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Reid entered the room with a file in his hands. "I just spoke with the crime lab. They rushed the ballistics test on the bullet that killed Michael Alan and the bullet removed from Detective O'Malley. The striations match, but since we don't have a weapon to match, it's going to be difficult to find the shooter.
Twenty-four hours had passed since someone had killed Detective O'Malley and the hits kept coming from evidence collection and the autopsy.
Tara and Rossi joined them in the conference room as Simmons and Luke hurried in behind them. "Afraid we have bad news as well," Matt said. "We think we found the sniper's nest on the roof of the building across the street. There's evidence of scratching on the top of the concrete wall that looks like they came from a rifle, but other than that we've got nothing. He policed his brass, and so far, no hair, or fibers. We might have a partial boot print, but the tread isn't complete.
"Stay on it, Luke," Emily said. "I'll take anything you can give me."
Luke nodded. "You got it."
"We talked to Mr. Alan's family and nothing," Tara said. "They claim they don't understand why or how Michael came to be a mole for the Capello family.
"If you want my opinion, they're either frightened of someone paid them off."
"Let's have Garcia take a look into their bank accounts."
"Already on it," Tara said.
"In the meantime, let's give the profile. We've already seen the fallout of O'Malley's shooting. There're cops out there that are out for blood. We need to make sure they focus on something productive."
"I agree," Rossi said as JJ entered the room.
"I dusted off my media liaison skills and talked to the crowd of reporters out there. They weren't happy that you," she indicated to Emily, "weren't there. They asked the usual impertinent questions. I must admit that I'm impressed with Captain Stone. He might be more interested in politics, but he put a couple of reporters in their place with a few well-chosen words."
"Good. Let's try to keep a lid on the details as long as we can."
"Agreed."
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"The man we're looking for is meticulous, intelligent and unafraid of police interference. The kidnapping of a child belonging to a crime figure, and to an FBI agent was incredibly risky. It took planning, which means he's not a young man. He doesn't have a full-time job but may work from home."
"Are you saying that we're not looking for Charles Capello?"
Emily turned her eyes on the dark-haired officer standing to her right. "We're simply keeping all possibilities in mind. We know that Charles Capello doesn't have the skills to pull off the shot that killed Detective O'Malley.
"A precision shot like that takes special training, either police or military," Rossi added.
"Are you saying that one of us took out Detective O'Malley," said a cop in the back of the room.
Murmurs and protests erupted in the room. Emily shouted over them. "We're not accusing anyone," Emily said. "The point of profiling is to keep all angles open. We don't make accusations toward a specific individual until we have compelling evidence."
"You should listen to them," SSA Blue pointed out. "I used to be one of you. Do you think I'd accuse without proof, a fellow NYPD officer?"
Some of the police glanced at each other with eyes that indicated they didn't believe her, but they stopped protesting and settled into a silence that seemed to weigh on the room like a cloud filled with poisonous rain.
"The best way to rule out the police is to do your job," Emily said. "We know you all want the person caught who killed Detective O'Malley."
"Why?"
Emily turned her eyes on a police officer at the right of the room. "Everyone knows he was dirty. It was all over the news. I ain't risking my life for a dirty cop."
"You believe the news, Fitzgerald." Said a female cop at the front of the room. "Just the other day, you said they were a bunch of lying bast-"
"Enough," Captain Stone entered the room with a scowl and eyes that blazed like the sun at high noon. "Whether or not Detective O'Malley was dirty isn't your priority. Your priority is to catch that son of a bitch Capello and find SSA Blue's son, alive. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir," they said in unison, but discontent lived in most of their faces, and it made Emily sigh.
"I'm sorry about that," Captain Stone said. "They need a lesson in discipline, Chief Prentiss.
Emily almost smiled at his use of her title, but then she sobered as they went back to the conference room. "I appreciate that, sir, but in a way, your men and women are right. We need to end this as soon as possible."
"I agree, which is why I'm fully on board with your plan to use SSA Blue to flush out this kidnapper."
Emily nodded, and they parted in the doorway. "Do we have the word out?" she asked Luke and Matt.
"Yes, but no bites yet."
SSA Blue paced around the room, her eyes cast down and her shoulders hunched. Reid watched her as she moved among them, but he stayed quiet. He recognized her stance and the expression on her face. He tried to think of something to say to her, but the words wouldn't come.
"Agent Prentiss?"
Emily looked up to see Detective Montoya in the doorway. "There's someone here to see SSA Blue."
"Who it is," Georgia asked before Emily could reply.
"Captain Marshall."
Georgia narrowed her eyebrows in surprise. "Larry Marshall. What's he doing here."
