Disclaimer: still don't own a thing, unfortunately
A/N: thick of the action is almost out of the way, one, possibly two more chapters! I had to cut it here because otherwise it would be massive but ch.10 should be on its way really soon. I apologize for not updating earlier but real life circumstances got in the way!
Derek arrived just in time at the LA LAX airport to find the team coming through the gates, a sense of urgency visible in their demeanour. They did not waste much time with greetings, instead getting straight to business.
"Morgan, you got a hotel room?" Hotch asked, hurriedly.
"No, I figured I'd see Pen..." Morgan answered, having thought about everything but the practicalities. He knew Strauss and most of the higher-ups were most likely not aware that the team had taken off for Los Angeles, so it was unlikely they could use the FBI buildings. Especially not if Kevin was working there now – not only was he involved but he could easily pull up their case information and report it to their superiors.
"Right, let's find one and set up shop," Hotch urged. He lead the team to the car rental office, where two black SUVs were waiting for them.
"Morgan, Reid, Prentiss, you come with me. We'll brief in the car. JJ, Rossi, go find us accommodations for at least tonight, make sure nobody suspects anything, call us with the address and then I want you, Dave, to go to talk to Torres at the FBI. See if he knows anything about the transfers, but do it discreetly. He knows you are coming. JJ, pull out the evidence we found and see if you can find anything on it. Contact the specialised shops to get any information you can get on the cameras. Let's go people!" Everyone nodded at Hotch, fully understanding their tasks.
"Cameras?" Morgan asked, his eyebrows knitted, as soon as they were seated in the first SUV.
"We found several cameras dissimulated in Penelope's apartment, Derek," Prentiss filled him in. "And it wasn't an amateur's job either," she added, thoughtfully.
"What you mean, not an amateur job?" Morgan raised one eyebrow.
"We're talking state of the art spy material, cameras even the intelligence services have a hard time justifying the use of. And they were really cleverly hidden too, had we not brought out the CSIs with their scanners we would probably have missed most of them. One was worked inside the ornaments on the door frame of her bedroom, two others were plastered in the walls, there were two in the bed knobs, we found several in the kitchen cabinet doors, even more in the living room... the whole place was covered. Shower included." Reid summed up.
"Hence we know how the pictures were taken," Prentiss stated the obvious. "There were none in your place, at all."
Derek remained silent, shocked at the idea their every move in Penelope's apartment had been followed so closely, most certainly by Kevin Lynch. Knowing how badly the tech took the break-up, Derek couldn't help but imagine how devastated he had to have been seeing another man exchanging endearments, tender touches, sweet moments with the woman who broke his heart, making love to her, making her scream out his name, repeatedly. Pen had confessed him one night that what she missed most with Kevin was a sense of physical contact, he wasn't very touchy-feely at all, and that sex between her and Lynch was on the boring side and certainly not worthy of much oral expression. She and Derek were the complete opposite. Lynch must have been floored comparing their performances to what he saw on his screen.
In other words: they were looking for a very angry, very scorned, and therefore very dangerous man. Who held the love of his life. Of their lives, apparently.
Xxxxx
JJ called the rest of the team within 15 minutes, giving them the address of the hotel where she hired a suite with two bedroom and a living room, giving them a place to work. By the time they arrived, Rossi had left for the FBI building, and they quickly settled around the table where JJ had laid out the evidence.
"I contacted the manufacturer, those are pretty expensive cameras, they are usually used for surveillance because they are discreet, do not need much if any maintaining, are solid and have good transmission while they are small enough you can easily dissimulate them." JJ started her explanation, walking around the table.
"Are they easy to install?" Reid asked, his brows furrowed, tapping his fingers in front of him.
"That's the thing. The manufacturer assured me that you need someone specialised to install them properly. Especially when I explained where we found them, he said that's a professional job." JJ continued, pursing her lips.
"Who would do this?" Hotch threw the question in the group, even though they knew the answer. Kevin "I think sneaking up on people is fun" Lynch, was the only reasonable suspect.
"It makes sense," Prentiss offered, holding her hands open in front of her, "Pen would always tell us how he had this uncanny ability of guessing, or 'knowing' things that happened when he wasn't there." JJ nodded.
"Yeaaah," the blonde woman continued. "I remember how one day she got into a small argument with him – she was tired, and he was blaming the team and how she had nightmares from the cases, and she told him she slept well that night and he got angry and told her she shouldn't lie to him that he knew very well she'd been dreaming and laid awake afterwards. And Pen was confused but she figured she did that often when he stayed over so he was just guessing..."
"Unless he was watching her," Hotch continued her thought.
"What a creep," Prentiss interjected, "he always rubbed me the wrong way."
"The question is why. What pushes a seemingly normal man to install over ten cameras in his girlfriend's house, to watch her apparently over extended periods of time, and even confront her with it," Reid pondered.
"Look, shouldn't we just go over to Lynch's place wherever the hell that is now, get Penelope out and ask questions later?" Morgan asked in an exasperated tone. "We dun need no profile, we know who did it, we need his address and start looking for her," Morgan interrupted the profiling session, impatiently slamming his fist on the table."
Hotch raised the palms of his hands towards Morgan, trying to calm him down.
"Morgan, I know that, but we need to be sure it's Lynch we're dealing with here. And know exactly who he is if we want to approach him without putting Penelope in more danger."
"He could be killing her right now, and we're getting a lecture on cameras!" Morgan cried out angrily, getting up.
"Morgan, where are you going?" Hotch shouted behind him, a sense of déjà-vu plaguing him.
Fortunately, the younger agent was stopped at the door by Rossi coming back from this meeting with Torres. Sensing where Morgan was storming off to, he put a hand on his chest and pushed him back inside the room towards the table.
"The plot gets thicker," he stated simply, catching everyone's attention, even Morgan's.
"Torres," he paused for dramatic effect, "informed me that Kevin Lynch's emergency transfer request ended up on his desk signed by Strauss, as a personal favour."
"What does that mean?" Prentiss asked, looking at Rossi sideways with a wary look on her face.
"That either means Lynch has something on Strauss, and thus found a way to make her comply, or," Rossi hesitated, "or they are working together on this for some insane reason."
"But why?" JJ cried out. "What in the world could they possibly gain from this?"
Rossi sat down at the table, followed by an increasingly impatient Morgan who was wearing holes in the carpet.
"Morgan is right. We need to find Penelope right now, we will ask questions later. This much plotting shows Lynch is much more dangerous than we thought," Hotch reasoned. "Does he have a place here?"
"Torres said they set him up with a hotel room for his stay because it came so sudden but he hasn't checked in there, and assured him he would be moving in with his girlfriend," Rossi stated, a disgusted tone to his voice.
"Did you find her cellphone when you went through her apartment?" Reid asked immediately, a plan forming in his mind.
"No, it's the only thing that was missing," Morgan answered.
"It was ringing out when we tried to call her, right? Not shut off." The others nodded.
Reid immediately jumped into action, taking Garcia's laptop and searching for locator software. Only a couple of minutes later he looked up with a triumphant smile.
"Ta-daaa!"
The red blimp on the screen gave them hope. Especially because it was moving, which lessened the chances Lynch had thrown her phone out.
"Excellent work, Reid," Hotch said with a small smile, giving the younger agent's shoulder a quick squeeze.
A/N: Coming up next: chase, confrontation, will they arrive in time and will Kevin see reason?
