Ma Petite Chère
Disclaimer: I don't own anything connected to Criminal Minds, but you know that.
Summary: It's been a few months since Hotch and Emily took in the teenage Amy, and everything seems to fall into place until something unexpected throws the family through a loop...
Sequel To: Mon Petit
A/N: I hope you all are still enjoying the story. This is the chapter where everything starts to move along faster.
Thanks for reading, don't forget to leave a review.
"Truth makes many appeals, not the least of which is its power to shock." Jules Renard
Emily was looking over the background information that Garcia pulled up on the staff at Parks Academy when something caught her attention. Or rather someone.
"Garcia?" the brunette called out, garnering Hotch's attention, "What's this?"
The blonde rolled the computer chair over to Emily, "That's actually... wait a minute."
Garcia leaned over her friend, typing away on the laptop then frowned, "Huh, that's odd."
"What?" Hotch asked, walking over to the two women, "What is that..."
"Yeah," she murmured, "Who is you I.S.P. provider?"
"Our cable company," Hotch told her, "Why?"
"Because, this is a damn Trojan Horse," she muttered, "Just give me two minutes..."
While Garcia clattered away on the computer, Emily rubbed her hands over face her whole body aching right down to her very soul.
"Oh no," Garcia murmured, "This is not good."
JJ peered over the blonde's shoulder, "How the hell is that even possible?"
"Is that a...?" Morgan asked, clenching his fist while his eyes went to the projector showing an replaying from laptop, "How in the hell did someone hack into her camera?"
"You do not want to know the things that goes on online," she muttered, "Good news is that I can remove it, but..."
"But what?" Reid asked, the statistics of online predators running through his mind, but the better part of common sense told him not to repeat those facts to the group, least of all to the girl in questions parents.
"If I remove the Trojan Horse, that will alert whatever pervert put it on," Garcia told them, "And if that happens..."
"Whoever has Amy will move her," Emily finished, staring out the window not looking back at the group, "Are you sure there's no way to back trace it?"
"Kevin and I can go back to my office and work on it," she sighed, "But I have no idea how long it'll take."
"Do it," Hotch spoke up, "If you find anything, even something insignificant..."
"On my word of honor," she promised closing the laptop and picking it up, "Trust me when I tell you that I won't eat or sleep until we bring our girl home."
With that the room was silent again as everyone went to work digging over every aspect of clues that they had gathered over the course of what felt like weeks to them.
As Reid stood up, he stumbled against the empty spot that the blonde analyst had previously held and fell backwards.
"Spence, are you ok?" JJ asked, as she and Morgan helped the lengthy profiler stand up, "Anything hurt?"
"Just his pride," Morgan teased until the brunette looked at the overturned chair, "Sorry."
"I'm fine," Reid told the group as he picked up the chair, "It's just I got my foot tangled in this sweater..." picking up the green garment with white collar, "Definitely Garcia's..."
As he moved to set the colorful material down a scrap of paper fell out, which Will bent over to retrieve opening it and caught a glimpse of something that made him pause.
"Huh," he said, "I think we've got another clue."
"What?" JJ asked, walking towards her husband, "That's Amy's handwriting."
"Amy's?" Emily asked, looking up, "Is that something from Amy's room?"
"No," JJ answered with a shake of her head. Taking the paper from Will, she walked over to the girl's parents, "This looks like a list of names of people she wanted Garcia to run. I recognize this one."
"Jerry Carter," Emily said, "The guidance counselor, but we already eliminated him from her disappearance. What was his alibi again?"
"He claimed to be preparing financial aid papers for a few students," Reid informed the team, "He said his son was visiting his mother."
"What son?" Hotch asked looking at his wife, "Did you know he had a son?"
"No, but why would we? He's her guidance counselor," the brunette watched Dave pick up his cell phone.
"Garcia come up her now!" the older man barked out, "Did he happen to say where his ex and kid live?"
"Michigan," Morgan answered, "Funny thing is there didn't seem like that he had a kid living with him in his home. I mean there were no video games, no family photos. Nothing."
