Chapter 29

Morgan looked at the cars and trucks rushing by the highway. "How is it possible no one saw anything?" He asked, not even waiting for an answer as he approached the dump site of their latest victim. "I dumped her by night, the headlights don't touch this area," he continued and walked around the site. The ME had already removed the body so there wasn't anything left for them to really work with, besides what the location told them.

"He would need to have his own vehicle for sure," Blake commented and looked around for tire tracks. "It seems like he used the shoulder to stop his vehicle and dump the body, there are no tire tracks anywhere."

Morgan nodded and then looked towards the road again, "A parked car on the shoulder would draw the attention though," he said and frowned a little bit to himself. "Although a truck at night wouldn't draw much attention."

"Neither would an emergency vehicle…" Blake nodded and grabbed her cell phone to call Garcia. She hoped the woman would be able to provide her with a list of emergency vehicles that crossed the highway that night. "Garcia, I need you to look something up for me," she started and explained which information she wanted.

"That shouldn't be too hard; I'll let you know as soon as I have something. Garcia out," was Garcia's reply before she hung up.


"Spence I'm sorry I had to come with you," JJ said as she got into the government issued SUV. She fastened her seatbelt and started the car, waiting for him to reply. When he didn't she quickly looked at him, sideways, before focusing her eyes on the road again. "Spence?"

"It's uhm… it's fine I guess," he replied, looking straight ahead. His mind was full at the moments, thoughts rapidly begging for attention in his head. These thoughts consisted of their latest victim, his history with her, his mother and JJ meeting his mother. The latter worried him least, but still enough to cause him to be distracted.

JJ let out a soft sigh, noticing his thoughts weren't entirely with them in the car at the moment. "If you're not ready for me to meet your mother I could wait outside?"

"It's not that," he quickly replied and turned to look at her. He knew he had to tell her that his mother didn't know about them yet and he was afraid of how she was going to react. "JJ…" he started and swallowed, "there's something I need t confess. My uhm… I haven't told my mom about us…"

JJ reached out her hand to grab his while her eyes were still focused on the road. "That's understandable," she said. "We've only just recently started… dating." The word sounded strange in her mind, but the feeling it created was good. "If you want to wait another while longer before telling her, I don't mind. I'll be the last person to judge you."

Reid looked over at her and squeezed her hand, "It's not because I'm embarrassed about you… us. It's just that, the last thing I told her was about Maeve and explaining her how I got over her and… together with you is going to be quite difficult."

"And that's why I want you to wait until you're ready to talk to her. Maybe we should be certain about us first…" JJ said before parking the car in the Bennington parking lot. "So… do we go in together or do I wait here?"

"I would like you to come with me… there's something more you should hear and deserve to know," Reid replied with a deep sigh, preparing him for the part of telling a mentally unstable mother that her daughter was found dead.

JJ felt herself growing weary; she wasn't sure what Reid just meant. She followed him into the hallway of the sanitarium as they waited for someone of the staff to take them to Mrs Mortimer. "How long has it been since you visited?"

Reid didn't even go into detail, telling her the exact length of months, weeks, days, hours and minutes. Instead he just said: "Too long."

She wanted to do nothing more than to rub her hand along his back, but as long as they were working on a case they had to remain professional. She would be able to show him affection once they were back at the hotel, although they had to be careful, even there.

"Ah, Dr Reid, it's such a pleasure to see you. She's been talking about you a lot lately," a man said, approaching the two of them. Reid referred to him as Dr Norman.

"Actually uhm… I'm here to see someone else first," Reid replied and shifted from one foot to another. "It's Mrs Mortimer, something happened to her daughter Kerry."

Dr Norman's face fell, "She's been talking about Kerry a lot lately, what happened to her?"

JJ looked around and lowered her voice, "She was found dead yesterday, we'd like to tell Mrs Mortimer if that's alright."

Dr Norman nodded, "Follow me," he said before showing them towards the woman's room. "She's having quite a good day Dr Reid, but remember to be careful," he said before leaving the two agents in the doorway.

Reid looked at JJ and silently asked her to stay back just a little bit, as not to crowd the woman. "Mrs Mortimer?" He asked carefully, approaching her.

"My name is…" he started, but she didn't even let him finish.

"Spencer Reid, I remember you," the woman smiled and widened her arms to embrace him.

Reid hugged her back shortly before pulling back. "Here, let's sit down," he said and helped her. He sat down in front of her and took her hands in his.

JJ looked at the scene before her and was amazed by how natural this seemed to come to him this time. She wondered if it had something to do with what he said he needed to tell her.

Mrs Mortimer looked at their joined hands and then frowned, "What's going on Spencer, where's Kerry? Did the two of you get in a fight?" She asked, one hand covering her mouth. "You two didn't break up, did you?"

Reid had already been afraid this was going to happen and he shook his head. He knew that if he was going to tell her that it wasn't 1998 anymore, she would be even more confused and lose her lucid state. "Mrs Mortimer, I am so sorry but… Kerry isn't here anymore," he started, carefully thinking about his next words.

"What do you mean, she's not here anymore? Did she go on a holiday without you?" Mrs Mortimer frowned, utterly confused.

JJ wanted to step in and ask Reid what she was talking about, but remembered they were at a sanitarium and that he knew how to talk to this woman. She wondered if Kerry really was Reid's ex-girlfriend or if the woman was just imaging that to be the case. She bit her lower lip and continued to listen and watch the scene.

"We uhm… she was found yesterday morning, she's dead Mrs Mortimer, I'm so sorry…" Reid said, finishing in a whisper. He saw how the look in the woman's eyes changed and quickly pulled back so she wouldn't be able to lash out at him.

She got up and shrieked: "You murderer! Get away from me; I'm not going to let you kill me too!" She approached him and wanted to grab his vest, but missed.

Within seconds the room was full of nurses to calm the woman down and sedating her. Reid was still standing inside the room, his breathing a little ragged. He turned to look at JJ, a sorrowful look on his face. "I uhm… I'll tell you everything, I promise," he started, "but for now I just want to go see my mother for a little while."

JJ nodded and patted his shoulder when he walked past her, "I'll meet you in the car?"

"I should be there in about twenty," Reid replied before walking in the direction of the common room, in search of his mother.


TBC