Divide & Conquer (Cut & Run #4)(78)
Author: Abigail Roux

“Dont humor me, Garrett. Just hold up the ceiling for me, okay?” Ty snapped, but he was laughing at his own words.

“Yes, Staff Sergeant,” Zane said smartly. A deep rumble and a shiver in the stones interrupted Tys stinging retort, and Zane grabbed him and yanked him down, covering his head as the stones started to shift and fall again. The shrieking of the rock shearing filled Tys ears, and just as he thought his heart might stop, just as everything around them shook violently, several large stones behind Zane toppled in the opposite direction, giving them a little more room and letting in shockingly bright dull-gray light.

Ty stared at the shaft of light as if he could actually use it to pull them out of hell. His arms tightened around Zane, fingers digging in reflexively as he fought down the stark terror. It wasnt something he could really control; it was ingrained in him to fear the darkness and spaces that closed in when he couldnt see. Even this hint of light and Zanes arms around him couldnt fight back the impending panic attack for much longer. He was surprised hed staved it off for this long. He firmly believed it was Zanes doing, him saying the right things at the right time.

Another stone fell away, then another, and as the hole got bigger, Zane literally dragged Ty over his lap and shoved him toward the opening. Voices started to echo around them, their names bouncing off the stone as people called.

Ty crouched at the narrow opening, trying to fight through the haze of panic to judge if he could make it through. He didnt think he could, and forcing the wrong stone to shift could bring the whole thing down. He didnt try it, instead calling out to the rescuers and sliding back into the darkness to sit with Zane. His hand trembled, but he reached for Zanes and gripped it hard anyway as he met his lovers eyes. “You asked me not to leave you alone in the dark.”

Zane didnt reply, but he pulled Tys hand close and pressed his lips gently to Tys knuckles.

“YOUtwo look like shit.” Zane stopped on the threshold to Dan McCoys office and scowled as Ty pushed past him. “Worse than that,” Zane disagreed. His headache still raged, his eyes still felt swollen and full of the rock particle dust that had been kicked up into his face numerous times, and he could just feel the bruises coming up all over.

Better than the alternative.

“You okay?” McCoy asked, looking back and forth between the two partners. Zane still wore his ruined suit, now almost gray from the sand and stone ground into the fabric and boasting a few split seams, and several red scrapes scored one side of his face. Tys dress blues had suffered as well, but Ty had insisted on changing immediately, even when that meant into the spare running shorts and T-shirt stuffed in his locker downstairs. It was a scarlet-red T-shirt, with a dancing rock, a quivering piece of paper, and an awkward pair of scissors standing in a rough circle, all with guns in both hands and aiming at each other.

Despite their ordeal, Ty had managed to come out looking like an action hero at the end of the movie, hair perfectly mussed, a delicate smudge on one cheek, the appropriate amount of dirt to make him look rugged instead of a wreck. Zane sort of wanted to hate him.

“You ever been buried under several metric tons of stone, Mac? Well, I have. Three times now!” Ty snapped as he eased himself into one of the chairs in front of McCoys desk.

McCoy frowned but didnt take the bait, for which Zane was grateful. If they could get through this, he and Ty could get out of here. “All right, Garrett, you sit too. You did your debriefs, so you know we found your truck intact. Well get it back to you in a few days. Go ahead and check out a car for the rest of the week. You can drive your partner around, since his truck is toast.”

“About that—” “Its being filed with Bureau insurance as a work-related personal property casualty,” McCoy said, talking right over Ty. “Im sure there will be all kinds of paperwork for you.”

Ty grimaced but didnt say anything. Zane figured he was still grieving for the valiant Bronco. “Ill be reviewing all the intel later this week as we deconstruct the case,” McCoy announced as he handed each of them a file folder. “But in the meantime, I thought youd at least like a few answers.

“His name was Walter Pierson Sutton, son of Clarence and Mitzi Sutton,” McCoy began. “Fathers a doctor; mothers in interior design.” “Upper crust, huh?” Ty muttered distractedly as he licked his thumb and scrubbed at a spot on his arm, checking to see if it was a bruise or dirt.

“The Suttons live in Roland Park, lots of money flowing. Pierce attended the Gilman School.” He paused to check for comprehension. Zane was still new to Baltimore and shrugged.

“More-money-than-sense type of place, patches on the uniform, schoolgirl socks,” Ty said tiredly.

“Its a boys-only school,” McCoy specified.

Ty shrugged as if that didnt matter. “Thats where Sutton met Ross Tanger and, through Gilmans elective program, Hannah Myles at Bryn Mawr School and Graham Lewis at Mount Saint Joseph,” McCoy explained.

“So they basically all went to school together. White-bread kids with access to money and nothing to do,” Zane concluded. “On the nose,” McCoy said with a nod. “The Suttons gave that kid anything and everything he wanted. The other kids had reasons for wanting money that didnt come from Mommy and Daddy. Not good ones, but reasons nonetheless: oppressive stepmother, forced responsibilities, boredom.”

“So what went wrong?” Zane asked, turning the pages in the file as he skimmed. “Theres no way to really know what set him off,” McCoy said, sounding frustrated as he leaned back in his chair and dragged both hands through his thinning hair. “What weve been able to discover so far is he had a recent fascination with anti-authoritarianism, anarchy, and misplaced social rebellion. The principal at Gilman said he had a terrible attitude with authority figures. And although he didnt have to work, Pierce drifted through several jobs at places in the Inner Harbor—including the aquarium—over the course of the past two years.”

“Doing recon,” Ty said, almost under his breath. The false alarm at the aquarium suddenly made sense. McCoy nodded soberly. “Now we can see it as groundwork laid. Weve got a warrant to get at his personal effects, computer, and phone, but now that hes out of the picture….” He shrugged. The case was closed. More research would be academic.

“He was an angry kid who just… decided to kill people,” Zane said, having a hard time believing it could happen even though it had come within mere seconds of killing him.