Please note: This is the second part of a two-chapter release. Please make sure you've read Part 1 first. Enjoy!
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THURSDAY AFTERNOON
A hint of desperation was clawing at everyone by the late afternoon. They knew that they were at the cusp of solving this, but there were just those missing pieces that were too significant—the ones that just didn't complete the picture.
And Erin Strauss had called Aaron earlier to get the progress of the case, reminding him that if things weren't resolved, this was to be permanently turned over to the Newark Field Office by tomorrow.
They all stared at the pictures, lists, and key words on the boards. On one was the victims of these two unsubs split into three groups. In the first group was Spencer Reid, Noah Turner, Zachary Bridges, Austin White, and Connor Gaines. In the second were Victims C and E. In the third, Marion Knowles and Marcus Delaney.
Connor's picture was sub-grouped with Austin's.
On the other board was the picture of the terrarium that Mrs Turner had posted, alongside multiple pictures of the burial site, as well as some of Spencer's notes about the significance of the horticulture with this investigation.
"So, when Luke and I had asked the Gaineses about Connor having any affiliation with Stokes," Derek started, "Cece seemed like she was about to answer, but Bradley cut her off. Bet that he does. The forest is overall important."
Emily shook her head. "He's the most important victim in that he links us directly to the unsubs. He's most likely the first one murdered by them. How do we go from the rage with him and Victim D to what happened to Austin? What makes Austin important, too? The first to have his hands removed, according to the forensic pathology report. The first to be clothed in white. Why go out of their way to report his dog as dead. Did they keep his dog? What made him special?"
"Maybe he was . . . a perfect surrogate?" Luke asked.
"In what manner? How does everything align for him?" David asked.
"He's blond, deaf, visually impaired, had severe social anxiety," Jennifer answered, not knowing what it all meant, but hating the implications.
"Yes, but the only thing that connects him to Connor is this ." David pointed to the word. "They're both deaf. In other ways, they're drastically different."
"So let's look at it from an emotional angle," Derek suggested. "Austin was independent, but in the right situation, he could be seen as someone who might be physically and emotionally de pendent."
With a softened voice, Jennifer spoke up, shaking her head. "Aside from the obvious ASL angle, there may have also been a . . . a vulnerability that the unsubs—the woman—could intuit, too. It could be a maternal desire. Connor was starting to use drugs to counterbalance his trauma and he was hard up; Marcus, who doesn't know ASL, was physically injured and needed a place to stay temporarily; Austin has the social anxiety disorder; Zachary had a lifetime of trauma, and even though he was slowly overcoming it and was a new father, some people still exude this melancholic aura; and . . . and Spence . . . he was grieving Maeve. Noah doesn't quite fit in there because he was well balanced emotionally."
Emily nodded. "Right, and women traditionally fill these roles of a . . . of a caretaker or the nurturer. Hadn't your secondary profile mentioned that one of the unsubs might have a desire to fix or heal things? When Marcus was taken in by the woman, invited to her home based on his need, she drilled it into his head that she was taking care of him. Noah's autopsy attests that he was well fed. Zachary's preserved stomach contents did, too. So we assume that's the case for Austin, for Victim C, and for Reid. Possibly even for Connor. Victim E—probably not, because his manner of burial showed no care at all."
"Mkay, and even if she's not actively hurting these victims according to Marcus' account," Alex began, "even though it seems that she's in a submissive and possibly abusive relationship, taking care of these victims has probably become emotionally fulfilling for this woman, and she battles this guilt with the manner of burial. These victims are possibly an extension of her innocence."
"Well, sounds more like these victims fulfill a need for the woman and not the man, though," Emily argued.
"What if that's the case?" Jennifer asked. "She preferred that Marcus was quiet and claimed to know what he would want without him having to speak. Maybe she knows ASL, too."
"Huh." Alex crossed her arms. "And he was also thru-hiking and had come through Stokes State Forest. So maybe it was . . . his tie to the forest." She pointed to the other board. "It's that horticulture aspect again."
"So this is a web where these all relate somehow," Luke concluded.
"Seems like it," David murmured. "Now, the signature started with Austin—at least with the removal of the hands and the dressing of the victim in white. It could be that Austin perfectly fulfilled a surrogate role for the unsub or for the woman, like you mentioned before, Luke. He had everything. Everything that someone else once had. But with his death or murder, the selection of ensuing victims just requires one thing—knowing Sign language. During the captivity phase, this becomes intrinsic to fulfill the fantasy."
"But weren't Noah's ears stuffed with cotton?" Jennifer asked. "Wouldn't that suggest that something about listening is also involved in this fantasy, or that this had also been done to previous victims when they were buried? Can we theorize that this was important during the captivity phase, too? Before Austin, Marcus was kept blindfolded, but there's nothing to suggest that he couldn't hear. And then we have to consider the tongue, which was removed for Noah and which we can assume was removed for Zachary."
Alex shrugged. "It can just be that as long as the victims can respond to their captor non-verbally when they're being addressed, that's enough."
Jennifer nodded.
"Let's look at the other side of the dynamic," Aaron started. "The physical abuse and the sexual assault. Because we have to weigh in the male captor in here as well."
"Oop, nope." Penelope stood up and grabbed her laptop. "I make my exit." She did just that, heading to the door. "I can't. Hail me back when you're done, please."
"Marcus wasn't raped until he said something that the male unsub took as an instigation," Luke said as soon as Penelope was gone.
"Marcus said of the rapes that they—or at least the first one—lasted a long time, that the unsub never ejaculated or orgasmed, and that he became flaccid," Derek said. "He said that his rapist didn't do much of anything during the act, physically or verbally. Like Rossi said the other day, he was likely a budding rapist at this time."
"That, and it may have taken up to a week for the man to work up to raping Marcus," Emily observed. "On each occasion, the man gave him pills and made him drink beer. The likelihood is that he took these things, too."
Jennifer wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Is it strange that not only did the man not do much during the act of rape, but that he didn't force Marcus to engage in the act, either?"
"Not if he was just starting out as a rapist," David said. "Not if he was just starting to get a feel for what he wanted from his victims."
She shook her head. "But rape is about power and control. The things that gets a rapist off during the act—especially a man raping another man—are usually about degradation and power. Having his victim become erect, making his victim orgasm or ejaculate—these assist in completing this power-play, don't they? Making a victim unwillingly touch their rapist completes that kind of fantasy, doesn't it? So they'll do whatever they can to facilitate this. This unsub"—she shrugged her shoulder—"that wasn't the case for Marcus. He beat and strangled Marcus when Marcus tried to stimulate him."
Aaron blinked. "Or the unsub could've beat and strangled him for that and having ejaculated. Because he can't."
Emily hummed in disbelief. "Then why give Marcus anything to facilitate his own sexual release, even unwilling?"
"Because it was ritualistic," David answered. "Take another beer, you bastard. Take the fucking beer. We know he wasn't saying this to Marcus; this was just a repetition of what had been said to him when he was abused."
Derek's jaws clenched, he cleared his throat, and his expression hardened. "Sometimes . . . sometimes abusers give their victims alcohol to disinhibit, disorient, or give their victims a"—his hand swirled around his head—"a pleasant or euphoric buzz before the rape or assault. The thing is alcohol can also cause a person to lose an erection."
There was an uncomfortable, heavy air that went over Luke's head.
Jennifer's voice came out softly. "To the unsub . . . the beer—this was what he knew came before the act of rape."
"If it helped me, then it should help him," David said, speaking as if he were the unsub. He wrinkled his nose. "He definitely projected himself onto Marcus. But the pills? Maybe I won't feel as bad if he feels good? He didn't rape Marcus until Marcus started reacting physiologically to what was given to him. It's probably how he allayed his guilt, if the victims got into it. He's the one who administers the date rape drugs found in Noah's system."
"To justify the act," Emily said. She shook her head. "No. It doesn't fully make sense, though. The other day, there was something itching my brain and bothering me, and now I'm figuring out what. Marcus' hand. The unsub loosened it before he raped Marcus that first time. So why would he do that?"
Alex tilted her head. "Perhaps it's something to do with what happened to the unsub when he was abused. The unsub only ever spoke a few words to Marcus, but there's so much more that could be going on in his mind that he hadn't projected onto the acts at that time and that slowly became more inclusive in his rapes as he evolved with each new victim."
Derek's expression turned dark. "So the stabbing was a sign of the impotence and rage, but with Marcus, who wasn't raped until a week after the unsub felt slighted by what Marcus said, the man was finally able to work up to something that maybe he hadn't been able to do before."
"It seems, also, that even though the unsub strangled Marcus once before the act of rape began, this act increased once the rape started," Alex said in observation.
"But not during," Aaron murmured. "He strangled Marcus days before in a fit of rage. And he strangled Marcus after raping him. But not during, which might have suggested an erotic asphyxiation."
