Chapter Fourteen

Don took the blindfold off of his brother and tried to rouse him. "Charlie? Hey buddy can you hear me?"

Charlie gave no response so Don started to pull at the tape binding him to the table. Colby stepped over and handed him a pocket knife so that he could cut through the thick tape. As Don hacked at the tape he kept speaking to Charlie trying to get a response but he just laid there still as death.

David came over to help by working on the tape around Charlie's legs. "The ambulance is on its way, Don."

Colby and Megan had moved over to examine Jon's body. The most immediate thing that they noticed was the fact that he had a roll of electrical tape forced into his mouth. This effectively kept him from being able to speak but the open center of the roll did not act as a muffler to his screams as he was butchered alive.

Colby was unnerved by the sight. He didn't know Jon that well but it was clear that the death of yet another agent had affected him. "Why semi-gag him? Why blind fold Charlie? And look, the numbers on his chest are even different. 505N97. He's put a letter in the code this time."

Megan was also registering the differences in this killing. She had no idea why the killer deviated in the code left on Agent O'Donnell's body, but she formulated a theory as to why Jon had been gagged and Charlie blindfolded.

"The killer never meant to kill Charlie, only to scare the hell out of him."

Don looked up at her then at Jon's lifeless form. "What?"

"Agent O'Donnell was gagged in a way that would allow his screams to be clearly heard by the killer and Charlie but he couldn't speak or form words. He couldn't say who the killer was. Charlie was blindfolded and secured the same way that all of the other victims have been and could only hear what was happening right next to him. This killer is known to his victims or to the FBI in general. He doesn't want his identity revealed. Don, you said that when you called Charlie's cell phone, the killer answered but used an electronic device to mask his voice so that you wouldn't recognize it. Don, I think you might know the killer. Only you would have called Charlie's cell and the killer said that he had been waiting for your call."

Colby paled slightly as he listened to Megan. "You think that Charlie was awake and aware while Jon was murdered? That he heard everything? God, I can't even imagine what was going through his mind."

"He probably thought that he was going to be next. I would be willing to bet that Charlie was conscious when the killer did that to him." she said, pointing to the note stapled to Charlie's chest.

Don and David had finished cutting off the tape that held Charlie down. "Oh God!" Don tried to gently rouse his brother again without success. "So why won't he wake up?"

Megan bent closer to Charlie and lifted his arm gently. She could see a tiny puncture wound in the crook of his elbow as well as a small bruise. "Because he's been drugged."

Don felt cold all over. He put his hand on Charlie's neck again to assure himself that the pulse he had felt before was still there and found that it was. The pulse was steady but slow. Actually it seemed to be too slow. "Where is that ambulance?" he hissed as his apprehension mounted.

Don's question was answered by the shrill sound of sirens and he breathed a small sigh of relief. He looked again at his brother. His neck and face below where the blindfold had been tied were covered in dried blood. The wound on his neck clearly pointed to the fact that he had been garroted with something, probably a thin metal wire judging by the depth and precision of the cut. Then he looked at the bloody page stapled to Charlie's chest. The staples were the large industrial kind used for carpets or some other thick material. Had the ends of those staples hit his heart? Maybe that is why his pulse seemed too slow. 'Hang on, Buddy, help is on the way.'

"We need to cut that off of him. It's evidence." Don said in an almost mechanical voice. "Colby, see about getting the tape from that surveillance camera on the loading dock."

Colby nodded and left the print room. Don's voice was tight and he was clearly struggling to maintain control. He was staring down at Charlie while his hands remained at his sides clenched into fists. 'I'm going to kill this bastard, if it's the last thing I ever do, that son of a bitch is going to die!'

Megan moved over to Don and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. He was coping with the sight of another dead agent and his tortured younger brother better than most people would, but the strain was starting to show. David came out of a small office on the other side of Jon's body with a pair of scissors. He handed them to Megan who very carefully cut the page of paper just below the staples from Charlie's chest.

She held the page carefully by the corner and placed it in an evidence bag that David had produced from somewhere. Don looked pale and ready to collapse. The EMT's had entered the building and were stopped by David before they could enter the printing room. He asked them for a sheet and told them to wait. He wanted to cover Jon's body. So far the press did not know the full extent of the brutality of these crimes and an information leak at this point could seriously hamper their investigation.

Once Jon was covered the ambulance personnel were allowed to come in and attend to Charlie. Megan pulled Don aside so that they had room to work and assess him. "Don, you need to call your father."

It took Don a moment to process what Megan had said. Don turned his gaze to her and his eyes shimmered with unshed tears as the meaning of her words registered through the shock and fatigue.

