A/N – Hello everyone. I start back to work tomorrow so my writing time is going to take a hit. Also please forgive me if there are lapses in posts. We will need to take our eight year old to a glaucoma specialist because of some very bad test results. I have no idea what we are in for. I am wholly unfamiliar with this disease and the testing procedures associated with it.
The doctor I took her to yesterday spoke about this right in front of her. He said "Glaucoma is a very nasty business and if she were my daughter I would take her to a specialist." Ally may only be eight years old but she is very smart and asked some frightening questions of this tactless doctor like: "If you mess up the tests and I go blind will you get fired?"
I will try to keep up with the posts but I ask you to be patient with me if there are lapses. Between the baby, a full time job, the holidays and now this; I can't promise weekly updates anymore, but I promise I will do my best.
Love, Alice I
Chapter Eight
The Pasadena police came by to take a report of the prowler, and told Don that they had not received any other prowler reports for the area. The two officers who answered the call wanted to look through the back yard, but Don asked them not to because he was going to have an FBI forensics team go over the area in the morning.
"If this is part of a federal investigation, then why did you call us?" officer McMurry asked. It seemed to Don that he was less than pleased to have answered a call about a prowler then be told that he couldn't investigate.
"This may be part of our investigation, but it may also just be a prowler. I wanted a record of this incident filed with your office. Look, I'm not trying to say that you would contaminate the scene. My partner and I have already looked through the yard and the surrounding area, but found no sign of an intruder. That's why I want to have our forensics experts go over it."
Don could understand this officer's attitude but he wasn't about to let a local cop inadvertently trample evidence that might help them to solve this case.
"We could have a patrol car make rounds up and down the street for the next few days if you want."
The offer surprised Don a little and it showed in his face. Considering the irritation in officer McMurry's voice, the last thing Don expected was willing cooperation from him. "Uh… that would be appreciated."
"Don't look so surprised, Agent Eppes. I may not work for the FBI, but we are all on the same team. If you or your partner are being targeted by this 'FBI killer', then a little back up wouldn't be such a bad thing, right?"
Don smiled at that. "You aren't kidding there." Don lowered his voice and turned so that his back was facing his father and brother who were still talking with the other police officer. "Look, this is my brother's house. So far this killer has only gone after FBI agents and not their families…"
"Don't worry, Agent Eppes. We'll make sure to keep an eye on things here. I'll step up the patrols in the area and have a squad car drive by the house regularly."
Once the local police had left, Alan advised everyone to get some sleep. Don and David made another pass around the grounds being sure to keep physically clear of the Japanese Maple and Koi pond where the intruder had stood, yet shining bright lights all over the area to visually ensure that no one was there. Don wasn't going to call it a night until he and David checked every room in the house as well. After the agents were satisfied and had made sure all the doors and windows were locked it was close to midnight. Alan had gone to bed after the upstairs had been searched, once again admonishing his sons and David to get some sleep.
After what had happened there was no way that Don was going to allow a watch not to be set. He was so keyed up after the search that he told David to sack out in his old room for a few hours.
"I'll come wake you for a turn around four, and Charlie you need to get to bed. You look terrible and you won't be any good to us if you're falling down from sheer exhaustion."
Charlie went up to his room but sleep eluded him. He kept getting up and looking out into the back yard, scanning the shadows for movement until he forced himself away from the window. "I'm going drive myself crazy doing this." Instead he pulled out his notebook and started going over his equations again trying desperately to find a solution the cryptic numbers written on the agents' bodies.
By four AM Charlie was no closer to an answer than he had been at the beginning of this case and decided to go downstairs for a cup of coffee. A few minutes ago Don had come upstairs quietly and stopped at Charlie's door before moving down the hall to wake up David. Charlie could almost picture his brother looking down at the sliver of light emanating from the crack at the bottom of his door and shaking his head.
Charlie waited for his brother to get settled before quietly going downstairs. He knew that there would be a fresh pot of coffee going and he suspected that he would get far less objection from David to him being up than Don. He also wanted to let David know that he didn't blame him for speaking to his brother about his anxiety attack. Charlie knew all too well how persuasive his older brother could be when he wanted information from someone. David never had a chance. He had told Charlie up front that he would not lie to Don if asked about it directly so Charlie couldn't hold it against him.
When he arrived in the kitchen, David was sitting at the table rubbing sleep from his eyes and had two full cups of hot coffee waiting on the table. Charlie just smiled and took a seat in front of the mug across from the agent.
