Emily woke up to the sound of her alarm clock. Her dreams of the past had been cut short after only a few hours of sleep, not the amount that would count as a goodnights rest, but it was enough sleep to help her get through the day. Her meeting with James had left her a little disturbed from the story he had told her the night before about the cannibal family and how he mentioned that some deep parts of the nearby wilderness were unexplored and maybe even unknown parts of the wilderness.
She had taken a moment to take a shower then get ready for the rest of the day ahead of her. Her phone began to ring seconds later. Emily checked the Caller ID, it was J.J. and she accepts the call without hesitation before saying "Hey J.J."
Emily then hears her friend on the other side of the call "Hey Emily, we've got another body down the road from Greaves salvage. Hotch and the team is there already." Emily puts on her shoes and grabs her badge during the phone call and then replies "I'm on my way J.J."
Meanwhile
On the dirt road in the wilderness of the Parker hunting forest James Greaves is making his way down the dirt road make and used by hunters for years. He had a olive green jacket on, this was his spare jacket, the one he would wear while he relaxing on a hunting trip. In one hand he was holding onto a duffle bag and in another was his SR-25 sniper rifle.
Along with him was Steve Hunt, the man he had been speaking with in the dinner the night before, was with him. He was probably one of the few people in town right now who did not believe he was a killer. His only weapon being a Winchester rifle with a scope on top.
"So James where are you going for your camp site." Steve asked James and he responds by saying "I have this one spot I found on my first hunting trip here. Has a safe distance from where most of the rivers are and none of the predators come close to it."
Steve could see in his eyes that he was distracted by something and asks "Are you okay James? You seem a little preoccupied with something." James looks at Steve for moment, his eyes moving around as searched for his words carefully and finally decides to let it go before he says "Nothing, just everything that's been happening has been insane. "
James wanted to go back to his job, to his daily life of a mechanic. For now that was not possible, all he could do was find a nice spot to bunker down and wait for the storm to pass. He hated that kind of thinking, but it was all he had to go on anymore. A few times he wanted to go back and face the problem back in Parker, but all he could do was keep on walking deep into his hunting ground and hunt and survive until it was over and he could go back to his old life.
Back in Parker
Emily was driving her car down the road when she found finally found the police road block and the crime scene a mile away from James's home and Greaves salvage. She parked her car on the side of the road before getting out and shows her badge to one of the police officers and they let her through. The body of a young man was found on the side of the road with a bullet in its back. The victim was in perfect condition, no trace of cannibalism was to be found on the body. Among the items found on the body was the wallet, the ID said his name was Danny Banks.
She had heard one of the detective's mentions he was a mechanic at Greaves salvage. Stabler quickly began to point the finger at James again, not the Emily was too surprised. From the moment she first saw him she recognized him for what he is, a self righteous son of a bitch who would do anything to screw James over. The grudge he held against him was clear as day.
Hotchner then tells one of the detectives to get a warrant to search Greaves salvage and James's home. Emily felt disbelief in their theory that James would do this, she refused to believe it. It would be like someone accusing one of her colleagues of a similar crime.
J.J. stayed with Emily as she waited by her car and asks "Are you okay Emily?" then she responds by saying in a less than convincing reply "I'm fine J.J., will everyone quit asking me that. It's nothing really, I just want to finish this case and get out of here so I can finish the rest of my vacation."
"Nice lie there Emily, you'd think after working with other profilers for so long you know lying doesn't do you much good. Now how about you be completely forth coming with me." J.J. says wanting to fully hear what was on Emily's mind and it paid off, because seconds later she says "It's just, the night before when I was speaking to James and I asked James about how the victim described her attacker as having a tattoo of three wolves..."
"And?" J.J. asks before Emily comes clean, finishing her statement "That tattoo is one that James's family has been using that very tattoo since the end of the civil war. I also know James has one just like it on him, but it's not on his hands, it's on his chest"
"Sounds like you were closer to him than you said, if you were able to see a tattoo on his chest." J.J. says as she begins to deduce more on her relationship with James. Emily could feel her face warm up from embarrassment before leaning back against the car and sighs, trying to shake the feeling and then she says "When I first met James, I didn't think much of him, seemed a like a backwoods redneck use to kicking it in the sticks. Nolan introduced me to him at a party he and Amanda dragged me to. Over the next few days I got to know him better, he was kind, warm hearted, and friendly. We started to date, it lasted for months and into the next year and before I knew it we were engaged."
