A/N - Well I have been sick for over a week now and have done almost no writing. I had originally wanted to have this story completely posted before Friday April 4th because that is when the next new episode of Numb3rs airs. I just know that we will meet Amita's parents if not this week then next week and some basic cannon fact about them will blow this story right out of the water. Kind of like when it turned out Colby's dad couldn't possibly have come and seen him in the hospital in my story Faith in Your Partner because the man died when he was a teenager! OYE! As dHALL so aptly put it - this story is in danger of becoming AU! LOL.
There have been a few folks who've wondered where I got my information. For the Indian names I actually googled a site with Indian baby boy names that had the meanings next to each name. For the facts on the humanities crimes, I note several sources on my profile page including the Indian government. I will repeat what I have said before. This story does have some difficult subject matter, but it is not meant to be disrespectful to anyone Indian or otherwise. The research that was done prior to writing this story was extensive. I spent nearly 3 months researching this topic before I started posting. I will endeavor to answer any questions you may have. If you're review is long and has many questions I will try to e-mail a response rather than to reply directly using the fan fiction site software.
I would like to thank all reviewers for your feedback. Thank you for taking the time to let me know what you think.
Alice I
Chapter Nine
It didn't take Don long to clear the apartment and then allow Charlie to come in. Don had never been to Amita's place but noticed right away that it didn't really look all that different from his own apartment. The door opened to the living room that was moderate in size with what looked like an office nook in the far corner. The furniture was less like his own. Amita had what one would typically expect to see in a grad student's dormitory. The couch was old and threadbare on the arms, but the material was intact and without holes. The big arm chair sitting opposite didn't actually match the couch but it looked to be in much better condition and newer with a soft plush like fabric. The coffee table was basic dark wood that looked to be in reasonably good condition. The desk in the office nook on the other hand looked wholly out of place when compared to the living room furniture. It was a beautiful antique Amish roll top desk. The wood was honey colored and the craftsmanship was exquisite. Beyond the living room was the kitchen separated by a long counter with tall stools pulled up along it's length. As he made his way through the living room and kitchen he moved cautiously through the hallway adjoining the bedroom and bath seeing the the set up to this apartment was very similar to his own. The thought that he should investigate the rents here crossed his mind briefly but he stowed that away for later consideration as he checked the bedroom.
Nothing looked terribly out of place so he wasn't sure that the place had actually been burglarized. There were clothes on the couch and dishes in the sink, but nothing looked as though the place had been searched or disturbed in any way so he moved to the front door and beckoned Charlie inside.
"Charlie you mentioned that Amita has been more and more distant the closer it came to having her parents come to town. Is it possible that she didn't close and lock her door this morning as she left for school?"
Charlie thought about that and shook his head wearily. "I suppose anything is possible, but I highly doubt it, Don. I take it everything seems perfectly normal?"
Don holstered his weapon and shrugged. "Honestly yeah, nothing is tossed as though a search has been conducted; the drawers are all closed, the cupboards too. Nothing seems to be missing and there is forty dollars sitting out on her dresser, so I cannot believe that the place was burglarized."
Charlie nodded but he felt a little creepy like something was still out of place about the whole thing. He knew Amita, and he was having trouble believing that she had left her place open and unlocked. He wanted to get her things and get back so he decided not to debate the point and immediately moved off into the bedroom to get a small suitcase from the closet and start filling it with clothes and other items that she had asked him to get for her. Don also still had an uneasy feeling about the unlocked door and encouraged Charlie to hurry up unnecessarily.
"I'm almost done, Don. Hey, there is a date planner on her desk with a spiral steno pad tucked into the side flap. She said that her parents' flight and accommodation information is on the top page. Could you grab that for me while I get some things from the bathroom?"
Don moved out into the living room and walked over to the desk. The day planner was out and on the desk just as Charlie had described. Don stopped short. The steno pad was there, tucked in the flap of the planner, but the page on top with the information was gone. It had clearly been torn from the steno pad. The frayed edges of paper still stuck in the spiral bind. The tingling sensation that he had felt from the moment he walked into the apartment increased and out of sheer force of habit he pulled a glove from his pocket and used that to flip the first couple of pages in the planner, looking for the top page of the pad that had been removed, but didn't find it. He glanced around at some of the other items and folders on the desk, not seeing anything and then he looked to the top shelf and saw a picture frame lying face down over the lip of the shelf. Again using the glove, he lifted the photo frame and saw a picture of Charlie sitting at his desk at CalSci. He had a Rubik's cube in his hands and a huge smile on his face. The glass over the picture was broken as though the frame had been slapped down hard.
Don turned suddenly and once more scanned the corners of the room; then opened his phone and contacted both his team and Officer Clement. After speaking with Megan and David, Don called Clement to ask if Amita's keys had been entered into evidence desperately hoping that she would say that they had been. When she told him that no keys were recovered from the scene he moved to high alert.
"We may have a problem; I think that the perp might have been here in Amita's apartment."
As he spoke, Don moved toward the sounds of his brother rummaging through the bathroom still hyper-alert for any movement or anything that he missed during his sweep of the place earlier.
