What Fresh Hell?- 1:12
Harita's POV
"Missing child in Wilmington, Delaware." JJ started as she went over the case. "11-year-old Billie Copeland was last seen on the playground at 4:30 yesterday afternoon."
"That's 20 hours ago."
"Actually 19 hours and 48 minutes." I corrected Hotch's statement.
"Exactly, child abduction response plan says we get notified immediately. What happened?"
"There was reason to believe she was with her father. Her cell phone shows a call to him around the time of the disappearance."
"So they've since ruled him out?" Gideon asked.
"He called the mother about an hour ago." JJ answered.
"That doesn't mean he isn't involved." Gideon pointed out.
"He's on his way to the family home, so you can talk to him there. But the local police are now considering this a stranger abduction."
"Around 20 hours late." Morgan remarked.
"Long-term stranger abductions of children Billie's age are rare. They represent only one percent of all missing cases per year. But they are usually more likely to be fatal. Of the children that are abducted and murdered, 44% die within the first hour. From that point forth, their odds of survival greatly decrease. 75% are gone after 3 hours. Virtually all of them are dead after 24." Reid stated.
"Which means we have a little over 4 hours to find her." Hotch reminded. "Shall we go?"
…
*CUE INTRO*
(For one of the 'pictures' in the intro, imagine Harita fidgeting with a pen, looking at a map with her left eyebrow raised.)
...
"Put out a city-wide alert. We've got multi-agency law enforcement running canvass. Body and evidence grid search is up and running on foot with canine units. Talked to the press twice. Gave 'em a description of the suv and the suspect and formed a round-the-clock volunteer-manned hotline service." The detective explained. Morgan, Hotch, and I went to inspect where Billie was last seen, while the others went to the Copeland's house.
"Did you run a background check on these volunteers?" Morgan asked.
"On-going but no red flags yet. I had to make a call on this one, you know? Looked like a family thing."
"Any witnesses?" Hotch questioned.
"Witnesses have her talking to a white male, mid-30s, carrying a leash, right about there." The detective pointed.
"Just a leash. No dog?" Hotch confirmed.
"No dog."
"Lost dog is a common ruse. Especially with children, they're more vulnerable and gullible that way." I described as we kept on walking across the soccer field. It was a beautiful day. There were no clouds in the sky and it wasn't a harsh wintery day. Though, the last time we had a harsh wintery day was on December 24th, my 26th birthday. It was snowing, which I love, but I did more mourning than celebrating. Let's get back to today. It was fairly empty and quiet, which was very weird because there would usually be press causing commotion. Then again they could be doing that at the Copeland's house. I was wearing a dark blue turtleneck sweater, a black leather jacket, some dark black pants, and my dark blue low cut Converse. There was a small breeze, blowing my hair a bit, which was in a low ponytail. I was munching on some dates, which were a bit cold but I didn't mind.
"A short time later, a green SUV sped out of the parking lot over there. We have an amber alert on it." Detective Russet continued.
"According to preliminary reports, mother and daughter had an argument during soccer practice?" Morgan asked.
"Billie wants to spend more time with her father. It's a pretty fresh divorce. I get the impression that our victim is in the middle of it." The detective answered.
"Unsub could have been hunting during practice. Crowded park at 4 p.m. is a target-rich environment. Angry, upset little girl needs someone to talk to, BAM, he swoops right in." I elaborated.
"How would he know she was upset?" Detective Russet questioned.
"Finding vulnerable kids is what these guys are good at." Hotch answered. Suddenly, Detective Russet's phone rang.
"Russet." She answered. "Yeah. Where? We'll be right there." She hung up the phone. "Uniforms just located another kid who might have talked to the suspect yesterday. It's a couple blocks from here."
"Let's go."
…
*FLASHBACK*
I walked into Hotch's office and found that he wasn't there. Perfect. I walked over to his desk and sat on his chair. I spun around and around. That was until the door opened.