"That might have changed over time, though, and become intrinsic during or after the rape," Alex retorted. "We know that according to the reports that Zachary's hyoid bone was fractured, yet Noah's hadn't been. He had laryngeal trauma. We can't tell with Austin due to the bone trauma in his neck when his head was removed."
"Victim C also had a fractured hyoid bone," Jennifer said, rifling through the report. "Connor didn't."
"Right." Alex straightened her lips and gave a nod of affirmation. "So the asphyxiation is becoming more violent over time. He'd also garroted Noah."
Aaron hummed. "With Connor likely being the first victim of these unsubs, all we get from him is the male unsub's rage with the stabbing and face smashing. We also have a large age gap between Connor and the purported age of our unsubs—we're talking about a fifteen-to-twenty-year difference, so this wasn't peer-related."
"Everything really hinges on him," David said urgently, putting his phone away after sending a text message.
Alex tilted her head. "Mm-hmm. Did the unsub try to initiate an assault on Connor but couldn't and was belittled, hence the rageful stabbing? Was he rebuffed by Connor? Was this before he had a relationship with the female unsub? Or did she know about this? Has fear of her spouse's rage kept her quiet? Too many questions surround him."
In moments, Penelope was in the room with her laptop. "You hailed me, sir?"
"We're done. Start a search for men and women in their mid- to late-thirties or forties who are also deaf. Just to exhaust all possibilities."
Penelope perked up. "I'll start searching through licenses that indicate that the holder is deaf to start narrowing."
Aaron sighed. "Emily, Alex, try to give the Gaineses a call. Maybe after these days that've passed, they might be more amenable to speak with us. They're really the best ones for us to interview. For the rest of us, let's try to interview the staff members of the schools he went to and get background history on the older students—see if perhaps someone there may be our unsub. The program there is for people from kindergarten through the age of 21."
GLEN RIDGE, NEW JERSEY
Since Cece found out on Tuesday morning that her son was the victim of the perpetrators that had been intriguing all of New Jersey for over half a year, there was a whiplash of rage, mourning, and desperation. She and her husband didn't understand any of this; they didn't understand who could do such a thing to Connor or to them.
They wept together, they yelled at and blamed each other, and they tried texting and calling his killers, the people who had been deceiving them for years. Years.
Now they were coming to find that the perpetrators were a man and woman. What kind of monsters would do such a thing?
She shook her head, reaching for the tea kettle that'd just kicked off and pouring the steaming water into her mug. As she sat at the kitchen island and sipped her calming tea, her eyes landed upon the plant décor in the corner of her kitchen, which had been thriving for nearly the same amount of time that her son had deceived them and later had been murdered.
Years ago, she thought the lovely terrarium might be a gift of appreciation for their support—an apology for her friends' silence and distance—and had texted and called to thank them initially. They never responded to her or her husband.
The sapling was now a young birch tree in their living room; the fern was in the corner of her dining room. The other plant was outside in their garden. She used the terrarium to start propagating more ferns. Her friend had taught her well how to nurture plants and flowers.
Connor and their son had been inseparable for nearly a decade. Not long after they went their separate ways for college, the friendship that they had forged for so many years began to fizzle away. She always suspected that the two boys were more than just friends for some time, but that the separation of college had also severed that relationship. Despite this, she was sure that they still might love each other, as dearly as she missed her friends.
"Oh god, Brad," Cece moaned.
Bradley came from the other room. "What is it, babe?"
"Ken's gonna be devastated, wouldn't you think? We have to tell them. They have to know. Those boys were so attached."
"They haven't returned our calls or texts in years, Cece—not since Kenneth got sick. And you know how Rainie can be."
"I know but"—her breath hitched, and she shook her head—"Kenneth should know. He should know. He'll be so heartbroken." With shaking hands, she picked up her phone from the counter and began going through her contacts. She found the name she was looking for and dialed the number.
As expected, it went straight to voicemail. For years now, it always did.
Cece sniffled and breathed out a shaky breath. Bradley swept his hand up and down her arm to comfort her.
"Hey, it's Cece. I, um, I hope you and the boys are all doing well. It's been"—she exhaled a shaky breath—"I know it's been years. I hate how life happens, you know? How we drift apart? But I, um, hope? That you get this message. Please, Rainie, I hope you get this message. Um. I don't know how to say this but . . ." Cece trailed off, and then she remembered that the voice message might not record her for much longer. Her voice broke. "Well, it's about Connor. They found him dead." She gasped out. "Murdered. Oh, god, Rainie, I'm—I don't know how Ken's gonna take it. How's he doing? Ooh." Her breath trembled out, and her husband had taken her hand in his by now. "Call me back or text me? I'll send you a text just in case. I love you. I wanna talk. I hate for this to bring us back together but . . . Okay, Rainie—love you."
Ending the call and heaving in a shaking breath, Cece held the phone against her forehead as she closed her eyes and let the tears fall. Her husband pulled her into his chest, rubbing her back.
In time, she pulled away from her husband and planted a gentle hand on his face.
"I don't know how we get past this, babe," Bradley said. "I don't know why his—what game his killers were playing with us."
Cece shook her head. "I don't either, Brad. I think—I think it might be time to give the FBI our phones. We need answers, and they do, too."
Her phone vibrated in her hand repeatedly.
"Oh! That might be Rainie!"
Pulling away from Bradley, she wiped her eyes and looked at the phone, but was disappointed to see that it wasn't who she was hoping to hear from. "Hello? Yes, this is. Oh! Yes. Yes, thank you for understanding, and . . . we're glad you called us back. We want to help. We were just . . . it was too much to take the other day. Thank you so much for understanding. Oh, god. Yes, yes, we can. I'll see if Brad can, too. One moment." Cece muted the phone and looked at her husband. "It's the FBI. They were wondering if we'd be able to answer some follow-up questions."
Bradley was nodding before she even finished. "It's fine with me. I'm ready. Are you able to go, babe? If you want, I can just go?"
"No, no, let's both go," Cece said. "I'll tell them." She unmuted her phone. "Agent Prentiss? Yes. We can come up right away. No, no; we need—we need to get out the house. We'll come up to you."
SUSSEX COUNTY SHERIFF'S STATION
"We're so sorry, Mr and Mrs Gaines, to have you come back here so soon after finding out about Connor," Emily said to the couple.
"I'm sorry, too, Agent Prentiss—that we'd refused to speak with you all the other day. Please understand, we were just . . ." Cece let out a long, unsteady breath.
"It's just difficult for us to come to terms with," Bradley supplied.
"You don't have to apologize at all. When these things hit us out of nowhere, your reaction is natural—to defend and to protect. We never want to know that someone we love might be involved with something so terrible."
Cece shook her head.
"We're thankful that you're agreeable to speak with us. We think that you, and by extension Connor, might be able to lead us to the perpetrators who killed your son and who've hurt so many other young men. We have some important follow up questions with you and we think there's a great significance . . . to Connor's death, to where he was buried."
"Oh god," Cece said, aghast.
"Please understand—some of these questions might be difficult to answer, just as the questioning from Tuesday," Alex began. "You see, Mr and Mrs Gaines, the persons who murdered your son . . . this murder was personal—perhaps a close friend, a lover, or even a relative. A couple who may be in their mid-forties by now."
"But I don't know anyone like that," Cece objected tearfully, shaking her head. "I mean, we know plenty of couples in that range, but we don't know anyone who would do any of the things we've been hearing about over the months. We don't know anyone who would be capable of doing this to Connor." Her chin quivered and her voice shook. "I don't know why Connor would steal a car in New Jersey when he wasn't even supposed to be in the country, or why he was in an area full of people doing drugs, or why he even had a scar on his face."
Emily straightened her lips. "We're hoping to help piece all of these things together so that we can solve this."
"We have to be straight with you," Bradley began, a look of contrition washing over him. "The two agents from Monday asked us if Connor has any affiliation with Stokes. We said no." He breathed a short puff of air. "That was a lie. Connor did go camping and hiking in Stokes State Forest often when he was younger."
Emily's expression was stern, but still warm. "We appreciate your honesty about that. Knowing this helps us tremendously."
"We also want to confirm with you," Alex began. On this, she would play dumb. She didn't think they would take well to knowing that the FBI had violated their wishes not to dig into Connor's life. "Based on the things you said the other day and based on the witness account that was given about Connor, was he deaf?"
Cece nodded. "He was, yes."
"Is there anyone that you used to go camping or hiking with at Stokes State Forest? More specifically, was or is that person also deaf, or did they at least know ASL?"
Both Cece and Bradley were taken aback, and they didn't hide their shock.
"Wh-What? I mean, yeah, but . . ." Bradley began.
