Well that this chapter took longer to write then I expected it to. Then I realized I had to hand in a preliminary report for 9:00 this morning and so my fan fic writing got put off while I worked on that :P. I'm pretty pleased with how this chapter came out all in all. The end of the chapter is a bit weird because I had originally planned to include more action between Reid and the UNSUB but that got pushed to the next chapter for two reasons a) It was getting to be quite long b) apparently I'm not as psychotic as I thought I was and need more time to think about the game. Morgan was also supposed to interview George Stanley again in this chapter and that's also been pushed. Couple of warnings: I decided to give Elle a mild traumatic brain injury which are difficult to diagnose and are often missed. Jane Doe (the other woman held captive by the UNSUB) will be dying in the next chapter, just a heads up. Anyways I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Warning: Contains references to torture, mild adult language
Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds nor the Criminal Minds characters. I own George Stanley and PTTR.
It took about 15 minutes for the entire team to gather in the hotel lobby. After waking the others Hotch had taken the opportunity to go back to his room, change his shirt and tie and grab his suit jacket.
They split themselves between the 3 SUVs that were now parked in hotel parking lot. It was about a 10 minute drive to the dump site of the newest body. For any normal case Hotch might have only woken one other agent to go over to the dump site with him and let everyone else get some sleep but with Reid in danger and the distinct lack of information so far he knew his agents would never forgive him for leaving them out.
Arriving at the dump site they spotted an officer talking quietly with Detective Stanfield who waved them over. The body was even more gruesome then the last one that had been found. The individual's face had been completely smashed to a pulp and the bright red lines of open wounds stood stark against every bit of pale skin that wasn't covered.
Worse than the body itself was what was pinned to the corpse's chest. It was a black and white photo of a man with eyes that seemed barely able to focus and his face scrunched up in agony. It was a picture of Reid.
The photo brought a wave of mixed emotions. Hope that their youngest agent was still alive yet despair over the horrors he was obviously being subjected to. None of them could stop themselves from imagining what Reid was reacting to in the moment captured on film.
After Morgan snapped a few pictures of the body as it had been positioned at the dump site Hotch gave the go ahead for the body to be taken to the chief medical examiner's office in Augusta. Before an ambulance carted the body away though he had someone from the evidence retrieval team remove the picture of Reid from the victim's shirt and log it into evidence. Hotch knew the picture would eventually make its way to the evidence board back at the station after it had been processed for prints and foreign matter but for now he was glad to have the haunting image gone from his sight.
The dump site itself was nothing special. The body had been dumped in the alley behind McGee's Pub sometime after 10 o'clock when one of the employees of the restaurant had gone out for a smoke. The restaurant closed at 11 on Saturdays and Phillip McGee had sent his employees home. When he had gone to take out the trash at 11:30 he had found the body in front of the dumpster and called police.
There was garbage all over the scene. The garbage bag had split open when the owner dropped it out of surprise. Gideon frowned as he stared at the scene. "The way he left the body next to the dumpster suggests he sees his victims as trash. Yet the fact that he redressed his victim in clean clothes suggests remorse." The victim's clothes had been spotless, not the condition one would expect if the victim had been tortured in the clothes he was wearing.
Hotch was standing next to the back door of the restaurant while Morgan stood over next to where the body had been. "The UNSUB was pretty bold dumping the body while there were still people inside. Anyone could have opened the door while he was dumping the corpse and they would have had a clear view of him."
"So why didn't he just wait until everyone was gone before dumping the body?" asked Morgan. "Less chance of getting caught that way."
"Either he was under some sort of time constraint..." Hotch started.
"Or he wanted the body to be found quickly" Gideon finished.
When there was nothing more for them to do at the scene Hotch ordered everyone back to the hotel for a couple hours of sleep. "Elle can I have a word with you?" he asked as the profilers approached their vehicles.
JJ had hitched a ride to the crime scene with Hotch but overhearing her boss she decided to catch a ride back with Morgan instead, giving the two a chance to talk privately on the way back.
"With all the developments in the case we never got a chance to talk. How are you holding up?" Hotch asked as soon as they were on the road.
Elle remained silent for so long that Hotch was afraid she wasn't going to answer at all. When she finally spoke it was with great trepidation. "I'm worried about Reid, we all are. But this whole thing just feels... unreal right now. Like I'm in some kind of nightmare."
A look of concern crossed Agent Hotchner's face at his agent's words. "I know the doctor cleared you but if you don't think you're ready to work we can find a way to manage without you."
"No, I'm all right. We're already a man down, you guys need me. Anyways I just want to find Reid."