'Dad.'

Don reached for his cell phone and walked around the corner to call his father while Megan answered what ever questions she could that were being asked by the EMT's.

Don rode in the ambulance with Charlie to LA County General while David drove his truck back to the office to update Merrick and coordinate the crime scene forensics team. Alan said that he would meet them at the hospital and arrived shortly before the ambulance.

When Charlie was wheeled into the ambulance bay doors, Alan got his first look at his youngest son he froze momentarily, horrified at the sight, then tried to follow the gurney into the trauma area, but was stopped by an orderly.

This was the second time someone had tried to stop him from going to one of his sons and he had had enough. "That is my son you just took back there! Damn it let me pass!"

Don walked up behind his father and placed a weary hand on his shoulder. "Dad, we have to let them tend to Charlie. Come on lets get him checked in, all right?"

Alan spun around ready to lambaste Don for allowing this happen to his younger brother but stopped short. Don looked worse than he had ever seen him look before. He had deep circles under his red swollen eyes. His face was a picture of fatigue and defeat. He suddenly remembered his harsh words from the night before and truly regretted lashing out at Don. He wanted to say something to ease the pain that showed clearly in his older son's eyes but there wasn't anything that he could say to erase what had happened to Charlie so instead he pulled Don into a strong embrace.

"Oh God, I'm so sorry Dad. I…" Don's voice cracked as his control slipped. "I'm so sorry."

Alan swallowed his apprehension and patted Don's back lightly. "He's going to be all right Donnie. This wasn't your fault. He's alive, Don, you saved him before it was too late."

Don stepped out of his father's embrace looking even more beaten than he had a moment ago. "He's alive, but I didn't save him, Dad."

Don walked away toward the Emergency room front desk. There was no one in line because it was still so early in the morning so he walked right up to the window and gave his name while showing his badge. "Excuse me, my name is Don Eppes. My brother Charles Eppes was just brought in by ambulance."

The woman behind the desk looked quite tired and Don guessed that she was almost done with her shift. "What are the nature of his injuries, sir?"

"He was drugged, strangled and has puncture wounds to the chest. They took him back there somewhere." Don waved off toward the trauma area doors.

Alan took a seat stunned by what Don had told the receptionist about Charlie's injuries but his mind went back to what Don had just said about not saving him. The injuries sounded serious enough as far as he was concerned but why did Don feel that Charlie had not been saved?

Once Don had finished filling out the forms that they needed, he joined his father in the nearly deserted waiting room. Both men sat in silence for nearly an hour thinking their own thoughts.

"Donnie, I was out of line with you last night. This wasn't your fault."

Don didn't look at his father when he answered but his voice was flat and utterly drained, as if pure exhaustion had robbed him of all expression. "You don't have to apologize, Dad. You were right. I should never have gotten Charlie involved with this case."

The unadulterated defeat in his son's tone disturbed him beyond measure. "What did you mean when you said that you didn't save him?"

Don knew that he couldn't shelter his father from the nature of these killings any longer. What Charlie had been through would leave lasting emotional scars and for him to recover he was going to need the help of his father as well as Don.

Don glanced around to make sure that no one was close enough to over hear them talking then told his father about the details that had been kept from him regarding the brutality of these murders. Alan's face grew more and more pale as he listened to what had been done to these men.

"My God, Donnie! It's no wonder Charlie was having nightmares. What about Agent O'Donnell? I didn't see him brought in."

The look in Don's eyes frightened Alan more than anything he had felt thus far in his life. Even the news of his wife's cancer didn't send the cold wave of dread through him that the look in his oldest son's eyes did just now.

"Dad, Jon was killed the same way that all of the others were, and Charlie…
Charlie was there for the whole thing. He had been bound the same way as the other victims and then blindfolded. Dad, he didn't see anything but he heard all of it."

Alan sat back in his seat and covered his face with his hands. The mental and emotional repercussions of this kind of torture could last a lifetime. He wondered how someone so evil could exist and function amongst civilized society.

Just then they both heard screaming coming from the trauma area. It was Charlie's voice. Don was on his feet in an instant, his bone numbing fatigue forgotten. He charged through the trauma room doors following the sound of his brother's frantic cries.

He pushed open a door to a large treatment room and found two bulky orderlies trying to tie his brother down with wrist and leg restraints and Charlie was fighting like a tom cat and screaming. "Get away from me!"

Don didn't even think about what he was doing. He reacted on pure instinct and adrenalin and ran forward slamming his shoulder hard into the side of the larger of the two men struggling with his brother, causing him to sprawl on the floor with a stunned expression.