"But he and Connor were best friends growing up until they went separate ways in college. I mean, thick as thieves. Knew each other for almost ten years. We haven't spoken with the family for a few years, though. We started drifting apart soon after the boys went off to college, but communication completely cut off after a while."
"When was this? When did this begin?"
"Oof . . ." Cece looked at her lap, thinking. "About . . . Mid-summer in '08?" She looked at her husband for confirmation, and he nodded in response.
"Yeah, communication just got cut off."
"How did that affect Connor?" Alex asked. "Did he continue communicating with his friend?"
"Unsure. They had been really, um, close. But I'm pretty sure they'd not really seen or spoken to each other since after high school. Kenneth couldn't have anything to do with this, though. Absolutely nothing. He actually got sick around the time his parents cut off communication."
"Kenneth?"
"Mm. Kenneth. Kenneth McAllistar. He was the sweetest person when he was growing up—adventurous, artistic, smart, sensitive." Cece pulled out her phone, scrolling past years and years of photograph history. "I have a few pictures of him and Lorraine and Russell—Kenneth's parents. Sorry for the blurry quality. I took pictures of photographs. Let me find them."
Bradley continued as Cece sought to find the pictures. "We went camping or hiking together at Stokes State Forest a few times, the boys had sleepovers, we went on trips together."
Emily and Alex peered at the pictures that Cece was showing them. There were many of the two families together, or many of the boys together. From what they could tell, Lorraine and Russell both had soft expressions in all the pictures. Kenneth and Russell were both blond. In a few pictures from when the families were younger, there was even a red husky in some of them.
Emily and Alex both perked slightly but didn't betray any other reactions.
Curiosity piqued, Emily looked at Cece and Bradley. "Tell us about Lorraine and Russell?"
It was Bradley who spoke up. "They're both real quiet, but pleasant company. Sorta the opposite of Kenneth. Young—both very young for being parents Kenneth's age, honestly. Um, Russell's just a—he's a huge dude that's just really laid back, mild-natured—the nicest guy you'd ever meet, but not a big talker at all. Damn smart, too. One of those guys who's pretty much good at anything once they start workin' at it."
Cece nodded. "Mm."
Bradley continued, smiling and wrinkling his nose. "Lorraine's the, ah, quirky one. Super boho-hippie."
Cece nodded. "She's deep into homeopathy and natural products. She has a huge holistic approach to things and—
"Well she's a little too deep into her family's health, if you asked me," Bradley murmured. "Very particular about what they consumed, what kind of chemicals she uses, and the like. A bit controlling about that kinda stuff. But. She's the type of person you go to when you're not feeling great or you get a burn or you want a wound to heal over nicely or anything like that 'cause she knows her stuff—she'd fix you right up."
It was Alex who tilted her head. "So how did it come about that they completely cut off communication? Had there been an argument?"
Cece shook her head. "No, nothing like that at all. We obviously spoke a little less when the boys went off to college, like I said. But we still had occasional dinners together. It was when Kenneth got sick that things just went downhill."
Alex furrowed her brows. "Sick? What with?"
Cece shook her head. "Never knew what with. I think Lorraine was ashamed or something. Like Brad said, she's very concerned about her family's health. Sort of obsessed with it. So I think it hit her a bit hard that there was anything wrong with him, and she might have felt like it reflected badly on her."
"Would you say that Lorraine is protective of her son?"
"Oh, heavily." Cece nodded. "Kenneth's their only child. He and Connor met at a summer camp for deaf children, and that same school year, they enrolled him at the same school that Connor went to down in Trenton. Less than half a year later, his mother pulled him out."
Emily tipped her head. "Why is that?"
"I haven't a clue, honestly," Cece said. "It's really too bad because we put Connor in that school so that he could be in a community of people who are deaf or hard of hearing. The program was suited for him. The same would've been for Kenneth, but he was homeschooled after he was pulled out the school. But the boys kept in contact—you know"—she gave a mirthless smile—"AIM before the age of texting. Typing away at all hours, honestly. And, of course, we naturally grew close over the years to Lorraine and Russel."
"What happened at that last correspondence in '09? What was it about?"
Cece scrunched her face. "Well, there wasn't really a conversation. They just contacted us. She sent me a gift. Lorraine."
Alex sat a little straighter. "A gift?"
"Mm-hmm. Yeah, plants. It wasn't something new, but it was so extravagant after over a year of not talking." Cece smiled warmly at the memory. "I called her to thank her but she didn't pick up, didn't return my texts or anything. Saw that she read them, but she never replied."
Alex pulled out her tablet and scrolled through some photographs. Before her were pictures of the trillium and the fern bushes. "Did any of them look like these?"
Cece startled. "Not the trillium, no, but the fern, yes. But that was just one of the plants. She sent me a terrarium with plant care instructions for a fern, a birch sapling, and a rue plant."
Alex produced another picture. "Like this?"
Cece's face contorted and her eyes watered. "Exactly that, yes."
Alex stood. "Thank you. I need to step out for just a moment."
Cece's eyes followed Alex, and her eyebrows knotted in concern. Under the table, Bradley squeezed her hand.
Emily gave the small tilt of her head. "Tell me more about Lorraine and Russell."
—
After Alex left the interview room, she went straight to the conference room and stood before Penelope. "Garcia, I need everything you have on the following people: Lorraine and Russell McAllistar and their son, Kenneth McAllistar."
"Oh!" Penelope started, eyes darting from Alex to her screen back and forth. "Okay, yes, what do you want on them?"
"Everything, Garcia. These are our unsubs. I have no doubt that these are our unsubs."
David looked at Alex, tilting his head. "What's gone on in there, Alex?" he asked.
"Everything is aligning. They were close with the Gaineses family up until the boys went off to college. By 2008, they were more distant after their son, Kenneth, got sick. He's deaf, by the way. They went camping often in Stokes. And the most damning of all is that Cece received a terrarium from Lorraine back in late '09 after the two families had stopped speaking for over a year."
"The same as Mrs Turner?" David asked.
"The very same. I think we need to contact Mrs Turner, get that terrarium from her. We should also get into contact with Dana Bridges and see if she's received anything similar, as well as Mrs Clarke where Austin grew up. I think there's a maternal aspect to this.
"Oh god," Penelope murmured in disgust. "Oh jeez."
David shook his head, looking at one of the evidence boards. "Reid had been right about the significance of the plants."
"Mm-hmm." Alex turned and headed back to the interview room.
—
"Finally got these." Emily slid the Gaineses' phones to Penelope, along with a sheet of paper with the passwords on them. "Albeit with a bit of reluctance. Start digging into the text messages where you can. Also look into the texts from them with the McAllalistars, and also see if you can dig into the Skype history to see when they had that last video call with Connor."
"Right-o!"
"So one major contention that I have about the McAllistars," Alex started, "is that the Gaineses speak very highly of them. Cece and Bradley both claim that they've never gotten vibes of spousal or child abuse in the family whatsoever. That isn't to say that I rule them out because there's far too much that aligns with them being our unsubs, but there are no red flags from people who claim to have known them for years. That, and it seems like Lorraine has a bit of a tough streak."
"Well there's a lot to unpack from the McAllistars, and my info will take a while to come in. But before I do that, look at this picture of Kenneth."
Jennifer was taken aback. "Damn. The guy's a dead ringer for Marcus. So that's what could've attracted Marcus to Lorraine—him being injured, him having been hiking through Stokes, him looking like her son."
"M'yes. And I'm kinda getting nasty vibes that Russell was okay with raping someone who bore such a close resemblance to his son."
"Ugh." Emily wrinkled her nose. "And yet Kenneth bears a close resemblance to Russell, too."
"Um, hello, therapy."
"Mm."
—
Calls were made to Mrs Turner, Dana Bridges, Mrs Clarke, and even to Mrs Knowles, just to cover all bases.
In the early evening, all the agents were spread out in the field, each with a team of CSIs.
Derek and Luke went up to Port Jervis to get the terrarium from Mrs Turner, who was horrified that this gift might have something to do with her son. She and Sonja confirmed that they didn't know the McAllistars. Later, the two agents would confirm with Noah's friends that they didn't know of this family, either.
Aaron and David drove to Stroudsburg, where Dana had returned last month after she confirmed that she did, indeed, have a terrarium and that she had received it on her front doorstep just a week after she'd moved from her parents.
"So, Alex was right," David said as they drove. "The women—those who had motherly positions in all of the respective victims' lives—are on the receiving end of these gifts."
"Dana doesn't fit, though," Aaron contended.
"She doesn't, but Zachary's mother is also dead. Maybe Lorraine had no choice but to send that gift to her because she's still a mother?"
"Mm. Possible."
Later, when they reached Dana's place, she was tearful. "I thought it was from you all. It came around the same time I got the checks from Agent Rossi."
