School of Fish (Fish Out of Water #6) - Amy Lane Page 0,20

if you can get Galen to open the door from the inside. The guy didn’t have gloves, and he was handling the doorknob. There should be prints.”

Jade nodded and took off, and Jackson and Ellery were left watching the EMTs work. Where were the police? Normally when Jackson was working a case, Kryzynski was all over his ass. Where were the cops when it was one of their own?

“He….” Jackson frowned, trying to remember every detail. “He jumped the fucking railing, if you can believe that shit. Landed….” In his mind, he could see the tumble, the way the guy had rebounded, the way he’d still had his knife in his hand, turned out. “He’s trained,” he said. “He was young, really young. Looked like a high school student, but he held that knife like a pro. He was heading out the breezeway when Sean came running in after him, and they collided. I don’t even know if the kid meant to stab him. They bounced off each other, Sean went down, and—”

“And you called for help,” Ellery finished. “It’s not your fault, Jackson.”

Jackson shook himself. “I tried to warn him. We don’t have a protocol,” he said helplessly to Ellery. “Cops have a protocol: who goes in first, who comes next, how you approach a suspect. Me and Sean, we… we didn’t have a protocol.”

For the first time in the ten years since a sniper’s bullet had ripped away his career, Jackson actually felt his time in the academy rattling through his bones without the contempt he’d carried for so long. Had he done it right? Sean had let him go first. Had he done it right? He’d called warning. He remembered that. Clearly. He’d warned him. God, had he done it right?

Jade came clattering down the stairs while Jackson watched the EMTs put a stabilized Kryzynski on a stretcher and ran him to the back of their unit, which was double-parked on the street.

“Galen’s okay,” Jade said, puffing a bit. “I told him about Kryzynski.” She looked at him, her eyes sharp. “Are you okay? You don’t look so good.”

“I’m fine,” he said, the words coming out a little harsher than he meant them. He shook himself and looked at her. “I’m sorry. I’m fine. I… the kid vaulted over the goddamned railing.”

Jade let out a low whistle. “That’s not your usual move,” she said, and Jackson smiled a little. “Uh-oh, here comes the po-po. Looks like your day just came to a screeching halt.”

Jackson nodded and remembered his promise. “Jade,” he said, voice low, “Sean’s boyfriend is apparently the captain at fire station oh-four. I have no idea if he’s out or what the deal is, but could you find the guy and let him know? This is not their district. He won’t hear about it, and I think Sean would like him there if he can be.”

“I hear you,” she said. She squeezed his arm. “He’s going to be okay, baby. I’ve seen you look way worse and be back on our ass, giving us shit, the next day.”

They all looked as Henry pulled up to the one spot in the miniscule parking lot by the stairs. It was just big enough for four cars, and today, Ellery’s Lexus was one of them, and Galen’s Town Car was the other.

“Go warn Henry to stay away,” Jackson said as the responding officer approached him. “This is going to be ugly.”

“On it,” Jade said and disappeared.

On his other side, Ellery stayed right where he was. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said firmly.

Jackson managed to give him a weak smile. “I’m glad,” he said, voice soft. Then he took a deep breath and turned to face the music.

And God, he hated this tune.

Forty-five minutes later, they were still standing outside. They’d moved to the breezeway to be in the shade, but the two officers—a thin, blond woman in her forties and a huskier, bronze-skinned man about ten years younger—were both dogged and irritatingly dense. In the corner of his mind, Jackson wondered why there weren’t detectives there, why this wasn’t a bigger deal. There should have been press, bells, whistles, clown cars!

But no, he had these two yahoos, who were definitely not the city’s finest.

“So you don’t know who stabbed the officer?” the woman, Lindstrom, asked for the fifteenth time.

“If I did, I would have said so,” Jackson retorted.

“You’d think so, right?” her partner, Craft, sniped. “But all I got from you is that the guy in the offices