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Chapter Seven:
"Try Again," was spelled out in blood on the family room wall. Detective Carl Randal lived alone in a ranch-style home only miles from the precinct.
Rossi stared at the message written in blood.
"What does this tell you?" he asked as Simmons stepped next to him.
"That this is more personal than we thought," Simmons said.
"Against who? Spencer Reid or the police?"
"Reid," Simmons said. "The unsub wanted Reid in jail and then mock the police."
"Exactly," Rossi said.
Prentiss appeared. "His attorney just woke up a judge and is trying get him released."
"They're going to argue this might be a copy-cat," Simmons said.
"With this note," Rossi said. "Not a chance."
"We need to focus on Reid," Prentiss said. "Visitor logs, prison mates, everything."
"Let's get to it," Rossi said.
…
Over nearly twenty years, Jason Gideon had visited Reid fifty-three times. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies had visited him fourteen times. His father had visited him three times. He had no other visitors.
"It explains his attachment to Jason Gideon," Alvez said. "The was the father figure in his life."
"This is Gideon's last record" Rossi said and began to read:
"September 18, 2007
Reid said I looked tired today. I told him I felt tired. He asked how do I keep all these monsters I hunt compartmentalized. I tell him not all of them are monsters. He points out how long we've known each other now and he can tell something is off. I tell him I'm just tired. He suggests transferring to another department and I tell him this is the only thing I feel I am good at. He tells me about how often I have told him he could be something more. I look at him closely and notice how much he has grown. He is no longer a scared young adolescent, but a confident young man. Prison life has beaten much of the ambition out of him, but not entirely. I can honestly say I am proud of the man he has become. I don't know if, in this condition of self-doubt, I am of any use to him anymore. I promise I will keep in touch though to show I have not completely abandoned him."
"Reid had Gideon profiled pretty well," J.J. said. "He'd go off the reservation a few weeks later."
"That time was such a mess," Prentiss said. "We're all lucky to have careers after that."
"Agents!" a detective shouted. "We have a situation."
They all left the conference room to find Reid's attorney Rebeca Young with a bloody nose and rips in her clothes.
"They took him," she sobbed. "I just got him out and they took right from the back entrance we were using," she said.
"Calm down, Mrs. Young," Rossi said. "I need you to catch your breath and start to focus on details."
She shakily pulled out her phone. "They knocked me to the ground but I pulled out my phone. I caught the license and make of the car. Spencer struggled hard. He punched one in the nose hard and gave the other a black eye. They slammed him against the side of the van until he went limp. I hope he's alright."
Rossi took the phone. A CSI appeared and took it.
"A team?" Alvez said. "That's unusual."
"That's not a team," Rossi said. "Those were hired guns."
"Someone has something special planned for Spencer Reid," J.J.
"This has been about Spencer Reid from the beginning," Lewis said. "Four, possibly five men, were killed trying to make a statement to Reid."
"That is a lot of rage, but also a lot of planning too," Simmons said. "In order to get him sent to prison and then to murder the lead detective on the case."
"We've been tracking the movements of the adults who bullied Reid," Prentiss said. "Nothing is standing out. We need to make a wider net."
A detective approached them. "We have an APB out on the truck and thanks to your technical analyst, we've identified the men as Christopher Brinks and Bill White, both served time in jail for armed robbery in Reno and Carson City four years ago. And I already checked, they didn't serve any time with Spencer Reid."
"Who is the van registered to?" Prentiss asked.
"A Jacob Alexander, a carpet cleaner who reported his van stolen weeks earlier."
"Someone is pulling the strings in all of this," Rossi said. "We just have to figure out who it is."
