Chapter 13

In which the BAU get settled in Vegas, JJ and Emily sift through a myriad of missing persons cases and the squinterns favour coffee and gossip over work.

Agent Conrad hadn't been on the case for long, but she was organised. They had to give her that; the conference room that would be their base while in Vegas had some of the most impeccably ordered evidence boards that they had ever seen.

There was a Vegas detective waiting for them when they arrived. Hotch delegated Rossi and JJ to interview him. Conrad explained that he was the detective assigned to the case back in 1986 when he was fresh out the academy, and they'd gotten lucky that he hadn't moved on. It hopefully would make things easier. Conrad seemed optimistic, but Hotch knew that it was unlikely to help given how messy this entire business was.

Within the five other missings which might be linked, all of which were male, they'd got a couple of suspects. Friendships gone bad, guys with assault records who were seen near them before their disappearance, one even had an ex-girlfriend lined up as a suspect before the police had dismissed her when they realised she was five foot nothing and probably not capable of taking the fellow down. Hotch thought they could probably strike her off the list as well. She might have taken down one ex-boyfriend in a fit of rage, but a string of men? She'd have switched to easier targets.

Aside from the fact that everyone they'd conclusively linked to the Gormogon case was male. Though they continued to defy expectations, the BAU thought it unlikely they would find women involved.

At this point they'd usually broken off to visit the crime scene and the medical examiner. Being together in the bureau office was unnerving.

Conrad hadn't got the five missing persons Garcia had found whilst they were on the jet, so Morgan and Emily got to work pinning those up. Wendell and Reid both sank into chairs, Wendell feeling slightly useless until a body turned up.

"Reid, Wendell, geographic profile. See if you can find a comfort zone," Hotch said. "There's got to be something hidden in the city, we've just got to find it."

Reid and Wendell gave him identical looks of distress. Neither of them thought they had enough for a geographic profile, but they looked at each other and decided that at least it would keep them entertained.

"You think there's something hidden here like in D.C.?" Conrad asked.

"Yes," Hotch answered.

Everyone busied themselves whilst they waited for Rossi and JJ to return. They were hoping they'd get a lead from the old detective. Morgan spotted them through the door, and got to the question first. "Anything?"

"Not really," JJ said.

"The Detective had no viable suspects for Chester's disappearance," Rossi said. "He was just a rookie, they all thought Chester had just wandered off and would be back within a week, everyone except her friend. Father dead, Mum was pretty much out the picture."

"The case only got any attention because Louise's friend, Tessa James, kept on at the media with it, and probably because both she and Louise were pretty," JJ added.

"Have we tracked Tessa down?" Emily asked.

"Local PD are trying, no luck so far; we think she's moved out the area," Conrad said.

"By the second week mark people were starting to get worried, the press was ramping it up, and then Tessa got the note saying she'd never see her friend again. And rather predictably the media circus exploded," Rossi said.

"But even despite that, no trace of her was ever found, and Tessa disappeared off the news fairly quickly when she realised she was a potential target," JJ said.

"I don't blame her," Emily said.

-x-

"Garcia, how's it going?" Emily said. Morgan was currently embroiled in some debate with local PD.

"I've got forty missing persons in Detroit. Forty which might match. I'll send you the files over, but I know the priority is on Vegas for now," Garcia said. "In good news though, the Jeffersonian are making progress matching victims on the original skeletons."

"Have they got anything useful?" Emily asked.

"Still waiting on it to come through, I was going to call them after I got an update from you, but I think if anything shocking had happened they'd have called me or you guys," Garcia said. "I know the DNA's gone off to the Quantico labs though, but most of the files I've found don't have any attached, and some of these cases are old."

"I know, and it won't do us much use at the moment," Emily said. "I've got a name for you to track, Tessa James, she was Louise Chester's friend and the locals are trying to track her down but they aren't having much luck, any chance you can work some magic?"

"Oh just watch me," Garcia said, and Emily could hear the rapid typing. "Let's see, she moved out of Vegas in '87 to Helena, Montana where she falls off the grid, probably paying in cash and the way of small town life, and then her social security resurfaces in Norfolk, Virginia for a grand total of two months in 1991—"

"Something more recent Garcia, we need a current location," Emily prompted.

"I haven't got one yet Em dear, I'm working on it. I can tell you one thing though. She's not dead because she'd be a heck of a lot easier to find."

"Call me when you've got something Garcia," Emily said back. "Is there anything else?"

"Nothing case pertinent, but tell me how's Reid acting?" Garcia asked.

