Simmons stayed by the entrance to the cell block until Reid and Morgan were out of his sight, then he ducked to the side and pulled out his phone. Technically, he wasn't supposed to have a cell phone on him while he was on duty, but it was hardly the first prison rule that he had ignored. Hastily bringing up his list of numbers, he selected one and put the call through, waiting impatiently for it to be picked up.
"Jeff? This is Earl. Just listen, I don't have time. The Hotchner fellow you brought in has been taken out here by the FBI. Most of them are still here, but the black agent they called Derek was supposed to meet another agent named J.J. and take him to a doctor. Pretty sure they're headed for St. Anthony's. Gotta go. I was told to come straight back. My wife'll skin me if her older brother gets in hot water, so you be careful."
Closing his cell phone, Salters frowned. If that was the same agent that was with the team last time, he'd know Salters by sight. Seemed like it was time to call in another favor or two.
"Kemp? Pull over to that diner. We may as well get something to eat while I make a few calls.
Back in Thorpe's cell, Rossi sat on one end of a bunk while Thorpe sat on the other.
"You wanted to talk? Let's talk. Start with the hostage situation bit."
Thorpe just shrugged.
"Seemed the easiest way to figure if the kid was giving me the straight story. Besides, I wasn't going to let the kid be alone with Simmons."
"What is it about Simmons? Why do you think he's Salters' man?"
"When they brought your guy out to the yard, Salters had a word with Simmons. Nobody else, just him. It spread real fast after that about him having a law connection. Hearing that made it click for me where I'd seen him before. He and an old guy were walked through our cell block on the way to the room they held the interviews in."
"Which leads to my next question – what's your connection with Salters?"
"Like I said, the kid is hardly the first here because of Salters. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the choir boy I used to be, but I'm in here because Salters lied on the stand."
"And why would he have done something like that?"
"According to the kid, your team is the one that took down Salters' brat. Before you managed that, I was handy to blame for some frat boy that Chris beat into a coma. Mix in a couple of locals that were also willing to testify against me to keep on Salters' good side and I was railroaded. He did it like a pro too, so I doubt I was the first guy he ever stuck it to."
Rossi nodded, thinking back to the sealed records that had been erased. Those would have been from when Chris Salters had been a juvenile. If Thorpe was right, Salters had come up with an entirely different way of keeping his son's record clean once he was legally an adult.
"Did you have any evidence at your trial?"
"I have an alibi, but since Salters is my alibi, I think you can see where I was screwed."
"How on earth did you end up with him as your alibi?"
"I won an overnight stay to sleep off a drunk that night. I was in a cell from around midnight until nine in the morning. Guy that was beaten was taken to the Emergency room at six in the morning. Fight happened about an hour before that."
"Didn't any of the rest of the officers see you?"
"Sure, but you really think any of them are going to contradict the sheriff? He can screw their records to where they'd never get a job even sweeping floors at another sheriff's department."
Mulling that over, Rossi pulled out his phone and gave a quick call to Garcia.
"Rossi? Is everything alright?"
"Everything's fine, but I need you to work your magic."
"I will do my humble best. What direction do you need me to point my wand?"
"Look up the records for a Ronald Thorpe, currently incarcerated here for - what were you convicted of?"
"Attempted murder."
"For attempted murder. He says that at the time of that crime, he was already in custody under Sheriff Salters."
"This will take a bit of digging, but I will make it my top priority. By the way, said sheriff has been parked for awhile not far out of town. Probably a meal break."
"Thanks, Garcia. Call me if you find anything."
Thorpe gave him a bemused look as Rossi tucked his phone back away.
"You really think she can find anything to back me up?"
"I put very little past her capabilities."
At the hospital, Morgan was waiting with Reid for the doctor to arrive. Reid had already had a set of x-rays taken so they had been sent into the room to wait. Reid was tired and was drifting in and out a bit when Morgan's voice brought him back to the present.
