"There is still one thing I want to know. Why, Daniel?" Eve asked, "why Monaghan, how does he fit in all this?" Taggart covered his face with his hands, "he was just another message to Maynard, St. Gregory was his last parish. Actually, I didn´t want to kill him, but I could not stop, I just lost control. I'm so sorry, I ... I've been like blinded. Oh dear Lord, what have I done?" Taggart sobbed, "Maynard has destroyed so many innocent lives. Know what´s the worst part in this tragedy? I'm no better than him. Can I go to jail, now?" "Yes, of course," Rossi said frustrated, "Go to jail."
Rossi and Gardiner left the interrogation room. "Sometimes it's a bitch of a job, Monaghan was just the wrong man at the wrong place," Rossi grumbled, "but we have met a cliché, the killer was the gardener." "I won´t tell Hotch so, Rossi. I don´t think, this kind of humor is his cup of tea." replied Eve and smiled briefly. "How are you now?" Rossi asked. Eve nodded, "okay, I guess. I'm damn tired and hungry. I also don´t feel the need to jump off the next bridge, at least not at the moment." "It will take a while until you´re fully back on track. But I did see you smile, quite a few times. That's a start, Eve. Have a little patience with yourself." Rossi patted her gently on the back. "Time to go home, there is a plane to catch."
"Thank you, for taking care of Henry, Jess." JJ said, and sat down beside her at the kitchen counter. "You don´t have to say that, JJ. I'm taking care of Jack already and the boys get along very well with each other. For Jack, Henry is like his little brother. He treats him that way." Jess laughed briefly. "But, what about Will, anything new?" JJ shook her head, "the doctors sent me home, but it makes no difference, where I am. I´m worried, anyway." JJ replied. "What does this mean for you and Hotch? Have you talked about it?" "What do you mean?" "Don´t think, I´m stupid, JJ. I do know Hotch, for quite a long time. Yet I see how he looks at you and how you look at him. And I know that he isn´t very happy with that whole situation , even if he loves you. He does not deserve it, hanging on your strings, like a puppet, JJ. You should make a clean sweep, as quickly as possible. "Jess sounded very energetic. She liked JJ, but she hated these secrets. Secrets always cause pain, Jess thought.
"I can not leave Will, Jess." "No? But you can leave Aaron, can you? He loves you for so long, JJ. Don´t do that to him. Don´t break his heart once again."
"What is it?" Rossi asked, "bad news? About Will?" Hotch shook his head, "Our pilot has just called, something is not right with the jet, according to Rick, it makes' funny noises'." He wants to play it safe and ordered the engineer. We won´t get out of here, until tomorrow." "We could not do anything for JJ and Will, at the moment, Aaron," Rossi said and Hotch looked at him seriously. "I'm sure everything ist gonna be all right." "Nothing is going to be all right, Dave, absolutely nothing." Hotch said frustrated. "It is time for me to face the truth. Some people are just meant for each other and some are not. We are the latter. End of the story, Dave." The door fall shut hard behind him as he left the precinct.
"Do I want to know, what this was all about?" Eve asked cautiously, she had followed the conversation. "If you want me to be honest, then probably not. I´d like to pay Mrs. Myers another visit, I think she deserves to know why her friend died. Why don´t you come along?" Eve smiled, "It´s fascinating how you try to keep me in all this movement in order to prevent me from entering the next bar. I am grateful, Dave. I really am. But I want to lie down a bit, I am perfectly done. I will ask Spencer to accompany me to the hotel." "And I would like to do that." Spencer agreed from the background. "We can leave, whenever you want, Eve. Dinner at 7 p.m., Rossi?" Rossi nodded. "You know about the problems with the jet?" "Yes, Hotch has just told us. Honestly, I rather spend another night here in Baton Rouge, than plane-crash. By the way, Do you know, how many people died last year by plane-crash? Exact.." Reid was interrupted by Eve, "Let´s just go, Spence", she said, smiling.
Reid showered Eve with information about Baton Rouge, as they drove to the hotel together. He was also distracting himself a bit from the fact, spending another night in the same bed with Eve. Morgan had hit the nail on the head, Spencer became interested in Eve. She was so vulnerable, probably that was the triggering event for Spencer's feelings about her. She also was, Spencer was scanning his mind for the right word, a fragile beauty. Eve was a little older than himself, but for Spencer things like that played only a minor role. Eve held in the parking lot of the hotel. "Spencer? We're here." "Uh, yes. Shall we go for a little walk, or do you want to take a nap? But I don´t want you, I mean. You, um... I don´t want to be a pain in the ass, to use one of Morgans´s expressions." Spencer mumbled uncertainly. "You´re not a pain in the ass, Spencer. Not at all. I'm glad when I don´t have to be alone. If I remember correctly, this hotel has a spa area. It is time, to feel like a woman again. Sauna, steam bath, massage. Did you ever have a full-body oil massage, Spencer? I swear, you will be a whole new person." Eve got out of the car and Reid tried to turn the red on his face again in an acceptable almost white.
"Oh, Miss Gardiner, this has been left for you." The man at the desk handed Eve a huge bouquet. "Do you know anyone here?" Reid asked surprised and Eve reached for the card that was in the roses. Sure about hanging around with the federales, Chica? Our possibilities would be indefinitely. M.S.
