The Strange Case of Dr. Reid and Ms. Green Chapter Three
Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable…Every step towards the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals ~Martin Luther King Jr.
Police Headquarters
Hotch stood with his arms crossed in the small office the station had provided them, staring at the photos that the ME had sent over. The hearts obviously signified care for the child, but if that's the case, why kill him? Even after all these years, there were some things he would never understand, especially killing a child.
Hotch was just about to give in to his desires and call Jack as his phone started buzzing in his hand. With a sigh he hit answer and put the blackberry on speaker phone before sitting it on the table so Rossi and Prentiss could hear. "You've got me, Rossi, and Prentiss," he said, leaning his hands on the table.
"Yeah, we've got identified bodies and six hysterical parents down here. The first one died a month and a half ago, they ID'd it as our first victim, Jason Riddle. The second died a month ago, and his parents ID'd him as Anthony Thompson. And the last one that was killed this morning was ID'd as Michael Jones, last week's victim. Which means-,"
"We have one more body to find," Emily finished for him as Rossi taped up the pictures of the dead beneath the corresponding pictures of the living. "All of the times of death overlap with when the next victim was taken."
"So, she isn't killing them until she has a replacement," Rossi said contemplatively as he stared at the pictures. "But why replace them?"
"There must be some trait that the boys either do or don't have that makes her think they aren't good enough." Hotch rubbed his tired brown eyes as he plopped into one of the chairs.
"Well, whatever that is, let's hope that Dylan has what she wants. Dr. Smith took a closer look at the bodies and Michael had the most signs of physical abuse out of all of them. There were hand shaped bruises on both sides of his ribs and other smaller bruises scattered on the rest of his body. It looks like she's escalating." Derek sighed
A look of determination came over Hotch as he stood. "Prentiss, you come with me, we're going back to the dump site in the park to look for Marcus Keighton's body. Rossi, you go to Ms. Green's house and wait for Reid to get back with her. While you wait call Garcia and tell her to search school rosters for that little girl. Then I want you two to go find her and get her to talk. Find out who this woman is. Don't back off until you get the information you need, if she is escalating we need to find her as soon as we can."
Green Home
"Thanks again, Dr. Reid," Ashley said, gesturing to the now empty coke bottle sitting in the cup holder.
"I-It's not a problem," he stuttered, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "And you don't have to call me Doctor, just Spencer is fine."
"Okay…Spencer," Ashley blushed and looked down at her hands.
Turning off the car and pulling the keys from the ignition, Spencer jumped from the car and ran to the other side, once again holding the door open for Ashley. Noticing the black SUV parked behind the car, Spencer signalled to Rossi to wait a little longer as he escorted Ashley to her front door. "Here," he said as he handed her the car keys and one of his cards, "You can call me if you want. I mean, if you have any, uhm, questions."
Smiling slightly at his nerves, Ashley accepted the keys and card, letting her hand linger in his even after she had a grip on the items, "I'll definitely be calling you. And, I just wanted to say thank you again, I know I'm not exactly easy to deal with." Then she hesitated before adding, "Is Dylan going to be okay? I know I've asked you a thousand times, but…"
"Well, it looks like the person taking the boys, isn't killing them until she has some one to replace them with. So, as long as no one else goes missing, I think your son is safe. This unsub cares to much about the child she is trying to replace, she won't hurt your son unless she finds a better candidate."
For the first time that day, Spencer caught a ghost of Ashley's real smile. And his thoughts only came up with one word to describe it, breath-taking. "Thank you, Spencer. Bye," she said as the smile disappeared from her face while she walked through her front door. Spencer could only imagine what that smile would look like with out all that pain behind her eyes.
"Garcia just called me with a school. We have to get to Joppa View Elementary, the girls name is Katie James," Rossi told Spencer as her got in the passenger seat. Spencer just nodded as they pulled away from the curb.
Body Dump Site
"Excuse me, do you have a cell phone?" a young girl, probably sixteen or seventeen, asked Hotch and Emily almost immediately after they stepped out of the car. She looked to be on the verge of having a panic attack as she ran towards them.
"What's wrong?" Emily grabbed the girl by the shoulders and forced her to meet her gaze.
"In the woods…" the girl sobbed and pointed one shaking finger to the trees immediately behind her.
"That was just outside the search area," Hotch stated, angry that they had missed the last body by just a few feet. He left Emily with the teenager while he went to call for the necessary assistance.
"Come on, relax," Emily soothed, opening the door to the SUV and allowed the girl to sit sideways on the back passenger seat. Once the girl had gotten a hold on herself, she began asking questions, "I'm SSA Emily Prentiss. What's your name, sweetie?"
"Casey," the girl sniffled, comforted by Emily's soothing tone.
"Now what happened? Did you see something?" Emily knew damn well what she saw, but she figured it would be best to ask any way, just to double check.
"A little boy, one of the ones from the news," she sobbed before breaking into hysterics all over again.
