Stepping into the Unknown
Chapter 21: Disk Two
Author's Note: This takes place after Daily Morning Routine. Since this is part of my first Criminal Minds story, I don't think I am going to go into cases in detail. This will mainly be focus on what Dr. Reid's life outside of work might be like.
I do not own Criminal Minds or Dr. Spencer Reid. I do own Michelle and this particular case, though.
'Do not fear,
for I am near,
no more mediocrity,
I am setting you free.'
He reads and rereads the note, racking his brain to see if it is a passage from any book he's ever read or just bad poetry. He ask their normally oh-so-happy tech analyst to look it up online as well, and she finds it to be an edited section of an incredibly grim poem from the turn of the century about a man's brain telling him who kills his lover in order to access a higher level of understanding of the universe.
"The UnSub rewrote it though, the original says:
'Do not fear,
for you are near,
no more mediocrity,
you are setting yourself free.'
It seems whoever wrote this thinks you needed their push." The blonde looks up from her screen at him; her usual smile has vanished as soon as she heard the news. She puts her hand on his and adds: "We'll find her, Reid, I know we will."
"Thanks, Penelope."
He's about to walk out of her office when he turns around and asks her to check the whereabouts of Michelle's ex-fiancé just in case, he's had a bad feeling about that man since Michelle told him of his existence. He knows his head isn't fully in the game, all he can think about is that someone took the woman he loves and is now taunting him; he can't just sit around and wait for something to happen nor can he just let his emotions get the best of him, Michelle needs him at his best and he has try to do what they do everyday finding the UnSub and saving the victim.
J.J. and Hotch head to D.C. to canvas the neighborhood where Michelle disappeared after Morgan refuses to leave his side which he is grateful for, instead he runs him through all the usual questions they have to ask the families. He knows it's a necessary measure but he feels like they're wasting precious time; she's already been missing for four hours and despite his best effort to block them out, he knows all the statistics about abduction.
Garcia bravely offers to watch the DVD by herself and report back on what it contains, but he won't have any of it. The envelope, the note, everything seems to have been made for him; he can only expect that the DVD will be same. He asks if she would mind if he watched it alone in her office, for a second, she stares at him in disbelief but after a few moments, she nods and leaves the room.
He passes his fingers through his hair, pulling at it a little as he always seems to do when he's highly stressed; he closes his eyes for minute and asks whatever deity might be listening to let her be alright. He stares blankly at the monitor before being able to hit 'play'; he finally does, fearing the worst.
The video is black and white, it shows a room, probably in a basement given the blank, concrete walls, something hangs from the ceiling but he can't really make out what they are. Suddenly, he hears the staccato voice of man and realizes it's a computer reading a text.
"Hello Dr. Reid," it says. "I hope the pictograms amused the children. It took a long time, but the day is finally here. From now on, you will not suffer the pain of life with a lesser mind." And with that, the video ends.
That's all there is, nothing more to go on, no clues as to how to get her back, he takes the DVD out of the computer and it requires all of his will power not to simply throw it at the opposite wall. His entire body is shaking as he walks to the briefing room where Morgan is working; the other man standing with his back to the door as he discusses the case over the phone with Hotch.
"Okay. Yeah. Hotch, it doesn't seem good. Garcia found the origin of the poem and it's bad, man, it talks about killing a lover. It's like the UnSub thinks he's saving Reid by taking Michelle away. He seems to think that Michelle is keeping Reid from some sort of higher purpose. Yeah, I agree. I'll get Garcia on that. He's watching it right now. He asked to watch it alone. I know, but you and I would have done the same thing. Yeah, okay, we'll see you when you get back."
"What did they find?" As he speaks, Derek jumps and turns around to face him, trying to keep his expression calm as he asks how much he heard. "Most of it."
The other man sits and points to the chair in front of him, Spencer sits down, still holding the DVD between his fingers. Morgan is uncomfortable, which he tries to hide probably for his sake, but they've known each other long enough that he can easily pick up all the subtle signs and he can't help but think that this can't be good.
"They didn't find anything. A few people remember seeing Michelle talking to someone in a late model, blue car and then getting in, but that's it. No one could give a description of the driver and she didn't seem coerced. I'm sorry, Reid, I wish I had better news for you."
"Sh-she wouldn't get in a car with someone she doesn't know, but... but she probably would if the UnSub threaten to hurt someone else if she didn't. Is Garcia looking to try and locate the car? We should check for any owner in the tri-state area who ever faced kidnapping or stalking charges, this can't be a first time offender."
"Garcia's looking, but Reid, you know how long that can take especially with this little to go on. Right now, what we need is to make a list of anyone who could want to hurt either one of you."
The frustration and the anger that have been bubbling inside him take over; he can't stand just sitting around anymore, he's on his feet and screaming.
"We're wasting time! She's out there with some lunatic and we're not doing anything about it! She's in danger and she needs us! She needs me! I'm not letting her go through the same horror I did with Hankel!"
Derek grabs him by the shoulders and stares him down. The outburst got his heart thumping and he's shaking, he pushes his hands through his hair, he pulls at it and tries to calm himself down. His breath is short and shallow; he shoves his hands into his pockets to stop them from trembling.
