The Beauty and the Geek
"JJ's still in there?" Garcia asked walking over to me, Emily and Spencer as we looked at Aaron's office
"And Strauss." Emily said and Spencer reached for a bottle of tums, "Oh, again with the dairy?"
"I can't help it. I love dairy." He said and I shook my head smiling
"It was my fault, we went to that new ice cream shop that opened up on main." I told her and she gave me a look but I ignored her and continued watching Aaron's office
"It's been, like, what, 20 minutes?" Garcia asked
"Well, 10 more minutes, we're in the air." Morgan said from behind me
"I don't think it's about the case." I said
"Do you know something?" Garcia asked me
"Do I know something?"
"She just repeated the question. You always say that's a sign." Garcia stated and Morgan looked at me
"Do you know why JJ's in there?" He asked
"I have no idea, just because Aaron's my brother doesn't mean he tells me everything"
"What is going on?" Garcia asked again
"Maybe she asked for a raise." Spencer said and both me and Emily looked at him
"Have his blinds ever been closed?" Garcia asked
Shortly after Strauss left Aaron's office JJ did too, we all started to look away and I saw her walk over to Rossi's office. Aaron came out a few minutes later and walked down the steps towards us and we all grabbed our stuff and followed.
"How long have they been in custody?" Morgan asked him
"60 hours. We have 12 hours to get a confession or find the body."
"Syd Pearson has a lot of money and connections. If we let him go, we may never see him again." Spencer told us
"And Barrett?" Emily asked him
"He doesn't have the same resources."
"Do you think these guys did it?" Garcia asked
"The locals do." Aaron told as we headed out the glass doors
"They tried to get them to turn against one another, but that didn't work." Rossi pointed out
"It seems they have a bond that dates back to childhood." I said
"We only have a 30-minute flight. That's not enough time to delve into their histories." Morgan mentioned
"Bullet points on the missing woman. Second and third pages are all about the suspects." Garcia said handing out papers to us
"Garcia, we're gonna need phone records, credit card receipts, anything you can find." Aaron told her and the elevator opened and we got inside
"Yes, you'll have them when you get back."
Spencer went to the bathroom and JJ came out sitting next to Emily across from me and Morgan.
"Hey." Emily said to her
"Hey." she said and the three of us gave her a look, "I got this offer from the Pentagon. I turned it down twice. I never told Hotch or Strauss."
"And now Strauss wants you to take it." I pointed out
"Well, of course she does. It'll make her look good if you get promoted." Morgan added
"I don't trust her for a second." JJ says
"You shouldn't. What does Hotch think?" Emily asked her and Spencer came back out of the bathroom.
"He knows I don't want to go."
"Well, then you won't." Emily defended
"Penelope's pretty freaked out, huh?" JJ asked
"You have to ask?" I said
"Ok, let's review." Aaron said as him and Rossi walked over to us
"Ok. Kate Joyce, 19 years old, was last seen leaving a bar with these two men, Sydney Pearson and James Barrett, both 20 years old. She was reported missing the next morning when she didn't meet her friends. That was almost 3 days ago." JJ informed us
"Their story is they dropped Kate at the motel, but there were no cameras to confirm that." Rossi adds
"And search and rescue's been all over the island." Aaron said
"Dragged the inlet and they found absolutely nothing." Spencer tells us
"Both said they had sex with Kate. They're claiming it was consensual." JJ said
"There's no way to confirm. There's no body." I pointed out
"I doubt it was consensual." Morgan uttered
"We've got to prove they're guilty of more than just being seen with her." Rossi told us
"Well, the police weren't able to find any holes in their stories. We're gonna have to break them down psychologically." Morgan interjected
"Morgan, I want you and Prentiss to lead the interrogation. Dave, you, Elizabeth and Reid start at the bar. JJ, Kate Joyce's family is still at the station." Aaron told us
"Still? For 3 days?"
"They never went to the hotel. I want you to stay with them."
"Kate Joyce comes from a stable family. She went to good schools, got good grades, has good friends." Spencer said as we walked down the sidewalk
"Everything points to her being a total sweetheart." Rossi says
"You don't think she is?" I asked him
"I'm sure she is."
