Disclaimer: I do not own CSI:NY. I wish I did. The characters belong to CBS. The ones invented by me are completely fictional.
Summary: Danny Messer's life is in danger. The past even he had forgot isn't a secret anymore, neither is the future he doesn't want to embrace. Danny/Don friendship. Set some months after Snow Day. No season four. Please read and review.
Warning: Rated for violence and mature references.
Mac arrived in the precinct just ten minutes after receiving Flack's call letting him know that Tizanelli was coming.
"Flack, is he here yet?", Mac asked urgently.
"Yeah, he's inside interrogation room 2. Mr. Messer came with him. Angell is with them. Come on. Let's take them to room 1, where Asharkel is.", Flack said, eyeing Mac uncomfortably.
"Flack, we need to talk...", Mac started while they walked.
"No, we have nothing to talk about. You have your opinion, I have mine. We will know Danny's when we get him back.", Flack cut in and opened the door. "Mr. Tizanelli, Mr. Messer. Will you please come with us?"
They nodded and stood up. "Mr. Taylor, this lovely young lady tells us you have Jack's son in custody.", Gennaro said, pointing to Angell.
"That's right, but not for long if we don't find anything solid against him. I want you to see if you recognize his voice.", Mac told him and then turned to Joseph. "Mr. Messer, I'm surprised to see you here. I was in my office writing a statement to the press and I've just seen your house surrounded by reporters in the news."
"Was it now? They're camping in front of an empty house, then. Catherine didn't come back after she left with you and I couldn't see a reason to stay there all by myself. I'm staying at Gennaro's for a while. Where's she?", Joseph replied.
"I don't know. Last time I saw her, she was with Lindsay at the hospital. But I'm sure she's okay. I told an uniform to escort them both.", Mac assured him and invited them to follow him.
Flack and Angell entered the interrogation room while Mac stayed on the other side of the mirror glass with Gennaro and Joseph.
"Now things are getting better! With gorgeous here to please me, you can keep me in this room for as long as you want!", Michael whistled, eyeing Angell.
"Shut up, I'm tired of your little innuendoes! Now, one more time, where's Danny?", Flack spat and punched the table.
"Detective, I won't accept this behavior towards my client. You have nothing. I'll get him out of here soon, I'm just waiting for the papers.", Michael's lawyer said.
"Mr. Asharkel, don't mind my partner. Now, tell me... You really don't remember the Messers? Your father was Joseph Messer's best friend, he used to take you to play with the Messers when you were a kid.", Angell said smiling, sitting in front of Michael.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I can't recall even hearing this name. Besides, I barely remember my father. I lived with my mother until she died in the beginning of the year. She left me everything. God bless her.", Michael smiled back apologetically to Angell, his eyes widening when he saw Gennaro invading the interrogation room in a straight line to where he was, Mac and Joseph running right after him, Angell standing up to try to stop him too.
"You sick son of a bitch! It was you calling me! You've got your father's voice! Where's Danny?! I'm gonna kill you!", Gennaro shouted, being restrained by Mac and Flack, while Joseph closed the door behind him, noticing the curious glances this scene had attracted from the people on the precinct.
"Going to kill me?! Are you, Mr. Tizanelli? The same way you killed my father?!", Michael snarled standing up, his eyes suddenly full of rage. "Tell them, tell them what you did! Tell them how you and your thugs beat him up and shot him! I was there, hiding in the closet! I saw everything! My mom had dropped me there earlier, asked him to watch me for some hours. When you came, he told me to hide. Confess! Confess to them that you killed my father!", Michael shouted and panted, angry tears running down his face.
"I already did it, I confessed it the first time they came to talk to me about Danny. They know everything but, right now, they're more worried about getting him back. So, where is he?", Gennaro hissed, pressing a hand upon his chest.
"You confessed?! You confessed and they did nothing?! They let you strut around like you own the place?!", Michael howled.
"Where's Danny?", Flack growled, seeing by the corner of his eyes Hawkes and Stella entering the room.
"I'm not telling you, I'm not telling any of you. Danny is getting what he deserves for asking him to kill my father!", Michael shouted, pointing to Gennaro.
"I don't think you should say anything else, Mr. Asharkel.", Michael's lawyer intervened in a concerned voice.
"Shut up! I say whatever I want!", Michael yelled.
"But the consequences, Mr. Asharkel... You're saying this in a room full of detectives, full of witnesses.", Michael's lawyer reasoned.
"Do you think that I care? I don't! I'm getting my revenge and that's all that matters!", Michael's eyes bulged madly.
"What the hell are you talking about?! Danny didn't ask me to do anything. He never talked to me about Jack.", Gennaro shook his head, baffled, trying to understand what Michael was saying.
