Dead To Me (Cold Case Psychic Book 5)

by Pandora Pine

  Ten knew that as soon as they wrapped up work for the day here at the Bradley house, he and Ronan were going to pay his mother a visit. His stomach pitched and rolled at the very thought of seeing her again, but there was nothing to be done for it.

  He supposed the bigger concern was how could he and Ronan go back to Boston when Kaye couldn’t take care of herself for a single day here in Kansas. Did she need some kind of mental health intervention? Some kind of long-term care? Or just a good old kick in her stubborn midwestern ass?

  “Uncle Ten? Are you ready to…” Greeley stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the look on Tennyson’s face. “What’s wrong? Is it your mother?”

  Ten turned to see the teenager studying him. Even though the boy was only seventeen, Ten knew he was highly empathetic and maybe had a touch of a sixth sense of his own. “Erin was just here. She was telling me that Kaye hasn’t been out of bed in the last two days and hasn’t been eating. None of her friends have been visiting either.”

  Greeley wrapped Ten in a tight hug. “I don’t know how you’re keeping yourself together. I wouldn’t be able to do what you’re doing if my foster parents ever tried to get back in touch with me. They treated me the same way your parents did and even though I’ve got Dad and you and Uncle Ronan, they threw me out of their lives without a second thought. How do I learn to have the kind of compassion you have for your mother?”

  Tennyson smiled at Greeley. “You don’t have to learn anything. It’s already inside of you.” Ten patted Greeley’s heart. The goodness inside of the boy glowed like a golden halo. If the people who turned Greeley away ever did find a way to contact him again, it would be a struggle, but Greeley would find a way to forgive them.

  “I’ll think about it.” Greeley’s face brightened again. “We’re ready to go looking for Shannon’s journal. I told Dad I wanted you on my team.”

  Ten laughed. “How do you know there’s a journal?” Ten was curious about the answer, or rather if Greeley would be able to formulate his feelings into words.

  The teenager shook his head. “I don’t know how I know. I just do. I figured that you would understand that completely.”

  “I do,” Ten agreed. It was a pretty good answer for someone just learning to sort out his own intuition. “Do you get feelings like this very often?” Ten asked casually.

  “What, you mean like knowing something I should have no way of knowing?” Greeley bounced his eyebrows up and down.

  Ten nodded.

  “I always have, but I never really paid attention to them, well, not until the night I met Rod Jacobson.” Greeley shrugged. “I knew the minute I walked into that motel room that there was something wrong. It was like I could hear the red alert siren from Star Trek wailing in my head.”

  “That was your intuition for sure.”

  “It saved my life that night.” Greeley shuddered. He ran his hands up and down his arms. “The drugs dulled that sense down, but now that I’m clean again, it’s coming back. Do you think I might have a gift like yours?”

  Ten laughed and slung an arm around Greeley’s shoulder. “Bertha keeps telling me what a remarkable young man you are. I can’t help but wonder if that’s her way of telling me you have some kind of gift on the horizon. Being sensitive to emotion like you are will be a huge benefit to you in social work. It will help you read your kids and get a better sense of what’s going on with them at home and what it is they need from you.”

  Greeley was still. He seemed to be considering Tennyson’s words. “If I have that kind of power inside of me, is it something I can work on to make stronger? So I can be better with using it?”

  “You bet it is. We can work on it more when we get back home, okay?”

  “Okay, but now let’s go find that journal before Dad and Uncle Ronan get to it first. I know it’s in that house somewhere.” Greeley was all business now.

  “I think I know just where to start looking.” Ten started for the house. He could hear Greeley running to keep up with him.

  “Where are you thinking it is?” Greeley asked as they walked back in through the front door.

  Ten held up his index finger in front of his closed lips. “Ronan?” he called out.

  “We’re in the kitchen, babe. Looking for secret evidence.” There was a laugh in his voice.

  “Okay. Greeley and I are going to start looking upstairs. We’ll give you a shout if we find anything.”

  “Don’t touch it if you find it. We need to photograph everything,” Boone called out.

