Note: To those who inquired about it, there will be a Danny and Aiden friendship thing going on eventually. Also, I apologize if certain swear words look misspelled. I'm not big on swearing, but it seems necessary for the story, so I try and sensor it so it's not too bad. If a swear-word looks misplaced or out of place, it's for a reason.

Ch. 6

Lines

It was an unnaturally silent ride for Danny as he and Mavin journeyed the maze of streets and traffic. The sky had reached the twilight hour, and half that sky was painted in red, pink, gold, and violet like a visual mantra to the sun's departure. Danny's gaze was fixed to these colors partially obscured by the silhouetted buildings flecked erratically in lighted windows. The quiet and the colors had him suddenly reminiscing to the time when he and his family had taken a trip out west, either to Arizona, New Mexico, or California; he couldn't quite recall. He'd been a small child then, and did not even remember the reason for the trip except that he didn't get much pleasure out of it. The only thing that had impressed upon him about that trip was the sunsets. The hotel or resort (whatever it had been) had been in a flat, open area, and the sunsets would make the sky blaze in brilliant, warm colors like spilled paint. It had awed Danny then, and still awed him today whenever he thought back on it.

The only setback was the discomfort he felt about all that open space. It had been endless, and child that he had been it had made him feel small and lost. He preferred being surrounded and being able to look up and see the sun reflected in thousands of windows. He always knew where he was in New York, while out in the open one could become easily misplaced, with too many directions to chose from and no idea of where to start.

Still, those had been awesome sunsets.

Thinking back helped to take Danny's mind off a different kind of discomfort; the kind created by awkward silences. Danny had been prepared for a tirade of information concerning Jake. Even now Danny was still startled, and wary, of Mavin's muteness. It made Danny tense with anticipation for something unpleasant. So rather than tempt fate and break the silence himself, Danny indulged in it and let his mind wander to ignore the fact that he was trapped in a car with someone he didn't much like.

It was taking them quite a bit of time to reach Jake's place, but it was the end of the workday after all so traffic was heavy. Even as they sat in that traffic the silence remained thick. Danny glanced at Mavin off and on by moving only his eyes. The older detective was obviously deep in thought by the way he stared straight ahead with a wrinkled brow. Yet the sight did little to relax Danny.

" We're almost there," Mavin said suddenly after making another turn. Mavin's voice, though level, smashed into Danny's thoughts and made him flinch in slight surprise.

" 'Bout time," Danny replied, shifting his position to hide his reaction.

Someone, though Danny did not remember who, had once commented that every nook and cranny of New York had a personality of its own. The comment had stayed with Danny, and everywhere he went he would occasionally muse as to what personality he had stepped into. In the case of where they were now, it was something secretive and favoring seclusion. The buildings around them were closer together and there looked to be no signs of life say for a few lighted windows and stores; very few.

Mavin pulled up in front of a red-bricked place with a vacant aura about it. The front entrance was barred by a rusty door barely hanging onto its hinges, and too many windows to count were broken and patched with either cardboard or duct tape.

Danny held back the urge to laugh. " Why am I not surprised," he mumbled to himself as he got out of the car. Though Danny tried not to give into stereotypes, he usually failed miserable, mostly because some stereotypes tended to be proven true. Jake had struck him at the first as the kind of guy who would live in the cheapest, most run-down dump he could find, and even to Danny who had seen all kinds of dumps, this was as run down as one could get.

Another sign of life carried to Danny on the quiet, cool, still air of dusk - the barking of a dog. Other than that, everything about the neighborhood felt abandoned. Such places always gave Danny the creeps, because it was here where someone always waited in hiding to jump out when the time was right and take off. Danny had once cracked a rib when the guy he had sought to question jumped out from behind a garbage bin and rammed him into a wall. Danny would have gladly shot the guy as he fled had Flack not tackled the dirtbag first.

So Danny let Mavin lead the way, seeing as how this was his arena.

" So, how we gonna play this?" Danny asked as they walked up the cracked steps to the door. " I mean this is your guy and you know him best."

Mavin flashed a smirk over his shoulder. " Glad to see you're catching on, Messer."

Danny clamped his jaw shut and glared. Glaring, however, had little effect on Mavin except to help him hold his smile a little longer. Danny's need to spit verbally back was tearing him up inside. But he held himself in check by promising to unleash all wrath the moment Mavin took it too far.

Mavin looked back and yanked on the rusting door so that it shrieked open like a tormented giant bat. " I'll ask the questions. That's how we'll play it. You listen and take notes."

Danny rolled his eyes. " Cool with me."

