Chapter 4
Emily opened her front door to be greeted by several FBI agents. She was unceremoniously pushed against her door and handcuffed.
"SSA Emily Prentiss, you are under arrest for spoliation of evidence, Corruption in public office, falsifying documents to cover up bribes. Money laundering. And no doubt a few more the more we continue to look into your life." the assistant director of OPR reads her rights to her.
"Rip this place apart; Millbury open her safety deposit box downstairs. Agents this is done by the book we have the director's eyes on us. There will be political fallout from her actions dot every i and cross every t. Take your time, people." ordered the assistant director
Emily was purp walked outside her condo to the FBI SUV to publicly be filmed under arrest by the camera crews waiting for their picture's. The director of the FBI had pulled a few strings to have Emily's arrest publicised early to get ahead of the pending storm.
EJ
Morgan watched JJ as she sat with her mother, holding her hand. Sandy Jareau responded well to the steroids and pure oxygen therapy while her daughter flew home. Strauss had ordered both agents back to Washington, D.C. Pleased with the news of Sandy's recovery, she forgot to rip Morgan's head off for disobeying her order and flying to East Allegheny with JJ.
Rossi knew JJ would need her mother close as the last six months for her had been awful; her long term girlfriend broke up with her suddenly, and her best friend was killed in prison after her ex-girlfriend caused her incarceration. Her mother's close call was too much for his blonde friend. He had arranged for Sandy to be flown to Washington to stay at his house. He had arranged for carers to look after her recovering mother.
Rossi thought of the young blonde profiler like a daughter and would do anything to help her. He did not doubt that OPR would question her because of her close relationship with Emily until very recently. If the rumours around Quantico were true about the extent of Emily's wrongdoing, it could be a tough few weeks for Jennifer.
EJ
The assistant director had staged Emily's arrival at Quantico, arranging for the media to be waiting outside Quantico for her arrival. The FBI were in full damage control mode, trying to soothe as much of the press as they could with this unusual access to Quantico. The director knew the FBI were in for a torrid time; an FBI agent paid to tamper with evidence the daughter of a US Ambassador no less.
The SUV containing Emily stopped directly at the end of the press line, ensuring Emily had to be frogmarched past all the assembled camera lenses; the majority of the news cameras live on air.
The OPR agents, as instructed, strolled with the handcuffed FBI agent towards the main doors of Quantico. Emily's walk of shame lasted ten minutes, the two agents escorting her making sure her cuffed hands were in plain sight.
JJ stood at the entrance to the main building beside Morgan, watching her disgraced ex-girlfriend make the walk of shame in front of the assembled press.
"You know her the best out of us all, JJ. Do you think she is capable of doing the things rumoured?" asked Morgan
JJ pondered her answer for a while. " Seven months ago, no, now I don't know who that woman is down there, Derek." replied the angry blonde, thinking about Penelope. "Garcia would still be with us if it wasn't for Prentiss."
The security officer secured Emily to the interrogation room table and walked out. Leaving the brunette to wonder how deep the puddle of poo is, she tries to keep her head above the surface off.
"Agent Prentiss?" asked the suited man
Emily hadn't noticed the man and woman enter the room. She was lost in her head, smiling. She looked at him to acknowledge she was listening.
" I am associate deputy director Brian Cox, Chief Wendy Gibbons OPR. We will be conducting your interview. Please confirm that you have been read your rights and understand them? Do you want a lawyer?" Asked the associate deputy director with disgust in his voice.
"I have and understand them. I don't need a lawyer. I haven't done anything wrong. I certainly didn't interfere with any evidence." Emily replied, calmer than she felt.
Chief Gibbons slid Emily her iPad across the table, showing a copy of an evidence disposal form for a piece of evidence. Emily glanced at the form, noticing her FBI sign in details recorded on the form. She had requested the immediate destruction of a baseball bat from the Gardner case. Shaking her head
" This must be a computer error. I never requested this destruction." she honestly replied
Chief Gibbons, the only reply was an evidence bag placed on the iPad screen. The bag contained a paper copy of the request with Emily's signature visible at the bottom.
