The Specter
Disclaimer: I truely love the program Numb3rs, and since Santa didn't think I was good enought this year, I still Do Not, nor will I ever own any part of Numb3rs. This is for reading enjoyment only and I hope you do that.
My family had just moved to this neighborhood in Pasadena, Ca about a year ago. I was always quick to make friends so the move didn't bother me so much. I noticed the house a couple of doors down from ours and asked some of my new friends about it.
"The guy that lives there is crazy" they would say, "It's said his family died about five years ago and nobody has seen him since, just shadows behind the curtains."
"What do you mean. nobody has seen him, it looks like the place is taken care of and he has to eat, right?" I replied, feeling like my friends were pulling my leg. I mean what else do teenagers have time to do but try to freak out their friends.
"Every once in a while someone will stop by and bring stuff in. Sometimes it the same person, other times it's two or three people. They are suppose to be people his brother or he worked with. They look after him"
"Okay I buy that but what about the yard and house?" I asked watching a big black SUV pull into the drive way. I noticed a tall looking women and a rather meek looking man get out of it.
"Sometimes they hire some of us to do the yard work, with the stipulation that we don't bother the guy"
As I watched the man walk toward the house, the women noticed us on the sidewalk and came toward us. I stiffened when I caught a glimpse of a gun on her hip, "she's a cop, I think", whispered one of my friends as she neared. A couple of my friends headed off, even leery of the people who visited the house.
"Hey guys can I ask you all a question?" we looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders and I spoke up, "Yeah I guess."
She gave a small smile as I was the only one of my friends who maintained eye contact with her.
"My friends yard is gonna need to be taken care of for a while, are one of you interested in a job?"
The three of us who were left looked at each other, "Sure, I could use a little extra money." I said.
She stuck her hand out, "My name is Megan, the gentlemen you saw with me is Larry, were friends of Mr. Eppes."
"Mike," I stuck my hand out and shook hers, "You guys cops?"
"I'm FBI, my friend is a professor at CalSi. Would you walk with me and I'll show you were things are?" She turned toward the house.
"I'll catch you guys later." I waved to my friends as I followed her down the driveway.
As we walked down the drive I noticed one of the curtains move and I quickened my pace to get closer to Megan. Figured if the guy was crazy like my friends said I'd do better to stay close.
We entered the backyard and walked toward what looked like a tool shed.
"The mower and clippers are in hear, as well as the food for the fish in the pond," it was then that I noticed the pond about ten feet away, near the garage. "Cool my mom wanted one of those, their called Koi right?"
"Yeah, Mr. Eppes likes them so we have tried to take care of them for him. I do have a few things you need to understand and follow," I nodded my head, "first never go into the garage, ever, even if you see the door open. That is a special place to Mr. Eppes, nobody is allowed in there anymore. Next, I'm sure you've heard stories of what your friends may have said happened or what they think is wrong with Mr. Eppes, let me assure you they aren't true. If the next time I drop by and everything has worked out, you can ask me some questions. Mr. Eppes is special to those of us who stop by, of whom you'll met as we take turns checking up on him. So if you do anything to upset or add to what people want to say, I'll assure you that you won't have this job for very long, do you understand? She was looking straight into my face, I thought at that moment that I wouldn't want to tick her off or be around when someone did.
"Okay," I said nervously, "How do I get a hold of someone if something is needed, like the fish food or something?" I relaxed as she smiled at me, seeing that I was wanting to take this job seriously, She pulled a thin wallet out of her jacket pocket and opened and was pulling a piece of paper out to give me, "Cool is that a real FBI badge?" She chuckled at my amusement, she flipped it around to I could see it, "It sure is", she smiled as I looked closer at it. "Megan Reeves, that's a nice name", I felt myself blush a little realizing what I'd said. "Thanks, this is my card, if you need anything or see anything unusual around here you call me, Okay?"
"Sure," I looked at the business card she gave me, "Is it okay if I start tomorrow after school I got to be getting home for supper?"