"Harita, get out of my chair please." Hotch's voice announced. I stopped spinning and got up, dizzily. I walked to the other chair like a drunk person and sat down. I put my hand on my hand and leaned back against the chair to stop the dizziness. Once it stopped, I sat back up and looked straight at Hotch's eyes. I didn't blink for a long time, and neither did he. That was until I threw a pen at him, he blinked.
"HA! I won!" I cheered.
"I did not call you here for us to have a staring contest and have me get thrown a pen at, although I do think that is called cheating." Aaron muttered the last part.
"Cheating? I don't her." I replied.
"I wanted to ask you how you are doing."
"I'm… alright. Most of me has moved on, while the small part of me hasn't"
"Well, you know where to find me if you need someone to talk to."
*END OF FLASHBACK*
...
We got out of the car and headed towards the group of kids playing basketball. I so wanted to just snatch the ball and shoot it, but there was this angry mother that was watching them (*cough cough* Karen *cough cough*) and Hotch told me about how this neighborhood had a couple of pedophiles.
"Good afternoon." Detective Russet said to the kids, grabbing their attention. "I'm Detective Russet. This is Special Agents Hotchner, Morgan, and Harita from the FBI."
"Hi, you guys." Hotch greeted.
"Can I see your gun?" A short kid in a green shirt asked.
"Not now kid." I assured.
"This used to be a good neighborhood." An angry looking woman with red hair and peach skin said. (*cough cough* Karen *cough cough*) "But this is what happens when you let pedophiles and sex freaks live wherever they want."
"Ma'am-" Detective Russet was cut off by the angry looking woman.
"I have been searching the sex offender registry. Two of them live close, not that you can tell exactly where from the map on the internet. Are you talking to them?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"What's a pedophile sex freak?" A kid asked.
"It's a word only adults can use, and you'll learn about them when the time comes." I asserted.
"Ok, listen up. Which one of you is Connie?" Morgan asked. A girl with a pink jacket raised her hand. Her mom was right behind her.
"Hey, sweetheart." Morgan addressed. "Ma'am, do you mind if we ask your daughter a couple of questions?" Morgan asked the mom, who shook her head. "Why don't we step right over here, and the rest of you can go back to playing, all right?" We walked the two over to the side.
"Connie, I'm Agent Hotchner." Aaron introduced. "Did you talk to a man yesterday about finding his dog?"
"Yeah. He said her name was Candy and that she was old. But I told him I couldn't help him 'cause I had to go home and have lunch. And if I'm late, I get grounded." Connie answered.
"Yeah. Well, moms are like that." Hotch joked.
"And then when he came back, I was already late for soccer practice."
"Connie, he came back?" Morgan questioned.
"Yeah. After lunch. He said his dog was still lost."
"Do you think you'd recognize him if you saw him again?" I asked.
"I don't know." She admitted.
"Would you like to go down to the police department and have a look at a book with some men's faces in it? It might help you recognize him. Would that be all right?" Detective Russet asked the two.
"Ok." They both answered. Detective Russet led the two to the SUV.
"Came back to the same neighborhood twice in one day." Morgan concluded.
"That's bold." I added.
"He's comfortable in the area." Hotch stated.
...
"What do we know?" Gideon asked. We went to the Copeland's house to tell the others what we knew.
"We talked to a kid who had contact with the unsub." Hotch replied.
"Came back to the same street more than once." Morgan added.
"Tells us he's at ease in the neighborhood, comfortable talking to kids in plain view." I addressed.
"He lured Billie with a story about a lost dog." Morgan explained.
"She recently lost one of her own." Gideon exposed.
"That indicates previous knowledge of the victim." Reid concluded.
"But it doesn't necessarily mean that she knew him, Only that he's aware." Hotch restated.
"It's not uncommon for predators like these to know kids that live around his area." Spencer recited.
"He's from the neighborhood." Hotch whispered.
"Then we go door to door and ask for voluntary searchers." Detective Russet suggested.
"Neighborhood's already crawling with uniforms. They're everywhere." Spencer observed.
"So far you followed the child abduction response plan to the letter?" Gideon asked.