" Yeah," Mavin snorted. " Sure it is."

They entered into the narrow corridor that smelled of cat pee and looked as though a small hurricane had blown through a while back. The tile floor was so faded, cracked, chipped, and stained that its original color was forever lost. The covering to the fluorescent lights was nearly non-existent, and darkened water stains mottled the ceiling (if it had been water that had caused the stains to begin with.)

They took the staircase that wound about the perimeter of the building up to the fourth landing.

" According to his parole officer," Mavin said as they climbed, his breath wheezing and heavy, " Jake never moved."

Danny, being younger and with far cleaner lungs, handled the stairs like they were only a single flight and not many. " So just what was it Jake got busted for besides being an accessory?"

Mavin coughed out a laugh. Somewhere in the building, a couple was having a shouting match. " He was never convicted for the letters. He was just the delivery boy. And he was cooperating when he fingered Lynals. We didn't have squat to hold him on. But before his new hobby of aiding sickos, he was charged with stalking, harassment, theft, breaking and entering, and resisting arrest all in the same week. He'd been a teenager then. Since then he's pretty much kept his nose clean. Then the Hangman came along and little Jakey found a new lease on being a creep."

Mavin stopped five rooms down and pounded on the cracked, wooden door. He then fell silent and waited.

Danny looked at him inquisitively. " No 'hey Jake, this is the police, open up'?"

Mavin pursed his lips and shrugged. " Naw." He grinned at Danny. " I like surprises. Don't you?"

Danny frowned and jerked his head at the door. " Not if it means they run."

Mavin pounded on the door again. Inside, unnoticed before, a murmuring, continuous din suddenly ceased.

" I'm coming!" A low but hoarse voice practically snarled. Chains rattled and locks clicked, then the door was thrown open revealing a man about Danny's height with receding hair and a five o'clock shadow verging on white. Jake, his face even more lined than in the picture, was looking much older than he actually was. He was wearing a heavy black coat over a sleeveless under shirt, along with a pair of baggy jeans held loosely in place by a black, studded belt. All that was missing was a bandanna or a baseball cap, and the gangster ensemble would have been complete.

Jake's gray-blue eyes became fixed on Mavin, narrowing in cold dissatisfaction.

" Whadda you want?" he growled. The man might have been gangster in appearance, but he had yet to play the part of another white guy trying to pass as black.

Mavin held out his arms as though about to hug Jake. " Jake, my man! What the hll kind of greeting is that for an old buddy?"

Jake shoved his hands into the pockets of his oversized coat and squinted incredulously. " Buddy?"

Mavin gave Jake a little shove back into the apartment. " Yeah, Buddy." Mavin went in after, and Danny followed. Jake's place was small, about as small as Mavin's place. The kitchen was on the left, and everything else was living room with two doors on the right open to reveal the bathroom and the bedroom. But what struck Danny a mental blow was the fact that the entire place was clean. Had it not been for the water stains on the wall and ceiling, especially in the bathroom, the frayed condition of the green couch, the old TV with bent rabbit ears, and the crates and plywood for a coffee table, it might have seemed a decent place. Jake might have gone for the cheap but he obviously still had his pride. Or perhaps he was just one of those obsessive-compulsive cleaners.

Jake went to the couch and dropped himself into it. He pulled a pack of cigarettes from the front pocket of his coat, stuck one in his mouth, and lit it with a plastic lighter.

" I'd offer you one," he said, the cigarette dangling precariously from his thin lips, " but I hate your guts. Who's the kid? New partner? How many would that be now, five, ten?"

Mavin tilted his head in Danny's direction. " He's with the crime lab. He's here to observe, take some samples, you know the drill."

Jake took a deep drag from the cigarette as though taking a deep, cleansing breath. He let the smoke spill out from his mouth slowly and watched it as it swirled and rose to fade away into stench.

Danny kept his own breathing careful and shallow. His nerves buzzed with burning irritation and his muscles twitched to take the cigarette from Jake's mouth and crush it out. He was getting sick of this crap.

" So which is gonna be first then? Questions or evidence?"

Mavin moved around to stand in front of Jake on the other side of the makeshift coffee table. " Questions. That's always the more painful part, right? Besides, we already have what we need from you."

Jake smiled caustically and tapped ash into a dish. " Personally, I always had fun with the questions. You were so easy back then. I'm betting you still are. Right kid?"

He looked at Danny. Danny made no reply, though he wanted to. Instead he stared coolly back with the look he usually gave those he was interrogating himself - dark and annoyed.

Jake chuckled. " Ouch, if looks could kill."

