September 6, 2017
Reid had never been one to criticise the fact that he was the only person who could read at lightning speed, but Counselor Miller seemed to be taking his sweet time with his file. He supposed he should not have cared, after all, time didn't exactly have the same value in prison. There were no killers on the loose with minutes or even seconds to find the victim alive. No, all of the killers were here - and if he had to wait one more minute with his hands cuffed behind his back -
"Inmate Reid!"
Reid managed to keep his poker face up as he looked the glaring counselor in the eye. Two could play at this game.
"You've been here for 12 hours - I've been here for ten years. I know what you're trying to do. Thankfully - or unfortunately, for you - there was no injury to Inmate Miles, which means no disciplinary hearing and therefore no disciplinary segregation."
Well there went his chance to get out of the dormitory cell block and into protective custody.
"I've never even heard of a pre-trial federal agent in the general prison population which means you have some serious enemies in Washington. Enemies, I don't want to meet. However, politics aside, we here at Greensburg take the security of our inmates as a top priority, so if you and Miles had any problems on the outside - ?"
"No, we've never met before."
"No gang affiliations?"
"No."
"I see. Well you're still in one piece so you obviously knew to keep your mouth shut."
"I told them I was a professor. I've done guest lecturing in the past so it wasn't a total lie." Careful. There was a day when he would have been caught in a lie of any kind in two seconds flat.
"You better get that flawed logic out of your head before trial. Juries don't exactly like a half-truth."
The whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God. Indeed. Reid said nothing, pursing his lips in a tight seal as he considered how he was going to survive another day. He'd been banking on being threatening enough to qualify for P.C. without the need for poison or self-harm, not that he currently had the tools available for either.
"Well if you meet anyone here who you specifically consider a threat to your safety, I need to know -"
"There is, actually. Catherine Adams - I saw her arrive when I was in the yard."
"The women are in their own prison on the other side of the property. She won't be a problem. - "
"You're wrong! She bribed a guard to kidnap my mom!" Reid insisted vehemently as the guard pulled him to his feet and led him out of the office.
Spencer Reid had been in many dangerous situations in his life, but he was convinced, there was no more dangerous place on the planet than a holding cell. He knew none of the men surrounding him and had no creds, no back-up: nothing. Back-up of course could come in the form of guards, but he wouldn't be willing to place a bet on it.
Speaking of bad bets.
"Long time, no see, Spency! Did you miss me?"
CAT! The damned...bitch. Ignore her. Ignore her. Thankfully she was in the neighboring holding cell, but an ocean apart would not have been enough space between them. Oh how he missed solitary confinement, psychological torture though it was.
"You know him?" It was Miles, poking his nose in where it didn't belong from the holding cell on the other side of him.
"Know him?" Cat scoffed. "He's my Baby Daddy."
"Well your Baby Daddy tried to choke the life out of me!"
Reid didn't like the smile that lit up Cat's face in his peripheral vision. She looked almost...proud, but it was gone in an instant. "He does have quite the temper, doesn't he? But he wasn't always like that, were you, sweetie?"
Sweetie? Oh she was milking this for all it was worth. He balled his hands into fists, biting his lip. He was aching to retaliate and put the story straight, but he knew better than to discuss his open case with strangers. Not that anyone here would believe the truth anyway. She's not worth getting angry at. She's not worth getting angry at...
"You should have seen him on our first date. It was so romantic. We went to a nice restaurant, he brought me a rose like a perfect gentleman. Seems like a lifetime ago, doesn't it, Spency?"
It sure did, almost felt like an out-of-body, hellish reincarnation to be more accurate. Get me out of here! He walked up to the door, peering between the bars, hoping to see a guard coming his way. Meanwhile, Cat was enjoying the attention the other men were giving her. Just what she needed...an audience.
"All it took was that one date, and I knew he was going to be my man!"
"I'm not your man!"
Reid clung to the bar, trying to find a strategic position as a large man with neck tattoos invaded his personal space and cracked his knuckles. "I ought to teach you some manners, boy! That's no way to talk to your Baby Mama!"
"I don't even know it is, could be Wilkins' kid." How long did it take to review a housing assignment, anyway? He'd been here for what? Three hours?
"I think he's learned his lesson haven't you, Spency? Although, I have other stories I could tell if you would rather - like the last time you visited me in prison! I'm sure the men would love that one."
Reid gulped, audibly, a mistake he realized a millisecond too late. The last thing he needed was for the other inmates to find out he'd tried to choke a pregnant woman, especially in front of a man offering to beat him up. "No!" He shook his head, emphatically. "That's -"
Cat hadn't ratted him out as an agent yet. He was more than a little shocked by that, but as Fiona kept telling him Don't question your blessings. Diversion, diversion, must find diversion. "Where did you get those contact lenses?" Really, Reid, you couldn't think of anything better?
"Inmate Reid!"
Reid turned his attention the officer unlocking the holding cell. Finally. "Right here, sir." He turned his back to the bars for the handcuffs and hurried out of the cell as fast as allowed.
