After Donald Spencer had been taken into custody 'for his own good,' the team congregated around Don's desk. David glanced around nervously then turned to Don. "I'm expecting to see the boss any minute, wondering why we've got the two of you in here when you're supposed to be out on medical leave."

Don grinned. "Agent Sinclair, are you asking us to leave?"

"Not me. But I'm afraid Wright will."

"If he comes, I'll just tell him I stopped by to give my statement," Don said with a shrug. "Meanwhile, let's get back to solving this case. What did you think of Spencer's statements?"

David shrugged. "He seemed sincere. But there's something that doesn't make sense. He said Yang needed Ellen Davis to help with the painting theft. Why Ellen? She was just a teacher, right? No criminal record. Did she know about paintings?"

Don pressed a few keys on his computer and pulled up the information they had on Ellen Davis. "Not unless it was a hobby. She's got no education or work experience with paintings."

"So why would the Agincourts need her help?" Colby asked. "And according to Spencer, Yang said that they had already approached her and she was reluctant."

"It doesn't make sense," Don murmured. "If I were in charge of this case," he grinned at David, "I'd have another talk with the Agincourt family."

David grinned. "Just what I was going to suggest. Megan, why don't you and I go visit Francis and Felicia? Colby and Liz can talk to Fred."

"What about me?" Don asked. When Charlie nudged him, he added, "I mean us."

David shrugged. "What about you? You're not on this case."

"Charlie can come with us," Liz said. "He and Fred seemed to get along pretty well."

"Why don't we bring Don along with us, Boss?" Megan said. "He may not be on the case, but he does seem to have some good ideas."

-------------------

Fred Agincourt was sitting up in bed eating what the hospital ambiguously called a 'soft diet.' A woman sat beside him, watching his every move, waiting to jump in and help if necessary. Colby knocked on the door frame. "Excuse us." He held up his badge. "Could we speak with you for a minute, Mr. Agincourt?"

"Please, come in," Fred shoved the tray aside. "This is my wife, Emily. Emily, Agents Granger and Warner, and Dr. Eppes were there when I was shot. Dr. Eppes saved my life."

Charlie blushed and looked down at his feet. "That's overstating it more than just a bit."

"You're too modest," Fred said. "Are there enough chairs…?"

Emily stood, "Here, take my seat. If it's okay with you, Honey, I'm going downstairs to get a bite to eat."

Fred grinned. "You can finish this if you'd like."

Emily laughed. "No, thanks. That's all yours." She took Charlie's hand. "Thank you, Dr. Eppes." She hushed him when he started to object. "Fred says you saved his life and I believe him." She left before Charlie could say anything else.

Fred watched as she left, then turned to Colby. "Why don't you close the door?"

After Colby had closed the door, he, Liz and Charlie pulled chairs up next to Fred's bed. Liz said, "Last time I talked to you, you were arranging to meet your lawyer. Have you met with him yet?"

"Yes, I have. He told me you had a warrant for the names of the students in my program. He contacted the school, and they're preparing the list with the students' names and contact information. Would you like me to check on their progress?"

"That's okay. What did he think about us talking to you?"

Fred smiled. "He said he'd rather be in the room whenever you talk to me. I guess I should call him now, but I really have nothing to hide."

Charlie glanced at the two agents. "At the risk of getting them angry at me, I think you'd be better off listening to him."

"Charlie…" Colby objected.

"I've learned that having nothing to hide is not necessarily sufficient protection." He shrugged at Colby. "Sorry. I guess it comes from having a father who was into civil disobedience."

"It's okay," Fred said. "I've already told him I want to do everything I can do to help you. I know what you want to talk to me about. The theft ring, right?"

Colby said, "Actually, we've got that pretty much sewn up. We're more interested in how Ellen Davis ended up dead beside a dumpster."

"Poor Ellen," Fred sighed. "She didn't deserve any of this. I should have suspected what Frank and Mom were up to, but, honestly, I didn't. Not until Frank called me, just before I was shot." He looked up at Colby. "You think one of us shot poor Ellen?"

