Sorry to make you guys wait, but this one is up! It ran a little longer than I planned, therefore there will probably be two more chapters. Thanks EVER so much for the reviews, and keep them coming! It makes me feel so loved. As always, please let me know what you think! Next one should be up tomorrow!
"So this guy, Jared Foster, he was employed at the Central Community College from 1990 to 2002. He taught English Literature and get this, when he was in college he majored in English Lit, but he minored in Chemistry and Nuclear Physics. I thought those minors were quite the polar opposite from his major, and there's no known fact that he had studied Science, well I mean, opposed to his College transcripts, but! I dug a little deeper and I found that he 'dropped out' of the Chem classes because he nearly blew up the science lab… There's a whole article here rendering the entire incident, but he dropped out after that…" Garcia informed the rest of the team over speakerphone as they huddled together back in the boardroom of the station.
"Is there anything else strange on this guy?" Morgan wondered loudly, hoping the pieces were somehow finally coming together.
Garcia laughed smugly on the other end, "Well my handsome pet, I'm glad you asked. See, his position was terminated at the College in 2002, but after looking into it further and chasing myself in circles, I found out that he wasn't actually fired, he kind of quit. There's some small report on the possibility that he had a nervous breakdown or some other type of drastic change in his behaviour. He was suggested to leave, and he accepted it quickly, he packed up his things and walked out the same day."
"Do you know who the Dean or authority figure was at the college during his time there…?" Prentiss asked and Garcia's fingers typed quickly over the keyboards.
"Yup, it was… Catherine Kent. She retired two years ago and is still in Seattle. She's now 59 years of age." Garcia reported and quickly gave the address.
"This Jared Foster, when exactly did he quit his position at the College?" Hotch asked, getting back to their possible suspect. Garcia's fingers flew over her keyboards again as she spoke.
"It says here… June 7th." Suddenly Garcia gasped on the other end and she typed feverishly before continuing. "That's two days after Dani's mom's death. She was murdered on the Saturday, and Jared Foster walked out from his position from a mental disturbance the following Monday…"
The rest of the team looked at each other, "Is he still in Seattle?" Rossi demanded.
Fingers clicked on the other end, "Yes. 169th and 47th street."
The team was silent for a second before Reid spoke up, "That's only two blocks away from Dani's apartment building…" He said with wide eyes as the realization hit him that the unsub could have lived so close to her all this time.
"Oh my god." Garcia's tense voice hushed on the other end.
"What is it?" Hotch asked quickly as the rest of the team seemed to lean closer to the phone in the middle of the table. All they could hear was fingers typing madly until Garcia finally answered.
"Jared Foster, he was in a car accident a week after he left his job at the college, his shoulder was severely dislocated and his right arm was broken in three different places including fractures in four of his fingers. He had to have three surgeries over two years and had to attend Physiotherapy for two more years after that. He was on worker's compensation and after that was up he couldn't hold down a job, he's been on unemployment since…" She said hurriedly.
Hotch looked across the table to Rossi, then to the rest of the team. They all had the same semi-shocked expression on their faces.
"Thanks Garcia, we're going to go check him out. We'll keep you posted." Hotchner pressed the hang up button on the phone and looked to the rest of his team.
"I think we should get a move on. Advise Detective Morris, we're heading out in five."
…………………………………………………………………………………….
"Jared Foster, FBI! Open up!" Morgan shouted towards the chipped white paint on the front door of the older house. A few people went around back, while he, Hotchner and Prentiss surrounded the front entrance.
Prentiss tried to peek into the curtain covered window as she held her semi-automatic to the ground and tightened the strap on her bullet proof vest. When she looked back at Morgan and no one had answered the door, she nodded.
Morgan stepped back and with a swift, hard kick, opened the door and went inside, followed by the other members of his team.
"Clear!"
"Kitchen clear!"
"Hotch, no one's upstairs, I don't think anyone's home…" Morgan advised as him and Prentiss made their way down the old, carpeted stairs. Agent Hotchner frowned as he looked around the slightly cluttered living room, shuffling old magazines and newspapers around on the coffee table.
"I think you guys had better take a look at this…" The gruff voice of Detective Morris shouted from the stairwell that led to the basement. With a quick look to Hotchner, Morgan followed through the kitchen to the stairs leading to the basement.
Once they made it down, they seen Morris and a couple of his colleagues surrounding a large table, the only light coming from a low watt bulb swinging from the low ceiling.
"Shit…" Morgan cursed once he seen the set up on the wooden table. Beneath him he carefully tampered with the various wires and metal tubing, to the right stood a few different jars and viles filled with chemicals.
