After the nightmare he had, Spencer couldn't sleep. He tried to close his eyes, but when he did images of the vivid dream would assault his eyes. He tried pacing until he got tired. He got up and drank some water. He tried to read, but he couldn't focus. It was useless. By the time he had given up he had gotten maybe three hours of sleep when the night turned to early dawn.
After taking a quick shower and throwing on a clean pair of clothes, Spencer decided to head back to the precinct, not worrying about when his team would show up or the state they would find him in. He knew they would be up early as well, that it would only be an hour or two until they were also at the station.
When he walked in, Spencer wasn't surprised to find that the few people there were mostly the same faces he had seen when he left, the officers who had the overnight shift. He made eye contact with a few and nodded grimly out of respect when they acknowledged him.
Seeing that the table was as he left it, Spencer decided his first course of action should be to make himself a strong cup of coffee. Once he successfully had the coffee in hand, he sat in the familiar chair and began scribbling notes. His mind was so deep in thought, it hardly hit him when he finished the first coffee and stood to make another. Sitting, he continued about his business, absently sipping the scalding drink as he went. Time passed in a blur. The sound of one of the officers dropping a binder in the distance startled him just as he reached for another sip of coffee.
"Shit! No!" He cursed loudly as the cup slipped out of his hand and spilled right on some of the notes he had been writing, ruining them.
"Could you make any more noise?" Spencer glared angrily at the offender as he did his best to clean up the mess he had made. Most of the notes the coffee had touched were ruined, he would have to waste valuable time re-writing them.
"Son of a bitch, I can't catch a break." He cursed in frustration under his breath.
Spencer knew he was tense, and exhausted, this really wasn't like him. He scribbled hurriedly to return to the point he had reached, his coffee magically refilled itself two more times. He had just finished re-writing the last of his notes when the team walked in together as a group. He barely looked up to acknowledge them. He knew they wouldn't be surprised to see him. He also knew he looked like crap and it would be easy for them to see that he hadn't slept much. He didn't care. All he cared about was finding JJ.
"Ok let's go over what we have." Hotchner said as he sat down, cutting to the chase after giving Reid a small nod.
"I talked to one of the officers. They didn't have any luck with the blockades. They came up empty." Emily stated quietly.
"Are the blockades still in place?" Spencer asked without looking up to make eye contact.
"Most of the smaller ones have been dissolved. They have two left; one where the road splits and heads off onto another main road in the direction of Texas, the other is right near the border of New Mexico. They've kindly agreed to keep them up through noon. They think, and I would have to agree, if we don't come up with her by then that keeping the blockades up will be a waste of time and man power." Emily finished.
"Obviously it would be helpful if they kept the blockades up for as long as possible, but the odds the unsubs are simply 'waiting out' the blockades are pretty slim. If the police don't have anything by now then we were either too late or they turned off onto a side road somewhere." Spencer conceded, surprising his team that he had done so as easily as he had.
"Given the nature of the crime and abduction, and the amount of time that has passed, it would seem likely that our unsubs already have JJ at her intended destination, or at least at a hideout somewhere." Rossi agreed.
"We know this was well planned, they had to anticipate that we would react quickly to block off the roads." Morgan added.
"It was done as an extra precaution just in case we got something. We'll take what the police can give us, you never know." Hotchner concluded. "What is the word on Deputy Brewer?"
"I talked to Garcia. I told her what happened and she was pretty upset as you would expect. She called the hospital. They say Brewer is conscious and should make a full recovery. He was asked some 'light' questions by the officer guarding his room, but he claims he doesn't really know what happened; there wasn't much to go on. He's resting now and he expects we'll be by later this morning to interview him." Morgan spoke, his eyes glancing at the people around the table.
"I'll be there to talk to him as soon as we're done here." Spencer mumbled quietly.
Hotchner eyed him.
"We'll see. If you do go one of us will go with you."
Spencer looked up to protest, but the look from Hotch silenced him.
"I spoke with the crime techs. They finished processing the scene last night." Rossi began, almost ignoring the body language between Hotchner and Reid.
"The SUV was towed back to the lab to be analyzed. They focused specifically on the tire that was punctured, and also ran tests on JJ's jacket and recovered possessions." Rossi said, looking down at his notes.