"That's fine, let me go ahead and pay you something in advance." She was reaching again into her pocket, "That's okay, you can do that when you come back if you like the job I'm doing." I kind of laughed at the surprised expression on her face, "my folks always told me not to accept anything before I do what I'm asked, so I'll just catch you next time your by."
"That's a very responsible way to be Mike, I'm sure your folks are proud of you"
"I guess," I said as I turned to head home, not seeing her smiling, shaking her head as she headed toward the back door of the house.
And so it started, I would go by the house every other day to feed the fish and once a week to mow and take care of the yard. As the weeks passed I would see about five or six people total come and go, each seemed to know my name and asked me how everything was. I'd tell the good and they would tell me how nice of a job I would be doing. I'd smile and say thanks and continue on.
During this time I would sometimes see someone looking out the window, I waved once but he pulled back and I didn't see him again. Another time I was walking by the drive on my way home from school and noticed movement up the driveway. I stopped to check it out, just to make sure someone wasn't snooping around. That's when I got my first real look at Mr. Eppes.
The first thing I noticed was the slumped shoulders, even at a distance he seemed to move as someone who was so weary and just able to get around. I moved closer up the drive, but said nothing, I hated to admit that I just wanted to get a good look at him. His hair was almost jet black, I was surprised not to notice much grey, but I was still several feet away. It was curly and about shoulder length, he also had a beard that hide his face. His cloths were a bit baggy and looked like he may have slept in them. I accidentally made a noise and he jerked up and looked at me. I froze, not sure what to expect, but he just turned and walked into the garage. I stood for a second, trying to understand what I had just seen. Grant it that I'm only a sixteen year old kid and don't know much about how the world is, but what I saw in his eyes gave me an empty feeling in my stomach. What I saw in his eyes, was a combination of grief, sadness, loss. Those I expected to see, but what surprised me was what I could only describe as guilt.
It was about three weeks before I saw Megan again, the other guy Larry, I think, would stop about once or twice a week and just wave at me. I was just getting done with the mowing one day when I saw the black SUV pull in and noticed the familiar figure get out, I started toward her.
"Hey Mike, I've heard you have been doing a really good job." I smiled and looked away, "I try", was all I could say.
Megan turned to go toward the house and I called out to her, "Hey Megan, I got something I need to say," I was a little worried about telling her about seeing Mr. Eppes and I started shifting my feet, "Is everything alright Mike?" I looked up at her and she had a very concerned look on her face.
"I don't know, I was walking home the other day and saw someone back here near the garage, I came down the drive a bit, just making sure nobody was messing around, and he was outside." I looked up at her, partly afraid that she'd accuse me of bothering Mr. Eppes.
"Did something happen Mike, was he okay?" she glanced at the house.
"I guess, once I seen him I just stopped, not sure what to do. I tried to stay quiet, but I scuffed my shoe when I was walking and he turned and looked at me. I just froze. But he just looked at me and went on into the garage, so I left." I know I rushed through the story, but I figured she should know in case she wanted to fire me now, or if he said something to her when she went in.
She noticed me being nervous and smiled, placing her hand on my shoulder, "Everything is fine Mike, You were bound to see him sooner or later. Did you think you would be in trouble or something?" I just nodded my head, "It's actually good that you saw him, he doesn't come out much during the day."
"He looked so sad", I whispered out, "and something else….," she looked at me " he looked lost and……..he looked like he felt guilty."
"Mike, if you got some time, can you hang around and if you want to hear about why Mr. Eppes is the way he is, though I don't completely understand it myself, I'll tell you the story." She looked so said when she said that. "Yeah, let me run home and tell my mom I'll be a little later, so she don't worry, then I'll be back." Megan nodded and turned toward the house. I took off toward home, part of me eager to learn the story, behind all the rumors my friend tell, but also scared to hear what could have caused a person to look like Mr. Eppes did.
About thirty minutes later Megan came out of the back door, I was on the bench near the koi pond, watching the fish. She stopped for a second and I glanced up, she had a far away look on her face.
"Everything okay?" I asked. I saw her wipe her eye as she came closer to the bench and sat next to me.
