FIC: In the Arms of the Wicked, Part 3 (Ian/OMC, Don, Charlie/Colby, Larry, Alan, PG-13)
Title: "Defiant"
Series: In the Arms of the Wicked, Part 3/?
Characters: Ian/OMC, Don, Charlie/Colby, Larry, Alan.
Rating: PG-13.
Spoilers: None.
Warnings: None.
Summary: Ian got the feeling that Dr. Farrow was going to give him a hard time.
Feedback: Yes, please. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own anything (characters, situations, etcetera) except my OCs.
Beta: The wonderful fredbassett.
Special thanks to: Two dear friends or mine who read this chapter and gave me advice and reviews. Thank you so much - harknessgirl, who always supports me and my writing and is always an amazing friend, and Lily G from FF.net, who is always willing to listen to my rants and offer her wonderful help.
Author's note: Sorry for the delay (I've been very busy lately, as most of you know). There will be another chapter next week. :)
Previous chapter
Next chapter
Part 3: “Defiant”
“Are you sure you’ll be all right?” Charlie asked his father, after they had spent a long time in silence in his hospital room.
“Yeah, the doctors want to keep an eye on me for a few more days, since I still have trouble… remembering things.” Frowning, Alan looked around. “Now, where the hell are my glasses, again?” He certainly looked frustrated by the situation; which wasn’t strange, as he had always been a very active man.
“Hey,” Don muttered, deliberately making an entrance to disguise the fact that he had been eavesdropping.
His brother turned to him and smiled, with the intention of comforting their father. “I thought you’d be here. You didn’t come home last night.”
“Neither did you,” Charlie replied.
Of course, he knew about Don driving to David’s apartment last night, though not about the results of that encounter. And Don didn’t want to discuss that now, with his father in the same room. Alan needed some peace of mind to get better.
“How are you, Dad?” he said, changing the subject.
“Displeased with the fact that my mind doesn’t want to cooperate with me leaving this hospital.”
“All right, we’ll work on that. Look, here are your glasses.” Trying to fake a big smile, Don handed the glasses to his father and watched him stare at them.
“I hope this doesn’t last for too long,” Alan muttered, visibly annoyed.
“We hope so, too…”
“Very funny, Don, making fun of your father like that…”
Don cocked his head, laughing for a moment. “Nah, Dad, you know that’s not what I meant.”
Alan took a deed breath and nodded. “I know. I just can’t stand being in this bed anymore and not being able to function like a normal human being.” He put on his glasses and picked up a newspaper from a chair by the bed. “I guess you have a new case?”
“Yeah, but I want to see how you’re doing first, so...”
Unsurprisingly, Alan gave Don a look full of wisdom from behind his newspaper. “I’m OK, now go.”
Don remained unconvinced. His father didn’t appear very calm at the moment. “Are you absolutely sure of that?”
“It’s nice of you to worry about me but I’m a grown man and I can take care of myself, thank you very much.”
“OK…” Don muttered.
“Are you really sure that…?” Charlie started to say.
“Yes, I am,” Alan responded, shaking his head. His voice sounded a little bit offended. “Take care, you two, do you understand me?”
“Yes, Dad,” both brothers said in unison as they left the room.
As they walked through the corridors, Don couldn’t stop himself commenting, “He says adults like him are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, and yet he treats us like we’re still eight sometimes.” He laughed when Charlie suddenly broke into a big smile. “He’s still worried about us thinking he’s too old, isn’t he?”
“Yep,” his brother muttered as they walked out the hospital. “Are we going to the FBI?”
“Depends on whether we need Larry to help us with the case…”
“What is it about?”
They stopped beside Don’s car, and while Don looked for the keys, he gave Charlie a general overview of the situation. “Several pieces of ancient art were found buried in the backyard of a house. We thought that maybe you could give us some numbers on that…”
“I could, but we’re gonna need to go to CalSci. Trust me, Larry’s worked with Dr. Farrow and he’s developed a passion for ancient civilizations, so he could help, too.”