"Don said that you were awake. I'm guessing by the dark circles under your eyes that you haven't slept at all." David pointed at the cup in front of Charlie and said, "That's chamomile tea by the way."
"I did try to get some sleep you know, but…"
"Look, Charlie, I wanted to talk to you anyway."
"David, don't...
I'm not angry with you. You did say that you wouldn't lie to Don and I'm sure that he didn't give you any recourse. Don isn't someone you can side track very easily."
David smiled at that comment. It seemed to him that Charlie was trying to state that as delicately as he could, but there was clearly some family history behind the young man's words that he was sure he would never really know about. David reached over to his suit jacket that was draped over the chair next to him and pulled out the pamphlets that he had brought for Charlie.
"I want you to take some time to look these through, ok? There are coping exercises in here that will help if you have another problem, like you did just before dinner."
Charlie looked startled. "How did you… David you were out here in the kitchen with dad. You couldn't have seen…"
"Charlie you are forgetting a two key pieces of information. One: I am an FBI agent and I'm trained to notice things even when doing something else, including setting the dining room table which is in clear view of the living room. And two: I have a lot of experience with this problem. So tell me the truth. How are you doing Charlie?"
Charlie's sighed to himself. There was no point in lying to David. He would see right through it and Charlie could never pull it off anyway.
"I'm scared David. I have never felt so out of control. It's like I'm loosing my mind or something. Logically I know I'm not, but I'm having trouble understanding why this is happening. I did use that breathing technique you showed me tonight and it helped a lot, but what I want is to have this stop happening! Is there anything in these that will tell me how to prevent an anxiety attack?" Charlie held up the pamphlets and waved them at David.
David shook his head sadly. "That's why I made you tea instead of coffee. Caffeine is a trigger, you want to avoid it."
Charlie looked longingly at David's coffee. He was very tired but if the caffeine would make these attacks worse then he would never touch the stuff again.
"Charlie, you can control anxiety instead of it controlling you, but with this case, I don't think that you can prevent these feelings all together. You have to remind yourself that they are just feelings. They won't physically hurt you, but if you don't stop and think your way through them, they will seriously mess with your head."
By six thirty in the morning the FBI lab techs showed up to go over the back yard. Colby and Megan arrived right behind the forensics team and Don had them take command of the scene investigation while he, David and Charlie went into the office.
Charlie wanted to get the over-nighted copies of the other agents' files and take them to Cal Sci with him. He had asked Larry to book some time in the computer lab to see if the additional data would help with the cipher encryption programs and the data mining that they had been using to try and crack the killer's code.
While Charlie thumbed through the case files, Merrick called Don off to the side to speak to him.
"Agent Eppes, I want your professional assessment of what happened last night. Was the killer outside your brother's house or not?"
Don considered his answer before replying. "It is a strong possibility sir. The Pasadena police responded to the call and told us that there haven't been any reports of prowlers in the area and burglars don't usually decide to case a target shortly after the dinner hour when all of the occupants of the house are still up and moving around. It seemed to me that this person was observing and they ran for it as soon as they realized that Charlie had seen them."
Merrick nodded at this information and seemed to be thinking about how he wanted to proceed. "So far the agents killed have attended the academy during the early nineties. David graduated from the academy in 1999 so I'm thinking that of the two of you; you are a more likely target. We could use that to our advantage."
Don wasn't sure he liked the way this conversation was going but held hid tongue to allow Merrick to voice his idea.
"If our killer is looking at you, we could set a trap."
"WHAT!"
Don and Merrick spun around at the sound of Charlie's voice alight with anger.
"You want to use Don as bait? Have you seen what this bastard is doing to the agents he gets his hands on?" Charlie tossed the crime scene photographs from the file he was holding down on the table next to the assistant director.
Don could see that Charlie was close to really loosing his cool again and was thankful that it was early enough that only David was around to see this display. Charlie had never really liked Merrick, and Don could see that he was gearing up to blast him for this idea; an idea that Don didn't really care for either. The last thing he wanted to do was to give this guy the opportunity to kidnap and kill another agent least of all himself.
"Charlie calm down…"
"I will not calm down! This is the worst idea that he has come up with yet!" Charlie was starting to shout and pointed at Merrick who was getting very annoyed.
"Yes, well if our math consultant could crack this code then we wouldn't have to resort to such dangerous tactics. Your brother is an FBI agent and he understands the risks involved in this line of work professor." Merrick put a decidedly derogatory emphasis on the title 'professor' which only served to make Charlie angrier.
