Hotch looks around the table at his team. All have bags under their eyes and none look like they have had a decent sleep in days. In several ways this case was slowly destroying them. He takes a deep breath and gets things moving.
"So, what do we have so far?"
"A shitload of nothing," Emily grumbles.
JJ pats her leg. "I had one idea I'd like to pursue today. I'll need Garcia and maybe Reid to help."
"What is it?" Hotch asks.
"I need to review every press conference I have given, paying close attention to any in which there was a death after we gave the profile or the police leaked that there was a suspect. This unsub seems to think we said or did something that gave false hope. Maybe we can view these conferences with an eye on something that this guy misconstrued as the case being solved."
Hotch nods. "I like it. You three go get to work on that now."
JJ, Garcia and Reid quickly gather their things, all three glad to have a fresh line to tug.
"JJ?" Hotch stops them. "If you get the call this morning, keep him on the line as long as possible. Garcia start the trace, Reid call me." The three nod. "If one of us gets it, expect a call, Garcia."
"Yes, sir."
The three leave to start poring through the archives. Hotch looks at Morgan and Emily.
"What did you two come up with?"
"A brick wall of arrogance cemented with ignorance," Morgan answers. He tells about the security lapse. "So either our unsub was lucky as shit or he had a part in the security camera going down."
"With that thought in mind," Emily picks up and continues, "I contacted Embassy security for the exact time the camera went down. They would give me the day only. National security is their claim for not being more specific. Anyway, I starting searching traffic cams in that area on that day. If our unsub is the one that damaged the camera he has to be on a couple different cameras entering or exiting the alley. I watched until I was cross-eyed last night…or rather this morning. I only made it through 2 cameras from midnight to 6 a.m."
"Morgan, get with Emily and continue that search. Use your office so you won't be disturbed."
The two agents get up and head down to Morgan's office. Hotch sighs and sits back in his seat. He and Rossi stare at each other.
"They are decent ideas," Rossi notes regarding the two new searches being run.
"And probably dead ends again," Hotch says, voicing the concern for every team member. "What are we missing, Dave? What the hell have we missed? This guy has contacted us, he's left electronics behind, he's…he's totally immersed in this case and yet he's a ghost. What are we missing?"
Rossi shrugs. "I just don't know." He pauses. "Unless…unless we're looking at the wrong BAU team."
Hotch shakes his head. "Contacting Prentiss tells me this is the team he is after. Otherwise why reach out to her?"
"But he hasn't reached out to me," Rossi points out.
Hotch's eyes narrow. "That's true. But if not you- -"
Emily runs into the room. "Morgan's getting a call."
Morgan and Emily had gone to his office and quickly set up their computers. Emily sends him a link to the cameras she had pulled.
"These are the ones in the immediate vicinity of both ends of that alley. If you take the two I haven't started yet I'll continue with the ones I was looking at last night."
"Sounds good. I'll just…"
His voice trails off as his phone rings. Emily stands up as he nods. She leaves the room as she hears him answer. She texts Garcia as she makes her way to the conference room.
"Morgan."
"My name…please don't hurt me…my name is Antonio Wilson. He says you have until 3 p.m. to find me or…or…please, Agent Morgan, please find me! Please!" the man begs.
"You hang on, man. We're already looking for you, Antonio. I promise you we will not rest until we have you back safe with your family."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Agent Morgan. Antonio is a smart man. He can see the blood here. He can tell your words are lies. His family won't be surprised to get home today and find he is dead. They'll know you failed him just as you have failed so many before him."
"Look, coward, why don't you take your anger out on us directly!" Morgan challenges.
"No! No, I like doing it this way. You will feel the pain I felt when I could do nothing to save my girl! Three p.m., Agent Morgan. Tick tock."
The man disconnects the call. Morgan races out of his office straight towards Garcia's lair. He walks in to see her trying to narrow in on the router the unsub had used. He sees Emily writing key words up on a dry erase board.
"You all heard the time frame?"
JJ nods. "Yeah. He knocked 9 hours off it to start. What happens when we piss him off by investigating?"
Morgan shrugs. "I don't know. I do know we can't change the way we look into any leads. If we start playing the game differently we'll never catch him."
