love equations -- charlie eppes x reader - numb3rs

ch ;; 16

charlie's pov // first person pov //

~

''skylar wyatt. ciara loves her, listens to her cds all the time.'' i tell don, slightly smiling, as we walk to the front door. ''oh, yeah? just hang back for a second, will you?'' don asked me, putting his arm out to stop me. i throw my hands up, nodding my head. ''all right, officer, I got it, thanks.'' i say sarcastically. ''how you doing? i'm don eppes. i'm with the fbi.''

''nice car, professor fleinhardt. is it new?'' ciara's voice rung across the parking lot. i had made my way to calsci after we finished at the victim's house, meeting up with larry along the way. ''well, only in the sense that it's newly in my possession.'' larry said, causing ciara to laugh and shake her head slightly, circling the car. ''and it's, like, a '32?'' she asked, finally making her way to stand next to larry and i.

''uh, '31, actually. dawn of an amazing decade -- f.d.r., jesse owens, dirac's prediction of antiparticles. yeah, our souls were rekindled.'' larry listed, zoning out slightly at the end. ''I can't help but see it as 70-year-old technology.'' i said, looking at larry. he pointed a finger at me, the same way dad would whenever i did something that i shouldn't have. ''you're just jealous because you can't drive a stick shift.'' larry said.

''hey, you can't beat automatic transmission with cruise control.'' i said, putting my hands on my hips. larry ignored me, turning to ciara. ''charlie tells us you're looking for skylar wyatt's stalker.'' he said. ciara nodded, rubbing her eyes. ''yeah. her security video didn't pick up his image.'' she said, a hint of defeat in her voice. ''and I understand that camera placement is done by math formulas?'' i asked, cocking my head to the side. ''well, whoever designed it probably isn't as good as you, so maybe you'll find something they missed.'' ciara said, looking at me.

~~~~~''''~~~~~

''the camera's an eye... and eyes don't see everything. the cameras looked right at the stalker... just didn't know it.'' i say, looking up to don after finishing my example. ''how did that happen?'' he asked, furrowing his eyebrows. ''well, the camera's iris is designed to imitate the function of the human eye. when we stare directly into light, our pupil contracts, keeping too much light from blinding us. and when it's dark, our pupils dilate, gathering in all the light it can find. a camera's iris works the exact same way. it widens when it's dark, narrows when it's light.''

''of course, the human eye does this much more smoothly. a camera has a device called a galvanometer, which opens and closes its iris. now, no doubt, your stalker had a remote tuned to the frequency of the cameras' galvanometer control. all he had to do was freeze the iris here... here... here... each time, he only needed a second that looked perfectly natural, like the second it takes for a camera to adjust from dark to light.'' i explained to don and the team. ''yeah, but to know what the camera positions were and then to move with such incredible timing..'' megan trailed off.

 ''he would have had to have had access to the grounds prior to the night of the break-in.'' i answered for her. ''but, well, you're just talking speculation now, right?'' ciara asked, sitting by me. ''absolutely, it was... until I ran a curvelet analysis on the obscured portions of the recording. curvelet's a mathematical analysis that defines the edges of an image. the analysis reformatted the pixels that were available-  producing the stalker's image.'' i said, proud.