Something was digging in to his face. It was uncomfortable. It was dark but the sun was beginning to inch its way up to the horizon. Gravel? At the same time as he blinked his eyes open a fiery hot torment seared through his body. Pain erupted through every muscle. He would have screamed if he had enough breath in his body to do so. His eyes slammed shut again in retaliation to the ordeal. What was it? His stomach.
A hand gingerly brushed his stomach. Wet. Carefully opening his eyes he looked down at his hands. It was dark, he couldn't really tell, but he thought he saw blood.
Again he slammed his eyes shut as the pain electrified his body. God this hurts, bad. Despite this, his FBI training had to kick in. He had to know where he was. Had to get help.
It was so dark, he could hardly work out where he was. Gravel. Was he on a road? Looking around, wincing through sharp bursts of pain, he ascertained it was an alley. He could be anywhere and with a foggy brain he just couldn't remember how the hell he'd gotten there, let alone spontaneously started bleeding from his belly. Not good.
He knew what he had to do and he just didn't know if he could do it. Stand up and get out to somewhere more open, more familiar.
Now, to actually stand up. Even with the pain coursing through every cell in his body, Don felt sure that being horizontal was going to be preferential to being vertical. Still, no one seemed to be here and even if he could yell, who would hear?
He placed his left hand on the road, sharp bits of gravel dug in to his hand. Great, more pain. The right hand lay firmly on his stomach, where it had been since he'd first felt the blood. Leaning in to his shoulder he forced movement to bring his legs up. God, that really hurts, bad. Dizziness threatened to thwart him but he focused on keeping it at bay. For some reason, he felt his life could depend on it. Again he leaned in to his shoulder and forced his legs to push. Don rose off the ground slowly. He wasn't standing straight by any means, but you could say he was standing. And swaying.
Focus. He allowed himself to tumble sideways when he saw the wall close by. He slammed into the brickwork and bit his lip. Must remember not to do that again in a hurry. Slowly the pain ebbed from excruciating back to unbearable. One leg in front of the other, and using the wall to guide him, Don somehow managed to walk the 500 metres to the end of the alley.
He had never felt so happy to hear the sound of cars. Thank God I live in LA. A streetlight filtered light across his face, but also thankfully across the street. The odd car careened by in the dark on the street that unfolded before him. It was too early, the shops outside the alley were shut. People don't walk in LA. There was only one way to grab attention.
Breathing in all his strength as much as drawing back from the pain, Don did what he needed to do. He wasn't sure how long he could stay upright as his vision was really spinning. The noise of the traffic seemed like it was in another room. He was disconnected in his own world.
Stay upright so they see you.
And with that Don stepped out on to the road, his left hand waving in the air. Tyres screeching was the last thing he heard.
ooOoo
"Agent Reeves"
Megan rolled over in her bed with the landline cord wrapped around her arm. She had just woken up and 'Agent' was not the preferred title she liked to hear on the other end of the line when it was her day off.
"Yes"
"Hi, it's Agent McAdams. I've been asked to call you in relation to the Peckham case."
"Can't it wait till Friday. We'll all be back in the office then. It's closed."
"Actually no. We've had to reopen it in light of recent evidence."
Finally Megan's attention was caught. If she hadn't been so tired maybe she would have been quicker, but on her days off she let her guard down, she had to.
"What evidence? We have a confession and analysis that supports that confession about where the drugs were coming from."
"I understand that. Anita Peckham's mother has made some allegations which may dispute those findings if proved. We have to reopen."
Something suddenly occurred to Megan and she didn't like it.
"So why are you calling me?"
"They concern Agent Eppes."
ooOoo
Colby was sitting at his desk flipping through new paperwork. He didn't hear David and Megan arriving together.
"Colby." Megan began taking her jacket off and placing it on her chair in the other workspace.
"Oh hey." Colby turned around and tossed the paperwork and folders he'd been reading on David's desk. Megan and David hovered around them.
"What have they got Colby?"
"Mrs Peckham claims that Don was the one responsible for supplying drugs to her daughter. That he had her killed when he felt she was going to spill the beans to one of us and that he asked Ridley to confess to the crime or he'd do the same to his family and friends."
You couldn't tell what any of them were thinking, they were working now.
"And Don?" Megan put down the folder and pulled her shirt sleeves up past her elbows.
"Nothing. No one has been able to contact him for questioning." Colby slid his chair away from David's desk and looked at the others. He wanted to see their reaction and give them space to think what their next move would be.
"So, as far as he knows at the moment, he's still enjoying his day off and this case was closed." David shook his head.
"Someone has to find him." Megan looked at Colby and David. None of them wanting this job, but they had to find him before the new investigative team did. Prepare him.
"I'll do it."
Colby and Megan were both relieved that David volunteered. When an agent is under suspicion of corruption the powers that be will often treat them more severely than a criminal suspect. The FBI can't afford to ruin a case on one of their own by doing anything untoward and as such, it usually means the agent is guilty before being proved innocent, to save any accusations of corruption on the FBI as a whole. They all knew what was coming.
"Ok. Colby and I will go over the case in the meantime and see if there is anything they could link Don to these allegations. Cover our bases. Damn."
"What?" Colby looked up at Megan as she made that last statement.
"I offered to help him finish the paperwork and he said no. Damn." Megan knew this was the first of many well intentioned acts on Don's behalf that would be used against him. "What does she gain from this? Why would she do this? The case was closed."
"She blames us for her daughter's death." Colby said frankly.
"Her daughter was selling drugs to 13 year old schoolchildren." David said coldly.
