Chapter 12
Matt woke a little before six the next morning, having slept very little. It wasn't Foyet that kept him awake. His chat with Abbey, like always, had helped chased the monster away. She was his godsend. It was Aaron and Jack that made him sleepless. He quietly padded down the steps to his office, not wanting to wake the kids or Abbey.
He knew, in his heart of hearts, as he fired up his laptop, what was waiting. Erin Strauss was going to be on the warpath. As he logged in and looked at his email, she didn't disappoint. His guts, with a four hour reprieve, churned again.
But on four hours of sleep, the tough temperament of an Irishman kicked in. Strauss' dictate that no one on the team was to not discuss it with each other rubbed him the wrong way. They were a team, and more importantly, a family. To not discuss it would throw the balance of the team off. They needed each other. And that's what made them whole. Again. After chasing the monsters. They needed each other.
Matt, in his boxers, getting colder by the second, the fall season really setting in the DC area, sent a pointed email to Tom McLaughlin. Matt trusted him. He knew he, and the team, as well as Aaron, would have to endure Strauss' "internal investigation". It was Strauss' bullshit; plain and simple. And he knew the email he sent would take time to process. But he had to do it.
He had reached his breaking point and was just damn tired enough, and hurting a helluva lot more, just like the team, knew that it was time. As the furnace downstairs kicked in, purring to send heat through the home, warming him a bit with the vent right behind his chair, Matt sent his email, shut the laptop back down and headed for an hour more sleep (he hoped) before the kids got up.
Abbey shook him awake at eight, nearly two hours later. As he woke, he looked at the clock on his bed stand. Abbey smiled. "You go in this morning on Rossi's hours." Matt told his wife everything about the team.
"The kids?"
"Raquel has them corralled for now. They're waiting on you to come down and the twins to say good-bye." That time was even late for her. They were both usually in their respective offices by 8 am, they taking turns at getting Cam and Casee to pre-school, which they attended until one each afternoon. Raquel would pick up the twins and then get them all down for naps.
Matt crawled out of bed, threw on a pair of jeans and padded down the steps pulling on a white t-shirt. He tickled and loved the kids. After helping Abbey get the twins in their jackets, he helped her get them into her vehicle, giving her a deep kiss. She wiped her lipstick off his mouth and buckled her seatbelt as Matt shut her door. As she and the kids pulled out the garage, he waved and went back into the house.
Raquel met him at the door with Colin. She beaded an eye into his unshaven face. "Señora Abbey said you didn't eat much last night. You shower and shave; I cook."
Matt held his hands in the air like an unsub facing Derek Morgan. "Yes ma'am." He went up the stairs and quickly did what she demanded. He was hungry; and knowing the day he faced, he would need Raquel's fuel for his body. Her ham and cheese omelet with an English muffin, which he lathered in her homemade strawberry preserves, did the trick. Colin, the family bottomless pit, pouted to Raquel that dad didn't share.
Cupping his chin in her loving hand, she said, "My Niño, you had your breakfast. Your Papa needs his. Take the dogs and go into the living room and watch your cartoon." She very gently swatted him on the backside of his diaper under his p.j.'s to get him moving. Both the dogs barked as they followed Colin into the living room.
Matt smiled. Just what I needed; something normal. Fifteen minutes later, after kissing his son, giving the dogs some love and kissing Raquel's cheek, he head to the BAU.
He walked onto the elevator in the BAU parking garage, holding for the same door David Rossi he saw coming.
Rossi took a look at him. "You're in late this morning."
Matt looked at him. "How'd you sleep last night Dave?"
Dave sadly smiled and shook his head at looked at Matt. "About the same as you."
Matt looked at Dave. "How are they?"
Dave shrugged. "Aaron didn't sleep much; but he didn't get out of bed, 'cause he knew I was sleeping with half an ear open. He is still an alert. That may take a day or two. And he's pretty uncomfortable and sore." Matt nodded his agreement. "He and Jack slept together." They looked at each other. "No surprise there." Matt shook his head again in agreement. Dave was finally there to help. He appreciated what Matt had done with Hotch. Matt had simply played it all very well. I was his hole ace to his game plan, Dave silently smiled to himself.
"You see Strauss' dictate?" Matt said. Dave nodded.
"And…" Dave asked.
"I'm going to fight her to the death."
Dave smiled, as the elevator doors opened to the sixth floor. "Atta boy; I've got your back," he said with a pat of Matt's shoulder. He strode off, leaving Matt with a smile on his face.
With my game and your game Dave; hell Erin Strauss doesn't stand a chance. He smiled as he walked off the elevator and followed Dave into the BAU.
