The BAU is summoned to a case that hits close to home for Reid. Or does it? Set in the 'Soundings' universe.
A Voice Cries Out
Chapter 1
"Bye guys! See you tonight!" I hope.
JJ waved to her children as Karen shooed them into the house. Henry would be catching the bus to school, but Rosie and Casey would be spending the day with their long time sitter.
Although she'd been back to work full time for well over a year, JJ still had the occasional yearning to spend long stretches of days with her offspring. And then she would remember how she'd felt when she'd had those days…..the exhaustion, the chaos, the hunger for adult conversation.
The grass is always greener, I guess.
She hoped their luck would hold. It didn't happen all the time, but this year the nation's serial killers seemed to be taking the holidays off. It was their team's turn to stand down, so she and Spence had been able to use their vacation time starting before Christmas and going right through New Year's Day. The quietness of the season seemed to be keeping them in town for an unusually long period of time. Both parents were enjoying the evenings at home with their children.
She pulled into the lot just ahead of David Rossi, who deposited his Lexus SUV into the spot next to hers.
"And how is the mother of my favorite goddaughter this fine morning?"
"Fine, thanks. As is Rosie." She offered it before he had a chance to ask.
"And my favorite big brother to my favorite goddaughter?" Rossi had become careful to ask after Henry as well.
"He's great. He's all excited because Spence is bringing him to the Air and Space Museum again this weekend. They're going to the IMAX and Henry loves the IMAX."
Rossi chuckled. "Something tells me his father loves it as well."
JJ smiled. "He does. And even if he didn't, he'd love it because Henry does."
They were nearing the entrance to the building, and pulled out their badges for swiping.
"He's a good man, young JJ. A good dad. I didn't get to be one, but I had one. And I recognize one when I see him."
JJ squeezed Rossi's arm in thanks. "He is. To both of the kids. They have his heart, and he has theirs."
"As it should be my dear, as it should be."
They'd been summoned to the round table room, indicating to all of the BAU members that their luck had run out. They had a case.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to Sin City. No, not Sin-to-Win City." Garcia aimed the latter comment at Emily Prentiss. "I was referring to the Sin City from which our resident genius arose. We're going to Las Vegas."
Reid hadn't been back to Vegas since his mother died. Without a family reason to visit, the city held no real draw for him. There were a few pleasant childhood memories, but they were far outweighed by difficult ones. For Reid, the word 'home' referred only to the one he shared with JJ and their children.
Garcia continued with her case presentation. "It seems someone has become fond of the tax man in Vegas. Or, better said, someone has developed a taste for the tax man."
"Vegas and taxes seem like a match made in heaven…or hell," observed a wry David Rossi. "Between the winners trying to hide their winnings, and the losers trying to write them off, there's plenty of work... but most of it is illegal."
"Well, what's happening in Vegas now is even more illegal. And definitely not made in heaven." Garcia hit a button on the remote, and a gruesome image came up on the screen. She studiously kept her back to it.
"You are looking at….tell me if it's not up there, because I am definitely not looking at it again….you're looking at an image of what remains of Stephen Davidovitch, who was a fellow employee of the federal government. He worked out of the Las Vegas Bureau of the IRS until his retirement about six months ago. His daughter reported him missing only two weeks ago, so there's a gap in time that's unaccounted for until yesterday, when his remains were found in the desert north of the city. Most of his remains. Everything except his heart and his tongue. And…" She couldn't suppress a shiver, "…his tongue…or the stump of it….had bite marks."
"There are any number of carnivores in the desert. It wouldn't take long for the animals to find him." Reid was very familiar with the area surrounding Vegas.
"Ah, my sweet genius. I only wish. The animal that found him was two-legged. They were human bite marks."
"Human?" Emily wondered, "Could he have bit it himself? Maybe 'in extremis'?"
Hotch was already familiar with the sketchy details of the case. "The bite arc doesn't match the victim's teeth."
"Is that how he was identified, Pen?" asked JJ. "Dental records?"
"Exactly. They'll attempt a DNA match with the daughter to confirm."
Garcia held the remote in her hand. "There's something else. More ickiness. His heart..."
"Oh, no...don't tell me the unsub bit that out too." Morgan voiced what none of them wanted to hear. Garcia clicked the remote and the photo on the screen changed.
"Well, technically, he didn't bite it out... It seemed to have been cut out with some kind of instrument. Serrated, so possibly a knife. But there was a bit of…..tissue…left at the scene. Which looked like it had been... masticated."
She was proud of her use of professional language. But Morgan was less impressed.
"Masticated?" He sounded almost teasing.
"Alright. It was chewed. It seems like the unsub was eating the victim's heart as well."
Reid was squinting at the photo on the smartboard. "It does look like it was chewed. But it doesn't look regurgitated. It doesn't look discolored or eaten away, as it would be with stomach acid."
"So you think the unsub just chewed it and spit it out without swallowing?" Morgan wanted clarification.
Emily tried to shiver the image away. "Ugh! But not as 'ugh' as if he'd actually swallowed it." Now Garcia and JJ joined her in shivering their disgust.
The idea of cannibalism prompted Reid to comment. "Hey, do you remember that case where the unsub made a stew..."
Prompting simultaneous cries of "Spence!" "Reid!" "Kid!" And a heavy-browed stare from Hotch.
"Sorry."
As distasteful as it was, the implications were clear, and they had to consider what the unsub's methods might mean.
"Are we sure we have just the one victim?"
