Disclaimer: These wonderful characters do not belong to me. Jim is mine though.

By the way thanks to all who have read my story and very much thanks for the reviews. They are encouraging. Sorry if it had been a while since an update. I try not to wait to long cause I read other stories here and it drives me up the wall when someone doesn't update and leaves you hanging for a couple of months.

P.S. This story is going to be a LOT longer than I originally anticipated, when you move it from your head to paper it just seems to grow.

Chapter 9

Don felt a peculiar sensation sweep up his spine as he entered his house.

Charlie's house, he thought to himself. He shook his head slightly; he still couldn't believe that his brother had bought the house from his dad. But now it was a crime scene. It wasn't the house where he had grown up. Not the house where he had fallen down and scraped his knees, learned to ride a bike, harassed his parents as a teenager, but a crime scene relevant to an ongoing, active case.

Terry voice broke into his thoughts as she asked the lead investigator what they had found.

"No fingerprints, no forced entry, the desk looks array but my guess is it always looks that way," he said with a glance toward Don. Don nodded curtly not looking the guy in the face. The investigator sighed, "The only sign of disturbance that we found was the desk chair overturned." He pointed towards the desk, Terry and Don moved forward. The chair was flipped overjust like someone had stood up to fast.

Terry turned toward Don, "I don't get it." He looked up at her. "Why do you take the trouble to not leave fingerprints if you're going to be in contact."

"Because we may be in contact with him but we still don't know who he is," Don answered her wearily. Terry stole a glance at Don. His whole demeanor had changed when they had entered the house. He stood like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders; he looked defeated. Terry didn't like to see any agent looking like Don did right now. She didn't see it that often; she wished she would never have to see it.

"Leave it alone Terry," Don said, "I'm fine."

Terry gave him an incredulous look, "I didn't say anything."

Don just looked at her, Yeah but you were thinking it. But he left it alone.

"Don," David called softly.

"Yeah," Don answered back.

"Your father just pulled into the driveway."

Great. Don heaved a sigh and Terry noticed his shoulder sag even more.

"Don," she said, "Do you want me…"

"No."

There was no more discussion to it; Don would be the one to tell his father. He straighten his back and tried not to look as defeated as he felt. He turned and walked into the kitchen where he knew an agent would be leading his father.

"NO I will NOT calm down! You tell me what is going here! This is my house and I demand some answers!" Alan was trying to shove the agents blocking him from the rest of the house out of his way. "I will find out what is going on here! Someone is going to tell me NOW!"

"Dad," Don said softly, "Technically this isn't your house, but I will tell you what is going on."

When Alan saw Don he felt like one of his worst fears has just come true. As a parent this fear is ever present in the back of your mind; never overwhelming or consuming but there it is a constant nag. The fear that something will happen to your child, that they will go before you do. Alan had seen that happen with one of his friends and as hard as it was to lose his wife to watch his friend go through the loss of a child made him pray hard every night that it never happened to him.

Alan sank into one of the kitchen chairs, "Oh Donnie, no, no, no. Don't tell me, I don't want to hear it."

Don was confused for a moment and then it hit him what was going through his father's mind. Sitting down quickly in the chair in front of his dad he grabbed his hands, "Dad, No."

The firmness in Don's voice made Alan sit up and listen, "Dad, no," he repeated. Taking a deep breath he continued, "Charlie has been…" Don faltered, he had been saying it in his mind but speaking the words, telling his father that Charlie had been kidnapped made it so real. "Charlie's been kidnapped."

Alan froze in his seat. Charlie? Kidnapped? Who? Why?

"Why Donnie," he asked his eldest, "Why would someone want to take Charlie?"

"We believe that Charlie has been taken by the target of our current case."

Alan looked confused, "But why Donnie?"

Don shook his head, "We don't know."

"Who is this guy?"

"We don't know."
"Well what do you know!"

Don braced himself. He had has so many victims families lash out at him and blame him and accuse him of not doing his job. But the victim had never before been his brother.

"What we know," Don started, "is that Larry left the house around 2:30. At 3:00 I called Charlie to ask him to come into the office. That is when we had first contact with the kidnapper. Confirming that he had Charlie we sent scene investigators to the house and started working on a timeline." Don sighed and leaned back in his chair, "And that is it."

Alan drilled Don with a look, "You say you had first contact with the kidnapper. What makes you so sure that it wasn't the last contact that you are going to have with him?"

"His choice of words told me that he plans on speaking with me again."