A/n hey everyone. Since the site wouldn't cooperate all day you get a bonus chapter. Thanks for all your reviews and personal messages.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from CM, but I'm holding out hope for Christmas.
The pieces begin to come together.
Reid leaned back in JJ's office chair and sighed. The headache forming behind his eyes and across the back of his neck was shaping up to be a skull cracker. He pinched the bridge of his nose and looked at the files spread around the desk. There was something he was missing. He was sure of it. What kind of genius couldn't see the patterns that had to exist in all of the data in front of him?
The kind of genius that was working on a case involving his wife…
Well… picturing JJ as the victim of a serial killer wasn't helping his concentration at all. He shouldn't be on this case, his objectivity was severely compromised. If he couldn't be objective, how was he going to find Adam Stern and JJ?
Think Reid! What would you look at if you were on any other case? A common link, that's what you'd look for. There's always a common link, besides the blond hair and blue eyes, age and personality type. Garcia hadn't been able to find any other victims in the intervening time. He had to have been active between the eighties and now. Reid was sure that there were others, but for some reason he hid the bodies and now he was back out in the open.
Allegheny County was a very remote location and it would be easy to lose a body there. Ted Bundy had hidden some of his victims in the Rocky Mountains and some of them were never found. Maybe Adam Stern had done the same thing. He didn't want to be caught, why? Now he'd changed his mind. Okay he had JJ and from what he found out from the team, JJ's mother was the last victim twenty five years ago. JJ was a loose end that had to be tied up, that's why he'd taken her. Finding her wouldn't be easy in thousands of acres. Ok… don't lose hope you have the help of the best profilers in the world, you'll get her back for you and for Hope.
He put the files in chronological order beginning with Adam Stern's mother. All the women were vacationing in the town of Marienville when they disappeared. None of the victims had ties to the town. The police reports showed that all the women had stayed at the same motel. Why hadn't that been checked out more thoroughly, there was nothing but check in and check out dates and interviews with the owner? The name of the Inn was the Boars Head Inn. The place was run by Joseph Freeman. The police had questioned the owner but the man had solid alibis for all of the disappearances.
The dates of the murders all corresponded with the beginning of the spring season, from the first of April to the first of June. All of the women had come to the town with friends. They all had plans to go hiking the trail. The most recent victim had been found at the starting point where all the victims in the eighties had last been seen.
All the groups had started out ok, but somehow on the second or third night the selected victim was taken. It had to be some kind of ruse. Adam Stern was a cop, he could think up something to get to them. He fooled JJ so it was possible. Anything from telling them a loved one was in trouble to… well anything would work. How was he getting them alone? Did he just show up and they went with him because of his position with the Sheriff's department. Did Adam Stern have help?
He looked over at Hope. She was sitting on the floor playing with some toys he'd brought with him. Her blankie was nearby and she seemed happy for the moment.
He went back to the case files and the dates of the trips. The women had hiked a certain trail with friends and were found at different places. He got up and was half way out the door when he remembered Hope was in the room.
"Sorry princess…" He picked her up and she giggled when he tickled her ribs. "Daddy's not used to having Hope at work."
"Me wuv dada," She threw her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. A big lump formed in this throat at her impulsive affection. Tears began forming in his eyes. He had to get JJ back, Hope needed her mother, and he needed his wife.
"Thank you sweetie," He stopped when his voice broke a little. "Daddy loves Hope too." He kissed her fore head and she giggled, the sound was a happy and carefree sound that tore at his heart.
He left the office and hurried down the hallway to Garcia's office. She saw working away at her computers, one of them beeped as soon as Reid walked into the room.
"Son of a bitch," She exclaimed!
"'itch," Hope parroted and then she giggled. Garcia whirled around in her chair looking completely harried.
"You want to watch your language Garcia?" Reid asked trying to be serious, but the need for a laugh was too great.
"Cute… I don't think I'm the only one she's heard use words like that." Garcia flung back at him, but her face was a little pink as she looked at Hope. She turned back to her babies.
"Hey… I don't use language like that," Reid insisted only half seriously.
"I wasn't talking about you, I meant JJ!" Garcia said distractedly.
"I'm going to tell her you said that," Reid promised.
"Yeah… yeah, I'm scared. Now pay attention sweet thing. I've got an idea."
Reid sat down next to Garcia and winced when Hope yanked on his hair. "Really… I have an idea too!"
