School of Fish (Fish Out of Water #6) - Amy Lane Page 0,88

to come back. He came back early because he thought these kids were important. Is there anything else you can tell us?”

Fetzer and Hardison both looked a little embarrassed.

“Well, now that you made us feel bad about that,” Fetzer muttered, “no. But the guy who didn’t cut up his ass collected shells for us using a piece of paper and an unsharpened pencil. We can get those to forensics and see if they can run the prints.”

“Good,” Ellery said, rubbing the back of his neck. “We can look up Ty’s standing among the bookmakers, and see if anybody bet either against him or for anybody else who was up-and-coming. I’m pretty sure Jackson knows people.”

“I can check with my sources too,” Hardison said frankly. “Me and Adele’s husband place a bet every now and then. We give our runner free pizza when we win.”

Fetzer rolled her eyes. “If you only gave him food when you won, that kid would starve. But yeah, you check your sources, we’ll check ours. And we’ll let you know what our canvass of the kids coming out of activities tells us.”

“And who got their shoes stolen,” Hardison chimed in.

“If you could phone myself or Mr. Rivers with that information, I would be very grateful,” Ellery told them. “Right now I need to make a phone call and authorize a police escort for Mrs. Eccleston, and I need to….”

He looked toward the car and saw Jackson, head between his knees, losing what looked to be mostly stomach acid on the pavement.

“Get your guy out of the sun,” Fetzer told him. “I hear you.”

Ellery turned toward the car without another word, texting Arizona as he went.

JACKSON WAS in the front seat, leaning against the headrest, door closed, air-conditioning on full blast as Henry ran the engine. Ellery knocked on Henry’s door, and Henry slid out, heading for the back seat, but not before he had his own say.

“He bought two sandwiches,” he muttered. “Gave one to the teacher, gave one to me. Wasn’t particularly hungry all day.”

Ellery thought about their morning and about the acid rumbling in his stomach and sighed. “Well, neither was I. I’m sure if he hadn’t needed stitches in his ass—”

Henry tried bravely to contain a snicker, and Ellery let a smirk creep out.

“It’s not funny,” Henry said, obviously trying to be a better man.

“Only because it’s Jackson,” Ellery told him, losing against the smirk before clubbing it back into submission again.

“Okay, yeah,” Henry agreed, letting a giggle escape.

They both sobered at the same time.

“Yes,” Ellery conceded. “If Jackson hadn’t been injured, he probably could have eaten something now and been fine. But there’s a ticking clock here, and he’s trying to race it. And I don’t think he’s going to be taking good care of himself until those kids are safe.”

Henry rubbed the back of his head. “Well, Ziggy Ivanov’s a problem,” he admitted.

“And so’s Dima Siderov. An even bigger problem.”

Henry nodded. “Yeah. So everything we’re doing is to what? What’s our endgame here?”

Ellery had to stop and think about that one. Originally it had been to get Ty and Tage cleared of all charges. Tage had been cleared, but they were still trying to get Ty off. But the case had grown since then too.

“I need to think about that,” he said, voice low. “Let’s get Jackson some water, some food, his meds, and maybe get him home and let him rest.”

“Good luck with that,” Henry muttered.

“Well, food first.” Ellery’s stomach made an unmistakable—and unmistakably embarrassing—sound. He’d ignored the sandwiches Jade had brought in for the same reason Jackson had ignored his. “Would probably be a good idea for the both of us,” he said. “And then we can come up with a plan.”

THE CAR was quiet as Ellery found a chain sandwich place to park in front of. Henry offered to go inside, and Ellery let the car idle, checking Jackson every so often to make sure he was okay. His color was improving, and his breathing getting better too. After about five minutes, he sat up a little more and grimaced.

“My. Ass,” he muttered. “Fucking why?”

Ellery let out a strained chuckle. “I have no idea. Why’d you skip lunch?”

Jackson had been wearing a faint smile, and it faded now. “Because I…. God. After this morning, could you eat?”

“No,” Ellery said softly. “No. Tage’s brother and sister are trapped in hell, and we are—”

“Helpless,” Jackson muttered. “Except I keep thinking that if we have enough evidence, enough information, we can