Chapter twelve

Mena Regional Hospital

Mena, Arkansas

They had changed Madeline into a hospital gown, and tucked her under a blanket. She looks remarkably small like that, Spencer thought. I am getting remarkably tired of dealing with girls in hospital rooms. "Hey. How are you feeling?"

Madeline looked up and shrugged. "That was really icky and very embarassing. I'm glad Emily was here."

"Yeah, I'm glad when she's around too. You know, Becky said she wanted to talk to you. Do you want me to see if she can come in?"

Becky wanted to talk to her? She'd been so nasty after church that day. But maybe she just didn't want to get hit. "Sure."

"Be right back." Spencer went out to the waiting area where the children were thronging while the last of them were checked and found Beatrice. "Can Becky come in the back and talk to Madeline?"

Beatrice looked harried and exhausted by this nightmare of a day. "I don't care."

"Okay." He looked over the crowd of children until he found the right one. "Becky, want to come back?" She nodded and trailed after him.

Just as Spencer opened the door for Becky Morgan called for him. "I'll be right outside" he said.

Becky looked up at the girl who was her friend for a while. It looked like half her face was swollen and red, and she couldn't open one eye. "What happened?"

"Your dad hit me."

"Dad doesn't hit, he chastises and corrects."

"Call it what you want, it's still hitting."

Becky didn't know what to say to that. "Can I come up?" Madeline nodded and drew her legs up under her. Becky used the stepstool to climb up and sit on the bed facing her. "I'm sorry I was so mean to you."

"It's okay. I figure you didn't want to get hit too."

"Something like that. How can you not believe in God?"

"How can you believe in him?"

"I don't know, I just do."

"Same here. Why is it so wrong not to believe in him?"

"Because He said so."

"But if you don't believe he's real, why would it matter what he said?"

"I don't know. I don't understand it." Becky frowned. "Can we just be friends anyway and not talk about it?"

Madeline smiled. "It's okay with me if it's okay with you."

That got Becky to grin in return. "Are you coming home with us?"

"I don't think so. We'll have to ask Spencer. I hope not, I really don't like your house that much."

"Who's Spencer? And why don't you like our house?"

"That's Joshua's real name. And you have too many kids in one place."

"I don't think so. I like being part of a big family."

"I like being an only child." Madeline thought a moment. "We can disagree on that too."

"Okay."

Just then Spencer back in carrying a tray and holding two paper bags. "Lunch?" Both girls nodded eagerly. "Madeline, you get the sore throat special." He put the tray down on the bed table and lifted the covers. "Chicken noodle soup, applesauce, apple juice and it looks like rainbow sherbet. I asked about jell-o, but they were out for the day. Becky, you get a turkey sandwich with chips and apple juice." He passed the bag over, settled into his chair, and put his own lunch bag into his lap. "Your brothers and sisters are eating in the conference room."

"Thank you."

"Thank you." Becky looked over at Madeline. "Why do you have a sore throat?"

Spencer caught Madeline's eye and gave her a warning look. "She has strep."

Her family has trouble with the truth, Madeline remembered. Better not to tell her straight off.

"Oh. I've had that before." Becky nodded. "Are you a policeman?"

"FBI, actually," once again he passed over his badge for inspection.

"Can I ask you a question?" Madeline asked between spoonfuls of soup.

"Both of you can ask me whatever you want to ask me." Spock and Saavik, he thought, knowledge was the one thing she needed, and the one thing he had in abundance to give.

"Are you married?"

"Yes, I am."

Becky looked over at Madeline and giggled. "Poor Beatrice."

"Is she pretty?" Madeline asked after she'd giggled back as best as her throat would allow.

"I think she is."

Madeline watched Spencer reach into his bag and pull out a leather wallet. Inside were two pictures of a woman. In the first she had red hair and bright blue eyes and she was standing on a porch with a cup in her hands. In the second she had flowers in her hair and flowers in her hands, and she was looking up at Spencer and smiling. He had a flower on his jacket and was laughing and they both looked young. She kind of looks like me Madeline thought, kind of. But I don't have red hair. "She is pretty. Where was this taken?" She pointed to the first picture.

"I took that right before I came out to the Tucker's house. That's our side porch, right after breakfast."

"What about this one?"

"That was our wedding day."

"Oh wow," she passed the pictures over to Becky so she could have a look. "What's her name?"

"Gwen. Well, Gwendolyn, but she likes to be called Gwen."

"Did you go to college?"

"Yes I did. CalTech actually, I went when I was twelve. So did Gwen."

"Really?" Madeline grinned. "Lucky." Spencer grinned and nodded back.

"That's too young to go to college." Becky insisted.

"No, it's not. It just doesn't happen that often. But I bet Madeline here will be going in a year or two."

