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Dianna turned her head at Reid's acknowledgement of his unit chief's presence. "What are you doing here?" She said sharply. "Shouldn't you be out looking for the person who did this," she gestured to the man in the bed and all medical paraphernalia around him, "to William?"
"I thought I would just check and see how Mr. Reid was doing. I tried calling Reid but then I realized that, of course, you wouldn't be allowed to have your phone on in here so I thought I'd come by." Hotch said quietly, not wanting to upset Dianna or disturb any of the other patients. "We are looking for his attacker Mrs. Reid. I can assure you of that."
"Really? If you were really trying to find this animal you wouldn't be standing here and you'd let Spencer help. He told me you won't let him help find the man that tried to kill his father." Dianna's voice was rising with every word and she appeared to be getting more agitated as she got to her feet.
"Mom," Reid said softly, reaching out to her but she pulled away.
"Who found that little boy the last time you were here?" She turned back to Hotch. "Spencer did, because he's the best and now he says you've just thrown him off this case; like William doesn't deserve to have the best fighting for him." Her voice had reached a high pitched squeal by now.
"Ma'am, please let me reassure you…" Hotch began.
"I don't believe your assurances," she screamed before Hotch could finish. "How do I know you're not involved?" She looked around the cubicle as if she thought someone might be listening in. Her voice rose as she spoke to the ceiling. "Maybe the government wanted William dead to silence him and then they sent you to investigate only, if you were really investigating, you wouldn't have taken Spencer off the case. Because you know Spencer would really look for the truth and maybe the government doesn't want that. What do you and the government have against my family?"
The staff from Bennington moved toward Dianna, one with a syringe in her hand while the other held Dianna for the injection. One of the ICU nurses approached Hotch. "Sir, I think perhaps you should leave."
Hotch looked at the scene before him, William Reid with IVs, a ventilator and various other tubes dealing with his bodily functions, the two Bennington employees helping a now sedated Dianna into a chair while they spoke softly to her and in the middle of it all, Reid, looking back and forth between his mother, his father and Hotch. "Reid I…"
"Hotch, just go," Reid said before dismissing Hotch and turning to his mother.
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"Why, if you thought we all needed a good meal and rest, are you sitting down here drinking a glass of scotch… alone?" Rossi asked above the pinging of slot machines at the other end of the lounge as he slid onto the barstool next to Hotch and motioned for the bartender to bring him a glass of scotch as well.
"I felt bad about not being able to answer that CSI's question about how Reid and his father were doing." Hotch turned his glass around and around on the bar.
"Hotch, we've been working on the case all day; you can't blame yourself for that," Rossi said as he took a sip of the drink the bartender had set in front of him. "But that's not why you're down here drinking instead of having a meal and getting some rest like you told all of us to do.
Hotch raised one eyebrow and his lips curled ever so slightly. "Whatever happened to the moratorium on inter-team profiling?
"Years of friendship trump a moratorium," Rossi replied glibly. "Did you talk to Reid?"
"I tried," Hotch sipped his own scotch.
"What, he's still pissed? Do you want me to talk to him?"
"He was certainly pissed when I left. He thinks I don't trust him because of what happened over the Prentiss situation. I tried to call him but I couldn't reach him on his cell…"
"And if we're being candid Aaron, all of us felt betrayed by the actions the three of you took. The rest of us just came to terms with it sooner. You had to know he'd feel it the most."
Hotch nodded, "That's why I went looking for him. I wanted to set things straight, however…" He relayed the events that had taken place at the hospital. "I wasn't prepared to see Reid's mother there. I guess I didn't think, and then she was attacking me like a mother bear protecting her cub and accusing me of not doing the best I could for William because I'd taken Reid off the case. And when she started on about the government, it all went straight downhill."
"Aaron, you know Dianna Reid's not stable."
"Of course, I was just so taken aback and every time I tried to smooth things over, it got worse." He drained the last of his drink, pointed to his glass and the bartender set about getting him a refill. "When I saw those two people, they must have been from the sanitarium, come forward and give her that injection, my heart just broke for Reid. His father's health is in such a precarious state and then this with his mother…"
"So how did you end things?"
"He told me to go," Hotch sighed.
"If Dianna Reid only knew," Rossi said.
"Knew what?" Hotch asked.
