School of Fish (Fish Out of Water #6) - Amy Lane Page 0,83

are you?”

“Visitor. I’m signed in. Get back in your rooms and get down!”

The two men—both dressed like him in cargo shorts and T-shirts—managed to look alarmed. One of them followed the other back to what Jackson presumed was the closest room, and he was left alone in the quad, breathing hard, realizing that whoever it was, he’d lost him.

Fuck.

Irritated, he turned back toward the line of portables, tracking in the distance a line of cruisers, lights blazing, as they turned the corner around the football field and headed toward the back parking lot.

Goddammit, there went the rest of their day. It wasn’t until he neared the portable building that he saw the damage to Galen’s car.

A Little Chum

ELLERY HAD ten other cases on his desk besides the Dobrevk and Townsend cases, and he was working on those as Jackson and Henry went out and did their boots-on-the-ground thing.

But that didn’t stop him from pondering the two cases in the quiet points. He was looking at his notes for a defense against a drug charge for a single mother—who, he was pretty sure had been asked to mule for her shitty boyfriend—and muttering to himself when he heard a knock on the door.

He looked up, saw Galen leaning casually against the doorframe, and gave a distracted smile. “I have the most comfortable office chairs on the planet. Come sit.”

“I don’t know,” Galen said, moving in anyway. “The way you’re talking to yourself, my life might be in danger.”

Ellery smiled. Galen had pretty much pried his way into the firm after he and Henry had come knocking on the door, asking for help. He’d been new in town, and he’d needed to pass the bar in California in order to practice law, and Ellery had the feeling that in spite of being very much in love with his porn-mogul boyfriend, he’d been a little lonely.

Well, most of Ellery’s friends now were people he’d gained from knowing Jackson, so Ellery could relate. It was nice to have a peer to talk to, someone who thought like you did without apology and who got the ins and outs of the job.

“You’re safe,” he said. “But this woman’s boyfriend, on the other hand….”

“Deserves dire things?” Galen inquired delicately.

“Oh my God, yes. I can get her off the charges pretty easily, I think, but I want to put a stipulation that I’ll only do it if she gets a restraining order and moves back in with her parents. This asshole is bad news.”

“Mm.” Galen nodded. “You can’t fix their lives.”

“If they would listen to my advice, maybe I could,” Ellery grumbled, and Galen’s wicked laughter was a panacea to his wounds.

“Well, yes, but then we’re not so awesome at fixing our own lives, so why would they be?”

Ellery was about ready to retort “Speak for yourself!” but then he remembered Galen was speaking for himself. He’d made his share of mistakes—and owned up to them.

“It would just be so much easier,” Ellery said instead, “if we could fix some of the things that were really broken.”

“Like what?” Galen had tilted his head to indicate he was listening. Really listening.

“Like this assumption that women and minorities are disposable,” Ellery ruminated, thinking about Ty Townsend and the woman in the case on his desk.

“If you’re thinking about Ty Townsend, that’s been bothering me too.”

Ellery looked at him sharply. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you and Jackson have been running on the theory that Ty was targeted because of his race, but I’ve been thinking about what Jade said, and she was right.”

Ellery’s eyes widened. “She usually is,” he said. “Explain.”

“Well, yes, the setup was obvious. Someone aimed those two cops at Ty and said ‘Get the Black guy!’ And that is institutionalized racism, and it’s deplorable. But the person who aimed the cops—Ziggy, and oh my God, why that name?—what was the motive again?”

“We think he was using Ty as a distraction,” Ellery said, rubbing his chin with one finger. “That if the cops were at that party, they wouldn’t be anywhere else?”

“Now that could be very true, but why this kid. Because Ty Townsend has prospects. Ty Townsend is not a disposable kid, is he?”

Ellery frowned. “They wanted Ty out of the picture for another reason?”

“Yes. And I’m not saying the distraction thing isn’t a factor too. Has Jackson figured out where they should have been yet?”

“No,” Ellery said. “I think it’s on his list.”

“Well, I’ve had AJ print out the entire roster of police calls for that