Chapter XI
"Woe, destruction, ruin, and decay; the worst is death and death will have his day." ~ William Shakespeare
The drive to a crime scene had never been longer than that one. Three police officers were dead, two injured, one severely. They had evacuated and cut off the traffic four blocks around the area of the incident, normal procedure to prevent the case of another hit while forensics, police and FBI were crowding in the crime scene.
As they approached the barricades, Emily saw a group of people gathered beside a news van. They were relatives of the people working in that station judging from the anxious way they were asking any officer about what had happened. There was another child out there left without their parent, another parent without their child, another spouse without their other half. She had seen too much pain during the years in the BAU. Even if sometimes it feels inhuman, you get used to it. You have to, if you want to stay sane. But that moment Emily felt her eyes watering, probably because she had taken a distance from all of it for some time, probably because a young woman pacing on the pavement reminded her of Ria, who had lost the man that kept her to the bright side to one of those guns or probably just because she had the habit of getting too emotional those days.
Hotch threw a glance to the people in the SUV, at least the ones that were in that one. JJ and Blake were in the other jeep behind them. He used to do that when he knew that what they had to face was going to be hard. Morgan had a steel look on his face. He was probably thinking what he should do if he ever got his hands on the people that were responsible for this. It was the best to keep him away from them when they caught them. Reid at the other side of the back seat was going through the map to spot anything significant around that could give them some information about why the terrorists picked that police station specifically. His intelligence was always his way out of what was going on around. Emily beside him looked the most affected and he didn't know why.
"From all the police stations in the city, they picked this one?", Emily commented as they finally stopped beside the police station.
It was a small one and in a rather quiet neighborhood, mainly middle-class residential area as Reid had pointed out in the car at some point.
They jumped out of the SUV and JJ and Blake joined them. Emily had to go back to her normal self. She knew that Aaron had noticed her distress. She was very well aware that he was checking everyone's reactions before a hard crime scene, profiling the profilers. She had noticed that almost since her very first weeks in the BAU. But he wasn't doing it only as a boss to be sure that no one would do anything stupid to blow up the case. He was doing it as a friend, as a father almost, to be sure that no one would do anything reckless to blow up their careers and mostly their lives. They were professionals but they were still humans.
"They used the guns this time. It is more personal. It requires more skills. It's an evolution.", Blake remarked, having heard her.
"But they went from the FBI parking to a local, small police station? It looks more like a devolution.", JJ argued.
"What if this is like another warning?", Emily stated, "They sent a letter. They put a bomb in the FBI. They hit a small police station. They maybe have a bigger target now."
"This could almost be a pattern.", Alex followed her way of thinking.
"They use the media and this change of targets can only accentuate the speculations and the fear.", JJ spoke again.
"There is no fear in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.", Morgan commented.
"Terrorists groups normally have random targets, though, or they gradually build up to a big one. They don't decrease and increase the importance of their hits.", Reid gave the general knowledge.
"This could be a single individual's MO.", JJ concluded.
"The leader's? If this is the case, the leader has more motives than a simple team of terrorists.", Morgan said.
"Still we can't be sure till the next hit and we have to avoid it.", Hotch declared, "Let's not think ahead of ourselves. There's still an escalation on the victims' number. JJ and Morgan talk with the eye witnesses, Blake with the police officers. Reid, Emily and me will access the scene."
"Certainly, we can't let this get worse...", Emily murmured watching the CSI unit moving a dead body in a corpse bag.
In the meantime, the jet had just taken off for Michigan.
"That was from the prison.", Rossi announced as he finished a call and he sat in the seat beside Gloria, opposite from Clyde, "Fidget will talk to us but he refused to have his lawyer present."
"He is a sociopath of high intelligence that loves control.", Easter said.
"He is not going to give up anything for Hathaway easily. Objects protect their shadows.", Gloria commented.
"His behaviour and his way of acting can give us clues about Hathaway's profile.", Rossi clarified and Clyde nodded agreeing.
"Given some circumstances, I assisted when they arrested this man. That's why I offered to help you with the interrogation, even if I don't normally do it.", Easter added.
"So what can you say about him?", David asked him.
Rossi wasn't a great fan of this whole co-working with Easter. He wasn't a great fan of his in general, after knowing what he knew from the woman beside him. But he had to respect that Clyde Easter was good at this part of the job. He wasn't good at managing people and 'caring' for people. At least, David Rossi always disagreed with bosses like him.
