I pulled my brown pullover over my head, already regretting the action when the police department's door opened and cold, November wind hit me. I replaced my arms through the sleeves but refused to pull it over my head again.
"We're dealing with a desperate detective here. Three dead boys and no evidence at all, so he applies the profile to someone he already suspected. It's easy to get tunnel vision that way." Gideon said softly, so as not to draw the attention of Gordinski who was working at his desk.
"One begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts; it's one of Sherlock Holmes' favorite quotes." Spencer intervened, his large brain spouting off facts.
"We need to figure out who really killed those boys before they decide to charge Morgan." Gideon replied. I furrowed my eyebrows at him. Did he really want us to re-profile the profile?
"What do you want us to do?" Prentiss asked, wanting to help all that she could. I stood up next to her, ready to do whatever I had to.
"Last victim was someone Morgan was seen with, conveniently, Morgan was already a suspect in the other two." Gideon answered the gears in all of our heads working overtime.
"Someone set him up?" I asked, glancing at Spencer. I rolled my hands into the hood of my pullover, not really liking where this case was going.
"We should consider Morgan a victim. Prentiss, you, Reid and Cassie talk to his family, learn about him, especially around the time of the first murder." Gideon decided, nodding his head. I noticed Dennison sneak his way over toward the team, in an incredibly way.
"Do we have the address?" Prentiss asked, grabbing her black coat. I swept the bangs out of my eyes and looked around the police station.
"I could take you." Dennison offered, eagerly. I lifted an eyebrow at him, and then narrowed my eyes suspiciously.
"You know, it's rude to eavesdrop." I said, quite bluntly. Emily stepped on my converse covered toe, warning me to not be so rude myself.
"Oh, no that's ok." Emily said, trying to cover for me.
"No, actually that's not a bad idea." Gideon put out there. I thought about it, if Dennison was out of the way, all they had to do was focus on Gordinski.
"Right," Emily said, staring at Gideon as if he were going senile. "Okie doke, lead the way detective." Emily waved her hand in front of her. Dennison walked ahead of us as Spencer placed his hand in mine. Dennison lead us to a black SUV out front and we all climbed in. It was a tense and awkward silence the entire ten minutes it took to get to Derek's mother's house. We entered the apartment building and knocked on the door. A red headed woman answered, her two daughters behind her.
"Hi, I'm Cassie, I work with Derek?" My statement came out as more of a question, but Fran Morgan smiled anyways.
"Yes, Derek's talked about you." I smiled back and hid the blush well, something I had taught myself to do years ago. "Please come in." Fran held the door open for all of us to enter the apartment and I walked in first, waiting in the entry for someone to show me where to go.
"Um, we actually came to talk to you about Derek, so we can help him." I said as Fran closed the door. She smiled at me again and showed me to the table. I sat down and Emily stood at the other side while Spencer stayed close to me.
"You know what, some of his old stuff is actually in his closet, Sarah, if you could go and get it down for them. Would any of you like some cake? We have more than enough." I politely declined as did Prentiss, but Spencer gladly accepted the offer. Sarah came back a minute later with a box labeled 'Derek's Room' while Desiree went to get Spencer a slice of cake. Spencer took the box from her and thanked her, opening the box. I stood up next to him to see all of the football trophies inside.
Desiree entered the dining room, with cake in hand, and handed it to Spencer. "Is uh, Derek alright?" she asked us.
"He wouldn't let us go down there." Fran said, her voice shaking slightly for her son. She was sitting at the head of the table watching all of us, like a mother would, not like a crazy UNSUB would. Emily lifted her hands, as if in surrender.
"He's fine, our boss is with him." I continued to go through Derek's old stuff as Spencer ate his cake quietly.
"Did he tell you Gordinski has been harassing him since he was a kid?" Sarah asked, frustrated at the whole situation. Dennison huffed behind me, and I turned and glared at him. He backed off slightly and I turned back to the box on the table.
"Why's that?" Spencer asked, curious.
"You'd have to ask that bastard." Sarah answered.
"Oh, Sarah," Fran chastised her oldest daughter.
"It's true, mom." Desiree insisted softly, her hands on her mother's shoulders.
"Sure it is," Dennison said, rubbing his mouth.
"What are you even doing in my mother's house?" Sarah asked completely pissed off.
"They asked me," Dennison figuratively hide behind us. I shook my head at him.
"Not really," Spencer said to the plate holding the cake. I turned to him.
"I don't really remember inviting him, do you?" I muttered to him, stealing his fork to take a bite out of the cake. It was really good cake, and I wondered if Derek had made it.
What are you doing, Cass? You're supposed to be helping him, remember? Wonder about trivial things later, the little voice in my head that I had named Reason whispered harshly. I mentally rolled my eyes at it and continued to go through Derek's things.
"I don't understand how they could think he did this." Fran injected, trying to sooth the tense atmosphere.
"We think someone may be trying to make it look like Derek hurt those kids." I bit my lip and braced myself for the outcry of the Morgan clan.
