Chapter 9

"There either is or is not, that's the way things are. The colour of the day. The way it felt to be a child. The saltwater on your sunburnt legs. Sometimes the water is yellow, sometimes it's red. But what colour it may be in memory, depends on the day. I'm not going to tell you the story the way it happened. I'm going to tell it the way I remember it."
— Charles Dickens (Great Expectations)

The sun rose quickly, promising a new day of unforgivable heat. Erin Strauss sat behind her desk, her hands folded around a cup of fresh coffee. Rossi stood at the fireplace and stared into his empty cup. He felt as if he had aged more in the last night than he had in the past ten years. Erin stared on her desktop, still trying to avoid his eyes in every way she could. Confessing was one thing, bearing the consequence, another.

She had expected mockery, more insults, and more hateful looks. But to her surprise his initial hubris had faded, as soon he had realized, she was talking the truth.

"If things happened the way you explain it," he started after a while. "How is it that Ashley's here? How did she end up in this bloody valley?"

"I don't know," Erin answered truthfully. "That's why she's here. I want to find out, what she knows."

"Damn, this world is small." He rubbed his face, tired, because he hadn't slept. Tired, because life could be so tiring. He turned his head and faced Erin.

"How can I trust you with this?"

"Ask Gideon."

He was surprised. "What story did you tell him?"

"I told Jason what I told you. I think I might have lost his trust and his friendship forever."

"Jason didn't trust you," Dave clarified. "And he never wanted to be friends with you. He just wanted to something to believe in. Something that's bigger... and perhaps better. He's a philosophical fool," Dave added sarcastically.

"He's your brother," Erin said, but Rossi shook his head and denied her statement with a bitter snarl.

"We share the same mother. That's all."

Outside in the hallway, Ashley Seaver leaned against the wall and listened to their long and sometimes heated conversation behind the door. Ever since she had woken up after the arrival of David Rossi, she had listened to him and Erin Strauss. Secretly overhearing them as long as they had stayed outside had been easy. The open window had allowed her to hear every word without being noticed, but the door to the den downstairs had been the harder task. Thank God she could use a moment, in which Erin and Dave had been screaming at each other at the top of their lungs to open the door for a few inches so that she could hear every word that was spoken.

Their heated words had been like cuts through her very soul. Not because she hadn't known the truth before. Actually she had heard about her mother's story before she had left the orphanage in Philadelphia. The truth hurt her so much, because it revealed that she was the product of something that could have been more than a casual fling between a prostitute and a small town mobster. She could have grown up within the love of a family, she could have been loved and treasured by her parents, she could have been happy. If only the two people inside the den had been upright and honest enough to admit their real feelings to each other.

"Have you ever even thought of telling me?" David asked, his voice strangely distorted. Erin, still sitting in her chair was reduced to tears.

"I was afraid you wouldn't believe me... I was a Madame... I couldn't tell you I had stopped sleeping with other men, the day I had stopped taking money from you when you came to see me. I may have been in love, but I wasn't so stupid to believe, you would believe the best of me."

Emily wasn't sure why she allowed Doyle to take her with him to the bloody gold mine, but fact was that she followed him through the desert to the ridge of hills, in which the treasure he craved for was hidden.

Maybe she went with him, because her inner voice told her to do it. There was this rare, but pulsating hint of hope within her that the mine could end up being her live safer. The greed in his eyes, every time he mentioned the mine, scared her to some extent, but she had realized that his madness could be her advantage. Time and opportunity would show, if she was right to trust her instinct.

"You don't even know, if there's gold in there!" she hissed angrily. "What if old Strauss lied to you about the mine?"

Doyle laughed huskily, "Gold, gold, gold, Lauren. Do you think I'm looking for gold?" Doyle patted her chin with his index finger. "No, my Darling, I'm looking for something else!"

"And what?" She wondered what else could arouse such greed in a man[']s eyes, but she didn't expect a straight answer.

