Thanks to all of you who still seem to be interested in the story. I hope I don't disappoint. Some of you may be asking when does Emily get taken. I know the setup may seem tedious but it is necessary. Its coming Reviews are like oxygen and will help keep my muse alive and alert. I have an idea where I want this story to go but your feedback will help me know if I am going in the right direction. Sounds like I'm begging for feedback...well yes I am. Feed me!
Chapter Four
The entire team was back at the police station at 6am the next morning ready to begin the search. Captain Taylor with the assistance of Hotchner called in help from the local police stations, FBI from the local field office and even a small team of Texas Rangers to conduct the searches. While the recruits were looking over the map that had their destinations laid out, Rossi and Prentiss entered the room with coffee and breakfast pastries that they picked up a coffee shop by their hotel. Prentiss placed the bag of pasties on the table while Rossi handed out the coffee to his team.
Rossi walked over to Hotch handing him a coffee. "Looks like we have quite a crew to help in the search. Any thoughts to how we should organize the search?"
Hotch looked over at his fellow agent and then back at the map. "We have ten extra people to help in the search. I know Captain Taylor said there were about a dozen properties but those were the most secluded…"
"But if he is trying to recreate his family he would want to do that in a place he considers a home not some secluded shack."
"Which means our search just got bigger," Hotch said with a loud audible sigh as he walked over to the head of the table picking up the list of properties. "Can I have everyone's attention please?" he said loudly.
The group turned to face him and came closer to the man they assumed was in charge. Some were still speaking in low tones but the majority of the group gave him their full attention.
"I would like to thank you all for your assistance. We have a lot of ground to cover before the unsub goes after his next victim. We believe the unsub is a male in his mid to late 50's and he has suffered a tragic loss of his entire family. We believe he is trying to recreate his family." Hotch looked around the room to make sure that he still had everyone's attention.
Rossi joined in giving the profile. "He has not killed any of his victims but has drugged them in order to gain control over them and program them to believe that they are his dead family members. We believe that he has a medical background because the three he has released were suffering from various types of medical concerns which we feel made them no longer fit the pattern is trying to recreate. At this time he has chosen to release them instead of killing them."
"At first the assumption was that he is keeping the victims in an out of the way secluded location but given the mind frame of the unsub trying to recreate a family, it is possible that he would keep the victims in a home which may be in an unpopulated area. Therefor we cannot eliminate any of the properties we have listed. We will need to form strategic search parties in order to cover as much ground as possible. Not only will we need to search the properties but interview anyone on the properties," Hotch concluded.
A young officer raised his hand in the back of the room. "You stated that the unsub would be going after another victim. Do you have a time frame of when you think he could be going after his next victim? And how much time do we have to try to locate the property?"
At this question Prentiss spoke up, "We believe that the unsub has already taken another male victim yesterday, so if he holds true to the profile we believe that his next victim should be a woman in her thirties. The time frame is between 48-72 hours."
In the back of the room Morgan had called Garcia quietly. "Morning baby girl."
"Good morning chocolate. Why the early wakeup call?"
"I need you to come up with a search grid pattern for all the properties that we can utilize at least ten people in the search. Oh and I need it like five minutes ago." Morgan knew he had a couple of minutes before they had to give out assignments with the other officers asking questions about the case. He caught Hotchner's eyes and sent him a signal that he was working on a plan for the search. He was grateful that years of working together had given them this sort silent language.
"Using one of my fabulous algorithms I have created the most time sensitive plan to search all the properties. The only problem is it will still take two days given that you will still need to interview people located on the properties. Sorry honey, that's the best I could do."
"Thank you sweetness. We think we should have about two or three days before the unsub strikes again. This will hopefully give us enough time. How's JJ doing? You know Emily is gonna ask."
"Tell her she will be back to normal by the time you catch this guy. So go get him. I'm here when you need me."
As soon the call ended the fax machine began to spit on papers. Morgan pulled the fax off the machine and handed it to Hotch. As his other team members were fielding questions he leaned over and whispered into his ear, "Garcia said with this plan it will take about two days to search the properties. It should give us enough time to either find him or at least get a good lead."
"Thanks Morgan." Hotch motioned Captain Taylor over and then proceeded to go over the search plan with him. He wanted to get everyone out in the field on the search as soon as possible.
Not waiting for the questions to die down Hotch handed out the search assignments while Captain Taylor assigned the search teams.
"As you see the search parameters are such that we should be able to search in a timely way but we can't just do a surface search. We need to check in basements, sheds, garages or any structure on the property. My team will be taking the properties that we believe are closely related to our unsub. Everyone needs to stay within radio contact. Captain Taylor will have one of his people stationed here as the communication liaison. Are there any questions?" Not receiving a response, he nodded and said, "Let's go people."
As they were walking out the door Hotch paired Reid with Rossi, Prentiss with Morgan and he would go with Captain Taylor.
