(Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or its characters)
Thanks to Caroliny Hotchner, Bohogal1998, hellomynameisv, R Leaf, Rocco23, fishtrek, and California Drifter for reviewing the last chapter.
This chapter was exciting to write... lots of perspectives. I can't wait to get the next chapter done.
Enjoy.
It wasn't so hard for Spencer to 'play dead' when the car came to a stop because he'd already passed out. He was teetering on the edge of death already. Dying wouldn't have been so hard to fake if he had been conscious when William dragged him from the trunk.
William left him in an empty parking space before hurrying back to his car, ski-mask pulled tightly over his face.
Spencer wasn't aware of anything in his unconsciousness except pain. And he wasn't alone for long. In the quietness of his mind he could hear voices yelling suddenly. His lip twitched under the duct tape.
Someone was crying while another voice shouted to someone else.
"-not moving... tied- dead! Yea-"
Spencer wished he could move, he'd certainly turn himself away from the sound. The pain in his chest was beginning to worsen when a loud wailing screeched in his ears.
There were more voices then and Spencer finally managed to pull himself out of unconsciousness.
Zoë Dunn and her boyfriend Ryan were the ones to find Spencer bleeding to death in an empty parking spot. They assumed he'd already succumbed to his injuries and so waited a short distance away from Spencer's tied up body. His shirt was torn in several places, hard to see through the deep saturation of blood. His mouth was covered with tape and his pale face was bruised and speckled with blood.
Ryan held Zoë as an ambulance stormed into the parking lot, followed quickly by the sheriff's squad car and from the sounds in the distance, more were coming.
Zoë stepped up and pointed frantically down at the dead man.
"T-there!" she cried. "We didn't touch him... or move him o-or anything. That's right, isn't it? We're not meant to do anything?"
The sheriff made a beeline for the body but the other officer that had stepped out from the car with him turned to them with a grim smile.
"We'll take over from here," he said simply. He glanced at the gathering EMTs at the ambulance before curtly nodding to Zoë and Ryan. "Would you mind waiting here until our other units arrive. They'll escort you to the station to make a statement." The officer only waited a moment for the shaky replies from his witnesses before he started toward the scene. The sheriff was frowning down at the body.
The officer looked down too and pressed his lips together. "They were right in saying it was a brutal attack."
The officer glanced at the sheriff who didn't nod. A frown of his own fell on the officer's face. "What is it?"
The sheriff bent down and pressed his fingers to the victim's neck.
"He's not..." the officer started and he took a step back toward the EMTs. The sheriff's eyes grew wide and he reached down to cup the young man's face.
"Can you hear me, son?" he asked and he looked up quickly to his officer. "He has a pulse!"
"Christ- Over here! He's alive!" The officer was charging toward the waiting ambulance while the sheriff pulled the tape from the victim's mouth.
He'd seen his eyelids flicker slightly. "Come on, kid, talk to me," muttered the sheriff as he gave the victim's face a gentle tap.
The EMTs got with the program quickly and they hurried to join the sheriff.
Spencer finally managed to pry his eyes open and he looked up to see a sun-wrinkled face above him.
"That's it. He's conscious. You'll need to move him quickly though."
The face moved aside and two new ones came into view. Spencer groaned when a ray of light blinded him suddenly and he tried to jerk away.
"He's going into shock," someone yelled and Spencer frowned. He went to speak but as he moved his tongue and swallowed something got stuck. Spencer's half-lidded eyes flew open when he couldn't find air to breathe in. He convulsed on the ground, gasping for breath and shaking with the pain his movements were causing.
The voices around him picked up and he reached toward one of them... any of them.
"What's wrong with him!?" The sheriff looked down in horror as the young man's tied wrists reached for his throat before reaching desperately at the closest EMT. His back arched off the ground and a horrible dry rasping sound broke through his broken lips.
"He's choking!" An EMT on the young-man's left grabbed his arm and tried to wrench him on his side as he continued to rasp.
"On what?" The officer who came with the sheriff was frowning. The sheriff just shook his head but he joined the EMT's efforts and gave the young-man a thump on the back. The action received some lethal glares from one or two EMTs.
