Hello lovely followers,
This is the third chapter of my newest little story. I hope you are enjoying the story this far!
As always, I (sadly) do not own any part of Criminal Minds or affiliated characters.
Enjoy!
Let me know what you think! Reviews are always appreciated!
Warnings and Ratings: T – Minor language. Mainly for safety!
"Where's Rossi and Hotch?" Prentiss asked, most of the team sharing the same unknowing glances.
JJ assumed her position at the coffee pot as normal, "I wonder if they've found something."
Half an hour later, Hotch and Rossi made their way into the conference room with the chief of police in tow. "CSI uncovered another piece of evidence from a previous crime scene," Hotch informed.
Reid all but jumped out of his chair, "Could I take a look?" He asked, waiting for the chief to return with the letter in a plastic bag. "Thanks," he whispered, clearing his throat before he began,
"My dearest Matthew, There are 2 very important bits of information I must relay to you.
"For a long moment, Jessie couldn't say anything. How could it be 1996? Jessie's mind felt jumbled. If it wasn't 1844, last year wasn't 1841..."
-Margaret Peterson Haddix
And secondly, 1 is 3, 3 is 5, 5 is cosmic. 8 is 5, 5 is cosmic. 2 is 3, 3 is 5, 5 is cosmic. 15 is 7, 7 is 5, 5 is cosmic. 9 is cosmic. 18 is 8, 8 is 5, 5 is cosmic. 17 is 9, 9 is cosmic. 100 is 10, 10 is 3, 3 is 5, 5 is cosmic.
You must live by these words.
-Your uncle"
Garcia was first to ask the question, "What on earth is this man doing?"
Reid hung up the fourth letter before beginning his analysis out loud, "The first is hand written. The second two are typed and the fourth was also hand written. But the first and fourth are written by different people. So there has to be more people working with this UnSub than we originally thought."
The gears in Reid's mind began to turn as he tried desperately to uncover the meaning behind the numbers. He felt much sharper after a proper night of sleep.
"So we have three themes here: time, death, and numbers, right?" Hotch asked, watching Reid nod slightly.
"I need to figure out where this quote comes from," Reid spoke before making eye contact with Garcia.
"I'm on it, sugar!" Garcia exclaimed, making her way back to her makeshift computer lair.
"A quote Reid doesn't have memorized?" Morgan joked, effectively lifting the mood just a bit in the small conference room.
Eventually, the rest of the team continued discussing what they'd gathered about the UnSub thus far. They knew he was a relatively powerful leader if he was able to convince three different men to carry out these murders. He must have been relatively fit to keep up with so many children. The UnSub was certainly above average in intelligence to leave such riddles. Most importantly, each of the criminals involved felt a need to protect this man to death. Regardless of attempts made on news broadcasting stations, no information was coming into the BAU from witnesses. They were backed against a wall until Reid could decipher the meaning behind these riddles.
Said agent had completely blocked out the swarm of voices behind him as he began drawing on the white board. Reid desperately needed to find a correlation. The uncertainty was driving him insane.
Garcia eventually returned with a print out of the quote. "Sweetie?" She asked, resting a gentle hand on Reid's shoulder. She hadn't wanted to startle him out of his thought. When Reid recognized the contact, he turned to Garcia with questioning eyes.
Garcia handed him the printout, "The quote is written incorrectly in the letter left by the UnSub," she explained in a soft voice.
Reid looked completely perplexed, "Why would he do that? He's too intelligent for-" The male's eyes widened. "It's another riddle..." He quickly grabbed another piece of paper, writing down the incorrect quote. He pulled out the wrong numbers, listing them side by side on the sheet. Garcia sighed, patting Reid's back before joining the rest of the team back at the table. She was getting a taste of just how stressful these situations could be.
The team fell silent as they watched their youngest agent work his magic.
Reid went back and circled all of the numbers in the letter and put them together. "2, 4, 4, and 1."
The male spun on his heels, looking for different colored markers. He quickly sprawled out different number patters on the board, "Five is cosmic, five is cosmic..." he muttered under his breath, "Dammit..." After a few additional moments of thinking, Reid gasped in understanding. "Four! Four is cosmic. Four letters in five, five letters in three..." He continued frantically writing letters and numbers in their appropriate places. "I've got it! 2, 4, 4, 1, and another 4." Reid chewed on his bottom lip, arranging and rearranging the numbers in his mind. "But why?" He asked himself aloud.
