Page 50 of Fish in a Barrel
Brentwood swallowed, and Ellery said, “J—Mr. Rivers, you can pull your shirt back on now.”
“Sure,” Jackson replied. “It was getting chilly in here anyway.”
ARIZONA’S CROSS-EXAMINATIONwas minimal at best and seemed to focus on why Jackson hadn’t alerted the authorities when he’d been abducted—the most significant thing about what she’d asked had been her use of the word “abduction,” which both Ellery and Jackson had seized upon.
Ellery was pretty sure it was a gift.
When she was done, they broke for lunch, and Ellery did his damnedest to make Jackson leave.
“You look like shit,” he said as they sat, wearily, in the nearly vacant courtroom while Annette and Larry Frazier fetched them some sandwiches from the cafeteria. Jade and Henry were going back to the office, and under strict instructions from Jackson, Ellery, and Jade, Henry was to go promptly back to his apartment and get some sleep while Jade drove Galen home. Arturo was escorting Ezekiel to the bathroom, and for the first time, Jackson let his mask slip. Some of the ferocity that had animated his features drained away. The lines by his eyes and mouth tightened, and some of the color faded, leaving him pale with red crescents at his cheeks.
Ellery didn’t ask permission to hold his hand to Jackson’s forehead. The “Are you sick?” “No I’m fine” bullshit could go on forever, and they had maybe ten minutes to be alone.
Jackson gave him a tired smile. “How’m I doin’, Doc?”
“Not great.” Ellery sighed and reached into his briefcase for the small touchless thermometer he’d placed in the pocket.
Jackson jerked back from it instinctively, but he was laughing as he did so. “You brought athermometerhere? To the courthouse?”
Ellery regarded him impassively. “Yes. I’ll make a deal with you. You sit still and let me take your temperature, and if it’s high, you don’t get to give me crap about it.”
“What if it’s normal?” Jackson was still laughing, and some of the strain had eased from his face. Still in pain, Ellery surmised, but a chance to laugh, to smile, to enjoy sweetness when it came—that was one of Jackson’s gifts.
Ellery held the thermometer up to his forehead in a brief gesture. It beeped, and Ellery grimaced as he glanced at the readout. “It’s not, so we’ll never know. I’ve got some ibuprofen—take it with your sandwich and I won’t send you home before the verdict.”
“You wouldn’t!” he protested indignantly, and then coughed into his elbow. Ellery waited patiently for him to be done.
“I would,” he said quietly. “Mike is coming over tonight, and maybe Lance and Henry, to keep you company while I’m gone. No hospitals this time. Not on my watch.”
Jackson gave him a fond look. “You know, I reallycantake care of myself. Odds are good I’m just going to curl up and—”
“Not sleep,” Ellery finished for him, voice cracking. “You’re not going to sleep. Not after last night. I don’t think either of us will sleep for a little while, but especially not you. So yeah. I’m calling in babysitters, I mean company, because….” He swallowed, thinking about all of it. Cody Gabriel, who was—God!—so much like Jackson it made his stomach clench. He’d started out thinking he was working for the good guys, and then the good guys had betrayed him and everything he’d believed in. Ezekiel Halliday, who was one of the people the good guys were supposed to protect, but who the police had gone out of their way not only to arrest and jail but to beat. The displaced homeless, who had at least known where they were, but who were now in a completely alien place without any support, any backup whatsoever.
The evidence of full-scale corruption at the DA’s office that had led to this moment and that Ellery could only do so much about.
So much—so much to do—and he and Jackson could only do a small part of it.
The very least, the absolute minimum, Ellery could control right now was Jackson taking care of himself. Ellery was not going to fuck that up.
Jackson’s hand on top of his as it rested on the barrier between the defense table and the audience, made Ellery realize he’d stopped speaking midsentence.
Well, maybe Jackson wasn’t the only one who’d had a rough night.
“We need to find out who ordered the forced relocation,” Jackson said softly. “And we need to alert the DOJ. And we need to push for charges to be filed against the police boy’s frat club for brutality. These are urgent things, Counselor, but even I know they can’t be done until later. We’ll rest up this weekend.” His eyebrows arched playfully. “I might even get you naked.”
“Not until you’re better,” Ellery said primly.
“Wanna make a bet?” Jackson needled. “If I win, I get to have you naked.”
Ellery gave him a droll look. “What if I win?”
“You’ll get to havemenaked, and I wouldn’t mind that either.”
Ellery covered Jackson’s warm, dry hand with his own. “Unless you get some rest, I think we’ll both lose, but it’s a good goal to have.”
Jackson nodded and sighed. “You’re no fun.” He sat back and winked, pulling his hand away as he struggled to make himself comfortable. “But you’re very good to me. So you’re going to stand up and knock this summation out of the park, and then we’re going to go home and I’ll get to see you and Jade dressed up for Halloween. I mean, the being sick’s gonna suck—” He paused to cough into his elbow some more. “—but there are definitely some plusses to the weekend.”
At that moment the bailiff approached, asking Ellery if he could join a conference between Brentwood and the ADA in chambers. Jackson and Ellery looked at each other uncertainly.
