I finished this chapter far quicker than I expected to. Mostly because the writing just came. I have to say though a couple of scenes took an... unexpected turn. This is also my longest chapter yet by quite a bit. I decided I should make a slight note of the fact that I interchange behaviour/behavior. It's because I am a Canadian studying behavioural science technology but writing about the Behavioral analysis unit. Just thought I would explain. Also I apologize for the length of this chapter. I sort of got carried away. Enjoy
Warning: This chapter contains mentions of drug use and a drug overdose.
Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or the Criminal Minds characters. I do own Detective Stanfield, and the unidentified man. I also own George Stanley though I am definitely starting to question whether I really want to take credit for creating the UNSUBS ;)
Gideon burst into the police station with Detective Stanfield hot on his heels. Scanning the bullpen, he spotted Morgan just coming out of the break-room. "Morgan, you're with me." he ordered before heading right back out.
Morgan met him out in the parking lot 2 minutes later. In the SUV Gideon told him they were going over to the crime scene. He explained on the way. "I want to get a look at George Stanley's house before I talk to Elle. That way her account won't cloud what the house can tell us."
They arrived at the house a short time later. Gideon stopped for a second in the driveway to stare at the black SUV still parked there before heading up the driveway towards the house. Digging a key out of his pocket he broke the evidence seal before unlocking the front door. The local crime scene unit and the evidence retrieval team had done some preliminary processing but had tried to leave the scene intact as much as possible for the profilers.
Upon entering Morgan led Gideon to the back of the house where they had found Elle. Gideon stood in the center of the living room for a second examining everything: Discarded papers on the floor, Reid's messenger bag, and a copy of retired profiler David Rossi's latest book that obviously belonged to Reid.
"I think we need to try and do a reenactment of what happened here." he told Morgan before heading back to the front door. "Reid and Elle show up . They knock on the front door."
Working in tandem, Morgan took on the role of the unsub. "I open the door and you introduce yourself as an FBI agent."
Going with it Gideon took on the role of the victim. Reid isn't a victim. "I tell you I need to ask you a few questions and you invite me in."
"Which you accept because it's a perfectly natural thing to do. I don't want FBI agents standing on my front porch. I lead you to the living room in the back of the house." The two agents walked the path back towards the living room.
"I tell you to take a seat. Maybe I ask you if you want something to drink."
"Drugging the drinks would be one way to subdue two FBI agents at once. But I don't see any glasses lying around. Given the state he left their belongings in I doubt he would have cleaned them up."
"There's one thing that's bothering me about this. Both during the takedown and when I interrogated him George Stanley couldn't even go two minutes without displaying erratic behavior. If he had answered the door, Elle and Reid were bound to be suspicious."
"So somebody else answered the door. The partner was already in the house."
-PTTR-PTTR-PTTR-
"Now Dr Reid, we're going to play a little game." Reid's hazel eyes went as wide as saucers as his mind registered the words. After a couple of years with the BAU and all the cases he had studied he knew academically that it was never a good thing when an UNSUB wanted to play. In that moment though he knew it instinctively.
Ignoring Reid's reaction the man continued. "For now I'm just going to ask you some questions. As long as I'm convinced your telling me the truth I won't harm you or the girl. If I think you're lying... well you don't have to be a genius to figure that one out. So what do you say Dr. Reid."
"I–" Reid tried to answer but the words came out as little more than rasp. Until he tried to talk Reid hadn't really noticed how thirsty he was or how long it had been since he last had something to drink.
"How careless of me" said the man upon hearing the young doctor's sad attempt at communication. Leaving the woman's side, he disappeared through a doorway directly opposite the one leading to the basement, returning a moment later with a glass of what appeared to be water.
The man approached Reid and lifted the glass to his lips but stopped when he saw the wary look he was giving the contents. "Relax Dr. Reid, it's just ordinary tap water. If I put anything in it how would we have any fun. "
Unable to refute the man's logic Reid allowed the glass to be held up to his lips and drank greedily when the UNSUB tipped the water into his mouth. He soon started spluttering though as the man wasn't pausing to let Reid breath. He almost started to panic thinking the man was trying to drown him but the stream of water stopped just before he choked on it.
His throat no longer dry, Reid tried once again to answer the UNSUB. "I can't really win. Even if I answer your questions 100 % truthfully you could just claim you thought I was lying and do whatever you like." Reid glanced at the almost naked woman in front of him before finishing. "You're clearly a sadist."
