Authoress Note: Welcome to Chapter 29 of Messed Up World. Thank you to those who have left reviews for this story. It really does mean a lot to me that you guys are enjoying this story. I am of course trying my best to write each of these chapters out the best that I can and make them good as I write them out. If there are any mistakes in this story in any way, try to let me know. I don't have a beta reader and trying to edit stories does take a lot out of me, but I am trying my best with all of my editing to make sure that there are as few mistakes as I possibly can. Without further ado Chapter 29. ENJOY!

Chapter 29

Margarita stood by the door with Will hovering near by the door.

Beverly stood at her work station studying the data on her computer monitor, Jimmy looking over her shoulder.

Brian sat on a stool behind them.

Jack stood in the middle of the room.

"I'm hooked into every carrier database and telephone provider in the United States. Nothing." Beverly explained to everyone in the room.

"Look again." Jack questioned looking at Beverly.

"I did my agains. And my again and agains. I can't find any electronic trace of any call made to your home phone at 2:47 AM."

"The phone rang."

"Did it wake up your wife?" Brian questioned looking up at Jack.

"I was alone."

"If there was a call -" Jimmy said only to get cut off by Jack.

Jack's eyes slid towards Jimmy. "What do you mean "if?""

"Whoever called could have tapped in from that little box outside your house. Or the junction in your neighborhood. There would be no trace signal to track."

"You're sure it was Miriam Lass?" Beverly questioned looking over at Jack.

"It was Miriam Lass." Jack confirmed remembering her voice well.

"Haven't heard her voice in 2 years." Brain said, looking up, folding his hands on his lap.

"If you continue to question my certainty I need to know so I can tell you to leave the room while it's still safe for you to be here."

Brian went silent.

"Chesapeake Ripper recorded Miriam Lass as he was killing her 2 years ago. He called me last night at 2:47 AM and played that recording."

"That call didn't come from the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane." Will said looking up knowing that had to be true due to the fact that no one was able to trace it to there.

"That we would'a been able to trace." Beverly pointed out looking over at Will.

"What if it wasn't a recording? You said to yourself there was no body."

"Miriam Lass is dead. Chesapeake Ripper is making it very clear someone is plagiarizing his work." Jack pointed out to everyone.

"I'll say it once more, just to say it. It was 2:47 in the morning. If you get roused from deep sleep, you're going to be disoriented. May not even know you're asleep." Brian pointed out knowing that it could be the case.

Jack narrowed his eyes at Brian. "I know when I'm awake."

HANNIBAL

Margarita followed Alana, Jack, and Will towards the conference room. "Are we even sure about talking to Miss Lounds?" She questioned as she followed the three of them.

"We want to know where she had gotten her information from and see if the information will draw out the real Chesapeake Ripper." Jack explained as they walked into the room first.

Alana, Will, and Margarita entered the room.

They all began to sit down at the table.

"Good morning, Agent Crawford. Thank you for inviting me." Freddie said with a smile as she looked at the group that Jack had brought in.

"This is Dr. Bloom, one of our psychiatric consultants. And I believe you know Will Graham and Agent Margarita Tamosaitis."

"Dr. Bloom. Agent Tamosaitis. Hello, Mr. Graham. So good to see you."

Will simply stared at Freddie, inscrutable.

"You got all the qualities of a good reporter, Ms. Lounds. Intelligence, guts, and the good eye. How did you end up where you ended up?" Jack questioned as he looked at the young red haired woman.

"Where I ended up being in criminal justice journalism?"

"Criminal justice journalism being a euphemism for tabloid reporting." Will said not even looking up at Freddie.

"You ran an unconfirmed story on the Chesapeake Ripper. What I want is for you to confirm it." Jack explained to the reporter.

"An exclusive story would be a coup." Freddie said, looking over at Jack.

"You would have the satisfaction of seeing Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, the sanctified Washington Post and the holy New York Times run copyrighted material under your byline with a picture credit."

"What's against you and by association us is your brand of journalism is obnoxious, and therefore disliked." Will explained, still not looking up.

"Yes, that is an obstacle. I tried to get an interview with Dr. Gideon. I was denied. Evidently some trouble with my euphemism."