He grinned deviously and slowly pushed his hand between her thighs, "That's a surprise, my dear."

Over the years she had learned not to ask too many questions and so she had simply surrendered to his touch.

"Follow me!" Doyle ordered and his loud voice tore Emily out of her daydream.

"Inside the mine?" she asked, as she climbed of[f] her horse.

"Yes," he showed her the torch and a pickaxe. "You won't regret it." He grinned shamelessly, but Emily didn't return the smile. Going inside the gold mine with Doyle, a torch, and a pickaxe wasn't what appeared safe in her eyes. But what choice did she have? She wasn't armed and if she tried to run, he would kill her. Her only chance to survive was to play along – for now.

When Hotch arrived at Strauss' estate he instinctively felt something was wrong. The atmosphere of the place was gruesome.

"Strange," Morgan remarked, as he followed Hotch to the front door. "Nobody's around."

"It's Sunday," Hotch said and knocked determinedly at the door. "And it's not even 8 o'clock."

"Oh," Morgan looked dumbfounded and checked his watch as if it would confirm Hotch's statement. "We've been in this valley for too long, if you ask me."

"Let's hope we can leave it soon enough." Hotch said darkly, as nobody answered the door. "We don't have time for this," he decided and tried the door handle. To his surprise the front door was open.

"Hey! Wait!" he yelled when he saw the end of a skirt vanishing at the top of the stairs. "Miss Seaver!" But his call remained ignored and he was already on the first step when, called by the noise, the door to Erin Strauss's den opened and a man Hotch hadn't seen before appeared.

"Who are you?" Morgan asked, ready to get his revolver.

"My name's David Rossi," Dave introduced himself.

"What do you want?" Erin Strauss asked, as she passed Rossi. While Morgan was still busy to figure out why Strauss had a visitor while she was dressed in her dressing gown, Hotch had already passed the state of surprise and said, "I hope you were aware of the spy at your door while you were inside."

Strauss and Rossi exchanged a panicked gaze. "Ashley," Erin mumbled and covered her mouth with her hands.

"Morgan, go and get her!" Hotch ordered and Morgan passed him and ran up the stairs.

"What is going on here?" Strauss asked, clearly displeased with the situation.

"It seems your house guest was in the Saloon when one of the latest victim disappeared. She might have seen something we need to know."

"One of the latest victims?" Rossi asked with narrowed eyes. "Does that mean somebody else has been killed?"

"Yes, Sir," Hotch confirmed. "Last night we found the body of Mrs. Elle Greenaway in the Sheriff's office."

"My God!" Erin exclaimed and leaned against the door frame. The color of her face had turned from reddish to white and she looked as if she was about to be sick.

"You knew her?" Hotch asked, a little surprised by her heavy reaction. Rossi watched her attentively while she struggled to recover from the shock. He gently placed a hand on her shoulder and answered Hotch's question instead.

"Let's say we know what she meant to someone."

"Couldn't you have told me years ago that it was Dave and not me? I thought you loved me and chose him, because he was the one with the money!" Gideon took a glass from his table and smashed it against the door. Erin flinched.

"Strauss was the one with the money," she explained in a low voice. "And David was the one who brought me to life."

"Miss Seaver, we need your help," Hotch explained after he had shut the door. The small group of five people had gathered in Ashley's bedroom. The young blonde sat in an armchair at the window and starred outside.

"There's nothing I could tell you."

"But you and Miss Todd went to the Saloon the night she died. I'm sure you saw something of importance without even realizing it."

"We didn't spend our time together," she replied coldly and still without facing him. "We hardly knew each other."

Jordan arched her back and bent her head back, as her climax overwhelmed her. She had never experienced a woman's tongue before, but she definitely appreciated it. Ashley's devotion opened her a whole new world of lust and satisfaction.

"More," she pleaded and grabbed the thin, dirty sheets with one hand while the other one dug into Ashley's long, silky hair.

"But you went to the BullPen that night," Hotch said. "Who did you talk to?"

