Hotch was the next person to walk into the interview room, straightening his tie nervously. This was one of the few times that anyone would see nervousness filling the unit cheif's eyes. Someone was threatening to take away one of his agents and it was up to him to give good answers. The pressure was one and Hotch definintely felt it. "Strauss." He gave her an awkward nod.
"You know the drill." Strauss' face was cold and emotionless as she stared at him. He desperatley tried to profile her and get an edge before questioning started, but all he would tell was that she seemed agnry and annoyed, probably from the two agents she had interviewed earlir. She turned on the recorded and nodded at him.
"SSA Aaron Hotchner, the Behavioral Analysis Unit." Hotch said, calmly. He looked at her, ready for the manipulating questions to come because he knew they would.
"SSA Hotchner, when you found out Agent Jureau's family was in danger, what did you do?"
"We immediately got on a plane to warn her family. It was a dangerous situation, what else were we supposed to do?" Hotch asked, turning the question back on her.
"Did you call SWAT to come and evacuate Agent Jureau's family?"
"It was more efficient to just call Detective LaMontagne and warn him to get out of his house." Hotch explained to her, "It wasn't a threat to large amount of people either, so technically SWAT wasn't necessary at all."
"Who made that decision?"
"I did." Hotch wasn't sure at all if he actually had, but he was the cheif so he would take the fall for all the bad desicions that were made.
"Based on what? Was it because you knew the family personally?"
"No."
"Were you emotionally compromised by Agent Jureau's involvement in the case?" There it was, the start to the long chain of manipulating questions that were to come.
"You make it sound like Agent Jureau chose to be involved in this case. Her sister died, Erin and it's not her fault that someone chose to kill Sarah Jureau. You need to understand that." Hotch said, getting a little hot-headed now. He didn't know why he was so defensive over JJ...he would have done it for anyone on their team, but especially for her...just because she was JJ and she held the team together.
"That's not an answer to my question."
"No, I wasn't emotionally compromised by Agent Jureau's situation."
"Are you aware of the protocol that is supposed to be taken in a situation like this?"
"Yes." Hotch said, sighing. "I am."
"Then why didn't you follow it?"
"We had to help JJ. In the field it's much different then it seems when it's written on a piece of paper." Hotch's eyes drifted up from the papers on the table to glare at her.
Strauss sighed and nodded. "That's enough Agent Hotchner, Agent Rossi is next."
Hotch nodded and stood up, walking out in silence. He had nothing left to say to Strauss before he left. When he walked out his eyes rested on Rossi who was sitting in a chair near the door, sipping out of a coffee mug. "Your turn." Hotch said, "Good luck."
Rossi wasted no time to walk in the room because he knew how edgy Strauss could get about time. He sat down and made himself comfortable, a smile playing on his lips. "We meet again." He said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Name, rank and unit please." Strauss said, ignoring his comment. Once again, as if it were a routine, she turned on the recorder.
Rossi sat forward, "SSA David Rossi, the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit." He looked up at her.
"Agent Rossi, are you close to Jennifer Jureau?"
"Yes. We're like family." Rossi said, "We all are." He added, shrugging as if it were a casual subject.
"Do you think that this case was hard on her?" Strauss asked, inquisitively.
"Yes, I imagine that this case would have been hard on her." Rossi said, staring at her. He couldn't help but wonder where she was going with this topic.
"Do you believe that she should have been working on this case even though she was involved in it?" Now he knew.
"Yes, without her we would have never solved it." Rossi answered, faithfully.
"But she was emotional, making her incapable of making rational decisions."
"Have you ever lost anyone?" Rossi asked her, raising an eyebrow.
Strauss nodded her head. "My mother…I hope you're going somewhere with this Agent Rossi."
"I'm sure that was hard on you, but can you imagine losing someone to suicide and not even knowing that they were depressed at all?" Rossi asked her, "It's devastating. I can see how that could make a family feel like they never even knew them at all."
Strauss sighed, "That still doesn't mean she was capable of working in this state."
"And then to find out that they made a mistake and that she was murdered, that's even worse than suicide. If I had to pick one word to describe Agent Jureau during this past week I would say collected, responsible and dependable. She kept herself composed for the job and never once let her emotions get in the way of her job." Rossi said, passionately. He really believed what he was saying.
Strauss stared at him. "If that was the truth she wouldn't have gone off by herself. She would have stayed with her team to finish the case. That's what got her injured and almost got her family and another agent killed. It was extremely irresponsible on her part." She said, eyeing him.
"She was grieving; it wasn't her fault that a man that she trusted turned out to be a killer. It was just an unfortunate coincidence." Rossi countered, trying to stay in the argument.
