Chapter 4
After leaving Garcia's office, Dave made his way towards Aaron's. When he got there, he stood in the doorway and observed the man for a minute. It had been less than twelve hours since Sampson had called him and he looked like he had aged ten years. His eyes were bloodshot, there was a stoop to his shoulders that hadn't been there yesterday and there was a bit of a wild look in his eyes. This was killing him and Dave was afraid that if they didn't get Jane back alive they would lose him completely.
Dave knocked on the door frame so he wouldn't startle Hotch. "How are you holding up?" He asked him.
"I'm going through my files trying to figure out who this asshole is. Do you know how many files I have?" Hotch asked him.
"A lot, I'm sure," Dave replied. "Does the name Anthony Sampson mean anything to you?"
Hotch thought for a minute. "He was one of my last cases as a prosecutor. I was just starting at the FBI but I was also finishing up a few cases I had left to prosecute. Do you think he's the unsub?"
"Yeah, I do. It fits with what he told us; he was in prison for twelve years and he had a sixteen year old daughter who killed herself. He was also paroled three months ago." Dave told him, leaving out the fact that Garcia had identified him using the facial recognition software.
Hotch looked at him suspiciously, "How did you find all of this out? I thought Garcia couldn't find anything when she searched."
"Hey, when Garcia finds something, I don't ask questions about how she did it. Do you want to know how she does half of the stuff she does?" Dave asked him.
A ghost of a smile passed over Hotch's lips. "No, if I don't know about it then I can't be implicated." He thought for a minute. "It can't be Sampson. He went away for running the computers behind a drug trafficking and money laundering ring. It was a non-violent crime and he plead down to the twelve years, I offered it to him specifically because there wasn't anything in his background that indicated violence."
"What can I tell you Hotch? Knowing about his daughter's abuse coupled with her suicide is a pretty big stressor." Dave replied, hoping that Hotch would drop it before he had to tell him about the facial recognition.
"Yeah, but-" Hotch was interrupted by a junior agent at his office door.
"I'm sorry to interrupt sirs," he said to the two senior agents, "but Agent Hotchner has a couple of young visitors at the front desk; an Andrew Fisher and Melody Ventner."
'This isn't going to be fun,' Hotch thought to himself. Andy was Jane's boyfriend and Melody was Jane's best friend. He knew they were going to be upset and have questions for him.
"Have someone bring them up here please." Hotch told the junior agent.
"I'll head back to my office and let you talk to the kids." Dave said, turning to leave.
"Actually Dave, would you stay? You may be able to answer questions that I can't." Hotch asked.
"No problem." Dave said as the two kids got to Hotch's office.
"Mel, Andy, please come in." Hotch said, inviting them into his office. Hotch had known Melody Ventner since she moved in next door to them when she was five years old. It took her and Jane all of one day to form an instant and binding friendship and from then on Mel had been a fixture in the Hotchner household, just as Jane was a fixture in the Ventner household. Andy was a different story. Jane and Andy started out as friends, but they had been dating exclusively for almost a year. Hotch didn't want to like Andy, for obvious reasons, but he made Jane happy and he was basically a good kid so he was nice to him.
Andy and Mel had never been to the BAU headquarters before so they were a little nervous. They stepped stiffly inside Hotch's office and sat down on the sofa, while Hotch and Rossi pulled chairs over for themselves. "Agent Hotchner, can you tell us what's going on?" Mel asked, sounding a little bit frantic.
"What do the two of you know so far?" Hotch asked them.
"Not much, we know Jane didn't show up for school and then the cops and some FBI agents came and asked us a bunch of questions." Andy told him.
"And then when I got home from school today, I saw the crime scene vans at your house and the yellow police tape by your kitchen door. Is Jane OK?" Mel asked Hotch, with tears in her voice.
Hotch sighed. "No, she's not," and then Hotch couldn't continue. He knew if he had to explain the kidnapping to Jane's friends, he would break down completely.
Thankfully, Dave saw that Aaron was having trouble so he gave the two kids a brief rundown on what was happening with Jane. He left out the parts about the webcam and that it was an unsub looking for revenge.
Mel started quietly crying while Dave was talking, while Andy had a look of shock on his face. When Dave was done there was a moment of silence and then Andy spoke up.
"This makes no sense, who would want to kidnap Jane? Everyone likes her." Andy said angrily. He was pissed that someone dared to take his girlfriend.
"Dave left out part of the story. The kidnapper is someone I helped put in prison about twelve years ago. He took Jane as revenge, to make me suffer. This is all my fault." Aaron choked up on the last word, trying desperately to keep control of his emotions.
Dave stood up. "Look, it's almost seven o'clock, why don't you two head home? This is going to drag out for most of the night and as much as I know you're worried about Jane, we really can't have you in here while we are running the investigation."
The other three stood up as well. "Ok sir, we will head out, but please keep us updated." Andy almost begged him.
"I promise we will let you know if we find anything-" Dave paused and took a deep breath, "either good or bad."
The two headed for the door when Mel stopped and turned around. "Agent Hotchner?"
