Chapter Four: There's A Long Game
When we take revenge against another,
We lose some of our innocence.
- Patrice Redd Vecchione
It was hard for Reid to deal with the gravity of the situation. He had never had someone so close to him as the victim in any major case like that. Certainly not a rape. She was his best friend growing up, and the only person in his life that could have come close to matching him intellectually. It was hard to grasp.
"She looks like a prime suspect," Hotch said, holding up the bloodied rag doll as exhibit A. "This was hers. It was found in the wooded area where she was...attacked. It has a significance to the unsub. It symbolizes something. Innocence."
"No," Reid said, in his least detailed rebuttal yet. "She didn't do it. She couldn't have. She was always nice and optimistic. She couldn't â she didn't."
"Reid...Being attacked like that changes people," J.J. said, quietly resting her hand on his shoulder, only to be shrugged off. "Post traumatic stress. That piled on top of moving so soon after. It changes people."
"She wouldn't have done this, and she didn't," he said, turning himself away and walking out. He needed to clear his mind, so he headed to the bathroom. Once he left, the team sat and pondered what had just happened.
"You know she's the most likely unsub," Hotch said to the team. "Reid's too close to this case. We might just need to give him some time off. Time away."
"You never know..." Prentiss said. "Her brother, Marcus might have done it."
"Yes, but all of the other victims lead right back to her," J.J. said.
"Richard Horton was her psychiatrist after the accident, he diagnosed her with post traumatic stress disorder and manic depression. Lucas McDonald was the prime suspect in her rape, but he was set free on lack of evidence," Morgan said.
"Her testimony wouldn't have flown in court due to her PTSD," J.J. said.
"Michael Adelaide was their next door neighbor after they moved away," Morgan said. "They moved after he taunted her and said she was asking for it."
"He was 15, she was 6," Rossi said.
"And Larry Winchester was the one assigned her case. He let it go cold," Morgan finished.
"Everything points tâ" J.J said, before being cut off by the fire alarm.
Running out of the office, they saw the group of stunned officers, being held off by an armed assailant.
"Don't move."