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A/N: There is a little nugget before this chapter for those who favorite or alert this story! Please review! Let me know what you guys would like to see? More NCIS? More Criminal Minds after this?
Chapter 14: Kidnapped and J?
Monday, June 28th, 2004, 3:30
Nick had this weird feeling in his stomach that Auggie was in danger. He hadn't seen her in half an hour but that isn't unusual. She sometimes wondered around the lab visiting various people that she knew here.
"What's wrong?" Hotch asked catching the look on Nick's face. It was one of confusion and a sick stomach in one.
"I have this gut feeling that Auggie is in danger. That can't be possible though I just saw her thirty minutes ago... She should be with one of my colleagues." Nick told the agent, trying to reassure not only himself but the agents.
"Call and see. 'Cause if she isn't with them then that means he works or worked here." Morgan said, starting to regret not mentioning the similarities that he saw earlier. Nick nodded and dialed Greg's number first since Auggie usually went there when she was kicked out .
"House of Rock, Greg Sanders speaking." Greg answered with his usual cheerful voice somehow Nick knew it wouldn't be cheerful for long.
"Greg is Auggie with you?" He asked trying to stay calm.
"No I thought she was with you. Why?" Greg asked confused, usually Nick knew where Punky was.
" It's nothing, I'm just trying to locate her. Hey, do me a favor and call Jim and Catherine for me? See if she is with them?" Nick asked running a hand through her hair.
"Sure sure call you back in a minute." Greg said, hanging up. Sighing Nick put the phone down and dialed Doc Robbins number.
"Autopsy." Dave said picking up the phone for Robbins since he was in the middle of an Autopsy.
"Hey Super Dave, have you or Al seen Auggie?" Nick asked praying that either one of them had seen his little girl.
"No, but let me put you on speaker so you can ask Dr. Robbins." Dave said, Nick heard some ruffle of the scrubs and a click of a button.
"Yes, Nick?" Al asked, his voice seemed far away like he was in the back of the room. Now that he thought about it the Doc was probably in the middle of an autopsy.
"You haven't seen Auggie have you?" Nick asked again, becoming desperate.
"Not since this morning. Sorry."
"It's okay, thanks." There was a beep and Nick switched lines hoping that Greg had answers from Catherine and Jim.
"Greg?" Nick asked hoarsely starting to lose control of his emotions.
"Hey, neither Jim nor Catherine has seen her. Gris and Warrick came in so I asked them and they haven't seen her since they left with the FBI guys for autopsy." As soon as Greg finished that sentence Nick slammed the phone shut and buried his head in his hands.
"Damn it." He whispered "Damn It!" he yelled slamming his fist on the table. He was about to do it again when Morgan grabbed his fist.
"Hey! Auggie doesn't need you to beat yourself up. what she needs you to do is to help us find her." Morgan said gently letting go of Nick's fist and setting on the table.
"What do we do now?" Nick asked looking up at him.
"Grissom sent her to the vending machines to get something to drink right?" Rossi asked
"Yeah, we will not let her to go to autopsy when we know there is a dead body on the table." Nick told them.
"Well that's probably where she was abducted from so let's go there first." Reid said standing up. Quietly, Nick led them through the maze to where the vending machines were located. There on the floor was a discarded bottle of Hawaiian Fruit Punch.
Hotch pulled on a pair of gloves and picked up the bottle, he turned it towards Nick. "Does this look like something she would get?" He asked him softly.
"God yes, no one here likes that. Jim put that in just for her since she is not allowed to have soda." Nick said imaging all the possible ways that his little girl could have been taken. None of them were pretty, the unfortunate thing about being in forensics; the worst is usually what comes to mind first.
"Hotch, there is something on the keypad." Reid said, stepping around them and towards the machine to get a closer look.
"It's the letter 'J'." he told them. Nick's head perked up. He jumped up quickly, a new hope in his eye.
"Don't move or touch anything!" Nick shouted over his shoulder, running down the hall to grab his kit.
"Have you ever dusted prints before?" Nick asked Reid getting out the print dust.
