15

15Jude

Surprisingly, Jude got a good night's sleep. He figured after the trip to the Rattlesnake Museum, some or all of the kids would have been up with nightmares, but he hadn't heard a peep from any of them, and Wolf wasn't snuggled between him and Cope when he woke up.

When he got out of the shower, Jude could smell bacon and coffee. He followed his nose after he shoved the rubber snakes he'd bought yesterday into the back of his waistband and pulled his shirt down to conceal them. "Good morning, chef!" he called out to Jace, who was busy manning the flattop. Much to Jude's dismay, everyone else was sitting at the breakfast table, which meant he wouldn't be able to scare Ronan and Fitz. Better luck next time.

"Morning, Jude," Jace answered, flipping pancakes onto a dish. "Wolf said banana pancakes were your favorite, so I whipped up a batch of them." He slid a plate piled high with pancakes in the middle of the table. "Strawberry pancakes for my princesses are coming right up."

"Thank you, Daddy!" Aurora offered a brilliant smile.

"I hate to rush you, but we've got to leave in twenty minutes," Ronan said, reaching for the bacon.

"Right. I couldn't resist the water pressure in the shower." Jude pulled his chair out from the table and let out an ear-piercing scream. "Snake!" He ran toward the stairs, making it halfway up to the second floor before laughter from the table stopped him in his tracks.

Fuck a duck…Jude turned to his traitorous friends, who were laughing so hard no sound was coming out. Tears streaked down Ronan's cheeks while Fitzgibbon slapped a hand on the table.

"With friends like you chuckleheads, who needs enemies?" Jude grumped, heading down the stairs. "You all suck."

"Come on, you're just angry that I beat you at your own game," Ronan said before starting to giggle again.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Jude asked. He'd made sure no one saw him buy the rubber snakes at the toy store.

"We know you bought snakes to scare us with," Fitzgibbon said, dabbing his eyes with a napkin.

"You mean these snakes?" Reaching behind his back, he pulled out the two snakes and threw them at Ronan and Fitz. Jude burst out laughing when both men yelped. Ronan caught his, but Fitzgibbon's landed on his nearly empty plate.

"Cleanup in aisle three, babe," Fitz said to Jace, who grabbed the snake and licked the side of it.

"Mmmm, mapley." Jace carried the sticky toy to the sink and gave it a scrub before starting on the girls' pancakes.

"Ewww!" Everly and Aurora yelled at the same time.

"Good one, Uncle Jace," Wolf laughed.

Jude walked back to his chair and picked up the rubber snake, which was much larger than the ones he'd bought. Picking it up by the tail, he slung it around his neck like a feathered boa. He reached for the pancakes and loaded his plate before dousing them in syrup. "Damn, these are good!"

"Mmm-hmm," Cope hummed. His top lip was curled into a snarl.

Jude studied his husband, trying to figure out what was wrong with him. He'd been in a good mood when they'd woken up and was in a great mood after mutual hand jobs. What the hell could have changed in the last twenty minutes? "Morning, babe." Jude brushed a sticky kiss across Cope's cheek.

"Don't you ‘morning, babe' me!" Cope shot Jude a dirty look. "When you thought that snake was real, you ran for the hills, leaving Wolf and Lizzy B to be devoured!"

"Lizbet's snack-sized, like those little Halloween candy bars," Ten added with a solemn shake of his head.

"Shame," Ronan said, biting his lower lip to keep from laughing.

"I knew the snake was rubber," Jude said, trying not to sound defensive. He failed.

"How are we, as your partners, supposed to trust you with our lives when a fake snake sent you into a fit of hysterics? I was afraid we'd have to get the smelling salts to revive you." Fitz shook his head. "Shame is right."

Jude finished his last pancake and swiped his napkin over his lips. "Are we gonna get to work, or do the two of you want to sit here and talk about our feelings like this is some stupid episode of Dr. Phil?" Grabbing his plate, Jude set it in the sink.

"I forgive you, Daddy!" Wolf raced to Jude and hugged him. "I would have saved Lizzy B from the snake."

Jude's eyes narrowed on his son. "How would you have done that?" He was curious to hear the answer. Wolf was fearless.

