A/N: Still do not and never will own Criminal Minds
Thanks again for all the reviews, PM's and encouragement
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After Reid left the hospital, he headed back to his motel room. He had to make some calls. He grabbed the phonebook from the desk drawer and started dialing.
"Ms. Hamner, this is Special Agent Dr. Spencer Reid of the FBI, I wonder if I could ask you….."
"Lori Donaldson, this is Special Agent Dr. Spencer Reid of the FBI, could you answer a few questions….."
"Marianne Cooper, Special Agent Dr. Spencer Reid with the FBI, could you please tell me…."
He went through all the names that Cory had given him and now he needed to call Garcia.
"Hey Garcia, it's me, I need you to run a little search for me…."
Once he had Garcia on his latest endeavor, he headed back to the sheriff's station. He knew Kyle and Roy were feeling very badly about what they had seen and the action they'd had to take because of it. When he arrived at the station, Miriam and Colleen were there trying to convince Kyle to come home for dinner. Kyle, who was feeling he was a failure as a sheriff, felt he needed to stay at the station; that he had already missed too much of what went on in his town. Reid set about trying to convince Kyle that he needed to eat and rest or he would be no good to anyone. Finally Kyle agreed to go home for dinner if Reid would come to their home as their guest. Reid agreed as it was the only way to get Kyle out of the office.
The Rutherfords had a very comfortable home with a huge fireplace in the living room. The mantle was covered with family pictures. Miriam and Colleen refused Reid's offer of help in the kitchen, saying he should go and relax with Kyle. He admired a small table with a chessboard on it; each chess piece was antique and intricately carved. Kyle told him it had belonged to his grandfather who had taught him to play when he was a teenager, and they had enjoyed many hours at that board. His grandfather had left it to him when he died. Kyle said that it didn't get much use because none of the women in the house played.
"Well then we should take the opportunity to use it now." Reid said as he lifted the little table and put it between the armchairs. Kyle glanced at Reid, a little hesitant but Reid nodded and Kyle said, "Okay let's go."
Miriam and Colleen, busy in the kitchen, suddenly realized there was no sound coming from the living room. They looked in and saw two heads bent intently over the chessboard. Mother and daughter smiled at the scene then turned and smiled at each other.
They finished their game just in time for dinner. Reid enjoyed the game immensely; Kyle was an excellent player. He also found out that Miriam and Colleen were excellent cooks and the meal they made was delicious to say the least. While they were having coffee in the living room, Reid's cell rang. As the others watched, he pulled it out of his pocket, "Reid, oh hi Garcia, what have you got for me. Yeah. Okay. Where? Is that where they changed hands? Okay, thanks Garcia."
Kyle looked up at Reid, confused. Reid told Kyle to get some rest. Reid thanked the Rutherfords for their hospitality, told Kyle he would see him bright and early in the morning and left to return to his motel room. He had to plan how he was going to handle things in the morning. Kyle was not going to like this.
Reid stayed up for a while considering the best way to handle the situation and when he thought that he had it all figured out, he decided to turn in hoping he could get a good night's sleep.
The morning dawned bright and sunny and Reid awoke to light rays streaming through the curtains in his room. He got up showered and headed to the diner for some breakfast before meeting with Kyle. Once again the Rutherford gals were busy taking care of the breakfast crowd. Colleen greeted Reid with another of her beautiful smiles. He would miss those in the morning when he went home. He had his usual pancakes and sausages with a couple of cups of sugar laden coffee, and then he was on his way to the station. This would be an interesting morning.
Arriving at the station, he found Kyle and Roy already there with the addition of Dave Wagner, who had been moved from voluntary to full deputy with the sudden departure of Cory Campbell. He asked if they could all meet in Kyle's office; he had something to discuss with them.
After coming out of the office, Reid got into his loaned vehicle and headed for the service station. He had to see a man about a car.
Reid arrived at the service station to find Dom Melnick in the garage area at the back and Troy Olsen at the desk manning the pumps. When he entered the shop Troy said, "Oh Agent Reid, Dom is just finishing up the work on your SUV; it should be ready for you shortly."
"Thanks Troy, do you think I could go back and talk to Dom. I just want to assure myself that everything is okay with my vehicle. I'm kind of paranoid after what happened and I'd feel better talking to him."
"Oh sure Agent Reid, come right this way. Dom," Troy yelled, "Agent Reid is here and he wants to talk to you about his vehicle."
When Reid entered the garage, he saw his vehicle looking like nothing had happened to it. The dinted front end had been repaired and repainted and although he couldn't see he assumed the brakes were fixed as well. Dom smiled at him and said, "Well, what do you think; doesn't she look good as new."
"Dom, I'm sorry, this must be a very bad time for you with Val Simms being killed. I understand that you two were close, dating actually. It must have been a shock to you when she died, especially with an FBI agent in town to investigate. You knew, being the boyfriend that you would likely be questioned and you didn't want that did you Dom? You didn't want any close scrutiny placed on you or your business from an outsider who was used to looking into things and had a lot of resources at his disposal; resources that could uncover the little scam you have been running here for ages and no one had a clue." Dom's expression was shocked, not so much at what Reid was saying as that he had managed to find out about it.
"It appears that Troy got drunk one night at Houston's and let it slip to Cory about the little business you two had going on. Troy goes around and disables vehicles of women who are not apt to question you when you tell them what's wrong with their cars. You tell them they need a certain part and they believe you. So you remove their perfectly good part and put in a new one and take the used one and sell it, picking up a nice piece of change and no one is the wiser. Except that car parts can be traced and the parts from the cars of the women I talked to were sold in good working order at a chop shop in Indiana. Let me see, there's fraud, then theft, and then fencing stolen property over state lines, a federal offense and the biggie, conspiracy in the attempted murder of a federal officer. You and Troy will be going to a federal penitentiary for a very long time." He heard a noise behind him and turned to see Troy holding a wrench.
"Troy, put the wrench down, do you think I would be stupid enough to come here alone. If you look around you'll see Sheriff Rutherford and Deputies Butterfield and Wagner. I think you are now closed for business. I have a search warrant, and I'm sure I'll find some parts you've removed from the cars of your friends and neighbors, and I suspect I'll even find some from my own vehicle that you would have told me were damaged in the accident." He nodded at the deputies and they came forward with cuffs to make the arrests.
After Troy and Dom had been loaded into the cruisers Reid turned to Kyle, "Is there another mechanic in town; I think I'll have my SUV checked out before I head back to Virginia!"