“All right. CalSci it is, then.” In a few seconds, Don had already started the engine.
The trip to the university wasn’t a comfortable one. From the moment they drove off, Don knew that there were questions hanging in the air. It was OK for a while, but after hearing Charlie take several deep breathes as if something was bothering him, Don decided to just say it. “I went to David’s apartment last night.”
“And?”
“He wasn’t there.”
Bullshit. Don was sure David was home but hadn’t wanted to let him in. It wouldn’t be a surprise because, after all, his agent had been avoiding his boss during the last few days. Same thing with Colby.
And that’s why Don knew which the question Charlie really wanted to ask was. “I don’t know anything about Colby, either.”
Charlie’s face suddenly looked very disappointed and Don felt the urge to make him feel better. “Things like these take time, Charlie. But I know that eventually, everything will go back to normal again, OK?”
His little brother’s silence worried him, and he spent the rest of the trip glancing at Charlie, trying to figure out how he really felt.
Don knew him too well - this wasn’t Charlie making numbers inside his head. It was Charlie giving up on them and trying to figure out a way to end the living hell Amita had put him and Colby through.
He just hoped that the new case could contribute to bringing everyone together again and giving them a new opportunity to move on with their lives.
XxX
After so many years, it was had become easier for Ian to be the best in his field even while pushing away the memories of Marah. He had learned to live with all his regrets, even if there were some moments when he allowed his frustrations to show.
One of those moments had taken place right after he had shot Amita at the Eppes’ house, but he’d known no one would dare to ask him about his sudden departure - he knew all too well how to make people respect him and be afraid of him.
“Professor… Don…” Ian greeted the Eppes brothers as he entered Charlie’s office. He shook their hands and looked around. There were several maps and books on the desk. “I see you’re catching up with the case.”
“Yeah, we’ve been making some progress, but not that much. It’ll take time, as I’m not an expert on this matter,” Charlie explained. “I wanted to ask Larry to help us, since he’s very much into this kind of analysis, but he wasn’t here when we arrived.”
Don walked over the desk and started looking at the maps. “I called Megan a while ago, she was with him at her house. He’s on his way here.”
“Good,” Ian said. He liked the efficiency of the Eppes brothers very much. “Can we start this without him? I don’t want to waste time.”
“Yeah, we can…”
Someone came in the room limping and carrying a large pile of books, so Ian helped gave him a hand and helped him put them on the desk, right beside the maps and the other sources of information. Ian was glad that the Larry was finally there, even if he had an awkward way of introducing himself.
“Agent Edgerton, always a pleasure,” the physicist greeted him.
“Good to see you, Professor Fleinhardt.” They shook hands and soon everyone was around the table, pointing at different streets on one of the maps. “The pieces were found in the backyard of a guy named Stanley Hopkins. They seem to be Egyptian or something like that,” the sniper explained.
“Could they be genuine?” Don asked.
“Yeah. No fakes here, although they’re a little affected by being buried for at least two weeks.” Ian took out several pictures and put them on the table. As soon as he did so, Charlie started writing equations in a piece of paper.
“The pressure of the ground seems to have caused a deep impact on the sharp edges, but not enough to make the pieces lose their original shape - I assume that whoever put them underground used some kind of material for protection?”
Ian nodded thoughtfully. “Lots of expanded semi-rigid polystyrene.”
“Effective enough to keep these statues in a good state, but not enough to keep them intact,” Larry added. “Maybe the new physics professor would be able to bring some light to our minds anyway, I’m passionate about this kind of ancient art but this is not really my field.”
After hearing that, Ian spontaneously asked, “Does that mean you’ve got a replacement, Dr. Fleinhardt?
“Not quite accurately, but it’s very similar. The Director of the Physics department has approved the arrival of a certain distinguished gentleman who also happens to be a good friend of mine. He will be giving some lectures on the days I decide to take some time to recover from my new disability.” Awkwardly, Larry pointed at his sprained ankle.
