Ghost Falls (Haunted Souls #22)

14

Jude was bored off his gourd. Cope’s meet and greet had been going on for nearly an hour and the people stopping by to see him and Tennyson were a snoozefest. It was the same old story, wanting to know if their mothers forgave them for a small slight, wanting to know where the family silver was hidden, hint, try the local pawn shop, and wanting to make sure loved ones were safe and pain-free on the other side. He’d been hoping for more drama or at least an interesting case he and Ronan could help solve with their stellar detective work.

“This is boring. Can we go yet?”

Ronan whined for the third time in the last ten minutes. “Where the hell is Fitzgibbon anyway. It figures he’d leave us here to deal with these dull Canadians. They’re just too nice.”

“That’s because you’re an asshole,”

Jude shot back.

Ronan tiled his head to the side, as if he was thinking about Jude’s insult. “Oh, yeah. Good point, but that doesn’t answer the question about Fitz.”

“He hasn’t been back in the ballroom since he left to contact that guy he knows in the Coast Guard. Morris, Matthew, or something?”

“Milton,”

Ronan said. “What do you think is taking so long?”

“Fitz said he’s the commander of the Chatham station. Maybe they’re out on a rescue mission.”

There could be a hundred reasons why Fitz hadn’t come back yet, with Aurora at the top of the list. If his daughter wanted some time to play or finally talked Fitz into going to the Hershey store down the street, that could explain his extended absence.

“Yeah, or out for lunch.”

Ronan’s stomach rumbled as if on cue. “I’m starving. Let’s grab some food.”

“I know the people here have been as sweet as maple syrup, but I’m not leaving Cope alone with them. It would be just my luck that we’d leave and the shit would hit the fan. We’ve only got an hour or so left. I’ll hold down the fort if you want to run out the café downstairs or to the vending machines.”

Ronan frowned. “No, I’ll stay and starve to death quietly.”

“That will be the day when you’re quiet about anything.”

Jude rolled his eyes. He had more to say on the matter when the doors to the ballroom burst open. Cannonball and his entourage walked into the room. One of his managers was carrying a megaphone, which he handed to the daredevil. “Hello, ladies, gentlemen, and psychos of all ages.”

He called through the device. “I’m Cannonball Jackson. You might have heard about my stunt. Tomorrow at one, I’m going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Now, it seems that some among your ranks think that I’m a goner.”

Cannonball’s gaze landed on Cope and Tennyson. “If you can believe it, one of you even used a young child as a way to get me to put a stop to this stunt. What say all of you?”

Cannonball threw his arms wide and nearly fell over. His manager grabbed him before he wiped out. “According to what I’ve read on the hotel’s website, the people in this room are the top talents in your entire profession. Let’s hear it, am I going to die or survive tomorrow.”

“Christ, he sounds drunk,”

Ronan said.

“Yeah, he does,”

Jude agreed. “Do we let him go on with this charade or do we step in to stop his dumb ass?”

“Let’s see what the others have to say. If things start to get out of hand, then we’ll step in.”

Ronan moved closer to Tennyson. “In the meantime, I’m gonna text Fitz and let him know what’s going on.”

“Good plan.”

Jude was relieved that none of this kids were here to witness what was happening, Everly especially. Although, she always spoke her mind, no matter what.

“You, there in the green dress!”

Cannonball stumbled forward. He was pointing to a woman Jude had seen Cope speaking with earlier. He thought she was from Chicago or Milwaukee. “Am I gonna live or die?”

“Die,”

the woman said.

Cannonball’s gregarious look turned to shock. He obviously hadn’t expected anyone else to see what Everly had seen in his future. “Okay, everyone who thinks I’m gonna die, raise your hand.”

Cannonball turned around, eyeing all of the psychics in the room.

Jude watched while about thirty hands gingerly pushed into the air. He had a feeling there were more who wanted to raise their hands, but didn’t want to get involved with Cannonball’s tantrum.

“Wow, most of you think I’ll be playing the harp tomorrow. Who thinks I’m gonna live?”

Two lone hands lifted into the air. Ronan’s and Jude’s.

“What the actual fuck!”

Cannonball moved toward the men who had moved to stand in front of Ten and Cope. “Your husbands have been the ones telling me that I was going to die and that my wife and son would too. Now you’ve changed your tunes?”

Jude opened his mouth to suggest that they take this conversation into the hall, but didn’t have a chance to speak, as Cannonball started to shout again.

“Wait, I know, the two of you are going to tell me that because I’m gonna cancel the stunt, I’m gonna live, right? That my love for my wife and son are going to save me, is that it?”

Cannonball laughed. He sounded unhinged.

“Let’s go talk outside, so that these nice people can get on with the meet and greet.”

