Chapter 19: Ultimatum
Colton Alderman was a cocky man.
Too cocky.
And that's what Rossi was banking on. That Colton's cockiness would tell him everything he needed to know.
Rossi strode into the interview room and briefly glanced at the one-sided mirror adjacent to the door. "Hello, Mr. Alderman," Rossi offered curtly and sat down across from the man wearing a smirk that begged to be smacked. "I'm sure you know why I'm here." Rossi clasped his fingers in front of him and rested them on the metal table while Colton Alderman leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his body.
"I'll take that as a yes," Rossi uttered. "I just have a few questions. That okay with you?"
Colton smirked and nodded his head. "Sure, but on one condition. You tell me how Agent Jareau is doing."
Rossi had anticipated this but feigned hesitation before nodding his head. "I'll tell you if you tell me what I need to know."
Colton rolled his eyes, but not before Rossi saw the gleam come across them.
"You promise?"
"I promise." Rossi examined Colton's body language then continued. "Tell me about the replica room. Why'd you do it? Why'd you keep Agent Jareau in the hidden concrete room when you took all this extra time to make the replica?"
Colton grimaced. "She was supposed to break sooner."
"What does that mean?"
"It means I was going to kill her and put her in her bed—I don't know, sorta like a final resting place. Then I was going to leave a tip so her team would find her then I could hop a plane outta here."
Rossi fought to keep his face expressionless.
"What about stealing her identity? How'd you do that?"
"I work in IT. The whole time I had control of her phone; with a few coding tricks and display hacks, I constructed a view that would look like her identity had been stolen."
"Why do that?"
"To crush her mental stability. When she came home, to the cabin, I wanted her stumbling and begging for mercy."
Rossi couldn't help himself, "but that didn't happen, clearly?"
Again Colton grimaced. "Everyone else was easy. She wouldn't let go."
"By everyone else, you mean the other people you killed?"
Colton smiled, and Rossi took that as his answer.
"Okay then, you said you had control of her phone. Was that how you listened to her, how you knew everything she was doing?"
"Agent Rossi, you're starting to get it." Colton winked, and Rossi mocked him with a sly, but subtle grin.
"I can connect the dots to almost all of it. You used the cameras to watch her. You gave Director Strauss the tip so JJ would nearly lose her job. How you listened to her- everything. There's just one thing that doesn't make sense to me. I've talked to Agent Jareau, and she was going to out you. When you and your accomplice tried to kill Doctor Reid- she was seconds away from telling Agent Hotchner everything. How was your accomplice already close enough to put a hit on one of her team members?"
"You mean on one of her friends?" Colton snickered. "Hardy did what I said when I said it. He was to follow Spencer Reid everywhere, so when I gave him the signal, he could shoot. Then JJ would know my threats were real. I was waiting for that moment; it was always part of the plan."
"But he messed up because Doctor Reid survived."
Colton huffed and didn't respond to Rossi's taunt.
"Now, this one really has me stumped. Agent Jareau could have taken any road to get out of Quantico, but she just so happened to choose the exact road with your cabin?"
Colton laughed. "I never intended for her to leave, I was going to take her before it ever got to that, but I had to improvise. How she ended up taking the exact road I needed… well, that was sheer luck."
Rossi gripped his fingers tighter together and promised himself he would never tell JJ what Colton said. Otherwise, she would spend the rest of her life thinking about what could have happened if she had taken any other road.
"But you still didn't kill her." Rossi retorted with a flutter of rage rising in his cheeks. "You had plenty of opportunities. You stalked her for years, kept her in a secluded cabin for four days- not even then did you do it when you had the chance."
Colton's face reddened at the words.
"And I say that because from over here, it looks like you just couldn't finish the job. Agent Jareau is alive, and you're… here."
"Shut up!" Colton instantaneously screamed as he visibly reached his breaking point. He stood up and his chair screeched resoundingly against the floor. Rossi put a hand up to the one-sided mirror as a signal he was okay and kept his deadpan stare focused on Colton.
"You started taunting JJ around the time she turned 17, but you took a break-a long break-and you didn't bother JJ, why not?"
"I tried to kill myself and ended up in a damn psych ward for far too long. Then it took me years to perfect this plan."
With his patience running thin, Rossi exhaled and resisted the urge to antagonize the man any more than he already had even though he desperately wanted to. "I just have one more question...about Mr. Hardy-"
"You'll never find him," Colton interjected.
"We already did," Rossi bluffed.
"That's impossible."
"How?"
"You'll find out soon enough." Colton threatened as the same smirk that started on his face returned.
Rossi stood to leave, but Colton started screaming again.
"WAIT! TELL ME ABOUT JJ. TELL ME WHAT YOU PROMISED!"
But Rossi closed the door behind himself without a single word.
"Aaron, it took all night, but I finally got a chance to interview Alderman. I'll explain later, but he said something that rubbed me the wrong way. I think we should double JJ's security until we find Hardy."
"Hardy's already been here. Get over here, and I'll explain. Hurry."
6 AM.
Time for JJ's vitals again.
She'd felt fine when she went to sleep, but now… something in her body felt different, and she didn't know why.
Morgan paced around her room, clutching an evidence bag with a white piece of paper inside.
"What is that?" JJ asked hesitantly.