“Sounds interesting. Who is he?”
“Dr. Christopher Farrow.”
Charlie smiled when he heard the name. “From what I’ve heard from Larry, he’s really good at what he does.”
“He certainly has made some very appealing contributions to various fields such as Psychology and Physics, but mostly Archeology,” Larry continued.
“It’ll be a good opportunity for CalSci to get more students, apparently. He always appears in the tabloids,” Don added.
Everyone seemed to think the idea was appealing, but to Ian, it was exactly the opposite. He had some fresh memories about Dr. Farrow and they still disturbed him. “Wait. Are we talking about the same guy, that millionaire that was involved in a big, public scandal about an affair and a dead man down the stairs?”
There was absolute silent, all eyes on Ian.
“Hey, it was all over the news and it was tied to a case, it was impossible not to hear about it,” he excused himself.
“He was found to be innocent. He’s clean,” Charlie replied.
That wasn’t the point at all. “I know, but the thing is - is it smart for CalSci to hire a person who has such a still non-defined, dirty background?”
Charlie was about to respond when a low voice said, “And here was I thinking people considered me an intriguing character of society.”
When Ian turned around, he saw the same guy he had seen on the news a few months ago, with a slightly different look. Dr. Christopher Farrow was a thirty-year-old man; blue eyes, good hair similar to Charlie’s, but not curly…
And he was so damn confident - sarcastic, mysterious… in fact, almost unbearable, just like his appearances on TV and magazines.
Ian got the feeling that this man was definitely going to give him a hard time.
“Christopher,” Larry said, going towards his friend and shaking his hand avidly, as a smile spread over his face.
“Larry,” Dr. Farrow said as he greeted the physicist. “How’s the life of the wounded treating you?”
“Not the way I expected, but it’s given me some time to dedicate myself to contemplate the changes of a life because of a mild event, such as spraining an ankle.”
“Are you using crutches?”
“I should, but I’ve realized that the limping contributes to my train of thought.”
“All right then, if that helps you.” Incredibly, Dr. Farrow seemed to take Larry’s words very seriously and even agree with them.
“Oh, this is Professor Charles Eppes…”
“It’s such a pleasure to meet you,” Dr. Farrow said, as he shook Charlie’s hand. “I saw that report about you in a magazine once… An extraordinary mind, devoted to fighting crime along with his brother, the FBI agent… It was fascinating. Very epic, like ancient mythology. I like it.”
“Well, I never saw it that way, but thank you,” Charlie responded. “It’s an honor to have you here at CalSci.”
“No, no, please. It’s an honor to be welcome here, trust me. I never thought they’d let me work in this university, given the kind of life I have. And I suppose this is your brother.”
“Don Eppes, nice to meet you,” Don introduced himself, shaking Dr. Farrow’s hand, too.
Larry took the lead again. “And this is Ian Edgerton, the fourth best sniper in the country.”
This time, Dr. Farrow didn’t smile. He stared at Ian, and Ian stared back at him, using his best technique to appear extremely serious and scary.
“I understand that you don’t like me being here because of the public scandal?” the archeologist asked.
Ian smiled with confidence, his hands on his hips as he took a step forward. He noticed how Dr. Farrow surprisingly mimicked his posture. “Hey, what this university does doesn’t concern me. As far as I know, you’re free to do whatever you want, as long as you don’t cause any trouble.”
Dr. Farrow took a moment before answering, as he walked towards him. Apparently, he wasn’t scared at all. It seemed that he was about to give a long response, but then, without taking his eyes off Ian, he defiantly said, “OK.”
Don’t even dare to think about standing up to me. “OK,” Ian repeated.
Their words hung in the air, coupled with the tension occasioned by their short exchange of words.
“Agent Edgerton is helping us out with a case that has just arisen,” Larry kept saying, as if he had noticed the awkwardness of the situation.