As the two were travelling to the FBI lab, David spoke. "Reid got this right from the very beginning. It's in the soil. If Lorraine is into the mother earth and healing, then soil, fertile soil, is what leads to new life in her eyes. We need to check the soil in the terrariums for latent DNA."
"Agreed," Aaron responded. "If Reid originally theorized that the unsub was giving the victims back to the earth—for them to flourish and to grow in those burial sites—what isn't to say that these terrariums aren't messed up gifts that these unsubs are giving to the victims' families. It's not just about expressing remorse. The birch tree is there, the fern plant is there. Who's to say that they've—that Lorraine—hasn't given the victims' families a piece of the victims who mattered to regrow as it were, to perpetuate a cycle of life?"
David pursed his lips. "The birch tree is a symbol for new beginnings, regeneration, rebirth . . ."
Alex and Emily had gone to Millburn, where Austin had grown up in the foster group home. Mrs Clarke confirmed that a terrarium had been delivered to her at the end of September.
Orlando PD contacted the Knowles family. All Mrs Knowles received was a small rue plant that had been delivered to her from a local floral shop. Records were being checked for method of payment, as it had been ordered online.
As for Cece and Bradley, who had gone to their home with a police escort following them, Cece had destroyed hers as soon as she and Bradley had stepped inside her home, shattering the glass and trying to break the stable wrought iron frame. She was advised that she was now destroying evidence and could be held in contempt.
These items were now material evidence.
Penelope called Bennington Sanitarium and asked Dr Norman if Diana had received anything strange lately. When it was confirmed that she hadn't received anything—
"No plants? Nothing . . . made out of glass or iron?"
"Well, a bouquet of flowers a few months ago when her husband William came to visit her, but nothing else aside from that, Agent Garcia."
—she wept in relief, digging her face into Jennifer's chest.
"That's good. That's good, right? They still have him. He's still with us."
Jennifer tucked her chin over her head, and her eyes, too, were brimful with tears as that dull spark of hope ignited within.
—
Jennifer, who had stayed behind in preparation to relay anything that would need to go out to the public, added any new information to the evidence board.
"Okay, so information is trickling in slowly on both ends but Lorraine's name just pops up a ton," Penelope said.
Jennifer hovered over Penelope's shoulder. "What do we have?"
"Ho boy. If we had any doubts before about the whole . . . horticulture and human—seeds—angle, there aren't any now. She's the manager of a garden center. She started there as just a part-timer when she was fifteen. Worked her way up the ranks."
"What else do we know about her?"
"Um, let's see. Oh. It looks like she got her GED at twenty."
Jennifer blinked. "Hm. She never formally graduated high school?"
"Nope. But she took junior college courses not long after she obtained her GED. Studied a few non-cumulative courses in holistic health science and others in anatomy and physiology, but it looks like she also never graduated from her studies."
"Hmm . . ."
Penelope's fingers clacked. "Her school records aren't digitized before college, though. We're going to have to get physical records."
Jennifer checked her watch. It was nearing eight in the evening. "Was she local?"
"Her high school was a few towns away from here, in Jefferson. It's about a half-hour drive away."
Jennifer straightened behind Penelope. "Can you pull up everyone's GPS location?"
Penelope's fingers clacked, and surely enough, there were phone GPS locations. "Derek and Luke are the closest right now."
"I'll call the boys and have them head there. In the meantime, contact the head of the school committee in Jefferson and let them know we need entrance to the school to obtain old records. I know what Hotch is gonna say. Everything right now is circumstantial, and he wants to build solid, air-tight evidence physically and behaviorally before any arrest warrants are made."
"No Freddie B Collins repeats."
"No. No repeats."
—
By the time everyone was gathered again, it was at the ungodly, early hours of a dark and cold Friday morning. The hours had passed quickly with all the activity that they and local deputies and surrounding departments were deployed to do.
Luke—out of an abundance of caution—already had surveillance set near the home of the McAllistars, who lived in Chester, and at their workplaces.
Jennifer and Penelope had gone through and dissected the text exchanges between Connor—the unsubs—and his parents. And they had gone into the life of the McAllistars wherever they could. Some information—such as purchase history, bank records, and similar information—was still collating.
"What've we gathered?" Aaron asked.
Luke spoke up, pointing to Lorraine's picture, which was on the evidence board: "Morgan and I obtained all of Lorraine's school records. She was expelled from her high school between December and January of '83 and '84."
"We know why?"
"Nah," Derek answered. "The only thing written in her record for her expulsion was for repeated disruptive behavior undesirable, unbefitting, and unsuitable of a Jefferson High School student.
Alex reached her hand forward and took the papers from Derek, unable to hide her irritation. She'd heard such-like words used before. "Her only issue was that she was in remedial classes—and that's not an issue at all. Her behavioral issues weren't due to belligerence but were attributed to laziness or non-performance, which is why she was put in those remedial classes. But"—she rifled through the papers—"she was smart."
"JJ and I were trying to figure out why she obtained her GED instead of graduating, and it looks like she has a hospital record for having Kenneth back in . . . May of 1984." Penelope said. "She had just turned sixteen a couple of months before."
Emily rolled her eyes. "The school worked around the discrimination laws against expelling girls for getting pregnant in high school."
"Mm-hmm."
Derek spoke up. "We also went to her elementary and middle schools to get the rest of her records. Lorraine was basically in remedial programs from third grade all the way through early in her sophomore year, where they moved her to normal classes."
"Third grade is about when the hospital records start. Again shows here that she was a well-behaved child," Alex said as she looked through Lorraine's records after taking them from Derek. "Her grades were exceptional up until middle school. Probably when the sexual assault started. And in high school, that same problem followed her as a freshman, but within just a couple of months into her sophomore year, she was removed from remedial classes and put into normal classes."
"What else do we know about her, Garcia?" Aaron asked.
"Well, Lorraine McAllistar's early life reads like . . . a character from Les Misérables. It's a lot, okay? In and out of the hospital from around six to twelve. Mother dies, and then she ends up being under the legal care of her step-father, which is when things probably become sexual. Another child goes to the house and stepdad tries to involve her in the act one day, reports it to her parents, and services become involved. Papa goes to prison where he's killed two and a half years later, and Lorraine is put in the foster system when she's thirteen."
Jennifer nodded. "Right. She went through a slew of counseling and was diagnosed with everything under the book because this is the 1980s. Notes from the group home mention that they'd caught her drinking and doing drugs on the rare occasion, that she was often sent back to the group home soon after being fostered. The behavioral issues started ebbing when she got a summer job in 1983, though, at a place called Woodland Plant and Flower Exchange, which is where she's worked all her life, basically. She's now the owner and manager of it and has been for the last twelve years."
"So that sparked her interest in horticulture," Luke said.
"And may be when she started getting interested in the whole holistic and clean aspect of life," Emily added.
"Yes, well, no to that, missy," Penelope said. "At least not yet. It seems that when she was pregnant and after she was expelled from high school, her group home requested a transfer of her to another group home. She ran away before the transfer went through, and there was no record of her until March 23, 1984 when marriage papers were submitted just a few days after she turned sixteen. To Russell McAllistar, who'd just legally changed his name about a month prior."
"You said she was in remedial courses until a couple of months into her sophomore year?" Jennifer asked.
"Yep," Alex answered.
"And yet that's the same year she was expelled from the school, and the same year that she had Kenneth."
"I think it's 'cause that's when she met Russell," Luke countered. "Probably in the late spring or early summer. That was the summer she got pregnant."
"So . . . Russell, motherhood, and that job in horticulture" Emily concluded. "These things gave her purpose again."
"But Russell's impotent as far as we know, based on the stabbings, based on his rape of Marcus," Luke countered.
Emily shrugged. "He was much younger at the time . . . It could be that the excitement of the relationship had waned over the years. They were in their mid-teens when they met."
"What do we know about Russell, Garcia?" Aaron asked.
"There's a lot less on him. He's originally from Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania. Just a couple of reports in his school file for going to the nurse with suspicious bruises. It looks like his parents divorced when he was nine, but his address doesn't match any of his mother's addresses. So it seems like he remained with his father who—by the way? Vietnam Vet. No records at all of custody battle, visitation, nada. She just ups and leaves the two behind."
"As far as behavior," Jennifer started, "across the board his grades were consistently high for arithmetic, science, arts, geography. Did extremely well in extracurricular classes like shop and mechanics. Reading, spelling, writing, history—all poor. So he was also in remedial classes. His teachers' comments are all pretty much the same: withdrawn, reluctant to speak, not sociable, not happy. But cooperative, punctual, shows self-control, is neat and careful, works well independently. But he dropped out of high school when he was a junior."
"So they were kindred spirits, Lorraine and Russell," Emily cracked, shaking her head. "Soulmates."
"Mm-hmm," Penelope agreed, head bobbing with large nods.