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Hotch, Morgan and Emily gathered around the rough hewn table in the kitchen of the cabin. "This is a detailed account of all his kills." Hotch threw the leather bound book down on the table.
"There are pictures, descriptions of all the torture and the rapes. He's got some kind of souvenirs, locks of hair, jewelry some drivers' licenses." Hotch continued.
"So… it's true… he's the one that's behind all of this." Emily said, with a tone that said she didn't want to believe it and acknowledge the fact that her friend was in the hands of a sociopath.
"God Damn it! He's going to do the same thing to JJ isn't he?" Morgan said slamming a hand down on the table.
"He says here that Sheila Benjamin reminded him of his mom from when he was a very small child. He believed that he was in love with her too." Rossi was reading from about halfway through the book.
"These guys don't love." Morgan said. "They aren't capable of those kinds of emotional attachments.
"I know… but he thinks he was. I've read the Frank Breitkopf file and Stern reminds me of him. He had to kill Shelia. He wanted Sheila to stay with him even if she didn't want to. He saw Sheila and JJ as a family. When he lost control of that situation, it ruined the fantasy and there was always the possibility that JJ would remember him and what happened to her mother." Rossi said while reading the entry.
"JJ is a substitute for her mother. You've seen the picture of Shelia that Stern carries around with him. She looks almost exactly like JJ." Hotch said. He took the book from Rossi and began to search through it again.
"Here… it's dated about three years ago. He was in DC for a seminar on anger excitation given by the BAU if you can believe it." Hotch showed them the entry and saw the disbelief he felt mirrored in all their eyes.
"Isn't that particular lecture Reid's specialty, he gives that seminar all the time." Emily said, feeling a chill enter the deepest parts of her heart.
"Yes," Hotch said, putting the book down again.
"So… what he met Reid and saw JJ and decided it was fate telling him to take her just like he did her mother all of those years ago." Morgan asked a bit skeptically.
"He says that on the last day of the seminar he met Reid. Apparently JJ was in town and came to the seminar so they could go to lunch or something he thought. He didn't actually meet her; he just saw her and knew he had to have her for his own." Hotch summarized what he'd read.
Morgan had grabbed the thick book and was flipping through it again. "He's talks about this cabin and also a cave in the woods south of here. There are no directions there. I guess that would be too easy." He threw it down and got up to pace angrily around the room.
"Morgan we have to calm down, we're not going to help JJ by losing out heads." Emily said to him. She put a hand on his arm and he didn't snap at her, even though he wanted to. He wanted to get his hands on Adam Stern so badly, he could nearly taste it.
His phone beeped at the same time as a CSI came out of the bedroom and motioned to Hotch. He went back outside the cabin into the late afternoon sunshine. "Hey baby girl! Please tell me you've got some good news for me."
"Yeah gorgeous… Reid and I think we might have found out where he took JJ."
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The sun was beginning to descend into the horizon. The trees were blocking its rays with their branches, and it looked the way she remembered it from passing out earlier that day. She had taken the pen out of her pocket, but she didn't know what to do with it. Think JJ, you've seen enough television you should be able to come up with something. Yeah… maybe in the comfort of her living room with Spence next to her, spouting off about how a bomb made from chewing gum and a rubber band couldn't possibly work. She could see him in her minds eye looking very serious about the whole thing, while she laughed and Hope played with her toys.
The snapping of branches and the crackling of grass and leaves under her feet reminded her that she wasn't at home with her beloved daughter and Spence. It wouldn't do to check out and pretend. Then she felt the gun that Adam Stern had pressing into her back.
"Pick up the pace Jenny. It's getting dark, and believe me when I tell you that you don't want to be out here after the sun goes down."
He was whispering in her ear and she shivered. If he took her too far into these woods, she might never find her way out again. A bird screamed from overhead and she jumped. Her foot came down on a tree root and she fell.
"Get up Jenny. I don't have time for this." She rolled over as his hand came down on her arm. He yanked her back to her feet.
"Don't play with me. I know what happened to you three years ago. I did my homework. That beautiful little girl of yours isn't the flesh and blood child of Dr. Reid. He doesn't deserve either of you. I'll find a way to get Hope and all of us will be a family. Stop fighting against that and just give in. I can protect you and your daughter the way your mother wouldn't let me. I love you Jennifer, more than Dr. Reid ever will."
"No!" She shouted. "I won't let you touch my daughter." She swung her hands up and rammed the business end of the pen into the corner of one of his eyes. He screamed and thrashed, knocking her to the ground again as the gun went off.