Disclaimer, yadda yadda yadda, in the prologue.

dHALL wins a cookie for being the first person to notice the songs opening the chapters. Coming soon to an iTunes outlet near you: the "Z is for Zzyzx" soundtrack (to be listed in the final chapter).

oooooooooooooooo

Chapter 4
June 3, 2006
12:45 P.M.
FBI Field Office, Los Angeles

"Flagstaff, Arizona, don't forget Winona, Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino…"

Don looked over at David, who was humming while poring over a map of San Bernardino County. "Practicing for karaoke night?"

David flushed. "No, I just realized that all I know about any of these places is that they're in the song. I've never been out that way. Is it all pretty much desert?"

"Pretty much, yeah." Don shook his head. "I think the CHP is going to give it another day and then figure either our suspect got away down the interstate, or his bones are drying out in the desert somewhere."

"Then it's our turn to find him, I suppose."

The corner of Don's mouth turned up. "That's why they pay us the big bucks, right?"

"Yeah, right." David gave him a rueful grin and turned back to the map spread across his desk. He tapped a spot on the map with his pen. "Unless he was picked up along the freeway, this is the only place he could be within walking distance."

Don leaned over his shoulder. "Desert Studies Center," he read off the map. He frowned and tried to remember the name of the place where Charlie and Larry were staying from the phone call he had made yesterday. "That can't be a coincidence," he muttered, reaching for his cell phone.

"What is it?" David asked, looking over his shoulder at him.

He pressed the first speed dial button, raising the phone to his ear. All he heard was Charlie's voice mail, so he left a short request to call him back right away. "I think that's where Charlie is this weekend," he replied, flipping the phone shut.

"But the CHP must have searched it already," David said. "I mean, it's the only sign of civilization for miles around."

"Can you give them a call and verify that?" Don asked. "It would be just my luck to have my brother out there in the desert with an armed suspect running around on the loose, and the cops not even checking the most obvious place."

David gave him a quick, reassuring grin, and turned to the phone.

"Hey, Don." Megan was walking up to the cubicle. "Check this out. I spoke with a contact at Homeland Security, and no one there was called out to the site of the crash. No one sent any agents out there, and they can't find anyone who might have gone out there on their own."

"So who were those two guys?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. I'm trying to track down the two CHP officers who were on the scene to get a description."

"You think these mysterious DHS guys might have helped our suspect get away?"

She shrugged. "It's certainly a possibility. It's also possible that they were trying to finish what the wreck started."

His brow furrowed. "But they would have had to be keeping up with the car, and from what we know, the CHP couldn't even manage that."

"Unless they were coming from the other direction and were supposed to meet up with Koristet. Michelle Zadera still hasn't given us any reason why she would have been kidnapped, did she?"

"No, but I'm going to go back to talk to her and take you along. She's more likely to have thought of something once the shock has worn off and she has a little time to think about it."

"Right. When did you want to go?"

"Tomorrow afternoon, I think."

"Don." David was hanging up the phone at his desk as he turned to face him. "The CHP talked with the manager of the center, and he hasn't seen anyone out of place. But he knows to keep an eye out."

"Well, that's something." He leaned back against his desk, grateful to be released from worrying about his little brother. "Forensics said they should be done testing the gun that was found in the wreck within another hour, so we can start trying to determine ownership. And Colby's supposed to get back any minute with Koristet's father, so we can see if he knows how to find his son."

"He's coming in?" Megan raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, but it's totally voluntary, since he's got diplomatic immunity. As does his son, for that matter. We'll see how cooperative he is."

Megan shook her head. "Does Ms. Zadera know that we can't do anything to prosecute her kidnapper?"

"If we even find him," Don muttered. He opened his mouth to say more, but the ding of the elevator caught his attention, and he turned to see Colby and an older man exiting the elevator, Colby respectfully indicating the way to the conference room before heading in their direction.

As he approached the three of them, he began to speak in a low tone. "Shockingly enough, Mr. Koristet insists his son can't have done anything like what we're accusing him of, and that since he's been missing since yesterday morning, we should be focusing more of our efforts on finding him. I think he's more concerned about us finding Koristet Jr. safe and sound than the possibility that his son might be a criminal."

Don ran his hand over his jaw. "Well, we'll just have to see what he can tell us."

Fifteen minutes later, Don's frustration level was rising. Tomas Koristet was a distinguished-looking man with dark hair showing salt-and-pepper around the temples, and a careful manner of stepping around all of the questions he was asked. He was polite but firm as he insisted that his son could not have kidnapped anyone, that he might be a little wild at times but he couldn't possibly harm anyone else. In fact, he was wondering why the FBI hadn't called him in sooner, considering it was his automobile that was broken into pieces out in the Mojave Desert and his son who had gone missing.

Don mentally winced, knowing he was going to sound like an idiot as he answered, "We hadn't finished running down the paperwork until this morning, which is when we contacted you. This car just cleared Customs three days ago, is that right?"