"Let me guess, agent another computer error? We have compared the signature with your sample signature in your file. The chief FBI forensic handwriting specialist has examined your signatures and confirmed they both match 99.7%. Would you like to tell me the truth now, agent?" she asked with a smile
"I did not sign that document. I did not request the destruction of any evidence," replied Emily starting to get worried that the fake signature was almost perfect. Meaning a master forger must have done it.
"Okay, The evidence you ordered destroyed caused the release of Gardner with the loss of the bloody murder weapon covered in his bloody fingerprints, the only evidence remaining was the two surviving witnesses. Both women declined to give evidence, not wanting to go through the ordeal again. We had no choice but to release him from prison. The two witnesses were found raped and murdered this morning. Their bodies were found in a dumpster with a bloody baseball bat with Gardner's fingerprints all over the murder weapon." The disgust in her voice was not disguised.
The associate assistant director placed an iPad on the table in an evidence bag; Emily didn't recognise it. Hers had a cracked glass screen protector and had yet to replace it.
"Do you recognise this agent, Prentiss?" he inquired of the perplexed agent
Emily just shook her head no, wondering where this was going because he looked very confident and convinced in this line of questioning. Sometimes Emily hated being a profiler. She was making herself more uncomfortable,
"Strange agent, We managed to find a partial print on a section of the frame. You did a dam good cleaning to wipe your prints, but we are the FBI, and our lab crime scene technicians are the best in the world. We recovered deleted pages, documents, e-mails and numbers spreadsheets. You almost did a good job covering your tracks, Agent Prentiss. One deleted. E-mail confirmed payment of 500,000 dollars for burning problem Gt-213.67.L3. It just happens to be the evidence code for the destroyed baseball bat. Care to explain that agent, Prentiss?" asked Chief Gibbons
"I didn't receive that e-mail. Someone is setting me up." responded a concerned woman
"Where have your 80 million dollars gone from your various bank accounts agent Prentiss?" she was asked out the blue
"I was hacked. Would you believe it?" Emily answered truthfully
"No, I wouldn't. We traced your transfers electronically through several banks in four countries but lost your money through a few clever tricks when it reached Asia. The white-collar computer analysts commended you on your panache. But after a closer forensic investigation, it was found you transferred the majority of your wealth to Switzerland. With the help of a bank executive, you maintained the facade of your money still being in the accounts for the last few months, hoping if your corruption were discovered before you bolted, it wouldn't be found. what we have physically located is only a fraction of what we know you have, but it's a start." he announced with a huge grin
EJ
Rossi watched with Morgan through the one-way mirror, horrified at the extent of the evidence they had on Prentiss. Both agents understood from a friend that the evidence was mounting against their former friend and teammate. The two professional agents prided themselves on their profiling ability; Prentiss had them all as fools.
A furious blonde profiler joined them after her five-hour session with OPR answering their questions.
"Dave, can I stay with you tonight? The FBI is ripping my house apart to check if I helped her." snarled the blonde
"The timing of our breakup is suspicious as that's when she started her money transfers. She had a first-class ticket to Switzerland in my name found in her condo. They have me under investigation and suspended me." JJ angrily told her friends. " I shouldn't be here,"
"You have your key to get in, Jennifer. I will phone the housekeeper to prepare a room for you." smiled Dave
"Thank you, you are a true friend." she hugged him as she walked away
EJ
Three hours into her interrogation with the evidence against her mounting, she asked for a lawyer. Her financial wealth now only consisted of 376 dollars from her only available bank account. She now sat next to Yasmin Khan, her public defender. Her usual lawyer politely declined to represent her.
"Ms Khan, we have enough to charge your client on the destruction of evidence, Corruption in public office, falsifying documents. The federal prosecutors are charging her later with the deaths of the four witnesses that's only the ones found to date. Talk to your client and get her to take the deal; 14 years is a good deal." the federal prosecutor said
"No! I'm innocent. I am not taking a deal." shouted a frightened woman
"Emily, Please. It's a good deal, and you could get life for the murder of the witnesses. You're culpable. Your actions released their killers. Please take the deal." pleaded Yasmin
"No! Charge me," Emily demanded
The federal prosecutor nodded " Agents charge her, and she can stay here overnight and be arraigned in the morning. Ensure she is in her orange jumpsuit for her perp walk in the morning." smiled the prosecutor knowing the evidence against her, in this case, was a slam dunk.
