Disclaimer: For the last time, I don't own CSY New York!
(Yes, I know I'm strange.)
CSI NY
Ch. 3
Reporters tended to move fast. Danny had only received the news of his accusation yesterday, and the very next day the report of Ricky McCalister's trial being suspended due to evidence in question was all over the news. To Mac's relief, the details of this questioning was not given, and hopefully still not known.
He was standing in the lab next to Stella, watching her as she removed the gun carefully from the evidence bag with thumb and forefinger, as though the gun might try to bite her.
" Poor Danny," she said. " I'm surprised they're letting you do this. They may want you as a character witness, so you probably shouldn't be getting involved."
" I'm not doing anything, you are," Mac replied. " I'm just casually standing by, observing out of pure boredom."
Stella smirked. " Sure you are. So what are we looking for exactly?"
" You tell me," Mac said.
Just then, Aiden stuck her head through the door. " Hey Mac, Flack wants you. I think it's time."
Stella looked up at Mac and grimaced. " Tell Danny I said good luck."
Mac nodded, then removed his lab coat as he walked out. Flack was waiting for him, and the expression on his face did not make Mac hopeful.
Flack matched strides with Mac as they walked.
" They got Alecson on this one," Flack said. " You know, the guy who could probably get a confession out of Charles Manson if given the chance? I mean don't get me wrong, he's a good cop and a good guy, But he's going to rip Danny to shreds on this."
Mac didn't reply. He knew Alecson from many previous cases, and knew Flack was right. The man was like a pit bull; he always went for the throat.
" Try to keep it from getting too bad, if possible," was all Mac could say.
The questioning took place in the interrogation room, where the DA – a middle-aged woman named Deborah Mallens - and Mac could watch through the two-way and not be present as an influence, just invisible observers. Mac didn't like it one bit, watching Danny through the window on the wrong side of the table. He was dressed smartly as though going in for a job interview, and he even had his hands clasped loosely on the table as though he were completely relaxed. The twitching in his jaw, however, told another story.
Alecson and Flack were sitting across from him, with Alecson doing the questioning. They had already interviewed the two officers and Detective Ryan, which had all gone well and calmly. But Danny was the suspect, so the real questioning had yet to begin.
The first couple of questions were routine. Who Danny was, where he lived, what his job was, and so on. They then went into the case, who the suspect was, who the victim was. The victim had been a young man from a gang that was believed to be Bruno's rival. Danny went into details about the investigation, what they had found and the like. Then they came to the subject at hand; the weapon.
" You say that you didn't find the gun immediately, is that right?" Alecson asked, looking from his notepad to Danny. He had a small stack of files and papers before him, but he had yet to ever look at them, only the notepad.
" Yes. I didn't spot it until twenty minutes after I entered the room," Danny responded.
" And why was that?"
Danny glanced at his hands, then looked back up. " I-I'm not sure. I believe it was because I was tired, and unable to think clearly."
Mac could almost see Danny's spirit sinking in the way his face whitened. To admit to something like that, to confess that his mind had not been entirely on the case, was the same as admitting to being incapable of doing ones job. Yes, it may have been just that one day, but that day may as well be his entire lifetime now.
" You were tired?" Alecson asked next. His face was expressionless, but his tone was growing harsher.
" Yes. The case began around three in the morning when the body was found after someone had reported hearing gunshots. I stayed on it the whole day until the arrest and interrogation was made that evening. I – didn't stop for lunch or dinner during that time. By the time I reached the suspect's apartment I was feeling a little tired… but I was still able to do my job."
Alecson dropped his notepad onto the table to fold his hands on the tabletop.
" Doesn't sound like you were able to do your job to me."
Danny once again looked down at his own hands uncomfortably. He could not respond to that. When he didn't, Alecson leaned forward a little.
" Could it be possible that, maybe, you had found the gun, forgot you had it, and set it on the table without realizing?"
Danny shook his head. " No, no way. I would have bagged it. I would have bagged it and put it in my kit. That's not something you just forget to do."
" Maybe you saw it lying at the crime scene and mistook it for your gun, putting it in your pocket. Then, remembering you had it, and knowing it for what it really was, you panicked and put it on the table to clean up your mistake."
Danny shook his head harder. " No way. I always put my gun back after drawing it, always. I was tired, not delirious. I knew what I was doing and what I had done. There was no gun at the crime scene or anywhere nearby. I looked, we all looked. When I did find it, it was at the apartment. Maybe it hadn't been there when we arrived, but that's where I found it."
Alecson became thoughtfully quiet for a moment, then leaned back in his chair. " You've dealt with Bruno and his boys before, right?"
" Yes, in previous cases, two of which also involved murder."