"Agreed," Hotch says from his place behind JJ. "Morgan, Emily get back on the traffic cams. JJ continue to look into your past conferences. Reid, work with Garcia on the pertinents of Wilson's life. Rossi, you and I will go check out the router location."
Twenty minutes later the unit chief and his mentor are on their way to a location in Arlington. Based on property records it is an empty home repossessed by the bank. But the agents are taking nothing for granted. Commander White is sending a team with them and that team will make entry to clear the building before Hotch and Rossi enter. A bomb sniffing dog is part of the advance team to avoid any surprises such as Emily had run into.
JJ is staring at herself pregnant with Henry, terrified about Emily and Reid, and talking down the child abuse allegations against Benjamin Cyrus. She is surprised to see not even she can tell she had just listened to Emily take a beating to avoid Reid being killed.
"Damn…I really was good at the job," she mumbles.
She makes a few notes about the case and her statement. Cyrus had, in fact, being abusing underage girls. And sadly, many people died in the compound because they refused to leave or left too late and were caught in the blast debris. This could very well be the case that the unsub is angry about. Just about everything JJ had said to the press had been a lie to keep the agents and the non-diehards safe until they could be rescued. She thinks about this case in relation to the unsub.
"If he's related to anyone that died…wait a second…he wasn't related to someone, he was in love with someone! He said something about being unable to save his girl." JJ slides over to another computer. "Garcia, the Cyrus case: we need any female who died in there that was single. He couldn't save 'his girl' so it's possible he had left the commune or simply couldn't get her to leave."
"Ooo! And before he gets the chance to get her out, we show up, all hell breaks loose, and she dies!" Garcia says as she types. "Okay, 7 women died in the blast, 3 died later at the hospital…" she types some more. "And 6 of them were single at the time of the incident."
"Okay. Get me next of kin current contact information. I need to make some calls to see if anyone knows of a bitter ex."
"On it, Jayje. Will have it to you ASAP."
JJ nods and turns back to the screen showing her younger self. It seemed like so long ago. She rubs her stomach and can't help but grin: everything old is new again.
Hotch and Rossi pace impatiently as the bomb tech and the SWAT team clear the house. They do a very thorough job which is great but the agents hate the lost time since the unsub shortened the clock for this victim. Hotch is almost thankful for the distraction when his phone rings.
"Hotchner."
"Agent Hotchner, this is Andrea Palmer in ballistics. I did the reconstruction of the bomb that nearly killed Agent Prentiss."
"Yes, what can you tell me?"
"I can tell you she didn't set the bomb off as originally believed. The wire that was threaded up the doorframe and out the top was actually a short-range antennae."
"Short range?"
"Very short range. Sir, your unsub was most likely in the house watching the boatshed. My guess is the second floor window facing the shed. He set that bomb off when he wanted it to do."
Hotch shakes his head. "NO! No, the agents were sure he wasn't in the house."
"I've run the probabilities, sir. That's the only place on land he could have been."
Hotch's eyes narrow. "On land…what about if he was on the Potomac?"
"Possible. He'd have been where they could see him, that's for sure. He couldn't have been more than 50 yards away."
"So either concealed in the brush along the banks or actually out on the water. And in all the confusion after the explosion he just disappeared. Son of a bitch."
"Pretty much. I'll send your team the full report including the radius showing where he'd have to be to set the bomb off."
"Good. Thanks for your help, Palmer." Hotch hangs up and looks at Commander White. "White, did your men have on personal cameras the day they helped Morgan and Prentiss?"
White nods. "Yes. Standard fare nowadays."
"Good. We'll need copies of what they recorded. The unsub either managed to get into the house and leave no sign of entry or he was on the river. We need to see what was around when that shed blew up."
White pulls out his phone. "I'll have the film sent to your analyst and have a couple of my guys start to go over it immediately to see what they can see."
Hotch nods. "Good."
Rossi glances at his boss. "Remind me to say a benediction that those cameras picked up something."
"Say a good one," Hotch encourages.
White turns back to Hotch. "Just got the word. Place is clear except for the router sitting in the fireplace."
