Wow, second case already. Thanks to everyone and anyone who's reading this. It actually means a lot to me and I'd love to hear what you think about this story, the review button is having a rave...somewhere. Thanks for reading.
The BAU, FBI Main Office, Quantico, Virginia
"Three weeks ago two bodies were found in Ashfield, Massachusetts," JJ said handing out case-files to the team, "both bodies were incredibly burned. They were confirmed to be Amy Grimsby and Nicola Lakenheath." She turned her screen on showing pictures of two young girls.
"The girls had been missing for five days. Police in the area arrested Timothy Fletcher but more people have been kidnapped and the body count is rising," more people were added to the screen; all of them were teenagers, roughly around 15-18.
"Have they released Fletcher yet?" Reid asked reading through the file.
"He was released this morning when four bodies were found beside the police station," JJ answered sitting down.
"He's getting more daring, he knows we're coming," Rossi said writing down his own notes on the case.
"He's burning away the evidence, this guy's smart, he's probably done something like this before," Morgan said closing the file over.
"We'll talk about this more when we get there, right now two more are missing. Ashfield needs us badly and I'll see you all on the plane in an hour," Hotch said picking up his file and walking out. The rest of the team stood up to leave as well as Alex ran in.
"Sorry I'm late, traffic was-" he started to say but was cut off by Morgan.
"It's okay Alex, Reid can you brief her?" he said turning to see Reid still sat down.
"Sure," he answered smiling. Alex walked over to him taking a case file from the top of the table.
"Right, what's happening and where are we going," she asked opening it up.
"Ashfield, Massachusetts," Reid began opening up his own file, "Three weeks ago Amy Grimsby and Nicola Lakenheath were found dead. The girls had been missing for five days and the bodies were mostly burned. Since then more teenagers have been kidnapped and murdered."
"What's the body count up to?" she asked looking away from the images of the dead teens.
"Eleven, seven girls and four boys. The local PD arrested Timothy Fletcher but he was set free after more were kidnapped and murdered," Reid continued.
"Any sign of sexual abuse?"
"None according to the report, we better get going, do you have a go-bag ready?" Reid stood up starting to leave.
"Yeah it's in my car," Alex answered putting the file into her bag.
"Okay well I'll meet you on the airstrip in an hour," Reid smiled awkwardly before leaving. Alex followed suit turning off the huge monitor.
"Are you okay Fem-Reid?" Garcia said appearing at the door.
"Fem-Reid?" Alex asked looking confused.
"Female Reid," Garcia explained, "I like to nickname people and well you're basically the female version of Reid therefore Fem-Reid." She grinned but Alex wasn't happy.
"How am I like Reid? We're completely different," she frowned folding her arms over her chest.
"You're both Kid Geniuses and seeing as we already call Reid Kid Genius we figured Fem-Reid would suit you because you're both Kid Geniuses," Garcia chirped sipping her coffee.
"Right, um, could you not call me that," Alex said pushing past Garcia angrily.
"Oh okay, sorry," Garcia shouted after her as Alex left the office.
BAU Plane, Between Virginia and Massachusetts
The team were on the plane Hotch and Rossi were sitting at one end talking to one another. Morgan was listening to music in a completely different world. JJ and Prentiss were playing a game of cards as Reid watched. Alex sat on her own reading a book, occasionally Reid looked over at her worried finally he got up to talk to her.
"Are you okay?" Reid asked Alex sitting down facing her.
"Yeah I'm fine," she replied not looking up from her book.
"It's just you haven't said a word since this morning," she looked up frustrated.
"I'm fine, I've just been thinking about this case. Sorry, but can you leave me alone I want to finish this," she snapped. Alex was turning pages faster than Reid. Taking the hint he got up and sat next to Morgan.
"What's wrong kid?" he asked taking his earphones out.
"I think Alex is upset with me," Reid said taking out the case file.
"Who? Fem-Reid? Don't worry about her she snapped at Garcia this morning, must be the time of the month if you get me," Morgan replied smiling reassuringly.
"Fem-Reid?" he asked, echoing Alex earlier that morning.
"Yeah, me and Garcia came up with it, you know how you two are so alike? Well we nicknamed her Fem-Reid because she's the female version of you," Morgan laughed.
"Maybe that's why she snapped at Garcia, I wouldn't like it if you were calling me a version of someone else," Reid mused looking over his shoulder at Alex. She had finished the book and was reading the case file, essentially mimicking Reid.