After another read through of the letter, Reid was able to answer his own question. "Matthew... Matthew's not his nephew, Matthew as in the biblical figure!" Reid tore assorted pages off of the cork board before sprawling them across the table in front of his team. Everyone leaned forward to get a better look. "He's referencing Matthew, chapter twenty four versus four through fourteen! Jesus said, 'watch out for doomsday deceivers. Many leaders are going to show up with forged identities, claiming, 'I am Christ, the Messiah.' And then it goes on to say nation will fight nation and ruler fight ruler over and over... Famines, earthquakes, they will throw you to the wolves, everyone at each other's throat, hate..." Reid continued to ramble on and on about the passage as though his words were completely obvious.
"Reid!" Morgan finally called, gaining the young genius's attention, "What the Hell does it mean?"
Reid blushed slightly, "Oh... Uhm, right. Essentially, he's preparing for doomsday. Which is when all of these things will happen. Based on the other letter, he thinks doomsday is coming this fall."
"So why does he need a gang?" JJ asked, causing Reid to shake his head.
"JJ, he's not organizing a gang, he's organizing an army."
Clarity spread across the agents' eyes.
"An a-army?! Of children?!" Garcia asked, completely outraged by the idea.
"It seems so," Reid exhaled, short of breath from his ranting and raving. He felt accomplished nonetheless.
Hotch and Rossi shared a look of agreement. "That makes perfect sense," Rossi began, "He needs an army of sin free children for this dooms day he is preparing for. Whether they be sacrifices on the day, or strength against Hell and demons. Perhaps he is looking for the most fit, intelligent children of them all. These other men don't want to rat on him because they believe they are doing God's work."
"They'll go to Hell if they help us," Hotch continued. "Good work," the Chief encouraged in Reid's direction, punctuated by a pat on the shoulder by Rossi.
Reid looked down at his hands, "Thanks," he nodded with a small smile of appreciation.
Morgan was still slightly confused. "Yeah, but..." he began, all eyes moving to the darker skinned agent, "If he's creating an army of kids, why kill any of them?"
"Maybe they weren't smart enough or strong enough to keep up," Prentiss offered, looking to Hotch for a reaction.
Hotch nodded his affirmation, "Garcia, could you cross reference the child victims with medical records. Look for reasons why they weren't ideal for this army. Could be physical or even mental if he's riding on the beliefs of demons causing mental illness."
"I'm on it, sir!" Garcia assured before disappearing back to her computers.
"So we are still looking for a leader," JJ began, "but why is he killing off these children?"
"That's the million dollar question," Reid finally chimed in, spinning a pen between his fingers. His mind was still lost within the confines of the riddles he'd been presented with.
"We'll have to see what Garcia comes up with," Hotch prompted.
Moments later, the technical analyst appeared back in the conference room, laptop in hand. "Okay, so it turns out our victims had a whole shlew of issues. Some medical, but many of them had criminal records. Especially the older ones. Everything from petty crimes to theft and assault."
"Garcia have you checked the backgrounds of the other missing children in the tri-state area?" Hotch asked.
"I have, sir. Most of them were completely clean. Only a few minor things here and there," Garcia assured, looking to Hotch for approval.
"That tells us something. If this guy has religious motivation, the kids with criminal records have sinned in some way," Hotch concluded, nodding his approval to Garcia.
Prentiss shook her head, "But what about those little kids? Garcia, did the youngest victims have any form of record?"
Garcia shook her head, "Nothing that I could find. The youngest with a record was ten."
The agents began to talk among themselves. "That doesn't explain the six and seven year old victims." "Right, how could they have sinned?" "They were healthy, good children."
Reid didn't join in the group conversation. He had another idea. The male made his way back over to the board, looking at the outline. "Numbers..." He muttered to himself. "He likes numbers... And time."
The youngest agent began circling times associated with the four newest murders. "Two in the afternoon... eight in the evening, one in the afternoon... and then nine in the morning."
After a while, the rest of the team stopped talking to watch Reid. He hadn't noticed the silence until he spun around and was greeted by seven sets of eyes. "Baptism. They youngest victims probably weren't baptized. That's the first and foremost important thing a young child is supposed to do. They haven't been cleansed of their sins yet without baptism."
"How have you gathered that, Kid?" Morgan pressed.
Reid circled the numbers in red marker, "Going off of the last four cases we have discovered, the first murder was at two in the afternoon. The second was at eight in the evening. That's twenty-eight. The next murder was at one in the afternoon and the fourth murder occurred at nine in the morning. That's nineteen. If he's keeping the same pattern as we found in his letters, we've got, 'Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.' To disobey would essentially be to sin."
There were simply too many numbers to account for.
"That's perfect, Spence," JJ commented, all eyes returning to Hotch.
"I think we're ready to give the profile," Hotch determined, nodding once to the chief of police before they all stood in unison.