Bricks
“NO, MOTHER,” Ellery said patiently. “I don’t think you need to—”
“Nonsense,” his mother said briskly. “Your father and I love it in California. In fact we’re thinking of buying a summer house there.”
Ellery’s eyes widened in horror. “It was over a hundred and ten degrees for a week last summer,” he said. “ Nobody wants to come to Sacramento for the summer.”
“Oh dear God,” his mother said, his horror echoed in her voice, and he could tell he’d caught her off guard. “Well on the beach , then. I understand it’s only a few hours away.”
“Between two and five, depending on which beach and which traffic,” he responded automatically. People always thought any part of California was “at the beach,” and he’d gotten very adept at correcting that notion.
“Perfect,” she said, back on her stride again. “Far enough away not to smother you, close enough to not have to book a flight anytime one of you is injured.”
“Rebekah will be hurt if you leave the East Coast,” he said patiently.
“Your sister,” his mother sniffed, “is moving to Europe for three years to participate in a study on the effects of infectious diseases on the heart, and taking her husband and my grandchildren with her. And while there will still be visits at least twice a year, I think it’s safe to say you and Jackson might need me more than she does.”
“But Mother,” Ellery said, truly scrambling, “don’t you have a job , one that demands frequent trips to Washington?” His mother had started out as a criminal attorney, but her specialties had branched out into international law and human rights, and she did a lot of work with the Department of Justice. She’d pulled strings for Jackson and his friends more than once, and he’d always been under the impression she loved her work.
God knows, enough people in DC were terrified of her that she should love it.
She sighed. “Of course I would still do some work here. But your father is retiring this year, and I’m thinking of cutting my work down, and frankly, Ellery, I miss my children. Is that such a terrible thing?”
“No,” Ellery said, his voice softening. “And you’re right. Three to five hours away would be a vast improvement over a minimum of twelve hours travel time. And Jackson may not admit it, but he loves seeing you too.”
“Don’t tell me that, my boy,” his mother urged dryly. “It’s not as much fun if I don’t think of him panicking.”
Ellery chuckled. “Understood.” And then, pleasantries and family business out of the way, it was time to get back to the matter at hand. “But, uhm, about our little situation….”
“Oh yes. Moms for Clean Living,” she muttered. “How could I possibly forget. You’re positive Henry will be okay?”
Oh God. “No,” Ellery said softly. He hadn’t wanted to say this to Jackson because Jackson knew the truth. “Mom, you know the statistics on infection and internal bleeding with gunshot wounds as well as I do. Jackson’s wound from a year and a half ago is going to hurt him for the rest of his life—as will every other wound he’s ever sustained. We think Henry will be okay, but we won’t know until he’s out of the hospital and recovering.”
She let out a sigh. “I don’t know how you do it, son,” she said after a moment, surprising him badly. “Loving that boy when you know what he may be doing on any given day. When you know one day he might not come back. I raised my children to be strong and self-sufficient and so many things, but in a thousand years, I never thought you’d find this much iron will.”
Ellery caught himself gaping, opening and closing his mouth like a fish. His mother loved him, but she rarely gave out compliments this generous, so he felt compelled to reply with the truth.
“The only other option was walking away from him,” he said at last. “And who in their right mind would do that ?”
She laughed softly. “I most assuredly didn’t raise a fool. Okay, then. We shall will our young friend into health and wellness in the same way we’ve willed Jackson. Now on to your little problem with a whole lot of psychopaths.”
Ellery frowned, opening up the files on his laptop again. “What can you tell me about them?” he asked.
“Well, they are not yet considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, but I know Beatrice Campbell, the assistant director there, and I’ll ask her if they’re on the watch list. Like the rest of America, I’ve seen their operatives infiltrate small elections and literally conduct raids on elementary school libraries, then hound the local law enforcement and school authorities with lists and law measures forbidding students from reading, well, anything really that isn’t straight and white. It’s a way of starting the brainwashing early, and it’s surprisingly effective.”
“I know it is,” Ellery said sourly. Every now and then Jade would bring in gossip from the teacher’s union—a depressing amount of their time was spent defending teachers from charges of teaching “inappropriate content” because a student was surprised or a parent offended by things such as science, math, history, or reason. Derek and Rico, the men who ran the headhunting firm on the far end of the second floor, had similar stories but farther up the food chain. They had to deal with new graduates whose inability to face actual education had left them unprepared not only for Derek and Rico’s commitment to diversity in their firm, but also to the jobs that they would be expected to do.
Keeping schoolchildren ignorant was costing the world so much, and yes, sometimes that cost really was financial.
