Garcia stared at her computer screen blankly, thinking. A ring signaled a new e-mail. She jolted back into reality and looked at the new e-mail. She didn't recognize the address but opened it anyway. She didn't know why but something made her open it. As she clocked read a short note and a link opened up.
I have what you have been looking for, Derek. Open the link and you'll know what.
Garcia opened the link and a video popped up. As it opened on her computer, it also opened on every other computer in the BAU.
"Oh God," she said watching the video.
** *
Meanwhile…
Derek Morgan and Reed sat at a table with Hotch and J.J. They were talking about a recent case they had just finished when the video, with sound, popped up on the computer in the room. The voices were clear and loud. When Morgan heard the voices his head shot to the screen.
"Come on Derek, we have to go, the party is going to be so much fun," the young girl pleaded.
"You know I can't girl. I have to go to Washington for a retreat that weekend," he said as she tugged at his waist and pulled him closer.
"I wish you didn't," she said in the sweetest voice.
"I wish I didn't too, babe, but if I want that job, I've gotta go," he said and she sighed and he leaned in and kissed her. She kissed him back strongly. He held her by the small of her back with one hand and his hand ran through her shoulder length light brown hair. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled away for a moment to look into his eyes and smile before she kissed him again.
"I hate this," she wined and he chuckled.
"Me too, but when you're all done packing you're commin' to live with me. I'll have the house all ready when you get there. You'll love it," he kissed her again.
"I know I will," she smiled sweetly. "I love you,"
"I love you too baby,"
"WILL SOMEONE SHUT THIS OFF!!!" Morgan screamed as he rushed over to the screen and tried to shut it off, but it wouldn't.
"A little touchy Derek," a familiar, yet different, voice said through the screen. "She misses you," The image froze on the screen.
"YOU SHUT UP!!!" he screamed at the screen.
"She's not dead, she's right here. But if you want her back, come and get her. You have forty eight hours before a piece of her ends up at your doorstep. I've been waiting a long time for this. See you soon," his voice stopped and Morgan's fist nearly went through the screen until he heard a familiar female voice screaming.
"DEREK!!! SOMEONE!!! HELP ME!!!" the woman's voice screamed before the video and audio shut off. Morgan crashed to the floor. Tears fell down his cheeks. He hadn't cried this much in years, and no matter how hard he tried the tears continued to fall.
"Get a trace on that, find who sent this," Hotch yelled through the BAU.
"Morgan," J.J. tried to approach him but he shook her off.
"I could have been there, I could have been there. I could have saved her. It's all my fault," he cried. She finally knelt next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. Hotch walked back in and looked at Morgan.
"Who was the girl in that video? When was it taken?"
"Her name is Casey Langston. This was taken on this date, May twenty-ninth, exactly ten years ago at the Delta Phi Neu sorority house, by who I don't know. That's through her south window," he said before breaking into tears again.
"What happened?"
"I had to come to Washington for a job retreate. So I could begin working with the police department, when I got back I got the news that she had gone missing the day before she was due to come and live with me. The police got one ransom call, after that they found a body of a woman burnt to a crisp, no possible way to identify her. They called me in, I identified the necklace the body was wearing which led them to assume it was Casey and searched for the guy but they never found the person so the case went unsolved. I believed for so long that she was dead. I have searched for her killer and her since that day, I knew the body wasn't hers. Every lead I have had has gone sour but I never gave up, now this,"
"Do you think it is possible that she is still alive?" Reed asked.
"After ten years, it's slim," J.J. said.
"But we have to try to find her," Hotch said. "We will find her Morgan, if she is still alive, we will not rest until she is safe," he assured.
"We were engaged, and she was pregnant," he said as Hotch exited the room. "With my child," he added. Hotch looked at him with the utmost sympathy.
"We will find her," he said as he walked out of the room. Morgan sat there for a few moments before following.
"Hotch," he said walking into Hotch's office.
"We'll find her," Hotch said.
"It's my fault that this happened," he said.
"Why would you say that?"
"I identified the body as hers, a few days later, I got a message that she was still alive. I've been searching for ten years. Why give a deadline now?" he asked strongly and Hotch shrugged.
"Did she have any enemies?"
"Many, she was the most popular person at the collage. President of the sorority, top of her class, beautiful. And dumb enough to fall for a guy like me," he said and Hotch shook his head.