"If you need to talk, you know where to find me." Though he still had some concerns about his agent Aaron decided not to voice them just yet. He would mention it to Gideon in the morning. They could always pull her off the case if it became necessary. For now he would just keep her out of the field as much as possible. The rest of the drive back to the hotel passed in silence.
-PTTR-PTTR-PTTR-
Arriving home from his midnight shift at just after 9 a.m., the man decided that he had to make up for the time he had cost himself the night before. After preparing a syringe of sodium thiopental he set it on the silver tray in the living room and then went down to the basement to check on his guests.
Rather than flicking on the overhead lights this time he used a pull chain to turn on a single bulb at the top of the stairs. Though both captives appeared to be sleeping the man was suspicious so he walked over to the digital video camera he had mounted to record his captives when he was gone and popped out the tape.
He took the tape into a small video editing suite off the main basement and popped the tape into the player. He fast forwarded through most of it until he saw signs of the agent stirring. Pressing play he watched as the woman blamed him for everything and forgave the doctor. Scowling he fast forwarded to 10 minutes before he had returned home and pressed play once again. The video confirmed his suspicions: His captives had been carrying on a conversation up until the point they noticed he had returned.
Turning off the recording he returned to the main basement, stopping only to grab a blindfold on the way. It wasn't about the element of surprise this time. He had enjoyed watching the kid's reaction to the blindfold last time, so much so that he decided to do it again.
Although he was sorely tempted to call his captives out he crept up on the doctor from behind instead. He stood right behind the young man breathing heavily to ensure Dr. Reid would feel each breath on the back of his neck.
He knew he was successful when his captive began to squirm and struggle in an effort to turn his body and see who was behind him. Stepping around to the front of his captive, the man pulled out the blindfold and held it up again so he could see.
When Reid saw the blindfold he began to panic again. "Please don't." Despite his resolution to stay strong he couldn't stop the desperate plea from escaping his lips. Ignoring his plea the man raised the blindfold and tied it tightly around Reid's head. The last thing Reid saw was the sadistic smile on the man's face before the blindfold covered his eyes.
The man forced Reid upstairs the same way as before with one exception: this time he left Reid's hands cuffed in front of him. The aching in his jaw reminded him to be thankful for that much at least. When Reid was bound hand and foot to the chair the man left once again, returning a couple of minutes later.
The man bound his female captive the same way as he had before and then left the room for a second time. He soon returned carrying another video camera which he set up in the corner so that it was focused squarely on the young man. Turning it on, he walked over to stand next to the silver tray.
"Dr. Reid we are going to try this again, same rules as before. Now, tell me, what does your team know about me."
"N-n-nothing" Reid stammered as he realized that the man expected him to play some sort of game he didn't know by rules he barely remembered. The UNSUB had also left the blindfold on this time so Reid couldn't even see what was coming.
"Ah, ah, ah Spencer. You just broke the rules." Reid braced himself for whatever pain the UNSUB had to offer and so was caught by surprise when none came. Seconds later he found out why.
There was the sharp crack of a whip followed by the distinct sound of leather hitting flesh. The accompanying scream sounded muffled to Reid so he figured that the UNSUB must have gagged the woman for some reason. That sound of leather-on-flesh repeated over and over, intensified as Reid's other senses worked to compensate for his lack of sight. Any normal person would have lost count long ago but between the speed of his brain and his eidetic memory the young genius counted each and every single one of the 27 lashes.
It was between the 9th and 10th lashes that Spencer started begging and pleading for the man to stop. "Please. Stop. I'll do anything you want. Just make it stop." Even though he wasn't the one being brutalized he begged because he knew the woman was unable to do so herself. He didn't want to lower himself to begging for his own life but he never even hesitated to beg for somebody else's. Each muffled scream from the woman cut into him like a hot knife.
When the UNSUB finally stopped his body was slick with sweat. As good a shape as he was in, torturing people was hot and exhausting work. Putting the bloodied whip down on the silver tray, the man turned to the blindfolded agent. "See what happens when you break the rules Dr. Reid."
Reid visibly cringed at the accusation. For once he was glad for the blindfold since it hid the tears welling up in his eyes from his tormentor. He had joined the FBI to save lives, not end them.
"Next question. Answer this question truthfully and I might even let you ask a question of your own. What do you know about George Stanley." He figured that by questioning the kid he could judge how much the other FBI agent actually remembered.
Reid recognized the name instantly from the list of names from the FreeStay website. He recalled that the man had received several positive reviews from people who had stayed with him. Judging by the question, Reid guessed that he was this man's partner.