Cannibalism suggested the kind of ritualism characteristic of serial killers. But JJ wanted to know if there was more than just suggestion pulling the BAU into the case.
Hotch fielded that one. "Yes…and no. A second employee of the IRS office failed to report to work about two months ago. There wasn't anything that made it look criminal until they found our victim's remains. And…and they're not sure this is related at all…. there was also a tax attorney who apparently disappeared about three months ago."
"Apparently? Don't tell me, let me guess, " ventured Rossi. "No one missed the attorney at all." Gaining a chuckle from several of the others.
"Garcia, when was Davidovitch last seen?" Reid was trying to create a timeline.
Her response told him he would be stymied. "The last we've been able to put together was his retirement dinner. The poor guy was a loner in a city of loners. He was divorced, and not close to his children. His daughter only realized something was wrong when she didn't hear from him for the holidays."
"No one saw this guy for the past six months? No one talked to him?" Morgan didn't believe it.
Hotch fielded this one. "No one who's been identified so far. As you can see, we're being pulled into the case early, with only the single definite victim. LVPD, Nevada State Police, and our Las Vegas office are still actively developing leads."
"Or so we hope," added the sardonic Rossi.
"I suppose they've already tried to tie the IRS guys and the tax attorney together?" Prentiss followed the natural train of thought.
"They have. And there are seventeen cases in common between the attorney in question and the two IRS workers," advised Hotch. "So, Garcia…"
"Right. I'll get busy whittling it down. Happy flying!" Squeezing Morgan's shoulder as she passed by him, Garcia clicked her way out of the conference room.
Hotch acknowledged the urgency of a case where there were missings who might still be rescued, however unlikely that scenario.
"Wheels up in thirty."
JJ spent ten of her thirty minutes connecting with Karen and then with her parents. Since their move to the DC area following the loss of their home to an arson fire, the elder Jareaus had become the preferred babysitters whenever Reid and JJ were away on a case.
"Don't you worry about a thing, Honey. Your father and I are happy to take care of them. It keeps us young, you know."
JJ snorted. "More like it wears you out. But you know how grateful Spence and I are to know they're with you. I think it helps them to think it's sort of normal, you know?"
"It's our normal, sweetheart. And I think it's good for Henry."
They'd all been concerned about the little boy, who'd suffered so many losses, and near losses, in his young life. He'd responded very well to having his grandparents living in town. For Henry, the time spent with Sandy and Charles Jareau was simply a visit with his grandparents, similar to the experience of so many of his friends. When he was with them, he could forget that his parents were away. Or so it seemed.
Reid filed onto the plane shortly after JJ, having driven over with Morgan. The two men had been conversing with the Vegas FBI office and waved the others to go on ahead.
"Did you reach them?" Reid asked as he slipped into the seat next to JJ.
"Yes. Karen will take them after school today as usual, as Dad is out on the golf course."
They both smiled at that. Charles Jareau had been far too busy maintaining his homestead when he'd lived in Pennsylvania. Now, sharing a townhouse condo with his wife, his time was rapidly becoming consumed with new hobbies.
"I'll bet he's mad that he only discovered golf in retirement." The game held no interest for Reid, but Rossi had shared his personal experience with the sport.
JJ chuckled. "Yeah, Mom says she's a 'golf widow' now. But I think she's really becoming a widow to some of his volunteer activities." Charles had also become a mentor to several teens and young men.
Reid laughed. "There's no way. You know she won't let him do that on his own. She'll be there, right alongside him, cooking up a storm to fatten them up." He'd been on ongoing target for his mother-in-law's culinary ministrations.
"You're right. Except I don't think she's done with you yet." JJ patted her husband's still-too-thin middle.
She changed the subject. "Spence, we haven't been back to Vegas since your Mom died. Will it be hard for you?"
He took a moment before shaking his head. "I have a new home now. And it's been a long time since I've had a home in Vegas. Bennington was certainly never 'home' to me."
JJ squeezed her husband's hand before Hotch got the case discussion restarted. "Still….talk to me if you need to, okay?"
He smiled his thanks at the woman who always seemed to know him better than he knew himself.
"Okay."
There was little new information to be had. Las Vegas PD, Nevada State Police and the FBI were all actively conducting interviews and searching for the missing IRS agent and tax attorney. After distributing assignments for ground work after they landed, Hotch set them all to reviewing various aspects of the case, and the players, on-line. Reid was absorbed in a study of the taxation of Vegas high rollers when Hotch approached him individually.
"Reid."
The younger man looked up at his unit chief.
"Yes?"
Hotch looked….hesitant. It was so unlike the usually assured FBI man that it unsettled Reid.
"I've….had a phone call. There's a new complication to the case."
"Okay…what is it?" Reid enjoyed these challenges. They got his intellectual juices flowing. Especially when the challenge was something Hotch assigned to him, in particular.
"There's been another person reported missing. Another tax attorney."
"Okay. So, that pretty much confirms that taxes are somehow the connection in all of this. Although exactly how is unclear. For instance, unless the unsub used different attorneys in different tax years, the relationship between the two missing tax attorneys may or may not be coincidental. Unless there's another aspect to this that we're…."
"Reid."
"…missing. But that would mean we need to connect the IRS agents and the tax attorneys in some other way, and the odds of that are…"
"Reid." More forceful now. The way he sounded when he wanted Reid to cease and desist his ramblings. Reid recognized it.
"Sorry. What is it?"
"Reid….the newly missing tax attorney…..it's William Reid. It's your father."