Chapter 2: Meet The Gideon's

"Hey JJ," Emily greeted her fellow female agent as she entered the back conference room at the NYPD that the BAU team had taken over for their purposes. "Where is everyone?"

JJ who was busy laying out all the crime scene photos and evidence that they had on various bulletin boards didn't bother to turn around before answering.

"Morgan and Reid are still at the current crime scene with the police chief," she said tacking up a picture that was a close up on one of the victims face. "Gideon said he would check out the possible lead that missing person's report gave us, he took Hotch with him."

"Oh," was all Prentiss could think to say. She sat down then at a loss as what to do; it was not often that she was told to remain behind at the local precinct. Usually she was out in the field interviewing people. Emily sat there twiddling her thumbs and watching JJ go about her business.

"Emily," JJ finally said stopping what she was doing and turning around. "Do you have anything better to do?" Prentiss shook her head. "Well then why don't you do me a favor and go through some of those case files in front of you."

"Alright," she agreed relieved to have something to do. Even after a couple of months working with the BAU, she was still uncertain about how to act around these people and how she stood with them. It was an old sense of insecurity and low self-esteem that she had never been able to shake, not since puberty.

"So there's defiantly four known victims," she said after perusing the case files for a bit. "Rachel Adams, Cheryl Monroe, Melissa Karter, and Kathryn Olsen," Emily took a picture of the girls and laid them side by side on the table in front of her. "God, they could be quadruplets or sisters at least."

"Yeah, this sicko is pretty particular," Derek Morgan said from somewhere behind Emily. Both women turned around to see Morgan and Reid entering the conference room.

"It should make it easier to identify who his next target is, if we ever find out who the unsub is and how he's finding the grils." JJ said. "You're back early."

"Yeah, Hotch called us," Morgan explained, "he and Gideon are brining in a potential unsub." As if Morgan's words summoned them Hotch and Gideon walked into the bullpen of the NYPD with a young man, who was uncuffed, following them obediently back to the interrogations rooms.

"Is it just me, or does that unsub look a hell of a lot like Gideon?" Prentiss asked her fellow surprised agents. Their eyes locked onto and followed the progression of the three men, everyone speculating about how the shaggy dark haired stranger related to the case. It didn't take long before the four of them went to investigate what was going on.


Aaron Hotchner, watched through the two-way mirror as Gideon interrogated his own son. He had volunteered to handle this investigation, but Gideon had insisted on it being him in there and not Hotch. He listened as Stephan repeated everything he had told them in the pizzeria, only now the conversation was being taped.

Stephan seemed remarkable controlled now, but that didn't surprise Hotch. He seemed to have gotten over the shock of being accused of murder on the car ride from the pizzeria. That had been the most silent car ride Hotch had ever had to endure, and he had been in his far share of them before.

He was even less surprised when the door to the observation room opened and in walked the rest of the BAU team. He waited patiently for someone to say something; in the meantime, he focused on Stephan's story. Nothing about it had changed from the first telling to now, which could mean one of two things. Either he had been telling the truth all along and was innocent or, he had rehearsed everything.

"Hotch," Morgan finally asked, "what's going on?"

"Gideon is interrogating a possible unsub," Hotch replied not bothering to turn around.

"Is that Stephan Nolan the man who filed the missing person's report?" JJ asked.

"Yes, though Nolan was his mother's maiden name, his legal name is actually—"

Hotch had begun to explain but was interrupted by a sounded outburst form Stephan, caused by something Gideon had said. No one heard what Gideon had said, but Stephan's reply was obvious.

"Jesus Christ Dad! You really believe that I'm capable of killing four innocent women, four women that I've never met in my entire life! I had hoped that my father, of all people, would think better of me."

"I am not your father right now Steve," Gideon said remaining calm in the face of Steve's outburst. Like any good profiler would.

"No you're not," Steve replied after a moment, sounding unbelievably hurt. There was silence in both the integration and observation rooms after that.

"His legal name is Gideon, and he's Jason's son," Hotch finished explaining, his expression completely deadpan. He didn't have to look at any of his fellow agents to be able to tell that they were shocked by the news. "He had used his mother's maiden name in an attempt to prevent the report from reaching Gideon's notice."

