The team assembled a few days later, in their conference room, going through the elements of the case, again and again.
Despite their protestations, Reid had been taken by Cutler to the county jail, waiting arraignment.
Cruz had done everything to try and stop it, calling all his contacts, but so far, nothing.
It was a complete nightmare for the agents who felt angry and powerless, as well as guilty for letting Reid down.
Especially since the youngest agent had put on a brave face, assuring them that he'll be alright and that all he needed was for them to keep working the case.
The best way to prove his innocence was to find Lester, to show that she was indeed alive.
But Garcia, much to her dismay, couldn't find any trace of her.
Cruz suggested that perhaps they should go and get some sleep, but they all refused and he stayed as well, reviewing their files and making suggestions, until his phone rang.
The other agents turned to him; they knew a late night phonecall was never good news.
"That was detective Cutler", Cruz said after hanging up, "Reid escaped from the county jail".
The team met up with the detective in front of the Sibley Memorial Hospital, they made it there in a few minutes due to Morgan's driving and the low late-night traffic.
"What happened?", Hotch asked the detective.
Cutler didn't answer immediately; he told them to follow him and went through the ER's automatic doors.
"2hours after my officer brought your teammate to the county jail; I get a call, saying that he'd gotten into a fight with another guy there. Two officers escorted him here, the doc stitched him up and took a few x-rays and said agent Reid had to stay here for the night. So I put an officer at his door", he pointed to a man in uniform, giving his statement, "your friend was sedated and handcuffed to the bed. My officer went to sign some paperwork, couldn't have taken more than 2minutes, and when he came back this is what he found", he said, opening the door to an examination room.
The team looked inside the room. Medical tubes had been disconnected and thrown on the ground.
A single pair of handcuffs was dangling from the bed.
The agents shared a look.
"What?", Cutler asked, irritated.
"Spence is sort of an amateur magician…", JJ said hesitantly.
"You have got to be kidding me", Cutler said, "your agent made it out with the belongings of the next-door patient, he left his prison uniform behind so the dogs can't get a trace on him. Does that sound like the behavior of an innocent guy to you?".
"To me it sounds like the behavior of a guy who's got his back against the wall actually", said Morgan, "he's desperate; he's in tunnel vision right now".
Cutler walked away, shaking his head and barking orders at his men.
Thanks to his correspondence with Maeve, he now had a mental map of all remaining phone booths in D.C, and he chose one that he felt he could reach on foot while still being at a comfortable distance from the hospital.
After getting inside, he checked his distorted reflection in the metallic surface of the phone.
Reid had already diagnosed himself with a severe concussion and two cracked ribs, but the amount of subdermal hematoma made his whole face look like one angry bruise, and he almost had to squint through both black eyes to see.
The adrenaline was probably masking the excruciating pain and he tried not to think about the time when he'll finally be able to feel it.
It had been easy to get the other inmate to hit him, he had profiled him as having a short temper and had known just what to say and which button to push.
He also briefly wondered why the standard prison jumpsuit was bright orange, since this color had been proven to increase feelings of anger and hostility in the human mind.
Taking out the wallet he had recovered from the stolen bag, he inserted some coins in the slot, composed the number, and waited.
"Technical analyst, Penelope Garcia speaking".
The absence of a witty greeting and the lack of enthusiasm in her voice made him feel guilty; he knew how her teammates' issues always affected her personally.
"Hey", he said with a small voice.
"Oh my God, Reid, are you okay? We've been so worried about you!".
"That's why I'm calling, so that you guys all know that I'm okay", he said, "I can't stay long though; I know how fast you can trace a call".
"Oh honey", Garcia said with great sadness, "I'd never do that to you".
"You should! Escaping custody can be classified as a federal offence and you work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation", Reid said reasonably.
He heard her laugh, probably at how rational he was being about this, but he thought he could also hear her sniveling and he found himself tearing up as well.
He remembered the phone call he made to her during the outbreak of Anthrax; he had been very scared and emotional then too. He had thought that he'd grown much tougher since then and felt weak for shedding tears again.
"Anyway…I thought I'd say goodbye".
"Reid- ?!".
He hung up before completely breaking down.
Garcia immediately played the recording of the call to the team. She had hoped that this would help somehow, that her friends would come up with new ideas on how to fix this.
Unfortunately, it only emphasized just how stuck and lost they really were. It was an impossible situation.
"Alright, I get it, it's the end of the line for us", Garcia said, tears running down her cheeks, "but I can't help it. I just hate that he's going through this alone".
"You're right", Hotch finally said, "he doesn't have to be".
He took out his phone and hit a number on his speed dial.
"Who are you calling?", Rossi asked.
"An old friend", Hotch simply said.