Disclaimer: Finally back in the saddle. This would have been done sooner, but my other laptop went to computer heaven (moment of silence). Ok, now let's get this part over with quickly. Don't own any part of Numb3rs or any of the characters. Original characters are mine, mine, mine, mine, mine. Ahem. Sorry. Be warned, fictional locations ahead periodically. Don't freak out when you see one. Thanks. This story is the follow up to A is for Anesthesia.
The title comes from a quote by George Bernard Shaw, "A happy family is but an earlier heaven"
Chapter 1
"His name was Lancer, Colby. Mason Lancer."
Colby was caught in a painful stasis, struggling to absorb the words. Physically, literally in the act of putting his arms around Kerri to comfort her in her obvious distress, the revelation of her biological paternity felt like a verbal RPG. He didn't know what to say, what to do next. He shook his head as if to clear it.
"I didn't hear that right" Colby told himself. It sounded like the woman he loved had just admitted that Mason Lancer, who's face and voice Granger was still sometimes visited by in his nightmares, was her natural father. That, that…that couldn't … she, she couldn't have said that. He shook his head again. Inhaling deeply, he drew breath into his suddenly oxygen starved lungs.
"Kerri, what are you… what do you… Lancer was your father?" Colby's raspy whisper was suspended halfway between anger and stunned unbelief. Standing next to a wall, he put out a hand to steady himself. His questing green gaze sought out the beautiful eyes that even now seemed like a refuge.
Kerri turned her face from the window, leaving behind the large, splattering drops of rain that had just begun to soak the glass. She said nothing. There was no way to fix this. She could never take back the damning announcement, and she could not make it easier for him. Inundated with her own misery, she was helpless.
The abject anguish Colby saw when Kerri looked back at him shocked him out of himself. The stasis broken, he obeyed his earlier impulse reaching out to enclose her in his arms.
"Kerri, baby…" Unwelcome, with timing that sucked in the worst way possible, Colby snorted bitterly, his phone sounded with the distinctive ringtone indicating the call was from one of his teammates. Simultaneously, her landline rang, startling them both with its loud insistence.
Colby groaned inaudibly. Why now? What did Don or any of the others have to tell him, and why did they have to be doing it now?! He came within a hair's breath of hurling the phone across the room if only for the cathartic result of seeing it shatter into a million pieces. Instead, he reluctantly released Kerri and stepped back, creating an inch or two of space between them. He stroked her lower lip with a finger, a rueful grimace accompanying his motion to silence the troublesome device.
Unsteadily, Kerri walked over to pick up her own phone. He…he..hello?" her voice vibrated with the intensity of the past few moments.
"Kerri?" it was Robin Brooks. "Kerri, look, I, I'm not really sure how to say this, so…, Kerri, Jack Lucern is dead. He was found in his cell about forty minutes ago. We're gonna be trying to sort out what happened for a while but, you need to come in the office, right now, okay?"
"What, what are you…? What, what do you mean Jack is dead? How the…how, I don't underst" Kerri's confused questioning was cut short by her colleague.
"Like I said, nobody has any answers right at the moment." Robin put in, sounding tense. "Please, just get in to the office ASAP, alright?"
"I, I…um, I'm on my. I'll, uh, I should be there in twenty minutes" Kerri replied, cradling the receiver. Her openmouthed state of shock she saw mirrored in Colby's dumbfounded glare. He'd received the same news from David Sinclair.
"I, uh, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta go. Kerri, I don't want to leave now. We, you and I we need to talk about this but…uuuugghh!" he grabbed his forehead in consternation, wishing illogically that they could ignore the calls. "Not possible Granger" he berated himself.
"Let…let's just go, and, and we can finish ta...tal…we can finish our…talk later, huh?" She said, giving him a trembling, nervous half smile.
"Yeah, yeah, you're right. Come on, we better get going." He head for the door.
Grabbing her discarded jacket from its customary hook, Kerri checked to make sure her keys were still in the right pocket. Her hand wound up beneath his as Colby, obeying manners hard wired into him years ago by his small town upbringing, went for the door's handle at the same instant. He pulled back, not wanting to crush her fingers.
In her frazzled condition, Kerri misinterpreted his reaction. Why did he pull away from her? Did he not even want to touch her anymore? What was she supposed to do? Her skull seemed about to spin off her shoulders with swirling questions. And to make matters worse, there was no time for answers. Jack dead? How? Who? Combating the urge to run for her bed and crawl under it, she jerked the door open, waited for Colby to step out and locked it.
