With a cocktail of illegal drugs swishing about in his system, slowly being flushed out, Don's current pain relief was minimal. He was in a lot of pain. Every breath caused an explosion of piercing needles over his muscles. So much so, Don tried not to breathe when he could, just for a moment's relief.
"Wow. You really know how to make a girl think they can take your breath away."
Don smiled, breathed then grimaced in pain.
"Love hurts.'
"Love huh." Robyn looked down at him with concern. Sure she was joking but he kind of took the comedy away by looking so ill, so fragile.
"Get used to visiting hours."
Robyn tried her best to ignore this hospital visiting hours and prison visiting hours comparison comment. They guy was handcuffed to a hospital bed as though he was a risk. Still without much pain relief she wouldn't have blamed him for trying to escape.
"Your team are on the ball. If they wanted you behind bars you would be by now. I hope you were a good agent to work for."
"Charlie?" Don dreaded asking. He hadn't visited all night. Equations or not he still should have been. The problem with being in a hospital and in pain was that people kept things from you. Don wasn't much help last time Charlie flipped out over their mom, he was too angry, but at least he'd been there. Now there was nothing he could do.
"Oh he's a little Eppes' prodigy. Can't get him away from the blackboards."
"Oh Charlie."
Robyn cocked her head and quizzed Don. What was his problem?
"You don't want Charlie's help? Right now I think you need his help."
"Yeah well he may seem alright now but he has a tendency to flip out."
"Well he's helping you and he's OK. He's as normal as anyone can be after finding out their brother was nearly killed."
"He's OK, talkative?"
Yes, why are you so worried about him?"
"Like I said, he has a history."
She wouldn't have blamed him for feeling depressed, self absorbed, taciturn himself, but he wasn't. Don was thinking of others. He never switched off from agent mode. By thinking of everyone else he didn't have to face his own problems, of which there were many right now.
"How about you concentrate on extending your own history for now."
"Don!" Charlie burst through the doors to his room. He recognised he'd interrupted a moment but he didn't have time to apologise.
"Don I need…I need to go over the details of the case with you." Charlie took off his satchel, sat on the other side of the bed and pulled out a notebook.
"Nice to see you too Charlie."
"I'm serious. We've been looking in the wrong place, the wrong beginning. I need to know what first led you to this case. To…" he tapped his book, "...to see how you ended up here."
Don felt uneasy.
"I made a mistake?"
Charlie hadn't thought about the personal implications of this for Don, he was only trying to clear his name.
"Yeah, hopefully. I need more data and Amita, well anyway, this case is the only data. It should explain why you did what you did, came to the conclusions that led to you being sta…being here. Hey Robyn." As an afterthought Charlie realised he hadn't acknowledged Robyn. Robyn simply gave Charlie a nonplussed look.
"The case was closed Charlie, and what I can remember, it's not much. I don't even know if I'm innocent. It's true what they say at school. Drugs are bad OK! My brain is full of holes right now."
A hard breath was sucked in by Don after he finished that. It had taken a lot out of him and his breathing was amplified by the silence that gripped the room now. Charlie and Robyn looked at each other sheepishly. Don thinks he did this. This was bad. If Don didn't believe he was innocent, how could he fight. He needed Charlie's help, Charlie's math, more than ever. He felt guilty for feeling this way, it was wrong, but Charlie felt happy. Happy he could actually help Don. He'd be the strong one, he'd find the answers, he'd solve this case. He'd keep the family together.
ooOoo
Knock.
Alan opened the door to an exhausted Megan.
"Hey Alan. Sorry it's so late."
"No, no. There's not really much sleep going on here."
"I just have more files for Charlie and Amita."
"You eaten?"
Megan hadn't had time to eat, she couldn't stop, how could she. Alan jumped on the familiar pause.
"Good. Come in, I'm just dishing out."
"Thanks Alan."
Megan stepped inside the house, thinking it would be quiet. Instead it was a hive of activity. Charlie, Larry and Amita were all sitting at the table going over paperwork.
"Well as you can see, they're at the dining table. Not for long though." Alan motioned to Charlie to pack up the files. Amita got up from the table and walked to Alan, touching him on the shoulder. "I'll give you a hand."
Charlie cleared the paperwork while Larry took Megan's files.
"Thanks Megan. You staying for dinner?"
