A/n hey all, thanks as always to my loyal readers for all your wonderful feedback.
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine but the characters I make up.
"Tell me what I want to know and I'll let you go!" The man demanded.
"Bad man… bad man…" Tommy wailed.
The man placed his right hand on Tommy's left arm and the young man tried to twist away. The leather straps holding him to the table wouldn't allow him to move very much. Bright lights were directly above his head, shining into his eyes and blinding him.
"Light… make the light go away. Tommy doesn't like the light. Bad man… Bad man…" Tommy wailed, flinching away from the man that held him at bay with one hand.
The pain of the man's light touch was agony in his brain. This was not allowed. Touching hurt, but the man standing over him wouldn't stop.
"Tommy… I can make all the pain go away if you tell me about the tall man that was talking to you. You don't have family Tommy. Why was the tall man talking to you?"
"Don't know tall man. Tommy doesn't know why bad man hurt Tommy!"
"I'm not a bad man, you little…" He was shouting and he didn't like to shout. If you couldn't resolve your problems without shouting, then you weren't civilized. He lowered his tone, but kept his hand on the young man's arm.
"Tommy… I just want to know who your new friend was. You see… I think he was lying when he came into see our home. It's very important that I talk to the tall man again Tommy."
Tommy tried so hard to push the pain and the voice of the man out of his head, but the bad man kept talking to him and talking to him.
"Cat…" He spit out. "Tommy likes the cat!" Would this satisfy the bad man? He didn't know what the bad man wanted. Who was the tall man? Tommy remembered a voice and dark eyes. Kind eyes that knew he didn't like the touching hands. How did the man know this? No one else understood.
"No…. Tommy I don't care about that beastly animal. It was a dirty, filthy little creature." His voice was rising again and that was not good.
He slapped Tommy's face and the boy began to buck underneath the bindings that held him to the gurney. "Tell me Tommy… What did the tall man ask you? No one ever visits you. Why was he talking to you?"
"Bad man… you go away now. Tommy will not talk to the bad man. Go now!" He thrashed as hard as he could.
The man slapped him again. "We'll start again. You'll tell me what I want to know!"
The team entered Sunset Park just outside the city limits of Portland. They had parked the two vehicles they were using at the north end of the parking lot. They hiked up a large grassy hill and down the other side to a picnic area. The grass was still a little yellow from the winter. There were patches of snow in places, and the wind was cold. Reid blew on his hands and Morgan smacked him playfully on the shoulder.
"When are you going to invest in better gloves?"
The old pair Reid wore had holes all over them.
"Can we just look at the crime scene," Reid grumbled. In fact, it didn't matter what gloves he wore, they had to exchange them for latex protective gloves at the crime scene.
The yellow crime scene tape was bright in the fading gloom of twilight. The sky was purple overhead and the moon could be seen. Bright lights had been set up around the scene and the CSI team was still working on collecting evidence. The yellow letters on the backs of their jackets seemed to glow in the light.
"The body of Micheala Gerard had been found here wrapped in a clear plastic tarp." Detective Hansen pointed to the table closest to the hill they had just walked down. "She was fully dressed, but her shoes were missing just like the rest of the victims. There have been six other victims besides Ms. Gerard. There are six other crime scenes. Do you want to see them all tonight?" The detective was looking as though he hoped the answer was no, but also that he knew it had to be done.
"No… it's getting late. We'll start with the other crime scenes in the morning." Hotch said.
Rossi noticed that Reid was frowning down at the table, which was empty of its grisly cargo. "This guy has to be from around here. It's pretty bold to just leave a body. He doesn't seem to care that he could be seen leaving them. He has to be pretty big and strong too. He carried over a hundred pounds of dead weight into the park."
"He could have driven onto the lawn with his car." The detective said.
"It don't think so, the files don't mention finding any tracks. There's mud and snow all over the path to the tables," Emily observed.
"Alright… let's get some rest," Hotch said.
They left the park and the bright lights of the CSI Team. The hill blocked the evidence of a terrible crime from them as they headed back to the SUVs that had brought them to this dumping ground.
The hotel JJ had booked for them was about five miles from the last crime scene. JJ followed Reid to his room. The hotel was new enough to require key cards. Reid fumbled with his, getting it in upside down, and then the wrong way around.