“Then I better leave. I know you need your private space to discuss theories about harassing and murder weapons.” Very quickly, Dr. Farrow went towards the door.
“No, wait, we could make a good use of your expertise, Dr.,” Don rapidly reacted.
“Don’t I need a security clearance for that?”
“Yeah, that’s why we’ll get you one. But for now, please, stay.”
Taking a deep breath, Dr. Farrow turned around and entwined his fingers together. He watched the people around the desk as if he was analyzing them, but his eyes seemed to focus on Ian a little bit longer than in everyone else. And finally he said, “Fine, how can I help you?”
When he approached the desk and the case was explained to him, he took a look at the pictures that were displayed in front of him and he suddenly seemed to be almost out of words. “I can’t believe… These statues are very famous. They belong to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.”
“What?” Don snapped. “Why didn’t we know that?”
“They were recently discovered, a month or so ago. Experts need time to work on every single piece until it’s fully recovered, then classify it and find the best place to keep it. It takes a long time to do that and only when they’ve finished their job do they announce the discovery of the new attraction.”
“I bet we’re going to see someone from that museum soon,” Don said as he took out his cell phone, dialed a number and went to the corner of the room to get some space.
“He’s right. They’re not going to let this go, this is a treasure.” With a fascinated look on his face, Dr. Farrow kept analyzing the pictures Ian had brought.
But Ian had his eyes fixed on him, too. He was too involved in that case that hit the news. There’s something about him and I’m going to find out what it is.
In that moment, Charlie was absorbed in new theories. “Maybe if we study the water absorbency of the ground, we could figure out…”
The sniper wasn’t really listening to him. Dr. Farrow had all his attention. There were too many ways for a guy like him to break the law and get away with it by using all his money. Too many ways for him to be guilty.
“Ah, it seems that this is just the beginning of so much research…” Larry muttered as she shook his head and his smile crooked in excitement.
As Ian watched closely each one of Dr. Farrow’s moves, he couldn’t agree more.
There is going to be a lot of research, indeed.
Series: In the Arms of the Wicked, Part 3/?
Characters: Ian/OMC, Don, Charlie/Colby, Larry, Alan.
Rating: PG-13.
Spoilers: None.
Warnings: None.
Summary: Ian got the feeling that Dr. Farrow was going to give him a hard time.
Feedback: Yes, please. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own anything (characters, situations, etcetera) except my OCs.
Beta: The wonderful fredbassett.
Special thanks to: Two dear friends or mine who read this chapter and gave me advice and reviews. Thank you so much - harknessgirl, who always supports me and my writing and is always an amazing friend, and Lily G from FF.net, who is always willing to listen to my rants and offer her wonderful help.
Author's note: Sorry for the delay (I've been very busy lately, as most of you know). There will be another chapter next week. :)
Previous chapter
Next chapter
Part 3: “Defiant”
“Are you sure you’ll be all right?” Charlie asked his father, after they had spent a long time in silence in his hospital room.
“Yeah, the doctors want to keep an eye on me for a few more days, since I still have trouble… remembering things.” Frowning, Alan looked around. “Now, where the hell are my glasses, again?” He certainly looked frustrated by the situation; which wasn’t strange, as he had always been a very active man.
“Hey,” Don muttered, deliberately making an entrance to disguise the fact that he had been eavesdropping.
His brother turned to him and smiled, with the intention of comforting their father. “I thought you’d be here. You didn’t come home last night.”
“Neither did you,” Charlie replied.
Of course, he knew about Don driving to David’s apartment last night, though not about the results of that encounter. And Don didn’t want to discuss that now, with his father in the same room. Alan needed some peace of mind to get better.
“How are you, Dad?” he said, changing the subject.
“Displeased with the fact that my mind doesn’t want to cooperate with me leaving this hospital.”
“All right, we’ll work on that. Look, here are your glasses.” Trying to fake a big smile, Don handed the glasses to his father and watched him stare at them.
