.
"Is it Reid?" Prentiss asked. Her voice sounded hollow.
Gideon pushed his phone into his pocket and avoided her eyes, not ready yet to see another's fear when his own was so sharp. "He doesn't know. Some college kids spotted the body at low tide while out on a boat. The divers haven't recovered it yet."
"I'll go." Hotch said.
"No." The word was sharp and he paused, forcing his anger down. "We still need to talk to Coffman and Price."
"You're too emotionally involved."
"And you're not?" He looked Hotch in the eyes. "I need to do this."
After a pause, Hotch nodded. "Take Emily with you."
-o0o-
Horsfall Beach, Coos Bay, Oregon
The clouds were black over the beach, dark and foreboding, cutting out the sun and casting the dunes into shadow. The wind whipped fiercely, churning up the sea into magnificent peaks and breakers, wild and untamed. The air tasted of salt spray and static.
Lyons watched the two agents walk towards him. Their faces were frozen into masks, their steps stiff and rigid. He remembered times when he too had cloaked himself in that cold professionalism and knew that beneath the still surface they were both terrified.
The agents stopped beside him.
Gideon's eyes were full of pain. "You were right." He murmured sadly. "It's a beautiful beach."
Lyons heard himself apologise. He had never wanted them to see the bay under these circumstances. "The divers are just bringing him out now." He said and pointed out to sea.
Amid the waves a small RHIB made its way to shore.
-o0o-
Gideon's eyes followed the small boat as it came closer, skipping and lurching over the waves. He could feel every sickening thud of his heart as he watched its progress. Rain began to fall, heavy against his skin, tracking down his cheeks like tears. It felt like hours passed and yet it was too soon when the boat stopped in the shallows.
The divers got out, hefting a body bag. They carried it between them as they waded through the surf. A few metres above the shore line, they lowered their burden onto the sand.
Gideon could see a pale thin arm…
No…
A flash of brunette hair…
God no…
Lyons knelt down and pushed the bag aside, revealing the body's face.
Gideon stifled a sound and pushed his hands into his hair. He turned away, overwhelmed by a sudden jumble of noise and brightness that rendered everything else quiet and distant.
Beneath it all he heard Emily's voice. "It's not Reid."
And Gideon heard something in her tone and suddenly realised what the sensation clawing at his heart was.
It was relief.
-o0o-
The wipers on the SUV worked at full speed, but Hotch could barely see the road. The rain was coming down so heavy that all traffic had been forced into a snails crawl. He heard Morgan's cell ring but didn't dare take his concentration away from driving to listen in.
But he didn't need to hear the words to understand it was good news. Or at least, not the news they feared.
Morgan hung up just as a thread of lightening lit up the sky.
"The body wasn't Reid."
His reply was drowned under the roll of thunder. "Thank God."
"Gideon and Prentiss are heading out to Bandon to talk to Coffman."
"Let's hope the roads are better for them. This storm is slowing us down and we don't know how much Reid has left."
-o0o-
Coos Bay Police Department
JJ parted the window blinds and looked out at the storm. A flash lit the sky. She blinked at the sudden brightness and began counting. Three seconds later, thunder cracked overhead.
Three miles.
Reid had explained the lag between the light and sound once. She wished she could remember.
Could he hear the thunder?
Was he counting too?
How many seconds passed for him?
For a moment, she was convinced that if she knew the answer to that, she'd know where Reid was.
JJ pulled her fingers out of the blinds, berating herself for wasting time with stupid thoughts. The plastic snapped back into place, locking the storm out.
-o0o-
Price Residence, Florence, Oregon
David Price was a small man, pale and slack shouldered, as if the weight of his life was literally pressing him down. He didn't look physically capable of harming anyone and yet Hotch could see there was a sharpness in his eyes which his placid demeanour didn't entirely hide.
He had made tea and placed a plate of cookies on the coffee table in front of them then calmly answered their questions. He had been alone in the house at the time of Reid's disappearance, he admitted, but he had made a phone call. That sharpness was there in his eyes when he asked if perhaps they could trace it?
