Chapter 7
It had turned dark slower than anyone would've liked. J.J. and Prentiss paced the police station while they watched Maxine. They had taken her out of the interrogation room and she sat by Garcia. Penelope was typing away on her laptop searching for more on their unsub. She turned to Maxine.
"Where did your father go to school?"
Maxine sighed. "I once saw a certificate in his room. It said Ya-lea."
"Yale?" Prentiss asked and Maxine nodded.
"He was mad that I was going through his stuff. He had hid it, but I found a high school yearbook later with a page marked to a blonde woman. She was obviously popular."
"How could you tell?" J.J asked.
"The picture she was in was one of her as the prom queen."
"What was the high school name?" Garcia asked as she typed in something and Prentiss hoped fruitlessly that it wasn't anything illegal.
"Jefferson." Maxine stated. "It's a local school. Just down the way and a right away from the woods."
"Got it!" Garcia celebrated as she pulled up the Jefferson High school records and typed in Mike Jonson's name in it. A picture of a young man came up. He looked disturbed as he looked to one side away from the camera. "Is that you father?" Maxine leaned forward and gazed at the picture. She nodded.
"What is he looking at?" J.J asked.
"Maybe something distracted him." Garcia said.
"Or someone." Prentiss trailed off. "Maxine, what did this woman look like?"
Maxine shrugged. "Like the other women here."
"Church going?"
She shook her head. "Blonde and skinny."
Garcia looked up at Emily. "What you hitting at?"
"What if he was looking at someone in this picture. Someone he loved from afar. Someone who didn't reciprocate his affections and he felt rejected. Look up all the blonde girls in the school at the same time as Mike Jonson."
Garcia typed in a code that separated the girls from the boys, then the blondes from the other hair colors. A list with their pictures came up and Garcia scrolled through when Maxine stopped her.
"That's her." She said. "The woman my dad said was my mother."
"Joanna Milton. She lives in the richer area of the town."
Emily nodded. "I'll call Hotch. I think we should pay a visit to Ms. Milton."
Maxine didn't want to go see her mother. The woman had been out of her life for eighteen years. She probably had a family already and a life. For God's sake, she lived in the richer side of town. Maxine remembered going to the edge of the forest and gaze at the beauty of the houses lined up on the pristine road. She'd imagine what it would've been like to wake up every morning in one of those houses.
Emily and J.J. took her to the house. They knocked on the door and waited. A woman opened the door and her eyes found Maxine.
"I'm not buying whatever you are selling!" She turned to the two agents. "Are you two her body guards? I am sick of this girl coming to my door begging!"
The two BAU agents turned to each other before turning back to the lady. "Mrs. Milton?" Emily asked.
The woman crossed her arms. "Who's asking?"
J.J. showed the woman her badge. "I'm Special agent Jennifer Jareau of the Behavioral Analysis Unit. This is my college Emily Prentiss. Does the name Mike Jonson ring a bell?" The woman's eyes had widened at the name but quickly shook her head.
"Never heard of him." The woman spoke quickly. "What is this about?"
"Have you heard of the rapes that have been going around?" J.J. asked.
"I don't know what this has to do with her." She pointed to Maxine.
"Mrs. Milton, may we speak inside?" Emily requested. Mrs. Milton gave them a curt nod and led them into her home. She stopped in her large living room and sat down on one of the chairs. Emily and J.J. sat down on the couch across from her and Maxine sat in the chair by the couch. Maxine kept her head down and twisted her hands together while she kept quiet.
"Will this take long?" Mrs. Milton asked impatiently. "My husband will be home soon."
"No he won't." Maxine stated.
Mrs. Milton turned on her and glared daggers into Maxine's head. "What?"
"Your husband is away. On a business trip for a couple weeks." Maxine said and shrugged. "Father showed me how to tap phone lines."
"You listen in on my conversations?" Mrs. Milton stood up. "I want you out of my house. What did I do to deserve this harassment?"
Maxine looked up at her. "You gave me away." She said plainly. Mrs. Milton was stunned and unconsciously grabbed her abdomen. Maxine adjusted in her chair. "I only tapped you lines so I could hear your voice. Sometimes, I recorded your side of the conversations so I could fall asleep." Maxine wiped away a tear. "It was the only way I could actually get close to you without you calling me a 'beggar'."
Mrs. Milton sat down. "Agents, what is this?"
Emily leaned forward. "We know that you know Mike Jonson. You went to school with him here. And we know you are afraid of him."
"Mike Jonson has raped several women and taken their children. We have reason to believe that you are Maxine's mother." J.J. gestured to Maxine.
"Did you say 'Maxine'?" Mrs. Milton asked. The two agents nodded and she began to cry. "That was my baby's name."
"Can you tell us about the nature of your relationship with Mr. Jonson?" asked Emily. Mrs. Milton nodded.
"Mike was different. Quiet. Smart. Everyone made fun of him. It was a different time back then. If I could, I would've stood up for him. He was always kind to me and I never knew why. I knew his mother had died and his father was put into jail. His brother pulled two jobs to keep them both sustained. Sometimes I would leave food packages at their door to help them along. I never told anyone that I did it, but I think Mike knew.