"Fidget didn't tell anything new. He was going to prison for the rest of his life, there was nothing to buy him with. He didn't refuse anything, too. He is a narcissist. And there is one more thing that we have to keep in mind. He is getting off with the pain. This man was selling guns because of the pleasure of providing killing tools.", he added.
"I had quick look at his file and I noticed something. Fidget was never charged or convicted for any crimes that you normally see in gang members.", Rossi said
"You should have seen also the bastard's 'lovely' house with his 'lovely' wife and kids. This guy looked like a gang member as much as I look like a stockbroker.", Gloria spoke.
"So he kept appearances while he was at the top of a ladder of a gang. But he had to work his way up there. Is it possible to do that so quickly?", Rossi continued.
"He offered products, money and contacts. With those you could do anything in Paradise Demons. As we were discussing yesterday morning, Paradise Demons were no biker club, no street gang. They were the elite of the gangs, the gang of the gangsters. They were strictly business."
"So Fidget offered those and he climbed up only because of that.", Rossi concluded.
"Exactly like someone becomes shareholder in a company.", Gloria nodded, "No wonder how his shadow resurfaced in an actual firm."
"He earned a lot of money out of all of this and money was one of his motives.", Clyde popped up again in the conversation, "Fidget was useful in one more thing according to what we gathered after the arrests. He was quite resourceful and persuasive to find people to smuggle for the organisation, transporters."
"That's how he met Peters or Hathaway apparently.", David concluded, "Have you found any indication that Fidget was the one that bought or smuggled the MQ-300's?"
"We recovered a boat used by them to smuggle guns with at least three MQ-300's inside, after Paradise Demons were shut down. But we were unable to trace it back to anyone.", he answered.
Rossi felt the woman beside him stiffening.
"Which boat, Clyde?", she asked tensely.
Clyde shook his head. He shouldn't have said that but he had to.
"The one that they managed to sink before the agents were able to get their hands on the really hard material.", he replied professionally.
Gloria had a shocked expression on her face and she was. He was right! Bloody hell, Richard was right! They had cornered the boat five days before the farm. They could only retrieve one or two regular guns, enough to arrest the crew but the men managed to sink it. Richard was insisting that there was something more important than regular firearms in it. But the money and the time weren't enough to pull that damn boat from the bottom of the sea before the incident. He went in that farm suspecting the worst and he was right even before he actually came across what he was fearing! He was right when he told her... 'Don't go there... Don't go...' How she wasn't told about the boat? She didn't remember? It wasn't possible. Clyde had decided not to ever tell her.
"Since you know the man, you are coming with me. Gloria, you'll listen to us. Your knowledge is more practical and you know the patterns. You'll add what he is going to say. It's going to be quicker that way and you are going to be out in case the others find something useful.", Dave carried on, already concerned with the other agent.
He was a profiler and a top one. He had started putting two and two together. He knew the cross had to do with someone long lost, someone lost on the job. He knew the end of the Paradise Demons. Given her tension, it wasn't hard to guess the rest of the story. So it was better to keep her on professional matters and not drag her in front of a man that who knew what he was going to bring up. It was a co-operative case, but on American ground and, as FBI, he could make the decisions.
The other two agents nodded agreeing.
"So we have a narcissistic, sadistic, genius sociopath with the skills of a businessman.", David concluded, 'Could this man be any worse?', he carried on in his head.
The team was gathered in the police station to discuss what they had found.
"Very few people were at home at this time of the day. The only witnesses are from the few shops around.", JJ said.
"And nobody saw anything concrete. They heard the shots and after only chaos and panic.", Morgan added.
"As it was expected. The shots came from the opposite roof.", Reid stated.
"The station had already taken the advised precautions. They were changing patrols and that's why, plus the guard, four police officers were out in the open, two finishing their shift and two starting.", Blake informed them.
"And they managed to shoot all five of them.", Morgan remarked rubbing his head with his palm.
"MQ-300's can be used from distance but the accuracy is not easy.", Hotch said, "They still haven't found any stray calibres."
"So they hit all the targets on the first try.", Emily remarked, the wheels turning in her mind.
"And five shots.", JJ spoke thoughtfully. "The majority of the witness said that they could clearly distinguish only three shots."
"Given the time between the shots that a gun like this can fire, the human ear can distinguish the separate noises.", Reid clarified having done finally his study on the particular firearms.
"So there were more than one shooters.", Emily assumed, "And 100% hit rate from this distance? This requires military training."
