The Conspiracy
Chapter 3
Day Two

"Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Reid hadn't moved for several hours. He was weak and tired. He wanted to sleep, but he was cold and wet. He had tried again to get his foot through the chain, but he knew before he started that it would be a waste of time.

His ankle was wet and sticky with blood, and his fingers hurt too. He wanted to do something, but he had no chance of escaping.

He was hungry, it had been over a week since he had been there, and he hadn't eaten anything, and the only water was that running down the walls of his prison. He had long ago concluded that they meant to starve him to death. He was light headed and in pain with hunger, and he thought that their goal would be achieved in a short time now.

-0-0-0-

'He's definitely been here then.' Aaron said, propping himself up on the bed on his elbows.

'There's no doubt now.' Dave agreed, looking inside the bag. 'It's empty.

'We need to call the others in on this one.' Hotch said, getting his phone out of his pocket. He called Morgan, who answered on the first ring.

'Hey boss, I was going to call you. We have a job on.'

Hotch said, 'I was hoping that the team could come out here. But if you have a case, would you lead the team until we have finished up here?'

'Will do, Hotch. This seems like a straight forward case, I should be able to manage with Emily.'

'Ok, Morgan, keep in touch.' Hotch snapped his phone closed. 'We're on our own, Dave. They have a case on.'

'I gathered that from your side of the conversation.' Dave replied. 'Now we really need to find out what ever Reid and his college friend found. And I think the best place to start would be at the sheriff's place.'

Aaron swung his legs off the bed. He winced as he put his feet on the floor

'Are you up to it, Aaron?' Dave asked. 'You took quite a beating back there.'

'I need to do this.' he replied. 'If Reid needs help, then I need to be there.' He tried to stand, and Dave could see the pain in Aaron's face.

Dave put out his hand to help Hotch up, but Hotch refused the help, determined that he should do this alone for Reid. He was in no state to take on any fight, but Dave had his gun, and he trusted him completely. He touched his lip with the back of his hand, and was pleased to see that the bleeding had stopped.

Together the two men crept down the stairs again, this time, to go out into the street. It was very dark out on the street; there was no moon, and no street lighting to mention. Dave had his flash light, which he shone ahead of them.

The street was utterly deserted. Normally there would be the odd car, or a late night reveller returning home, but there was no one.

The sheriff's house was at the far end of the street, adjoining the sheriff's office. Hotch and Rossi quickly turned into the narrow side street that ran along side the house. There were lights on in the downstairs rooms, but the curtains were drawn. They stood with their backs to the wall on either side of the window and listened. It was difficult to hear everything that was said, but the voice of the sheriff was recognisable, but none of the others, of which Hotch counted five. The voices were raised, in anger it seemed. some one mentioned the cargo, but what the cargo was was lost to them.

Dave and Hotch left the window and crept around to the back of the house. There was a garage separate from the rest of the building. The doors were closed with a heavy padlock, but there were windows in the doors. Dave shone his flash light through the window.

'Hey, Aaron. Take a look at this.'

Aaron stood beside him and looked through the window. The car in the garage was the same make and model as their own hire car. Even the colour was the same.

'What are the chances of our law abiding sheriff driving the same car as ours?' Dave asked.

'I think we have found Reid's hire car.' Aaron said.

They crouched down in the darkness.

'I don't think we are going to find anything else here. Tomorrow I'll have a chat with the woman in the store. But now I think we ought to get some sleep.'

The two profilers crept round to the front of the house and watched as four men left by the side door where they thought they would be unobserved. Hotch recognised three of them. They stood at the door talking in low tones while Hotch and Rossi crouched in the undergrowth. Again the word 'cargo' was mentioned.

When they had gone their separate ways, Rossi and Hotch crept to the end of the drive and walked back up the road towards the hotel.

'"Cargo" could mean anything.' Hotch said. 'Drugs, weapons, people.......'

'This is what Reid's friend stumbled onto.'

Neither spoke for a minute or two. Both were thinking the same thing. The chances were that they were both dead. Aaron felt a knot in his stomach thinking of it.

When they were back in their hotel room, Dave ran a bath.

You go first, Aaron. It will help you to relax.'

Aaron hadn't mentioned that he was still in pain from the beating, but he and Rossi were close enough for that kind of thing to be noticeable. Hotch nodded gratefully, and took his things into the bathroom.

The water was hot and it felt good. He was shocked to see the bruises on his throat and body. He took a breath and immersed himself in the hot water and enjoyed the feeling of the water massaging his muscles. He stayed in relaxing until the water felt cold, and he ran a bath for Dave as he dried himself. Fresh clean pj's, and he went back into the bedroom. Dave was sitting up on the bed with his eyes closed.

