There wasn't much to see at the drop site. No blood, thought Spencer before chastising himself. Why would there be blood? The children were all suffocated. No signs of a struggle. He doubted they were killed there. But the unsub wouldn't have been able to carry the kids across the border if they were alive. Couldn't bring them in a seat and a kid would make too much noise in a trunk. You could spend hours in border crossing. If they'd knocked the kid out there was no guarantee they'd stay unconscious all that time.
"They were killed in the US," he said.
"What makes you say that?" Wright's tone was curious. He was genuinely interested. He'd heard so much about Reid's intelligence and wanted to understand the way his mind worked. That had always been his field of interest: the way intelligent people thought. Not just normal intelligent people. Geniuses.
"Do you think border security is so lax as to let a child cross with an unrelated adult?" Reid didn't bother sheltering his annoyance. That much at least should've been obvious.
"But who can cross the border so easily that their car wouldn't be searched?" Rossi asked.
"The borders aren't 'lax' but… Well… Coming into Canada the cars aren't scrutinized the way they are going into the US. If there's no reason to be suspicious, they can usually get through without any issue…" The voice belonged to Officer Riley Page, a member of the RCMP D division. He was wearing the formal red coat, black pants, and brown hat. When Reid raised an eyebrow he quickly spoke again, "excuse my appearance, sirs, but I was posted at a festival in Winnipeg when I got the call to come meet you. I didn't have time to change. Sorry."
"You're RCMP?" Rossi asked.
"Yes, sir."
"Why are the RCMP here instead of the police?"
"We handle international incidents, not the police."
"So the police aren't involved at all?"
"No, sir." Reid almost chuckled at the officers repeated use of the honorific. It was clear that the officer was young. It didn't seem like he was used to being involved in actual investigations. It was more likely he was sent to keep peace at any of the massive number of festivals and events held throughout the province.
It seemed like Rossi had the same idea when he asked "So how many murders have you worked?
The officer paused before replying. "This is the second, sir. The first was a first nation's woman who turned up in the Red River."
"Did you catch her killer?"
Another pause. "No. The government hasn't done much to help the murdered and missing women. After a few days we were told not to look into it anymore." His voice was quiet and regretful. Clearly, if it were up to him, they wouldn't stop until there was justice. Reid could understand that conviction.
"Do you think we'll solve this one?" he asked.
"I hope so."
The spot where the children had been placed was obvious amongst the rest of the grass. The weeds had been cleared away and flower petals were strewn about. Reid held up the photos of the children, taken where they'd been found. The children were all posed the same way, curled up, and contented smiles on their faces. If you didn't know any better, you'd think they were just sleeping. They were fully clothed, but not in the clothes they'd been abducted in. New clothes, barely even worn. No signs of sexual abuse. No bruises or cuts. It was so strange.
"They were missing for weeks before their bodies turned up…" He didn't mean to speak out loud and certainly didn't expect the pain in his voice. He thought of the woman he'd left behind. Wild red hair. Eyes green like grass in spring. She was taken as a child and had wondered every day if her parents still searched for her. In 15 years, she hadn't seen them again. He had asked her once if she wanted to find them again. "It's too late for me," she'd whispered. He wondered if these children would have felt the same.
A thought occurred to him. He whipped out hit phone and dialed Garcia's number.
"Hello, boy wonder!" she greeted him cheerily, "What can I do for you today?"
"When were the kids abducted?"
"They were each abducted three weeks before they were found."
"To the day?"
"Yeah… What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking he could have more kids. They were all found on Sundays… They were abducted on Sundays?"
"Oh! Oh yeah…. You want me to run a search to see if any more little ones went missing on Sundays in the past few weeks…"
"You got it."
"Give me a hot minute and I'll call you back!" The line went dead and Reid could just imagine her jabbing her pen into the button as she always did. When he'd been shot in the leg he spent a lot of time in her lab watching her work. If he had to pick someone he liked best on the team, it was her. He'd spent more time with J.J, but he liked the way Garcia didn't judge people. She took everything in stride. Never told him he should try being more outgoing. She never knew what the right thing to say was, but that was comforting to him.
It was less than five minutes later when his phone buzzed.
"What have you got?"
"I have a whole hellish goldmine. All the kids were abducted from Elliot Bay Park and the surrounding streets. I searched for other children abducted from that area on Sundays and I found exactly one each Sunday for the past three months."
"Three months? But we've only found three bodies… So where are the others? Shouldn't there be-"
"A whole bunch more kidlettes? Yeah."
"So where are they?"
"I should also point out that there are three more missing since the most recent victim that has been found was kidnapped. The kidnappings have also alternated between boys and girls." Her voice shook as though she were about to cry.
"There's a week missing… Three weeks ago, two weeks ago… And then yesterday. Why did he skip a week?"
"Oh that's horrifying!"
"Go look at kittens. I'll call you when I have more to go on."
"Be safe, star child."