David had just unwrapped the formerly hot roast beef sandwich Colby had dropped off for him when his cell phone rang. Giving his sandwich a look of regret, he glanced at the caller ID and flipped the phone open. "Yeah, Don?"

"David, Charlie had a look at those scribbles Liz sent..."

"Don't tell me he found something!"

"He found a phone number and a partial address. He googled the phone number, and it belongs to Amber Adams."

"Why's that name sound familiar?" David sat up and pulled a pad and pen over.

"She's the head of security at the Getty. We talked to her the day the Rembrandt was stolen."

David chuckled. "She's the one who yelled at Charlie for touching a painting."

"You're right! I forgot about that. I wonder if Charlie's just trying to frame her because she gave him a hard time."

David laughed as he heard Charlie's voice in the background. "Sounds like he doesn't agree with your assessment, Don. Listen, give me the phone number and I'll get her records. And give me the partial address too. We might as well get the techs started on it." David wrote the information as Don recited it. "I'll get right on it."

"David? Have you had anything to eat yet today?" Don asked.

"What're you? Psychic? I had just sat down for a sandwich when you called."

"Eat your sandwich first. Amber can wait five minutes."

"There's too much to do," David grumbled.

"Now you know how I feel. Eat your sandwich. You gotta take care of yourself if you're going to stay on top of this case."

David grinned. "Okay, Boss. You getting out of there tomorrow?"

"You'd better believe it. Maybe I'll talk Dad into bringing us by to say hi on the way home."

"Uh, Don, this isn't on your way home."

"You got me. Hey, David, hang in there, okay? You know you've got a great team working with you."

"I know. And we all learned from the very best. You and Charlie take care, okay? I'll keep you posted."

David flipped his phone shut and picked up the sandwich.

"Hey, David," Colby entered, waving a sheaf of papers. "Those kids are still in the area. They haven't used their phones today, but yesterday LoBella and Weimar used their phones on campus, and both called Spencer, who was downtown." Colby stopped, noticing the sandwich in David's hand. "Oh, man. You haven't eaten that thing yet? It must be ice cold."

"Pretty much. Listen," he ripped the top page from his pad and handed it to Colby, "Charlie found this phone number in Felicia's doodles. It's Amber Adams' number. She's the head of security at the Getty."

Colby whistled as he took the sheet. "The Whiz Kid comes through again. What's this other stuff? One dash four dash S Mrn?"

"Charlie thinks it's part of an address."

"What? The Whiz Kid couldn't narrow it down a little bit more?"

David chuckled. "You're fickle, Granger. Charlie's working on the other scribbles Liz sent him. Just see if you can come up with anything that makes sense. But concentrate on Amber Adams. She's the strongest lead we've gotten in a while."

"Okay, I'll pull the records while you eat your lunch. Or is it breakfast? Or supper?"

"All of the above," David bit into the sandwich. After he swallowed, he said, "Why don't you leave the kids' phone records with me? I'll look them over while I eat."

"Okay. I can think of a lot more interesting meal time reading. Like the back of a ketchup bottle," Colby laughed as he put the sheaf of papers on the desk in front of David.

--

Liz glanced up as Colby entered the room. "I got another hit on Spencer's phone. I was just getting ready to run the number he called and see who it belongs to."

Colby held up the sheet David had given to him. "I guess it would be too much of a coincidence if it was this number."

Liz glanced at the sheet. "Nope. That's not it."

"Ah, that would have made life too easy." Colby pulled a chair over.

"Where'd that number come from?"

"Believe it or not, Charlie found it in your doodles. He found this address fragment on the same sheet. That's all he's come up with so far, but it's a start."

"And you guys thought this doodle thing was crazy."

"I never said that!"

Liz raised her eyebrows at him. "You didn't have to say a thing. It was written all over your face. So do we know whose number it is yet?"

"Amber Adams, head of security at the Getty."

"Okay, it's time to start going after Ms. Adams' phone records." Liz began typing the information.

"I'll check on this address fragment and see what I can find," Colby wheeled his chair over to his desk and began working.