The young-man's conjoined hands were back to clawing at his throat.
The sheriff gave another thump while an EMT reached into the victim's mouth and pulled out a pink, soggy slip of paper.
"The hell..." muttered the Sheriff who took the paper, stepping back to let the EMTs get back to work. The young-man finally caught his breath but his eyes rolled up into the back of his head when an oxygen mask was secured over his face.
The sheriff thumbed open the piece of paper. In some places the wet paper was still white, in others, blood had saturated it, turning patches of it pink.
More squad cars pulled up as the sheriff stared at the paper. He finally looked up when his deputy joined him. He looked down at the paper the Sheriff was holding and then across at the man they were loading into an ambulance.
"Murray said he wasn't dead. Lucky son of bitch, right?" the deputy said and he looked at the paper again, a little uneasy this time.
"Is Aaron Hotchner in charge of those FBI agents who came in recently?"
The deputy frowned at the Sheriff's question. "I think so. They called him Hotch earlier..." The deputy paused. "Why?"
"Because-" the sheriff started, unfolding the piece of paper and holding it up for his deputy to see. "I just found this, stuffed in the victim's mouth, which had been taped shut." He opened the paper up and turned it to reveal the names written there. "Why does it have his name on it?"
The sheriff pointed to the writing where 'Aaron Hotchner' was smudged.
Aaron got to the crime scene before Morgan's car. He slipped out his side while Rossi stayed to look on at the scene through the windows. Aaron paused for Morgan, Emily, and JJ to get out of their car and he looked up to see the Sheriff, Joe Mavers, coming over.
"Sher-"
"You need to see this," Mavers said, interrupting Aaron who scowled as Mavers pulled out an evidence bag.
Morgan came up behind them as Aaron looked back at the evidence bag. "What's goin' on?" Morgan asked and he looked past the sheriff and frowned. "Where's the body?"
Mavers dropped the hand holding the evidence bag, taking it from Aaron's line of vision. Mavers glanced back and said, "the kid was still alive."
Morgan raised his eyebrows. "Oh..." He looked at Aaron who looked just as shocked. Emily and JJ joined them as Mavers turned back with a grave expression.
"I checked his pulse when I got here, something didn't seem right." Mavers gave a short chuckle. "Guess I was right. He gained consciousness when I took the tape off his mouth."
"How bad was he?" JJ asked, having caught up with what was happening.
The sheriff wrinkled his nose as he recalled the image of the dying young man. "Let's put it this way," Mavers grumbled. "He's in for one hell of a fight."
Morgan exchanged a look with the girls. Rossi stepped out of the car at that point, making his way over to the others slowly.
"Anyway." Mavers fiddled with the evidence bag and passed it to Hotch. "He started to choke after I took the tape off his mouth. This had been put there, by the perp no doubt," Mavers said and he motioned to the bag. Hotch nodded and looked down at it. He turned over the pinkish paper in the bag and froze. He managed to stifle the shaking of his hands but he couldn't make himself look away.
"What..." Morgan took the bag from Aaron who continued to stare. "In his mouth?" he said with a touch of venom in his voice.
"What is it?" Emily leaned over Morgan but quickly stepped back. "Oh..." She glanced at Aaron with sad eyes.
Rossi saw Aaron's name on the slightly wet piece of paper and he glanced sharply at Aaron.
"You should probably be on high alert, Hotchner," Mavers said, taking the evidence back. Aaron looked up finally and nodded. He squared his shoulders again, trying to hide the bone-deep terror that had seized him. Despite the people he'd caught or researched throughout his career, he'd always been scared of Meat-Man. He had nightmares of the man coming back for him, and often he'd woken Haley with his nightmares.
"Have you identified the victim?"
Mavers shook his head at Emily. There was silence for a moment. The team looked toward Aaron to see what he wanted them to do next.
Mavers turned back to the scene. "I should get back. Did any of you wanted to check it out?"
"Um-"
"JJ, Rossi, Morgan, you stay and take a look at the scene," Aaron said after clearing his throat. He turned to Emily. "We'll go to the hospital and check on the victim. We'll meet back at the precinct." Without another word, Aaron walked to his car. Rossi just nodded and followed the sheriff.