Without thinking Spencer's hand went into his pocket, fingering the familiar necklace that hadn't left his side since he had found it. He knew how much it meant to JJ. Now it really meant something to him too. He knew it wasn't the smartest thing for him to do, but he didn't consider that piece of her to be evidence. If there weren't prints on her recovered belongings, then there wouldn't be prints on the necklace either.
"Anything helpful?" Emily asked.
"There wasn't anything helpful on her belongings unfortunately. These guys appear to have been very thorough. No prints, no hairs, no DNA left behind. Whoever did this likely wore gloves. Seeing as there weren't any fibers left behind by the gloves, the techs hypothesize that the gloves used could have been latex, plastic or some sort of leather." Rossi read.
"Seeing as they were on a time crunch, they probably used gloves that wouldn't restrict their hands too much when taking JJ's things, and they would have to be easy and not overly suspicious to dispose of." Morgan spoke.
"So we can assume they were probably latex or plastic, something a doctor might use." Emily said.
"That really doesn't help us much. A person can easily go to a drug store and pick up a box of them. Even running a search on a purchase of such a thing would likely yield a large amount of results." Spencer replied.
"At this point with what we have, anything is worth lucking into. I'll have Garcia look into it when I talk to her." Morgan said, meeting eyes with Hotchner who nodded his agreement.
"The SUV they are still searching, but again nothing so far. As for the tire, they have matched up the hole in the tire and they did recover a bullet at the scene." Rossi continued. "It is a consistent caliber to that of a hunting rifle. Given the projected trajectory of the bullet and where we assume the getaway car was parked, it appears the person who fired it was hiding behind the rock formation near where we found the tire tracks."
"Were there any footprints?" Emily asked.
"Not near the rock formation, no. They may have been scuffed away." Rossi shook his head negatively.
"Garcia did tell me that they recovered the two separate prints and they were able to verify that they weren't ours. One was a man's size ten boot print. The other was a man's size eight print." Morgan added.
"So we do know definitively that there were two unsubs." Emily stated.
"It would appear so. Is there anything else?" Hotchner asked, looking to Rossi and then around at the rest of the table. He was met with tired, somewhat glum looks.
"What have you been working on Reid?" Morgan asked, bringing everyone's focus onto the young genius. Looking down at his notes, he decided it would be better to let them in on what he was thinking, rather than to just shut them out.
"I've been going through all the information, considering different scenarios. The evidence, the situation, the speed and precision in which this was carried out, all suggest that this was premeditated and that JJ was the target. The question is why she was the target, and how did any of us, including her, not see this coming?"
"We were all focused on the case in front of us Reid." Morgan said.
"I know, I know. I'm not trying to blame anyone. What I'm saying is obviously if this was planned and JJ was the specific target, then someone would've had to be watching us. There isn't any other relevant explanation unless she was a random target, which is looking less and less likely."
"We could go back to the hotel, check records. I don't think someone would be ballsy enough to stalk her out here." Morgan said.
"Unless they saw her somewhere else; when she went to eat or get coffee, or when she gave the press conference." Emily added. Spencer nodded.
"It's all possible. Personally, I think the press conference unintentionally drew our abductor's attention to JJ, it seems the most logical."
"We could gather a list of all the known people who attended the conference, have Garcia run background checks on them all." Rossi suggested.
"I'm sure the precinct has cameras up outside, we could review them. Maybe even see if the buildings across the street have them and review those too so we can cover the whole area." Morgan added.
"I think that would be a good starting point." Hotchner agreed. "Is there anything else Reid?"
"I also considered the different reasons for having a two man team besides the obvious strength in numbers. Maybe they both had an interest in her, maybe one is dominant and one is submissive, or maybe they both work for someone else. I think either of the last two are the most likely."
"I would agree. One man likely wanted her, for whatever purpose, and brought his friend or friends into this to help him reach that end. The way these two appeared to operate would certainly suggest they knew each other pretty well, they weren't strangers." Rossi said.
"But why JJ? She's an FBI agent, that's a hell of a risk." Emily asked.
"Maybe it was more of a rush for them to take someone in such a position of power, to gain that control over her." Morgan suggested.
"Making her leave her belongings behind suggests they wanted her to leave her old life behind for the new life whoever wanted her is looking to provide. I don't think it was done out of remorse or to taunt us." Spencer spoke quietly.
