Cut and Run 1 - Cut and Run

as his teeth ground together. He directed his question to Holleman. “Are you sure you don't want to add something constructive to this conversation, to oh, I don't know, make it worth more than a waste of oxygen?"
    "Unlike you two lovebirds, my partner and I tend to agree on these things,” Holleman answered calmly.
    "So,” Ty said loudly as he leaned forward in his seat. “You decided the two co-eds were hooking. That's wonderful. Did you write them off immediately or did you attempt to track their relatively small circle of ‘casual clients,’ as you call them, and include it in the cross-reference done on all the acquaintances of the victims?” he asked pointedly.
    "Waste of time,” Pierce insisted. “Those so-called serial tokens—a real slim thread of shit holding these cases together, by the way—the one found with the girls was obviously a rip-off. Little plastic trinket rings. I mean, come on. Probably the guy got his rocks off, did a copycat, and went jonesing for another whore."
    "A copycat?” Ty repeated with a predatory smirk. “You mean you released that detail to the public? That he leaves meaningless tokens with his kills?” he drawled knowingly.
    Pierce stopped mid-breath. “I didn't say that,” he barked.
    "Actually, yes, you did,” Zane snapped, unable to keep quiet any longer. “Just like you said you blew off common procedure for connecting murder cases."
    "Fuck off, Garrett. You got no idea what NYPD procedures require,” Pierce snapped.
    "Yeah, IQ over forty probably helps,” Ty drawled in amusement.
    Holleman held out a hand and glared at them. “Shut up, wiseass. The tokens have not been released to the general public, all right?” he told them.
    "At least you've done something intelligent,” Zane muttered. He knew he was quickly losing hold of his temper.
    "Something better than you two assholes, trying to lord it up over here in this ivory tower,” Pierce snarled at Ty. “If you and your little paper-pusher here even got out on the street to see a scene, I'd probably have a heart attack and die."
    "Promise?” Ty responded calmly. In contrast to the other men, Ty seemed to actually be enjoying the meeting, and that was just making the two detectives angrier. “Look, despite the fact that you're idiots and I'm bored, we're all working at the same thing here. You arrange for us to see some more scenes, we'll consider your theory about a copycat,” he bargained. “Even though it's fucking stupid,” he added after a brief pause.
    Pierce looked between the two men facing him before answering. “You know, Grady? You're more annoying than I remember. You make Garrett here feel like a walk in the fucking park,” he said, almost pleasantly. “The Bureau had to dig real deep, I guess. You want to see the scenes? You go through the chief's office and request access like everyone else."
    Holleman sighed slightly, shaking his head and closing his eyes. “Look, even if we could personally grant you access, which we can't,” he was careful to inform the FBI agents as Pierce grew more and more ornery, “all of the scenes have long been released. There's nothing to see anymore."
    His stubborn partner sat back, looking like he was chewing on a lemon.
    "There's nothing for you to see,” Ty corrected with a pleasant smile.
    "You can't tell me you think you've got some special skills or something to let you recreate a goddamn murder scene weeks or months old,” Pierce scoffed, his skepticism clear.
    "He's got skills you couldn't learn even with a cattle prod up your ass,” Zane said, temper boiling.
    Ty glanced at Zane but remained silent. He was slightly surprised to hear Zane defending him, and not a little flattered, but he didn't want Zane snapping, not here.
    "Oh, how touching,” Pierce said with a goading laugh. “I got no reason to like you, Garrett, much less trust you and your skilled partner. You two Feebs come riding in here like Hell's Angels expecting to pick up our cases and magically solve them. Well, I'm calling your bluff. No access to scenes, no goodwill, and no sharing of information. You want to chase off and try to find whoever those girls were fucking, you do it without us."
    His blood pressure rocketing, Zane stood up so fast his chair slammed back and hit the floor. “I need some fresh air,” he muttered as he stalked past the detectives to the door and walked out, letting it shut loudly behind him.
    Holleman watched the man storm out and then