Keith R. A. DeCandido - Four Walls

CSI: NY
Four Walls
a novel
Keith R.A. DeCandido
Based on the hit CBS series "CSI: NY" produced by CBS Productions, a business unit of CBS Broadcasting Inc. in association with Jerry Bruckheimer Television.
Executive Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Anthony E. Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn, Andrew Lipsitz, Danny Cannon, Pam Veasey, Peter Lenkov, Jonathan Littman
Series created by: Anthony E. Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn

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"WHY'D YOU DO IT?" Flack asked. "You're just a garden-variety gay-basher. Why'd you graduate to murder?"Mulroney shrugged. "Sonofabitch did a take-out slide.""This was at the ball game?" Flack was taking notes now."Yeah." Mulroney looked up at Ursitti. "Some genius thought it'd help 'foster a commonality' between us and the towelheads if we played a nice friendly game of baseball. National pastime and all that shit." He snorted. "I don't even know what 'foster a commonality' means.""So what happened?" Flack asked."Yoba gets up.""Greg Yoba, in for robbery," Ursitti added."Right, and he grounds it to Hunt. I run to second, Hunt flips it to me, and I'm all set to turn around and throw to first, when, wham! The sonofabitch picks up his leg as he's sliding into second. My shin still hurts.""That when the fight broke out?" Mac asked."Yeah. Bastard shouldn't have done that.""So you killed him," Flack said.Mulroney shrugged. "It wasn't right. And the COs broke it up before I could get my own back.""In the majors," Flack said, "they don't shiv guys who do that."Smiling, Mulroney said, "Well, maybe they should."

Original novels in the CSI series
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Double Dealer
Sin City
Cold Burn
Body of Evidence
Grave Matters
Binding Ties
Serial (graphic novel)
Killing Game
Snake Eyes
In Extremis
CSI: Miami
Florida Getaway
Heat Wave
Cult Following
Riptide
Harm for the Holidays: Misgivings
Harm for the Holidays: Heart Attack
Cut and Run
CSI: NY
Dead of Winter
Blood on the Sun
Deluge

Pocket Star BooksA Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.1230 Avenue of the AmericasNew York, NY 10020This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.Copyright 2008 by CBS Broadcasting Inc. and Entertainment AB Funding LLC., Inc. All rights reserved.CSI: NY in USA is a trademark of CBS Broadcasting Inc. and outside USA is a trademark of Entertainment AB Funding LLC. CBS and CBS Eye Design CBS Broadcasting Inc.All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020POCKET STAR BOOKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-5465-3ISBN-10: 1-4165-5465-3Visit us on the World Wide Web:http://www.SimonSays.com

To Phil Rizzuto, 19172007.
His voice was an important part of my childhood, watching Yankee games on channel 11, and I still miss his "Holy cow" cry from the broadcast booth.
He would've loved the cannoli at Belluso's.
Rest in peace, Scooter

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PRIMARY THANKS MUST GO to my wonderful editor, Jennifer Heddle, who gave me the chance to once again write a novel taking place in my hometown, the greatest city in the world.Secondary thanks to Paul DiGennaro, who has been a corrections officer in the state of New York for many years and whose guidance was invaluable in the descriptions of life in the fictional Richmond Hill Correctional Facility. It's safe to say that I couldn't have written this bookor, at least, the bits that involve the RHCFwithout Paul. Thanks also to Linda Foglia of the New York State Department of Corrections and Deputy Superintendent of Programs Edward Adler and Captain William Caldwell of the Arthur Kill Correctional Facility for the tour of the latter site, which was incredibly useful. Any deviations or mistakes in relation to prison life are entirely inventions (a nice way of saying "screwups") of the author and should not reflect on any of these fine people.Of course, I must also thank Gary Sinise, Melina Kanakaredes, Eddie Cahill, Hill Harper, Carmine Giovinazzo, Anna Belknap, Robert Joy, Claire Forlani, Emmanuelle Vaugier, A. J. Buckley, Mykelti Williamson, and Carmen Argenziano, who all provided face and voice for many of the characters herein, thus giving me material to work with.Although it was the inspiration for a different TV show on a different network, I have to give props to David Simon's Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. That's the true-crime book that got me interested in police procedure in the first place.Huge thanks also to Reddy's Forensic Page (www.forensicpage.com), a fantastic online clearinghouse for forensic info and a researcher's dream site. Fellow CSI novelist (and forensic expert in his own right) Ken Goddard helped out with some scientific details as well. Also for sheer cool value, thanks to the good folks at CLPEx.com (Complete Latent Print Examination), who have a PDF of Francis Galton's groundbreaking 1892 book Finger Prints on their website.The usual thanks to GraceAnne Andreassi DeCandido, who again provided an excellent first read.Finally, thanks to them that live with me, both human and feline, for everything.

HISTORIAN'S NOTE

THIS NOVEL TAKES PLACE between "Comes Around" and "Snow Day," the final two episodes of CSI: NY's third season.DETECTIVE DON FLACK STARED at the lone pill that rattled around the bottom of the prescription bottle.A cup of coffee sat on the Formica table in front of him, steam rising toward the ceiling in the air-conditioned diner. It had certainly taken long enough for the coffee to show up. The waitressa woman named Doris, according to the nameplate affixed to her bright pink uniform; her face was caked in enough makeup to make her look embalmed, her breath smelled like an ashtray, and her nasal voice threatened to decalcify Flack's spinal columnhad ignored him for quite a while before deigning to take his coffee order.In theory, he'd wash the pill down with the coffee.Assuming, of course, he could bring himself to dump that last pill out into his hand.It had been a year. A year since the explosion that nearly killed him. A year since that idiot with the headphones who didn't hear the fire alarm. Flack ran back for him.Then the world exploded.When he was recovering in the hospital, after it was all over, Flack sometimes wondered what would have happened if that jackass hadn't been wearing those big, stupid noise-canceling headphones. Said jackassFlack could no longer recall his name, nor did he particularly wish tohadn't heard the fire alarm, hadn't heard the screams of panic, hadn't heard two dozen people running for the fire stairs, hadn't heard Flack and Detective Mac Taylor screaming that there was a bomb in the building.You usually didn't find that level of obliviousness in New Yorkers. Certainly not since 9/11.If not for that guy, Flack might've been in the stairwell. Or at least back with Mac, farther down the hallway. Mac got out of the explosion with only a few scrapes and bruises.Flack almost died.But he didn't. A few months in the hospital, and he was fit for duty. He tried to avoid situations where he'd have to take off his shirt in public, as the crisscross of scars wasn't particularly pretty. Stella Bonasera and Lindsay Monroe had both ribbed him about using the explosion to flirt with women, and they hadn't been entirely wrongbut Flack hadn't shown anyone the scars.The pain was near constant.When it got bad, he was supposed to take the pills. But Flack definedNext page