Instead of getting angry like Reid expected the man just chuckled at his words. "Dr. Reid you act as if you have any choice in the matter. You could choose not to answer my questions, in which case I won't touch you. No, I'll just torture the woman in your stead. It's actually your fault she's here."
Reid froze up at the man's words. He didn't know exactly what the UNSUB meant in blaming him but he still felt guilty nonetheless. He was also starting to feel off: Reid could feel his heart racing as if he had just drank an entire pot of coffee. He shot the unsub an accusing stare.
"Ooops, turns out I might have slipped something into the water after all. Don't worry though, it's just a little stimulant to liven you up a bit. It shouldn't cause any permanent damage... I hope."
As the stimulant took effect Reid's normally fast brain began working at a mile a minute. He jumped from idea to idea as his thoughts raced. For a moment he actually thought he had found the cure for schizophrenia but then it was gone, as quick as it had come.
The man snapped his fingers in front of the doctor's face to catch his attention. "I know you guys are in town investigating George Stanley's art. Tell me everything the FBI knows."
But the doctor was off in his own world now, his mind spinning out of control. Soon his whole body began to twitch. The man frowned when he saw he wasn't getting through to his captive. Pulling a loaded syringe out of his back pocket he jabbed it into the agent's arm and pressed the plunger home. As the sedative hit Reid's eyes became more focused and the twitching began to lessen.
Angry at the missed opportunity to question the agent the man turned around and stabbed the woman viciously in the thigh. Her arms and legs still bound to the posts, there was nothing she could do to stop the blow.
The woman's scream somehow managed to pierce Reid's drug-addled state. Along with the scream came the profound knowledge that it was somehow all his fault. And then there was nothing.
-PTTR-PTTR-PTTR-
The town was so small that Hotch was pulling the SUV curbside in front of the office of the local paper within 15 minutes. When he moved to get out Elle threw her hand up to stop him. Rather than saying anything Agent Hotchner merely quirked an eyebrow at his agent's unusual behaviour.
Elle answered his unsaid question rapidly. "Hotch, how sure are you about this reporter?" she practically blurted out.
Her question earned her another raised eyebrow. "I'm not really sure what you're asking Elle."
"Look, how often do reporters actually call us when they receive something from an unsub. Usually we just get scooped and find out when the rest of the world does." The look of concern on Elle's face when she asked the question was genuine.
"Look Elle this is a small town paper. While big city papers may be all about 'the scoop' no one expects a small town local paper to make their career. Some of these reporters aren't looking for a scoop and with a killer on the loose it's their friends, neighbors and they themselves who are in danger."
Placated by her boss's reasoning Elle opened her door signaling the conversation was at an end. Hotch followed suite and together they entered the building and located which floor housed the paper's office.
When they entered the office they were greeted by a tired looking grey-haired secretary who directed them to a tiny office in the back. When they reached the little office Hotch took charge and knocked on the door.
The knock was answered by a young, petite, blond-haired, blue-eyed woman. "I'm Agent Hotchner this is Agent Greenaway, we're from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. You called saying you had something we might want to see?"
"I'm Kaila Cartwright" replied the reporter as she shook hands with both agents. "If you will just follow me this way."
Kaila led the agents to the door of a much larger conference room to the front of the office near where they had come in. She stopped just in front of the closed, frosted glass door and eyed the agents. "Someone broke in sometime this morning while everyone was out of the office and left us a 'package'. At least that's what the individual called it in the note."
With that Kaila pushed open the door to the conference room revealing the gruesome surprise within: a body so badly cut and beaten it was almost impossible to tell whether the individual was male or female. The corpse had been laid out in the center off the large conference table that took up most of the room. Beside the body lay a note that looked as if it had been crumpled up then hastily smoothed out again.
"Was this exactly as you found?" Hotch asked as he stepped forward to examine the note.
Though her boss was absorbed with examining the scene, Elle saw the female reporter blush. "No" Kaila replied, "the note was stuck in between the things teeth. I was curious so I fished it out."
Hotch frowned deeply at the woman's words. He didn't scold her though. Instead he grabbed a pair of blue evidence gloves from his pocket and slid them on. Even though the note itself was already contaminated, rendering it possibly useless in a court of law, any physical evidence left on the note could still be useful in narrowing down the suspect pool. He made a mental note to obtain elimination samples from Kaila before he left.
