School of Fish (Fish Out of Water #6) - Amy Lane Page 0,74

Jackson hope. People could change. What he and Ellery did wasn’t in vain. Working to help people, to make the world a better place, to make sure the system didn’t eat the innocent or even the not-so-innocent whole, was important.

Tage Dobrevk was only seventeen years old. Ty Townsend had his entire shining future ahead of him. There might be dragons in the world, but that was why there were people who would slay the dragons too.

Jackson smiled a little, chuckled along with Henry, and let some of his funk fade away. “So okay, you go speak redneck to this guy. Nate Klein’s in the little shop around the corner. He’s got a scholarship to Sac State, so he’s got to stay local, but he’s apparently a nice kid. Drop me off at the mom-and-pop, and you go do your thing.”

Henry grinned. “I’ll make sure I smell like monster when I do.”

Kensington’s Groceries was one of those rare, true small grocery stores that big cities sometimes held on to. In a corner of the first floor of a much larger building, it had a produce aisle and a milk aisle, and while it did have a case for beer and some alcohol, that was only about 10 percent of its overall stock.

The kid wearing the traditional grocer’s apron was busy with the rest of the stock, taking cans of beans from a handheld basket and stacking them neatly on a shelf that had been apparently stripped bare.

He was a good-looking kid—tall, more bulked up than most kids his age, but he had that ranginess in his shoulders and the thinness in the neck that said he was still growing. Dark hair, dark eyes, and Jackson bet he had his pick of cheerleaders if that was his thing.

“Nate Klein?” Jackson asked, putting his hands in his pockets and slouching a little to look as nonthreatening as possible.

It must have worked—or the kid must have had a good life—because he smiled earnestly and nodded. “Yessir, can I help you with something?”

Jackson noticed the small deli counter and thought of Henry’s claim that he was starving.

“Yeah, can I get two sandwiches on sourdough and some conversation?”

Nate brightened, and he finished clearing out his basket. “Yessir. Here, let me go wash my hands. The sink’s in the back.”

He returned in two minutes, drying his hands on a paper towel. Jackson watched as the kid crumpled the towel and pitched it into a trash can, raising his hands by his head and mouthing, “For three! The crowd goes wild!” before pretending to run down “the court” and behind the deli counter.

Jackson had to laugh. “Bored much, kid?”

Nate grinned, his apple cheeks coming up to obscure his vision. “Well, it gets sleepy here after lunch. But you should see the place around eleven thirty. Line around the block. Mr. Kensington and I are usually working the deli nonstop for about two hours.” He waved to the rest of the store. “It takes me a good half hour to get the place to look like it wasn’t scavenged by locusts, you know? I don’t mind a lull in the operation.”

Jackson nodded. “I hear you. I’m glad I didn’t catch you when it was busy. I sort of need to talk to you about something.”

“So you said. Sourdough? We use the good stuff.”

“Yessir,” Jackson said, liking this kid very much. “I’ll take one hot pastrami with pickles, and one chicken pesto with lettuce and tomato, no mayo.”

“Good choices both.” Nate got busy. “So, how do you know who I am, and what are we talking about?”

“Well, I got your name from Ty Townsend, and we’re talking about how bullshit the charges against him are.”

Nate paused for a second to look Jackson in the eyes. “So you’re his lawyer? I told him to go find a good one because it was really bullshit. It was a total setup. I went home and told my parents, and after they chewed me out for even staying there when someone gave out party favors like that, they told me to make sure Ty got a good lawyer. They love him, you know. We’ve been buddies since we were in pre-K, and they were so proud of both of us when we graduated. Anyway, I’m glad you’re here. What do you want to know?”

Jackson had to take a breath, his belief in humanity suddenly reaffirmed. “Okay, so we know it was bullshit. I want to know a couple of things. For starters, the kid