Preconceptions

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

A/N: Thank you for your reviews and alerts. I truly appreciate them.

(Since this chapter is taking place at the same time as Chapter 1, Posner's words will appear in bold italics.) Spoilers: "Disturbed" & "In Plain Sight"

Chapter 2: The Other Side of the Glass

"It took you guys a long, long time to find me…..didn't it?"

The tension in the observation room was palpable; its occupants seemingly frozen in place. Identical looks of horror and disbelief was etched into each one of the faces that were hidden behind that dark glass. Many of the agents had thought that they had already seen the worst of humanity but Posner was proving them wrong.

Seasoned agents all….and yet the man in the other room had found a way to penetrate their armor.

The small group listened in silent horror as the killer calmly spoke of his abilities to elude capture and of how he had purposely led a life of normalcy to avoid becoming a suspect in any of the murders that he had committed.

Don decided that it was his affable manner and next-door-neighbor looks that made him even more terrifying. His victims never stood a chance, never would have seen him as a threat; Posner would easily fit into any community, even the man's wife had been shocked to learn of her husband's true nature. A cold chill crept up his spine; was that his reason for killing…just to prove that he could do it without getting caught? Wasn't that what the man had just said…that keeping it from everyone had been his favorite part? Of course some of those people murdered had been killed to keep his secret but Don suspected that Posner had taken as much pleasure out of those murders as he had with his original targets.

It wasn't just the sociopath's lack of emotion as he spoke of the murders that the agent found unnerving but there was also the evidence that had been discovered at Posner's home. The killer had collected souvenirs of his victims; a pair of lime green high-heeled sandals, a bracelet bearing the name of his first victim and the most heart-wrenching of them all, the bottom half of a baby's footed sleeper dotted with its own blood; the once red stain now brown with age. Remnants of lives cut short by the monster in the next room, killed for no other reason than to prove that he could do it without getting caught.

Don glanced at his brother and had to fight down an overwhelming urge to send him away, to shield him from the abomination in the next room. Reason won out in the end; Charlie had more than earned his right to be here and there wasn't an agent among them that would disagree with him. If it hadn't been for Charlie, Posner would still be on the loose and looking for his next victim.

"Why play this game? We both know that Professor Eppes is standing behind that window."

Don stiffened up as the killer's words came over the speaker and in stunned silence closed the short space separating him from his brother. As muttered exclamations of surprise echoed around the small room he took up a protective stance directly behind Charlie; his dark brown eyes growing darker with anger as he listened to the man in the next room.

"Wait….what did Posner just say?" Colby asked worriedly as he drifted over to stand beside the brothers.

"He knew about Charlie!"Liz exclaimed; a look of astonishment crossing her features as she edged closer to the silent mathematician

Neither Don nor Charlie had spoken a word, both brothers waiting with bated breath; clinging to every word the serial killer uttered.


Seasoned agents all…..except for one.

Charlie felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck as he watched the man talk about the murders…no… not talk….he was actually bragging about his crimes. The young Professor swallowed hard as he listened to Posner's account, mesmerized by the man's behavior. How could someone carry out such heinous crimes and be able to talk so calmly about them? It was unnerving to know that such a man not only existed but was also sitting just a few feet away from him…. with only a thin window separating them.

The young professor had spent countless hours compiling data on murders that had been committed in the Los Angeles area. After his brother's near fatal injury he had decided to try a new approach to crime fighting; one that he hoped would help predict crimes and cut down the risk to the officers responding to the scenes but his data had shown him an unexpected pattern.

The trail of a stealth predator serial killer had emerged and although the pattern was very clear to him he had been unable to convince David or the other members of the team that it was real. Even Amita and Larry had thought his actions were just a reaction to Don's injury and it wasn't until Amita had checked his calculations in an effort to prove him wrong that she finally realized that he was right and took her findings to Don. The agent was still recovering from his injury and was on limited duty but he went to the office and reviewed the files that had been gathered on the latest murders before confronting David and the team with the fact that he believed that Charlie was right, that there really was a serial killer on the loose. Taking responsibility for the inquiry he ordered the team to initiate a full scale investigation using the data that Charlie had compiled. A day later Charlie's equation pinpointed a number of likely targets allowing the team to successfully foil an attack on a married couple. Finally their continued efforts revealed a suspect and they arrested the elusive serial killer.

