Disclaimer: see my profile

A/n hello all... Here's the next chapter. I owe many thanks to my wonderful beta REIDFANATIC and to Editor Frog for their suggestions and support.

Light

Mac led the rest of the team into the old abandoned bar in Queens. Flack's call had revealed that the scene was the same bar where Ian Casey had killed.

Mac's flashlight hit the dusty floors, overturned tables and, the filthy bar. The mirror behind the bar hung askew and full of spider cracks crisscrossing the dusty surface.

"It still looks the same." Stella said. "Hasn't anyone been in here since we arrested Casey?" She asked as she followed Mac to the body behind the bar.

"I talked to the City and this building is scheduled to be torn down. The bodega next door bought it for more parking. No one wants to try and overcome the rep this place got after the Casey brothers wreaked their havoc." Flack said from behind Mac.

Mac gave Flack a smile. "You have such a way with words."

"Just tryin to have a little fun boss," Flack went back to his notes. "A couple of kids, rollerblading down the street, found the guy. Apparently, one brainiac pushed the other into the building and he saw the guy lyin behind the bar. They called the cops and first on site noticed the little extra touch he left for us." Flack indicated the head of the victim highlighted by the late afternoon sun.

Hawkes bent down over the body and shone his flashlight on the face of the dead man. "I see pinkish froth around the mouth and nose." He moved down to the arms and hands below the short-sleeved tee shirt the man wore. "There are a few post mortem cuts and scrapes. Lividity isn't consistent with how he's lying."

Mac took in the body lying face down on the dusty floor. "I see drag marks in the dust. The problem is that we have several pairs of foot prints, including out own. Stella," he looked back at his second in command. "You get the foot prints. I don't have to tell everyone that we need to be extra careful with this scene." He indicated the prominent clue sitting on the chest of the dead man.

Reid snapped on gloves and craned his long neck over the edge of the filthy surface of the bar. The smell of musty dust and the decomposing body had his stomach swirling. He was glad he hadn't eaten dinner yet. Thank God, the smell was dry and not wet leaves. Don't think about that… Just do your job.

He looked at the interesting clue left with the man. His eyes found their way up to the man's face, which had a mottled green and black appearance from what looked like to him a few weeks of decomposition. The skin, while bloated, didn't look like it should for what they all were thinking may have happened to this man. In fact there was something odd about it that he couldn't be sure about until after the autopsy.

"I can't say for sure, but I think there's a good possibility that this man drowned." Hawkes voiced one of Reid's concerns. "We need to do an internal exam and get the level of diatoms in his blood."

Reid looked up at the window above the man's head and studied it. There was something wrong with the quality of the light. "That window's been recently cleaned. There's no dust on it." He pointed out to Mac.

"Why would someone clean one window pane?" Flack asked, looking at Reid as if he was nuts.

"He's right," Mac went around the bar and out to the street. They watched him run his flashlight over the glass pane for a few minutes while he frowned down at the body.

He came back into the bar and stepped carefully around Stella who was processing footprints and looking in vain for fingerprints in the dirt. She snapped a photograph into the silence as Mac went behind the bar. The camera clicked repeatedly as Mac began to point out what Reid had noticed.

"The window pane is clean inside and out." He explained. "It looks like Casey situated the body like this for the light to hit his face at this time of day."

"How did he know someone would find the body at this time of day?" Flack said, sounding suspicious.

"He didn't, he got lucky again." Mac said as he picked up the clue, which looked like a some kind of currency note, along with what pierced the paper and handed it to up to Reid. "Why did he want us to see this?"

Reid carefully looked over the currency note. It was a fake, he was sure of that, but it was a good fake. There were seven silver arrows piercing the note. They were broken in different places and polished to a high shine that reflected the light in little pricks that stunned his eyes at first.

"This is a Cuban Peso," Reid said. "The seven silver arrows could be a reference to Artemis. She is known as the protector of youth. The fact that the arrows are broken could mean that Artemis failed."

The others stared at him, but he didn't see the astonishment in their faces as he turned over the peso note. He noticed seven bolts of lightning stamped at the points of entry.

"She failed in what way." Mac asked.

