I dropped my head onto the open file on the table, groaning as pain shot through my head. I had been searching through the Georgia police files with JJ since we had been here, and so far it was a waste of time.
"JJ, we really need to narrow this down. At this point, we'll be here forever." I groused, not bothering to lift my head.
"Narrow it down to what?" JJ asked, tossing a file into the discard pile. I lifted my head and frowned at the empty frappuccino cup.
"Ok, well, let's think. The UNSUBs didn't just go straight to murder, without passing Go or collecting $200." I mused, flipping through another file before dumping it into the ever-growing pile.
"What do you mean?" JJ asked and I stopped hunting through the boxes of unsolved cases.
"Well, how did the UNSUBs get into the house without alerting the victims or neighbors?"
"You think they did home invasions." JJ stated and I nodded, pushing the stack of unsolved murder cases aside.
"Would make sense." JJ nodded and picked up a box full of files for home invasions. I groaned and she smiled.
"I promise it's not as much as you think it is." I waved her comment away and grabbed the pile of paperwork she offered me. I skimmed through them, none of them really catching my eye, until about three quarters of the way through.
"JJ, listen to this. So, this guy is walking his dog and spots this prowler jumping over the fence, dressed in dark clothing. Guy calls the cops; the prowler's gone by the time they get there." We both stare at each other before jumping up out of our seats and rushing over to Hotch. I repeated what I had told JJ about the file.
"Is there a name and address for the witness?" Hotch asked. I glanced down at the case file in my hand.
"Tobias Hankel. He lives about an hour from here." I answered. Hotch nodded.
"It's a long shot, but he might be able to give us a description. Why don't you three go out there and see if he remembers something." I nodded, happy to get out of the police station and take a field trip. Spencer, JJ and I piled into the dark SUV, with JJ driving. I sat in the back, on the edge of my seat as we all talked.
"Seriously, JJ, this is farther than an hour." I said as I hopped out of the back of the SUV, trying to stretch my aching muscles.
"You're the one who made the assumption it was an hour away." I shrugged my shoulders, hearing my back pop. We all walked up the steps to Tobias Hankel's house, and JJ knocked on the door.
The door opened, revealing a scruffy man who was shy and timid around us.
"Hi, Mr. Hankel?" JJ asked, trying to make sure we had the right house.
"Yeah?" He asked back, and I felt suspicion bubble up inside of me. He barely opened the door wide enough for us to see him completely, but it wasn't just that. Something was up about Tobias Hankel, I just didn't know what.
"Mr. Hankel, FBI, I'm Agent Jareau, this is Agent Reid and Agent Ryan." Spencer showed his badge to Hankel then put it inside his pocket.
"FBI?" Hankel questioned.
"May we come in?" Spencer asked urgently, almost embarrassed. Hankel looked behind the door then stuck his nose outside.
"My father wouldn't like that." I raised my eyebrow.
"You're father? You're like, thirty." Spencer remarked, and I crossed my arms over my chest, figuratively smelling something fishy.
"At what age should one start disrespecting the wishes of their parents?" Hankel asked rhetorically and I schooled myself not to roll my eyes.
"Um, you witnessed something a few months ago," JJ stated, trying to get the conversation back on track. "It might be very helpful to us."
"I did?" Hankel asked, concerned.
"You saw someone go over a wall into a yard. You called the police?" I said, trying to trigger any type of recollection. His eyes slid over to me and I forced myself not to make any facial expression except that of interest. I could definitely tell something was going on.
"Me?" He questioned.
"You didn't?" I asked, trying to dig deeper into his answers.
"Sorry," He answered, not sounding so at all.
"You were walking your dog?" I tried again. He shook his head quickly and I felt my brow pull down on its own.
"I don't have a dog." I narrowed my eyes at the man, as JJ asked if there was another Tobias Hankel that lived in the house.
"No, just me and my father, Charles."
"Oh, well, sorry to bother you sir." JJ said as Hankel quickly shut the door.
"Ok, that was weird, and I grew up in LA." I said as I took to the steps, and rounded the side of the house.
"Cassie, where are you going?" JJ asked, and I turned over my shoulder, lifting an eyebrow at the two.
"What, neither one of you found that suspicious at all? Why call the cops if you're just going to lie about it later?" I asked, still walking around the house.
"To gauge response time." Spencer answered quickly, his mind going into over drive.
"Excuse me?" I asked stopping and turning to face the two blondes.
"If you are going to call the police first, you need to know how fast they are going to get there, so that you know how much time you have." I blinked at Spencer before we both raced to the closest window. Hankel was pacing around his computers, mumbling to himself. I stared at the screens as they all showed different people doing their own routines, not even noticing that they were being watched via webcam. Hankel ran out of the room as soon as he spotted us and we followed him, JJ not far behind.
"JJ, he went through the barn." I said, pulling out my gun.
"JJ, call Hotch, tell him Tobias Hankel is the UNSUB." Spencer told her, getting out his own gun.
"Reid, we're in the middle of nowhere, we have no cell reception." JJ told him bluntly.
"Right, well, he knows we're here, he'll come looking for us. In the mean time, we need to find Hankel." I told the both of them. Reid nodded, pulling me after him, explaining to JJ that we'll meet at the back of the barn. I followed him, watching as dead corn swayed and crunched as Hankel ran through the field.
"JJ, he's in the field!" Spencer yelled as quietly as he could. I tried to keep up with him, but he kept weaving, and finally I just ended up all by myself, in the middle of a corn field.