  “Gotcha!” Greeley called before taking the steps two at a time.

  Ten shook his head and followed at a much slower pace. The last thing he needed was to fall and break a hip. He needed to walk down the aisle at his own wedding in less than a month.

  “This is the master bedroom!” Greeley called out.

  Ten couldn’t help feeling caught up in Greeley’s excitement. He ran up the last few steps and into the master bedroom.

  Just like the rest of the house it too was caught in a time warp. The dust-covered queen-sized bed sat up against the center wall of the room. Matching nightstands flanked both sides of the bed. There was a large walk-in closet next to the open door leading to the en-suite bathroom. The entire room was done in hardwood, rather than carpet.

  “Where do we start looking?” Greeley asked breathlessly.

  “What is your intuition telling you?” Ten grinned at the boy.

  “Right now, I can’t hear anything over my pounding heart.”

  “Okay, so that’s where you need to start. Take some deep breaths and focus on bringing your breath back under control.” Ten stood back and watched as Greeley did exactly what he said. While the teenager was doing that, he took a few minutes to center himself.

  “This was Shannon’s side of the bed.” Greeley was standing next to the side closest to the bathroom. He opened the night stand drawer. “Empty.” His voice sounded like that was exactly what he expecting to find.

  Ten watched in awe while Greeley pulled the nightstand away from the wall and knocked on the back of the wood before laying it down on its back and presumably looking for a false bottom. Ten’s curiosity was further piqued a minute later when Greely started feeling his way under the bed.

  “There’s nothing under the box spring.” As Greeley pushed himself out from under the bed, there was a sound of ripping fabric. “Shit! Was that my shirt?” He rolled over onto his back.

  Ten crouched down beside him. “Yup, it sure was, there’s a rip down the center, like it caught on something.”

  Greeley’s green eyes danced. “You mean caught on something like a loose floorboard?” He got up on his knees and gave the bed a shove. “How about giving me a hand here?”

  Ten rolled his eyes heavenward, but got down on his knees and helped Greeley push the bed across the floor. Together, they managed to move it a few feet.

  “Here! Look, there’s a thread from my shirt.” Greeley got down to eye level on the floor and pointed to the red thread from his Sox tee-shirt. “Do you see it?”

  Ten saw it all right. “Is the board loose?”

  Greeley reached out and knocked on the other boards around it and they all sounded solid, but when he knocked on the board in question, it sounded strangely hollow. “This is it, Uncle Tennyson. There’s something hidden underneath this board. I just know it.”

  “Kevin said we need to get them up here to photograph evidence before we touch it.”

  Greeley’s face shut down. “What if I’m wrong. What if there isn’t anything hidden under here after all.”

  Ten reached out for Greeley’s hand. “You said just a minute ago that you were positive it’s here. Go back to that feeling, okay?”

  “Okay.” Greeley took a deep breath.

  “Why did you feel so certain?” Ten liked the way the teenager instantly went back to his earlier breathing exercises without having to be told to do it. He was a fast learner.

  “I just knew it was
there like I know my name.” Greeley’s grin was back in full force.

  Ten patted Greeley’s shoulder. He stood up and went to the door. “Ronan? Cap? I think we’ve got something up here!”

  Greeley’s eyes went wide when he heard footsteps pounding up the stairs and then down the hall.

  “What is it?” Ronan panted. “What did you find?”

  “Loose floorboard ripped my shirt. We wanted you up here with your camera before we tried to pry it up.” Greeley sounded more sure of himself than he had a second ago.

  “I’ve got the camera,” Boone said from the doorway. “Go ahead and pry up the board.”

  Fitzgibbon knelt down on the floor next to Greeley. “It’s all you, son.”

  Greeley nodded and reached out for the board. He dug his index finger into the small groove that had snagged his shirt and used his fingernail to pry it up. It didn’t budge on the first try, but on the second attempt, it flipped up. Greeley pulled the piece of wood back and peered inside the hole. “I’ll be damned. There it is.” He grinned up at his father.

  “Nice, job, kid.” Fitzgibbon patted his back and hopped back to his feet. “Let’s give Boone some room to photograph and then collect it.”