The whole team exchanged glances. They had already a private, military firm in discussion. And now they had terrorists with military training? This couldn't be a coincidence.
The others were about to reach the airport of their destination. Clyde stood up to make some coffee and visit the bathroom, leaving Rossi and Gloria alone.
"You are too tense.", Dave spoke, as his hand went to hers and he held it so she wouldn't slip it away.
"I can handle it.", she replied without turning her head to him.
"Look at me, Gloria.", he instructed softly.
When she stubbornly didn't turn, his hand slipped to her cheek and he gently coaxed her face to the side.
"I know that you can handle much. The matter is the more than that."
"Dave, I've faced all of it before. I'm o...", she tried to convince him.
Finally her eyes met his and she couldn't carry on with the lies. Yeah, she had faced all of it before and the 'more than that' more than once. She was scared of 'the more than that', terrified. She could have ended up insane or dead long time ago... 'And you almost did.', her mind hissed, "And not so long ago...'. Yeah, she was terrified. She didn't know why all of that was coming down for one more time. Probably it was a mixture of everything, the feeling of trying to get back on your feet and then stumbling all over again. She could see the worry in his eyes. She couldn't explain what was going on her head. She just wished she could fall in his arms and get a grip of the reality that she had gotten through it in the past, that she had moved on. She maybe had never gotten completely out of it but she had moved on in some ways, she had. She needed that grip. But the only way with him was to feel it on her skin. She was afraid, though, that the return of any move would be just out of pity.
"Stella mia...", Dave tried to start smoothly, but suddenly he was at a loss of words.
He didn't know if it was the fact that he could see fear in her eyes or that he could sense her asking for something or the soft skin under his fingers in combination with the nickname. It had become casual all those years, but it was the first time that he had said it that gave it the significance. Suddenly he felt himself wanting to take everything that bothered her away, craving to hold her, not just the friendly hugs that they had shared, more than that. For the first time in his life, David Rossi froze with a woman. He hadn't stopped being attracted to her. He knew that. That was what troubled him during all that time. He had come to believe this was normal. He was a man, she was a beautiful woman. They were talking like old friends now. She was confessing things to him. The start, years ago, wasn't like this. But this sudden urge to take it all away in that way wasn't right. Since when did lust affect Agent Rossi? He was too old for that and it wasn't the proper way to help her, either. Then it was his turn to get scared.
So no one moved and Clyde reappeared in the cabin breaking the moment. Dave's hands returned to his lap and she turned her face towards the window, folding her arms. Clyde threw a look to the two persons as he returned to his seat. He could sense the electricity in the air. There was too much drama around, too much of it...
As the rest of the team was returning to Quantico, Garcia popped up on the radio of the two cars.
"What you got, Garcia?", Hotch asked.
"I and my super machines swept every single conviction of that particular police station for the last decade and guess what I found! Do you remember Paul Jackson? He was one of the gang members that got killed earlier this week. He used to live around the area and his very first arrest was in that station ten years ago."
"For what he got busted, Baby Girl?", Morgan spoke.
"Drug possession, pills.", she answered.
"A kid from a good neighborhood partying hard isn't new.", JJ commented.
"Was he already involved with gangs?", Emily said.
"According to his grades and so on, he wasn't. He started right after. And here comes the weirdest part. After his murder, his parents refused to talk to the police."
"They knew he was in the streets, probably they had excluded him due to his activities.", Blake commented.
"But what kind of mother doesn't want to find her son's murderer?", Emily wondered.
Wait a moment... It was her that asked that question and not JJ?
"We have to try them again.", Hotch decided, "Garcia, send us the address. JJ and Blake, go there."
Two women would look less intimidating and they could relate better to the mother of the young man.
"Right on your tablets, my crime-fighters.", Penelope said and ended the call.
JJ and Alex turned their vehicle right on the next crossroad.
That prison had the luxury of an interrogation room and Fidget was already in there. Gloria approached the one-way glass. Henry Fidget used to look like any man next door but like the one, you didn't get surprised when you learnt that he was a monster, because there was always something inhuman about him. He was around mid-fifties, thin, bald, no facial hair at all and he had tattoos on his hands. His riddles could only accentuate that inhuman thing about him. Ten years in a cell had changed his businessman-like appearance. And of course he didn't need any physical power to survive in prison. For sure he was getting the treatment of a king. Cop-killer, agent-killer, it was enough to give him credit in that hole of low-lives.