Colby nodded. "We're investigating all possibilities. Did Ellen talk to you at all about the theft?"

Fred sighed. "It was really strange. She called me that night. The night the painting was stolen. She said she was in a lot of trouble. Her brother had gotten her into something she never should have been involved in. Just before she hung up she said, 'I hope you're not involved in this.' Being totally oblivious to this whole mess, I asked her, 'Involved in what?' She just said, 'I hope you're not. I've always respected you.' Then she hung up. That was the last I heard from her."

"What did you think she was talking about?" Liz asked. "You said you had no idea Frank and Felicia were involved in this."

"I really didn't know. I knew Ellen's brother was a troublemaker. I guess I just figured she didn't know who to trust any more. Like I said, it didn't make sense to me."

Liz didn't look convinced, but she let it drop. "Did she say what she planned on doing?"

Fred shook his head. "She just said, 'He got me into this. He's going to have to get me out. I can't take it any more.'"

Colby leaned forward. "Did you tell anybody about the call?"

"I probably mentioned it to Emily, but nobody else until now. Why?"

Colby stood and pulled out his cell phone. "Excuse me a minute." He turned to Liz. "I'm going to see if Ellen made any other phone calls that night. Somehow her murderer knew where she was going."

Francis Agincourt glanced up as David and Don entered the interrogation room. "They told me I had visitors. You're not visitors."

David pulled out a chair across the table from Agincourt and sat. "Did you talk to Ellen Davis after she stole the painting?"

Agincourt opened his mouth to reply, then shook his head. "I'm not saying anything without my attorney."

"He's on his way," David said.

"Then we'll wait until he gets here."

"Okay. We'll go next door and talk to your mother first," David stood. "We'll be back."

"Go ahead. This whole mess was her idea anyway."

Don pulled out a chair and sat down. "If that's the case, why don't you just tell us about it? If she really was the mastermind behind this whole thing, we could work with the prosecutors to get you a lower sentence."

Agincourt hesitated, then finally said. "I can do that. But not until my attorney gets here." He glanced at David. "You want to call him now?"

Megan stood in the doorway of the observation room as David and Don entered the hallway. "Well, that was short, but interesting," she said with a smirk.

David closed the door behind them and shook his head. "I can't believe he's going to throw his mother under the bus."

"From what I've seen, she'd do the same to him," Don said.

David pulled out his cell phone. "I'm going to call his lawyer now and get him over here. We've got to get this thing wrapped up."

"Yeah," Megan said, "we'd better finish It up before the boss gets back to work." As David spoke to the lawyer, Megan turned to Don. "How are you feeling, Boss?"

"Sore. Tired. But this sure beats sitting at Charlie's house being mother henned by Dad."

"Aw, your Dad's a great guy. I wish I had a dad like him."

David closed his phone. "Okay. He'll be here in twenty minutes."

"That fast? In LA?" Megan shook her head. "You can't get anywhere in twenty minutes."

"He's across the street," David said with a grin. "Even so, I'm guessing it'll take him a half hour. That gives us plenty of time to speak with Mommie Dearest."

Felicia Agincourt looked up as David and Megan entered the room. Don sat at the edge of his seat in the observation room.

"Well, hello," Felicia said, smiling brightly. "I was wondering how long I would have to wait."

Megan sat across from her and leaned her elbows on the table. "Why? You going somewhere?"

David remained standing. "We were visiting with your son. It was a very fruitful visit."

Felicia's smile faded. "Which son? I have two, you know."

"Why, Francis, of course. He's in the interrogation room next door," David said.

"And once his lawyer arrives, we're going to have an even more interesting discussion," Megan added.

"If you're having so much fun talking to Francis, why bother with me?"

"We thought we'd give you a chance to tell us your side of the story before the deal is finalized with Francis." David pulled out a chair and sat down. "His lawyer will be here in a half hour or so. Plenty of time for you to tell us about the whole art theft thing."

