Page 17 of Dead O’Clock

“Come to my house when you’re done here and I’ll have Ten fill you in on what happened with his client this morning.”

Cisco nodded. “I’ll be there soon. Make sure the two of you write up your reports on what happened during your surveillance.”

“You got it.” Jude motioned for Ronan to follow him across the street. “You really think this mess is connected with Ten’s weird client this morning?”

“I didn’t at first, but I do now. This killer is coming after law enforcement. First the head of the parole board, now the former warden at a state prison. Who else is on the hit list? Judges, lawyers, bail bondsmen, cops? We need to get to the bottom of what’s happening here before this fucker pens his next letter.”

Jude nodded. “Are you thinking you could be next?”

Ronan nodded. “Not one word to Tennyson.”

As Ronan got into the car, his mind spun. What would Ten and the kids do without him? How would Everly and Ezra deal with his loss? It was too painful to consider.

What Ronan needed to do now was to prepare himself for what came next. The killer had no trouble skirting the Ring doorbell camera and breaking into the house to kill Warden Jones.

Would the killer be bold enough to ring his doorbell? Would kill Ronan’s entire family? How the hell would Ronan ever sleep again?

8

Tennyson

Being woken up in the middle of the night by his handsome husband was one of Tennyson’s favorite things. Being told by that same handsome husband that the chief of police was in their house waiting to speak with him was not one of Ten’s favorite things.

After Ronan woke him up. Ten hurried to get dressed. He checked on the kids, who were thankfully still asleep and hurried downstairs. Jude and Cisco were sitting at the kitchen table, while Ronan paced, restlessly.

“Hey, guys, what’s up?” Ten asked. He walked to the electric kettle and turned it on. Making tea would give him something to do while Cisco explained what he was doing in their kitchen at half past three in the morning.

“Warden Jones is dead,” Ronan said.

Ten felt gut-punched “What? The two of you were there to keep that from happening, right?”

“No one came to the door, Ten,” Cisco said. “The killer was able to ring the doorbell wirelessly while he used lock pick tools to open the back door. He snuck up on Jones and stabbed him in the neck with some kind of a syringe.”

“We heard the bell ring and ran up to the house,” Jude continued. “Jones opened the front door and fell out into Ronan’s arms. We did CPR, but he was gone.

Ten stood there feeling as if he were caught in an episode of The Twilight Zone.

“There was no other surveillance on the house. My guys are looking for security footage from neighbors’ houses to see if we can find an image of this person and see where they came from and where they went after Jones was dead.”

“I appreciate the update on what happened tonight, chief, but why the hell are you and Jude here? Ronan could have easily filled me in.” Ten didn’t mean to sound snippy, but nothing made sense about this late-night debrief.

“Two men connected to law enforcement were murdered on consecutive nights. I don’t think this killer will stop at two bodies. There are going to be more, and I think I’m going to be one of them.” Ronan wore a haunted look.

From the day Ten met him, Ronan had been a drama queen. He loved to stir things up. Loved it even more when his histrionics earned him attention. Based on Ronan’s demeanor he wasn’t looking for attention. He was serious. Dead serious. Ten slumped into an empty chair at the kitchen table. His mind spun with the ramifications of Ronan’s declaration. “Why do you think you’re on the killer’s hit list?”

“Tell Jude and Cisco about the client you saw this morning before Jones burst in waving his letter. Don’t leave out any details.” Ronan got out of his seat when the electric kettle clicked off. He grabbed mugs from the drainboard and started making tea.

“Why do you think that strange client has anything to do with-” Ten stopped dead in his tracks. His mind’s eye replayed the client’s words and knew what Ronan was getting at. “Carson called me on Sunday night. He said he had a client who needed to schedule an emergency reading with me and was willing to pay double. I took this week off to get the kids ready for the start of school. I didn’t want to do the reading, but Carson said this man would only work with me, so I agreed to do it. There would still be plenty of time to get my errands done with the kids and get ready for Aurora to spend the night.”

“Aurora’s here?” Cisco asked. “What about Wolf and Lizzie?”

“Fitz and Jace left Aurora with us while they’re out of town. Wolf and Lizzie are home with Cope.” Ten wondered why Cisco was asking about the kids, then it hit him. If the killer truly was coming for Ronan next, Cisco wouldn’t want the kids, or himself, for that matter, anywhere near the house.

Cisco nodded. “Sorry to interrupt. Please continue.”

“When I got to the shop, Carson gave me a folder with the client’s intake form. We ask for general information; name, address, phone number, email, and so on. In all the years I’ve worked at West Side Magick no one’s ever refused to fill out the form, until yesterday. All that was typed into the client’s form was the name Dan Rogers, which we assumed was a fake name. He listed no other information other than that he’d requested an emergency session with me.”

“Why would you, or Carson, accept a client that refused to divulge even the most basic details about themselves?” Cisco asked.