“Well, the election didn’t help,” his mother was saying, “but the underlying idea has always been there. By depriving children of progressive ideas, organizations like this hope that the next generation will be more willing to turn the clock back pre-civil and -LGBTQ rights—children without libraries are like little time bombs of hatred. It’s appalling.” She paused in her unusual diatribe—Ellery knew that keeping children away from learning and reason offended her not only on an intellectual level but on a maternal one, someplace visceral and angry, but suddenly she grew thoughtful. “And while the ideas they’re so fond of aren’t far removed from the pray-the-gay-away movement, their facilities and personnel have yet to be associated with that particular abomination. Are they licensed as a church in your area?”
Ellery grimaced, wishing badly for Galen to be there. He knew his business partner had been up late and was going to take a turn sitting by Henry’s bed when he woke up, but Galen’s specialty was tort law, and that dealt with things like facility use and contract violations. More often than not, Ellery’s branch of the law dealt with actual physical things like guns, knives, drugs, and money.
“I don’t think so,” Ellery said. While he was speaking, he took out his trusty legal pad and added to the list he and Jade had started. “As far as I know they’re listed as a nonprofit, but their status as a religion is on our list of things to research. But it’s a good thought. And what are their licenses regarding custody of minors. One of Jackson’s jobs today was to see if the boy’s mother had given them permission to even have custody, and what she thought the custody was for.”
“Well, it would be worth looking into.” His mother paused, and Ellery could sense she was troubled, possibly skimming through something she thought was relevant. “Son,” she said softly, “the thing with these organizations is that they’re usually run with Political Action Committee money—as in, they’re politically funded to align with whatever highly conservative candidate wants to pick on schools this cycle. In November, as you know, their candidate probably won. I need to talk to Beatrice, but I would imagine the other chapters have expanded with that funding. If that’s true—and I do need to check my facts—the big question would be does this PAC know where their money is going. Remember Law 101—it’s always about the money.”
Ellery grunted. “Until it’s about the kid and the bullet and the blood,” he reminded her, not even able to joke about it.
“Until then,” she agreed soberly. “So let me tap my sources, and you need to keep digging. But I want to add something here, and it goes along with what I just said.”
Ellery knew it was coming, but he valued his mother’s opinion and wanted to hear her say it. “Go on,” he told her.
“Groups like this are often as devoid of reason as their causes. But that leaves two things driving them. One is money, of course, but the other is blind loyalty. You said you tracked this group of women back to the same school in Florida. How long ago was that?”
“Twenty, twenty-five years,” Ellery said, needing to check his timeline again.
“That’s plenty of time for blind loyalty to do its damage, son. Add the religious overtones and you’ve got some dangerous thinking here. Somebody shot Henry through a wall because they were trying to get to a fourteen-year-old boy. That speaks to very goal-oriented thinking. Keep that in mind.”
Ellery grunted. “And be careful,” he filled in.
“And be careful,” his mother added soberly. “And tell Jackson the same thing.”
“ That I can do,” Ellery said, feeling overwhelmed.
“Don’t worry, son,” his mother said. “You’ve got people helping. It’s not all you.”
Ellery had to smile. “Thanks, Mother. Give Dad my love.”
“I should be able to secure a ticket for the day after tomorrow. Give it to him when we arrive.”
And with that she hung up, leaving Ellery with a revised “things to do” list and a little bit of hope it could be done.
At that moment there was a knock at the door, and Jade poked her head in. “Ellery, I brought us some lunch. Do you want me to eat with you?”
He smiled at her, and it must not have been his professional smile because she seemed to warm to him when he did. “ Yes ,” he practically begged. “My God, it’s quiet in here without Galen and Henry. I mean, yes, Jackson and Henry are out sometimes, but Galen is usually in his office, and there are clients here, and I’m lonely .”
She laughed a little, and he realized how petulant he’d sounded.
“I mean, it’s quiet,” he said, trying to regain his dignity. “Where’s AJ working?”
“His and Crystal’s house,” Jade said, bringing in the takeout bag and setting it down on his desk. “She’s got some unregistered equipment—he can check out websites without being traced.”
Crystal still worked at the law firm that had fired Ellery. She claimed she was waiting for Jackson and Ellery to make enough money to be able to afford her services, but Ellery thought she secretly enjoyed pirating the resources of the larger law firm to help the underdog. Currently AJ and Crystal were still rooming together, and AJ was enjoying his first healthy relationship with a kid Jackson couldn’t stop calling Jail, but whose real name was Jael.
