Chapter Four
As their FBI standard issue black SUV turned the corner and Richard Silverman's house came into view, Agent Jareau turned to the tall brunette in her passenger seat.
"If he's here, he's probably not coming in easy...We'll split up- do you want the front or the back?"
Kristina shook her head.
"No way, not without backup."
Her disagreement made JJ pause.
"Really, you're going to fight me on this?"
"No disrespect, Jennifer, but I'd rather neither of us get shot on my first day." she shot back, taking her gun from its holster. Jennifer parked the car in front of the house next door, and quickly realized that Agent Kent was not backing down as they strapped into their kevlar vests.
"Fine." she groaned, shutting off the ignition and swinging her door open.
Kristina was already in front of her. She looked back at the equally stubborn agent as they neared the house and chuckled with a smug smile on her face.
"I'll get the door."
Kent carefully approached the front door of Silverman's two-story house, and paused briefly, looking into the nearest window before calling out to him.
"Richard Silverman, FBI!" She waited patiently, no response.
"Sir, we just need to ask you a couple of questions!" she tried again, to no avail. She checked the door- it was locked.
With one swift movement, she kicked the door in, wasting no time to enter the house, gun raised, ready to react the minute she saw movement. Together, the two agents swept the first floor in seconds, with no sign of Silverman.
Kristina let Jennifer take the lead up the stairs, but stopped her when she heard a soft thud coming from outside the house.
One peek out the front window confirmed her theory- Silverman had escaped from a second story window. They had a runner.
"God damn it..." Kristina muttered under her breath as she bolted back out the front door, chasing Silverman down the street.
"Stop! FBI!" she yelled in vain, knowing that he wasn't going to give up until he had a face full of pavement. Luckily, Kristina also knew that she could outrun him.
When she reached him after almost 50 yards, she pulled on his right shoulder, so that he lost his balance for a moment- just enough for her to bring him to the ground.
Silverman cursed as the brunette pinned him to the asphalt. In the distance, she could hear sirens wailing, announcing their arrival on-scene. Kristina couldn't help but chuckle as three cop cars and two black SUVs turned the corner.
The suspect struggled underneath her but she had the upper hand as she grabbed each arm and pulled them behind his back.
"Why did you have to run?" she grumbled as the cavalry screeched to a halt in front of them. Jennifer had finally caught up to them as well.
Gasping for air, the petite blonde bent over to check the obviously battered up agent- she had burned a hole through her slacks at the knee when she dove after Silverman, and her hands and forearms were bloody from breaking her fall on the asphalt.
"Jesus Christ, are you alright?"
The brunette looked up at her, trying not to laugh.
"Oh, yeah, i'm fantastic."
"You look like it." JJ shot back, quickly cuffing Silverman and helping Kristina to her feet. Kristina flinched when the other agent grabbed her hands, but quickly recovered when she saw the worried look on her face.
"I'm fine, really." she assured her.
Two uniforms took Silverman away, and Hotch followed behind them.
"Agent Kent," he approached her, "well done."
"Thank you, sir."
He looked over her injuries, then turned to JJ.
"We need to have her looked over at the hospital, JJ."
The obedient Agent nodded.
"Sure thing, Hotch."
Kristina frowned.
"Honestly, Sir, I'm fine. We need to move on Silverman-"
"The rest of the team is going back to the precinct, but I need you to get checked out by a doctor... just in case."
Knowing that it was probably best not to protest the team leader's wishes, she let it go. Hotchner left with the brigade and Jennifer walked with the disgruntled Agent back to their car. In an attempt to lighten the mood, Jennifer turned to the grumpy brunette.
"Morgan's going to be bummed he didn't get to break down any doors today."
"I can't believe I'm missing interrogation." she mumbled under her breath.
Hotchner, Morgan, and Rossi stood outside the one-sided glass window of the interrogation room at the precinct, observing their suspect in the murders of Alicia Gray, Patty Priestly, and Christy Carlsbad as he sat uncomfortably at the metal table in the center of the 10x10 square.
"He looks guilty." Morgan offered, arms folded. Rossi nodded.
"Guilty of something...i'm still not convinced he's our guy."
Morgan frowned.
"Rossi, he beats women. He knew all of the victims. He ran from us."
"Exactly," Rossi turned to him, "he beats women, he doesn't stab them."
"Maybe he escalated."
"It's a completely different MO, Derek."
"It's up close, it's personal, it's brutal." Morgan shot back.
"We need more information." Hotch interrupted them, readying himself to enter the room with Morgan following close behind.
"Richard Silverman, my name is Agent Hotchner, this is Agent Morgan, we're from the FBI."
"I want a lawyer." he immediately tried to get the upper hand. They had seen this too many times before to be surprised.
"We just want to ask you a couple of questions."