His gloves finally on, he grabbed the note off the table and held it up to the light so he could read it:
I hope you like this package I left you. I figure it's only a matter of time before the FBI realizes they have the wrong guy. Georgie isn't sane enough to pull this off. They plead with the public to come forward with information on people who are missing yet they hush it up when the missing is one of their own. Let them try to hush it up now.
-PTTR
P.S. Agent Reid is still alive... for now
Hotchner read the note over twice before handing it silently to Elle, who had pulled on her own pair of gloves by then. The words had left him slightly sick to his stomach. They confirmed Morgan's theory about a partner.
Kaila tried to question them about their missing teammate but Hotch just brushed her off and left the building. Elle exited shortly after him but not before snapping a pic of the note with her phone and leaving instructions for the reporter to contact their communications liaison.
When Elle left the building she found her boss on the phone. It sounded like he was calling for a crime scene unit and leaving instructions for them to print everyone in the office 'for elimination purpose'.
After a second phone call to inform Morgan about the latest developments they headed back to the station. They would send some Uniformed officers over later to interview the rest of the employees at the office. Hotch knew he was doing a sloppy job at profiling the dump site but he figured they would get more valuable information once the Medical examiner had a chance to examine the body anyways. On the way back to the station Elle sent the photo of the note to Garcia.
-PTTR-PTTR-PTTR-
The man was angry. He had made a mistake and he rarely made mistakes. He had misjudged just how emancipated the kid was and had unintentionally overdosed the agent when he was just trying loosen his tongue a bit.
Fortunately, he had the foresight to prepare a syringe of lorazepam just in case. The sedative would calm the young man's racing heart and help decrease the chance of the overdose causing seizures. He wouldn't be able to enjoy his time with the young doctor if he started to seize and developed brain damage, or worse died of a heart attack.
The downside was that between the sedative and coming down off the stimulant overdose his newest victim wouldn't be cognizant again for hours at least. There was no sense in sticking around the entire time. He had been planning to call in sick to work but with the kid out of commission he figured he might as well work the shift. He could play with the him more later.
After checking to make sure his captives were still secure in the basement the man made his way to a giant industrial grade walk-in freezer that had been installed a while ago at the back of the house. Opening the freezer he hauled a body off the shelf and onto a dolly he always kept nearby for just such an occasion. Using the dolly he dragged the corpse outside and after much heaving and swearing he managed to get the frozen corpse into the back of his car.
Once the body was safely stashed in the vehicle he pulled something out of his pocket and pinned it to the dead guys shirt. Slamming the trunk closed once again he made a mental note to thaw his meat first next time. Then he hopped into the driver's seat, turned on the ignition and set off on his commute into the city.
It was actually a good thing he decided to leave early. He had another package to deliver before work.
-PTTR-PTTR-PTTR-
Morgan and Gideon decided to try the re-enactment again, this time using the assumption that the second unsub, rather than George, must have answered the door.
"Elle and Reid were looking to interview specific people from the list. So they would have asked for George Stanley after identifying themselves." said Gideon. They were standing at the front door again.
"Let's say I'm the UNSUB. If I open the door and you ask for George do I pretend to be George or do I use some sort of ruse?" asked Morgan.
"On one hand if you use a ruse like claiming to be a friend then I know there are two people in the house. On the other hand pretending to be George would mean you have to keep me occupied and rely on George to carry out the attack."
"Since it would definitely take some sort of blitz attack for me to take out both of you at the same time." finished Morgan.
"So most likely you used some sort of ruse to get me inside and then sent George down to distract me while you came up with a plan." Morgan went to poke around upstairs while Gideon went to examine the chaos George and the UNSUB had left in the living room. Both men wore exam gloves, well aware that most of the scene had yet to be processed.
Crouching down Gideon began to sort through the mess that had been left on the floor. He quickly spotted some photographs that looked like they had been dropped by accident, having perhaps fallen from a file folder that the UNSUB had gathered up in haste. Turing some of the pictures over he recognized them as pictures from one of the bloody crime scenes.
