The Congressional Inquest Begins

Hotch felt no sympathy towards the men who attended the party where Lula stripped and did a pole dance. They got what they deserved. Now the Congressional party leaders wanted Lula investigated as if she was to blame for what happened. This was to divert attention from what had happened. Many of the voters were outraged that public funds were used for the forum and were used to pay Lula to entertain them. The tactic of investigating Lula made many people angry.

It made Reid very nervous. It wouldn't be long before they found out that Lula had lived in the house with Reid when he was home from college and that Reid sold her the house when he was 18 years old. He knew where this story line would be going. He would be dragged into it. He debated over whether to tell Hotch. Finally he decided that he'd better tell him before someone else did.

The rag paper the next morning had a picture of Reed on the Cover, "FBI profiler has torrid Teen-Age Love Affair with Lula, the Stripper." When Reid walked into the building, all eyes were on him. He knew why. Hotch didn't say anything to him yet but the look on his face said it all.

Reid later read the article and couldn't believe what he was reading. A confidential source had told the newspaper that Reid and Lula were seen having sex in the swimming pool while his mother was passed out on the floor drunk. Another story said that wild parties took place at the home. It also claimed that Reid's mother entertained men at her home at all hours of the night.

Hotch had checked this out and all these stories were untrue. There was no swimming pool at Reid's house, nor were their wild parties at the house. Lula never brought her stripper role home with her. This stayed at the strip club. Hotch had no doubt a congressional staffer from one of the Congressmen attending the party gave this information out. Who it was would be difficult to determine as all of these particular Congressmen played dirty politics.

Congressman Martha Barnson was one of the few members of Congress that Hotch respected. She came from his district and she was a classmate of his. She had attended the Family-Values conference as well as several other women. These women had no clue that this was going on and Congressman Barnson figured it out. The party was in the wee hours of the morning and it was in a ballroom at the hotel which was in a private VIP area that they didn't know existed. The FBI was investigating the matter which was why Hotch was in the Congresswoman's office.

Congresswoman Barnson was shocked when Hotch told her that he was not surprised by the behavior of some of the Congressmen at the Conference. Her jaw almost dropped to the floor when he told her about the antics of some of the Congressmen of his father's day. These were people that both of them knew growing up. Most of these men were now deceased but this type of behavior had been going on at this yearly conference ever since its inception nearly 30 years ago.

"My father had cheated on my mother for years. Everyone knew about it. She coped by drinking and trying to kill herself. The thing was, Martha, my dad would badmouth his friends like you wouldn't believe. He was no better than they were. It's one thing to preach family values. Living it is more important than preaching it all the time. Of course, it one got caught, the others would either try to cover it up or make excuses for their friend."

Congressman Barnson knew about Hotch's father. So did everyone else in the small Virginia town which was an hour outside of DC know? Several times when the Congresswoman went out to dinner with her mother and step-father, they often saw Hotch's father at their favorite restaurant with another woman. Never took his wife out to dinner but always took other women out to dinner. Her mother who was the first Congresswoman in the state of Virginia thought this behavior was disgusting.

"Can you imagine what would have happened to my mom and a group of her friends had hired a male stripper or she had cheated on my step-father or she had stepped out of line in any way?"

She paused for a moment.

"She would have been ruined, finished done; people would say that she was terrible. I would have been considered a terrible mother, I could go on and on but I wouldn't."

Former Congresswoman Hannah Dove had walked into her daughter's office. She had overheard most of the conversation. She had never believed the stories that Hotch's father told about the mother being mentally unstable. She saw right through him. She knew having been briefly married to a man who was verbally abusive towards her and then left her with a year old daughter and no money. He had also taken her vehicle and left his dirty old truck which didn't work. The rent hadn't been paid, so the Congresswoman was out on the street. Barely 18 years old, the Congresswoman's prospects for a better life for herself and daughter looked very grim.

While trying to find him to get child support, Hannah had met a man who helped women like her. After a year of dating him, she had married him. His wife had died a couple of years before and he had a daughter who was 10 years old than Martha. The two women had become rather close the last 10 years or so. Martha was in his mid 40's; Claire was in her mid 50's.

This was just part of the story.

"Well, I will going off to interview Lula. "

Lula sat in the Congressional investigation office in a defiant mode. She couldn't believe that she was being investigated. The lies that were said about her and Reid, the lies in the newspapers, she couldn't believe it.

Surprise was the reaction that Lula had when she saw Congresswoman Barnson come in. She had expected one of the Congressmen to interview her. Or one of the matrons in the Senate or Congress.

"I think you know what I'm here."

"Yes, I do. I think that the Congressmen need to be investigated. After all, they invited me and they sought me out."

"Well, that's what we need to find out. First of all, tell me about your relationship with Spencer Reid."

"It was never sexual. I was walking around and notice him lying in the street. He had been beaten up and robbed. I called the police. I stayed with him. I lied to the police saying I was his sister. He was treated then released. I went to his house. I knew that he wasn't the type who was going to rape or beat me. Spencer was 16 and was at home from college. His mother needed someone to look after her which I did. When he was 18, he had to put his mother away, so he sold me the house. I lived in the house for about a year and then sold it. There was never any relationship between me and Reid. We never had sex or any type of sexual contact. This was the first time in my life that I could sleep at night knowing that I wasn't going to be beaten up or sexually assaulted while sleeping. But you wouldn't know what that would be like would you, worrying about what someone's going to do to you if you sleep. Wondering when you were going to be beaten or raped. You've never been in that types of world have you…..

Senator Barnson debated over whether to tell her story to Lula. Some members of Congress knew about it, but no one spoke about it. It was a taboo subject.

"True, Lula, I came from a good family. I was never physical, verbally or sexually abused by my mother or dad (actually he was step-father but he was more like a dad than a step-dad) or Clara (my sister, technically step-sister but I consider her to be my sister) or anyone else for that matter until I was 17 years old... When I was 17 years old, I did a very stupid thing. Two friends and I decided to go to the mall one Saturday morning. We hitchhiked to the mall (our parents wouldn't allow us to drive there) and got there safely. Going home was a different matter. We got into a car with a man who would change our lives forever. So yes Lula, I've seen the devil face to face and I've had evil stare me straight in the eye. I was lucky because I survived it."

Lula jaw nearly dropped.