"She is very like you though," Morgan mumbled. Reid started to argue back but Hotch stood up,
"We're going to land in about 10 minutes, but we're about an hour away from Ashfield. When we arrive get your bags and get in one of the SUVs, I'll be driving one and Morgan will be driving the other," Hotch said looking over his team. JJ and Prentiss started to whisper trying to decide who would be the safer driver in the long countryside, Hotch or Morgan.
"The local PD have no leads since releasing Fletcher and we're basically starting from scratch due to the lack of evidence," Hotch continued commanding everyone's attention again, "They've never experienced something like this and it's all relatively new to them, they don't have a lot of resources so we're going to have to make-do with the bare minimum." The plane started to shudder and Hotch sat down as the plane prepared to land.
Worchester Regional Airport, Massachusetts
Alex was last to grab her bag as the others piled into the SUVs. Rossi, JJ and Prentiss went into one with Hotch leaving Alex with Reid and Morgan. She sighed getting into the back as the other two boys got in to the front.
"Stupid thing," Morgan uttered hitting the SatNav.
"What's wrong with it?" Alex asked leaning forward between the seats.
"It keeps telling me I'm 3,000 miles away from Ashfield but I know I'm not, I hate SatNavs, what happened to the good old reliable map?" Morgan complained lying back.
"Did you put the state in?" she asked pointing out the obvious.
"Yeah! Wait, no," Morgan said adding the state to the map. Suddenly it cleaned up and gave the route to him.
"Thanks Alex," he mumbled as she sat back putting her seatbelt on.
"No problem," she whispered as he started the car. They got out of the airport and Morgan tried following the SatNav but gave up and followed road signs instead. The three of them chatted about mundane things such as music, films, TV, Reid chatted about his love of Soap operas much to the amusement of Alex and Morgan.
"So, Alex, tell me this, how much of a genius are you?" Morgan asked jokingly looking at Alex in the rear view mirror. She smiled at him looking away.
"I don't really regard myself as a genius," Alex laughed as Reid turned to her.
"What do you regard yourself as?" he asked as Morgan sped up a little.
"Above average," she grinned. She was starting to like Reid again after ignoring him because of Garcia's nickname for her.
"Way above average," Morgan laughed and Alex laughed. They drove for about twenty more minutes before arriving at Ashfield.
The town was like a ghost town. The streets were silent and the only sound to be heard was the SUV driving through the town.
"Oh I do not like this," Morgan said rubbing his head.
"Where is everybody?" Reid mused aloud looking around.
"Probably inside hiding, wouldn't you be if a killer was on the loose preying on children?" Alex breathed as she caught a glimpse of a child watching behind a curtain.
"Where's the station? This place is giving me the creeps," Morgan sped up looking for the station. When they arrived it was empty as well but cars surrounded the town hall next to it.
"There must be a meeting on," Reid said getting out of the car.
"Small towns like this tend to have open town meetings as a form of government," Alex added and the three of them stood outside of the hall. They could hear shouts from the inside.
"Should we go in?" Alex asked staring up at the huge hall.
"Maybe we should wait for Hotch," Reid answered trying to look inside but could only see dark shadows.
"This place is creepy, I'd rather go inside than stay out here," Morgan walked towards the doors. He put his hand on the handle just as it burst open. Two tall muscular men came out staring at the three agents.
"Who are you?" one asked, he was bald but had a dark bushy beard.
"FBI," Morgan said showing his badge. He was as tall as the men and just as muscular and wasn't as intimidated by them as Alex and Reid.
"FBI? Hey Burke, they're here," he shouted back into the hall. The other man stared down at Alex and Reid unnerving them. An equally tall man came out with a police uniform on; two others dressed like him followed him.
"Come with me Gentlemen, and lady, I'll show you were you'll be working," he said walking from the towns hall to the police department next door.
"Reid, ring Hotch, I think he might be lost," Morgan said as they walked in. Reid took out his phone and started to ring Hotch as Alex caught up with Morgan and the officers.
"Any idea what this could be?" Burke asked leading them to an office just off the main hall.
"I'd rather wait until the rest of the team gets here before we give our theories to you," Morgan answered following Burke. The other two officers went to their desks and began addressing smaller domestic crimes.
"He's not answering," Reid said walking into the office.
"Try him a few more times and we'll get set up," Morgan nodded to Alice and she took out her case file and started to pin everything they knew up on one of the boards.
"We'll get started on a profile until the rest of our team gets here," Morgan said to the officer and he left the team.
"There's no answer on any of their phones," Reid said after ringing them all a few times.
"We'll worry about them later let's get started on this," Morgan replied and Reid went over to help Alex.
Now where, oh where could Hotch, Rossi, JJ and Prentiss be? And is the burning really to cover up evidence? Thoughts?