AUTHOR: LosingInTranslation (losingntrnslatn, Jennifer)
DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!
RATING: T - Teen
SPOILERS: Through US Aired Episodes of Season 4
WORD COUNT: 1940
SUMMARY: The BAU is asked to investigate an unusual missing persons case that has a very personal connection to the team.
A/N: This is one of those monster epics I am so well know for in the CSI fandom. It is completely written and I am going through the edits with my betas as quickly as possible. There are a total of nine chapters, and I will post them as I complete the edits. It is most definitely a case file fic, with a lot of interaction between the entire team. I hope you enjoy it.
REVIEWS: Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.
Chapter 5
After dropping J.J. off in town to help with the interviews and the locals, Aaron drove the rest of the way to Gideon's compound with Reid. It was a silent trip, with Reid only staring out the window at the passing scenery. Aaron wanted to inquire about his state of mind, but he knew Reid needed to make the first move if he was going to maintain even the illusion of control over the situation.
Sometimes being a profiler was a frustrating world to live in. Knowing so many of the answers before the questions were even asked, understanding that the questions themselves were meaningless, was a horrible burden. But knowing that at the end of the case, regardless of the outcome, one of their team members was going to be completely devastated was more than anyone should have to bear silently.
"Reid… if things get too intense out there, I could send you back to the office with the field agents." Aaron took the supervisor route. Keeping things professional was a common tactic for him when the job got to be too much.
"I'll be fine, Hotch. Honest." Reid's voice was distant, and Aaron knew it was nothing more than a shield.
"Fine." Aaron left it at that. There was only so far he could push before Reid would close himself off entirely. Unceremoniously changing the subject, Aaron asked, "How much further until the next turn?"
Reid finally turned away from the window and began scanning through the GPS navigation system. "Looks like it's approximately seven point three six miles until you veer right at the fork in the road, onto U.S. Forest Service Road 78."
Aaron was unable to hold in his chuff of amusement. "Approximately?"
Normally Aaron's slip would have been enough to break the dam, but not this time. Reid only shrugged and went back to staring out the window.
As Aaron concentrated on the road, he thought about the result of Gideon's previous meltdown. It was Aaron's responsibility to clear Gideon for field work again and after his final departure, he was left to wonder if he had been wrong in his assessment of the man.
Before he had a chance to delve much deeper into his own competence, Reid's cellphone started to ring. Reaching for the device in his jacket, he activated the speakerphone. "Reid," he snapped.
"Welcome to Camp Middle of Nowhere!"
Reid cleared his throat, "Ah, Garcia… You're on speaker."
"Of course I am, Poindexter. But it's just you and Hotch, so all is right with the world, my darlings." Garcia truly was like an acid laced ray of sunshine in their lives, reminding them with only her presence that life went on.
"What's going on, Garcia?" Aaron could tell Reid was anxious as he spoke.
"Just had the two of you pop up on my radar and I wanted to warn you not to trust the GPS for the turn. There's no fork, it's more like a spider web. You'll actually go forward through the intersection, with splinters to either side of you." As soon as she finished talking, they came upon the intersection. And exactly as Garcia described, they proceeded forward, with splinters on either side.
"Thanks for the heads up, Garcia…" Reid paused and audibly gulped before he asked, "Is there anything new yet?"
"Sorry, honey pie, but the field techs just got back from the bunker. I'm good, but even I need a little more time to make the magic happen." Reid was crestfallen by her comments. "But don't you worry, Dr. Re-delicious, if there is anything to uncover, you know I have the right tools for the job."
"Thanks, Garcia." Aaron watched as Reid switched the phone off and turned once again to the window. There was nothing out there to see, but Reid was transfixed.
There was nothing left to say. Aaron would keep his eye on Reid while they worked the house, and at the first sign of trouble, he would get Morgan to take him back to the office. No one would like it, but it was often his job to do the unpopular thing. He never took their anger personally, because someone had to be the bad guy in order to insure their team's survival. He was used to being that bad guy.
When they finally arrived on the scene, Aaron watched as Reid immediately walked into the false house. Morgan had already briefed him on the first house, and he knew there was little harm in allowing Reid that momentary escape. Instead, Aaron went in search of the lead crime scene technician.
"SSA Hotchner." The technician called out to him the moment he entered the tent. "We've been expecting you, Sir. Agent Morgan's been keeping us very busy, though."
"That's good to hear." Aaron shook the man's outstretched hand. "Also good to see you here, Wally. Only the best, right?"
"Appreciate you saying so, Sir. We all owe Jason Gideon a lot, so you pretty much had your pick of scene techs on this one." That was the reason Aaron wanted Wally when he requested his crew. He was from the old school of thought, yet managed to always keep ahead of the curve on techniques. Wally Hansen and his team would literally be able to find the needle in the haystack, and pull a usable print from it and the piece of straw next to it.
Aaron nodded to show his appreciation and then asked, "What do you have so far?"
