Page 59 of Devil and the Deep Blue Fish

“You must be Nicky,” he said after a beat. “Thank you, by the way.”

Nicky the bouncer grimaced, still holding his charge by the scruff of the neck. “No worries, dude. I’d shake hands, but….” He shuddered. “Gonna need somesoap.”

Ellery nodded grimly and noted that Jade—flustered and ruffled and a bit ash-bespeckled—had finished with the fire.

“Listen, how about if we take this young man outside while Jade finishes up? Nicky, if you could keep him contained, I’d be obliged. Lewis,” Ellery bit his lip, eyeballed the kid up and down, and then took a calculated risk. “Could you have the place next door call child services? This young man needs a good meal and a change of clothes and a place to stay. I’m sure we can do better than we’ve done to date, yes?” For the first time he made eye contact with their young reprobate.

Ellery almost expected animal noises—the boy’s eyes, a light gray, darted furiously, and his expression was terrified and angry. Feral.

But when he spoke, his words gutted Ellery like a gaffing hook.

“Don’t make me go back. You can’t make me. She promised me food. I had to do it. Don’t make me go back.”

Ellery gasped a little, and with a nod to Nicky, they moved the boy out to the front stoop, taking advantage of the breeze on the concrete walkway.

“Go back where?” he asked, keeping his voice even and direct.

The boy’s eyes darted like fish. “The place. The big house. They look pretty, and they make us be clean but….” He shook his head. “No. No, no, no. I can’t go back.” His face crumpled. “But she knows where I am, and I was so hungry….”

Ellery took a breath and another one. He was piecing this together, and he realized that as much as he wanted to glove up and shake this little monster until his teeth rattled, what he was dealing with, in its entirety, was a traumatized child.

“Lewis,” Jade said from behind him, “hold up.”

Ellery glanced at her and then at Lewis, who had paused with his hand on the door to the teacher’s union, ostensibly to ask for child’s services.

“Young man,” she said, and she didn’t have to bend down or make the kid crane his neck, because she was five three on a good day, with heels, and this kid may not have hit his growth spurt yet, but it was close.

“Yes’m,” he said, eyes big.

“Do you want to go to child services? They will treat you right there. They will give you a bath, and clothes, and find a foster service for you, and get you a lawyer to deal with this thing you just did that we’re all ignoring for the moment. It could be a good deal for you.”

“Will they make me go back?” he asked fearfully.

“To the Moms for Clean Living?” she asked and shook her head. “No. But they are going to ask you questions about it. We will ask you the same questions, baby—not gonna lie. But if you come with me, I’ve got a spot in a bed and some big brothers who will take care of you. They’ll feed you and let you get clean, andthey’ve got some clothes, and they will keep you safe until you’re ready to talk.”

“Jade?” Ellery asked, and she glanced over her shoulder at him.

“We’ve got room in the duplex,” she told him. Jackson owned and operated—with Jade and Mike’s help—a small halfway house for young men who had gotten out of prison and were trying tostayout of prison. Jackson vetted most of the occupants himself, and Jade and Mike had the last word, and between the lot of them—with some help from their friends—they found jobs, helped with transportation, medical benefits, and general “adulting” skills that the young men might not have had when they first turned eighteen and found themselves without a home in the first place.

Jackson had established the place over a year earlier, and it had gone through a number of young men—including AJ’s current boyfriend—and so far the results had been encouraging.

Oddly enough, creating desperate citizens resulted in them doing desperate things. Giving them a safety net—including an emotional one, with people all striving toward workable goals and trying hard to live stable lives—resulted in fewer desperate citizens and fewer desperate actions.

Ellery gazed thoughtfully from Jade to the young man.

“If you took him to the halfway house,” he said slowly, “they wouldn’t have to contact his parents.”

“Eventually we would,” she said, making sure the young man could see her. “But not until he was ready.”

The boy closed his eyes, and tears leaked out, leaving tracks through the grime.

“Food?” he asked weakly.

“We’ve got some sandwiches in the fridge here,” she said. “Ellery can go get them. I’ll go put some tarps in the back of the car and text Geordie and Nilas so they can get ready for him.”

She looked to the young man again. “Geordie and Nilas will watch over you, make sure nobody can get to you,” she said softly. “And you will have all the food and clean laundry you need.”

The kid’s eyes went crafty. “Video games?” he asked wistfully.

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