A/N Warnings for language only
Disclosure: Please see the prologue.
The late afternoon sun hung low and orange in the winter sky. Elle shivered as she got out of the SUV at the Goodwin's. The wind cut like a knife and there was little to break it as it moaned around them. It matched their mood as they walked to the door and rang the bell. A woman who looked a lot like Stacie only older answered the door.
"Yes?" She asked politely, but the sorrow in her eyes told the real story. She was hanging on by a thread.
"I'm very sorry to intrude Mrs. Goodwin. I'm Special Agent Hotchner and this is my colleague Special Agent Greenaway. We're with the FBI." He said holding up his badge. May we speak with you?"
"Is this about Stacie?" She asked blinking back tears.
"Yes mam, we'd like to ask you some questions about the last few weeks before your daughter was taken." Elle said gently with a small smile for the woman.
"Please come in I'm afraid my manners are gone, and it is so cold outside." She shivered.
"Thank you Mrs. Goodwin and please, don't worry about manners we know these months have been terrible for you; thank you for letting us speak with you." Elle touched the woman's arm as they moved into the living room.
Mrs. Goodwin sat down in a chair next to an end table. On the wall next above the couch was a recent family portrait. Stacie stood smiling next to her younger brother with their parents sitting in front of them. It had been a happy reminder of family and now would serve as a terrible reminder of what could never be again.
"Mrs. Goodwin, I know the police asked you many questions when Stacie went missing, but if you could tell me, did she mention anyone that was new in her life? Someone you wouldn't have known?" Hotch asked.
"I have been racking my brains for weeks and I can't think of anyone. Her whole world was her friends and the choir. She loved to sing." He voice broke a little before she brought her emotions back under control.
"Mrs. Goodwin did your daughter have a boyfriend someone you didn't approve of." Elle asked.
"No, she was shy around boys, and the ones she did know where friends she's known since elementary school. She rarely went out on dates; the boys seemed to treat her like she was one of the guys. If you know what I mean."
"Yes, I understand." Elle said. She had taken the chair closest to the woman and leaned in to pat her arm and smile a little.
"Mam, would it be alright for us to take a look at her room." Hotch asked as gently as he could.
"I don't know how that will help you, the police already went in there and I hate have strangers in their going through her things, it doesn't seem right somehow."
"I know this is hard, but it will help us to know her better and maybe understand her thoughts and feelings, if we can do that it will help us find who did this to her." Hotch explained
"Well, I still don't understand but I'll show you her room. Follow me please"
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Spencer and Stephanie along with Garcia were looking at the laptops of the murdered girls. Stephanie had told them both girls had journals and both had mentioned a man they had recently met.
"Stacie's talks about someone she calls J she met him about three months before she went missing. Apparently she was meeting him and her parents had no idea. They would hook up at lunch off school grounds, sitting in his car and talking. She says that he is a lot older than she, but that didn't bother her she didn't like the boys her age. She says they all want only one thing from a girl." Stephanie read.
"Hey Penelope we should ask JJ if my brother knows how to treat her right or if he only want's one thing from her. She giggled and ducked out of the way when Reid tried to smack her shoulder.
"There will be no interrogating of my girlfriend." He ordered glaring at Stephanie who laughed heartily at the look on his face.
"Aw how sweet, he thinks he can stop two women on a mission." Garcia said looking at him with a mixture of amusement and contrived pity.
"Al right Spencer, stop pouting we'll place nice." Stephanie said.
"Hey, I got something on their phone records." Garcia said with some triumph. It looks like they were both making and receiving lot of calls to one number. The number is different for each of the girls but they called them more than any other number."
"Can we trace the numbers?" Stephanie asked.
"Al ready on it my friend, they're disposable cells and probably buried in the landfill by now. Garcia said with marked disappointment in her voice.
"Can we find out who manufactured the phone and trace the purchase." Reid asked
"If it can be done sugar I'll do it." Her face disappeared from the screen.
Reid pulled out his cell phone to call Hotch.
"Hotch we got something, both girls kept journal on their computers. They both mention spending a lot of time with a man they recently met. Stacie Goodwin called him J."
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"Mrs. Goodwin, your daughter had a journal she kept on her computer. She mentions a man she calls J. There isn't anything in the entries to help us or the police find him." Hotch asked after terminating the call from Reid.
"Yes, the police mentioned it to me; I don't remember her saying anything to me about it. Some kind of parent I am my own daughter didn't trust me."
She sat heavily on her daughter's bed and began to cry softly. Elle sat quietly next to her and held her hand. They knew better that to say things like teenagers don't share things with the parents, or she was afraid to get in trouble, one of a dozen things people say to try to make themselves and the parents feel better, when nothing really would. The girl would still be dead and the mother will always blame herself.