  Greeley smiled back at his father before looking up at Tennyson who was offering a hand down to the teenager. Greeley took it and let Ten pull him back to his feet.

  “I’m so proud of you,” Ten whispered as he hugged the boy.

  “I couldn’t have done it without your help.”

  The sound of Boone snapping on gloves pulled Tennyson’s attention back to the hole in the floorboards. The deputy was down on her knees taking photographs of the opening. She set the camera on the floor and reached into the hole and pulled out journal. It was patterned with blue and white flowers. Ten thought they looked like forget-me-nots.

  “It’s Shannon Bradley’s journal. Her name’s written on the front cover.” Boone snapped more pictures before putting the book into an evidence bag.

  “Is there anything else in the hole?” Ronan asked.

  “I don’t see anything else.” Boone reached her hand into the small hole and felt around. “No, there’s nothing else in here. Nice job, Greeley,” she said as she climbed back to her feet. “This could be the evidence that breaks the case wide open.”

  Ronan laughed. “I think that’s cause for a celebration. Why don’t we all head over to the Main Street Café for lunch. My treat.”

  “I need to get the journal back to the station, Ronan, but thanks for the offer,” Boone said as she headed toward the bedroom door.

  “Am I gonna get to read it?” Greeley called after her.

  “Why would you want to do that?” Boone sounded confused.

  “Fresh eyes and all that,” Fitzgibbon answered for his son. “It is the reason Sheriff Reed brought us in to consult on this case in the first place, remember?”

  “Now that we have new evidence, I think your time on the Shannon Bradley case has come to an end, guys. Why don’t we all head on out together and I’ll lock up after you.” It wasn’t a question.

  Tennyson looked around at his friends. He could see anger burning in Fitzgibbon and Ronan’s eyes. There was something closer to betrayal reflected in Greeley’s green orbs. For his own part, he just felt used. This sort of thing hadn’t happened in a long time where someone used him for his gift and then dumped him, but he should have known it was a possibility. Hell, Ronan and Fitzgibbon both should have been smart enough to know this kind of trick was a definite possibility as well.

  Ronan opened his mouth, looking like he was about ready to lose his shit. Before he could say a word, Ten grabbed his elbow and tugged him toward the bedroom door. This day sucked enough already, Ronan didn’t need to make it worse by making an enemy of Deputy Boone.

  Ten still hadn’t told Ronan about his visit with Erin and what she’d revealed about Kaye.

  Yup, this shit day was just getting started.

  26

  Ronan

  Ronan was still fuming over Boone’s dismissive treatment half an hour later as they were driving back into town. He knew he had no right to be this upset. The Bradley case wasn’t his investigation and Union Chapel wasn’t his jurisdiction, but it still stung all the same.

  The other thing upsetting him at the moment was Tennyson. His lover didn’t look angry like Greeley and Kevin. Tennyson looked anxious. Ronan couldn’t help wondering if there was something Ten was keeping from him. “Hey, is everything okay with you?”

  Tennyson sighed and looked up at Ronan. “I’ve been trying to find the right words to tell you this…”

  “Guys, you can let Greeley and me off right here. We’ll just meet you at the café.” Kevin sounded like he wanted to be anywhere but in the truck at this moment.

  “No, Cap, it’s nothing like that,” Ten said. “Erin came to talk to me while you all were in the in kitchen doing your recreation of the crime scene. She told me that my mother hasn’t been out of bed in the two days since Ronan and I last saw her. We’re going to have to go over there today. I still don’t know what her driving status is and Erin mentioned that food is running low in the house.”

  “That’s not the only thing that’s bothering you though, is it?” Ronan asked. He didn’t need Tennyson’s sixth sense to know that Ten wasn’t going to be able to get back on that big, beautiful plane to Boston if Kaye Grimm couldn’t take care of herself without help.

  “Why is she acting like this, Ronan? Is she giving up the will to live? Do I need to call in some kind of medical intervention for her? Where are all of her friends? The church?” Ten threw his hands up.

