School of Fish (Fish Out of Water #6) - Amy Lane Page 0,87

talk to a vice detective. Those pills with the little butterflies on them—”

Fetzer and Hardison both groaned. “We didn’t get to that,” Fetzer apologized.

“We’re sorry,” Hardison echoed. “We got busy with running the police activity on Lindstrom and Craft’s beat.”

“And it’s not like you don’t have your own beat to patrol,” Jackson said, with what Ellery thought was a lot of grace for his usual style. “But I need some answers. Those pills sound very specifically branded, and if someone knows where they’re coming from, besides Dima Siderov—”

Fetzer and Hardison both straightened like they’d been pinched. “Where did you hear that name?” they asked, almost in tandem.

Jackson flickered a glance at Ellery. Ellery stepped in, not liking Jackson’s color at all but recognizing that they needed to have this conversation first.

“That’s immaterial,” Ellery said. “But we’ve heard it. And the drugs involved in the Townsend bust sound specifically branded, like Jackson said. If we knew which outfit they were coming from, we would have one more bit of evidence with which to get Townsend off, without involving Dobrevk in his defense.”

“Is that kid safe?” Fetzer asked. “We heard he was in protective custody and the charges had been dropped, and that sounds good, but you never know for sure.”

Jackson nodded. “He’s safe,” he said briefly, telling Ellery that even if Jackson was cooperating, he wasn’t all bubbling with trust just yet. “But those pills could be important. So are Townsend’s stats in Vegas.”

Hardison was the one who made the connection. “Oh Jesus. People bet on college athletes all the time. If Townsend gets pulled before he even starts, they can advance someone else and make money.”

“That’s what we were thinking,” Henry said, coming up behind him.

“How’s our school teacher?” Jackson asked quietly—but then, his whole body was going quiet.

“In need of her husband and a lot of wine,” Henry said. “And the principal, that guy over there?” He nodded at an extraordinarily tall, fortyish gentleman in a pair of khakis and a polo shirt.

“I see him,” Jackson replied.

“Well, he told her that she had a month off with pay in her contract to deal with any repercussions from school violence. I told her to go for it,” Henry said, and Ellery and Jackson both looked to where the woman stood, shaking, with a friend’s arm around her shoulders.

“Why the foil blanket?” Jackson mused. “I’m so damned hot!”

“Not everyone’s Superman like you are,” Henry snipped back, and then he stopped and took a good look at Jackson.

“He’s not looking like Superman,” Ellery said quietly. “Jackson, how are you feeling?”

“I’m fi—” Jackson literally stopped himself in the middle of the word, closed his eyes, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I’m a little woozy,” he admitted, wobbling on his feet. “Did I mention it was really fucking hot?”

“It is,” Ellery said. “Henry’s going to take you to my car and start the engine.” Ellery pressed his keys into Henry’s hand. “I’ll finish here.”

“I really am fine,” Jackson said, nodding like he could make it so.

“You’ve been back for two days,” Ellery told him, trying not to snap. Damn the man—two days! “Did you even eat lunch?”

“Yes,” Jackson said.

“No,” Henry said at the same time. “Bought me lunch, but I suspect he gave his to the nice teacher lady who’s about to get a month vacation.”

“That might never be enough,” Jackson said soberly.

Henry nodded. “Well, no. It really might not ever be enough. But that’s not our fault. I was eating lunch, and you were hanging up her posters, and if you hadn’t made sure both of us were safe, someone might have shot until they hit something. Good call on having me stack the desks by the way. One of the shots went wide and came through the actual wall instead of getting stopped by the door. It glanced off that slick Formica and got lodged in one of those boxes of paper. Saved my life.”

“We used to have lock-down drills,” Jackson mumbled as Henry kept steering him toward the car. “The things you learn growing up in a war zone.”

“You know where the water is!” Ellery called, and he saw Henry nod and Jackson drifting a little on his feet.

“Not such an action hero after all, is he?” Fetzer said on half a laugh.

Ellery gave her a look that should have dropped the air temperature from “incendiary” to “tolerable.” “He had heart surgery eight weeks ago. We’ve been keeping him out of the heat until he got the green light