Chapter 12

1653 Caton Pl.
Georgetown
Washington DC

The two groups summed up what they had found so far, Rossi having found similar tells at the shop. They ended up in the small kitchen, with Spencer in clearly what was his usual spot. He felt the absurd desire to make everyone a mug of tea.

"So, where are we?" Hotch asked.

"She knows spy games." Morgan replied. "Her or someone close to her"

"She's locked this place down to control the flow of information." Emily added. "The only way to get something in or out is that phone." She nodded to the one on the wall.

"Again, why worry about it if the bad guys are going to attack and she's going to run?" Morgan asked.

"Maybe they don't just want her; they want someone close to her." Rossi said, thinking out loud. "The only way to listen to anything here is by tapping that phone. If she locked it down completely they would have to up the ante. As long as they think they're in the in the loop they will sit and listen to that phone for months if need be, waiting for a single slip. She wouldn't even need a line scanner on this end, if she called a person who might bring up their interest they could scan the line from their end, and use a prearranged code word to tell her that someone else was listening. Every other call could just go through and give them something to listen to."

"So the question is who does she call?" Hotch wanted to know.

Morgan pulled out his cell. "Talk to me my goddess, what have you got."

Garcia was sounding better by the minute. "Okay, so there is lots of activity on her shop phone, for obvious reasons. Most of it is business, vendors, the bank, people who also wrote checks or made credit charges and are most likely customers. There are only four numbers that don't fit that pattern. And she calls the same four from her house on a regular basis."

"Who are they?" Hotch asked.

"Well the first and most popular over the last few months has been our own Dr. Reid there. You know sweetie the way you two talk you might as well just move in." Spencer felt his ears starting to burn and decided not to look at anyone. "Two of them are prepay cell phones, no names attached. I haven't figured out who the fourth one is attached to, the security is crazy good."

"That might be the one who knows spycraft." Emily said.

"Why don't we do this the old-school way?" Rossi asked. "Why don't we call them?"

"Garcia?" Spencer said, "Can you scramble the output on this phone, so no one can pick it up with a scanner?"

"You don't have to." JJ replied. "All our phones are all ready scrambled. It keeps reporters from listening in."

"Oh. Nice." Spencer smiled. At least no one had been listening in on all those long conversations. Some of that would have been rather disquieting.

Hotch nodded. "Okay Garcia, start with the first number, make it look like it comes from here. And I want a recording and a trace."

"You got it."

They all gathered around the phone while it started ringing. It was answered by a harsh voice with an accent straight out of Brooklyn, "Your quarter."

"Who is this?" Hotch asked.

"Who is this?" The voice returned.

"This is Special Agent Aaron Hotchner with the FBI. We're looking for Claire Barlowe."

"Aw fuck!" They heard some beeps on the line, then. "Hey Doc, you there?"

Spencer was the only doctor there, so he spoke up. "This is Dr. Reid."

"Rule one: They hurt her, I hurt you." The line went dead.

After the phone cut out they all sat there blinking for a moment. Morgan was the first to speak. "Okay, they just made this very personal."

"Yeah, no kidding." The violence contained in those few words had left Spencer shaken. "That was clearly anger built out of fear, but I don't think I'd like to be there if those fears became real."

"Garcia, did you get a trace?" Hotch asked.

"Only as far as California. We needed another ten seconds. Want me to try the next one?"

"Please."

The phone rang twice. The voice that answered was male, younger, more polished, urbane and intimate enough to make Spencer's heart drop. "Hey, pretty. How was the opera?"

"Who is this?" Hotch repeated.

"Who is this?"

"This is Special Agent Aaron Hotchner with the FBI. We're looking for Claire Barlowe."

This time there were no threats, the phone just cut out. "Garcia?" Hotch asked.

"No good. East coast, somewhere in the New York area, that's all I have. Try number three?"

"Please."

Number three rang once and was picked up. "ClearWater Security." Said a polished, professional female voice.

"Claire Barlowe please."

"One moment." They heard someone typing. "I'm sorry, we don't have a Claire Barlowe in our directory."

"Thank you." Hotch replied, before he hung up.

"ClearWater." Emily said. "They're the ones who handled Doyle."

"They're a major military contractor." JJ said. "They handle security at all levels."

"In other words, mercenaries." Rossi replied.

"That would explain all the spycraft." Emily said.

"Is there anything more we learn here?" Hotch asked the table. When they all shook their heads he continued. "Let's head back to the office, see what we can do from there.

Spencer took one last look around the cottage. Then he followed the team.

BAU Headquarters
Quantico, VA

Just as they were settling in to the bullpen Spencer's phone rang. "This is Dr. Reid."

"Don't hang up."

Spencer frantically signaled to the team as he balanced the phone under his ear and wrote on the nearest paper, telling them it was voice #2. "Who is this? How did you get this number?" He headed straight for the conference room with the rest of the team following behind.

"I'm Ben, Claire's brother. Your number's on the chalkboard in her kitchen." As soon as the door closed behind them and it was quiet Spencer switched to speaker phone, writing the identity of the caller on the board. They could hear the sound of heavy city traffic behind him. "Don't bother tracing the call, I'm in Manhattan. If the cops get too close all they'll find is a phone. Now tell me what happened."