Reid had begun to dissect the photos of the first crime scene on his way over to the neighborhood they were canvassing. After staring at the designs in the blood he had realized that though the designs appeared to be random at first glance they actually fell into two very distinct patterns. That probably meant both George Stanley and the man who held him captive had been present at the first crime scene.
Reid made a tactical decision not to reveal any of this knowledge to the UNSUB so he did the only thing he could: he lied. "I've never even heard the name before."
"Dr. Reid I warned you yesterday not to try and lie to me." The young agent heard the man pull something out of his pocket and felt the stirring of the air as the man waved it in front of his face. With the blindfold over his eyes Reid couldn't see the PDA George Stanley had confiscated from Elle passing within inches of his face.
Suddenly the air stilled and Reid heard retreating footsteps as the UNSUB moved away. Reid felt his entire body shudder with silent tears. Tears not for himself but for what he knew the woman was about to face, the price she was about to pay for his lie.
This time there was no warning sound. The silence was just suddenly pierced by a scream accompanied by the sizzling of meat and the smell of burnt flesh. It didn't take an IQ of 187 to put it together. He's branding her. By the sound of it the woman's gag had slipped. Either that or the UNSUB had removed it to allow Reid to hear her screams all the more clearly. Reid was starting to get a feel for just how sadistic the man holding them was.
The screams ended as the man stood back to examine his handiwork. The word Liar was now burned across the woman's chest. If the FBI agents who found her body were as smart as everyone seemed to think they were then they should be able to figure out who the liar was.
He thought about removing the doctor's blindfold to allow him to see the price of his deception but decided against it for now. The next part of his plan would go so much better if the young man couldn't see it coming.
Walking over to the tray he grabbed the loaded syringe he had left there earlier. He approached Reid from behind and smiled at the camera as he plunged the needle into the agent's neck. He pushed the plunger home and 30 seconds later the young man slumped in the chair, unconscious.
After turning off the camera the man had to work quickly. Between the dosage and the nature of the drug the doctor would only be out for 10 minutes. He dragged the unconscious agent down to the basement first. After gagging the woman he dragged her back to the basement to join the young man.
That done he grabbed another body from his freezer. Then he went to deliver the package. He left no message this time as he felt the body was message enough.
-PTTR-PTTR-PTTR-
Hotch had taken Gideon with him to Augusta to talk to the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsies, leaving Morgan behind to conduct a cognitive interview with Elle.
Morgan was now seated in front of Elle at the conference room table.
"Now Elle, just relax and listen only to my sound of my voice. You're with Reid. You guys are standing on the steps in front of George Stanley's house. What do you see?"
Elle frowned. While she could easily picture her younger colleague beside her she was drawing a complete blank on any of the details. "Nothing, Morgan."
"Come on Elle, think a little harder. Two story home, blue door, what do you see?" Morgan pushed Elle harder than he would a normal witness but damn it, this was important.
Elle scowled in frustration. "Nothing Derek! I see absolutely nothing! I want to help Reid as much as you do but I just don't remember anything."
Putting his hands up in surrender Morgan tried to calm his disgruntled friend. "All right, all right. Try to relax and we'll start with earlier in the evening. You and Reid left the station with half a dozen officers. What happened?"
Elle could picture that part of the evening clearly. She and Reid had met with the officers at a crossroad. She had addressed the group telling them what part each person would play. "I told the officers to canvas the neighbors while Reid and I interviewed the people on the list. We started with Eleanor Hunt, the woman Sam Jones was staying with. Young woman in her early 20s. She let us in to ask her some questions. She told us she hadn't realized Sam was missing because she asked him to leave a week ago after he brought yet another drunken woman home to her place. We thanked her for her help and then we left. We stopped on the street outside to figure out what we were going to do next." She opened her eyes to look at Morgan.
"So what happened after you left the house." Morgan prompted her to continue.
Closing her eyes again Elle could picture the scene just after they left Ms. Hunt's house. "Reid was looking at something on his cell phone. Whatever he was looking at got him excited. He practically dragged me back to the SUV. And that's it."
"What do you mean that's it?"
"I mean that's it. The next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital and even that's foggy." Elle dropped her head into her hands as she felt one of the headaches she vaguely remembered the doctor warning her about coming on.
"Maybe you have a concussion... " Morgan started to say when the door opened as JJ let herself into the conference room before shutting the door behind her.
"The doctor at the hospital didn't seem to think she had a concussion." JJ informed him. "I was there when she got the results of some tests they ran."