"Right…" Wally pulled a clipboard off the table and started running down the list. "In this place, we got nothing. No prints, no DNA, no nothin'." He made a disgusted noise from his throat and continued, "Other than about a year's worth of dust and the daughter-in-law's prints on the outside of the door, we didn't get a thing from that place. You know how hard it is process the dummy house of someone this familiar with forensics?"
"I can only imagine, Wally. But at least it did tell us it wasn't his real home. Can you imagine now why the locals were so convinced it was nothing?" In his job, it paid for Aaron to be good at communicating with people from all walks of life. With Wally he was more familiar to make the man comfortable, which made it easier for him to communicate openly with a superior.
"Yeah… I bet they were scratching their heads, big time. But your agents immediately spotted the trouble. And that Garcia…" Wally whistled softly to show how impressed he was with Garcia's prowess. "That's one seriously well put together technical analyst, Agent Hotchner."
"Garcia is definitely one of a kind." Aaron had to work very hard to keep his normally stoic expression in place as they discussed Garcia's finer attributes. "Thankfully, she's one of a kind. Even better that she also works for us."
"Oh yeah. Wouldn't want that one working against me, that's for sure." He picked up another clipboard and handed it to Aaron. "She's managed to crack all the frequencies for the alarms, so we can at least hear ourselves think now. And she got your Agent Morgan to that bunker out there. Plus she was able to able to help my techs crack the passcode on the door."
"Have they finished clearing the bunker?" Aaron reviewed the items on the clipboard as he questioned Wally.
"Yeah, Morgan and the other field agents entered, found nothing, and then released it for processing. My techs are combing through that whole thing right now. There won't be an uncollected speck of dust when they get done." Wally was quite proud of his team and it showed.
"Anything of interest?" Aaron got down to business and Wally kicked it into gear.
"You could say that." He held up a stack of print cards. "We printed everything and got a lot of usable latents. Your analyst is processing the first half as we speak."
"Excellent… What else?"
"That's where it starts to get interesting." Aaron looked up from the clipboard to see Wally retrieve a large envelope from an evidence box. "We collected some hair samples from the bunker."
"If he was living there, that's to be expected." Aaron was slightly confused about why the hair samples would be interesting.
"Yeah, well, what we found isn't what we were expecting…" He pulled two evidence bindles out of the large envelope and handed one to Aaron. "That's the first sample. Got it from the bathroom sink."
Aaron flipped the bindle over and found what looked like discarded whiskers from an electric shaver. "Color is consistent with Agent Gideon."
"Yup, and we got this one from the bedroom." He handed over the second bindle and laughed. "Guy's living in a bunker, but he's got a giant antique bed bigger than my first apartment in there. And overstuffed leather chairs, bookshelves everywhere, as well as a fully equipped kitchen…in what's essentially a couple of government surplus pill-box bunkers."
Aaron knew, even before those hair samples could be sent for DNA testing, that bunker belonged to Jason. No other person would live in such stark contrasts. "Okay, so these both appear to be consistent with Gideon's hair. Where's the intrigue?"
Wally withdrew yet another bindle and handed it over to Aaron. "That would be this one…also recovered from the bedroom."
Aaron turned the bindle over and found several long, dark strands of hair. "You found these in the bedroom?"
"More accurately…in the bed." Aaron looked up from the bindle and Wally handed him a fourth one, which contained a tape lifted sample of mixed hairs. With crystal clarity he had just learned the stark truth; there was a woman.
He was stopped from asking any other questions when Reid came into the tent talking. "Hotch, there's something in the house you should see." Aaron paused for half a second, but it was obviously long enough to alert Reid to a problem. "What's wrong? Hotch…what is it?"
He was able to give Wally enough of a glare to silence the man, and then he regarded Reid. "Just some conflicting samples. What did you find?"
Thankfully Reid accepted his explanation and continued, "Well, it's hard to describe, you'll have to see for yourself."
He handed the samples back to Wally, who quickly sealed them up in the envelope and followed them into the house.
"It's right in here." Reid led them into the kitchen. "I probably wouldn't have noticed it, but…I'm allergic to the stuff, so I can pick it out of any room. I can even tell the difference between it and nutmeg."
"What Reid?" Aaron was confused by Reid's rambling.
"Annatto… It's a spice, used as a coloring agent, much the same as Paprika. It bears a striking similarity to common nutmeg, but has a slightly peppery flavor to it. It is found primarily in the tropical Americas. It's most prevalent use is in Cuban cuisine." Reid gestured for Wally to hand him one of his latex gloves and then slipped one finger into the glove before running it along the inner edge of the gas stove burner.
When he brought his finger up to show Aaron and Wally, it was colored red on the end. "There's not a lot of it, but obviously whoever cleaned up the place didn't think to get all the way down inside the stove."
He took off the glove, turning it inside out as he did, before he gave it back to Wally. "Hotch, someone was living in this house…and they were cooking Cuban food on this stove."