Page 32 of Devil and the Deep Blue Fish

He grimaced. “The grand poobah and vice grand poobah. Don’t tell me either ofthemare in our reception room.”

Jade shook her head. “No. This one claims to be one of the local folks. I forget the designation—volunteer, minion, whatever—”

“Flunky,” Ellery said, and she nodded.

“Yeah, that. Anyway she was going to leave some pamphlets here, and I told her I’d have to ask my boss.”

Ellery snorted, because if Jade had wanted to set those pamphlets on fire, nobody in the office would have much more to say than “The fire extinguisher is in the corner by the shelves.” But they wouldn’thaveto do that because Jade herself had been the one to install it.

“Yeah, I know,” she said, as though he’d stated the observation out loud. “But keep it to yourself. I’m saying, we’ve gota flunkyin here, and we have a chance to—”

“Pick her brains,” Ellery finished, because he wasn’t stupid. “Did you get her name?”

“Piper Lutz,” Jade said. “She’s in your list of people to check out, but way at the bottom.”

Ellery nodded, suddenly much more awake—and much more excited about his day. “Well by all means, offer the young—”

“Forty-five if she’s a day,” Jade said.

“—ish woman some coffee,” Ellery continued smoothly. Then, “Are we her first stop in this complex?”

Jade frowned. “I’ll have to see. Why?”

“Because you may want to warn the other businesses. Just… you know. Have them play along. Or, you know, in the case of the teacher’s union, have them not be there when she comes knocking.” There were three businesses in the upstairs part of the converted Victorian house/office building strip where Ellery leased office space. His own corner suite was big enough to fit three lawyers comfortably—he and Galen had decided to be particularly picky about their third since so far their chemistry was pretty solid—and a teacher’s union was next door. Next door tothosepeople—who had all proven to be lovely and kind and a cross between cynical as hell and too innocent for this world—was a headhunting/temp agency run by a couple—men—who specialized in niche markets and queer-friendly businesses. Often their workers used the office space Derek Huston and Rico Gonzales-Macias provided to deliver contract work Rico and Derek had procured for them, and the office culture was practically sparkling with optimism, good will, and genuine friendliness.

And rainbow flags of every variation.

Ellery wouldn’t sic this woman on them for all the gold in the world.

“On second thought,” he murmured, “maybe you and I should… discourage this woman before she leaves.”

Jade’s manic gremlin grin cranked up a notch. “Oh please, oh please, oh please,” she muttered, holding her hands together like the praying angel he knew for a fact she’d never been.

“Yeah,” Ellery said, a shaft of pettiness brightening his heart from the inside out. “Let’s do that.”

“Excellent,” she said. “Excuse me, Mr. Cramer, I need to go fetch some coffee.”

“That will be all, Miss Cameron,” Ellery said primly, and they exchanged grim glances of the same evil joy.

Fifteen minutes later—and Ellery had to applaud Jade for keeping the woman waiting that long—Jade escorted a brittle blond woman in. She was a well-preserved forty-five, he thought critically, with ropy muscles in her thin wrists indicating a dedication to the gym, and an impeccable outfit of blue slacks and cream-colored Chanel jacket over a gray blouse. Understated and classy, right down to the little touches of pearls in the ears and a thin gold chain with a cross at her throat.

Jade gestured to the seats across from Ellery, and she turned and said, “Thank you, Jade, that will be all,” as though she owned the place, and Ellery widened his eyes at Jackson’s sister because he honestly thought she was going to set the bitch on fire.

“Ms. Cameron,” Ellery said mildly, emphasizing the title. “Thank you so much for keeping Ms. Dunkel company while I finished up in here.”

Piper Lutz’s face, which had been schooled and pleasant—and mostly unmoving thanks to healthy injections of Botox in the cheeks and forehead—froze, and her large, heavily kohled and mascara-enhanced blue eyes turned into ice chips.

“Lutz,” she said coldly. “My last name is Lutz.”

“Oh, my bad,” Ellery said, smiling at her. He’d been told by everyone in the office to stop trying to charm people with his smile—charm was not his strength. He believed them today as he watched the woman recoil with what looked like uneasiness. “I was studying a file, and I must have confused you with someone else. My apologies. By all means take a seat. I understand you were asking to solicit your political group here?”

Ellery wondered if shifting gears was more or less painful with that much of her face frozen. More painful because her muscles had to work twice as hard to present any sort of emotion, or less painful because humanity had been frozen with her face and everything was numb.

It was an uncharitable thought, but then, since her organization didn’t pay taxes, he figured she didn’t really need his charity.

“It’s a mother’s group,” she said, obviously trying to force the mask in place. “I’m sorry if you were misled by your receptionist—”

“My paralegal assistant,” he corrected. “And what doyoudo for a living?”

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