Old Enemies
Chapter 26
The phone Hotch had been given at the hospital vibrated. He opened the message and looked at an address. He started his car, pulled out of the space he was waiting in, and headed out of the park. Turing the steering wheel with one arm wasn't the easiest thing, and Hotch cursed his bad arm. He knew he wasn't in the shape to be going after this unsub, but he also knew Rossi couldn't wait for him to get better. He sighed heavily, trying to get focused on the task at hand.
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Morgan and Emily turned onto the last street they saw Hotch take. They kept their eyes moving, searching everywhere for Hotch's car. After about thirty minutes, they turned around and searched again a little slower. Not finding Hotch's car was both a blessing and a curse for Emily. She was mad they hadn't found anything, but she was happy they didn't find him dead. Morgan was getting madder by the minute, and Emily couldn't blame him. Hotch had jumped on both Morgan and Emily countless times for going off on their own, and even though they had felt the decisions they made were the best choices at the time, Hotch had been furious they went alone. Hotch was always talking about how they were a team and none of them were supposed to do anything without back up. You need to practice what you preach, Hotch!
Emily silently vowed that if Hotch made it through this, that she was going to have to tell him how she felt. Maybe if she had done that as soon as she had a chance after coming back, maybe he wouldn't have felt he needed to do this alone. Maybe if he had the same feelings, and she wasn't sure if he did or not; maybe he would have thought twice before disappearing on her. Well, I'll tell him if Morgan doesn't kill him first, she thought with a sad smile.
They pulled back into the parking garage, parked, and slowly got out of the SUV. "You don't think Hotch would trust this unsub do you?" Emily asked as they walked back to the building.
"Never! Why?"
"He would have to have a plan in case the unsub tried to double cross him. He would have something planned for us to be able to find him and Rossi if things didn't go well, right?"
"Makes sense, but what? Will we be able to figure it out if that time comes?" Morgan stopped and turned to her. "You know I would never admit this in there, but I think Hotch is going vigilante on us." Emily was about to protest, but he went on. "If he just wanted to get the unsub like normal he would have us with him. I think he's walking into this with the plan of just killing the asshole the first chance he gets."
Emily thought about it. "That could be why he left his creds. He's not doing this as an agent; he's doing it as a friend." Morgan nodded. "Do you blame him, though?"
"Oh hell no! I would probably do the same thing, but I'm just worried about Hotch being able to live with himself if he follows through with it."
Emily bit her lip in consideration. "Well, let's just hope that it doesn't come to that." She didn't believe the statement any more than Morgan did, but they headed back to the bullpen a little more worried than when they had left.
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JJ and Reid walked around the hospital interviewing the staff to see if anyone saw anything while Hotch was there. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, they decided to head back to the BAU. As they walked past the nurses' station Reid noticed something with Hotch's name on it. He stopped and grabbed a nurse. "Excuse me, but what is that?" he asked pointing at a manila folder.
"Oh, that's messages, care directions, and such for Agent Hotchner. They are to be given to him when we see him." She grabbed the folder and looked at its contents. "Here is a lab report from his blood analysis, directions to a physical therapist, and instructions to see his doctor before he leaves the hospital."
"You keep folders for all of your patients?" JJ asked
"Only ones whom we know are due back. It's easier to keep it all together, and we keep them here at the desk so the first person to see him can give it to him," she explained as she pointed to several other folders at the desk.
"Would you happen to know if there was anything in there that was given to him when he was here earlier?" Reid asked her.
"I don't know, but I can check," she told him and went behind the station and got on a computer.
"What are you thinking?" JJ asked Reid.
"Anyone who knows about these folders could have put something in there for Hotch. Maybe the unsub used it as a way to contact Hotch."
"Actually there was a message in here earlier and a prescription for the physical therapist," she told them.
"Any idea what the message was about?" JJ asked her.
"Let me check, we use carbon copy message notes," she grabbed the message book and flipped through it. "Here it is," she held it out for Reid and JJ to read.
To: Agent Hotchner
From: Sam
Message: I put your stuff in a locker down stairs. The man at the desk will have your key.
"And where would these lockers be located?" Reid asked.
"The only lockers I know of are by the staff gym down on B1."
"Thank you," Reid said, and he and JJ went to the elevators.