"Reid! I'm on your side, man. We all are. We all want to find Michelle, but we can't do it if you don't help us." The weight of the situation presses down on him even more as he realizes this the first time Morgan ever referred to her just by her fist name while talking to him, no little teasing, no 'your sweetheart' or even 'your girl' just Michelle. He sits down, passes his hand over his face before resting them on his neck as he apologizes for his behavior. A few moments later, J.J. enters the room, followed by Hotch who places a DVD identical to one in Spencer's hand on the table.
"Security found this in the elevator twenty minutes ago. We were just downstairs trying to see if we could find who dropped it off, but unfortunately, it seems the UnSub hacked into our security cameras. Garcia is trying to recuperate the footage right now."
Hotch asks him to put the first DVD in and everyone sits down to watch it, trying to find clues but just like him, they come up with nothing more than he did. When it's done, he stands up, grab the second one and places it in the player; he sits back down and hits 'play' on the remote without looking at the rest of the team, he can feel their worried looks on him and can't bare to see it in their eyes.
On the screen, the first image is the same, the same concrete walls and strange things dangling from the ceiling, but unfortunately, it only last a moment. A tall figure walks into the frame, face hidden by a hood; the UnSub is pulling Michelle behind him. She's fighting but her movements are erratic and uncoordinated. He pushes her into the wall with enough force that she lets out a blood-curling scream despite her drugged state.
"Spence, maybe you should wait outside. You don't need to watch this."
"Actually, I really do." He snaps back; he needs to find her, to save her, hopefully before more harms comes to her.
From where he sits and even if the video quality is rather poor, he can tell a black eye is forming over her left eye and her bottom lip is slit open. The UnSub grabs her left wrist and reaches up, that's when he realizes what is coming down from the ceiling; they're belt restraints. She tries to pull away from him, but can't. After he's done, her body hanging by the wrists, she's still trashing around, and he can hear her grunting as she tries to get the restraints off; he always knew his wonderful girlfriend was a fighter and, with some types of UnSubs, it might keep her alive.
"Shut up." Says the computer voice at full volume.
"Why are you doing this?" Over the years he heard her voice filled with some many different tones and emotions; joy, sadness, laughter, pleasure, pain, he heard her whisper and scream but never as she sounded so faint, so tired and it pierces his heart to hear it.
"Why?" The computer answers. "You know very well why. Because girls like you, stupid, ordinary girls are what ruins the intellectual gene pool. But no more. You should be happy; he'll be saved from this fate you were condemning him to."
"You leave Spencer out of this!" Michelle screams. He closes his eyes for a moment, it's his fault that she's in this situation and still, she's worried about what might happen to him and tries to protect him.
"You know that is impossible. Now, it's time for you to sleep." The UnSub moves back into the frame, a gun in hand. He looks away, but what he hears isn't a gun shot. He turns back to screen just before the video cuts but long enough to see Michelle unconscious, her glasses have disappeared and a dark shape already appearing where the gun came in contact with her head.
Everyone stare at the black screen for a moment in silence, he looks at his colleagues, his family, and everyone's expression is different; Garcia has her glasses in her hand and dries her tears with her sleeve, smearing her makeup. Sometimes he forget how close they've gotten, despite being primarily his girlfriend, Michelle managed to sneak her way into his teammates' hearts. Derek's fists and jaws are clenched tight; it's easy to tell that if he had the UnSub in front of him, he would be making him pay. J.J.'s looking at him, trying to comfort him without saying a word. Hotch is stoic, as usual, but his mind is probably going a 100 miles an hour to come up with the best possible plan.
"Well..." Hotch clears his throat before continuing, bringing the team's attention back to him. "Now we know this isn't really about Michelle, it's about Reid. Now, we need to get a profile together."
They establish that the UnSub has to be a frail white male approximately 5 foot 8, at least from what they could make out of him in the video, between 25 and 35, who Reid must have had enough contact with for Michelle to be willing to get into his car. He's obviously very intelligent, but it's probably the only aspect of his life in which he feels adequate. He probably has a low level job, with people he considers intellectually inferior, maybe something like retail which gives the flexibility in hours to allow him to stalk Reid. He's has great computer skills and some knowledge of forensic counter measures as proven by his hacking into the security cameras and the fact he uses his computer to talk for him in order to make it impossible for Reid to identify his voice. They also believe that it is not his first offence and that he will have some charges against him for stalking, maybe even some restraining orders.
He lists every single males he came in contact with more than once during the last three months and Garcia starts looking them up between criminal records, MENSA members in the D.C. and owners of blue, late model cars.
"Okay, that narrows it down." Her fingers are rushing across the keyboard as he stares at the screen. "And we've got four potentials. You'd think MENSA would scan their members better. Let see what these records are for... David Lloyd, DUI. Shane Williams, public indecency. Carl Jones, another DUI. And last but not the least, Adam Malcolm... Oh my God, it has to be him! 2 restraining orders, he's been stalking professors at UDC."
She barely finishes scribbling down the address, before he rips the paper from her hand and runs out of the room with the team on his heels.