Chapter 11

Interstate 580 northbound
Outside Carson City, NV.

Day 04

So what are you thinking?" JJ asked

"Know what the first thing William Reid ever said to me was?" Dave asked. It was a rhetorical question. "He said that Spencer didn't look like him anymore. Not how are you or how's your mother or why are you here. You don't look like me anymore."

"Narcissistic much?" JJ asked.

"Just a bit. Later in the conversation he mentioned how nothing in Spencer's mind surprised him anymore. He sounded remarkably bitter when he said that, like he resented his son's brilliance, like it personally annoyed him. If you were really resentful of Henry, of the time and attention he took up in your life, when would he be the most annoying?"

JJ thought about it for a mile or so. "When he's playing." She finally replied. "When he's really enjoying himself. I have to tell him to use his inside voice every five minutes; he's always knocking things over, making a mess. For a narcissist with a sick wife he has to care for, one who might be set off by loud noises it would have driven him crazy. His weirdo son wanting attention all the time."

"Or one who's marriage to a cash cow was failing and who's bright daughter was a reminder that a pregnancy can't buy a marriage. They would want them as quiet as possible, as out of sight and out of hearing range and out of the way as much as possible."

"They didn't let them play." JJ said. "That's horrible for a child's psychological state. They would have shut down emotionally, acted well beyond their years, social anxiety..."

"You've known Spencer longer than I have." Dave replied. "He joined the Bureau fairly young as I recall. What was he like when you first met him?"

JJ thought a long moment. "Damn." She finally said.

Dave nodded. "That explains the split. It was set off by the shock around the Gary Michaels case but his father's attitude strengthened it. It would be too painful for Charlie to think about what was happening to Spencer back home, and too painful for Spencer to remember the fun and friends he had as Charlie. So he was Spencer in Vegas and Charlie up here."

"But why Charlie and Caroline?"

"Because when they were with their grandparents they were finally free to feel those emotions they had bottled up for so long. But not only joy and play, also anger and frustration at their parents for what they were doing to them and confusion about why."

"But kids can't be angry at their parents. Children are hard wired to love even the most heinous of abusers, because biologically those are supposed to be their protectors."

"So instead two very intelligent minds chose figured from the history of the one place where they felt safe and loved that most resembled them, and became their children. William Sharon abandoned his family when his mistress, Sarah Hill, started showing signs of schizophrenia. Theresa Fair left her husband due to serial adultery, which likely made her bitter and mean. Spencer and Sarah couldn't be angry with William Reid and Linda Peabody, but they could sure be mad at William Sharon and Theresa Rooney Fair. And indulgent grandparents didn't see their grandchildren's behavior as delusional. They saw it as playful and encouraged it until they both had full-fledged cases of DID going." Dave sighed. "And then they met in a support group and established a full on case of folie simultanée."

"Folie simultanée?" JJ asked.

"When two people with similar delusions influence and reinforce each other. It's a rare variant of folie à deux. With folie à deux two people meet and then become delusional simultaneously, with folie simultanée two people start out with independent delusions that at similar and end up reinforcing each other. Although they could have been helping each other, we'd have to see the notes for that. Anyway it's a fine hair to split. Moving forward the goal for each of them will be to find the authentic person in the middle of all three personalities. In Spencer's case that's part Spencer Reid, part Joseph Bell and part Charlie Sharon."

"One who loves to observe carefully, spout facts and ride horses." JJ smiled.

"Exactly. And likely the same thing with Sarah Peabody and Caroline Fair. The only difference there is that her defensive personality might be dangerous and would require more intensive treatment. But that also explains why he's not Spencer right now."

"Does it?"

"Charlie and Caroline don't usually come out for strong negative emotions."

"They come out for strong positive ones." JJ nodded. "Of course, they each would have been so happy to find out that the other wasn't shot."

"Odds are Ellen switched to Caroline once the threat was over. So what would Caroline Fair and Charlie Sharon do next, that's who we have to..." Dave suddenly dialed the speaker phone.

"Hotchner." Hotch answered.

"Do we know if Reid cleaned out the Unsub's wallets as well as taking a vehicle?"

"No." Hotch replied. "Assume he did."

"Good news and bad news."

"Bad news."

"Reid is somewhere in the lower 48. If he cleaned out their wallets he has gas money."

Hotch sighed. "Good news?"

"I know where he's going."

Virginia City, NV

While the one person who could have calculated the missing couple's arrival time to the minute was, well, missing, the team could estimate that with switching off driving and going as long as possible it would still take a minimum of two and a half days to get from DC to Virginia City. Which meant tomorrow, which meant ample time to put JJ on a commercial flight back to DC so she could be with Henry and Michael, and for Morgan and Tara to come out on the next westward flight in the morning. Unfortunately this left Dave Rossi without a partner, but he really didn't need one.

His first stop was back at the museum. "Just a few more questions, did Spencer inherit anything from his Grandfather?"

"Of course." Ethel Trask replied. "He got the property. The house and its contents. Dad changed his will once Spencer joined the FBI, before then he was supposed to get the life insurance so he'd have more money for college, but after he changed it around. He said that Spencer would look after the house as well as we would and that he wanted him to have a place to come home to if it didn't work out back east. And after we cared for him all those years, well, you understand."

"Of course." Ethel's father likely wanted to pay back her expenses, to make sure her retirement was still sound. But you couldn't say that sort of thing politely. "Which house is that?"

"The Prescott House, over on Hinkey. It's on the National Historic Register. I was so glad Spencer decided not to sell it, I was terrified it would go to someone who would gut it to make a bed and breakfast, Dad kept it all original, except for the kitchen appliances, wiring and plumbing. It even still has the original picket fence, all from 1864."

Just the sort of place someone who believed they were born a hundred years ago would find comfortable. Just the sort of place he'd bring his frightened, equally out of time girlfriend, to a familiar sort of home and a town where he knew they were safe. "Is anyone looking after the house for him?"