Page 45 of Devil and the Deep Blue Fish

“Don’t worry, son,” his mother said. “You’ve got people helping. It’s not all you.”

Ellery had to smile. “Thanks, Mother. Give Dad my love.”

“I should be able to secure a ticket for the day after tomorrow. Give it to him when we arrive.”

And with that she hung up, leaving Ellery with a revised “things to do” list and a little bit of hope it could be done.

At that moment there was a knock at the door, and Jade poked her head in. “Ellery, I brought us some lunch. Do you want me to eat with you?”

He smiled at her, and it must not have been his professional smile because she seemed to warm to him when he did. “Yes,” he practically begged. “My God, it’s quiet in here without Galen and Henry. I mean, yes, Jackson and Henry are out sometimes, but Galen is usually in his office, and there are clients here, and I’mlonely.”

She laughed a little, and he realized how petulant he’d sounded.

“I mean, it’s quiet,” he said, trying to regain his dignity. “Where’s AJ working?”

“His and Crystal’s house,” Jade said, bringing in the takeout bag and setting it down on his desk. “She’s got some unregistered equipment—he can check out websites without being traced.”

Crystal still worked at the law firm that had fired Ellery. She claimed she was waiting for Jackson and Ellery to make enough money to be able to afford her services, but Ellery thought shesecretly enjoyed pirating the resources of the larger law firm to help the underdog. Currently AJ and Crystal were still rooming together, and AJ was enjoying his first healthy relationship with a kid Jackson couldn’t stop calling Jail, but whose real name was Jael.

“Good,” Ellery said. “I… my conversation with my mother was disquieting.” He grimaced. “And not only because she’s making noises about getting a summer house on the coast.”

Jade stared at him in horror. “Why? Why? Why would she do that?”

“She claims it’s to save on airfare,” Ellery told her blandly, and Jade’s expression softened.

“She’s coming out?”

“Well, she thinks of Henry as family too.”

Jade shook her head. “Your mother is a bossy-assed woman. But she’s a good person too. Weird how that works.”

Ellery accepted the compliment with a small smile. “Very strange,” he agreed, opening the box Jade indicated with his two favorite sushi rolls inside. “Thank you,” he said with a sigh of joy. “Did I do anything to deserve this?”

Jade grimaced as she opened her own box. “Actually, it’s on credit. Do you remember the kid Jackson hired to write code around Christmastime?”

“Lewis?” Ellery said in surprise. “Yes, I remember him. He placed three kittens.”

Jade nodded. “That’s the kid. Anyway, he’s got a friend who could use some legal advice, and I told him to come by around two. I hope that’s okay. I’ve canceled all of today’s appointments, but—”

“Dear God, the office is quiet,” Ellery said ruefully. “No, it’s fine. We’ll both be ready for a break by then, and he seems like a sweet kid. What did his friend do?”

“Well,” Jade said, picking up a bite of sushi with chopsticks and seamless technique, “apparently his friend is a bouncer, and he’s had to bounce the same guy three times—once for socking Lewis’s boyfriend in the nose. The guy went to hisownlawyer and is trying to sue for pain and suffering, but he never went to the police, so….” She bit the piece cleanly in half—not a grain of rice fell.

Ellery scowled. “So he has no case, but he’s probably hoping Lewis’s friend will settle out of court because lawyers are expensive.” He grunted. “This should take a phone call,” he said with satisfaction.

“That’s what I thought,” Jade said sagely, deftly popping the rest of the bite in her mouth. After she chewed and swallowed, she added, “Like I said—”

“A welcome distraction,” Ellery finished. “Excellent. Do you want to hear the bad news?”

She scowled and picked up another piece of sushi. “Thrill me,” she said, gesturing with the chopsticks.

And Ellery proceeded with the grim truth about how much deeper they were going to have to dig on Moms for Clean Living.

THEY HASHEDout a lot during lunch—which phone calls Ellery would make, how much data Jade could mine, what to tell AJ and Crystal. When they were done, Ellery got to work, but this time with his mother’s conversation in mind.

Who was giving this group of extremists money to strip libraries, and when did they branch out into torture by religion? If they were paving the way for an extreme right-wing candidate, who was it, and what connection did he have to the members of the group? And where was the money ultimately coming from? Who would benefit from an ignorant voting population—besides the obvious candidates for “enemies of the state.”

And how had this entire plan come down to one fourteen-year-old street kid who had climbed out the window with his middle-aged guardian to escape into a rainy night?

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