Chapter 36
"Are you alright, Spencer?" asked Gregor worried. He pulled out of the parking lot and headed east. "You don't look so good."
"No, I think I got sick or something. But I'll be okay."
"Are you sure? Do you need anything, like at a pharmacy?"
"No, no, let's just get back. More than anything I need to sleep."
The ride back was dark and silent. Spencer pretended to sleep as he replayed the lecture. The execution ritual with justiciera.
"We're lucky to even know about this ritual," Gregor had said as he showed the axe to the audience. "I only know of its existence through my sister who witnessed one. On that occasion the man who received the death penalty had sexually assaulted a woman. Now keep in mind that crime is practically non-existent among the Yuru, and crimes against women are unheard of in this matriarchal society. So it is extremely rare for a rapist to even exist among them."
"The procedure in itself is humanitarian in nature. The offender is given an anesthetic derived from an Amazonian root plant, so he feels no pain. Then the victim is given justiciera. If he or she can't go through with the execution then it is implied that the offense is not serious enough to deserve the death penalty. In the case my sister witnessed, the victim did go through with it. You will notice that justiciera's design makes it easy to wield. One precise blow to the base of the skull is more than sufficient to get the job done."
Each time Spencer replayed those words, he saw the execution ritual performed on William Farley. Alison gave Darcy the anesthetic and justiciera. Darcy drugged the professor and killed him. Then Alison went to the crime scene to collect justiciera and to tell Darcy how to clean up the forensic evidence.
What about the phone call before the murder? That must have been Alison asking Darcy if she was actually going to go through with it. Asking Darcy? Or convincing her? The tears pooling in Spencer's eyes started to roll freely down his cheeks. He knew the answer to that question. On the dreadful day of her rape, Darcy was twice a victim. First to the man who sexually assaulted her and then to the woman who convinced her to kill him.
"Spencer, are you crying?" asked Gregor. "Are those tears?"
Reid's thoughts grew ever darker as he realized that this could not have been Alison's first murder. There were no mistakes. The cover-up was perfectly executed. That could only mean that she had done this before. Spencer finally lost the last string of control and he cried openly. Gregor was beside himself with worry, but Spencer just could not stop. You see, the problem was that in the history of forbidden loves, this was the worst: an FBI supervisory special agent of the BAU had fallen in love with what he hunted for a living.