"For the past few hours, yes." Detective Russet confirmed.
"So now we need to move past the guidelines." Gideon said.
"What?" Detective Russet exclaimed.
"Change tactics. If we don't, Billie isn't gonna make it past the next 24 hours. I want you to corral these clowns." Gideon pointed to the interviewers holding the cameras and microphones. "We're gonna need 'em, all of 'em."
…
It was profile time.
"Billie Copeland has been missing-"
"22 hours, 7 minutes, and 21 seconds." I finished for Gideon.
"It is vital that we locate her in the first 24."
"The unknown subject in this case is most likely a resident of one of the subdivisions around the park. We have cancelled the amber alert. We need to coordinate with all your officers to pull everyone off the street immediately." Hotch stated.
"That's crazy." One of the officers announced.
"Just hear me out."
"But it goes against the CARP procedure. You guys wrote the damn thing." The officer exclaimed.
"CARP is just a guideline for immediate response to child abduction. Believe it or not, we're already late in the game, and we do know enough about this unsub to know that if he feels like we're closing in on him at all, he will kill Billie to avoid detection. If anything, we need to lessen the pressure on him." Reid argued.
"The man fits in. Cause nobody knows what he is. Can we really know our neighbors? He walks his dog, does yard work. Solitary activities appeal to him. But if you watch closely, you'll see he pays a little too much attention to the neighborhood kids. Largely goes unnoticed because he isn't perceived as a threat." Gideon expressed.
"He's a white male, in his late 20s to 30s. He has a menial or temporary job. Socially marginalized and frustrated. He relates better to kids than he does to adults." Hotch stated.
"This is not his first offense against children, but it is his first abduction." Elle said.
"How do you know that?" Detective Russet asked.
"First-timers typically hunt closer to home. Experienced predators don't." I explained.
"And he's had a recent stressor, a job loss or other setback. Unable to maintain a normal relationship, he'll have extensive pornographic materials in his home and on his computer. And while they won't all involve children, some of them definitely will." Hotch added.
"Since he used the missing dog ruse and we believe him to be a regular fixture of the neighborhood, it's quite possible that he truly does own or did at one point own a dog named Candy. We recommend cross-checking veterinary records with residents in the neighborhood." Reid announced.
"He will not inject himself into this investigation." Hotch proclaimed.
"Don't these guys like to know what the cops know?" Detective Russet questioned.
"No, not this type of unsub. He's hiding. He doesn't know what anyone saw. He doesn't know if there's any information about him out there. He's unlikely to walk in, ask us, 'Can I help you?' But I can guarantee you he will be watching the news. So how we handle them is very important." Gideon elucidated.
"Check your canvass records. One of you may have had contact with him in the early stages." Hotch ordered.
"What about registered sex offenders?" Detective Russet queeried.
"We've got somebody working on that right now." Hotch stated as his phone rang.
"Ok, ladies and gentlemen, everyone clear on that? Good luck." Gideon thanked. Hotch ended his phone call and looked at Morgan and I.
"Harita, Morgan, come with me. We have to go fast." We both ran after Hotch and headed into the SUV. As Hotch started driving, I finally popped the question.
"What's wrong?"
"You know the same lady who told us about the sex offenders when we went to talk to Connie." We both nodded. "Turns out she went to the Copeland's house and handed Mr. Copeland a list full of sex offenders in the area. He's going after one of them." I shook my head and sighed.
"Hotch." Morgan called out. "He's right there." I looked in front and saw Mr. Copeland beating up someone. Hotch drove to the side and Morgan and I jumped out of the car to break the fight up.
"Mr. Copeland! Mr. Copeland, don't do it!" Morgan shouted as he got on top of him. I grabbed the other dude and backed him away.
"Get off of me! He's got my kid!" Mr. Copeland yelled.
"I got no kid!" The dude I was holding shouted back.
"Get inside." I told him, as he did as told. Mr. Copeland was crying about how he has got his daughter, even though we all knew that wasn't true.
...