"You got nothing," Felicia's smile returned. "You're trying to play one of us against the other. Well, it's not going to work. I don't know anything about…" David's cell phone chirped. "You need to get that, Agent?"

David glanced at the display. His eyes widened as he read a text message. When he closed his phone again, he leaned across the table. "Why did Ellen Davis call you just before she was killed?"

Felicia blinked, then composed her expression. "Who?"

"Don't give me that. You know who Ellen Davis is. We've got her phone records and she not only called your number, she had an eighteen minute conversation with you, so we're pretty sure it wasn't a wrong number. So, I repeat, why did Ellen Davis call you just before she was killed?"

Felicia looked down at her hands. "My son is going to turn against me?" She looked up at Megan, tears in her eyes. "How could he do that? He was in it as deep as I was."

"But the whole thing was your idea, wasn't it?" Megan asked softly. "And it wasn't just for the money, was it?"

"Of course not," Felicia scoffed. "The money was just a nice bonus. Well, for my darling son, money was the only reason for the thefts. But for me it was about the art."

"Go on," Megan encouraged.

"Museums and so-called art experts have ruined art." She glanced at David. "I recognized the world famous Dr. Bennington Cole with you when you arrested me. He's part of the problem, with all his books and his 'authenticating.' Because of people like him, the talented artist can't break into the field. People like him and dealers like that parasite Grant Catalino artificially inflate the prices of art and get 'investors' involved. Buyers don't want the great little painting by the local artist who just might be the next John Singer Sargent. They're not interested in the avant garde sculpture that decades from now might be worth a million dollars. All they want is Van Gogh and Degas."

"You paint?" David asked.

Felicia nodded. "But I couldn't make enough money to support myself, so I had to resort to cleaning and restoring all those investment pieces owned by people who wouldn't even look twice at my work."

"So why did you insist on getting Ellen Davis involved?" Megan asked.

"Oh, that wasn't my idea. That was Francis. He had a crush on Ellen. The idiot hoped that if he got her involved in our little team, he'd have a chance with her. But all Ellen cared about was that husband of hers and getting her junkie brother out of trouble. I honestly don't think she even noticed that Francis was interested in her."

"Why did she call you?" David asked.

"She wanted out. She told me she was going to give the Van Gogh to her brother so he could take it to our buyer. But did not want to hang onto it for another minute. She just wanted to let me know what she was doing. She told me not to worry. Yang would get his painting, and we wouldn't be hurt by her decision. She was always a sweet girl."

"So why did you kill her?" Megan asked.

Felicia's head whipped up and she scowled at Megan. "Just because I talked to her doesn't mean I killed her. I had no reason to kill her. She wasn't going to tell anyone. She didn't think the police had any idea who she was. And if they did figure out it was her, she insisted she would take the fall and do the time. Nobody was seriously injured, so she figured she would probably not even get jail time."

"So who had a reason to kill her?" Megan asked. "You were the last person she called."

"She must have called someone else," Felicia insisted.

"You told Francis, didn't you?" Megan leaned forward and made eye contact with Felicia. "Francis, who had a crush on her. Francis, who realized he was never going to have her."

David nodded slowly. "Francis, who didn't believe that she wouldn't tell the cops about your little side business."

"Francis, who is waiting for the chance right now to hang his own mother out to dry," Megan added.

Felicia sighed and buried her face in her hands. "He was with me when she called. He asked what was going on and I didn't see any reason not to tell him."

"She told you where she was meeting her brother?" David asked.

"Yes. I'm sure I mentioned it to Francis. When I learned that Ellen was dead and the painting was missing, I knew it was Francis. But when I confronted him, he told me that playing it out his way was the only way we could get out of it. Then that FBI agent got shot. The kid's gun wasn't supposed to be loaded. My plan was to avoid lethal force. The penalties wouldn't be that severe if nobody was seriously injured."

"So who loaded the gun?" David asked.

Felicia shrugged. "I don't see why anybody would want to load the gun. There was nothing to be gained and everything to lose."