"With a broom," Wolf said knowingly. "Mr. Simon taught us that when Aurora said she was afraid of a snake getting in our house. You should have been listening instead of whispering in Dad's ear." Wolf rolled his eyes as if to say whispering was a common occurrence.

"You're right. I should have been paying attention. Will you show me how to do it when I get back later?"

Wolf nodded, sending his messy hair flying around his face. "Get the bad guy, Dad. Everly was sad last night. I don't want her to be sad."

A shiver went through Jude's body. "I'll do my best," Jude promised. He had no way of knowing much information they'd be privy to, especially if the FBI liaison and the captain of the tribal police didn't need or want their help. "We'll be in touch as much as we can, but cell service is spotty on the reservation."

"Be careful," Cope warned. "I wish I was going with you."

Jude and Cope had a long discussion about whether or not the psychic should come to this meeting. Jude wanted to get a feel for the men involved in the case before unleashing his secret weapon. "Promise you won't go back to the reservation without me." Jude knew Cope wanted to try to connect with the other missing women, but he didn't want his husband to be spotted by eagle-eyed members of Navajo Nation. There might be places where the cell phone reception was nonexistent, but that didn't stop the reservation grapevine from getting the word out, especially when an outsider was involved.

Cope nodded. "We're going back to Sedona with the kids. It was nice of Eagle to drop off his truck last night for the three of you to use while we take the van."

"Eagle wanted a reason to spend time with Kaye." Jude waggled his eyebrows. "I'll catch you later. Have fun in Sedona and enjoy the quiet of the energy vortex."

"Be safe," Cope hugged Jude.

"Let's roll," Ronan said, detaching himself from Everly, who'd been a bit clingy since speaking with Rainbow the night before.

Ten minutes later, they were on their way to the tribal police headquarters. Fitz drove while Jude rode shotgun. Ronan sat in the back, his long legs splayed off to the side.

"You're the expert here," Fitz began. "How do we handle this?"

Jude had been wondering the same thing. "Even with John and Nathan wanting our help, we might not be invited to assist on the case. I'm hoping they managed to smooth things over with their captain, or this is gonna be a real short visit. This is it up here on the left."

"What, the double-wide?" Fitz asked, sounding stunned.

"The Navajo People as a collective own the land that makes up the reservation. Since people can't buy plots of land, they can't get loans to build a house, so they get trailers instead. And it's not just one double-wide. It's two—they're set back-to-back with the middle walls removed to make one large space."

Fitz parked the truck and shook his head before climbing out. Jude and Ronan joined him a moment later.

"Here goes nothing." Jude headed up the stairs and opened the door to the tribal police station. A desk sat in front of the door, obviously belonging to the gatekeeper, who was nowhere in sight. Six other desks sat in neat rows to the right side of the room; three of them were occupied, while the captain's office was to the left. It was enclosed, most likely one of the bedrooms, which had been modified to suit the captain's needs.

The creak of the door caused everyone to turn their heads.

"Jude! You made it." John rushed over, shaking Jude's hand with the same enthusiasm he'd shown the other day. "Captain Fitzgibbon and Detective O'Mara, it's good to have you here."

"Is your captain willing to speak with us?" Fitz asked, his eyes scanning the room.

John nodded. "He is. I told him about your work back in Massachusetts and how with Jude being one of us, you're uniquely qualified to help with this case."

"Where are Nathan and Trevor?" Jude asked, not seeing them around the office.

"Out working leads in Prairie Moon's disappearance. They should be back soon."

"Good. If Captain Rainwater lets us give you a hand, I want to talk to Trevor about his sister and why he thinks she went missing." Not that Trevor would want to talk to Jude, but if that was the case, he was sure Ronan or Fitz could handle the man.

"Come with me." John motioned them forward, stopping at the captain's closed office door to knock.

"What?" an annoyed voice shouted from within the office.

John poked his head inside the room. "They're here. You want to see them now or later?"

"I don't have time for this shit, but bring them in," Rainwater grumbled.

"Nothing like getting a warm and fuzzy greeting," Ronan whispered.

