11
Jude
According to the tenants, Alice worked, spent Thursday nights with friends; dinner and either a movie or listening to live music in one of the many Boston night spots and Friday’s with West. The tenants never heard a cross word come out of Alice’s mouth and she never mentioned difficulties with her friends or West. Alice’s coworkers said the same thing.
There was no one in the office Alice had problems with.
She brought fresh pastries every Friday and organized pot luck lunches once a month.
In a word, Alice Strickland had been beloved.
When it came to witnesses, no one in the neighborhood saw anything out of the ordinary.
After the murder, West had made pleas through the media for anyone who knew anything or saw anything in regard to his mother’s death to come forward.
Those messages garnered dozens of all calls, but none of them turned into actual leads.
“It’s like this killer is a ghost,” Ronan said, setting down the witness reports he’d been reading.
“Yeah,” Jude agreed. “Or someone who naturally blends into life in that neighborhood. Mailman. UPS driver. Pizza delivery guy. Someone completely unremarkable. Someone no one would take notice of.”
“Cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the head,” Ronan paused. “I’m guessing the killer wouldn’t have been in the house for longer than a minute or two, which is what you’d expect when you got a pizza delivered or a UPS driver had a delivery you needed to sign for.”
“We’re going to have to reach out to the former tenants and neighbors to see if there’s anything else they remember. After fifteen years, my hopes aren’t high.” Jude shook his head. “We’ll also see what Ten and Cope think. Maybe they’ll feel something or can connect with Alice’s ghost again.”
Commotion from the front door signaled Cope’s arrival. Tennyson was with him. “Have we got a story to tell you.” Cope slumped into a seat at the table.
“We’re going to need your help.” Ten shook his head. “You’re professional help.”
“What the hell did the two of you do?” Jude asked. “Jaywalk?” He couldn’t imagine Cope or Ten doing anything that would require police assistance.
“It’s about Jonas Crawford.” Ten sighed, as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.
“Fuck, Ten,” Ronan muttered. “I thought we agreed that you would stay away from that prick.”
“We did stay away from him. One of his clients came to see us this morning.” Ten grabbed bottles of water out of the fridge, giving one to Cope and keeping one for himself.
“Terrified out of her mind that Crawford is coming for her family,” Cope added.
“Start from the beginning.” Jude didn’t like the sound of this one bit.
In all of the years he and Cope had been together, none of his husband’s clients had ever been terrified after a reading, period.
The idea that Cope would physically hurt a client was absurd.
What the hell was this Jonas Crawford involved in?
“A woman named Christie came into the shop this morning dressed as a T-rex,” Cope began.
Jude’s mouth fell open. “Someone came into the shop in an inflatable dinosaur costume and asked to see you and Ten?”
“This is going to go a lot faster if you just listen.” Cope rolled his eyes.
“Anyway, this woman told us that she’d visited Crawford’s shop for one of his free readings two mornings ago.
She wanted to know if her boyfriend was going to propose and instead of answering that simple question, Crawford zeroed in on the fact that this woman was estranged from her mother, who’d been an abusive alcoholic when Christie was a kid. ”
“Christie said she felt compelled to tell Crawford the entire story, which is exactly what happened to me and Cope when we went to see him ourselves,” Ten added.
“Last night, someone showed up at the mother’s house and started ringing the doorbell at half past eleven.
The bell was rung over and over. The mother didn’t answer the door and instead hid in the closet and called the police.
When the police arrived, there was no one there.
” Cope paused, his eyes on Jude, who still looked gobsmacked.
“Christie and the mother are afraid this person will come back again tonight. We advised them to go to a hotel for the night and that we’d speak to the two of you. ”
“I heard everything you just said, but why was the woman dressed in a T-rex costume?” Jude knew this wasn’t the most important part of the story, but why the hell was this woman in disguise?
“Because Crawford made her sign a non-disclosure agreement. She says she isn’t allowed to speak about her reading to anyone or Crawford would sue her.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Jude turned to Ronan. “That’s not legal, is it?”
“Any contract is binding if both parties sign it and enter into it without being coerced.” Ronan shook his head. “What exactly did the contract say?”
“That’s where it gets even weirder. Crawford wouldn’t let her read it, saying it was just standard stuff and wouldn’t give her a copy of what she signed.” Cope shook his head.
“This woman could have literally signed her house and bank account away. Anything at all could have been in that contract.” Ronan looked stunned. “Why the hell would she agree to do that?”
“She was anxious to know about her boyfriend’s intentions on proposing, which makes no sense.
It only would have cost her fifty bucks to come ask one of us, but the reading with Crawford was free, so I get her motivation, but you get what you pay for.
All this woman got was trouble.” Ten wore a worried look.
“What the actual fuck?” Jude muttered.
“Wait, it gets worse,” Cope said.
“How can this get any fucking worse?” Jude found he didn’t really want to know.
“Pictures of the line outside Crawford’s shop from the morning he offered free readings were all over social media. He must have seen close to a hundred people that morning,” Cope began.
“You’re afraid that they were compelled to sign similar contracts?” Jude asked.
“Right,” Cope agreed. “Here’s where it really gets worse.”