"I know that he understands the risks of his job, but that doesn't mean he should be offered up as some sort of sacrificial offering to a psychopath, in the hopes of catching him! In case you haven't noticed, this killer is very smart and has avoided leaving behind any kind of evidence that he didn't specifically want us to have. No fingerprints, no DNA, no witnesses. He has come up with a code that none of the FBI cryptologists can crack. He has abducted and murdered six highly trained agents without anyone coming close to catching him. What the hell happens when he takes Don and you can't stop him!"
At this point Charlie had lost all control. He was practically screaming at the assistant director and panting. David stepped in and forcefully took Charlie by the shoulders and steered him out of the office and into the men's bathroom outside in the hall. He made sure the door was locked and watched as Charlie sat down on the nearest toilet shaking and gasping.
"Charlie, you can't scream at Merrick that way. You need to get a hold of yourself man. Now breathe."
By the time that David and Charlie came back into the office Merrick had left and Don was livid. He pulled Charlie into one of the interrogation rooms and closed the door before rounding on his brother.
"What the hell is the matter with you? I know that you're not that fond of Merrick, but you can't just go off on him like that in this office, Charlie. He is my boss you know. He wanted to pull you off this case right then and there and he has the authority to do it! I had to do a lot of smooth talking to calm him down and get him to realize that without you, we may never be able to decipher that code. I'll tell you Charlie, if you don't rein it in, I may just end up agreeing with Merrick on this, and have you pulled off the case myself."
Charlie had sat still long enough for this. "You can't do that, Don!"
"The hell I can't. I am the agent in charge of this case and if I pull you from it; then that's it, Charlie!"
"I will still work on it whether it's official or not! You can't tell me what equations I can work on and what I can't."
"God damn it Charlie! Why do you have to be so damn stubborn? Merrick is just trying to find a way to solve this case and this is the first break we have had since Devon Wilson was killed!"
Charlie sat down hard in the chair next to the table staring with disbelief at Don. "You're not actually considering Merrick's suggestion are you? Don, that's crazy! Look, let me get back to campus. Larry and I will run all of the data through the encryption models. I will find the answer, Don! I have twice as much data as before; I promise I'll figure this out. Just don't…
I swear to God, I'll tell dad…
Don, you can't do this!"
Don's anger dissolved like butter on a hot plate. Charlie looked so frightened and the fact that he would ever consider scaring their father with this kind of information spoke volumes to him about how upset Charlie actually was.
"Look, Charlie, sometimes I…
...any agent would do what ever it takes to catch someone like this guy. I am not crazy about this suggestion either ok; so let's get you back to the computer lab and get an answer so that we don't have to consider this as a possibility."
Charlie got up slowly from the table. His head was spinning. The logical side of him understood why Merrick had suggested this strategy and why Don was considering it, but the side of him that was Don's brother was screaming at him even louder. He couldn't let Don do this because in his heart he knew that he would never see him again. As sure as the sun rose every day; he was convinced that if this killer got a hold of Don, his brother would die.
Don saw the raw fear mixed with determination in Charlie's eyes. He knew that Charlie would block out everything else until he had an answer. He made a mental note to give Larry a call and make sure that Charlie stopped to eat once in a while. He wasn't even going to attempt to get his brother to sleep, for it would be pointless. He was also concerned that when Charlie got hyper focused he wouldn't know if he was in danger until it was far too late so he also made another decision.
"I'm sending Jonathan O'Donnell with you Charlie. That prowler could have been looking at you rather than me or David. Jon's a good agent. He'll keep an eye on you and he won't get in your way."
Charlie just nodded as he opened the door of the interrogation room and headed out into the bull pen while Don stepped over to talk to Agent O'Donnell. Charlie collected all of the files including the photos he had thrown at Merrick earlier and was packing up his satchel when Agent O'Donnell came over to introduce himself.
"Hello, Dr. Eppes. It's a pleasure to meet you." He extended his hand in greeting which Charlie absently shook. Jon glanced over at Don with a questioning look on his face.
"Don't mind him, Jon. Once he starts thinking about a problem he hardly notices anything around him. That's one of the reasons why you will be his shadow for the next day or so."
Charlie had started to walk toward the door when he turn and looked at his brother but addressed Jon. "I'm sorry if I seemed rude Agent O'Donnell. I can get very focused sometimes as my brother pointed out, but I am far from deaf."
With that Charlie turned on his heel and walked out to the elevators. Agent O'Donnell followed behind shaking his head as he wondered how long the next couple of days were going to be if he had to be stuck between two brothers who both had strong personalities and opposing points of view.
Thanks, ensigstel, for the heads up about typographical errors. I have gone back and fixed them.
