Criminal Minds
Chapter One: An Acquaintance of an Enemy is a Friend
Inside a cold and somber interrogation room.
'We brought you here to help us, and help yourself in the process.' Max Tennyson explained to the handcuffed figure from across the table.
'I don't see how any of this is my problem, so I bunked with the guy in the null void. It hardly means we were great friends." retorted the cynical voice of a teenaged boy. "Besides, anyone with the last name 'Tennyson' isn't worth my time. As I recall it was your grandson that put me in here."
Max leaned back in his chair and observed the teen with cold indifference.
"You did that to yourself Kevin."
"Still not motivating me to talk gramps." Kevin Levin smirked as if he had all the time in the world, but Max Tennyson knew that was something that he and 'she' didn't have.
"You'd withhold information that could save a girl's life deliberately, just to get back at Ben?" Max questioned.
"Let me think…uh Yeah." Kevin said without hesitation. Max was getting irate, they weren't getting anywhere with him. At last he stood up and braced both hands on the table to lean in to Kevin, as if telling him a secret he didn't want the people on the other side of the window to hear.
"It's a shame that you won't cooperate, if you only did as I asked I could have gotten you on parole sooner….but it seems you like the null void too much." Max whispered to Kevin.
The teenager looked back wide-eyed, and as Max turned around to leave the interrogation room. Kevin called to the older man desperately.
"ALRIGHT!, I'll help you."
Max smiled and nodded toward the boy as he exited the room. He was greeted by his grandson as he closed the interrogation room door.
"Are you sure we can trust him?" a sixteen year-old Ben Tennyson asked his grandfather as they walked down the Plumber's HQ.
"We have no choice, he knows who we are dealing with personally." Max responded.
"But he's a criminal." Ben stated.
"But he's not a murderer. Kevin may have made some bad choices but they can be easily atoned. We always thought that he was too soft for the null-void, being a petty thief doesn't rank as high as being a serial rapist slash murderer." Max tried to explain to his grandson.
"When are you going to brief him on the entire situation?" Ben asked.
" I was hoping to do it now, but I felt that it would be best if you were in there with me." said Max. "He's more likely to be sympathetic if more of the family is there, then just the grandfather."
Interrogation Room, two hours later.
Kevin Levin was escorted back into the room, hands cuffed and legs chained. As he walked in he spotted Ben sitting beside Max and immediately glared daggers into the boy.
"Alright Kevin, tell us what you know." Max began.
"I'm afraid it doesn't work that way, first tell me what you know." Kevin replied. Ben squinted his eyes in anger, opening his mouth to say something but his grandfather cut him off.
"Fine, a sixteen year old girl was abducted on her way home from school. She's been missing for two weeks now. The culprit has been sending videos , photos and letters to the victims house to show her parents that she is alive but her condition worsens with every new photo and video. He is very religious and believes that he is purifying the victim." Max explained in a controlled voice. He pulls out a file and lays it out in front of Kevin to examine the case file of the man they believe was behind it.
"The name on his records say "Bartholomew Clifton", but we hear that he goes by a different name in the null void." Max probed, trying to get Kevin to begin talking.
"Yeah, he went by Dante. Was a real piece of work." said Kevin. "I bunked with him for several months, couldn't find anywhere else to stay."
"He must have trusted you enough to let you stay with him." Ben inquired. Kevin looked at Ben reproachfully before replying.
"I offered him great deals on alien tech, he was an avid buyer."
"Did he talk to you of previous crimes he'd done?" Max asked. Kevin leaned back in his chair as if in thought.
"He was very proud of some, he would recount in detail all the things he'd gotten away with. It wasn't a secret that he had thing for underage girls, but who was I to judge?" the teenager replied.
"You never felt nauseated by the stories he'd told, about what he did to those girls?" asked Max slowly.
"I didn't know them personally, let the guy have his fun." Kevin said nonchalantly.
Ben then slammed another folder in front of Kevin, brandishing a photo of a very attractive young face who stared back at him with green eyes.
"So looking at the victim's face, you could look straight at it and say "Let the guy have his fun?" Ben yelled.
Kevin stared hard at the photo, as if memorizing it to the very last strand of auburn hair.
"This sick freak has my cousin, and if you have any heart at all- you'll tell us exactly what he told you and you'll help us catch him- before it's too late." Ben seethed.
Kevin Levin had never shown any compassion toward anyone else, so whether it was the desperation in his enemy's face or the hauntingly care-free gaze of the girl in the photo- it brought that feeling out it him for the first time.
"What's her name?" Kevin asked, looking back down at the photo.
"Her name is Gwendolyn Tennyson, and it's your help that will determine whether we reach her in time or not." Max Tennyson stated.