"And the police believe it?" Sarah inquired, attitude all over the place.
"Just following the evidence." Dennison muttered loud enough for all of us to hear. I turned to him and saw him sitting by the fireplace.
"You know, you could go wait by the car." I smiled my tone completely fake. Spencer bumped my shoulder, and I turned back around, half-heartedly smiling at him.
"But he's an FBI agent," Desiree replied, trying to get some sense into Dennison's head.
"Actually, law enforcement officials are just as probable statistically to commit a crime as anyone else. You look at the cross-section of society, there's a general population and a small fraction of this percentage…" Spencer started out and I blinked at him. Fran looked generally interested in what Spencer had to say while Sarah and Desiree tried to hide their smiles.
"He's not actually saying he believes Derek is involved in this." Emily said, pointing at Spencer and sitting down in the chair.
"Oh, no, no, yeah, no, not at all, I'm merely speaking theoretically." Spencer nodded his head.
"You're Doctor Reid, right?" Desiree asked, amused. Spencer hummed at her, curious as to what she was going to say.
"Derek talks about you, too." Sarah said as Fran glanced at Desiree, trying to hide her smile.
"He does?" Spencer asked, interested. I tried to hide my amusement but couldn't.
"Any way," Prentiss said, trying to get things back on point. "So, someone may be trying to make it look like this was Derek." Fran looked away from Emily for a moment.
"But, Derek loves kids." Both of Derek's sisters nodded in affirmation. "Every time he's here, he visits the youth center."
"Youth center?" I questioned, not really knowing what it was.
"The Upward Youth Center," Fran answered.
"Does that have some sort of significance for him?" Spencer asked, trying to clear things up.
"What are you saying there's something in it for him?" Sarah questioned, getting defensive towards Spencer. "Other than giving back to the poor kids of your neighborhood?"
"Sarah," Fran tried to calm down her daughter.
"Sarah," Emily said calmly. "We're friends of your brother's. We're here trying to help, and when we ask questions, it isn't to denigrate or demean anything he's done. We just have to know everything, so we can figure out where to look next." The Morgan clan nodded their heads in understanding. "Is there some special significance to the Youth Center?"
"The Youth Center saved his life," Fran replied, nodding her head to get the point across.
"What do you mean by that?" I asked, needing clarification.
"My husband, their father," Fran started, looking at me, "Was killed when he tried to stop a robbery. Derek was with him, he was ten. A year or so later, he started getting into trouble."
"What kind of trouble?" Emily asked.
"He started running around with older kids. They would give him money to run errands for them, not drugs," Fran said quickly, seeing the expression on Emily's face. "Derek would never disgrace his father's memory."
"But, they were gangbangers." Sarah said. I sat down next to Prentiss; my pullover had ended up over the chair a long time ago. "So, people started looking at Derek as if he was one of them."
"One night, he and a friend were attacked by some boys who were from another gang. Big fight and one of the boy's head split open."
"And that was the first time Gordinski arrested him." Sarah interrupted. "Now, he wasn't a detective yet, just a street cop, but from that night on, no matter what happened in the neighborhood, he'd pick Derek up for it."
"Probably because he was involved," Dennison interrupted. My teeth were on edge as I turned to him once again.
"I thought I told you to go wait by the car?" I asked, my sickly sweet tone slipping into an icy lake. Emily kicked my shin from underneath the table. I turned to her quickly, and she shook her head at me. I huffed and leaned further into the chair.
"Stan's never arrested anyone who didn't need arresting." Dennison walked up to the table.
"Seriously, the car is downstairs. Go heat it up, or something." I muttered, Emily being the only one to hear me, only shook her head at me.
"He did, with Derek." Sarah replied.
"Until Carl Buford stepped in," Fran said.
"Carl Buford?" Spencer asked.
"He runs the Youth Center." Dennison answered.
"He took Derek under his wing, um, mentored him, became like a surrogate father. He taught him football and that changed Derek's life. He got a scholarship to college with it, he got his degree…"
"Where is Carl Buford now?" Emily asked.
"He still runs the Youth Center." Dennison answered for Fran.
"I'd like to talk to him; do you think you could take me over there?" Emily asked.
"What, just you?" Spencer asked, glancing at me.
"Well, someone needs to help Cassie go through Derek's stuff." Emily answered, pulling her jacket on.
"Good idea, yeah, keep going through the stuff with Cassie." Spencer repeated, none too thrilled to do just that.
"What's wrong with going through the stuff with Cassie?" I asked, playfully. Spencer just smiled back, almost nervously.
A.N. Hey Readers! I've decided to upload this finally, so I hope you enjoyed it. Please Review, or not, whatever. So, it's going to go from Profiler, Profiled all the way up through the seasons of Criminal Minds. My Muse has returned so depending on how long she stays for, my updates will definitely be sporadic, but i will try to update at least weekly. Anyway, the story gets so much better through the chapters, as this is just an introductory of the character Cassie.
Lots of Love From Your Lovely Writer,
NEZ