Mavin leaned forward and snapped his fingers in front of Jake's face. " Hey, Jakey-boy, over here. Do any mail-man impressions lately?" Mavin pulled a plastic bag containing a blank sheet of paper from his pocket. " 'Cause I just got a special delivery."

Jake was the picture of calm as he took another inhalation of smoke, then smiled. His eyes sparked with what Danny could have sworn was displeasure.

" Not my doin'."

Jake sounded unhappy, even bitter. He flicked the end of his cigarette with agitated force, nearly causing the ash to fly into highly flammable places.

Mavin simpered. " Aw, is Jake not the favorite anymore? The Hangman get tired of the service or somethin'? Or is this part of some startin' over process? You out of the running Jake?"

Jake shrugged. " It ain't always me doin' the drop-offs. You know that. I only took in the good stuff, and I know it was the good stuff by the way you guys would always take off like spooked pigeons." Jake let out a breathy laugh. " Good times, man, good times."

Mavin shoved the paper back into his pocket. " Bet they were, Jakey. I'm pretty sure you've heard about new bodies found?"

Jake nodded, taking a drag. " Only someone both blind and deaf wouldn't know. It's all over the news."

" You know what it means then."

Jake gave another breathless laugh. " You're gonna be on my A like stink on a dog. I know. Watching, waiting. Despite the fact that it didn't work out too good the last time. You must've spent, like, hours sittin' out in your car, freezing your butt off, watching my place like you had nothing better to do. Oh, wait, you didn't have anything better to do. You really need to get a life, Mavin. Am I right, kid?"

Once again, Jake turned his attention to Danny, and once again Danny went for the silent treatment. Jake appeared amused by this.

" You a mute or something?" he looked back at Mavin. " What's his problem?"

Mavin just chuckled, about to respond, but Danny beat him to it, tired of remaining lost in the background.

" No. I just got better things to do than talk to you."

Jake arched an eyebrow in slight surprise. " Yeah? Like what? Standing there and breathing?"

" Watching you."

Jake blew smoke out through his nose. " Am I pretty or something? Or do you think I might try something?"

Danny shook his head. " Naw. But you can tell a lot about a guy just by watching him. For example, right now you don't look too happy about someone else delivering the letter."

Jake's smile diminished but did not vanish. " You can tell that just by looking at me." He shook his head. " You both need to get a life."

" Okay, Jake, let's just cut to it then," Mavin jumped in. His tone was different, less pleasant, as though he had suffered a sudden mood change. " Yes, we're gonna be on you're A. You so much as wipe your nose in a way we don't like and we're hauling you in. I'm tempted to haul you in right now, 'cause right now you're our number one suspect."

Jake beamed. " Aw, gee, thanks Mavin, that means a lot. Too bad I'm not the guy you want, but I doubt you'll ever know for sure. But hey, listen, the moment I start deliveries I'll be sure to make them to you personally."

Mavin tilted his head back to release a frustrated breath. " Jake, you know this can't last forever." He looked back down at Jake. " You're expendable, Jake. Disposable. You're not the favorite; you're just convenient. So you know stuff not even the cops know, and find it fun to rub it in our faces. But think about it, Jake. The moment you become useless is the moment you also become the next victim. The Hangman ain't gonna let you live with all the crap you know. It's too risky. Hll, I'm surprised you're even still alive."

Danny was still watching Jake intently, especially his eyes. The eyes were the windows to the soul, or so the saying went. Personally, Danny saw them more as the betrayer of the souls, the two-way mirror into what was going on behind all the façade. What Danny witnessed in Jake's eyes was a flicker of fear, subtle and quick, but not quick enough for Danny to miss. Mavin's words had struck a nerve, which meant that Jake believed them though he did not want to.

Jake smashed his cigarette into the ashtray, grinding it to his fingertips without burning himself, or acknowledging that he had burned himself.

" Whatever, Mavin. The fact that I'm still alive should say a lot." He took another cigarette from the pack, then spread his arms out wide. " I'm the prophet in this, Mavin. I'm the messenger. You can't hang the messenger. Speaking of which, get anyone to replace Myers yet?"

Danny looked at Mavin, wondering how he would respond. Mavin just smiled, but it was a tight, nasty smile that put Danny on alert.

Jake continued. " I mean, you talk about me being expendable. You guys get replaced in, like, a heartbeat the very second one of you kicks it."

Mavin still retained his tight smile, and then he sighed. " Jake, you talk, and all I hear is static. Give me something to listen to and then maybe I'll respond by not throwing your sorry butt in jail the next time a letter comes."