EJ
" I can confirm, it's Blade, Sir. It's not a terrorist cell as intel thought. She is involved in stealing 80 million dollars and what looks like a set-up of an FBI agent. I can contact Quantico and inform them of the cyber breach." Smiled Queenie homelands English hacker.
"No, we need to disarm her digital dead man's switch. We can't let the information she has stolen from our database out. Do you both understand?" asked the team leader
" Yes, sir."
" So not the evil cow you thought, eh black queen?" smirked Maddison May, aka Queenie. "Give me an octopus."
Penelope Garcia placed her open hand on Maddison's clenched fist. Penelope and Madison had been very close cyber friends for years. They met for the first time when Garcia had woken up after her staged stabbing and death.
"Maddy, I need to help Emily. I was so mad with her. She did it all to protect everyone. That's very Emily. We need to get into her cyber safe quickly. We are more intelligent than that evil, evil woman—time to hack." smiled Garcia rubbing her very sore side.
Flashback prison yard
Penelope sat in her single coloured department of corrections jumpsuit in the exercise yard. She had been in prison for a whole week after her cyber revenge on Emily Prentiss. She had broken her agreement with the FBI not to do any illegal hacking. Once reported by Emily, it was straight to jail do not pass go or collect 200 dollars.
"Bitch!" shouted Garcia's cellmate
She rushed across and pushed her only friend in this prison attacker to the floor. Furious that Garcia had the nerve to touch her, she pulled out her shank made from plastic lighters body and stabbed Garcia in her right side. Blood gushed from the stab wound; Garcia collapsed to the ground gripping her side.
The yard was cleared, rushing Penelope to the prison hospital. Ten minutes later, the temporary prison doctor pronounced her dead. The plastic lighter body contained a hidden syringe filled with a sedative after the charade Penelope was transferred to the morgue by ambulance. The body now occupying her drawer was a Jane Doe. The morgue staff apologised profusely to Garcia's brother that her body had been misplaced.
EJ
Garcia woke on a bed, her side hurting as she had been stabbed.
"Sorry about that, Miss Garcia. The plastic broke and caused you a minor laceration that's been all sutured up. Here are some painkillers. I want to introduce you to the non-avatar version of Maddison May. Maddy, this is Penelope Garcia. Now Ms Garcia, remember our deal, help us catch the Evil Queen and defeat her digital dead men switch so our stolen data can be recovered. We will erase your record make it clean. You will no longer have to work for the FBI. You can go anywhere." her boss told her. " Mess with me, and your back to prison to complete your whole sentence."
"Yes, sir, any chance of a change of clothes orange is not my colour," asked Garcia
"I have clothes for you, Penelope," smirking Maddy handing over a union jack dress matching her's
taking the offered dress. " I love it," laughed Penelope.
End of flashback
The two hackers commenced their attack on the digital dead man's switch.
EJ
Holding her mother tight as she slept, JJ watched her as she slept peacefully, looking at the burns around her arm and face, thankful they were only minor shivering when she thought what might have been.
" Love you, Jenny, what's wrong?" asked her mother, who had just woken without her noticing
" I am just concerned about you, mom," she replied a little fast for Sandy's liking
" Jennifer Jareau! I am, your mother Jennifer, don't lie to me." scolded the older blonde Jareau
Knowing she could never get away with anything but the truth, with a deep sigh, she started to tell her mother everything.
"The FBI has suspended me while they rip my life apart to see if I'm a dirty agent like Prentiss. They suspect our breakup was staged due to the suddenness. Agents are at my place tearing it apart along with my car. Emily is in serious trouble, mom; I still love her, but I no longer know who she is. I don't know if I ever knew the authentic Emily Prentiss; I'm uncertain what to think. My heart loves the woman. My head hates her for what she did to Penelope. The evidence against her is highly incriminating." the conflicted daughter told her mother.
Sandy opened her arms, beckoning her daughter in for a hug. Very carefully, JJ rested her head against her mum's neck, avoiding the red areas.