A Banner Fucking Day

Very early that morning….

"GEORGE," ACE said, not wanting to doubt the man but not wanting to commit his full fury until he was sure, "tell us how you know."

George swallowed, glancing from Jai to Ace again and shuddering.

It wasn't often you put out a hit on a fundamentalist preacher with multiple family ties to law enforcement, now was it?

"Started a year ago," George said softly, sipping coffee at Ace and Sonny's much abused kitchen table, "before me and Amal started working at the hospital. But one of the other nurses, Barb Clemmons, she told me about it." He shook his head. "She was terrified. But little girls—between four and eight so far—have been brought in with the same symptoms. Abdominal pain, pain in urination, rash on the thighs."

"Chlamydia?" Ace hazarded, and George nodded.

"The first time, the doctor called social services before antibiotics were administered. The parents got wind and grabbed the kid and disappeared. The next time we saw her, she had a fever of 105. She almost died." He grimaced. "She'll never have kids. At the age of nine, we had to make that decision to save her life. I was there for that one. It's why Barb told me the story. So the next time parents brought in a kid—same type, blond, blue-eyed—"

"In this area?" Ace asked, surprised. Victoriana was close enough to the Mexican border for the population to be very much brown/brown/brown.

"Yeah," George said, his pretty face hardening with disgust. "Made the similarities really easy to spot. So with the next one, the doctor prescribed antibiotics first, after giving the kid the first shot. Had the parents wait in the exam room and sent Barb in to chat with them, keep them at ease. Asked about teachers, babysitters, crazy uncles—"

"Priests," Ace said darkly.

George touched his finger to his nose. "Bingo. Barb's good at sounding like a brainless chatterbox, so she managed to keep them from getting up and walking out, at least until they mentioned their local revival-tent preacher and their daughter started to cry. They were going to leave without meds, but the doctor came in then with the prescription and promised to bill them later, and they blew out of there, dad threatening to kill anyone who stopped them."

"Ugh," Ace muttered.

"So they finally had something they could report, but when the Doc—Barty Krebbs, he's a good guy, one of, like, ten this hospital has on staff—got back to social services, he found out the worker who'd reported the incident had been let go."

"For what?"

"DWI," George said darkly. "Barty actually knew her name and had her personal contact info—she'd been associated with the hospital forever—and the first thing he said was, ‘Do you even drink?'"

"My guess is no," Ace murmured. Jai was behind him, nodding in time, and Ace glanced around the little kitchen itchily. "Do you see him?" he asked Jai, who was peeking out the window.

"I can see his feet," Jai muttered. "He seems to be in the zone, but he will start looking for us. I will go out now. You keep talking to George."

Ace nodded and Jai left. When Jai had approached him about helping with this matter, he'd mentioned, very soberly, that Sonny shouldn't hear the particulars. It's why nothing George said surprised Ace. Sonny's history being what it was, the thought that a rampant pedophile had been enabled by an entire community would be enough to send him on a rampage, and Ace barely survived the last one. Sonny had been "in therapy" in a rough sort of way to the guy Jason had hooked him up with, but that meant his temper was even more uncertain some days. He needed a good two days to come down from those moments on the phone with a virtual stranger, and while he was much more even-keeled for the rest of the time, Ace was just not ready for him to be triggered again.

"So she lost her job?" Ace said, turning around to George. "How's she doing?"

George shrugged. "Apparently the hospital took up a collection so she could feed her kid. Barty's going to have her over for dinner, and we'll see what else we can do for her. Why?"

Ace shook his head. "No particular reason. Had Burton put some money down on us racing is all. We took a couple pots home." It was cheating, and he knew it, particularly when Ernie was telling them he wouldn't crash. But Ace liked a cushion, and after the big storm, he'd gone racing for a number of weekends, and now they had a good one. He felt bad for this nice social-work lady who had lost her job for doing it. "But that's not what's up now. How many kids so far?"

George made a face. "Five that we know of, and by the way, it would be great if this guy would get his chlamydia treated. I'm fucking saying." He swallowed and then put his hand over his mouth, and it occurred to Ace that he'd sounded just like Ace in that moment.

Ace nodded. "These men don't thrive on kindness," he said softly, and George lost his self-consciousness and nodded. "Do we know who the social worker contacted?"

"Yeah," George said. "We got that much. Sheriff's Deputy Roy Kuntz. The social worker's supervisor told Barty that on the DL. She said that Christine—our worker—had done some cross-referencing and found that he was the brother of—"

"A local revival-tent preacher?"