Detective Montoya shrugged. "Don't know. He said he needed to talk with you and the feds."
"George," boomed Larry from the doorway. He filled the space like a brown bear standing on hind legs.
"What are you doing here?" Georgia hissed.
"I'm here because I may have a lead on our kidnapper."
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"Let me get this straight," Emily interrupted after the team, Detective Montoya, former NYPD Captain Lawrence Marshall, and SSA Blue had taken their places around the table. "You're saying you know where we can find Andy?"
"Yes. I'm retired, but I still have my contacts and snitches. George," he addressed his former subordinate. "You remember Sonny the Star Gazer."
Despite her surprise and some trepidation, Georgia laughed. "Do I? He still around. He must be three hundred years old."
Larry grinned, and his wide smile made Tara narrow her eyes. "Give or take a couple of years. Yeah, he's still around and still sleeping over a grate in South Brooklyn."
"What's he got to do with this?"
"He looked me up yesterday and told me he was hunting for invaders in the warehouse district."
"Excuse me, invaders," Rossi asked.
"Sonny's former military. He was in the tail end of Vietnam, spent a year in a prison camp. He came home thinking the Chinese were aliens in disguise. He's been wandering the streets, drinking when he can get it and preaching about aliens when he can't. Someone took to calling him Star Gazer as a homage to Luke Skywalker, and it stuck. Cops and therapists have been trying to help him for years, but he won't stick in shelters or hospitals. He's my best informant. He found me an hour ago and said he had info, but he won't talk without George there."
"Why me? I barely know him."
"He said he owed David."
Georgia's lips tightened, and her face paled. "Why? What does Pop have to do with all of this? He's dead, remember."
The BAU team looked at each other, except for Reid who watched Georgia with something in his face that made Emily begin to rethink her decision to keep him on the case.
Larry shrugged. "Sonny started as a snitch for David, remember. Then I sort of inherited when your Dad was promoted to Captain.
"All right, I'll go."
"Wait," JJ held up a hand. "We can't let her go out there alone."
"She won't be alone," Larry said, and his expression bored into JJ, who stared back at him with unwavering eyes.
"Do you trust him," Emily asked.
"No reason not to. Sonny's provided me with many a hot tip over the years."
"I want to do it," Georgia said.
"We don't know what this Sonny will say," Reid spoke up, and he kept his gaze on her even when she blistered him with her eyes.
"I don't think it's a good idea," Rossi put in.
"Andy's my son. I'll go with or without your permission."
"SSA Blue –"
Georgia turned to Emily. "Please don't tell me I can't follow up this lead, Emily. I need to do this for my son."
Emily looked at Rossi who shrugged and then at Reid who didn't respond except to bite his bottom lip. "I'll let you go if you take SSA Reid with you."
"Emily," JJ began.
"No, they're right. We need to follow the lead."
"Then, let's go," Larry said as he stood.
"I'll be right behind you as soon as we've all put on vests."
"He'll see them," Larry countered.
"Not if we don them under our clothing."
"Reid is right," Emily said. "It's vests or this whole operation is off."
Emily stopped Reid as he was about to follow Larry and Georgia out of the room. "I'll ask Garcia to track you, and we'll follow from a distance."
"I'm counting on it."
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Larry pulled his dark red SUV to the curb and parked. The sun had dropped below the horizon, and another cold wind picked up as night began its dominance over the world. Reid left the truck and followed Georgia and Larry into a rundown storefront that looked like it hadn't seen use in a hundred years. The walls were lined with shelves, covered in inches of dust and cobwebs hung in corners and from the broken lights over their heads.
They all switched on flashlights, and the beams illuminated a shattered mirror at the end of the room, and clothing that hung in tatters from hangers that sagged from clothing racks.
"Why here?" Georgia hissed under her breath.
"All I know is that we're supposed to meet him here at 6:30 p.m. He was very specific about the time."
"Wait," Georgia turned to Larry, her flashlight brightening the area around his legs. "I just remembered that Sonny never talked to anyone but you. He was paranoid, but not stupid. Why change now?"
Reid heard a gun cocking and wrenched up the beam of his flashlight to see Larry with his gun pointing at him A revolver, just like his own service weapon. "I should've known you'd remember that little detail, George. Your father taught you well."
"Larry, what the hell?"
"Come on, don't play stupid now," Larry said as he began to walk toward Reid slowly.
"It's you," Georgia spat out and her hand went to her gun.
"Stop, or I'll shoot your new friend where he stands."
"Larry," Reid said as he raised his gun. "You know my team is tracking me. You won't leave here alive if you don't drop the gun now."
"Oh, I think I will. I have what I came for." Larry assured Reid as he fired at Spencer from point blank range.