"If the door was unlocked and ajar I agree that this guy has her keys and could have been there. I'll get over there right away with a tech team to sweep the place for forensic evidence."
Don acknowledged her and hung up as Charlie emerged from the bathroom lugging a small but overstuffed and moderately heavy suitcase that Don took from him.
"Come on, Buddy, time to leave."
The seriousness of Don's tone was not lost on him and Charlie asked, "What is it?"
Don was continuing to scan the area for intruders as he led Charlie toward the living room. "Amita's keys were not recovered, and the page with her parents flight information has been torn out of the steno pad on the date planner. The door was unlocked a ajar so I think it's at least possible that her attacker was actually in here. If he really was here, we need to get out before we contaminate the scene any further."
Charlie stiffened at that revelation but said nothing, leaving the apartment behind Don. They moved off down the hallway to the elevator with Don still on high alert. As they emerged from the building both Don and Charlie were visually scanning the area. Charlie's eyes went to any white vehicle that they came across obviously looking for the van that he had seen at CalSci, while Don's more trained eye was looking for anything that might be out of place. Don moved them as quickly as Charlie's limp would allow over to his vehicle and after throwing the suitcase in back he instructed Charlie to get in and lock the door. They had to wait for Officer Clement and the forensics team to give a statement and he wanted Charlie out of harm's way, or at least with as much protection as the interior of his SUV offered.
"What are you going to do?"
Don once again withdrew his gun and looked at his brother and said, "My job. He may never have been here, and if he was I doubt that he is still in the vicinity, but I want to check the apartment again. Now you stay put in here, got it?"
Charlie nodded looking a little more scared than miffed at his brother's abrupt tone. Don slammed the door and Charlie did as he was told, locking it behind the agent. He then reclined the seat a little so that he was not quite as visible to someone passing by from outside the vehicle. Don kept his weapon low but moved with surprising speed and stealth over to the side of the building. He entered and instead of the elevator, he moved off to the stairwell that led up to the second floor and Amita's apartment. When he got to the top of the stairs he saw that the door leading to the second floor was cracked open slightly, just as the apartment door had been. He looked around the floor to see if there was any indication as to why the door should remain open when the heavy doors generally closed of their own accord, if for no other reason than weight. Looking through the crack he could clearly see the corridor of the long slender building and Amita's front door. The perpetrator may have stood there watching them, and Don couldn't help thinking, 'Doesn't this guy know how to close a door?'. Don pulled his glove out again and slipped it onto his hand then pushed door and it did close with a rather loud click as the latching mechanism engaged. If he were standing there watching as the Eppes brothers approached it would explain why he didn't want to close the door. He probably slipped away after they had entered the apartment.
Don opened the door and moved purposefully forward once again checking the corners as he entered the apartment. He didn't really believe that the perpetrator was still there but he wasn't going to blithely ignore the fact that he could easily be hiding in a closet and waiting for everyone to leave. Don carefully moved around the apartment checking every nook and cranny that could potentially hold a person. He even opened and looked inside the cupboard under the kitchen sink only finding some cleaning supplies and a bucket. He checked her bedroom again very carefully, under the bed, in the closet and even out the back window and the three inch deep fake balcony. He also took that time to scan the parking area adjacent to Amita's building or as much of it as he could see from that angle as well as the rear of neighboring building. From this vantage point he could see the back of the next building clearly but didn't see any white or other colored vans for that matter parked there. With her apartment at the end of the long building she had the advantage of being able to see out in two different directions.
The bathroom was much larger than he had expected with a shower stall and a tub that featured a wide rim big enough for the four large round flat bottomed scented candles resting along the back wall of the tub. Don inhaled the gentle lavender of the candles, and shook his head. 'Gotta find out what the rent is around here,' he thought to himself yet again. The perpetrator was obviously long gone so he moved back out to the living room and over to the desk again. He wanted to see if there were any other signs of disturbance other than the picture and the day planner but with papers and folders on the desk it was impossible for him to tell what had been moved and what hadn't. They would have to show Amita pictures of the desk taken by the crime scene techs to see what else may be missing or displaced.
There was no one here and nothing more he could do so he left the apartment closing the door and returned to the parking lot just as a PPD cruiser and a small black mini van pulling up next to his SUV. Officer Clement and unfortunately Officer Prig both stepped out of the cruiser and approached Don. Before Officer Clement could say anything, Prig stepped up slightly ahead of her and began speaking.
"For someone who has no intention of interfering in a case that is clearly out of his jurisdiction and against proper conflict-of-interest protocols, you certainly have an alarming tendency to be right in the middle of our investigation."
The steel in Don's eyes made Officer Clement cringe internally, but she spoke up before the two men could get into a cock fight in the middle of the parking lot.
"Martin, Special Agent Eppes contacted us because they found that the place had been broken into when they arrived on a perfectly legitimate errand." She turned at looked at him directly and spoke quietly so that Don couldn't easily over hear her. "Let's play nicely with our Federal friends. We may want to use that big database at some point." Then she said in a normal tone of voice, "You have more experience with the CSI techs than I do. Why don't you coordinate with them so that nothing gets missed. I can stay down here and get a statement from Agent Eppes."