"You're good at this," George said. "You should be a cop."

"That's just mean," Ace retorted, stung. "So we know the deputy at least is using influence to shut people up, and the preacher man's…." He swallowed. God, this did not sit right at all. "He's doing awful things to little girls. Do we got any other… I don't know. Proof? Evidence? Something?"

George sighed. "No. It's enough for us to know, but not enough for us to, you know, prove . Not with the guy in the sheriff's office silencing everything up."

Ace grunted, nodding. "What we need," he said after a moment, "is a—"

"We could ask Ernie," George said, and Ace shook his head.

"No. I mean, yes. We will ask Ernie before we put together a plan. I'm just… I'm not a cold-blooded killer, George, as much as this guy deserves it. I mean, I was once , but most other times it's been in the heat of battle, that sort of thing. But before we take out the preacher, we gotta see if his brother's in it with him. And once we've got some evidence , I got no problem taking 'em both out."

George's eyes were as wide as saucers, and Ace realized that Jai might not have prepared him for this level of criminal honesty.

"You'll kill them?" George asked in a tiny voice.

Ace stared at him. "Unless you were wanting me to turn them over to the police." He paused. "With all that that implies." He tried a winning smile then, and George stared at him some more. "Were you not prepared for me to tell you what we do?" he asked delicately.

"I just…." George floundered. "I knew ," he said after a moment. "I-I just never had it put into so many words. And when I thought about it—" He shrugged. "—I gotta be honest. I sort of assumed Jai went and did it for you."

Ace gave him a kind look. "Jai's not our sin-eater, George. I mean, he's got no problem with some things, but I'm not sending him out to do anything I'm not prepared to do myself. Besides, Jai's easy to spot. Whether we assassinate them in blood or in reputation, it's gotta be a thing nobody here can be tied back into. But first…." He had some shit to think about.

Ace gnawed on his bottom lip for a second while George seemed to be getting his shit back together. "Listen, George," he said after a moment, "how about you take some cold sodas out to everybody. Send Ernie in here for some snacks, 'cause I'm gonna need him in a sec, but talk to Jai and Sonny about nothin' in particular, all right?"

George nodded. "What's your… what's your plan?" he asked after a moment.

"Rivers has people who do computers," Ace said briefly. "And Alba knows the law enforcement in these parts. What she don't know her family does. I'm gonna make a couple of calls and see if I can get some… I don't know. Confirmation. I believe you—and your social worker friend and all your hospital friends—don't get me wrong. But it would really suck if I decided to stick a knife in some guy's ribs and it was the wrong goddamned guy, you understand?"

George's nod got much more pronounced. He paused for a moment after standing up and walking to the refrigerator. "Ace?" he said softly.

"Yeah?"

"That's five little girls that we know about. In a year. God knows what we don't know about. I… I'm fine with killing if it comes down to that."

Ace peered up to Jai's "little George" and saw his gray eyes were troubled and red-rimmed. "I… suppose that makes me a bad person," George said. "I have faith in you, in Jai, that I just don't have in anybody else."

Ace smiled gently. "It's kind of you to say," he murmured. "This thing we do, where we ‘take care' of the bad things around us—me, Jai, even Burton and Jason—we don't want it to touch you all, you understand? I wish you didn't know these things about me, even though you're a friend to me, a good partner to my friend. I wish you thought I was a nice guy and your boyfriend was just really fuckin' huge."

George laughed a little. "Yeah, I can see that. But I think my really fuckin' huge boyfriend wouldn't have been able to love me if I hadn't seen him for who he is. Even the scary parts. So it's fine."

Ace nodded. "Fair," he said. "So let me do some research and then talk to Ernie and get his take. I don't think we want Burton in on this. This may be a little too vigilante for him, particularly with Jason on his six. We try not to scare the civilians."

"But Ernie's okay?" George asked, perplexed.

"Hell, George, Ernie's dead for all the government knows. Ernie's the most Bat-Bastard of the lot of us, you think?"

George stared at him, but then he grabbed the cold sodas and walked outside toward the auto bay so Ace could get on the horn.

His first call was to Jackson Rivers.

"'Sup?" Rivers sounded like he was running, and Ace had to check the clock. Well, it was eight in the morning in Sacramento, in March—maybe not cold as balls but definitely brisk.

"Hey, you alone?"

"Yeah. Ellery had to go in early to prep for court. Henry's coming by in an hour to get me so we can go to the office. You got nothing but time, Ace. How they hanging?"

