Ghost Writer - Pandora Pine Page 0,48

had Everly while Ronan took Ten out for a date night, and she tipped over her feet while trying to stand, hitting her head on the coffee table leg.”

“You cried harder than she did.” Cope had never seen his tough as nails husband react like that before. He’d scooped up the baby, who was really more scared than hurt, and cuddled her for an hour. She only had a tiny red mark on the side of her head, but you’d have thought the knock to her skull had cracked it open like Humpty Dumpty.

“I can’t bear the thought of them being hurt. What’s worse is the idea of someone hurting them on purpose.” Anger lit inside his dark eyes.

“This case has really triggered your protective side.” For all the snark and bravado in Jude, there was an equal amount of care and compassion. It wasn’t a part of himself Jude put on display for the world to see, but it was there.

Jude nodded. “Someone hurt Brooks. Maybe his entire life. Maybe only at the end. When you hear stories of horrific child abuse, the reasons never make sense. It just breaks my heart to think of someone treating our Wolfie the way Brooks’ abuser treated him.”

“The first thing we need to do is get more information on Brooks, if there’s any to be had.” The archives of the Boston Globe were extensive. It would take hours to comb through them all.

“You didn’t have any luck?” Jude set a hand against the side of Cope’s face.

“I was only getting started when Ten came over.” With only Brooks’ name to go buy, it was going to take longer to find any hint of him.

“I’ll leave you to it.” Jude stretched his arms over his head causing his shirt to ride up his stomach.

Cope looked away from his husband’s silky skin. The last thing he needed now was to be distracted by Jude. “How are things going with The Beecher House?”

Jude shrugged. “Why the hell do you think I was eavesdropping on your conversation with Tennyson? In a word, the case is boring.” He sulked all the way back to his office chair.

Cope had no doubt Jude would get over his case being dull. He had a feeling more than met the eye was going on in that house and in the Waller’s marriage.

Settling back into work, Cope took a long sip from his coffee cup and turned back to the archives. A name search didn’t pull up any relevant articles. The problem was that a lot of the men who’d come forward when the scandal broke wanted to remain publicly anonymous or used a fake name when they gave media interviews.

Skimming through tons of content about kids who’d come out to accuse members of the Massachusetts Archdiocese who’d abused them, broke Cope’s heart. As hard as it was to read those articles, Cope pushed on. When he was finished, he felt drained and disappointed. There had not been any reports of a child named Brooks who’d either been abused or killed by a member of the priesthood in Massachusetts.

Cope supposed it was entirely possible Brooks wasn’t part of the sex scandal which broke wide open in the early 1990s. His abuse and death could have occurred long before.

He was fighting an uphill battle to figure out the identity of the ghost writer. Cope knew only Brooks was able to fill in the obvious gaps in his story. The spirit seemed to be telling his story his way. All Cope could do was wait for the next meeting with the spirit and hope he’d be more willing to answer some pointed questions.

22

Jude

“Let’s scrub that tummy!” Jude added Wolf’s favorite baby soap to a soft washcloth and, leaning over the lip of the tub, started washing his belly.

Wolf responded by slapping the bathwater, soaking himself and his father. He started to laugh uncontrollably.

In Jude’s mind, there wasn’t a sweeter sound on Earth than that of Wolf laughing. He wished Cope were here to record them. It wasn’t possible to have too many videos of the baby giggling.

“Da?” Wolf demanded. He turned his dark eyes to Jude.

Jude knew the baby was talking about Cope. To be honest, Jude didn’t know where he was. He’d been pacing around their nearly finished deck when Jude had brought Wolf upstairs for tubby time.

Thankfully, the baby could sit up now, which made baths much easier and fun. Minus hair washing. Wolf had been blessed with thick, dark hair that