Fic: Unknown Territory (Numb3rs, Charlie Eppes / Colby Granger, Ian Edgerton / David Sinclair)
Title: Unknown Territory
Fandom: Numb3rs
Pair: Charlie Eppes / Colby Granger,
David Sinclair / Ian Edgerton,
Don Eppes / Martin Fridegord
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
NUMB3RS Main List
Follows:
Replacement
Increasingly Creepy
and
Scorched
“Can we trace them?” Don twisted the little camera in his hand.
“No, pretty much all agencies use those. They were designed to be used in foreign operations, so there’s no manufacturing numbers or things like that.” Agent Parker explained with her usual enthusiasm. “Because there’s no reception for their signal, we can’t trace the location for whoever received the transmissions.”
Don’s eyes had wandered behind her shoulder. Charlie was sitting on the desk and looked like a real life replica of Rodin’s Thinker.
“Chuck?”
He didn’t even seem to hear him.
“Chuck!”
Charlie snapped away from his trance and leaped off the desk. “Gimme your phone.”
“What?”
“Your phone.” Charlie snatched it from Don’s coat pocket and started browsing the list of numbers.
“What are you doing?”
Charlie picked a number and waited. After a while he hung up.
“I was right, he’s not picking up.”
“Who?”
“Carson.”
“He called in sick this morning.”
“He called in sick and David goes missing. You got his address?”
“We’re not gonna barge into his apartment. Where the hell did you get that idea?”
“Gut feeling. And we don’t need to barge in. He said he was sick, we’ll just go and see if he was telling the truth.”
“And if he’s not there?”
“You’ll flash your badge to the janitor and wheedle us in.”
“Are you serious?”
“Sounds good to me.” Ian grabbed Charlie and headed to the elevator.
“I’ll drive.” Colby followed them.
“What the hell are you-” Don let out a frustrated growl. “Fine, but you better remember this wasn’t my idea!”
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“He took some boxes to his car last night. I haven’t seen him since.” The janitor explained as he opened the door to Taylor’s apartment. Don took the lead and scanned the kitchen and the living room. They were both empty.
“How long did he live here?”
“About a month.”
“And you haven’t seen him since last night?”
“Right. He packed his car and drove away. My bedroom window`s right over the parking lot, so I would have seen if it had been there this morning.”
“Don.” Charlie’s voice called him from the bedroom. He followed the voice and stepped into the full room. Every available space was full of moving boxes. Charlie was sitting on the bed, flipping through a folder of discs.
“Take a look.” He pointed to the marking on each disc. “Ian and a date.” He opened the laptop that was laying on the nightstand and pushed one of the disks in. The spy camera footage started rolling on the screen and the brothers went quiet.
“What is it?” Ian marched to the bedroom, giving them a questioning glance.
Charlie simply turned the laptop so Ian could see it. On the screen Ian was soaping himself up in the shower. Few seconds later David joined him. Ian snapped the lid down.
“Check the dates.” Charlie pointed to the markings on the disks. “I think the cameras were there for over a week.”
“That fit’s the janitor’s story.” He turned to Colby, who was hovering at the door. “Call the office and tell them to dig up his personnel file, possible second addresses-”
“I know the drill.” Colby pulled his phone out.
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“Nothing?” Don let out a frustrated sigh.
“No. He used to rent a small place in Washington, but he gave that up.” Colby stated. He closed the personnel file and handed it over to Don. “But take a look at his previous assignments.”
Don scanned the pages. “Confidential.”
“Yep.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“I think I can answer that.” Charlie rushed to the conference room. He sounded seriously out of breath. “I called someone I know who works in Washington. He made some calls.”
“And?”
“And Carson had some trouble in the Washington office. Apparently he had a crush on his co-worker, and it got really ugly. Stalking, and the whole shish kebab. Anyway, the other guy got killed in the line of duty, and now comes the big part.”
“Charlie.” Ian warned in his most terrifying tone. “Get to the point.”
“They couldn’t figure out the situation that lead to the shooting, and Carson was suspected of shooting him during the incident. They couldn’t prove anything so he was sent to a psychiatric facility to be treated for PTSD. Three months later he passed the psych evaluation and was relocated.”
“They just let him back to field work?”
“Under some conditions. Weekly sessions with a shrink and a steady medication.”
“Did you get the name of the shrink?” Don interrupted.
“Yeah, and Parker contacted him. He was about to call you anyway, because Carson didn’t show up for his therapy session yesterday.”
“Did he have any idea where he might hide?”
“No, but…. It gets worse.”
“How can it get any worse?” Don exclaimed.
“Remember the medicine chest in his apartment? Looks like Carson`s been off his meds for two weeks.”
TBC