Real time

A/N – thanks for those who have added me to favourites :) I hope you are enjoying this.

Chapter 6 – Disarray.

"Well Mr Mendall" Jo said "You've had quite a week haven't you?"

"I heard NYPD has had quite a week Detective Danville" Mendall replied "Two murders, one by a detective?"

"See" Jo said "That's the thing with rumours, they spread like a nasty disease"

"Oh, I think he did it" he leaned in conspiratorially "The guy lost it. Rumour had it that the great detective lost not only his partner, but his mind too. Fond of a Guinness or two, and a pretty girl isn't he, Detective Flack?"

"Why a Guinness?" she frowned.

Mendall shrugged "Like you said, nasty rumours spread, oh we hear it all at the Mayors office" he grinned "Is my attorney here yet?"

"Not yet" Jo confirmed "But hopefully the results will be back before he gets here, and then you can meet our attorney"

"Results?" he questioned.

"Oh" Jo feigned innocence "Didn't I tell you? You see Detective Flack is in the clear. DNA taken from him, yesterday, didn't match the DNA on the body, and funnily enough, it didn't match his police file either, weird huh?"

Mendall shrugged again "So what has that got to do with me?"

"Well" Jo smiled "I have a feeling that the person who tampered with Detective Flack's file, swapping it with the killers DNA profile, never expected us to work that out. You see now we have the actual killers DNA profile, because the police file and the body DNA match, oh and er, your DNA is on file is it not Mr Mendall? With you being at the Mayors office and all?"

Mendall laughed "So what?" he leaned over again "You think that I killed this girl and framed your detective? For what purpose?"

"Discredit him, all of us" she told him "Any trial where the investigating officer was proven to be a rapist and murderer would be laughed out of court, if the DA let it get that far"

"As much as I disliked the attitude of Detective Flack, I wouldn't go as far as to murder someone and frame him"

"But the thing is" Jo continued "You were involved in the murder of Sienna Hull, or Louisa Holsten, and our Detective got a bit close for comfort huh?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about" Mendall said, but he was rattled.

"So, better than kill him, after all you know we'd go all out for a cop killer don't you?" This time Jo leaned forward "You decide to totally discredit him, set him up for rape and murder. You figure that people will think he finally snapped huh? Easy to find stuff out in your position? Detective Flack's father is a legend, so easy enough to ask about his son without raising suspicion?" She held up her hand "I'm not finished. You had heard about Detective Angell and Flack's reaction, the rumours surrounding it all, already was a bit dodgy huh? Dating a colleague, but nothing solid was there, no. So you decide to use the rumours that had gone around, had he already killed a man in cold blood? Could you successfully set him up, and then drip information to the DA about his past? The rumours? Maybe even try and discredit the crime lab and half of NYPD into the bargain?"

"That's a nice story" Mendall said "Detective Danville is it? That's another badge. You people will insist on harassing me, I will be filing a complaint for you, right against Detective Flack's"

"Oh feel free" she smiled "You'll have plenty of time for that in prison"

Mendall laughed "Prison? What for?"

"For arranging two murders" Jo started "For framing one of NYPD's finest, for tampering with a government database, oh yes, and for trafficking drugs"

"Wow" he sat back in his chair "That's quite a list"

"Isn't it just?" she agreed "I don't expect to find your DNA anywhere near either victim, you don't get your hands dirty. But the trace on the computer programme has led us straight back to your office, you have access to police files, and you used it. We can prove that the file was tampered with from your computer"

"Anyone in my office could have access to that computer" he rattled "And really if that's all you got, you got nothing at all"

Both looked as the door opened "Don't say another word Lou" the man cautioned, looking at Jo he introduced himself.

"Michael Gale" he was shorter than her but somehow gave the appearance of looking down his nose at her "I hope you weren't questioning my client without his lawyer present?"

"Of course not" she agreed, instant dislike spreading through her "We were just killing time, waiting for you"

"Well, detective, if you wouldn't mind?" he held the door open for her.

"Of course" she left the room.

…...

Georgia Fairburn glared through the two way mirror.

"Where's Flack?" she asked Mac "I thought he was on this?"

"He can't" Mac said "Too close, these guys tried to frame him"

"Right" she said "I'm sorry Mac, I haven't had time to review the file, I got your message straight out of court and came down here, fill me in?"

He handed her a cup of coffee, indicating she should sit.

"Bryant talked, fingered Mendall as the next rung in this drug trafficking" he took a mouthful of coffee "From what we pieced together, the first victim"

"Sienna Hull?"

"Yes, also known as Louisa Holsten, used to work for Mendall, she was a secretary and a few months later turns up dead, an addict and pro under the 'care' of Bryant. We arrest Bryant and he rolls on Mendall, combined with what we found out about Louisa working in Mendall's office, and a suspected affair, it gave us good cause to question Mendall, which Flack did"

"Uh-huh"

"Flack figured that Louisa and Mendall had an affair, and she found out about the drugs, knew too much and then got clingy. Mendall shipped her off to Bryant with a drug habit, but she kept coming back and so had to be silenced"

"And Bryant confirmed that?"

"Almost word for word, he gave it all up. When Flack spoke to Mendall, he was rattled, and with the rumours in Don's past" Mac sighed "Another murder happened and Don was framed, to get him away and discredit as many of us as possible"

"So I wouldn't touch the Bryant/Hull case with a barge pole?"

"I think so" he confirmed "And with the heat off, they can carry on as normal"

"Only Don was cleared" she said "How Mac? I need to know what you did here, because I don't want him" she pointed to Michael Gale through the mirror "Tearing this case apart in court"

"We took DNA from Don in the lab, it was negative against the DNA from the body, it was also negative against his police file, it was swapped" Mac said carefully.

"The DNA or the file?"

She was sharp he thought "The file, one of techs found that the file had been planted, the killers DNA profile put in place of Don's" he held her eye "He traced it back to Mendall's computer"

"The warrant Danny wanted" she concluded.

"Yes" Mac spoke slowly "And we now have Mendall, with Bryants testimony and that evidence we can link him to both murders"

"And the killers DNA?" she asked "Who's is that?"

"As yet" he admitted "Unknown, it's not Bryant or Mendall, or in the system"

"Being honest here, we got a slam dunk on Bryant, a confession of drug trafficking and his DNA all over the first victim, less for Mendall, we've got no DNA. A testimony from a known felon and a tenuous link to his computer, which Gale will argue, could have been anyone" she paused "And that will be blown sky high, if things weren't done properly. I know you Mac, what are you hiding?"

Mac sighed, the ADA probably wasn't the best person, but this was eating him and she needed to know, if this wasn't to get thrown out of court.

"The tech, initially he didn't have a warrant to access that NYPD database" he sighed "Will that mean that everything that followed is inadmissable?"

"What exactly did he do"? She frowned.

"He pulled Don's file, and then from what I can gather, poked around the NYPD server to find a back-door that may have been used, he found one, and then with the warrant, followed it"

"Not strictly protocol" she pondered "But not strictly bad, I can argue that one. What else Mac? Come on"

Mac sighed "I let my loyalty to Don overcome my integrity"

"How?" she said "I need to know Mac"

"On the evidence, DNA hair, skin and semen, I should have arrested Don there and then" he admitted, wondering if this case would cost him his job, as well as his sanity "But I didn't, I sent him down to the lab, with Jo, to compare DNA taken straight from him to the body DNA and his police file"

"I did take his badge and gun" he added "And his gun wasn't a match to the imprint found on the second victims body"

"Oh" she said "I need to think this one out" she murmured. Damn it! This could make everything inadmissable, Mac may have discredited them all effectively without any help at all.

…...