Charlie stood foremost at the window with Colby on his right and Liz on his left while Don and the other agents watched from behind them. An audible gasp escaped his lips when Posner's head swiveled around and faced the window; the man's eyes appeared to penetrate the glass and meet with his. He shrugged uncomfortably; there was no way the man would know who was watching him, let alone single him out, so he tried to ignore the stare and concentrate on the conversation. When Posner turned and faced the agents again the young professor released a sigh of relief but it was a fleeting moment because a second later he thought that he heard his own name mentioned by the killer.

"What…how….he knows me?" Charlie thought to himself; eyes widening in surprise. He had imagined it….right? But then why had Colby and Liz moved closer and why was Don now standing right behind him?

He couldn't take his eyes off of Posner as the man explained to the agents how he had discovered the professor's involvement in the case and then…

"The logical solution would have been to arrange an accident…but then I developed a strong desire to see the professors face when I killed him. Can you imagine the thrill of watching the light go out of those intelligent eyes?"

Charlie's breath caught in his throat; Posner had planned to kill him! Wild-eyed he twisted around to meet his brother's eye. "I…I never considered that in my equation" he managed to stammer out..."but now I see that perhaps I should have. Posner's pattern clearly showed that the micro clusters occurred when he was eliminating threats." He rubbed his brow nervously as he tried to explain. "The detective in Barstow, the..the..Postman and Gene Evans…..and…and me." His voice dropped to a near whisper as he finished and turned around, still in a state of disbelief, to find Posner once again staring at the observation window.

"Don't worry Charlie; he can't come after you now." Don mumbled, trying to keep his voice steady and reassuring even though he, himself, felt anything but calm. His head tilted slightly to the side as he caught the end of a statement that the killer had just made.


"All of my surveillance files and target scenarios are there."

Don abruptly turned to one of the agents in the room. "Marcus, find Matt and get that laptop in here."

The agent left immediately and the others turned back to view the interrogation. Don's eyes narrowed as he mulled over what the killer had just said and he felt another chilling sensation at the thought of the man going after his brother.

"To tell you the truth, I still get tingly all over just thinking about it; killing him would have been my tour de force….I mean how would you top that?"

Charlie staggered backwards with a gasp; his hand covering his mouth in horror as Posner's words hit home. That this man had not only planned his death but had looked at it as being his crowning achievement shook him to the core and he swallowed hard against the realization. Don was right behind him and squeezed his shoulder firmly to steady him; just knowing that his brother was there helped and he took a deep breath as he tried to reign in the overwhelming sense of panic that was threatening to engulf him.

Don frowned, the wrinkles around his eyes deepening, as he felt his brother's body shudder beneath his hand. Posner's words had made his own blood run cold and he had been trained to deal with sociopath's so he could only imagine how Charlie was feeling at the moment. His heart did a small flip flop; he hadn't wanted this life for his brother and knowing that Charlie had become a target only worsened his feelings of guilt. Guilt turned to rage suddenly as he clicked on his radio.

"Hell no!" he muttered furiously in response to a request that Posner had just made to David.

Startled, Charlie jumped at his tone and turned around to face him; his brows knitting together worriedly. "Don, I..ah." He cleared his throat and began again. "If you think that it would…."

Don stopped him before he could go any further. "Forget it Charlie." He said patting his shoulder reassuringly. "There's no reason for you to meet with this guy."

Relieved, Charlie simply nodded and turned back to face the window.

Don was still fuming over Posner's request when the door opened and Matt Li, their lab technician, entered the room carrying the killer's laptop.

"Plug it in over there and show me what you've found." Don ordered, pointing to a small table in the back of the room. Matt had worked with Don long enough to know when to ask a question or just do as he was told and he had no doubt what the SAC's mood was at this moment. Without a word, he hurried over the table and powered up the computer.

"It took us a while, but we figured out his password and gained access to his files. He kept very detailed records of his activities." Matt looked up at Don, a sickly expression on his face. "That man has killed a lot of people."

"Yeah, I know." Don replied, more gruffly than he had intended but he needed an answer to a more pressing question. "Did you find any files on future victims?"

Matt looked surprised. "Ah…no….and we've gone through all of the files."

Colby let out a relieved sigh. "So Posner was lying then."

"But how do you explain the fact that he knows about Charlie?" Liz asked as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

Don's brow furrowed and he shook his head. "I don't think he was lying… I have a hunch that he was telling the truth."

"Then maybe he's hidden the information." Charlie said, his voice becoming calmer as his mind began to explore various ways to discover the truth. "Mind if I take a look?"

"No…ah.. go right ahead." Matt replied, quickly vacating the chair for the professor.

