Disclaimer: See chapter 1
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After arriving at the hospital, the girls were pulled into a maelstrom of activity. Mindy and Rebecca had had IVs inserted as well, to combat dehydration from being so long without fluids. They were bathed and examined by doctors for injury, dressed in clean pajamas and wrapped in warm blankets while they waited for their parents to arrive. Reid was speaking to Hotch on the phone, reporting on the rescue and the general condition of the girls as he knew it. "Okay Reid, I'll get JJ to do a press conference."
"Uh, Hotch, it might be too late for that," Reid said as reporters from the Topeka Capital Journal as well as some from the local affiliates and some of the news networks had descended on the Stormont-Vail Regional Health Centre. He looked over and saw some reporters talking to Sergeant Tillman, their microphones and tape recorders extended to catch every word.
"Sergeant Tillman, what was it like to be the man who found the kidnapped girls?"
"How does it feel to know the whole city owes you a debt of gratitude for going into that storm drain to find those children?"
"Have you spoken to the girls' parents and how did they express their appreciation for all you did?"
"How does it feel to be a hero, Sergeant Tillman?"
Reid watched Sergeant Tillman talking to the press for a few minutes as he glanced up at the clock on the wall. It was pretty late, or was it early? He never knew which was right in the middle of the night. He guessed it didn't really matter as he picked up the phone and dialed.
Allie was roused from sleep in the rocking chair in Joanna's room by the ringing of the phone. It was dark. It was the middle of the night and the phone was ringing. Oh God, she thought as she leapt from the chair, stubbing her toe in the darkness but barely feeling the pain as she made her way to the phone. She could see the light of the phone flashing in the darkness with each ring. She didn't want to pick it up. Maybe if she didn't answer, Hotch couldn't tell her something had happened to her beloved Spencer. Finally she reached for the phone and answered. "Hello," she said, the tears evident in her voice.
"Allie," Spencer's voice filled her ear. "Allie are you alright? You sound like you're crying. Are you okay?" Reid's voice had now taken on a tone of worry.
"Spencer, Spencer is that you?" she asked, not believing she was hearing his voice.
"Yeah, Allie, sweetheart, what's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong. Are you okay? Are you hurt? Is that why …?"
"No," Reid replied, "I'm not hurt, I'm fine."
"Then honey, I d…don't understand. When I heard the phone in the middle of the night, I thought it would be Hotch telling me you were h…hurt or w…worse!"
"Oh no, no, I'm sorry I scared you. I didn't think. The case we were on, it was three missing little girls and all I could think of the whole time was Joanna. They were found and we've got the guy but I just…I just needed to know, I mean I know but I just had to make sure, that my little girl was okay. I'm sorry, this all sounds so silly now that I'm talking to you and I scared you for no reason other than I'm an idiot. Go back to sleep. I love you."
"I love you too and Joanna's fine. She's sleeping like, well, like a baby," Allie said as a tear of relief meandered down her cheek.
"Could you, uh, give Joanna a kiss for me," he said very quickly.
"I will, hurry home. I love you," she said again.
"I love you too, I'll see you later today, bye."
"Bye," Allie said. She put the phone down and put her leg on the bed. "Damn," that toe hurt.
By the time the rest of the BAU team got to the hospital, the fourth estate was out in full force. Sergeant Tillman was surrounded by a huge contingent of reporters and he appeared quite happy to talk to them. The parents had arrived just moments earlier and were quickly whisked past the reporters and taken to their daughters. One of the ER physicians was readying himself to stand before the cameras and tell the public the general conditions of the three girls after their ordeal. The team saw all this as the electronic doors parted to admit them to the ER. Hotch looked around and saw Reid sitting alone in the waiting area.
"How are the girls?" Hotch asked as he approached Reid.
"I think they're going to be okay. I hope Jessica wasn't deprived of oxygen for too long. The other two seemed to be okay physically, mostly dehydration and the elements. Who knows how they're going to be affected psychologically?"
Morgan glanced over at the horde of reporters around Lyle Tillman. "Can you believe that guy?" He flicked his thumb in the sergeant's direction. "After all his snide remarks and put downs, he's up there taking the credit like searching the storm drains was his idea." Hotch looked at Reid to gauge how he felt about the situation. The young profiler just shrugged. "Hotch, you're not going to let him get away with this?" Morgan continued. "You have to get JJ up there to make a statement and tell them what really happened and who the real hero is."