  “Let’s go eat and we’ll figure out what our next moves are, okay?” Ronan knew they weren’t going to solve anything sitting in the stifling eighty-degree heat with hungry bellies.

  Tennyson stared at him for a few silent seconds before nodding.

  Ronan had heard of widows who’d been perfectly healthy at the time of their husband’s deaths who’d very soon after withered and died. Broken heart syndrome, he thought it was called. Was Kaye going to be the next victim of that? He supposed she’d need to have a heart first before she could die of a broken one.

  Spotting an empty parking place up ahead, Ronan managed to parallel park the truck. A stab of guilt hit him over his uncharitable thoughts about Kaye. No matter how she’d treated Tennyson, she was still a grieving widow who’d buried her husband two days ago and she deserved some respect. Ronan was wise enough to recognize that any good will he had toward the woman was in very short supply.

  Fitzgibbon and Greeley hopped out of the truck, leaving Tennyson and Ronan alone. “We’re going to figure this out together. I promise.”

  Ten nodded. “I know we will. It’s just that today really sucks.”

  Ronan snorted. “Cheer up, buttercup. It could be worse, you know.”

  “Oh, really?” Tennyson shot Ronan a dubious look. “How?”

  “Kaye could have to come back to Salem and live with us!” Ronan burst out laughing. “Or there could be a plague of locusts, or the Café could be out of hamburgers, or Kaye could have to come back home and live with us!”

  Ten leaned across the center console and kissed Ronan. “You’re crazy, but I love you anyway. Promise me you’ll shoot me if Kaye has to come live with us.”

  Ronan shook his head. “Never! No one’s shooting anyone, babe. Now let’s go get you a cheeseburger. You talk crazy when your tummy is empty.”

  When they walked into the Café, Fitzgibbon flagged them down. “We ordered you both some sweet tea.”

  “Thanks, guys.” Tennyson slid into the booth and reached for a menu.

  “Hello, Bostonians!” Cal Foster called out. He was carrying a tray with their drinks.

  “Well, this is some service.” Ronan grinned at the café owner.

  “It’s great to see you guys. I didn’t know how much longer you’d all be in town after the funeral.” Cal set everyone’s drinks down along wit
h paper-wrapped straws.

  “I’ve got a bit more family business to take care of before we all head back to New England.” Tennyson shrugged.

  Cal nodded. “I haven’t seen your mother at all. Yesterday was her usual day to come in for lunch with your father. Some patrons continue that tradition even after…” Cal trailed off. “I was hoping Kaye would be one of those people.”

  “We’re heading over to see her after lunch,” Ronan added.

  “Do you want me to put a take-out order together for her?” Cal asked kindly.

  Tennyson nodded. “Would you do like last time and make her lunch and dinner?”

  “Sure thing. I’ll also send your waitress over in a few minutes too, guys.”

  “Cal, before you, go,” Fitzgibbon held up a finger.

  “How can I help, Captain?” Cal’s eyes glittered with the tall cop’s attention focused on him.

  “I know Union Chapel is a small town, but does it have social services like Meals on Wheels? I’m thinking Kaye could benefit from something like that.”

  Cal nibbled his bottom lip in silence. “You know, I’m not sure about that but I could certainly ask around. It could also be something the churches provide. This is Kansas after all. Religion is king. I’ll see what I can find out for you.”

  “Thanks, Cap.” Ronan reached across Tennyson for a menu of his own.

  “I think I know a way to help your Mom out, Uncle Ten,” Greeley said.

  “You do? How?” Ten set his menu down.

  Greeley nodded. When I went to rehab, I was depressed as hell.” He looked up at his father. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, Dad, I was happy to be getting help and to be getting my life back on track, but rehab sucked. There was the withdrawal and the constant pain and feeling like that would never end, you know?”

  Ronan nodded along. He knew exactly what Greeley was talking about. He walked that lonely road too.

  “I think grief is a lot like that. It’s a process you have to go through alone. Friends and family can help you through it, but ultimately you have to make the decision to get through it. Doing it is all on you.”