At Hotch's nod Spencer replied. "We were at the opera before the show. She spotted someone across the lobby and left. We haven't seen her since."

"Before the show, Kennedy Center starts early, that would be around five, yeah?"

"Yes."

"That means she's three hours overdue. She should be here by now."

"Maybe you missed her?"

"No way, I've been home all night, waiting to hear how the date went. I figured no call was a good sign. How close did they get to her?"

Spencer frowned. "What do you mean?"

"How close? Close enough to yell? To whisper? Did they speak to her at all?"

"No. The lobby was crowded; she took off as soon as she saw them."

The voice almost melted in relief. "Thank god." There was a long pause "So why the hell isn't she here?"

"That's a very good question." Spencer looked at the note Emily put on the board. "Do you need to come in?"

"No. They're watching you by now."

Spencer kept reading what Emily wrote. "We can protect you. We can give you asylum."

"No, you can't. I'll call back in six hours. She doesn't turn up by then we'll try something else. Pick up the phone Doc."

Spencer blinked and tapped the speaker to mimic the sound of him picking up. "All right."

"You love her?"

"Yes."

"No. Do you love her?"

It only took another breath for Spencer to answer from the depths of his heart. "Yes."

"Then listen hard. She does not go back. If they get too close you take care of it."

It took Spencer a moment to realize what Ben meant. "You mean kill her?" That got the entire team's full attention.

The silence was answer enough. "If she goes back they're not the only one you have to worry about. Six hours." He hung up.

The team settled back into their chairs to digest the conversation. "Garcia, anything on the phone?" Hotch called her up and asked.

"It was a blank phone, no GPS, call routed through towers in Manhattan." Garcia replied. "He was telling the truth that far."

Which clearly didn't help much. Spencer looked up at the rest of them. "Why would I have to kill her? Who's after her?"

Morgan shook his head, "That is a very good question."

"It's not just her," Rossi pointed out, "That whole family is playing the spy game. Reid what do you know about them? What has she said about them?"

"Not much." Spencer admitted. He had to admit, the eidetic memory came in handy at times. "No, that was my brother Zeke. He stopped by to check on me, brought some cash for my till. He was far too rude this morning to stick around and be introduced….. Daniel is the eldest, he owns his own company. Michael runs it for him."

"Uh, yeah he does." Garcia started flashing pictures up on the screen. "That explains that third number. Daniel Ellensworth owns ClearWater. No one has ever taken a good picture of him." The pictures she had were all unclear; they only showed a dark haired man in sunglasses. "Michael Ellensworth, his younger brother, is the Chief Operating Officer." Another dark haired man, with brilliant blue eyes, dressed in a very expensive suit, in a picture from some corporate publication.

"He was here for the Doyle meeting." Rossi said. "But he was listening at the back. That must have been a lower level shill talking to us."

"He was observing." Hotch replied. "It was well played."

"Zeke looks after the rest of us." Spencer said. "Ben is a writer, he lives in New York"

"The one you just talked to said he was Ben." Morgan said. "I bet the one who threatened you was Zeke."

"Also Z, and from California." Emily said. "I wonder if he painted that picture."

Spencer nodded and continued. "And I have one brother-in-law, Ari, he's a Navy SEAL. And as far as sisters Rayna is the eldest, she's the one who's married to Ari, and they have my niece Miriam. Then Rebecca is married to Michael. Zeke, Ben and I are not attached. I'm the baby in the family, if you wonder where I fall in the pecking order."

"Rebecca Ellensworth." Garcia put a picture of an elegant woman with dark hair and dark eyes on the screen. "Doyenne of the DC social scene, hostess of a dozen or so seriously black tie events, on the board of eight different charities."

"Also known as Marielle Laurent." Emily said. She was staring at the screen in amazement. "Dealer in conflict diamonds. I met her at one of Ian's week-end parties."

"Hello spycraft." Garcia said.

"Ian did have a type." Morgan said. He was right; Rebecca/Marielle and Emily/Lauren could have been sisters. "She must have been working for some agency."

"Which one?" Rossi asked

"Well, given that she was on Ian but not part of our unit we can eliminate Interpol, the US, UK, France and Germany." Emily replied. "That at least narrows the list."

Meanwhile Spencer was thinking. "At any time there are approximately 2,000 Navy SEAL's on active duty. We need to find one, first name Ari, preferably married."

"I can do that." Garcia started typing. "We have a winner. Major Ari Gillon, currently serving in Iraq, married to a Rayna Gillon, an Israeli national, no kids." She put up his picture. "And the whole file is red flagged by the DIA."

JJ looked over at Spencer. "DIA. Be thankful I have a contact who owes me one."

"Wait," Emily looked over. "Israeli?"

"Yeah. She was born in Tel Aviv." Garcia replied.

All of a sudden Emily looked ill. "Oh you are so not allowed to date anymore."

.

So now that Garcia has found pictures I can start casting Claire's family.

Eddie Cahill as Michael Ellensworth
Audrey Tatuou as Rebecca Ellensworth
Adrian Paul as Lt. Cmdr. Ari Gillon

All from about five years ago when this story was first written.