Sorry for the delay and the 'shortness' of this story but please enjoy!
CSU hadn't found anything in the hotel room other than blood from both Reid and Morgan. There was no other evidence or any sign that anyone else had been in the room. Hotch had spent the night pacing his room.
Now he was on his way back to the station to look at the evidence again. He stepped into the room that the local police had provided and just sat down when one of the younger officers came in.
"Sir, this was sitting on the station steps for you when I got here this morning." The young man said handing Hotch an envelope.
Hotch raised an eyebrow. He slipped a pair of gloves on and opened the envelope. A DVD fell out of the envelope. Hotch pulled over a laptop and booted it up. As soon as it was booted up he put the DVD in and hit play. The sight that greeted him made his heart drop.
The video showed Morgan and Reid chained to walls. They had metal cuffs around their wrists and what looked like metal collars around their necks. Both were missing their shirts but what had Hotch curious was the numbers that were painted on their chests. There was a seven on Reid and a nine on Morgan. Hotch was pulled from his thoughts as a man with a ski mask on came into the camera's view.
The man stood between Reid and Morgan before he spoke. Hotch listened intently to what the man was saying. When the man was done speaking, he walked over to Morgan and proceed to beat Morgan. Hotch watched stunned as the man beat Morgan for a while before he made his way over to Reid. Hotch tried to steal himself for possibly watching this man beat Reid when the camera jerked badly and the video cut out.
He immediately dialed up Rossi and told him to get the team together and get here as soon as he could. Twenty minutes later, the team was waiting patiently in the room with Garcia on one of the other monitors.
"What are we doing here Hotch?" JJ asked slightly grumpy from need of sleep and for her team members to be back and okay.
"This arrived this morning on the station steps for me." Hotch said before playing the video.
Hotch didn't need to watch the video with them. He heard all of their gasps and watched as they took in what they were seeing and hearing. By the time the video was over, all the girls were crying and Rossi was just staring at the computer screen. There was silence for a minute before the sound of someone typing echoed through the quiet room.
"At least we know they are alive." Rossi said trying to cheer the team up a little bit. JJ nodded but still didn't say anything. Kate pushed the replay button.
"Guys… what is Reid doing with his hands?" Kate asked watching the replay closely.
"Umm hold on and I will try and slow it down." Garcia said from the other computer. The video paused and then rewound a bit before it played slowly.
"It looks like he is signing numbers." JJ remarked.
Hotch moved so he could see the video. Garcia had slowed it down and enlarged Reid's hands.
"Garcia I want you to see if you can figure out what he is trying to say and if you can recognize the background." Hotch said.
Garcia nodded her head and got to work.
"JJ, I would like you to help her while Rossi and Kate continue to work on the case we were brought here for."
Kate and Rossi dipped their heads in understanding. Everyone looked at the screen one more time before they left to do their work. JJ went to get some coffee before she joined Garcia.
Hotch decided that he was going to split his time between the two cases. He sighed and sat down to stare at the video a little longer. He ignored the voice and what Reid was doing. Instead he studied what Morgan had been doing before the man stopped talking.
Morgan had glanced over at Reid before the man came into view and when he did Morgan watched him until the man stood next to him. Hotch noticed that once the man was standing next to him Morgan was still other than his eyes. He would look from the camera to Reid and then back to the camera. Half way through Morgan changed where he was looking and started looking behind the camera to the person holding it.
Hotch watched the video play but noticed that when they slowed it down; the jerking motion didn't just start when the man headed over to Reid. It had begun half way through the video. It progressively got worse as the video went on.
"Garcia." Hotch said trying to get her attention.
"Yes sir?" She asked quietly still in shock from the video.
"Something is up with the video. Can you see if you can determine if the jerking is just the camera's quality or if it is the filmier?"
Garcia sniffled but nodded her head.
Hotch hopped with everything he had that they would find them soon before anything else happened.