"Many people. The pub was full..." Ashley licked her lips and swallowed before she continued, "I talked to the guy behind the bar. Mr. Reid... I wanted to know how I could apply for a job. Jordan talked to Miss Emily, but I think she didn't really listen to her. She was always staring at the entrance. I had the impression she as waiting for someone."

"For someone who hardly remembers anything, you noticed a lot," Morgan commented dryly. "What else did you see?"

"The Deputy Sheriff was around... but he vanished with one of the girls. The same goes for the pianist." She turned her head for the first time, the four had entered the room and faced Morgan who cleared his throat. He was expecting her to say that he was the one who accompanied Penelope Garcia upstairs, but she didn't. She just looked straight through to him and continued her tale.

"For some time I was sitting close to the bar. I watched people, and then a man joined my table. He had dark hair and wore glasses. Said he worked at the telegraph office."

"That's Kevin Lynch," Rossi said quickly. "Hardly a killer."

"He occupied me for some time. Made some clear cut offers, but I refused and so he invited me for a drink."

"And Jordan?" Hotch asked. "Did you see her with anyone beside Emily?"

"Jordan talked to many people, men, women... Emily vanished upstairs with someone shortly after eleven o'clock and I didn't see her again..."

Ashley ignored Kevin Lynch's drooling gaze on her décolleté and preferred to watch Jordan instead. She had been talking to the strange stage coach driver for a while now and didn't seem to realize that he was discreetly touching the small bulge between his legs while he looked straight into her beautiful face and laughed about something she was saying.

"Please..." Ashley heard Kevin saying. "I pay you ten bucks... five minutes..." The desperation in his voice annoyed her greatly, but then she thought about her empty wallet and her even emptier stomach. Sooner or later she had to do it. Hadn't it been her plan anyway? Stepping into her mother's footsteps in order to revel in her pain, once the woman realized what she did?

Ashley forced herself to look at Lynch, while her thoughts lingered on Jordan. There was sweat on his forehead and his lower lip trembled. He wouldn't last five minutes.

"Backdoor in 10 minutes!" she ordered. "And you'll buy me another drink afterwards."

Kevin nodded and he stumbled over the legs of[f] his chair, as she hastened outside.

Ashley narrowed her eyebrows while she tried to remember what the man Ashley had talked to looked like.

"When I left the Saloon to go back to the hotel, Ashley talked to the stage coach driver who had brought us here."

"What's his name?" Morgan asked, suddenly alarmed.

"George... something," Ashley answered. "Not very impressive. Talks a lot and thinks he knows everything. He's quite taken with himself."

"He drove you here?" Hotch asked.

"Yes."

"Is he still here?"

Ashley thought for a moment and then she nodded. "I think I saw him in the hotel yesterday when I moved out. He talked to the clerk."

Morgan and Hotch exchanged a long look. "Stage coach drivers stick to a certain schedule. Maybe we should check if the schedule of this guy and the killings match."

Kate Joyner smiled wildly when she left the stables and recognized the horse that she had given Aaron Hotchner the day before, because he needed to go back to town.

"He's back," she whispered to herself and fastened her pace. The yard was deserted, the house quiet. Where could he be? And why was here at this hour? Though she hoped he wanted to see her again, she doubted he had time for this. If the rumors were true, than the reaper had found himself a new victim the night before. A worker from the ranch had been in the Saloon when the Sheriff had found the body of Elle Greenaway, the first victim that had been a citizen and not some visitor.

The thought that the killer had killed one of them was unsettling to say the least. She reached the porch and when she put her foot on the first step of the small staircase, she saw something in the corner of her eye and frowned. It was a shadow, moving as quickly as a fly.

She stopped and whirled around. The wind stirred up some dust and she had to cover her eyes.

"There, there," she heard a dark laugh that caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end. His breath stroked her skin and for the first time in ages she started freezing. He had found her as well. Instinctively, her mouth opened and she screamed at the top of her lungs.

TBC