“Good,” Ellery said. “I… my conversation with my mother was disquieting.” He grimaced. “And not only because she’s making noises about getting a summer house on the coast.”
Jade stared at him in horror. “Why? Why? Why would she do that?”
“She claims it’s to save on airfare,” Ellery told her blandly, and Jade’s expression softened.
“She’s coming out?”
“Well, she thinks of Henry as family too.”
Jade shook her head. “Your mother is a bossy-assed woman. But she’s a good person too. Weird how that works.”
Ellery accepted the compliment with a small smile. “Very strange,” he agreed, opening the box Jade indicated with his two favorite sushi rolls inside. “Thank you,” he said with a sigh of joy. “Did I do anything to deserve this?”
Jade grimaced as she opened her own box. “Actually, it’s on credit. Do you remember the kid Jackson hired to write code around Christmastime?”
“Lewis?” Ellery said in surprise. “Yes, I remember him. He placed three kittens.”
Jade nodded. “That’s the kid. Anyway, he’s got a friend who could use some legal advice, and I told him to come by around two. I hope that’s okay. I’ve canceled all of today’s appointments, but—”
“Dear God, the office is quiet,” Ellery said ruefully. “No, it’s fine. We’ll both be ready for a break by then, and he seems like a sweet kid. What did his friend do?”
“Well,” Jade said, picking up a bite of sushi with chopsticks and seamless technique, “apparently his friend is a bouncer, and he’s had to bounce the same guy three times—once for socking Lewis’s boyfriend in the nose. The guy went to his own lawyer and is trying to sue for pain and suffering, but he never went to the police, so….” She bit the piece cleanly in half—not a grain of rice fell.
Ellery scowled. “So he has no case, but he’s probably hoping Lewis’s friend will settle out of court because lawyers are expensive.” He grunted. “This should take a phone call,” he said with satisfaction.
“That’s what I thought,” Jade said sagely, deftly popping the rest of the bite in her mouth. After she chewed and swallowed, she added, “Like I said—”
“A welcome distraction,” Ellery finished. “Excellent. Do you want to hear the bad news?”
She scowled and picked up another piece of sushi. “Thrill me,” she said, gesturing with the chopsticks.
And Ellery proceeded with the grim truth about how much deeper they were going to have to dig on Moms for Clean Living.
THEY HASHED out a lot during lunch—which phone calls Ellery would make, how much data Jade could mine, what to tell AJ and Crystal. When they were done, Ellery got to work, but this time with his mother’s conversation in mind.
Who was giving this group of extremists money to strip libraries, and when did they branch out into torture by religion? If they were paving the way for an extreme right-wing candidate, who was it, and what connection did he have to the members of the group? And where was the money ultimately coming from? Who would benefit from an ignorant voting population—besides the obvious candidates for “enemies of the state.”
And how had this entire plan come down to one fourteen-year-old street kid who had climbed out the window with his middle-aged guardian to escape into a rainy night?
The answer was somewhere in the personnel and finances of Moms for Clean Living.
After Jade left with their takeout trash, Ellery texted Jackson with Ate lunch with Jade, talked to Mother — have much to discuss.
Jackson got back: I have backup. We’re doing things. He sent a picture that surprised Ellery as much as it gratified him. Of course. Of course that’s who Jackson’d had in mind.
But did you eat ? he persisted, and the time Jackson spent trying to compose an answer told him everything he needed to know. Eat, or I call you in.
You’re not the boss of me.
Yes I am. It’s in the marriage rules, look it up.
We’re not married yet.
We’re common-law spouses — it still applies. Now eat.
Had a breakfast bar. Gotta run. Nag later.
Ellery checked the tracker on his app and saw Jackson was in one of the seedier sections of downtown, and he growled to himself as he set his phone down. Fine. Jackson would fill him in later—he had no doubt of that—but in the meantime, they all had to do their part.
Two hours later, as he’d begun to assemble a picture—a revolting one, but a picture nonetheless—of the finances and goals of the organization that seemed to be behind Henry’s shooting, his phone rang.
“Are you done running?” Ellery asked acidly.
“Yes,” Jackson replied, “and we’ve even eaten. My backup apparently took lessons from you.”
Ellery rolled his eyes. “Well, I’m glad he’s proving useful. What do you have for—”
And at that moment, glass shattered in the front of the firm, amid shouting and chaos and the smell of smoke.
“Ellery!” Jackson cried, obviously panicked. “Ellery, are you okay?”
“I’ve got to go,” Ellery replied with as much composure as he could. Then he tucked his phone in his pocket as he ran for the front of the office to see what in the holy fuck had just happened.