Jadie
Disclaimer: Not Mine!
Minor (I mean minor) Spoilers for 'In plain Sight'
Note: AHH ok sorry this took so long—I was busy over the weekend and I had and English paper to write yesterday—("Death of a Salesman" SUCKS) but now I'm officially on thanksgiving break. I'm going to try to hurry up and wrap this story up (I want to try to end it in five chapters…ha wish me luck) I've had an idea ker-plinking around in my noggin for a Numb3rs holiday fic—at the end of the last chapter I'll be asking for opinions and general questions to set up that fic so watch for that. Ummm ok I think that's all I need to say for now:- ) So sorry it took so long! Long chapter just to make up for it!
Ps. I mention guns and such in this chapter please forgive and correct me if it's inaccurate –I'm just kind of winging it.
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CHAPTER 13: Missing—"… missing more than Waldo ever was…"
Don drove and tried to remain as calm as he could possibly be. The Buick had been following him for some time now. He'd even took a couple of bogus turns to see if the Buick would turn off.
It didn't.
Don listened to the ringing on his cell phone, hoping that Megan and David were already at the office and would pick up.
"C'mon…"Don muttered under his breath. Finally, after what had seemed like hours, Agent Reeves picked up the phone.
"FBI, who is this and what do you want?" Megan answered the phone grouchily.
"Well good morning to you to…don't the phones in the office have caller ID yet? Or do I need to put that on our 'wish list'?" Don greeted her with false cheer.
"Oh…. Don, I'm sorry, I'm just…tired, that's all…." Don could picture Megan rubbing the crease in her forehead as she answered.
"Nah, It's ok," Don continued, "Listen, I'm driving to the office as we speak, I want to do a full review of evidence and I have some…interesting…new information that might help us…"Don trailed off, frowning as he noticed in his rear view mirror that the Buick turned off. Maybe I was being paranoid after all…Don thought, hesitant. On the phone Megan was talking to him.
"…We don't have too much to add to what we already know but you'll need to be filled in on a couple things like with the attack on Richards and Carlos…" Don could hear Megan preparing to launch into a full explanation.
"Tell me when I get to the office ok?" Don cut her off, "I've got my hands full driving…" He hesitated for a moment, "There's this weird car that I keep seeing and I'm not sure if its following me or not…I'm probably just being paranoid but, well…."Don trailed off again.
"Yeah, you are paranoid Don," Megan spoke, "But I understand, all the same—everyone's nerves are fried. I'll see you in awhile then."
"Ok." Don hung up the phone. He couldn't shake the unsettled feeling in the pit of his stomach that something was seriously wrong.
Yet despite this feeling, Don never had a chance—He didn't even see the Buick until it was too late, as it came flying out of a side street and smashed into the rear side panel of the SUV.
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"I thought you said Don was on his way here?"
"That's what he told me."
"So," Agent David Sinclair spoke, frustration evident, "Where is he?"
"I don't know Sinclair." Megan replied angrily.
"It's been almost and hour and a half," David continued, worriedly, "What the hell could be taking him so long?"
Megan prepared to reply, once again, that she didn't know, when Colby Granger flew into the conference room, his face was flushed.
"They just found Don's SUV on a side street just outside a residential area," Colby started as both Megan and David stood, "It's rear driver side panel is all smashed to hell and there evidence that shots were fired at the scene…"
"What?" Megan half-yelled, "Why haven't we heard about this until now?" She demanded furiously.
"It was just called in," Colby said apologetically, "The lady who called was so rattled that apparently she didn't even move from her spot on the floor until after an hour after the shots were fired." David put his hands on his hips and swore as Megan looked like she'd just been bitten by her favorite puppy—wide eyed, and disbelieving.
"Don mentioned on the phone he thought he was being followed but we both pawned it off as stress…" Megan stated, half in a daze.
"Did he say what kind of car?" David asked, rounding on her.
"No…he didn't." Megan put her hand over her mouth, he had sounded so relieved when she'd said he was paranoid, as if he had wanted her confirmation. But she'd been wrong…
"Well, it gets worse," Colby continued.
"How could this be any worse?" Megan asked incredulous, "Don and our only witness are both MIA, with signs pointing to the fact they may have been abducted and you're saying its worse?" Colby nodded grimly.
"Yeah, I'll tell you on the way to the scene."
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A short time later they arrived at the street where Don's SUV was found.
"There's blood inside," Granger offered as Megan and David got out of the vehicle and looked at the chaos of the crime scene. Don's SUV was sitting in the middle of the intersection, the driver's side and passenger side doors were both flung open, the windshield and the driver's side door were riddled with bullet holes, and the back panel was crunched in, showing that the impact had been a hard one.