Emily glanced back into the conference room, where Reid was pulling a face, scratching his head while he and Wendell looked at a map. "Slightly distracted and he was odd on the jet," she said back. "Why?"

"Well Zack isn't actually letting me in on the full story but Em something happened between them last night. I've gotten that much out of him," Garcia said. "I was just wondering if there was anything up with Reid that would help work out exactly what happened."

"Sorry Garcia, I've got nothing. The moment I do you'll be the first to know," Emily said.

"The same to you m'dear," Garcia returned, and Emily ended the call.

-x-

Rossi had taken the list of suspects in the other five cases, and with Conrad was contacting previous Detectives and tracking down current whereabouts. Conrad's organisational skills helped, and she was tactful dealing with local officers. They had left the field office to go out, hoping that they'd find something else that would help.

JJ and Emily were attempting to help Garcia out by running through missing persons' cases manually; Conrad had pulled some and had asked around for officers to forward anything they thought might be connected, and had produced a nice stack of files. There were even a couple from across the state lines into California and Arizona.

Wendell and Reid hadn't got anywhere with the geographic profile; it was stuck on the wall, a vague set of shaded circles across Las Vegas, nothing that helped them narrow it down. Wendell had been on the phone to Hodgins at one point, asking if he knew of anything in Vegas with masonic links, and had got a barrage of casino conspiracy back, but nothing useful. Reid was having trouble looking past his links with the city of his birth to dissect it the way the Gormogons would.

Hotch floated, looking through everything; the preliminary profiles that Morgan and Emily had cooked up back at the Jeffersonian, the letters, missing persons, and how it concerned him that they hadn't found anyone yet abducted after 1995.

"Prentiss, JJ, is there anything in the reports Conrad found?" Hotch asked, walking over to them.

"I've got three in Las Vegas which might go somewhere, two of them are pre-85 which is why Garcia didn't drag them up," Emily said, sliding the files over to Hotch, who glanced at them.

Hotch agreed with Emily. Statements from mothers about absent fathers, no reasons for disappearance, no leads; perfect victims.

"I've got two over the border in California, there was a young man who went missing of the I-15 and then four weeks later a forty year old man vanished without a trace in Baker, it's eighty miles from Vegas," JJ said.

That raised Hotch's attention. It wasn't that far out but they'd never seen any of the Gormogons travel great lengths to abduct victims. There was no need, with Vegas's 600,000 permanent residents in addition to all the tourist traffic. "When?"

"1980," JJ said.

"We've got missing persons going back that far?" Reid asked from across the room; he'd heard the conversation.

"I don't know what Conrad said to someone, but she's got people looking. Across state lines even," Emily said.

"She's got potential," JJ added.

"I'm beginning to suspect she wasn't handed this case by chance," Hotch said. "I'll ask Strauss. Did the locals suspect anyone?"

JJ consulted the file. "No one in the highway abduction, not that that's odd. Oscar Stewart though, our missing guy from Baker, there were a couple of people who reported seeing a slightly shady, strange man in town. Police couldn't track him."

"Any more of a description than shady?" Hotch asked.

JJ flipped a couple of pages deeper into the file. "White, late twenties, male, short brown hair, not local," she read off. "Oh, he was driving a car with Arizona plates."

"Wait," Emily said, reaching for one of the files she handed Hotch. "1982. Vegas. Thirty-three year old Hector Reames was walking home one night and never arrived. Only thing anyone reported was someone matching JJ's description and an odd car with Arizona plates hanging around."

"Anyone get a plate?"

Emily looked back down at Hotch's request. "No. And that description's so vague no wonder no one ever found him."

"It might help later when we're narrowing down lists," Hotch said. He speed-dialled Garcia. "Garcia, can you get me something?"

"Depends on what you would like sir, I am currently up to my head in missing person files and the Jeffersonian contingent is now arguing with forensics about goodness knows what. I don't care, and somehow everyone expects me to be the go between."

"Garcia," Hotch said, firmly. "When you have time, I'd like you to see if you can get a list of males in their twenties who moved from Arizona to Las Vegas possibly via California in the early 1980s."

"Sir, I don't have to remind you that that is vague and difficult to get records going back that far and—"

"Just get me what you can," Hotch added. "Also any missing persons from that time period in the tri-state areas involving a white male in his thirties."

"Did you not hear what I said I am drowning in missing cases, there are thousands, if I have to look at one more," Garcia ranted.

Hotch checked his watch, calculating the three hour time difference. "Anything you can, Garcia. Don't stay too late, tomorrow will probably worse."