"Why do you say that?"
"I promised her that I would keep her safe, no matter what," he said. "I broke that promise,"
"Keep her safe?"
"She had been scared, not to long before she went missing,"
"Why?"
"She had that feeling, the one where you think someone's always watching you. She was getting really jumpy," he said taking a seat. "Someone was scaring her. Scaring her enough that I had to stay with her in the sorority house. She refused to be alone,"
"Did you think anything of it?"
"Yeah, she was freaking out. I thought it might just be one of my idiotic frat brothers playing a prank. She was popular, that attracted weirdo's," he said and Hotch sighed, also taking a seat.
"We should head to the collage, see if we can find anything, talk to the police who were on the investigation," he said. "We'll leave in an hour," he said.
"Hotch, if she's out there, we have to find her and the person that took her for this long," he said with a strong, angry voice.
"We will,"
XXX - one hour later
Morgan sat in a chair by himself staring at a picture and listening to music. Emily walked over and sat in front of him. He looked up momentarily and looked back down, pulling one earphone out at the same time. He motioned for her to come sit next to him, she did, and he handed her the earphone. She placed it in her ear and a beautiful love song began to play. It wasn't a professional song, it was a soft acustic but the voice was strong, perfect.
"That's her?" Emily asked softly, he nodded and ran a finger over her face.
"This is her music," he said plainly.
"She's amazing," Emily said. "and beautiful," she said looking at the picture.
"She didn't deserve this," he said shaking his head.
"No one ever does," she assured. "But this is not your fault," she said. Hotch looked over and stood up, moving over to the seat in front of Morgan.
"Can I see?" he asked as Morgan handed him the picture.
"I can never listen to this without tearing up. She wrote these for me, these were her words to me. Her way to say what she couldn't say in person," he said.
"Morgan, plug it in to the auxiliary plug, so we can all hear. Their might be a clue in the music as to who she thought it was," he said. Morgan plugged it in and her voice filled the room.
An hour later, they landed at the airport near the collage.
"Derek Morgan, I never thought I would see you around here again," a tall, slender, raven haired man said walking up to the team.
"Professor Ravenwood," Morgan said, shaking the man's hand.
"What brings the FBI to this part of the world," he said, Morgan smiled at the man's dry sence of humor.
"Casey,"
"You're old fiancee that was killed ten years ago,"
"We have reason to believe that she is still alive," Hotch said walking up to the man.
"We need to see the sorority house and the place where she was taken," Rossi said following the man to the sorority house, which was not very far away.
"I never thought I would be at this place again," Morgan sighed staring at the familiar building. He walked up to the door, the team followed, and knocked.
"Welcom to the Delta Phi Neu sorority house, I'm Candy, the president, how may I help you," a perkey twenty year old blonde woman said opening the door. "OMG, you're the famous Derek Morgan. What brings you to this house?" she asked. Morgan tried hard not to blush a bit.
"We're here about the former president, Casey Langston. We have reason to believe that she is still alive and we have to revisit the original case. My we come in?" Hotch said and Candy nodded. Morgan hesitated before walking in, the house brought back so many memories.
"Casey was the best president this sorority has ever had. We all try to live up to her standards. Though that is very hard to do,"
"Why is that?" Ried asked.
"Ooh well arn't you cute," the girl squeeked, Ried blushed. "She was near perfect, never did anything wrong. Loved by all,"
"Obviously not," Rossi said walking over to a table that held old sorority pictures. "Is she in any of these?"
"Any and all," the girl chirped. "We love Casey, def the best president," she said.
"You actually dated one of these girls?" Reid, Emily and J.J. asked at the same time.
"Casey was different, not as perkey, or strange," he said and the three of them smiled.
"May we see the room she was in?"
"Okey Dokey," she said leading them up the stone starecase and to the largest room in the building.
"The presidents room," Morgan said softly as Candy opened the door.
"The video was taken from the south window. How was the room set up?" Hotch asked.
"Basically the same, which is scary," Morgan said as he looked around the room everything looked almost exactly the same, with more pink.
"You two stood there, the camera would have been comming from this direction," Hotch looked out the south window. Not to far away was the Frat house window.
