It all comes together in this one, I promise! Thanks again for the reviews and thanks so much for reading I'm really excited about this story. Hope you enjoy.
Inside Morgan puts the cashier inside the interrogation room and pulls the door shut to leave him in there and let him sweat. Rossi stepped up by Hotch, "How do you want to work this?"
"I want you and Prentiss to interrogate him. I want to see what kind of reaction he has to Prentiss."
"She has been acting weird all day. Her head is in this case but something has to be bothering her."
"I agree with Morgan she has been acting weird. Maybe it's because twenty four of the victims look like her." Reid said.
JJ looks around for Emily and doesn't see her anywhere, "Where is Emily?"
"She was right behind me when we came in."
The team looks around in the mix of police officers and she is nowhere to be seen, neither is Captain Russell.
"I don't see Captain Russell either." JJ said.
Seconds after she said his name he came around the corner of the door way. Hotch walked up to him with the team in tow, "Where is Agent Prentiss?"
"I think I saw her head for the bathroom."
"JJ." Hotch said staring at Captain Russell trying to read through every fiber of his being.
"Yes sir." JJ replied knowing that Hotch wanted her to go straight to the bathroom to check on her. JJ walked hurriedly to the bathroom. She opened the door and looked around. "Emily?" She said going from one stall to the next. Panic rushed over her body. She quickly left the bathroom and went back to where the team was. As soon as she rounded the corner the whole team new by the look on her face, "She's not in the bathroom."
Hotch's stomach sank. A feeling of dread and worry tried to overtake his body, shattering his ability to think rationally and exposing his emotions on how much he did care for her, but he fought it knowing he had to keep his head about him, if in fact she had been taken. "Search every inch of this building inside and out." The team frantically combed through every inch of the building. The police officers joined in their search. When they hollered out her name it was followed by an eerie silence. They searched through every inch of the parking lot. Hotch came by the back door and saw her cell phone. He picked it up and dropped his head. She was gone.
With his gun drawn, pointed at the ground, Morgan came around the corner of the building, "She is nowhere Hotch."
"I know." He said disheartened. "I found her cell phone." Hotch's heart began to race. He had not felt like this since he knew Foyet had contact with Haley. He almost felt guilty that his feelings were so strong for her. He had not realized it before and at the same time began feeling guilty. He put his head back down with his hand on his forehead.
The rest of the team came around the building. They saw the phone in Hotch's hand. "I noticed when I went to check to see if she was in the bathroom that the back door is located by the bathroom. She could have been attacked and drug out the back."
"What do we do Hotch?" Morgan said waiting impatiently for an answer.
"Work a profile and interrogate the cashier it's the only weapons we have to save her life."
Captain Russell rushed out the back door, "Agent Hotchner the cashier is gone! He's not in the interrogation room."
The already agitated Morgan snapped at him, "What do you mean is not there?" Morgan looked to Hotch.
Hotch walked up to Captain Russell which took all of one step, "You mean to tell me out of all the men you have in this police station no one was watching him or saw him walk out of this building! He was our only chance at getting information to help us catch the un-sub! Get every available police officer in the area on the streets and find him!" Hotch commanded. "JJ get in touch with the surrounding PD and have their men on the lookout."
"Yes sir."
"Hotch I'm going with the Captain. I can't sit in that police station knowing Emily is out there and a man is on the run." Morgan told him.
"Fine let me know the second you find out anything."
Reid, Rossi and Hotch were left standing outside, "We need to re-work the profile." Hotch said.
"How much time do you think we have?"
"Reid we don't have time…" Hotch answered as if the question completed annoyed him.
Reid went inside.
Hotch was obviously flustered. His head was in a panic and his emotions were trying to take over. "Hotch?" Rossi asked in a concerned voice, walking closer to Hotch who had his back to him.
"I don't know what I'll do if we lose her." Hotch said more calmly in a quiet tone
"You care a lot about her don't you?" Rossi asked.
"More than I've shown." Hotch replied by looking down almost embarrassed and then he looked up at Rossi.
Rossi put his hand on Hotch's shoulder, "Then let's go find her."
The next few hours they worked tirelessly on the profile, and then around midnight the police officers slowly trickled back in along with Morgan. Just about that time Reid received a call from Garcia. They put her on speaker and the first words out of her mouth were, "Any news?"
"None right now baby girl but you better have some news for us." Morgan responded.
"I went back three years like the genius Dr. Reid requested and came across a car accident that took place in Bitter Sweet, Arizona 6 months ago, involving a Harvey Russell and Rose Russell. Rose's seat broke on impact slamming her against the dash board which broke her ribs, that punctured her lungs, meanwhile Harvey was barely conscious as he held his wife's hand. The police reports states that Harvey could feel the life leave his wife's body. The son was killed by being thrown out of the vehicle because he wasn't wearing his seat belt. Harvey himself had a concussion that caused some minor damage to his brain but was later released without any problems and was back and working three months later at…" She stopped talking, typing frantically to find out where he works she came back with, "…the Bitter Sweet PD."
