My Life Had Stood

Chapter One

The café booth was fairly lit and situated next to the window. The curtains were a deep maroon, same as the cushioned seats. The table itself was a varnished mahogany. Spencer fiddled with his coffee cup and the book he'd brought with him. He wondered for the nth time why he agreed to this meeting.

His brown eyes searched the passerby flooding the sidewalk in front of the café. He fidgeted, fiddling again with the book before taking out his cell phone. He stared at the screen, wishing for the nineteenth time since entering the café that he'd be called into work. The fifty-seventh time since he awoke that morning that he wished a case would force him to cancel this meeting.

He also wished that he hadn't confided in Rossi about the call, nor that he'd been convinced to respond to it.

"Some years back, I gave my number to a waitress written in roman numerals." Spencer had told Rossi after the older man had noticed him deep in thought after a case. "She called me two days ago, wanting to meet."

Rossi tilted his head, listening to Spencer. "Are you?" He asked.

"….what?" Spencer replied, distracted by his thoughts long enough to miss the question.

"Are you going to meet her?"

"Spencer hesitated. "I don't know. It's been years…."

"And yet she called you. After deciphering your number from roman numerals." Rossi added. "Most women wouldn't have bothered and would've tossed the note away."

"...yes." Spencer conceded, understanding what Rossi meant. A woman who would take the time and effort to decipher such a note from years ago was just as special as one who could figure it out right away. There was just one snag. "I don't want a relationship with anyone. I'm fine with my life how it is now."

"…." Rossi nodded, thinking. "It's been, what, three years since Maeve…."

"Three years, four months and thirteen days." Spencer replied before Rossi could finish. He was even tempted to pin the time down to the hours and seconds, but he instead kept that silent. He didn't want to reveal the extent to which he was still bound to the only woman he ever loved romantically.

"Don't you think it's about time you tried to meet someone?" Rossi asked, reading Spencer's response in the younger agent's body language. He sighed. "It doesn't have to be romantic. Just a friendly chat. This waitress of yours did take the time to decipher the roman numerals you gave her and call you even after all these years."

Spencer smiled demurely, more undecided than he'd been before.

"Hello?" A soft voice broke Spencer from his recollection and drew his gaze toward the petite woman standing next to his booth, a coffee cup in hand. His eyebrows knit together in confusion.

"….You're not the woman from that club…." Spencer surveyed the woman that greeted him. Barely five foot two, and that was with the six inch pumps she wore, and roughly 115 pounds she gave him a curious yet reserved smile. His brown eyes took in her slightly wavy, burnt sienna hair and then the outfit she wore, before settling on her chocolate caramel eyes. This woman was a stranger but she wore the outfit the voice from the phone said she would.

"...No, that was Shelly. I…." She faltered, pulling a few strands of hair behind her left ear but leaving the wavy locks covering her right cheek where they were. After another false start, she gave another small, sheepish smile. She apologized the same moment Spencer started to ask who she was. "….sorry, Shelly said she had something to do and asked me to meet you instead….but…." The petite woman replied, shaking her head with the same sheepish smile. "This is obviously her trying to set me up on a date again…."

Spencer felt his confusion dissipate as he realized what was going on. The woman muttering about the well-meaning of friends and what could you do about it, caused his body and brain to relax.

"Yeah, I can relate…." Spencer returned the reserved smile, gesturing for the woman to sit. "I'm Spencer. Spencer Reid. I take it Shelly's your friend?" He asked, using the name of the woman he'd expected to meet.

"Um, yes." She sat down, placing her bag next to her on the cushioned seat and the coffee on the table. "I'm Alsie Schmidt. Short for Allison." She met Spencer's gaze, her own brain whirling with thought and hesitance. "Um...this is sort of awkward, but….I have no intention of dating, so this…."

"Oh, no. I understand. That actually makes this easier, since I have no intention of dating either." Spencer replied, feeling better than he had that entire morning. "I gave Shelly my number years ago and I felt that, since she deciphered the roman numerals and called after all this time, I should meet her to be polite. But…."

Alsie looked directly at Spencer at this part, her expression mixed between surprise and awe.

"You're roman numerals guy. Okay…." She nodded, her expression changing from shy to discerning. "It makes even more sense now…."

"What makes more sense?" Spencer asked, leaning forward. It felt strange being referred to as 'roman numerals guy'.

"Why Shelly set this up. You're not like the usual guys she tried to set me up with. Which is one reason why I didn't realize it until I greeted you." Alsie replied while rubbing her right eye, but making an effort to keep it as covered by her hair as possible. Spencer noticed some scarring around the outer edge of her eye. "I find a string of roman numerals in Shelly's apartment, decipher them, and here we are…."

Spencer returned his gaze to Alsie's eyes, his own filled with curiosity and surprise. "Wait….you deciphered my number?"

Alsie nodded. She took a sip of her coffee, her burnt sienna eyes studying Spencer. "It was almost a month ago, though. So I hadn't thought about it. I assumed Shelly either didn't call or called for herself. I didn't expect her to set this tryst up."

"...yeah, I didn't expect this either, and I work as a profiler…." Spencer replied, taking a sip of his own coffee.

