Disclaimer: See chapter 1
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"Dr. Mardynalka, you really don't have to do this," Reid said sluggishly.
"Yes…I…do. You're all the same. Look what you did to Jazz, got her hooked on drugs. And now you want to do the same to my Mandy. I saw you with her." She approached Reid, pointing both the gun and the needle at him.
"No," Reid said, his eyes blinking heavily. Suddenly his head drooped down and his breathing became slow and deep. The professor pulled his head up by his hair but there was no response. She smiled. She put the gun in her pocket and pulled out an elastic tourniquet, sliding it under Reid's right arm and wrapping it around tightly. She watched as the veins in the crook of his arm popped up. She smiled again. This one was going to be easy. She maneuvered the syringe to inject him when Reid moved, his left fist connecting with her chin and upper cutting to her nose. Blood spurted over his hand. Mardynalka stumbled backwards, stunned by the blow. Reid reached down to his pant leg and drew his glock. He quickly released the tourniquet as he pointed his weapon at the woman.
The professor looked confused. Blood flowed from her nose, down her lips and onto her chin. "You didn't think I actually drank it, did you? FBI, get down on the ground." She raised her hands, the needle held in her fist like a knife she was ready to drive home. "Drop the needle and get down on the ground," Reid said but the woman still held fast to the syringe. "Drop it," Reid said again. He could see the crazed look in her eyes. He could see her debating with herself whether to drop it or to charge and try to sink the deadly concoction into him. "Come near me with that syringe and I will shoot you dead. Is that how you want to be remembered by Mandy and your husband? Haven't they been through enough?"
Reid saw the woman's eyes soften at the mention of her family. "They…They," she said, tears meandering down her cheeks to eventually mix with the blood.
Reid kept his weapon steady. "I know what it felt like for her, Jazz, how a drug can get hold of you. It's hard to find the strength to fight. I found it, Jazz didn't. It wasn't anything you did. There's no rhyme or reason."
"You don't know," she yelled with disdain.
"I do know, I do. Mandy told me her grandmother, your mother, told her to find the truth, to look in the eyes. Look in my eyes."
Stephanie Mardynalka looked, as her daughter had done, into the depths of a pair of soulful brown eyes and knew the truth. Her own eyes closed and the meandering stream of tears became a flood. She unclenched her fist, releasing the syringe, which tumbled to the cement. The woman opened her eyes, fell to her knees and lay on the cold paving stones. Reid reached in his pocket, pulling out a handkerchief and picked up the discarded needle. He stared for a moment at the syringe in his hand remembering moments when it was all he wanted. His instinct was to push the plunger and dispense of the vile liquid but he knew he couldn't do that. This was evidence. His training kicked in, restrain the suspect, and preserve the evidence. He was removing Mardynalka's gun from her pocket when the door to the building swung open. Reid looked up. His team had arrived.
Hotch flung the door of the courtyard open to find Reid with his glock trained on a middle aged blonde lying face down on the paving bricks. He was leaning over her and removing a firearm from the pocket of her navy suit jacket. He tossed it to the ground and the weapon, a .22 caliber Hotch judged, clattered as it hit the hard surface, gliding across it to come to rest next to one of the planters. A handkerchief with a syringe nestled in it had also been set aside. The woman, her hands above her head, was visibly sobbing and the tears mingled with blood that still trickled from her nose and was staining the decorative pavement a sanguine red.
"You okay Reid," Hotch said entering the courtyard, his weapon drawn.
Reid nodded, "Yeah, what took you so long?"
"Well man," Morgan, who had entered with the others behind Hotch, responded. "We couldn't hear you. We lost contact after Mandy left. There was a bunch of static and then everything was garbled. A connection must have come loose." Morgan reached into the back of his jeans, pulled out his cuffs, handing them to Reid who brought the woman's arms down behind her back, cuffing her hands.
"We came as soon as we lost contact," Emily said. "We had to find out where you were."
"Oh, I see, so you never heard our conversation and me giving the signal," Reid confirmed, nodding his head. Reid and Morgan pulled Mardynalka to her feet. She wobbled and would have fallen had both men not held her.
A crowd of onlookers had started to appear and campus security along with members of the Lincoln PD had been dispatched to control them. Mardynalka was handed over to Lincoln police officers and CSI techs began to arrive to photograph and collect evidence.
"What happened here," Rossi asked Reid.
Reid hesitated for a moment, then stated, "It was like we thought, Jazz's overdose was the stressor that triggered Mardynalka to start killing men she saw as being Brett Shelton. When she found out I was with Mandy, she was convinced a second daughter was going to be turned toward drugs. "That coffee," Reid pointed to the cup on the picnic table, "Has a sedative in it. I pretended to drink it and fall asleep. She wrapped a tourniquet around my arm and was about to inject me when I punched her and went for my weapon. Then I just waited for you guys. I'd given the signal and I didn't realize you hadn't heard.
"Good work Reid," Hotch said.
"Uh oh," JJ said, looking towards the door where the crowd of onlookers had started to make a fuss about something. "I think this is the daughter."
Reid looked over at the door, "Yeah, that's Mandy." He thought the girl looked distraught, probably having heard that her mother had been arrested but not believing it.
"I'll go talk to her," JJ said but Reid put a hand on her arm.
"No, let me, I should do it. I'm the one who lied to her. I have to be the one to explain." He walked toward the girl who looked at him with her eyes full of questions.
"G…Graham," she said tentatively. She looked up at Reid, her face so trusting and Reid's heart broke over what he had to tell her especially the part he'd played in it.
"I need to talk to you," Reid said, leading Mandy over to a seat in front of the building's floor to ceiling windows. The team watched as Reid spoke to the young woman. They saw the confusion that crossed her face. Reid reached into the back pocket of his jeans, removing his FBI credentials and showing them to her. She took the ID in her hands and stared at it, then back at Reid. Reid continued to talk. Mandy's eyes became huge. She shook her head, her hand going to her mouth.
She stood up and backed away from him and the team could hear her saying, "No…no." Reid rose and approached her and she screamed, "No, get away from me. You're nothing but a liar." The team could see Reid shaking his head, insisting that he was not lying. "You are so," she screamed. "It's not true." She slammed her clenched fist into his chest. "My mother wouldn't…she…she…" She slammed him again with the other fist. She did this a few more times until Morgan was about to step in when she stopped and put her hands to her face and began to weep. Reid stood by awkwardly. He'd always felt uncomfortable around a woman's tears, be it Allie's tears of joy or this woman's tears of utter despair. Hotch motioned for JJ and she stepped forward and put an arm around Mandy, leading her back to the window seat while Reid hung his head.
"Reid, are you alright," Hotch asked?
"Yeah, I'm okay Hotch. I know I did the right thing but just because it's right, doesn't make it easy. Look, I just need a few minutes, okay."
"Reid," Morgan asked, "Are you sure you're all right man?"
"Yeah, I'm good. I just need to make a phone call. I'll be back shortly." He walked away from the team, heading downstairs to the utility room they had used as a headquarters.
"He probably wants to call Allie," Emily suggested. "He'll feel better after he's talked to her."
Reid pulled out his cell and pressed speed dial. The phone rang three times before it was answered. "Hello."
"Hi J..John, it's Spencer, can we talk…"
