Art of Deception

NamikazeWolf

Hello fanfiction, this is my first fan fic (official one at least) I plan on making it a multi- chapter fic. Lots of support would be appreciated.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Criminal Minds or any of its characters, no matter how much I dream

"Most of the bad guys in the real world don't know that they are bad guys. You don't get a flashing warning sign that you're about to damn yourself. It sneaks up on you when you aren't looking."―Jim Butcher

All mistakes are my own

Prologue

Detective Rizzo walked up the cold alley, her steel-toed combat boots splashing through a puddle of water. She approached the still form of the young man on the ground. He was their tenth victim in the past two weeks. She had dealt with a lot of serial killers in her career but this one topped the cake. She pulled on a pair gloves, kneeling down to examine the body, at least, what was left of it. The young man was missing his left arm and leg as well as his right arm. He looked to be in his mid to late twenties, he had black hair with slight build.

"Rizzo," the detective looked up to see her partner come and kneel down beside her.

"What?" she asked with a sigh.

"I think it's time we call it in." the detective looked up at her partner, a knowing gleam in her eyes.

"You're right." Rizzo pulled out her phone and dialed in a number. "Yes…Can you patch me through to SSA Aaron Hotchner, tell him it's Detective Rizzo…yes," she looked down at the dismembered body. "Tell him it's urgent."

Two weeks ago

Morgan sat at his desk his pen scribbling on the morning stack of papers that needed his signature. They had just returned from a case two days ago in , a man was abducting and killing older women. Apparrently his mom had beaten him as a child so he resented all women. He had racked up a body count of five before he had finally been arrested. They had saved his last victim, 47 year old Vanessa Henderson, and had happily returned her to her family. There had been resistance from the man upon his capture. Morgan smiled as he remembered the look of surprise on the man's face as Morgan had come barreling aroound the corner and tackled him to the ground. That was one thing he loved about his job, knocking the bad guys to the ground.

"Good morning," Morgan looked up as Prentiss took a seat at her desk a cup of coffee in one hand and a stack of files in the other. She was wearing black slacks with a burgundy sweater, black shoes, and her hair pulled back into a ponytail.

"Morning Princess," he said smiling at her. "Do anything fun over the weekend?"

Prentiss scoffed at Morgan's sarcasm knowing they had spent their weekend chasing after an unsub. That was one thing Morgan didn't like about his job. Prentiss plopped down in her seat with a sigh. "I wish these guys would respect our weekends so I could have fun." She began flipping through her folders filling out the paperwork that went to each assignment. She still had to fill out the papers for a case from last week. The team had been sent to Atlanta, Georgia where a 22 year old man was kidnapping college girls and sexually assaulting them for three days before stabbing them in the heart. At first they had deduced that he had had his heart broken by a girl that he had lost his virginity to but they were wrong. Apparently, the unsub's father had raped and stabbed his mother in front of him before taking a gun and shooting the kid and himself. What the father didn't know was that his son had survived the gunshot and had been traumatized by the event; his mind stuck in a fantasy that impulsed him to re-enact what happened to his mother with other girls. Unfortunatly, when they had gone in for the arrest he had tried to pull a gun on them and the police had opened fire on him. He was announced dead thirty minutes later by the EMT. Emily loved her job but it was cases like these that got to her and kept her up at night.

"Yea, I hear you," Morgan responded, flashing her a knowing smile. He paused and leaned over her desk looking at the file she was working on. "Is that the case from last week?"

"Yes," Emily sighed heavily. "I may be a little behind on my case files but I'll catch up today."

"I don't think so." Emily looked up at Morgan confused and followed his line of sight. Hotch was in JJ's office talking to her about something. He had a stack of case files in his hand and from the look on his face it was a bad one. Most people couldn't tell what Hotch is thinking because of the stoic look he always has on his face but after working with the man for a couple years Emily had learned that by the scrunching of his eyebrows, the slight twitch of his lip and the narrowing of his eyes he was upset about the case he had been given. "Looks like we got a case. Too bad for you Princess."

Emily deflated into her seat and flicked her pen back and forth between her fingers. So much for catching up on work today. Both Morgan and Prentiss looked up as JJ and Hotch exited JJ's office. JJ headed towards the round room and Hotch stepped towards Rossi's office.

"Team, round room meeting," he said knocking on Rossi's door. He poked his head inside, said a few words, and then Rossi was following him out of the office and across the bullpen.

Morgan and Prentiss gathered themselves and followed after the two older gentlemen. They both walked in and sat down in their appointed seats, Prentiss on the far left, Morgan, Hotch, and Rossi skipping a seat and sitting down in that order. Hotch took a seat before pausing in his seat, his brow furrowed in confusion. "Where's Reid?"

