Page 20 of Fish in a Barrel
“Yeah. I know that. What the hell. It’s only my career. Twenty-five years of practicing law. I’ll be disbarred, but who cares.”
Jade regarded her dispassionately. “Boo-hoo. You’re doing something good for once and it’s going to cost you. Would you like me to measure my brother’s blood in pints, quarts, or half gallons? Because I assure you, he’s lost more than that in the last eleven years. Hell,Ellery’slost more than that in the lastone.”
Ellery gently bumped her ankle under the table, and she glared at him.
“She’s here, Jade,” he said. “Give her the benefit of the doubt.”
“Whatever.”
“No, it’s important. If she loses her job, the person who will get it next won’t be as principled. Play nice.”
Jade grimaced. “Fine. I’m sorry for being shitty. It’s a dark and stormy night, Arizona. What are we doing here?”
Arizona had straightened her posture a little as Jade chewed her out. Maybe it was the mention of Jackson’s blood, Ellery thought, because she knew—sheknew—what corruption had cost him in the past.
“Your point’s taken,” she said with dignity. “And you’re right. Look, I’m not supposed to be talking to you, you know that. But something is going down tonight, and it’s not good.”
Ellery frowned. “Something what? That’s vague—”
“It’s because I taunted them,” Arizona said, sounding upset with herself. “Damned ego—we’ve all got one. Mine reared its ugly head in the courtroom today when we were walking out. I told them to find the guy who really perpetrated the crime. I knew you and Rivers were looking. I mean, how could you not be? As far as I was concerned, the only reason you hadn’t walked into court with him the first day was that you had such blessed little time to prepare. Fucking Cartman?” She sucked in a breath, and Ellery could see her struggling with herself and part of him was warmed.
He’d known Cartman had been playing dirty pool from the start. He’d had Arizona all but threaten to put Ezekiel in jail with no trial date—and no endgame—if he hadn’t agreed to the ridiculously rushed trial. He and Jackson had been scrambling to get Zeke out of jail, get him to the doctors, and put together a coherent story almost from the get-go. Their file had nothing but a bunch of police testimony, and as Jackson had announced that first day as they sat in the hospital waiting room speaking to Arturo, it stank like a barrel of rotten fish.
Which was why Jackson had gone out that night. He’d spent the weekend running down Effie and preparing her and Arturo for trial, but nothing—nothing—would beat the testimony of the guy who’d actually committed the crime.
As well as a reason—any reason—for the crime itself, or for the DA’s terrifying intention to imprison an innocent and vulnerable citizen.
The only reason Ellery didn’t join Jade in chewing Arizona out was that he and Jackson had figured out where Arturo had gotten their number. They weren’t mainstream yet, and it certainly wasn’t well known that they did pro bono work on the regular. The only place—onlyplace—for Arturo and Ezekiel to have gotten the information that landed them in Jackson and Ellery’s lap was from the prosecutorial goddess herself.
“We’re all guilty of ego,” Ellery said gently. “Witness the guy with the drinks.” Who was currently standing up and looking very wounded in front of a pretty young woman wearing her own second-year suit. Well, she was making a big fuss over him and clucking over the scrapes on his hands and the holes at his knees. Mission accomplished. They’d gotten the guy laid.
“Yeah, but my ego put the perpetrator in danger,” Arizona muttered. “Which may or may not be a tragedy, but if he gets dead, Ezekiel is screwed, and thatisa problem.”
Ellery had been with Jackson over a year, and he’d learned since that there was no such thing as a person who didn’t count. “Both are unacceptable,” he said sharply. “What did you hear?”
“Okay, so the police who I called on as witnesses—you may recall their testimony was very….”
“Identical,” Ellery said dryly. “They all said exactly the same thing with exactly the same inflection.”
Arizona nodded. “That wasnotmy doing. Ellery, they walked into my office with that story all lined up. About how Ezekiel had come bounding out of the bathroom to grab Annette Frazier, and he’d been babbling incoherently and then cut her and run. I mean, you made a hash of that story. You were great. When you asked how all four of them could have seen Ezekiel come ‘bounding’ out of the bathroom when they hadn’t arrived until after she’d been taken hostage, I had to keep myself from laughing. God, nothing about that story made sense, and you ripped it apart. And them. But they only look identical from the stand. In truth, the leader is the tall guy with the slicked-back hair and the widow’s peak—Engall Goslar. He’s a piece of work. Fifteen-year veteran on the force, has failed the sergeant’s exam three times. His best buddy from high school is Charlie Boehner, the—”
“Union rep,” Ellery said, seeing the way she flinched when he said it.
“They’re like this,” she said, holding her twined fingers up. “And Boehner is up to his iron-tight sphincter in this case. But through Goslar, you understand? So we went back to meet in my office today, and Goslar gets a text. He looks at the text and turns to me and says, ‘Bitch, when do we put that little puke in jail?’”
“Charming,” Ellery muttered. “And people sayIget all the fun people to work for!”
“You’ve never had to defend a cop,” she said sourly. “So I tell him that it’s not going to happen, particularly if you guys find the real perp.”
Ellery groaned. “Arizona!”
“Ego,” she agreed, mouth pinched almost to nothing. “You’re right, and I’m sorry.”
“Can’t change it now,” he muttered, but God, nothing like waving the red flag at the bulls while they’re shitting. “So how did they respond?”
She shook her head, looking like she was going to vomit. “Look, you dyke cunt, we’ve got it taken care of. As far as you know, the retard’s the only game in town.”
Jade and Ellery visibly recoiled, and Arizona shuddered and knocked back the remainder of the scotch she’d been nursing.