Hotch and Rossi make their way into the house. They quickly clear the entire place themselves before moving into the living room and staring at the router taunting them from the fireplace.
"So, this guy sets a bomb to blow up a boatshed. What are the odds he just set that router there with no tricks?" Rossi asks.
"Slim to none," Hotch replies. "Stay here."
Rossi reluctantly obeys the order as Hotch approaches the fireplace alone. Pulling out his maglight he carefully shines it all over the soot-darkened recess. It is on his second trip that he sees the shimmer. He leans forward and confirms.
"Trip wire," he says over his shoulder.
Rossi walks up and taps Hotch on the shoulder. Hotch gets out of the way, knowing things Rossi learned in Vietnam are still helpful today. The older agent uses his own light to study the line. He leans his head into the fireplace and looks up the flue.
"Some sort of box up there. If the bomb dog didn't detect explosives it could be incendiary. Good chance it would ignite and rain fire down before your arms would be out with the device. Even if it was out before it spread from your arm you'd be laid up for a few days at least."
"Damn. So how do we get it out of there?"
"Call White and have him send the bomb tech back in. We'll see what he thinks."
It takes nearly an hour and a half for them to safely extract the router from the fireplace. As Rossi suspected, gas was in the box and would have ignited if the router had simply been removed. The unsub was going to be very unhappy this trick failed.
Hotch sighs. "The newest victim may lose time due to this."
Rossi nods. "I know. Let's hope to hell having this router will help Garcia narrow in on where the bastard got the parts for it."
Hotch bags the router and the two agents hurry back to Quantico so any evidence left on the small machine can be pulled and they can possibly take a step closer to discovering their unsub.
"DAMN IT!" JJ shouts in frustration and throws her portfolio across the room. "NOTHING! Not a damn person associated with the women who died in that fucking compound is now in the DC area nor are they unaccounted for where they live and work." She rubs her temple. "I was so sure…"
Reid walks over and starts to rub her shoulders. "It was a good angle, JJ. And one that can be used on other cases. It wasn't this case but it could be the next one."
"Or maybe not. Or not anything we see as hubris at all! We don't know what the fuck we're looking for, Spence. We're shooting in the dark at shadows and I'm fucking tired of it. I fucking hate the feeling of…of helplessness."
She quickly stands. "I need to take a break. My blood pressure is too damn high right now. I need to rest and try to bring it down."
"The couch in Rossi's office. He gets fewer phone calls than Hotch," Garcia suggests.
"Good plan. See you all in about an hour."
JJ walks out of the room and starts down towards the bullpen. She suddenly sways on her feet as her vision seems to waver.
"Fuck…b.p. more fucked than I realized," she mumbles.
She detours to the bathroom to splash some cold water on her face and wet a couple of paper towels to take with her. As she walks out she runs into Emily, who looks scared. JJ chuckles.
"Pen called you?"
"Spencer," Emily corrects.
"I got a bit dizzy just now. It's pretty damn high, Em," JJ admits.
Emily wraps her arm around JJ's shoulder and escorts her to Rossi's office. She then goes to JJ's desk and gets the blood pressure cuff. A few minutes later she runs a hand through JJ's hair.
"Not red zone but damn close. Jen…are you…should you…"
"Don't send me home yet, Em. Please. Let me rest an hour or so. If it's still too high then I'll go home. I swear."
"Are you sure the nesters are okay?"
JJ smiles and strokes Emily's cheeks. "They are. I promise." She takes Emily's hand and places it on her stomach.
Emily smiles as she feels the subtle movements of the babies. "Okay, they don't seem riled up."
"Nope. If that changes or I start feeling worse I will call you. I promise."
Emily leans forward and kisses her wife's forehead. "You better, Mrs. Prentiss. I love you and our babies so much."
"We love you, too."
Emily grudgingly stands. She would rather stay by her wife's side but knows stopping the unsub before JJ gets the call that has haunted most of the team so far would go a long way towards keeping her wife's blood pressure down. At the door she pauses and looks back. JJ smiles at her.
"I'll be okay, Emily. I promise," she reiterates.
Emily nods once more then closes the door to leave her wife in darkness. JJ takes a deep breath and concentrates on relaxing, going into a meditative state to make her body a better host for Lucas and Madison.
