Ghost Falls (Haunted Souls #22)

3 Cope

The Forbes-Byrne luck held through the rest of the flight, with the kids and Ronan behaving perfectly, with no meltdowns. It continued onto the mini bus that Fitz had chartered to pick them up at the airport. The kids had been well-mannered and were happy to be on this new adventure. Cope had a feeling it had to do with the bag of snacks Kaye brought with her. Every time Lizbet squawked, Kaye handed her a treat. Under any other circumstance Cope would have tried to soothe his daughter without food, but needs must.

When they reached the Rainbow Bridge leading from New York State into Canada, passports were handed forward to show the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Officer. Cope figured they’d be here for a while with eleven people on the bus, it was going to take a while to process all the IDs.

Handing the passports back to Ronan through the window of the bus, one officer waved them forward. The security gate opened and the bus drove onto the bridge.

“What the hell did you do, bribe CBP?”

Fitzgibbon asked with a grin.

“Of course not.”

Ronan lifted up the hem of his shirt to reveal his Salem Police badge. “Works every time!”

“Oh my God!”

Kaye said. “Look at that.”

She pointed out the left side windows to their uninterrupted view of the American and Canadian Falls.

“Wow! That’s so cool!”

Ronan’s mouth hung open. “I can’t believe we’re really here.”

“What do you think, Wolfie?”

Cope asked his son.

“That’s a lot of water, makes me have to pee!”

The little boy announced.

Cope felt the same way, but kept that information to himself. He’d seen hundreds of pictures and videos of the falls while they’d been researching the trip, but seeing them in person was almost a religious experience. No wonder Kaye had taken the name of the Lord in vain, which wasn’t like her at all. “It’s incredible.”

“According to Google, 750,000 gallons per second flow over the falls,”

Fitzgibbon said, sounding awed. “I can’t wait to do the boat ride to the falls.”

“Boat ride?”

Aurora asked, sounding scared. “Won’t the boat go off the falls?”

“The boat go back and forth at the bottom, not the top. See the boats down there? All the people are dressed in red ponchos?”

Fitzgibbon pointed out the window.

“Yeah,”

Aurora said, looking mildly curious.

“The boat captain gets you close to the falls, so you can watch the water from a different perspective.”

“What are the ponchos for?”

Aurora asked.

“’Cause you’re gonna get wet!”

Wolf announced. “Let’s do it, Daddy.”

He tapped Jude on the shoulder. “You’ll love it, Aurora. I’ll hold your hand if you get scared.”

The little girl didn’t look quite so sure. “Maybe.”

“We’ll be able to watch the boats from our hotel room. Then we can decide if we’re going to do it or not.”

Fitzgibbon pointed to the large hotel in front of them. The mini bus turned right and seconds later, they were parked in front of the hotel.

“All ashore!”

Ronan called out. He climbed out of the van and moved to the back to help the driver take their luggage out. Jude was right behind him.

“This is a nice place.”

Ten said, with Ezra in his arms. “I’m feeling nothing but good vibes.”

“Me too,”

Cope agreed. “Spoiler alert, Aurora is not only going to take the boat ride, but will want to do it again.”

“I saw the same thing. Everly’s talking her into it now.”

Ten pointed to the two girls, whose heads were bent together. Aurora started to laugh.

Cope loved how different the three first graders were. Wolf was a leap before he looked sort of kid, while Aurora was the complete opposite. Everly, was solidly in the middle, balancing everyone out.

Scooping Lizbet into his arms, Cope led the kids off the bus and into the lobby of the hotel, where their luggage was waiting for them. Up ahead, he could see Jude, Ronan, and Fitz in line to check in. “What do you think, little girl?”

he asked his daughter.

“Ohhh!”

Lizbet cooed. Her eyes widened as she took in the new sights and sounds of the hotel.

“I’m glad we checked in online,”

Jude said, coming back to Cope. He pressed a kiss to Lizbet’s head. “All we had to do was show our ID and they handed us the room keys. We’re on the tenth floor.”

“Elevators are this way.”

Ronan pointed to the left. “Kids, grab your bags and follow me.”

“Oh! I see stuffies!”

Everly called out and pointed toward the gift shop at the other end of the lobby. “I can’t wait to go shopping!”

“Me too!”

Aurora agreed.

“Elevator’s here.”

Ronan waved everyone forward. It was a bit of tight pinch, but they all fit into the same car.

When the doors pinged open on the tenth floor the kids spilled out, their attention caught by a black and white picture of a iced up Niagara Falls. All of the jagged rocks below were visible and coated in layers of snow and ice. “What happened?”

Everly asked.

“This was from when the falls froze in 1917, over a hundred years ago,”

Fitzgibbon said, as he read the caption beside the framed photograph. “Pretty neat, huh?”

Everly shook her head. “I feel cold just looking at it.”

She shivered and followed Fitzgibbon down the hall.

“Me too,”

Jude agreed before turning to Cope, who had his arms wrapped around himself as if he were cold. “You okay?”

Cope shook his head. “Seeing this picture made me think of Cannonball.”

“The daredevil from the commercial?”

Jude asked.

“Yeah. Wikipedia said his father’s barrel went over the American Falls instead of the Canadian. Look at those rocks.”

Cope traced his finger over the glass. “He never stood a chance. Neither does Cannonball. We need to find him Jude. Find some way to talk him out of this crazy idea.”

“If anyone can do that, it’s you.”

Jude wrapped an arm around his husband and led them down the hall toward where the others were waiting.

“It has to be done in a way that won’t make him dig his heels in against our help.”

Cope’s mind spun with how to talk the daredevil into standing down.

“I agree. When we get everyone settled in the room, I’m going to find out how we can get into that press conference tonight, so that we can meet with Cannonball and find out where his head is on the matter.”

Cope didn’t need his psychic powers to know the man would be immovable.

It might be different if Cannonball were about to attempt a stunt his father hadn’t lost his life trying to complete, but Cope knew the young man was going to go through with it and die trying.

It was up to him to find something to make the young man change his mind and his destiny.