Mavin then turned as though about to go, and Danny began to follow. Except Mavin didn't head toward the door. He moved slowly around the table to tower over the still sitting Jake. Jake, his cigarette now lit, looked up at Mavin. He removed the cigarette from his mouth and carefully laid it down in the tray.

As soon as he did, Mavin balled his fist and slammed it into Jake's jaw, causing the man's head to snap to the side and his body to slam into the couch. But Mavin did not stop there. He picked up Jake by the collar of his coat and threw him to the floor.

" Hey!" Danny gasped. It all happened so fast that Danny hardly had time to register it. Danny's heart slammed in alarm and he rushed around the table to grab Mavin just as he was crouching and lifting Jake back up. He pulled Mavin back, and Mavin dropped Jake back onto the couch.

Jake, however, was laughing as he wiped the blood from his nose. He twitched his head and let out a sharp breath as though he had just gone on a wild ride.

" Dang, Mavin, you always could deal a good blow."

Mavin jerked his arm free of Danny's grasp and smiled. " I don't let myself get rusty."

Blood kept dripping from Jake's nose, and he kept wiping. " I don't know why you even try. Didn't work then, won't work now."

Mavin dropped his grin. " Just playin' along, Jake. Just playin' along. You know I gotta at least try."

Jake nodded. Mavin then pushed past Danny to head out the door. Danny followed, his mind reeling at the exchange he had just witnessed. He felt sick with shock, and was unable to hold his tongue any longer. As soon as they were outside Jake's place, shutting the door, Danny unchecked himself.

" What the hll was that, Mavin! Huh? Why'd you hit him? What the hll were you thinking..."

They were heading back down the hall when Mavin suddenly turned on Danny with eyes blazing in anger. He stuck his finger into Danny's chest as though it were the barrel of a gun.

" Don't ever," he said in a quiet, cold, venomous voice, " interfere like that again."

" You were gonna pound him flat…"

" Not that!" Mavin hissed between gritted teeth. " When I say to let me handle the questions, you keep your mouth shut. Got it? You almost ruined it."

Danny knocked Mavin's hand away. " Ruined what, Mavin? Your little word game? You know, if I didn't know any better I could have sworn all you two were doin' was catching up on old times." Danny jabbed his finger back toward Jake's place. " We didn't learn a freakin' thing in there. In fact, if anything, we probably just got our butts hauled off this case."

Mavin laughed scornfully. " Why? Because of the beating I gave Jake? That ain't the first incident, Messer. He's not gonna report us, he loves it. He's a freak. He thinks it's a joke, and frankly I enjoy it. Helps me to vent. It's not like I was gonna beat him to death. Just a few hits, like a message of our own."

Danny could not believe he was hearing this. Mavin's tone, his attitude, conveyed the absolute sincerity of his words to Danny. Mavin did enjoy this, not just the beating but all of it. It was a joke to him as well.

" This isn't a freakin' game, Mavin!" Danny practically yelled. " You keep callin' it that but it's not so stop treating it like it is!"

Mavin, for a moment, did not move except to slowly narrow his eyes in scrutiny.

" You think I'm playin' a game?"

Danny, his heart thrashing like a maddened animal against his ribcage, nodded sharply. " Yeah, that's exactly what I think. Because that's exactly what you keep calling it."

Mavin seemed to be searching Danny's face, either for truth or for what Danny was really thinking. Then he laughed a hard, cold laugh, shaking his head.

" You have no idea…" he began, then let out a breath smelling of nicotine and mint. " You're clueless, you know that kid? Totally… Freakin'… clueless. So let me fill you in on a little something you don't seem to realize. Come on."

He tried to place his hand on Danny's shoulder, but Danny jerked away from him.

Mavin glared at Danny. " You need to relax Messer." It was more like a command than a suggestion. He headed down the hall, and Danny had no choice but to follow, his blood pounding in his ears to the rhythm of his pulsing heart.

CSY NY

When they went back outside, the sky was dark, and any remaining light was hidden behind the wall of buildings. Mavin and Danny entered the car in terse silence, Danny watching Mavin for another shift in attitude but the man's darkened expression still lingered.

Mavin pulled away from the building and up the street. He took streets that were not taking them back the way they had come, and Danny tensed.

" Where're we going now?" he asked, looking around to hide the discomfort welling inside him. At that moment, he would have taken a shot to the knee rather than let Mavin know he had rattled him.

" You'll know when we get there," Mavin replied. They took several turns until they came to a block lined by stores. Mavin slowed the car to a crawl, and pointed toward a liquor store where a group of guys in heavy coats and wearing blue bandannas stepped out.