"But?" I asked
"She's 19. Everyone agrees-Kate wouldn't leave with those boys."
"But she did." Spencer told him
"Yeah. But why?" Rossi asked and we stopped walking, "Why would this girl, this sweetheart, take such a risk?"
"We don't have many images to go by." Spencer said as we enter the bar
"We saw enough to know what happened. Kate Joyce and her friends moved around a lot." Rossi told him
"The suspects didn't. They waited for her."
"A Sea of opportunity. Why was she drawn to those guys?"
"Well 19 year old girl, at a bar with friends, two boys come up to her and start flirting, any 19 year old girl would have fallen for their charm." I pointed out.
"Speak from experience?" Rossi asked me.
"No, not me, I was more into the guys who weren't a part of the high school popularity clique you know. It was mostly either bad boys, or the book worms, the jocks were always big headed egotistical jerks with their snotty cheerleader girlfriends." I said and Spencer glanced at me.
"What if she knew them?" Spencer asked
"Her friends never said that. She was only here a week." Rossi stated
"I think she trusted them." Spencer said to him
"Why?"
"She may have been testing her boundaries, but she's far too cautious to just go off with total strangers." Spencer speculated
"So she met them before Friday night." Rossi added
"We think Kate was comfortable with these guys." Rossi told JJ as we walked back into the station
"How? Their only other encounter was at the jet ski rental."
"The only documented encounter." Spencer said
"Garcia's running her friends' credit cards, too. They could have met someplace else." Rossi told her and we started walking
"I don't know. She's a smart girl." JJ said
"Well, they're handsome, charming, 19. You remember 19?" Rossi asked her
"She would know better than to be outnumbered."
"What if Pearson promised to dump Jim Barrett?" Emily asked us as we walked over to them
"And, what, Jim retaliated?"
"I could work that theory." Emily said
"When do we get the results?" Aaron asked the detective who walked up to us
"Any minute. So, what if they didn't do it? Then we're back to nothing?"
"One of them knows where Kate is." Aaron told him
"How can you be sure?" The detective asked him
"Because an innocent person doesn't sit quietly for 3 days. They get angry and defensive."
"These guys are going out of their way to appear calm and in control. They've got something to hide." Morgan pointed out
"Then why take the polygraph?"
" 'Cause they're stalling. Serial killers are kings of manipulation." Morgan told him
"Serial killers? Uh, there's only one potential victim."
"Serial killing is a qualitative characteristic. It not just about numbers." Aaron mentioned
"They've assaulted at least one girl before. It was only a matter of time before they did it again." Morgan says
"Barrett's a perfect match for Pearson. His family uprooted from the city, forcing him to adapt to his new surroundings. He's eager to fit in and quick to follow." Emily said
"And Pearson's definitely got the dominant traits. He's loud, he's physical, he's smart, he's charismatic, and he's privileged." Morgan added
"Sounds like a peach." Rossi said sarcastically
"You should talk to him." Aaron told him
"Love to."
"I'll take you to him." The detective said and Rossi, Spencer and I went with him
A few more minutes passed by and we finally got the polygraph results, Morgan walked away with the ones for Syd and I looked at Aaron and I went to the other kids room where Spencer was.
"Can you fix the damn camera, please?!" I hear the kid shout from inside the room and I walked in.
"Sit down." I said and Spencer looked at me as I put the results in front of him then stood behind him, "How'd you pass it?" I asked him.
"They sure know how to run out the clock." The Detective said as me and Emily entered the observation room where Morgan, Rossi and Syd were
"Yeah."
"What have we got?" I asked
"Less than 3 hours." The detective told me
"What do you think?" Aaron asked us
"Well, he's not smart enough to have done this by himself. He's always been a follower." I told him
"Pearson's charming enough to pick up a good girl, but Barrett was just along for the ride." Emily added
"Take a look at the photos." Aaron said and the detective handed Emily the phone and I looked over her shoulder
"Oh, she wasn't interested in Barrett at all." I said looking at the pictures
"But he's the one she met in the morning." Aaron mentioned
"All right. Well, we'll keep pushing. How's it going in there?" I asked him and his phone rings
"I wouldn't be surprised if Morgan turned off the camera in a minute." He said and left the room.