No one made a reply to that, partly out of being shocked speechless and partly because Gideon had started talking again.

"You really want to prove that you are innocent," Gideon asked his voice reasonable. Stephan merely stared back at the profiler not bothering to answer. "Give me a reason to think she's still alive." Stephan was silent after that ultimatum.

"What 'she' is Gideon referring to?" Reid asked sounded perplexed.

"Matilda Higgins," Htoch answered, "she went missing exactly three years prior to the latest murder. Gideon thinks that her disappearance is the stressor."

"So these are anniversary killings then," Reid murmured to himself, starting to see the pattern. Hotch made no reply, for Stephan finally answered Gideon's ultimatum.

"All right then," he agreed, then looked past Gideon and at the two-way mirror. "Hotch if you don't mind, could you bring me my briefcase. The old man wants proof." Steve leaned back in his chair then and waited patiently.

Hotch hesitated long enough to received a barely noticeable nod of assent from Gideon, then he left the observation room and went to find Steve's black leather briefcase. It didn't take him to long to find it where Steve had been asked to leave it, out in NYPD bullpen.

He brought the messenger bag into the interrogation room and set it up on the metal table in front of Stephan. He smiled his thanks at Hotch before diving into the bag and pulling things out at random.

"I know it's in here," e mumbled to himself as he pulled book after book after notebook out of the bag. Hotch was impressed by the amount of books Steve had crammed into the bag, he counted at least seven and the young professor was still rummaging around in his briefcase. Each book had a more fascinating title than the last. Reid would love to get his hands on some of these, Hotch found himself thinking.

"Ah here we go Dad, here's your proof." Steve finally said handing Gideon a compact little volume. Gideon stared at the brown book that had been handed to him for a moment before reading the title aloud.

"The Howling Death by Mattie Lock," he looked up at his son and shrugged, "what does this prove" he asked. "There's nothing saying that this Lock person is female, let alone her."

"Read the inscription," Steve prompted. Gideon opened the book and flipped to the inscription page.

"To my old ball and chain S.G. no worries life keeps rolling." Gideon shut the book then and looked as if he was going to say something more but Stephan interrupted him.

"If you remember Dad, and you were around long enough to have known this, I use to tease Matilda for watching old Matlock reruns. So much so that I gave her the nickname Mattie Lock, and she promised to use that as her penname if she ever managed to get published."

"That's a weak proof Steve," Gideon told him.

"Well I'll leave it up to you to improve it, after all you are the big time FBI profiler I'm certain that won't be too hard," Stephan said sarcastically and began packing up his bag. "I'm going home now; I voluntarily came in here and let you interrogate me. You don't have any reason compelling enough to keep me here, and if you try I'll press harassment charges." He stood then leaving his father starting at him, the book in question still in his hands.

"Keep the book, Dad, you might need it. Hotch," Stephan, said then holding out his hand to Htochner. "It's always nice seeing you again." Hotch took the offered hand and shook it, knowing that they could afford to let Stephan go, for now. Before leaving, Steve turned back to his father once more.

"Dad, you know where to find me." With that, Stephan Gideon walked out of the interrogation room without a second glance. As Hotch watched the younger Gideon leave, he could not help but think…I will not let Jack's relationship with me turn out like this!


She was sitting at her desk trying to work her way through the worst case of writers block she had had in a long time, when the phone rang. Without thinking about it she took if off the receiver and flicked on the speaker phone.

"Hello," she said her eyes still glued to the blank computer screen in front of her.

"Hey Mattie," the voice of her publisher said over the phone, sounding as usual way to cheerful. "Look we have this promotional deal going on, it's a book signing."

"Sounds interesting Stan," she replied vaguely her attention elsewhere.

"Good! I was hoping you'd be interested. We want to set it up at your old college in Manhattan. "That got her attention; she snapped her head around to glare at the phone as if it was a viper.

"It's a good idea Stan," her voice barely hiding her anger and fear, "but there is no way in hell I'm going back to Manhattan." Without further preamble, she slammed the receiver down and tried to go back to staring at the blank screen. But she was shaking to hard to concentrate on her writers block now.