All Alone Chapter 3
Don pulled the Suburban to a stop at the bank, with David pulling to a stop right behind him.
Slowly Don exited the Suburban and walked over to the bank manager and a police man, who was still trying to get the bank manager's statement.
With a practiced eye Don took in the damage to the bank itself. The front window was gone, having been shot or smashed earlier. Bits of glass now lined the pavement directly under where the window should have been.
Besides that, there were specks of blood all along the pavement, plus a few bullet casings here and there.
Reaching his still semi blood covered hand in to his pocket, Don pulled out his FBI badge and showed it to the police man and the bank manager.
"Don Eppes, FBI. This is Agent Megan Reeves, Agent Sinclair and Agent Granger." Don said, pointing out the members of his team.
The bank manager looked at the badge, before he looked back up at Don with a lost expression on his face.
"What happened here?" Megan asked. She had decided to take over asking the questions because she didn't think that Don was quite up to it at the moment, which was quite understandable.
Heck, she didn't really know why Charlie being shot wasn't affecting her like it was Don.
Was it her training? Was it the fact that she wasn't really related to Charlie? But that wasn't the case.
Everyone on the team, Don, David, Colby, her and Charlie...they were all a family, and when one of them gets hurt its supposed to affect the rest...right?
Megan snapped herself back to the present when the bank manager pointed at his bank and said, "Two men threw a grenade at the window. Once it exploded they climbed through with Semi aut's I think."
"Excuse me? 'Semi aut's'?" Megan asked, not really understanding what the bank manager was talking about.
"Semi automatics." Colby supplied for her, before he and David took a look inside the bank, to gather evidence for the case.
"Yes, Semi automatics. They starting yelling at people to drop to the floor. They...they started shooting people who didn't drop fast enough." The bank manager continued.
Megan kept her gaze soft, yet professional as she nodded her head, encouraging the manager to continue with his tale.
"Then they entered the vault and cleaning out all of the ten's and fifty dollar bills. They also took a few bars of gold, too. After that they grabbed some red paint and painted those words on the wall, before leaving."
Agent Reeves wrote down everything the man had said, while Don and the rest of the team had taken a look around.
While David and Colby were inside, Don was looking at the remains of the window.
"Why use the door when you can blow up a window." He muttered to himself, before he stepped through the window and went over to David and Colby, who were looking at the words on the wall.
"Think it could be some kind of political statement?" David asked Don.
For a second Don didn't answer. He just stared at the words, as he tried to picture the men who had painted it on there.
"Don?"
Sighing, Don shrugged his shoulders and finally said, "I don't know if it's a statement, but I tell ya, if these men are the same ones who shot my brother, then when I catch em' they are gonna be in a world of hurt. No one messes with my brother!"
David nodded his head at Don's words, as he said, "I'm with you there Don, but we don't know if it was the same perps."
"I think we do." Megan said as she entered the building after finishing up with the bank manager.
Don, David and Colby turned to face her, but Don's face was more pleading than the rest of them.
"What'd you find out?" He asked.
"The bank manager was able to give me a fairly detailed description of the perps get away vehicle. It matches that of the vehicle that we saw fleeing the scene of Charlie's sh...shooting." Megan said, saying the last word softly as she lowered her gaze for a second.
Slowly Don cracked his knuckles as he itched to wrap his fingers around the throats of the men who had hurt his brother like they had.
"I'm gonna kill em'." He muttered to himself as he tried to control his anger, while he was still infront of his team.
"You're gonna have to beat me to em'." David replied, when he had heard Don's explanation.
"And me." Colby said, stepping forward so that he was side-by-side with David.
"Me too." Megan said as she also closed the gap till all of them were standing in a circle, looking at each other, and trying to give each other friendly support.
"We're all a family Don, and we're here to support one another. When one of us goes down, we all suffer from it." Megan said.
Don lowered his gaze, not wanting to meet his friend's gaze since he knew what she was talking about.
David sighed and focused on his boss as he said, "What we're trying to say is that you don't have to suffer alone."
Slowly Don raised his face, and amidst the few tears that had streaked down his face, there was a small smile gracing his face as well.
"Thanks guys." He said softly, before he reached up and wiped the tears away.
Nodding their heads, each one of them gave Don a pat on the shoulder before they moved out of the bank and towards their Suburban's.
After that, they all split up.
Don and Megan went to the jewalry store, while David and Colby went to the supermarket to look around and gather evidence.
While they were driving to the jewalry store, Don was busy thinking about the evidence that they had received.
"We know that they took the ten and fifty dollar bills..plus some gold. Why? Why the ten and fifty dollar bills and not all of it?" Don asked.
"Maybe the bills were counterfeit." Megan guessed as she looked out at the darkened streets of L.A.
Don scrunched up his eyebrows at Megan's answer as he said, "All of them?!"
"Maybe not all of them, but it would explain why they did it." She replied evenly, before throwing a glance in Don's direction.
Don nodded his head as he turned a corner on to 122 Street and Hefner Parkway.
"Yeah it would, but who knows, they might have done it for the fun of it!" He replied.
Megan shook her head as she continued to think about what had happened so far.
After several minutes she finally spoke again.
"I don't think that's it Don. Think about it. Charlie is shot, and then the stores are robbed. Coinsidence?"
"Are you saying that Charlie was shot so that he'd be out of the way?!" Don asked as his anger started to boil even more towards the perps.
'If what Megan said is true, the minute I find those bastards I'm gonna shoot em' for the pain they caused me and my family! No one shoots at me or my brother ever!' Don thought before he sighed and thought back to last year when something like this had almost happened.
'If David hadn't of been standing there then Charlie wouldn't have survived. God why does this keep happening?! I'm supposed to keep my brother safe but how? He's safer in a classroom with chalk in his hands than at the scene of a crime, where the threat of a gunman is still present. I never should have brought him in to work with my team in the first place! That way he'd stay safe...alot more safer than he was tonight!'
As Don pulled to a stop outside the jewalry store, he promised himself that no matter what he would go to see Charlie after he was finished up there.
Charlie was more important to him than his job with the FBI, and that was saying alot, because Don loved his job but, he loved his brother...his family even more.
With that promise sealed, Don and Megan exited the Suburban and headed the few feet to the entance of the jewalry store.
