Hi peeps. I've been thinking a long time and finally got the time to start my first CM fanfic.
As you can already guess, it's Reid centric. Gotta love him!
So, if you got any advices, critique or something else, would be great if you could leave me a few words.
Disclaimer: Criminal Minds with all it's characters belongs to CBS. I don't own anything in this fic, except for the OCs, that'll cross your path once in a while. So, don't sue!
Criminal Minds - The Lost Episodes
The Reid Files
Episode 1
Rejected
'In life we all have an unspeakable secret, an irreversible regret, an unreachable dream and an unforgettable desire.'
Diego Marchi
Chapter 1
Near Northeast, Washington, D.C.
Sounds of hammering machines cutted through the air on a misty morning. An old apartment complex is got pulled down.
"Come on, Dave. Breakfast." A man signaled to the one working his way down the basement, operating a jackhammer. He stopped and wiped his eyes from the dust, which started to settle slowly. With a clearer view down the hole he held his breath. "What the...?"
Then he jumped down. Dust was in the air and his eyes slowly adjusted to darkness. He swallowed hard. "Guys..." A croak escaped his throat. He took a closer look. "Oh my god. Guys! Look at this." His alarmed co-workers started to gather, one jumped down. Both then froze at the sight of a dead body. "Call the police! We found something!"
B.A.U. headquarters, Quantico
"Well, it looks like she was down there for not too long." Hotch pressed his phone to his ear, listening to the officer on the other line, who he called one his acquaintances for some years now . "Was it murder?" The agent asked matter of factly. "She was tied and badly injured, probably caused her to die. Someone did this to her. And yet we think we have a lead, that might interests you." Hotch perked up. "What is it?" The other man cleared his throat. "Someone cut her tongue out. Well, more precisely, ripped it out." He almost whispered, sounding afraid. "Send the files over immediately." Hotch ordered with a hint of discomfort.
JJ looked at Hotch as they prepared for the meeting. "What is it?" The man showed her resigned look. "If I'm right about this, I know the file. Unsolved." JJ frowned. "Oh." Agent Hotchner rubbed his face. Rossi then sauntred in. "So, any leads?"
"Briefing starts as soon as the others are here." JJ announced.
'Paradise Coffee and Tales', Woodbridge, Washington D.C.
Dr. Spencer Reid was on his way to the BAU, making a short stop at the shop he had discovered a few weeks a go.
"Two coffees as always, right?" The girl smiled at Reid from behind the the counter. The tall skinny guy nodded. "As always.""Here you go, Sir." The brunette smiled at Dr. Spencer Reid with a stunning smile. "Oh thanks."
"Careful, it's hot." She handed him his two coffees. "Yeah..." He muttered, searching for money in the vastness of his brown leather bag.
Then his cell started buzzing wildly, while he got even more nervous. He'd be late if he couldn't find it right away.
"It's okay...If you don't have money right now, you can pay for those tomorrow. You come almost everyday anyway!" She tried to convince a nervous Reid, who felt very self-conscious. "I'm so sorry."
She just continued grinning, sensing he was kinda in a hurry. "It's alright. Just go." Reid returned the smile shyly. "I'm really sorry. But I promise, I'll give you the money next time."
The girl waved him off, still smiling broadly. He left the coffee shop and rushed down to the subway station to catch his train, almost spilling his coffee.
B.A.U. headquarters, Quantico
Hotchner, Rossi and JJ waited for the others until they arrived. Then they gathered at the round table in their briefing room, JJ remaint in front of them next to the big screen. Reid, Morgan and Prentiss simultaniously grabbed the files and Agent Jareau put up the photos of the crime scene and the victim on the screen.
"The victim is Jenna Marx, 20 years old. She was living here and visited university. She went missing two weeks ago. No suspects found. No clues, either. She disappeared on her way home. Last one, who saw her, was her friend and classmate Sienna Parker. She was found in the outskirts in the basement of an abandoned building during the wrecking works. She was tied and tortured, eventually dying in the process. The evidences found on her body also lets conclude she was raped. The unsub also did something, most likely a signature. He ripped the tongue out."
