The minute the plane levels out, JJ pulls out a bunch of files and Garcia lifts a laptop. Reid went to get himself some handy dandy coffee. I mean, it's never too late for coffee, right?
"Where are we going?" I ask like a child would.
"Sauk Prairie, Wisconsin." Garcia tells me. I feel a knot in my throat form at the familiar city name. My chest aches at the strange pronunciation they give Sauk - like it's a sock, rather than with a small 'w' hidden within it. Happens a lot, really, and every time it widens the gap in my heart that's been longing for that city.
"Why?" Reid asks normally.
"Three younger women, assumed late twenties, have been found in similar locations around ponds. Each of them have a large portion of hair snipped off, and they're all blondes." Hotch informs us, reading over JJ's shoulder to see whatever else we have.
"Where is their hair cut?" Reid asks, the gears in his head shifting at full speed.
"Around the left ear." JJ says. She tosses him a file filled with pictures. Each girl looks the same; they each have small noses and the same platinum blonde, straight hair. They seem to have some muscle tone, and all wear short sleeves and average-length shorts. They're curled in a tight ball on their right side next to the edge of a pond. The hair around their left ear - an inch away on either side. "East" is scribbled in sharpie on the pictures. Most likely what side the bodies were dumped.
"Well, I doubt it's much of a rape situation." Reid points out, interrupting my studying. We all give him a puzzled look, which he explains through his reasoning. "There is really no struggle. No bruises or even tattered clothes. They all appear to be drowned and positioned. I mean, the hair looks wet, and so do their clothes. How long apart were their deaths? Any missing reports?"
"They were reported missing two days apart," Hotch says.
"Any alcohol or drugs in their system? Maybe he picked them out of a bar or something and made sure they were drunk beyond belief." Spencer suggests carefully.
"They all had ketamine within them in heavy doses, I've heard," JJ sighs collectively, "So I bet they weren't a fight to deal with."
Reid nods, already deep in processing-mode. He looks concerned, like every corner will have another lead to another mystery.
"Lucy, I must say I'm glad you tagged along." I hear Hotch mumble coolly while flipping through dull files.
I stare at Hotchner with my brows furrowed and my head tilted. "What do you mean?"
"You're from Sauk Prairie." Garcia butts in. I whip my head over to face her, and she seems taken aback by my sudden burst of appall. "I had to look you up! I can't let some random girl hang around kiddo over there," She puts her hands up as if surrendering.
There's a pause. No one speaks for a minute, but finally Reid breaks in.
"Lucy, JJ, they all look like you two!" His voice is shrill, almost like shock riddled through every aspect of him.
"Thank you!" Morgan sighs with annoyance. "The man who kidnapped you two, Jeremiah Alberquen, positioned his victims the same way. They weren't all blondes, but he still did everything the same, only in a different state." He pauses for a moment. "Now someone wants JJ or Lucy and must've put cameras in your house, Reid, because Penelope hacked into them somehow."
Reid narrows his eyes, deep in thought. "So Alberquen has a bit of a group of followers. Is it possible that the followers are somehow related to him? Or at least know him well?" He suggests. "Or even... They might know Hayes." His voice drops a bit, like he's afraid that what he has pointed out might be the truth he doesn't want to believe.
"It would make sense," Hotch inputs.
"How would they know it was me that was kidnapped?" I ask.
"Garcia!" Reid shouts, making me nearly jump out of my skin. Garcia is surprised too, judging on how wide her eyes got. "Find out where Alberquen was born."
"On it." She immediately began to type a jumble of letters into her laptop. The speed at which she types is practically stellar.
JJ is the next to speak up. "Reid, give us some sort of mindworks."
Reid arches an eyebrow before speaking like the genius he is. "If Alberquen was born and raised in Sauk Prairie, what are the odds of him knowing Lucy? He must have friends in Wisconsin just as crazy as him that would be willing to do the same after he was captured, so they used his signature, the hair cutting, and developed a new one - making their victims look like Lucy."
"But... That doesn't make sense. Why would they know Hayes had been kidnapped, rather than JJ?" Morgan asks.
"Social media," Reid announces.
"Reid is right." Garcia speaks with worry laced through her quavering voice. "Alberquen is from the city we're headed to." The brightly decorated woman looks up at me. Consternation is revealed through her dark eyes.
It's Reid who speaks up again. "What if he knew that he'd kidnapped Lucy, not JJ? And he just made it seem like he'd thought of her as JJ?"
"It's possible," JJ says quietly. "But what would he want with Hayes?" All eyes fall on me. I glance from JJ to Hotch, then Reid. My eyes land last on Morgan and Garcia. She looks sad, almost sorry for me. And I know why. Whatever she had seen in her research of me exposed more than just my hometown.
I look back at Reid guiltily and shrug. I feel terrible for pretending like I don't know, because I know. It's gonna hurt him when - if - he finds out, whether through me or someone else. I shrug, then say, "Maybe he knew me when I was younger."
It pains me to know that Garcia has more knowledge of me than she exposes. It pains me that I have to lie to the team, to Spencer. But it's for the greater good, or so I hope.
