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a/n hey all, just wanted to thank all of you for your continued support of this story. It means alot. Here's the next chapter. Please enjoy.

The Cuban Connection

Mac entered the conference room behind Stella with her bags of food from the deli down the street. He called up one of the large computer monitors so that everyone could see the note left in John Doe's pocket. "I couldn't find any prints on this that matched our databases," He said, as Stella and Reid began passing out food.

"I'm sorry for everything I did to you. I know you were only trying to love me. I can't live without you in my life. Please forgive me." Hotch read aloud as the others studied the note.

"It's signed Ted." Stella said as she un-wrapped her roast beef on rye with cheddar cheese, no mayo."

"That could be short for Theodore or Edward," Reid contributed helpfully, taking his ham and Swiss out of its wrapper and missing the looks going around the table.

"So that narrows it down to about 1 million in the city of New York. That shouldn't be hard to deal with at all" Stella said sarcastically.

"Actually, the city of New York had a population of 8 million in the census of 2000. If we say that, half the population is female, which leaves 4 million? The names Edward and Theodore account for about three percent of any given US city which narrows it down to 120,000." Reid answered while handing Mac his Philly steak sandwich and au jus dipping sauce.

"Oh, well that's makes it all better." Stella agreed, taking a sip from her bottled water.

"He reminds me of Lindsey," Hawkes spoke up with a grin around his turkey on sourdough with tomato, no lettuce or cheese.

"Speak for yourself Hawkes; you've been known to spout off on odd fact once in awhile." Mac said.

Hotch simply took in the group while enjoying the beef barley soup he'd ordered. After all the years and all the LEOs they dealt with on a nearly daily basis, it was better just to let them figure out Reid on their own. He thought.

"In any case, we need to find something else to narrow down the search." Mac said. "Shane Casey bringing this man into this case may have been an accident but we need to figure out what else this Ted means to the case."

"I agree," said Hotch. He turned to Mac. "Do you have a sample of Shane Casey's handwriting?"

"Yes… I'll get it for you."

Hotch swallowed another mouthful of the delicious soup. "I agree that this man could've committed suicide, but let's compare the hand writing samples just to be sure. Give them both to Reid, he's an expert."

"Show us what you can do." Stella said to Reid who choked on his water at her look.

The rest of the room laughed except for Hotch, but Reid thought he saw a tiny hint of a smile on his Unit Chief's somber face.

"Where's Garcia?" He said, trying to turn the conversation away from his abilities.

"She said she's too busy for food." Adam piped up over his fried egg sandwich. "She said get her an egg salad sandwich and she'd eat it later."

"Reid, take her the sandwich and get her to eat." Hotch ordered the young agent.

"Me…" He squeaked despite trying to stay calm.

"Yes you, she'll eat for you," Hotch said calmly.

Reid looked around the room, but it appeared that everyone had learned in just a short while not to disturb Garcia at her computers. Interesting, that had to be some kind of a record.

"Reid, now," Hotch ordered with that same hint of a smile.

"Yes sir…"

000000

Penelope Garcia rolled her shoulders to try to ease the burning tension radiating across her back from hunching over the computer. If she could only have her perfectly aligned ergonomically correct chair and desk from her wonderfully cool and dim office…

She sighed again; wishing didn't make it so, she reminded her tired brain. So far, they'd had zero luck with facial recognition or fingerprints on the dead guy. He had a suicide note in his pocket, but no ID. How did he expect that he'd be able to say goodbye if they couldn't identify him?

The door opened behind her and familiar footsteps walked up behind her. "Why are you trying to sneak up on me my gorgeous junior G-man?"

Reid entered her peripheral vision. "I'm going to be twenty-nine in October Garcia."

Her fingers never slowed on the keyboard. "So what?" She said, smiling a little at his put out tone.

"So… I think you can stop calling me junior G-man."

She finally stopped to look up at the tone of her best friend's voice. "What's bothering you handsome?"

"Why didn't you join us for lunch?" He held up a white paper bag and a bottle of water.

"I told that Adam person that I'm too busy." She waved Reid off with one red nailed hand.

"You need to eat. If you don't, your blood sugar will bottom out and you'll experience fatigue, the inability to concentrate, repeating yourself and -"

"Alright Dr. Annoying, I'll have something to eat." She snatched away the paper bag and opened it. "This does smell good." She admitted.

"I told you." He said smugly.

"If you're so smart," Garcia began as she removed the paper from her sandwich, "Why aren't you eating?"

"Mine's in the conference room," He told her.

"Then get back in there and eat." She pointed to the door. "I need to concentrate."

"Hotch told me to make sure you ate." Reid said without thinking.

She turned very slowly in her chair with the sandwich in one hand and her pen in the other. "I don't need a babysitter. You can tell Hotch I said so." Her dark eyes flashed dangerously. Morgan would have told Reid to be careful had he been there.