"That could have been prevented!" Strauss slammed her hand on the table.
Rossi sat back and shook his head, sighing heavily. He realized that none of his opinions would matter; Strauss was contradicting everything he was saying.
"Tell Dr. Reid to come in next, please." Strauss said, simultaneously turning off the recorder.
Reid looked back at JJ just before he went in the room. She was looking out the window; her blue eyes were big with concern. He knew she was worried about losing her job, but he wouldn't let that happen. He had prevented it with Hotch and he would prevent it with her. Confidence beamed inside of him as he walked into the room.
"Hello Dr. Reid." Strauss said to him, nodding.
Reid just sat down, not saying anything in response to her greeting. He was here to get down to business, nothing was going to get in his way.
"Okay then..." Strauss said, awkwardly when he didn't replay. "Let's get started. Name, rank, and unit please." She told him, glancing down at her papers for a second.
"Dr. Spencer Reid, the Behavioral-"
"Not yet, I have to turn the recorder on first." Strauss told him, eyes cold. When she said this Reid felt his confidence start to fade because he could tell that she was already annoyed with him. She was boss and she had complete control over him.
"Now go." Strauss told him after pressing the record button on the recorder. A red light started to blink and Reid nodded, gulped and started again.
"Um…Dr. Spencer Reid, the Behavioral Analysis Unit." Reid said into the recorder, trying to at least sound more confident than he felt.
"Dr. Reid I understand that you have an eidetic memory?" Strauss asked, staring at him.
"Yes ma'am." Reid responded, calmly.
"Then why don't you tell me what happened. Start from the beginning, who chose who went where?" Strauss asked, even though she already knew the answer. She was trying to build up to the real question.
"Hotch, well Agent Hotchner." Reid said, "He told Emily and Morgan to go to the church, while he, Agent Jureau and Agent Rossi went to observe the victim's houses and families. TA Garcia and I stayed at the station to try and work the case."
"And who told Agent Jureau that she could go off by herself?"
"It's not like she went to go drinking or bar-hopping, she was grieving so she went to go visit a friend of hers. Is that really so bad?" Reid asked, the question rubbed him the wrong way. She was wording it like JJ had done something irresponsible.
"I'm asking the questions here, Dr. Reid."
"Well fine, but if you're going to keep trying to corner me into giving you the answer you want to hear I'm not going to answer at all." Reid retorted, glaring at her.
"What put Agent Jureau in danger? The Angel of Death profile you released says that they are very submissive and don't become violent unless provoked."
"Well she was connected to the reason that her sister was "saved" in the first place so in his mind he probably felt the need to get rid of the thing that had caused her sister to be so annoyed and upset all the time. I don't really know though, I wasn't there." Reid shrugged. "I'd imagine that's what happened."
"So you're saying that because of her connection to the case, she was attacked?"
"If you want to word it like that, then yes." Reid said, staring at her. He saw the blinking red light from the recorder out of the corner of his eye.
"Mmmmhmmm….What put her family in danger?"
"Raisman knew she had caused her sister's so called "misery" and so he figured that her family was just as "miserable" because of her so they had to be saved." Reid told her truthfully. The blinking of the recorder was starting to agitate him.
"So again, her connection to the case put her family in danger too?"
"Ummm….yes…" Reid said, hesitantly. He knew right then that what he was saying would get JJ in trouble. He hadn't realized it until she started talking about connections. He hoped he hadn't said enough to get her fired. He turned his head to look at the recorder's light. It was blinking every three seconds, he couldn't focus.
"Would you describe her as upset or maybe distressed during this case?"
"Towards the beginning, yes but once we started up on it she got more and more determined until she was back to her old, passionate self."
"Interesting, so she was upset during this case?" Strauss asked, cornering him again.
Reid crossed his arms across his chest and gave her a bitter stare. He wasn't going to answer that, she knew what she was doing and he wasn't going to give in that easy. He glanced at the recorder again and fidgeted, still very bothered by the blinking.
"Are you going to answer?"
"No."
"Then I'm assuming that you're trying to keep your friend from losing her job, but are you aware of all the protocol she broke? Sure her sister was killed, but there are still rules you have to follow!" Strauss exclaimed, annoyed by his stubbornness.
Reid shut his eyes, the blinking red light plus her provoking and flat out ignorance about the case just made him infuriated. "Shut up!" He yelled at her, standing up. "You have no right to say that. You don't know what she was going through. She's so innocent and she lost someone really close to her. You're trying to make her seem like a monster, but the only real monster here is you." He walked out, slamming the door behind him and storming past JJ and Hotch. Strauss turned off the recorder and sighed. Would they ever learn?