"Leave it alone Morgan," Reid said. "Those three little girls are safe. Wilton's in custody, that's all that matters. JJ making a statement now would only look like the big FBI trying to swoop down and claim credit from the locals. I don't do what I do to get on the news. I do it to keep these monsters from preying on the innocent. Tonight we got one in the win column. It doesn't matter who hit the home run." The team smirked at Reid's baseball analogy. "This is over and now I get to go home to Allie and Joanna. They're all I really need. I don't have any trouble looking myself in the mirror. How Sergeant Tillman feels when he looks at himself in the mirror is between him and his conscience."
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Spencer Reid put his messenger bag over his head and followed the rest of the team as they prepared to leave the TPD precinct after wrapping up loose ends. Detective Townsend had been concerned that no evidence had as yet been found to connect Myron Wilton with the abductions. Morgan reminded Townsend that he could hold the suspect for seventy-two hours while waiting for forensic examination and DNA results. "You should get your CSI techs to swab every inch of Wilton's Public Works van," Reid told the detective.
"According to the physical examinations there weren't serious injuries," Townsend replied, "so they might not find any blood."
"I wasn't talking about blood," Reid clarified. "There's liable to be fibers and hairs and other things, that even if they've dried, the DNA from them will still be there."
"The DNA from what?" Townsend asked.
"Tears, sweat, or urine," Reid replied. He also suggested they get a judge to compel a handwriting sample from the suspect to see if the handwriting on the note was indeed Wilton's which he was sure it was. From what he had seen in the handwriting from the notes, Reid told the detective, Myron Wilton was an aggressive emotionally withdrawn man with a hard character and definite self esteem issues. He didn't wonder that his wife, the judge and the social worker wanted him to have only supervised visits with his child.
Detective Townsend looked shocked for a moment. "How could you know all that?" he asked, then flicked his hand, "never mind, it's just fortunate for us and those little girls that you do. I'll get on that court order right away. Thanks for all your help," he shook each of their hands. "Agent Reid, I'm sorry about Sergeant Tillman. Lyle Tillman is a good man and a good cop but sometimes he can be…"
"An ass," Morgan finished for him.
"Not a problem, we often meet opposition to our ideas. We're used to it," Reid said as he and the others left the precinct.
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William was in the recreation room which was all but empty at this time of the morning. He was to see Dr. Raymond that morning and wasn't expected in the textile factory until after lunch. He was catching up on the story of the missing girls in Topeka.
A pretty brunette reporter stood in front of the camera, the Stormont-Vail Regional Health Centre was the backdrop. This morning the skies were blue and the sun was shining. There was no hint of the drama that had taken place in the wee hours of the morning. On the bottom of the screen William read, Caitlin Morrissey, LIVE.
"I'm standing in front of the hospital the three young girls were brought to after their rescue. A decision was made to search the city's storm drains after Wilton's note to the Topeka Capital Journal. That decision saved these young girls' lives. Sergeant Lyle Tillman, a fifteen year veteran of the Topeka Police Department, is being heralded as a hero after finding the girls in a storm drain near SW Burlingame Road. Our cameras captured this footage early this morning."
William watched the image that filled the screen. The rain beat down on the lens of the photographer attempting to catch the action making it seem like it was filmed behind a curtain. William leaned forward to try and get a closer look at what was on the screen. A small girl was being given CPR on a grassy slope. There were two paramedics working on the child and beside them, Spencer. The cameraman shifted to two men coming out from the storm drain outfall carrying the other two girls. The reporter continued.
"As you can see, it was a dramatic rescue. Little Jessica Adderly, who you saw being given CPR is in good condition and expected to make a full recovery as are the other two girls."
William was relieved the little girls were okay. He didn't doubt for one moment whose suggestion it had been to search the storm drains. If the TPD had thought of it they wouldn't have needed the help of the BAU. No, the BAU was responsible for the search the storm drains and he was pretty sure which member of the team had come up with that idea. He'd watched that mind develop from the time he was a little baby and he knew the deductive reasoning it was capable of. He'd been so proud of that when Spencer was a little boy and he realized now that he still was. He hoped that realization hadn't come too late.