1
Jude
Salem, Massachusetts, present day…
It truly was the most wonderful day of the year, as a famous commercial once proclaimed about the first day of school.
Jude Byrne stood at the bus stop with his son, Wolf, who was dressed in new khaki pants and a little plaid button down shirt.
Jude had no idea when his son had gone from superhero shirts to looking like a miniature hedge fund manager on casual Friday, but had to admit, Wolf was styling.
“We did it!” Ronan exclaimed as he came out of the house with Everly and Ezra. Tennyson was a few steps behind. “We survived the summer!”
Everly sneered. “You don’t have to look so happy about it.” She was dressed in a denim romper with a pink shirt underneath and a pair of cute sandals.
“I thought you were excited for the start of third grade. What happened?” Jude asked. They’d all gotten together the night before for dinner along with Fitzgibbon’s family. Everyone had been in a celebratory mood, at least that’s what Jude had thought.
“Daddy woke me up at 6:30 A.M., Uncle Jude. That’s what happened. He was singing a stupid song and smiling so hard, I thought his teeth were gonna crack. Do you know who’s that happy and energetic at the butt crack of dawn?”
Jude had many guesses, several of which weren’t appropriate for eight year olds, but kept them to himself.
“Psychos, that’s who!” Everly crossed her arms over her chest.
Jude snorted. Everly had a point.
“Oh, look, here comes Aurora!” Ronan waved. “Hi, Aurora! Happy first day of school.”
Aurora frowned. She ran to Everly and began whispering. Jude thought he heard the word “psycho.”
Fitzgibbon, on the other hand, looked ecstatic. “Ah, the first day of school. I love the smell of notebooks in the morning.”
“Here comes the pre-school bus!” Cope shouted, racing across the street with Lizzie.
“Bus! Bus!” Lizzie and Ezra jumped up and down and shouted together. Both of them looked excited for the first day of school.
The bright yellow bus stopped in front of Ronan’s house. Cope and Tennyson snapped pictures and shot video as the kids got on the bus and waved goodbye.
“What have we got going on this morning?” Fitz asked.
“Ronan and I are working on the Evans file. I’m sure some of the witnesses know more than they’re telling us, so we’re gonna hit that hard today. Why?” It wasn’t like Fitz to micromanage his and Ronan’s time.
“I got a text from Cisco this morning. He wants to see us in his office at nine.”
“What the hell did Ronan do this time?” Jude shot his best friend a dirty look.
“Why am I always the red-headed step child?” Ronan whined.
“Hey!” Everly said. “I heard that!” She shook one of her strawberry blond ponytails at Ronan.
“Sorry, honey.” Ronan grinned at his daughter. “If your honor will allow me to rephrase? Why do you always think I’m the troublemaker? Jude does plenty of dumb shit too.”
“Yeah, but unlike you, I don’t get caught.” Jude waggled his eyebrows at Ronan.
“Children, enough.” Fitz rolled his eyebrows. “I don’t know what the meeting is about, except to say that Cisco didn’t chew my ass out over anything. He just said he needed to see the three of us. To be honest with you, I’m as much in the dark as you are.”
Jude had been kidding about Ronan being the problem child. He’d done plenty of stupid things too. Fitz not knowing what was going on was concerning, but would have to wait. The bus was coming down the street and it was almost time to party.
“Here’s the bus!” Ronan danced a little jig.
“Have a great first day, Wolf.” Jude hugged his son. “Kick ass and take names!”
“I’ll just read comic books in the cafeteria, Daddy.” Wolf hurried toward the bus steps.
Everly posed with Aurora by the bus, while Ten snapped pictures of them flashing peace symbols.
When the bus door shut and the kids were making their way to empty seats, Jude pulled out his phone and cued up “Celebrate” by Kool & the Gang.
Ronan handed out noisemakers that appeared to be left over from New Year’s Eve. He tooted on his horn and danced to the music as the kids looked back with mutinous looks on their faces.
Jude laughed when Everly flashed Ronan the finger. At least Jude thought it was aimed at Ronan. “We’re free!” Jude blew his own noisemaker.
Cope shot Jude a dirty look. “If we were free, we’d be on our way to Hawaii, instead of going into the office. I hope you guys have one hell of a plan for dinner because I can bet you the kids won’t be in the mood to take any of your shit after that sendoff.”
“To be honest,” Ten began, “I’m not in the mood to take any of their shit now.”
Ten headed for the front steps while Cope crossed the street.
“Fine, we’ll bring home dinner from Lobster Charlie’s. Will that help smooth over relations?” Jude called to Cope.
“Only if you get some baklava from that new bakery near the shop.” Cope blew Jude a kiss.
“Any special requests, Ten?” Ronan asked.
“You mean aside from you helping with the laundry, the dishes, and mowing the back yard like you promised?”
“Oh, snap!” Fitz snorted and high-fived Jude.
Ronan’s party mood seemed to evaporate. He dashed up the steps and whispered something to Ten, which instantly made the psychic brighten.
“Double baklava for me!” Ten called as the detectives opened the door to Fitz’s SUV.
“What the hell did you say to him?” Jude asked, when they were in the car and on their way down the street.
“I promised him an unforgettable night of unbridled passion.” Ronan wore a Cheshire Cat grin.
Fitz gagged. “Oh, please.”
“Okay, fine,” Ronan sighed. “I also promised I’d do all of those other things he mentioned along with a few other chores of a more personal variety.”
“For the love of Jesus, Ronan, I don’t want to hear about you lubing Ten’s drive shaft.” Fitz shivered.
“For your information, I told Ten I would pick up some new books for him at that occult book shop over on Essex. You know, the one with the giant cauldron in the window?”
“Cope loves it there too. The guy who owns it is from NOLA, so they’ve struck up a friendship. Cope won’t admit it very often, but I know he misses the Big Easy.”
“Cope married the Big Easy!” Ronan burst out laughing.
“Maybe we could take a trip down there during February or April vacation?” Fitz suggested. “The last time we were there, we were working. I’m sure Everly and Ten would love it.”
Jude nodded. “Good plan. I’ll talk to Cope about it. Now that the kids are back in school, I’m gonna miss all the traveling we did over the summer.”
“Labor Day weekend is coming up, maybe we could do something for that?” Ronan tapped on his phone. “I know it’s late in the game but, Hampton Beach has a big seafood festival. We could get the kids one of those big kites and eat our body weight in clam chowder.”
“Not to mention the fried dough.” Jude’s mouth watered at the thought of the flaky pastry heaped with a metric ton of powdered sugar and cinnamon.
“Enough about food,” Fitz said. “I haven’t had breakfast yet. Let me do the talking when we meet with Cisco. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
“What kind of a bad feeling?” Jude asked, eyeing Ronan in the backseat.
“I don’t know. I can feel something is off in the pit of my stomach.”
“Are you sure that’s not the sausage and pepper sub you nearly swallowed whole last night?” Ronan snickered.
“Maybe,” Fitz said, going quiet.
Jude wasn’t a fan of the current energy in the SUV. They were ten minutes away from the station and he could feel his guts churning with anxiety. It was possible Fitz was barking up the wrong tree, but with thirty years of law enforcement experience under his belt, his instincts were never wrong.
Resigned to his fate, Jude sat back and watched Salem float past his window. Whatever the meeting was about, the three of them would handle it together.
Then complain to anyone who would listen.