Strauss opened the door and poked her head out. "Agent Jureau, you're up." She said, looking at JJ.
"Wish me luck." JJ said, giving Hotch an unenthusiastic smile.
"Mind over matter JJ, remember that. Don't let it get to you." Hotch looked at her. "You can do this."
"Agent Jureau!" Strauss called at her, harshly. "We don't have all night!"
JJ through the doorway and glanced at Strauss who was looking down at the case file. She sat down, gently careful not to put too much pressure on her leg.
Strauss didn't look at JJ. She was trying to intimidate her by not looking her in the eyes yet. Even though JJ knew what she was doing she couldn't help being slightly intimidated. "Name, rank and unit." She turned the recorder on and started looking through the file again, trying to seem uninterested.
"Supervisory Special Agent Jennifer Jureau of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit." JJ said, staring straight at Strauss. She didn't leave anything out, she wanted to sound put together and professional.
"Agent Jureau, you chose this case. Am I correct?" Strauss asked, now looking straight at her with a ruthless stare.
"Yes ma'am." JJ answered, unfazed by her death stare. She sat there, staring straight back at her. If she let herself be intimidated then she would fall apart.
"And what made you choose this case? There are plenty of other cases in the country that could have used our help, yet you picked the one about your family. Why?" Strauss questioned, pacing back and forth. She stopped in place and looked at JJ when she finished the question.
"Well, first of all there were no other units on the case and they had no leads. It also had the most victims."
"Did you finish going through all the case files before you chose this case?"
"Well no, but-"
"There are killings going on Michigan. A serial killer; they named him "The Exterminator" already because he poisons victims with bug-killing gasses in their sleep. There have been 15 victims in that case, but you still picked your sister's case anyway."
"An FBI Agent came and briefed me so I thought the decision was already made."
"Well you thought wrong." Strauss snapped, "Why did you really pick this case?"
"To help the community."
"AGENT JUREAU. Your sister was murdered while you were in the house and you thought she committed suicide. How could you think that? You're supposed to know her! A real sister would know if her own sister was suicidal or not. You never really knew her. All this time thinking she was hiding things from you, you needed clarification."
JJ paused, hurt by her comment. How could she just bring up her sister like that? Did Strauss even have a heart at all? "I-I wanted to help the families and the Police Department."
"DON'T LIE TO ME. You're sister is dead Agent Jureau! She's dead!" Strauss provoked.
"I WANTED ANSWERS! Okay? I needed closure, but it wasn't the only reason I chose this case. I chose it for the other reasons too." JJ said, sighing. She knew she had just lost the fight and so did Strauss.
"Okay, moving on…" Strauss paused, trying to think of more questions. "Why did you go off by yourself while on duty?"
"I just needed like an hour to visit a "friend" and catch up? Is that a crime?" JJ asked, getting angry at Strauss. The things she had said about her sister were really making her mad. Strauss had no right to take this interview to that level.
"No, but it's against protocol. Why was your phone off?" Strauss asked her.
"Like I said, I was only gonna be gone for an hour, so I just turned it off and left it in the car because it was dying and I wanted to save the battery for later." JJ explained, giving her a fierce look.
"Also against protocol. What did you do when you found out Raisman was the unsub?"
"I tried to be discreet and say I had a Press Conference, but he knew. When I stood up he grabbed me from behind and we fought. He was bigger than me though and tied me up, that's when he called Hotch and took me to the warehouse." JJ sighed, not really wanting to talk about this.
"Are you aware that because of you, your family and another FBI Agent were put in danger?" Strauss asked, glowering at her.
"Yes I am…I didn't mean to do any of that, how was I supposed to prevent it?" JJ snapped back at her.
"FOLLOW PROTOCOL!" Strauss yelled.
JJ ignored her yelling. "Next question, please." She said, with a fierce attitude in her voice. Any more yelling and JJ would snap.
"No Agent Jureau. You're done, you can leave." Strauss said, rudely. If the recorder hadn't been on she would have just flat out told JJ to get the hell out of her office, but that could have gotten Strauss into trouble with the board who would be reviewing these tapes later.
"Fine, but let me leave you with this: If you had been me, would you have done anything different? This is my family we're talking about. What if your sister had "committed suicide" and then it turned out to be murder? I guarantee that you would do the same thing." JJ paused and stood up, not taking her eyes off of Strauss."And no matter what I do honor my FBI oath and like it says I will always well and faithfully discharge the duties of my offices. So help me God." JJ turned around and walked out.