"Despite the lack of a paper trail for abuse records," Aaron began, "we know that he was abused by his father. His mother may have dealt with abuse, too, and that may have been the reason for her departure. Changing his name gave him a sort of power and that was taken from him during his abuses. Russell didn't want to have any connection to his father, Raymond. Add to that, he was abandoned by his mother when he was young, and he married Lorraine at a young age. Where are his parents now? It might do to interview them. Perhaps there's a reason that his mother wasn't inclined to visit or to take her son with her."
Penelope winced. "Oof, so Raymond died back in the end of 2001. Elizabeth, Russell's mother, died in April of 2010."
Derek hummed. "That's just before Marcus was abducted by Lorraine . . ."
Luke furrowed his eyebrows. "But it was Lorraine who'd taken him to their home?"
"Yeah, but his mother's death could've been a trigger." Derek turned to Penelope. "What's Russell's work history?"
"So, after he ran away, it looks like Russell-still-Raymond crossed into Jersey. Was a jack of all trades. He was an apprentice and then a full-time employee at a welding and leather mom-and-pop shop starting at age fifteen until he was eighteen, during which time he earned his GED, worked at a car shop for a few more years, then the kicker: he went to Police Academy at 23 and was let go just days before graduating."
"What for?"
"Ugh. He was a good person is probably why? Was being the operative word. The incident report is full of he-said-she-said rigamarole. He saw a couple of fellow cadets doing something hinky to another, broke it up, blew the whistle on it. Instead of them addressing the issue, every one of the cadets involved in the incident was given the boot. Our institution is really flawed and screwed up is what this case has taught me, given what happened to Zachary when he was in juvie, and I hate to be a part of it. If Russell McAllistar had actually become a police officer, the balance in the universe might have tipped things a different way."
Aaron sighed. "So he has some knowledge of law enforcement. And being let go for doing something that's constituted as his job must have caused resentment. Cops don't like fellow whistleblowers. So this was a secondary abuse of power that he dealt with. This probably explains all the forensic evasion."
"Probably explains the violence of Reid's abduction, too," David groused. "Familiarity with vehicles and welding explains other things besides—the mustang, the tires. The aligning of the victimology along with someone who's in a position of authority . . . "
Derek closed his eyes and swallowed.
After a pause to recalibrate herself, Penelope continued. "After Russell was let go, he worked in mechanic garages again for about five years, then a little over seventeen years ago, he started his own business. IronHide Works."
"Is this for real?" Derek asked impatiently. "There's no doubt that these are the unsubs." He turned to Aaron and Luke. "What are we waiting for at this point? The kid . . . they might still have Reid. His mother didn't get a terrarium or some kind of gift. We have to believe they've still got 'im."
Penelope moaned.
Aaron put up his hand. "Hold on, Morgan. I don't want us going in half-cocked. We've been burned far too many times by this case. We don't have physical evidence to link them to these cases—everything right now continues to be circumstantial."
Penelope and Jennifer looked at each other knowingly.
"Making comparisons with the prints lifted from the interior and exterior of the terrariums against the prints of the victims who received them is going to take a while. We're still waiting for DNA samples to yield a match to the victims. According to Garcia and JJ, we can't even conclude that the phone correspondences between the Connor's murderers with Cece and Bradley are distinctly the McAllistars. We need to continue making the links, and we go in when it's right to go in. If . . . if Reid's still alive and they have a secondary location but we go in hot, we lose Reid."
Derek seemed to wilt. "What about Kenneth, Garcia? What do we have on him?"
"He gets tricky," Jennifer answered.
Penelope nodded in agreement. "Very tricky. He was born May 13, 1984 and—might I say? Startling resemblance to Marcus. And Russell."
"Damn," Luke said, kicking his head back as he looked at the picture.
"Indeed," Penelope agreed. "I'm trying to find recent activity on him and for a few years, there's very little . So he was diagnosed as having partial or mild Fetal Alcohol Syndrome—he was born completely deaf and has slight visual impairment, too. This is why, earlier, when Emily said that Lorraine probably started getting into the holistic stuff when she started that job, I was a bit doubtful."
"She probably didn't know she was pregnant for the first few months," Alex said. "It's not uncommon."
"Mm." Penelope pointed at Alex before returning to her laptop. "So records show that aside from hyperactivity and difficulty concentrating, he was otherwise unaffected by the diagnosis. He was pretty much homeschooled most of his life — had the briefest stint at the same school as Connor, which makes sense because his name did come up in my search, but I didn't flag him for anything because I had no reason to. But Kenneth volunteered at Stokes State Forest from sixteen to eighteen before he went to college in NYC, and he volunteered there every summer before he finally graduated."
"What does he do?" Emily asked.
"Oh, he's definitely a photographer. Website, Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Behance, WordPress blog—all rife with artistic photography, wedding photography, portraiture, abstract photography. And—may I just say? Thank god someone has social media and a significant digital footprint. Because I was getting frustrated, okay? But he's got the old stuff—no Instagram, no Pinterest. He worked for a photography studio for about two years after he graduated but then comes the many kickers. Baby Jay?"
"Yeah, so . . . in July of 2008, Kenneth was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme. He went through rigorous treatment until about February, during this time, the cancer was so aggressive that he completely lost his eyesight. From thereon, he's been in at-home hospice."
Emily tilted her head. "Huh. The medical knowledge she'd learned during her limited college years was probably put to use now that Kenneth is in palliative care."
"Glioblastoma multiforme is typically a death sentence," Aaron said. "So we have our potential stressor—his death."
"The blond victims are surrogates for Kenneth," Derek began. "That fits."
"And Austin could have been seen as the perfect surrogate because of his deafness, visual impairment, even his dog," Alex said with a sigh.
"Right," Derek agreed. "If these are our unsubs and if Kenneth died, they couldn't take the reality of their son's death, so they've conceived a reality where he's still alive, likely where he's still bedridden. But Connor, the most important victim, still doesn't fit in here. And we can't definitively say that for Victim E."
"Is there a death certificate for Kenneth, Garcia?" David asked.
"No."
"The likelihood is that he's dead, though, and he's in Stokes State Forest, too. We just haven't found his body yet," David posed. "Or he could be Victim C. I doubt that, though, because I find it hard to believe that Connor would be separate from Zachary and Noah, but that they would put their son together with them."
"Either way, the McAllistars are responsible for Connor's death," Jennifer asserted. "That's why they stopped talking to Cece and Bradley—they were consumed with guilt. And they allay that by continuing the communication with them vicariously through Connor."
"But they'd cut themselves off from them before Connor died," Emily rebutted. "Neither none of the Gaineses knew just how sick Kenneth was."
"Maybe because the Gaineses still had something that the McAllistars were losing—a son," Alex suggested, swallowing. "According to them, the McAllistars both doted heavily on Kenneth. For Lorraine it was almost obsessive, possessive. For Russell it was protective."
"Likely because Kenneth became an extension of themselves," Aaron said. "He tied them to each other after their traumas. They were both young when they met each other, when Lorraine got pregnant. There was no time for them to properly parse their own trauma or even their relationship with each other before they were taking care of a child while still being children themselves, and they didn't have proper models in either of their cases. Granted, they may have done a good job at raising Kenneth as time passed, but this had to have fostered an unstable sense of protection and possession."
They sighed.
Aaron looked at his watch. "Listen, it's—it's three now—we've been at this for hours. I know we're anxious to get to the bottom of this. As of now, we have surveillance on the McAllistars. We have them in our sights. There's a lot that's been going on throughout the day and we're tired. Let's regather in the morning at half after nine to look at this all with fresh eyes."
"All of my additional info for the McAllistars should be gathered in the next hour or so," Penelope declared.
"I think I'd like to talk to the Gaineses one more time tomorrow," Emily said. "Well, later today. Additional information might yield how Connor might fit into this better."
LATER FRIDAY MORNING
At a quarter past ten, Sheriff Reiner walked into the conference room with a mug of coffee in his hand. "Just wanted to see the progress," he said looking at everyone. "I had to put out a lot of fires yesterday, so I'd like to get updated on things. Y'all went all over the place yesterday evenin', huh?"
Luke pointed to the boards. "Yeah, so after speaking with the Gaineses yesterday evening, we've been focusing on this family here—"
"Oh my god."
The reaction made everyone pause.
"You recognize them," Aaron posed, expression darkening.
"Well yeah. Her. That's . . . that's Lorraine McAllistar. That's Rainie."
David's eyebrows furled and he tilted his head.
"How do you know about them?" Aaron asked. "They live in a different jurisdiction over half an hour from here."