"Did you find her?" Garcia asked, feeling uncomfortable when all eyes landed on her, "What?"
"Why didn't you tell us that Amy wanted you to look into Carter's background?" Hotch asked, "Or who was the other?"
"Ryan Manning," JJ said, looking down at the paper in her hand before holding it up, "Why didn't you tell us about this?"
"I..." she flabbergasted, "I forgot."
"You forgot?" Morgan repeated, "Baby girl, Amy asked you to look into their backgrounds, why didn't you tell us that?"
"The babysitter case," she whispered, her eyes welling up in tears, "I just... I'm sorry."
"Tell us everything she said," Emily said finding her voice, "When did this happen?"
"The day you were... you know," she stated, pointing to the brunette's shoulder, "You two were away on the case, during the thunderstorm."
"What else did she say?" Dave asked turning to the blonde.
"I think, something about being followed..."
"What?!" both Hotch and Emily asked in unison.
"You should have told us Garcia," JJ told her friend, "This is a big piece of the puzzle."
"I know," the blonde sniffled, looking over to Emily and Hotch, "You guys, I really am sorry. I promise, I promise I will do everything I can to find Amy."
"I know," Emily whispered, "I know."
The brunette agent walked out of the conference room, "Where's she going?"
"Air," JJ said, squeezing Will's hand, "I'll be right back."
"I really am sorry," Garcia repeated, not feeling any better when Morgan gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.
JJ walked out of the elevator into the parking garage pausing when she saw her friend sitting on the trunk of her car holding an unlit cigarette.
"I thought you quit," JJ commented, hopping up on the trunk next to her.
"There wasn't any coffee left in the break room and I thought this would be cheaper than going to Starbucks," Emily said, not looking at the blonde who took the cigarette from her hand and tossed it on the cold cement, "You know that only works if it's actually lit."
"Like Garcia I have a flair for the dramatics," JJ said, taking the brunette's hand, "She knows she screwed up."
"Who?" Emily asked, turning partly to look at JJ.
"Garcia," JJ answered, "I know you're pissed at her, and you have every reason in the world to be, but you need to stay focused on Amy."
"I am," Emily told her friend, "Not for one second has that girl ever left my mind since she came into my home," emitting a light sigh, "I just needed to get out of that room to breathe."
"I understand," JJ said, "Have you spoken with Hotch yet?"
Shaking her head, "No, we're both too focused on this," Emily said, "I feel like the biggest failure as a parent."
"Don't say that," JJ's soft voice said soothingly, "I get that, but you've given Jack and Amy more love than any other parent I've ever met. Those children love you."
"Then why is she gone?" Emily snapped, pulling her hand from the blonde to run through her hair, "Why is Jack a mute about school? How did I let whatever was wrong with Amy pass me? What kind of mother am I if I can't recognize that her own children are in pain?"
"A human one," JJ said grabbing Emily's chin, turning her head to look at her, "We've had this conversation Emily. You're only human. Everybody makes mistakes, it's what we do with them - learn from them, that we grow," pulling her into a hug, "You're scared right now, and I am too, but we will find Amy. I swear to you we'll never stop."
Snapping her brown eyes shut, Emily let those words sink in. She finally believed them.
"Ok," Garcia muttered, biting her lower lip while her fingers moved swiftly across the keyboard she heard a ping on the screen, "You guys?"
"What is it?" Hotch asked, walking behind the blonde analyst.
"I did a little hacking into Parks Academy database," Garcia admitted, "And Mr. Guidance Counselor doesn't have any credentials, and that's not all..."
"Wait, what do you mean credentials?" Morgan asked, "Is this guy certified to be at the school?"
"No," Garcia said, her eyes narrowing as she read the screen, "I ran his Social, and apparently the name Jerry Carter was a guidance counselor..."
"Then how do you know..." Morgan asked.
"But not THIS Jerry Carter," Garcia emphasised as she pointed to the screen, "People this man stole the real Jerry Carter's identity."
"How the hell did this get by us?" Will asked, "When you ran a background on him..."
