TOO CLOSE TO HOME
Chapter 4
The buzzing of the alarm clock awakened Charlie from a restless sleep. He still felt tired, having been up late working on the calculations. Sitting on the edge of his bed, he rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he tried to get his mind to focus. "There has to be something I'm missing," he told himself.
His hair was still damp when Charlie descended the stairs to discover Alan already in the kitchen cooking breakfast. "You can throw your bike in the backseat and I'll drive you to school."
"Okay," Charlie said distractedly, looking in the refrigerator for the orange juice.
"I'm making French toast. What do you want on it?"
"Nothing."
Alan gave up trying to engage his youngest son in conversation. He set the plate in front of him, sternly commanding, "Eat."
Charlie did so, his mind already back at work on the Campus Killer case. With tests scheduled in most of his classes, he had more time to concentrate. And now he had a greater urgency to do so.
Later in the day, Larry found him in his classroom, the chalkboard covered with complicated equations. "Charles, have you gotten around to working on my calculations?"
"Larry, this is really not a good time to be asking. I need to work on this." Charlie spoke without pausing in his work or turning away from the board, his normally easy going tone now having a certain tenseness. "Why don't you go ask Professor Martinez or one of the grad students to help you out for once."
"Charles, this is so unlike you. Surely you know that Renata Martinez won't even give me the time of day," Larry pointed out.
"Would you please just go away and leave me alone." Charlie pleaded.
Larry quietly withdrew, wondering what had caused the change in his former student's demeanor. Although he suspected that it had something to do with Charlie's extra curricular activities.
