Chapter 09
County Corner
Merced, CA
They beat the fire trucks. This time the rubble was burning brightly, illuminating the otherwise dark parking lot. "Wasn't the coroner working overnight on those bodies?" Rossi asked.
Before that could sink in someone gave a shout behind them. They ran over a small hump in the landscaping and found the sheriff and a couple of deputies standing over the bodies of what looked like the entire staff of the coroner's office, carefully placed where they would be safe from the blast. The Sheriff was down checking for a pulse. He looked up. "Alive, all of them."
The team got out of the way of the fire trucks and paramedics. "At least whoever is destroying evidence is polite about it." Rossi said. "They couldn't have darted the entire staff. Maybe gas in the AC unit?"
"We're definitely talking about more than one person." Morgan said. "It would take at least two to carry out those bodies, and someone to set the explosives and someone else to watch the parking lot. And if it was gas they'd be wearing gas masks. That takes practice."
"And darkness." Spencer said. He pointed up at a broken street light, then squatted down to look at the broken glass under it. "Looks like a .22"
"So are we saying a paramilitary group?" Hotch asked.
"And a good one. They coordinated it so that the majority of law enforcement was over at the first explosion while they set the second one. Less bodies to have to deal with." Rossi said. "And they went through a lot of trouble to not kill anyone. They just wanted to destroy the evidence. They don't want anyone knowing anything about the drugs they were testing."
"They've done this before." Hotch nodded. "It's too well organized."
"But if they'd have done it in the US we would know about it." Rossi replied.
"So we see what Garcia gets from Interpol in the morning."
"Hotch." Emily pointed out, just to break the tension. "It is morning."
Merced County Sheriff's department
Merced, CA
True morning, involving coffee and post breakfast, brought new evidence,
First up was the report from the sheriff, no injuries last night. "Everyone was out for about four hours." He said. "Common sedatives. Bumps and bruises, no more."
"One good thing." Rossi replied.
Next came the preliminary ATF report, a bit early but then Rossi knew a guy. "C4." The agent told them.
"That was quick." Rossi said.
"The joys of the terrorism age, we have better testing equipment."
"Military grade or industrial?" Morgan asked
"Military, definitely. In fact the chemical signature puts it with a shipment that went missing from Iraq three years ago."
"Veterans, maybe?" Emily wondered out loud. "That supports our paramilitary theory."
The last pile was from Garcia. "Okay, I just got the files in from Interpol and are they going to be knocking on our door over this one. Gold start to the genius, this is the fifth time this has happened in the past two years. Poland, France, Spain and Ireland, every time graves of eight bodies, every time near an imaging center, every time someone blew up the evidence, every time any locals in the way were taken out with less than lethal means." Spencer grabbed the pile of faxes and started looking.
"All those little girls." JJ murmured. "Forty?"
"Forty seven." Spencer told her as he processed rapidly.
"International." Morgan looked over at Emily and smiled. "Isn't this your department?"
She rolled her eyes at him. "I'll call Clyde." She said, moving off.
Hotch looked over the new evidence and nodded. It all confirmed what they had. "Are we ready to give the profile?"
"Yes." Rossi said.
"Yea." Morgan said
"No." Spencer said, as he looked at the pile. When they all looked over at him he began putting new pictures on the board. "Look at the first crime scene, the one in Poland. The locals didn't even know they had a problem until the imaging center exploded. When they got there they found the first grave, seven bodies, all dead less than an hour."
"First grave?" Emily asked.
Spencer nodded. "They found a second site not far from the first, only this one was three months old."
"So they came back to use the clinic a second time."
"Yes. They also found two dead adults, both confirmed as Russian mobsters. Ballistics indicated that the seven bodies in the fresh grave were killed with one of the mobsters' weapons."
"So why would they blow the building right away the first time, but wait until after the locals found the site every time after?" Morgan asked. "And why not destroy the bodies."
"They wouldn't." Spencer replied. "And because something took priority." He held up a picture of one of the graves. "The explosion went off less than an hour after the first girl died. The man who was executing them was shot. And look here, there's room for an eighth body."
