The team filed back into the conference room. When Hotch saw that Garcia was already hard at work, he allowed a small smile to grace his face. As much as he wanted the team to take a break, they also needed Reid's location as quickly as possible. He had kind of hoped that the tech analyst's coping mechanism would be to continue working, as he knew that the rest of the team had little to do until she found something they could go off of.
Looking around the room, Hotch noted that his friends were all looking a little better for the few minutes given to gather their thoughts. They at least looked a little less shaken and much more focused than they had been after watching the latest video.
As his teammates settled into their seats, Hotch asked Garcia the question that was on everyone's mind. "Garcia, were you able to track the video stream this time?"
Garcia shook her head. "I'm afraid not, sir. I'm still not finding a way to trace the source of the video. It's weird - whatever Dr. Malcolm is using to conceal the location, not even I can get past it."
Emily was next to ask information of the analyst. "Do you have an address for Malcolm?"
"See, that's where things get even weirder. He lost his house over a year ago. Since then, it looks like he moved from Atlantic City to Virginia, but never stayed at one address for very long. He left his last known address two months ago and seems to have dropped off the grid," Garcia concluded with a grave look on her face.
"Is there any other property that Malcolm might be attached to? Maybe something owned by family?" JJ piped in. She was desperately hopeful. The team's profiling skills combined with Garcia's technical prowess rarely failed to figure out a viable location for an unsub.
"He has a few cousins in the area but nothing jumps out," Garcia said, continuing to type. "And some of the addresses he previously listed seem to belong to friends of his. Altogether I have six addresses connected with Malcolm in some way that land within the area he could have taken Reid. And I've just send them to your phones."
Hotch took his phone out of his pocket and glanced at the addresses. "Thank you Garcia. Ok everyone, we are going to divide and conquer. Morgan and Prentiss, you'll go to the first two addresses. Rossi and JJ, the next two are for you. I'm going to grab someone from the local PD to take the last two. Remember to stick together, and call for backup if you see anything suspicious. If Reid isn't at the addresses, try to get some information from the occupants about Dr. Malcolm. They might have some more leads for us to follow if none of these pan out." Hotch sincerely hoped that Reid would be found at one of the addresses on the list. He wasn't sure how much longer Reid could hold it together. He had looked in so much pain last time they had seen him.
It had been two hours since the team had moved out to check Dr. Malcolm's possible locations, and now they reconvened in the conference room. The last to return was Hotch. As he entered the conference room, he could feel the disappointment radiating from his team. They had come up empty. Not only did they not find Reid, but none of the people they talked to had any new information for them. It seemed as though Dr. Malcolm had fallen off the face of the earth, as far as his so-called friends were concerned. The short term rentals had no forwarding address or way to contact the man. Just like that, they were at another dead end.
Hotch hated to add to the team's dismay, but he had something he needed to share. He cleared his voice and everyone looked up to him where he stood at the table. "I got another photo texted to me about fifteen minutes ago." He passed his phone around the table. As each team member looked at it, a look of anguish washed across their faces.
It was another photo of Reid. He said in the chair, eyes still covered with tape. His upper body was still exposed, and showed many red markings from the beating he had taken. Where the belt had drawn blood, they could see dry trails of blood dripping down Reid's body. In his lap, the familiar white board sat. Written on it were the words 'tick tock' in red.
"Son of a bitch. He's taunting us." Morgan slammed his fist down on the table in frustration.
Hotch understood Morgan's anger, but knew that they had little time to waste on such emotions. "We need to focus and figure out what we're missing. There has to be something that we missed that can lead us to Reid's location."
"I noticed that in the first photo and video Reid wasn't connected to an IV. But he was in the second video, and still is in this photo. He likely didn't want to show the IV at first because he was afraid we would connect it to him. But as time has gone on, he's getting more confident that we won't find him. So he hasn't bothered to remove the IV. It must be feeding the drugs into Reid's system. It's the same method that Samantha used to keep her victims under control," Rossi remembered. "Can we track the drugs perhaps?"
Garcia immediately started typing furiously on her computer. "I will compile a list of drugs that could have this effect, and cross reference with health care professionals in the area that have been sourcing an unusual amount of it. I'll also check with local hospitals for thefts, in case Malcolm somehow stole it. Give me a few minutes here."
As Garcia worked on that lead, the rest of the team continued to add to the profile based on what they knew.
"This guy has used extensive forensic countermeasures to cover his tracks. He wants to make sure we don't find Reid, at least until he wants us to. I don't think he's holding Reid anywhere that is going to be easily traced back to him. He's smarter than that," Emily said.
JJ nodded and also added, "and because his plan has gone according to plan so far, he's getting overconfident. He's sure that we won't be able to stop him. If we can interrupt his plan somehow, it might cause him to make a mistake that will allow us to catch him."
Hotch shook his head in disagreement. "Or it could cause him to become enraged and direct that anger towards Reid. Malcolm needs to feel in control. If we take that away from him, he might kill Reid sooner than he's planning." Hotch knew they needed to tread carefully here. Malcolm clearly planned on killing Reid. But the team needed to stall that outcome long enough to find and save him.
Just then, JJ had an idea. "Hey Garcia, where is Samantha these days? Maybe she would have some idea of where Malcolm would keep Reid."
"Let's see. It says here that she was put in a psychiatric facility in New Jersey two years ago after we caught her. Then, just over a year ago, she was moved to Virginia. That move seems to correspond with Dr. Malcolm's move here as well."
"Can you look into her visitor's log and see if her father has been visiting her?" Rossi requested.
Garcia didn't need long to produce an answer. "It looks like he used to visit pretty regularly in New Jersey. And he continued his visits with Samantha at her current location until about six months ago. Then he was removed from Samantha's approved visitor's list, and her power of attorney changed as well."
"My guess is that her doctor figured out that Samantha's father was the source of her trauma, and stopped allowing him to see her. That could be our trigger," Rossi surmised. "Malcolm lost his daughter after losing everything else. So he started making a plan to get his revenge on Reid and the BAU."
Garcia, who was still working hastily at her computer, frowned. "Going back to the drugs. I think I've hit a dead end. I can't find any doctors here or in New Jersey that has gotten their hands on a large amount of neural inhibitors. And I don't see any reports of thefts either. He could be getting it on the black market. Or maybe he just stashed a bunch of it a few years ago when he was supplying it to Samantha."
"So we have a bunch of dead ends. That's just great," Morgan huffed. He was getting frustrated. They were getting nowhere.
The entire team was running off of fumes. They had barely gotten home the night before, after a long case, when they found out Reid was taken. And none of them had taken much of a break since then. They hadn't taken the time to eat anything substantial, and the only liquid anyone seemed to be drinking was ample amounts of coffee.
"Okay everyone. I know that you all want to find Reid as soon as possible. I want nothing more than that as well. But we are all dead on our feet, and our exhaustion is going to cause us to miss things. It's still dark for another four hours. I want half of you to go get some sleep for a couple of hours. The rest of us will stay and work, and then we can switch off. When the sun comes up, I want Rossi and JJ to go see Samantha. It's a long shot, but maybe she can give us a location we haven't come across yet." Hotch was prepared for an argument, especially from Morgan, but none came. Instead he saw defeated nods from the team. As much as they hated to admit it, Hotch was right. JJ and Rossi headed to their offices, and Hotch offered his office to Emily. Garcia, Morgan and Hotch continued to burn the midnight oil, hoping to come up with something they could use before the sun rose.
Sorry for the lack of Reid! I promise we will see him again soon!