" But Bruno was never convicted for any of it. His boys took the heat and he walked off free as a bird."
Lines creased in Danny's forehead. " Yeah, so?"
" That must have been frustrating for you."
Danny shrugged. " I think it was frustrating for everyone."
Alecson lifted up his notepad with one hand, glanced over it, and let it drop.
" No, I mean for you. You've had previous encounters with him, haven't you? Before becoming a CSI?"
Danny's hands clenched tightly so that his knuckles paled. His throat moved in a hard swallow. Mac tensed in sympathy. He was not in on the details of all the troubles of Danny's life, just that he had them. Danny rarely opened up about it except to say that he had once been a kid who had fallen in with the wrong sort of people. It was difficult enough for him to say that much, so Mac had never tried to pry beyond it.
" Here and there," Danny replied, his voice strangely calm though tension seemed to emanate from him.
Alecson looked at his notes again. " I'm familiar with Bruno and his gang myself. I decided to do a little research into them. Seems one of them was arrested for putting a kid in the hospital, supposedly per Bruno's order though it was never proven. I did a little more research, and learned that that kid was you."
Flack looked from Alecson to Danny in alarm. Danny kept staring at his hands.
" So?"
" So… it seems to me you may or may not have something personal against Bruno and his gang. Do you?"
Danny shook his head. " Not really."
" Not really?"
Danny looked up, meeting Alecson's gaze. " Not enough to plant evidence. What happened to me when I was a kid was my own fault. I chose to hang around people like that, and took what came with it. I know that, I accept that, and I don't hold it against anyone. That includes Bruno's gang. I wouldn't risk my own career just to get back at him by putting his cousin in jail. He's not worth it."
Alecson narrowed his eyes. " Are you sure? The incident I read of wasn't the first or the last. I believe it was the fourth out of seven? And also very brutal."
" I told you, it's my own fault."
Alecson smiled. " You really believe that? Come on, it must tear you up inside knowing everything he's getting away with, including the stuff he had done to you. You know, I'm surprised he hasn't tried to spill anything about you just to save his cousin. Wouldn't be the first time he's done it. You say you hung around with bad people? What kind of people, huh? People like Bruno? Gangs, mobs, what?"
Danny shrugged. " Just… bad people. But I stopped. I got out."
Alecson shook his head. " So you think. Sometimes, you can never get out, not unless you're dead."
Danny grinned at this. " Yeah, well sometimes you can. The fact is I'm out, and I've got nothing against Bruno that would cause me to lose my job. I made bad choices, yeah, but I'm not an idiot."
Alecson released a sharp breath through his nose. " For your sake you'd better not be." He picked up the notepad. " I think we're done here."
Alecson stood first and left the room immediately. Mallens went to meet him and the two headed from the room to talk privately. Danny got up more slowly, as though the whole interview had worn him out. Flack gave him a reassuring pat on the back and followed him out.
" I'm impressed," Mac said. " You kept calm."
Danny looked nervously in the direction Alecson had gone. " He knew a lot."
" He's a cop," Flack said. " He's going to know a lot. But you did good in there. His plan was to make you lose it, have a fit. But I think everything you said'll work in your favor. But… that's going to depend on the next time. Alecson's going to try and dig up more on you. This was just the taste-test."
Mac saw the briefest shudder pass through Danny. The younger man looked tired, even afraid, and Mac couldn't blame him for that. Alecson would try harder, which meant exposing painful incidents that Danny would rather keep to himself, and ones buried even from himself. Danny would be exposed, and even if he didn't lose his job his reputation would be tainted.
Though curiosity tugged, Mac decided not to learn that past for himself first. He trusted Danny, Danny had admitted – at least – that he had done some wrong. But he was making up for it now. He deserved to have the past stay in the past.
" Danny," Mac said.
Danny's head shot around to look at him.
" Go home, get some rest, and be ready. That's all you can do right now."
Danny nodded, then turned and left.
" You know," Flack said after Danny had gone, " this feels like a witch hunt to me. They after Danny 'cause he of some evidence planting or because he wasn't the perfect little school boy when he was younger?"
Mac shoved his hands into his pockets. " The evidence. Somebody did plant it, just not him."
" Yeah," Flack said next. " Danny isn't the only one who doesn't like Bruno. Gotta be plenty of people out there with bigger grudges."
Flack's words settled into Mac's mind to become a myriad of thoughts. He immediately pulled out his phone and dialed up Stella's number.
" Stella here."
" Stella, it's Mac. If Aiden isn't busy, I want you to have her pull up every file on anything involving Brian "Bruno" McCalister. Focus on the cases and who was involved at the time."
" Way ahead of you there. She's already on it."
Mac smile. " Then tell her thanks."
