Chapter Two

Thursday 8:30 PM - Missing 13 hours
By the time Jack and Danny arrived at the house Alan was pacing the floor trying to figure out a logical reason for Charlie to not have shown up at school. Larry had confirmed that he had not turned up to teach any of his classes and the fact that he had not been back to the house or left on his trip had Alan feeling more and more tense. Larry was doing his best to calm him, to no avail.

Don had called David and Terry and they arrived shortly before Jack and Danny. "Dad this is Jack Malone. He runs the missing persons squad in the New York office." Don had everyone sit down at the dining room table and Jack pulled out a notebook then looked into the distraught eyes of the elder Eppes.

"When was the last time you saw your son?"

"He left the house for school around 7:30 this morning."

Jack had a slightly confused look on his face and said "Your son is a college student?"

Larry spoke up abruptly. "Charles is a professor of Applied Mathematics at Cal Sci and a colleague of mine."

Jack had gotten the impression that Charlie was Don's younger brother but this man who was a fellow professor was older than Don by a few years. "Mr. Eppes, do you have a recent picture of your son that I can have?"

Alan got up and took a framed photo of Don and Charlie off the mantle. He took the picture out of its frame and handed it to Jack. "This was taken three months ago."

Jack took the picture and looked closely at the young man standing next to Don in the photograph. He had deep brown eyes and brown curly hair. "Charlie looks to be about thirty. Isn't that a little young to be a college professor?"

Alan smiled with pride at that question. "Charlie will be thirty next month. He has been a professor at Cal Sci for almost nine years. He went to Princeton at thirteen, graduated at sixteen, got his first doctorate at eighteen and his second at twenty."

Danny let out a low whistle and said, "So Charlie is a genius?"

Jack jotted down what Alan had just revealed about Charlie then asked, "Has Charlie been under any unusual stress lately?"

Alan exchanged a significant look with his eldest son and said, "When my wife... When the boy's mother died a year ago, Charlie had a lot of difficulty coming to terms with it. He locked himself away in the garage working on an unsolvable mathematical equation. It was his way of dealing with his mother's death, but he never really faced his feelings about it. Tuesday was the one year anniversary, and it hit Charlie harder than either of us expected."

Jack had been jotting down notes as Alan spoke, but stopped and said, "Why is that, Mr. Eppes?"

"I came home Tuesday afternoon and found him there in the living room." he said, pointing at the coffee table in the adjacent room.

Flashback

Tuesday 4:00 PM
Alan walked in from the kitchen and saw Charlie sitting on the floor in the living room in front of the coffee table. He was surrounded by pictures of his mother and many of the childhood cards and other projects that he had made for her, while tears ran freely down his face. It was obvious that Charlie hadn't heard his father come in. After watching him for a few minutes, Alan went over and sat down next to his son and put one arm around him.

"I miss her too, especially today." Charlie looked at his father, seeming to see him for the first time. He clenched his teeth together, trying to stop his jaw from trembling as fresh tears appeared in his eyes.

He looked down at the pictures of his mother and spoke in a halting voice. "I failed her, you know." Charlie picked up one of the photographs and stared at it for a moment. When he spoke next he had such a defeated tone in his voice that Alan instinctively moved closer trying to give his son some comfort.

"She was always there for me, no matter what, and I ran away from her when she needed me the most."

Alan squeezed Charlie's shoulders and said, "No Charlie, you didn't fail her. Your mother understood better than anyone why you lost yourself in your numbers, and she knew all too well how much you loved her, and how devastating it was for you to lose her."

Charlie looked back at the photo in his hand. He couldn't bear to see his father's face just then. He pulled his knees up to his chest and held himself tightly trying to keep from shaking. His voice broke with emotion. "I miss her so much." Charlie couldn't stop the trembling that coursed through his body, and his shoulders shook as sobs of regret and repressed emotion racked him.

Alan pulled him into an embrace and rocked him gently while he wept. After a while Charlie pulled away from his father and said quietly, "I'm sorry Dad, I…"

Alan smiled gently and said, "Charlie, I'm your father. You are supposed to be able to cry on my shoulder." Charlie looked up into his father's face finally, and what Alan saw confused and frightened him a little.

Alan knew both of his sons very well and he had seen this look in his younger son's eyes in the past. It was the same look that Charlie had when he first found out that his mother had cancer. Charlie had fear in his eyes hidden behind the sadness.

"What is it, Charlie?"

Charlie looked down and in a small voice said, "I don't know how to feel right now. I let Mom face this…
…the pain, the fear, alone. I wasn't strong enough for her."

"Charlie, your mother wasn't alone, she was never alone."