"Spencer?" I asked, hearing crunching around me. I took a deep breath, moving in deeper to the heart of the field. "Ok, Cassie, nothing to worry about." I told myself, looking around at all the dead, yellowing stalks. "It's not as if you're in the middle of nowhere, in a corn field with a killer on a psychotic break who knows this field better than you. No reason to be paranoid. No reason at all." I shook my head and tried to listen around me. I heard rustling to my right and I turned suddenly feeling like prey.
"Spencer?" I asked again, hoping to God that it was him. "Spencer this isn't funny." I called.
"Please, don't hurt her. She didn't do anything." I heard and I turned my ear towards Tobias Hankel's voice, tying to get a feel of where he was.
"She's the devil." I heard another voice and it wasn't Rafael or Tobias.
"Please," Tobias begged and I took a step back.
"Do it." The other voice growled and all I heard were shots. I gasped, and turned my head in the direction that I thought was the barn.
"JJ!" I called out, turning in circles, completely lost. I was suddenly face to face with Tobias Hankel and he hit me, knocking me to the ground and stunning me. I looked up at Tobias. He wasn't the shy man who opened the door for me, JJ and Spencer. He was bitter and angry, a completely different personality. Tobias had my gun in his hand, pointed at me. Tobias was having debate with himself and I used his distraction to scoot away from him. I hopped up and started running, but was grabbed by my ankle and I came down hard, a sharp pain shooting through my wrist. I turned my body to fight off Tobias when everything just all of a sudden went black.
I felt myself being picked up off the ground and my fight-or-flight reflexes kicked in so I started to do both. I struggled against whoever was holding me, twisting and turning my body to get away from him. I started kicking and hitting whoever held me and I opened my eyes, not really being able to see well, but enough to get a good hit in.
"Cass, Cassie, it's me. Stop. Relax Baby Doll; I'm not going to hurt you. Cassie, you need to stop struggling, I'm going to end up dropping you." I wrapped my arms around Derek's neck, incredibly happy that he had found me and was taking me away. I rested my aching head against his shoulder and closed my eyes, easily falling to sleep.
The first thing I noticed wasn't that I had woken up, like on most mornings, but that I had a splitting headache. I groaned as it only got worse and started pounding.
"Hey Baby," I groaned again as Derek's voice reverberated through my head, making it throb more. I tried to focus my sight on one Derek but there were still four of them. "Hey," His voice was softer now and he sat next to me, bringing me closer to him. He handed me some pills and I happily took them without complaint as I usually would. "Baby, are you ok?" I blinked and four Derek's turned into two.
"I think so." I frowned, reaching up to scratch my forehead when I hit a bump the size of California and hissed in pain. Derek pushed my limp, clumped hair back off my forehead as the pain subsided. "What happened?" I asked, bringing my eyes up to meet his.
"I was hoping you could tell me." I blinked, settling my eyes on the wood floor.
"Spencer told JJ that Hankel was in the field, but I don't think she heard him, because…" I broke off, suddenly worried. "Where's JJ, is she alright?"
"She's fine, Baby Doll. She's in the other room with everyone else." I nodded my head as Derek continued to run his fingers through my dirty hair.
"Next thing I know, he's gone and I'm all by myself in a corn field. No, I'm not." I bite my lip, rubbing the inside of my wrist where I know is my star tattoo.
"What do you mean, Sweetheart?" I lift my eyes up to his and bite my lip harder. Derek's other hand comes up to smooth my bottom lip from the tight grip of my teeth.
"Is Spencer ok?" I asked timidly, wanting to know that he was before I continued.
"Hankel has him." My eyes widened and I started hyperventilating, knowing what Hankel was going to do to me, and that he now had Spencer. "Baby, Baby look at me. I'm going to find him, but I need to know what happened, first." I nodded my head, picking at the frayed pieces of the couch we were sitting on.
"He was going to kill me." I could feel my eyes start to tear up, at the thought of what Hankel was doing to Spencer right at that moment. "And now he has Spencer and it's my entire fault." I knew my voice had gotten thin and high pitched and Derek's arms encircled my waist, bringing me onto his lap while I cried onto his shoulder.
"Baby, it wasn't your fault." He kept repeating in my matted hair as I hiccupped and sniffed, trying to get a hold of myself. "Penelope is in the other room, you wanna see her?" He wiped the tear stains off my cheeks with his thumbs and I lifted my eyes to his. I nodded weakly, still thinking of what Spencer was going through and guilt began to twist my stomach into knots. He smiled softly and kissed my forehead, careful of my bump. He helped me stand as the room kind of spun a little bit, and then led me to the computer room that I had seen earlier through the window. Penelope swiveled in the chair and smiled at me.
"Hey Sunshine," She patted the chair next to her and I sat down, relieved mostly because my head was still aching. I brought my knees to my chest and laid my head down on them, watching Penny make codes on one of her computers. About an hour later, Derek came back into the computer room and insisted that I walk around outside with him. He took my hand that wasn't covered in gauze and led me out the front door. We hadn't walked for very long when I tripped over a cellar door.
"Hey guys, I think we found something!" Derek yelled out to the others in the house, as I sat on the ground, nursing my sore toe. He bent down in front of me and made sure that I was ok, before insisting that I stayed on the ground while Hotch followed him into the cellar. He came back up, his brow furrowed.
"What's wrong?" I asked, my hurt toe forgotten.
"We found Tobias' father." Derek helped me up and together, I hobbled back to my chair by Penelope.
Hello Readers! Is anyone else suffering from Daylight Savings Time Tiredness? I've just spent the entire day in bed, sleeping off the hour I just gained. Anyway, I don't own Criminal Minds. I'm also thinking you readers might get lucky and get another chapter from me today, but no promises.
Nez