"I'm friendly with the new Chief of Staff. I can get you an interview." Alana said looking up knowing that this was one way to help figure out if the killer was still out there.

"Not to snap bubblegum and crack wise, but what's my angle? Is he the Chesapeake Ripper or you just want me to tell everybody he is."

"He could be. Certain personalities are attracted to certain professions."

"Do you know which professions psychopaths disproportionately gravitate to?" Jack questioned as he looked at Freddie.

"CEOs, lawyers. The clergy." Freddie pointed out fairly easily.

"Number 5 on the list is surgeons."

"I know that list."

"Then you know what number six is." Will said, finally looking up at Freddie not making full eye contact with her.

"Journalists. Know what number seven is, Mr. Graham?"

"Law enforcement."

"Here we are. A bunch of psychopaths helping each other out."

Margarita got up to her feet and slowly went to move towards the door shaking her head lightly. "If you guys want to trust her to lure out the Chesapeake Ripper, fine by me, but I'm not getting involved in this. There is way too much on the line with even trying to do this path." She said before opening the door.

"You doubt my choice, Agent Tamosaitis?" Jack questioned looking up at her.

"Jack, you brought me back for a reason." She said, turning her head sharply. "You've broken me once. I'm not going to allow it to happen again. I am taking a few days away from the office." She then walked out the door shaking her head. She couldn't believe that they were going to trust Miss Lounds to try and get information and try to lure out the Chesapeake Ripper.

HANNIBAL

Margarita came into Hannibal's office and saw that Hannibal was on his tablet looking at . She slowly walked over to her husband and looked over his shoulder reading what had been written.

Hannibal's expression didn't change as he read what was written. He shook his head making a tisking sound meaning he was not pleased with what was written.

"I warned them to not let Miss Lounds interview Dr. Gideon." Margarita said, clicking her tongue against her teeth.

"You knew about this?" Hannibal questioned looking up at his wife, his brown eyes meeting up with her green eyes.

"I may have known, but I didn't think that they would be this stupid to do so. Hannibal…" She looked at her husband, her brows furrowing slightly. "They're trying to lure the real Chesapeake Ripper out of the shadows by using Dr. Gideon."

Hannibal let out a soft hum as he looked at his wife slowly moving his chair some and wrapping his arm around her pulling her close to him.

Margarita let out a soft breath.

"I thought you would be at work."

"I told Jack I was taking some time off. He wasn't none to pleased with me leaving during his meeting with Alana, Will and Miss Lounds." Margarita said, rolling her eyes slightly, not liking the idea that Jack thought that he had some sort of power over her which he actually had none.

"I am surprised that he didn't ask you for your badge and gun."

Margarita let out a soft scoff. "He can try, but technically I don't work in his division. So he could try, but he wouldn't get too far unless he thinks I'm dangerous to myself and others, which right now, is debatable."

Hannibal pulled her onto his lap.

Margarita's head rested on his shoulder letting out a soft breath.

HANNIBAL

Hannibal put food in front of Dr. Chilton, Alana, and his wife before putting his food down also onto the table.

Margarita was rather thankful that their daughter was sound asleep upstairs in her room.

"Inspired by Auguste Escoffier, Langue d'agneau en Papillotte served with a sauce of duxelle and oyster mushrooms, picked myself." Hannibal explained to them.

"Don't think I've ever had tongue." Alana said as she looked down at the food before her.

"It was a particularly chatty lamb."

"Romans would kill flamingos just to eat their tongues." Dr. Chilton mused softly as he slowly began to eat.

"Don't give me ideas. Your tongue is very feisty and as this evening has already proven, it's nice to have an old friend for dinner."

Margarita looked up at her husband with a small smile on her lips. "You've outdone yourself Hannibal."

Hannibal looked over at his wife and smiled at her.

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This is the end of Chapter 29. I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter. I tried my best when it came to writing this chapter out to make sure that it was worth reading. I know that it is fairly hard to make a good story. Please leave a review and let me know what you think. We still have a long way to go before this story is completed. But we are getting closer to the halfway point. Reviews help me keep on going when it comes to writing. I will hopefully update on Friday. Until next time.