Page 24 of Devil and the Deep Blue Fish

“Yeah, Bobby,” Jackson told him. “I’d say go join her, but….” He let out a breath.

“We don’t know how much these people have figured out about the place she shot up,” Ellery finished for him. “This Retty person took off, and as Jackson said, she reports to somebody. They’regoingto be searching for Isabelle and Cowboy, but I don’t think they’ll expect either one of them to have the resources to go so far away.”

“But why Disneyland?” Bobby asked, legitimately puzzled. “She… we never got a chance to go when I was a kid.”

“Couple of reasons,” Jackson said, smiling a little. “One, the boy she had with her hasn’t had a chance to be a kid in a while. I thought sending him someplace where he could, you know, be fourteen—that would be beneficial. And it’s far away. K-Ski is in law enforcement. He’ll be prepared to keep track of both of them. Billy’s done sex work—voluntarily, but he’s still worked with guys who were on the streets and had to learn how to function when they landed. Which is why I sent Cotton down there, with a few of Jason’s friends from down south.”

“Ernie loves Disneyland,” Crystal said dreamily, and everybody’s heads swiveled toward her—not least because she’d nevermetErnie, and she definitely hadn’t been there for the conversation. “The other guys were sort of involved, so they sent him and Sonny with Cotton.” She closed her large eyes as though she was falling asleep. “They’ll have adventures and be fine,” she murmured.

“Do we even—” Ellery began, but Jackson shook his head.

“Don’t ask, don’t ask, don’t ask, don’t ask…,” he muttered, and given how comfortable with Crystal’s clairvoyance Ellery wasnot,he left it at that.

“So you sent them there so they could be protected,” Bobby said, and for the first timehiscomposure slipped. “Thanks, Jackson. That means a lot.” He swallowed. “She’s mymom,man.”

“Have you been paying attention?” Jackson asked, glancing around the room. “Dude, everybody here has asked to make sure she’s okay. She’severybody’smom. You don’t let the team mom get hurt on your watch.” He gave a crooked smile. “I think Henry’s proved that already.”

Bobby nodded, and Jackson turned toward the people from their office. Ellery knew that the numbness of waiting had set in, and now that everybody’s fears about the phones had well andtruly been put to rest, it was time for them to get to doing what they did best.

“We need to know,” Jackson said, glancing at Ellery, “how much pull the Stepford Dragons have. That’s you and Galen. You need to look into their contacts, who they’re in bed with, and what sorts of things they’re permitted for. If Cowboy and his friends were taken into that big house off W Street—that’s where it is, right?” He turned to John and Galen, who nodded. “If he was taken in there, and there were other kids, we need to see if they’re permitted to have kids there. Are they a school? Are they a shelter? What rights do they have in terms of keeping kids there against their wills?”

“Conversion therapy is illegal in California,” Ellery said quickly. “But it’s not banned in places in the south and the Midwest.”

“Do we know where this group was spawned?” Jackson asked. “Because we need to contact their headquarters in other places to see.”

“That sounds like a job for me and AJ,” Jade said. “Ellery and Galen can do the calling because they’re all lawyerfied and shit, but AJ and I will be doing the research in the morning, right, AJ?”

She held out her hand, and AJ, their general dogsbody and secondary tech guy, gave her five because you didn’t leave your good friend hanging. AJ’s pale brown skin was even paler under the fluorescent lights, but he’d been keeping his orange curls cut tight to his head to look “professional.” The lost junkie Jackson had pulled out of hell was gone now, and the young man who was left looked ready to take on any task he was given.

“Fair,” Galen said, and then peered perceptively at Jackson. “And what will you be doing?” he asked.

Jackson grimaced. “Well, I’m starting with the boy’s mother, to see how the kid ended up there. He said she had theStepford Dragons come to his apartment to take him away. I want to know what made her think that was a good idea.”

They all nodded, but Ellery got a low bubbling in his stomach because he knew that wasn’t all. “And?” he prompted.

“Well, I was going to follow down what she tells me, and then tomorrow evening go explore the grounds.”

Ellery nodded, and before Jade could go off—Jackson’s hot-blooded sister had her hackles up for good reason—he said, “You and who else?”

Jackson blinked bleary, bloodshot eyes at him, and Ellery felt every second of every minute of every hour that neither of them had slept that night. “Ellery,” he said, as though Ellery had committed an unforgivable faux pas in public, “Henry’sinjured!”

“I know he is,” Ellery confirmed. “We’re all here for exactly that reason. He’s injured because he didn’t think he needed backup. Sadly, he did, and none of us knew it, but we know itnow.Jackson, who’s your backup?”

Jackson opened his mouth and closed it and glanced around, almost like he was looking for volunteers.

“Mike would kill me,” Jade said calmly. “And I’ll be needed in the office. Sorry, sweetheart, but this gun-toting badass has to go administrate for the greater good.”

Jackson rolled his eyes, and then, with the jerky movements of a drowning man, glanced around the room.

Ellery saw the moment his eyes landed on Dex and lit up, and then fell on Kane, next to him, rocking his sleeping niece over his shoulder. Once Frances had learned she’d been shuttled out of bed and down to her uncle Evan’s house because Uncle Henry had been hurt, she’d apparently harangued Kane into turning around and going back to the hospital so she could wait to see if Uncle Henry would be okay.

Kane and Dex would beokaybackup, Ellery thought critically. Good in a fight—they were both stacked—and they’d be loyal to a fault. But they had no law enforcement background, no weapons training, and they both had the appearance of men who had enjoyed settling down and found being comfortable everything it was cracked up to be.

Jackson saw it too.

He’d sent Sean Kryzynski to Disneyland with their witnesses. Sean’s partner, Andre, was going to be absolutely vital to feed them information from the SACPD precinct, and he couldn’t be spending his time helping Jackson.

Jackson was opening his mouth, obstinate look in his eyes, probably to say he didn’t need no stinking backup, when there was a quiet commotion at the door to the waiting room. Ellery glanced up, hoping for Henry’s surgeon, and he heard Jackson’s weary sigh in his bones.

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