Hotch smiled softly. "Mel, I've known you since you were five years old, hell you probably spend more time at our house than you do your own. Please call me either Aaron or Hotch."
Mel gave a little sheepish smile. "Ok, Aaron? Please don't blame yourself for this, Jane wouldn't want you to. She is so proud of the work that you do, you should hear the pride in her voice when she talks about your job. I'm sure wherever she is, she is not blaming you and she would be pissed if she thought you were blaming yourself." Mel paused for a minute so she could get her emotions under control and not cry. "I am saying all of this as a favor to you. When you get her back, and I am sure you will get her back, if she knows that you've been feeling guilty about this she will kick your ass and you know it."
A few tears escaped from Hotch's eyes. "Thanks Mel, I needed to hear that." He said quietly.
"Any time, sir." She said as she kissed his cheek goodbye.
After Andy and Mel left, Hotch spent a minute getting his emotions in check. Once he did, he turned to Dave. "I want a copy of Jane's diary to read, maybe I can help figure out where she is."
Dave wondered if that was a good idea. If they got Jane back alive, it was going to be a big blow to her privacy to know that the entire team, including her father, had read her diary. On the other hand, if they didn't find out where Sampson was keeping her she would probably die. Plus Dave knew that Hotch needed this connection with his daughter right now.
"Ok, Hotch, I'll have a copy brought up. The book diary only goes back a year, but there are diaries that go back to when she was eleven on her laptop. It looks like once she fills a diary, she scans all of the pages into her hard drive." Dave was impressed by Jane's record keeping.
"Is Garcia done with her laptop?" Hotch asked.
"I think so, why?"
"I would like to have Jane's laptop here to look through. I know she keeps all of her pictures on it and…I just need that connection with her right now." Hotch told him.
Dave's face softened. "I'll check with Garcia and see if she's done with it and if she is I'll have her bring it to you."
"Thanks Dave."
***
Twenty minutes later Garcia entered Hotch's office carrying Jane's bright pink laptop. "Here you go sir. I haven't found anything that might help us, but you'll have a different insight into her."
Hotch studied Garcia, she looked like she had aged ten years and all of the joy and sparkle was gone from her face.
"Thanks Garcia, I could have come down to your office to get this." Hotch told her.
"No!" She said quickly and then realized her mistake. "I mean...its ok, I wanted a change of scenery anyway…this got me out of my office."
Hotch looked at her sharply, all of his profiling instincts kicking in. "Why do you need a change of scenery, Penelope? What does Dave have you doing in your office?"
"Umm, nothing sir, really…just looking through files and monitoring the internet." She told him, not meeting his eyes.
"And have you found anything online?" He asked her sternly.
"Not really." Her cell phone rang, it was Dave. He had heard their exchange from his office and was calling her to get her out of there. "Sorry sir, I have to go." Penelope said as she rushed out of his office.
Hotch made a mental note to question her further the next time he saw her and then he turned his attention to Jane's laptop.
***
Hotch finally looked up from Jane's laptop at around ten o'clock that night. He had read a year's worth of diaries and he had looked through her pictures. He looked up from it only because he needed to rest his eyes.
He looked around the BAU. He saw that Spencer, Emily, Derek and JJ were all in the conference room, still working on the case. God only knew where Jason and Dave were. He was about to go to the conference room to tell them all to go home and get some sleep when his cell phone rang.
"Hotchner."
"Agent Hotchner, did you like the first act?"
"Who is this?" Hotch asked, with an uneasy feeling in his stomach. He shot Garcia an instant message on his computer telling her to try and trace this call.
"You know exactly who this is, I'm looking at your daughter right now." Sampson said.
Hotch didn't want to let Sampson know that they knew who he was. "Whoever this is, just let Jane go, don't let this drag out. You will be in less trouble if you let her go now."
"Please Agent Hotchner, don't pretend you don't know who this is. I'm sure that your tech ran facial recognition software as soon as I popped up on the screen."
"What are you talking about, what screen?" Hotch asked.
Sampson could tell that Hotch was genuinely confused. "Oh that is just perfect." He said softly, with a sadistic laugh. "She didn't tell you."
"Tell me what?" Hotch said, getting angry.
"I suggest you go have a talk with your technical analyst, and I suggest you do it soon; act two is about to begin." Sampson said, disconnecting the call.
Hotch stood and stared at his dead phone. 'What the hell is going on?' He wondered to himself as he made his way towards Garcia's office.
***
Garcia was in her office, sipping a cup of tea and talking to Erin Strauss while watching Jane on the screen. She had been surprised when Strauss offered to sit with her and watch Jane, but Garcia realized that Strauss and Jane had their own bond. Garcia got along better with Strauss than she thought she would, but that was mostly because they were both worried about the same person.
She heard her office door open and was about to turn around to see who had entered when she heard Hotch shout "What the FUCK is going on here?!"
**
This was actually going to be one really long chapter, but I've decided to split them up. Chapter 5 will be up later tonight or tomorrow.
Reviews? Please?
