"You won't understand some of this. I can't help that, the blanks aren't mine to fill in."
Emily nodded. At this point, the team needed any kind of lead.
"There was no accident…Did you know Jennifer got a full-ride scholarship to Pittsburgh? She worked so hard for that. I'd never been so proud of her."
"Mr Sheridan.."
Henry help up a hand to halt the protest. "Her father didn't want her to go. There was nothing he could do about it, but he made sure she knew. That man is a vicious bully. A vicious bully with the whole town in his pocket."
Henry took a deep breath to calm himself and gather his thoughts. The Jareaus were not an easy subject for him.
"What does this have to do with-" Emily tried to cut in, but Henry was no longer listening. He was lost in his story; his eyes were focussed on the bookcase. As Emily followed his gaze, she saw it was a book on butterflies that had his attention.
"The last day of high school, I skipped football practice to drive Jennifer to her aunt's house. She'd arranged to stay there until college started. We thought that we'd be gone before her father came home. He saw us leaving…." Henry trailed off.
Emily was almost as unsettled as he was. Learning things, personal things, about your friends was hard. This story about any other person would have just been another witness statement.
When she returned her attention to Henry, he was looking straight at her. His eyes were pleading and he looked on the verge of tears.
"You have to promise me. Have. To. Promise. What I tell you won't be repeated. To anyone."
She didn't need to be a profiler to see how painful it was for this man to confide his secrets. Emily had a feeling this was the point of no return.
"I can sanitise what you tell me, Mr Sheridan." Emily vowed, if only for JJ's sake. Henry seemed unimpressed with her choice of words but nodded and scrubbed a hand over his face.
"By the time I got back to town, it was late, the road was empty. A car followed me here from about two miles out. Daniel and Tom Jareau got out and told me their father wanted to see me. There wasn't much room for interpretation - I was going to see Coach J if they had to bundle me into the trunk."
Emily's mind had raced ahead to conclusions. This was Henry and Daniel's secret.
The younger man's face seemed to rapidly age before Emily's eyes. His shoulders dropped and he leant forward, elbows resting on his knees.
"He used a bar from the weights in the equipment store. I had the time it took for Tom and Dan to leave and shut the door before he came at me. I was seventeen but he was so much stronger…so angry."
"JJ's dad?…So the accident?"
"Didn't happen. It was his bike. While I was in the hospital, he told everyone how terrible he felt about lending it to me. I was just so happy about finishing school and he couldn't deny me one last ride."
Henry's sardonic smile betrayed his feelings for the man.
"When I was well enough, I went to Chief Jackson. Daniel was a cop, I thought going to the chief was a good idea. He just laughed at me and told me to get out. Martin Jackson and Jake Jareau were team mates and old drinking buddies. Any complaint I tried to file disappeared."
"Do you think one of his sons could be responsible?"
Henry shook his head vigorously, "No. No, Daniel didn't know what his father was planning until he found me on the road and put it together. He even came out and took a statement from me but nothing could come of it with Jackson in charge…Agent Prentiss, look, I really want to help…I have no idea who you could be looking for. All the people that know what happened wouldn't do this."
"Thank you, Mr Sheridan. You really have helped. I promise you, JJ won't have to know."
"If she had known…she would never have left. I didn't like lying to her but she has the most amazing life now. What kind of friend would I have been if I'd taken it all away?"
Emily nodded mutely, understanding exactly how he felt but having no words to express it. She stood to leave but paused as Henry stood and pulled a book from the shelf.
"After…after her mother died, it was bad. We spent a lot of time in this room, talking about all the things we were going to do when we got out of this place…I never did make it. When I see her on the television," he paused and then frowned at the book in his hands, "it just seems like a small price to pay for your best friend's happiness."
Henry scribbled a note on something, tucked it inside the front cover, and then handed the book to Emily. "Please see that she gets this."