Everyone crowded into the office, which was stacked to the brim with overflowing folders, bankers boxes, and loose paper. It looked like a tornado had blown through. "Captain Rainwater, this is Captain Fitzgibbon, Detective Ronan O'Mara, and—"

"Jude Byrne," Rainwater interrupted. "Never thought I'd see you around here again. Will wonders never cease."

"It's good to see you." Rainwater was a member of the tribal police when Jude left Arizona eighteen years ago. He would never have imagined the smart-mouthed asshole rising to the rank of captain.

"What brings you back here, Jude?" Rainwater asked, as if he didn't know.

"I want my son to see where he came from and to meet his family. My friends wanted to come with us, so we turned this trip into a vacation." Jude kept his explanation as brief as possible. He knew gossip about him was everywhere and didn't want to add any more fuel to the fire.

Rainwater sat up straight in his seat. "You're not here because you heard about the women?" His dark eyes narrowed in on Jude.

"No, sir. I speak with Eagle once a week, but he hasn't mentioned anything about the disappearances." Jude knew exactly what was going on; Rainwater was making sure he hadn't come to Arizona with the specific purpose of sticking his nose into tribal affairs.

"And these friends of yours are cops?" Rainwater turned his attention briefly to Ronan and Fitzgibbon.

"Friends and colleagues. I collaborated with Ronan and Fitz when they both still worked for the Boston Police. Later, when they retired, we started our own PI firm and were later asked to form a cold case team for the Salem Police. We've been friends for six years." Saying it out loud surprised Jude. He couldn't believe it had been that long. It felt like only yesterday when Ronan walked into the prison visitors' room to meet wrongly convicted Tank Hutchins, who Jude was trying to set free.

"You know how things are done here. We like to keep things to ourselves, but now that the FBI's involved, there's no keeping these disappearances quiet." Rainwater sat back in his seat. The man seemed to be letting down his guard.

Jude mulled over what Rainwater said. He understood that Navajo people wanted as little government interference as possible, but when it came to missing women, wouldn't they want all the support the FBI could provide? "You have my word that if we're allowed to assist your officers with this investigation, what we learn goes no further than us."

"I had a feeling you were going to say that, but do you mean it?" Rainwater eyed Ronan and Fitzgibbon suspiciously.

"All we want to do is help find these women and bring them home to their families," Fitzgibbon said. "We have no other agenda here."

Jude nodded along with Fitzgibbon. "I brought my son here to immerse him in our culture. Wolf knows my job is to help people. What kind of father would I be if I didn't do everything in my power to help bring peace and healing to these families."

"You think these women are dead?"

Jude nodded. The last thing he was going to do was tell the chief of police about Cope's vision or their visit with Rainbow's spirit. "I do, sir. From what I understand, life was on the up and up for all four of these women. I don't think they just walked away from their lives, families, and this land."

"I agree, Byrne," Rainwater said, sitting up straighter in his chair, which creaked like the door to a haunted house. "I'll allow the three of you to consult with my detectives, but one wrong step and you're finished. No second chances." The captain turned to Fitzgibbon. "Something tells me you'll get on with Agent Flynn like a house on fire. Do what you can to discover what he knows and why our women keep disappearing."

"You got it," Fitzgibbon said.

"They're your responsibility, Parker." Rainwater sighed. "Do you have any idea what it's like not to have found one shred of evidence that would help find these women or the monster who took them?" The captain wore a hard look, disappointment in himself written all over his face. "Our people have no confidence in my ability to keep them safe."

"I understand completely," Fitzgibbon said. "When I became captain of the Boston Cold Case Unit, I inherited a seemingly unsolvable case, the kidnapping of a five-year-old boy who'd been taken from his front yard. It was cold for nearly ten years before Ronan found the child's remains and made an arrest. I'm not promising results like in that case, but we've been here before, and we'll do what we can to find these women and the man who stole them from their lives."

Jude couldn't help thinking that Fitzgibbon left out key parts of the Michael Frye case. Tennyson had been able to speak with the boy's spirit, who was able to tell them what happened to him the day he was kidnapped and also guided them to his remains.

Jude hoped Cope could do the same thing for the native women.