Author's Notes: Thanks for the reviews of the last chapter; for some reason I wasn't as confident about it. This chapter is a little on the short side. I considered adding another scene but when I got there it just seemed like the right place to end for now. Longer chapter next time, I promise.

Disclaimer: Wish they could be mine but unfortunately CBS owns them.

Blown Apart
Chapter 10

Detective Sawyer's looked at Grayson carefully. "You are positive that this man was the one you saw enter Grant's room? Please take another look; it's very important that we have no doubts about the identification."

Grayson barely glanced at the picture. "I said it was him didn't I? Isn't my word good enough?"

Sawyers smiled. "Of course it is. We just had to be sure. Thank you for coming in; if you don't mind we'd like for you to stay here while we question Detective Messer. Just in case we have further questions."

He frowned. "Is that really necessary? I was suppose to be off shift an hour ago. I have plans tonight that I can't get out of. I've already told you everything I could. But I'm back on at 8 in the morning if you did have any more questions. Please, it's my girlfriend's birthday; if I cancel tonight she might be my ex-girlfriend."

Jamison pulled Sawyers aside and asked her quietly. "Do we really need him?"

Sawyers surreptitiously glanced at the rookie officer. "Something doesn't feel right; I can't put my finger on it but I know its there. I'm already keeping one man away from his injured wife; do you really think I'm going to feel bad about ruining birthday plans?"

The male IA officer wasn't sure he agreed with everything Sawyers was doing. "But Grayson isn't a suspect. We can't really hold him can we?"

Sawyers made a low sound that sounded suspiciously like a growl. She turned to Grayson and pasted a smile on her face. "That's fine, Officer Grayson. You can leave but I want you to report to me here at the station as soon as you arrive in the morning."

He smiled in relief. "Thank you, Mam. I'll be here." He left quickly before she could change her mind.

Sawyers sat back down at the table and put the pictures back in the folder. Jamison watched her for a few minutes in silence realizing she was in deep thought. He waited until she looked up at him before he asked a question.

"What about Detective Taylor?"

"What about him?"

"Can't we let him go since Grayson didn't identify him?"

Sawyers slowly shook her head. "Not just yet." She gave him a hard look. "Don't look at me like that Jamison; I have solid reasons on this one. Detective Taylor can be a loose cannon where his lab or his people are concerned. Administrative Leave or not, he's not going to sit on the sidelines when one of his men has been accused of murder. If we release him now, he's going to do one of two things. Either he's going to leave and track down Grayson to question him about his identification or he's going to want to sit in when we question Detective Messer. I don't want him doing either. I'd rather he stay put awhile so I know where he is without him being in my way."

Jamison crossed his arms. "Or just maybe he'd go back to the hospital to keep Detective Monroe-Messer company. We could all tell how upset she was that we were taking her husband in on suspicion of murder."

"I feel bad for her; I really do. She doesn't deserve everything that has happened today but she had someone with her when we left. I can't risk this investigation on the hope that he'll go there instead. Trust me on this. I'm going to question Detective Messer. Wait one hour and then you can release Detective Taylor."

- CSI: NY - CSI: NY - CSI: NY -

Danny paced back and forth in the interrogation room. Had it only been hours earlier that he'd been in this same position? As he had told Lindsay earlier, he could understand the investigation of the shooting. But murder? Just the thought that they could believe he was capable of cold blooded murder would have made him laugh if the situation wasn't so serious.

He hoped Lindsay was okay. Martha had warned him that between the concussion and the general trauma of the day not to be surprised if she got overly emotional. Surely seeing her husband taken in for questioning on a murder charge would upset her more. He felt only slightly better that Sheldon was there to keep an eye on her. He had wanted to explain to Hawkes exactly what he was worried about but hadn't wanted to concern Lindsay if it wasn't necessary. He could only trust that as a doctor, Sheldon would know what to watch for.

He glanced at his watch. It was almost 8:00. If the events of the day hadn't happened, then he and Lindsay would be back at the apartment putting Lucy down for the night. The little girl had just recently graduated from a crib to a little toddler princess bed that had taken him forever to figure out how to put it together. Since then, she liked for both parents to lie down with her for a few minutes and read to her before she dropped off to sleep. There had been a couple of nights he had actually fallen asleep crammed beside her in the little bed before she did. Lindsay had woken him up and rescued him from the cramped sleeping arrangement just after Lucy had fallen asleep but he was pretty sure she had taken a picture first. He'd give anything to be curled up in that little pink bed with his two favorite girls right then.