"Are you ok to drive?" he asked her softly.
"I'm fine. I'll, we'll talk later?" Please say yes, she begged in her mind.
"Yes, we absolutely will" Colby tried to pack as much reassurance as he could into the brief statement. He gave her one last lingering look, then headed for his vehicle and she to hers.
Colby was still way off center as he pulled into the nearest parking spot he could find to the MDC. The Metropolitan Detention Center was home to some of Los Angeles's more troublesome and notorious federal felons. Now, it housed at least one less, according to David, Colby thought. How anyone had managed to get to Lucern as closely monitored as he'd been still had to be determined. Granger knew one thing for certain, a fair number of heads were going to be missing their bodies because of it.
He took the steps two at a time, presenting his I.D. and signing the log book after passing thru the metal detector. Before he could get any further he saw Don, David, Nikki and Liz coming to meet him.
Don held up a hand, palm out signifying "stop."
"Hold it, Colb. You can't go any further." Don's normally hard to read face was as black as a thundercloud. "As a matter of fact, David should've just told you to meet us at the office." Don bit off the words angrily. He was as pissed as Colby'd ever seen him.
"Don, what are you…?" Colby began.
"Office, Colby!"
Don's brusque order, made without breaking stride, straightened Granger up in surprise. Blinking with confusion, he walked quickly back to his truck, (finally, he'd won his battle with the insurance company and had a new one). His mind blowing night just kept getting more and more bizarre. He could feel the beginnings of what promised to be a splitting headache as he headed back to the FBI building.
"Wait up! Hold it please!" Colby flashed his ID at security, rushing towards the elevator. He got there just in time for it to close in his face. Astonished, he saw the car held Nikki, Liz, and a still clearly furious Don Eppes. What was going on!? Was Don angry at him? What had he done?! Slashing at the call button with the flat of his hand, he waited impatiently for the next car.
"Colby, wait!" He turned to see David hustling in behind him. Able to hold his peace for an entire ten seconds, an exasperated, bewildered Colby turned to his partner, breath expelled in an explosive rush.
"David, talk to me! What happened at the MDC? Why wouldn't Don want me going up there? What happened with Lucern?" Granger fired off the series of questions, atypically not giving Sinclair a chance to answer.
David did his best to placate the other man. "Look, Colby, take it easy alright? I know you're in the dark, but don't get all wound up, ok? This is all gonna get figured out. We're gonna figure it all out, huh?" David bolted for the bull-pen as the elevator doors slid open with the customary "ding"
"What's gonna get figured out, David!? What are you talking about!? All what!? Colby sputtered, following Sinclair to where the team's desks were situated.
Liz Warner and Nikki Bentancourt were already present, and Colby spared a moment to notice the oddly probing looks he received from each, especially Nikki.
"Where's Don?" David asked, looking around for their absent team leader.
"A.D.'s office" Liz answered shortly. The look she gave Sinclair took away the need to add "and yes, he still got steam coming out of his ears about what happened at the detention center."
David sighed heavily.
"Will somebody please answer my question!?" Colby half shouted, blocking the entrance/exit to the unit's work area with a raised leg as Nikki rose and started for the break room, empty coffee cup in hand.
"Granger, do you mind?" Bentancourt asked with her customary in-your-face attitude. 'Your leg's coming between me and my coffee, and right now I really need it!"
"Not as much as I need to find out exactly why I'm all of a sudden runnin' to catch up. So how 'bout you have your coffee after we all get on the same page!
"Look, Colby…" Liz started.
Nearing the limit of a rope that was getting shorter by the minute, Colby cut her off, his temper making him uncharacteristically testy. "No, not looking. I would like for one of you to explain, please!" he snapped, jaw clenching shut.
"The only thing we really know for sure at this point is that Jackson Lucern was murdered" Don's voice said from behind him. They all turned at the sound, everyone moving back to let him in.
"The suspect list is short but it's getting longer." Don usually level dark eyes were troubled as he focused on Colby Granger. " And you might as well find out from me. You're on it. So is Kerri Walton."
Normally, Colby had nothing but love for weekends. Especially the rare ones that actually turned into time off. Even when he was working Saturday and Sunday weren't too bad. Except for stakeouts, the workload and the hours were lighter.
This one, however, had turned itself inside out in the amazingly fast, taking him along for the ride. The softball game Saturday ended up being the only good part. After that, it was downhill all the way, at lightspeed.
