Yep, he was damn sure going back to bed as soon as he could.
-X
Upstairs, Tony was pulled out of sleep by a loud banging on the door. Mumbling and cursing he yanked on some sweatpants and stumbled over.
He peered through the security hole and grinned when he heard, “Police! Open up.” Yanking open the door and laughing. “Jesus, Detective Morris no less. Am I busted?”
“Big time,” the detective grinned before stepping forward and pulling Tony into a hug, “Hey, Tony.”
“Hi, David.”
Detective Morris moved into the room and indicated the uniformed man with him. “Tony, this is Officer Leo Manners.”
Tony shook hands, “Good to meet you, Officer Manners.”
“Oh, Leo’s fine, Sir.”
“Good name for a police officer! And it’s Tony.” He looked back at David, “How’s Ziggy.”
“Promoted,” he replied, shortly.
“Awww. Are you sulking?”
“Don’t you start. And no smirking,” he added to Officer Manners.
“Sorry, Sir.”
“Are you here about Billy?”
“Billy Lattens, yea. Is he here?”
“They’re at Frank’s. Give me two minutes and we can go over and scrounge breakfast.”
Tony quickly brushed his teeth, threw on some clothes, grabbing some more for Billy, and led them to Frank’s apartment.
Cal opened the door, all three men taking a deep breath at the smell of coffee and the sight of Frank and Ty at the stove, squabbling over bacon.
Ty glanced over and grinned. “Hey, if it isn’t New York’s finest.” He paused as Tony squeezed in for a good morning kiss, and then wiped his hands and moved to greet David.
“Good to see you, David” he grinned, shaking hands.
“You too, Ty. Although you look nearly as shattered as I feel.”
“He’ll be going back to bed as soon as you’ve told us you’ve got that asshole behind bars,” Frank declared, moving in so he could glare from close up.
“Yes, Sir. We do,” David said quickly. Looking relieved at Frank’s huff of approval.
“Actually,” he continued, “he’s on his way to prison, thanks to the thorough work of Officer Manners here. It’s a good breakfast story, if there’s any going spare.”
“There’s plenty,” Frank smiled now. “You boys sit down and loosen those vocal cords with coffee, we want to know everything.”
“No problem, but first,” he moved over to where Billy was sat on the couch in Adam’s arms, sipping coffee and watching wide eyed. “Are you Billy? How are you feeling?”
“Yea, um.”
“He’s a bit spaced out,” Adam said helpfully, running a hand over Billy’s hair.
“That’s not unexpected. I’m Detective Morris, David. This is Officer Manners.”
“Leo,” Officer Manners said, cradling a mug of coffee and sitting next to Adam and Billy on the couch with a gentle smile.
“We’ve met Detective Morris before,” Frank told Billy, handing him a small plate with some bacon and hash browns. “He’s one of the good ones. Now just nibble on that and see how you go, okay?”
“Thanks, Frank.” Billy’s voice wobbled a little.
Frank leaned back down to press a kiss to his head, “Be welcome, cutie.”
Soon everyone was tucking into bacon, eggs and hash browns. Or in Tony and Ty’s case, a slice of bacon and one hash brown with eggs and fruit salad, Frank knowing their eating habits well.
Ty, Tony and David were all sat on the floor. David guzzling coffee as if it were about to be banned.
“Long night?” Ty teased.
“Caught a couple of hours at the station,” David grimaced. “Had an early, non-related meeting. This one,” he continued, waving his cup at Leo, “Pulled an all-nighter and saved us a ton of paperwork.” He grinned, “And to think I complained about getting a uniformed rookie for a temporary partner.”
Leo merely raised three fingers and carried on eating.
Tony looked quizzically at David who was laughing. “Three years on the beat,” he explained. “Apparently that’s ‘not a rookie.'” He said the last in Leo’s thick Brooklyn accent and made him snort with laughter.
“Can I ask a question?” Cal was sitting on the arm of Frank’s chair.
“Sorry, Sir. You want to know what happened.”
“No. Well, yes. But don’t you need to take Billy’s statement before you fill us in?”
David nodded. “We will take his statement,” he confirmed. “In a couple of days, just for the record.”
“When you’re feeling a bit better,” Leo told Billy softly.
David nodded with approval. “Yea, but we don’t need to worry now. We won’t be charging the perp with anything in New York.” He held up a hand as everyone apart from Billy and Leo started protesting at the same time.
“Because. BECAUSE!” Everyone quietened. “Leo here discovered he was already wanted by the FBI, having been sentenced to six consecutive life terms in New Mexico three days ago. The prison transport blew a tire and went off the road. Three convicts escaped. Two back in custody in hours, but our guy, who must have had help, scooted straight to New York with the feds hot on his trail. He’s on a plane right now, back to start his sentence.”
He looked straight at Billy. “He won’t taste free air ever again.”
“What did he do?” Tony asked quietly. “In New Mexico.”
David looked at Leo and raised an eyebrow, as if to say, ‘You gonna take it?’
Leo nodded and placed his plate to one side, turning to Billy, still snuggled against Adam, who was eating one handed, next to him.
“First of all Billy, I want you to promise me something. I’ll tell you what you need to know, but I want you to promise me you won’t go looking for more. You don’t need to know more than what I’m going to tell you. Okay?”
Billy frowned a little, “Okay.”
“No,” Leo spoked gently. “I need you to trust me. I want a promise.”
“Because it will scare me?”
Leo nodded, his eye sombre.
“I promise.”
“Thank you. He was convicted of six abduction-murders. It may be worse than that. The FBI are still investigating and they’ll probably come talk to you at some point. When they do, Detective Morris will be there. If you want me to be there, he can track me down, you just ask all right?”
Billy reached out and gripped Leo’s hand. “Who did he kill?” he asked, his eyes shining.
“The six men he killed were all gay. All of a similar build and looks.” He squeezed Billy’s hand, “They were all drugged.”
Billy nodded, he hadn’t expected Leo to say anything different, and wiped tears from his cheeks as Adam pulled him even closer and whispered in his ear.
“He must have known he’d be caught,” Cal wondered out loud.
“He came here to hunt,” Ty offered, his voice dark with fury. “He came here to hunt before they caught him.”
David nodded sadly.
Leo who was still watching Billy with concern spoke up again. “We know he drove across country. Pretty much non-stop. We don’t think, in fact we are sure, that no one else was hurt. He stumbled exhausted into New York, went straight for you, and excuse me, but fucked it up.”
Now it was Frank who held up a hand. “Not to say this isn’t fascinating, but I was expecting something different from our breakfast story. What happened at Better’s last night? Because I know I sent our doctor over there for an emergency on our bill, and it better not have been for that asshole that tried to hurt Billy.”
Leo’s face lighted and David groaned. “Oh sweet Jesus, it was nearly a disaster,” he complained. Before motioning for Leo to finish his food.