Once Prentiss and Morgan got in their car they plotted the first address in the GPS and headed out.
"You talked to JJ lately?" Morgan asked.
"I've been with you all morning when would I have had the time. We talked last night, nosy," she said with a smirk. "Why you ask?"
"Just thought you would want to know that Garcia said she was on the mend and should be ready…I mean better by the time we return."
That earned her friend a swift slug to his arm. "You are such a pig sometimes," she said with sneer. They drove in silence for a few minutes. "What do you think made the unsub snap besides losing his family? Most times people will crawl into a bottle or their job. Maybe go on a string on faceless affairs or do all three. What would you do if it were your family?"
He took a deep breath before answering. "I guess it would depend on how they were killed. It was hard when I lost my father but that was in the line of duty. I don't know what I would do if I lost my mother and sisters. What about you, what would you do if you lost your family?"
She kicked herself for bringing up the subject. She knew she would be able to handle if her parents died but did not know how she would handle it if anything were to happen to JJ. Her parent's jobs put them in dangerous high profile positions all the time but so did their job. Not having any siblings it would only be her parents and JJ. Well there was her dysfunctional BAU family. "I don't know what I would do. I don't think I could continue to work in the BAU if anything happened to JJ. I would probably crawl into a bottle while having lots of meaningless sex," she said with a humorless laugh.
When they arrived at the first address on their list, Morgan touched her arm before she got out of the car causing her to stop and look at him. "I hope you are going to make an honest woman of her soon. Because you are bitten by the love bug honey."
She blushed and slyly looked up at her partner. "I already bought her a ring. I'm just waiting for the right time to give it to her. Please don't tell anyone, especially Garcia." She gave him a bright smile as she got out of the car. He was laughing as he joined her in front of the car.
Walking up to a grey building it was obvious that it has not been used in a long time and was unoccupied except maybe had some squatters but they checked it out anyway because it was big enough to create the façade of family home and still not a attract attention. Walking around the building they found no noticeable points of entry except for windows were pried open to allow those that wanted to get inside access without anyone finding out.
After making a thorough search they ruled out that this property wasn't used for anything but drug hangout, a sleeping spot for the homeless, or a business spot for the local hookers. They got little information from those willing to talk to them. They found out the building has been deserted for the past four years.
Half way through their search Morgan suggested that they stop for lunch. "I know this great BBQ place that makes the best brisket among their other BarBeQue."
"Sounds good. It will give us a chance to organize how we go about the rest of the search. I don't know about you but I feel like we are spinning our wheels. I think Captain Taylor was right, we should just pick up our suspects and question them." Prentiss was looking out the window as they drove up to the place Morgan was raving about. It looked like a hole in the wall not any kind of eating establishment. "Derek, are you serious? This place makes food, edible food?"
As he parked the car he laughed at her reaction to Smokies Roadhouse. He knew once she tasted the food she would be sold. "Trust me Emily. Looks can be deceiving. If you don't like it I will do your report for today. Deal?"
Emily followed her friend into the eatery looking around surprised by how crowded the place was. There were all types of people from business men to old ladies complaining about the sauce not being spicy enough. She guessed Derek was right about the place.
After they got their food and were seated Derek guessed that she would be talking his ear off about their next move on the case but she barely said a word as she concentrated on her pulled pork sandwich and potato salad. Derek just grinned at her while she ate noticing the sauce around her mouth.
When she finished eating she leaned back in her chair with a silly expression on her face.
"Well, was I right or what?" Derek asked with a satisfied look on his face.
"Yes. You were right. That was the best BBQ pork sandwich I have ever had. I will have to bring JJ here. She would love this place especially the southern atmosphere."
"Told you so. Now what do we want to do about searching the rest of these properties?"
As the two agents talked over their game plan an older man sat on the other side of the room watching them as he waited for his take out order to be ready. He was particularly interested in the young woman. He had a satisfied look on his face. Even when his food was ready, he waited until the couple left the restaurant and followed them out taking note of the license plate number and taking her picture with his cell phone.
Prentiss and Morgan continued their search of the other properties on their list that took them through the industrial areas of Houston with the same results as before.
They met back up at the station house and joined the other search teams. Gathered in the conference room, they tried to go over what they had learned in as orderly a fashion as they could with so many people in the room. They had a few promising leads but nothing solid except that they were able to weed out for sure one of their suspects and maybe able to have enough to weed out a second.
Because if they could cut their list down to two suspects, it would help with their search. The second man was able to be conclusively excluded after having Garcia do a computer search with the information that was gained from the property searches done by the Texas Rangers.
After Hotch dismissed the group until tomorrow morning, the BAU team hung back and went over what they had. Because they had narrowed their suspect list to two they concentrated on what background information they had on the other two. After several hours they were still not able to rule out one suspect from the other so they decided to call it quits for the night to be fresh for tomorrow.
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