"Honestly Spence… You have a big brain and three PhDs, but you can't work the key card!" JJ chided him good-naturedly.
Reid went pink in the cheeks. "Geniuses sometimes have trouble with the simple things. It makes us interesting."
JJ burst out laughing and he was happy to see some of the worry and un-happiness that had taken up residence in her eyes retreat a bit.
"Don't laugh… I'm serious…" He told her as she deftly inserted the key card and opened the door with a flourish and a bow. "Your palace awaits your highness."
Reid snorted out laughter as the light came on. "I highly doubt that."
He dropped his bag on the queen sized bed standing at one side of the room. The spread was a cream colored comforter with a dark brown throw blanket folded at the foot of the bed. The carpet matched the throw blanket.
The dresser across the room from the bed was stained a very dark brown. A television sat in one corner of the room, and there was a wooden table stained to match the dresser in the other corner with three chairs around it. The opposite end of the room held a desk that matched the dresser and the table. There was a chair in front of it and stationary with the hotel's name on the blotter.
Reid kissed JJ goodnight and she left for her own room. Reid pulled a pair of dark blue and white checked pajama bottoms and a white tee shirt out of his bag, and changed while listening to the news on the television. They talked about the murder cases and there was the usual accusation that the police and FBI weren't doing enough to solve the mystery.
He sat at the desk and tried to concentrate on the case, but his mind kept going back to Sleeping Pines and Tommy. The young man was trying to tell him something. The song and the reference to someone in the room as "the bad man," it didn't make sense. Why did Tommy trust him so quickly when they were virtual strangers? Did it have something to do with his cat? Was it something else?
"Okay Spencer… Concentrate on the case at hand."
There were seven victims so far all dumped in seven different locations.
Mozart's Requiem has seven layers of music that most people don't notice.
"Stop thinking about Sleeping Pines… You have a job to do here."
Yeah that was true, but he also needed to sleep. He couldn't sleep till he figured out what was happening here.
He pulled out the map and began to try and put together a geographical profile. The face of Tommy and the faces of the doctor and two male nurses invaded his thoughts. Had Tommy seen one of them doing something to Stella Hutchinson, or someone else? Was there anything wrong there, or was it all the imagination of an ill woman?
He got up to pace in front of his bed. The women had disappeared at the same time of day. They were on their way home from work. Their cars were found abandoned with body damage. The doors were unlocked, and their purses and cell phones were in the passenger seat. Only one car had any kind of evidence. The first one had a bit of blood on the door. The detectives figured that he was careless and nervous and Reid agreed. God… this was getting him nowhere, and what if this man took another victim while he was going around in circles?
Someone knocked at the door, startling him so that he stubbed his toe on the desk. He hopped over to the door cursing whoever it was on the other side. He looked out the peephole and opened the door.
JJ stood on the other side dressed in a pair of pink pajamas bottoms and a white tee shirt with a picture of Tweety Bird on it. "Hey Spence," She stood up on tip toe to kiss him and he pulled her into the room.
"What are you doing here? I thought you wanted to get some sleep. I thought we agreed not to share rooms on a case." Reid reminded her.
"I don't care what Hotch thinks. I miss you. We haven't slept in the same bed for weeks."
"That's good enough for me." Reid said wrapping her up in his arms.
JJ was lying on her side looking at Reid who was facing her. His hair was all messed up and he looked adorable, all flushed and bright eyed. "What are you thinking?" He asked her, seeing the grin on her face. "That you're cute and all mine." JJ responded.
"What a coincidence, I feel the same way about you." He reached out and pulled her up close to him.
"Good… because you're never getting rid of me."
The man wheeled the unconscious Tommy into his room and removed the restraints he used while questioning the young man. Getting the young man into the bed in the second room off the living room was no easy task. He had to hurry though it was late and it wouldn't do for him to be seen here at that hour. The nurses would be doing their rounds in a few minutes, so he needed to be gone.
He left the young man's room and traveled down the corridor, He went around a corner, then straight on and to the right at the next intersection of hallways. He used his key to enter the room of a patient. He left several minutes later. He took the back way out of the building and jogged to his car that he'd parked at the back of the lot where it wouldn't be noticed and left.
The moon had come out full and it looked down on two faces inside the wall of Sleeping Pines . One that was unconscious but not marked. The man had been careful. The other face was old and full of years lived. It was also peaceful in death!