"There are seven arrows and seven bolts of lightning on the back of the peso. Seven in numerology means thought or consciousness. It's also Lucy's number. Lucy is derived from the Latin word Lucius, meaning light." He gestured to the light coming in through the clean window.

"What does it all mean?" Stella said impatiently. "We know he has Lucy so what's he trying to say."

"I have an idea," Reid said, "but I'd rather wait until we've processed the scene to discuss it."

00000

"Are you going to tell me about it?" Lindsey said, crossing her arms over her chest as though cold.

Hotch sighed and picked up the unicorn from the floor next to Lucy's crib. "I didn't intend for my problems to spill over to you. It's hardly professional." He said.

Lindsey went to the dresser in one corner of the room and opened the top drawer. She took a small quilted blanket from the drawer and handed it to Hotch. "My mother made this for Lucy. She knew even before the doctor confirmed it, that Lucy would be a girl. She said a grandmother always knows," Lindsey laughed around a sob that tried to push out of her throat.

"I've worked in some part of the justice system my entire adult life," Hotch replied. "I have seen the very worst and the very best of humanity. I have also seen things I can't explain. I don't think we'll ever be able to explain all the mysteries out there and maybe that's a good thing because it gives us something to strive for."

Lindsey took back the quilt and laid it against her tear stained cheek. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I blame myself for what happened to my ex-wife." Hotch began as he walked over to the window. He stared out at the building across the way. "There was a serial killer who called himself the Reaper."

"I heard about him. Oh God…" Lindsey hurried to the window and put a hand on Hotch's arm. "You were the one. It didn't click with me when I heard y0ou name but now…" She trailed off watching him intently.

"Yes… the first time he was active, the police sent my team away halfway through the investigation. I learned ten years later that the lead detective on the case made a deal with him. If he stopped looking for the Reaper, the killer would stop killing. The detective agreed and for ten years, the man known as the Reaper was silent. Then the detective died and the Reaper came back. My team found him, and put him away. He escaped and came after my family and me. He nearly killed me in the attempt. I had to send my ex-wife and son into hiding through the witness protection program. Foyet, the Reaper, found them and killed my wife. He shot her twice while I talked to her on the phone. I was on my way to my home where he had lured them, but I was minutes too late. I had to kill him to save my son."

"You did the right thing," Lindsey insisted roughly. "If I had Shane Casey in front of me right now…"

"Stop," Hotch left the window. "Don't say it." He responded. "I understand completely what you're going through, but -"

"No, you don't completely understand." Lindsey argued, her voice rising higher. "I am so sorry about what happened to you. I can tell you never stopped loving her."

"This isn't about me." Hotch interrupted. "I have a job to do."

He left the room, and Lindsey standing there staring at the unicorn he'd dropped back on the floor where he'd found it. She folded the quilt and put it back into the drawer.

Danny's phone was beeping as she came back into the living room. "Messer," he answered in a despondent way that had tears pricking her eyes.

Hotch's phone rang at the same time. She watched both men talking at the same time, trying to figure it out from two halves of two different conversations. She thought she heard Shane Casey and Lucy from Danny, but his face didn't look like happiness. Instead, it looked like some other blow had been dealt for both of them. She turned her gaze on Agent Hotchner. She couldn't tell from his face what the caller was telling him. As far as she could see, he never changed expression at all. It was like looking at someone who had never learned to smile. He had a son though, so he must be able to smile.

Hotch and Danny shut their phones at exactly the same time. "What's going on?" Lindsey demanded of them both.

"That was Mac," Danny growled. "They found a body in the bar where Ian Casey killed the bartender."

"Oh God!"

"It appears that a clue left at the scene has something to do with Lucy." Hotch said.

"I'm goin to the scene right now." Danny said, grabbing his jacket.

"Danny," Lindsey grabbed his arm. "Mac told you to stay here."

"I'm goin in," he pulled away from her. "No one is keepin me away." He said.

He turned and slammed out of the room. "I'm going with you." Lindsey called after him.

Hotch didn't say anything, just followed her out of the small, but homey apartment that had lost some of its light and love to the torturous whims of a madman.