Jude stepped forward. He grabbed Cannonball’s right elbow, while Ronan grabbed the left. He’d smelled booze on the man’s breath and it didn’t take a genius to know the daredevil had hit the minibar in his room.

“You can’t do this to me. It’s false imprisonment. I know my rights!”

Cannonball shouted as Ronan and Jude led him out of the ballroom. Fitzgibbon stood nearby, holding his handcuffs. “Oh, I see how this is gonna go. You’re going to cuff me to the bed or the tub or something so that I’ll miss my window to go over the falls tomorrow. When the window’s closed, you’ll let me go, right?”

Silence was Cannonball’s answer.

“Right?”

The daredevil shouted again.

“Come with us. This room is open.”

Fitzgibbon opened the door to the space next door. He held the door while Ronan and Jude led Cannonball inside. “Sit.”

Fitzgibbon pointed to a round table.

Surprisingly, Cannonball did what he asked. Jude and Ronan sat on either side of him. Jude noticed the fight seemed to have gone out of him.

“What the hell was that in there?”

Ronan asked. “Were you trying to hurt our husbands’ careers by showing them up, or were you actually hoping one of the professionals in that room would see a different fate for you?”

“I want your husbands to be wrong, don’t you get it?”

Cannonball sunk his head into his hands.

“Yeah, I get it,”

Jude said. “You want someone to tell you that you’re not going to die tomorrow, so that you’ll be able to use it to throw in you’re wife’s face later. It will be your justification for doing a stupid thing.”

Jude paused and took a deep breath, in hopes of getting his emotions back in check. “I want my son to be a center on the Boston Bruins, but just because I want it, doesn’t mean it will happen. We take the hand we’re dealt in life and we play it the best way we can. I saw you at the waterpark with your son yesterday. It’s obvious how much you love him. Same goes for Heidi, if you didn’t love her so much, you wouldn’t have been trying so desperately to find a way around her objections.”

“So I love my wife and son, what’s that got to do with anything?”

Cannonball sounded like a petulant teenager.

“You’re a smart man, Cannonball,”

Fitzgibbon said, leaning forward across the table. “Family is everything. At least it is in my house. Just the thought of me doing something that would hurt my husband and daughter, intentionally or not, is enough to make me throw up. Don’t do this to your family. What hell good is it if you survive, if it means you’ve lost the most important people in your life?”

“Hold on a second,”

Cannonball sat up straighter. “When I asked the psychics if any of them saw that I was going to live, the two of you put your hands up. Neither of you have the gift of sight,”

Cannonball made air quotes, “so why did you say that? You know something, don’t you?”

Ronan sighed. “We know something. My daughter had another vision this morning.”

“What did she see?”

Cannonball asked.

“Hold on a minute there, cowboy,”

Ronan said. “The last time we gave you this sort of information, you belittled my little girl and called her a psycho. Why the hell should I tell you what she saw so you can ridicule her again? Break her spirit? Make her cry?”

Raw emotion thickened Ronan’s voice. “All she wants is to save your life and if you’re too stupid to listen to her, then that’s on you.”

Cannonball looked between the three detectives. Fitzgibbon’s cuffs sat on the table in front of him. “Let’s say I believe your daughter,”

Cannonball began. “Before I met you guys, I still had my dream. I was finally going to do something my father never did. My name would be bigger than his and I could let this whole thing go, but when your daughter told me what would happen, it scared me. She has no dog in this fight. There’s no benefit to her if I go over the falls or call it off. Like you said, the premonition opened her up to a shit ton of trouble for no gain whatsoever.”

“Everly’s gain is your life,”

Jude said, knowing that’s exactly what his niece would say.

“What did she see? Can’t be any worse than what she saw before.”

For the first time since Cannonball walked into the ballroom and started to shout, he sounded like he was ready to listen.

“She saw a way for you to survive going over the falls,”

Ronan said.

“Way to bury the lead,”

Cannonball scoffed. “Tell me about it. Do I need to shove off from a different spot or add more air holes to the capsule?”

Ronan shook his head. “What she saw involves the United States Coast Guard.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Cannonball’s revitalized energy flagged. “What the hell can the Coast Guard to do help, especially when I’m going over the Canadian side of the falls?”

“Have you ever seen videos of Guard swimmers rescuing people whose boats have capsized?”

Ronan asked.

“Yeah, dumbasses out in hurricanes who need to be rescued.”

Cannonball rolled his eyes.

Fitzgibbon snorted. “Dumbasses in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

Cannonball barked out a quick laugh.

“Do not get your hopes up, but I have a friend with the Guard station in Chatham, Massachusetts,”

Fitzgibbon said. “I spoke with him earlier and he promised to do what he could, which includes calling the commander at Coast Guard Station Niagara. He’s going to call back later with more information.”

Jude was glad to hear what Fitzgibbon was saying. “According to Everly, she saw Guard divers in the water rescuing you.”