"I heard when you said to my father that you were going to kill him for Danny before putting a bullet in his chest!", Michael bellowed. "Danny was supposed to be my friend! He and Louie said we would be friends forever and then he had my dad killed!... I noticed his increasing hostility towards my father but I never thought he would go that far. He didn't think about me! And even now he still insists he doesn't remember me! He's so dissimulated... After all the shit he caused! I've been on therapy all my fucking life, my mother always keeping a tight rein on me, controlling my every breath! She was always like that! The one day of the week that I felt at ease was when I was with my dad. He always took me to play with Danny and Louie, said that the best thing for a kid was to be amongst kids. I envied them so much, having a loving mother like Mrs. Messer and a cool father like Mr. Messer... He always let them do whatever they wanted and go wherever they wanted, they never even asked for his permission... Danny used to say that there was no need to ask because his father didn't even know they existed, so he couldn't possibly miss them. Even at that time, I knew that he didn't know how to appreciate the father and the freedom he had. And then Danny took my dad away from me and condemned me to live under my mother's control till the day she died!"
"You misunderstood everything... I killed your father for what he did to Danny, yes, but Danny never asked me to do anything. Joseph told me what your father did and I went after him. And I would do it again if he had survived. Your father was a piece of garbage who deserved to rot in hell!", Gennaro yelled back.
"Ha! And what did my father do to little Danny? He didn't buy him a present big enough? Didn't took him to the movies or the zoo?", Michael mocked and the people in the room exchanged wary looks.
Joseph approached Michael and sat in front of him. "Sit down, please.", Joseph asked, his voice calm and polite. "I suppose you remember me from the times you came to my house. I always welcomed you with my arms wide open..."
Michael threw a nasty look in Gennaro's direction and sat, staring at Joseph with a sympathetic expression, waiting for him to continue. "... and your father... my best friend... stabbed me in the back... He did the worst thing he could do. He sexually abused my son every opportunity he had."
"Bullshit! My father was a caring and loving person! He would never do that! Can't you see what is in front of you? Danny lied! He manipulated you two into killing my father!", Michael spat.
"Danny didn't tell me anything. I saw the signs on his body.", Joseph lamented.
"You're lying! You are all lying! My father would never do that! He didn't do it to me or to Louie or to any other friend of mine. Why he would do this to Danny?", Michael glowered at him.
"Don't ask me to explain that pervert's mind. I don't know what I did to your father to deserve such a poor repayment but surely Danny shouldn't be the one to pay for it. What he told you was right, I've always been a disgrace as a father. Never paid much attention to my boys. I gave indifference to them when they were young, not freedom. I've been making an effort to improve my relationship with them for some time now, but maybe is too late. Louie has been in a coma for more than a year now and Danny is scarred for life, he avoids me... Please, tell me, where's my son?", Joseph implored.
"You'll never find him. I can spend the rest of my life in jail but I won't tell you where he is. Danny is a little liar who fooled you all into believing his story and he will get what he deserves. He's so manipulative that he made you - that is an incredible father - believe you're a failure. I'm sorry he's your son... you have always been so nice to me... but this won't change my mind.", Michael said, eyes fixed on Joseph.
"Please, Michael... I beg for your compassion.", Joseph insisted.
"No, I already used it all... Isn't life ironically perfect? I didn't know I was going to prison today but even then I gave the right orders! For compassion, I forbade the guys from entering his room until I returned. They were having some fun with him, you know? Now, he won't eat, he won't drink, he won't do anything... He will die slowly, stripped of all dignity. You'll never find him! He's right under your noses and you'll never find him!", Michael laughed hysterically, looking from Joseph to Gennaro and then to the others, while everyone in the room struggled with the cold reality. "But you know what? Maybe a month from here I can tell charming detective here where to find his decaying body.", he added as an afterthought, looking smugly at Flack.
"Ahhh, you fucking son of a bitch! You're gonna tell me now before I kill you!", Flack roared and tried to attack Michael, being held back by Mac and Hawkes while Stella opened the door and called two uniforms that were in the corridor "Lock this scumbag up and get him out of our faces before someone kills him!"
"Oh God!... Hawkes!", Angell yelled, attracting everyone's attention to Gennaro, who had fallen to the floor. Hawkes let go of Flack and run to Gennaro's side, checking his respiration and his carotid pulse.
"He's going into cardiac arrest! Find me a defibrillator now and call an ambulance!", Hawkes shouted and started performing CPR.
While Flack called the ambulance, Stella run to get the precinct's AED, bringing it back to Hawkes, who connected the electrodes to Gennaro's chest and waited for the machine's reading. Then, he pressed a button to deliver the shock and started CPR again.
Being led out of the room, Michael sneered "I really hope he lives long enough to see Danny's body in a bag.", causing Flack's wrath again, who stopped short of grabbing him when Stella jumped between them. "Flack, stop! This won't help!"
In about ten minutes, the EMTs arrived and took Gennaro to the hospital, Hawkes and Joseph riding on the ambulance with them.
CPR - cardiopulmonary resuscitation
AED - automated external defibrillator
EMT - emergency medical technician
NC17 Life and wraiths-angel,
Thank you very much for the reviews!
wraiths-angel, I love writing Flack, I think of him as Danny's unwavering friend.
NC17 Life, sorry about the profusion of names... I'm afraid there will be a lot more in the next chapters...