"Apparently so."
Charlie smirked and then pointed towards the kitchen, almost tripping over a chair as he stepped backwards.
"I'll um, I have to help too."
Larry fidgeted. Even with a couple of dates behind him, he was still nervous with anticipation of what could happen with Megan.
"How are you coping? I mean with all of this. You don't seem to have the time to show concern for a friend, colleague, whatever. None of us do really. What I mean is. Are you OK?" Larry fumbled through, subconsciously rubbing his arm the entire speech. He was fine with conversation but he was so much better when it involved celestial bodies. Then again, Megan could be classed as such.
"Yes Larry, and thanks. Tired though. Of course with the finest minds on the west coast working on this I'm sure it will be over soon. Then you can take me to that place you told me about."
Larry looked confused. So many conversations he'd had in his mind with Megan didn't allow him to sift through to find the ones that were real.
"You know that place, in the desert, where at night the stars are so clear you can actually touch them. You promised."
"Oh, yes, yes. Of course. Oh my it is so beautiful there. When there's no moon you feel like you are alone in the galaxy, floating in the darkness. There is no earth." Larry was transported back from his mental journey by the kitchen doors banging open.
"Right, grab a plate," Alan came in stacked with plates and cutlery. Larry and Megan grabbed one each and sat the table while Alan set the rest down. Charlie and Amita followed with a steaming tray of lasagne and a salad.
"Wow this looks great. Thanks Alan. Didn't know I was so hungry."
Alan just looked at Megan. She sounded so much like Don.
"Sorry, occupational hazard."
"You know, I just wish you guys thought about your own well being as much as you do about the people you're trying to protect sometimes."
Megan smiled. She took the hint and the lasagne.
"We look out for each other."
"So how's Don?" Amita asked to no one in particular.
Alan finished his mouthful before he continued. "In a lot of pain. His tough guy façade can only take so much I think."
Larry took the opportunity to provide information, people loved knowing stuff right?
"Yes, well I've heard internal bleeding in the abdomen is particularly painful, for months afterwards too. See the blood just gets reabsorbed into the system and that causes a lot of discomfort."
Everyone simply stared back at him. Larry didn't notice until he finished his mouthful. "Listen, it's better to hear it from me now and be prepared than wonder if they let him out of hospital too early."
"Yeah well define now Larry," Charlie quipped. "Right now, while I'm eating lasagne right now, or right now as in today sometime right now."
Amita smirked at Alan and Megan. They both had a point. Megan stared back at Charlie. He hadn't really said much since she'd arrived and the tone in his voice was one of not wanting to deal with anything to do with Don's medical state at any time.
"You Ok Charlie?"
Charlie nodded and continued to eat.
"He's working," Amita offered. "He's got details and figures swirling around in his head no doubt. Which reminds me. One of the equations we were looking at, concerning the tree of people, the interconnectivity we are looking for possible links in. Between links within the case and those outside the case. There's not enough data. We need a bigger field of people to work with. Did Sarah or Anita Peckham have partners? Or Ridley?"
"Anita and Ridley were an item, and yes," she looked at Alan when she said this, "statutory rape was added to his charges. Sarah was seeing someone, a rich someone actually. But they'd broken it off about 6 months ago. I think it's in the file." Megan leant over and pulled a file from the pack, a witness statement.
"Yeah, here it is," she took a sip of water and continued, "Jack Summers. Made it big in the late 90's and now runs this IT consultancy with a group of other millionaires."
"Oh yes. I know him. The company's called Dot Came right?"
"Uh huh." Megan stared at Larry with that admiration he so loved.
"Yes, very interesting, they all made it big in the dot com boom. Lost it all when it crashed. It made the papers I recall because they were all childhood friends. Rags to riches story etc etc."
"And rags again it sounds like it. If it crashed I mean." Charlie directed that towards Larry.
"Well I'm sure they didn't lose it all, they would have had money stuffed somewhere, it's quite often just a figure of speech these days. They had enough to set up a business together, right."
With that Charlie rose from the table and began heading towards the garage. Suddenly he remembered where he was and turned back to look at the table.
"Maybe we need to look back further than the case. We don't really know when we needed to start looking do we?" And with that Charlie was gone, he had a date with a blackboard.
