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Obsession
Disclaimer: See Prologue
A/N: I really appreciate your reviews.
Sun-Tzu The Art of War
Calculate advantages by means of what was heard, then create force in order to assist outside missions.
Chapter 6:
Friday
"Look, Peter, all you had to do was ask and I would have set some study time aside to go over these last two equations with you."
Charlie was standing behind his desk talking to a student. Peter Langley stood on the other side of his desk with his head bowed and nervously shifting from foot to foot. His blonde curls slightly shaking from his agitated state and he looked as if he was ready to bolt for the door at any moment.
The young professor raised his hands in a calming manner. "Why did you run last night?"
Peter slowly raised his head. "I….I knew I shouldn't have gone to your house without checking with you first Professor…and I just got scared and decided to leave before anyone came to the door."
"Obviously, I don't encourage my students to come to my home but since you were already there, you should have followed through with your objective."
Charlie smiled at the boy and tried to relieve him of some of his anxiety. "Okay, the test is on Monday, so if you can meet me here tomorrow, say around two o'clock, I'll review the problem set with you one more time."
Relief flooded the boy's features as he hefted his backpack over his shoulder with a renewed energy. "Thanks, Professor, I'll be here and thank you for not being mad because of last night." With a wave of his hand Peter was out of the door.
Charlie watched him leave with a bemused expression on his face as he turned and walked to his office window. The California sun had graced them with another gorgeous day and it brought a smile to his face to see all of the student activity outside. Most of them had found a nice sunny spot to sit and review for their upcoming finals. Some were sitting on benches or on a blanket spread out upon the grass while others were sitting at the picnic tables scattered around the campus. He loved being outside in the sunshine and fresh air, even LA's "fresh air" was better than being stuck inside on such a beautiful day.
He suddenly felt goose bumps rising on his arms and his light-hearted mood faded to one of fear as an uncontrollable shudder coursed through his body. Charlie rubbed at the back of his neck as he anxiously scanned the area outside of his office. He couldn't see anyone specifically looking up at his window, yet somehow he knew that someone was out there watching him. His eyes narrowed as he peered at the scene below but if the Scotsman was there, he was well hidden.
Charlie was so intent upon his search that he failed to hear his office door open and close, or the footsteps of the person approaching him. When he felt the arms encircle him and the voice whisper "boo" he thought his heart was going to jump right out of his chest. With a startled yell he jerked away and placed a hand on the window to steady himself.
"Charlie, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to surprise you like that. I thought you heard me come in and saw my reflection in the window." Amita raised her hand and caressed his cheek. "Are you all right?"
Embarrassed, he looked out of the window again before he met her eyes. "I'm okay, I just didn't hear you come in."
She stepped up to the window herself and scanned the area below then turned a suspicious gaze upon her lover. "You felt it again, didn't you…that someone was watching you."
He shook his head. "No, I think I'm just tired, that's all."
"I thought you said you figured it out, that it was that Scotsman from the other night."
Charlie shrugged his shoulders and moved away from the window and started gathering up his test folders to put them in his bag. "It was him, who else could it be?'
Amita came closer and put a hand on his arm. "Charlie, maybe you should talk to Don about this and…"
He pulled away from her and rolled his eyes. "Don…Don doesn't need to know about this. He's gone way overboard with being the "protective older brother." He walked around the room waving his arms as he talked. "If Don hears one more thing, I'll be hand cuffed to him and he'll throw away the key." He stopped and gathered her in his arms. "Please, let's just keep this to ourselves, I'm just being paranoid, that's all"
Charlie lowered his head and kissed her as he pulled her close. "Hmm….that was nice." he whispered in her ear.
She leaned into him and ran her hand through his curls lost in his expressive brown eyes.
"Wish we could stay here." she murmured.
"Yeah, me too, but we can't." he pulled away. "Come on, we've got to get to class."
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Don sat at his desk and stared moodily into his coffee cup re-thinking last night's misadventure. After dinner he and his father had talked for a little while longer and it had helped ease his nerves but he still had this overall feeling that he was missing something, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. He scrubbed his hand through his hair in frustration. There had to be some way to get his feelings across to Charlie and make him understand. Don was certain that he had heard the word "overprotective" as Charlie had walked into the house mumbling to himself. He had to find some way to smooth things over with him. Maybe once the finals were over and this case was solved they could go hiking or something. Just the two of them so he could explain his concerns to his brother.
"Penny for your thoughts."
He looked up as Megan sat herself down on the corner of his desk. "You know, I am a profiler, I can tell when there is something wrong. It might help to talk about it." She tilted her head as he just stared at her. "Is it Robin?"
