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Strode glanced over uncertainly at Costabile, whose eyes remained fixed on Jessie.
“Do you feel like you have the scene in hand, Sergeant?” Strode asked him deferentially.
Costabile stood silently for a moment, then grabbed Vasquez’s hair and yanked his head back hard.
“I’m not sure, Detective. I worry this guy might still be a threat to the safety of our men. He might need a little extra subduing.”
Strode swallowed hard but said nothing. Jessie realized he was going to be of no help. As Costabile continued to tug on Vasquez’s hair with his left hand, he put his right hand on his nightstick. As he unsnapped its holster, she decided that no matter the odds, she had to act. She was just about to step forward when she heard another voice she knew well.
“Seven on one—you don’t think you can handle those odds without your stick, Sergeant Costabile?”
Everyone looked over to see Ryan Hernandez walking jauntily in their direction. One of the officers started to point his gun at him when Costabile warned him off.
“It’s okay,” he growled reluctantly. “He’s a detective from Downtown. No need to shoot him.”
“I appreciate that, Sergeant,” Ryan said as he came to a stop next to Jessie. “I think the profiler assigned to this case can put her hands down now, don’t you?”
He reached up and physically lowered her arms without waiting for an answer. Though his tone was devil-may-care, she could see the concern in his eyes. This situation was still extremely volatile.
“There’s some dispute about whose case this is,” Costabile retorted. “I believe Detective Strode here might have something to say on the matter.”
Strode stepped forward, trying to look cool despite his deer-in-the-headlights vibe.
“I tried to reach you all day, Detective. But you never got back to me. I was hoping to pool resources.”
“I’m sorry about that,” Ryan said warmly. “I was in court all day and I know Jessie was chasing down leads nonstop. We’re happy to do all that now. But maybe we could formally arrest Mr. Vasquez rather than reenacting a scene from The Purge. What do you say?”
Strode started to look toward Costabile but Ryan short-circuited that.
“Detective Strode,” he said forcefully. “As the Valley Bureau detective assigned to this case in conjunction with HSS, what do you say? Shall we take this off the street and handle it professionally? Is that something you’d be on board with?”
Strode, sensing that any future credibility he might have was on the line, nodded.
“That sounds good,” he said quietly as he aggressively avoided making eye contact with Costabile, who was staring a hole through him.
“Great,” Ryan said, leaping on the nod and running with it. “I think I’ll ride with Mr. Vasquez on the way to the station.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Costabile said. “We don’t want to burden you with such a mundane task.”
“Oh, it’s no burden,” Ryan said with studied pleasantness. “I’d hate for him to try to hurt himself in some way and put the investigation at risk. In fact, I insist. Sergeant, I’d really appreciate if you could take the lead on heading back to the station right away and securing an interrogation room for Detective Strode and myself. I know you’ve got some pull. We’ll find a squad car for Mr. Vasquez.”
Costabile turned his dagger stare to Ryan. He seemed to be weighing whether to fight him on this. Now that the drama of the bar raid had passed, he clearly sensed that he couldn’t just throw his weight around without consequence. He opened his mouth but before he could speak, Ryan beat him to it.
“Sergeant,” he said, calmly but with finality, “I insist.”