An older woman was sitting behind the desk that led to the staff gym. JJ approached her with her badge out. "How may I help you?"
"Yes ma'am, we were wondering if you have a locker for an Aaron Hotchner?" JJ asked.
"The tall handsome guy from this morning?"
JJ smiled. "Yes ma'am"
"Well he got his stuff out of it and gave me back the key. He said he didn't need it anymore."
"Did you happen to see what was in it?" Reid asked with a smile.
"Only thing I saw was a phone and a piece of paper. He put it in his pocket, thanked me, and left."
"And there's nothing else in it now?" JJ asked her.
"Nope. I cleaned it, and I have the key ready for the next person to use it."
"Would you happen to know who got the locker, who put the items in there?" Reid asked excitedly.
"No, sorry," she told them as she looked in the computer. "But I can tell you it was rented two days ago."
"Two days? Is that a normal thing?" JJ asked with a look to Reid.
"People rent them for hours, days, any amount of time they want."
"How was it paid for?" Reid asked her.
"Cash. Two days is only three dollars," she explained.
They said their thanks and headed back to the BAU.
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Rossi spun in his chair as the woman came into the room. She walked to table and sat down a thing of baby wipes. "Your friend is on his way. I thought maybe you'd want to clean your face up," she told him sliding the wipes over to him.
Rossi noticed she stayed out of arms reach. "Why? Did you tell him that I haven't been harmed or something?" Rossi was pissed. If Hotch was on his way, then that meant she wasn't going to be uncuffing him any time soon.
"No, but seeing your face full of dried blood is bound to give him a shock, but I guess that's your call." She noticed the bag of food on the floor.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Because he killed my Richard," she stated flatly.
"You do know he was a murdering psychopath, right? That he had been killing for over two decades." Rossi told her. He could tell he was pissing her off.
"Are you trying to make me mad?"
"I just really want to know how any woman could love a man like that."
"You didn't know Richard. You couldn't even begin to understand our relationship."
"I know! That's why I'm asking. Did you help him or something? Were you part of his sick game?"
"No!" she yelled like she was actually offended.
"You said you saw the tape. You saw what he did to Hotch, what he did to that little boy! How could you love a man like that?"
"Richard was just getting revenge for George."
"Did you know that George killed Hotch's wife? That he tried to kill Hotch, twice?" Rossi saw a flicker of surprise cross her face. She didn't know. "So if your whole case is based on 'an eye for an eye', then Hotch deserved to kill George." He could tell she was thinking, so he pressed her more. "And with that logic, Richard had no right to go after Hotch!"
"He killed Richard!"
"He was defending himself and his son!"
She looked at him for a moment. "It doesn't matter why. All that matters is that he did, and he is going to die because of it," and she left.
Rossi shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. You can't argue with crazy people, Dave.
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JJ had called Morgan while they were on their way back to tell everyone about the phone Hotch had gotten out of the locker. By the time they got back to the bullpen everyone was in the conference room. Garcia was on her laptop trying to isolate all calls and messages that were received within the hospital while Hotch was there. "I don't understand why we didn't see Hotch on the security cameras going to these lockers," Morgan mused.
"We didn't have them look on the basement floors. That's probably where we lost him from the time he left his room until we found him again going outside to his car," Emily guessed.
"You think our unsub's name is really Sam?" Blake asked as she looked over the information on Cypress.
"Hard to say, but it can't hurt to look," Reid told her as he picked up a file to help her look.
"How's it going Mama?" Morgan asked Garcia as he looked over her shoulder at the screen.
"Nothing yet. He might now have even used it while he was there."
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Hotch pulled into the driveway of an old Victorian house. Right under our nose! He thought with disgust. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. His shirt was soaked with sweat, and he knew his fever was getting worse. He shook his head trying to concentrate. It's now or never, Hotchner. He looked at his phone and a note he had written to his son and the team that was lying on the passenger seat. If things didn't go as planned, he had wanted everyone he cared about to know how he felt and why he had to do this. He shoved his phone in his pocket. Then he grabbed the note and put it in his glove box. He didn't want to unsub to see it just sitting there. He took another deep breath, got out of the car, and grabbed his crutch. He needed the crutch more today than he had the days before, but he knew he was weak. And I can use it as a weapon if I have to, he thought with a wicked smile as he headed to the door.