Chap 3

Prentiss stared at the hotel in front of us. Or at least the small brick building a young couple had claimed to be a hotel. It was run down and looked more like a low budget prison, but considering it was three in the morning, Prentiss had no room to complain.

Once they woke up from an uncomfortable sleep, spotted three spider and two beetles inside the hotel room and discovered a stain that looked suspiciously like blood, they headed down to the police station. There were four officers there, three men and one woman, all of them glared openly at them as they walked in. Prentiss looked around, there were three rooms, the main one we were in, a door on the left labeled: CHIEF CRAINYARD and another door labeled: JANITOR.

"You're the BAU, right," one man asked, slouched over a desk with graying hair.

"Yes," Hotch introduced, " This is SSA Prentiss, Morgan, Jareau, Rossi and Doctor Reid."

The man with the graying hair introduced us to the officers, "Kent, Warden, Douglass and I'm Officer James Crainyard."

"Nice to meet you, Officer Crainyard. Is there an area where my team and I could work?" Hotch asked.

Crainyard gestured to a table in the middle of the room, surrounded by four chairs.

Prentiss almost sighed, thinking back to her hotel room and the cramped work place. This would be a long case.

"Alright, Reid and JJ, start drawing up a preliminary profile, Morgan and Prentiss interview the parents of Samantha Wong and Rossi, you and I will be at the scene of the crime," Hotch directed. Everyone nodded and proceeded to do their task.

Morgan and Prentiss walked up the stairs to the Wong's house. Prentiss rang the doorbell and they waited for Samantha's parents to open the door. A small Asian fifty or so woman opened it up.

"Hello, Mrs. Wong. We're the FBI and on the case of your daughters death. Could we ask a few questions please?" Morgan asked.

At the mention of death, Mrs. Wong began crying.

"Yes, come in," she said through tears.

The house was like any suburban house should look like. There were photos of the family, a few paintings and various feel better cards scattered around the house. Nothing stood out at all in the little house.

Mrs. Wong led them towards the living room.

"Harold, the police are here," Mrs. Wong called in between sobs.

A middle-aged man came down the stairs hurriedly.

"Hi, We're Agents Morgan and Prentiss," Morgan introduced.

"I'm Harold and this is my wife, Jie," the man, Harold introduced. He had pale skin, dark brown hair and eyes to match, although they were looking a little red from crying.

"You were the ones to last see Samantha, right?" Morgan asked.

"Yes, she was running around trying to find the perfect outfit to meet her friends at the Bronze." Harold told the Agents.

"Did anything seem strange about her that night?"

"No, she had exams in a few weeks so she studied a while before going to the Bronze," Harold responded again.

Moran nodded, before asking a few more routine questions. Soon enough they were on they're way out, with nothing odd sticking out at all.

But on the way, a photo caught Morgan's eye. It was a party of some sort with around twenty or so eighteen year olds in it. They were all smiling and holding up a ribbon of sort, except for the short blond girl who caught Morgan's eye. She was holding up an umbrella covered in sparkles.

"What's this?" Morgan asked.

Mrs. Wong smiled a bit, "Oh that's Jessica's prom photo, from 1999. They got everyone who won an award in it," Mrs. Wong pointed at a small girl in the front row, "That's Jessie. She won Best Smile that year."

At the word 1999, Morgan and Prentiss looked at each other, both thinking the same thing: The Sunnydale Graduation.

"Do you think we could talk to Jessica, maybe?" Prentiss asked, taking the photo.

"Sure, I think she's gardening right now," Harold told them.

"Thank you."

They lead the Agents to the garden, where the girl from the photo was gardening.

"Hey, Jessie, the FBI are here, they want to ask you some questions, okay," Harold told her.

Jessie nodded, before standing up and introducing herself.

"So Jessie, you won best smile right?" Morgan asked.

"Um, yes, why?" she responded.

"Well we were wondering, since you were at the graduation ceremony of 1999, do you know why so many people died there?" Prentiss asked, as gently as she could.

"It, it was that explosion, you know, it blew everyone up," Jessie responded, scratching her neck.

Morgan figured she was lying immediately. She avoided eye contact and scratching the neck was an unconscious gesture of lying.

"You're lying," Morgan accused.

Jessie straightened up, "Sorry, its just that, well, our towns weird, you know, weird stuff happens."

"30% of your year died, Jessie," Prentiss told her.

"I know, it's the lowest mortality rate our school ever had and that was only because of," Jessie stopped mid sentence.

"Of who?" Prentiss asked.

Jessie looked at the ground, shifting her balance from foot to foot. Deciding, Morgan thought, but what about?

"Buffy," Jessie said it regrettably.

"Buffy who?" Morgan pressed.

"Um, Buffy Summers, I think. Here, give me the photo," she told Prentiss. Prentiss gave her the photo and Jessie pointed to the blond girl that caught Morgan's eye before.

"What did she win?" Prentiss asked.

"Class Protector Award, the only one ever issued," Jessie responded.

Morgan shoot Prentiss a look of is that even a real award?

Prentiss shrugged, "Thank you for talking to us, Jessie."

"You're looking for the thing that killed Samantha, right?" Jessie asked.

"Of course," Morgan responded.

"You can't fight it, you know," Jessie told them.

"If we can't fight him, than we will have to talk to him. Don't worry Jessie, we will find the guy that killed her," Morgan assured her.

"No, you don't understand, it will find you!"

"What do you mean?" Prentiss asked.

Jessie frowned, "Just stay in at night, after the sun goes down, its not good to go out."

"Alright then, bye Jessie," Morgan said and they walked away from the house.

Once they were in the car, Prentiss started asking questions.

"Did you hear her, Jessie called the killer an it, which is common enough for family of the victim, but she said 'thing' too. I've never heard that before."

"Yeah, this is getting weird. Also, Class Protector Award, I've never heard of that award before."

"Yeah well we better check in with JJ and Reid, they'll want to hear this."