David and Clyde walked into the room. Fidget's eyes were totally black and cold, like the killers and businessmen's eyes all together. That was what Rossi noticed first. That man had the stare that he was too used to recognise.
"I'm Agent Rossi from the FBI.", he said.
"And Agent Easter. We've met before.", Clyde introduced himself.
"And where is Agent Christmas?", the man joked dryly in a raspy, thick voice, the one you get after smoking two packets of cigarettes per day for a lifetime. "Oh, yeah. I do remember you.", he carried on looking at Clyde, "We had some chats. But I do remember you also from that lovely Irish countryside.", he smiled creepily.
"We are not here for that day, Fidget.", Clyde spoke again.
"Then how am I getting so high visits? Be careful what you say, because even if they say that gang members are stupid, I am not.", Fidget said dangerously.
"Not surprised.", Rossi smiled, taking a seat opposite from Fidget, "Actually you are not most gang members, Fidget. I read your file. You are a businessman."
"Oh yeah... A 'businessman'.", Clyde commented ironically.
They had decided earlier that Easter was going to antagonise him, while Rossi was going to feed his narcissism. His tendency to prove himself to Clyde and Rossi's support could make Fidget to unfold his 'mastermind'.
"A product is a product. You knew where to address to promote it: Black market and a top gang. And you knew how to move around. It is impressive, nevertheless", Rossi continued.
"There are crack in your laws and, of course, there is money. It buys everything and everyone. It makes the world go round as the song says.", Fidget stated the obvious indifferently.
"And you made all of that.", Clyde remarked.
"I got something back for doing my bit to the world.", he replied arrogantly.
"Selling guns. Very useful.", Easter said ironically.
"Not to you, but to the men that really know how to fight.", Fidget said neutrally.
Clyde raised his eyebrows disapprovingly.
"You question that? Ask that crying chick that you were holding that day how good fighters we were. Oh my God! She was a hell of a screamer, that one.", Fidget laughed, "Who had she lost, by the way? Someone that had the honours to screw that pretty ass of hers?"
"So your customers were more than just customers. You were completely approving what they were doing.", David intervened.
This conversation had started to take an unexpected, bad turn. They were there to find out ways of transporting or his connection with his shadow and this man was guiding the conversation to something completely different. And he wasn't talking about who Rossi was thinking that he was talking, was he?
"Everyone that fights the system deserves my respect and I was one of them. I was one of those that managed to take down the most of you that was ever possible on a single day.", he said with proud.
"So you think that this is your biggest achievement and not the fact that you made thousands of dollars under the nose of law enforcement?", Rossi asked fishing, not letting Clyde to push more the situation.
"Of course.", he replied casually.
"We'll be back again.", Rossi announced and he stood up.
"Make up your stuff, 'boys'." he said challenging.
Rossi had decided to review some things before proceeding. This man wasn't exactly what they had expected. From moment one he had an attitude like he knew something more than them. He was a sociopath. He couldn't play games. He actually did know more than them. And his language: 'your laws', 'take down the most of you'? It sounded like the letter they had received.
"Oh I have just one more question.", Fidget's voice stopped them before they stepped out of the room, "How is that chick? Feeling lucky? He came in and she stayed out.", he raised an eyebrow.
Clyde had never extreme reactions. At that moment, though, he wished that he could snap that man like a twig for bringing that part of the story up. But he couldn't, so he just followed Rossi to the observation room, to find Gloria looking at Fidget through the glass with a blank stare.
"There's something weird.", Rossi commented putting his hands on his waist and letting a breath.
"What?", she said coldly without turning to him.
"He is far too fixated on the confrontation.", he explained.
"Back then they all were. They were proud that they fell hard.", Clyde said to Rossi who threw a worried look to the woman.
"After so many years he could have bragged about his deals, the killings that he was directly or indirectly responsible for. He didn't. His pleasure derives from that confrontation, even if it was the day he was caught.", he carried on.
"So this could mean what?", Clyde asked.
"What if we don't have to do with an organisation selling to terrorists but with terrorists that are part of the organisation?", David concluded.
"The tyrant is a child of Pride, who drinks from his sickening cup recklessness and vanity, until from his high crest headlong he plummets to the dust of hope." ~ Sophocles
By far my favorite chapter! And the longest…! Everything starts to fall in place in my mind and I'm excited!
Spoiler: Rossi isn't wrong…
And (I don't think that I have said this before) thanks to all that still read this story, follow it and leave a word from time to time! ;)