Emily drops down into her chair across from Morgan. He studies her a moment.
"She okay?"
"She will be. Not the worst spike she's had but still worrisome. I'll check with her again in an hour. So let's do what we can to find a solid lead on this bastard."
Morgan nods. "Can do. Look at this." He turns his computer. "Guy parks a van with a bakery logo on the side of it and goes down the alley. He's gone 15 minutes then comes back and drives off. Now, maybe he was doing something crazy like going to the bathroom but since that bakery doesn't exist I think he may have been disabling the camera."
"Damn. Good job. Did you call that phone number under the logo?"
"Yep. Listen." He puts his desk phone on speaker and hits redial.
"Ambassade Francaise," a woman answers.
"Sorry, wrong number," Morgan says as he disconnects. "She probably figures I am persistent since I've now called 3 times."
Emily grins. "She sounds cute at least."
Morgan chuckles. "True. So this guy is our unsub, isn't he?"
"I believe so. No clear look at his face. Let's see if we can track him via traffic cams through the city."
Morgan nods and the two get back to work, a stirring of excitement in them as they think they may finally have a viable lead.
"I GOT HIM!" Reid exclaims about an hour later, startling Garcia.
"Who?" she questions testily.
"The unsub! I've been looking at the film sent down by White's team. There's a boat out on the water. Look," he zooms in on the image. "Fishing poles."
"Uh, Reid, people fish the Potomac…as disgusting as that may sound to normal humans."
"Poles but no lines in the water. Why set them up if you're not going to cast them?"
Garcia shrugs. "Maybe they are secured there like that for transport or something. Uh…what is he doing?"
"He's lifted a remote control. Watch."
Reid lines up two images with the same time stamp. Garcia watches as the man on the boat holds up the small box and grins. On the other screen the door and part of the platform of the boatshed are blown into splinters and you can just make out Emily dropping into the water.
"Whoa."
"Yeah. Take over, Garcia. Can you get enough of his face to get into facial recognition? I'll try to hunt down the boat."
"Right."
The two switch positions. Garcia immediately gets working on what she needs. Reid looks at the various screen shots and all the scrolling data on the monitor Garcia had been using and frowns.
"Uh…maybe…"
"Forget it, Dr. of the Dark Ages. I'll get the boat search running, too."
Reid sighs in relief. "Good. I'll go let the others know what we've found."
"And check on Jayje?"
Reid grins. "Definitely."
JJ's eyes open when light from the doorway falls across her face. Though she is but a shadowy silhouette JJ recognizes her visitor immediately.
"I feel better."
Emily closes the door and walks over to the couch. "Are you sure?" She kneels down beside her wife, studying blue eyes by the light filtering through the window blinds. "For the babies, Jen, are you sure?"
JJ smiles and takes Emily's hand. "Yes, I am. I swear. Check me if you must."
Emily grins. "I must."
She grabs the blood pressure cuff and checks her wife out. She smiles as she sees JJ really is back down to safe levels.
"Well, either the sphygmomanometer is broken or you are better, my love."
JJ starts to giggle. "Couldn't just say 'blood pressure cuff', my favorite nerdling?"
"I like to impress you with my big words," Emily admits with a smile.
"Well, that did indeed impress me. But it's not just your big words that impress me. Other big things impress me, too," she says seductively, squeezing Emily's fingers.
Emily gives her quick peck on the lips. "Good to know. But since Hotch and Rossi are on their way up here you'll have to get a dose of those big things later."
JJ groans. "Damn. Wanted to fulfill a fantasy in Rossi's office."
Emily laughs. "Hopefully it's only me you want to experience that with."
JJ shrugs coyly. "Sure. Probably."
Emily leans over and gives her a kiss. "Incorrigible, Mrs. Prentiss. Naughty and incorrigible."
"Always," JJ agrees. She sits up, glad that she doesn't get dizzy. "Guess it's time to turn on Agent Jareau again."
"Yes, it is. Promise me, Jen…"
JJ's hands cradle her wife's face. "I promise if I start feeling bad I will call it a day. I swear."
The share another quick kiss. "Thank you, sweetheart. Come on: I'll fill you in as we walk."
