Sorry about missing yesterday, I was unexpectedly out of town. But I'm back, so here's the chapter!
Hello everybody; ModernDayBard here. I don't have too much to say this time, except that I hope you enjoy watching the case and climax continue to unfold.
Because I am required to say it: I do not own Criminal Minds or any cannon characters/events; just those of my own creation.
Hotch's assessment—that no one would be happy with the plan of action that had been decided on—was accurate. Thinking about it rationally, it made sense: in light of Amanda's story, the 'fractions' could be seen as a countdown of sorts, meaning there was one potential victim left, which could only be Mrs. Veere herself, so taking the woman into protective custody was the best course of action, and would force the killer's hand or buy them time to figure out who was the Unsub.
And the two most likely suspects left, now that Amanda's alibi checked out, were Jason and Brandon, so one could easily understand why they were to be brought in and questioned. Of course, since they lived in different states, this made the logistics of the endeavor difficult. However, it turned out Mrs. Veere had also settled in Tennessee after being released from prison, in an area not too far from where Brandon lived, so most of the team headed there, Rossi going to bring Mrs. Veere into protective custody, and Prentiss and Morgan bringing in Brandon. Meanwhile, Hotch and Spence had gone to Ohio to talk to Jason.
To Amanda's surprise, she'd been allowed to travel with the team to Tennessee, despite not officially being a part of the investigation. She wouldn't be permitted to talk to her brother until after his alibi was confirmed, but she was confident in his innocence, and content to wait. Before he even made it to the station, however, Rossi arrived back, and Amanda found herself bolting from the room before the older woman could spot or recognize her.
This is going to be awful.
Spence watched as Hotch sat across from Amanda's oldest brother, Jason. The young pastor seemed a little uneasy, but that could have just been the situation. After all, few people, if any, would be completely at ease being interrogated by the FBI, and those few people would be very suspicious indeed. But Jason wasn't setting off any alarms in Reid's head, and once he'd been assured that he hadn't been brought in because either of his siblings were hurt or in danger, Jason had been very cooperative.
Spence's phone buzzed with a text from Garcia, and he checked in subtly—Jason's alibi was solid for all three kills and the prison mutilation. He gave Hotch a small nod, and the older man paused in his latest series of questions, which had been aimed at getting a preliminary sense of the young pastor's health and frame of mind. The older agent returned the nod—this wasn't their man.
Does this mean it was Brandon? Amanda's convinced it isn't either of them, but they are her brothers. Besides, if it isn't them, who could it be?
"Look, you guys work with Amanda, right? Just tell me: is this about her? Is she okay?"
"She's fine," Prentiss answered as she took a seat opposite Brandon, who was clearly agitated. "This is actually about the Veere's."
Brandon stiffened at the name—a fact that did not go unnoticed by the brunette across from him. His whole posture became more closed off, but that could also have been a reaction to the memory of the pain and trauma the couple had inflicted on him and his siblings.
"I don't want anything to do with them," he said at last. "They got sent to prison, that's where they should stay. If someone's looking into paroling them, tell them not to. That bitch and that bastard are right where they deserve to be."
Emily made a show of glancing back at the file in front of her, before responding. "He's dead and she was released two years ago on good behaviour." She glanced back up and saw the look of surprise and something approaching incomprehension on the carpenter's face.
"They—she—he," he stammered, shaking his head. "Of course—why keep her locked up now that she's a harmless old lady?" he asked with a bitter, sarcastic laugh. "She only abused and criminally neglected four children placed in her care—and caused the death of one of them. No big deal." He met Emily's eyes again, and she could see he was genuinely rattled by the information that the nightmare of his childhood was loose again. "You obviously know about what happened there—do you know how Jamie died? It wasn't just that he was sick—he was so malnourished from all the times she'd refused him food. We'd try to sneak some to each other, but it was never enough. And hypothermia—it was always cold there...He was only eight," he finished weakly, in a broken voice. "And we couldn't save him."
Emily didn't speak for a while, taking in the figure before her. From what she could tell, while he was the most willing to talk about what happened in those months, like his brother and sister he'd been doing his best to move on and escape its effects. He'd been rattled by being forced to face it again but she didn't think he'd hunt down those he deemed responsible, if only because he'd rather forget, if he could. She was almost certain his alibi would check out as well.
But who does that leave, then?
