Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds. Or A Modest Proposal. At all.
WARNING: Moderately disturbing material ahead.
Chapter 11: Framed:
"Mr. and Mrs. Phillips…I know this is a very tense and…difficult situation for you, but please…when was the last time you saw your children?" JJ asked carefully.
Mr. Phillips took off his ranger's hat and ran a hand through his disheveled hair. "My…my wife saw them last…She called me to tell that the children and their friend, Michael, were coming to visit me at work. They had been really wanting to see the forest, you know…" He said tiredly.
"But, I can't believe I let them go! I mean…I mean I knew such horrid things were happening here, but it would only take them a few minutes to walk there, and I made myself very clear when I said that they could not stop at all until they reached their father. Oh my God…Can you get them back for us?" Mrs. Phillips asked, tightly gripping her husband's arm for support.
"Mr. and Mrs. Phillips, the safety of your children is our priority, and we are doing everything in our power to get your children back, but in the meantime, please…try and get some rest. We will notify you if we find anything." JJ said, trying to reassure the panic-stricken parents.
"Thank you." Mr. Phillips simply said, while his wife nodded.
"Oh no…That's Michael's brother…Oh, the poor lad…" Mrs. Phillips sadly said, gesturing out the window of the office. Sure enough, an extremely agitated teenager stood in the main office talking to a police officer looking more anxious and frantic as every second passed by, evident in his pacing and his eyebrows furrowed with worry.
"Come on. Let's go comfort the lad. I heard from…from James that the two were very close." Mrs. Phillips tried to say to her husband before bursting out of the office and moving to the boy, grabbing him, and pulling him into a tight hug.
JJ stopped to watch as the boy finally broke down and sobbed, completely devastated with the fact that there was a chance that his younger brother would not come home ever again. Truly, it was these things that made the job emotionally straining. Who could possibly bear to see such people completely paralyzed with fear and worry? It was bad enough to witness the bodies left already, but somehow, it was worse to see those left behind completely fall apart as they worried.
Sighing, she stood up and walked into the team's makeshift workspace.
"So, do we have any new leads?" JJ asked Reid, who was busy rapidly reading over an acquired copy of The Modest Proposal once more.
"Well…the unsub has been taking passages and quotes from this essay in a chronological manner…He never chooses to use any text that was in a previous section or paragraph. So, what we can expect and anticipate from our unsub is narrowed down, as he has already used up this text." Reid said, circling his finger around a large passage.
"Okay…So, if he does follow the rest of the text, then what will follow?" JJ asked.
"….Honestly, it's probably better to focus on catching the unsub before those things occur….It's….not pleasant." Reid answered.
"We're working on that, Spence…" JJ responded, grabbing the essay from Reid to have a look herself. "Well, he certainly doesn't have a lot of text left to work with…Ugh. You're right. That's horrible. But, what will happen when he runs out of quotes to use?" JJ stated.
Reid opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by a furious Morgan, who angrily pulled the door open. "So. Hotch asked me to interrogate the other rangers that were working the same shift as Mr. Phillips to see if they saw or witnessed anything."
"Okay…So, did they see the children arrive at the forest? Was that where our unsub took them?" Reid asked.
"Not exactly, but…guess what a few rangers said." Morgan vehemently said.
"Just go on. Tell us." JJ said, placing the manuscript down and waiting for an answer.
"They said…they saw John Smith poking around the outskirts of the forest. John Smith. That bastard…I knew he was up to no good!" Morgan growled, banging his fist on the wall.
"…So, it's him? Our unsub is him? Then, have the police gone to apprehend him quickly before…the missing children are killed?" Reid asked.
"Yeah…They're leaving now. We can't really do anything, but we might as well come along…Damnit…I knew it was him!" Morgan said, grabbing his jacket from the chair nearby.
OoOoOo
"All right, boys…" Sheriff Byrnes began to say, gathering his gun and his hat. "We go in, and we get out with Mr. Smith. The FBI said that unnecessary violence should be avoided, and the safety of the children is our top priority. Got that?" He said, peering sternly into the anxious crowd of police officers.
"Good. Let's go, you lot." Sheriff Byrnes commanded.
The BAU merely followed the police officers who were all eager to apprehend the man who had been plaguing their town with stirred fear and panic among the parents of Kensdale.
During the ride to John Smith's butchery, the BAU remained quiet, contemplating if he really was the true unsub, though the rest of the Irish policemen loudly jeered and talked of how John Smith was sure to receive the death sentence once he was arrested.
"Ready? Okay…You two, go around the back…You lot over there? With me. We take the front. The rest of you…Eh…just stay around the rear…" Sheriff Byrnes stated once they reached the butchery.
"So…are we supposed to stay here and watch, Hotch?" Rossi asked.
"….I think we can go with them and watch…which is all we can do here." Hotch tersely replied, beginning to walk behind the advancing policemen.
"Alright. On a count of three, we burst in…Everyone, try not to look pathetic. He might have the children next to him, and we don't want them to get hurt." Sheriff Byrnes said, placing a hand on the doorknob as the accompanying policemen nodded silently.
Three….
Two…
One.
Sheriff Byrnes yanked open the door and ran inside, his gun held tightly in his hands as the other policemen followed. The BAU simply followed cautiously, not knowing what to expect, trailing behind the others.
"John Smith, you are under arrest for…Oh dear God…" The team heard Sheriff Byrnes say.
Quickening their pace, they walked into the main room and saw a horrid sight.
Rows and rows of freshly cut meat were neatly lined up on the counter, ready to be moved to the refrigerated, glass display near the front of the shop. John Smith froze, in the process of cutting into a large slab of skinned meat, his hands stained red from the blood.
Were they too late?
"No….Damnit….You bastard!" Sheriff Byrnes furiously yelled, waving his gun in the air, glaring at the raw, butchered meat and the large pools of blood that spread around the counter that dripped down to the ground.
John Smith, for the first time, looked completely defeated and scared, unlike the sneering and confident bravado he had shown Morgan. He raised his hands after several policemen angrily gesticulated wildly with their guns, letting the bloody knife in his hand fall to the floor with a clang.
"How could you?" a police officer asked, his eyes wide at the scene. Other officers quickly ran out the room as they felt that disgusting urge to empty the contents of their stomach, horrified with what they thought they saw. Sheriff Byrnes simply forced his defeated expression to tighten and agressively snapped cuffs on a wordlessly silent John Smith, who stammered unintelligible words with wide eyes.
The team watched as a tightly handcuffed John Smith was roughly shoved outside to the waiting car. The streams of blood began to trickle down the tiled floor and pooled at the team's feet.
Silence fell, and the team stood, wondering if they once again had been regrettably too late.
Was the freshly butchered meat the…children?
Was their unsub finally caught?
A/N: Yes, so we have approximately four chapters left! Thanks for the reviews!