What might have happened had her computer not beeped at that precise time, Reid didn't know because Garcia's tone had gone a bit murderous. She spun around in her chair dropping the sandwich on the table so that the egg salad fell onto her pad of paper. "I think I found the answer to the Cuban connection."

00000

Reid led the way back to the conference room with Garcia hot on his heels with her laptop. "I found something or rather someone," she said as soon as the door closed on them.

Hawkes immediately stood and gave his chair as he popped the last of his sandwich in his mouth. Garcia smiled gratefully while somehow managing to glower at Hotch at the same time. "I hacked into the Pennsylvania Corrections records. Shane Casey spent time in the same cell block as Juan Ricardo Lopez." She revealed excitedly.

Everyone looked at her like the punch line of her joke hadn't gone off quite the way she expected it to. Except for Mac, whose expression went as hard as Hotch's face on its worst day? "Lopez's the hit man of a hard core human trafficking ring out of Miami. We think he may have killed at least three people here in New York, but we couldn't tie him to them. He was convicted of killing the niece of a senator in Philadelphia three years ago. He got a new trial last year on the strength of an illegal search in his apartment. He was released and disappeared. I know the detectives that brought him down." Mac explained.

"Wasn't the appeal found to be in question because the appellate judge got caught with his pants down with an underage Cuban girl smuggled into the US to work as a prostitute?" Stella asked, her expression going hard.

"Yes… So we have the trigger man of a huge organization that's been operating out of Miami, New York, and Philadelphia that just happens to have spent time in the prison as Shane Casey." Stella said. "The chances of this turning out good just went down the tubes."

"I don't want any of this information getting out to the press." Mac said.

"Don't worry," Hotch said after downing the last of his soup. "I'll handle the press."

"I'm with you on that," Mac said. "I know a thing or two about the jackals of the fourth estate right here in the city."

"Do we know where Lopez is now?" Hotch asked Garcia.

"Oh yeah… He's right here in Manhattan." Flack said as he entered the room. "One of my CIs told me the day Lopez came back into town, about ten days ago."

"I'm surprised he's still alive." Hawkes interjected.

"Hey… just because we didn't get him on the Sawyers murder don't mean I'm gonna go after him by myself." Flack said.

"I'll make your day Flack," Mac said. "Go talk to him about Lucy's disappearance."

"You serious Mac…." Flack said looking like Mac had made his decade, not just his day.

"He knew Casey in Pennsylvania. It's too big of a coincidence for me to ignore."

"If Lopez knows anything about it, I'll get it out of him." Flack promised turning for the door.

"Be careful," Mac warned. "Lopez isn't afraid of the cops."

Flack smiled in a way that scared Reid more than Hotch's patented glares. "I'll take Martinez and Cooper with me."

"Smart man," Stella said.

"Mrs. Flack didn't raise no fool." Flack said by way of a parting shot.

0000000

Shane Casey watched the latest news reports on several different television screens through pair of high-powered binoculars stolen from a sporting goods store in the mall. He'd found a perch on the building across from the electronics shop to watch and see what havoc he wreaked on Danny Messer's little life.

It gave him a nearly sexual thrill to know that he could lead them down whatever path he wanted them to go even if it was the wrong one. In fact, that was better than leading them in the right direction. They were so far off the mark in finding Lucy it was laughable.

He chuckled as he watched the television. The evening news had just started, so he adjusted the binoculars and sat back against the brick wall behind him to watch. Soon though, the feeling of euphoria began to break down as he saw from the news that Danny and his little wife were curiously absent from all the news feeds.

He reached in his pocket, pulled out a small battery powered radio, and tuned into the news. "… Sources say that New York City Detectives Daniel and Lindsey Messer, parents of Lucy Messer, who went missing ten days ago, can't be reached for comment."

"Lacey," said a man's voice on the radio. "Why do you think the Messers have suddenly gone silent about their daughter?"

"We don't know Thorne… The NYPD issued a statement saying that the Behavioral Analysis Unit from Quantico was called in on the case. It is possible that the powers that be at the NYPD have instructed their detectives to stay silent to protect the case."

"Or, it could be that Daniel Messer has more to do with this than we thought Lacey. It seems strange that this detective arrested Casey twice only to escape twice."

"That's true Thorne, but Detective Messer wasn't on site the last time the NYPD let Casey escape."

"I'm sure the NYPD is looking into this case of multiple escapes of a dangerous criminal." Thorne said in a very condescending tone. "After all, they failed three times to protect the citizens of this great city. Perhaps the Mayor will look into changes at the NYPD."

Shane shut off the drivel and got up to pace the roof top. As happy as he was to hear that he'd wreaked so much havoc within the NYPD, he felt the old anger surge at the lack of Danny Messer's suffering in the press.

Well… He'd just have to throw the inept NYPD another bone that would get Danny Messer back out into the open.