'Your turn, Dave.'

Hotch laid down on the bed and closed his eyes. He was asleep before Dave came out.

-0-0-0-

'Good morning, City boys. You come to check out?'

'No actually. Aaron said. 'I had a bit of an accident last night and I'm really not well enough to travel, so we will be staying for now, another night at least.'

Hotch put some cash on the counter, and followed Dave to the door. He could feel the hotelier's eyes boring into his back as they left the hotel to visit the woman in the shop across the road.

There were no customers in the store, but then Hotch didn't expect that there would be. She sold dress fabric and children's clothes, and he didn't think that there would be much of a demand in such a small town. He wondered how she could afford to live.

Unless she had another source of income........

'Can I help you Sirs.' she broke his reverie nervously.

'I half expected you to come and visit us.' Dave said.

'If I had anything to tell you, and I don't.'

Again, Hotch stood back and let the older profiler talk to her. He saw her face flush as she lied to Dave.

'A very good friend of ours in missing.' Dave said. 'All we want to do is find him and take him home.'

She leaned forwards so that their faces were close.

'Go south towards the border.' she whispered. Then louder, 'Now either buy something or leave.'

'I'll take these.' Hotch said, placing a little pair of camouflage fleece trousers on the counter.

He paid for them, all the while watching her face, and they left the store.

As the door closed, the woman began to cry and a man came out from the back.

'You did good, Lisa. We'll get them now.'

'I didn't want any part of killing. It's dirty money and I don't want it any more. And I don't want you either. Please leave my store.'

'Uh... sorry? Whose store? I think you'll find it is my store.'

He got hold of her around the waist and tried to kiss her, but she turned her head.

'Just don't hurt them.'

He pushed her away and followed the profilers out of the store.

-0-0-0-

Hotch and Rossi went across to the hotel and collected their car.

'Do you trust her? Hotch asked, putting his purchase on the back seat.

'Not entirely. I think she was under duress.'

'Remember I'm not armed.' Hotch said. Dave patted his jacket where his gun was on his belt.

There was no road going south, and they had to drive cross country through the dry desert. They were about a mile outside town when they noticed that they were being followed by three cars.

Hotch sped up, but there was really no where to go. After a few minutes, the flat terrain fell away and he pulled the car up a few feet from the cliff edge. The two men didn't say anything, but they got out of the car. Dave crossed behind the car to stand beside Aaron. The three cars stopped in an arc, and five men got out, all armed with shotguns, or Hotch noticed, his guns that had been taken from him.

Dave had his gun in his hand, but he held it up by the trigger guard, and dropped it on the dusty ground.

The five men didn't say anything. The man with Hotch's gun raised it and pointed it at Rossi.

'Now you are out of town, stay out.'

'We can't.' Dave said. 'We need to find our friend.'

'We told you, he was never here.'

'But we....'

That was as far as he got. A shot rang out and Dave clutched at his chest. A splash of blood hit Aaron's face as Dave staggered backwards and fell over the edge of the cliff.

'Dave!' Hotch shouted, and turned to the cliff edge. Dave was lying on his back some fifty feet below. Even from where he was, Hotch could see the blossom of red on his chest. Dave wasn't moving.

Hotch ignored the five men, and looked for a way to climb down to him.

'I'm coming down, Dave. Hold on.'

He turned back to the men. 'What the hell have you done? You have killed an FBI Agent!'

He looked again, desperately trying to find a way down, when he felt hands on his upper arms, and he was dragged away from the edge.

'Don't want you to fall.' one of them said sarcastically.

Hotch once again found himself outnumbered. He struggled against them as he was pulled away from where Dave was lying, and they set upon him again. This time they didn't stop when he went down. With blood flowing from his mouth and nose, he tried to crawl away from their pounding feet. He felt ribs crack and someone stood on his hand and ground his fingers into the dust. Someone grabbed his hair and punched his already blood drenched face. His eyes closed and he lost consciousness.

Then they stopped hitting him.

They dragged him to the back of one of the cars and opened the trunk. There was a sheet of plastic there already waiting, and they dumped Hotch onto the sheet and closed the lid.

'Ok, You', the Sheriff indicated one of the men. 'Drive the car over the edge. It will look like an accident.'

'But they will know it's not, when they find the gun shot.'

'They won't find anything by the time the vultures have had their fill. Now do as you're told.'

Obediently, the man started the engine of Hotch and Dave's car, and let it drive over the edge. Then they got back into their cars and two of them started back towards town. The other, the one with Aaron in the back, drove east.