"No, Robin's fine." he said a little gruffly as he reached for his coffee cup and took a sip, sputtering a little as he quickly set it back down again. "I just got that coffee and it's already cold."
Megan snorted. "Just got it, it's been setting on your desk for the past thirty minutes." she narrowed her eyes and studied him. "Hmm, if it's not Robin is must be a curly-haired sibling."
Don's eyebrows rose and he tried to look stern. "You know, I really hate it when you profile me, but your right…it's Charlie."
"Why, what did he do now?"
"Nothing, really, I just want him to be more careful. He just doesn't take his own safety seriously enough."
She sat up straighter. "Oh, this is about his feeling that someone is watching and following him isn't it? Larry told me about it." She tilted her head thoughtfully. "Larry said that Charlie told him that you guys had figured it out."
Don's eyes widened as she spoke and he sat up straighter. "He thinks that he's being watched and…"
Megan quickly came to her feet. "He didn't tell you? " She watched as Don's brown eyes began to cloud over in anger. "Oops… you didn't hear that from me. I'm going back to my desk now." She started to leave but turned back at the sound of a stranger's voice.
"Agent Eppes?"
Don looked up and studied the thin man leaning casually against the door. He looked like a homeless person, dressed in ragged jeans and stained sweat shirt, long hair tied back in a pony tail and that had to be at least two days worth of stubble on his face. The badge clipped to his jeans pocket however, told a different story.
"Undercover job." Don mused before answering. "I'm Eppes."
" Carl Hendricks." he inclined his head without shifting his position . " I'm with Narcotics on the 2nd floor. Last night my team made a drug bust in an abandoned warehouse on the east side."
Don leaned back in his chair. "I hope it was successful, Agent Hendricks but I fail to see what that has do do with us."
"It was a good bust and I actually have something for you." the agent responded as he straightend up and approached Don's desk.
"Imagine our surprise when we found a note on a dead body that was addressed to you and your team. When the Assistant Director saw it he suspected that it might be related to your bombing case and he asked me to give you all of our info on the case."
"Does this DB have a name?'
Hendricks shook his head. "Not yet, but were working on it."
"What kind of note?" Colby asked as he stood up and strolled over to join them.
The agent looked up and Don made introductions all around waving a hand at them as he said each of their names.
"Reeves, Sinclair, Granger and that's O'Connell."
Agent Hendricks nodded to each of them as he finished his account of the night before. "It's just a bunch of numbers. I made you a duplicate of our files and here's the note ." he handed Don a flash drive and the note in a plastic bag.
"Your people still have the scene secure?"
"Yeah, forensics still had a little more work to do."
"We'll need to go on-site ourselves."
"Understood. I'll let my people know ." The narcotics agent straightened up to leave but hesitated pointing to the note. "Any idea what that means?"
"Not yet, but we'll figure it out"
Hendricks scratched at his beard and shrugged. "Should I tell my guys you'll be there soon?"
"Just tell them we'll be there sometime this afternoon."
" I'm out of here." Hendricks left with a wave of his hand as he headed for the elevators.
"Great, just what we need, another set of numbers. We don't have the first set deciphered yet." Don complained as he walked over to the board and placed the new note next to the old one. "
9 12 23 12 25 1 16 18 6 15 18 5 20 9 8
"Different numbers." David mumbled. "I'll send these to Dr. Martin, maybe he can come up with something now that he has more numbers to work with."
Colby scoffed. "Do you want to bet on that?"
"Come on Colby the man can't be that bad." Don commented with more that a little irritation in his voice.
Megan tucked a loose hair back behind her ear as she leaned closer to the board.
"You know, I think the handwriting is the same. Of course, we'll need to have it authenticated, but it sure looks the same to me."
"I don't get it." the lead agent shook his head. "First a bank robbery and bombing and now narcotics. What are these guys really trying to accomplish here?" He didn't wait for any answer but turned around and started giving instructions.
"Let's get down to the warehouse, see if we can turn up anything." Don ordered. "O'Connell, you can ride with Megan and me."
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Bashere was furious. "Tell me again why I am not celebrating the demise of Agent Eppes and his team at this moment." The knuckles of the hand holding the phone were white from squeezing the instrument so hard.
Johnson's grip on his phone was the opposite. The palms of his hands were all sweaty and he was actually in danger of dropping it. "Look it wasn't my fault. How was I suppose to know that a drug deal was going to go down after we planted the body."
"What about the explosives?"
"We… ah, didn't have time to plant it."
"Hold on, I've got an incoming call."
Johnson paced nervously around his office, the cell phone in his hand and he literally jumped when Bashere's voice came back on the line.