"Anything that explains why she's having trouble remembering?" Elle raised her head briefly to glare at Morgan, making it clear she didn't appreciate being talked about as if she wasn't there. Her head soon dropped back into her hands though as her headache continued to rage.
"Well I guess she was hit with a taser which could cause problems with her memories. Also there were still trace amounts of a drug called Propofol in her system." By the look they exchanged it was clear neither of them were familiar with the drug. In that moment both felt their loss of their resident genius keenly as he probably would have been able to list everything from its side effects to its chemical composition.
"By the way did you need something?" asked Morgan.
"I actually came to give Elle the medication the doctor at the hospital prescribed her for any headaches. The pills shouldn't affect her functioning too much." Placing the bottle of pills in front of Elle she left and returned with a glass water. "Take one of these." she ordered handing Elle the glass of water.
Elle managed a smile of thanks as she downed one of the pills followed by the glass of water. Satisfied that her teammate was taken care of, JJ let herself out of the conference room.
While Elle waited for the pills to work, Morgan set about calling Garcia. Instead of her usual cheery greeting, Morgan found himself facing Garcia's wrath. "Why haven't you called? Have you found my baby boy yet? Why didn't you update me sooner!" The frantic way she spoke told Morgan just how worried the tech kitten was.
"Sorry mama. There's no sign of Reid yet and there was nothing really to report."
"You call a photo of Reid nothing? He looked so scared. You didn't think I knew about that? Who do you think the evidence boys sent a scanned copy to for digital processing!"
Morgan knew he looked guilty even though Garcia couldn't see him. She didn't have to see him though as his silence spoke volumes. Realizing she wasn't really helping the situation by being so hard on him, Garcia decided to give him an out. "I know you were just trying to protect me. Now what did you need?"
"A couple of things actually. I need you to send me everything you can find on a drug called propofol. I need you to access the transportation logs for the Boston Field Office and find out how much mileage was on the SUV Elle and Reid were driving the night they were attacked. And I need you to access Reid's cell phone records."
"Okay all of that is going to take some time. Why do we need to know the mileage on the SUV?" Morgan could hear Garcia rapidly typing away as her system responded to her every need.
"I'm hoping if we subtract it from the current mileage and factor in the trips we know it's taken we can figure out where Reid and Elle went. The last thing Elle remembers is Reid getting some sort of message on his phone right after they left the first house and dragging her back to the SUV."
"That's why you want the records from Reid's phone? I think I might be able to tell you what he was excited about. I sent him copies of the photos you took at the second crime scene." Morgan could hear the guilt in the Garcia's voice as she admitted to sending Reid the photos.
"Babygirl, you did nothing wrong. Now I gotta go. Let me know when you have something."
By the time Morgan hung up the phone with Garcia Elle's head was starting to feel a lot better. Just as she was about to ask him what Garcia did, an officer knocked on the door of the conference room. Motioning for Elle to stay seated Morgan got up and answered the door.
"Agent Morgan a package arrived at the station this morning addressed to the BAU."
Thanking the man Morgan quickly slipped on a pair of examination gloves before taking the package from the officer. Setting the package down on the conference table he carefully removed each piece of tape, taking extreme care not to rip the paper. Once the paper was gone they were left with a small box sitting in the middle of the table.
Morgan glanced at Elle, briefly making eye contact, before lifting the lid of the box. Lying on the soft velvet inside the box was a DVD.
-PTTR-PTTR-PTTR-
Hotch stood on one side of the metal exam table next to the forensic pathologist while Gideon stood on the other. "The process of freezing has caused tissue damage that has made cause of death difficult to pinpoint." Both men listened as the doctor explained what she had found. "You'll find details on the various wounds this man suffered in the report but I wanted to draw your attention to these wounds on the victim's chest."
"What's so special about those wounds?" Gideon asked, staring where the pathologist pointed.
"Well despite the fact that each of these wounds is deep and penetrating they all managed to miss hitting any major organs. They were designed to inflict maximum pain and damage without being fatal."
"What kind of knowledge would someone need to be able to do that?" Hotch inquired.
"None if it was only one or two wounds. They could have just gotten lucky. But this many penetrations would have required detailed knowledge of human anatomy. I would also like to point out that some of the wounds on this man show signs of being stitched up. Same thing with our second victim."
"So it looks like we might be looking for someone with some type of medical knowledge" said Gideon. Before they could continue going over the body, Hotch's phone began to ring.
Hotch quickly checked the caller ID. When he saw it was Morgan he punched the talk button and held the phone to his ear. After listening for a second the others saw him move the phone away from his ear and place his hand over the mouthpiece. "Is there anything else you need to show us doctor?" he asked the pathologist.