"Whose blood?" Megan asked, her voicing only shaking slightly.
"We're not sure yet," Colby continued, "But it's on the driver's side and it doesn't appear to be a result of the accident." David and Megan both looked at him for explanation. Colby sighed.
"Look, I was on my way to the office and I heard the call over the radio so I was one of the first ones here because I realized that its not all that far from Charlie's house and the description fit Don's car…" Colby trailed off as this fact registered on David and Megan's faces, "So when I got here I was able to confirm it was Don's SUV—the CSI's—when they got here—were almost immediately able to tell that Don's car had been struck from this other side street," Colby pointed to the street to the left of the wreckage, "…and despite the severity of the impact, the angle that it was hit, well the worst injury sustained should have been whiplash." Colby finished as a CSI walked up to the agents.
"We've found two different kinds of ammunition," the CSI started once he had their attention, "Casings from a standard law-enforcement issued nine millimeter, and some casings from a newer model Smith & Wesson." The CSI continued in a professional matter, despite the grim looks of the FBI agents. "We also sent DNA we collected to our lab—we pushed it through to the top of the list and we were just called and notified that the blood on the driver's side interior belongs to Agent Don Eppes and there is also two other minor blood samples that have been identified as two different females—neither of which are in our database."
"Thank you, keep us updated." David responded as Megan developed a numb look.
"What the hell happened here?" Megan spoke, puzzlement written across her features, as the CSI walked back towards the scene.
"I have no clue," David spoke wearily—the case was definitely not improving, "Let's go to the office and see if we can't figure it out."
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Back at the office, David, Megan and Colby sat in the conference room, reviewing all their data in a futile attempt to see something that they had missed before.
"Guys…" Colby spoke slowly and suddenly into the desperate quiet shuffling of papers. Both David and Megan looked up, curiously, not really expecting him to have found anything, but merely waiting for whatever statement he was going to make.
"Don was most definitely injured at the scene, possibly seriously, we have no idea where he is—I mean him and the witness are missing more than Waldo ever was…" Colby paused, took a deep breath and continued, "When are we going to tell his dad and Charlie?" Megan and David looked at each other uneasily.
"I'll go now," Megan spoke softly, rising and stacking the papers she'd been looking at into an obsessively neat pile.
"Are you sure?" David said, just as quietly, "I could go…"
"No." Megan sharply replied, "I'll do it," she continued firmly, and with that she walked out the door of the conference room. David sighed and leaned back into his chair, tilting his head back and staring at the ceiling. Colby shifted his weight around uneasily. He didn't know Don as well as Reeves and Sinclair and he felt uncomfortable and unsure of what he was supposed to do.
David sat forward suddenly, with purpose.
"Let's go over what evidence we have again."
"David, we've already…" Colby began, only to be interrupted.
"I don't care what we've already done! We'll go over it again and again until we see what it is that we're missing and I just know that we're missing something." David's voice contained a hushed and violent fury in it and Colby decided he wasn't going to argue.
"Ok, ok," Colby put his hands up in surrender, "Six victims, the oldest is eight, the youngest was barely five—they all bled out from a lateral cut across their throat as well as several other minor wounds. These other wounds also showed signs of torture, sexual as well as other kinds—whip marks, bite marks, repeated sexual violation before death and areas of raw skin around the wrists indicate that they were shackled in some manner." Colby paused for a breath as noted how David appeared to be concentrating very hard—his hands were laced together, his head bowed and his eyes were closed so he could focus completely on Colby's words.
"As for the two agents," Granger picked up again, "Agent Carlos had a puncture wound on the base of his neck; it had minor bruising and the C.O.D. was some unidentified poison," Colby leafed through the paper work again, "If we could figure out the poison we'd have a good lead but it seems that nearly all of it dissolved into Carlos' system leaving only trace amounts—not enough to identify it." Colby paused again, taking a deep breath; he forged on as he saw that Sinclair was dead serious about going through all the data again.