"The storm came through and separated the land. That's what made the inlet." Barrett said to me as I walked around him looking at a pamplet
"Huh. One thing you can trust is the ground beneath you, until one day it all just shifts." I said
"Is that some kind of a metaphor?" He asked me
"You tell me."
"It sounds like you're just trying to make some fancy point. That's all." Barrett said
"Kate's cell phone was left in the car and then later turned up in her room." Morgan told all of us
"How?" The detective asked
"We figure most of the story's true. That's why they never changed it." Aaron told him
"They did drop Kate off at the hotel. Pearson took Barrett home, just like they said. But then because Barrett was rejected, he circled back to punish Kate." I pointed out
"Well, why would she let him in?"
"Because he had this." JJ said holding up Kate's phone
"No sign of a struggle in the room." The detective says
"Barrett lured her outside, maybe drugged her, took her to his boat." Emily tells him
"He was obsessed with the inlet. He knew the traffic patterns there, when the fishermen were coming in and tourist charters were going out." Spencer said
"The blood from the catch attracts hundreds of sharks. It's a feeding frenzy out there that time of night." The detective told us
"We asked him if he killed her. He didn't. Asked where her body is. He doesn't know." I said
"Technically, those aren't lies." Spencer added
"How can you prove this?" The detective asked
"We'll get them to admit it." Aaron told him
"Why is the GPS on your boat missing?" I asked as me JJ and Spencer walked into the room Barrett was in
"It isn't."
"He tossed it after he dumped Kate." JJ said
"Who are you?"
"This. This was your ticket into her room." JJ told him holding up Kate's phone ignoring his question
"Who is she?" Barrett asked Spencer
"You said the inlet's quiet between 4:00 and 5 A. M. That's when you took Kate out, right?" Spencer asked him ignoring the question as well
"You didn't want the search party to find her, so you kept going. And going. You had 6 hours before work. How far did you get? About 75 miles out?" I asked
"A full tank on a single outboard motor will get you 150 miles. At 25 miles per hour, your round trip took just over 6 hours. Which is why you were late for work." Spencer concluded
"Oh, you didn't kill her. You just left her to die." JJ told him, "That's why you asked for a polygraph. You knew you'd pass it."
Barrett taps the table, "I think your time's up." He says and stands up
"Oh, yeah? Well, you took away their daughter, their dignity. You don't get to win. We're going to find her." JJ tells him
"You still think she has a chance, huh?" He asked and JJ walked out of the room, Barrett was about to but Spencer moved over by my and we blocked him
Emily is sitting in her chair, Spencer is sitting partly on his desk, Morgan is standing next to them and I'm sitting on Spencer's desk on the other side of him and Rossi is sitting by Emily when we see Aaron leave the round table room and head into his office shutting the door, we look up and see JJ sit down at the table in the round room.
After a while she walks up to us and we all turn to face her, "No." Emily said and we all stood up
"Wait a minute. I thought Hotch was supposed to-" Morgan started to say but JJ cut him off
"it's above his pay grade. Strauss', too."
"They can just take you away?" Spencer said sounding sad
"So, we do nothing?" I ask
"It's done."
"It can't be that simple." Morgan tells her
"It is."
"This job is hard enough. What are they trying to do, bury us?" Morgan asked looking at us
"You're too good. That's the problem." Emily pointed out
"It's true. You're on everybody's wish list. Our loss is somebody else's gain." Rossi said
They can't just take you away." Spencer said again and JJ walked over and put her hand on his shoulder.
I gathered up my stuff and headed to the elevator seeing Spencer standing there, I put my hand on his shoulder when I walked up to him.
"Are you okay?" I asked him and he shook his head, "Do you want to come over and talk about it?" He looked at me and nodded his head. We get in the elevator and head into the parking garage, as we reached our cars my phone chimes, I look down and it's a message from JJ.
Don't be afraid to tell him, follow your heart. I'll miss you.
I looked at it and smiled then looked at Spencer, I will tell him, just not right now.