There was a scuffling sound on the other end of the line, probably Garcia checking the time, and then a quick, "Of course sir" in response before she hung up.

Hotch looked at his team.

They were all tired, and probably in need of food. They'd have to get an order from somewhere, and another round of coffee. Having spoken to JJ and Emily, he turned his attention to Wendell and Reid. "How's the geographic profile going?"

They both looked blank in response.

-x-

Back at the Jeffersonian, progress was slow. Brennan was pulling together pieces, but her insistence of double and triple checking all the squinterns' work was impeding them. Cam supposed no one wanted a repeat of what happened last time.

Hodgins hadn't been able to pull any particulates from the bones. He floated around impatiently, getting in the way a fair bit while waiting for something fresh from Vegas. Booth had a similar disposition, hovering between checking over Brennan and on the phone to headquarters attempting to get more agents assigned to the case; Cam guessed from the angry yelling she could occasionally hear on the phone he wasn't having much luck.

She could see it from the perspective of the higher ups though. With two of the best teams in the country on the case, other cases weren't being solved. As far as they were concerned they'd put the country's best resources into the case, and now they just needed to wait for results.

Angela had buried herself away in her office. Cam thought that she was probably assisting Garcia with the nationwide missing persons search. It was that or the two were busy debating Reid and Zack's love life again.

As Cam looked around her lab, she noticed that all the interns had disappeared, apart from Finn, who was still up on the platform being tortured by Brennan. Usually when they disappeared they vanished up to the mezzanine, but a glance upwards showed that they weren't there. Cam didn't know where they'd gone.

It was Fisher who'd first slipped off to the bone room, trying to get some peace and quiet, and then Clark Edison who was fed up of the constant tension on the platform had also escaped. He'd brought some of the files with him and pinned up x-rays onto the boards so that if Cam came in they could at least attempt to claim they were working.

Daisy joined then, smiles and cheer and chatter, and with that Clark admitted defeat on the pretence of working. It was impossible to work with Daisy around, and anyone who managed it was a miracle worker.

They called Arastoo, who had the morning off seeing as he'd been sorting out yesterday, and asked him to bring in a coffee order. The Jeffersonian coffee machine was adequate, but the interns were all aware that Arastoo's route to the Jeffersonian passed one of the best little coffee shops in the city. And what was the point of them knowing each other's coffee orders if they never made use of it?

"So, what's he like?" Daisy started on Arastoo as soon as he walked through the door with the coffee.

Clark and Fisher both glared at Daisy, gladly accepting the coffee Arastoo offered. "Afternoon to you too, Daisy," Arastoo said as he handed her the last cup.

"Oh come on Arastoo you know who I'm on about," Daisy said.

"Daisy, not everyone has the power to read your mind," Arastoo said.

Clark, in the background, thought it fairly certain that no one had the power to read Daisy's mind.

"Zack Addy," Daisy said, high pitched as always. "Brennan's old assistant. Assistant to a serial killer. You met him yesterday. I heard Cam and Angela talking about it so what is he like?" The last few words were more deliberate.

Arastoo looked to Clark for help but none came. "He's—" Arastoo wondered about just how to describe Zack. "He's quite normal really. By the standards here. I only met him very briefly and he was knocked out for most of it. Clark, didn't you know him before—"

Daisy jumped in. "Oh yeah you were interviewed to be Dr. Brennan's assistant ages before she hired any of the rest of us."

Clark sighed. "I had two encounters with him. One when he came back and that put an end to any chance I had of getting that job, Brennan wouldn't have anyone else, and the second when Brennan's father was on trial for murder. Neither of them were what you might call buddy-buddy."

"Oh come on someone must know something more about him." Daisy paused. "Do you think after all of this is over she'll hire him back?" Daisy looked worried.

Fisher, who was slumped over the table where the bones usually sat, staring at his coffee cup, murmured "well if it would get rid of you I'd be all for it."

Daisy barely heard it, but still shot Fisher a dirty look. Arastoo took over. "I don't think so Daisy, he's been out for a year now and he only comes back here when Cam asks."

"If you really want to know about him ask Wendell, he's the only one who's really spent any time with the guy," Clark said. "Or hey, how about Sweets, you know, who was his psychologist for three years?"

Daisy pouted, though she had to admit defeat. Fisher slammed his head down into the table. Arastoo and Clark both wondered what excuse they'd need to get out of this.

Hopefully Cam would roll up and want them to do some work. That would be adequate distraction.