A/N Chapter 11 for you all! I hope you enjoy this as it took me a while (I was stuck with ideas). So people are still adding this story to their alerts and favourites (thanks!) but I would really like some reviews! Enjoy…
Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds
Previously:
Reid decided he should try to distract Clary and himself in the happiest way possible. He was just about to bring up the story of when she placed a worm in his pasta at the ages of eight and six when his head snapped up at a terrifying noise…
…The sound of locks rattling on the door above them.
Reid acted quickly and on impulse at the sudden noise, crawling forward to shield Clary from the expected menace with his thin body. Too apprehensive to react, Clary gratefully shied away behind her brother. They both waited in their new positions, shocked into statue figures, as the door was creaked open, the sound echoing through the basement.
The brightness was un-expectantly fierce, and Reid felt his eyes water as he determinedly stared down their abductor. The heavy boots of Michael Crehg stomped down the basement stairs, the signature eagles clearly visible. Reid took a deep breath and squared his shoulders before strongly speaking to Crehg.
"Let us go." He said with assertion.
Crehg said nothing, and except for the small smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth, acted as though nothing had been spoken by the FBI agent. He walked with a strong stride over to where Clary sat huddled behind Reid, kneeling down to her level and looking into her eyes with a desperate passion. Reid glared daggers at the man, and readjusted himself as a barrier once again. His action was met by a loud noise of angry impatience, though, and before he could truly register what was happening, Crehg had pushed him over and away from Clary. Reid sat up in surprise and was horrified at what he saw.
Crehg was kissing Clary! The foul, rude, ignorant, idiotic creep was kissing his sister against her own will!
"Get off her!" Reid yelled loudly, getting to his feet quickly as he ignored the flaring pains. To his credit, Crehg looked slightly surprised at the FBI agent that was currently about to charge into him, but quickly recovered enough to move out of his way and kick him in the shins. Reid cried out as he once again came in contact with the hard and cold ground, but his goal had been achieved (however indirectly) and Crehg was now off his little sister.
Instead, he towered over Reid gently stroking a knife that was hooked on his jeans. Reid ignored the obvious threat and glared at him defiantly. But what he saw in those deep blue pits of darkness shilled Reid to the core. Crehg wanted to use the knife, he was eager to cause pain, and it was only a very strong will that would inevitable fail soon that protected Reid from the weapon.
"You will not misbehave while here as a source of comfort for my angel. If you do, I will be forced to hurt you or punish you in the form of withholding food and water, or even something a little more…creative." He grinned, showing off his pearly teeth. "This is your first and last warning, so don't abuse it." Reid noted his choice of wording, shocked that Crehg believed he would have to punish him to protect Clary.
Crehg then turned to the cowering Clary and attempted to put on a caring face. He failed miserably, however, as his eyes still gleamed at the prospect of using the weapon and his smile was narrow with building fury.
"Sweet, there is food and water at the bottom of the stairs. I made tomato soup, your favourite! If you would like to, you can come up later and watch a movie with me. But for now, just rest. I love you." He said softly before stroking her hair affectionately and making his way back up the stairs.
Seeing his back turned and his guard down, Reid desperately wanted to jump up and attack the man. But his sister's presence nagged at the back of his mind, and Reid knew he couldn't do it lest he or Crehg hurt her.
Instead, Reid pushed down his violent urges that were fuelled by fury and calmly made his way back over to Clary, intent on insuring her welfare before his own.
LINE
"We need to review what we have here." Hotch calmly stated as he walked over to the pin up board. Since the earlier breakdown of the normally efficient team, everyone had been working twice as hard to fill in the wasted time. Pens were strewn out all over the tables, paper was in messy piles and photos that had been disregarded were being used as scribble paper. Everyone's eyes were droopy and half-lidded, as it was three in the morning, but they were determined to make a breakthrough before they retired to sleep for a few hours.
"So far, we have confirmed the story that Reid told Morgan. Clary is indeed his sister, and the likely captor and murderer is Michael Crehg. I have been looking into the histories of those killed by him, and each victim has been linked to Clary in some small way. Allan Earnshaw was her real-estate agent, Emma O'Connor was a bar attendant at a pub that Clary's friends have reported she regularly visited after work, Jeffery McPherson was her finance broker and Mark Piles was reported by Clary as being a drug dealer. Each of these people came in contact with Clary in the recent past, at least one time each since she started dating Crehg. At the moment, I am still figuring out possibilities as to what his M.O of writing LIAR on their shaved heads means, but there is every chance that Crehg believes that each of these people had lied to his partner in some way or another. JJ, I believe you have also found out the meaning of the eagle that Reid spotted?"
"Yes, sir. This eagle-" JJ paused as she pointed to an enlarged image of what she spoke of. "-is actually the symbol of an old bikie gang called Eagillio Bros., which was terminated four years ago after police inquests into possible drug dealership charges. The inquests came up with nothing as local police were not able to find any hard evidence; however the fact that the gang disappeared shortly after being cleared is a suspicious factor. The last of their counts show 412 members of the gang, and Garcia is currently working through this list. Michael Crehg is not listed as a member, which struck me as odd, so before I abandoned this lead I did a bit of a search on the so called 'Crehg'. His name is not in any records until four years ago, the same year that this gang was terminated."