"No dobut that the video feed was comming from the fraternity house," Hotch said, Morgan walked over to the window.
"That doesn't make any sence though. The only window that can even remotly see into this one is my old one," he said pointing to the other house. "After I left the doors were locked. The doors were locked eariler that same day," he added.
"Emily, Reid, go over to the Frat house, see how much you can see over here from that room,"
"The presidents room,"
"President,"
"I never said I wasn't popular too in Collage," he said as the two walked out.
"Who else had access to your room?"
"No one, Only the president has the key. It's passed over to the vice president when the president leaves, no sooner. I passed it over the next morning," Just then hotch's phone rang.
"Reid," he said into the reciever.
"We're in the room, there's not much you can see from here. Definatly not enough to get that good of a video feed,"
"What about the roof?"
"We'll check that out now. Is it possible that the camera was put on the outside of the window, in a plant or something?"
"Were there any plants or trees outside of the window?"
"No,"
"Not likely," he said. There was a short pause.
"We're on the roof. You can get a perfect video feed from here, though not as steady as the video we saw. The UNSUB either had a very steady hand or enough knowledge of the two bulidings to place the camera where it would get a perfect feed and not move,"
"You two keep checking that out," Hotch hung up.
"Where was she taken?"
"The football field," he said and Hotch nodded.
"How far away is it from here?"
"Not far, a ten minute walk, two minute drive," he said.
"I'll call for a few cars to pick you up, should be a few minutes," Professor Ravenwood said walking out of the room.
"Who do you believe took her?" J.J. asked.
"Everyone, expecially the Frat brothers were angry about my proposal to her. They all wanted a piece, and knew they couldn't have one. Everyone wanted her," he said shaking his head. J.J. picked up her phone and called Garcia.
"I need you to get a list of every Fraternity brother that was in the Fraternity house from the time Casey first came to the collage to when she went missing," J.J. said
"Already on it,"
"And check for criminal records or anything that could point them out as a suspect," she said.
"Anything else?" Garcia asked.
"No, just work on that for now,"
"How's Morgan?"
"Hanging in," she said.
"I wish there was more I could do right now,"
"Trust me, this helps tremendusly," she hung up the phone.
"Cars are here," Candy called from downstairs.
"Thanks Candy, we really appriciate your help," Morgn said shaking her hand.
"Anything to help the famous Derek Morgan and Casey Langston," she smiled as the team walked away and got into the cars. They headed to the football field and over to the benches.
"Where was she taken?"
"Around the benches," Morgan said. "She was on the phone with me minutes before she was taken. Said she wanted to say good bye to the field, there were so many happy memories here and she didn't want to let them go," he sat down on the bench and held his head in his hands. "I should have been here," he said shaking his head. "I never should have left her,"
"You didn't know this was going to happen,"
"Why was she even out here alone? She hated being alone outside. She was scared," he mumbled. Emily sat next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "She would have never come out alone any other time, why that time? Why?"
"You think someone set this up?" Hotch asked.
"It's possible, I know Casey. She would have never been alone any other time. Unless someone was around...," his voice trailed off. "Someone else was here, and she knew it," he said. "Someone had to be,"
"You think the person who took her was here with her,"
"She never would have been alone," he muttered. "Someone was here, She was brave, she knew the person watching her was here, she came to confront them. She was trying to be stong and find out who was giving her nightmares. She wanted to get it over with. She knew they were here," he muttered so fast that barely anyone but Reid caught it.
"If she wanted to confront the person, even if she was scared. It's possible she already knew the person, possibly someone she trusted," he said and Morgan looked at him.
"Where are you going with this, kid?"
"She knew her attacker, well enough to be alone with him. She trusted him," he said walking around the benches. "Was their any sign of a strugle?" he asked.
"Yeah, in the police reports it stated that the bench was overturned, some of the grass was ripped up and there were traces of blood all over the area. All of it was hers," he said looking around.
"She knew them, yet she struggled,"
"She jumped whenever I tried to get close to her. Even just to talk. She was scared...and someone knew that," he said looking around again. "Someone had to know that she was acting that way, they wanted the struggle, if not they could have taken her when she was sleeping, or not prepared," he added and looked at Hotch.
"Come on, we have to talk to the police station and have the case re-opened," Hotch said leading the team back to the cars and to the police station.
To be continued...