Morgan and Prentiss looked at each other. Neither had noticed that the young genius had not shown up for work yet. He usually was there before Morgan and Prentiss but he had yet to show up; and Reid wasn't usually late. The last time he was late had been during the Tobias Hankel incident. A knowing look flashed across all the agents' faces. Worry and concern for their young agent clearly visible on their visages. Reid had been clean for 10 months, as unlikely as it was that he was using again, the thought didn't cease to cross their minds. He had been kind of off since the Owen Savage case, even though they had saved Owen it had brought up some painful memories for the kid. Morgan shuddered at the story Reid had told him from when he was in highschool. Being tricked by Alexa Lisbon, stripped naked by the football team, and tied to a goal post for all to see; and not one person helped him. Sometimes kids could be so cruel. It was their past that made them perfect for this job. As much as it took from them it was worth it to save people's lives. But he knew that Reid was stronger than what he was given credit for.

"I'll call him," Morgan stated getting up from his seat and taking out his phone. He dialed Reid's number, stepping out of the room. He listened as the phone continued to ring. "Come on kid, pick up…dammit" Morgan sighed in frustration when all he got was Reid's voicemail. He was about to hang up when he decided to leave him a message. "Hey Reid, it's Morgan, where you at? We got a case, call me."

"Nothing?" Morgan looked up to see Hotch sticking his head out the door awaiting to hear from his youngest agent. Morgan shook his head and watched as Hotch sighed before nodding. "We'll pick him up and brief him once we get on the plane. C'mon."

Morgan walked back into the room a bad feeling starting to make itself known in his gut. He knew something was wrong and Morgan sent up a silent prayer that it wasn't because of Reid. Taking a deep breath he put his phone back into his pocket and walked back into the room.

Hotch and Morgan pulled up outside of Reid's apartment building. The others had already headed to the plane to wait for them. Morgan closed the passenger side door and stepped around the front of the car and skipped up the front steps and into the old red bricked building. The apartment building itself was twelve stories high and had over two hundred rooms in it. Hotch and Morgan walked to the stairs and headed up to the second floor when Reid lived. They had tried calling him after the briefing was over and on their way over there but all they'd gotten so far was his voicemail. Nobody wanted to admit it but there weren't a lot of reasons that Reid wouldn't answer his phone. Morgan just hoped that the kid wasn't out of it when they got there. He had been doing so well and he knew that starting again would ruin him. They made it up the stairs and walked up to Reid's door.

"Reid?" Hotch called knocking on the young agent's door. "You in there?"

No response.

"Kid," Morgan called banging on his door a little louder.

Still no response.

"Call him again. Maybe he's out," Hotch suggested. Morgan sighed in frustration knowing how unlikely that was. Both Hotch and Morgan turned their heads to Reid's door when they heard his phone going off. Morgan closed his phone, that bad feeling returning again. Hotch reached out his hand and was upset when he found Reid's door unlocked. That was unlike him. He wouldn't leave his door unlocked like that. The two agents pulled out their guns worry filling their faces. Hotch stepped through the door his gun ready to shoot anyone that wasn't his agent. Morgan looked around Reid's apartment, not seeing anything out of place.

"Reid," Morgan called out again. Silence. Hotch moved to the left towards Reid's kitchen and Morgan went to check his room. Morgan opened the bedroom door and stopped short, his heart falling. "Hotch."

Morgan put his gun away and stepped towards the large queen-sized bed. Lying in the center of the bed was Reid's gun and credentials. Morgan headed into the adjoining bathroom even though deep down he knew he wouldn't find anything. He heard Hotch enter the bedroom, there was a pause before the sound of drawers being opened reached his ear. Morgan opened up the medicine cabinet noting that it was empty. Morgan scrunched his eyebrows in confusion before stepping back into the bedroom.

"His go-bag is missing," Hotch stated shuffling through Reid's closet and his seemingly endless supply of sweaters. "I can't find his wallet either."

"The medicine cabinet is empty as well," Morgan stated.

"I need to call the team," Hotch stepped out the room, phone already in hand.

Morgan looked around the room. Something wasn't right here but he couldn't place exactly what it was. Reid wouldn't just up and leave like that but, the missing clothes, the medicine, he left his cell so that it couldn't be tracked, all the signs pointed to him leaving. Morgan walked back out of the house just as Hotch hung up the phone.

"Everyone's on their way here and I already have another team going to Miami."

Hotch stepped back into the room and Morgan knew that the same thought had crossed his boss's mind. Did Reid really just up and leave? Or was there something else going on here?

Hey readers, I know it's short but I need to know if this even worth continuing. So give me some feedback and let me know if you like it.

Wolf out