"Good luck," muttered JJ and Emily smiled.
"You too."
Morgan snorted. "Thanks."
Emily and Aaron got to the hospital and waited at the front desk for any news on their latest victim.
They hadn't spoken yet and Emily could see that Aaron wasn't about to break their silence so she cleared her throat. "We should talk about... the note," she said. Aaron's eyes snapped quickly to her.
"What more do we need to talk about?"
Emily shrugged but she didn't break eye contact. "This victim was clearly a message to you. The escalation, the note, it's-"
"He's escalating, that's all," Aaron said, interrupting Emily who shook her head stubbornly.
"The unsub is targeting you next. Don't you see how bad this could be? T-This victim was personal and so must you be."
"Wally was personal. The unsub wanted to kill Joe. And Bailey McDonald is in more danger than I am. I hate this as much as they do, but I'm not just going to step aside and watch as he finishes us off." Aaron had stopped looking at Emily. He turned toward the hallway and watched nurses and doctors closely.
"That's not what I'm saying," Emily said. "I'm just... well... you and Rossi- he probably knows who you both are. He's taunting us." Emily looked at Aaron who had his lips pressed together firmly.
"Aaron-" Emily started but the nurse Aaron had been watching raised her head and started to walk toward them. Emily jumped slightly when Aaron walked away from her, ignoring her attempt to start the conversation again.
"Are you the agents?" the nurse asked as she got close to Aaron. She tugged her mask off her face and scrunched it up in her slightly bloody gloved hands before giving a flustered smile. "Sorry."
Aaron just pulled out his badge and Emily followed suit. "How is he?" he asked.
The nurse nodded her head as she said, "he's stable. Nearly lost him a few times on the table but..." She paused and looked Emily up and down, taking in her look of stubborn determination. "I don't think he can answer any questions if that's why you're here."
"We came to check his condition. What can you tell us about his injuries?" Aaron said as he shook his head.
"Oh, that's fine then. He sustained two knife wounds, one was dangerously close to his heart."
"Do you think it was purposely aimed to hit his heart?" Emily asked.
Aaron nodded but didn't look at Emily. "The unsub may have dismembered his early victims but he shows no medical experience. He's sloppy. He was aiming to kill him by stabbing him in the heart. He missed."
Emily glanced at Aaron. She wondered if he and Rossi should even be working the case. She frowned, knowing the answer was a resolute no.
"Not by much," said the nurse. "Any closer and he'd have died in seconds. He was also stabbed in the abdomen. Nicked his small bowel, and with how long he'd been left, he's at high risk of infection but we're keeping a close eye on it. I'm right in believing he wasn't found immediately after he was attacked?"
"Yes," Aaron replied. "He was gagged and tied, and from the unsub's typical MO, he was most likely stabbed at a different location before being left where he was."
"That'll explain why his body tried to shut down so easy," the nurse said, nodding her head as she mused. "He also has deep bruising to his face, arms, and legs. His skull has a slight fracture but his concussion isn't so severe. Oh and one of his teeth was missing."
Aaron glanced at Emily without even thinking about it and she swallowed grimly. That was their unsub alright.
Aaron turned back to the nurse. "Do you know his identity yet?" he asked. It could very well be Bailey... his heart clenched slightly at the thought. Bailey had been such a curious boy, he asked more questions than Spencer and when they got out Aaron had watched him run to his younger sister and cry into her shoulder. Of course it could be any of the boys but Aaron knew, if he was being realistic, that Bailey was the likeliest candidate.
The nurse, however, didn't nod. Her lips twisted slightly. "Not yet," she said. "I understand he could be one of several other young men associated to your case but he didn't have any form of identification on him. We've taken a DNA sample though," she said hopefully. "We'll send the result as soon as it comes through."
"We appreciate that," Emily said and she smiled and turned to Hotch.
He gave a poor attempt at a smile and nodded. "Thanks for the help."
"No problem. I hope you find whoever did this soon..." Aaron looked up at the nurse who looked suddenly sad. "What he did to this young-man..." she shook her head. "It makes you wonder how scared he must have been... awful..."
Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you think in the reviews.
See you soon (next Friday) and stay safe.