Morgan immediately got up, took out his cell and left the room.
Price watched him go, then turned back to Hotch. "I loved my son, in spite of what he was." He said.
He sounded so genuine and perhaps he was, but Hotch remembered Daniel's hospital records. His had been a childhood full of 'accidents' and deprived of the love his father was now professing.
Price gestured at Reid's photo. "May I?"
Hotch handed it over.
"He looks so young." His knuckles were white, fingers holding the edge of the picture too tightly.
"He is young." Hotch said. "But Reid had been with BAU for over a year when he tried to stop your son's suicide. He was an experienced profiler and he knew Daniel better than any of us."
In his minds eyes, Hotch could picture that day as if it was yesterday. The chill of the rooftop, the sound of the wind whistling past the air ducts and the bustle of the city far below, the ugly neon light from a nearby billboard casting everything into stark brights and shadows… And Reid's voice, pitched a little high with nerves, but saying all the right things. It just wasn't enough. Or rather, it was, but it was coming too late, far too late, to make a difference. Daniel had already made the choice.
"If anyone could have saved him, it was Reid."
"Daniel…" but the man got no further, biting down on his lip.
Hotch waited for Price to control himself and after a moment, he handed back the photo. There was a single wet dot on the picture, just above Reid's hairline. Hotch watched it trickle across the doctor's face.
"I didn't take him."
"I've read the transcripts of the enquiry, Mr Price. You made a number of accusations against Dr Reid. I also remember what you said to him outside the courthouse."
"I regret that." Price said.
Morgan returned. "Garcia confirmed there was a call made from this house to Lisa Cormack at 6.47 that lasted 38 minutes."
Price drew himself up as if those words vindicated him.
"Anyone could've made that call." Morgan said pointedly.
"Ask Lisa."
"We will." Hotch said and got up. "Thank you for the tea."
Price saw them to the door, shuffling ahead of them as if he could hurry them out. But they both took their time walking through the house, scanning the rooms that were visible beyond open doors.
As they began down the steps, Price called out. "Mr Hotchner?"
Hotch turned at the bottom.
"When you find him, can you tell him I'm sorry?" There was that sincerity again and yet… "I said some terrible things."
Hotch gave a single nod then walked away.
-o0o-
Coos Bay Police Department
"How did the interview with Coffman go?"
Emily turned at Morgan's voice. She could see a sheen of moisture on his skin and clothes from the walk between the SUV and the precinct. He looked as tired as she felt. "He's been in a wheelchair for the last 2 months. Car wreck." She replied. "Price?"
"Lisa Cormack confirmed their conversation but Garcia can quote you a dozen ways to reroute calls." He shook his head. "Price doesn't fit the profile of a kidnapper."
"Can we trust a profile built purely on speculation?" She asked. "We have a victimology that is based on only one victim, Reid, and we don't have his body to analyse." She saw his eyes dip down at that. "Sorry."
"I know you're frustrated but at the moment, it's all we've got to go on."
Prentiss turned her back on the incident board. The police department looked little different from the dozens of others she'd been in since joining the BAU, full of motion and sound, but she could see the weight of the last few weeks in almost all the detectives faces.
"It's not enough." She admitted.
"We will find him." There was conviction in his voice.
Her eye caught a flicker on the table and she turned to see a window pop up on the laptop. "Garcia."
Morgan leaned forward. "Baby Girl, tell me you got somethin' for us."
"I wish I could." She said softly. "Lakeside PD ID'd the body found at the beach as Martin Rees. He was reported missing a week ago when he failed to return from a fishing trip." A photo appeared in another window, revealing a young man with light brown hair and hazel eyes. "I've been researching a possible connection with Reid but unless you count both their mothers being called Diana, there's no overlap in their lives." She paused. "I know I should be…relieved but… Why do I feel like that's bad news?"
"We really could have used some solid evidence." Prentiss told her.
