DEAD MAD

  by

  Pandora Pine

  Dead Mad

  Copyright © Pandora Pine 2025

  All Rights Reserved

  This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, events, business establishments or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First Digital Edition: April 2025

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  1

  Ronan

  Eye of the Tiger

  Ronan O’Mara was having the week from hell. He’d slammed his hand in the car door, and forgot his travel mug filled with coffee on the roof of the car, which resulted in a scratch on the Mustang’s trunk. Thankfully he’d gotten to work safely, but just as he parked the car, the skies had opened up and drenched him. Even now, hours later, his shoes were squishy and his pants were still wet, which made him cranky.

  It was for certain the week from hell. The problem was, it was only Tuesday.

  “Ronan, what the actual fuck?” Fitzgibbon shouted, exploding out of his office so hard, that the door bounced off the wall and slammed shut behind him.

  As quickly as he could, Ronan mentally reviewed everything he’d done since he walked into the office that morning, but couldn’t come up with anything that would have sparked this kind of reaction from Fitz. “Could you be a little more vague?”

  “Not funny, asshole!” Fitzgibbon barked. “Why the hell did you skip the McClellan interview?”

  Relief flowed through Ronan’s body. He was off the hook, at least for now. Fitz must have gotten the date wrong, as Ronan wasn’t scheduled to speak with McClellan until next week.

  David McClellan had long been a suspect in his wife’s brutal 2015 murder. The woman had been stabbed seven times in the chest and was left to die alone in her bed. All eyes had been on David as the killer. The couple were going through a long and contentious divorce, with David demanding that his wife not get a penny, even though he’d been the one caught cheating.

  There was a ton of circumstantial evidence pointing to David as the killer, but no physical evidence to back it up. Over the last ten years, the widower hadn’t hidden from public scrutiny. He’d been seen around town on dates with several different women. There were pictures of him posted at least once a week on Salem Talks, a community-centered Facebook page.

  “It’s not until next Monday, the twenty-eighth.” Ronan grabbed his phone to back up his assertion.

  “Wrong, asshole, it was today.” Fitzgibbon’s hands were bunched into fists at his sides. “This was the one chance we had to nail this fucker and now it’s gone. I just got off the phone with his attorney, who said they will not reschedule.”

  “Wait, no, that’s not right.” Ronan’s brow furrowed as he tapped through his phone. He opened the calendar app and saw there was no meeting scheduled for the twenty-eighth, in fact there was nothing listed for the entire month of April. “Shit, it’s not here.”

  Jude offered Ronan his phone. The interview was listed in black and white. “See, it was today.”

  Feeling angry and frustrated, Ronan lashed out. “Why didn’t either of you remind me? We’re supposed to be a team, right?”

  “Do you want us to wipe your ass too?” Fitzgibbon shot back.

  “It’s up to you to keep track of your appointments,” Jude added with a snarky smile.

  “What the actual fuck, Jude? You’re supposed to be my friend and partner and you’re coming for me like I was the one who killed Marie McClellan?” Ronan felt as though this conversion had spun completely out of control. “We’re on the same side here guys. I feel like you both wanted me to fail so you could come down on me.”

  “We’re in the business of catching killers and solving cold cases, Ronan.” Fitzgibbon growled. “There’s no room for failure. Or for feeling butt hurt. Thanks to your incompetence, we’ve lost out on the opportunity to solve this case. You’re going to be the one to call Marie McClellan’s family and explain to them that David is even further out of reach now.”

  “Hold on just a damn minute.” Ronan felt like his head was about to explode. “Missing the interview with David McClellan isn’t the end of the world. All the asshole was going to do was lie to us anyway.”

  “Yeah, but he might have said something we could have used against him,” Jude added. “How many times have we solved cases based on an inadvertent slip of the tongue.”

  “You would know, seeing as though you slipped your tongue to half of Salem.” Ronan was done with this conversation and Jude’s bullshit.

  “Low blow, asshole,” Jude said, from behind clenched teeth. “Who the fuck do you think you are throwing my past at me? We’re talking about your fuck ups, not mine.”

  “Yeah, well, you’re fuck ups are legion.”

  “Fuck you, Ronan!” Jude shoved a finger in Ronan’s face and kicked his chair out from under him, knocking the detective onto the floor.

  Landing on his tailbone, Ronan fisted his hands and stared up at his best friend, wanting nothing more than to break his stupid nose. Shaking his head, Ronan stayed where he was on the floor. It was the safest place for him. Right now, all he was guilty of was hitting Jude with low blows. Actually hitting him with his fists might end their friendship and partnership forever.

  “Calm the hell down, Jude. It’s not as if he’s lying.” Fitz set his hands on his hips.

  “Oh, so now you’re coming for me?” Jude shouted. He pushed out of his seat and charged toward Fitzgibbon, who didn’t move an inch. He cocked back his arm, looking ready to throw a punch, when Tennyson ran into the conference room.

  “What the hell is going on up here? We can hear you yelling from downstairs.” Ten shouted above the fray. “Cope and Cole are in the middle of readings and some of the customers in the shop are wondering if they should call the cops.”