Only his many years of training and experience kept Rossi from glaring at the woman across from him—he hadn't liked Mrs. Gertrude Veere when they first met, and his impression had not improved in nineteen years. In fact, the older agent couldn't deny wishing this interview was taking place in a holding cell or interrogation room, rather than a comfortable sitting area in the back of the police station.
She didn't look cruel or evil—not that people like her commonly did, and what did 'looking evil' really mean?—but rather like any other elderly lady in that community. A person who didn't know her story might have even called Gertrude Veere sweet. She perched on the couch in her floral-print dress, with her handbag by her feet. She didn't seem to recognize the man sitting opposite her in the armchair, but then, Gideon had been the one to draw the short straw and conduct the Veere's interviews, while Rossi had been the one to talk to the three surviving Johnson siblings.
"Thank you for agreeing to come with us," Rossi managed at last, his voice somehow level and civil, "I know this must've been a shock."
"Oh, that's fine, dearie—I'm not one to argue when the FBI says they need to protect me, though I don't know why anyone would want to hurt me," the grey-haired woman assured him.
Rossi took a moment to choose his next words. "We have good reason to believe that someone is targeting people connected to an incident nineteen years ago—the death of Jamie Johnson." He watched for her reaction at the name, and was not disappointed: she sat up straighter, clasped her hands, and her expression turned cold.
"I've been trying to leave the past behind, move on in the little time I have left...I feel sorry for that poor boy, but the whole mess was a big misunderstanding." She paused for a bit, then her expression darkened. "It's probably one of the two older hooligans—they were trouble born, those two. Nothing I did got through to them. I was just trying to put them back on the right track."
"Discipline," Rossi suggested, stomach churning at the thought of how benign a term could be misused by people like her. No, not misused—misunderstood. If he remembered the original case file correctly, she'd always insisted she was only trying to discipline the four children; it'd been determined that her husband was the true sadist in the household.
Gertrude nodded emphatically, beginning to smile as perceived support. "Exactly! Heaven knows those children hadn't had much before they came to me. They're mother was a drug addict, you know. That's why they were taken away, and I could tell just by looking at them they'd lived with her for too long and were already picking up her wicked ways. I had to act quickly if I was going to save them from themselves. The younger two had more of a chance, but I wasn't about to give up on any of them."
"So Jamie's death was accidental?" Rossi asked, though he had seen the ME's report nineteen years ago. Yes, you 'accidentally' starved him, beat him, and repeatedly locked him in a freezing basement with no coat, shoes, or blanket in the winter.
Gertrude glanced away, uncomfortable now. "I-I didn't know he was sick. His vice was lying, see. He'd fake being sick, or tell me the others were sick, to try and get treats or out of chores."
So, her view of events hadn't changed in nineteen years. Unsurprising, since most people would tell themselves anything to appease their own conscience, and convince the world of their innocence by first convincing themselves. "Is there anyone else connected to the incident that may have a grudge against you or your husband?"
"No, no," Gertrude insisted, shaking her head. "I guarantee you: it was one of those two. They were bad to the bone, and I was too late to save them."
No, the only one it was too late to save was Jamie...and maybe you.
While Rossi was finishing up his interview, Emily left the room where Brandon was being held and meandered over to where Morgan was waiting, coffee in hand and clearly uncomfortable. "Something wrong?" the brunette asked her partner as she came up beside him.
Derek didn't meet her gaze, and instead kept glancing between the room he had left, the closed door to the sitting area where Rossi and Mrs. Veere were, then over to where Amanda was sitting, still and blank-faced, for once.
"We get cases like this sometimes," Morgan said by way of a prelude before blurting out the one thing bothering him: "But it always feels like, when we do, we're protecting the wrong person."
On the plane, those who hadn't already had read the original case file and seen what Amanda hadn't said. Even ignoring the fact that it felt like intruding into their friend's personal life, it was anything but a comfortable read, and Prentiss couldn't help agreeing with Morgan's assessment.
So, yeah. I think when I was planning it, I pictured this happening in Quantico where the BAU is based, then I realized when I came to write this chapter that I had the brothers in two different states, and I needed to set the rest of the case in one of those, so I picked Brandon because...well, you'll see next time!
As always, if you saw something you liked, or something you think you can fix/improve on for next time, don't hesitate to leave a review and let me know!