It struck Reid as odd that he no longer cringed at the sound of bars and locks. In fact, it sounded a bit comforting as he surveyed his new housing assignment: Pod D. It was lone large day room of payphones and tables surrounded by a single guard station and two tiers of cells. He quickly found Cell 18 as listed on his new wristband, but decided not to go in just yet. There would be time enough for that later. Cat couldn't communicate with anyone in here. He was safe, for the moment at least. He collapsed into a plastic patio chair as he picked up the payphone. Waiting, hoping..."REID! OMG! DO NOT DO THAT TO ME AGAIN!"
Reid held the phone an inch from his ear, glaring at it.
"Boy Wonder, you need to call EVERY DAY! Do you hear me? Every day...I was so worried. I thought -"
"Garcia, I was in Court all day yesterday and then on an airplane. I haven't exactly - "
"AIRPLANE?"
"It's called a transfer - to Illinois. Greensburg to be exact."
"That's not right, why haven't I -"
"If my lawyer hasn't told you yet, it's because I doubt she knows yet." He hoped she got the message that she wasn't supposed to know. Reminding her that she was being recorded would be a glaring alarm to the guards listening in. Maybe he should have called Emily. "Don't worry, Emily checked the BOP website this morning, I'm safe." The words felt foreign to his lips but the sigh of relief from Garcia was enough to stop him from mentioning Cat. Part of his brain had been filled with a desire to report this to the team - but what could they do? Nothing. If his time at Milburn had taught him anything it was that he was on his own. For all of their compassion and desire to help, there was in actuality very little they could do.
"So none of the old unsubs are in with you -?"
"No." All of the criminals they'd arrested in Illinois were thankfully in state prisons. "But there is something you can do to help."
"Anything!"
"Cat volunteered to be witness for me. I know, it sounds crazy...like Munchausen's crazy." Except that Munchausen's Syndrome was normally people harming those they loved so they could appear to come to the rescue. There was no love anywhere in this case...so why the thought of rescue? She wanted something, but she hadn't said what exactly. "I need you to find her father."
"Reid, I already -"
"I know, I know we tried but we need to try again. Cat doesn't exactly have much credibility and she has nothing to lose." What was a perjury charge to someone in for life? The fact that his freedom relied on Cat's integrity was - insane. "The only thing she wants is her father -"
"- and Lindsey," Garcia added. "What if she wants to make a deal to have Lindsey transferred to Waseca with her?"
That was not a bad idea. "Okay so say Lindsey agrees to a plea deal to confess to the Ramos case in exchange to a transfer to -" How on earth could he handle both of them - but Garcia didn't know -. "That could work. The plea deal being contingent upon truthful testimony." That way Lindsey would only arrive here once he left.
"So they would both need to cooperate in order for the deal to go through."
It sounded wonderful except... "It won't work. Cat won't trust me, not after I lied at the restaurant. So if I right that wrong -"
"Reid, you didn't owe her -"
"If I right that wrong -" he interrupted, not wanting to discuss moral obligations to serial killers, not when his time was almost out, "- then she will have more reason to trust that the second part of the deal would go through." If he gave them everything at once, there was no carrot at the end of the stick, nothing to keep them in line. A siren-like noise echoed throughout the cellblock. That could only mean one thing. "Find him, find Daniel Adams. I've got go, bye."
A long case done, the team was flying home and yet Garcia couldn't leave the office. There were only so many ways to fall so far off the grid that not even she could find a cyber bread crumb to follow. Since Daniel Adams didn't have a death certificate, he had either taken a new name or he was unidentified in a morgue somewhere.
Wanting to assume that not all hope was lost, she began piecing everything together from the time he returned to the States in 1988. From there he had killed his wife for reasons unknown - and had done a way too short stint in state prison for manslaughter. He'd plea bargained out for 5- 10 years and had somehow gotten out in 3. That got her as far as 1992. He'd gotten out of prison and then what? She had searched through the foster care records only to find - nothing. There was no evidence of Daniel Adams trying to reclaim his little daughter? Why though? Maybe he thought she was still safe with her widowed Grandma Rose who had died a year after taking custody?
Putting aside all potential pity for Cat - who didn't really deserve it after all she'd done - Garcia turned back to her timeline. There were a few arrests for drunk and disorderly conduct, car theft, but nothing spanning more than a six month jail sentence all through the early 90s. He'd remarried a woman named Bethany in 1992 who had died in a drive-by shooting four years later. Why did this sound so - ?
Oh you've got to be kidding me.
She threw her feather-pen down half an hour later scowling at her screens as she picked up her mug of hot chocolate, looking into the all too familiar face of Daniel Adams' most recent driver's license photo from 1996. She wished she was wrong, but it made sense: like the last twisted piece of 5,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. The last few cyber searches of the jail records had confirmed her fears.
After his release from prison, he had joined the mob and been arrested with other members of the Irish mob - including the McCrelin brothers. Only after his new wife was killed in a hit and run, and for the protection of his new daughter, did he agree to become a State Witness.
Daniel Adams had fled to Witness Protection...to become Jack Vaughn.
**** Note:
I should mention that from here on out a lot of my ideas have come from prison documentaries such as the Lock Up series from MSNBC. As for Daniel Adams becoming Jack Vaughn, that was my theory before the finale revealed that Cat and Lindsey as lovers.