"Well Rainie's not an unfamiliar face. Sometimes the days she's not workin' at her job, she's out voluntarily weeding, cleaning up, landscaping various establishments. I mean she travels everywhere —Northern Jersey counties, couple of the bordering New York and Pennsylvania counties—you name it. She's been to this precinct plenty of times, goes out to the ranger's station, goes to all sorts of small businesses, works in median strips in random streets to clean them up. She's been doing this for the last ten or so years. Real soft demeanor but with grit. Real deep into that whole . . . mother earth, nature healing, clean eatin' stuff."
The team of agents shared knowing, disturbed looks with each other. "Have you ever suspected that she's being abused by her husband?" Luke asked.
The sheriff kicked his head back in a bark of laughter. "Rainie? No. I really don't think so. I mean, I don't know much about him, seen him and the son a couple of times a few years back when they used to go out camping. Russell and Lorraine, both of them are just very quiet, private people. But Rainie—she's a real tough bird. Doesn't let people walk on her at all. She wouldn't take a hit."
"That's what we're hearing from the Gaineses," Alex said. "But Marcus' recounting of what happened pointed to her being a victim of the battered wife syndrome."
Sheriff Reiner's expression was of disbelief bordering on humor. "Mm-mm. I can't see it."
"Do we think maybe it happened after Kenneth supposedly died?" Jennifer asked. "Maybe Russell had an emotional breakdown and from there began abusing his own wife and the abductions began?"
Sheriff Reiner was aghast. "After Kenneth what? Died? What? No, he'd been sick, like, four years back now and it got chronic or somethin' like that from what Rainie's said, but he ain't—"
"Sheriff, Kenneth had a glioblastoma multiforme back in 2008," Derek said. "That's the kind of cancer that can wipe a person out within a year. The likelihood is that his death is what caused Lorraine and Russell to spiral."
"Oh my god."
"Did Lorraine ever ask you about the case in the past few months, Sheriff?" Aaron asked.
"Oh god." Sheriff Reiner sighed heavily, shaking his head and unable to hide his upset. "When you guys were here and especially after you'd left, she'd come around, did some landscaping here and we talked . . . we talked about—"
Aaron straightened, his features evening out. "About what, Sheriff Reiner?"
"Not much, Agent. Believe me, I know better than to talk too many details with civs. I just told her that the case had gone cold was all. You guys must've seen her a couple of times. She was up here workin' here and on some of the establishments nearby when you guys were around."
"Lorraine watched," Penelope squeaked out in a tight voice. "She watched."
"I'm pretty sure she was at the rangers station the first day you guys came too. Agent Rossi, that day you came for Victim F—that landscaper I was talkin' to? That was her."
"Marone."
"Okay, where does this put us with her?" Emily asked. She then pointed an open hand to the sheriff. "Because you're now the third person who can't see her being in a submissive role. Does she do the hunting and the stalking? She has to be a part of this." She then turned to Alex. "There were two people involved in your collision and Reid's abduction."
Jennifer shook her head, features scrunching in distaste. "She watched him maybe from the day that we got here. You guys went to the ranger's station after you looked at the burial sites, didn't you? Could that be where she first saw Reid?"
Alex blinked something out of her eyes, jaw unclenching as understanding dawned on her. "He and I spoke in Sign when I was waiting on his stomach to settle. That could've been the first sighting." She shook her head in disbelief. "Sheriff Reiner's right. I did see someone doing some gardening there."
"And she wasn't on the list of groundskeepers because she was just there voluntarily," David said.
Intrigued, Luke turned back to the Sheriff. "Did she ever press to get answers from you? Was she overly inquisitive?"
"Not at all, Agent Alvez. She only ever told me that . . . well she'd normally end the conversation with saying that Kenneth was feeling sick that day and that she couldn't ever stay very long—"
Jennifer felt a great chill pass through her, and Penelope groaned.
"—that she had to get back to him, and that she hoped that we would be done with going to Stokes soon because . . ." He paled and shook his head. "Son of a bitch. She said because that place was sacred."
"Oh my god," Penelope murmured, tipping her face into her hands. She let out another muffled Oh my god.
"It was right there in front of me. All this damn time." Sheriff Reiner was turning red in the face. "You don't expect it 'cause you're looking for men."
Derek had dropped his head back, staring at the ceiling. "She wanted the police presence gone from the forest because they were desecrating it in her eyes."
"I think it's necessary to have another conversation with the Gaineses," Aaron said pointedly, looking over at Emily. "We need to tie Connor to them beyond reasonable doubt, and I think the questions are going to make them volatile."
—
While Emily and Alex drove down to the Gaineses, the rest of the team of agents were taking a deep dive into Lorraine and Russell's paper trail.
"Almost everything is in Lorraine's name—the house, the titles of the cars, most purchases," Aaron murmured. "Her name is just the first to pop up in everything."
"It's unexpected," David said with a hum, tilting his head. "Given what we know behaviorally from what Marcus said, she's the submissive of the two. It would be to Russell's benefit to obliterate her from any record and reduce her fingerprint."
Derek shook his head. "Except what Cece and Bradley have said—what Sheriff Reiner's said disabuses us of the idea that there was submissiveness in the relationship. According to the interview with the Gaineses, Lorraine is pretty controlling about certain things."
"Ooh, ooh, ooh!" Penelope ruffled in agitation in her seat, staring at her screen. "Sneaky girl. Lorraine purchases bulk-order cleaning supplies online from some natural cleaning product website, but she does it through her company. I wouldn't ever have flagged it."
Jennifer sighed.
"Back in mid-July of 2010, she made a huge order."
"After Marcus escaped," Derek suggested.
"Mm-hmm. Also seeing that, she buys tons of medical supplies and medicine online. And a whole lot of other stuff—homeopathic, holistic stuff."
"This doesn't help our case, though," Jennifer murmured. "Lorraine doesn't seem the kind of person who would even allow the use of the illicit drugs that were found in Noah's system."
"Yeah, except she used to be involved with drinking and drugs years before," Luke countered. "And Russell gave Marcus drugs and alcohol to facilitate the rape."
Penelope bridled with an Ugh! and Jennifer gave a nod with a Fair enough.
"Either way, they're good at evading detection," David suggested.
Penelope gasped softly. "You want more? I'll give you more," she said in one breath, barely pausing as she continued. "Here's where Russell's purchases come into play: there's thousands of dollars worth of purchases to Lowe's, Home Depot, small local businesses that sell homeware, all starting in mid-July 2010, and they had various contractors come to renovate their home in that time as well. The reason I hadn't flagged these before? They were minor repairs according to records."
Luke shook his head in chagrin. "All after Marcus escaped. That must be when they shifted how they kept their victims. They worked on a bunker."
"Mm-hmm."
"Are these local contractors, Garcia?" Aaron asked.
"All from Morristown, sir."
"They probably did more work for the McAllistars under the table, then. Local businesses love to scratch each other's backs, and both Lorraine and Russell run well-known, successful businesses."
"Mm. Well whatever's on record all happened just a few months leading up to Austin's disappearance in August. And it's all still circumstantial."
Jennifer started, placing a few sheets of paper down. "Wait, Garcia." She let out a bark of disbelief. "Didn't you say the other day that Austin's last purchase was the twentieth of August?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Zachary was abducted last year in August. The tenth."
"Something about this August date is significant to them," Aaron concluded. "It could be when Kenneth succumbed to the cancer."
"And Marcus was taken around mid-May," Luke began, seeing the connecting dots.
"Around Kenneth's birthday," Derek finished.
"Yeah, so, Lorraine's definitely more involved with this than we want to admit," David said. "She's probably the one who cleaned the bathroom in the rest stop where Noah was abducted." He turned to Luke. "Nothing hinky on them from surveillance?"
Luke shook his head. "Nothin', man. Surveillance intel is tellin' me that these two aren't up to anythin' weird. Checked in about half an hour ago that Lorraine went to her job and that Russell's still at home."
"Yeah, apparently his place is by-appointment-only from Friday to Sunday, according to his website," Penelope said.
"If these two are our unsubs, both of them have jobs that can sublimate their urges when they don't have a victim with them," Derek said. "Lorraine with the horticulture—she's always digging into the earth. Russell—he's the owner of a custom leather and iron welding business. Maybe the dude makes the restraints himself."
—
By noon, Emily and Alex were heading back up to Sussex from the Gaineses.
"Connor may well have gone to the McAllistars," Alex asserted over the phone. "Bradley said it yesterday—that they could go to her with health issues. Well, we confirmed that Connor was comfortable enough with them when he was younger to have sought out Lorraine's assistance if he'd have needed it."
"And that he may have been comfortable approaching them for financial assistance," Emily added. "And he was overall a good kid and a good employee before he suddenly quit. He was probably too ashamed to go back home to his parents as an addict. So he goes to the next best thing, maybe asks them to help him, to keep it from his parents."
Luke snapped his fingers. "Cece said that the last time they had a video call with him, he'd said he might see them in a couple of weeks and talk to them about something important."
