Page 35 of Fish in a Barrel

“Do we have enough gas?” he asked. “To get us back?”

“Roger that,” Henry responded. “Even with a stop at a shitty hotel. I’ve got one in mind—it’s a chain, but they’re isolated. They look like they’ll take cash, and I can park in the back, get you two into the room, and nobody will ask any questions.”

“Awesome,” Jackson mumbled. He’d shut the console to rest his phone on it, and to his chagrin, the phone lit up with Ellery’s photo, a picture of him sitting on the couch, Lucifer in his lap, Billy Bob by his side. Jackson’s chest ached to be home, but he didn’t answer the phone.

Instead he pushed the Decline button and texted,We’re okay. Looking for a place to clean up.

The phone rang again, because Ellery was stubborn that way, and Jackson hit Decline one more time.

I can’t talk right now—

Can’t or won’t?

I’m bleeding, Ellery. It’s not fatal, but it hurts, and I don’t want to—

His phone rang again, and he answered it because damn Ellery anyway.

“I can’t be a badass with you in my ear,” he said on the pickup. “I was trying to tell you that. I need to hold it together until we get to Sacramento, and there’s still some hard shit to get done.”

Ellery’s voice was thick with hurt and annoyance, but not anger. “You couldn’t talk to me?”

“I hurt,” he said, willing Ellery to get it. “When I hear your voice, I just want to be home.”

“I’m sorry,” Ellery said humbly. “I’m not trying to get in your way—”

“You’re not in the way,” Jackson told him. “I just… all the things you want to give me right now—including a giant mug of hot chocolate, ’cause I’m fuckingfreezing,by the way—I want. I want them so bad. But I can’t think about how bad I want them. Henry and I got shit to finish.”

“Fair enough,” Ellery said, his voice relaxing. “Tell me what you’ve got and what you need. I’ll do what I can to make it happen.”

“I love you, Counselor,” Jackson murmured. “And Cody needs rehab, guarded, private, pretty much the minute he leaves the courthouse tomorrow, and he needs an escort that’s not police. They tried to kill both of us tonight, and we can’t trust them. If you could get Federal Marshals, that would be fantastic. Otherwise it’s Henry and me, but either way, he doesn’t go in unprotected.”

“I’ll do what I can,” Ellery said crisply. “What else?”

“We need the hospital to be ready for us. Cody’s going to need methadone to get him through tomorrow. He’s got enough ‘medicine’ to get him through the rest of the night, but it’s not going to make it until he testifies. He needs to be under a doctor’s care to testify under the influence anyway, so we’re doing that.”

“Fair,” Ellery said. “What about you?”

“A shit-ton of stitches, some screen doors, and, as ever, some new paint.”

“Oh my God—Jackson! What happened?”

Jackson tried to think about it to explain it, but all he could remember was the two shots fired by McMurphy that went wide.

“They couldn’t use guns because they had their department issue and the ordinance could be tracked back to them,” he said. “I know because they fired two shots, and then Goslar shouted not to, because the ordinance can be tracked.”

“Subpoena McMurphy’s police issue,” Ellery murmured, as though writing something down. “See?Thisis why you need to talk to me! What else?”

“They were using fixed-blade instead—three inches, so illegal—and we confiscated them as we left the scene.”

“Prints? Blood?”

“McMurphy’s prints and my blood on one of them, Goslar’s prints on the other, but Henry tased him before he could slit Cody’s throat.”

“Bwah!” Ellery shuddered, loudly, into the phone. “God, Jackson—I… fucking Jesus. Thank God for Henry.”

“I’m saying,” Jackson said, smiling a little and letting his back take some more of his weight. “Henry, Ellery thanks God for you.”

“Good,” Henry said cheerfully. “I’m sure God’s used to hearing all the bad shit. Give me some good press!”