Emily looked over at Hotch, who was standing by the edge of the trees, and gave him an affirmative nod. "Alright, Casey, try to calm yourself down. Agent Hotchner and I are going to go look at what you found. You stay here; more officers will be here to talk to you more okay?" Casey just nodded as Emily pulled on a pair of latex gloves and walked away.
Joppa View Elementary
"Can I help you?" A large man, who greatly resembled Jamie Hyneman of Myth busters but with hair and no beret, asked as Spencer and Rossi walked through the front doors of the elementary school.
"SSA David Rossi, this is SSA Dr. Spencer Reid. We're with the Behavioural Analysis Unit. We need to talk to one of your students." The men all shook hands after the agents had shown him their badges.
"I'm Stephen Arnold, vice principal. What student are you looking for?"
"Katie James," Spencer replied as they followed Mr. Arnold back towards the class rooms.
"Ah, yes, I know Katie." He sounded tired just talking about her.
"Does she cause a lot of trouble?" Rossi asked as they neared what was labelled as the fifth grade wing.
"No, just the opposite, she's the model student. It's just, her mother is a problem. Her younger brother, Andrew, died a little over two months ago," the two agents exchanged a knowing look and Spencer quickly jotted this fact down on his note pad, "and ever since then her mother has been pulling her out of school so often that at this point it would be impossible to pass her. Let's just say, it hasn't been easy on anybody."
Finally, they reached what sounded to be a math room. "Excuse me," Mr. Arnold said, poking his head through the doorway, "Could I please borrow Katie James?"
A moment later, a small girl walked out, followed by a chorus of "oooh"s from within. Dave immediately got down to Katie's level and had a friendly smile on his face as he talked to her, "Hi, Katie. My name is Dave Rossi, and this is my friend Spencer Reid. Do you mind if we talk to you for a little while?"
Silently, the little girl smiled and nodded. "You can use my office," Mr. Arnold offered before walking back the way they came. Spencer was caught off guard as the little girl skipped up to his side and snatched his hand. Silently she smiled up at him as she continued skipping at his side.
Dave thanked Mr. Arnold politely after being escorted into his office and waited until the door was closed to speak to Katie, "Did you know the my friend Spencer here does magic tricks?" Katie shook her head from side to side, signalling that she didn't. "Why don't you give her your card, Spencer?"
Smiling at Katie and tucking his brown hair behind his ears, he pulled a business card from inside his pocket and held it towards her. However, just as she was about to grab it, he pulled his hand away and threw the card up at the ceiling. "Check your back pocket."
"Wow! How'd you do that?" Katie looked down at her hands in amazement after doing as she was told and producing Spencer's card from her own pocket.
"I've been asking him that for years, he still won't tell me," Dave said as both men took seats across from her.
"Katie, we want to talk to you about your brother Andrew. Can you tell us what happened to him?" David asked, keeping his voice friendly, trying not to overly upset her.
"Mommy got mad at him and he went away. But she said she would fix it, and I get to help her. I helped her get him away from the other ladies that took him from her. At first I thought they weren't him, but mommy got mad at me when I said that, so now I believe her." The beauty of children, they are almost always brutally honest.
"What does she say, when she goes to try and get your brother back?" Spencer asked leaning closer to her.
"'I won't lose him again. You'd better do it right this time.'" Katie winced slightly as she quoted her mother.
"Katie," Dave started, trying to tread carefully, "Those boys that you help your mom take, they aren't Andrew. The one she has right now, his real name is Dylan Green. Now his mommy misses him very much. Can you tell us where he is?" Katie remained silent and was no longer looking the agents in the eye.
"Katie, is Dylan at your house? You need to tell us, he isn't safe, Katie," Spencer added.
"My mommy is a good mommy, she won't hurt him again," Katie was suddenly angry and turned away from the men to look out the window.
"I'm going to go call Hotch and let him know what we found," Spencer said quietly to Dave as he stood to leave the office.
It only took two rings before Hotch answered, "Reid, did you and Rossi get anything out of the girl?"
"Yes and no. She has admitted to taking the boys but her mother has her convinced that they are really her brother Andrew; he died about two months ago. It sounds to me like the death of a child was her mother's breaking point, and now she's forcing her own delusions on Katie. It also sounds like she is abusive. She said that Andrew only goes away after her mother becomes angry with him."
"It makes sense. She feels guilt over killing her son, so she finds a look alike to replace him, but she can't control her anger anymore and keeps killing the children and has to find a new replacement." Hotch sighed before continuing, "Call Garcia and get more on the mother. Where she works, where she lives, any close relatives she might have in the area. Any place she could be hiding Dylan, I want its address. Keep pressing the girl, find out where her mother is today and once you find out you and Dave go immediately. "And with out another word Hotch hung up.
Well, there is the long awaited chapter three. I'm sorry it took so long to get out. My house just recently got internet back, so it was nearly impossible for me to get on here to update. But I would like to thank everyone that has reviewed this story. And an extra special thanks to T. GLover for being my beta :) You guys are all super awesome!
Well, I hope you liked this chapter despite how long I made you wait. Please, take a few seconds to review, I would really appreciate it.