Morgan nodded. "That would make sense. If this gang was involved in illegal activity, many of the members would have changed their names so that they didn't come up in the police databases in the future. And the fact that there are no prior records of Michael Crehg definitely rings alarm bells. They guy would have had to have a car, property, phone or something in his name."
"It is also a possibility that if we are able to find out the true identity of Michael Crehg, who he was before he changed names, we can also discover where he is hiding them. It's possible that he had a small house or caravan in his old name that he had paid off. " Added Prentiss, her face thoughtful.
"Exactly. So now we need to work on narrowing down this list to get to our suspects of who Crehg actually is." Hotch ordered. Morgan took this as his cue to call Garcia, flipping open his cell phone and dialling her number through speed-dial. She answered on the second ring.
"Hey, baby girl, you got the whole team here waiting for you to work your computer magic. You ready to work wonders?" Morgan joked, but his voice cracked twice, and there was no laughter in his voice. Garcia seemingly sensed this.
"Hey, chocolate sugar, our baby Reid's gonna be fine! Now, let's 'smallify' this extensive list that our wonderful boss just emailed me."
Rossi took the lead, addressing the phone formally.
"Garcia, our unsub is male to begin with. Also, the short time period between each of the murders suggests that he has been able to move around quickly and efficiently. Narrow it down to those that lived in this immediate location."
"Check for anyone with serious road offence records, 'cos this guy was no amateur when he ran us off the darn road" Morgan added bitterly. There was silence from the team as they heard Garcia frantically typing away.
"Alright, good job my crime fighting heroes, but we still have 103 suspects."
"Excellent, now narrow that list down to people who dropped off the radar after the gang Eagillio Bros. shut down." Hotch said quickly.
"Be-a-ut-if-ul" Garcia said, exaggerated the syllables. "We now have twelve."
"Can you send us some photos? I might be able to dismiss a few." Morgan said eagerly, thankful that he had at least sighted the man.
"Sure thing, but you're gonna have to wait ten minutes or so. I'm good, but I'm not that good."
"Oh, how you disappoint me baby." Morgan joked, hanging up on the tech wiz to allow her to 'do her thing'.
"Twelve suspects. Good job team, we are closer than ever to finding this moron." Came Hotch's proud voice as he beamed at the remaining members of the tight-knit family. "Now, I know that most of you won't take this order well, but we are all going to go back and get a few hours of sleep. If we can find where they are being held soon, then we are going to need our energy in order to get them out alive. So I don't want to see any of you here until 8am. It is now 3:45am, so I will see you all in 4 hours and 15 minutes. And not a minute sooner." He said, ignoring the weak protests coming from his exhausted agents. "I will call Garcia and tell her to do the same, now all of you go."
LINE
"And do you remember that one time, when we went to Aunt Macy's and we hid her keys in the sandpit? She was so mad!" Clary laughed.
"Yeah, I do remember that. From memory she had to empty the entire box to finally find them! Hey, did you know that one tiny grain of sand has as many atoms in it as there are grains on a beach? And the tallest sandcastle was measured at 49.55 feet in 2007." Reid said, ignoring the roll of eyes he was met with.
"Yes, Spencer. That is very interesting. Thank you for enlightening me." She said sarcastically, laughing as he playfully hit her on the shoulder. She continued to shake her head fondly until the silence alerted her to her brother's thoughtful state.
"Spence?"
"Hmm?"
"What's wrong?"
Reid stared at her, wondering how much he should reveal and what might be better to keep to himself. In truth, he had been musing over what his team had to work with and the likely time frame it would take to find them. He had then been comparing this to how long he believed they would survive, and his musings hadn't pleased him.
"I was just thinking of what I told the team before Crehg got to me. They know that you are my sister, and they know that Crehg is responsible for the murders and our kidnapping. With that knowledge, they should be able to find us. But they haven't and it is at least 2 in the morning by my count. So I must be missing something, some complication that is making this take longer than I would have thought."
They were both silent.
"I was actually thinking that 'Crehg' might not be that guy's real name. He doesn't seem worried that anyone will find him, and yet this is his house. It must be listed under his name, and if it was, my team would already be here. What I am saying is that I wouldn't be surprised if Michael Crehg was an alias." Reid said softly, glancing over at his sister. She looked back at him.
"Neither would I." She whispered, heartbroken and angry that she had been so easily deceived. She never saw herself as an easy target, and it infuriated her to know that she had been so gullible. Noticing her distress, Reid took her small, calloused hand in his.
"It will be ok." He whispered, and Clary smiled.
"I know."
And with that she curled up against his chest, giving onto fatigue and promptly drifted into an uneasy sleep. Reid tried to do the same, but there were unspoken fears running through his mind.
He had held back from mentioning his greatest concern to Clary, wanting to protect her from further distress. Reid had come to a startling realisation as 'Crehg' had leaned over him, fingering his knife threateningly. The man enjoyed violence and pain, and was trying to make it 'right' through the ruse of 'protecting the love of his life'. But if it came down to it, and Crehg became suddenly angry, Reid was positive that they both would die in a slow and painful manner. Crehg was like a ticking time-bomb that needed only a reason to explode and this was what fuelled Reid's primal fear.
Reid wasn't sure if they would survive for the team to find them. The countdown to their death was already as good as going.
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