" Perfect timing. You know who those boys are?"

Danny couldn't see their faces as the glaring lights of the store silhouetted them.

" Enlighten me."

" Nobody's, all of 'em. The problem is, they don't think their nobody's, and the public doesn't either. They're a gang just like any other gang - full of it. Don't get me wrong, they're not anyone you wanna mess with. But any idiot becomes a danger when they get hold of a gun. The thing is, these guys here, the ones standing there, deciding on where they should go to get drunk and high - They're not big shots, not like, say - oh, I don't know - Tanglewood…"

At this, Danny snapped his head around to look at Mavin. The smirk had returned, and it brought about a full on memory of the day Danny had met Mavin. He had expected something like this to happen, but sooner, not later.

" And they know it," Mavin continued. " So they do what they can, hoping against hope that they might be recognized for more than just a bunch of brain-dead junkies. Do you know how a gang becomes more than bunch of brain-dead junkies, Messer?"

Danny clenched his jaw shut so tight that his teeth began to hurt, but now was not the time to be speaking, not to Mavin.

" I'll just assume you do. I like to get to know people, Messer, on a deeper level. But people…" he shrugged. " They don't like me getting to know them. I've asked around where I could, and let me tell you, I've heard some interesting things about you. Don't know if any of it's true, though, and I can safely bet you're not the one to ask. But you know about people," he pointed toward the gang now wandering off down the sidewalk, " like them. You know about that world, don't you Messer?"

Danny, with an effort that actually hurt inside, turned away to direct his hateful gaze out the window so that Mavin couldn't see and relish it. He forced the mist of fury from his brain, pushing aside angry retorts for something that would prove more effective.

" So?" was his response. Sometimes the most basic, simple words could hold the greatest meanings if said right. And it was true, so what if he knew things about that world. He had always seen such knowing as an advantage to his job, and so used it that way.

Mavin was silent for a moment. His curiosity getting the better of him, Danny forced himself to look back.

Mavin, for his part, appeared genuinely impressed.

" Well, then, you know how some of them can be," Mavin continued. " These guys wanna make a name for themselves, they do what they can, and say screw to all the limits. Those boys walking away right now include some of the ones used by the Hangman to deliver his letters. Now, some of them may have done it out of fear, but after talkin' with them all for a while we discovered that all of them, even the scared ones, had started doing it because they thought it was cool. They thought they were taking part in something big, and that they would have something they could brag about to others. Now, this may sound messed up, but think about it. Association is the key. To say you're affiliated with a serial killer…." Mavin shook his head in disbelief, " man, that otta get you respect right off the back. Of course you'd have to embellish it a tad. You know, say you're tight with the killer and all? Do enough research and you can even claim that you helped in the killings. You see Messer, what it all comes down to is getting a name, making yourself known... no matter what."

Mavin pulled away from the curb and continued on up the street. " They think it's a game, Messer. They think it's a way to get ahead. They don't see what we see. They don't see the hanging bodies and the blood. They just see a name that'll go down in history, and they want a piece of it. If you ask me, I think they're sicker than our killer. They're rising up in life on a stack of dead bodies, bodies of people they didn't even know. You accuse me of treating this like a game? Well, guess what Messer, it is a game. To the killer and these lackeys it is. And like any game you have to play. Part of that game is trying to fix the mistakes of the past, and to do that you have to repeat the past say for where it went wrong. Me hitting Jake - that was the routine then, so it's the routine now. And you never know when it might finally work."

They were finally turning onto streets Danny knew would take them back to the crime lab, and relief flooded him. It was an uncomfortable notion to admit even to himself, but Danny found himself needing desperately to get away from Mavin. All of Mavin's talk of games and playing along struck Danny as sounding faulty, while at the same time plausible. Murderers who killed simply for the sake of killing tended toward making it all a game to add some extra spice to the act. The killer's part was to establish the rules, and the police to discover those rules. Then it all came down to the simple matter of winning or losing, whether the cops found the killer or the killer stopped on his own accord.

That was where the flaw lay. The game was the killer's to begin with, so his to manipulate. Manipulation was where the real fun lay. So to play the way the killer wanted was to give the killer what he wanted. He would always remain ten steps ahead, and the authorities ten steps behind. That is, unless, someone finally crossed those lines the killer set thinking that they would never be crossed. In other words - going too far.

And that was what made Danny sick, what made him want to get away from Mavin. Mavin would be that someone; there was no doubt about it in Danny's mind now.