“I hope this doesn’t last for too long,” Alan muttered, visibly annoyed.
“We hope so, too…”
“Very funny, Don, making fun of your father like that…”
Don cocked his head, laughing for a moment. “Nah, Dad, you know that’s not what I meant.”
Alan took a deed breath and nodded. “I know. I just can’t stand being in this bed anymore and not being able to function like a normal human being.” He put on his glasses and picked up a newspaper from a chair by the bed. “I guess you have a new case?”
“Yeah, but I want to see how you’re doing first, so...”
Unsurprisingly, Alan gave Don a look full of wisdom from behind his newspaper. “I’m OK, now go.”
Don remained unconvinced. His father didn’t appear very calm at the moment. “Are you absolutely sure of that?”
“It’s nice of you to worry about me but I’m a grown man and I can take care of myself, thank you very much.”
“OK…” Don muttered.
“Are you really sure that…?” Charlie started to say.
“Yes, I am,” Alan responded, shaking his head. His voice sounded a little bit offended. “Take care, you two, do you understand me?”
“Yes, Dad,” both brothers said in unison as they left the room.
As they walked through the corridors, Don couldn’t stop himself commenting, “He says adults like him are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, and yet he treats us like we’re still eight sometimes.” He laughed when Charlie suddenly broke into a big smile. “He’s still worried about us thinking he’s too old, isn’t he?”
“Yep,” his brother muttered as they walked out the hospital. “Are we going to the FBI?”
“Depends on whether we need Larry to help us with the case…”
“What is it about?”
They stopped beside Don’s car, and while Don looked for the keys, he gave Charlie a general overview of the situation. “Several pieces of ancient art were found buried in the backyard of a house. We thought that maybe you could give us some numbers on that…”
“I could, but we’re gonna need to go to CalSci. Trust me, Larry’s worked with Dr. Farrow and he’s developed a passion for ancient civilizations, so he could help, too.”
“All right. CalSci it is, then.” In a few seconds, Don had already started the engine.
The trip to the university wasn’t a comfortable one. From the moment they drove off, Don knew that there were questions hanging in the air. It was OK for a while, but after hearing Charlie take several deep breathes as if something was bothering him, Don decided to just say it. “I went to David’s apartment last night.”
“And?”
“He wasn’t there.”
Bullshit. Don was sure David was home but hadn’t wanted to let him in. It wouldn’t be a surprise because, after all, his agent had been avoiding his boss during the last few days. Same thing with Colby.
And that’s why Don knew which the question Charlie really wanted to ask was. “I don’t know anything about Colby, either.”
Charlie’s face suddenly looked very disappointed and Don felt the urge to make him feel better. “Things like these take time, Charlie. But I know that eventually, everything will go back to normal again, OK?”
His little brother’s silence worried him, and he spent the rest of the trip glancing at Charlie, trying to figure out how he really felt.
Don knew him too well - this wasn’t Charlie making numbers inside his head. It was Charlie giving up on them and trying to figure out a way to end the living hell Amita had put him and Colby through.
He just hoped that the new case could contribute to bringing everyone together again and giving them a new opportunity to move on with their lives.
XxX
After so many years, it was had become easier for Ian to be the best in his field even while pushing away the memories of Marah. He had learned to live with all his regrets, even if there were some moments when he allowed his frustrations to show.
One of those moments had taken place right after he had shot Amita at the Eppes’ house, but he’d known no one would dare to ask him about his sudden departure - he knew all too well how to make people respect him and be afraid of him.
“Professor… Don…” Ian greeted the Eppes brothers as he entered Charlie’s office. He shook their hands and looked around. There were several maps and books on the desk. “I see you’re catching up with the case.”
“Yeah, we’ve been making some progress, but not that much. It’ll take time, as I’m not an expert on this matter,” Charlie explained. “I wanted to ask Larry to help us, since he’s very much into this kind of analysis, but he wasn’t here when we arrived.”