Prig shot daggers at Don before he turned stiffly and walked away to work with the CSIs collecting evidence. As he walked away Clement called out to him. "Marty, we'd better see if we can get the building super down here too. If the stolen keys were used to open the door then there will hopefully be trace inside the lock. He will need to get a locksmith out here tonight to replace the lock we are gonna take if we don't want to be forced to put an officer on guard all night."
Prig nodded to her and walked toward the mini van without saying a word. Officer Clement looked back at Don with a slight smile on her face but refrained from shaking her head until Prig and the other officers moved inside the building.
"You handle him quite well."
That got Don a bigger smile and she looked up at him. "When I was first assigned as Martin's partner I nearly killed him in the first week. It took a little while but we managed to find a balance that works... sort of. At least he treats me with some respect now. He's actually not all that bad..." Once again she looked up and this time she did shake her head. "Who am I kidding? He is a right pain in the ass to deal with, but he is an extremely good police officer and he misses nothing. He is one of the most observant officers I have worked with and I am hoping that he makes detective soon. It will be good for the department."
Don's irritation at Prig was quickly wearing off. "Not to mention you."
As much as he appreciated Clement's wit and charm it was time to get back to business. He told her what he had found in the apartment and stairwell and that from the rear window he didn't see any sign of the van. They didn't have a license plate number to go by, only a description that would fit most utility vans in the LA area, but the fact that it also had no business names or markings of any kind he hoped would help to narrow down the search a little.
"What other keys were on the key ring that the attacker took?"
Don glanced back at the SUV and in a serious tone said, "Charlie said that Amita's office key was on that ring but we should ask him to verify that."
The fatigue of the long day, the tumultuous events of the evening and the emotional roller-coaster he had been riding finally caught up with Charlie. Before Don had made it all the way up to Amita's apartment he had slipped into a fitful doze. As Don walked over to the SUV he used his remote to unlock the door, which startled Charlie awake. He sat upright quickly looking around frantically for the source of the sound that had disturbed him. Don quickly opened the door saying, "Whoa there, Buddy, it's just me. You okay?"
Charlie turned in the seat so that his right leg hung out of the cab. He absently rubbed it as he stretched out the muscles. "Yeah, I'm okay. Did you see anything?"
He shook his head saying, "Nah, he's gone. Look, Charlie, if he came here then he will probably go to her office as well. You did say that her office key was on that key ring didn't you?"
Charlie nodded and Don looked to Officer Clement who was already speaking into her radio. She paused and looked at Charlie for a moment. "Where exactly is Professor Ramanujan's office?"
"Fourth floor of the Math and Sciences building, room 426."
Officer Clement nodded confirmation to Charlie and turned away to tell the dispatch where to send the unit. Meanwhile Don got on the phone with David and asked him and Colby to meet the Pasadena PD at CalSci to check out Amita's office. When he hung up with them he turned back to Charlie.
"What else was on that key ring? Did she have a key to the house on there?"
Charlie turned white at that question. He didn't understand why he hadn't thought of this already. "Oh, God! I'm sure that is where she had the key, where else would it be? Don, we have to call Dad!"
Don was just as upset by this as Charlie, but he remained calm. "Hey, don't worry, Charlie. Remember Megan is at the house, but yeah I'll call her now. You're gonna have to change the lock, Buddy."
"First thing tomorrow, I'll be on the phone." Charlie looked around nervously. "What about Amita's parents? If this guy took that sheet of information about when they are due to arrive and where they're staying..."
Don placed a calming hand on Charlie's shoulder. His brother was starting to get a little wound up. The exhaustion was becoming evident on his face and it looked like his leg was cramping up the way he kept rubbing it.
"Relax, Charlie, they don't arrive for a couple days. We'll make sure that they arrive safely and they can always change their reservations." He turned to Officer Clement just as she was finishing up with dispatch and asked, "If we're done here I think I should get Charlie back home. I sent two of my agents to meet your guys at CalSci - just as back up." He hastened to add in clarification.
"Thanks, that would be appreciated. We are starting to run a little thin with the shift change. You two should head back home. I have your cell number and here's mine," she said as she handed him a card. "I'll let you know if we find any trace on Professor Ramanujan's lock and I'm sure your agents will let you know if we find anything at her office."
She turned to Charlie and she really felt for the young man. His face looked like it hurt from the black eye and his leg obviously had more than enough for one day. "Professor Eppes, I'll make sure you get your cane back as soon as possible. You should go home and take it easy."
Charlie tried to smile at her and almost succeeded. "Thanks, I'd appreciate that. I have an old one from the hospital but I'd rather have mine back if it's all the same. Thank you for all of your help. Amita told me that you were very understanding when you spoke to her."
She patted him lightly on the forearm. "Just doing my job."
That earned her a genuine smile. "Now you sound like my brother."
Charlie eased himself back into the seat and didn't notice the look that passed between Officer Clement and Don.
TBC