"I'm not sure that you should be doing this Charlie. If Posner was telling the truth there might be stuff about you in those files." Don said as his brother started tapping on the keys.

Charlie looked up, his expressive brown eyes dark and troubled. "Don, please, I need to do this."

Don rubbed his hand over his mouth as he met his brother's gaze and reluctantly nodded in agreement just as Nikki and David rushed into the room.

"Damn psycho!" The African-American agent muttered under his breath as he strode angrily to the observation window.

"You okay?' Colby asked as he joined his partner. It wasn't like David to lose his temper; he was usually the calm one.

David glanced at Charlie and Don; lowering his voice as he spoke. "You heard Posner; he was going to kill Charlie."

"Yeah, we heard him." Colby muttered grimly as he jammed his clenched fists into the pockets of his jeans.

"How did Charlie take it?" Nikki asked, joining the small group.

"It definitely caught him by surprise." Liz said quietly over Colby's shoulder. "But all in all, I think he's handling it pretty good."

"It shook him up though……Don too." Colby said with a sideways glance at the mathematician and his brother."Both of their faces turned pretty pale but Don recovered fast and if that window hadn't separated him from Posner we would have had a hard time stopping Don from taking matters into his own hands."

They shared a knowing look and an uneasy silence fell between them as four pairs of eyes refocused on Posner. The man had just made a call to his lawyer and was in the process of handing the phone back to an agent. Robert chose that moment to turn and stare at the observation window; nodding and smiling just to let the agents know that he knew they were still there.

"I'm not sure I would have stopped him." David said softly; eyes narrowing as he stared at the prisoner. "Hell… I think I might have joined him myself."

"Has Charlie found anything?" Nikki asked her eyes still locked on Posner.

"No, he just started looking." Colby answered with a shake of his head.

A phone rang and another agent in the room fished out his cell. A few clipped words and he and his partner left the small room to return to more pressing matters. The room grew silent again which enhanced the sound the keys made as Charlie proceeded to break through the killer's encryptions.

"Have you found anything?" Don asked, hovering over his brother's shoulder.

Charlie stopped typing and rubbed two fingers over his lips thoughtfully; eyes never leaving the text on the laptop screen.

"He's used some type of advanced coding to hide his files; the entire hard drive has been encrypted." The professor mumbled absently as he tapped a few more keys.

Don glanced at Matt. "How come you didn't figure that out?"

"We thought we had found everything?" The technician replied defensively.

"It would be difficult to find." Charlie spoke up in Matt's defense. "Posner created a phantom hard drive to hide additional information but there must be an executable file to access the partition."

"You can find it though….right?" Don asked, leaning over his shoulder to study the text displayed on the screen.

Charlie nodded his head while he worked. "His scripto system is based on a super singular curve so it shouldn't take me very long to break the encryption."

"Not exactly in my skill set." Matt commented ruefully.

Don grinned and patted his shoulder. "Well, don't let it bother you; I'd say that applies to all but one of us in this room."

"That's a vast understatement Don." Colby snickered, turning away from the window and with the other three agents trailing him, strolled over to join the SAC.

"I've got something." Charlie spoke up suddenly; the data on the screen scrolling by so fast that Don wondered how his brother could even make sense of it, but then again, he thought proudly, Charlie's eidetic memory helped him see things quicker than most people could.

The data suddenly came to a stop and after a few clicks here and a few there, a library of documents popped up on the screen. Another click and icons of file folders appeared, each one identified with a set of initials.

Charlie glanced up at his brother. "There are a least thirty folders on this page and there is a link to another library as well."

"Click on one of folders Charlie, let's see what the initials represent." Don ordered.

Charlie chose one bearing the initials of B.D.; an eerie silence engulfed the room as the file opened revealing photographs and a detailed research report on Brent Driscoll, the detective from Bakersfield. Driscoll had been working with Gene Evans while investigating the murder of a young woman and had died himself in a drowning incident. His death had been labeled accidental but Don and his team now had proof that the detective had been murdered.

"He probably has one for each of his victims." Nikki mumbled under her breath.

"We'll take it from here Charlie." Don said abruptly, spying a folder marked with the initials of C.E. but he wasn't quick enough; his brother had also spotted the document.

Charlie's finger hovered momentarily before he moved the cursor over the folder. Did he really want to know how Posner had planned to kill him? The answer was simple…yes…he had to know.

"No, wait. Don't open it!" Don cried out in an attempt to stop his brother but it was too late; he had already hit the key.

Charlie's face paled and Don drew in his breath with an audible "hiss" as the document opened up before them.

TBC