"You have a chance to redeem yourself Mr. Johnson. I have a source at the FBI that has been looking out for us and he has successfully kept the most pertinent information from Agent Eppes. However, he is not certain how long he can do this without someone getting suspicious and if Eppes sees the body he will know that I am back in LA and that will ruin all of my plans."
Johnson had never been accused of stupidity, but he really wanted an answer to a question.
"Look, I don't understand. If Eppes seeing the body will tell him that your behind everything, then why take that chance. Why have us leave the man there for him to find?"
"Because you were supposed to blow him up, you idiot!" Bashere gritted his teeth and spoke very slowly; he wanted to be certain that Johnson got the message.
"First, they would find the body and the note, second, he would immediately call his brother and have him decipher the code and third, he would realize who I was and it would be too late for him to do anything about it because he would be dead!!
Johnson flinched and held the phone back from his ear. He licked his lips nervously and listened as the man gave him a new set of instructions.
"Now he will have to die without knowing who has killed him or what fate has in mind for his younger brother but I can live with that so listen very carefully Mr. Johnson and don't forget we still have three more tasks to complete before we are finished."
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Alan flipped through his papers as he sipped his iced tea. He was sitting on a bench outside of the Mechanical Engineering building on the campus at Calsci reviewing his class notes before going to Ray Galuski's class. Charlie had taken some time to explain the problem set to him and now he understood how to work the equations. The memory brought a smile to his face; he had to admit that his son was a pretty good teacher. He was so engrossed in his work that he missed the approaching footsteps and was caught off guard when he heard the Scottish accent.
"Hello Alan, er…I mean Mr. Eppes."
Alan's glasses had slid down to the bridge of his nose and he looked over them at the man standing in front of him.
"Mr. Fitzgerald." he responded curtly.
Angus flushed and looked away from the scowling expression on Alan's face.
"Err….ah…might I have a word with you?" he asked timidly.
Alan continued to look through his papers and when he answered his voice was full of impatience. "I don't believe that we have anything to discuss."
"Please, I would just like to explain. May I sit?" he gestured toward the empty seat next to Alan and sank down on the bench without waiting for an answer.
Alan looked at his watch and started to gather his things together without commenting but as he began to rise, a trembling hand touched his elbow.
"Please." Angus whispered..
Alan looked around and met the man's pleading eyes His heart softened and he thought. "It wouldn't hurt to listen for a couple of minutes, after all, Don said his story checked out." and the man just looked so miserable. "You've got ten minutes before my class starts, so you better make it fast."
A look of hope crossed the man's face as he stammered "F...f…fast, right.. First let me apologize for lying to you and your family the other night. I was afraid Professor Eppes wouldn't see me if he thought I was after his autograph and when I saw his car pull in I hurried over to meet him." Sighing audibly, he continued while Alan checked his watch again wearing an expression that could only be called skeptical.
"I was really enjoying our conversation and for the first time since I've been in your country, I truly felt welcome. It's been a lonely trip for me but I needed to get away. My children are all grown now and have their own families. I lost my wife last year, to cancer, and this seemed like the perfect time for me to visit your country. Coming to Calsci was like a dream come true and being in LA where all of the famous celebrities are is just amazing."
Alan checked his watch again but not as impatiently as he had before. He was beginning to feel sorry for the man and the painful memory of his own loss was brought to the surface as he listened to the man's story.
"I have been a fan of your son's for some time now and I'm afraid I was so excited about meeting him that I jumped up without thinking and now I've ruined everything with my stupidity." He ruefully shook his head and looked down at his shoes. Raising his head again he asked. "Have you ever made a mistake that you wish you could take back? He didn't wait for an answer but continued. "Please, I would like to make amends somehow.
You know, start over?"
Alan pursed his lips thoughtfully and studied the Scotsman. He seemed sincere enough and despite what had happened, he found himself beginning to like the man.
"Look, I'll talk to Charlie, maybe we could have you over for dinner and we can try again." He raised his hand to forestall the man's answer. "I have to talk to him first, let me have your phone number and I'll call you. That's all I can promise."
They both stood up and Fitzgerald hastily wrote his phone number on a slip of paper and handed it to Alan , grasping his hand and shaking it as he gave it to him.
"Oh, thank you, thank you." Angus said happily.
"Don't thank me yet, this might not work. Oh, and ah, thanks for the bowl, but it really wasn't necessary."
"I truly appreciate the effort, Alan., and your more than welcome for the bowl, it was the least I could do" he paused. "I can call you Alan, right?"
Alan sighed inwardly, "Yes, you may Angus. I've got to get to class now. Bye." Alan turned quickly before the man could say anything else and hurried toward the mechanical engineering building.
Angus smiled broadly as he watched the older man hurry off to class.