Charlie was so panicked at this point he didn't see Don enter the room or tackle the orderly trying to tie his hands. The only thing he was aware of was that his hands were now free and he reached frantically over the bed rail for something he could use as a weapon to protect himself.

He grabbed a scalpel that had been set out on a sterile suture try next to the bed that he was in, and slashed clumsily at the man trying to tie his legs down. The man jumped back letting go of the restraints.

Charlie drew his feet up under himself and leap over the side rail of the bed. He landed on the floor stumbling and the burning ache in his chest erupted in an explosion of pain causing him to cry out and grab his chest with his free hand. He had wires attached to his chest for the heart monitor that had not been pulled off yet and Don could hear his brother's heart racing wildly. The monitor read 145 beats per minute.

"Charlie!"

Charlie heard his brother's voice but the panic had taken hold of him. He was gasping for breath and holding the scalpel out in front of him. He waved it in jerky motions as he tried to ward off anyone who attempted to come near him. Alan was only a few steps behind Don and saw what was happening. He walked straight forward past the stunned orderly on the floor, the doctor and the other personnel in the room and approached his son. Charlie saw someone coming close to him and he again waved the knife at the intruder.

"CHARLES EDWARD EPPES! Put that down this instant!" Alan said in a loud and commanding voice.

Charlie had obeyed that tone of voice from his father since childhood and in his confusion he reacted by rote and dropped the scalpel before backing further away from the people crowding around him.

Alan held out his arms as he walked right up to Charlie and took his trembling body into his arms. "You need to calm down now, son. I want you to breathe for me ok? Just like David showed you. Breathe with me, Charlie."

"They're trying to tie me up." Charlie whispered in a shaky voice. "Don't let them! Please take me home, Dad. I want to go home."

The heart monitor had slowed a little. Charlie's pulse was down to 110 but he was shaking badly.

"You can't go home yet, Charlie. These people need to help you first."

Charlie tensed up, feebly pushing his father away and shouted, "No! They want to tie me down. They don't want to help me, they're just like her! I won't let them get me!"

Don stepped up beside his father. "Hey, Buddy, I won't let them tie you down OK? But you have to calm down for me. Can you do that Charlie?"

Charlie looked up into his brother's face and some of the panic seemed to fade from his eyes. "You came."

"Yea buddy, I'm here and I'm not leaving all right? Now I need you to come back over here and lie down."

Charlie looked over at the bed, and shook his head. "No! I want to go home. Please Don, take me home."

The pain in Charlie's chest intensified sharply for a moment and took his breath away. Alan had begun to gently guide Charlie over to the bed while Don talked to him. He was concerned that Charlie seemed to be having difficulty walking. His legs jerked and his steps were unsteady.

"It hurts, Don" Charlie gasped.

"I know, Buddy. Let these folks help you. I promise I will stay right with you the whole time. I won't let anyone tie you down." Don looked pointedly at the orderlies as he said the last few words.

Alan had him almost to the side of the bed and Don noted with some relief that Charlie's heart rate was down to 89. Alan turned and while keeping one arm around his youngest he lowered the bed rail. Just then Charlie's pulse dropped to 40 and alarms went off as he collapsed.

Don was close enough that he was able to reach out and keep Charlie from cracking his skull on the hard cement floor. Alan grabbed Charlie around his chest and Don took his legs and together they picked him up and placed him gingerly into bed.

"What's happening?" Alan asked in a tight voice. Charlie had gone dead pale for a moment but now that he was lying down some color began to return to his face and his heart rate went back up to 71.

The doctor was checking over the monitor reading Charlie's heart rate. "He's just had a syncopal episode."

Don looked confused and glanced at the monitor again. "A what?"

"He experienced syncope. That is when your blood pressure and heart rate drop dramatically and cause you to pass out. As soon as the patient lays flat the heart rate and blood pressure usually come back to a normal reading."

Don's heart was slowing down a little as well and he turned to the doctor. "What the hell was that all about? Why were these men trying to tie him down?"

The doctor had been faced with angry family members before but never one who had tackled one of his staff and carried a gun which he looked nervously at before Don straightened his jacket concealing the weapon from sight.

"Please try to understand that the restraints were to protect your brother from harm. He became violent when he woke up."

Alan placed a soothing hand on his son's forehead. "My son has been through a horrific experience, Doctor. He was kidnapped, bound and blindfolded while his companion was murdered so how else was he supposed to react when these men tried to tie him up again?"

"I'm sorry; I was not made aware of the circumstances regarding you son's injuries. While he was unconscious we x-rayed him to determine if there was any damage done by the staples that were lodged in his breast bone. They had not impacted the heart so we removed them and sutured the wounds. This caused him enough stimulus that he began to awaken."

