Page 48 of Devil and the Deep Blue Fish

“Skip breakfast, did we?” Toby asked critically from behind his desk.

“It’s been something of a morning,” Jackson confessed. “But yes.” He sighed, aware that his body was no longer allowing the abuse he’d inflicted on it for so many years. “I can’t tell Ellery about this,” he decided. “He’ll never let me live it down.”

“I won’t say a word,” Toby promised. His voice fell. “But I am aware that being down here, beinghereat the hospital, is rough on your nerves. Ask me what you came down to ask me,and then you can get out of here and have some real food. Is that a plan?”

“An amazing one,” Jackson agreed, loving Toby so much in that moment. Like Ellery’s father, a gentle professor in tweeds with a thinning crop of bird-nest hair and a charmingly Yiddish accent, Toby emanated dad vibes in ways that Jackson had no idea he’d craved. He let out a breath and tried to get out of his own head long enough to make some progress.

“It must be bad,” Toby murmured.

“I’m looking for bodies,” Jackson told him baldly. “Unclaimed ones of teenaged boys. Cowboy heard one incident, but—and I can’t explain this any more than gut instinct—I get the feeling there’s more. This operation we’re looking at? It’s big, and it… itdehumanizesthese kids. And it’s well funded.” That had occurred to him as he’d been driving around that morning, and he was pretty sure Ellery would already be walking down the money trail. “I am wondering if this was the first time something awful happened.”

Toby frowned. “I haven’t heard of any in Sacramento,” he said at last. “Not of adolescent boys.” But before Jackson could get hopeful, he said, “However… I seem to have heard about some in another nearby county.” He shook his gray curls. “Our tattooed mule in there was my last case of the morning. Let me get on the phone to some of my contacts for you. My memory isn’t what it used to be, and you know what the news is like these days. You’re never sure what’s going to hit and what’s going to be buried.” He grimaced. “No pun intended. But yes. Let me get on that. I’ll call you when I get a hit, and….” He chewed on his lower lip again. “I know I will. I ampositiveit’s out there.” Some of his animation died. “It’s horrible,” he said bleakly, “when sometimes your worst fears about humanity prove accurate.”

Jackson nodded. “Yeah,” he agreed. His stomach had settled, and he was feeling a little better, but as he stood herealized how happy he was not to be going into the prelim room with Josh and the deceased again. “Thanks, Toby,” he said sincerely, extending his hand.

Toby took it. “Anytime, Jackson. And I do mean that. But next time come in with more than coffee in your stomach, yes?”

He was about to say, “Henry will make sure of it,” but then he remembered where Henry was. “Yes,” he said, his resolve firming up in his chest. “Absolutely.” He couldn’t do for his friend if he couldn’t do for himself—and he absolutely wouldn’t let Henry down.

BUT ITwasn’t until he and Jennifer were on their way from Davis Med Center to Richards Boulevard that he realized what a drive-thru desert downtown and midtown could be. He wasbusy,dammit, and driving crosstown to a trailer park under an overpass didn’t give him a lot of options in terms of food. His stomach grumbled, not liking the protein bar without backup, and he thought yearningly of the Starbucks a few blocks over. The day was getting on, though—and hey, maybe if his backup needing coercing, Jackson could offer food.

The trailer park was… well, depressing, Jackson realized as he piloted the minivan through the mouth of Richards, which had become a construction site, down a street that most people didn’t know was there, and into a residential area that had probably been sweet at one point, but after the cloverleafs of 50, 80, 99 and Business Loop 80 had been installed directly overhead, it was a place shaded by concrete, where traffic noise was a low hum in the consciousness.

As Jackson pulled Jennifer into the through road of the park, he saw a tanned man in his early thirties with dark brown hair and a once-white T-shirt flapping around his bone-thin frame. He wore jeans just as big on him and held around his waist with a battered leather belt, pulled to its last loop, thatbarely stayed up as he worked on a brick retaining wall around the outside of the limited, maybe thirty unit, trailer park.

He had an absurdly beautiful triangle-shaped face, even as gaunt as he was, and Jackson was struck once again by how unfair Cody Gabriel’s life had been over the last year.

Gabriel did a double take as Jackson passed and set his cinder block carefully down before striding to where Jackson parked: A sturdy 14x35 single-wide with cheerful yellow siding and a welcome mat with a cat staring from the front.

That mat had been part of a housewarming gift Jackson and Ellery had brought after they’d secured the place for its current tenant, trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Cody Gabriel had been screwed over by his fellow cops, and while he’d been retired with a full pension for the rest of a hopefully long life, he was still a former drug addict with a chip on his shoulder, who’d lost most of his possessions when he’d had to go on the run and deep, deep under in the city’s homeless population in order to stay alive.

Jackson knew from personal experience that the loss of identity after being tossed onto the other side of that toxic blue line was a terrible, terrible thing. Jackson himself had been “blessed” with a year and a half in the hospital and long-term care facilities to come to grips with the idea that he’d never be a policeman again—but he’d only been on the force for a few months when he realized his training officer was as dirty as they came and had tried to build a case against him. Cody had gotten thirty days in rehab over Thanksgiving after a twelve-year career.

Much like Henry, in spite of some significant pressure from the dark side, he’d managed to do the right thing, and this trailer park was his reward.

Jackson and Ellery made an effort to visit as often as possible, but in spite of the groceries, clothes, and furniturethey’d brought in the past, this was the first time Jackson felt like he had anything tangible to offer.

“Rivers!” Cody said, drawing near as Jackson got out of the car. “Good to see you, man!”

They exchanged a bro hug, with the requisite thump on the back, and Jackson gave Gabriel a sharp-eyed once-over. In spite of the looseness of his clothes, Cody was looking stronger and more substantial this past month, and his thoughtful hazel eyes were just as clear-sighted as they had been when Cody had testified against the cops who’d tried to kill him.

“How’re they hanging?” Jackson asked, and there must have been a note to his voice because Gabriel cocked his head.

“Low, inside, and tucked out of the way,” he responded almost absently. “What’s up?”

Jackson tried to sell this idea a little. “Nothing,” he lied. “Just, you know, coming to check on you. How’s the gardening going?”

Cody glanced over his shoulder at the retaining wall and grimaced. “Slow,” he said. “So’s the fence painting, the rent collecting, the plumbing diapers out of toilets, and all the other bullshit that goes along with managing this craphole.” He glanced around quickly to make sure none of the other tenants had overheard him. “God bless it,” he added weakly when he realized he’d gone unheard.

Jackson gave a wicked laugh. “Sounds dire,” he said, peeking slyly upward from under his brow. “I can tell you’re busy. I was going to offer you a little job, but, you know, you’re swamped here—”

Gabriel shook his head, hard. “No, seriously, what do you have for me? What am I doing? Where am I going? How much does it pay?”

Jackson let the smile he’d been hiding start to bloom over his face. “You’re doing some PI work with me. We’re going toa couple of rehab centers, and then we’re gonna crash the holy grail of fake church moms, and then we might be heading out of town. And it pays lunch, dinner, and a few days of your time.” He sobered. “Plus a recommendation for the local PI school, and it will count as hours following a trainer.”

Cody’s breath caught in his chest, and he seemed momentarily transported. “Seriously?” he asked. “You think we could do that?”

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