"Captain Russell?" Reid said, "Garcia do you have a picture of his wife?"
"Yes, my loves I just sent them to your phones."
"Hotch." Morgan said, "She looks just like Emily."
"Find our girl and bring her home safe."
"Thanks, Baby girl we'll let you know something when we do."
"Stay safe." And she was disconnected.
"Where's the Captain?" Hotch asked.
"He is still out there looking." Morgan said.
Rossi looked at the team and said, "I guess it's safe to say he is not coming back."
"Now we know his stressor." Morgan added.
Reid went over to his desk and looked around and as his brain was analyzing he looked around the room and noticed three places where something recently had been taken off the wall. He walked up to a police officer, "What was hanging on the walls?"
"They were beautiful mosaics that Captain Russell had done himself, but after his wife and son died he had to take them down when he came back to work, because when he looked at them he would get dizzy and he said his heart would start beating fast."
Reid's head went to work analyzing all the facts that he just discovered, "Guys! Guys! I got it." He said running back over to the team, "It all makes sense now, the brain injury, the pieces of skin, the pictures missing from the walls, the dizziness, and rapid heartbeat…"
Hotch was growing impatient, "Reid!"
"I believe he is suffering from Stendhal's Syndrome. It's a problem in the brain that causes people to have hallucinations, dizziness, rapid heartbeat and confusion."
JJ had an unbelievable look on her face, "That sounds a little farfetched."
"No just listen, according to the officers a few pictures had to be removed from these walls because he exhibited symptoms of this syndrome and they were pictures he created. I believe he is killing these victims and taking pieces of their skin to create a mosaic of his wife and son. But not just any mosaic the ultimate mosaic that would ultimately create the most realistic hallucination of his wife and son."
"Find his address, we're going to his house." Hotch ordered.
Hotch felt some glimmer of hope, a hope he may see her again and be able to rescue her from this nightmare.
Screams began pulling her out of unconsciousness, when she first opened her eyes to the blinding light they quickly shut back and then began blinking open until they adjusted. When they were fully opened she looked in the direction of the screams, which was past two tables that had young women on each of them and on the third was a young scrawny looking boy. She noticed that Captain Russell was the one inflicting the pain on the young boy; he was the un-sub. "Captain Russell! You don't have to do this!" She yelled at him
"Nice to see your awake Agent Prentiss." He looked back at her and smiled and then turned back around to return to his cutting.
Emily tried again to rationalize with him. "You're a rational person; you don't have to do this! You gain nothing from this!"
The Captain laid his tools down, "Oh but I do." He walked over to the wall that climbed thirty feet high. "You see this, when I look at it I can almost touch them again, you see them they're standing right there." He looked and reached out his hand as if it was desperately holding on to something.
Emily cringed at the wall knowing that each piece placed on there was a piece of someone, an innocent victim. Her skin crawled looking at the partly finished mosaic of a woman and young boy whose faces of human flesh were staring them down. She had seen worse but this bothered her down to her core she looked away from the faces back towards Captain Russell, "But why kill us?"
His mind lost focus by the sound of her voice; he turned and walked over to her bending only inches from her face to say, "So you can suffer the same pain as my wife." He walked back over to the young boy.
It was obvious that his primary focus was his wife and the pain she suffered. Emily looked at the two women lying next to her. Their eyes were filled with fear and they were balling knowing the torture that they were soon to face. The screaming began again. She pulled her arms and feet that were restrained by leather straps. There was no hope in getting free but she kept fighting. She just had to save this young man. She looked over at him, "You're going to be okay, look at me." She said calmly trying to bring his attention away from the torture he was suffering.
The young boy was crying, and writhing in pain as he screamed, "But it hurts so bad, make it stop!"
Emily's eyes glistened with tears, but she didn't let one fall, she couldn't give up, "Hold on. It will be okay, just look at me. I'm right here with you." She pulled harder on her restraints. She turned her attention to the Captain, "Leave him alone!" The Captain again put his tools down and moved his hands towards the boy's neck, she yelled, "Stop! You don't have to do this!" The boy's hands and feet moved fiercely creating loud banging noises on the metal table as he tried fighting for air. All became soon became still.
The only sounds left were the terrifying cries of the young women. Another person dead, for this man's gain, she couldn't stop it, and it was too late. A tear rolled down her cheek. She closed her eyes and Hotch's face flashed through her mind. Oh how she would love for him to come in and sweep her away from all this. She had wondered why all of a sudden was Hotch the one who entered her mind? Has she really suppressed her feelings for him that much, that now in a time where she was completely venerable he was the one she wanted to come save her?
Hope things are a little more clear. Thanks for reading! Please Review and the next chapter will sum it all up. Will Hotch make it in time to rescue her?
