Page 2 of Ghostmaker

1

Jude

Salem, Massachusetts, present day…

It truly was the most wonderful day of the year, as a famous commercial once proclaimed about the first day of school. Jude Byrne stood at the bus stop with his son, Wolf, who was dressed in new khaki pants and a little plaid button down shirt. Jude had no idea when his son had gone from superhero shirts to looking like a miniature hedge fund manager on casual Friday, but had to admit, Wolf was styling.

“We did it!” Ronan exclaimed as he came out of the house with Everly and Ezra. Tennyson was a few steps behind. “We survived the summer!”

Everly sneered. “You don’t have to look so happy about it.” She was dressed in a denim romper with a pink shirt underneath and a pair of cute sandals.

“I thought you were excited for the start of third grade. What happened?” Jude asked. They’d all gotten together the night before for dinner along with Fitzgibbon’s family. Everyone had been in a celebratory mood, at least that’s what Jude had thought.

“Daddy woke me up at 6:30 A.M., Uncle Jude. That’s what happened. He was singing a stupid song and smiling so hard, I thought his teeth were gonna crack. Do you know who’s that happy and energetic at the butt crack of dawn?”

Jude had many guesses, several of which weren’t appropriate for eight year olds, but kept them to himself.

“Psychos, that’s who!” Everly crossed her arms over her chest.

Jude snorted. Everly had a point.

“Oh, look, here comes Aurora!” Ronan waved. “Hi, Aurora! Happy first day of school.”

Aurora frowned. She ran to Everly and began whispering. Jude thought he heard the word “psycho.”

Fitzgibbon, on the other hand, looked ecstatic. “Ah, the first day of school. I love the smell of notebooks in the morning.”

“Here comes the pre-school bus!” Cope shouted, racing across the street with Lizzie.

“Bus! Bus!” Lizzie and Ezra jumped up and down and shouted together. Both of them looked excited for the first day of school.

The bright yellow bus stopped in front of Ronan’s house. Cope and Tennyson snapped pictures and shot video as the kids got on the bus and waved goodbye.

“What have we got going on this morning?” Fitz asked.

“Ronan and I are working on the Evans file. I’m sure some of the witnesses know more than they’re telling us, so we’re gonna hit that hard today. Why?” It wasn’t like Fitz to micromanage his and Ronan’s time.

“I got a text from Cisco this morning. He wants to see us in his office at nine.”

“What the hell did Ronan do this time?” Jude shot his best friend a dirty look.

“Why am I always the red-headed step child?” Ronan whined.

“Hey!” Everly said. “I heard that!” She shook one of her strawberry blond ponytails at Ronan.

“Sorry, honey.” Ronan grinned at his daughter. “If your honor will allow me to rephrase? Why do you always think I’m the troublemaker? Jude does plenty of dumb shit too.”

“Yeah, but unlike you, I don’t get caught.” Jude waggled his eyebrows at Ronan.

“Children, enough.” Fitz rolled his eyebrows. “I don’t know what the meeting is about, except to say that Cisco didn’t chew my ass out over anything. He just said he needed to see the three of us. To be honest with you, I’m as much in the dark as you are.”

Jude had been kidding about Ronan being the problem child. He’d done plenty of stupid things too. Fitz not knowing what was going on was concerning, but would have to wait. The bus was coming down the street and it was almost time to party.

“Here’s the bus!” Ronan danced a little jig.

“Have a great first day, Wolf.” Jude hugged his son. “Kick ass and take names!”

“I’ll just read comic books in the cafeteria, Daddy.” Wolf hurried toward the bus steps.