"You asked me what the nature of our relationship was, Agents. I can't tell you because there wasn't a relationship. He had a crush on me, I suppose, but I never felt anything more that platonic. Not until, the night he raped me."
J.J. furrowed her eyebrows. "He raped you?" Mrs. Milton nodded.
"I was walking home when he grabbed me. He told me that I looked pretty and that he knew that secretly I loved him. I tried to push him off of me but he was too strong. I ran home to my parents and told them what had happened. By the time the police arrived to get Mike, His brother said he had skipped town. After I gave birth, I moved in with my grandmother on the other side of town. One night, he must have come in somehow because the next morning, my baby was gone. Harry, his brother was so ashamed that his brother did that - both the rape and the kidnapping. I never wanted the police to arrest him so I dropped charges on Harry. Though knowing that he was in the woods haunted me. I never felt safe at night after that." She paused and looked over at Maxine. "Eighteen years you were gone. I didn't know what to do."
"For years, my father told me lies about you." Maxine said. "I want to know you, mom."
Joanna gave out a small sob. "I've always wanted to hear you call me that." She and Maxine both got up at the same time and hugged each other. They cried as they held each other tight as though this was a cruel dream that they both would wake up from.
"Mrs. Milton, we know bringing this up brings emotions you haven't touch in almost two decades, but we need to capture Mike Jonson. Maxine has volunteered to get the children and we get Mike. We need a place to put them until we capture him. Will you be willing to house the kids in your house?"
"You see my house agents, it's too lonely for two people. I will house them until this monster is captured. (random author note: I know that this is too soon for them to ask such a big request of her, but the story needs to move and I needed to update this chapter or I'll die!...JK Not dying over here but you get the gist...Author out)"
Night fell and all the agents were silently treading though the woods. Maxine led them past trees and over small rivers. Morgan had his weapon drawn and close to his hip. His Kevlar vest was on tightly because Reid was nervous of what would happen to him on this little mission. Morgan smiled as he remembered the conversations they had before coming over here.
"Morgan, these things can't protect you if you have it loose." Spencer stated as he got up and helped his boyfriend with the straps.
"Babe, I got to breathe, don't I." Derek laughed as he tried to bat his boyfriend's hands away. "Do you want me to die of suffocation or die from a bullet?"
Spencer glared at him. "Not funny." He turned to walk away but Morgan grabbed him and pulled him back. "Derek, we're working and we are in a public dressing room in the Police station. Anyone could walk in."
"No one's going to walk in." Derek assured and gave Spencer a big kiss. "I'm sorry about the joke."
Sighing, Spencer put his head on his boyfriend's shoulder. "I know, it's just this guy didn't hesitate when he killed that little girl, so why would he hesitate to kill you or anyone on the team?"
"Babe, I'm bulletproof." Derek flashed him a smile.
"Humans aren't bulletproof. Hence the bulletproof vest."
Nodding, Morgan gave a final kiss to Spencer's forehead. He stepped back with his arms out so Spencer could reach the straps on the vest. "Do your worst to me. But don't squish anything that doesn't need to be squished." He gave Spencer a seductive look that made him blush redder that a tomato. His boyfriend went to work on making sure that the vest was on tight, but not too terribly tight.
It wouldn't have been bad, but the vest was rubbing him the wrong way under his arms. The other policemen asked if he wanted to re-adjust it, but he shook his head and told them that they should focus on the task at hand. Hotch gave him a questioning look and Morgan gestured his head towards Reid and then the senior agent nodded and continued walking.
Maxine led them deep into the forest and stopped. Emily went up to her and asked what was wrong.
"He's here." Maxine whispered.
"What?"
"My father is here." She pointed at a small fire in the distance. "When he comes back, he always burns a fire by the house and we have dinner outside with him."
"Is there a safe way you can get your siblings out?"
"I can try." Maxine said.
Hotch called to Sheriff Holke. When he came to him, Hotch explained what was happening. "We're going to send Maxine in and she will try to get the kids out. On my signal, we go in and take down Mike Jonson."
Hotch's friend eyed him. "Aaron, are you sure?"
"Positive." Hotch answered.
Holke nodded. "Alright." He turned to his radio and informed the others around them to stand down until they were told to move.
Hotch turned to Maxine. "Are you ready?"
Maxine nodded. "Yes."
Dun DUH DAAAAAAAH! What will happen? Who will triumph? Will I ever answer these questions?
I've been neglecting to update and that is my bad. I've been preoccupied with school and senior obligations. I hate Senior Design Projects... I go to a magnet school called DATA. Look us up, we have a wikepedia page and I'm a senior in that program. Essentially, I've been told to make something so I'm making a book. Then I was told I needed to add design aspects so I said I'll create a website. Then I was told to add another design aspect and I said I dont' know how to do anything else. So they told me make something is Flash... I hate it.
But whatever. I'm just trying to survive. The hardest thing to do in this world is to live in it.
Til next time!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX0-LMBYW1995
