Chapter 10: Following the breadcrumbs
Reid and Morgan walked into the main library of the county not long after leaving the precinct. After asking some questions they were directed to a soft spoken woman, with her white hair tied loosely in a bun on the back of her head. Her name tag loudly proclaimed that her name was Christie.
"Hello, ma'am, I'm SSA Morgan and this is Dr. Reid, we're from the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI. We need some information."
"Sure, how can I help the FBI?"
Reid glanced around the ample room in the vain hope of catching a glimpse of Moni.
"We're actually seeking information on a person who might have a registration with you here to borrow books. Her name is Monica Law."
Upon hearing the name, the old librarian smiled brightly at the agents.
"Oh, you're friends with Moni? Which one of you is Spencer?"
That took them by surprise. Reid apprehensively stepped forward, clearing his throat.
"I'm Spencer Reid, ma'am. Why do you ask?"
Her smile widened as she walked around the counter to give him a maternal hug. Reid awkwardly returned the hug, and she stepped back after a moment, molding his face in her soft hands that smelled of Victoria Secret's pear handcream.
"Oh, you are even more handsome than she told me! Moni is a lucky girl. Please, follow me."
They silently followed her down the aisles of the library- shooting silent questions at each other behind her back- until they reached the Children's Literature section. She looked around the shelves, and let out a small "aha" when found the very old, muted colored tome. She blew the dust off of it, before handing it to Reid.
"What is it?" he asked.
"I don't know. But she said you would." She said before leaving to return to her post.
"Hey, wait?"
She turned back to Reid and, guessing at his confusion, decided to share her knowledge of the young woman that was so taken with him.
"Moni is a very sweet girl. A little bit airy in the head and somewhat out of touch with reality, but she is very sweet. Since she was just a little girl- all pigtails, long arms and legs- she used to come here and sit right there on that sofa," she pointed to the cream colored couch, "with books as her faithful companions. Sometimes that old gentleman, Declercq, would come and sit with her and talk about the places that he had seen in his long life. Considering where she came from, I can understand why she would love the tidbits of attention the old man gave her."
"What do you mean, where she came from?" Reid asked.
"She was an orphan," she sighed sadly, "Passed from one family to the other until she finally settled down with the Laws. They adopted her, but never really loved her. They just wanted the paycheck that came with her. The only person who ever gave her any attention was Declercq."
She looked at the book in Reid's hands pensively, "I don't know what's in the book, but when she called this morning, she told me to give it to you, Spencer, because you would know what it means. She is strange like that, always speaking in riddles."
At that, she left again for her post.
Reid frowned down at the book. It was a very old, musty version of the Brothers' Grimm Fairy Tales. He ruffled through the pages, seeing several handwritten notes on the book corners. Obviously the person who read it had written down her thoughts and feelings about the stories as they came to her.
"What is it?" Morgan asked, looking at the book over Reid's shoulders.
"I don't know but …" he reached the beginning of the Hansel and Gretel's story, and read the note written on the corner.
Do you wanna play?
"I think it's a riddle."
"A riddle?"
"Yeah," he turned to the next page, "breadcrumbs." He pointed to the next handwritten note.
You have to follow the clues.
"Clues to where?" Morgan asked.
"Not to where, to whom."
Reid lifted the book, showing Morgan the first clue.
Once upon the time, there was a little girl, who lived in an old abandoned castle…
CM CM CM CM CM
Moni was singing softly under her breath, sitting before a drawing board in her hiding place- at the top floor of an abandoned glass producing plant in the industrial district. She knew the area was empty of activity, so she had cleaned up the last floor and transformed it into a nice nest. She had done a good job at decorating it to her own style and taste.
She grabbed an apple from the fruit tray sitting by the drawing board, and bit into it, relinquishing on the sweet taste as she stared at her latest drawing.
She took another pencil from her pencil box- this one a little bit softer- and added shadows here and there to the figure she was drawing by memory.
She smiled at the finished work, but soon sobered as she absorbed the impact of the image.
It was yet another picture she had drawn of Spencer, a pencil sketch of him with his gun holster hanging from his belt and a scarf hanging from his neck. The original scarf was purple, but she had added some drawing pattern to the shadows to give the impression of delicately woven wool. He wore a vest over his white shirt, and his face was graced by a smile from ear to ear.
She sighed, getting up and turning her back on her creation. She walked to her small fridge and pulled bottle of water out of it, before going back to stand close to her drawing board.
Regardless of what might happen, if he found her or not, that would be the only image of Spencer smiling at her that she would ever see. He must have been mad at her for escaping the guards, she thought, but they had hurt her. They had laughed as the old pig abused her, and didn't come to help when she had cried out in pain.
She couldn't stay with the pig and his little piglets.
So she'd ran to him. He'd soothed her hurt. He had shown her that not everybody was a selfish pig. Although some people appeared to be nice and turned out to be anything but, he was different. Spencer and his partners in the BAU helped people, and they hunted monsters that hurt people like Moni.
So, when he found her, Moni decided, she would tell him where the pendrive was and hope that when they got there, Pete would have already cracked the encryption on the data.
She frowned a little, as she clearly remembered that there were pictures on the pendrive, some nice pictures of a party in a big house. The pretty sunset in the pictures is what initially drove her to take the pendrive.
But why would someone kill so many people over some pictures?
She began biting her nails, chewing the soft tissue almost to the skin, as she thought of all the people dead over the pictures she had stolen. There were many other pictures on the pendrive. She had taken a peek at them before she disconnected the pendrive from the laptop and escaped from the hotel room, but she only really looked at the pictures of the pretty sunset.
The computer in the corner beeped. Moni's eyes darted to the screen and she immediately frowned as the motion sensored alarm Pete had installed on the lower floors for her protection informed her that there was someone else in the building.
She walked over to the computer and typed in the password. The image of a policeman slowly advancing into the old glass factory, gun in hand, popped up on the monitor.
She quickly grabbed a black pullover from the dresser and put it on along with her favorite pair of running sneakers, the ones that allowed her to move silently on any floor.
She went back to the computer to check the progress of the intruder, and saw him coming to the second floor of the plant, walking down the aisle of inoperable glass cutting machines.
"It's showtime," she said.