"Still. She has nothing to gain from this. Does she?" That wasn't really a question from Megan. It was a statement and their plan of attack for uncovering the truth.
ooOoo
David stared at his cell as he sat in the car. He was parked a few blocks away from the Eppes' family home. Earlier he had been to and through Don's apartment. The FBI kept keys for all of them but it still felt like breaking in. There wasn't any sign of Don having been there recently but that didn't mean anything. A couple of messages lay on his answerphone, one from Charlie about pizza. The place was orderly enough but then if you rarely do anything but sleep in your place you wouldn't expect much less. His cell wasn't answering but even that wasn't unusual. No agent ever kept their phone on during their days off. The FBI numbers don't display on phones so you would never be able to tell if it was just a private number or a work call.
Something Megan had said before he left intrigued him. She said to wait until she had tried someone and then he could call in on the Eppes'. They were the last port of call in discovering where Don was. David was as intrigued with Megan as to why Sarah Peckham would accuse Don of this. Of course, at the moment he was more concerned about where Don was. Sure he had a life outside of work but he was reasonably sure that he would be more contactable than this. Without alarming them, he just hoped Alan or Charlie could help.
The phone rang.
"Sinclair. Ok. What? Yeah sure not a problem. I'll let you know."
David sighed as he cranked up the car and began to head to the Eppes' home. Whoever Megan called had not only not seen Don but apparently had been expecting him to call, yesterday. Megan assured him she'd fill him in on all the details of this mystery person once he was back in the office, and only on the condition that when they found Don he NEVER mentioned it. Despite the worry a slight smile curled the edge of his lips. Don has a girlfriend huh.
The smile quickly disappeared once he turned the engine off and jumped out of his car. He walked the short distance to the front door of Charlie's house. He paused for a second before knocking.
Alan opened the door. His glasses rested precariously on his face and he held a blueprint in his hand.
"David? You looking for Don or Charlie?"
"Hey Alan, Don first."
"Ah well he's definitely not here. Charlie on the other hand could be here. To be honest I haven't checked so he's probably in the garage. Hope he isn't dead."
David drew in his breath sharply and blinked at Alan in fear. Alan didn't note the fear, only surprise and elaborated. "From blood loss caused by papercuts. Midterm time. Come in come in."
"Thanks Alan." David breathed again.
Before asking the next question David paused. He had to do this as tactfully as possible so as to not alarm Alan. A son missing is a son missing for anybody and the FBI turning up on your doorstep asking about the whereabouts of someone was a frightening proposal even if your eldest was an FBI agent himself.
Alan seemed to sense something and he broke the silence first.
"So, you know your way to the garage right?" David just looked at him. "For Charlie."
"Oh yeah, sure. Um. Look it's Don I'm really looking for." David saw the flash of concern cross Alan's face and quickly continued. "It's his day off and we just need to get in contact with him. You know how it is. Took em 3 phone calls to find me on my day off."
"I think Charlie likes to refer to it as the Don triangle. Science could easily explain his whereabouts, I mean he must be somewhere right, but we choose to think of him as disappeared. Still, if anyone knows where to look for Don at these times, well can you ask them to let me know the secret. Personally, I haven't spoken to him in quite a few days. Or seen him. Of course he may be a little preoccupied these days." David became concerned at this revelation till he remembered, a girlfriend, right.
Alan shuffled him along to the garage. Chalk dust filtered through the air and filled David's lungs as soon as he entered. Is this stuff carcinogenic? The faint tap slide of chalk on a blackboard could be heard.
"Hey Charlie."
Charlie turned and tried to focus on an object further away than an arms length. "Oh hey David. What's up?" Suddenly a thought occurred to Charlie. "The case is closed isn't it? Was there something wrong with my analysis?"
"Oh no, no of course not. Actually I'm just looking for Don. Have you spoken to him lately?"
"Yeah."
David's heart skipped a beat. Don wasn't missing.
"Yeah, I asked him to give me a lift home the night before last. Megan ended up dropping me home. Allegedly he was finishing up paperwork and therefore too busy to drop his brother home."
David was startled by the use of 'allegedly'. "What?"
"Yeah. Of course now I know he's seeing some lawyer and decided not to tell me, again, about his personal life I suspect it will be some time before he actually calls me. You know if he didn't want to drop me home because he had a date with that hot shot lawyer he could have just said. Course that's Don for you."
David could tell Charlie was upset. Lawyer huh. Snap out of it man, job to do OK!
"Ok. Fine. I was thinking more recent than that but that's fine. If you haven't seen him since then that doesn't help us. Thanks."
Charlie looked at David. He wasn't blind to other people, he noticed something. Something was wrong.
"He's alright though isn't he? I mean have you tried whoever this woman is. He's probably with her right?"
David did not know what to say. No one had seen Don. Charlie was his last hope. It wasn't looking good. "Yeah, of course, we'll find him. Like I said, it is his day off, I really wouldn't expect an FBI agent to be easy to find." David smiled.
Charlie didn't. "They found you."
Arguing with a genius was always precarious. "Sure, but I ain't the team leader, I've still got a lot to learn." David saved the moment, and felt quite proud of his skill in doing so. He'd picked up a bit from the way Don handled Charlie and it clearly had sunk in. Don. Still he wasn't officially missing till he didn't turn up for work tomorrow. David reminded himself of this and the fact he couldn't tell the Eppes' what was going on till it was official. This was the part of his job that not only did he hate but the families hated. David knew why Don kept things from his family and friends. He had to. They couldn't know until they needed to. Don had to contain the fears of thousands of families until that moment he could release them officially, be certain it was a fact. Still, you never let go of everything.
Charlie had accepted David's response, shrugged and gone back to his chalkboard. Alan poked his head around the beams. "Everything OK?" Only Charlie said yes.