“That’s great news, but why do the three of you look like I pissed in your Cornflakes?”

Cannonball asked.

“Time is fluid,”

Ronan said. “Ten tells us this all the time. You could do or say something in the next twenty-four hours that could change the outcome. Same goes if the wind and weather conditions change on the river. So while what Everly says is good news, you’re not out of the woods yet, especially where we don’t know if the Coast Guard is going to agree to lend a hand and their resources.”

“I have one question.”

Something Cannonball had said earlier had stuck with Jude. “You talked about eclipsing what your father did. Why is that your biggest motivator here? He’s been dead for twenty years, surely your living wife and son have to be more important that your father.”

Cannonball sighed. He looked as if he didn’t want to spill the details behind his obsessive need to best his father. “My Dad was famous. I don’t just mean that everyone in our little town knew who he was, I mean everyone we ever met in the Walmart, at Disney World, in the mountains, the middle of downtown New York City. Strangers came up to him wanting to take pictures or shake his hand. There were women who named their babies after him. The attention was constant and Rooster basked in it, as if he were some kind of Hollywood movie star.”

Jude knew how this story ended. “I’m guessing the strangers got his love and attention instead of you.”

“Yeah,”

Cannonball agreed. “The only time he paid attention to me was when I misbehaved, which I quickly learned was not the way to go, or if I tried to emulate him. When I attempted my first ramp jump on my two-wheeler, Rooster was there to show me how to build the ramp for maximum lift and how to hold my body for the landing. The first jump I attempted was smooth as silk. My father cheered for me and told me to do it again. I did and wiped out spectacularly. Broke my right wrist and wrecked my bike. What do you think he did after that?”

All three detectives remained silent.

“He dragged me into the house and shoved me toward my mother. Told her to take my pussy ass to the hospital.”

Cannonball took a shuddering breath. “I spent the rest of his life trying to prove to him that I was worthy of his love and praise. Do you have any idea how wrecked I was to see my father laughing and talking with other kids? To see his soft and fun side shown to fucking strangers? He ruined my childhood and now I get to take my power back. If I beat the falls, I beat him. If I die, well, then I won’t be around to see the damage I cause.”

Jude took a minute with Cannonball’s words. “Look, I get wanting to walk in your father’s footsteps but you’re doing it for all the wrong reasons. You’re putting your life and your family on the line for something you’ll never achieve.”

“What, surviving the falls?”

“No, peace.”

Jude paused, hoping his point would sink in. “You think that if you beat your father that your life can continue on a different track. You’ll have the monkey of his legacy off your back. But then what? What will you do on Monday?”

“I-”

Cannonball stopped, whatever he’d been about to say died on his lips. “I don’t know. No one’s ever asked me that question before.”

Jude had a feeling that was the case. “You’re a young guy, with fifty or sixty years left if you’re lucky. How do you plan on filling all that time? I think you’ve spent so much time trying to best your father that you never thought about what you actually wanted. Did you want to be a banker or a fireman or a furniture maker? Do you even like being a daredevil?”

Jude would bet the house that Cannonball’s answer to his last question would be a resounding no.

“I fucking hate it.”

Cannonball offered a wry grin. “I’ve broken thirty bones. Some of the same ones twice. I was on the verge of becoming addicted to Vicodin after my last failure. Heidi was the one who took my stupid ass to a rehab facility so I could get a handle on it before it got to a place where it ruled my life. She wanted me to promise I’d stop doing stunts after that, but I refused. So far, I’ve managed to stay away from the prescription pills, but I hate to think of the state my stomach and liver are in after all the bottles of Advil I’ve swallowed over the years.”

“I’ll text you when I hear back from my friend at the Coast Guard.”

Fitz got up from the table. “What are your plans for the day?”

Cannonball shrugged. “Heidi wants me to spend the day with CJ, but I don’t think that’s what he wants.”

“We’re taking the kids to play Dinosaur mini golf when the meet and greet ends. Why don’t you two come with us.”

Jude watched as an uncertain look grew in Cannonball’s eyes. “I promise we won’t talk about the stunt at all. It will be a fun afternoon with our kids and lunch at the Frankenstein-themed Burger King.”

“And probably more bubblegum soft serve. The kids can’t get enough of it,”

Ronan added.

“By kids, Ronan means himself.”

Jude chuckled at the sour look on Ronan’s face. “We’ll meet you at eleven in the hotel lobby.”

“Yeah, okay,”

Cannonball agreed. “See you then.”

The daredevil stood and walked out of the room with his head down.

“You think he’s gonna show up?”

Fitz asked.

“Yeah, I do.”

To be honest, Jude wasn’t sure at all. He hoped that Cannonball’s better nature would take over and he’d give his son one last day full of memories for him to hold close, just in case the worst happened tomorrow.