--

Twenty minutes later, the three agents converged in the conference room. "Amber Adams has received calls from Greg Spencer and Ellen Davis," Liz began. "And she received a call from Felicia, and placed a call to her."

"I think it's time we paid Ms. Adams a visit. You want to handle that, Liz?" David made a note in his pad. He caught the others watching him and grinned, "It's my 'to-do' list. I don't want to forget anything."

"Trying to impress the boss-man?" Colby chuckled. "If you screw up, he won't leave you in charge again."

"Maybe I should just screw up then. I am not enjoying this at all. So what did you guys find out about the address?"

"It would have been faster to turn Charlie loose on it," Colby glanced at the paper in front of him. "But doing things the old fashioned way, I came up with four possible addresses in the LA. area."

"Anybody of interest?" David asked.

"Well, one is a part time janitor at the Norton Simon. A lady named Greta Reynolds. I was planning on paying her a visit when we're finished here."

"Good idea. Is she working today?"

"She works at ten tonight. The director said he could meet me there at nine thirty."

"That's great. Anybody else?"

"Well, I checked against our files, and another possibility is the place Ben and Maggie are renting."

"Damn," David exclaimed. "Did you..."

"I called Ben. It went to his voice mail, so I left him a message. And I called LAPD. They're sending a unit over there to make sure everything's okay. They're gonna call my cell and let me know what's going on."

"How long ago?"

"Just before we came in here."

"Come on," David stood. "Let's go."

--

Ben paid the taxi driver and got out of the cab. He held the door for Maggie as she slid across the seat toward him.

"Dr. Cole?" a voice behind him made Ben jump.

Ben turned to face the speaker. "Yes? Can I ..." he stopped as he saw the young man pointing a gun at him. He stepped in front of Maggie and pushed her back into the car. "What do you want?"

"I want the Van Gogh."

"I'm afraid the FBI has it."

"But I saw you with it. Outside the pawn shop."

Ben held up his hands and took a step toward the gunman. "I took it to the FBI office. You don't honestly think they would let me carry a priceless Van Gogh around Los Angeles, do you?"

The gunman hesitated. "I... I guess not." He stopped speaking, listening to approaching sirens.

Ben took another step toward the gunman. "Put the gun down. Would it be a cliché to say 'you'll never get away with it?'"

The gunman looked wildly around. The sirens grew louder. "You don't understand. I need that painting. They're going to kill me.."

"Who? Who's going to kill you? The FBI can protect you, you know."

"Yeah, right. Look at how well they protected Agent Eppes and the professor. Not to mention Ellen. No thanks. I'm not going to end up with a bullet in my like they did. You're not lying to me, are you? The FBI really does have the painting?"

"I'm not lying. I took it to their office myself." Ben stepped closer. "Just give me the gun and let the FBI take you in. You can help them get whoever's after you before they get to you."

The young man waved the gun wildly. "No! Get back!" He glanced around. The sirens sounded like they were a block away. Finally, he swore, threw the gun at Ben and ran away.

"Come on!" David shouted at the minivan that had pulled in front of him. "What do you think the lights and siren mean, idiot?" He laid on the horn and the minivan finally pulled over. David scowled at the driver as he roared past.

Colby felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and flipped it open. "Granger... Yeah... Crap... Okay, we're about five minutes out... Is everybody okay?... All right. We'll see you there." He flipped the phone shut and said, "That was Walker. Some guy with a gun was waiting when Ben and Maggie got home."

"Aw, damn," David muttered. "Are they okay?"

"They're fine," Colby said. "The guy took off without firing a shot."

When the agents arrived, the normally quiet neighborhood was a hive of police activity. Squad cars blocked the intersection half a block from Ben and Maggie's apartment. An officer waved for David to stop and approached, asking to see his ID.

As David showed his badge, he asked the officer, "What happened? Are Dr. and Mrs. Cole all right?"

"They're fine, Agent Sinclair. Apparently the gunman was waiting for them. But he heard us approaching and took off. Nobody got hurt, thank God. Lieutenant Walker is waiting at the scene for you." He waved for the squad cars to let David pass.