"Stimulus? You mean pain right?" Don said in an accusing tone which earned him a sharp look from his father.

"Yes it was painful for him. After examining the laceration in his neck I determined that butterfly bandages would work as well as sutures and wouldn't leave as much of a scar, so my surgical nurse, Marie, began to apply those bandages." The doctor indicated the nurse standing in the corner of the room. She had a hand sized red mark on her left cheek.

"While she was doing this your son came to and became violent. He began flailing his arms about and hit her soundly across the face. He started screaming to get away from him. He was going to pull out the sutures in his chest if we couldn't get him under control so I called for the restraints. That was about the time that you two came rushing in here."

Charlie opened his eyes again but they were unfocused, "Jon? Jon!"

Don bent down over his brother's bed so that he could see him. "It's ok Buddy, just relax."

"Don? You're here." Then his eyes slid closed as he passed out again.

Don glanced up at the heart monitor but the pulse still read in the low seventies. "Why does he keep passing out? Is it another one of those syncope things?"

The doctor picked up Charlie's chart from the stand next to the door and scanned it quickly. "No. His intake sheet said that he had been drugged so I ordered a STAT tox screen. We found high concentrations of Pentobarbital. That is a barbiturate that causes Somnolence. When he woke up he was disoriented and from what you have told me he must have been frightened. He is also experiencing ataxia. These are not particularly common side effects of the drug nor is the syncope, but they can be attributed to the large dose that he received. These symptoms should begin to abate once the drug starts to work its way out of his system."

This doctor was speaking in a language that Don didn't understand. "What does all of that mean? Ataxia and Somnolence? God, why can't doctors speak English?"

The doctor could understand Don's frustration and apologized. "I'm sorry; Ataxia is loss of muscle coordination. That is what we observed with his jerky and uncoordinated movements. Somnolence is a condition of semi consciousness approaching coma. He will continue to fade in and out of consciousness until most of the dose he received has left his blood stream."

The doctor turned to Marie and said, "I would like an EKG done because of the syncope episode. Would you mind?"

Marie smiled graciously at the Eppes men and left the room. When she returned with the unit she brought it over to Charlie's bedside and had to bend over him to affix the leads on his arms and chest. Charlie moaned and frowned as his head moved from side to side. His heart rate shot up sharply when he opened his eyes and looked up at the woman standing over him. He tried to move away from her to the other side of the bed and Alan bent down and tried to calm his son.

"Charlie, slow down, son. This nice lady just wants to listen to your heart."

Charlie brought his hands up to push her away. "No, get away from me." He began frantically clawing at the leads that she had placed on his arms and chest. "It's her! Help, Don it's her!"

Marie stood up and backed away looking confused by his behavior. She knew that he was confused and frightened but he only seemed to have this reaction when she got close to him.

Don was at Charlie's side immediately. He pulled Charlie's hand away from his chest and held on tightly. "What's the matter, Buddy. What's wrong with her?"

Charlie's eyes were glazed and he was having difficulty catching his breath. "Lavender! It's her, she did it. Please, Don can't you see who it is?" Charlie's voice was getting weaker as he began to fall into another fitful doze again.

"Charlie, look at me. What about lavender? What does that mean?"

Charlie was so tired now that he almost whispered. "She was wearing lavender. She… was wearing, lavender." And his eyes closed again.

Marie stepped further away from the bed. "I washed my hair this morning before work. I use lavender scented shampoo. Is that why he gets so upset when I get close to him?"

Don gently shook Charlie's shoulder. "Who was wearing lavender, Charlie?"

Charlie had stopped panting and his pulse began to slow down. Again Don tried to get to the bottom of what was troubling his brother so much about the smell of lavender. "Who was wearing lavender, Charlie?"

Suddenly Charlie's eyes shot open. "She killed him, Don. I couldn't help him." Once more Charlie's eyes began to droop and he spoke as if falling into a deep sleep. "She was wearing lavender."

Don knew that Charlie was confused from the drugs used on him but this was no hallucination. Don needed to be sure he understood what his brother was trying to say. "Charlie, you have to wake up for me. Charlie, look at me. Come on Buddy open your eyes."

Slowly Charlie opened his eyes and stared up at his brother. What Don saw there almost made him take a step back. Charlie's eyes were empty. They seemed devoid of all emotion as if they were dead, like a doll's eyes.

"Charlie, are you telling me that this killer is a woman?"

A single tear rolled down the side of his face. "She was wearing lavender." Then his eyes closed again.