He looked around, profiling the team. They were all in the same state that he was. Hurting, and even with their skills and knowledge, still trying to make sense of what they went through yesterday. It wasn't going well, knowing their impending showdown with Section Chief Strauss.
Matt climbed into his office chair and filled out his reports. Reports, he knew, Section Chief Erin Strauss would try to hang the team on, more importantly Aaron. Yet, he filled them out truthfully, and bided his time to meet her.
He pulled up her email gain, with its schedule laid out. It was classic Erin Strauss. She filled the morning with what she thought were the "lesser" players. Little does she know Matt smiled behind his desk. JJ was first off at 9 am. Erin Strauss had built her interview schedule; Matt smiled and shook his head, her inquisition schedule, to her exact preciness. Each BAU Team member had an hour.
Following Jayje, was Garcia. After her, it was Dave. Brilliant strategy Strauss Matt thought. Because he's not going to give you a damn thing and you know it. She had Reid for high noon, giving herself an hour to read more of their incoming reports. Matt smiled to himself. There's a shootout I'd like to be a fly on the wall. Erin Strauss will not get around his head. Hell, I can't he smiled to himself. After an hour lunch break, it was Emily at two, Derek at three, himself at four and then Hotch. By then Strauss, you will be beaten Matt smiled to himself. And you will look like the ass you are for bringing Hotch, and Jack, into this building, on a day when they are hurting the most.
Matt stayed pretty much holed up in his office, as the team did with their desks. Jayje knocked on his door a little after one. "You gotta a sec?"
"Sure Jayje," he said, noticing the files in her hand. "What you got?"
Jayje, with almost a profiler's accuracy, laid the case out to him. "I just need an assessment. But it has to carry weight to get this guy off my ass."
Matt looked over the files. "You're spot on JJ. I'll take it from here," he said, taking the files. "I'll close it down."
JJ walked out of his office satisfied. When Matt Taylor said he'd close a file down, he would. That including getting the phones calls from the detective instead of her. She smiled to herself; damn, he's good. I'd like to be a fly on the wall when he goes against Strauss. That seemed to be the mutual feeling of the day around the BAU. They knew each other too well. They'd love to hear each other's meeting with Strauss.
After finishing his assessment for the case JJ had given him and returning them to her, Matt showed up for his grilling at the appointed hour. "Please state your name and rank for the record."
"Supervisory Special Agent Matthew Taylor, Assistant Unit Chief of the Behavioral Analysis Unit."
"AUC Taylor, what is your assessment of Agent Hotchner's actions with your recent case?"
"Agent Hotchner's actions ma'am? Agent Hotchner was working with the rest of the team, under Acting Unit Chief Morgan, to apprehend one of our more lethal serials. He was professional and performed his job."
She reviewed parts of the case with him, starting with the search of Foyet's apartment. "You recommended to the SAC to do the search with the agent posing as the building super, correct?"
"Ma'am, I suggested to the acting SAC to get someone in there, somehow, to get recon if Foyet was in the apartment. It was the acting SAC's idea to use the agent as the building super, which I supported. When he is not acting SAC, Agent Morgan is my back-up with tactical and I thought the idea was brilliant."
"Agent, you keep referring to SAC Morgan as 'acting SAC'."
"Yes ma'am, I do."
"You feel he is temporary?"
"Yes ma'am, I do. That is the way acting SAC Morgan feels as well in my conversations with both him and Agent Hotchner." Strauss raised her eyebrows at that statement and then went back into her questions. Matt smile to himself; he had thrown her his curve ball and she couldn't handle it.
"Who coordinated the search?"
"I did ma'am following Bureau standards to the letter. The SWAT team commander, the Rapid Team Response commander, as well as the lead field agent of the undercover assets in the street all agreed with the plan."
"Once there, you all determined that Foyet was going after Marshall Kassmeyer?"
"Yes ma'am. Agent Garcia was able to stop the wiping of Foyet's hard drive and we noticed the pictures of Marshall Kassmeyer. We had Foyet's profile, and that fit our profile."
"How so?"
"Foyet wanted to get back at Agent Hotchner for turning down the deal. The only way he could do that, in his sick mind, was by going after his family. The only person that knew where his family was hiding was Marshall Kassmeyer. We had deduced that Foyet, by sending the letters to Karl Arnold, was ramping up to an end game."
"An end game?"
"Yes ma'am. He was going to finish his revenge on Agent Hotchner, and he had a plan to do it. Part of that plan was following Marshall Kassmeyer, hoping he would lead him to Agent Hotchner's family. When that didn't work, he had to up his game and get the information from Marshall Kassmeyer himself."
"And when the EMT's took Marshall Kassmeyer from his home, Agent Hotchner rode with him in the ambulance?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Why?"