Morgan exhaled. "You're awake. Look, the doctors need to run some extra tests, are you… feeling okay today?"
JJ swallowed and shook her head in confusion. "I feel kind of weird, but… tell me what's going on?"
"You didn't see anyone in your room last night? No one that looked unfamiliar?"
"No… what the hell kind of question is that?" The machines connected to JJ started beeping wildly as her heart rate rose. "Tell me what's going on right now."
Morgan didn't say anything. He just handed over the evidence bag. JJ practically ripped it from his hands and brought it up to read the scribbled words.
Sweet JJ has been dosed with a drug that will kill her very slowly unless you give me what I want. There is an antidote for this, but only I have it. Without it, she will die within 24 hours. Bring her to me, and I'll administer the antidote myself. Otherwise, you can say goodbye. -CA
"How- how is this possible?" JJ paused. "Tell me how the hell this is possible?"
"Alderman is still in custody. Rossi was interviewing him almost all of last night."
"So Beckham was here," JJ concluded and forced a gulp down her dry throat. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to not let this information have an effect on her. She just wanted to be how she used to be.
Perfectly controlled.
No emotions.
Controlled.
"The officer outside your door last night confirmed that someone entered to check your vitals, but then we cross-checked with the nurse's schedule and there was nothing." Morgan paused to gauge JJ's reaction. "We're going to find him."
"You said that last time." JJ's voice finally broke, and the bubbling emotion started to cascade down her cheeks as her inner monologue began to chastise her for being so weak.
Morgan shook his head. He didn't have an adequate response. And she was entirely correct; they had failed her again.
"The doctors will be in soon. If you start to feel anything, you let one of us know." Morgan said with a mild raise to his eyebrows and an immediate deflection so he wouldn't have to face the perceived guilt.
JJ nodded but didn't say anything as she struggled to control the unrelenting tears.
"There's no way he's created a drug only he has an antidote for. He's barely above average intelligence. We just need to find out what he dosed her with, and then we can counteract the poison without ever having to talk to him. Right, Reid?"
Reid bobbed his head up and down while reading a large book with the word 'Poisons' on the front of it. Surely a book the hospital had provided.
"Give me a little more time. I'll find something."
"Hurry, Reid. We're on a clock, we may only have 12 more hours."
Reid's lips folded into a straight line before he sauntered away.
Hotch turned to Morgan. "Garcia is also running searches on what we have, but what we do have... it's not much."
Morgan shook his head. "How do we know this is even real?"
"We don't, but until we have concrete evidence of the contrary, we work it the same."
Emily sat at JJ's side while the rest of the team worked the case. They took turns, but someone always sat at JJ's side.
It had been about an hour, and JJ continued to act normal.
Until she didn't.
"Aaugh," JJ moaned and clutched her stomach.
Emily stood anxiously. "What is it? Tell me where it hurts." Emily reached over for the line to call the nurses and pressed the button over and over as if that would help or make them get there any faster.
JJ's eyes started to roll to the back of her head. Emily grabbed JJ's hand and squeezed with an unsaid urgency. "Please, Jayje, stay awake."
Emily glanced over at JJ's heart rate monitor and saw her baseline heart rate was slowly increasing and had been for some time.
"Really- really dizzy," JJ muttered, but her words came out a bit slurred, and Emily didn't need Reid to tell her that, that wasn't a good sign.
"MORGAN!" Emily screamed, hoping he was close enough to JJ's room to hear her cry.
He was, and he sprinted inside.
"What is it?"
"Her heart rate is tachycardic, she's dizzy and clutching her abdomen like it's really hurting her. I pressed the nurse button but-"
Doctors and nurses started to pile in her room, hovering over JJ, checking her over, and trying to keep JJ conscious.
JJ cried out again, curling into a ball around her abdomen.
"Isn't there something you can give her?" Morgan snapped.
"We don't know what's in her system, until we find out, we can't risk anything else interacting with the substance." The doctor stated. "Her blood and urine tests are almost back."
"Go check again," Morgan ordered and moved to JJ's side.
No more than 30 minutes later, two doctors strolled back into JJ's room. This time Reid and Morgan sat by JJ, anxiously awaiting this moment and any information they could offer the two agents.
"We performed a complete blood count with differential electrolytes, glucose, blood urea nitrogen, and calcium. Everything came back normal. Her body must have already metabolized the toxin because there are no traces in her system."
Morgan opened his mouth, likely to say something he would regret, but Reid cut him off.
"What about a liver function test?"
The doctor nodded his head while Morgan looked down to see JJ's eyes still closed, probably exhausted from her body attacking itself.
"Yes, that too, but nothing came up as abnormal. We have nurses checking her vitals every hour and taking blood every other hour. Multiple doctors are looking over her scans and blood work to find anything we could have missed. As soon as we find something, we'll let you know."
"I'll need a copy of those tests," Reid demanded and the doctor nodded then left the room without another word.
"What could have done this, man?" Morgan asked just above a whisper, agitation plainly meshed between the words.
"I think we're looking at arsenic, isoniazid, thallium, mercury, or even organophosphate poisoning." Reid's face fell.
"What? What is it?"
"Until JJ starts showing more symptoms, likely worse symptoms, we won't know for sure."
A/N: Only 4 more chapters! This story has been one of my favorite to write. I hope I haven't let any of you down with it. Please review :')