"A few times." Reid told him as Nick handed over the dust and pointed to the keypad. Reid got the hint.
"Hotch, I need you to get up slowly and back up in your footsteps and please leave the bottle where it was." Nick instructed and Hotch complied. The team watched in fascination as Nick worked; apparently Greg put it together because he sent Grissom and Warrick over to help him. Together they lifted two sets of prints one smaller matching Auggie's shoes that she was wearing and a much larger pair directly behind Auggie's prints. They also took pictures of not only the bottle, but everything around the bottle, shoe prints, the 'J' on the vending screen and the fingerprints before lifting them.
"Why Auggie?" Nick asked quietly after they finished.
"That's what we're going to find out. You will get her back, Nick." Morgan told the CSI squeezing his shoulder before heading back to the break room.
Everything was fuzzy to Auggie as she awakened. Her eyes were heavy along with her limbs and her head. Slowly, she forced her eyes open to see a blurry bright yellowish ball above her before it focused and turned out to be a light bulb on a cord. Her head she also noticed had a steady ache to it as she pushed herself up into a sitting position.
"Hello?" she called out. "Hello?!" Auggie looked around the walls around her seemed to be made of thin aluminum yet strong enough to hold in the sound or at least most of it. In the corner there was a dirty twin size mattress with a single even dirtier pillow. Auggie decided that right away that she wasn't going to sleep there. She backed up into the corner of the tiny space, leaned her head back and let the little drops of salt water run down her cheeks.
"Nick, do you have a picture of Auggie on you? A recent one?" Morgan asked looking between the pictures of the recent victims and the distraught father. It was bad for any parent for their child to be missing, but for a cop/ CSI it is even worse. Usually a suspect pool would be small; with a cop or CSI that list just tripled easily with everyone who they ever put in jail and their families.
"Yeah, yeah here. I just got it developed the other week." Nick said handing over a folded picture of Auggie from his wallet. Rossi carefully unfolded it to reveal the smiling little girl that he saw forty-five minutes ago. He walked over to the white board and gently taped it up by the last victim.
"Guys, look between the first five victims and Auggie. Does anyone else see the similarities?" Morgan asked pointing out what he saw when he first came in.
"They have similar facial structures along the nose, mouth, eyes and of course hair structure." Reid pointed out, after a moment he added. "She was the intended victim the unsub wanted. It makes sense, why else would he risk taking her here where there are cops everywhere?"
"Has she been alone at all since the first victim was killed or before?" Hotch asked, what seemed like an hour later; his eyes filled with so sort of emotion that Nick couldn't identify.
"No, when she comes here she usually hangs out with someone from my team or her Godfathers. If not she hangs out with Jim, the head of the Lab." Nick told them before looking at them seeing where they were leading with this line of questioning. "No. Jim didn't do this. He loves Auggie like a niece, he would do anything to protect her, not hurt her!"
"We can't leave him out. Remember the clue Auggie left for us, the 'j'." Rossi said not liking it anymore than he did.
"Nick where is your house located?" Reid asked looking at the map. The CSI walked up dejectedly and put a red dot where his house is. "Guys, look at this. This is his comfort zone and the lab is right in there to."
"J. Did you hired any new janitors maybe?" Prentiss asked thinking about the letter.
"Not recently, but we did hire one a few months ago." Nick told them. He thought about the guy; he seemed alright, quiet, got his work done and didn't bug anyone. Out of the corner of his eye Nick could see Morgan pulling out his phone.
"You've entered the land of Awesome. Speak and be heard, common." Penelope answered in the background Derek could hear clicking of keys.
"Hey baby girl. I need you to pull employment records and criminal records from the CSI lab here in Nevada on any janitors." Derek told her a smile on his face.
"Alright, call you back."
"Oh, hell no!" Nick heard Archie yell from across the hall and a whirl of keys clicking. He glanced over to Morgan to see him chuckling.
"What is your tech analyst doing again?" he asked as he heard another swear leave Archie's mouth.
"Do you really want to know?" Was the answer he got from Prentiss.