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"Goddess of the BAU, speak and be heard!"
"Um… is this Penelope Garcia."
"The one and only… Who's this?"
"My name is Austin. I don't know if Dr. Reid has mentioned me to his colleagues, but I'm really worried about him. He talks about you all the time, and how you guys are best friends and I wondered if you could help me."
"Wow, take a breath and slow down."
Garcia quit the search she was working on and gave her full attention to the bartender from Atlanta that her sweet boy was over the moon for.
"I should start from the beginning."
Austin launched into how Reid had been planning to come see her in Atlanta and how she was really looking forward to seeing him again. Then she told Garcia how he'd called her and told her about his sick mother and how his mom was in full time care for her bipolar disorder.
Garcia cut in sharply. "Are you sure that he said 'bipolar.' It's very important."
"Yes! Did I say something wrong?"
Garcia ignored the question and the tone in this Austin's voice. "I think I better check into the situation at Bennington."
"They won't tell you anything. I already tried. They wouldn't even tell me if he's been there in the last four days. Some receptionist or something said she'd give him a message if he came in. Are they supposed to be that uncooperative with people?"
"Patient's rights are a big thing these days."
"I just want to know if he's okay. I've called him ten times in the last four days and he hasn't called me back. My friend said that maybe he really didn't want to talk to me and -"
"No! Reid wouldn't just ignore your calls. If he didn't like you he wouldn't just leave you hanging on the line about it, so to speak."
"Oh…"
"Don't worry; he likes you and so do I."
"You don't even know me."
"I don't have to. Reid likes you and that's good enough for me. But, I am the tech goddess here, so I checked you out."
Austin laughed. "Did you find out any deep dark secrets?"
"No, just that arrest in Orlando during Spring Break in 2004."
"Um, yeah, I got a little drunk and lost a bet."
"I'll just bet you did," Garcia laughed. "I'm sure Reid would love to hear about it."
"When we find out what's going on, I'll tell him all about it."
"Alright, I need to get to work and talk to Hotch. I'll call you when I get any word."
"You really will?"
"I promise you'll be the first to know."
"Thank you Agent Garcia."
"Oh honey, I'm not an agent, I'm much better then that. I'm a computer tech."
She hung up on the laughing girl and swiveled around in her chair. She should call Hotch. Her fingers tapped on the desk for a long minute. She got up and paced around the room for a minute. There was no need to panic. There was a perfectly good explanation. Dr. Reid was entitled to a vacation without everyone bugging him. She'd call the sanitarium and pull rank if they gave her any attitude.
---
The team was given one desk in the corner of the small police station, and one whiteboard against the wall. There were two other officers and a female dispatcher in the office.
"Geez… Did we land in Mayberry?"
Emily elbowed Morgan in the side when he whispered in her ear. "Shut up Morgan."
The two male officers were staring at the group, which took up all the extra space in the room. One was fairly tall with blond hair and green eyes. He was tan and looked like he worked out regularly. He was as fit as Morgan, but he had kind eyes.
The other was nearly bald and looked about twenty years older than the detective that met them. He wore the uniform of the Sheriff with the easy care of someone that has been a cop their whole adult life. He was as thin or thinner than Reid, but not as tall. He had piercing blue eyes with crow's feet and baby smooth cheeks.
"Thanks for coming so fast." He said while eyeing them as closely as Hotch sometimes observed the group.
"No problem, when children disappear, we move fast." Rossi said.
Agent Todd stepped forward and made introductions. "This is SSA Hotchner, SSA Rossi, SSA Prentiss, and SSA Morgan. I'm SSA Todd." She addressed the Sheriff.
"I'm Terry White, Sheriff of Rock Creek. You've already met Detective Steiner and this is Officer Sand. He's our rookie, hired after Simeon quit."
"Wait, Scott Simeon was a police officer here. Why didn't you tell our liaison?"
"Because I didn't think it was that important Agent Hotchner."
"Everything is important. Glen Simeon has been missing for four hours. If we don't find him within the next twenty hours, the chances are we might not find him at all."
"So what's your procedure from here?'
"Have you talked to Glen's mother?"
"Yeah… She was at work when the abduction happened. She owns the only café in town."
"We like to speak to her."
Hotch sent Morgan and Emily to talk to Mrs. Simeon's mother-in-law at the boys home. He and Rossi went with Sheriff White to the Rock Creek Café on one end of Main Street.
Agent Jordan set up a conference call with the state police and Detective Steiner. The state troopers were on their way to Rock Creek and needed a place to consult.
"Okay Hotch, I'll meet with Lieutenant Gregory when he gets here and get set up at the rotary club."
She hung up the phone and grabbed Officer Sand as he was walking by. "What can you tell me about Glen Simeon?"
"I don't know much about him. I've just moved back after going to college in California."
"That explains the tan," Jordan said dryly.
"Yeah, my brother couldn't wait to get out of here, but all I've ever wanted to do is be a cop, and live here."
"So what can you tell me," she asked again.
"I know that Scott Simeon didn't quit. He was fired."
"What!"
"I'm not supposed to talk about it, or even know about it, but you can't keep a secret in a small town like this."
"Don't cops get close mouthed when there is a problem in the ranks?"
"I guess I haven't been one long enough. I just want to find Glen. I hate it when bad things happen to kids."
"Then tell me everything you know."
---
Garcia frowned at the results of her trace on Dr. Reid. She checked all his credit cards and he hadn't booked a flight to anywhere in the United States.
"Don't panic… Maybe he booked under another name."
Why would he do that? He had nothing to hide. They all knew about his mom and how much he loved her. He wouldn't hide going to Las Vegas to see her.
"So where did you go, if not to Las Vegas."
The thought occurred to her that Reid had lied to Austin for some reason. Her baby boy was pretty shy and maybe he made up a story so he didn't have to go back to Atlanta. After all, a bartender was pretty exotic for her boy to date.
"No, that's not what's going on here."
She'd seen him the day before he was to leave. He'd been over the moon about seeing Austin. She teased him unmercifully about it, but he'd been happier than she'd seen in a long time. He wouldn't just blow her off.
The other problem was what Austin told her about Reid's mother. Why would Reid say that his mother was bipolar? He never misspoke, ever! It had to be some kind of clue or a warning.
She went back to her phone. She'd call Bennington and find out if her sweet boy was there and lying low, or if the something that was making her skin crawl was a premonition of something bad having happened to him.
"Can't you go three months without tragedy befalling you?" She scolded him out loud and then laughed.
It was a pale shadow of her usual light hearted chuckle and her stomach began to churn. She picked up the phone only to slam it down again half an hour later. The clinic wouldn't put her through, even when she pretended to be Strauss. Only family and/or legal representative could get updates on Dianna Reid. They promised as they had with Austin to leave a message for Reid if he came in.
She supposed that the security there was necessary and it probably helped her handsome man sleep at night, but really! She paced again and then threw up her hands to call Hotch. He was going to go into orbit when he heard that she thought that once again, Reid had been kidnapped and that the person or persons that had taken him had a four day head start!