Ghost Falls (Haunted Souls #22)

7

The ballroom had erupted in conversation after Cannonball walked out. Several psychics Cope had never met before came up to their table and told them they’d seen what he’d seen. He had a feeling most of them were there to meet Everly, and gage her talents for themselves. Not that it mattered much, like the little girl said, she knew what she saw, and what she saw was Cannonball’s death.

No one ate much after Cannonball’s visit. Ronan had to lay down the law over Everly eating something. She’d finally taken a few bites of brownie Jude had gotten for her. Not even Jude finished the rest of it for her.

“Let’s get back to our room and we can talk about what’s next,”

Ronan suggested. “We can put the kids in Fitz’s room and let them watch a movie.”

Cope nodded along with Ronan, even though he wasn’t sure what else could be done with Cannonball being adamant that the stunt was going ahead as planned.

Ten minutes later, the kids were settled in with Lilo and Stitch , leaving the adults to ponder how to handle Cannonball.

“Anyone want something to drink?”

Tennyson asked. Everyone shook their heads no. “Well, in that case, does anyone have an idea how to save Cannonball?”

“Can’t we just call the Mounties?”

Fitzgibbon asked. “I though it was illegal to go over the falls on purpose.”

“According to Wikipedia,”

Jude began, “going over the falls was outlawed in 1951 after William ‘Red’ Hill, died during his attempt. Cannonball’s been all over the news these last two days and his commercials run all the time. He must have gotten some kind of permit to do this, otherwise, he wouldn’t be so public about his attempt.”

Ronan nodded along. “What if we sabotaged his barrel enough so that an attempt at the falls couldn’t be made?”

“You’d end up in a Canadian prison being fed what passes for bacon up here with fresh maple syrup on your pancakes.”

Fitzgibbon snorted. “Seriously though, we’d just end up getting arrest for destruction of property and whatever else they could charge us with. I’m sure Cisco would rip you a new on for that. The people coming to PsychicFest might believe what we’re saying about Cannonball, but there’s no way the police would let us go when we tell them we were just trying to save the stupid man’s life.”

“What about what we did tonight? Did what we said make any difference, Cope?”

Jude turned to his husband.

“No, nothing so far as I can see. He’s stubborn, pigheaded, and thinks he’s the smartest man in the room,”

Cope said, feeling as depressed as he sounded.

“Well, who does that remind you of?”

Ronan asked with a chuckle.

“You!”

Jude shot back.

“You too, asshole,”

Ronan muttered, turning to Cope. “So, treat this like you’re trying to stop Jude from doing something stupid. How would you handle it?”

Cope shook his head. “I’m not so sure if I should tell you. If I do, then Jude will know my secret.”

“I promise I won’t hold your underhandedness against you.”

Jude snickered.

Cope sighed. He supposed revealing his secret was for a worthy cause, even if it might not work with Jude anymore. “The first thing I’d do is stroke your ego.”

Ronan snorted, but stayed silent. Tennyson, on the other hand, appeared to be taking notes.

“I’d tell you what a brave, strong, big-dicked daredevil you were.”

Cope pated on a smarmy smile for Jude’s benefit.

“Big dicked?”

Ronan asked.

“Like I said, stroking his ego.”

Cope rolled his eyes. Men could be so dense sometimes. “I’d appeal to his sense of self, telling him that he can’t break any more records if he’s dead and that there were other records to break first.”

“Would that work?”

Ten asked, looking up from his writing.

Jude sulked, which was an answer in itself.

“I’d recommend pushing off the Niagara thing until the next summer, when the water levels were lower and whatever else would be more favorable. Then, with a little bit of luck, and a whole lot of distraction, I’d keep Jude’s mind off the falls, until he reached a point where he admitted what a stupid idea it was in the first place.”

Cope wore a proud look, but knew Jude was going to give him hell for his assessment later.

“And if that doesn’t work with Cannonball?”

Ronan asked.

“Then we go for the throat,” Ten said.

