Secrets || Danny

Mac scoffed. "I'm sure Detective Flack will have a blast showing you to booking when we get back to the precinct."

Truby smiled and smirked some. "Let's go, Jenkins. U have a date with Detective Flack. I'm sure he'll have a blast with u." he said.

Mac smiled. "You know he always does, Truby. He always does," he said.

Truby smiled. "This couldn't have come at a better time. Come on. Detective Flack's waiting for u in there. I'll be in to join him in a minute." he said.

Mac nodded, still smiling himself. "Count me in as well. I wouldn't miss that for the world."

Truby nodded. "I really want a crack at this guy, Mac. But I'll let Don handle him first then I'll jump in from the bullpen. What do u think?" he asked.

Mac nodded in agreement. "I think that's a good plan. Don should be able to handle him, but considering the angle you, and maybe even I, could take at him could really get us through this final leg. And trust me, this case being done couldn't come too early."

Don began the interrogation process while Mac and Truby stayed on the sidelines for now. "Christopher Jenkins. Priors for assault and battery on a mall cop, armed robbery, arson, and now attempted murder of a crime scene investigator. I do have to ask, why bother moving up the ladder, Jenkins? Your life as we all know it is over. You're going away for a long time. But tell me why u decided to go after Mac. And not to mention u tried to frame Dean Truby for your crime. Not very smart, if I may say so myself." he said.

"So you've been inhaling fumes yourself?" Jenkins asked, "I don't know what the hell you all keep talking about. I didn't touch no one. Sure, I was drunk, but I didn't do nothing. You sure you got your tests right, or is this just on a word? I'm sure Truby told you an earful."

Don leaned back in his chair. "You're so stupid, Jenkins. I don't work at the lab. I'm old fashioned. We solve cases based on facts, not science. I leave that up to Mac and his team, which I may add, is very very good at what they do. U still haven't answered my question, scumbag." he said.

Jenkins shrugged, not particularly concerned about the correction. "I don't know... Why would I have any reason to go after Taylor?" he asked, "I hardly know the man."

Don sighed. "Come on, Jenkins. Don't waste my time by giving me crap ok? The longer u stall us here, the longer you're gonna be here. It's your choice. And if I forgot to mention Mac can't wait to get his hands on u, well guess what? It's your lucky day." he said smiling.

Jenkins simply nodded, looking at the Homicide Detective as Mac walked in with Truby smiling. "Thanks for the introduction, Don," he said, giving his friend a pat on the back as he walked over to lean against the wall by the glass. He nodded over to Truby, "I figured I'd bring a friend," he told Jenkins, "I still don't know, out of the pair of us, me and Truby, who's more pissed off at you for trying to set him up. Because I'm pretty pissed myself, although I still think the scale's tipping in his favor on that one, and that's pretty alright with me. I figured you'd like to talk with the two of us present," he explained with an impassive shrug. "And you might wanna start talking. I can't speak for my friends here. I don't think I'm in the mood to stop them from dissecting you while you're still breathing, and I think they've considered it, even if it was for just a wee little bit of time."

Jenkins tossed a coin in the air as if to say who cares? "It's like I told Detective Smart Ass over here, why the hell would I have any reason to go after u, Taylor? I hardly know u and murder really isn't my forte." he said.

Mac shrugged. "You tell me. Why would Truby have a reason to want me dead, if you won't speak for yourself?" he asked. "Give me one good reason that has you believing Truby could be responsible for doing this, and then I might just give you a little more respect."

Jenkins shrugged his shoulders and leaned forward in his chair. "Hell, I don't know, Taylor. I can't speak for him. Perhaps he can tell u." he said.

Mac shrugged, looking for a moment from Jenkins to Truby before looking back to Jenkins. "See... Here's my problem with thinking Truby did this," he said as he stood, snapping his fingers as he started to pace a little along the length of the room. It wasn't really out of stress or anything of the sort... It was more so playing cat and mouse with Jenkins, trying to find a chink in that armor so he could get through the lies. "Truby saved my ass back in the day, if you don't remember the Dobson case. The media overkilled the story, I'm sure, so I'd bet a man like yourself wouldn't forget that. He's probably the reason I'm not serving time for a murder I didn't commit. So... just to throw the thought at you, because maybe you can help me answer it for sure... Why... Why, I ask, would the man that got me out of the noose suddenly put another one around my neck... all this time after?"

Jenkins shrugged his shoulders. "You're the cop, u figure it out. Maybe him saving your ass the first time didn't really mean anything to him so he decided to come after u over something else. Or maybe, just maybe, he thought oh u are guilty of pushing Dobson off the ledge and he knows u deserved to be punished instead of being let off the hook. Think about it. An unarmed man gets cuffed and pushed off the ledge but u somehow convinced IAB that he did that himself. Nice going, Taylor." he said.

Mac shrugged impassively after the possibly stinging comment about Dobson. "Thanks," he said, "You should consider yourself lucky I haven't considered doing the same thing to your sorry ass," he added flatly. "And really, it's none of your concern on how Dobson died. Whether he jumped or I killed him by pushing him is a problem you should leave to God and Hell to settle with my soul later. I'm sure they can handle it," he pointed out, leaning back against the wall again. "Now, if all of us are done playing Ring Around The Posies, why don't we jump the gun back to the problem at hand. I'm not asking for a solid answer on why you think our boy over here is guilty... I'm asking for an opinion," he clarified, a hint of stubbornness behind the comment, "Just... forget I'm a cop for a moment, if you can. If I wasn't a cop, what would you tell me that would make me reconsider Truby's innocence? Really? No harm, no foul. What would you say?"

Jenkins sighed and shook his head, looking directly into Mac's eyes. "Mac, u don't know the history between Dean and I. A few years back I was on my way home from work and I stopped at a local bar. The same one u found me at tonight. There was this beautiful blonde girl there. I excused myself from the table and I decided to talk to her. It went well until Truby joined us and embarrassed the crap out of me. He blurted out that I was married and that he would tell my wife that I was hitting on some girl. From then on we never really saw eye to eye." he said.

Mac nodded, listening patiently. There had to be a way to get to the source of the problem here. "Okay... So you two don't get along now," he said in summary to what he'd been told, "Anything else you think I need to know before I look at all of this again?"

Jenkins nodded. "Yeah. In retaliation, I stole his car and parked it on the 59th Street Bridge and left it there." he said. Jenkins took a moment to think. "That was until the cops found it and ran my prints through the system and arrested me." he added.

Okay, personally... Mac found all of this ridiculous. Really? Stealing your friend's car and parking it on the 59th Street Bridge in retaliation? What was this? Grand Theft Auto? Regardless, he nodded, playing cool. "Did you do time for that?"

Jenkins nodded in shame. "No. They kept me overnight and let me post bail the next morning." he said. He paused for a moment. "They said because I was NYPD, they couldn't hold me."

Mac nodded. Now they just might be getting somewhere... If only he could get how this connected back to what had gone down earlier. "Alright, that's fine. You didn't do anything wrong there, okay?" This probably sounded absolutely absurd by now, but Mac needed on Jenkins's good side for a little bit to get him to talk honestly. "I think what's important is that you take away from whatever you did that maybe you shouldn't have and it won't happen again. That's really the purpose of locking criminals up, even though it hardly works sometimes."