"Mr. Jones, the guy you went after, isn't interested in pressing charges." Hotch announced to the Copeland's. We were back at the station, discussing what happened earlier.
"Am I supposed to be grateful? The bastard's a pedophile." Mr. Copeland sneered.
"No, he isn't." Hotch said.
"Did you check up on him? Did you ever search his house?" Mr. Copeland asked.
"His sex offense was soliciting a prostitute. It had nothing to do with children." I corrected.
"But he's registered on-" Derek cut him off.
"Mr. Copeland, there are a lot of ways to get on that list. That's why accessing that type of information is supposed to be left up to law enforcement."
"We understand your frustration and your anger, but you're jeopardizing our efforts to save your daughter's life. Every minute spent chasing you is time we're not spending on Billie. So either get control of yourself and follow our directions or stay out of our way." Hotch ordered.
"What would you like us to do?" Mrs. Copeland asked.
"Make a public appeal for information regarding a witness driving a dark green SUV." JJ answered.
"Isn't he supposed to be the suspect?" Mr. Copeland questioned.
"Yes, but when people hear 'suspect', they can't see the guy next door as a monster. They can't imagine their neighbor could do something like this." I stated.
"If he's a witness, he might be a hero." Elle continued.
"But what if he thinks it's a trick? What if he panics or thinks it's too risky, and then he-" JJ cut Mrs. Copeland off.
"It's not just him that you'll be speaking to. It's his neighbors as well."
"We've done everything we can to relieve the pressure on this man. We've taken the cops off the street. You won't have any standing with you on the dais. Only a local minister." Morgan assured.
"Hearing he isn't a suspect might calm him down as well. Right now he's under enormous stress. And we need him to believe, even if it's just for a little while, that we're way off the mark, that we're not close to arresting him." Hotch said.
"Are you? Close to arresting him?" Mr. Copeland asked.
"We need the public's help."
...
"Ok, can I have everyone's attention?" JJ announced her arrival on the TV as she stepped onto the podium. "Please, if you could just take your seats. The Copeland family is here to make an appeal. As you all know, their 11-year-old daughter Billie is missing. So if you could just have a little compassion and patience. Mr. Copeland." JJ stepped off of the podium and the Copelands took her place.
"Yesterday" Mr. Copeland cleared his throat. "Yesterday, at approximately 3 p.m., my daughter, our daughter, Belinda Copeland, Billie, went missing from the recreation center. We are looking for a man, a witness, in a green SUV. There have been some reports that he is a suspect, but that was a mistake. He's not suspected of anything. We would like this man to come forward and tell us what he knows. We need your help. He may not even understand how important what he saw is. So anyone with information about this individual or his green SUV, please call the tip hotline. Thank you."
"Mr. Copeland! Mr. Copeland!" The reporters yelled, but went quiet when Mrs. Copeland began to talk.
"We'd like billie to come home now. It'll be dark soon. Thank you."
"So the body located by police earlier today is not Billie's?" A reporter asked. My face scrunched into confusion. I looked over at Morgan.
"They found a body in the lake earlier, it was Billie's description, but it wasn't her." He whispered into my ear. I relaxed a bit.
"What?" Mr. Copeland asked.
"The female body-"
"There'll be no more questions. Thank you." JJ said, ending his sentence. JJ moved the Copeland's off camera as Mr. Copeland tried asking questions about the body while the reporters tried to gain their attention by asking other questions. We all headed to the office.
"Is my daughter dead?" Mrs. Copeland demanded
"A body was discovered." Hotch answered.
"It's not Billie. The body that was found was much older and has been dead a number of days. Looks like maybe a junkie or an overdose." Gideon added.
"Are you sure?" Mr. Copeland asked.
"Yes, I saw the body myself. It's not your daughter."
"My god, I can't- I can't." Mrs. Copeland started sobbing.
"Please just come with me." Elle escorted the two away from us.
"What the hell was that about?" Gideon asked.
"A report asked them about the body." I replied.
"Probably heard it on the scanner." Morgan added.