Don walked over the desk and started looking at the maps. “I called Megan a while ago, she was with him at her house. He’s on his way here.”
“Good,” Ian said. He liked the efficiency of the Eppes brothers very much. “Can we start this without him? I don’t want to waste time.”
“Yeah, we can…”
Someone came in the room limping and carrying a large pile of books, so Ian helped gave him a hand and helped him put them on the desk, right beside the maps and the other sources of information. Ian was glad that the Larry was finally there, even if he had an awkward way of introducing himself.
“Agent Edgerton, always a pleasure,” the physicist greeted him.
“Good to see you, Professor Fleinhardt.” They shook hands and soon everyone was around the table, pointing at different streets on one of the maps. “The pieces were found in the backyard of a guy named Stanley Hopkins. They seem to be Egyptian or something like that,” the sniper explained.
“Could they be genuine?” Don asked.
“Yeah. No fakes here, although they’re a little affected by being buried for at least two weeks.” Ian took out several pictures and put them on the table. As soon as he did so, Charlie started writing equations in a piece of paper.
“The pressure of the ground seems to have caused a deep impact on the sharp edges, but not enough to make the pieces lose their original shape - I assume that whoever put them underground used some kind of material for protection?”
Ian nodded thoughtfully. “Lots of expanded semi-rigid polystyrene.”
“Effective enough to keep these statues in a good state, but not enough to keep them intact,” Larry added. “Maybe the new physics professor would be able to bring some light to our minds anyway, I’m passionate about this kind of ancient art but this is not really my field.”
After hearing that, Ian spontaneously asked, “Does that mean you’ve got a replacement, Dr. Fleinhardt?
“Not quite accurately, but it’s very similar. The Director of the Physics department has approved the arrival of a certain distinguished gentleman who also happens to be a good friend of mine. He will be giving some lectures on the days I decide to take some time to recover from my new disability.” Awkwardly, Larry pointed at his sprained ankle.
“Sounds interesting. Who is he?”
“Dr. Christopher Farrow.”
Charlie smiled when he heard the name. “From what I’ve heard from Larry, he’s really good at what he does.”
“He certainly has made some very appealing contributions to various fields such as Psychology and Physics, but mostly Archeology,” Larry continued.
“It’ll be a good opportunity for CalSci to get more students, apparently. He always appears in the tabloids,” Don added.
Everyone seemed to think the idea was appealing, but to Ian, it was exactly the opposite. He had some fresh memories about Dr. Farrow and they still disturbed him. “Wait. Are we talking about the same guy, that millionaire that was involved in a big, public scandal about an affair and a dead man down the stairs?”
There was absolute silent, all eyes on Ian.
“Hey, it was all over the news and it was tied to a case, it was impossible not to hear about it,” he excused himself.
“He was found to be innocent. He’s clean,” Charlie replied.
That wasn’t the point at all. “I know, but the thing is - is it smart for CalSci to hire a person who has such a still non-defined, dirty background?”
Charlie was about to respond when a low voice said, “And here was I thinking people considered me an intriguing character of society.”
When Ian turned around, he saw the same guy he had seen on the news a few months ago, with a slightly different look. Dr. Christopher Farrow was a thirty-year-old man; blue eyes, good hair similar to Charlie’s, but not curly…
And he was so damn confident - sarcastic, mysterious… in fact, almost unbearable, just like his appearances on TV and magazines.
Ian got the feeling that this man was definitely going to give him a hard time.
“Christopher,” Larry said, going towards his friend and shaking his hand avidly, as a smile spread over his face.
“Larry,” Dr. Farrow said as he greeted the physicist. “How’s the life of the wounded treating you?”
“Not the way I expected, but it’s given me some time to dedicate myself to contemplate the changes of a life because of a mild event, such as spraining an ankle.”
“Are you using crutches?”
“I should, but I’ve realized that the limping contributes to my train of thought.”