"Reid? Can I take a look at your ribs?"
A smile formed on Reid's face.
"Going for a medical degree, Derek?"
"No - and don't give up your day job to be a comedian. I just wanted to see how bad it is."
"If you really want to look, you can. As a warning, they're colorful, but not very attractive."
Moving closer and being careful of the IV in Reid's arm, Morgan moved the hospital gown enough to get a look, wincing in sympathy. There had been enough time for the bruises to bloom and Reid was right about them being colorful.
"You're right. They aren't very attractive. Did you manage to give him any in return?"
"Afraid not. I was already handcuffed at the time, so my options were fairly limited."
"Should've known he was a coward. Most bullies are."
There was a light rapping on the door just before it opened and one of the hospital orderlies poked his head into the room.
"Excuse me, Spencer Reid?"
"Yes?"
The young man backed into the room, pulling a wheelchair.
"The doctor wants to have a few x-rays taken of your skull, sir."
"Really? Why?"
"Just a precaution. They do that a lot with assault cases."
Morgan moved to assist Reid into the chair.
"It's probably not a bad idea, Reid. As bad as your ribs had to have been hurting, you probably wouldn't have noticed if you'd hit your head against anything."
The orderly moved the IV bag to a pole that was attached to the wheelchair.
"If you just want to keep waiting in here, Mister Reid will probably be back in about thirty minutes, sir."
"I'll do that. Thanks."
Settling back down in the chair, Morgan watched as Reid was wheeled out and sighed. Hospitals were never good places to spend time.
Rossi felt his phone start to vibrate and he pulled it back out, a faint smile forming as he noted who the call was from and answered.
"Are you the bearer of good news?"
Garcia's voice practically purred back over the connection.
"Would I let you down, Rossi? I hit the jackpot. Sheriff Salters' folks are tech-savvy enough to have digitized their security footage, but not tech-savvy enough to have strong enough security to keep yours truly from plundering their depths."
"Does anyone have security that good?"
"Flattery will get you much in life. In this case, it is getting you dated and time-stamped footage showing that your Mister Thorpe was both incarcerated and sawing logs during the period of time that he was supposedly out committing attempted murder."
A slightly feral grin formed on Rossi's face.
"We need warrants for those computer files. We don't need someone erasing them."
"I will have - oh no."
"Garcia? What's wrong?"
"I just looked back at the GPS for the van that Sheriff Salters and his man are in. While I was running down the other information, they left the location they were at, but they aren't still heading south. They're headed back your direction . . . correction. Not quite. They've stopped again, but they appear to have gone to a hospital. St. Anthony."
"Damn. Hotch had Reid taken to a local hospital. Call Morgan and give him the warning - I'm going to get Hotch."
Looking over to Thorpe, Rossi explained quickly.
"I've got to go. I think Salters might be coming back for Reid. But Garcia's found evidence that should get you a retrial at the very least."
The big man gave a slow nod.
"Go take care of your man, but I want out of here in time to sit in on Salters' trial."
"I'll do all I can. I'll even see if we can get you a front row seat. Aaron - we have an emergency."
"What is it, Dave?"
"Salters. It looks like he's after Reid again. Garcia just put his van at St. Anthony's Hospital"
Rossi's eyes went straight to Simmons and became hard as marbles.
"Considering how very few folks know that Reid was taken to the hospital, makes you wonder how he found out so quickly, doesn't it?"
Simmons was already sweating under Rossi's stare. Once Hotch's stare was fixed on him as well, they could practically watch as the guard came unglued. Hotch took a step closer to the man, speaking in a low, firm tone.
"Do you know how very close you are right now to being charged as being an accessory to both kidnapping and attempted murder?"
That was all the push that it took for Simmons to crack like an egg.
"Now wait a minute - I didn't do anything but talk to Jeff and -"
Rossi smoothly stepped in on that.