But Charlie didn't really hear his father's words. He was still holding the picture of his mother in his hands. She was laughing and playing with both of her sons in the park. Charlie was five at the time. This was one of Charlie's favorite pictures and as he stared into her laughing eyes, he whispered to her, "I'll be strong enough, Mom, I promise."

Alan didn't understand what Charlie was saying but he did know that his son was hurting badly and that tore at his heart. "Charlie, what do you mean 'You'll be strong enough'?"

Charlie once again looked into his father's face and this time Alan saw resolve in his son's eyes. "Dad, there is a service tonight for Mom, isn't there?"

Alan felt his concern ease and he nodded. "You should go with me, Charlie. You have kept your grief buried for too long and it's time for you to finally express it."

"Did he go with you to the service for his mother?" Danny asked.

"Yes, and so did Don." Alan said, looking at Don.

Jack turned to look at Don. "How did Charlie seem after the service, Don?"

Don had to stop and think about that for a moment. He hadn't realized how much this had affected Charlie until he heard his father describe Charlie's breakdown. "He was very quiet afterward, which is not so unusual for Charlie. He went up to bed shortly after we came back here. Dad and I talked about Charlie; but I didn't really understand until now how hard thia has been for him." Don turned to his father and said, "Why didn't you tell me he broke down before the service?"

Alan frowned and said, "We did talk about this, after Charlie went upstairs. It was an emotional day for all of us you know. Donnie, she was your mother, but don't forget that she was also my wife."

Jack wanted to steer this conversation back to the point and said, "Okay Don, can you tell me what you and your father discussed concerning Charlie after the service?"

Don realized that he was allowing his own growing concern to interfere with his objectivity and took a calming breath. He looked at his father from across the table "I'm sorry, Dad" He turned back at Jack and relayed the conversation Tuesday evening.

Flashback

Tuesday 9:30 PM
Don and his father sat down at the kitchen table after Charlie went up to bed.

"I didn't know that this would hit him so hard. I guess that explains why he has been so moody lately."

Alan frowned at his older son and asked, "Did you two have a fight?"

Don took a sip from his beer before answering. "I wouldn't really call it a fight, but he nearly took my head off last week when I asked him to look over some stuff for a case I was working on. He said that since I was the perfect brother and so much better than him that I should be able to figure things out without his help."

Don put his beer down hard on the table and stood up, pacing the kitchen. "I have never said that I was better than him; if anything it's the other way 'round! I was so angry with him that we haven't spoken until tonight."

Alan sighed and said, "This has been hard for Charlie and not just recently, but ever since your mother got sick. He loved her so much that he couldn't deal with losing her, that's why he retreated into that P vs NP equation. It's the only way his mind could relate to what was happening. That math problem is unsolvable, and to Charlie, losing your mother was the same."

Don stopped pacing and sat down at the table again, looking very tired. Alan realized that this was also especially difficult for Don, but his older son had dealt with the loss of his mother where Charlie was now only beginning to.

"Donnie, you need to understand that Charlie still looks up to you, even now that you are both adults. I've told you that before. In his eyes, you are better than him in all the ways that mean something; at least to him. You're taller, better looking, you always got the girls, you were popular in school and at work, you're better at sports and have more confidence in social situations."

"But, Dad, that's not true! First of all, I know for a fact that most of Charlie's female students wish that they could date him, and he has always gotten excellent peer reviews, so he is just as well liked at work, if not more than me. I mean Charlie is the big man on campus now. As for him thinking that I'm better at sports, you know that he considers himself the 'King' of basketball. He has no reason to think I'm better than him… NO REASON!"

Alan shook his head. "Donnie, you and I know all of this; and so does Charlie in his heart, but he there is a part of him that still feels like the weak little brother that needs to be looked after by his older sibling. He said that you were the 'perfect brother' because he views you as the good son. You came home and stayed by your mother's side at the end when he didn't. He feels like he failed her and its eating him up inside. That's why I wanted him to go tonight and why I insisted that you come too."

Jack was still writing notes and didn't look up at Don when he said, "You and your brother had an argument? When was that?"

"It was Monday last week? Why does that matter?"

Jack did look up at Don then. "Don, this is how we compile a profile of someone. You should know that. It is always difficult when the person we are profiling is a friend or member of the family but you must trust me that this profile will give us the clues we need to find your brother."

Don nodded. "You're right, of course. Sorry, Jack."

Jack saw the strain in Don's eyes. "Don't be. Now you said that you were asking him to look over some things for a case you were working on. Does your brother consult for the FBI?"

"Yes, but not only for the FBI. He has consulted for the NSA and Homeland Security as well. Jack, he has Top Security Clearance."

