Frozen in time
Disclaimer : I do not own Criminal minds or any of the characters, and I certainly make no money writing these stories!
Chapter 4: Behind the curtain
The high heels echoed through the endless corridor as JJ stalked to the bunker. When she stormed in, Penelope Garcia almost jumped from her seat in surprise.
"Wow, JJ! Don't you ever knock on doors? You almost gave me a heart attack!" She called out rather hysterically, putting a hand on her heart to make her point. But the smile on her face soon disappeared when she took in the panic-streaking face.
"What… What's going on?" She asked, trying to read behind the endless blue eyes of the liaison agent.
"Can you get access to security cameras?" JJ simply asked, after catching her breath. She had run down the labyrinthic corridors so quickly that she was out of breath. "Fourth floor."
"Where are my friends? Why are you here instead of in your office? What….?" The technical analyst began stuttering, not ready to tear her eyes away from JJ's worried gaze.
"Garcia!" The slim blonde repressed an urge to grab Penelope's shoulders and shake her back to reality.
"On it." In less than five seconds, she had turned back to her screen and aligned a series of videos showing Hotch's office, the bullpen and the corridor leading to the elevators.
"Oh my…" When she stopped typing and her shoulders began to visibly shake under the pressure, JJ swallowed her own worry and reached forward to squeeze her friend's shoulders.
"Calm down, Garcia. I… I need to make a phone call." With that, she stepped out of the bunker and let her body slid down the wall, not caring about the coldness of the ground or the curious glance an agent gave her as he passed by. Without thinking twice, she speed dialed David Rossi's number. Even though the worry was fogging her mind and making her forget the details of the past twenty minutes, JJ could distinctly remember how Rossi stepped outside to make a personal phone call. Maybe he still was downstairs, just outside the building. While the ringtone echoed through her brain, JJ closed her eyes and travelled back to the moment she had stepped into the elevator. Screams and gunshots had reached her ears but the doors were already closing. There was nothing she could have done, as much as she had jumped around the tiny cubicle until it had reached the first floor.
"David Rossi." It took a few moments for the answer to register with JJ's brain. She had not even been aware that she had held her breath that long.
"Rossi, we've got a problem. Where are you?"
Xxx
Emily, Reid and Hotch were occupying three different corners of the room. The table was covered with an impressive number of files, crime scene photos and transcriptions of interviews. The brunette checked her watch for the third time in the last half an hour, getting Hotch's attention.
"Do you have a date, Agent Prentiss?" He asked without even raising his eyes from the file he was currently scanning. Emily almost choked the coffee she was drinking at the question.
"Excuse me?"
"It's the third time I notice you checking the time. Is something bothering you?"
"Apart from the fact that we only covered a ridiculous amount of these files in the last two hours?"
Reid chuckled to himself. Either he had found a funny detail in one of his files – which was very unlikely, given the number of murders, rapes and abductions that were listed there – or he considered the exchange between his coworker and unit chief quite interesting. He had always thought that those two were a good match: Emily had a big mouth and did rarely shy away, putting even Hotch to silence, which was quite a miracle.
Just when Hotch was about to return a smart comment, the door was opened hastily and three persons marched into the room under the surprised looks of Aaron Hotchner, Emily Prentiss and Spencer Reid.
"Agent Hotchner, I believe you know Agent Boyd," Erin Strauss said, pointing to a young woman, "and this is Agent Lawrence Wright."
Hotch nodded, automatically extending a hand as the two agents got closer to the table.
"I understand that your team feels a little overwhelmed by the amount of files to work on. Agent Boyd and Agent Wright volunteered to give you a hand with those." The way Erin Strauss vaguely pointed to the bunch of paper covering the conference table showed just how much she disliked doing paperwork and research.
"Well, I won't say anything to contradict. We could need the help." Hotch nodded once more, waiting for Strauss to leave the room and let them go back to their work. The two new agents stayed frozen in the middle of the room, not really knowing what to do or where to begin. Both looked quite young, in their early thirties at most, and a little scared by the dark look of Aaron Hotchner.
"Have a seat, agents. I'll brief you on what we are looking for."
Xxx
David Rossi slumped down in the chair next to Penelope Garcia, to the latter's surprise. She hadn't even seen him come in.
"What are you doing here, elegant man?" She said without turning away from her screens.
"Actually Morgan and I just came back from talking to Agent Lopez' colleagues, up on the tenth floor." The man answered tiredly, already leaning over the analyst's shoulder to look at her screen. "I've come to see whether you reached anything."
Garcia glanced sideways, repressing a grimace.
"You know I hate it when someone peers over my shoulder… Get some distance before I have to call Morgan for back-up." She hissed, although there was some hint of joke in the back of her voice.
Rossi smirked a little sarcastically and leaned back in the comfortable chair, raising his hands to motion for Garcia to go ahead with her report.
"Well, I ran the list of names you texted me earlier through the system, checked for criminal records and the usual stuff… Turns out cops really don't like getting close to bad boys. Apart from minor felonies like breaking the speed limit, the ex-boyfriends, fathers, brothers, neighbors or coworkers are all clean."
Rossi pursed his lips in disappointment and turned his head as he heard Derek Morgan walk through the door. He gently squeezed the analyst's shoulder to notify her presence and shrugged as he saw the elderly agent's expression.
"What's wrong?"
"Oh, we're just stuck, that's all…" Rossi said with a frown, trying to read through the ten screens that Garcia had open at the same time.
"And just like I said concerning the federal cases our three victims worked, their personal life shows absolutely no connection. No name has popped up more than once in my system, and the zone of activity of each victim is very different from the other. They went to different supermarkets, bars, dry cleaning services… Sorry guys." Garcia had delivered the information at an impressive rate, only raising an apologetic look to the two agents when she was done.
"Thanks, Garcia."
"Oh, there's one thing though…" Just as Rossi was getting on his feet to leave, the blonde raised a hand. "There's something missing, rather."
"What, baby girl?"