DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN CRIMINAL MINDS OR ANY RELATED CHARACTERS
You have no idea how happy I am that there are people still reading, and adding, this story. Thanks you! And at least you've not had to wait a year for this update! It would have been here earlier, but I just wasted about two hours watching Criminal Minds clips/interviews on YouTube. Oops.
LABYRINTH – Chapter Ten
The car screeched to a halt outside the address that Garcia had found for them. It was a fairly average looking street. Single story houses lined each side of the road. A few houses looked slightly more run down than others. Number two-forty-six didn't look out of place.
Garcia's digging had found that Jason Kinford was a 20 year old college dropout who lived with his Mom and Dad. Although Rossi highly doubted this was their UnSub, he clearly had some connection to the case. He, JJ and Doakes exited the car. Two squad cars behind them emptied of police officers, who remained by their vehicles.
"So you think this kid'll know something about our guy?" Doakes asked, following the two FBI agents up the few steps onto the porch. He fidgeted a little with his Kevlar vest. They weren't particularly expecting trouble, but they also weren't sure how deep Kinford's involvement went, or who exactly would be answering the door.
JJ rang the doorbell. "I hope so." She sighed. It had been 24 hours since they'd been given the case at Quantico.
A well-presented lady who looked to be in her mid-forties answered the door. "Can I help you?" She asked. He eyes widened slightly as she noticed the FBI emblazoned vests. "Is something wrong?" She asked, tucking her short brown hair behind her ear.
"Mrs Kinford?" Rossi asked. She nodded. "We're looking for your son, Jason. Is he home?"
She nodded again. "Jason!" She called, turning her head into the house. A loud crashing noise came from within. Before any of them had a chance to react, a hooded figure came running at them from inside.
"Jason!" Mrs Kinford shouted as the figure pushed past them, making his way clear down the steps in one jump. Rossi, JJ and Doakes were quick to follow.
"Follow him!" Doakes shouted as he ran past the uniformed officers. "Cut him off!" The officers quickly got into their vehicles and sped off. Doakes followed JJ and Rossi down an alleyway after their suspect.
The ally was long and narrow, running as a cut through between this street and the Main road. It was lined either side by back yards. It ran through JJ's mind that the UnSub hadn't thought to hop over a fence and try and lose them in the gardens. She could hear the sirens nearby and knew they must be on their way to cut them off at the end of the alley. "Jason, stop!" She shouted. "FBI!"
They weren't far behind him. She stopped and drew her weapon. Rossi and Doakes ran past her, not questioning her motive. She fired a warning shot, missing Kinford buy a few feet. He didn't stop. She fired again. This time he ducked slightly, seemed more nervous, but carried on running. The sirens were getting nearer.
The police car appeared at the end of the alley. Kinford slowed slightly as if weighing his options. Rossi took advantage of this. He caught up to him, tackling him to the ground. Kinford struggled a little, but the kid was small. Rossi grabbed his arms and cuffed them behind his back.
"Not bad for an old man." Doakes said, smiling a little.
"I still got a thing or two I could teach you young folk." Rossi said, standing and dragging Kinford up by his cuffs. "But first, we got a few questions we'd like to ask you, Jason."
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"What the hell is this?" Morgan asked, looking around the room. It was larger than they one they'd just exited, maybe twice the size. The door at the other end of the room differed from all the others. Instead of the modern code style lock, it was an old fashioned key lock. Three of the walls of the room were lined with small hooks. On each and every one there hung a key. They keys varied in shape and size. Some looked fairly modern, while others looked more like the old skeleton key Hotch had in his pocket.
The forth wall had a sand timer attached to in. hanging off of the timer was a white envelope. Prentiss made sure Morgan was steady and made her way over to the timer. She pulled the envelope off and opened it, pulling out and reading the piece of paper inside.
"You have until the timer runs out. Find the key. Turn the timer to start. If you try and open the door before you start the timer, the door will remain sealed." She read. She looked around the room. "There must be hundreds of keys here."
"Just," Morgan sighed. "Just hand on." He said, pushing himself off of the wall. He half hobbled, half hopped over to the locked door. He crouched as best he could to look at the lock. "It's an old key." He said, studying the lock itself. "Looks like it needs a long skeleton key to open it. It's not a modern lock."
"Ok." Hotch said, trying to seat Reid on the floor. He protested, but Hotch couldn't quite make out what he was saying. It had shocked him when he'd felt how cold Reid was. Even through his clothing he could still feeling the chill. He braced Reid against the wall so he could look and him. "What?" He asked him. Reid repeated himself, but Hotch still couldn't make it out. He also wasn't opening his eyes, which worried Hotch. "Reid, look at me." He said, lifting the younger man's head slightly by the jaw. "Look at me, ok?" He couldn't help but smile a little when Reid did as he was told. "Ok, now, what did you say?"
Reid seemed to struggle for the words for a moment or two before finally speaking. He tried to speak as slowly and clearly as he could, aware that he wasn't making much sense to the others. He was sure that should worry him, but if he was honest with himself, he was too tired to care anymore. "I wanna stand." He managed to say.