Larry, who had been sitting quietly listening to everything, spoke up just then. "If I may interject something? As disturbed as I am hearing how difficult these last few days have been for Charles, might it be possible that he has simply left on a consulting job that he was unable to tell anyone about? However unlikely that may seem, he may have agreed to a job as a way of dealing with the renewed stress he has been feeling brought on by the anniversary of his mother's death. It may not be P vs NP, but it could still be an escape. Didn't you say something about checking his room to see if he had packed a suitcase?"

Danny spoke up before Jack did. "What exactly is this P vs NP?"

Don answered for Larry. "That is the unsolvable math problem that Charlie works on when he can't deal with what life throws at him. It's what he spent that last months of Mom's life doing because he couldn't..." Don stopped talking and got up, walking away from the table. "I guess old feelings die hard."

Jack said, "What is this about packing? Was Charlie going somewhere?"

Alan sighed and said, "Last night Charlie told me that he was going to be out of town for a while."

Jack looked the elder Eppes in the eye and said, "Mr. Eppes this is going to be very important. Can you tell me exactly what Charlie said to you last night?"

Flashback

Wednesday 6:30 PM
Charlie came in the back door of the house looking very tired. "Charlie, I'm making home-made chicken soup."

Charlie set his satchel down and got a glass of water from the sink. "It smells great, Dad, but I'm not very hungry."

Alan frowned at his son. "I've noticed that you haven't been eating. Charlie, you have to eat something, I mean look at you, your slacks are getting baggy because you've lost weight. I don't want to hear any arguments, young man, you will have a bowl of soup and some crackers. Now go get washed up for dinner."

There was no room for argument in his father's voice so Charlie picked up his satchel with a resigned air and left the kitchen for the stairs.

When he came down after a few minutes he looked more tired than he had in a very long time, but Alan was determined to keep the conversation light. The sadness in his son's eyes disturbed him and he desperately wanted to see Charlie come to terms with whatever was bothering him. Alan suspected that it wasn't just the fact that a year had passed since his mother's death. Something else was going on as well. Charlie took a seat at the table and allowed his father to serve him a large bowl of soup which he tried to eat a little of, but ended up just moving his spoon around the bowl more than anything else. Alan noticed this but put a smile on his face and asked, "So how was school today?"

Charlie didn't answer right away. He seemed to be considering how he wanted to answer this supposedly innocuous question. Then he looked at his father and said, "Dad, I am going to be out of town for a while."

Alan looked at Charlie somewhat taken aback. "Going out of town? But Charlie aren't you up for peer review in a couple of months? What about school? Where are you going?"

Charlie put his spoon down and said, "I spoke with the dean and arranged some time off. I asked for the review to be pushed back if necessary."

"Pushed back! Charlie, how long are you going to be gone, and where are you going?"

Alan felt a chill run down his spine for some inexplicable reason when Charlie answered. "I have to get away for a while, Dad. I don't know for how long; maybe a few weeks."

Alan slowly shook his head. His son was running away again, maybe not into the garage but it amounted to the same thing. "Charlie, you can't run away from your problems. You have to face them or they will keep coming back to haunt you."

Charlie smiled slightly as though his father had said something ironic. "I know, Dad. I'm not running away this time. I'm actually taking this one head on. You don't have to worry about me. I have taken care of everything; I've already taken care of all of the arrangements."

The chill that Alan had felt a moment ago intensified as he felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck. "Arrangements; what arrangements? Charlie, what are you talking about?"

"It's nothing Dad."

Alan was confused and worried by Charlie's choice of words, but was determined to get to the bottom of this. "Is this about your mother Charlie?"

"Dad, this is just… It's something that I have to do." He stood up and walked over to the door to the dining room but stopped and walked back to his father. He kissed him on the cheek. "I love you, Dad."

Then he went upstairs to his room, leaving his father sitting at the kitchen table bewildered and somewhat frightened by his youngest son's odd behavior. When Charlie came back down stairs his father asked him about finishing his soup and Charlie said, "I actually have to go out just now."

"Where are you going, Charlie?" Alan asked in a tone that clearly said that Charlie had better not try to sidestep this question.

"I'm going to see Don. He and I had an argument last week and I want to apologize to him. I said some things that… well, let's just say I want to apologize."

Charlie didn't wait for his father to answer him and was out the door before Alan could question him further.

Danny said, "That doesn't really sound like he was going on a consulting job."

Jack looked at Danny then said, "I would tend to agree, but it is still something that needs to be checked out."

Don sat back down at the table not realizing that he had been pacing. "I'll ask Assistant Director Merrick to put in a call to Assistant Director Robert Thompkins of the NSA. That's who hired Charlie a few years ago to do some consulting, and I have a contact at Homeland Security that I can call to see if Charlie is working with them right now."

