Page 12 of Ghostmaker

“What do you mean ‘after the day you had?’ What happened?” Jude’s woe is me look turned to anger. He looked ready to fight any battle on Cope’s behalf.

“Finish your story about this auditor and then I’ll tell you. Just know that I’m fine now, so are Ten and Carson.”

“Ten and Carson were in danger with you?” Jude’s eyes went wide.

“Take a breath, babe. I’ll explain it all.”

Jude frowned. “The auditor’s name is West Strickland. He was a complete and total dick. He agrees with the mayor that the cold case unit is useless and a waste of money. He also made it very clear that he thinks psychics are conmen and aren’t worth the powder to blow them to hell. Oh, and by the way, he’s the guest coming for dinner.”

“He’s what?” Cope couldn’t believe his ears. “So, let me get this straight, the man who holds the future of the cold case team in the palm of his hand and hates psychics is going to sit in my house, at my table, eating my baked ziti tonight. Do I have this right?”

“Unfortunately.” Jude sighed.

“Why is he coming to dinner? Who the hell invited him? If it was Ronan, I’ll punch his lights out.”

Jude wrapped Cope in his arms. “No one’s punching anyone’s lights out, although, I’d love to see you lay one on this asshole. Fitz thought if we had Strickland over he might see us as family men, rather than cops. Ronan and Fitz’s families are coming for dinner too. I’m hoping Everly will be our ace in the hole. Maybe she can get to the heart of this guy’s malfunction and help find a solution that will help him and us too.”

“I hope so, Jude.” Cope slumped back into his seat at the table.

“Tell me what happened with you today.” Jude reached for Cope’s hand, giving it a squeeze.

The last thing Cope wanted to do was retell what happened that morning, but Jude deserved the truth and from Cope. “Have you heard of Jonas Crawford?”

Jude’s eyes narrowed. “The name sounds familiar, but I don’t know why.”

“He’s a new psychic in town. His shop is the old soap store on Essex Street.”

“Oh, he’s the guy all over the radio and social media promising free readings.”

Cope nodded. “I’ve been so busy getting the kids ready for school and whatnot that I had no idea who he was. Carson and Ten were talking about him this morning. We were all free after lunch, so we went to this guy’s shop to introduce ourselves and get to know him a bit.”

“I’m guessing by the look on your face that he wasn’t happy to see you.”

“Right. The shop smelled of sulfur, which is used in aggressive black magic spells and is also used as a countermeasure to certain curses and hexes. We weren’t quite sure which use Crawford had been employing, but that was evident soon enough.” Cope’s hands shook as spoke. He’d been afraid of Crawford. It had been a long time since Cope had been afraid of any witch or wizard.

“Did he hurt you?”

“No, he didn’t cause physical pain, but he compelled me to let down my guard surrounding my gifts. He knew about the Devereaux death spell and made it sound like he knew my mother personally. He tried to compel me to give him the spell.”

“Compel? What, like Dracula?” Jude sounded as shocked as he looked.

“Yeah, something like that. He told Carson and Ten to get the hell out of the shop and to never come back and asked me to stay so we could talk about the spell. Jude, there was a part of me that wanted to stay and tell him everything.”

“Jesus Christ. You didn’t tell him, did you?”

“No, I got out of the shop as quickly as I could. We called Madam Aurora from Lobster Charlie’s and she came by to cleanse us with some rosemary concoction that broke the spell used to compel us.”

“Thank god for Aurora.”

“Yeah, she was a big help today, wanting to make sure we didn’t contaminate the shop or any of you with that man’s magic. Aurora also said that this guy’s magic felt old. She wasn’t sure if he was someone reincarnated or if he was an energy vampire, stealing from people’s minds. I have to say I think it’s the latter, because I felt like Crawford went through every square inch of my mind and my life. Ten said he felt violated the way he would if someone had broken into his house and had gone through his things.”

“Cope, I don’t know what to say to that. You’ve never met anyone like this before?”

Cope shook his head. “No, Ten and Carson hadn’t either. He knew things about all of us. How Carson passed himself off as psychic after Bertha died, even though he hadn’t come into his gifts yet. He knew Ten’s history with his family and of course, knew I had the death spell. I’m looking forward to having Everly here to see what she can tell us about this. I’m sure her gift will light up like a Christmas tree when she sees or feels what this guy did to Tennyson.”

“That kid’s gonna earn her dessert tonight. That’s for sure.” Jude smiled wistfully.

“I hate to put her in the middle of this, but if she can help, then I’d like her to do just that.”