Disclaimer: See chapter 1
Macy raised a shaky hand, pointing it at Reid and screamed, "It's him, it's the killer!"
Fletcher's, Reid's and Morgan's mouths dropped open simultaneously. The little girl backed away from the men towards Fletcher and she grasped his hand whispering, "What do we do Fletcher?"
Reid and Morgan had stopped in their tracks believing further advancement would only cause the child more distress. She seemed to trust Fletcher. He'd likely be most able to reach her.
"Macy, Macy listen to me," he turned the girl so she looked in his eyes. "This isn't the killer Macy. This is my guardian, Spencer Reid. He's an FBI agent. He's here trying to find the killer. You remember, he talked to us in assembly the other day. I'll show you." Fletcher reached out his hand to Reid who dug in his pocket for his credentials and handed them to the boy. Fletcher opened the ID and showed it to the girl. "See Macy, there's his picture, he's an FBI agent. He's not a murderer."
Macy took the credentials in her hand, read them and handed them back to Fletcher. "You look just like him and for a moment I thought…" she said to Reid, "but I know you're not, now that I see you close up. Mr. Hay was about six feet tall. You're taller than Mr. Hay and the killer was shorter than him."
"Did you get a good look at his face Macy?" Reid asked.
The girl nodded, "Not a long look, only as long as the lightning lit up the parking lot but there were a few flashes in a row. He had a hoodie on but the wind had blown it off his head so his face was visible. For the time I did see him, I got a good look or as good as I could get through all the rain."
"What happened Macy?" Morgan asked.
The girl looked frightened again. "Macy," Fletcher said, "close your eyes and imagine the images on a movie screen and they're moving in slow motion. That's what I did when I was a witness."
The girl closed her eyes, "Mr. Hay was at his car and turned towards those trees," she pointed to them with her finger without opening her eyes. He's saying something. The man comes up to him and Mr. Hay looks surprised but not scared. The man raises his hand up and there's a knife in it. He stabs Mr. Hay before he has time to react and he keeps stabbing him over and over." Tears ran down the girl's face. "Then he ran away and Mr. Hay was just lying on the ground."
"That's all I can remember." She opened her eyes and the tears came faster. "I just stood there. I couldn't move. It's like my feet were in cement. I know I should have called someone but I couldn't move. It's all my fault isn't it?"
"No, Macy," Morgan said, "it's not your fault. There's nothing you could have done. Mr. Hay was already dead." He crouched down until he was on her level. "Would you be willing to come to the precinct and tell us about it," he asked. "We'll call your mom and dad and they can be there for you, how's that?"
"I…I don't know." She sniffed, her cheeks still wet from her tears. "Can Fletcher come too?"
"Well, I really don't think…" Reid began.
"Sure, I'll go if you want me to Macy," Fletcher interrupted.
"Thanks Fletcher."
"I'll go talk to Mrs. Halliday and let her know what's going on," Morgan said. "Why don't you load the kids into the SUV and call Hotch so he can get hold of Macy's parents?" With that he turned and walked back toward the building.
"Are you okay with that Macy?" Reid asked.
She looked at Fletcher who nodded at her, "Yeah, okay," she replied.
The foursome walked into the conference room some forty minutes later. Fletcher waved a greeting to the team as they entered. "Macy's parents are on the way," JJ told Reid. She bent down to the little girl they had seen on Tim Curtis' computer screen. The small face, dominated by innocent blue eyes that were like saucers, was surrounded by a cascade of auburn curls. "You must be Macy. It's so nice to meet you, I'm JJ."
"Hi," the girl said timidly.
While JJ was talking to Macy, Morgan took the others aside. "We know a little more than we did before," he whispered. "She saw the killer and he apparently looks a lot like Reid. She was really spooked at first when she saw him but once he got close she said it wasn't him. She said Hay was six feet tall and that she could see Reid was taller than that while the killer, she maintains, is shorter. She said she got a good look at him and if she's got anywhere near the same kind of attention to detail that Fletcher has, we might be able to get a good description. She wouldn't come without Fletcher though. She seems to really trust him for some reason."
"I'm sorry about this bud," Reid took Fletcher off to a corner of the room while JJ talked to Macy and Morgan talked to the rest of the team. He was glad to see that the white board was now devoid of the crime scene photos although pictures of the three men were still tacked up.
"It's okay Spencer."
"No, Fletcher, it's not okay. I hate that you seem to be continually drawn into these violent deaths. You're eight and you're already having nightmares. It's not good for you."
"You deal with it every day," the boy countered.
"Yes I do but I don't want it to touch you."
"Spencer, I look at it this way," he extended his arms and shrugged. "If I hadn't seen Muriel Dressler that day, more ladies would have been killed and…" he put up his hand when Spencer was about to speak, "I wouldn't have met you. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me. So, in a way, I guess the day I saw Muriel through my telescope was my lucky day."
Reid felt tears prick at the corners of his eyes. He lips trembled. "You," he said shakily to the boy, "make me a better man."
"And I know when I grow up I'm going to be a better man than I would have been because of you." Fletcher put his arms around Reid's neck and hugged him close. Reid embraced the boy and lifted him into his arms as a lone tear that would not be checked tricked slowly down his cheek.
"Reid," Morgan continued, whispering to the others, "didn't want Fletcher to come. He's worried that there's too much violent death in his life. He wants to protect him."
"He's right," Hotch replied sternly. "As much as we need to question Macy and get the information this little girl has to offer, I don't have to like it."
"Macy!" they heard being shouted loudly. Rick and Shelia Hume stood in the doorway of the conference room and the child ran to them. The couple surrounded her and embraced her warmly.
"Are you okay sweetheart?" Rick asked.
"Yeah, I'm okay daddy." She took his hand leading him into the room. "This is my friend, Fletcher."
"Hi Fletcher, thanks for helping Macy out," the girl's father said. He turned to Hotch, "What happens now?"
"We just want to ask Macy some questions to find out what happened and learn as much as we can about the man who did this. If at any point Macy becomes distressed, we'll stop okay?"
Macy sat on one of the tan tweed swivel chairs, her tiny feet barely dangling over the edge of the seat while Hotch said, "Macy, why don't you tell us what you told agents Morgan and Reid."
Macy recounted what she'd said at the school. Her parents looked shaken by what she'd seen. When she was finished Prentiss, who Hotch had asked to do most of the questioning, inquired, "Macy did you recognize this man?"
"No, I'd never seen him before," she told them.
Well that let out Tim Curtis, didn't it, Reid thought.
"So he was a man you'd never seen before who looked something like Agent Reid?"
"Yes," Macy agreed.
"Do you think if we sat you down with a sketch artist you could describe him?" Prentiss asked.
"I could try but it was raining really hard so it's like I was looking at him through a sheet. It might not be too accurate."
"That's okay Macy." A sketch artist was called in and took Macy and her parents off to another room leaving the team and Fletcher alone.
JJ was looking at the pictures of the victims on the white board. "I always thought Reid looked like a younger version of the victims. Now we find out instead that he looks like the unsub."
"Yeah," Prentiss agreed, "I remember thinking that Reid could have been their younger brother."
"Did Mr. Hay have a younger brother?" Fletcher asked.