"He was going to try to detox with Lorraine's assistance," Jennifer posited.
Alex hummed in agreement. "If this was after Kenneth may have died—or was possibly mercifully killed by one or both of his parents—then Connor may have fulfilled a role in their eyes as a pair of recently bereft parents. Unfortunately, he may have ended up doing something that broke a ruse or a fantasy. Even the potential of leaving or getting better may have triggered them to just . . . snap."
"Not only that," Emily said, "but this might explain the drugs involved with these murders. Connor was likely still in possession of the drugs that he'd stolen from Stuart Aberdeen. With some drugs, anyone in their right mind knows that weaning a person off of them is better than just going cold turkey. If that was involved in them taking care of Connor—of Lorraine taking care of him—then this begins to further foster that sense of control and possession right alongside the motherly nurturing."
"So could she have been the one who stabbed Connor to death and who bludgeoned him?" Derek wondered. "Victim E? Years later, Marion?"
"And then you, Alex," David pointed out softly. "Apart from Reid, you were the most stalked of us all."
Alex sighed. "Rage and jealousy at what she perceived Spencer and I had together," she murmured.
"Mm. And destroying that in you which has the power to create," Derek murmured. "Sorta like what JJ'd said months ago. We just misunderstood the motive then."
Alex let out an irritated puff. "Well damn." It was all she could say.
"Lorraine was Kenneth's primary caretaker when he was sick," Jennifer said in a softened voice. "And losing her son . . . losing her only child probably broke something in her. This is where the healthy conditions of Noah and Zachary come in. This is where all the cleanliness came from. Lorraine is probably recreating the conditions Kenneth was in before he died."
—
Yesterday, Agents Blake and Prentiss asked Cece and Bradley to tell them about the McAllistars. The pressing questions had opened up a yawning pit of suspicion. Cece was now seated in her husband's office, staring at the phone.
But the questions. The questions and comments were so peculiar. 'Did you ever see Kenneth or Russell explode in violence? Did Russell ever touch Connor inappropriately, or make you and Bradley feel uncomfortable to have around your son? Did Connor ever tell you that the parents made him feel uncomfortable? Did you ever have the sense that the family was hiding anything?'
'How was Russell and Lorraine's relationship? Did you ever see him trying to demean her, or trying to stop her from speaking out? Did you ever see bruises on Lorraine, or was she skittish around Russell?'
Agent Prentiss had begun showing Cece pictures upon pictures in Stokes State Forest—all places that she knew well. These were places that both families loved and shared many times over the years. It was the picture of the fallen birch tree near Silver Spray Falls that had truly gutted her.
She felt stabbed all over with betrayal.
'Due to the fact that this is an ongoing investigation, we're unable to detail you on the nature of Connor's murder.'
They couldn't have done something to her boy. They couldn't. They loved Connor.
'Tell us about the husky.'
That dog was long dead; she didn't know what it had to do with anything. One day it was there; the next time they went to their home, it was gone.
When she'd returned home with her husband, she'd reactively destroyed remnants of Lorraine and Russell that she had once thought were treasured.
Today, the questions were of a far graver caliber, and Cece and Bradley had been horrified.
'Were you aware that Connor had financial problems in the spring of 2009 and that he was unemployed? Would it be possible for Connor to go to Kenneth or the McAllistars for financial assistance? Was Connor comfortable enough with Lorraine that he might seek her assistance with personal health problems?'
'Tell us more about the relationship between Lorraine and Kenneth. Give me an example of what you mean by that. Tell us more about the relationship between Russell and Kenneth.'
'You mentioned that Connor had sleepovers with Kenneth; did you ever have any misgivings of letting those take place? Was Russell ever inappropriate around Connor?'
Cece began pacing in the bathroom, shaking her head and covering her face.
'Did Lorraine ever detail you on her childhood? Are you aware of anything that Russell dealt with in his adolescence?'
'Did you ever suspect that there were problems in the bedroom or that the marriage seemed one-sided? What was conversation like regarding Russell and Lorraine's sexual history, if ever there were these kinds of discussions? Did they ever express the desire to have more children? Did they ever involve themselves with recreational drugs?'
'Kenneth was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer in 2008.'
A flame ignited in Cece. She trusted them. For years, she trusted them. But that flame and the ache of not knowing what her son suffered—the ache of knowing that his murder and his burial had a personal nature to it and that his killers kept communicating with them—was something that she couldn't ignore. The rue plant . . .
She paced.
The two agents had left fifteen minutes ago at most. There were three rotating officers keeping watch over them for the duration of the last day and a half now. They could barely move without these officers questioning their actions.
She peeked outside in her window and shook her head in irritation. Under the guise, now, of drawing herself a relaxing bath, she'd snuck the office phone from its perch and into the room with her. As the water roared and pummeled, she paced, tapping the phone against her forehead.
But she decided.
Her fingers moved over the phone and she made the call. She reached out to Lorraine's cellphone exclusively whenever she attempted to initiate contact. Now, she would be calling her workplace.
As the phone rang, she waited, taking in long and deep breaths.
"Thank you for calling Woodland Plant and Flower Exchange; this is Abbie. How can I help you?"
Cece cleared her sore throat and swiped the tear that slipped down her cheek. "Yes, hi Abbie. Hope you're well. I was wondering if I could speak to your store manager, Lorraine? Is she in?"
"Oh, yes she is. Just a moment, ma'am."
Cece paced again as she waited.
"This is Lorraine, how can I help you?"
Cece gasped, her head throbbing and her eyes streaming.
"Hello? This is Lorraine."
"Lorraine, you son of a bitch." Cece's voice was strained and trembling. "What did you do? You son of a"—again she gasped—"you son of a bitch! Did you do something to my boy? Did you and Russell do something to Connor? What did you do?"
The call ended abruptly.
Cece wailed and braced her back against the wall, sliding down. "My baby!"
—
Emily and Alex had arrived back at the station with food for everyone mere minutes ago, entering the conference room to see that their teammates had worked at creating a more comprehensive timeline of events and had gathered information that could point to probable cause, putting together a geographical profile and a triangulation.
"Look at the timeline, and it all starts to add up," Aaron began, pointing his hand to their board. "Frederick Collins leaves his car in Newark November 8th, where it's then stolen by Connor. On November 12th, Connor has his last Skype call with his parents. After that, he goes to the McAllistars of his own volition."
"We have to assume that there was no ill intent in the beginning," David interjected, "but that the stabbing could be either grief-fueled rage against Connor for leaving the situation, or that something transgressive was awakening in Russell."
"Right," Aaron agreed. "The Gaineses receive a gift from the McAllistars in late November that we understand is due to some type of remorse because they've killed Connor. Somewhere probably between then and May, they probably got another victim, Victim E, who holds no value to them. He may have been homeless based on the fact that there's evidence of heavy drug abuse in his skeletal remains. Fast forward and Lorraine sees Marcus—who bears a striking resemblance to her son—in mid-May and takes him home under the guise of wanting to take care of him. Coincidentally, this may have been right around Kenneth's birthdate as well."
"There, Marcus identifies Frederick Collins' mustang in its original state," Luke pointed out.
"He escapes, they make purchases to build their bunker, and then abduct Austin in late August."
"Didn't Marcus say that the room he was in smelled sour?" Emily asked, to which Jennifer nodded. "Huh."
"What're you thinkin', Emily?" Derek asked.
Emily lifted a shoulder. "Kenneth was a photographer. Maybe the room smelled sour because of developer fluid. The stuff used to develop traditional film photography."
"Like he might've used a particular room in his parents' home as a developing room."
"Mm-hmm."
"That's a high possibility," David said.
"If there's a pattern, then Victim C was probably abducted in May again," Aaron continued. "Zachary in August. Zachary's job while he was working in New Jersey was around the block from where Russell's storefront is. Noah didn't fit timing wise, but the cooling off period probably is getting shorter, and at this point they're looking for victims who just fit into their mold of someone who knows ASL. Reid was abducted at the end of April. It just . . . it all starts to fit."
Emily and Alex looked at it all, impressed.
"Unfortunately, we can't confirm that the McAllistars were communicating with Cece and Bradley," Penelope said, chagrined.
"But we figured out that the train that Marcus likely took was from the Peapack Station," Jennifer said. "It's a three-hour walk and the closest one to where the McAllistars live. There was a report of a break-in about three-quarters of a mile down from them, but the family wasn't able to recount what was even missing or if anything at all was missing."
Alex scoffed. "Must be nice to have that kind of disposable income or goods."
"How did the rest of the interview go?" Jennifer asked.
Emily sighed. "Well, it seems like the McAllistar's played a grand ruse with them, and probably with everyone. Cece and Bradley know nothing about their upbringing. It seems that they were overall comfortable with Connor being in with the McAllistars and had no suspicions of anything untoward." And then she cleared her throat. "The relationship between parents and child was a bit . . . intense. Unhealthy."