"Yeah, just for a second you reminded me of Mr. Eppes, He'd sometimes come and sit by the pond when he was trying to figure things out sometimes." She had such a sad look on her face as she was remembering.
"Were you close to all of his family?"
"We were all like on large extended family. What you need to understand first off is no one who every met the Eppes family was ever really a stranger. Especially around his father. He would warmly welcome everyone who entered the house, whether it was the first or fiftieth time you entered." she leaned back and cleared her throat, "This is a special and very tragic story, I'm not trying to be dramatic, but that is the best way to describe it, do you understand?" She glanced at me.
"I think so, I hope you know that I will respect what you tell me, I just have never seen someone look the way Mr. Eppes did, I just feel so sorry for him, and can't imagine what could make someone look like that in his eyes."
"How old are you again?", Megan laughed, but continued to watch the fish. She took a deep breath as I turned to watch her face. "Alan was their dad, He was the kindest, sweetest man I had ever met. The type of guy everyone wanted as their dad. His wife died a couple years before I met the family, so I never knew her, but to listen to him and the boys talk of her she had to be something special. One thing you noticed right away about Alan was his love for his boys, Don and Charlie. Don was the oldest and was my partner and boss at the FBI. Alan worried about him a lot, but was very proud of him. Don had to be the toughest, most honest and one of the smartest people I had ever met. Having him as a boss, you could really respect how he treated people and as partner, there was nobody you wanted backing you up more, as a friend, he was irreplaceable." Megan paused and glanced at the house, I looked up and saw a shadow near the kitchen window, then it was gone. She again took a deep breath. "First thing you had to know about Charlie was that he was in every sense of the word a genius. He was a math whiz, he was the youngest professor at CalSi and he would work with all manner of government agencies, but he mostly loved working with us and Don at the FBI."
"What does a math professor do at the FBI?" I startled a little when she laughed out loud, "What?"
"If Charlie had ever heard you say that you would have been in for at least an hour lecture on how everything is numbers and the many applications math has in the real world. He was usually able to narrow down our search grids and suspect list, and helped us find patterns in what seemed like patternless crimes."
"Really?….. All with math?" I couldn't believe math could do that, I hated math in school, never thought it would help me in the real world, but this guy used it to help his brother fight crime.
"He never stopped amazing us on what he could do. Anyway to get back to the story. Imagine having to grow up with a genius in the family, needless to say the boys didn't get along for a long time. Don worked in another part of the country, but when his mom got sick, he moved back home. After her death Don and Charlie had to really almost start over as brothers. Slowly they started to understand one another. Don started to understand Charlie's world of numbers and Charlie started to connect with Don by working with him. By the time I joined the team, they were truly brothers. And you could see just how much they loved one another. According to Alan that in its self was a miracle of sorts, All her had ever wanted was for the boys to connect and be a part of each others lives. As Don and Charlie worked together they grew closer and soon became nearly inseparable."
"What lead up to that day is really kind of blur now, it was so long ago, but the impact has never gone away. With the boys always working together, eventually Alan started spending a lot of time down at our office and sometimes was able to help us out as well, not really as a consultant, more as father who could get two head strong sons on the same page, when it didn't seen like they could. The case was a drug case and they way the players were taking out the competition was by blowing each others labs up."
"Wow!" I couldn't help myself, she was talking about stuff I thought only happened in the movies.
Megan looked at me, "you okay with me going on?"
"Yeah I just thought that stuff only happened in the movies and on TV."
Again she got that far away look, "Yeah I wish that's only where it happened too. Anyway Charlie had worked his math magic and gave us some locations that would possibly be the next targets. We were able to catch two of the groups involved and as we were clearing the place out, I thought I'd call Charlie and let him know he was right on the mark again. I mentioned it to Don and he agreed and went back to helping process the scene. I wish now that I had never made that call." I noticed again, her wiping her eyes.