First Kerri's bombshell, then Jack Lucern gets taken out, and just cause the universe seemed to have a need for completion, Colby discovered thru Don that he, Colby, and Kerri too, were high on the hit parade as suspects. The indisputable fact that neither one of them had gone anywhere near the MDC or Jack Lucern since his incarceration there didn't seem to matter much to the agents assigned to the case.
It had taken Agents Ken Lennox and Dale Gorman exactly twenty-four hours from the time of Don informing Granger that he was a suspect in the murder for them to subject Colby to a bruising late Sunday afternoon interview. Lennox especially, oozing hostility and contempt, seemed to be itching to connect Colby to the murder. Evidently, that no one could place Granger or Kerri in the MDC and the total lack of any physical evidence linking either of them to Jackson Lucern's death was only a minor speed bump for Agent Lennox. This was his first major case since being assigned to the Bureau's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), and he relished the opportunity. His partner in the investigation, Agent Gorman was slightly less unpleasant to deal with. Only the presence of the attorney Colby was legally entitled to and Don Eppes who insisted on being allowed to sit in, kept either one of Granger's interrogators in check.
For his part, Don was still bristling at having he and his team barred from having anything to do with the investigation by the ADIC. Don had left the Metropolitan Detention Center Saturday, incensed at being unceremoniously yanked off the case by the arrival of Lennox and Gorman. He'd driven back to the office and stormed up to the ADIC's office with the intention of getting an explanation and demanding his team be allowed access to the investigation. He never made it to the man's office. Intercepted by the ADIC himself Al Kensington, Don's objections and outrage were quickly steamrolled by his superior.
"For the record, Eppes, no, I don't believe Agent Granger had anything to do with Jackson Lucern's death. I also don't believe that any of your team would have any part of covering it up if he had. The problem is, that although Jack Lucern was a criminal scumbag, in the end, he was a wealthy, high profile criminal scumbag. It doesn't help any that Agent Colby Granger has managed to garner a fair amount of notoriety all on his own." ADIC Kensington quelled Don's nascent interruption. "I'm not done, Agent. It's as simple as this. The Bureau has to be seen as being one-hundred percent transparent on this one. We give anyone, and I mean anyone, the Lucern family, the media, anyone so much as a kernel to nibble on here and it will get out of hand very, very quickly. So your team is out. All the way out, is that clear? This will not be a repeat of when you people pulled Granger off that Chinese freighter. None of you should have been allowed anywhere near that situation. This time, not one of you so much as glances in the direction of this investigation until it's over. You've got other work to keep you all busy. I suggest you concentrate on that. Good night, Agent Eppes." With that, Kensington went into his office, locking the door behind him and dismissing the still fuming Don to break the news to Granger and the rest. Knowing it was disobeying orders, and not caring at all, Don still demanded to be present during Colby's "interview" with Lennox and Gorman. They weren't happy about it, but decided to let it go. Three hours of nasty, innuendo laced barbs later, and Colby's two questioners were more aggravated than their subject. They found absolutely nothing to hang Colby with, much to their disappointment. Finally, Colby's attorney, Tom Kent, a former Green Beret, Colby later discovered, stuck a fork in the session.
"Fellas, I think we can all see you've nothing here but enough hot air to compete in the America's cup. That being the case, I'm advising my client he can go. Unless you have something else? No, then I guess we're done, aren't we?" Kent finished, giving Lennox and Gorman a look that invited them to contradict him.
When neither did, Colby rose and headed out. "Granger." It was Gorman.
Colby turned. "Is the part where you warn me not to leave L.A.?" he asked tiredly. He was ready for this lousy weekend to be finished.
"As of yet, we haven't a shred of evidence, circumstantial or otherwise connecting you to anything. And since you haven't been 'officially' relived of duty, yet," Agent Gorman answered, 'your movements aren't restricted. "But, Agent Granger" the man warned coldly, "don't make us look for you."
Colby was nearly to the elevator before Don caught up with him. "Just hang in there, Colby. They'll clear you soon enough. Kerri too. Then you can both just put this behind you."
"I hope you're right, Don. They act more eager to pin something on me than clear me, but I really hope you're right. Thanks for being in there. I know you could probably get reamed for it, so thanks."
Both men entered the elevator as the door opened.
"You must be wiped out. Go home, grab a beer and get some rest" Don advised.
"I like to" Colby answered, but I need to talk to Kerri."
"Colby, I don't know if that's a good idea under the circumstances" Don said slowly.
Colby didn't reply. Maybe not, but he didn't care how it looked or who found out. He and Kerri needed to talk. They had too much unfinished business that needed tending.