"I should have prepared them for that." JJ admitted.
"We don't have anything to tell them yet." Gideon responded.
"Billie's running out of time." Spencer stated.
"So are the parents." Hotch reminded.
"Come on. A little hope, huh?" Gideon pleaded as he walked away. We followed him, well, because he is the boss man.
...
"How's it going?" Hotch asked us. Morgan, Reid, and I took our duty to start reading the police reports of the witness/suspects, since they were talking too long.
"The unsub's in here somewhere." Morgan stated.
"You gotta bet that the police talked to him In their initial canvass." I adjoined.
"Maybe not." Spencer realized. "Our unsub is a solitary individual. He isn't the type of guy to insert himself into an investigation. Wouldn't it make more sense that he wouldn't have answered the door during the initial canvass?"
"Neighborhood was crawling with cops, canine units, search and rescues. Make him nervous and jumpy, he'd want to avoid them at all costs." Hotch profiled.
"So then he couldn't allow anyone into his home to ask routine questions even if the girl was bound or gagged because it'd be too risky." Morgan concluded.
"It's next to impossible to control breathing, speech patterns, body language when the body's under extreme duress. Maybe if we compare hotline tips with anyone who wasn't at home during the initial canvass." Spencer suggested.
"Or didn't answer their door." I added.
"We'll find our unsub."
"Let's get to it."
...
"No ma'am, I'm not here to talk about your sick cat. Yes, I am very sorry for her. Do you- nothing? Alright, thanks anyway." I put the phone down. "Nothing." I told the two.
"Agent Morgan?" An officer came into the room.
"Yeah."
"This the kinda thing you're looking for?" He signaled us to follow him. "A Mr. Lomax has a neighbor with a green SUV, but he hasn't seen him all day. Says that's unusual. thought he might have been out of town, but now he sees some lights on over there." We followed him to the desk, where he handed Morgan a note with the address on it.
"1106 Springfield. Where's our canvass sheets?" Morgan asked as Spencer pulled out the sheet from the other table.
"1106. 1100 block. 1106. No answer." Spencer mumbled.
"Let's go talk with Mr. Lomax." I said.
...
"Mr. Lomax?" Morgan called out. We found him raking the leaves "Agent Morgan. Agent Reid. Agent Harita. FBI." We all pulled out our badges and showed him.
"Holy smokes! That was fast." Mr. Lomax exclaimed as he walked towards us with his rake.
"Did you call in a tip about your neighbor, Don Curtis?" Spencer asked.
"Lives down the street. I saw the news thing, you know? I was thinking, Don drives a dark green Explorer, and he's at the park all the time. I figured like they said on the television maybe he knows something but he doesn't know that he knows it. Know what I mean?"
"Where's his Explorer now?" I asked.
"It's usually in the driveway, but I haven't seen it today. Haven't seen Don either, which is kind of weird. We're always out front talking about the lawns. He never has any crabgrass. I don't know how he does it."
"Do you know if he has a dog?" Morgan asked.
"Used to. A big Golden Retriever. Name was Candy. I think she died like 6 months ago."
"Thank you, Mr. Lomax." I said as we walked away. Morgan pulled out his phone to call Hotch.
...
A few minutes passed and Hotch and Gideon showed up.
"Third house down on the right. We knocked on the door, but nobody's answering." Morgan announced."
"His neighbor said he's definitely in there." Spencer added.
"He's got a green Ford Explorer in the garage." I added.
"Break down the door." Gideon ordered.
"No. We don't have probable cause." Detective Russet argued.
"He's got a green SUV. He had a dog that died recently. He spends time in the park." Morgan fought back.
"Pretending he's not home." Hotch added.
"None of which are illegal. No judge is going to sign a warrant based on that information." Detective Russet argued.
"You're weighing the life of a child against the price of a door?" Gideon yelled.
"I'm weighing the law against the price of a door." Detective Russet calmly said.
"The girl's in the house right now. The longer we stand here, the longer he has to finish her off."