Charlie and Alan happened to be together in Charlie's car and within a couple of miles of our bust, so about fifteen minutes later we see Charlie's car pull up, Alan and him got out and since everyone knew them they were able to get inside the marked off area without a problem. Colby, another member of our team, you've probably seen him here, big blond guy, looks like he could play football." I nodded as I remember seeing him around. "Colby shouted out to Don that Charlie and his dad were there, he turned and waved to them and started to walk toward them when several shots rang out. Turned out to be a drive by, it was other members of the gang we busted who were ticked at us for the bust and thought shooting up a working scene with cops everywhere would help their cause. I looked up at the first shots and saw Don running and turned to see where he was running to. I heard him yelling for Charlie and Alan to get down, as they had turned toward the direction of the noise, not realizing it was gun shots. I took off running toward them to."
"You didn't get down?" I watched as tears started to silently roll from her eyes.
"You have to understand, nearly ever law enforcement officer on the scene had a bullet proof vest on, we knew what the sound was, we reacted on instinct and our instinct when we saw our family was to try and protect them. I saw in that instant Colby and his partner David also running toward the Eppes men. Don had nearly reached them, when we saw him fall. Alan had turned when Don had yelled for them to get down and he saw Don fall. It seemed like forever before the shooting stopped and the three of us reached them next to Charlie's car. What we saw has haunted us since that day."
I felt I needed to say something, to comfort this grown woman, this FBI agent next to me as the tears continued. All I could think of to do was lay my hand over hers. She looked up at me and gave a half smile. "I'm probably telling you to much, but you have to understand, we all feel the guilt for that day."
I couldn't help my next question, "What happened at the car?"
Megan cleared her throat, "Colby, David and myself all reached the area at the same time, David was always more together then the rest of us sometime as he was the first to yell out that we needed paramedics. All three of the Eppes men were on the ground, not moving. It was surreal, Alan's arms were outstretched toward his sons and theirs toward him. I got to Don, Colby dropped next to Charlie and David to Alan. Instinct let us each to reach for their necks to check for a pulse. I was relieved to find Don's, as I looked at his vest it looked like he had been hit twice and another grazed the side of his head, so I started to apply pressure to that, I turned again and yelled 'agent down' and that we needed the medics when I heard David curse under his breath. I looked up and he had straighten up and start to do chest compressions on Alan. I heard myself say 'Oh, God' as it registered what he was doing. I then heard Colby call out to Charlie, who gave a little moan, he called out for Don and his dad, and tried to fight Colby who what trying to put pressure on the wound on his chest. He told Charlie to calm down and hold on. I watched this like it was a bad movie or a nightmare I couldn't wake up from. As the medics finally arrived and took over of David, who staggered back against Charlie's car. I hear Colby call out to Charlie again and then he cursed under his breath and I saw the EMT start compressions on Charlie as well. As an EMT came and took over care of Don from me, I grabbed a hold of his hand and squeezed it. Realizing that he had just possible lost his whole family."
"I went with Don, Colby and David followed the other ambulances. When we got to the hospital, Don was taken back and I waited for David and Colby, Praying what I thought was happening wasn't really happening. Alan and Charlie were wheeled past, each with an EMT atop them doing compressions. We followed them as far as we were allowed and then silently stood next to the nurses station. It was about twenty minutes before a doctor came out and told us that Charlie and Alan had both died from multiple wounds. I just sank to my knees and cried. David just stared at the doctor and Colby voiced what we all thought, 'Oh my God, what about Don?"
"A short time later we were lead back to the room Don was in. he was still unconscious, the graze was just that, he had a few bruise ribs, but other then that, he'd recover. Physically, we all thought, but how on earth were we suppose to tell him about his dad and his brother." Megan stopped for a few minutes, I was just staring at the fish in the pond. Not able to imagine how someone could handle what had happened to the family who's yard I now took care of.