  “We are the cops.” Ronan deadpanned.

  “Well start acting like it.” Ten set his hands on his hips as he surveyed the room. “Do one of you asshats want to explain to me what the hell you’re fighting about?” When no one answered, Ten turned to Ronan. “Why are you sitting on the floor? And why do Jude and Fitz look like they’re going to swing on each other?”

  It was on the tip of Ronan’s tongue to tell his husband to mind his own business, but with the way things were going with Jude and Fitz, he needed all the friends he could get. “I fucked up and missed an interview with a possible killer and instead of reminding me about the appointment, Fitz came for me and Jude was the third man in.”

  Ten turned to Jude and Fitz, who’d thankfully taken a few steps back from each other. “Why didn’t you remind Ronan about the interview?”

  “Because it wasn’t on my calendar either. I only found out when McClellan’s attorney called to tell me we’d missed our one shot at speaking to his client.” Fitz had the good sense to look a little guilty.

  “I should have seen this coming,” Ten began.

  “No shit, Nostradamus,” Ronan deadpanned, lifting himself off the floor.

  “One more word out of you and you’re sleeping in the Mustang for the next week. What I was trying to say before your dumb ass interrupted me was that all of you have been on edge lately. You’ve been a pain in the ass for the last few days. According to Jace and Cope, so have the two of you.” Ten pointed back and forth between Fitz and Jude.

  “These two are driving me up a fucking wall,” Fitz muttered.

  “Ditto for the two of you!” Jude charged back.

  “Double ditto,” Ronan said, sheepishly.

  “There’s only one thing left to do,” Ten said with a sad shake of his head.

  “Jesus, Ten,” Ronan moaned, “we’re not about to hug this out and sing Kumbaya.”

  Ten rolled his eyes heavenward, as if he were hoping for divine intervention. “What the three of you need is to do some kind of team building exercise. You know, trust falls and other things that will help your communication skills and get to the root of the sticks up your asses.”

  “I saw a movie last week where coworkers went on a camping retreat and all of them were horribly butchered by the machete-wielding office manager.” Ronan had loved that movie so much that he’d watched it several more times over the last few days.

  “Sounds good to me,” Ten enthused. “You can leave on Friday and come home on Sunday. I’ll go shopping for tents, snacks and machetes.” Without another word, Ten headed back downstairs.

  “What the hell just happened?” Jude asked.

  “Looks like we’re going camping,” Fitz muttered. “Have any of you been before?”

  “No,” Ronan said, “unless sleeping in the backyard counts.” Everly loved doing backyard campouts and sleeping outside.

  “What about you,” Fitz said, his eyes on Jude. “You must know all kinds of survival stuff from your time living on Navajo Nation.”

  “I was an angry outcast kid who stayed inside my grandfather’s trailer and played video games.” Jude’s hard look softened. “I think I can probably light a fire with matches if you guys gather the wood.” Jude sighed. “How hard can it be to survive together for two nights in the woods?”

  With as angry as they’d all been with each other just now, Ronan was afraid of the answer.

  2

  Jude

  On the Road Again

  Friday dawned bright and sunny. Unfortunately, Jude felt like a grumpy raincloud. He, Ronan, and Fitz might have agreed to give team building and camping a try, but the impending weekend trip was the last thing they’d agreed on since Tuesday.

  As the week progressed, Cope had gone shopping with Ten and Jace for all the gear, tools, and food the detectives would need for their virgin camping adventure. Jude could only hope their first trip wouldn’t end in disaster. He wasn’t sure how many more rough days their partnership could survive.

  “Okay,” Cope said cheerily, from the front door. “You’re all packed and ready to go. Fitz is parked out front and he and Ronan are loading the SUV.”

  Jude sighed. “Be right there.” He’d been procrastinating over his bowl of now soggy Cheerios, which he dumped down the sink. As he washed his bowl, Jude’s thoughts turned to how he was going to help strengthen the bonds between himself, Ronan, and Fitz. The idea of their relationship devolving further was out of the question.

  “Hey, there he is,” Cope greeted, when Jude walked into the kitchen. “You’re looking pretty hot this morning.” Cope wrapped his arms around his husband and gave him a hug.

  “I’m scared.” Usually Jude would soak in Cope’s compliment, but his own ego was the last thing on his mind this morning. “What if I make things worse? What if I’m the reason our friend group ends? Wolfie loves playing with Everly and Aurora. What if he never gets the chance again? Same with Lizbet and Ezzie.” Jude was on the verge of tears.

  “Don’t think about worse case scenarios. I’ve been reliving all the good times we’ve had together over the years. Remember the watermelon eating contest?” Cope snorted.

  Jude found his first smile of the day. “Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Ronan has mad skills.”

  “Exactly. Pick funny stories to tell where the kids or the husbands are the butt of the joke, not each other.”

  “I can do that,” Jude agreed. “But there’s going to be a moment when we have to reckon with what’s happened this week.”

  “All you can do is admit what you did wrong and ask for help to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Cope made it all sound so simple.