"Apparently so, but since I never actually saw the vehicle, I can't be certain what the papers say." Tomas leaned forward and steepled his fingers. "The car was supposed to be delivered to my home in Nevada two days ago, and I haven't even laid my eyes on it. Now it has been wrecked driving away from my home, my son is missing, and you claim it is all his fault."

Colby reached out to lay a color photograph of Michelle Zadera in front of him. "Do you recognize this woman, Mr. Koristet?"

The older man studied the photograph, then shook his head. "Is she supposed to be his accomplice or something?"

"No, this young woman identified your son as the man who forced her into that car at gunpoint and drove off with her."

He shook his head. "Impossible. Dominic would never do something like that."

Colby sat back in his chair. "Does he often disappear without letting you know where he's going?"

Koristet waved a hand in the air. "He's twenty years old, for goodness' sake. He doesn't have to ask my permission before leaving the house."

Don exchanged a glance with Colby before asking, "Is Las Vegas your primary residence, Mr. Koristet?"

"No, I spend most of my time here in Los Angeles, at the consulate. I usually make it up to Nevada every other weekend or so."

"And what about Dominic?"

"He spends some of his time here, some of it there. Some of it traveling around. He's particularly fond of New York, although I believe he enjoys Miami and San Francisco as well."

"Must be nice to be able to travel like that," Colby said lightly. "Most people his age are bound to their jobs or their college schedules."

Koristet's eyes narrowed. "I don't believe there's anything wrong with my son enjoying certain privileges. I spent most of my life living under a Communist state, Agent Granger, and I want my son to have all of the opportunities I didn't. If that involves postponing higher education while he travels and takes advantage of the modest wealth I've managed to accumulate, then so be it."

Colby retained his mild tone as she went on, "Does your son own a firearm?"

The older man shifted slightly in his seat. "He's under the age of twenty-one."

"That wouldn't matter in either California or Nevada," Colby quickly replied.

Koristet hesitated a moment longer before answering. "There are a few guns at the house, but they're all registered in my name."

"How many is a few?" Don interjected. "Would he have access to them?"

"My son is not a child who needs a locked gun cabinet in the house," Koristet retorted.

Don leaned back in his seat. Time to try a different line of questioning. "Can you tell me more about the Lotus Exige, Mr. Koristet?" Don asked. "Where did you purchase it from?"

The other man's eyes narrowed, and he leaned a little farther forward. "I'm here because I want to find my son, Agent Eppes, not because I'm submitting myself to an interrogation. And while we're speaking about my vehicle, I would like to know where it is and how soon I can have access to it."

Don pursed his lips, and Colby stepped in. "We know you're concerned for your son. But if you're right, and Dominic is an innocent party, he's still involved with that car somehow, and we need to know everything we can about it."

Don added, "As for the car itself, I'm afraid there isn't much left to see. But if you'll give us the name of your insurance company, we'll contact them as soon as the car has been examined for evidence, and they can start assessing the damage."

"Look, I don't—"

The ringing of Don's cell phone cut off Mr. Koristet. He looked down at the small screen to see Charlie's number. "Excuse me," he said, rising to his feet and walking to a corner of the room. He could hear Colby's quiet voice reassuring their guest as he flipped open the phone. "Yeah, Charlie, what is it?"

"Don?"

He straightened up. Something was off about his brother's tone of voice, a note of uncertainty that he wasn't used to hearing. "Charlie, you okay?" He was dimly aware of Colby's head moving as he turned to look at him, but he concentrated on the voice at the other end of the line.

"Yeah, I'm fine," came the shaky reply. "We're both fine, but—I screwed up. I'm sorry, Don, I shouldn't have done it."

A brief glance told him that walking outside into the hallway wouldn't gain him any more privacy, considering the number of agents passing by, so he kept his voice down instead. "What are you talking about, Charlie?"

He heard a deep sigh. "He was here, Don. Your suspect was here, and he took our car."

"You saw Dominic Koristet? He was there? When?" His rapid-fire questions had caught the attention of Mr. Koristet, and both of the other occupants of the room were now staring at him. He turned his back on them, instead facing out the windows and the familiar view of downtown.

"Just a few minutes ago. He's headed east out of the Desert Studies Center, although there aren't many roads that way, and I can give you the description of the car, although I don't know the license plate number, because it was a rental—"

"Charlie, slow down. You're telling me he showed up there just now and has your car?" He heard the scraping of a chair behind him that indicated someone was standing up. In the reflection of the glass, he saw the flash of Colby's white shirt as he came to his feet.

He could hear Charlie swallow through the phone. "He, uh, actually he was here overnight. But then this morning, yeah, he said he was too afraid for his life and had to leave, so he, uh, took our car."

"You let him drive off in your car?" That sounded a little excessively generous, even for Charlie.

"Well, actually…he had a gun."

Don closed his eyes, fighting back all of the terrifying scenarios that sprang to his mind with those words. He took a deep breath and asked quietly, "Charlie, are you sure you're all right?"

