"To live every day as if it had been stolen from death, that is how I would like to live. To feel the joy of life, as Eve felt the joy of life. To separate oneself from the burden, the angst, the anguish that we all encounter every day. To say I am...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Race days were always stressful and that weekend was no exception. After a very successful meeting with Penske Charlie was ready to race. There was no doubt in her mind that the results from that weekend would be part of the factors that would go into negotiating her contract with Penske. As she walked out of the shower she entered the hotel room to see Aaron on the bed reading on his tablet.
He glanced up to see her in a robe as she attempted to dry her hair with a towel. "Done with your morning shower? You weren't listening to your usual rock playlist today."
"I like to start race days with a homage to classic rock. Is your team any closer to finding the unsub? I've been spending more time with Morgan as my body guard ever since you decided to focus on the case."
"Charlie, that was two days ago, stop being a drama queen." Aaron rolled his eyes as he continued to read whatever he was reading.
"And? You didn't answer my question. Don't I deserve to have an update considering I am racing today?"
Aaron sighed, "We have a shorter list than what we started with but we can't seem to narrow it down any further. We just don't have enough evidence to narrow our parameters any further. Reid needs more, but sadly in order to have more there has to be more hurt."
"You're worried that they might tamper with my car," Charlie asked.
"No, I'm worried they'll tamper with someone else's car and leave you injured. Please be careful today. I don't know what I'd do if you got hurt. I know it sounds a bit insane to say that knowing that it's been such a short period of time we've known each other."
"You're rambling and it's cute," she giggled as she bopped him on the nose. "I won't get hurt if I can avoid it. I need to get ready or I will get chewed out by my team and you need to check in with your team."
"JJ will be with you for the day. We'll say she's your cousin or something. Prentice and Morgan will be spread out in the stands while Reid, Rossi, and I will be supervising the pit. Between Rossi and Reid we should have any mechanical knowledge needed covered."
"It's going to be a hot day," Charlie responded. "Make sure to keep your team hydrated. It gets hot fast and you don't want anyone to pass out."
"What about you?"
"I'm hoping an ice bath before the race helps keep my body temperature down. Today might be one of the few times I only wear a sports bra and some bike shorts under my fire suit. I would wear nothing under, but I would also like to unzip it to cool down."
"I like seeing you in your fire suit," Aaron smirked.
"Oh shush, I know you do but I always feel sweaty and gross after a race."
"We could always just go to the pool at night and have some fun," he cheekily suggested.
"We could, but then we run the risky of security cameras and your team."
"And that's when you coordinate with hotel security to ensure that no one else has access to the area or security forage. Being an FBI agent has its perks."
Charlie laughed, "Oh I love it when you scheme. You are one cheeky monkey."
"Guilty as charged. We should get you to the track as soon as possible. We placed cameras in each pit to monitor any potential tampering. Hopefully we have a few leads but even if something did happen we'd still have a shorter list."
"Regardless, I have to get to the track and you need to get back to your team. Keep Morgan in the pit or Reid with the spotters and you'll have a pretty good idea as to what exactly is going on . Reid understands the shorthand and Morgan knows the sport."
~~~~~~~~~
Aaron knew he should not be worried about the race going sideways. She would be able to handle her car in any condition and Reid had told him the statistics. He should have known it was a false sense of security when the breaks started to give out.
Garcia had been called into the field rather than her usual remote work from the office. "Sir, there is a break in the footage here, here, and here. These garages. The times and shadows don't match up with the time stamps which indicates someone looped the footage."
"Do we know how many cameras were tampered with?"
"All of them. My guess is that it was devised as a goose chase to throw us off the unsub's trail. I am looking at the other cameras to see if I can find anything else."
"Who has access to these cameras? I thought we tightened up security."
"We did. Everyone has a secure access code unique to them to access the cameras, footage, and records. If I look into the logs I can see who logged into the system in the last 24 hours."
"Find them and give us a list of names. I have to brief the rest of the team."
Aaron walked back into their makeshift bullpen where JJ, Rossi, and Prentiss were going through suspects. JJ was the first to say anything. "Does Garcia have any news for us?"
"All the garage cameras were tampered with. Garcia is trying to trace the log for access to give us names."
Rossi cleared his throat. "If I may, what if it's not the cameras that were tampered it that were the goal but a diversion from something else? What if our unsub had a bigger target in mind instead of just the drivers. W-"
"And making us think that this is really about Charlie. Our theories thus far have been that the unsub is infactuated with her and her success. What if it's the opposite?"
"A diversion where she's the true target."
That was when they realized what time it was. "And it's a green flag to start," JJ sighed.