JJ switched to a picture of the dead body. "This leads us to the assumption, who maybe did this. His name is John Lee Darmer. 8 years ago, he was announced to be the murderer of three teenagers in. There names were Sarah McGee, Linda Rowen and the third was Lisa Cunnings. All were raped, tortured and left to die in abandoned buildings or caves, somewhere close to the town. First two had their tongues fed to themselves as well. Local police worked together with officers from here, because they were short on manpower. They were slowly solving the case, which lead to Darmer. He was known to be a shy worker at a ranch. Good knowledge of the area, which helped him to hide his victims. Police were close to track him down and to locate his last victim's position, but she was laready dead. He managed to escape and it has been reported he was never seen since then."
"I remember this case." Reid said quietly. "I read about it several years ago." Then he continued to read the file with his usual speed of light.
"Gideon worked on it with the attempt to do some sort of first profiling on a serial killer for testing measures. The B.A.U. didn't exist back then as it is now.." Hotchner announced gloomily.
Everyone exchanged a few looks. It was still hard. Jason Gideon was still more present as they liked him to be. All of them still missed him. He taught lead them. Every case was a matter of heart for him, and they all knew this one must have been no a few seconds, in which everyone, except for Rossi, was hanging after their own thought.
"He vanished? Just like that?"Morgan raised his brows and Reid closed his file, looking over at JJ. "Maybe, he got scared, because they almost caught him." The female shrugged, but Reid cocked his head, contemplating. "Or something else happened..."
"What about the tongue...? Why did he made his victim's eat them?" Rossi asked into the round.
"Maybe it's personal. Did he knew her? Making her eat it sounds like, she had said the wrong thing to this guy..." Morgan ventured professionally.
"We don't know yet. That's one thing we need to find out, if they knew each other. But considering his sexual motivation, maybe he got rejected, so he got mad and..." Hotch drew his own conclusions on what Morgan had said.
"...literally made her eat her own words..." Prentiss murmured silently and Rossi nodded. "Could be possible."
"Wait, you said the first two got their tongues ripped out, as well as the fourth, but what about the third victim?" Reid perked up suddenly.
"No records about it." Hotch informed him slowly. Reid opened his mouth in slight astonishment. "That's weird."
"We'll find out more, as soon as we get there." Hotch pressed his lips together.
"Is this all we got?" Morgan asked incredulously, but got interuppted, when Garcia suddenly popped up on the screen.
"Hey, guys! JJ, I'm sorry to inform you, that I haven't been able to find anything more. There's nothing on the data base. Strange." She unintentionally answered Derek's question.
"Where are the other files? I'm sure it was a huge case back then." Prentiss asked surprised, but Hotch shook his head. "8 years ago, computers weren't used that commonly. Could have been the data never had been digitalized, because it is a cold case."
"So it's all over there, stuffed up in cardboard boxes. Seems we have to browse them the old-fashioned way. Thanks, baby girl. If you find anything else, contact us." Morgan said. The analyst vanished from the screen. "Gotcha. Garcia out."
Derek gazed at Hotch, who stood up. "Rossi, Reid and I will go. The rest of you will go over to the Washington police department and search there. Interview the parents. Find out, if they knew the unsub already. Go and ask everyone, who visited the crime scene. Also find out more about that building."
All stood up and nodded at each other, then went out and separated.
"Shoot." Reid exclaimed suddenly. "Wha-?" Rossi asked puzzled, Hotch ignored him politely. "I forgot my coffee." He rushed back, almost stumbling.
"Wow, must be a good coffee...Kid's pretty excited about it..." Rossi muttered and grinned, but Reid was able to hear him.
