They hadn't had a lot of sleep, but as the sun rose the team was a little more alert and a lot more focused. Each of them had taken the time to lie down somewhere, and all managed to fall asleep at least for a small amount of time. Their bodies were so exhausted that sleep overcame their troubled minds that would normally have kept them from resting. JJ and Hotch had both taken the time to call their families and check in. Neither had the heart to tell their kids about what was happening to their Uncle Spencer. They hoped they wouldn't ever have to.
Hotch had continued to receive photos of Reid every two hours. Each had a different taunt written on the white board – 'catch me if you can' and 'time is running out' had been sent most recently. If it hadn't been for the different message and the darkening of the many bruises on Reid's body, the photos would have been identical. The tape blindfold and IV line remained in place, and Reid hadn't moved even an inch. Aaron wondered if Reid was keeping it together, or if he was starting to lose it. He could only imagine how maddening it must be to be blind and unable to move, completely at the whim of a psychotic man seeking revenge. Even if Dr. Malcolm did nothing more than to keep Reid like this, it was a terrible form of torture that the team needed to release Reid from as soon as possible. And Hotch knew in his heart that Dr. Malcolm wasn't finished yet.
Garcia had moved the coffee maker from the break room right into the conference room. The rest of the FBI office knew better than to complain when the BAU was working a case like this, and all just stayed well out of their way. As each agent at the round table sipped on a hot cup of coffee, they set a plan for the morning.
Hotch delegated tasks, though they already knew more or less what they were going to do. They let Hotch tell them anyway, knowing that the man needed the sense of control it gave him over the situation. "Okay, Dave and Emily, you are headed to the psychiatric facility to see Samantha. We've called ahead and her doctor will meet with you first. He will allow you to speak to Samantha as long as she doesn't get too agitated. So tread carefully." Rossi and Prentiss nodded and stood to exit the room. Samantha was their best lead and they didn't want to waste any time in getting to her.
"Morgan and JJ, I want you to take Malcolm's photo and re-canvass Reid's neighbours. Find out if they've seen him around the building. If he's been watching Reid it could explain how he knew where and when to grab him without being noticed. If the neighbours have seen him, maybe they will have a vehicle description we can use. I'm going to stay here with Garcia and try to find more leads. And someone needs to be here in case we receive another video." Hotch's voice went from in control talking about the plan, to a little shaky when he mentioned the possibility of another video. He sincerely hoped that they wouldn't receive another in the near future.
"Okay Hotch, we are heading out. Keep us in the loop if you get anything else," Morgan said as he and JJ stood. JJ was almost at the door when Morgan stopped beside Hotch and put a hand on his shoulder. No words were spoken, but the look between the two men said it all. They were reassuring each other that they would do whatever it takes to bring this case home. To bring Reid home. A nod from both ended the interaction and JJ and Morgan left.
"Okay Garcia, where are you with tracking the videos and photos?" Hotch asked.
"Every message gives me a little bit more data to work with. I've been able to narrow it down to here," Garcia said proudly as she pulled up a map. The circle was still quite a large area, but at least they were getting closer.
"And what does it look like if we overlap this map with the one from Malcolm's travel radius after the abduction?" Hotch wondered. Two pushes of a button and Garcia had a map with two overlapping circles on it. Reid had to be somewhere in the overlap area.
"It's still a large area sir, but it's all I have right now," Garcia frowned. The highlighted area had to cover over a hundred square miles, and included residential, commercial and rural areas.
"It's more than we had before Garcia. I know that you are doing the best you can. Don't worry, we're going to find him," Hotch said as be placed a comforting hand on Garcia's shoulder. "Reid is our expert on geographic profiles, but you and I are going to figure this out. Get me a print out of that map so I can start profiling the area. You are going to do your thing to find anything unusual that's happened in that area that could give us a lead to follow."
"Yes sir," Garcia said, already typing at inhuman speeds. She always felt better when she had a specific task to work on. As long as they were all still following leads, there was still hope. Her biggest fear was that the team would run out of leads and have nothing to do but wait for Reid's inevitable fate. As long as they were all still working, they weren't letting Reid down.
Reid was trying to keep his grip on reality, but it was getting more and more difficult as time went on. He was somewhat sure that he had retained consciousness since his eyesight had been taken away, but he couldn't be sure. Unable to move or see, he felt disconnected to the outside world - kind of like he was floating - and could very well have fallen out of consciousness without being aware of it.
Reid had tried a number of things to keep his mind focused on anything but the pain and fear he felt. He'd tried reading books in his mind, playing mental chess, even writing his next thesis. He found it worrisome that he was unable to concentrate on anything for very long.
Reid noticed that Dr. Malcolm re-entered the room at regular intervals. The man never said anything to him. Dr. Malcolm knew just how torturous it was to be locked in his own mind, and speaking to him would give Reid an anchor to the real world that Dr. Malcolm didn't want him to have.
Every time Malcolm entered the room, Reid heard him change his IV bag. Then he set something in Reid's lap, and Reid heard the sound of a photo being taken. Reid hated the fact that his friends were likely being sent constant reminders of his situation. But there was nothing Reid could do but be a pawn in Dr. Malcolm's sick game. As long as that IV bag was connected and continued to be replaced, Reid had no chance of escaping this hell. The drugs were too strong for him to overcome.
Once Reid had realized that Dr. Malcolm entered the room at regular intervals, he spent one of those intervals counting the time. It was extremely difficult to concentrate on counting for that long, but Reid had succeeded. He discovered that it was roughly two hours between visits, and Dr. Malcolm had come 3 times now with another visit due soon. So he figured that it had been close to eight hours since the last video had been broadcast to his friends. It was only a rough estimation, but Reid felt better knowing how much time had passed. It helped him ground himself. If he lost all sense of time, he knew that he would lose all sense of reality.
Reid had recently started to see things that he knew weren't there. He remembered reading about a study where participants were blindfolded for a long period of time, and most of them had reported having hallucinations. He knew that this was normal with sensory deprivation, but it was still highly disturbing to him. At first what he saw were just colours and shapes. Then he had started to see the faces of his friends and loved ones. After that, his brain started showing him some of the more disturbing cases he had been a part of. He saw the victims he had failed to save. They were blaming him for their deaths, and he couldn't get them to go away. The victims of Samantha were the worst. Reid remembered that they had been kept under the influence of the same drugs for months, until eventually their bodies stroked out from the mental strain of not being able to move. Reid could only imagine what two months like this would be like. He hoped he would never have to find out. Though Reid was fairly confident that Dr. Malcolm had something much more painful and immediate than those girls had suffered. After all, Samantha just wanted her dolls, she wasn't trying to kill anyone. Dr. Malcolm, on the other hand, was a sadist and relished in Reid's pain. He would eventually get bored of watching Reid in mental agony and opt for a more physical form of torture.
Reid was pulled from his thoughts as he heard the familiar footsteps on the stairs. Dr. Malcolm was coming back. Whether just to change Reid's IV and take another picture, or to inflict more pain, Reid could only guess. He swallowed deeply and felt his heart rate rise as he waited to find out.