"That, my New Orleans Native, is because the this impostor paid for everything in Jerry's name, right down to the taxes," Garcia explained, "The real Jerry Carter died in 2002 after a lengthy battle with cancer."
"So who is this other Carter?" Reid asked, looking at the woman.
"What we do know is that he's been posing as a guidance counselor," Hotch started walking to the whiteboard, "He's been asking students about Amy..."
"He told us that he has a son and an ex-wife," Reid added.
"Which he does not," Garcia stated, "Even the real Jerry wasn't married."
"So if he doesn't have a family, is faking a career to get close to high school students," Morgan pondered, "He's a predator?"
"Michael did say that Carter had asked some of her friends about Amy," Emily answered from the door, "It's him, isn't it?"
"We don't know that," Dave said, not missing the spark of hope that quickly flashed through Hotch's eyes, "We're only speculating."
"But he didn't make any inappropriate advances on the other girls," Garcia pointed out, "Couldn't this all be some really sick but awful coincidence?"
"The Trojan Horse and the lying speaks for itself." JJ reminded the blonde.
"He could be a preferential predator." Dave offered.
"Preferential offenders are one of the more common sexually based offenders in child predators," Reid stated, "In one of seven cases..."
"Cool it," Morgan hissed, watching the three women turn green at that thought, "What we need to do is bring him in for questioning regarding the faked history."
Hotch nodded at that, "Morgan, Rossi go bring in Carter," he instructed, "Garcia, keep going through the files and find out everything you can on this man," he looked over at JJ and Will, "You two, I need to speak with you both please."
"Certainly," Will said, giving JJ's hand a warm squeeze as the two followed the team leader out.
"What about us?" Reid asked, looking over at Emily, "I guess we'll just get back to work on those journals, huh?"
Emily took a seat at the round table, opening the laptop in front of her. Her eyes never leaving the screen as she tuned out the rest of the world around her.
Her mind was so focused on finding any bread trail that Amy had left in her journals that she nearly fell over when Reid's excited voice echoed through the conference room.
"I think I've got something," he said, looking up while Garcia quickly dialed away on her cell phone to Hotch's office.
"What? What is it?" Emily asked, nearly tripping over her own to feet to look over the younger man's shoulder.
"Ryan told Amy he went to boarding school before enrolling here," Reid paused, "And that his parents are divorced."
"Tragic as that is," Garcia said, "How is that relevant?"
"Because, he moved here and told her he was living with his father," Emily slowly said, "And Carter told Reid and Morgan that his son was visiting his mother..."
"You think Ryan and Carter are connected?" Garcia asked, looking up as Hotch, JJ and Will entered the conference room.
"Sounds like it," Hotch told them, "We're bringing in the kid too. Garcia track the boy down, we need to have a long talk with Ryan Manning."
"On it," Garcia answered, glad that they had some leads that could point them to Amy's whereabouts.
JJ saw the shared look between the dark-haired couple, clearing her throat, "We'll go check to see what's taking Morgan and Dave so..."
The blonde was cut off by Hotch's ringing cell phone, "Hotchner."
"He's in the wind," Morgan said, "Everything's gone, Hotch. He's packed up and taken off."
"Damn it," Hotch muttered, slamming his phone shut, "Carter's skipped town."
Garcia gasped at that, "Well, I'll find out everything on the maybe-kid."
Emily closed her eyes, trying to picture any case that had a positive outlook from a situation like this but when she opened her eyes, Hotch pulled her into a hug.
"We'll find her, Emily," he whispered, not only reassuring her but himself, "We'll find her."
The brunette girl in question was listening to Zoe's iPod while she was busy scanning through her friend's laptop when an instant message popped up on her screen.
"Huh," Amy murmured to herself, "What do you want this time?"
Clicking on the chat button Amy narrowed her eyes at the screen, "Ok."
"Disenchantment, whether it is a minor disappointment or a major shock, is the signal that things are moving into transition in our lives." William Bridges
To Be Continued...
Hope you're all still enjoying the story, don't forget to leave a review.