"It is. The best around here." Reid told him with a sophisticated expression after he retrieved his beloved drink back. "Did you know, that...?" He then started, but Hotch glanced at him warningly. "Uhm...nevermind..." The skinny doctor mumbled pretty disappointed and followed his colleagues out of the building.
Greenville, Virginia
139 Miles and three 3 hours later the tree agents arrived at the town's police station."What a nice and idyllic town." Rossi stated as they got out of the SVU.
"Uhm, statistics say, that this phrase is used by almost 83 percent of all the small towns in Virgina as advertise. It's not a protected trademark and so often widely misinterpreted for it's common scope and the different opinions on that phrase."
Reid's brain immediately responded to Rossi's predication, while the older agent shunned himself for his inconsiderate loud outspoken thought.
No, he appreciated the younger man's knowledge by all means, but when the time was right and he felt like it. Hotch silenced Reid with one of his serious firm looks and they slowly walked up the stairs to the local police office and inside.
"You must be the FBI agents, I've been informed about." A man in his mid thirties stood up from his chair behind the front desk
"I'm Officer Josepf Wright." He extended his hands to greet them all, while Hotch introduced them. "You recognized that right away, when we walked in?" Rossi asked half amused. "Well, no offenses, but you guys stick out like a sore thump out here." He smiled mischievously, but let it go, when nobody else did.
"So, you know why we are here, too. Let's waste no time." Hotch told him with his usual stone face and Reid fiddled around in his bag, while Rossi looked around to examine the station. "Okay, follow me. But there's not much anyway."
Reid smiled politely over to him. "Even the smallest detail is important..." Then he got interrupted by Rossi. "This isn't the original station, right?"
The officer nodded and bit his inner cheek. "The old one got destroyed by a fire 5 years ago and most of the files burned along with it. I'm sorry. That's why I'm sure you won't find much."
They arrived at the small archive, what was nothing more then a single room with rackets with disturbingly few folders and boxes.
"Let me know, if there's anything more you need. I'll be in the front." The agents nodded and Joseph left.
Reid put his bag down. Rossi grabbed the first cardboard box, handing out the files. "Okay, let's start."
B.A.U. headquarters, Quantico
"Any clues, yet?" Prentiss asked Morgan who looked as disgruntled as she was feeling.
"Nothing. Nobody saw anything. Nobody knew she had been stalked or anything. Her friend said, that she didn't had that much acquaintances, but no enemies either. She was a shy, very polite person, which would never ever had given anybody the reason to hate her. She was keeping out of trouble and did nothing to attract any kind of attention. She had no problems in school. The teachers never noticed anything unusual." He briefed Prentiss shortly on what he had found out.
"Same with the family. She was the perfect daughter. She did a little bit of social work and also was welcome to baby-sit the neighbours childs.
Her room was tidy and just like a girl room would look like, nothing unusual. But, she did not have a diary, which we could have drawn some conclusions from. Unfortunately. And the family is still in shock, that there really could be a person who did not like her. They really have no idea, what could have happened. They never noticed, if their daughter might had been stalked and mostly knew all her friends personally."
Morgan rubbed his face and sat down on the table in the briefing room. Prentiss joined him and sipped on her coffee. "Mmh. Reid was right. It really is the best coffee I ever tasted around here."
Derek smiled weakly at her and then just stared dazily at the file again. "He probably tested every shop in D.C to find it." Emily grinned into her cup. "Probably...? You know he did. I guess he found his personal piece of heaven. Coffee and books at one store."
Then, after a few minutes of desolate silence, the door opened and JJ came in. "By the looks on your face, I reckon you have nothing..." Both nodded and lowered their heads. "Garcia checked the building and I asked around the neighbourhood of it. No one saw anybody walk in or out. It was just an empty building for quite a few years now and nobody paid attention to it."
Morgan slammed his flat hand on the table in frustration. "Damn. I hope the others have more luck. No clues. Not even a picture of this guy, to show it around."
We'll be back after a short commercial break. Hands off the remote!