The others just stared for a second then continued eating. Charlie could wait.
ooOoo
Megan hadn't intended to stay so long at the Eppes' but with Charlie on his tangent she realised she could help Larry and Amita look over the case files. With her knowledge she would simply save them time.
"So you were handed this by LAPD after they realised this operation was too big, too well organised for just a few schoolkids earning extra cash?" Amita didn't look up from the notes she was writing.
"Pretty much. Although," Megan pulled out a piece of paper from the pile, "yeah, here it is. The FBI was simultaneously investigating Ridley for what we thought may have been embezzlement. It was a low profile case. Small amounts of money from his employer. They didn't notice. He was picked up in a general sting, then it was noticed. An importing business. Anyway, it turned out he was laundering money through the business. That's why they didn't notice. It wasn't theirs to begin with, it was drug money. LAPD handed us this and Don connected the two when he realised another team were investigating Ridley. He wasn't very smart, it wasn't hard to work out. Actually he was really lucky he got away with it for so long as it is."
"Lucky huh," Alan's voice projected coolly from the lounge where he was keeping his mind busy with sudoku.
"Sorry, you know what I mean," Megan apologised.
Larry didn't give Alan a chance to answer. "So Anita Peckham, and therefore Sarah Peckham, are connected to money laundering?"
"Probably," Megan sighed. "Charlie knew this from his original analysis."
"Ok, I'm going to go through this with Charlie, see if he can correlate this information with the other Peckham case data. He'll be up all night." With that Amita walked off to the garage.
"I have to go too," Megan began before her cell rang and interrupted her. "Reeves. Yep. Actually still at the Eppes' going over the data. You did? Great. Oh. What?"
Megan simply stared at her cell for a second then looked up at Larry and Alan, both standing in front of her expectantly. "Colby. The ring. He thought it was familiar so he did a search and came up with something. It's kind of like a sorority ring. Friends usually order them, friends who haven't gone to college or went to different colleges. Each one made is unique for the group who orders it. Colby managed to track the jeweller down. His records show it was ordered by a Peter Krimble. This design is supposed to represent wealth forever. Peter Krimble is one of the Dot Came millionaires. He's a school friend of Sarah Peckham's and Jack Summers. There's a good chance this was Jack Summers and he left or lost it at Sarah Peckham's at some point. It's a red herring. It probably doesn't relate to the case. It's not really gonna help Don."
"Not necessarily." Alan, Megan and Larry turned towards Charlie's voice behind them. "My data's incomplete."
"What's new Charlie?"
"Yes, but, looking at what we have it should be enough. I should be able to draw a direct relationship to Don's attack. There's something missing. It's the only explanation. Something we haven't accounted for. Factors we don't know about. Factors, or people. Maybe more people are involved in this drug case."
Megan began to do what she does best. "Don did think it was too big for one guy, but Ridley confessed, he seemed too dumb not to give up others. He fit the profile, he thought he was in control. Even you provided us with the analysis Charlie. It agreed with us."
"I know Megan. Believe me I know. You don't think I haven't thought about this ever since this happened."
"Sorry Charlie, I didn't mean it like that," Megan felt bad for Charlie. It was enough having one Eppes blame himself, she didn't want another one go down that road.
"I know. It's OK. Look, when I first looked at this data for you guys I didn't need to connect…I didn't need to know there was more. The focus of that analysis was the drug dealer. Not the source of the drugs. If this case is covering up a money laundering scam, what else is it? This is not my job, you guys give me the data and I interpret it but I have watched you over the years, you can't help but pick up a few things. To go with your gut, to not be restricted by the data you have, to go beyond it. I think we need to look at this guy, the ex."
"It's OK Charlie. We will look at every angle. You're right. If he is involved then maybe this guy wasn't exactly an ex. Maybe Sarah was lying for some reason. He could be the key, for both of us. You think he could make the data complete?" Megan didn't really want to hear Charlie say anything but yes right now.
"He…I don't know. Someone does probably and, I have to work out some calculations, know more about him. There's one piece missing from the jigsaw and we won't know what the picture really is till we find some data which fits just right."
Megan was thinking as she put her jacket on. Going over Sarah Peckham's psyche in her head, things she maybe didn't pick up on, back when she thought she was a victim and not a suspect. "Thanks Charlie, Thanks Alan."
With that Megan sped out the door. Like the speed of light, Larry thought.