"Mrs. Goodwin, have you discussed this with your husband, would she have spoken to him about this mystery man." Elle asked
"Oh my goodness no, Arthur is very strict with the kids almost to the point where I felt Stacie would- That she would rebel hard in a couple of years. You see Arthur travels a lot and he expects things a certain way when he gets home." She began to cry again and Hotch knew it was time to leave.
"Mam, we'll show ourselves out but please, he said handing her a business card, call me if you think of anything at all no matter how small the detail is." Hotch said kindly.
It was the same at the Johnson residence. Mrs. Johnson's husband had died three years before and Colleen had been an only child. Mrs. Johnson also knew of her daughter's journal entries, and was just as baffled as how to explain them.
"So we have two average kids that didn't get a lot of emotional support from their fathers, or the father is gone." Elle commented as they pulled onto the road heading back into town.
"They were prime targets for someone like this. The question is how many more girls fit the victim profile." Hotch wondered aloud.
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Gideon, Morgan and JJ had spent the afternoon with the principal at the high school and some of the girls' teachers. No one popped as a likely candidate, but then Gideon hadn't expected it to be that easy or the local police would've gotten the son of a bitch. Now they were headed to dinner and then to their motel. They had done all they could for one afternoon.
They had agreed to eat together and try to put more of the pieces together. The hostess was gracious in getting a table for all of them in the back where they wouldn't disturb anyone.
"So we know that these girls lacked a father figure and were uncomfortable with boys their age. We can assume they were sexually inexperienced, the question is does the Un Sub know this about them?" Elle asked
"He knows alright, how I don't know, he may just assume it from their behavior. Make no mistake he profiles many girls and picks the ones he can manipulate." Gideon said.
"He's able to convince them to keep their relationship a secret how, teenage girls love to talk about boys to their friends and yet so far none of them have come forward with any details about the Un Sub." Elle said in a skeptical voice.
"Sometimes keeping a secret is better than sharing it" Reid said and flushed when six pairs of eyes turned to stare inquiringly at him.
"I j-just mean that when your not popular or less than ordinary having something all to yourself that's a huge secret is a great thing… or not" he trailed off and looked down at his plate of food when no one commented and continued to look at him with puzzlement.
"Are you speaking from experience, Reid?" Morgan asked with a grin.
'Well-"
"He's right Gideon interrupted before the younger man could embarrass himself further. Sometimes watching out for Reid was a full time job. This man wouldn't push them too hard to keep a secret, they did it willingly. It was a game for them, an adventure."
"Yeah an adventure that got them killed." Hotch said looking grimmer with every passing minute.
The rest of the meal was eaten in a morose silence each of them lost in their own thoughts trying to make sense of the events and wondering how to stop the next killing. By the time they had finished their meals it was close to nine pm.
"Let's pick this up tomorrow, there's nothing more we can do tonight." Hotch said.
He was eager to get to his room and call Haley. He missed her and Jack terribly. Sometimes the endless separations really got to him. He knew they were hard on Haley as well and he wondered what he'd done to deserve her patience and tolerance of his work.
Reid and JJ left the table with Stephanie on their heels.
"Hey sis you got a way home?" Reid asked
"Yeah, got my state car tonight, I'll see you later." She hugged him tight at the door and went out into the cold winter night.
"Hey babe, she'll be alright." JJ said wrapping an arm around his waist and leaning her head on his shoulder.
"I know, this place just reminds me of almost losing her four months ago."
"I know, let's head out to the motel, I'm tired."
"Okay." he put his arm around her and they went out into the Kansas night where the wind howled like a caged wild thing ready to render apart and devour anyone in it's path.
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Gideon was the only one left at the table. He sat sipping his coffee and was lost in thought when someone approached the table. He looked up expecting to see the waitress and instead it was Dr Matthews.
"Agent Gideon, I didn't think anyone would still be here. She was flushed from the wind and her eyes sparkled. I got a mile down the road and realized I forgot my cell phone." she said picking it up from the table.
He hadn't noticed it was there. He looked at her and made a quick decision.
"Dr Matthews since we're here how about some coffee or pie."
"Sure Agent Gideon I have one request though"
He said "Of course what is it?"
"Please call me Stephanie, Dr Matthews always makes me feel like I should be at least fifty."
"I'll call you Stephanie if you call me Jason."
"Your on, now let's see what kind of pie do they have here she said sitting down across from him and smiling. I have a real sweet tooth."
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The man stood in the shadows of the trees rustling in the restless wind. He ignored the cold; in truth he didn't feel it. He felt nothing since she had- No it wasn't good to think about that, he would concentrate on the present and Michaela Simms. He knew the FBI was in town. He made it his business to know everything about the investigation. He wasn't worried the feds would fail and he would go on till he found what he looked for. He hoped it was the lovely Ms Simms. He stared up at her window and when he saw a silhouette moving across the lit room he pulled out the cell phone and dialed the now familiar number. He spoke to her for sometime ending as always with promises to see her very soon. It would be very soon when the moon was right and she would show her true form to him. Then they would be together again. He was sure he'd picked the right one this time.