"Don started to wake about an hour later. I sat nearest to the bed, Colby and David hovered near the window. We all turned as he called out for Charlie. I took his hand and tried to calm him down and he started to come around more. He looked at me and asked if I was okay. He actually asked if I was okay. I tried my best to keep it together, but I lost it at that. Don got a confused look on his face and looked around toward David and Colby. Don pushed himself up and whined some, David tried laying a hand on his shoulder, but he pushed it off. He started to demand to know where Charlie and his dad were. He said he remembered them being at the scene, he said he remembered hearing the shooting start and running toward his family. He stopped and his breathing started to get rapid. 'Where are they!!!' he demanded. I was unable to look at him, I heard David's quiet voice start talking, 'Don, they did everything they could'. I looked up at Don as he started to shake his head, 'NO!' he yelled, 'Where are my dad and Charlie!!!" he then yelled at the top of his lungs for Charlie, and tried to get up, David again held him in place, 'They're gone Don, they're gone.' Don looked at him, then at Colby who had tears in his eyes. He then turned and looked at me, despair on his face, 'Megan?….. Please…… Where are they?' All I could do was shake my head, My voice had failed me. At that time Don let out the most primal yell of despair that I had ever heard, he then collapsed onto his knees on the floor and sobbed. Repeatedly calling for his father and brother who would never answer."
"We brought him home the next day and stayed with him a couple of days, slowly we got to where only one of us was staying. As much as we hated to, we all had to get back to work. After the funeral's Don locked himself in the garage for days. That's where Charlie would do most of his work, when not at CalSi and his chalkboards were still full of his work. That became Don's connection to him. After several days and finally Charlie's girlfriend coming over, we were able to get him back to the house. Again we all took turns staying with him, making sure he ate and slept. Slowly, he just started to slip away from us, he'd walk the house like a specter. Silently going from room to room and to the garage. After the day we got him in from there, he wouldn't let anyone go in there. He was afraid someone would disturb his brothers work."
Megan took a deep breath, 'Well that's it, that's the story. Is it anything like the rumors I'm sure are floating around this neighborhood?"
All I could do was look at her. It was so hard to process what this man had been through. "You know I can understand the grief and loss in his eyes, but the guilt, I don't understand that?" I was still trying to understand all that had been told to me and knew that I would never repeat this story to anyone. I also knew that if anyone wanted to relay the 'crazy guy' stories, I would just turn away.
"The guilt?, Don is the type of person who always felt personally responsible for everything that happened on a case that he was involved with. He had agreed for me to call Charlie and thus felt responsible for them being there that day."
"He didn't know they were going to show up did he? So…."
"He always felt the need to take care of his family and to him, he had let them down and not protected them, so he has let his guilt rule him since and nobody has been able to get through that." She glanced at the house again and noticed Don at the door. I stood up, not sure what to expect. He slowly opened the door and stepped on the porch, Megan walked toward him. "Don? Did you need something?"
He looked at her and shook his head. He then stepped off the porch and walked toward the pond. I took a step back, but noticed Megan wave at me to stay put. I was still a little scared as he approached me, but Megan was a step behind him, I tried to relax. Don sat down on the bench and patted the set next to him. I glanced at Megan and she nodded for me to set down. I sat the farthest I could and still be on the bench.
"I don't bite." I heard him whisper. I saw Megan shift and smile at me. "You're the one taking care of Charlie's fish?"
"Yeah" I nervously answered.
"Charlie loved them, liked the patterns," he softly chuckled, "he liked finding patterns"
He was silent a moment, "What's your name?" He looked up at me, and for a second I didn't see the guilt, just sadness, "Mike".
"Your doing a good job Mike" He patted my knee and rose, and headed to the garage.
Megan smiled at me, I just stared. "You're the first person besides us that he has talked to. You must be doing a really good job around hear, he was always sparse with his compliments." I just shrugged my shoulders and looked toward the garage. I saw him appear in the door way.
"Megan, bring Mike in here, I want him to learn about Charlie."
"What?" I said nervously.
"It's okay, I'll go with you" Megan smiled widely and I stood and we walked toward the garage door.
"Mike, did Megan tell you my brother was a genius?" Don said turning to go inside. I could hear the pride in his voice. I smiled at Megan who was grinning from ear to ear. So I figured I go along with it. "Really a genius. Wow."