J.J. sees the loss and hurt in Emily's eyes as she recounted the cliff notes of her relationship. She was still curious to how it ended and asks "What happened?" Emily looks up at her for a moment, her mouth half open and eyes showing sadness before saying "That year we were engaged my mother found out and wanted to meet him herself, was surprised to see how well it went, then as the month went by and my nerves began to grow we started fighting more and more to the point that I asked for us to separated for a while, then I never came around to calling him back and he never came looking for me so I always assumed he decided it was over. Sad part is that when I was talking to James last night, I found out that he waited on me for ten years."
"Emily, I'm sorry to hear that." J.J. asks and Emily says "Don't be, it was a long time ago and nothing can be done about it now." J.J. backs off a little in the conversation before asking "Do you want to give it another try with him? It's obvious he still has feelings for you." Emily found the idea of being with James again very appealing, but she was unsure of the chance that James would want to get back together.
Hotchner, who had been on the phone for a few minutes finally got off and Morgan asks "What's happening?" Hotchner then says "The Judge signed the warrant; we can search the house now."
Emily followed the others down to the Greaves salvage yard; she then had to wait outside while everyone else goes through the house, searching to see if James was still home. They were all seen coming out seconds later with Morgan saying "It's clear."
Emily later was given a pair of gloves and was told to look through the nearby Pickup truck. She found the door locked and begins to look around for something. James had always done things simply whenever he wanted to hide something. She looks in the bed of the truck find where he left a few pieces of scrap in plain view and unattended. One thing stood out, a wobbly piece of metal that she quickly rolled over to the side, and then she saw it, a key. She took the key saying "Same old James."
The door unlocked and she first took a look in the passenger side of the truck. The inside was surprisingly clean, one or two books were found on the floor of the passenger side one written by Steinbeck and the other was by Arthur Miller.
Rossi eventually came out from the house and joins her search, taking the driver's seat. Emily looks up from her search and asks "You finished with the house already?" Rossi then replies as he takes a look at the radio "No, but they seem to have everything covered in there so I thought I'd come out and help you with this." He then took a notice to the small dream catcher that was hanging from the rear view mirror, something he didn't expect to find and says I never picked Greaves for the kind of guy with sleeping problems."
Emily looks up herself from her search of the passenger side and sees the dream catcher herself, recognizing it immediately and then she says "I can't believe he still has that." Seeing that it looked exactly like one purchased years ago when they were on a short vacation and pasted by a reservation in Arizona on their way to a place called Death Valley. Rossi could see the feature of a smile on her face as she stared at the dream catcher before returning to look through the passenger side and the glove compartment. He knew right away something was up and asks "You seen this before?" He then watched as Emily stopped from her search of the glove compartment and then she says "The first year me and James were together I was on vacation for the summer and he was going to visit a cousin of his on a reservation in Nevada before they went on a camping trip in a place called Death valley. Well I tagged along with him and while we were there He bought that Dream catcher there from a local store."
"Sounds like it was a good trip for you and him?" Rossi asks, speculating as to the nature of the trip she had with James. Emily then replies with a smile on her face "The best two weeks we ever spent together." Emily then resumed searched through the glove compartment, finding a few burned CD's with the names of various bands from the 70's, 80's and 90's and a folded map under another book by Steinbeck.
"Anything interesting in there?" Rossi asked, Emily then says as she puts everything back excluding the map and says "Some old music, another Steinbeck book and a map." She then opens the map and places it on the hood of the truck, seeing symbols in one small area of the map. Detective Deeks joins them and says "Nice hunting map."
Emily and Rossi jolt their neck view to him and Emily asks "Is that what this is?" to which Deeks says "Yeah, James and some of the hunters in Parker, they keep maps like these so they can find their way around the woods on hunting trips until they learn the parts of the lay out in the wilderness. They put these special markings hear for locations that mean something special to them that only they would understand the significance of."