"He made the bomb himself. How could we not have caught that?" Morgan demanded, more to himself as he tossed one of the wires to the table in frustration.
"There weren't any parts left from the bomb, and by the smaller size of the explosion, it makes sense that he just crafted a quick makeshift bomb himself…" Reid spoke as he squeezed between Hotch and Morgan to survey the materials on the table.
"Thanks Reid, that's not helping us now though…" Morgan huffed and the team made their way back upstairs.
"There aren't any pictures, or anything of sentimental value in plain view…" Reid spoke as they studied the kitchen and living area of the main floor. "Did anyone check the bed-" He stopped suddenly and frowned into the drawer he had just pulled on the coffee table.
"What you got over there?" Morgan asked as he spun around from the very well-stocked bookshelf and made his way towards Reid, who looked up at him with wide, worried eyes and pulled out the drawer to set on top of the table.
"Son of a… Hotch!" Morgan called to his superior in the kitchen as Reid began laying out the pile of pictures and various newspaper articles contained in the small drawer. Hotch quickly walked over to them and studied the items being laid out.
"Is that…?" Hotchner began to question, but he already knew the answer. Looking from picture to picture, he saw a younger, dark haired girl being caught in candid photographs. In one, she was just coming out of a small café, coffee in hand. In another she was unlocking the front door to her apartment building. There were about twenty different photos of a younger Dani, and Reid caught a quick breath as he flipped one of them over.
The photo was of a younger girl, around 10, being led by the hand of a smiling dark haired teenager that the group instantly recognized as Dani. They were walking down a wide sidewalk, the sun brightly shining around them and in front of them was an older lady, turning to hurry them along. Her hair was just as dark as the younger girls.
"Is that Dani's sister…?" Morgan guessed as he took the picture from Reid to study it closer.
"Yeah, and I think the woman is… Was her mother…" Reid replied with a quiet tone as he rifled through the rest of the articles and photographs in front of him, trying to find something that would lead them to Jared Foster's whereabouts.
"It's all pictures of Dani and her family, there's a lot of Dani recently, in shops, jogging, grocery shopping…" Reid explained quickly as he flipped through them. "The newspaper articles are mostly from the death and suspicious murder of her mother, there's also a couple from when he 'quit' his position at the College…"
"Hotch." JJ interrupted as she and Prentiss quickly walked in from the open front door. "We spoke with the neighbours, they said they seen Jared leaving about 20 minutes ago. He had a large suitcase and drove off in his vehicle, driving south on 47th…"
"South?" Reid interrupted quickly as he stood up. "What if he's heading to the airport??"
Morgan was already on his cell phone, having dialled Garcia's direct line. She picked up after one ring.
"Choco-love, what is it I can perform for you?" She said with a smile, which Morgan could practically see over the phone.
"Hey sugar mama, listen, we need you to run Jared Foster's name, we need a vehicle make, year, license number. And by need, I mean need by half an hour ago…" He asked, but had already heard Garcia typing feverishly on the other end.
"You're looking for a 1997 Nissan Pathfinder, plate number 57D9AJ. Color is dark navy blue." She answered right away, pleasing her handsome coworker.
"Thanks baby girl, you're the best." He said as he repeated the information to Hotchner and the rest of his team.
"Well now, would you expect any less of me?" Garcia asked innocently.
"Hell no." Morgan confirmed quickly before hanging up, then turned to Hotch who had a more-than-normal serious expression on his face.
"JJ I want you to put the information up for the media, we need to find this guy before he flees the state or tries to board on a plane somewhere else. We know who we're looking for now, we just need to find him before it's too late." Hotchner advised, JJ quickly nodded in agreement and left the house to go back to the station.
"Should some of us split up and head to the airport now? We could get Garcia to run a track on the vehicle…" Prentiss suggested, but Reid quickly shook his head.
"Trackings will only work on vehicles that have a GPS system integrated in the console. The Pathfinder didn't come out with that until 1999, and even then it was an expensive extra to add to the make…" Reid advised, much to his teammates' disbelief.
"When did you learn so much about cars…?" Morgan accused, forcing Reid to frown in answer.
"I read a magazine on Nissan when I was waiting in the Dentists' office a couple months ago…" He mumbled, but couldn't get teased anymore because Detective Morris clambered up the stairs and looked at them, his face unreadable once he stopped amongst the FBI agents.
"I just got a call from the station, someone just reported an accident, the vehicle involved matches Fosters' description and someone else called in the same license number." He advised quickly, the cell phone still clutched in his right hand.
"Let's go." Hotch said quickly and the rest of the team followed him to their awaiting vehicles.