“I need to do the same with Truman. The kids will be getting home from school soon.” Carson turned to Fitz. “Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help you sort this mess out.”
“Actually,” Fitz began, pulling out his notebook, “have the kids gotten into any trouble recently at school?”
Carson nibbled his lower lip for a few seconds. “Last week, they got in trouble for standing up for a classmate being bullied. The bully took a swing at Brian, but hit Bertha instead. Brian and Steph grabbed him and started dragging him away. The teacher only saw the end, which made the kids look like the troublemakers.”
Fitzgibbon nodded as he wrote. “Cole, when does Cassie get flour deliveries?”
“Every Wednesday. Now that I’m thinking about it, the usual driver is older, in his sixties, but he missed last week’s delivery with the flu, so his son, who’s Cassie’s age, filled in for him. What are you thinking, Fitz?”
“The letters mention Jude’s accident and Ronan’s stake-out, both of which happened over the last few weeks. Same with Cope visiting a shrink and Tennyson keeping the letters a secret. Whoever is sending these letters has only recently come into our orbit.”
“I hate to say it,” Greeley began, “but I’m thinking the four of you are the common denominator here.” He pointed between Carson, Cole, Ten, and Cope. “What we need to do is go over your clients from the last two months or so. See if they overlap or if members of the same families met with each of you.”
“Good plan,” Fitz said, grinning at his son.
“We’ll get on that first thing in the morning,” Carson said, before he and Cole left the room.
“Let us know if you need help investigating or want us to show up on the letter writer’s doorstep.” Fitz grinned, as if he couldn’t wait to ring that doorbell. “Ronan take all the time you need. Jude, go home!”
Jude looked like he was about to protest, but stayed silent and simply nodded.
Looking satisfied, Fitz and Greeley left the room.
“Okay, big guy, let’s get you home.” Kaye got out of her seat and helped Jude to his feet.
“You know I didn’t cheat on you, right?” Jude asked, sounding exhausted.
“Of course I know.” Cope wrapped his arms around his husband. “I’ll help you out to the car.” He took one arm and Kaye the other.
“I’ll see you later with pizza or sandwiches. Text me what you want.” Ronan shut the door behind them. He set his forehead against the door and tried to gather his thoughts. “Ten, I’m so sorry.” Ronan took the seat across from Tennyson. “I saw that letter about you keeping secrets and I just saw red.”
“That’s what these letters were designed to do. To put us at each other’s throats. To cause chaos and destruction.” Ten sighed. “I’m sorry too, for not showing my letters to you.”
“Did you think I’d done the things this butt munch wrote about?” Ronan asked, not quite sure he wanted the answer.
“I wondered for a few seconds, to be honest,” Ten admitted, sounding sheepish. “But then I read over the words and couldn’thelp thinking they’d been written by a ten year old. I had a flash back to grade school.”
“God, I never slowed down enough to go over the letter a second time.” Ronan was such an asshole. He deserved to sleep on the sofa for a month.
“You’re forgiven,” Ten said, seemingly reading Ronan’s mind. “What we need to do now is figure out who’s behind this letter writing campaign. Confront the fucker and bring an end to this, once and for all.”
“Confront the fucker?” Ronan snickered. “It’s not like you to use that language.”
“This dickhead called our little girl the b-word. He or she is going to pay for that. Count on it.” Ten got up from the table and walked toward the door. “I’m gonna start looking at my client lists from over the last few months and see if any names jump out at me. I’ll see you at home.”
Now that Ronan had calmed down and was able to think clearly, he turned his head back to the letter writer. They were going to find out who was behind this smear campaign and Ronan was going to make the bastard pay for what he’d done.
10
Tennyson
After dinner at Jude’s house, spaghetti and meatballs, thanks to Kaye, Ten brought the kids home and got Ezra into the tub. Ronan and Everly were in the master bedroom reading together. They’d read to Everly every night since was born and loved listening to her read to them. There were some nights when the three of them would read silently together after Ezra was asleep.
When Ezra was settled for the night, Ten walked into his bedroom excited to get back to the psychological thriller he’d started reading the night before. Everly and Ronan were waiting for Ten.
“We need to talk, Dad,” Everly said plainly and patted Ten’s side of the bed.
Ten felt like he was being ambushed. Was this some kind of an intervention? “Let me brush my teeth and I’ll be right with you.” He rolled his eyes in a perfect imitation of Ronan. As he went through his nighttime routine, Ten’s mind wandered back to the letters. Carson had promised to print out their client lists for the last three months and set a meeting for the morning to go over them. He hoped they would be able to get to the bottom of the matter before any more letters showed up at home or the office.
