Of Genius and Gentility

Chapter 12

The pounding in JJ's head had subsided a bit, courtesy of the ibuprofen she'd downed during the drive over. It was the only lingering effect of her concussion, and she'd been assured that the headaches would resolve themselves quickly enough.

Thank goodness. Bad enough my head hurts, I don't need to have Spence feeling guilty about it all over again.

She'd been careful not to so much as furrow her brow around him for the past week, ever since the unsub had hit her over the head with a shovel. Just now, she was traveling with most of the others, to a home in rural Virginia, planning to meet Reid at the scene of a family annihilation.

As they pulled up to the address, JJ was pleasantly surprised to see Reid was now using only a single crutch.

"That is definite progress! But why the crutch? Why not a cane?"

"No reason. I just haven't gotten around to picking one up yet. I wanted to get to the seminar."

"Oh, that's right," interjected Emily. "How was it?"

"Pretty interesting. I've kept up with my reading, but I only get to read published articles. This gave me a view of current thinking and research."

"Which he will no doubt share with us the next time we're on the jet," teased Morgan. "See, there is something to be said about a case close to home."

And plenty to dread, as they all well knew. It was one thing to be called out to a distant city, or to some rural location, pretty much any distance from Quantio, and an entirely different thing to have to entertain the prospect of having a serial killer on the loose in a working radius that included their own homes.

This time, to the particular consternation of Hotch and JJ, their unsub was a family annihilator.

Not that Hotch hadn't already suffered the loss of his family. But the fact was that Haley and Jack were merely in hiding. It was true that they were unavailable to him, removed from his daily life. Bit they weren't dead. And he was determined to keep it that way, to see that the separation remained only temporary. A family annihilator would leave no chance of that.

He decided a consultation was in order with another prominent family annihilator the team had put away a few years back, and whom their unsub seemed to be mimicking. And he also decided that he would need a tool, someone Karl Arnold hadn't met yet. Someone the Fox couldn't possibly respect, because she was a woman. So, while the others worked with local law enforcement, Hotch and Emily Prentiss went to prison.

Several members of the team on the ground were faced with telling the father, a veteran, just home from war, that he'd been fighting in the wrong battleground. That, while he'd been half way around the world, his family had been killed in their own home. That difficult encounter began to take its toll on an already fragile JJ, and Reid couldn't help but notice. As she absently dunked a teabag for the thirtieth time, he hobbled over to her.

"You okay?"

She misread him, evidence that she was not. She thought he was about to apologize, once again, for the concussion that wasn't his fault. And, in her state of upset, she was annoyed.

"Spence, I've told you a hundred times that I'm fine. You don't need to be hovering over me all the time."

Considering his own current state of ambulation, he thought the use of the term 'hovering' was a bit excessive. But he was wise enough to keep his own counsel about it. He also had an opinion on her mistaking his concern for her emotional state for his concern for her physical state.

A convenience designed to push me away. Which is not going to happen. Wisdom be damned.

"I'm just asking if you're okay, after talking with the father. Morgan said he took it pretty badly."

"How would you expect someone to take it, if you'd just told him a madman had murdered his family?"

No attempt to mask her upset now. He waited her out, as long experience had taught him. Eventually, she spoke into the silence between them.

"Sorry. I know that's not what you meant."

"I just thought it must have been hard for you. I mean, I know it's always been hard to deal with the families….even if you make it look like it's not….." Waiting for, and receiving, her sad acknowledgement. "But I've wondered if it might be even harder, these days, because you have a family of your own now."

He was surprised when JJ gave him a sideways look.

"We all have families, Spence. The families we come from, the ones we're growing. It's always been hard…..but I've always reminded myself that it's that much harder for them. It's not about me."

Which was one of the things he'd come to love about his best friend. Others saw it as distance. He saw it as her putting the victims first. Still….

"I know. And I agree with you. But that doesn't mean that some cases aren't harder than others. I was just asking if this was one of the harder ones."

He caught her eyes for a few beats, and saw the acknowledgement there, framed by gratitude.

"Yes. And I'll be fine."


In the end, it was Emily who figured it out. She called them from the prison where she and Hotch had visited the Fox, and told them they had the profile wrong. Their annihilator was a woman. From there, deduction had led them in the right direction, and they'd found their unsub, a young woman traumatized as a child while living in a war zone.

After the fact, Reid picked at Emily's brain.

"What was he like? Karl Arnold, I mean. Was he changed? Was he repentant? Did he show any signs of remorse?"

He'd only rarely gotten an opportunity for follow up on any of the killers they'd caught.

"Well, I can't exactly say if he was changed. Remember, I wasn't there when you guys took him down the first time. But, judging from how he got under Hotch's skin, my guess is that he hasn't changed at all. And no, there wasn't a hint of remorse."

"What do you mean, he got under Hotch's skin?"

