Disclaimer: See chapter 1
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Reid took out his cell and hit speed dial. "Garcia, I need Sharon Webb's address. I want you to put out an Amber Alert. Get the picture of Joanna," he gulped and his voice quivered, "f...from my desk. Sharon Webb has her so you can get her picture from our files. She's driving a blue Firefly. I don't know the year or the license plate but you can probably get it from DMV."
"You got it. Her address is Apartment 23, 116 Victory Place. I'll get that alert out. Is there anything else I can do for you sweet boy?"
Reid was quiet for a moment before he choked out, "Pray."
"Already covered sweet thing."
"We have to get JJ to do a press conference," Reid said as he stood and headed for the door. The others followed him up the steps and outside where the CSU techs were bagging the tire iron. Reid tried to control his emotions. He'd seen this sort of thing many times but this time it was Allie's blood and hair and the person who'd done that to her had Joanna.
"Reid," Hotch said when the team were all together again in front of the Reid residence, "we can't work this case. We're emotionally involved."
"I understand what you're saying Hotch, I really do, but I can't just sit on my hands while the person who did that," he pointed to the house, "to Allie has our daughter. I understand if the rest of you have to back off. I'll take any flack for my actions," he said as he headed toward one of the SUVs.
"Hotch, I don't know about you , but I can't let him do this alone," Morgan said. "I'm with Reid and, like him, I'll take whatever repercussions there are."
Emily looked back and forth between Morgan and Hotch, waiting for Hotch to give the direct order that they were not to work this case but his stern countenance remained unchanged and his lips although pressed together in a scowl, said nothing. By not giving the direct order he was allowing civil disobedience among his team and thereby setting himself up for censure. "I'm in," Emily said as she turned to join Morgan and Reid.
JJ looked between Hotch and Rossi, both remained silent, "Me too," she said as she, too, joined the others.
"Your relationship good with Strauss these days?" asked Hotch as he put on his sunglasses.
"Is anyone's?" Rossi replied. "We can't not do this Hotch. It's his wife and his baby. He needs us."
"I know, I just wanted to hear you say it so we're in agreement when we're in front of Strauss defending the team's actions. Let's go." Hotch and Rossi went to the second SUV, "Okay, apartment 23, 116 Victory Place," he said as he got into the driver's side.
The ride to Sharon's apartment was made in relative silence, broken only by a call from Garcia. "What have you got for us mama?"
"Okay, I looked into Sharon Webb and it looks like this isn't the first time she's done this kind of thing. She was in trouble at her high school in Montpelier, Vermont. She was stalking a boy named Randy Fuller in her class and it got pretty out of hand. She even followed him into the boys' bathroom. His parents were irate and so were the parents of Suzanne Baker, the girl Randy liked. She did countless things to this girl including putting a dead rat in her locker. A police report was filed by the Bakers but it was sealed when Sharon's parents agreed to remove her from school and get her help." Garcia paused for breath. "She really disappears off the map after that. Transcripts from the U of MW show that she was home schooled after the incident and they moved to Trenton. Her father owned a successful car dealership and they kept Sharon away from people in the back doing the books for three years. At twenty her parents were killed in a car accident, drunk driver. Sharon sold the business and with her parents' life insurance she's a fairly wealthy woman. She registered at the university at the start of the fall semester last fall and was okay, it seemed, until Ray Norman kidnapped her. When she moved out of the dorm she moved into an apartment in Fredericksburg and didn't move to McLean until July."
"That's probably when she found out Reid lived in McLean," Emily suggested.
"Thanks baby girl," Morgan said as he ended the call and looked at Reid. "What are the odds of a psycho choosing a victim who turns out to be another psycho?"
"Surprisingly," Reid responded, "not that remote."
The team exited the vehicles when they arrived at 116 Victory Place, donned their vests, drew their weapons and entered the building. Hotch rang the caretaker's apartment for him to open the security doors for them. He came out of his apartment once he'd let them in but Rossi told him to go back in his apartment and stay there. Three rode the elevator and three climbed the stairs to the second floor gathering at apartment 23. Hotch knocked on the door. "Miss Webb, FBI, open the door." They waited but no response and no sound was heard from within.
"Do you want me to get the key from the super?" JJ asked.
"We don't have a warrant," Emily reminded them.
"We have probable cause," Reid replied as he reared back and kicked the door in with a strength his teammates had never seen. They entered the apartment, guns drawn but no one appeared to be there. The room was neat yet bland. A beige sofa and chair sat across from a small plasma screen TV, plain oak coffee and end tables completed the room. There was nothing personal or of color in the room. A small table that would seat two sat just in front of the small galley kitchen. Directly across from the door, in front of the room's only window, in between doors to what the team assumed were the bedroom and bathroom sat a desk that held a computer and printer. All around the room there were boxes that had yet to be unpacked.
"She moved here in July," JJ said and she hasn't unpacked yet!
"She wasn't planning on staying," Rossi replied. "In her mind, she thought she'd be living with Reid soon. Why pack again?"
Morgan had gone into the bedroom and said sadly, "Guys you have got to see this." The team rushed into the small room, not sure what they'd be seeing. A double bed sat in the centre of one wall. The wall across from the bed was covered from floor to ceiling with pictures of Spencer Reid.
Reid stared open mouthed at the wall with images of him as he led his life. There were pictures from the parking garage at Quantico. There were pictures of him in Starbucks and in the little eatery near the office. There were pictures of him at the scene of the bank hostage taking. There were pictures of him at the drugstore, the library, the gas station. There were pictures of him by his SUV in his driveway. There was a picture of him and Allie dancing on their date although the image of Allie had been blacked out. Finally there was a picture of them on the steps of the church; he was holding Joanna after her christening. He saw how the picture had been halved with red marker and BITCH had been written over the image of Allie. He longed to grab them off the wall and tear them to shreds but he had to leave them as they were. They were evidence. His life was evidence. How had he not seen her? He was trained to notice things and he never saw this woman.
The team was silent. No one knew exactly what to say to their teammate and friend. Even JJ who always seemed to be able to find the appropriate words in any situation was speechless.
"She's evolving," Morgan remarked. "First she began with the thank you note."
"And then the cookies," Emily added. "That's when she found out you were married and probably started stalking you more covertly."
"She saw Allie as her competition and the reason you two weren't together. She felt if she could just get rid of Allie, everything would be fine," Rossi interjected.
"When you went away with Allie, she probably felt Allie was keeping you from her and felt she needed to abolish the competition," Hotch put in.
JJ reached down to the bedside table and picked up two pill bottles in her gloved hands. "Risperidone and Lithium," she said. "These bottles were filled on May 13th and they're both still full. She hasn't taken any for almost four months."
"Risperidone is a neuroleptic and Lithium is a mood stabilizer. Doctors probably put her on them after her incident in high school although erotomanic or psychotic stalkers have proven to be extraordinarily resistant to treatment. It looks like she hasn't taken them since her abduction," Reid replied.
"I don't think she wants to hurt Joanna," he said at last. "I think she wants me to find them so we can be together. That's her delusion. She'd take Joanna someplace I'd know but that other people wouldn't readily think of." He pondered for a few moments. "I think I know where she took Joanna!"