"What a brazen bastard", Eve cursed. "Santos sent me that. Morgan almost slapped him and he tries to hit on me again. You may keep the roses here at the front desk, it would be unfair to keep these beauties for myself." said Eve sharply. "Santos? Taggart bought the dagger at his place?" Eve nodded, "a slimy bugger, Spencer. Reminds me a lot of Jabba the Hutt." Eve shook involuntarily and Reid tried desperately to get rid of his mental cinema. Imagining Eve in Princess Leia's more than scarce costume, was...wow.
Dave knocked on the door of the parsonage. " ? David Rossi, do you remember me?" Gloria Myers opened with a tear-stained face. "Of course, Agent Rossi. Come in. It happens to be on the TV, all the time. Dan killed Brandon? I can not believe, why. Brandon's always been so kind and good to him, as we all were." Gloria was sobbing, she was still completely shocked. "I will try to explain , . Daniel Taggart and John Duncan joined St. Sebastian´s. Bishop Maynard was the headmaster, back then and had abused the boys sexually. Daniel has killed Duncan because he kept silent, about what happened. Recently, he then turned to Father O'Donnell and confessed to him, Daniel was begging for help, to tell the public, what kind of guy Maynard was, but for O'Donnell it was more important to keep his own ass safe. He didn´t want to do anything, to blame Maynard, that´s why he had to die. " "But Brandon? He didn´t like Maynard. He always said he was one with something to hide, no one increases in the church hierarchy so quickly. And, there was gossip. The old parishioners talked about Maynard, no nice things, Agent Rossi." Gloria slapped her hand over her mouth, "if Dan had confessed to Brandon and not to O'Donnell, none of this would have happened, am I right?" "I guess, Brandon was the only truly innocent person in this story, Gloria. Maybe everything would have been different, but who can say that." "God? Definitely not," Gloria Myers replied bitterly. "Thank you for coming and telling me, Agent Rossi. This is certainly not self-evident." Rossi squeezed Gloria´s hand, "but it should be."
Eve was the only one in the steam room and she was grateful for that. She opened Mama Salazar´s herbs. The room was quickly filled the heavy scent of incense mixture. Eve sat on the floor, in the middle of a Celtic symbol, which she had placed with the help of the stones from the mojo bag. Eve covered the Veve around her neck with both hands. She moved her upper body back and forth and she murmured old Gaelic words that came from her lips as automatically. Words, so long forgotten and yet so present. I do not deny my heritage, Eve thought, show me my child, Guede. Show me Caroline. Eve's murmur grew louder and more demanding, Eve was drifting away very far. At some point, Eve heard a small voice.
"Mommy? Mommy, I do not have much time." "Carrie? Is this you?" Eve whispered, "Mommy, I love you and I'm fine now. You have to let go, Mommy, I'm fine." "Carrie? Caroline?" Eve woke up from her trance, also because there was a knock at the door. "Eve? Are you alright, can I come in? You've been in there for almost two hours." Spencer opened the door. "Eve? For heaven's sake, what did you do in here?" Reid knelt beside her. "It's all right, Spencer, I spoke to Carrie." Spencer had to cough and his eyes watered, how could Eve withstand this for two hours? "We must get out, Eve, ok? I will help you, come on." Reid pulled a very rickety Eve up. "Did you take anything, Eve. Drugs?" She shook her head and Reid sat her on the deck chair. He picked up the stones from the ground, quickly, he did not want to take the risk of someone asking stupid questions. Eve performed a ritual, Spencer tought, no doubt to that. And she believed, that she had talked to her dead daughter. Spencer knew how unlikely that was, you couldn´t talk to the dead, no one could.
Spencer helped Eve into a bathing gown, while she got rid of the bath towel, she was wrapped in. "She's fine, Carrie is fine, where she is now, Spencer," Eve smiled happily. Reid stroked her cheek, softly, "that's wonderful, Eve. You must get some rest, now. Do you think you can walk?" "Of course," answered Eve and collapsed. "Eve!" Reid squeaked frightened and grabbed her, just before she crashed to the ground.
"I'm curious like hell, how you´re gonna explain this to me, pretty boy," Morgan said from the background. He went jogging with Hotch and wanted to treat himself with a short sauna session, before lunchtime. "It is not w-what it might l-look like," Reid stuttered and Morgan grinned briefly, "Well, what is it, then? At least you're dressed. What´s the smell in here, is it incense?" Morgan gave Spencer a hand to lay down Eve on the deck-chair again. "Eve? Genevieve wake up, sleeping beauty," Morgan patted her cheek and Eve woke up. "What happened?" she asked, uncertainly. "Why don´t you enlighten us, sweety?" Derek said, "did you do some hocus-pocus?" Eve sat up. "This is not hocus-pocus, Derek. I spoke to Carrie, she said, I have to let her go." "What are you talking about?" Spencer asked, perplexed. "Looks like, we have a little witch in our midst, kiddo. Feeling better?" Eve stood up and walked a few steps. "Guess so. But I need to get some sleep, feels like I did a marathon... And guys? Can this be a little secret between us?" Eve asked. "What happens in Baton Rouge, stays in Baton Rouge", said Morgan and Reid in one voice.