"Mac, wait up!" Danny jogged down the hall to join his boss "I heard you got a suspect down in interrogation…"
"Yeah, but we don't have enough on him though. We have DNA telling u he was with Jessica Bancroft before she was shot but we have nothing linking him to the ally and nothing to indicate he had a motive for killing her…" Mac shook his head.
"Well, I think I might be able to help you with that…" Danny smirked "I ran the prints from the official case file we found in the lock box, and let me tell you there were plenty of them. I checked the degradation of the oils to find the most recent print that didn't belong to our vic and Boom! I got a match!"
He handed the file over to Mac with a triumphant smile "His name is Henry Buford, works down in archives. Clean record, practically a boy scout so I'm thinking what would make a single guy, an upstanding member of society, risk his career and hand over a confidential police file?"
"A beautiful young girl promising sex…" Mac smiled back, arriving at the same conclusion.
"Boyfriend Hobbs finds out Jessie is running around doing the nasty with someone else - and you got yourself a motive!"
"We need to talk to Mr. Henry Buford…" Mac handed the file back to Danny.
"Two steps ahead of you boss, already got him cooling his heals down in the interrogation room…"
"Lead the way!"
They made their way downstairs and headed for the small interrogation room where Henry Buford was already seated looking nervous and uncomfortable. They walked in and took a seat at the table in front of him.
"What is this about?" his voice actually squeaked as he spoke.
Danny ignored him opening the man's file and reading "Henry Buford, 27 years old, administrative assistant at the New York police department archives department. Administrative assistant… Wow that's a big title! Tell me Henry, what does an administrative assistant do exactly?"
"I log files, catalog them, file them in their proper place…"
"What about this file?" Mac placed the police file taken from Jessie Bancroft's lock box on the desk and pushed it towards the man "Did you file this case file in it's proper place?"
"We have hundreds of files down in the archives Detective" Henry replied after a quick glance at the folder "I don't read them, I can't really be expected to remember every file I've ever handled…"
"Come on Henry!" Danny raised his voice slightly "We found your prints on this file…"
"Like I said - we have hundreds of files down in the archives, I take the files, I log them in the computerized database… I must have touched more then half of them…"
"What about this girl Henry?" Danny placed a picture of Jessica Bancroft on the table right next to the police file "You ever touch her?"
Mac could see the man in front of him pale visibly and a sideway glance to Danny told him the younger CSI caught the reaction as well.
"Let me guess…" Mac leaned in "A beautiful girl comes up to you, maybe in a bar, she strikes up a conversation, you have a few drinks…"
"You're starting to think maybe you're going to get a little something something and then she asks you to do this one little thing for her…I mean, what's a little favor between two special friends" Danny finished the story and Mac had to hide his smile at Danny's typically colorful choice of words.
"Look, yes, I knew her, her name is Jessie something… we met in a club a few month ago, she came on to me, we went out a couple of times." Henry finally gave in "She was a student in NYU she was taking a course in criminology or something and she asked for my help…"
"She asked you to get the file on Hanna Danvers for her" Mac already knew the rest of this story
"She said she read about it on the internet, that it'd be perfect for a paper she had to write. So I gave her the file, I was trying to impress her…"
"Did you sleep with her?" Danny asked to which Henry nodded, looking down in embarrassment.
"But after you gave her the file, she dumped you" Mac pushed further. When Henry didn't respond he knew that his suspicions were confirmed. "We're gonna need to know where you were two nights ago between 10pm and midnight."
DNA lab
"Hey Adam tell me you've got a match" Lindsey waved the pleasantries as she walked into the lab
"Hold your horses the missy" Adam replied with a smile "You can't rush the master at work"
"Well, Mac has the suspect down in interrogation room and we need to know if the DNA sample he gave us matches the one found in the rape kit from our victim"
"Speaking of which, any news from the hospital?" Adam asked. By now everyone in the lab already knew what happened in the ally with the victim. Even with these people, who'd already seen practically everything, the idea of a young girl bleeding out with dozens of police officers around her and no one reaching out to help - was difficult to swallow.
"Still in a coma" Lindsey shook her head sadly "And with every hour passing the chances of her waking up…" She didn't need to finish her sentence.
Just then the machine behind them beeped and Adam gave her a small smile as he pulled the sheet of results from the printer "Survey says - DNA found inside the victim is a positive match for the sample we got from out suspect!"
"Adam, you were right - you are definitely the master!"
"Now this sure is a nice place" Hawks commented as he and Stella stood in the doorway to Michael Hobbs's apartment. The place was spacious and decorated with obvious good taste. High ceilings, hardwood floors, large bay windows overlooking the garden with long cream colored curtains that reached all the way down to the floor. Most of the living room area constituted of open space but there were two couches and a wooden coffee table in front of the small fireplace with large pillows and a soft rug. Off to the right side of the living room the kitchen was all stainless steal and high end appliances with a small counter and two bar stools. On the other end of the living room there was a door that Hawks guessed lead to the bedroom.
"I'll start with the living room, you take the bedroom" Hawks suggested and Stella nodded with a smile and disappeared in that direction.
He switched on his ALS flashlight and started going over the living room area, looking for traces of blood or bodily fluids - but found none. He noticed two coasters on the coffee table and a quick look in the dishwasher in the kitchen revealed two wine glasses, freshly washed. When he made his way back to the living room the pictures on the mantle of the fire place and went closer to investigate. He took another look around the living room then made his way to the bedroom to check on Stella.
"I've got nothing in the living room which points to a struggle or a rape - no blood, no semen" He reported once he got into the bedroom.
"Well, I've got semen here" Stella indicated at the large bed "But no signs of a struggle"
"There is a half opened bottle of wine in the fridge, two coasters on the coffee table, two glasses in the dishwasher…"
"Sounds like a romantic night at home…" Stella concluded as Hawks took a look around the bedroom and frowned.
"No pictures of Jessie in the bedroom…" He murmured
"How is that significant?" Stella frowned
"Well, there are pictures in the living room. Jessie appears in several of them, one is from a trip somewhere, one is from what seemed like a high school graduation ceremony…"
"So?" Stella still couldn't get where he was heading with this particular line of thought
"Pictures of friends and family go in the living room, pictures of girlfriends go in the bedroom…" When he saw Stella's bewildered look he chuckled "It's a guy thing…"
Stella laughed and shook her head "Well, I don't think 'it's a guy thing' constitutes as viable forensic evidence, so keep looking…"