"I walked past your desks 3 times today." She said. "Each time I did I saw Reid. Just for a second. But when I looked again it was always someone else." She paused. "I don't want to go out there anymore."
-o0o-
Morgan felt Gideon behind him without needing to look and sure enough a few moments later, he settled into the empty chair opposite.
"You should get some sleep." Gideon said. "Look at these fresh in the morning."
After a long pause, Morgan closed the files. "Can't sleep anyway."
Gideon gave a sad smile. "Try."
Morgan sat back in the chair. "We always tell families: don't go out, stay by the phone. I know this is the right thing to do but right now, I just want to grab my keys, get in the car and drive till I find him."
"I know, but the best thing you can do right now to help Reid is to get some sleep."
-o0o-
14 May 2007
Coos Bay Police Department
Morgan dodged around Hotch as he walked quickly and tensely out of the department. The police chief, Hayden Quinn, watched his progress then turned his eyes on Hotch.
"A moment of your time, agent?"
He followed the chief into his office. "I'm cutting your agent a lot of slack right now." He said as he sat behind his desk and indicated the chair opposite.
Hotch remained standing. "I agree with Morgan." He said. "I would ask you to reconsider cutting back this investigation."
"Look, I've had my officers working double time for the last three weeks. They thought with Dean in custody they were finally gonna get to see their families. I can't keep running them at this pace. You know that."
"We all appreciate the efforts you have made."
"Efforts that have got us what?" Quinn pointed out. "We have no real crime scene to examine. There's no sign of abduction. We haven't found a body or any evidence to suggest he's been harmed in any way."
"The CSU found several samples of DNA in Reid's room."
"Most of which are from the hotels staff, and the two that aren't don't appear on CODIS." He replied. "And I wouldn't expect them too. It's a hotel room. Guest come and go all the time. We've talked to everyone at the hotel, at the surrounding businesses, we've even gone door-to-door and there are no witnesses."
"The UnSub clearly had prior knowledge of the area and chose his moment carefully."
"We don't even know if there's an UnSub." He sighed and got up from behind his desk. He moved around to face Hotch, perching on the edge of his desk in a classic 'good cop' pose. Hotch recognised the technique and despised him for it. "Agent, I took a look into your Dr Reid. I read about his abduction by Tobias Hankel. That's a hellva, what do you call it? Stressor?"
"Reid was recovering." Hotch replied, tone filled with ice. "You worked with him. Did he appear unstable to you?"
"Last week I saw the kid scan through an evidence file this thick-" He held up his thumb and finger 2 inches apart, "- in maybe a minute and a half then quote me back, verbatim, the relevant sections. To be honest, I don't know what to think. But I do know if he wasn't FBI, we'd be looking at a young man, recovering from a traumatic assault, in a highly stressful job who has logged more working hours in the last 2 weeks than there's been waking hours. And you and I both know that people with a lot less to deal with walk away from their lives every day in this state."
"But he is FBI."
"Which is why the investigation will continue." He said getting up. "But on regular hours." He went to his office door and opened it, signalling an end to the conversation.
"You're wrong about Reid."
"No, you're wrong about me. I'm trusting to your opinion of your agent and I will ensure his disappearance is properly investigated. But I can't justify working my men into the ground."
Hotch turned to leave.
"I value your input." Quinn said. "But you do not have any authority here."
-o0o-
Lyons stifled a yawn as he turned the pages of a statement. He should have been home hours ago, but had stayed to assist the FBI. He had not been the only cop here to do so. While some of his colleagues had breathed a sigh of relief that the double shifts had come to an end, the majority had wanted to continue.
He dragged his eyes away from the pages and looked over at the team of agents sitting round the table at the far end of the department. Then his view was briefly obliterated as JJ passed in front of him, running at full tilt.
"They've found him." She gasped.
The agents got to their feet. No one asked the question. No one wanted hear it aloud.
She answered anyway.
"He's alive."
.
.
.
.