Emily then took a look at the symbols, one of an Egyptian hieroglyph eye with a tree sketch by it. On the river was a stick fish symbol. There was a drawing of a fire firefly and feathers, these was symbol were all around in the map and at the center of them all was a cross. This cross was different though, Emily did not need the genius Spencer Reid to know it, she recognized it as a cross often associated with the Knights Templar, an order of warrior monks from the times of the Crusades whom were eventually were disbanded, a story and symbol she had heard James speak of more than once when he was young and still expanding his knowledge of various religions and occultism in the world.
There was one last symbol on the map, it stood far away from the rest, and the symbol was two measuring scales with their points crossing and a G between them. This symbol was one anyone would know, the symbol of the Freemasons.
Deeks then says "Wherever James is and whether or not he has anything to do with these murders, we won't know anything new until we figure out what these symbols mean." Emily quickly asked upon hearing Deeks doubt to James guilt and asks "You don't think he's the one doing this?" Then Deeks quickly responds by saying "I may be Stabler's partner, but that doesn't mean I agree with every little thing he says. I want to catch the monster doing this; he just wants someone to blame and an excuse to go after Greaves."
Emil and the detective turn their attention back to the house as they saw the rest of the BAU walk out of the House along with Detective Stabler still angry and still bitter as he complained of how there was not a "Damn Thing" to use against Greaves. Then Rossi asks "Nothing?"
Then Hotchner says "Some clothes are missing along with the rifle and the pistol he had yesterday." Then Morgan takes a look at the map Emily had spread on the hood of James's pickup truck and asks "What is that?"
Emily then says "Some old map James had in the glove compartment." and Reid takes a notice to the Templar and Freemason symbol. Saying "Interesting." Causing Stabler to ask "And how do you figure that?"
After listening to Stabler's arrogant comment he points to the Cross and says "This symbol was used by Knights Templar during the Middle ages and the G in-between the two scales is a symbol of the Freemasons. These two groups were in some of the books in his home back there."
"Is there anything on the back?" Morgan asks before he takes hold of the map and then flips it over showing he was right about his hunch on the back. On the back was something to behold, words written in Mandarin and Emily asks "What is all this?"
Reid was the only one to recognize it and says "It' Mandarin. It's mostly used in the people's republic of China and north Korea."
Emily found this surprising, she had never known James to have learned any other languages other than English and asks "Hey guys when Garcia told you what she found on James did she mention any language training?'
Morgan then says "She mentioned that some of it had a seal with a Langley logo on it."
"Greaves was in the C.I.A.?" Deeks asks before Rossi says "Maybe not, some Navy seals with Special skill sets can be requested by the C.I.A. for special assignments."
Stabler then begins to go off "So Greaves could gave some of the skills to kills these people-"but Deeks cuts him off, standing up for the absent James, something he and Emily both knew no one else there would do "Give it a rest Stabler, James isn't doing this. The victim was killed the night before and he was at the Dinner for most of the night."
Stabler was enraged in by Deeks, his defense of the man who ruined the life and disgraced the career of his old partner and friend; he then says before storming off "Oh wake up and small the bull crap. We've got a victim who identified her attacker as Greaves and another victim killed not that far from where he lives."
Emily and the others watched as he walked away and Deeks takes another look at the map and says "We need to find where James is on that map before Stabler does." Rossi then asks "Do you have an idea where he could be?" to which Deeks replies "That one river near the cross, I once saw a river like that on my first hunting trip after I moved here, if he's not there, I know a few people in town who would."
"What do you plan to do?" Emily asked and Deeks says "Find that camping sight James is probably using and hear his side of the story and bring him back to try and prove he's innocent."
"What about Chief Brody?" Hotchner asks and Deeks replies with one short statement "Screw the chief." Then he follows by saying "He doesn't care about catching the killer, he just wants to close this case then sweep it under the rug. That's probably why he called you people in." Morgan then says "If you're wrong about this you could lose your badge." Then Deeks says with a smirk on his face, a little proud of himself as he said it "You know that's the thing, I just don't give a damn."
Author's note: For those you who have been reading this story and paying attention to the details of the story, I have changed the named of the rifle used by James, and as for the change in Deeks and his position in the story, he is meant to have a more involved part in a twist in the plot of the story as will Steve.