"I want a lawyer first!"
He was agitated. Morgan knew exactly how to give him pause.
He slapped three glossy photos on the table and spread them out in front of Silverman. The blood instantly drained from his face.
"Wh- what is this? Why are you showing me this?"
Morgan leaned across the table.
"C'mon, man, only guilty people run from cops."
"Only guilty people ask for lawyers." Hotch added.
Silverman shook his head.
"I didn't do this! I didn't kill them!"
Now it was Hotch's turn to go in for the kill.
"Mr. Silverman, let me tell you what I do for a living. I am an FBI profiler with the Behavioral Analysis Unit. What this means is, I can tell more about you in five minutes than most people can in 35 years. I can tell when you're lying. I can tell when you're hiding something. Now, either you start talking or I have my people tear through every aspect of your life, and trust me when I tell you that our technical analyst will find every dirty little secret-every dollar you've ever spent, every place you've ever been, and and every person you've ever met."
Silverman finally broke.
"Okay, okay..." He covered his face with his hands. "I'll talk."
He inhaled sharply before continuing.
"Yes, I knew them, okay...we were close. I heard about the murders on the news. When I heard those agents at the door...i got spooked. I knew it would look bad."
"Yeah it does." Morgan retorted, but backed off when Hotch cast a warning glance over at him. Silverman frowned.
"Look, I didn't kill anyone."
Hotch attempted to save the rapport of the interview.
"You said you were close to the victims...how close, exactly?"
Silverman paused, unable to look the agents in the eye as he responded.
"We were close, okay? I would never kill them."
"You just used them." Morgan shot back, folding his arms.
"No!"
"Were you sleeping with them?"
"No!"
Hotch cocked his head to the side, wondering when people were going to learn to stop lying while he was on the other side of the table. He could see the truth written all over Silverman's face, in addition to the change in the inflection of his voice. The seasoned pro leaned forward in his chair.
"How many people knew?"
Silverman was taken aback, and stumbled over his words as the stern-looking agent stared him down.
"N-nobody knew...it wasn't anything s-serious..."
Morgan shook his head.
"Look, man, somebody knew. All three victims are connected to you."
"Yeah, but-"
"You have an awful lot to lose, if word gets out that you're sleeping with volunteers- one of whom is married..."
"What do i have to do to convince you guys that I'm innocent?" he finally snapped, getting to his feet. Morgan unfolded his arms.
"Help us find who killed them."
Emily Prentiss sat in a black SUV as she pulled out of the parking lot at the Columbus PD, cell phone pressed against her right ear as she dialed Jennifer Jareau's number for the second time. Garcia had done some digging on Silverman and found addresses for his two brothers: Hotch and Rossi left to see his older brother Jeremy, and Morgan and Reid were paying a visit younger brother Samuel. Emily was to meet the last two agents at the Columbus Cares headquarters to interview more women who were possible conquests of the ever-sleazy Richard Silverman.
"Hey, Prentiss...we just got out of the hospital."
Emily nodded.
"How is she?"
"She's fine, just a couple scratches."
"That's great." she smiled, turning the corner as her GPS instructed her to.
"Hey, why don't you guys meet me at the Columbus Cares offices, we need to see if any of these other women knew about the affairs."
Jennifer agreed and Emily hung up, quickly making her way across town.
Ten minutes later, Prentiss arrived at Columbus Cares, a three-story white stucco building. She parked next to JJ's SUV and found them in the lobby.
"Hey, Jayje..." She smiled, then turned to Agent Kent, who had both wrists taped and both arms folded.
"Hey, Kent...Heard you took a tumble earlier."
The tall brunette sighed.
"Yeah, I had to tackle Silverman, okay? It's not that big of a deal."
Emily chuckled.
"Not at all."
"Let's go talk to some of these people, shall we?" JJ interjected. "There's only a few people left here, the others will have to wait until tomorrow."
The three agents parted ways, trying their best to discreetly pull a few women away from their work, but there was no element of surprise here. The government employees stood out like a sore thumb. Kristina's first read of the place was that the organization had a dynamic like a secret cult; she knew they probably wouldn't say anything, even if they could.
As she expected, when Jennifer and Emily met up with her in an hour she learned that not one person would admit to knowing anything about any affairs. They were so afraid it was nearly impossible analyze their reactions to see if one of them was lying. It was downright infuriating. After six hours, all they had was a dirtbag trying to make good and three bodies...not knowing if or when the next will drop.
"Hotch, we just left the charity...yeah, they're all scared straight in there, there's something going on. Have Garcia check the financials again tomorrow morning." Prentiss hung up as they neared the SUVs.
"We're not going to get anything more today."
she sounded defeated, something Kristina knew painstakingly too well.
"Well, let's get back to the hotel and get some rest."