Before David had even come to a complete halt, Lieutenant Gary Walker approached the SUV. "Sinclair," he called as David got out of the SUV, "we meet again."

"Gary," David chuckled, "are you involved in every case in LA?"

"At least the ones involving Eppes's team. Everybody's over here, at the taxi." He turned and led the way to the taxi. "How are Eppes and the Professor doing?"

"Good. It was actually Charlie who found part of this address in some doodles Liz sent him."

"Doodles? Really? That kid never ceases to amaze me. Here we go."

Ben leaned against the taxi, his arm around Maggie's shoulders. He looked up as Walker brought the agents over. "David, Liz, Colby, it's good to see you. You got here quickly."

"Are you okay?"

Ben and Maggie nodded. Maggie sighed and snuggled closer to her husband. "Ben talked him out of shooting us."

"Really?" David raised his eyebrows at Ben. "You missed your calling. You feel up to giving me your statement?"

"Of course," Ben gave David a shaky smile. "It's easiest now while it's still fresh in my mind."

"Okay. Liz, why don't you get Maggie's statement? Colby, how about you talk to the taxi driver?"

The driver, a slender Asian man wearing a Dodgers cap, stepped forward to shake Colby's hand. "I'm Gene Yang. I'm afraid I didn't see a whole lot."

"I'm Special Agent Granger. Whatever you saw could be helpful. Why don't we go over and sit on the front steps over there? This'll just be a minute."

"Sure. No problem. I radioed my boss and told him I'd be tied up here for a while." He pocketed his keys and led the way to the steps. "I told that English guy he was as cool as double oh seven. I can't believe he's just an art teacher."

Colby laughed. "Yeah, teachers can be surprising."

After they had taken everybody's statements, sent Gene Yang on his way, and compared notes, the agents were able to piece the story together. Ben had effectively blocked Maggie's view and, for the most part, Gene's view. But they had heard his conversation with the gunman. Unfortunately, Ben was the only one who had a clear view of the gunman. "You sure it wasn't the guy on the pawn shop's security video?" David asked.

"I'm sure," Ben said. "Though he was around the same age and build."

David went to the SUV and pulled out photographs of the three students who had made Charlie's life miserable. "Did he look like any of these guys?"

Ben pointed at the photo of Jason LoBella. "That's him. Who are these boys?"

David exchanged glances with Liz and Colby. "You're sure it's him?"

Ben took the photograph and looked closely at it. "Definitely." He handed the photograph back to David, "I have a very good visual memory. It's helpful in my business."

"Like Charlie with numbers," Liz said. "These three are the students who filed the complaint against Charlie. This one," she pointed to Greg, "attacked him. He's also the cousin of the woman who stole the first painting. The one who was murdered. And Jason," she pointed at the photo Ben had identified, "someone driving his car shot at Charlie."

Ben whistled. "Do you think they killed Ellen Davis?"

David nodded. "It's possible. We're trying to track them down now."

"Too bad I couldn't place him under citizen's arrest."

Maggie gasped. "I'm glad you didn't think of that! Ben, you were very lucky he didn't shoot you."

"I was just kidding," Ben gave Maggie a squeeze. Turning to David, he asked, "Do you think we're still at risk?"

"No, not really. From what you said, I think they realize you don't have the painting. We should probably increase security at the FBI just in case. It doesn't sound like we're dealing with the sharpest tools in the shed here. I can picture them trying to break in and steal it from the FBI."

Colby chuckled. "It'd be nice if the criminals came to us for once."

"Hey, Sinclair," Lt. Walker approached, holding an evidence bag. "Here's the kid's gun. My guys haven't found anything else yet."

"Thanks. How long after the event did your people get here?" David asked, taking the gun from Walker.

Walker looked at Ben and Maggie and shrugged. "I don't know. Five minutes, maybe? The guy was long gone when we got here."

Ben nodded. "That sounds about right, though I did lose track of time after he pointed that gun at me."

"Yeah, that's understandable," Walker said. "Well, I'll leave this to you gentlemen, and ladies. I've got another call – a group of perps who didn't toss the gun and run away."

"Goodnight, Gary." David said, "We'll see you later."