Page 17 of Devil and the Deep Blue Fish

He fought back a hard shudder and dried his cold fingers on the merely-damp T-shirt under the hoodie so he could call Ellery.

“Jackson—”

“Safe,” he said, hoping Ellery would take that to mean himandIsabelle and Cowboy. “Will call in ten.”

There was a pause then, as though Ellery was trying to digest this and figure out why the code-speak, but it didn’t last long. “Thanks for calling. See you where Lance works.”

“ASAP,” Jackson said, letting out a breath, and then before he could hang up, Ellery spoke again.

“Thanks,” he said softly, “for calling.”

Jackson closed his eyes, grateful for Ellery, as he so often was. “Course,” he said. “Later.”

He hung up and took a deep breath.

“That’s all you’re going to say?” Dex asked.

Jackson opened up his phone and started playing with the settings, holding his finger to his lips and letting out a sigh when he saw that nothing—recording, visual surveillance, proximity alerts—had been activated without his knowledge.

“Ellery and I had dinner with John and Galen tonight,” Jackson said when he was satisfied. “So they left their meeting, saw this Retty shitbag without knowing it, then took Cowboy to Isabelle’s house. She saw them—I’m betting it was sheer accident, but she wastrackingthem. I’ve been to the burger joint John took the kid to. It’s not that big, and the parking lot is even smaller. Cowboy saw her, was too scared to say anything, and she got close enough to clone John or Galen’s phone.That’show she knew where the kid was. She waited until they left, but she didn’t realize Henry was there too. Maybe she was circling the block trying to find parking when he arrived—Ellery had difficulty doing that. What Idoknow is that John and Galen leftCowboy in Henry and Isabelle’s care, then came toourplace to talk about what Cowboy had seen.”

Dex sucked in a breath. “And Retty-the-shitbag waited until she saw things calming down in Isabelle’s place.” He paused and said something that had been bothering Jackson too. “She knocked on the door first—I heard that. She knocked on the door, asked to see Cowboy, and Henry shined her on until they were clear out the back.”

“Yeah,” Jackson said. “Zero law enforcement experience. Any cop knows to set a watch on the back, but she was there by herself, and it didn’t occur to her. Also instead of running around to find them, she engaged in a gunfight, which is panicky and stupid.”

“Apparently she’s not so tough when she’s not beating the gay out of terrified teenagers,” Dex said bitterly.

“Or stripping schools of their libraries,” Jackson added, but while his mouth was going, he was still thinking. “But there’s more to Shitbag Retty than ignorance and homophobia,” he muttered.

“What?” Dex asked.

Jackson grunted. “Don’t worry about it. Let’s get Isabelle and Cowboy safe, and then we can get to Med Center and check on your brother.” He shuddered. “God… Ellery’s got to tell Lance?”

“I’ll talk to Lance,” Dex said grimly. “You had it right. Henry’s not the kind of guy to sit and do nothing. He was being a hero tonight. Lance will see that.”

Jackson didn’t want to correct him, but he was pretty sure Henry’s boyfriend was going to be much more upset that Henry got wounded on Jackson and Ellery’s watch than that.

“Sure,” he murmured, still thinking about Shitbag Retty’s motives. “Isabelle?” he asked, pitching his voice just over the quiet engine and the sound of tires on rainy streets.

“Yes, Mr. Rivers?”

“Is he asleep yet?”

“No,” came a rustyyoungvoice. Fourteen—had his voice changed yet? Jackson didn’t think so. “What do you need, sir?”

“Sh… uhm, Retty. She worked for the, uhm, Clean Living people, right?”

“Yessir.”

“Did she have a boss? Did you see one? I mean, yeah, she gave you a ride, and she chased after you and your friends, but that’s sort of flunky work. Did she ever talk about somebody? Give you the impression that she answered to someone? She’s bad and she’s scary, Cowboy, but we need to find out who she works for.”

“So you can get her fired?” Cowboy asked uncertainly.

“So I can get themarrested,” Jackson said firmly. Inside he was thinking violent, bloody thoughts. He knew people. Oh boy, did he and Ellery know people. There was a tiny corner of the desert that was hip deep in disappeared bodies and mysterious deaths, and nobody would ever need to be the wiser. These women could just… disappear. He took a deep breath and shook away that idea. No.No.It went against everything that Ellery stood for, and while Jackson had no qualms with moral ambiguity, he couldn’t,wouldn’tbetray Ellery’s convictions that way.

Besides….

“If they’re arrested, what they stand for will be rendered… tainted. Evil. People might think twice before they hurt people like you or Henry or me or Dex because they don’t like who we are. So yeah. Arrested. Not fired. Put in prison. Where they belong.”

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