Over the past few months, Reid's hypervigilance about his unit chief had lessened, partly from his need to attend to his own rehabilitation, but also because Hotch had seemed to have found a new, reassuring, state of equilibrium. With Emily's words, Reid's worry about his default mentor flooded back into him.

Maybe Emily sensed it, and became concerned. Or maybe she needed to assure herself. After all, pretty much every aspect of today's exchange with Karl Arnold had been soul-rattling. For whatever reason, she decided to downplay what had happened at the prison.

"Oh, he just seemed to know which buttons to push. Karl Arnold was a psychologist, wasn't he? Maybe he's just good at reading people."

Spencer Reid had become pretty good at reading people himself. And he didn't like what he was reading right now.

"Emily, I can tell you're not giving me the whole story. What are you holding back? Did something happen?"

Way too much had happened, and she was going to need a few hours of alone time to sort it all out. But the thing that had happened with Hotch….

Maybe I should tell him. It's probably important that I'm not the only one who knows.

She heaved a sigh, and motioned her friend to a chair. She could always tell when he'd spent too much time on his reassembled knee, and this appeared to be one of those times.

Once they were both seated, she told him. From the beginning. All of it, nearly word for word.

Reid stared her into stopping the narrative.

"What?"

"Emily…..you've practically read me a screen play. But you've left out the most important thing."

"That being?" Caution in her voice. She knew he'd seen right through her, the moment she'd let him catch her eyes.

"That being…" momentarily displacing his concern for Hotch, and replacing it with his concern for her, "…what he was doing to you. Have you ever spent that kind of time with a serial killer before?"

All she could do was to shake her head.

"Well, I have. The same way as you did….with Hotch, inside a prison. And I don't mind telling you that I was terrified."

"Even with Hotch there?" She'd been alone with Karl Arnold for the most unnerving parts of their conversation.

Especially with Hotch there, he wanted to say. He nearly got us both killed.

But the words that left his mouth were more restrained. "Even with Hotch there. So….are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?"

That, she most certainly did not. But now that she'd broken her silence, she did want her colleague to know about what Arnold had shown to their unit chief. So she shook her head, as she laid a hand of gratitude on Reid's arm.

"Thanks, but I'm okay. Or, I will be I guess."

A sad smile of acknowledgement showed on Reid's face. It was so like what JJ had said to him, only hours ago. As frustrating as it was to be on the receiving end of those words, he understood. He'd been there himself, more than once.

Emily continued. "But I will tell you about what he showed to Hotch."

"Showed?"

"He had letters, like fan letters. And articles. And markings."

"Markings?"

"The Reaper's markings. Foyet had sent them to Arnold."

Reid sat back, stunned.

"Foyet?! He's trying to communicate with Hotch? By using another serial killer?!"

"My reaction, exactly."

Reid folded forward again, leaning in toward Emily.

"What was Hotch's reaction?"

She took in and released a deep breath before replying.

"He was thrown. He recovered quickly….he wasn't about to give Arnold the satisfaction….but he was thrown. He barely said a word the whole way back."

Reid's eyes riveted to something in the distance, as he thought it through.

"Foyet wants to torture him. He wants Hotch to know that he's watching him. That he's anticipating him. And, all the while, Haley and Jack are out there."

"Under guard. Don't forget that. They've got a federal marshal with them."

He brought his gaze back to her. "Would you settle for someone else watching a child you loved?"

Caught off guard, Emily did her best to cover. "If I had to, yes." And I do have to.

"Well, I don't think Hotch can. I think it's been eating at him, this whole time. And now, for Foyet to get at him like he did…."

Emily caught the rising anxiety in her friend's tone.

"He'll be okay, Reid. He's motivated, like Rossi says. But he's not reckless. He'll be okay."

It was Reid's turn to sigh.

"I hope you're right."


For all Reid knew, none of them had gotten any sleep.

He certainly hadn't. His conversation with Emily had led him to think she'd been going to find sleep elusive as well. And, for all of her attempts at denial, he was pretty sure JJ had been rattled enough to lose at least a few hours.

But she'll blame it on Henry, and expect everyone to believe her.

And Hotch…..now that he thought about it, maybe Hotch hadn't really been adapting to the situation at all.

Maybe he's been putting on a show. That's what I thought at first…..that he was trying to make us think that he was coping. But now…..now I wonder if the show was for someone else. Maybe he's been aware of Foyet this whole time. Maybe the show has been for the Reaper.

Which might mean…

Did he step down to make Foyet think he'd won? Did Hotch want to look weak? Has he been trying to draw Foyet out?"

If so, he'd succeeded. The Reaper had already demonstrated his ability to go underground for a decade at a time. But this time…this time, it had only been a few months, and he'd shown himself already.

Hotch wasn't defeated by Foyet! He's been on top of this the whole time!

If he hadn't been so elated about the idea that his mentor hadn't been as damaged as he'd feared, Reid might have seen the other side of the coin.

Hotch was on to Foyet. But Foyet was also on to Hotch.