"Jeff? On a first name basis with Sheriff Salters, are we? What's your relation to him? You may as well tell us because you know we'll find out once we start looking."
Simmons quickly looked to Castell - who looked entirely unsympathetic. Swallowing, he muttered too low to be heard. Castell practically growled at him - he didn't appreciate his prison being made to look bad in front of the FBI agents.
"Speak up, Simmons."
"He's my brother-in-law, sir."
"That's not in your employment jacket, Simmons."
"I wasn't married to her when I was hired."
Hotch broke in then.
"We're getting off-track here. You called Salters and told him where my agents were going, didn't you?"
"Yes, but -"
Hotch didn't let him get any further.
"Superintendent, if you would find a place where this man can be held for now. Charges will be filed, but right now, we have more important things to attend to."
Rossi chimed in after that.
"We consider Thorpe to be your personal responsibility as well. We have proof that he's in here under false charges. If anything happens to him, there will be a very lengthy investigation."
The way things were looking, there was apt to be an investigation regardless, but Castell nodded as he escorted them out of the cell block. He had no great love for the sheriff who was making all of them look bad.
"Simmons will be here when you come back. So will Thorpe."
Reid was passively glancing around while being pushed in the wheelchair until they entered an elevator. Glancing to the side out of idle curiosity to look at the floor buttons, Reid caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye that broke him out of his thoughts. The orderly had just pushed a hypodermic needle into his IV tube and injected something.
Reid's reaction was automatic - he reached to jerk the tube free of his arm. He succeeded but that action quickly led to a fight with the orderly. Even with Reid having the disadvantage of damaged ribs and being smaller than the orderly, the orderly was more fat than fit and simply wasn't a match for Reid. Just as the orderly hit the elevator floor, the elevator doors opened and looking out, Reid cursed. Salters and Kemp were walking toward the elevator, but they were obviously not expecting to see Reid as being the one still standing.
Taking advantage of their moment of distraction, Reid hit the button to close the door and immediately hit another button to start the elevator moving again. Salters lunged forward, but was too late to stop the door from shutting. Reid could hear him shouting something at Kemp, but he didn't have time to worry about that. Reid wasn't going to go anywhere with Salters if he could prevent it. Not knowing that the other man wasn't going to be happy until he was dead.
Taking stock of what little he had to work with, Reid hit a series of buttons so that the elevator would keep stopping along the way. He stayed on for two floors, then ducked out on the third stop, keeping his right hand clamped to where he'd pulled the IV line out of his left arm. He knew he looked suspicious in nothing but his underwear and the hospital gown, but first things first. He had to find a way to get help without running into Salters or any of his allies. Trouble was, there was no way for Reid to tell who might be one of Salters' allies.
There was only one thing to do - he needed to find a way to get back to Morgan or to at least contact his friend before Salters caught up to him.
In the hospital room, Morgan looked up as the doctor came in, carrying Reid's chart. The doctor gave a glance toward the empty bed.
"Is Doctor Reid in the bathroom? I need to go over the results with him."
Morgan shook his head,
"They haven't brought him back from taking the x-rays of his skull yet."
Alarms bells went off in Morgan's head at the confused look on the doctor's face. His phone went off before he could question it.
"Be right back with you, Doctor. Morgan here. What's up, Baby Girl?"
Garcia's tone was urgent.
"Tell me that you're still with Reid. You didn't leave him at the hospital, did you?"
"I'm at the hospital, but he's - wait. Tell me what's wrong."
"Salters. He and his deputy turned back around and they're at the hospital that you and Reid are at."
Morgan snapped his head to look at the doctor.
"You didn't order another set of x-rays, did you?"
"No, I didn't, Agent Morgan."
"Oh hell no - Garcia!"
"Here, Derek - I think I know what you're about to ask and no - the vehicle is still at a dead stop."
"Get hold of the team. That lowlife might have Reid again, but he's not going to leave here with him if I can help it."