Chapter Eleven:
March 15, 2012
Rori sat in Georgetown's main library. She was scribbling in a notebook as she looked at a couple of photocopied book pages and printed articles. Her MacBook was open with a digital study. She didn't even look up when someone took a seat in front of her.
"Hard at work I see,"
Rori glanced up and pushed her glasses back in place. "Professor Blake," Rori smiled slightly. Dropping her pen, she leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms. "How are you?"
"I'm doing great," Alex Blake answered as she leaned forward. She crossed her arms so that she could brace herself against the wooden table. After taking a deep breath she glanced around at all of the students who were studying. "Your dad is worried about you. At least, that's what I hear."
Rori ran her fingers through her hair and worked on getting some of the knots out. "I'm pretty sure there's no need to worry," she said with a sigh. "I'm just a college student who's working on her linguistics paper. Nothing big."
Blake smiled before shaking her head slightly. "That's not due for another two weeks," she said. "They're looking into it," she said. "You know, the BAU is asking around, but you have to be patient."
Rori reached forward to close her laptop so that she would have an unobstructed view of her professor. She gathered up her articles. "So I just have to wait for another girl to get abducted, beaten, and raped?" she asked as she started packing up her things. "Sorry, Prof, I'm not exactly okay with that." Rori gathered up her photocopies into a neat pile and shoved them into her binder. She pulled her hair back and into a messy bun before grabbing her jacket, giving Blake a annoyed look when the older woman held out Rori's computer. Rori reached for it, but Blake had a vice grip on the computer.
"You need to give them time, Rori. They don't seem to be getting far with some of the police departments outside of Virginia," Blake explained. She had apparently been talking to her own inside source at the BAU. Blake had the resident genius and Rori had her father. Either way, both of them were in the know for the most part.
Rori rolled her eyes and pushed her bangs out of her eyes. "How much more time, Professor?" she asked angrily. She was whispering so that she didn't draw any more attention. "Cooperation or not, it doesn't change the fact that another girl is likely to be abducted next week. And that's if they stick to the same time frame. We both know that at some point the time frame between each abduction has to speed up." Rori pulled her laptop free and hugged it to her chest. "Have a great night, professor."
Alex stood in the middle of the busy library alone as Rori stomped off. She blew out a sigh as she pulled out her cell phone. Searching through her contacts, she tapped a familiar name and held the phone up to her ear.
0o0o0o0
Miyoki sushi was busy for a Thursday. Alex Blake grabbed a small plate of California Rolls from a moving conveyor belt. She drizzled some soy sauce over the rolls and dipped her chopsticks in wasabi paste. Glancing around, she picked up a roll and bit into it.
Catching a glimpse of a familiar face, she swallowed the mass of rice and crab meat. She wiped her mouth with a paper napkin as her dinner companion joined her. "Dave, thanks for meeting me," Alex said. She gestured at the empty seat next to her at the bar.
David Rossi took the empty seat as Alex finished off one roll. He put his napkin in his lap and started grabbing some plates of sushi rolls and sashimi. "I was surprised you called me," Dave said quietly. "Reid seemed like a more likely candidate."
"I wanted to talk about Rori," Alex answered. "She is your daughter, not Spencer's."
"What's she done now?" Dace asked with a sigh. He ordered some water from the waiter that had walked up.
"She's not happy with the rape cases, Dave," Alex said. Normally she didn't get to know too many students, but not every student had a connection to the elite BAU team. Rori's name had also circled around the faculty. With only eight thousand undergraduates, many times students who made the news or were highly active in the school were easily noticed. Rori's crime articles automatically drew Blake in.
"I'm not happy either," Dave grunted. "Hotch and Strauss are working on getting permission from metro police to look at Natalie's gang rape. We'll get brought in. Hotch is sure of it. All of Rori's articles that she found and the connections she drew are enough to declare it a serial. She saw something we didn't."
"You get so many cases, there weren't murders and they didn't make national news," Blake said. "Rapes in different states, local police don't like to share. Rori just looked far more broad."
Dave swallowed a piece of salmon. "There was no DNA. Natalie can't identify her attackers. The case is a mess, but we're going to figure it out."
"Rori's convinced that this will end up in another girl getting abducted," Blake said. She scooped up some of the small salad she had been given early on and took a bite. "I'm finding it pretty hard to believe differently."
Dave looked up at the ceiling. "Can you keep an eye on her?" Dave asked looking at Blake. "I'm afraid she's going to do something that will attract unwanted attention to her."
"What do you mean?"
"Rori's in a unique position. She writes crime articles that people read," Dave explained. "I wouldn't be surprised if she took the story to a public forum. She wouldn't unless she had to, but I'm concerned. She's emotional."
Blake nodded in understanding. There was a father's concern for you. "I'll see what I can do, but I'm pretty sure Rori would notice if I hovered over her."
0o0o0o0
Author's Note: What a busy summer it's been. I've tried to write a lot this summer, but it's been a little difficult. I keep running into more and more trouble with the transfer process, and for a while I was on a reading kick. I'll see what I can do about getting a new chapter up. But I hope you enjoyed the next step in this plot line. I'll try to move it along so it doesn't feel like it's being drug out.
Ren