"Agent Hotchner was friends with Marshall Kassmeyer, long before all this started, which I and Agent Rossi knew. That is why I, as the AUC after Agent Hotchner was attacked, personally called Marshall Kassmeyer to be the lead on getting Agent Hotchner's family into protective custody. As they were loading Marshall Kassmeyer into the ambulance, Agent Hotchner asked one of the EMT's if he was still conscious, which the EMT confirmed. We needed as much info from Marshall Kassmeyer as we could get to profile Foyet's next move. Agent Hotchner must have felt with his friendship, he would be the best person to try and get that information from Marshall Kassmeyer."
"And you followed Agent Hotchner to the hospital?"
"Yes ma'am. One of my jobs with this team is their security. There was madman out there, bent on revenge against Agent Hotchner and I did not want him unprotected. I reported that to the acting SAC and he approved me leaving the scene to cover Agent Hotchner."
"Did you report to Agent Hotchner that you were on the way?"
"No ma'am, I did not. Hospital regulations did not allow cell phone use inside the building. Agent Hotchner had shut his cell off, per hospital rules, so I was not able to contact him."
He watched Strauss look at him intently, beginning to realize she was going to get nothing from him to hang Aaron with. She looked through his field reports.
"You stated you knew exactly where to go after you heard Foyet's conversation with Agent Hotchner's ex-wife."
"Yes ma'am."
"How so?"
"My wife and family had been to their home before. When Foyet said 'open the gate' I knew exactly where he would be."
"And Agent Hotchner would have recognized that as well?"
"Yes ma'am and the rest of the team, still at Marshall's Kassmeyer's home, were quickly able to deduce that as well."
"Tell me in your own words, what you did when you arrived at the home."
"As I pulled to the curb, I reported to the acting SAC that I was there. After I exited my vehicle, my Marine instincts as well as my Bureau training kicked in. I knew Agent Hotchner was already in the home since the car he had driven from the hospital was there. Plus I quickly ascertained that the front door had been kicked in. I heard sounds of a struggle in the home as I approached. I followed my instincts and went to the back door to enter, knowing that Haley and Jack would have come through that door and it more than likely would still be unlocked so I could covertly enter the home and get in a position to back Agent Hotchner. I entered through said door and heard a struggle in the dining room. I entered the dining room and found Agent Hotchner, completely unarmed from a weapon, swinging a punch at Foyet, lying on the floor. I noticed after that punch Foyet's nose with mostly level with his face. I immediately deduced that his nose bone was probably buried in his brain, killing him. I pulled Agent Hotchner from the floor."
"You said earlier that you felt Agent Hotchner was performing his job as part of the team."
"Yes ma'am."
"Does performing his job including pounding someone's face in, killing him, leaving a blood bath in that dining room? Is that your assessment as the AUC?"
"Ma'am, with all due respect, that was a father protecting his son from what would have been a certain death with the only weapon he had at the time. I just told you Agent Hotchner was totally unarmed when it came to a service weapon. What was he supposed to do? Spit at Foyet?" He let those words sink in on Strauss and then played his hole ace. "And at that time, Agent Hotchner was acting as a father, which I can totally and absolutely respect. I would think less of him if he hadn't acted like a father first. This job, while it is demanding and needed, is not the biggest priorities in our lives. Our families are. That's why we do the job we do, sacrificing leaving our families; to protect them at the end of the day from madmen like Foyet. My God ma'am, you are a parent as well. What wouldn't you do to protect your children?" Matt's temper was showing and he didn't give a damn. And he immediately recognized she knew he had called her out. Not as a supervisor or a fellow agent; but as a parent. It hit home with her and Matt knew it.
"Ma'am with all due respect to you and the Bureau let me give you the full story." He laid out entirely what had transpired between him and Aaron, the entire profile of George Foyet that he and Aaron had put together and how that played into their actions the day before.
When he finished, Strauss closed her files and shut off the tape recorder. "Thank you for your time Agent Taylor."
Matt looked at her. "Ma'am," he said with respect and rose from his chair. He turned to leave the room.
"Agent Taylor," she said. Matt turned to look back at her. "If you were in that position, the one Aaron faced, what would you have done?"
Matt thought for a second. "Ma'am; you don't want to know. I'm a Marine, trained in hand to hand combat. I know how to play dirty. And with all due respect ma'am, if it was one of my children in harm's way, the carnage I'd had left behind would make that scene yesterday pale in comparison." That sent a shiver down Erin Strauss' spine. She knew the Marine Corps had trained him to be a killer. Maybe that's why he understands them so well she thought, having heard his read of Foyet's profile that he and Aaron had worked.
As Matt reached for the door handle, Strauss stopped him. "Matt, please, help take care of them."
He looked back at her. "My wife and my family will ma'am." He nodded at her and left the room.
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