The door opened and Detective Sawyers came in. Danny wondered if that meant that Jamison was questioning Mac or if he was on the other side of the two-way mirror. Sawyers sat down with her back to the mirror and motioned for him to sit as well. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Detective Messer."

"As long as you are coming in here to apologize for the terrible mistake you've made and that I can leave, it's okay. I know you have a job to do."

"Yes, I do have a job to do and it just seems to be getting more and more complicated as the day wears on. You said at the hospital that you left your wife's room for about half an hour. What made you leave out?"

"Sheldon had brought us a pizza cause he figured that Linds would like that better than the hospital food. She wanted something drink with it but all they had on the floor was Sierra Mist. She's not a fan of clear soda so I told her I'd run down to the cafeteria and get her a Diet Coke."

"That shouldn't have taken you thirty minutes." Sawyers observed.

Danny shrugged. It hurt his manly pride to admit that he'd gotten turned around in the hospital. "Have you seen that place? I should have left bread crumbs. I went in one door in the cafeteria and had to go out another. The elevators were right there and I thought it was the right ones. Turns out it wasn't. I ended up on the right floor wrong wing. I couldn't just walk to the right side cause it was blocked by surgery. They kind of frown on thru-traffic through the operating room. So I had to go all the way back down and find the right elevators."

"So you claim that you never went to Steve Grant's room?" Sawyers watched his expression neutrally.

Danny shook his head. "I couldn't even tell you what room he was in. I would presume ICU but I didn't really care to ask. After I left here the only thing I cared about was getting to my wife."

"It had to upset you that the man you believed was responsible for your wife's injuries was at the same hospital. Maybe you even wanted to hurt him. Wanted to make him pay for hurting the woman you love."

"Wanted? There's no crime in wanting to do something. A couple of weeks ago I took my little girl to the park. I was sitting on one of those benches watching her play in the sandbox when this little boy who was older and bigger than her came up and just pushed her down for no reason. What I wanted to do was run over there and push him down. Show him what it feels like to be pushed around by someone bigger than you. Then I wanted to go over to his father who was laughing about the whole thing and introduce my fist to his face and suggest that he man up and teach his son to be a decent human being instead of a bully. That's what I wanted to do but what I did was run over and scoop my crying little girl up in my arms, brush the sand off her clothes and then take her to get her favorite flavor of ice cream. So don't talk to me about wanting to do something; it's what you do that matters."

"So you admit that you did want to hurt Grant?" Sawyers persisted.

Danny sighed and ran his hands through his short hair. "I didn't say that. I can't lie; a big part of me wants to make the person who decided to blow up the lab my wife was in feel as much pain if not more as she felt. If Grant was that guy I can't say I'm sorry he's dead but- and here's the really big but- we don't know for sure yet if Grant was responsible for any of this. That doesn't mean I would give in to that want when we for sure have the guy in custody and I didn't have anything to do with Grant's death. I never went to his floor let alone his room. Weren't you getting the officer here to pick out the person he saw from a photo line up? How long does it take him to look at pictures and tell you that he didn't recognize anyone?"

"Actually, he did recognize the person who murdered Grant."

Danny nodded and stood. "Great, that means I can go now, right?"

"Sit down, Detective Messer. The picture he identified was yours."

Danny sat down heavily, stunned. "You gotta be kiddin' me? Then he's mistaken or lying. One or the other."

Leaning forward, Detective Sawyer put her hands on the table. "Why would he lie? What would he have to gain by falsely identifying you?"

Danny never took his eyes off of her. "I don't know. I just know that I didn't kill Grant and if he's saying I did he's either wrong or lying. I'm willing to admit that maybe I shouldn't have gone to Grant's apartment today. You're thinking' I went cause I wanted to hurt him but you are wrong. See, I'm an action kinda guy. I can't sit on the sidelines waitin' for someone else to do the work if I'm capable of doin' it myself. Most of the time that's not a bad thing. I wouldn't be walkin' today otherwise. I shoulda let someone else take this one 'cause Mac's right. He's always told us that when we are too personally involved it puts a big question mark over the whole lab. After seeing my wife lying there after nearly getting blown up I was as personally involved as they come. But that's all I'm guilty of. We shot Grant cause he didn't give us a choice and I never went near his room. No matter what that officer said. I don't know how I can convince you that I'm not guilty but I promise you I had nothing to do with his death." He buried his head in his hands emotionally spent.

Sawyers leaned back in her seat and her next words made Danny sit up and stare at her in disbelief. "I believe you."