"I'll call a judge." Detective Russet pulled out her phone. "If we go in there without a warrant, all that evidence will get thrown-"
"We're aware of the rules of evidence. What do you propose that we do?" Hotch asked just as Gideon ran to the house.
"We tow his car, we impound it, and we search it." Detective Russet said as we began to run after him. We tried calling after him but it didn't work. Gideon grabbed a flower pot and smashed the window and climbed in. I grabbed my gun and kicked down the door, only because I got there first.
"Federal agents. FBI!" I yelled. I went to the first room and looked around. "Clear!" I got out of the room and followed Gideon down the hallway. A man ran out of the room, trying to escape, but Gideon cornered him and held his gun to his forehead.
"Where is she?" Gideon demanded.
"I don't know what you're talking about." The guy, possibly Mr. Curtis, whimpered.
"Where's Billie Copeland?" Gideon yelled.
"Please don't hurt me."
"Gideon" I called out.
"Please! Please put the gun down." The guy pleaded.
"Gideon!" Morgan called out this time.
"Get him out of here!" Gideon yelled as he threw Mr. Curtis against the wall. I grabbed a hold of him and passed him off to Morgan, who then dragged him outside.
"Tear the place apart! " Gideon shouted.
...
We didn't find her. Yet. Reid and I were looking around the shelves near his TV, looking at his DVDs.
"Just as we expected, he has an extensive collective of deviant photos and cartoon downloads." Reid stated.
"Partitioned in separate folders?" Gideon asked as we nodded. "Access the internet history. Identify any pornographic sites, shut 'em down."
"I'm uploading to Garcia as we speak." I said.
"What is this? Is it all porn?" Gideon asked as he shoved everything off the shelves.
"It's a lot of home movies with a bunch of kids in it. This one-you need to see it." Morgan said as he pushed in the DVD.
"Shh. Remember what I'll do if you tell." A voice said. I shuddered.
" Gideon, we searched the entire house, upstairs, downstairs. Everywhere. There's no sign of the girl or that she's even been here. It is possible that he moved her. Polly Klaas was found 25 miles from home, Danielle Van Damme 30, Samantha Runnion, 52. But keep in mind, we were 20 hours late getting involved." Spencer suggested.
"Man doesn't take chances. He wouldn't drive around with a girl in the car. He took her, got her off the street as quickly as possible. Just keep looking." Gideon said as he went outside.
…
Just as I finished sending all of the files to Garcia, our tech analyst. Hotch came into the room.
"We got her, she was in the attic."
...
"I got absolutely nothing." Morgan announced.
"Aw, nothing." JJ sighed.
"2 pair of aces." Reid announced his winning. They were playing Poker, the only reason I didn't join was because I was on a call with Saline the majority of the game.
"Oh, get outta town! Why you always winning?" Morgan asked.
"Cause he cheats." JJ replied.
"Poker? It's mathematics, it's statistics."
"Har har. If you were playing it that way, you know I would win, concluded from the past times I did beat you, but you are from Vegas." I stated, throwing a gummy snake at him, which he gladly ate.
"All right, shuffle." Morgan said, as JJ did as told.
"Hey, deal me in. I want to beat Reid, again." I called out.
"Hey, Hotch." Gidon hollered.
"Yeah?"
"Did you send flowers to that tech room girl, Garcia, and say they were from me?" Gideon asked.
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"Jason, people need to know that they're important, and sometimes you forget that."
"I already sent her a gift. An mp3 player. They last longer. Unless you drop them or the battery dies, whichever comes first."
"So she got 2 gifts. What if she thinks I'm sweet on her?" Gideon asked as Elle appeared behind him. She made a face and we all burst out laughing.
"Maybe not, huh?" Gideon admitted as we started laughing again.
So, yesterday, I finished the last episode of Criminal Minds, aka 15x10, aka 'In the End', aka the last episode forever, aka I'm dying inside and I balled my eyes out. Yes, I am dying. Did I start rewatching the whole thing again, yes, yes I did.
Toodles,
HernameisBurrito