“Okay, hold on, no one is going to hurt Cannonball physically. Ten’s not made for prison.”

Ronan petted his husband’s shoulder. “He’d be doing everyone’s laundry and giving away his commissary snacks by the end of the first week.”

“I didn’t mean going for Cannonball physically. I’d hit him where it will hurt most.”

“With his wife and son,”

Cope added.

“Right.”

Ten grinned at his friend. “I would tell Ronan how growing up without him would devastate Everly and Ezra, and how our little boy would probably turn into a Yankees fan. I’d also mention that my second husband was going to be a thoughtful man, the kind who would treat me and our kids like a king. You know, the kind of man who’d take Everly to her first Daddy-Daughter dance and walk her down the aisle.”

Ten snickered.

“Over my dead body!”

Ronan shouted, making Ten laugh harder. “Oh, that’s your strategy.”

“Yes, Snookums.”

Ten patted Ronan’s shoulder in return. “Thinking about what Everly’s life would be like without you would hopefully be the one thing that would make you come to your senses.”

“It would work with me and Lizbet,”

Jude said, missing his baby.

“I know. I would also have added in that LizzyB had been abandoned by her biological parents, how Wolf had been orphaned once already and how you were, in essence, doing the same thing to both of our kids.”

Cope crossed his arms over his chest, as if to say he’d made his point.

“Ouch!”

Jude set a hand over his heart, as if he could soothe the ache wrapped around it. “That would certainly get me to see sense and back down.”

“You’ve got to think that Heidi knows her husband as well as we know ours. Don’t you think she would have already done something like that with Cannonball?”

Ronan asked.

“Probably,”

Jude agreed. “I know Cope would have pulled out every trick in the book to bend me to his will.”

“It’s not my will, Jude,”

Cope sighed, knowing his stubborn husband would never see things from his point of view. “I would only pull out the big guns if I knew you were going to die. Your kids deserve to grow up with you. I deserve to grow old with you. Though god knows why. You’ve been a pain in my ass from day one.”

Cope threw his hands in the air, as if he were giving up on Jude.

“Now that’s good,”

Ten said. “A very effective way to end an argument and to get Ronan to sit and think about the dumbass thing he’s about to do.”

Ten jotted more notes, while Ronan watched on with a surprised look on his face.

“I’m not your marionette, Ten.”

Ronan sounded sour.

Ten snorted and got out of his seat. He grabbed Ronan’s arms and lifted them into the air. “Dance, Pinocchio, dance!”

“Hilarious, babe,”

Ronan muttered.

“How is any of this helping Cannonball?”

Fitzgibbon asked. “We need to come up with a way to talk this man out of the stunt. If appealing to his sense of family won’t work, what will?”

“Appealing to his sense of vanity?”

Ten suggested. “Dying in the middle of a stunt is a bad look.”

“True,”

Ronan agreed, “but I’m not sure that would be enough to stop me.”

“It all comes back to his father, right?”

Cope asked. “If Cannonball’s dad had been a landscaper or an architect, he wouldn’t feel the need to go over the falls at all.”

“Have you had any luck in contacting him?”

Jude asked.

“None. I’ve reached out to Bertha and Ronan’s mom, but they haven’t been able to find him either. Wouldn’t you think he’d be here, with his son?”

Cope asked, knowing full well his father, Buford, wouldn’t be anywhere near him.

“I would be,”

Ronan said, “but Rooster doesn’t strike me as the kind of man who gave a lot of thought to his son or his family. He did what he wanted to do.”

“I’ve been reading Rooster’s Wikipedia page while you all have been talking and the family really hit the skids after he died.”

Fitz wore a sad look.

“What do you mean?”

Ten asked.

“For starters, the maximum fine for going over the falls is twenty-five thousand dollars,”

Fitz began, “that was put in place back in 1951 when Red Hill died in his attempt to survive the falls. Rooster’s wife was assigned his fine.”

“Holy shit!”