Turning them all over he found that some of the pictures had notations all over them, almost as if someone had been trying to dissect the drawings. He recognized the hand writing in the margin as Reid's. He must have been working on them on the way over. Gideon couldn't tell at a glance which crime scene the pictures were from but he realized after a second that they had to be from the first crime scene since Reid and Elle were already canvassing. He was already gone.
Gideon was still staring at the pictures trying to work out what Reid had been onto when Morgan came back downstairs. He was so deep in thought that Morgan had to call his name twice. "Hmmm?" said Gideon, finally looking up.
"I said there are enough uppers and downers in this guys medicine cabinet to stock a small pharmacy. All prescription though."
"So they could have been drugged but even IV drugs still take time to reach the brain. It also takes precision to inject, something he wouldn't be able to do on two people at once. " Gideon was thinking out loud.
"Well I didn't find anything else upstairs that could have been used to take them out." Morgan informed him.
"When we're all back at the station I want you to interview Elle."
Morgan helped Gideon pick through the rest of the stuff lying around. They found the keys to the SUV parked outside among the junk that he been tossed down next to the couch. In the corner they found Reid's credentials. There was still no sign of Reid's phone or his service weapon. He figured the UNSUB had taken them. Morgan knew Elle's phone and credentials had already been returned to her.
With nothing left to examine it was time to head back to the station. Morgan grabbed the keys to SUV from the pile as they headed out. They drove both government-issued vehicles back to the station with Morgan leading the way.
-PTTR-PTTR-PTTR-
Since word had leaked about a bunch of people being killed in town citizens had started turning up in droves worried about missing family members. JJ had quickly set up a tip-line for anyone who might have a lead that could help identify the victims and was manning one of the lines herself. She had just hung up with yet another frantic townsperson when an officer from the department approached her.
She didn't know the man's name but she recognized him from around the station so she offered him a smile saying "What can I do for you?"
The officer pointed towards the door where a pair of officers stood with a man who looked to be in his mid-40s. "Richard Astor is here waiting to speak with someone."
JJ sighed as she realized the rest of her team was still out in the field. She would have to be the one to interview him. Still she was experienced with talking to the families of victims. Talking to the family of a killer couldn't be that much different. And at least she would be doing something that might help Reid.
Walking up to where the 3 men stood she quickly introduced herself. "I'm Agent Jareau with the FBI. If you would follow me I would like to ask you a few questions."
Since the man wasn't a suspect instead of leading him to an interrogation room JJ led him to the conference room. She could have done the interview out in the bullpen but she figured Richard would be more comfortable talking in private. Especially if he didn't know his brother was in custody.
When they were both seated JJ started her questioning. "Do you know a man by the name of George Stanley?"
Richard looked startled by her question. "He's my biological brother but I haven't seen him since just before I was adopted. Linda abandoned me when I was 8 and then mom and dad adopted me two years later. Right before the adoption went through social services arranged a visit for us so we could say goodbye one last time."
JJ assumed that Linda must be Linda Stanley, George and Richard's biological mother. By the way he talked it was clear that Richard considered his adoptive parents his real family. "You never tried to track each other down as adults?"
"Nah" Richard replied, "My adoptive mother was more of a mother to me than Linda ever was. They had two other children as well. An older adopted son who became an older brother to me and a biological daughter who was born shortly before they adopted me. I had all the family I needed."
JJ could see tears in his eyes brought on by the memories that were being dredged up. Being abandoned by a parent couldn't have been easy, especially when she continued to raise his older brother. She would have to get Garcia to check out his story but she didn't see how much help he could be. Unless...
"Tell me about what George was like when he was younger."
-PTTR-PTTR-PTTR-
When Reid woke up some time later it was like coming out of a fog. He had no idea how much time had passed and he wasn't completely sure what had happened. When the memories came, they came in bits and pieces, and for someone who was used to remembering everything it was one of the scariest experiences in the world.
He definitely recalled both his heart and mind starting to race. He thought the man who held him captive had been trying to ask him something but he couldn't be sure. The man must have drugged him but judging by what he did remember the drugs didn't quite have the effect the UNSUB had intended.
That was when he remembered the scream. He couldn't quite be sure if the scream was real or something he had hallucinated. He wrenched his eyes open and realized that for once their captive had left the light on for them. When he saw the woman Reid desperately wished he hadn't.
