A/N: Probably should have put this at the first chapter but here it is. This was a VERY hard story to write. In fact, had it in my head for a while but wanted to make sure I could make it through the whole thing. I just barely made it. There are no graphic depictions of what happens to the children but it is hinted at as Emily looks at evidence and a survivor is interviewed.

My heartfelt prayers and respect go out to the cops/agents that deal with these types of cases in real life. I can't imagine what they must go through or how they manage to banish the images to sleep at night. Here's hoping they all have a "Westfallen" they can count on to help out.

-AR

Morgan and Rossi are standing on the back steps with Cartwright as the two techs painstakingly sweep the backyard with GPR. A couple times they had paused and circled an area with the apparatus only to continue on again.

Morgan, tired of waiting, steps off the back steps and starts to study the foundation of the house. He frowns as he gets to the corner. In his contractor mind, he measures the distance from the front of the house to the back. He then pictures the torture chamber in the basement. He shakes his head.

"This isn't right," he says aloud to himself. "The house is longer outside. There's two feet of wall unaccounted for." He goes back to Rossi and Cartwright. "Pete, does that GPR machine have an attachment to scan walls?"

"It should. What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking we're missing 2 feet of wall inside."

"Son of a bitch. He may have put early victims in the wall."

Morgan nods. "And he covered that by building the dungeon."

Rossi sneers. "Fucker probably got off every time he performed down there knowing his victims were 'watching' him."

Morgan nods. Pete pales.

"Damn I'm glad I don't know shitheads the way you guys do."

It takes another hour for the backyard sweep to end. No bodies are found. The techs them move inside and go to the wall that makes the basement too short. It isn't long until Gonsalves turns to them.

"Agents? We have a body."

Morgan shakes his head. "I fucking hate being right about this kind of shit."

By the time they get to the end of the wall, they have marked where 3 bodies are concealed behind the wall. Rossi turns to Pete.

"Get JJ to help you with arranging the extraction of the bodies. Morgan and I need to get out there and talk to the tipster and anyone else who may have seen something. This place has been a torture chamber for children for years."

Pete nods as he calls his boss to give him an update. Morgan and Rossi head upstairs. They run into JJ in the hallway. She sees the looks on their faces and her shoulders slump.

"There was a body?"

"Three," Morgan corrects.

"Oh, my God."

"Get with Pete. Profile the graves and what the children were wearing or buried with," Rossi orders her. She nods. "We've got to get talking to the witnesses." He glances at his watch. "It's 2 o'clock. I'll call Hotch. As soon as an M.E. van shows up the media will be swarming back here. Let's have something other than dead kids for him to give them."

JJ nods. "Yes, sir. Does Emily know?"

"Not yet. Once you see what the kids are buried with get her pictures. Maybe she can match them to things she's seen in photos or on DVD."

JJ nods. She takes a deep breath. "We just had 2 weeks downtime. Why do I feel like we're going to need it again after this case?"

The other agents don't answer. When you're right, you don't need confirmation of it. As Morgan and Rossi leave, JJ goes back to the dining room.

"Pen, they found 3 bodies downstairs."

"Oh, my God. Oh, those poor babies."

"Yeah. I'm going to be with Pete to make sure the graves are profiled and documented for our needs. Any luck yet on the blackmail info Reid and Emily think is in there?"

"Nothing yet. If I find something I'll get with Reid."

"Okay."

JJ takes a second to steady herself then goes downstairs. Pete is hanging up his phone just as she gets there.

"Coroner and her team are on their way to monitor the extraction of bodies."

JJ nods towards the techs. "They're scanning the floor?"

Pete nods. "Better safe than sorry."

"Yeah, I guess so."

A few minutes later, Gonsalves looks up. Pete and JJ both wince. "Yeah, there's a kid here, too," the tech says sadly.

JJ calls Hotch to give him an update as Pete calls the M.E. It is going to be a long night on Long Island.

"Edmund Banner? I'm Derek Morgan, this is David Rossi with the FBI. We understand you called the police about your neighbor when the Amber Alert was issued?"

