Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.
The team sat in the briefing room. They knew that this case had been regarding the Trish Davenport kidnapping. There was a note up on the screen.
"'You will follow instructions carefully.'" Reid read aloud. "'You will do this to ensure the safety of your daughter. You will wait for the call. You will answer the call at 8:00 P.M. You will write down the instructions and follow them to the letter.'" He finished reading it and turned to his teammates.
"That gives us less than 9 hours to get to Connecticut, work up victimology on Trish Davenport, and prepare her father for the ransom drop." Hotch stated.
"Wait, how do we even know that this letter is real?" Prentiss interjected.
"The handwriting is a match to Trish's, and they found saline on the paper," JJ said.
"Her tears." Prentiss murmured. JJ nodded.
"He made her write it down," Hotch said.
"He never says 'I'. It's always 'you'. He doesn't say 'I will call.' He says 'You will answer the call.' He's distancing himself." Morgan noticed.
"It's strange that there's no mention of the police," Rossi said. "Ransome almost always forbid police presence."
"So, he what? Wants the police there?" Morgan asked.
"Well, let's not disappoint him. Wheels up in 20." Hotch said.
…
The team sat on the plane, everyone was feeling their window of time closing on them. They knew that time was of the essence, and it was slipping away fast.
"Everyone's familiar with the father?" Hotch asked, looking down at the screen of his tablet.
"Evan Davenport, U.S. attorney, executive assistant, Southern District, New York. A widower, assigned U.S. Marshals three times in the past ten years due to death threats." Reid fired off, glad to do something.
"Is the protective detail current?" Morgan asked.
"Around the clock, but Trish declined protection when she turned 18," Hotch told him.
"Too bad for the boyfriend," Prentiss muttered.
"But why kill the boyfriend at all?" Reid wondered aloud.
"Well, if I'm gonna kidnap someone, I know I have to take out whoever is with them," Morgan said.
"It says here she has a sister." Rossi noticed.
"Yeah, uh, Cheryl," Prentiss confirmed.
"Any problems? Are they close?" Morgan asked.
"Yeah," Reid said. "They're identical twins." He held up a picture of the two girls smiling. Morgan raised his eyebrows. This could make things interesting.
…
"Hey mama, whatcha got on the staff at the Davenport house?" Morgan asked Garcia over the phone.
"Well, my chocolate thunder, I regret to inform you that they are all squeaky clean." She said.
"Okay, thanks anyways Baby Girl." He said, hanging up the phone.
"What's going on?" Prentiss asked as they pulled up to their destination.
"I don't know," Morgan said, trying to see over the hood of the car.
"Is she… laying in the road?" Prentiss asked, and then opened her car door. Morgan also got out.
"Huh." He said as he got a better look. Yep, Cheryl Davenport was laying in the road.
"What's going on here?" Prentiss asked as she approached her two bodyguards. The man looked over at where the girl was laying.
"She's laying in the road." He said. Morgan scoffed.
"We get that. Why is she laying in the road?" Morgan clarified.
"She's trying to get a feel for what happened to her sister." He spoke again. Morgan raised an eyebrow.
"And you don't think that's weird." He stated.
"She and her sister spent their teenage years learning how to throw their bodyguards. I'm just glad she's in our line of sight." The woman spoke this time with a shrug. Prentiss and Morgan looked at each other before approaching the girl that was still lying there.
"Miss Davenport-" Morgan began, but she cut him off.
"Shhh!" She hissed. "Just a minute." She said, louder this time. He suddenly sat up and looked around. She stood, dusting off her back.
"He dragged her from the car, here." She said, standing in a new spot. "She fought him. Trish is a fighter, she wouldn't have gone quietly, even with a gun to her head."
"Well, she's not wrong." Prentiss said, looking down at her tablet. "There were nail marks in the seat." Morgans brow furrowed slightly as he looked back at Trish.
"I'm not crazy- I was laying there for a reason." She defended at his incredulous look.
"Trying to get a feel for your sister?" Morgan asked, voice doubtful. Prentiss slapped him on the arm.
"Look, this isn't some 'I feel my twins pain' crap, okay? It's not like if you stick her with a needle, I cry out. But I can feel when somethings wrong. Even thousands of miles apart at college." She ended, looking sad.
"You are a science major, right?" Prentiss asked and received a glare.
"If you're wondering why a science major would believe in something nonscientific, well I don't. I just know what I feel. And something is wrong." She looked at each of them and they both nodded.
Morgan walked over to where the car had been when Trish was taken. He messed with the branches on the tree, stepped into the foliage. He walked back out and looked around. The two women watched in silence for a moment.
"What's he doing?" Cheryl finally asked.
"He's roleplaying. Trying to get a feel for what's going on in the kidnappers head through his actions." Cheryl snorted.
"And thought what I was doing was ridiculous." She said. Morgan looked around one more time before he began talking.
"Okay. So, I want to get to Trish and I have to take out the boyfriend. So I do, and I grab her. He is just collateral damage… No." He said, finally figuring out what was wrong with that picture. "A shot to the face, that's personal. She has to get her, but he has to get her… Alone."
A/N: So, I decided to modify an old case for this story cause I was stumped. But there is a reason I chose this case in particular, which you will find out soon enough. :) I thank all of my faithful readers, and I appreciate the reviews! As always, I hope you enjoyed it.