Jack turned to Larry and said, "Charlie said that he was coming to see you this morning. Did he show up?"

Larry was biting his fingernails with a worried expression on his face. "No, he didn't come to my office this morning. I figured that he might have had another headache and decided to stay home, and that's why I stopped by this evening."

Jack frowned and said, "You said another headache? Has this been a problem for him?"

Alan rolled his eyes and said, "Of course, I should have mentioned that. I have also noticed that he has been having a lot of headaches lately, especially in the mornings."

Jack looked from Alan to Larry and said, "Has that also been your observation, Professor?"

Larry scratched his head nervously. "Unfortunately, yes. Charles told me yesterday that he was going to take some time off."

"When did you speak to him, Professor?"

"It was around nine in the morning. I was on my way to the Dean's office when I saw him leaning against the wall in the corridor just outside of Dean Cummings office."

Flashback

Wednesday 10:00 AM
"Charles?" Charlie didn't answer right away, nor in fact did he seem to hear his friend. He had his eyes closed tightly and he was pressing his hand to the left side of his head as though he were in a great deal of pain. Larry stepped quickly over to Charlie and touched his shoulder. "Charles? Charlie! Are you all right?" Larry's voice was very concerned and Charlie opened his eyes. It took a second to focus on the face of the man in front of him.

"Oh, Larry, I um... I'll have your equations done by tomorrow morning, and I'll drop them by your office."

Larry was looking closely at Charlie with apprehension etched into every line of his face. "Charles, forget about that for a moment. What is it, another headache? You really need to go see someone about these, Charles, I mean it! This is not good."

Charlie stood up straight. "Don't worry, Larry, I already have. As a matter of fact, I am going to take some time off for a while; Doctor's advice." Charlie put his hand on Larry's shoulder in what he hoped was an affable gesture. "You see, I actually do take your advice sometimes." They walked along the corridor back toward the Math department as Charlie continued, "Apparently I've been having migraines, and a break from the work would do me some good. I was just arranging a leave of absence with the Dean; so you see I am taking care of myself."

Larry still seemed unconvinced. "Well, that is good to hear, Charles. I was actually on my way to see Dean Cummings about one of my students, so I'm going to head back." Larry turned to walk back in the direction that they had just come from when he turned to look at Charlie and said "Are you sure you are all right?"

Charlie smiled, and said, "I'm fine Larry."

Just then Larry's cell phone rang and he answered it. "Oh dear, I'll be right there, don't do anything until I arrive."

Larry stood up. "I have to get to the lab. One of my students has made a mess of things." He came over to Alan and said, "Let me know how things are going. I'll stop by tomorrow after classes."

Alan got up to walk Larry out and Don asked, "So what is next Jack?"

Jack was looking over what he had written down and said "We put out an APB on Charlie's car for a start."

"Charlie doesn't drive. He rides a bike everywhere or takes a taxi."

Jack jotted that down. "We start by running his phone records, calling the local taxi services to see where he has been going to. We need to do a credit check and look at his bank records as well as making calls to the different organizations that he may be consulting for."

Jack looked over to the front door where Alan and Larry were speaking quietly together then turned back to Don and said in a lower tone, "Don, based on the information here you do realize that Charlie is demonstrating all the classic symptoms of depression. He is having headaches, he isn't eating, he's losing weight and has used terms like 'making all the arrangements'. Don, we have to consider the possibility of..."

"No way!" Don lowered his voice to a hiss so as not to upset his father and continued, "There is no way that Charlie would commit suicide! I know my brother and how he thinks. Suicide is illogical, and Charlie is all about being logical!"

Terry put her hand on Dons arm and said quietly, "Don, Jack isn't trying to say that Charlie killed himself or is going to, but he has to investigate all of the possibilities."

Don was still staring hard at Jack and Jack looked Don in the eye and said, "Terry's right Don, and you know that."

Don broke eye contact and dropped his head for a moment before looking up again. "I'll call the hospitals and see if anyone..."

Jack said, "No, Don that is going to be Terry's job. I want to work in teams. You will come with me. First we need to go through Charlie's personal belongings, then check his office at Cal Sci and interview his students and collogues." Jack looked over at Terry and said, "You and David need to contact taxi companies to see if he has been using a taxi to get around. I also want you to contact the airlines, train and bus stations to see if he purchased tickets anywhere." Then Jack turned to Danny and said, "I want you to lead the team from headquarters, checking all the phone records and credit card purchases, and run down leads that we call in. Get the time line set up and we'll all meet to go over our findings, then start the leg work in the morning."