“All right then, if that helps you.” Incredibly, Dr. Farrow seemed to take Larry’s words very seriously and even agree with them.
“Oh, this is Professor Charles Eppes…”
“It’s such a pleasure to meet you,” Dr. Farrow said, as he shook Charlie’s hand. “I saw that report about you in a magazine once… An extraordinary mind, devoted to fighting crime along with his brother, the FBI agent… It was fascinating. Very epic, like ancient mythology. I like it.”
“Well, I never saw it that way, but thank you,” Charlie responded. “It’s an honor to have you here at CalSci.”
“No, no, please. It’s an honor to be welcome here, trust me. I never thought they’d let me work in this university, given the kind of life I have. And I suppose this is your brother.”
“Don Eppes, nice to meet you,” Don introduced himself, shaking Dr. Farrow’s hand, too.
Larry took the lead again. “And this is Ian Edgerton, the fourth best sniper in the country.”
This time, Dr. Farrow didn’t smile. He stared at Ian, and Ian stared back at him, using his best technique to appear extremely serious and scary.
“I understand that you don’t like me being here because of the public scandal?” the archeologist asked.
Ian smiled with confidence, his hands on his hips as he took a step forward. He noticed how Dr. Farrow surprisingly mimicked his posture. “Hey, what this university does doesn’t concern me. As far as I know, you’re free to do whatever you want, as long as you don’t cause any trouble.”
Dr. Farrow took a moment before answering, as he walked towards him. Apparently, he wasn’t scared at all. It seemed that he was about to give a long response, but then, without taking his eyes off Ian, he defiantly said, “OK.”
Don’t even dare to think about standing up to me. “OK,” Ian repeated.
Their words hung in the air, coupled with the tension occasioned by their short exchange of words.
“Agent Edgerton is helping us out with a case that has just arisen,” Larry kept saying, as if he had noticed the awkwardness of the situation.
“Then I better leave. I know you need your private space to discuss theories about harassing and murder weapons.” Very quickly, Dr. Farrow went towards the door.
“No, wait, we could make a good use of your expertise, Dr.,” Don rapidly reacted.
“Don’t I need a security clearance for that?”
“Yeah, that’s why we’ll get you one. But for now, please, stay.”
Taking a deep breath, Dr. Farrow turned around and entwined his fingers together. He watched the people around the desk as if he was analyzing them, but his eyes seemed to focus on Ian a little bit longer than in everyone else. And finally he said, “Fine, how can I help you?”
When he approached the desk and the case was explained to him, he took a look at the pictures that were displayed in front of him and he suddenly seemed to be almost out of words. “I can’t believe… These statues are very famous. They belong to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.”
“What?” Don snapped. “Why didn’t we know that?”
“They were recently discovered, a month or so ago. Experts need time to work on every single piece until it’s fully recovered, then classify it and find the best place to keep it. It takes a long time to do that and only when they’ve finished their job do they announce the discovery of the new attraction.”
“I bet we’re going to see someone from that museum soon,” Don said as he took out his cell phone, dialed a number and went to the corner of the room to get some space.
“He’s right. They’re not going to let this go, this is a treasure.” With a fascinated look on his face, Dr. Farrow kept analyzing the pictures Ian had brought.
But Ian had his eyes fixed on him, too. He was too involved in that case that hit the news. There’s something about him and I’m going to find out what it is.
In that moment, Charlie was absorbed in new theories. “Maybe if we study the water absorbency of the ground, we could figure out…”
The sniper wasn’t really listening to him. Dr. Farrow had all his attention. There were too many ways for a guy like him to break the law and get away with it by using all his money. Too many ways for him to be guilty.
“Ah, it seems that this is just the beginning of so much research…” Larry muttered as she shook his head and his smile crooked in excitement.
As Ian watched closely each one of Dr. Farrow’s moves, he couldn’t agree more.
There is going to be a lot of research, indeed.
