Page 29 of Fish in a Barrel
“They threatened to throw Zeke back in jail indefinitely to await trial,” Galen reminded him. “It wasn’t fair. You knew that from the start. This is one more way to stack the deck.”
“What do we do?” Ellery asked, not wanting to dwell on the basic unfairness of it.
“Ellery Cramer, you know better than to ask a question like that! What were you going to do before this little development?”
Ellery felt his spine stiffening and tried not to gape. “Hold on a minute, Galen. I think my mother just walked in.”
Galen’s chuckle was positively evil. “Having met that formidable woman, I shall take that as the compliment it was surely meant to be. You know what I’m asking.”
“I was going to prep for Annette Frazier,” Ellery said, because hedidknow what Galen was asking. “And now I need to prep for Cody Gabriel. Both of those are going to be rough, because I don’t know the answer to every question.”
Rule number one for a trial lawyer: Never ask a question that you didn’t know the answer to, revised, in triplicate, and recorded. He wasn’t going to be able to do that here—there were going to be nasty discoveries on the stand, and he had to work to keep things focused. The one thing—and one thing only—he had to prove tomorrow was that Ezekiel Halliday hadnotcommitted the crime he’d been accused of.
“You’ve got your work cut out for you, Mr. Cramer,” Galen said, voice crisp. “How about you call me in an hour with your preliminary line of questioning and I’ll be there to punch holes in it for you.”
Ellery hid a laugh. How very Galen. Nobody else he knew could offer such a valuable service under the guise of being a dick—with the added bonus of making sure Ellery would not be worrying the night away alone.
“Thank you,” he said, and he was going for gratitude, but he must have let some of his worry show.
“Your Mr. Rivers is a very capable man,” Galen said gently. “I do think you’ve got this.”
Ellery took a breath. He and Galen had worked well together since June, when the man had pretty much pushed his way into Ellery’s practice and said, “I do believe I’m needed here.”
Galen had indeed been needed, and he’d been a good friend since. But it was difficult for Ellery to confide in people. His mother had been his confidant since childhood, mostly based on her terrifying competence. But Galen had jumped into Ellery and Jackson’s quest for justice—real justice—without even asking about lawyer’s fees. He’d treated Jade with the respect due a queen, and he’d shown a surprising toughness when things had gotten dicey.
And he’d told Ellery some very personal things when Ellery had needed to hear them to know he wasn’t alone, so maybe it was time for Ellery to confide back.
“We caught the Dirty/Pretty killer a year ago,” he said gruffly. “Jackson’s mother was one of his victims. The things he went through, the night before, the day of….” He shuddered. “I almost lost him half a dozen times in two days, and then… then he fell into a swimming pool in November with a fever of 104. His heart stopped, Galen. And my heart stopped with it. And I know this isn’t the same. Henry’s riding behind him. He’s in touch. He isn’t off alone, sick and sad and….”Suicidal. He couldn’t say it. Couldn’t. Not now, when Jackson had worked so hard at wellness. It felt like a betrayal.
“You’ve had cause to worry in the past,” Galen said softly.
“Yes. And he’s been working so hard, but… he doesn’t make any promises. He never guarantees he won’t get hurt, or even that he’ll make it back. Only that he’ll try.”
“It’s a hard thing to live with,” Galen murmured. “That lack of surety. John and I, we don’t make promises of sobriety either. I… overdosed three years ago. He got me to the hospital, kicked my ass in rehab. I stayed an extra month to make sure. But… but we’re both addicts. We know what an addict’s promise is worth. We only promise to love each other. We promise to try. We work every day to make sobriety better than addiction. And that’s all we’ve got sometimes.”
“I know,” Ellery replied. “You and John are brave. Jackson is brave. I… I never had to be brave until I managed to talk that asshole into my bed.”
Galen gave a filthy chuckle. “Oh, it may have been your mouth, sir, but I highly doubt you were using it to talk.”
Ellery sucked in a shocked breath and let it out on a laugh. Of course. Things had been getting entirely too personal between two men who relied on practicality and patience to get them through.
“I object to this line of questioning, Your Honor,” Ellery retorted. “Now I’m going to change, because I’m still wet from going to see Arizona, and then I’m going to do some trial prep. I’ll call you in an hour.”
“I look forward to not sleeping with you tonight.”
Ellery burst out laughing, and then, to his eternal delight, heard Galen admit something he’d never thought to hear.
“As God is my witness, I did not mean it that way,” Galen protested, sounding awkward for the first time in their acquaintance.
“Well, you should have,” Ellery said on a chuckle. “Because that was amazing. Talk to you in an hour.”
He hung up and spent two minutes leaning on his elbows, his fingers laced behind his neck.Oh, Jackson, you’d better not get hurt this time. Come on, baby, give us both a break, okay?
And then he felt a tentative claw at the still-damp leg of his jeans. He dropped his hand automatically to rub Billy Bob between the ears and was rewarded with another claw at the leg.
“Okay, okay,” he muttered, standing up. “Pajamas, laptop, couch. I hear you. You know, you two are getting spoiled.”
Billy Bob gave a full-throated “Mrowl!” and Lucifer followed up with a tiny half-formed “Mew.”