Chapter Four
Charlie sighed with relief as he entered his home. The events of the past hour still haunted Charlie and probably would for awhile.
Megan, Colby and David were still there gathering evidence, while the rest of the investigators had already left the house.
"Charlie." Megan greeted when she saw who had entered the house so suddenly.
Charlie nodded a greeting to her, but didn't say anything as he made his way into the kitchen, ignoring the glances from David Sinclair and Colby Granger.
"What's buggin him?" Colby asked as Don stepped into the house and shut the door.
"Charlie just had a close encounter with a bullet." Don said matter-of-factly as he approached his team.
Everyone on his team quicky gave Don a double glance as they tried to process his words.
"Could you repeat that again?" Colby asked, not believing what he had heard.
"You heard me, Granger. Someone shot at Charlie while he was at CalSci." Don said.
"Is he alright?" Megan asked as she glanced at the kitchen, imagining Charlie sitting at the table, his head resting on the surface..
"Physically he's fine, but his cell-phone will never be the same again." Don replied with a fake grin.
"What about emotionally? Remember a few months ago when that man shot up the office? Charlie himself was nearly shot, and because of that he shut down." Megan said.
Don nodded his head as he recalled that morning.
He and his team and been questioning a known sex offender when all hell had broken loose.
One minute Charlie was explaining a piece of the case to him, the next minute the dry-erase board was sporting a new hole in its surface!
Don had pushed Charlie to the ground with strict orders to stay put.
After the shootout was over, Charlie had exited the bull pen with his laptop clutched tightly to his chest.
At first Don had been worried that Charlie had been hit, so he had started to pry the laptop away from Charlie, but Charlie tugged it back and insisted that he hadn't been hit.
When the building had been cleared, Don had been briefed by Megan outside the building.
When Don had caught Charlie staring at nothing with a lost look on his face, Don had gone over to talk to him.
Charlie still looked dazed and scared about what had happened.
For Charlie, the only way to deal with what had happened was to leave the scene, go to CalSci or his home and bury himself in math, which for the most part was what he had done.
Don still remembered Charlie's haunted look as he had clutched the laptop to his chest. That look still scared him at night whenever he dreamed about that incident.
In his dreams, Charlie had been shot and killed or paralyized and Charlie's words always remained the same, "Why did you let this happen to me Donny? It's you're fault, it's all you're fault!"
By then Don would wake up, sweat drenching him as he fought to calm his beating heart.
While Megan was talking to Don about Charlie, Charlie was seated at the kitchen table, tracing the scratches that were on it's surface.
He knew what he should be doing, working on the N vrs NP thing, but he had promised Don awhile back that he wouldn't work on that if he was upset over something, and Charlie's word was good.
If he promised he wouldn't do something, he wouldn't. He would keep his promise...for the most part.
Images of what had happened at his office kept flashing through his mind.
The sound of breaking glass, his cell-phone which was now still laying on his office floor with a bullet hole in it!
With trembling hands, Charlie reached over, grabbed a notebook and a pencil.
Math gave him something to do, and while what he was about to work on wasn't P vrs NP, it would still get the job done.
It would still calm him down.
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The fake FBI case file slammed closed as David Ballard loaded it and a bunch of other files into his van to get them ready to be transported to the FBI building.
When Don got a hold of the file, he would order his team to go to Drixco Plaza to pick up an Arthur Sato, who owns a drug company. The file would state that he would have some information for Don and his team, and David Ballard knew that Don would by the fake statement and come looking for Arthur, and by then, Don's life would be in David's hands, to do with as he pleased.
After Don was taken care of, then it would be Charlie's turn, and David knew exactly how that little runt would die. Slowly, painfully and with the full knowledge that his brother had allowed this to happen to him, that Don hadn't and didn't care for him enough to protect him.
The look on Charlie's face as he died would be priceless and payment enough if David was caught before he left the country.
As David fingered the keys to the van he whispered, "Soon Donnie boy, it will be all over, all over for you and your brother."
With conviction David got into the van, started the engine and left the small compound to deliver the 'confidential files' to the FBI office, curtesy of the 'Law Office' in Santa Barbara.