“Don’t tell me this is how the zombie apocalypse starts?” Ronan sat forward in his seat, as if to hear Ten better.
“That depends on your definition of zombie,” Ten said with a shrug. “We think it’s likely that the so-called non-disclosure agreement would not stand up in a court of law, so it might not be legally binding, but Cope and I think it could be psychically binding.”
“Meaning what? That these clients could be compelled to empty their bank accounts or reveal national security secrets?” Jude was thunderstruck. What the hell were these people thinking, signing contracts they weren’t allowed to read?
Ronan shook his head. “Bank accounts are the least of our worries. You think Crawford could compel these clients to kill for him and that’s what the person ringing the doorbell last night was sent there to do.”
“That’s our biggest fear,” Cope agreed. “Which is why we wanted to talk to the two of you about this. We suggested Christie and her mother spend the night at a hotel, but that’s just a temporary fix. What the hell are they supposed to do tomorrow?”
“I know this isn’t the answer you’re looking for Cope, but is there any way you can put some kind of warding spell over these people?” Jude knew Cope didn’t want to use magic to manipulate people or situations, but it might be the only option left at this point.
“I could, but Crawford was strong. I think he’s the strongest force I’ve ever met. Not only are his psychic gifts off the charts, but he’s familiar with black magic and has the power to compel people to do his will.”
“That’s not completely true,” Jude said. “He compelled you to give him the death spell and not only did you refuse, you walked away from him. What was it in you that gave you the strength to refuse him?”
Cope was silent for a few seconds. “I’m not quite sure. I knew what he wanted the spell for and knew what he could do with it. I guess my sense of what’s right and what’s wrong won the day. Once I realized he was trying to trick me, his command over me was gone.”
“I’m thrilled that Cope’s such a Boy Scout, Jude,” Ronan said, “but how does this tactic help Christie and her mother? Wouldn’t we need to know who’d been compelled to kill her mother in order to stop them?”
“What if it’s not a someone? What if it’s Crawford himself?
” Ten asked. “I could see how much he was enjoying the power he had over me, Cope, and Carson. Taking someone’s life is the ultimate form of control over another person.
With the size of his ego, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if he’s the man who showed up at the mother’s house. ”
“These are all great theories,” Cope said. “What do we do now?”
Jude looked to Ronan, who shook his head.
“In terms of the Salem PD, there’s nothing that can be done.
No one’s committed a crime. The person ringing the doorbell last night could have been some asshole kid playing a prank or some drunk guy ringing the wrong person’s bell.
I think the best bet is for the two of you to go to the hotel and ward them and the room.
Make sure they don’t order room service and don’t open the door at all, for anyone, even if the fire alarm goes off. ”
“I don’t know, Jude.” Cope stared at his husband. “If I told you to do those things before we met and you knew my gift was genuine, what would your reaction be?”
“Well, being the Chris Hemsworth of the group, I’d thank you for your input and then do whatever the hell I wanted, not believing for one minute that I was in danger from a rogue psychic or one of his minions.”
“I’ve gotta agree with Jude.” Ronan sighed.
“Christie believed in psychics enough to go to one for a reading. We don’t know what the mother believes at all.
Even if they agree to what you’re asking, what happens in the morning?
Is Christie in danger if she goes to work?
Is it safe for the mother to go home? We have no way of knowing. ”
“Right,” Jude added. “We can’t expect them to spend night after night in a hotel with no guarantees that we can stop Crawford or even that he’s behind anything.”
“Fuck,” Cope muttered under his breath. “We’re between a rock and a hard place here. Let’s go to the hotel and ward it and the women.”
Ten nodded. “We’ll pick up dinner on the way home.”
“Do you need one of us to come with you?” Ronan asked.
Ten shook his head. “No, you stay here and get the kids off the bus. It’s a hot afternoon, maybe let them play in the pool.”
“If you need anything, call me.” Jude brushed a kiss to Cope’s cheek.
“We will.” Cope and Ten left the kitchen.
Seconds later, Jude heard the front door open, then close. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know.” Ronan sighed. “I trust what Ten and Cope told us one hundred percent, but there’s no way of knowing if Crawford is behind anything or if Christie and her mother are in any danger.”
“I agree and I don’t like it one bit. Do you think it would help if we went to see Crawford ourselves?” Jude asked, cracking his knuckles.
“No. We have nothing to arrest him for and nothing to accuse him of. The best thing we can do at the moment is fly under the radar unless or until we have a concrete accusation we can bring to him.”
“You’re right,” Jude agreed. “I don’t like it, but you’re right. In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt to look into his background, as soon as we’re finished with the Alice Strickland investigation.”
“Good plan,” Ronan agreed and picked up another witness report.
Jude followed suit. He didn’t like the idea of Cope and Ten getting involved with Crawford.
The last thing any of them needed now was an all-out war between psychic shops.
He was sure Crawford was trying to put his own stamp on Salem, while trying to steal clients from other psychics.
Jude knew damn well it wasn’t going to happen.
What could happen, however, was Salem’s cold case unit being shuttered. Turning his focus back to Alice Strickland, Jude grabbed another file out of the box and got back to work.