When the woman shook her head 'no' he put the phone back up to his ear. "We're done here. Wait for us. We'll be there in 40."
Hanging up the phone he apologized to the doctor. "I'm sorry we couldn't spend more time with you but we're needed back at the station." Gideon gave the younger man a questioning look as they left the office of the chief medical examiner. The station was an hour away.
-PTTR-PTTR-PTTR-
Morgan's PDA buzzed signaling the arrival of an e-mail just as his phone began to ring. A glance at the caller ID confirmed his suspicions. "What's up babygirl?"
"As you may or may not have noticed, all the information I could dig up on that drug propofol has now arrived on your PDA. I'm telling you straight up that this is some serious stuff, used for inducing anesthesia. Its dose-response curve is so steep you would have to know what you were doing if you wanted to knock someone out without killing them."
"Thanks babygirl. Any luck finding the mileage?"
"Negative. The Boston field office is seriously behind in their paperwork. I'm currently working on an alternative method of tracking the movements of our missing friend."
"All right. I'll let you know the moment we get any more information on Reid." Hanging up the phone Morgan felt guilty for not telling her about the DVD they had been sent but he figured there was no sense in getting her worked up when they didn't even know what was on it.
Morgan had just started reading through some of the information Garcia had sent them when Hotch and Gideon entered the station. Upon seeing them enter JJ quickly wrapped up the phone call she was fielding and made her way to the conference room. Gideon and Hotch had already settled by the time she arrived. Elle had just gone to grab a coffee from the break room and would be back any minute.
While they waited for the missing profiler, JJ filled the rest of the team in on the latest developments with the media. "Seems like we are about to have a lot more problems with the press soon. The story about Spence has leaked out and went national. A kidnapped federal agent is big news and the fact that he's only 24 makes it even more compelling."
Gideon just shook his head. If the media focused too much attention on Reid the UNSUB might kill the young man just to draw attention. The fact that he craved attention and recognition was obvious from the note he had left when he dumped the body at the paper.
Once Elle joined the team in the conference room JJ shut the door and closed the blinds. Despite how helpful the locals had been they were all apprehensive about what they might see on the DVD.
Pulling on yet another pair of examination gloves Morgan carefully slid the DVD out of the box and popped it into the DVD drive on the laptop in front of them. The disc auto-played as soon as it was loaded.
The entire team gasped as a blindfolded and restrained Reid appeared on the screen. There was dried blood around his nose and a large, nasty-looking bruise on his jaw. While everyone else was focused entirely on the video, Gideon divided his attention between Reid and the team equally.
At one point in the video it appeared to Gideon as if the UNSUB was talking to Reid. The terrified young man could barely get his responses out. They saw the agent flinch as if he expected the UNSUB to hit him but no hit ever came.
Gideon looked around at the other agents as they heard Reid beg the UNSUB to stop. Elle stood staring at the screen but it was clear to Gideon that she was watching without really seeing. A clenched jaw and furrow brow served as subtle indicators of the rage boiling within Morgan. Hotch, their unit chief, remained stoic as ever on the outside though Gideon figured that he was blaming himself on the inside for everything that happened. JJ watched as long as she could but as soon as her friend started begging she had turned to face the wall. A memory flashed through Gideon's mind at that moment. "You know she's the only person in the world who calls me 'Spence'".
Finally Gideon stopped to consider his own reaction. He knew that to everyone else he appeared cold and uncaring but he was deeply concerned for his protégé. He knew Spencer Reid was stronger than people gave him credit for but he wasn't sure how long the young man could hold on.
After what seemed like ages the terrifying video finally came to an end. The last thing they saw on screen was their missing colleague slipping into unconsciousness after a hooded finger plunged a loaded syringe into his neck.
When the video was over nobody moved. Nobody made a sound. They just sat staring at the black screen until Gideon finally broke the silence, suggesting that they should send the video to Garcia for analysis.
Morgan responded almost immediately with an angry "No". There was no way he wanted to put the bright, cheerful woman through the horror of watching that. She might never recover.
"Morgan, the video proves Reid is still alive and appears to be in decent shape, at least physically, for now." Hotch reminded his agent.
Morgan nodded grudgingly. "Fine, but I want to be the one to call her."
Hotch agreed.
So hard to write them watching the DVD without feeling like I was repeating myself. That scene almost ended up being moved to the next chapter out of shear frustration :P Anyways thanks for reading. Please take the time to review as it will help my writing.