CSI:New York : Who Are You? (Don Flack/OFC fanfic)

...Die By The Sword

Three hours later Danny and Olivia sat side by side at a table in one of PD's interrogation rooms. Opposite, sat Marcus Christian twisting his hands all but ringing them, a sign of nervous guilt if ever both CSIs saw one. As for the way his eyes kept darting around the room and his tongue kept licking at the sweat that was repeatedly breaking out on his top lip, well, if the guy was innocent he wasn't doing a very good job of showing it. He also didn't look as strong nor as confident as he had back at the dojo.

'Detective Flack tracked down a few of your drinking buddies from the night Patrick Maxwell was murdered,' began Danny. 'They confirmed he was part of the group. So when you told us you were friends who went out for the occasional beer, at least you didn't lie about that.'

'I've said all along that Pat was a dear friend. I don't know why I'm here,' Christian insisted.

'You're here because the blood we found on the Katana Detective Messer took from the case is a match to Patrick Maxwell,' Olivia explained. At this Marcus Christian's eyes went wider and then frowning, shaking his head, he dropped them again. 'Just so you know, the blood on the Katana I found is yours. Why'd you lie to us about how many swords you owned?'

'I..I don't know. I just...I panicked, I guess.'

'We lifted prints off the sword Detective Cordukes found. There was a couple belonging to you, but mostly Patrick Maxwell was all over it. The sword was his,' said Danny. 'You killed him and then you took his sword.'

Christian began to protest. 'No...'

'Then explain to us how Patrick's blood came to be on your sword,' Olivia pressed.

'I...' Christian stopped and then sighed heavily. 'Alright, alright,' he said clearly irritated. He took a moment before continuing. 'After class we went out for a beer and after that we decided to head down to Strawberry Fields.'

'Little late for a picnic,' Danny said. But he wasn't smiling.

'We took our swords and thought it might be fun to spar off. That's all. Just a little light sparring.'

'A little light sparring?' Olivia repeated.

'Things got carried away...and I nicked him,' Christian offered with a heavy sigh. 'Quite by accident.'

'Really. Where'd you nick him?' asked Olivia.

'On his leg,' he answered.

Olivia turned to Danny. 'Did the Autopsy report say anything about a nick on Mr. Maxwell's leg?'

'Nah.' He didn't take his eyes off Christian. 'Just said his face was sliced off.'

Both Detectives continued to stare at the man. Olivia leaned back in the chair while Danny moved forward; he opened up the case file on the desk and took out a crime scene photograph of Patrick Maxwell.

'See that?' he said tapping the photo. 'That's your dear friend. We appreciate it's difficult; he's completely unrecognizable due to the lack of face. Lucky for us we found it underneath a hedgerow only feet away from where you and him were,' he looked at Olivia, 'what was the term, sparring?'

Olivia lifted one eyebrow and Danny produced another photo sliding it towards Christian. A photo of Patrick Maxwell's face. The sight of the bloodied mass of skin and tissue, maggots and bone, made his stomach churn. He had to look away, sweat breaking out once again over his top lip.

'Not nice, huh?' Olivia said. 'Wasn't exactly a Dear Diary moment when I had to scoop it up. The sight of these pictures is obviously affecting you. Why don't you take a nice, deep breath and walk us through what went down in Strawberry Fields.'