  “I’m not real good at either of those things.” Jude’s heart felt like it was clamped in an icy fist. He knew he was partly responsible for what was happening with his partners, but wasn’t entirely sure his friends would forgive him for being such a dickhead.

  “Don’t I know it!” Cope barked a quick laugh. “Listen to each other. Learn from each other. I have all the faith in the world in you, Jude.”

  “Thanks.” Jude hugged Cope tightly before grabbing his rolling suitcase and heading out the door. Wolf and Lizbet were laughing at something Ronan was saying. “Okay, kids, I’m off!”

  Wolf ran to Jude. “Have the bestest time camping, but watch out for bears.”

  “Bears?” Jude asked. “Are we going somewhere with bears?”

  “Bears live in the woods, dumbass,” Ronan said, without any hint of his usual smile.

  Tennyson whacked his arm and whispered something to his husband.

  Ronan shot Ten a dirty look before he turned to Jude. “Black bears live in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, but they’re usually more afraid of us than we are of them.” Ronan shot Ten a self-satisfied look.

  Jude wasn’t so sure about bears being scared of him. He was pretty fucking afraid of getting his dumb, tasty ass snacked on by a hungry animal.

  “You’ll be fine, Uncle Jude.” Everly tapped the side of her head, as if to say her gift had told her Jude wasn’t going to be crunch and munched.

  “Okay, that’s everything. Time to get this show on the road.” Fitzgibbon sounded less than enthusiastic. He moved to hug Jace and Aurora before he climbed into the black SUV and started the engine.

  Jude had watched as Jace and Tennyson each whispered into their husbands’ ears. He had a feeling they’d gotten the kind of pep talk Cope had delivered earlier.

  “Da! Da!” Lizbet toddled to Jude and wrapped her little arms around his legs.

  Jude scooped his daughter into his arms. “Take good care of Dad and Wolfie while I’m gone, okay?”

  “Woofie!” Lizbet agreed. She giggled when Jude dropped loud, smacking kisses on her head.

  Jude handed her back to Cope and turned to Wolf.

  “Everything’s gonna be okay, Dad,” Wolf said in a serious tone. “If you see a bear, all you gotta do is trip Uncle Ronan and Fitz and he’ll eat them, not you.”

  “That’s a great plan, buddy.” Jude gave his son a hug. Opening the back door, Jude hopped into the SUV, he took the seat behind Ronan, so that he wouldn’t have to look at Fitzgibbon in the rearview mirror.

  With one last wave, Fitzgibbon pulled away from the curb. The vehicle was dead silent. Jude had a surefire way to get the trip off on the right foot. He grabbed his phone and navigated to the music app. Seconds later, Willie Nelson’s twangy voice filled the silence with “On the Road Again.”

  “What the actual fuck is that?” Ronan asked, covering his ears.

  “Sounds like an animal who needs to be put out of his misery.” Fitz wore a sour look.

  “Fuck you both!” Jude laughed, turning the music up louder. “This song is a classic!”

  “Yeah, the kind of classic that should be sent to the glue factory like an old horse.” Fitzgibbon roared with laughter.

  “You people suck. Just for that, I’m putting this song on repeat!” Jude wasn’t above doing that very thing, especially with the way Fitz was laughing.

  “I swear to God, Jude,” Fitzgibbon began, sounding annoyed, until the song changed and the opening guitar chords sounded to Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild.”

  Ronan started playing air guitar and singing along with his usual off-key warble. Seconds later, Fitzgibbon joined in, drumming on the steering wheel. With a smile of his own, Jude joined in. This was one of his all-time favorite songs. It seemed to be popular with his friends as well.

  Agreeing on road trip music was a small victory, but it was a start. Maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to get their relationship on the road to recovery, Jude thought, as the next song started to play, “Highway to Hell,” by AC/DC. He hoped to hell that song wouldn’t be a harbinger of things to come.

  3

  Fitzgibbon

  Highway to Hell

  The group sing-along lasted for over an hour, until Jude’s playlist ran out of songs. Fitz found himself wishing Jude had more Willie Nelson cued up so they wouldn’t have to speak to each other. He had a ton of things to talk about with his friends, but at the moment, he didn’t want to let them in on any of his problems. Fitz knew keeping things inside was what led to this situation in the first place, but couldn’t find the strength in himself to confront it. Not yet, anyway.

  Jace had done his best to get Fitz to understand that he had as much blame in this situation as Ronan and Jude, but he hadn’t been in much of a mood to listen. Truth be told, one of the problems Fitz was keeping to himself had to do with Jace. He’d gone over the conversation he wanted to have with his husband in his head a hundred times, but when push came to shove, and it was time to open up, Fitz couldn’t get the words to come out of his mouth.

  Thankfully, they were almost to the campground, which meant Ronan would be calling out directions, telling Fitz which way to turn. It also meant that no one could address the elephant in the car. Fitz knew it would all come spilling out at some point, but he hoped that the conversation wouldn’t come until they’d reached their destination and, at the very least, got their tents set up.

 

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