"Agent Richards is still in a coma, trace amounts of the same poison also found, however it appears it wasn't a full dose—the puncture wound he had was on the side of his neck and it was torn; the CSI's figure he wasn't surprised like Carlos was and managed to get away before he received a full injection. Unfortunately his system made quick work of the smaller dose and the doctors were barely able to figure out that it was the same poison that Carlos got a shot of. They still aren't sure if he's going to survive—whatever the stuff was, it's devastatingly effective." Colby hesitated, he hated going over this last part, he just hated it—he hated the idea that a fellow agent that he respected and admired may possibly be injured or dead…
"Finally," Colby pushed ahead with a sigh, "Don's SUV was hit from the left side, impacting on the rear of the driver's side. The vehicle spun sideways and the other car also spun a little ways, as shown by tire tracks at the scene. Then it appears as if Don pulled the witness out of the vehicle from the driver's side, as their assailant began to fire—Don was hit and the girl probably got skimmed on the shoulder by a bullet as she was pulled from the car. Don returned fire, and scored at least one shot on the suspect but what happened next is pretty much guesswork." Colby flipped through the reports, his eyes scanning for pertinent information. "The other car was gone from the scene but that doesn't necessarily mean that they were taken by the suspect…" Colby shook his head when something caught his eye. Hope sparked as he read a particular report of a very thorough investigator.
"Wait a sec—it says here all the things that were in Don's car…"
"So?" David half- growled, looking up at Granger.
"So," Granger continued, "I went with Don when he interviewed the parents of the victims—he took a tape recorder with us so he could keep the time line straight—he kept that tape recorder in his dash, but this report doesn't mention it being there…" Colby trailed off, and David snapped his figures coming to the same conclusion he had.
"If I were Don and was being shot at, I would take the tape recorder, record what I knew, a description, something, then make a run for and try to hide it where someone else could find it!"
"And Don would have even more motive to do this because he told Megan on the phone he had new information he wanted to tell us once he got here!"
"I'll go to the scene and tell the CSI's to spread out their search a couple blocks," David stood up feeling much better, now that they had found something they could actually act on. Colby nodded as David stood up.
"And I'll call Megan and let her know what we came up with. It's a long shot but it's all we've got."
With that, both men set out to complete their separate tasks.
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Megan sat at her desk, her head in her hands, utterly exhausted. The night had been far too long. Sinclair was still searching the area around the accident, despite the fact that Megan had called him and asked the pertinent question of, 'if Don wasn't caught then why hasn't he or the witness turned up?' However David was insistent on continuing, and Megan decided to let him, despite the futility of it, because she heard the rising note of desperation in David's voice. He needed to be doing something, and paperwork just wasn't going to cut it. Granger had gone out an hour before to help David and his futile search. He too, needed to go be on his feet, doing something.
That left Agent Reeves, and her ever-persistent thoughts, alone at her desk in the over-quiet office. It was late and most people had already gone home except for the precious few workaholics that had refused to leave in the light of Agent Eppes' disappearance. She'd gone to the Eppes' residence and told Charlie and Alan that their son was missing. They were crucial in establishing the timeline. The whole incident had taken place only a few miles outside of the residential area where they lived and the fact that Don had been there and left suddenly shortly before the possible abduction, left Megan feeling uneasy and unsettled. Charlie was insistent that he try to help and Megan only managed to put him off until the next morning. She recalled how emotional Charlie had gotten on the last case, involving an abused girl named Libby—Megan hated to think how Charlie was going to handle this case when it involved his brother.
Poor Alan—he'd been in shock. When Megan had told him Don was missing he simply said, 'But where did he go? He only left a few hours ago…' Meanwhile Charlie had just looked shell-shocked until he snapped out of and began to make demands to work on the case, while Alan stared down at his hands, unable to speak. Megan herself was a wreck and at the sight of Alan's blank expression, she'd nearly broken down.
It was she, after all, that had dismissed Don's worry that he was being pursued.
Her self-recriminations came to an abrupt halt however, as both Agent Sinclair and Granger burst into the office, purpose in their stride. Megan stood up quickly knocking over her chair and not caring.
"What did you guys find?" Megan asked as the two men came up to her desk.
"Let's go in the conference room." Colby pointed towards the deserted, and private, room.
Once they were all inside the room, David pulled Don's blood-spattered tape recorder out of the manila evidence envelope.
"The CSI's took fingerprints and blood samples at the scene." David explained, as Megan paled at the sight of the all too prominent blood smears on the tape recorder.
"Well?" Megan asked, "Have you listened to it yet?"
"Nope." Granger replied, "We figured you'd want to hear it right along with us."
With that, David Sinclair's shaky finger pressed 'play' on their last lead to the man that they all respected, and were now desperately trying to find.
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NOTE: oooo cliffhanger! Hehehe I'll be writing more soon, don't worry. There might have been some inaccuracies in some of the procedures and such but I was going more for dramatic effect. Constructive criticism appreciated as well as all other input.