The woman hung from the hook as she had the first time Reid saw her. The evidence of beatings and torture remained but something new had been added: a vicious stab wound to her thigh. The woman wasn't dead, Reid could tell that by the rise and fall of her chest, so the UNSUB must have treated the wound at some point. Despite his care though the woman had managed to break the wound open again and blood dripped slowly but steadily to land on the floor with a sound very much akin to a leaky tap.
Staring with horror at the garish wound Reid instinctively knew it to be the cause of the scream he remembered. Not a drug induced nightmare then but an actual, blood-curdling scream. He remembered his captors earlier promise: if he cooperated neither of them would be hurt. Clearly the girl HAD been hurt so it must be his fault. As he continued to stare at the wound waves of guilt rushed over him.
"I'm so sorry" he whispered. Reid didn't expect as response but acknowledging that he was at fault helped assuage his guilt a tiny bit.
"It's not your fault," replied the woman, lifting her head up to look the young man in the eye. "It's HIS fault. It's always his fault." Reid was surprised at how strong her voice was now despite her condition.
Looking into her eyes Reid saw the truth of her words. She didn't blame for what had happened but somehow that didn't quite stop the young man from blaming himself. But with the woman's next question all thoughts of guilt and blame flew from his head.
"I heard him call you Dr. Reid. Are you really a doctor?"
-PTTR-PTTR-PTTR-
The entire team, minus their technical analyst who was still back at Quantico, had gathered back in the conference room to discuss the case. They invited Detective Stanfield to join them but he declined, stating that it was a federal case now that two federal agents had been assaulted and one had been kidnapped.
They had gone over everything they had learned that day. It wasn't much. If the claims of the letter turned out to be true then the horrific scenes they had encountered when they first arrived in Camden were the work of a killing team. They figured that the man holding Reid did the actual killing while George used the blood to literally paint the town red. George had claimed he killed Reid but the letter claimed he was still alive.
They had Reid's analysis of the first blood pattern but no one could understand yet what he was working on. Besides without an analysis of the subsequent crime scene Reid probably hadn't got that far. Add in the fact that they seemingly already had the man who painted the designs in custody and it didn't seem like much more than a sad reminder of their missing teammate.
After Elle had sent Garcia a photo of the letter she had promised to have it forwarded to one of the bureau's linguistic experts. Reid was usually their go-to guy for linguistic analysis so they had to improvise.
JJ had added what George's brother Richard had given them about his childhood. It seemed that George was always a troubled child. He had often experienced inappropriate outbursts of emotion and never took criticism well. He was mostly a loner and the only person he had ever been close to was his little brother. From what Richard could remember, George did well in school on his good days but was often suspended in his bad days. Everything Richard recounted pointed to a brilliant but severely troubled, possibly psychotic, child.
They hoped that the body would provide more clues but the report from the medical examiner wouldn't be done until the next morning at the earliest. Morgan would interview George Stanley again in the morning after leaving him to spend the night in lock up.
After working through the evening, barely even pausing to order take-out, Hotch ordered everyone back to the hotel to get some rest.
While they all felt guilty about resting while Reid was in danger they knew there was literally nothing else they could do for the moment. They just didn't have enough information and it was killing them. Eventually they all settled down into a fitful sleep in their respective rooms.
It seemed to Hotch like he had just managed to fall asleep when his phone went off jolting him awake. Feeling around on his bedside table he found his phone and after punching talk he pressed it to his ear. "Agent Hotchner" he said, his voice laced with sleep.
After hearing what the voice on the other end of the line had to say all vestiges of sleep had fled. "We'll be there soon." He hit end on his phone and shoved it into his pocket. Grabbing his guns and credentials he went to wake the others.
He knocked on Morgan's door first. "Get dressed while I wake the others." Hotch ordered when the man opened the door. "Camden PD just called. They found another body."
Thank you for taking the time to read. Please leave a review. Any criticism is actually helpful. I apologize for not naming the unidentified man yet. But the scene between Reid and the UNSUB didn't quite go how I planned it to. Just the idea of drugs popped into my head and stimulants and then somehow I ended up talking about a drug overdose. I fudged the timing a bit because between the overdose and the sedation Reid most likely would have been out of it for a day or two, but the story needed to progress so progress it shall. I thought about having the unsub force-feed him activated charcoal to absorb the drugs still in his stomach but I've actually experienced that stuff and just the thought of it makes me queazy. Anyways just thought I would share. If all goes well I should be able to post another chapter this week.