The man nods. "Yes. He was always very secretive. Hated it when people said hi to him. I had kind of figured to each their own and went on with life. Then I saw him with a little dark-haired boy. He was dragging the kid in. Didn't look like him so I figured nephew or something. Then I saw the news broadcast and couldn't get past the thought that the picture on the TV was the little boy. When they mentioned what the kid was wearing I knew it was him."

"And you called the police?" Rossi asks.

"Yeah. I saw the guy carrying a bag out to his car. I went outside and tried to stall him but it didn't work. He was gone before the police and FBI arrived."

"You didn't see the boy with him?" Morgan presses.

"No. But he may have already put the kid in the van."

"True," Rossi agrees. "Did he have a lot of guests?"

"Not at the same time. He'd have a guy over for a couple days then someone else. It was weird. That was always the pattern there."

Morgan frowns. "The pattern? What do you mean?"

"Well, this guy is the fifth tenant there in the last 2 years. They stick around about 5 or 6 months then move on."

Rossi and Morgan exchange a look. This house was a playground being passed around by pedophiles. Time to get Garcia to do a heavy background on the owner of the property.

"Do you know the owner?" Morgan asks.

"Oh, yeah, Ethel Steinberg. She moved to Florida. Said she was tired of New York winters. Kept the property, though, so she could rent it out."

"Is there anything else that sticks out about the property or the various tenants?"

"Nothing really. The other four guys were fairly friendly. Only this last guy was stand-offish."

Rossi extends his hand. "Thank you very much for the information. If anything else comes to mind, please call me or the New York FBI office." He hands the man his card.

"I sure will, Agent. Good luck catching this guy."

"Thanks."

The two Agents step out and glance over to see the M.E. teams loading gear into the house. Morgan pulls out his phone.

"Garcia? I know you're swamped but it turns out there were 5 tenants here over the last 2 years. We need a deep background run on the owner of this property."

"Okay. Give me 10 minutes and I can probably get a computer running that."

"You okay?"

"Morgan, they have found a total of 7 bodies downstairs. Three in the walls, 4 in the floors. No, I'm not okay. I'm not sure I'll be okay any time soon."

"Damn, Baby Girl. I wish I could say something to make it better."

"Me, too."

"Look, Rossi and I are going to go talk to neighbors. If we're needed, call."

"I will. Thanks, Morgan."

"Keep a smile on, Garcia."

"Yeah, maybe. Bye."

Morgan hangs up and tells Rossi about the findings in the basement. Rossi shakes his head. "How the hell were these guys and this house not on Cole's radar? Or someone's?"

"Who knows? Let's just keep trying to find our unsub and maybe he can answer all our questions."

Emily has just started a tenth stack representing the tenth boy she has found in the piles of DVD's. She sits back in her chair, stretching her neck to ease the tension as best she can. She is about to sit forward when there is a distinctive thump on the ceiling above her. She stares at the ceiling, listening. She hears a shuffling sound.

"Holy shit…there's an attic," she whispers.

She carefully checks the room she is in but does not find an entrance. She goes room to room before finally discovering the carefully hidden entrance in the closet of the "doctor's office" room. She pulls out her phone.

"Jen, where are you?"

"In the basement with Pete. The forensic teams are about to start to busting into the walls."

"Tell them to wait. I need you and Pete up here now. There's an attic. And there's noise coming from it."

"Shit. Be right up."

A few minutes later Pete and JJ enter the room. Emily points to the seams marking the hidden entrance. She had already located a stepladder and moved it into place. Pete and JJ pull their guns. Emily would need both hands to get up there, leaving her vulnerable to whoever was on the other side of that door.

Emily nods to them and quietly climbs up onto the stepladder. She counts to three and shoves the door open, jumping back down to give JJ and Pete a shot if they need it.

Nothing happens.

Emily carefully climbs back up, this time her gun ready. "THIS IS THE FBI! COME TO THE OPENING WITH YOUR HANDS WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM!"

There is the sound of shuffling moving away from the opening. Emily looks at JJ and Pete. They nod that they have her back.

Emily steps up so her head is now in the opening. She points her flashlight and gun towards where she had heard the noise. Her eyes widen.

"Oh my God."