"How so?" Luke asked.
"Cece gave me an example of how, one time, Kenneth had a sleepover at Connor's. She said that Lorraine called excessively to check in on Kenneth to ensure that he was only eating the food that she had provided him, and later that night, she asked Cece if Kenneth had had a bowel movement. When Cece confirmed that he may have, she asked if Cece could describe it, just to make sure that everything was okay. According to Cece, she hadn't realized that Kenneth might be sick, but Lorraine clarified that she always checked his bowel movements to see if everything was fine. After that, Lorraine preferred it if Connor came over for sleepovers instead."
"That's . . . highly unorthodox," Jennifer said.
"Kenneth was twelve at the time."
"Damn," Derek murmured. "Talk about obsessive and controlling."
"Could be why she pulled him out of the school in Trenton," Alex proposed. "And why Cece said that Lorraine worried over him constantly when he went off to college in NYC."
"What about Russell?" Luke asked.
"He had a rather protective streak, but nothing excessive like Lorraine. He was affectionate with him. But Bradley said that Russell was very much a yes-man around his wife. Does pretty much everything she wants without argument."
"Yeah, and the graver aspects are just . . ." Alex sighed. "They're a bit alarming."
"Alarming?" David parroted.
"Cece and Bradley both said that bedroom talk was almost non-existent on the list of things the McAllistars spoke about. Bradley said Russell never entertained conversation about it during guy-talk. But Cece said that once a few years ago, Lorraine did consult with her about what she could do to . . . to help get Russell active in the bedroom. She admitted to Cece that she and Russell had intimacy issues and that the homeopathy was doing little to work."
Jennifer stiffened and shook her head at the implications. "No. No." She swiped her hands down her face, sickened.
"Apparently she wasn't keen on using unnatural means to facilitate Russell's problem although he had tried some."
"Oh god." Jennifer moaned. "Was this a way to involve Russell in these crimes? Some kind of pay-off for him? She might not have done it intentionally with Marcus. It took a week for Russell to get fired up. But he only raped Marcus three times in those next few weeks. For a rapist who has someone in their captivity, that's—that's tame."
"We said it earlier," David said with a hint of disgust. "The transgressive act of rape somehow turned Russell on and got him started."
"And after Marcus, things probably got moving between Lorraine and Russell in the bedroom?" Jennifer wrinkled her nose. "Is that—is that really what we're saying here? That a whole other aspect of this is that these men assist in some kind of sexual gratification for her?"
"Well, Russell's behavior reeks of abandonment issues combined with a psychosexual thrill derived from subjugating and dominating men the way in which he was likely dominated by his own father. They probably balance out that lack of control that he has with his own wife."
"Yes, but these men are also supposed to represent their son. Can we honestly say that there was no sexual abuse happening with their own son that they're projecting on to his surrogates?"
"So, just throwing it out there," Alex began, nose wrinkled in disgust. "There's no abusive relationship going on between Russell and Lorraine. We understand this, right?"
"Yeah, no," Emily agreed. "The victims fulfill multiple needs for her: there is a similarity between them and her son in that they know Sign language, so she latches on to that, and—oh god, the physical beatings . . ."
"Russell hurts them, and she heals them, gives them comfort. One hand is washing the other in this dynamic," Jennifer murmured in disgust. "Marcus said himself that she took care of him, she fed him, that she didn't hurt him, that it was only the man, Russell, who did it."
Alex looked down in thought. "But he also said that she was the one who told him that he shouldn't speak, and she was the one who told him that it would lead to disciplining. After a month in captivity where he's been deprived of his sight the whole time, he can begin to warp these dynamics into polarizing extremes, wherein the male unsub is the sole executor of violence, and the female unsub is the healer. This is the profile to a T."
Emily tilted her head at her, thinking. "Marcus said that when his tongue was being removed, that all he felt were hands. Can we truly believe that this was just Russell? Could Lorraine have also been involved with that act, and might that have been why he heard crying when he was making his escape? Her guilt? Her remorse? Something else about this is grating at me, and I can't figure out just what it is . . ."
"Considering her abusive past, something about having these victims—someone who isn't her child—completely at her mercy probably makes her feel empowered, too," David said. "Throughout her life, she has her husband and her son wrapped around her finger. The power can be intoxicating for her. That feeling would only escalate throughout the years and with each victim as they master ways to keep them captive and have them rely on her—for comfort, for—probably for the escape in drugs, for safety and healing."
"Lorraine is manipulating these men, who are put in a vulnerable position, to rely on her as one would their caretaker and their own mother," Derek concluded. "Marcus thought Lorraine was the lesser evil because that was what she presented herself as, but she's the one who took him to her home. She's the one who gave him the warnings."
"The implications are disturbing," Aaron said, shaking his head. "And everything we theorized in our secondary profile after Reid was taken is aligning. Physical and sexual abuse and torture, terrorization of strangulation, the drugs . . . these things wear down on a person emotionally and mentally until he develops not just a dependence on Russell and Lorraine, but an attachment."
"Please, guys, please —stop. Stop." Penelope's hands were covering her face, and she was steadily shaking her head. "This is disgusting. This is disgusting. I can't listen to this. They have Reid. They have him and they—" She moaned out in distress. "Please—just—just stop."
Jennifer's stomach quavered. "Oh god, I feel like a fool for making that appeal to her the other day," she hissed.
"What leads them to kill their victims?" Luke asked.
Aaron blinked to shift back to focus. "We couldn't know. It could be a countdown, it could be boredom, it could be anything. But after all this time . . . it seems that Reid has managed to avoid that. They might have found him as special for one reason or another." His phone rang and he stepped out the room to answer it. In another minute he was back, and his expression was guarded.
"What is it, Aaron?" David asked.
"That was Strauss. She's getting heat from the assistant director, who wants to call a cessation of our part in the investigation."
"Assistant Director Barnes?"
Aaron nodded at David. "Apparently she's who Strauss has dealt with most." He turned out to the team. "Let's double down right now and go through everything. Every paper trail, try to review every surveillance footage, everything to make a connection to these guys . I'm going to contact the labs and see if they've begun to test for matching DNA in the soil. We can't work on probable cause here."
It was how the few hours passed into the early evening with everyone digging fervently, reviewing everything to find even one direct link to implicate Lorraine and Russell.
There wasn't anything definite, and it left them reeling. Without this, Luke was unable to obtain a warrant for the arrest of Lorraine and Russell McAllistar.
And then it came, the spark that pushed them to abandon their misgivings and protocol.
Luke was on his phone, and in another moment, he was yelling. "Damn it, I told you to detail me anytime there was a sign of suspicious movement!"
"What's going on?" Penelope asked, alarmed.
Luke slammed his phone on the tabletop and pressed the speaker button. "When did you two last have sight of her, Nash?"
"Wait, what is it?" Penelope braced her hand against her chest. "What's going on?"
"Listen, I just went in, faked being a guy buying flowers for my wife just to get eyes on her, and that's when her employee told me she'd left at around 12:30 from the back exit. It's only now that Walsh is telling me that she'd arrived at their place around one and said that he saw her back her vehicle into the garage."
"Does he know what can happen in the span of five hours? Wait for further instructions." Luke ended the call. " Shit."
"What's happened," Aaron asked.
"That was an officer from the Morristown PD. He was running surveillance with another officer at Lorraine's workplace. Out of an abundance of caution, he just wanted to have eyes inside for a moment, but he found out that Lorraine left that place hours ago through the back entrance, and the officer watching their home hadn't reported that she'd entered it earlier this afternoon."
"Oh no, no," Penelope bemoaned.
Derek stood, every muscle in him tensed as his tilted his head and gave Aaron a grave stare. "We go in. We go in right now."
Emily started. "At 12:30? That . . . wasn't too long after we spoke to Cece and Bradley. Fifteen minutes tops," she finished breathlessly, her steady voice faltering.
Alex's voice came out strained. "The officers keeping watch over them were given strict instruction not to allow them to make any outgoing calls for the time being."
Jennifer swept her hands down her face. "They know. Lorraine and Russell know. They've known for hours."
There was something sizzling in the air. All of them could feel it.
Aaron turned to Luke, trying not to burst from every orifice. "We need to move, Luke, and fast. How do you want to handle this?"
"Warrant or no warrant, DNA from those terrariums or no, if Agent Reid is still alive at this point, I think the potential threat on his life is imminent—"
"Oh god, god, no," Penelope let out, splayed hands bracing against her head.
"If he's not, they're probably destroying evidence. We need to get down there now."
Everyone began to mobilize.
"Since Russell's home," David started, "all Lorraine had to do was call him, and he could've gotten started ahead of her."
They had no time to waste.
.
.
.
But wait.