Ace grunted at the traditional male greeting. "They are trying desperately to crawl back into my body," he answered baldly. "I need some help here. I got nothing to steer by."

Jackson listened patiently while Ace outlined the situation, and somewhere in there, Ace heard sounds like Jackson was opening and closing a door. "Hello, No-thumbs," he called out. "Lucifer, for fuck's sake stop trying to jump off the couch. It only ends in tears."

Ace paused to chuckle. "How's he doing?"

"He's an idiot." Then there was some crooning of the type Ace only heard when Sonny was cuddling their tiny dog. "Aren't you, bubba? So stupid. If Billy-Bob didn't whack you upside the head, you'd forget you had to breathe."

Ace heard a very distinct "Meow" on the other end of the phone, and then Jackson spoke, his voice clear, and it sounded like he was sitting down. Ace could picture him in front of a computer or something, as he hmm ed.

"Okay, Ace. I got info on your scumbag preacher and his scumbag brother. What do you need to know?"

"Are there, I don't know," Ace said, "any signs that they've done this before? Is there any reason to, uhm, take direct action?"

Rivers grunted. "You mean like the preacher getting arrested twice in Mississippi and let off with a warning? That kind of thing?"

"Oh God," Ace muttered. "Yeah, like that."

"Or his brother getting accused of… oh God." River's voice, sarcastic and angry, dropped. "Yeah. Accused of—well, it says ‘impropriety with a minor,' but it was enough to cost him his job in the same county his brother was arrested in, so it had to be something. Yeah, Ace. There's something here. Question is, what do you want to do with it?"

Ace grunted. "What you don't know, you don't gotta tell Ellery," he said. "Just, you know, if this goes south, I hope he'll still represent me."

"I did not hear that," Jackson said crisply. Then his voice dropped again. "You sure you want to go at it that way, Ace? I mean, we've got law enforcement. We could arrest these guys, and they'd live long, miserable lives in jail—or short, miserable lives—"

"Or they could be let out again. Chlamydia, Jackson. Babies with STDs." At that moment, the front door opened, and Ace saw Ernie slip in, glancing outside to where George was in earnest conversation with Sonny while Jai got to work on the red Kia with the replacement alternator that Sonny had been working on. "Hey, Ernie."

"Tell Jackson it's all good. We've got it handled." Ernie's eyes had that dreamy look that sometimes came with his gift. "Tell him there's a stranger he knows. Tell him the kittens in the RV are coming to town. It'll be fine."

"Did you hear that?" Ace asked.

"Oh dear God. Tell him to be careful!" Jackson gasped. "Oh shit, both of you be careful, you know? I gotta shower, but I can come down there—"

Ernie took the phone from Ace's hand and spoke firmly into it. "Jackson," he said gently, "this is an us thing. Don't worry. It'll never come knocking at your door."

And then he hung up.

Ace stared at him. "So, uhm, what do you know?"

Ernie's eyes were big and black and depthless, almost like an alien's when he looked at Ace. "I know you'll all live, and nobody's going to prison," he said. "And… and Cotton is coming to visit Jason, and something is coming with him that'll be a big help to what you and Jai have to do today."

"Have to?" Ace asked, because God—if God was out there—he needed to be sure.

Those depthless black alien eyes barely rippled. "Oh yes, Ace. It has to be done."

Ace grunted. "Well, we gotta figure out how so that jail thing isn't an option for anybody, you understand me?"

Ernie's irises receded a little, and he yawned. "Yeah. Can't go flying blind. I get it. Here, let me do some research on my laptop. You go out and spend some time with Sonny. We'll come up with a plan. Don't worry, Ace. Sometimes killing's got to be done. You were right about Jai—he's not our sin-eater. You are. Doesn't make you a bad person. Just makes you one of the people who does what's gotta." Ernie patted Ace's cheek. "Go outside. I'll do some surfing. You checked with Jackson, you're checking with me. It'll all be good."

Ace brightened, which must mean the decision had been made in his heart without his brain to guide it. "You know, if Jai and I treat this like a military op, we can pretend we're as good as Burton, right?"

Ernie's face softened. "You are as good as Burton," he murmured. "Now go."

Ace paused. "We're, uhm, not asking him in on this, right? He… I don't think he or Jason could get permission, and once they started asking, the whole thing would go south."

Ernie nodded. "I think he'll appreciate it when he finds out when it's done."

Oh wow. "Well, that's a weight off my mind," Ace declared. "Let me grab my own soda, and me and Sonny'll have a talk."