"That we haven't gotten much farther than we were when we got here and that most of what we know came from Reid. So, let's finish our drinks, go get some rest, and in the morning, we'll go and give the LEOs Reid's profile. Let's make mama proud."
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"Good morning everyone," Hotch said to the group of detectives and police officers gathered in the room. He recognized Captain Brass and Detective Vartann, but the others, like in most cities, were a blur. "We believe we are looking at two types of unknown subjects, or unsubs, here."
"One," Morgan said, "is the preferential pedophile. These offenders are usually aroused by sexual posing, performing or watching others performing sexual acts on a child of a certain age, like Rachael McDaniels."
"Secondly," Prentiss said, "we feel we're dealing with a child trafficker, who exploits the children he traffics for his own needs. He's probably part of a group and they're not likely to be pedophiles themselves; they just take advantage of those who are."
"Most of them are also likely sexual sadists," Rossi added. "It's not particularly the sex with the children that arouses them, but the pain that act causes the children. This is what gets them off. There's also financial gain from producing print or videos that are marketed through a sub-culture of black market contacts who make them available to ready customers."
"Photographs are purchased through the mail and ads are exchanged between pedophiles through computer bulletin boards, kind of like a barter system." Morgan explained. "Child pornography used to only be available in the form of magazines such as Lolitots or Lolita, aimed at preferential offenders who were interested in young girls while Piccolo, Rare Boys and Tommy focused on young boys."
"With the advent of the internet," Prentiss continued, "the proliferation of child pornography has spiked dramatically. Pedophiles are finding newer and better ways to fulfill their aberrant desires."
"The foster child program is a fertile hunting ground for these unsubs." Hotch continued. "Many, not all foster parents of course, get into foster care for the benefits. Pedophilia, and physical abuse in general, are common in many foster homes and the foster parents often see the children as little more than a way to get more money into the house. About 75% of all foster children report some kind of abuse."
"Yeah," Brass replied, "Dr. Reid gave us all the statistics."
"I'm sure he did," Rossi whispered under his breath. "Also most children targeted by pedophiles come from homes where there is family disorganization and discord with no close relationships between parents, hence admittance to the foster care system," he added.
"It also puts a pedophile in contact with a child under his or her roof," Morgan said. "Children involved in porn often feel intimidated by adults who hold power over them. If they're in foster care, they know that the government took them from their home and put them here. They begin to believe this is how it's supposed to be. Pedophiles will find a way to get to children. They'll be teachers, little league coaches," he paused almost imperceptibly to anyone but his teammates, "youth group or boy scout leaders. You name it they'll find a way."
"Lou-Anne McDaniels' appearance in court to get visitation rights with Rachael must have put these unsubs on notice." Prentiss carried on. "They don't want anyone in the picture who could discover what's been going on. They might have been able to handle McDaniels, but when William Reid became involved, it was a situation they felt they had to act on."
"Fortunately, I don't think they realize that we've connected these crimes and that McDaniels death will go down as a mugging." Rossi reminded them, "so please don't let it slip that we've made the connection between McDaniels and Reid. We're going to look at anyone who was in the courtroom two days ago and privy to the happenings. We're looking into a woman named Moira Ernest, Rachael's DCFS worker, who hasn't been seen or heard from in the last day or so. The only particulars we have are on your handout. Until we get concrete information on her, she is a person of interest. We're also going to have to sift through the Dinsdale's phone records and we'll try to get a warrant to seize their computers so an analyst can go through them. Look at anyone in their life from social workers, church leaders to anyone who has contact with the children."
"Viewers of child pornography tend to be males over the age of twenty-five. Comb through your sex offender registry and if anyone looks like a possible pass them on to us and our analyst in Quantico will follow up on it," Hotch stated.
"When I talked to the kids at the Dinsdale home," Morgan said, "they were very scared of me…"
One of the officers, a short man in the back snickered, "Hell, I'm scared of you," causing his fellow officers a brief chuckle.
"I just mean that these kids seem to have been taught to be leery of police officers where most children welcome them. This goes along with the intimidation child porn victims feel towards adults in authority." Morgan finished.
"We're done here for now," Hotch said, "Any questions contact me or one of the team, thank you."
"Okay guys," Brass said, "get your assignments and hit the streets."