Hotch, Reid, and Morgan were in the conference room busily reviewing the information assembled on the evidence boards when Hotch's cell phone rang.
"Yes, Garcia," he answered after checking the screen. "You have something for us?"
"Of course!" the tech assured him. "However, before I begin, perhaps you had better get everyone together and put me on speaker. I have quite a lot of information and it's probably better if I tell everyone at the same time."
"Maybe we should set up a conference call via the computer," Morgan suggested. "I think Cruz has his laptop with him."
It wasn't long before, Garcia, with Sam partially hidden behind her, was glaring out at the team from the computer screen. "Okay, let's get started so you can get this SOB!" she declared. "There are four boys missing and you need to find them!"
"First off, this miscreant's name is Lester Gold. I got that off the Dodson Academy's database of applicants, but don't tell the school that."
"What can you tell us about him?" Blake asked.
"Quite a lot," Garcia replied. "And, let me start by saying I have located some losers for you in the past, but this one really grinds my #$ #^%$ - Mainly because he truly has no excuse for his behavior!"
"The facts, Garcia, just the facts," Hotch interrupted her tirade.
"O-k-a-y – ," Garcia relented. "Lester Gold was born and raised in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. As far as I can tell, he had a perfectly normal childhood with no problems with his family, his school or the authorities. He went to public school and, in due time, graduated with fairly decent grades. However, as he was on the high school boxing team, the question can be raised as to whether he actually earned the last few semesters of those. After his exit from that institute of learning, he was accepted at a medium-sized college in Ponca City, Oklahoma, on a – You guessed it – A boxing scholarship. However, that lasted only two years before the school began cutting back on its athletic programs in order to focus on – Surprise! - Academics. When Mr. Gold was cut loose from that program, he attempted to join the Marines. Apparently, he was under the impression that his boxing skills would give him an automatic acceptance. As you can guess, he was wrong."
"Well, now we have the Queensbury connection," Morgan observed. "He most likely sees himself as carrying on that tradition."
"I would suspect that he didn't give up at that point?" Blake inquired.
"You would be right," Garcia confirmed. "After being rejected by the Marines, he then applied for and was rejected by the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force. I can't find anything on the Coast Guard, but I wouldn't rule that out."
"That's a lot of rejection," JJ observed. "How did he deal with it?"
"Yeah, that is a lot!" Garcia snapped. "But that didn't give him the right to – "
"Calm down, Sugar Plum," the team heard Sam's voice. "Calm down! Why don't you finish telling the team what you have found out and then you can tell me all about it."
"Well, at that point Mr. Lester Gold moved to the D.C. area," Garcia was fighting to stay calm. "I suppose he thought that if he was close to the people responsible for making the final decision he would stand a better chance of pleading his case in person. He also began boxing in the local amateur league."
"Was he ever arrested?" Rossi asked curiously. "A personality like that would be prone to violence simply for the sake of violence.
"Not that I can find," Garcia told him. "But, that's not to say he didn't get into any altercations. He probably was careful to avoid getting a record because he knew that that would prevent his advancement in what he viewed as his chosen career. His next step, after that initial assortment of rejections, was applying to the various police departments in this area. Again, his applications featured his boxing 'career' as a hiring point. Also, at this time, he was regularly competing in amateur boxing competitions throughout this area with fairly good success."
"I would assume he wasn't hired?" Cruz guessed.
"Actually, he was hired by a small municipality just north of Quantico," Garcia reported. "However, that didn't last long. Within nine months of completing his training period he was let go and that record is sealed. I could probably get into it if you are interested." She sounded hopeful.
"I don't think that will be necessary, Baby Girl," Morgan told her. "We can probably guess what it says."
"What then?" Hotch was anxious to get the preliminaries out of the way.
"Well, by now he had a family which he had acquired by marrying a woman who had two children from a previous marriage," Garcia continued. "And, although there aren't any police records of domestic disputes, shortly after the wedding both the children's grades began to slip and they were sent to speak with school councilors. Also, his wife made several trips to the emergency room with bruised and/or broken ribs."
"Was he working at this time?" Blake asked.
"Yes, of course, he had a family to support," Garcia sounded decidedly snarky.
"He had taken a job with a company that trains and supplies security guards to various malls and businesses," Sam interrupted her. "And, he was assigned to an arcade which is located about three blocks from Dodson Academy."
"Well, now we know how he got his information on the school and its protocols," Reid guessed. "He probably just appropriated copies of paperwork from the students who came in."
"And, that also is probably where he targeted these boys," Rossi observed. "He could speak with them as well as watch them as they played the video games and judge their reactions."
"And a security guard definitely would not set off alarms," Hotch added.
"We still don't have a stressor," JJ pointed out.
"Well, that is easy!" Garcia was back on track. "A little more than two years ago, his wife left him, taking her two kids with her."
"That's right before his appearance in Mr. Stephenson's office," Cruz said. "He must have heard that she had applied for admission there for the children."
"And decided to contribute his two cents worth!" Blake added.
"It is shortly afterwards that she appears to have gone missing," Sam confirmed. "She and the two children just disappeared. My guess would be that she had enough of his abuse and interference and went off the grid."
"No signs of foul play?" Morgan asked.
"It doesn't appear that anyone ever looked," Sam reported. "As far as I can determine, there was never a missing persons report filed for either her or the children."
"Do we know where he is now?" Hotch came right to the point.
"His most recent home address and other contact information has been sent to your phones," Garcia reported. "But I don't think you will find him there. He has been living in one unit of a duplex, and utility usage for that unit has dropped to almost nothing over the past three months."
"Do you know where Lester Gold is now?" Morgan demanded. "We need to find him pronto!"
"Stand down, Big Guy!" Garcia told him. "When did you ever know me to send partial information?"
"Now, you need to thank Emma for this next bit of information," Garcia continued. "She realized that if this guy was at the Convention Center timing the emergency team's response time, he most likely was planning an attack which would be responded to by that same emergency response team. So, I began looking around the area serviced by that particular team."
"You found?" JJ questioned.
"The Village Trading Center," Garcia enunciated. "It's in an older building that used to be – "
"An old one story enclosed shopping mall," Rossi interrupted. "It has been subdivided into smaller spaces which are rented out as offices, work spaces, and shops. One weekend a month, they host a swap meet for car parts in several of their meeting rooms as well as their auditorium. It attracts so many vendors that it frequently overflows into the parking lot. I went there looking for parts several times when I was restoring my Buick."
"And, it's on the bus line that serves Dodson Academy," he concluded.
"Well, your man, Lester Gold, has been renting a space there for the past eighteen months," Garcia announced. "Address and directions have been sent to your cell phones. Now Go Get Him!"