Hotch nodded. "Ok." He wasn't sure that was the best thing for him, but standing meant that Reid would at least have to remain conscious, which could only be a good thing at this point. He had noticed that Reid was barely shivering anymore, and he knew that was bad. His body was too cold to try and warm itself; they didn't have much time left to get out of this place. He chose not to mention it to the others. They needed to focus on getting out.
"Hotch, man." Morgan said. "Throw me the key." He indicated Hotch's pocket. He pulled the old key out of his pocket and tossed it to Morgan.
"Wait," Prentiss said, "The timer." She nodded toward the old fashioned sand timer on the wall.
Hotch sighed and looked at the others. "Ready?" he asked. They both nodded. He turned the timer and watched the sand trickle for a few seconds.
"It's not the right one!" Morgan called from the door. The key fitted the lock, but wouldn't turn to open. "Look for a skeleton key!" he called to the others, placing the key back in his pocket. It wasn't for this door, but it must be for something? Hotch and Prentiss began scouring the walls looking for a matching key.
"Got one!" Prentiss shouted, throwing the key to Morgan who tried it.
"No good!" he said, throwing the key to the floor.
"Here!" Hotch shouted, throwing another.
Morgan tried it in the lock before throwing it to the ground also. "No good!"
Prentiss glanced over at the timer; they had used a little over a quarter of their time. She was glad to see that Reid was still standing, although he looked like he wouldn't be for long.
She found another key and threw it to Morgan. He tried it and tossed it with the others. "This is hopeless." He said, catching a key that Hotch had thrown him. "Damn!" He shouted, throwing that one aside too.
Reid watched them. He knew they were in danger, but he couldn't help but smile. They looked like kids on one of those Saturday Morning shows, trying to find the right key so that they wouldn't get gunged. He looked up at the ceiling. Something was wrong. There was some kind of mechanism attached to the ceiling. It was only small, so he wasn't surprised that the others hadn't noticed it. There were wires coming from it. One seemed to follow the crease in the ceiling down to the timer. Another disappeared into the ceiling itself and the third disappeared just above the door.
The part of his mind that was still working knew he needed to tell the others about his. He looked over at the timer. It was halfway through. He tried to call out to the others but even he didn't recognise what came out of his mouth.
"Got it!" Morgan shouted, turning the key he had been thrown and unlocking the door.
Reid watched as he saw a small light on the mechanism blink red a few times. He tried to call out again, but it was just nonsense. He looked over and saw Hotch heading toward him. Looking up again, he noticed the blinking had been replaced by a solid red light.
Hotch looked up to see what Reid was looking at. "Guys," He called, noticing the device. "Out, quickly." Before the words were out of his mouth, a loud cracking noise could be heard. He was vaguely aware of Prentiss shouting, calling his and Reid's names. The entire room seemed to shake. Rubble rained down on them. He heard Morgan call Prentiss' name.
The last thing he recalled was somebody knocking him to the ground.
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Kinford sat sulkily across the table from Rossi and JJ. He claimed to know nothing about the abductions, murders or the theft of the van.
Rossi placed out screen shots of the CCTV on the table in front of him. "Maybe this will help jog your memory." He spaced the photos out so Kinford could see them.
"I told you." He said, "I know nothing." He ran a hand through his short blonde hair. "That ain't even me!" He said, pushing one of the photos across the table back towards the Agents.
"We know you stole the van." JJ said, trying a gentler approach. "We're not saying you had anything to do with these deaths, but we need to know what you did with the van after you stole it."
Kinford shrugged, not speaking.
"Did you sell the van on? Give it to someone?" JJ prompted, hoping for an answer.
Kinford was silent for a while before he answered. "I steal things for people." He finally answered. "They tell me what they want, I get it."
"Who asked you to get the van?" Rossi asked, losing patience.
Kinford shrugged again. "I don't remember." He said, avoiding contact.
"Well you better start remembering," Rossi said, his tone angry. "Twenty people are dead, Jason. Four federal agents are missing. And unless you wanna go down as an accomplice, I suggest you search that memory of yours real good!"
"I don't know his name!" Kinford protested. "He just calls himself Johnny." He sighed, fidgeting a little against his cuffs. "I can draw you a picture of him, that's all. I swear. I'm a thief but I ain't no murderer."
Rossi passed him a piece of paper and a pencil. He stood and left the room. JJ walked around the table, un-cuffing him before re-cuffing his left hand to the arm of the chair.
"How am I supposed to draw like this?" Kinford asked, tugging against the restraint.
"You right handed?" JJ asked. Kinford nodded. "So what's the problem?" she asked, turning to leave the room before he could answer.
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Another chapter – and it as only a few days wait! Although it took ages to write cos I kept getting distracted by YouTube! The final isn't on until Mid July over here in the UK, but I can't help myself from watching clips here and there.
Thanks again for sticking with me on this. Hope you enjoyed! (let me know!) xx