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A/n once again, thanks to all my loyal readers, those that have reviewed or added this to thier alerts and favorites. I appreciate all of your support.
Emily and Morgan arrived at the Rotary Club building at the same time as Hotch and Rossi. There were five state police trooper vehicles in the parking lot, which filled it up. The sidewalks across the main street of town were crowded with what Emily supposed were most of the inhabitants of the little town. They were pointing and staring at the club, and whispering to each other.
"It looks like this is the most excitement this town has had in forever."
"Yeah, I wonder if they lock their doors at night."
Morgan pulled off his sunglasses and opened the door for Emily. Hotch and Rossi got out of their borrowed SUV and followed them into the last room down the hall.
The state police were setting up in the meeting hall. A hotline had been set up by Jordan and she was helping to field calls.
"Mrs. Simeon is a wreck and I don't blame her." Emily said while they gathered at the long rectangular table.
"Did she tell you anything useful?" Hotch asked.
"After we got past Glen's grandmother, she told us that she had agreed to Scott taking him for the weekend."
"How is her relationship with her ex-husband?"
"Amicable… According to her, they had an agreement that Glen would spend every other weekday with his dad. Mrs. Simeon lives with her mother, who's got MS. She's in a wheelchair, but she put us through the wringer while we were trying to talk to Mrs. Simeon."
"Yeah… I wouldn't want to get on her bad side, wheelchair or no wheelchair."
"What's her mother's name?"
"Evelyn Cash," Emily said.
"What else did the mother tell you?"
Emily was playing with a pen and her eyes kept straying to the wall as though looking for something.
"Morgan!"
Emily looked back at Morgan, who was staring at the top of the table and the files that were spread out in their usual untidy fashion. The school picture of the little boy was on top of the stack. He had brown wavy hair, and dark eyes behind glasses.
"Morgan!"
The younger man lifted his head from the pictures. "What?"
"What did the mother tell you?" Hotch was gritting his teeth so hard that Emily thought she could hear them grinding together in his mouth.
"The usual, he was a good boy that never got into trouble. He had lots of friends. He had just started school and seemed to be adjusting well. The divorce was hard on him, but the lack of animosity between the parents has probably helped."
"Have there been any problems since the divorce between Mr. and Mrs. Simeon."
"No, everything was fine. I got the impression that it wasn't her choice to divorce him?"
"Do you think he was having an affair?"
"It's possible Hotch, but she wouldn't say if it were true. I think she agreed to the divorce for the sake of the boy. She didn't want him to grow up with two parents that were fighting all the time. She may not like what her husband did, but she maintained a good relationship because of Glen."
"Get on the phone with Garcia and have her look into this town. Find out if there are any registered sex offenders in the area with a preference for kids."
"Will do…" Morgan pulled out his phone at the same time Hotch's phone began to beep.
"SSA Hotchner."
"Sir it's Garcia, um - I have really bad news!"
"I'm putting you on speaker phone."
He switched his phone to speaker and held it out so everyone could hear the perky tech goddess speak.
"We have a serious problem. I got a phone call from Austin. She said she'd tried to call Reid several times over the last few days and he isn't returning her calls."
"Garcia, we're on a case that needs our full attention. Please -"
"Hotch… I've tried to call him for the last three days. I thought that maybe he was too wrapped up with his mother being sick."
"Are you sure you two aren't overreacting."
"No, Reid might ignore my chocolate God, but he's crazy about Austin. It's total puppy love."
"Excuse me…" Morgan interrupted indignantly.
"Morgan!"
"Look, I talked to her and she told me that Reid explained to her when he called, hat his mother was bipolar."
Rossi's eyebrows went into his hair, but he didn't say anything. Morgan and Emily started talking at the same time. Hotch cut them off by raising one hand and turning his dark eyes on both of them.
"Are you sure he said that Garcia?"
"Yeah, that's what she said."
"Is she absolutely sure?"
"Yes sir, I asked her more than once. She was very sure. Why would he say that?"
"Reid never says anything he doesn't mean Hotch."
"I know that Morgan, but I also know that Reid barely knows Austin. Who's to say that he didn't tell her that so that he wouldn't scare her off?"
"He's not ashamed of his mother!"
"Morgan, simmer down!" Morgan had jumped to his feet, but he sat down when Hotch gave him the look. "I knew about his mother when he joined the FBI. It was part of his background check. He trusted Gideon with that information too, but he didn't tell any of you till the Gardner case when he had no choice but to bring her to the BAU."
"That doesn't mean that he was ashamed of her."
"No, but it means that he didn't want to be treated differently because of his mother. He already had enough talents to set him apart."
"I know that Hotch. All I'm saying is that he didn't intend to tell Austin about her so soon in their relationship. He did it because he was trying to give us a clue. That means the calls he made to us were forced. Someone has him for reasons unknown."
"I agree…"
Morgan quirked an eyebrow at his boss, "You do?"
"Yes. Garcia, are you still there?"
"Yes sir!"
"I need you to check out the registered sex offender list for this town and the state of Vermont. We need to know all there is to know about Glen Simeon's family…"
Emily watched her boss talk to Garcia as though nothing was wrong with Reid. Why was he ignoring the problem? They needed to get back to Quantico.
"But sir, what are we going to do about Reid? I tried to talk to Bennington, they wouldn't tell me anything. There's been no activity on his credit cards for the last five days. I can't find out if he's flown anywhere. What else can I do?"
"I'll leave that up to you. We have to stay here. Glen Simeon is still our first priority. I'll call Strauss and alert her to Reid's disappearance."
"Sir I don't think that it's a good idea to tell her."
"She's the Section Chief. I can't keep her out of this. We'll be lucky if IAB doesn't take total control of finding Reid. If that happens, we'll never get it back."
"Yes sir. Of course, you're right, I'll get to work on finding out what I can about Rock Creek."
Hotch shut his phone and held up a hand before the others began to speak. "We have to work this case. The sooner we find Glen Simeon, the sooner we can get back to Quantico."
"Strauss will take the case away from us."
"I know that Dave. If I don't tell her we'll all be collecting un-employment by the time we get home. Do you want that?"
"No, but we have to try something."
"I'm going to call Bennington myself. Reid gave me power of attorney for him and for his mother after what happened with Tobias Henkel. If anything happens to him I am responsible for her care. They'll talk to me if I tell them he's missing. At least we'll be able to find out if he was there and if Dianna Reid is sick."
"But Hotch, if he has been kidnapped, he's counting on us."
"I know that Emily. The quicker we wrap this up, the faster we can go home and find out what happened to Reid."
---
Austin parked her car in her space at the apartment complex. Two pairs of eyes were trained on her from a car across the street.
"What do we do?"
"We watch and wait. If we need to pick her up, we'll get the word soon."