"They interrupted the execution." Emily's jaw dropped. "There's a survivor."
Spencer nodded. "They had just enough time to destroy the MRI, but not enough to destroy the graves. Maybe the survivor needed medical attention or started to come out from under sedation. So they left and came back to destroy the rest of the evidence the next day."
"They were able to catch up with them because they used the same site twice." Morgan said. "So, are we saying two groups here?"
"I think so." Spencer nodded. "The first would be something along the lines of a gang type organization, either held together by the scientist or more likely with a charismatic leader who hired the scientist."
"Why gang type?" Morgan asked.
Spencer tapped the board. "Russian mob. Either they hired the scientist to work on something for them or he hired them for the muscle. Something similar happened here. Call them Team 1. The second group is the paramilitary one who blew up the buildings. Call them Team 2."
"Lethal to the first group but not the cops." Rossi nodded.
"Exactly. Based on that first crime scene I think Team 2's first priority is saving the victims."
"Because they stopped what they were doing to get the survivor out of there." Rossi agreed. "But then why destroy the evidence; why not work with the locals?"
"Because their second priority is to stop the development or use of those drugs." Spencer replied.
"And they're afraid we'll use them?" Morgan asked.
"They're afraid a government will use them." Emily replied. "Espionage? Maybe weapons testing?"
Spencer nodded. "I know how it sounds, but it fits. They respect the locals enough to use non-lethal solutions but they don't want knowledge of those drugs getting in to the system. Also, even that first crime scene was polished, this has happened before only no one has found the graves."
"Which means someone has covered it up somehow. They would have to go through a lot of kids to get to this point." Morgan said. "Could Team 2 be ours? Or Team 1 for that matter?"
"On US soil, with Garcia poking around in the records? No, we'd have representatives from every Alphabet soup agency around the coffee pot by now." Rossi shook his head. "No, this is someone else's problem that just landed in our laps. So a scientist takes off with some kind of development in his head. He's selling it to the highest bidder, which either gets him protection or he hires protection while he's working out the kinks. Team 2 is sent out to find him, probably eliminate him and keep Team 3 from finding out what Team 1 is doing."
"Team 3?' Morgan asked.
"The government of whatever country they happen to be in at the time."
"No, that still doesn't work." Spencer shook his head. "If Team 2 is trying to prevent whatever secret Team 1 stole from getting out, why risk losing control to save that victim? Any government group sent out wouldn't put that much priority on a nine year old girl from another country."
"He's right." Morgan said, "They would have killed her and destroyed the bodies, just to be sure."
"So Team 2 is non-governmental and has their own agenda." Rossi mused. "Maybe they wanted the drug for themselves?"
"So they took the victim to get at what was in her system?" Morgan shook his head. "I don't like the sound of that."
"Neither do I." Spencer said. But that seemed to fit the evidence. "So what do we do now?"
"Well, they're not coming back here." Rossi stated. "Team 2 salted the earth behind Team 1 pretty thoroughly. The danger is moving in and out of the country, now that Team 1 is here they'll stay, we have ample girls that fit the criteria and more than enough abandoned imaging centers to keep them going. In Canada imaging centers are fewer and further between, they won't find enough abandoned ones to make it worth a border hop, and in Mexico they'll run in to problems with drug cartel violence. No, they're going to be our problem for a while."
"Does that make us Team 4?" Spencer asked.
Rossi nodded. "We just want to get the kids home."
In the end they went back to DC. They knew Team 1 was setting the agenda here, and that Team 2 couldn't move until Team 1 stuck their head out again, and that they would have to be very lucky to get to Team 1 before Team 2 did. And their best bet to find luck was back in DC. They alerted Interpol to the missing survivor in Poland, sent out a bulletin to all law enforcement agencies to alert them to any disturbance around a medical imaging center, crossed their fingers, and tried to put it out of their minds.
A week later they heard from another CARD team.
Two girls were missing from the suburbs of Chicago.
