Chapter Eight: Sleep is a Luxury Item

When Special Agent Colby Granger pulled his four door sedan onto the usually quite residential street, he couldn't help but be stunned by the level of activity around the familiar Craftsman house at the end of the block.

Being woke up by a phone call at three thirty in the morning was never a good sign. He had grown accustomed to it. It was part of the job. But this time, he had really been caught off guard.

David had only said five words.

"Don's been shot, Charlie's house…"

Colby had hung up the phone without replying. He threw on his jeans and pulled a shirt over his head on the way out the door. It had taken him fifteen minutes to get to Pasadena. For what usually took a half an hour, driving at full speed on a good traffic day, he thought that was pretty good time, even for the middle of the night.

He rolled down his window and flashed his badge at the cop standing next to a saw horse style barricade and the officer lifted the gate aside and let him drive through.

As he pulled in front of the historic house, he spotted Megan's Jeep Cherokee parked halfway in the front yard. She had almost hit the fire hydrant. As he pulled up along the curb not quite behind the jeep and switched the transmission to park, he hoped she had remembered to pull the emergency brake. Halfway up the front walkway, he realized he forgot to close his car door, but didn't bother to turn back around. Someone would shut it.

Spot lights had already been set up in the backyard and the illumination shone over the chimney. It looked as if the sun itself was rising over the house.

Colby flashed his badge again and another officer lifted the yellow tape that now ran from the side of the house to the Japanese maple at the end of Charlie's koi pond.

He spotted David sitting in the shadows, on the step next to the back door. There was broken glass everywhere and an area that, from a distance, looked like a pool of transmission fluid staining the drive in front of him. As he got closer, Colby could see the crimson tint of the puddle. David looked up at him as he approached. He was wearing what had been a white t-shirt. Now it was red.

David looked down at his shirt and back up at Colby answering the unspoken question.

"He's on his way to Cedars-Sinai's trauma center."

"What the hell happened, David."

The other agent shook his head.

"I'm really not sure. Alan could only tell me what he saw."

Colby looked at the bullet holes that riddled the side of the house, then at the puddle of blood on the driveway. He scanned the yard looking for anything that could shed light on the unknown details. His eyes were accustomed to taking in every element of a crime scene and he didn't miss the deep treads in the grass that lead across the back yard where someone had dug their heels in. It looked like whoever had been dragged through there hadn't gone quietly.

"Charlie?"

David looked hesitant to voice any conclusion.

"Alan said there were at least four, maybe more. He only saw Charlie for a second. Walked into something…..said Don had his hands up, they were using Charlie as a shield. Don went straight for Alan when the shooting started. He never even drew his weapon, he was hit on the way down."

"How bad?"

David looked at the splotches of crimson on his clothes.

"I need to get a clean shirt. I can't walk around like this."

Colby nodded and summoned a fresh faced rookie from inside the house.

"Get Agent Sinclair a clean shirt, would ya?"

He turned back to David and waited.

"He was hit in the head, Colby."

David voice shook with emotion.

"Just over his left ear. It looked like it……..I don't know how bad. It could have just skimmed him, but man there was a lot of blood. Scared the shit out of me."

"Head wounds bleed worse than anything else, Sinclair. That doesn't mean anything."

Megan had walked up behind him and put her hand on his arm.

"I just talked to dispatch. He's at Cedars and he's conscious now. One of us should go talk to him."

"Where is Charlie?"

Colby put voice to the question none of them wanted to have to answer.

David looked apprehensively toward the road.

"Neighbor ran over here after the shooting stopped and saw a car drive off in a hurry….early 90's model Chevy, not sure what color…dark. We're assuming they took Charlie with them."

"Do you think they came for him?"

David shrugged.

"The garage shows signs of forced entry. Maybe he walked in on a robbery? But there's nothing of value in there….nothing material, I mean."

Megan made fists with both her hands and brought them up under her chin.

"Guys, I'm thinking……this whole thing this morning, with Walker and the Gang Task Force……."

"Yeah, Don told us about it when he got back to the office."

David nodded at Megan in agreement.

"Alan said it was a group of young men, possibly Hispanic, maybe in their twenties."

Colby shook his head.

"But why? If one of those gangs considered him a threat, then they came here to kill him….why take him anywhere?"

Megan's face displayed the concern they were all feeling.

"That's the question of the day then, isn't it Granger?"

Looking grim, Colby answered his own query.

"Because Don showed up and they panicked. They thought they needed Charlie for their getaway."

David rubbed his hands together.

"Right, but if that's the case….."

"Then they'll just take him somewhere else and kill him."

"Right."

While over a dozen uniformed LAPD officers and twice as many crime scene investigators milled around the backyard in the performance of their duties, the three agents exchanged an extended moment of silence.

Finally Megan took a deep breath.

"I'll go see if Don…..what Don can tell us."

She turned and headed for her jeep.

David sighed and looked at Colby.

"I need to stay here for now….can you………"

The agent from inside the house stepped up, and interrupting, handed David a shirt on a hanger.

"One of the detectives had a spare."

Even if he was a little wet behind the ears at least he could follow orders.

David acknowledge the young rookie.

"Let's get an APB out on that car. And have the M.E's office notify us of any…….."

He stopped. David couldn't bring himself to say it out loud and Colby finished the thought for him.

"We need to know about any bodies that turn up without ID. Give them a description of Professor Eppes. Tell them to call me first….not the office, not Don, not Alan….nobody but me, do you understand?"

The younger man nodded his head. "Yes, Sir. I'm on it."

Colby turned for his car. "I'll head downtown. The GTF needs to know about this, and I'll call Lieutenant Walker. He might be able to shed some light on a few things."

David watched him leave and then looked around again at the back yard. Someone had stepped on the rhododendron. He had just shared a meal with the Eppes family a few short weeks ago and Charlie had told him how hard it was to get the Japanese variety to grow in this region.

He saw a uniformed officer stomp through the flower bed that surrounded the pond and he grabbed the man as he walked by.

"Weren't you ever taught not to walk through the flowers? Did they not cover that at the academy? It's six more steps to go around the damn things!"

He raised his voice above the den, yelling at no one in particular. "Will someone put some tape around the damn garden. Agent Eppes is gonna be pissed if we tear up his brother's back-yard."

He headed into the house then, to change his shirt just as the first signs of the dawn became visible on the horizon.

It was going to be another beautiful day in Los Angeles.

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Authors Notes: Thank you all for the encouraging comments and the delightful commentary on this story thus far. Please, please continue!

This thing seems to have a life of it's own and I hope it doesn't go and do anything stupid.

Chapter Nine: Eternity only takes an hour