"That would be a pretty strong way of controlling someone, making them start their life over merely for the purpose of the person who abducted them. JJ certainly wouldn't be the easiest candidate either." Emily said.
"It's probably part of his game." Morgan mumbled.
"I agree. JJ's a fighter. But Reid certainly seems to have a strong train of thought on this. I think many of the ideas he has presented are very plausible. Now, we have to find a mistake they have already made. They left something behind, someone had to see them at some point for them to get so close to JJ. We just have to find it." Hotchner said.
"It's like looking for a needle in a haystack." Morgan sighed, leaning back.
"Maybe, maybe not." Hotchner responded inconclusively.
"So where do we go from here?" Emily asked.
"We start by giving Garcia everything we have so she can begin searching. We need to interview Brewer first and foremost, and we should review the tapes. If possible, we also need to re-interview the Suarez family on the off chance they saw anything suspicious." Hotchner directed.
"That's a long way to go for potentially nothing. We already made that mistake yesterday." Morgan reminded.
"Hey, if it helps us find JJ we need to do it." Spencer cut in abruptly.
"Easy, I was just giving my opinion." Morgan put his hand up defensively.
Hotchner sighed, knowing the next part was also going to be met with resistance. Looking to Rossi, he could tell the older man knew what he was thinking. A slight nod from Rossi confirmed that he had the man's support.
"There is one other thing..." Hotchner began, regaining the attention at the table. "We still have the original case to solve…"
"Hotch, JJ has to take priority!" Spencer cut in.
"Reid we can't just abandon the original case either. We will give JJ's case all the focus and attention we can, we will make it as much of a priority as possible, but there is still a slim chance that the two cases could be connected. We can't afford to lose the help from the local police either, which we will if we stop looking for our original unsub."
"But Hotch JJ might not have kind of time." Spencer protested.
"We also can't afford to lose the support of the local community. Not only is the media becoming more invasive and disruptive, but we will look pretty inept if this unsub continues to kill and one of our agents has disappeared. We have to work both cases." He finished.
"What do you propose Hotch?" Emily asked quietly.
"We're going to need to divide up the work. The sooner we finish one case, the more we can focus our efforts on the other."
"You know which case I'm working." Spencer murmured under his breath.
Hotchner shot him another look. He opened his mouth to say something more when Moses rushed into the room.
"We have another child missing. This time the bastard took the mother too." He said with a huff as the team exchanged looks.
"That's something different. Perhaps he is devolving." Rossi spoke.
"Or the mother got in the way or he was startled, giving him no choice but to take both." Emily added.
"Where did he take them from?" Hotchner asked.
"He took them from their own home, she's a single mother." Moses replied.
"He has to be devolving. If he's desperate enough to strike a house he hasn't scouted out before, if he is leaving the public abduction sites behind, and takes that much of a risk, it's the only explanation." Morgan said.
"We need to go to the house and check it out, he had to of made a mistake somewhere. If he is that much out of his element, he'll be rushed and unfocused on minor details." Rossi added.
Hotchner nodded as he met eyes with Moses.
"Rossi, you, Prentiss and I will go to the house. The more eyes we have on this the sooner we can find his mistake."
"I'll go too." Moses spoke up.
"Reid, you will go with Morgan to the hospital to interview Brewer. Morgan will be in charge of asking the questions."
"Hotch…"
"I'm not going to change my mind on this Reid. I don't want you attacking Brewer, intentionally or not. We're all compromised by the current situation, but you more so. I'm just being honest. I'm counting on Morgan to do his best in remaining objective." Hotchner stared at Morgan.
"For now, the two of you will head up the search for JJ. The rest of us will continue with the current case. We need to remain flexible at all costs. The more we work together and don't let emotions get the best of us, the sooner we can all go home hopefully."
The team stood as one from the table. Spencer gathered his notes, shoving them into a folder, and moved for the exit. Morgan went to follow when Hotchner grabbed his arm.
"Watch him Morgan. If he gets out of control you need to tell me about it. I don't want to have to pull him from the case, but I will if it's in everyone's best interest. There's no telling how this might end." He warned.
"I know Hotch, don't worry I got this. I'll keep you up to speed." Morgan replied confidently, turning to go catch Reid.