The reply was more confident this time. "I told you, we're fine. Just a little upset, that's all."

Yeah, you haven't seen upset until I get there, he wanted to say, but he bit his tongue. Time enough for recriminations later. "All right, I'm going to call the CHP officers who are searching the area and send them your way. Then Megan and I will be up there as soon as we can, about an hour and a half from now. You take care of yourself, okay?"

"I will. And Don…I'm sorry."

"We'll talk about that later." He flipped the phone shut, and turned to face Colby and Tomas, both of whom were still looking at him. Neither of them said anything, but the same question was in both their eyes, the older man's look more demanding, Colby's with a degree of concern.

He looked Koristet straight in the eye and said, much more calmly than he felt had any right to, "Your son just held up my brother at gunpoint and stole his vehicle." Ignoring Colby's startled intake of breath, he went on, "We're going to go out there right now and figure out what's going on. You, sir, are going to stay here and talk to Agent Granger and tell him everything you can about your son and how we can find him."

Tomas Koristet was now standing as well, and he was taller than either of the other two in the room. "You can't make me stay here, Agent Eppes," he said in the same firm, calm tone he'd been using throughout the conversation.

The man must make a good diplomat, Don thought as he suppressed a grimace. For once, the person in the interrogation room saying they couldn't make him stay was actually in the right. "No, not legally, but I'm sure you can see this situation would be much easier to resolve if you did." He was still holding his cell phone, and he clenched his fingers around it to keep himself from hurling it at the table, or the glass walls, or the man standing in front of him whose son had just pointed a gun at Charlie Eppes.

Koristet regarded him for a moment longer. "You do understand that as my son, Dominic is also covered by diplomatic immunity. I do not for a second believe that he threatened another person with a gun, but even if he did, he is not prosecutable under your laws."

Unless you allow him to be, Don thought, and looking at Colby, he could read the same thought on his face. Along with the unlikeliness of that possibility. Aloud, he said, "Well, I'm sorry, but if my brother tells me it was Dominic who carjacked him, I'm going to believe him." Then he bit back thoughts of how he had believed Charlie half an hour ago when he told him he had never seen that same man, and stalked out of the room.

In their cubicle, Megan was talking to David, a photograph of Michelle Zadera on the desk next to him, but they both looked up at Don's stormy approach. "What's going on?" Megan asked, a hint of wariness in her voice.

He sighed as he opened his desk drawer. When he pulled out a spare clip and tucked into his pocket, Megan's eyes widened. "Does this mean you found Dominic?"

"No, of all people, Charlie found Koristet. Or rather, Koristet found him."

"The Desert Studies Center?" David guessed. He had risen to his feet along with Megan, both of them with apprehensive looks on their faces.

"Apparently," Don replied grimly. "And apparently he's armed."

"Is Charlie all right?" Megan asked quickly.

"He said he's fine, but that Koristet took his car." As long as he kept it to short sentences, just gave a bare outline of the facts, he didn't have to think about Charlie staring down the barrel of a gun. He went on, "David, I want you to call the CHP and get them to redirect their resources. Start looking east of the Desert Studies Center; that's where Charlie said he was going. Then get down to Forensics and find out who owns the gun that was in the car, see how to connect it back to either one of the Koristets. Megan, you and I are going out to Zzyzx to follow up with Charlie." He pulled a road map out of the filing cabinet and tossed it at her.

"What about him?" David jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the man still sitting in the interrogation room.

Don paused and looked at Tomas Koristet, who had taken a seat again and from what he could see was having a lively, though not heated, discussion with his other agent. "Colby's got him taken care of, but check in a little while and see if he needs any help. We can't hold him, but right now we're his best chance at finding his son, so I think he'll cooperate."

David nodded and turned to pick up the phone. Don looked at Megan, who gave him a short, tight nod. Then he turned to head out.

They were standing in the elevator when something occurred to him. He thought back for a moment, replaying every word of Charlie's conversation. When he had it fixed in his head, he turned to his partner and spoke quietly. "He said, 'We're both fine,' Megan."

She looked at him. "What?"

The average person wouldn't have noticed, but someone who had worked closely with Megan Reeves for nearly a year and whose job depended on being able to read people would see the mixture of anxiety and relief lurking in her eyes. He elaborated, "Larry's with Charlie, but he said they were both all right."

Her shoulders relaxed slightly, but he could see a line of tension still present. It occurred to him that she was waiting for something else, and then he realized what. If Colby were here, he knew exactly what Megan would be expecting. Some snarky comment about physicists or white food or something.

Instead he turned to face the elevator doors and said lightly, "Of course, Charlie won't be all right for long once I get my hands on him…"

As he trailed off, he snuck a sideways look at her. The corner of her mouth had turned up, but as she stared down at the floor, her shoulders had completely relaxed. He smiled to himself, and when the elevator doors opened into the parking garage, led the way without another word.