a spare set of keys to the Thunderbird?”
“Um, yeah, on my key ring.”
Cope dug into his back pocket and pulled out his fob. “Wait, if his keys are in the car, why do you need mine?”
Fitzgibbon swallowed hard, his throat clicked. “Cope, I-” he began.
“We don’t want to touch anything inside the car, because we would contaminate the evidence. We need your keys to look in the trunk.”
Ronan wore a heartbroken look.
It took Cope a minute to understand what Ronan had said. “Sweet Jesus! You think someone hurt him and put him in the trunk of his own car?”
Ronan nodded.
Cope felt the earth tip on its axis. He stumbled to the left. Thankfully Fitzgibbon caught him or he would have ended up on the ground. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening. “I’m dreaming right? When I wake up, we’re all gonna have a big laugh.”
Chuckling, Cope looked to the two cops, neither of them were laughing. Ronan was holding his hand out for Cope’s keys. He sobered instantly and after fumbling through his keys, found the one for the trunk. “I’ll do it.”
As calmly as he could, Cope walked toward the trunk, he inserted the key and was about to turn it when he realized he could just walk away. If he left now, he’d never know what was in the trunk and he could go on believing that Jude was coming home to him. Taking a deep breath, Cope knew he needed to face this now. It wouldn’t be fair to ask Ronan and Fitz to do this. It had to be him.
Turning the key to the right, the lock thumped and the trunk popped open a few inches. Using the cuff of his winter jacked, Cope lifted the trunk higher and breathed a sigh of relief. Aside from Jude’s set of jumper cables and a couple of reusable shopping bags, the trunk was empty.
“Thank fuck,”
Ronan said, pulling out his phone. After a few taps, Cope could hear a call trying to connect.
“Tell me you found him, Ronan,”
Cisco Jackson’s voice barked roughly.
“We only found his car. It’s down at the Salem Willows Park. There’s no sign of Jude and no sign of a struggle. His phone and keys were in the unlocked car, out in plain sight.”
“Fuck me blue,”
Cisco muttered. “Jude loves that car more than almost anything. There’s no way he would ever leave it somewhere with the keys inside.”
“What do you want us to do?”
Fitzgibbon asked.
“I’m sending patrol units and crime scene techs. Wait with the car until they arrive. When they do, go to Ronan’s. I’ll call you as soon as I have information. Got it?”
Cisco asked.
“Yes, chief,”
Ronan and Fitz said together.
Cope felt dizzy. He bent over to put his head between his knees. He took a deep breath, but didn’t feel any better. Cope knew he wouldn’t feel better again until Jude was home safe. A few seconds later, Ronan helped him back to the SUV. They sat silently waiting for the patrol units Cisco promised. Cope was about to thank Ronan for his help, when he spied the detective swiping a hand over his right cheek.
Christ, if Ronan was crying this must really be serious. Cope reached out to his spirit guides, begging them to do all they could to find Jude. It was all Cope had left to do.
Jude obviously hadn’t come home because he couldn’t. That thought gave Cope a brief pause. “I thought Jude was staying out of the house because he was still upset over our fight. Who would do this, Ronan? Why Jude?”
“I don’t know,”
Ronan said, his voice full of resolve. “I promise you we’re going to find out.”
Cope knew Ronan would do everything in his power to keep that promise. He just hoped that when the dust settled, Jude was back in his arms.