Surgery – physical therapy and a burning need to finish this story….thanks for your patience.
Chapter 14
Rebecca melted into the shadows of the room. Jason looked like a kid in a candy store. Despite his initial response to her request for his help, he was definitely back in his element.
She smiled as she remembered the conversation.
"I have my reasons for leaving, Rebecca and they're still as pertinent now as they were when I left!" Jason voice had risen an octave with each syllable.
Rebecca had waited.
She heard him sigh, "If you think I'm telling you why I left….you can think again."
She waited.
"Damn it, Bec! I'm not coming back!"
"Jason." She spoke softly.
"No."
"Jason?"
"No."
Rebecca knew she had him as his voice lessened in intensity.
"Jason, I'm at Magnolia Ridge," she spoke slowly.
There was a long pause.
"Damn."
Another long pause.
"When's my flight?"
She watched him, now. Jason Gideon was the reason she'd become a profiler. He made her think, and then he allowed her to achieve.
She looked at the evidence board which had multiplied and instead of the one board, became two. Mark had brought in another. Old murders, new murders and with Jason and David so familiar with the original murders, it gave the team time to focus on the new ones.
"So you profiled the UNSUB being in his late thirties?" Emily asked.
Jason nodded, "Someone probably in some type of public service occupation."
JJ stepped away from the boards, "Because his victims would see him as someone they could easily trust with a menial task."
"Anything non-threatening," David agreed. "We know there were absolutely no defense wounds."
"What about law enforcement?" Reid asked.
"That would certainly be someone our victims would trust on sight, especially an officer in uniform." Aaron agreed.
"And even if they were hesitant," Morgan absentmindedly tapped his pen on the file in front of him, "you're not likely to argue with an officer, even if he asked you to come along with him."
Garcia's voice came from the speaker phone.
"So should I look into the local police?" She asked.
"Yeah Kitten," David said, "focus on officer's that were here ten years ago and are still here now."
"Yes sir, Garci out."
The phone clicked into silence.
"There's another possibility." JJ closed the folder in her hand, "He could have medical training. I mean these wounds are precise. He not only knew where to stab them, but how deep each wound needed to be for the maximum damage."
"But why obliterate the eyes." Emily asked.
"There are some Native American beliefs that when a person dies they take to the next world, the last thing they saw while on earth." All eyes turned to stare at Reid.
"What?" Morgan asked.
Rebecca loved the innocent look on Reid's face. He took his genius in stride and seemed truly amazed that anyone would be in awe of his brilliance.
Rebecca was beginning to feel more and more uncomfortable with her assignment. Could she find out why this particular group was so successful and would they be as successful elsewhere? Could each of them lead their own team and have the same measured success?
The Pentagon and the President seemed to think so.
She looked up as Mark entered the room.
The team was so engrossed in their case, no one noticed him.
Rebecca quietly made her way towards him.
"We need to talk." Mark whispered.
Rebecca nodded. Magnolia Ridge was still a psychiatric retreat for victims of violent crimes and when this was over she still had a job to do.
She closed the door behind her and looked up at Mark. "What is it, a new patient?"
Mark shook his head, "No, but I found something in the garden you need to see."
"The garden?" Rebecca had built the garden when she opened Magnolia Ridge. It was a quiet place where her patients could go and relax after therapy.
Rebecca followed Mark as he made his way to the edge of the property. He stopped at a trellis of confederate jasmine and pointed behind it.
"What is it?" Rebecca stepped behind the trellis and saw the large wooden door, which appeared to be built into the ground. It looked like an old underground storm shelter.
"What is this?" She bent to get a closer look at the rusted old handle.
"I think this is how he's getting into Magnolia Ridge."
Rebecca looked over her shoulder at the man who'd been her trusted friend for so long.
There was something different in his voice.
"What do you mean, Mark?"
"The tunnels spread out over Colton County. It was a part of the Underground Railroad during the war. There are escape hatches all over these hills."
She wanted to ask how he knew about the escape routes but before she could, her world faded from view.