The day Charlie vanished was a blur – a day in a week of boring cases and paperwork

CHAPTER THREE

"I don't know who that is," Alan said. "Charlie's never brought her here, or mentioned… Well, not that I'd necessarily know. But wasn't he with Amita? Or was that before?" Alan seemed entirely flustered by the situation.

"Can't really tell a location," Megan said, peering at the photograph closely. "They're wearing light clothes. She's wearing a T-shirt and what look like riding breeches? I think I can see the top of some riding boots."

"Charlie's never mentioned horses," Don said. The whole situation was beginning to unnerve him.

"Well, I don't think he's dressed to ride. Jeans, a T-shirt." Megan shrugged. "I'm not a horsey person either."

"Can we file a missing persons report?" Alan asked.

Everyone looked at him in surprise.

"It's a bit soon," Don said slowly. "He's been gone two days."

"That's enough time," Alan said. "They always say 48 hours, don't they?"

Don nodded. "Yeah, I guess. But are we sure…"

"Don," Alan said sternly. "Charlie would not disappear for two entire days and not call me. He would not leave his laptop. He would not abandon his classes. This is your brother; you know he would not do this."

Don looked at Megan. "Well," Megan started. "It does seem unlike him. When I talked to him on Sunday-"

"You talked to him on Sunday?" Don interrupted. "Did he say anything? How did he seem?"

"He seemed his usual self. Maybe a bit quiet and subdued, now that I think about it. He just stopped by Larry's office to drop off some calculations he'd done for him. Charlie just mentioned that he had a few classes in summer and wanted to know how my packing was going, and if I needed any help. He asked how everyone here was and then he left. We really only talked for five minutes."

"So he didn't mention he was leaving?"

"No," Megan said. "But something could have come up last minute."

"He still would have called by now," Alan said, sounding frustrated.

"A word!" Colby suddenly exclaimed, pointing at the notebook he and David were still hunched over. "There's an actual word!"

"What is it?" Don asked.

"Madraghana."

"The hell?" Don demanded. "What does that mean?"

"Might be a name," David suggested. "It's just kind of in the middle of the page, with nothing else." He held up the notebook, the page in question displayed. It was empty, except the word Madraghana written in large letters, underlined several times. David put the book back down and flipped the page. "Oh, and here it says 'Don'." He held it up again to show everyone. There in the middle of an empty page, was Don's name.

"Anything else?" Don asked eagerly.

David flipped to the next page. "More equations."

Lauren cleared her throat and nodded at the laptop. "Maybe we should give that a try?"

Don reluctantly pulled the computer toward him and flipped it open. It immediately began to power up, and after a surprisingly short time, displayed a password page. Don keyed in the familiar numbers 161815205320 and hit enter. Access Denied. He looked over at Lauren. "I don't know his password."

"Well, if you'd like, I could try…?"

"You can do that from here?"

Lauren pulled her purse out from under her chair and dug around in it, eventually triumphantly holding up a memory stick. "Let's see what we can do," she said, pulling the laptop in front of her and inserting the stick.

Don looked at her with uncertainty. "Charlie's pretty protective of his laptop," he said. "If he finds out we've messed around with it…"

"Heads will roll," Colby helpfully supplied.

"I'll be discreet," Lauren said. "I've done this before, remember?"

"But this is my brother, who is ridiculously protective of that laptop. He would be furious if he walked in right now and saw you messing around with it."

"And then you can be furious right back for not showing up for two days," Lauren said. "Desperate times and all."

"Well, David and I can't figure this out," Colby announced. "Although, we think if we…"

"If we study it a bit more maybe we can make some headway," David said, nodding seriously. "We think we know what some of this means or at least points to. If we compare it to some of the other stuff Charlie's done for us, we might be able to guess."

"So can we file a missing persons report?" Alan demanded. "Tonight?"

"Why don't we wait until the morning?" Megan decided for Don. "We'll call around to some people… Larry, Amita… Maybe they'll have some ideas. And if we've found nothing, you could come down to the office in the morning and we'll sit down with missing persons."

Alan nodded. "Alright, that sounds fine."

"Good," Don agreed. He looked over at Lauren, who was still typing away and only getting angry bleeps in return. "Any luck?"

"Nope. I think this may require some more firepower. Can I take it to the office?"

"I'll bring it in tomorrow," Don said.

Lauren nodded and closed the computer.

Don picked up the photograph and looked at it again. Charlie with a woman, laughing, happy. Someone Don had never heard about, didn't recognize. Who was this woman, where was she, and what was her relationship with Charlie? And who was this Charlie in the photograph, looking so very comfortable and laughing?

Somehow he knew that they would get nowhere with Larry and Amita and all of Charlie's colleagues and friends. They would have to file a missing persons report, and Don dreaded what else he would find out about his brother.

"I'm going to check his room again," Don announced abruptly, standing and heading for the stairs before anyone could say anything. He entered the room more slowly this time. Stood in the centre and slowly turned around, taking in every detail.

"It's neat," Alan said from the doorway, startling Don.

"Is it not normally?" Don asked.

"Well," Alan said uncertainly. "I don't normally come in here. And it's not a mess, you know, like his office. But it's not this neat either."

Don nodded and walked over to the nightstand, opening the drawer. It was empty. He closed it and walked around to the other side of the bed, opening the drawer on that side. Papers, a neat pile. And on top, glaringly obvious, Charlie's wallet. Don took everything out. Flipped open the wallet. Cash, credit cards, driver's license, a picture of Don and Alan together. (Where would you go where you don't need this?)

"This feels like an invasion of privacy," Alan said, sitting down on the bed.

Don sat down beside him. "Well what do you want me to do, look for him or not?"

"No, I do. I just… it's an invasion of privacy, that's all. I know we have to do it to find him, but it is."

Don flipped through the papers. Some papers with equations, some books, project folders with titles Don didn't understand. Another photograph. Don looked at it closely. It was the same woman. The photograph was taken of her face, with dark hair blown by the wind, some across her face. She was looking off to the left of the camera. She looked sad. Was this the Alecia that had left the voicemails? Don gave the picture to his father, who looked at it and shook his head.

"She's very beautiful," Alan said quietly. "I just wish I understood… Why would he keep this from us? Whatever this is. She obviously means something to him."

Don took the picture and looked at the back, but nothing was written there. No numbers, no names, no dates. It was a question, a mystery, and Charlie wasn't around to tell them what it meant.