"You guys had better have something for me," Garcia threatened the team later that afternoon as they again gathered in the round table room.
"Well, what we have is nothing," Rossi began. "But nothing can also be very important."
"There was nothing to find in the parking lot," Blake filled in. "No blood on the pavement, no shell casings, nothing that could have been used as a weapon. In other words, nothing to indicate that any violence took place there."
"So, our assumption is that Reid was in that car, alive and well, when it drove out of the lot," Rossi concluded.
"But where did it go?" Garcia wailed. "I managed to find it several blocks away, but I still couldn't get a license plate number and then it just disappeared into a residential area."
"Okay, what did you find?" Hotch changed the focus to Morgan and JJ.
"We checked the three clubs that Garcia narrowed the search to," Morgan began. "And, they all have varying degrees of video surveillance."
"Mostly in the cash register and liquor storage areas," JJ added. "And, since we had an idea of when Spence's phone had been used, we were able to narrow down the time frame that we needed to search on the tapes."
"We got lucky at the second club," Morgan continued. "Although there wasn't anything specific on the tape, the bartender remembered overhearing some punk who was bragging about 'Doing in some FBI guy'. He couldn't give us a good description, but from what he could remember, it appears that the punk was wearing Reid's jacket."
"So, we started looking for Reid's jacket on the tapes," JJ told them. "And, we think we located the guy on tapes from two of the clubs, and also as he walked by an ATM in the area. Although," she hesitated, "We couldn't get a good look at his face."
"We can, however, estimate that he is between 5' 10" and 6' tall," Morgan told them. "With mid-length brown hair."
Well, that gives us something to go on," Rossi admitted. "Has a BOLO been issued?" He looked over at Hotch.
"Cruz contacted all the local PDs and had each of them issue a BOLO for Reid," Hotch replied. "It is just a generalized notice without any indication that he is an FBI agent. We didn't think it was wise to emphasize that."
"He has been missing close to 72 hours," Blake pointed out. "It is possible that he is no longer in the area."
"And we all know that the odds get worse as the clock continues ticking," Rossi added solemnly.
"He has to be out there somewhere – He just has to be!" Garcia burst out. "My Favorite Genius has got to be okay!" She was on the verge of tears.
"Don't worry, Penelope, we are doing all we can to get him back." JJ stood up and walked around the table to give her a reassuring hug. "And, just remember, we are the best at what we do."
"I want to go back to those clubs," Morgan declared, standing up. "We know that that guy was in two of them and we checked out both of the interiors. Now I want to go back and check the outsides of the buildings. Walk through the area and see what else there is to see."
"I'll come with you," JJ volunteered. "It will go faster with both of us searching for any indication of what happened to Spence."
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
"Okay, all three clubs back up to this alleyway," Morgan was standing in the middle of the drive.
"And, they all seem to have several dumpsters," JJ observed as she turned around to take a look. "Although, it doesn't look like they have been emptied in several days."
"There doesn't seem to be anything on the ground in the way of blood, shell casings, or possible weapons," Morgan commented as he walked around the area searching.
"Reid's phone went dead while the guy who had it was making the rounds of the clubs in this area," JJ said thoughtfully. "What do you think the odds are that he ditched it because the battery died and it wouldn't work anymore? He probably didn't have a charger for it." She was still studying the overflowing dumpsters.
"Well," Morgan was also looking at the smelly containers. "The last club where it showed up is the one right in front of us."
"Before we go dumpster diving, let me call Garcia," JJ had her phone out. "I want to ask her something."
"Yes, if Reid's phone was turned off it is possible that the battery has built up some limited amount of power since Saturday night," Garcia agreed. "Let me see if I can turn it back on and get it to ring. You'll have to be quick, though, because I'm not sure how long it will last."
"As long as we find the right dumpster," JJ told the tech. "We can take it from there."
Garcia did manage to turn the phone on and, as JJ had feared, the ringing came from the fullest dumpster.
"There's not room in there for both of us," Morgan commented as they stood looking at the smelly bin.
"That's not what I think," JJ countered as she pulled on a pair of plastic gloves. "I think that not only is there room in there for both of us but that if we both get in there and start searching we will be done and on our way back to the office all the sooner."
The search did not take as long as they had feared, with Reid's cell phone being located in the midst of a wad of paper towels which had obviously come from a restroom.
"Let's bag this and get it back to the lab," Morgan said as he pulled out an evidence bag. "Hopefully it will have some useable prints on it."