Dead of Winter (Cold Case Psychic #15) - Pandora Pine Page 0,77

horses and men to your Humpty Dumpty. I’m here to figure out what happened to your sister.” Ten turned back to Kate, who was still hugging her mother. “What did Skye say about where she was going and who she was going with?”

“She didn’t say, and I didn’t ask. I assumed she was meeting up with her boyfriend. Kyle what’s-his-name?”

“Kyle Danner,” Ronan supplied.

“I always thought he had a hand in Skye’s murder,” Muriel said. “He became a drug addict after Skye…”

“People react differently to tragedy. Some turn to drugs, other’s to alcohol.” Ronan’s eyes were on Butch.

“Did you speak to him? Work your magic on his brain?” Kate asked.

“We did meet with him, but we don’t know if he killed Skye.” Tennyson didn’t think he had anything to do with it, but needed cold hard facts to back up his theory.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Muriel practically shrieked. “You were able to read my kids like books, why not Kyle?”

“My gift doesn’t work on command like a trained seal.” Ten sighed. It was all well and good when he was able to pull things from people’s heads. It was another matter entirely when he heard nothing. “Kyle was messed up for a lot of years. Sometimes things like that keep me from getting a good read on people. He’s gotten his life together. Runs a food pantry across town.”

“Yeah, we’ve heard about that place.” Butch rolled his eyes. “Skye’s the Limit. How dare he use our daughter’s name to peddle his bullshit?”

Ten got up from his seat. “None of that matters now, Butch. Your kids didn’t have anything to do with Skye’s murder. We’ll see ourselves out.”

“Wait!” Kate shouted. “Hold on a minute.”

Ten turned back to her.

“Skye’s friends. They’re all dying. Are we next?” Her eyes darted around the room. “Well, are we? You spoke to Jennifer and Heidi, and now they’re dead.”

“I don’t know.” Ronan pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll have the chief put a patrol car on the house.”

“That’s it?” Kate yelled. “We helped you, and now we could get murdered?”

“No one is going to get murdered,” Fitzgibbon said calmly. “We’ll make sure you’re protected.”

“Yeah, like you protected Skye’s friends?” Muriel sounded panicked.

“You’ll be fine,” Fitzgibbon assured them before heading out the front door.

“Will they be fine?” Ronan asked when they were crossing the street to Kevin’s SUV.

“So far as I can tell, but I would have Cisco put someone on the house like you said.” Ten was ready for today to be over. They’d been chasing Butchie and Kate to get their version of the story from the night Skye was murdered, and it was all for nothing. The siblings had nothing to do with Skye’s death, but at the very least, they could have prevented it.

“Kyle Danner spoke to you, and he’s still upright and taking nourishment,” Jude said.

Ten climbed into the back seat. He shut his eyes and leaned his head against the window. Sleep was only seconds away when his eyes snapped back open. If Skye’s killer was murdering witnesses one by one, they obviously were keen on keeping their identity hidden. After the witnesses were dealt with, did that mean he and Ronan were next?

31

Ronan

After leaving Muriel and Butch to deal with their adult children, Fitzgibbon had driven everyone back to West Side Magick. Ronan knew Ten needed a bit of a break from this case, so he’d headed out to speak with Cisco Jackson alone.

No matter how hard Ronan and the others worked on this case, nothing was going their way. All of the witnesses had been reluctant to talk, and now two of them had been murdered. It was a cluster fuck of epic proportions. Ronan hadn’t felt this low since he’d been assigned the Michael Frye case. Nothing had gone right with that investigation until he’d met Tennyson.

Cisco sighed heavily as Ronan finished telling him what happened at the Washington house. “Damn, thirty-five years is a long time to keep a secret, especially since it had no real bearing on the case. We all know Skye left the house. With neither sibling asking where she was going or who with, the information is useless, aside from upsetting the parents again.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Ronan agreed. “Everyone associated with this case has paid a high price. I don’t want anyone else suffering.”

“I’ve got Eli Dixon sitting on the house. The Washingtons will be okay for the night.” Cisco sat up straighter in his chair.