"Oh? Police? FBI?" Alsie asked, her curiosity roused.

"The latter. I work in the BAU, and…." Spencer paused, realizing then how much his stress had lessened over talking to Alsie. It was strange, how comfortable he felt with this woman he'd just met. It stemmed mostly from the relief at their being no expectation of romance between either of them, yet there was something else contributing. Something about the petite woman he couldn't pinpoint.

Before he could continue, his phone rang. A quick glance showed Hotch's number.

Giving an apologetic smile and saying goodbye to Alsie, Spencer answered the phone.

0

Spencer was still mentally dealing with the – using the vernacular – irony of the phone call's timing as he walked into the BAU. It was just coincidental, but after wanting to be called in to work the whole time before meeting Alsie, then receiving the call only after he no longer wanted it, he appreciated why people used the word ironic in such a situation.

He entered the meeting room, noting that only Lewis and Garcia were yet to arrive. He greeted the team succinctly and sat down, noticing yet avoiding Rossi's glance. The elder agent sat across the table from him.

"Sorry, I'm late." Lewis said as she entered the room not long after. She sat down in the empty seat next to Spencer.

"All right. Garcia's flight back from her vacation has been delayed, so she'll meet up with us later." Hotch spoke, standing up with the remote for the case projection screen. "Let's get started. Five days ago, the skeletal remains of a young girl, approximately ten years of age, were found buried nine miles from the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border. They were discovered by the construction crew working on a new housing development in the area."

"Any idea how long the remains were there?" Rossi questioned, perusing the file.

"Until this new housing project started construction the area was mostly undisturbed woodland. The last time any construction was down in the vicinity was over twenty-five years ago." Hotch replied. "Forensics is still working on analyzing the skeleton, but it's believed the victim was in the ground for about twenty years."

"Has the victim been identified?" Morgan asked, shifting his gaze from the tablet file in front of him to the projection screen.

"Not yet. Neither the DNA recovered from the scene nor the dental work of the victim match any of the children reported missing during that time frame."

"It says here that the victim suffered a blow to the head, as well as fractures in her hands and feet. Injuries similar to those suffered from people who fell from cliffs. Couldn't the victim have fallen from a height and simply been buried naturally by landslides and such?" Lewis asked.

"That's what local authorities thought at first. But analysis of the body and the remaining clothing, strongly suggests that the body was dragged before being buried. Possibly over state lines."

"So someone killed the victim, then dragged and buried her." Morgan said. "Any signs of sexual or physical abuse?"

"It's difficult to know for sure due to the decomposition, but the M.E. found no evidence of injury aside from the skull wound and fractures."

"...It's odd. Going by the M.E. report, the victim was not only a child but small for her age. An adult unsub wouldn't have needed to drag her." Spencer's brow furrowed as he spoke. "The victim may have been killed by someone around her own age."

"Wouldn't it be difficult for a child to kill another with a single blow to the head?"

"Not if the unsub pushed the victim from a cliff." Spencer replied. "The injuries to the victim's head and limbs are consistent with a fall from a height, like Lewis mentioned. If it wasn't for the evidence that the victim was dragged, it could be plausible that the death was accidental."

"...aside from the body being possibly dragged over state lines, why call in the BAU specifically?"

"Since the discovery of the first victim, two more bodies have been found baring striking similarities to the first." Hotch explained, pressing a button on the remote that brought up images of the next two victims. "These have been identified as Jessica Williams, age thirteen, and Brie Adams, age fifteen. Both show signs of being buried for years before discovery. A preliminary examination of the bodies indicates Williams was buried for around twelve years and Adams for five. Both suffered head injuries as well as fractures to the arms and legs. And both were found within seven to ten miles from the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border."

"If this is the same unsub, then he's aging along with his victims. So he'll possibly be in his late twenties to early thirties. So will his most recent victims." Rossi spoke, rubbing his upper lip in thought. "I take it that the local police are searching the area for more bodies?"

Hotch nodded. "Both the Pennsylvania and West Virginia police departments think they may have discovered a serial killer's dumping ground. If they have it's only a matter of time before they find more bodies. So far the public has been kept in the dark about the discoveries but people have started questioning why construction has been halted and why police have been searching the area."

"We need to be swift if we want to find our killer before he discovers we found his dumping ground and finds a new one. If he hasn't done so already."

Hotch agreed, addressing the group. "Wheels up in thirty."

0

"Giselle, have you seen my handbag? The one with the brown and tan stripes?" A red-haired woman with bunched up curls called out as she searched the rooms on the first floor. She'd just entered the house from the garage, noting the light on in her sister's room before she'd parked her car. "I want to wear it for my date tonight with Harry. Giselle?"

The woman paused at the bottom of the stairs, gazing upward. Concerned at the quiet, she ascended the stairs.

"Are you feeling all right?" Her voice traveled ahead of her. She managed to reach the top stair before something blunt smashed into her head. The impact caving in her head and causing her to tumble back down the stairs.

"Michelle!" Her sister called out before being once again muffled by the man who had struck down the redhead.

"You make one word and I'll rip your throat out." The man seethed in her ear, before forcing her to walk down stairs and over her sister's body.