"No." Becky shook her head. "Dad said she's had enough school. And Pastor Green doesn't even think girls really need to worry about high school, they just need to learn how to keep a house."

"Well, your Dad and Pastor Green don't make the rules for everyone." Spencer took a big bite of his sandwich and wished it was Green's jugular.

Madeline spoke up again. "Did you graduate?"

He nodded. "Yes. I have three doctorates in Mathematics, Chemistry and Engineering from CalTech as well as undergraduate degrees in Psychology, Sociology from George Washington University and Philosophy from Georgetown. I'm working on my graduate degree in Psychology. She has three degrees in Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics, from CalTech and an undergraduate degree in Classics from Georgetown and she's studying Psychology at George Washington."

"Wow, that's a lot of school." Becky said. "Dad said people shouldn't go to the universities, they just teach evil and lies."

"No, they teach things your Dad disagrees with, mostly. But the most important thing is that they teach you to think for yourself."

"Why wouldn't my Dad want me to think for myself?"

"Because then you might disagree with him, and you might be right. I think he would find that scary."

"Oh."

Just then there was a tap on the door, and Emily stuck her head in. "State CPS is here and Hotch and Rossi are back. And we have a problem." She ducked back out.

Well, that was interesting. Spencer looked over at Becky. "I think you better go back with your family now. I'm sorry; I don't know when you two are going to see each other again."

"Maddy…Madeline's not coming back to our house?"

"No." Not on my life, he thought, not on my life.

"Oh."

Madeline smiled at her. "That's okay, we'll still be friends."

------

Spencer came out and met up with the team closer to the lobby. Standing with them was a middle-aged black woman with a tired, professional air. Hotch made the introductions. "Ms. Johnston, this is SSA Dr. Spencer Reid, he was the agent undercover in the Tucker home. Reid, this is Sheila Johnston from Child Protective Services."

"Dr. Reid." She offered her hand. Spencer took it and wondered if she noticed the tripling of his heart rate. "I have a lot of questions to ask you."

"Of course, anything I can do to help. But there was a problem?" He looked from her to Hotch.

"Look outside." Hotch nodded around the corner.

Spencer stuck his head around and saw a mob of people forming out in front of the hospital, waving signs and apparently yelling. "What's going on?"

"Apparently we skipped Waco and Ruby Ridge and went straight to the YFZ Ranch." Rossi answered. "We're persecuting Christians for having different beliefs by taking their children away and arresting their pastors."

"Didn't we announce that they were arrested under child pornography charges?" Surely that would have quieted people, Spencer thought. And then he looked over his shoulder at Madeline's room, just as a nurse stepped in there.

Morgan shook his head; "According to Garcia two-thirds of the chatter on the net claims that we planted the evidence. The remaining third is saying that we planted the girl to seduce Tucker and his son."

The entire team was shocked by this. "They do realize she's a nine year old." Emily wanted to know.

"I guess they think that's old enough," was Morgan's only answer.

Spencer was about to say something about blaming the outsider to maintain the belief of the anointed and the perfect life and about attacking the powerless and the weak, but something was wrong. Something. Was. Wrong. Without a word he turned and strode back to Madeline's room, trailing the team in his wake.

He eased opened the door to find Madeline huddled in a little ball on the bed, while a nurse did something with her IV. "…just stop lying you little vixen! How dare you take down that great man?"

"I'm..I'm n…n…not lying! I d…didn't d…do anything!"

"Hey!" Spencer yelled, then pushed the nurse out of the way and pinched the IV tube, hard. "Someone check her."

The nurse glared at the team as Emily patted her pockets. She pulled a tube of something and a hypodermic needle out of the woman's pocket and squinted a bit at the label, "Heparin."

Spencer immediately slid the IV catheter out of Madeline's arm and used a tissue from a nearby box to put pressure on the tiny hole. "Did she put a needle into any part of this at all?"

Madeline, who was picking up that Something Bad Happened, felt her mouth slip out of gear, and just shook her head no.

"Okay, hold that tight." He bent her arm up and looked over at Emily. "Is the label dark blue or light blue?"

"Dark."

"Adult dose, it's a potent anti-coagulant; enough to cause a child to bleed out through their mucosal membranes. There's no good antidote."

The nurse pursed her lips. "That was from my previous patient."

"Right," Morgan took her elbow and pulled her from the room. "Come on lady, let's go check that."

Mrs. Johnston looked ashy pale. "You don't think…"

"We don't know." Hotch replied and then he opened his phone. "Garcia?"

"Speak, my Lordship."

"I need you to find the membership lists for any church in a two hundred mile radius that subscribes to the teachings of Pastor Green or any of his seconds. Then compare that to the hospital employment records…" He looked over at Mrs. Johnston, "…and the foster parents and group home employees in this and all neighboring counties."

"You're in the buckle of the Bible Belt, sir, that's going to be a lot of names."

"I know."