Page 90 of Devil and the Deep Blue Fish

Jackson and Aileen met eyes. “As long as you need to,” Jackson said. “Assuming we can get some supervision for you all.”

“Nilas and Geordie are over eighteen,” Danny said on a shrug.

Nilas and Geordie, who were both at the “wiping the counter” stage of cleaning up, stilled.

“Yeah,” Nilas said carefully, glancing at Geordie, “but we’re convicted felons over eighteen. They, uhm, might not trust us with you guys.”

“Sex crimes?” Enrique asked, like this was only passing consideration.

“No!” they both replied, stung.

“Well, then….” Enrique waved his hands. “I mean, that’s better than the lasttwoplaces I stayed, and my mom’s house before that. You’re fine.” He turned to Aileen and Jackson. “They’re fine. We can stay, right?”

Jackson shrugged. “Aileen is the one who needs to cross t’s and dot i’s,” he told them. “She knows I’m fine with whatever you all need. Now, I hate to rush you all, but….” He looked pointedly to the clock on the mantel, a mental list of the things he needed to do and the people he needed to visit before he and Cody had to leave for Sonora.

“Yeah, yeah….” Danny said. “What can we tell you about Retty and Twitty.”

“And Piper,” Otto muttered, from near his elbow. It was possibly the first thing he’d said in the last few minutes, and Jackson glanced quickly at him.

“And anything you can tell us about the people at the Moms for Clean Living,” he said grimly. “Including Piper.” He paused and remembered Danny’s point about “fronting.” Sometimes it helped to state the obvious.

“You guys were given a raw deal,” he said softly. “I mean, the people at Moms for Clean Living served you up a giant shitburger, told your parents it was ground beef, and threw you in the trough to eat that shit forweeks.And they hurt your friend Caleb. And my friend Henry, who you guys haven’t met, but he’s awesome.”

“As awesome as Cody?” Danny asked, giving Cody an appreciative look.

Jackson watched Cody’s ears tinge red and thought about the man’s heroics the night before. It would figure there would be a teeny bit of a crush going on there.

“Yes,” Jackson told him seriously. “I have nothing but awesome friends.”

Cody snickered. “If I didn’t know that was true, I’d say you were flattering me.” And then he sobered. “And to help Jackson’s awesome friend, we need your guys’ information. Can you help?”

The three kids nodded soberly, and Jackson heard Cody let out a breath.

It occurred to him that the easy part of his morning was over.

“SO,” CODYsaid to him nearly an hour later, “what’d we learn?”

Jackson grunted, feeling wrung out. “A couple things,” he said, maneuvering Jennifer in a neat three-sixty as he left his old neighborhood. “First of all, Retty was thekids’nightmare, but she was thecompany’sdog. We sort of knew that already, but the kids confirmed it—and the extent of it.”

“And she’s not that bright,” Cody said.

The kids had tales of tricking her—sneaking food in, stealing her windbreaker, which she wore with a sort of obnoxious pride.

“Like it made her a cool kid,” Danny had said in disgust.

“And she’s a sadist,” Jackson added. Retty had been the classic example of shit rolling downhill. From what the kids said, the other women would be shitty to her, ordering her to do the grunt work—blackmailing mothers, recruiting kids, intimidating anybody who got in their way. And Retty would turn around and share that sadism with anybody below her, which usually meant the kids themselves.

“So she’s got enemies,” Cody said. “But….”

“She’s disposable.”

They both grunted in agreement.

“And she rode herd on the escaped kids, even after they escaped,” Jackson said thoughtfully. Because that had been interesting. Otto had been the one to point it out.

“Retty would give us jobs,” he’d said quietly. “Throw food at us from her car and tell us to go do things. Talk to this kid or that kid. She had a list. She wanted to know who sucked dick?”

“Or dove in the wrong muff,” Enrique added, a sardonic twist to his lips.

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