Chapter 03
Day 08
The next morning Hotch and Dave went to interview the only victim awake and talking.
Petty Officer Paul Johnson was a Navy Corpsman, a medic, commonly assigned to a USMC Force Recon unit. He had the training and experience to keep his head during a long period of captivity. He'd been picked up by the human trafficking gang three months before, apparently for his skills, not his looks. They met him in an interview room at the Navy Yard, where he looked exhausted and frail but relieved to be back in uniform.
After the usual questions about how he was taken, what he did in captivity, and so on, they got down to it. "We had an agent involved up there." Dave said.
"Yeah, Spencer. Reid. I knew him. He and Joe ended up together."
"Joe?"
"Yeah. The leaders of the gang assigned them. Joe was his handler, a trustee assigned to make sure he did what they wanted, kept him cleaned up, that sort of thing."
"Did you know them well?"
"Yeah. Joe is a psychiatrist, an MD. That came in real handy when some of the others overdosed. We worked together to try to find a way out of there, but we never did."
"Drugs were common up there?"
"Yeah. The boss let everyone have whatever they wanted, so long as they stayed quiet and compliant. Most everyone used something at some point. I never could get them to stop." He sighed like this was a personal failing.
"From what we heard you kept people alive." Dave said. "They're calling this a domestic terrorist type situation. You did your duty in there."
"I'm holding to that, Sir."
"Did Joe or Spencer ever use anything?"
"No, never." Paul studied them for a moment and then nodded to the recording switch. Hotch turned it off. "Off the record?"
"Off the record we know he had a problem once." Hotch said.
Paul nodded. "He told us. Said he'd been clean for years and wasn't going to break it now. And never did."
"Good to know. Thank you." Hotch turned the recording back on. "Did they ever give the victims anything?"
"Only once. Joe and Spencer. They gave them something that made it so they couldn't talk. I don't know what it was but the last couple of days neither of them said a word. Spencer took responsibility for it; he said he made a mistake with the Unsub, what he called it."
That was interesting. "But Joe was still able to care for him?"
"Yeah, those two were real right. They knew each other before, or so Joe told me, they knew each other's families. They didn't need to talk to communicate."
That was interesting as well. "They never gave him anything made him unconscious for a length of time?" Dave asked.
"No. Wait, let me guess. He's walking around like a zombie, not looking at anyone, not responding when you talk to him?"
"Something like that."
"He was like that every time he came down from the upper floor. Every time they assaulted him. It wasn't physical or pharmaceutical, it was psychological. Joe knew how to kick him out of it, but never told me how."
They called Morgan and Penelope back at the hospital who shared with the doctor. "Conversion Disorder." The doctors finally decided.
"Conversion Disorder?" Penelope asked.
"It's a type of stress reaction, rare but documented." The doctor said. "The mind can only handle so much sudden, traumatic stress. Past that point the brain converts some of the reaction to physical symptoms as a way of managing the stress load. Shutting down senses, resulting in blindness, deafness and so on, is a very common reaction, similar to an ongoing seziure."
"And you think that's what this is?" Morgan asked.
"Well it is more common in women, but he's in the right age group. And he does have a family history of mental illness. Has he suffered from any mental illness of his own recently? A period of depression, an emotional trauma?"
"His girlfriend was shot in front of him." Morgan said. "But that was a year and a half ago."
"Yeah, but it was a thing for a really long time for him." Penelope replied.
"That would do it." The doctor said. "Any history of physical or sexual abuse or neglect in childhood?"
"Yeah." Morgan replied. "To all of it."
"So he has four out of five risk factors. Add in a trauma..."
"He's been beaten before though."
"I don't know. Whatever did it his mind's protecting itself. It doesn't know that the trauma is over so it's not letting him out."
"But somehow this Joe person figured out how to get in there and let him know it was over?" Penelope said. "That he was safe, at least for the moment."
"Psychiatrist." Morgan replied. "Must have. We need to find this Joe."
"DCPD has a list of all the victims." Penelope turned to her laptop and looked. "No Josephs, no Joes."
"Okay, he has to be in there."
"Nope. They did not identify any victim named Joe...and no Unsubs either. There were no Joes in the building."
"Son of a bitch." Morgan said. "I'll let Hotch know." He went to call.
In the meantime Penelope moved to Spencer's bed. "Hey." She said quietly. "I don't know if you can hear me, but you're safe. I'm sure it doesn't feel safe because you're in the hospital and all, but you are. I promise. And it's going to be okay." She rubbed his arm again and went to find Morgan.
The man lying on the bed didn't answer.
