School of Fish (Fish Out of Water #6) - Amy Lane Page 0,21
texted you that someone was breaking in.”
Jackson and Ellery both held up their phones with the text on it.
“You could always go ask Mr. Henderson,” Jackson said evenly.
“Why can’t he come out here?” Lindstrom asked, her voice gaining a nasty edge.
“Two reasons,” Jackson said, wishing for a weapon in a way he didn’t think he was capable of. “The first being that you haven’t asked him to come down. The second being that he has a disability, and it would really be more courteous for one of you to go up, you know, maybe check out the door? You haven’t even checked for prints, and I know our paralegal had Mr. Henderson open the door for her so she didn’t disturb any prints on the outside.”
They ignored him.
“What, is forensics on strike?”
“An off-duty cop got stabbed by a housebreaker,” Lindstrom said. “That’s all we’re seeing here.”
“How would you know?” Jackson asked, irritated as fuck. “You’re not looking. This cop solved a lot of cases in the last year. He just got his detective’s shield before thirty, for sweet fuck’s sake. Do you think he did that by taking the easy way out? The very least you could do is print the fucking doorknob!”
“You said the perp looked young,” Craft badgered. “What makes you think he’d even be in the system?”
Jackson frowned. “The way that kid moved,” he said after a moment. “He vaulted over the railing and onto the ground, but he was ready for the fall. He’s practiced—tumbling, parkour, something. He kept his grip on the knife through the roll, and he had it out when he ran into Kryzynski. This was not a punk kid. He may not have known jack about breaking into an office, but he was not new to holding a weapon or running from the law.”
Ellery studied him for a moment, and Jackson saw his eyes narrow. He’d thought of something, but he was not telling the police that. Ah, Jackson knew that feeling, but it hit him that Ellery had only learned of it this last year.
“Does this mean something to you, Mr. Cramer?” Lindstrom asked.
“No, ma’am,” Ellery lied smoothly. “But what does mean something to me is that you haven’t even called your forensics team when we’ve told you repeatedly there are fingerprints. This man stabbed a detective. Shouldn’t we be talking to someone higher up on the food chain?”
They both glared at him sourly. “I’m not sure if you heard this, but there was an active shooter in the public defender’s office this morning. Most of our forensics team is down there picking up shell casings and trying to figure out who the guy was. He didn’t have ID, you know.”
“I know,” Jackson said. “Detective Kryzynski was the guy who took that guy down.”
They both nodded, and Jackson heard the obvious, unasked question. Why weren’t these guys asking why two defense attorneys would be hit in the same day?
His gaze flickered to Ellery, and Ellery clearly had the same thought. Ellery’s eyebrow arched up incrementally, and Jackson realized that was two things Ellery knew that Jackson didn’t.
That file, he thought. The one with the other kid’s case; that was the thing Ellery knew and Jackson didn’t.
They needed to see that file.
“Do you think this was revenge?” Lindstrom asked, sounding excited by the idea.
“How could that even be possible?” Jackson snarled. “This guy wasn’t at the original scene. He didn’t know me or Kryzynski. He had no idea the bunch of us would be eating lunch together when that text came through.” Jackson glared at them and then looked at Ellery and nodded.
It was time to wrap this up.
“Is my client under arrest?” Ellery asked smoothly, and both the cops flinched.
“No.”
“Then he’s free to go,” Ellery said. “You’ve kept him out here covered in blood with no shirt for nearly an hour. It’s high time we leave.”
“Where’s he going?” Lindstrom asked.
“Our law office. Don’t worry. We’ll leave the doorknob unmolested until five o’clock this evening so you can get forensics down here.”
“They should be here shortly,” Craft told him, and Ellery gave them both a curt nod before pulling out his wallet and giving them a card. “Here’s our information, although I know you have it down already. Please call us if you have any more questions.”
“Hey, we didn’t say you could leave.”
Ellery gave them both a disdainful glance. “You have no reason to keep us here. And our friend is in the hospital. We would like for Mr. Rivers to go