Ronan whistled.

“Not only did she owe that money, but the search and rescue crews who’d gone out to find and recover Rooster’s body also charged her their fees,”

Fitz continued.

“Wait! I thought Rooster and his wife were divorced before he died.”

Jude asked.

“Not in the eyes of the law. They’d been separated for years but neither one could quite pull the trigger on ended the marriage for good. I assume she was waiting for Rooster to come to his senses and he was waiting for his wife to do the same.”

Fitzgibbon sighed. “Last but not least, since the death occurred during an event the insurance company deemed high risk , they refused to pay out death benefits.”

“Wow, talk about getting screwed over.”

Cope didn’t like the sound of that at all, but it might be something they could use with Cannonball. He might not have known the ins and outs of what happened after Rooster’s death.

“Yeah, his wife had to sell everything they owned, including their house and cars. It wasn’t enough to pay everything back. They lived with her parents for a while, until she married someone else. It didn’t sound like a love match, more something to improve her living situation.”

“So it’s history repeating itself all over again,”

Ronan said. “That’s what you said would happen to Heidi and CJ.”

Cope nodded. “It is what I see, but there’s more.”

“More bad, or more good?”

Jude asked, looking as if he already knew the answer.

“Bad. Heidi will make two attempts on her life.”

Cope looked as if he didn’t want to say what happened next.

“Is the second one successful?”

Jude asked. No one in the room breathed.

Cope nodded. He swiped at the tears rolling down his face.

“Cannonball nearly lost his mind when Everly said CJ was going to overdose on depression meds. I can’t imagine what his response would be if you told him Heidi’s fate.”

Jude wore a worried look.

Cope could. The man would go nuts and probably tear his hotel room apart. “I mean, maybe that’s what Cannonball needs. A real wake up call. Man to man.”

“Who better to do that than the three of us.”

Ronan pointed between himself, Jude and Fitz.

“Hell, we’ve been shot nine times between us.”

Jude snickered. “I was clinically dead for almost a minute when the killer angel shot me up with his syringe last year.”

“I died on the operating table when I got shot at Jace’s shelter. I never told anyone, not even Jace, but I met Aurora’s spirit that day.”

Fitzgibbon wiped away tears.

“You did?”

Ten asked, sounding awed. “What did she say?”

“She told me I needed to fight. That she was going to need a strong Daddy.”

Fitz shook his head. “She was so beautiful, but all I could see was the pain in her eyes. I knew I was the only one who could save her, so I did what she asked and fought like hell.”

“That’s an incredible story, Fitz,”

Cope said. “I’m not sure that part of it will help sway Cannonball, but the part about you all getting shot will. Ronan can show off his bullet scars.”

“You know me, I love showing off my scars, but at least this time it will be for a good cause.”

Ronan offered Ten a grin.

“All we have to do now is find him,”

Jude said.

“That’s easy,” Ten said.

“Yeah, super easy when you use your brain powers,”

Ronan huffed.

“No, doofus,”

Ten chuckled. “He’s doing a meet and greet tomorrow afternoon in the ballroom beside the one we’ll be in for PsychicFest. You need to buy tickets to get in. According to the website, you can get them at the front desk.”

“I’ll go do that now,”

Ronan said, getting out of his seat. “Do we want three tickets for the detectives or five so that you and Cope can come too.”

“To be honest, I think it’s best if the three of you go,”

Cope said. “Cannonball made it clear that he doesn’t believe the shit we’re peddling about what’s going to happen to him. Cannonball might be more apt to listen to you guys, especially since you’re cops and put your lives on the line every day when you go to work, just like him.”

Ronan nodded. “Good plan. I’ll go get the tickets and Ten can grab Ezzie from your room. I’m exhausted and can’t wait to go to sleep.”

Cope felt the same way. It had been one hell of a long day and while he might be ready for his appearances at PsychicFest, he had a feeling all that would be on people’s minds was his prognostication about Cannonball.