Rossi grimaces when he hears the dial tone from Jessica's end. He leans against the edge of the conference table and forces himself to imagine Jessica waving over Jack, rushing him into her dark blue SUV and attempting to drive home as fast she can under the worry of the eight year old hearing or seeing about his father. And the idea of Jack actually hearing about his father kidnapping flips his emotions from guilt to pure, homicidal anger towards Hinders.
"Dave, how did it go?" Morgan asks, placing an empathetic hand on Rossi's shoulder. The elder agent rubs his forehead and feels his anger subside for the moment. "I want to kill Hinders," is all Rossi can answer back before he marches back towards the group of Salt Lake City agents and Blake standing around the conference room television.
"Everyone needs to leave this room while Agents Blake, Morgan and I contact our team in Farmington," Rossi booms for the entire group to hear. None of the local agents linger for more than a second before bolting out the doors. Blake glances over to Morgan to exchange a is- he- ok look and receives a shrug in response. She then dials Garcia's video number on her tablet and connects it to the large screen television. The tablet rings once before Garcia pops up on the screen.
"Oh my God, oh my God- Captain Italian Stallion, how are you-" Garcia pauses for half a breath, " I can't believe that that monster would post a picture like that and poor Jack and Jessica! And what about Beth?" She's stopped by Cruz, who adjusts the web camera on their end to include a view of everyone in the room- Cruz, Garcia, JJ and Reid.
"What Miss Garcia is trying to ask is how are you all doing?" Cruz asks. "I need to know that you all on that end can handle this case."
"We can handle this," Morgan growls and Blake has to nudge him to calm down. She returns her focus to the camera and pushes a strand of hair behind her ear. "We're all ready to work."
"Hotchner's been missing for officially 24 hours. I'm assuming that you all had been working since 7am yesterday which means you all have been up for nearly 36 hours without rest," Cruz states. He glances back to a yawning Reid, who freezes when he realizes that he's done. " You all need a rest."
"Matt, we need to give a press release before we talk about taking a break," JJ says. She's standing closest to the door, rocking side to side on her heels. "I can get it out within an hour with Penelope's help."
"And say what?" Morgan pipes. He's completely aware that he's irritable and exhausted. " We don't have a profile to give or enough information to give the public."
"Agent Rossi, you know enough-"
"I know," Rossi mutters without looking up, " that Hinders wants me to suffer and he wants to finish things with me in Port Gamble. He won't kill Aaron because he knows that he's the only reason for me to chase him."
"And how do you know this?"
Rossi places his cell phone onto the table and stares darkly at Cruz. " Hinders calls me and taunts how much pain he's putting Aaron through. He's killed a couple in Arizona for their car and they won't be the last."
Cruz nods and steps back away from the web cam as if he were processing the information. With a hesitant sigh, he says, " Here's what we'll do- the American public is going to want to know if they are safe and how the alert will affect their commute to work. Hinders sounds like a man on a mission that will monitor every media outlet as he travels so with that in mind, we'll give a preliminary conference to alert the public that one of our own was kidnapped and how it will affect their lives from Salt Lake City."
"You want me to give it?" Rossi exclaims. He's emotionally taxed by the phone call to Jessica and knows that he'll probably lose it on camera and give in Hinders' goals.
"No, I'll do it," Blake volunteers. "I think you standing strong on camera will screw with him and I think that's exactly what we need right now."
On the front steps of the FBI building, Blake stands behind the first set of doors with the press release JJ had typed up for her in Farmington in her hands. She has an earpiece in ear that she toys with every few seconds which will serve as a link to JJ to guide her through the impending press conference if needed. In three minutes, the agent will walk out onto the front stairs and begin speaking- even with experience in giving lectures, Blake feels so nervous that she'll screw it up.
"Ready when you are," JJ states through the earpiece. Blake pushes herself off of the wall and can see a large crowd of bystanders and reporters forming at the bottom of the stairs. She waves over Morgan and a distant Rossi before pushing open both doors and walking to the podium. The flash from cameras and television cameras is so blinding that she has to look down as she approaches the podium.
"Just start and don't let anyone get a chance to ask questions," JJ tells her. Blake looks and begins speaking, " Good evening, my name is Special Agent Alex Blake and I'm going to cover the emergency alert set for Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada. As of an hour and a half ago, FBI with state police have found in necessary to put police on all major highways after Police Chief Jeffery Hinders of New Mexico kidnapped a federal agent from Farmington, New Mexico twenty-four hours ago…."
As Blake continues to speak, Rossi spaces out and thinks back to where Hotch and Hinders could possibly be. As Reid reminded me earlier, Utah is a huge state and Hinders could take Aaron anywhere.
"All major highways and border towns will have checkpoints as we search for Police Chief Hinders. At this point, we have no need to believe that he will intentionally harm any members of the public unless he is engaged. We ask of the public not to approach Jeffery Hinders if you see him and call 911 immediately."
That's a complete lie. He killed two people for their car in Arizona, Rossi thinks in exhaustion. He glances over to Morgan, who is tensely scanning the crowd for anyone overly interested in the press conference. As if the younger agent had eyes on the back of his head, Morgan looks back and gives a quick no with a shake of the head.
"There will be no questions. Thank you."
Blake turns around just before the crowd explodes into a mass of questions from reporters. Rossi snaps out of his daze and turn to follow Blake and Morgan when his phone rings. Rossi pulls the phone from his jacket pocket with the full expectation for it to be from one of the members in Farmington, but stops in his tracks when he sees Hotch's number.
Not now. Not now! Rossi slows his walk down enough to catch Morgan's attention. The younger agent looks over his shoulder to call out Rossi, but the sight of the phone in Rossi's hand and the hesitancy in his eyes is all Morgan needs to see for him to bolt through the double doors to call Garcia. Rossi takes in a sharp breath and holds the phone to his ear, saying, "Hello?"
"You look like hell," Hinders replies with a chuckle. "24 hours without sleep does not do you well, old man."
"You have access to a television?"
"How do you know that I'm not out with the reporters?"
"Because you're smarter than that. At least I think you are," Rossi retorts sharply back to him. His gut is telling him that something is different about this phone call. There is no urgency and impatience on Hinders' end.
Hinders chuckles again, this time ending with a snort. "I am. I'm about to tell Aaron the second part of the story of our first and only case together. I'd have him say hi, but as you saw in the picture on the news, he's out for the moment. I would have waited but you can consider this to be a special call. You won't get a location this time, David, but a warning."
I knew it. "What?"
"Be prepared to admit your wrong doings in the case with Mic and the others or be prepared to hear such excruciating pain from Hotchner that you'll want me to put him out of his misery."