As they make their way first to the bathroom then to the conference room Emily fills JJ in on the boatshed bomb, the boat, the router in the fireplace, and the bakery van.
"Damn! You all have been busy the last hour."
Emily blushes. "Um, did you look at your watch?"
JJ frowns and checks. "TWO HOURS! Shit! There's too much to do- -"
Emily grabs her wife's hands. "Stop! Don't get worked up again. We had things handled. If we'd needed extra eyes one of us would have come for you. I swear. Right now we're recapping the day and…well…I guess I didn't mention…Morgan got the last call."
JJ stops. "When?"
"About an hour ago. Unsub was pissed his booby trap didn't work. Now we're just waiting to see where the body gets dumped."
"Shit. Shit. Double shit. Fuck."
"Yeah, that pretty much sums up what we all felt when we heard the man die."
"Morgan okay?"
Emily nods. "Shaken at first but getting better. He'll be solid when get the chance to take this fuck down."
"Yeah." JJ takes a deep breath. "Two of us left…"
Emily looks at her wife. "Will you let me answer?"
"No. He may see that as cheating."
"Shit. Good point. I'm sorry you'll have to take that call, Jen."
JJ shrugs and gives a wry smile. "Me, too."
Hotch studies the haunted looks in the eyes of the 6 people around the table. He knows it is probably mirrored on his face. He takes a deep breath.
"Garcia, serial numbers and other identifiers on the router will be sent to you soon. See if helps you in…in some way get a handle on this guy."
Garcia nods. "Yes, sir. If I can trace the parts to the same store as the other we can maybe believe that is his neighborhood. If he bought them somewhere else I can compare credit card statements at both locations to see if any match."
"Good idea. Prentiss, Morgan, where are you with the van driver."
"No where. He drives into a public garage, parks and the van is still there. Our techs are towing it here to go over with a fine tooth comb but their first impression is nothing is in there other than maybe finger prints," Morgan answers.
"What about shots of the driver?" Rossi asks.
"He managed to park in a security camera blind spot," Emily explains. "We're now searching cameras everywhere in the lot and building but we don't know if he had another vehicle or even just a change of clothes stashed there. We're doing our best to find him," she assures the team.
"Okay. The fisherman?" Hotch continues, looking at Reid.
"No surprise but the boat was stolen. So far it hasn't turned up yet. He may have sunk it or just put it where it doesn't go. Until someone stumbles upon it we may not get a chance to check it out."
"Garcia? Good shot of his face?"
"I'm still trying to get a composite of his face built to run through facial recognition. If I can piece together enough angles we should have a very good comparison if he is in a database somewhere," Garcia answers.
"Very good." Hotch takes a deep breath. "As you can imagine, there is pressure coming down to pull us from this case. So far Straus has been able to convince the powers that be that to do so would constitute 'cheating' in the eyes of this unsub. However, if we don't show progress by the end of the weekend we will be pulled from the case and all put on leave until it is solved."
"Whoa! That's not right! That could make us targets!" Morgan points out angrily.
Hotch nods. "I agree. We'll deal with that if it comes to it. I know it may not feel like it, but we're getting closer. The van, the boat, the routers…they hold clues that will help us find this bastard and shut him down. To that end, Prentiss, JJ, I'm sending you two home. Morgan, Garcia go with them. You can work some from there but more importantly, relax some for the evening. We need to clear our heads so when the searches Garcia is running start to hit for us we'll be able to chase them down properly." He looks at the other two team members. "Reid, Rossi, when we get the call about the dump site we'll be responding. Reid, you and I will then stay at Rossi's house tonight."
"Oh, of course, that's fine. Thanks for asking," Rossi snarks, making everyone grin.
"You won't even know we're there, old man," Hotch assures him. "But with Straus out of town this weekend this is the way to keep you from being alone. Security system or not, no one stays alone. He has stalked us and he's starting to run out of team members to call with a mirror image of ourselves. He may next try to take one of us. Let's not make it easy for him."
The team agrees and starts to finish up what they can and get things together to take wherever they are going so they can work some more tonight. Maybe…maybe they will finally figure out who this bastard is and where he can be found before another victim dies.
