THE NEXT DAY

"Hey Hawks, sorry to drag you out of bed this early in the morning, I know you've been working late last night" Detective Angel greeted from the top of the stairs, looking down at him over the railing "But I thought you'd wanna see this…"

Hawks smiled at her and made the rest of the way up the stairs to the third floor.

"I hear you guys are looking for one, Jeff Shelby, in connection with that girl who'd been shot 3 days ago. Well, I just found him for you…"

She moved out of his way and allowed him to look through the open front door which led to the apartment behind her. A man was lying in the middle of the living room in a pool of his own blood.

Hawks nodded and went into the apartment, kneeling next to the victim. "He doesn't look like the picture we pulled off his file…"

"That's because his name is not really Jeff Shelby." Angel replied and handed him a stack of driver's licenses bound in a rubber band "We found a bunch of fake ID's including one under the name Jeff Shelby. We're trying to find out his real name but it's going to take a while to sift through all these fake ID's"

"This can't be a coincidence…"

"Plus we found this in the trash can under the kitchen sink" Angel handed his a small purse. He opened it to reveal an NYU student ID under the name Jessie Bancroft.

"Looks like several stab wounds to the chest and abdomen." He returned his attention back to the body. He took out his flashlight and looked closer at the victim noticing a spot of blood on the sleeve of his shirt. He pulled the sleeve up slightly to reveal a small grazing wound on the victim's shoulder. "This is definitely our shooter. This is the man who tried to kill Jessie Bancroft. I think I'll need a little help processing this…"

He pulled out his cell phone and stepped away from the body to make his call. The voice on the other end answered after only two rings sounding sleepy and groggy.

"Lindsey Monroe"

"Lindsey!?" He frowned for a second but then his face broke into a sly smile "I was actually calling Danny…Any ideas where he is?"

There was a moment of stunned silence then some rustling in the background and a few choice curse words that made his chuckle.

"Hawks? What do you need?" Danny's voice sounded sleepy as well with just a tinge of embarrassment that made Hawks smile even wider.

"I need you to help process a scene… we found Jeff Shelby, he's dead…" He rattled off the address quickly for Danny to write.

"I'll be there in 20 minutes…" Danny was on his way to hang up the phone, hoping to avoid any further discussion - he wasn't that lucky.

"Oh and Danny, when you get here, you and I are going to have a really long talk!"

Hospital

Mac walked slowly into the hospital room and watched the scene in front of him for a second. Michael Hobbs was sitting in a chair by the bed, his hand clasping Jessie Bancroft's palm and his lips were moving in a silent prayer as he drew their linked hands closer and placed a soft kiss on her knuckles. Suddenly, Mac felt like an intruder, like he had no right to stand there and watch this intimate moment.

He cleared his throat to make his presence known "Hello Michael, I was wondering if I could talk to you for a few minutes. Do you mind if I buy you a cup of coffee?"

Michael didn't reply, nor did he take his eyes off Jessie, as he rose from his seat and moved to follow Mac out of the room.

A few minutes later the two of them were walking around the small hospital garden, each with a steaming cup of coffee in his hand. The heat wave finally broke sometime during the night and a cool breeze was dancing between the small trees finally making it possible to breath without feeling like your entire throat and lungs were being set on fire.

"You were trying to tell me something the last time we spoke" Mac finally spoke "I didn't get it then, but I'm starting to now. You said that Jessie spent most of her childhood with you, that she was at your house practically every day"

Michael nodded, his gaze fixed on the soles of his shoes.

"Jessie was at your house because she didn't want to go home didn't she?" Mac pressed on "Because her father was beating her mother…"

"I only saw it a few times. I was just a kid, I didn't really understand it until years later" Michael said softly after the longest pause "Everyone knew something was happening. Mrs. Danvers would show up with a new bruise practically every day and the excuse of being clumsy can only get you so far, but nobody said anything. You see, things like that don't happen in Park Avenue. Harlem, Brooklyn maybe… but not Park Avenue. After a while he simply kept her inside the house. She wasn't allowed to go anywhere. He hired maids and assistants and paid them big bucks to keep quiet and everyone said what a lucky woman she was to have such a loving husband who takes care of her"

"And then Mrs. Danvers killed herself"

"Jessie never believed it. She was adamant about it. She couldn't believe her mother would ever leave her alone with him…"

"Michael" Mac asked hesitantly "Did Mr. Danvers ever assault Jessie? Did he hit her?"

Michael was silent again for a long moment. Mac could understand his hesitation - this wasn't his story and he was debating himself how much of his friend's trust should he betray - so he just waited patiently until the young man made his decision.

"She tried to spend as much time out of the house as she could… but there were times…Once, I think we were 13 or 14, for some reason we were hanging out at her house that day, he wasn't supposed to be home. We were just horsing around you know? Having a tickle fight or something…I was sitting on her, like, pining her down, we were both laughing and he just burst in, practically took the door off it's hinges. It happened so fast, he just lost it. He grabbed her by the hair and I swear to you, for a few seconds there her feet weren't even touching the floor. He kept screaming at her that she was a slut… we were just kids, we weren't doing anything like that Detective Taylor! I swear!" He turned to Mac his eyes big and pleading, looking young and terrified.

"It's ok son. I believe you…" Mac placed a reassuring hand on Michael's shoulder to comfort the young man even though deep inside his own anger was staring to approach it's boiling point. He couldn't imagine the kind of terror this young man witnessed to cause him to be so terrified.

"I wanted to help her" Michael continued his story "To get him off of her, but she just screamed at me to get the hell out of there. I never figured out if it was because she was too ashamed to let me see what was going to happen or because she was afraid he'd beat the crap out of me too - but I did, I got out of there. She didn't come to school for 3 days after that and when she finally did she had a shiner on her face the size of Kansas… We never talked about it though, I never asked and she never volunteered any details…"

Mac nodded slowly and the two of them kept sitting on that bench for another half hour, neither one of them saying anything. Finally, Michael got to his feet and Mac got up with him and started escorting him back towards the hospital. As they reached the doors, the young man turned to face Mac, his eyes shining with unshed tears.

"Detective Taylor, I need you to know something… I know what you must think of me, and of Jessie… sleeping with me, sleeping with that guy from the police station…and I'm guessing Mr. Danvers already told you about my juvenile record…" When he saw Mac's expression he let out a bitter laughter "Yeah, he loves throwing that in my face. Look, Jessie's parents being what they were and my parents being away 90 percent of the time - the two of us grew up pretty much on our own. We were curious kids and there was no one to set any rules… we did a lot of crazy things, stupid stuff, shop lifting, got arrested for disorderly conduct for going at it in central park when we were 17, graffiti on the side of a building… we were just kids. We grew up since then, got our act together. Jessie isn't a bad person, she's wild and she certainly has no hang-ups about sex… but she's not the trouble maker her father makes her out to be…"

"I'm not here to judge Jessie or you" Mac interjected, stopping Michael's attempt at an explanation "I know that she was your friend, and you stuck by her no matter what. By everything you just told me… a friend is exactly what she needed. That's all I need to know about the two of you…"