"What's this about, Hotch?" Prentiss asked as Hotch sat down with the rest of the team around the table and Garcia on speaker phone.
"We've brought you together because of a personal matter with one of the team members" Hotch said formally with a little sigh at the end. Maybe this wasn't the best way to tell him, he thought. But the other, louder, part of him told him Reid would be upset and angry with the lies no matter how he told him, it would be best to have his friends around him when he did find out rather than having to explain something he still didn't understand about his past to them.
Prentiss looked even more confused and glanced over the team to see who he was talking about, Morgan tried to make eye contact but he couldn't bring himself to do it so he studied the lines on the table and Reid and JJ looked straight ahead at Hotch for the answer. Rossi looked to Hotch after a long pause, cleared his throat and took over.
"Desiree Reid isn't just another victim" Rossi sighed and placed his copy of the file in the middle of the desk. There was another long pause as Rossi gauged the reaction of the team.
"Will someone just tell him?" Morgan blurted out. By process of elimination, Reid quickly worked out they were talking about him and his head swung from one team member to the other.
"Tell me what?" Reid worriedly asked.
Morgan waited for someone to say something but there was nothing but silence so he finally sighed. "She's your sister, Reid"
"That's not p- possible" Reid stuttered out as he stared at Morgan with a mixture of emotions.
Morgan angrily flipped open Desiree's file and pushed it in front of Reid. "Mother- Diana Reid. Father- William Reid"
"Diana and William are incredibly common first names… It must be a coincidence" Reid replied, the second sentence a little quieter as he thought through the statistics of something like this happening.
Morgan angrily sighed, pulled the tablet out of his bag and pushed that in front of him. "Birth certificate of Spencer Reid. Mother- Diana Reid. Father- William Reid" Morgan huffed out.
"As I said before: it must be a coincidence" Reid replied as he slowly pushed the tablet and file away from him.
"For God's sake, Reid! That's your sister!" Morgan yelled at him. Reid flinched slightly but kept up his denial. "Look!" He shouted as he grabbed the tablet and showed him another document. "This is your mom's file" He told him as he pushed it in front of him. "She's listed as the mother on two birth certificates- yours and your sister's" He said and pointed to the tablet.
"I don't have a sister! My mom would have told me" Reid said even though he was starting doubt himself.
"We talked to your dad, Reid. He told us you weren't even born when Desiree went missing… He didn't want you involved" Rossi explained quietly.
"He didn't want me involved?" Reid asked as he struggled to keep his voice below a shout. "He thought I wouldn't find out about having a sister?" He asked as the pitch of his voice climbed higher the more upset he became.
"It's alright, Spence" JJ quietly said and reached across for his hand.
"No it's not" He yelled, jumped up from his seat and quickly walked out of the room.
There was a long pause then Garcia cleared her throat. "Well, that went well" Garcia said sarcastically. "To answer your earlier question, Emily: there haven't been any remains found of any of the girls anywhere in the US. So either they're all alive or this guy is really good" She said as she typed more information into her computer.
"Could this UnSub be a woman?" Prentiss asked thoughtfully.
"Why do you think that?" JJ asked as she turned to her.
"If it was male the disappearances would be much more frequent, at least every two or three years, even less than that if there's a sexual element in play. If this was a woman she could easily be playing out a fantasy, when the girls turn eighteen it somehow interferes with the fantasy and she has to abduct a new girl" Prentiss concluded.
"If this is a woman it could account for the lack of a struggle. The girls would much more likely trust a woman than a man" Morgan added in.
"If the woman is playing out a fantasy, could the girls be a surrogate for one she lost?" JJ asked.
"That would account for the specific type and possibly the location" Hotch answered. "Garcia run a check for any injuries or deaths involving 6-8 year old girls along the track"
"Alright" She said, dragging out the word as she hurriedly typed the information into her computer. "Ok, I've got twelve girls" She replied down the line.
"Twelve?" JJ asked, shocked at such a high number.
"Narrow it down to blonde girls with blue eyes… anywhere from 1947 to 1957" Morgan added.
"Ok … One name- Katherine Davis. She was seven when she disappeared of the track in 1956… Oh my God" Garcia gasped.
"What?" Morgan asked and sat up a little.
"She fell down a rocky slope and wasn't found for almost two weeks… A rock climber found her half way down on a ledge with her spine broken in two places" Garcia slowly read the description in the police and coroner's report, getting more upset with the more she read.
"Alright, that's enough, Garcia" Hotch finally said as he realised it was getting too much for her.
"Thank you, sir" Garcia replied, closed the reports and started cross-referencing the missing girls profiles with the Katherine's. "Oh… I got something else. Alice Wells' abduction was exactly a year after Katherine's body was found"
"So, Katherine's mom comes to visit the last place she saw her daughter alive. She sees Alice and abducts her, lives out her fantasy of raising her daughter until Alice turns eighteen and the fantasy ends. So Katherine's mom goes in search of another surrogate, she finds Cheryl Lawson. The cycle repeats, Cheryl turns eighteen and the mom needs a new surrogate. So, she finds Desiree Reid right by the slope her daughter dies on and abducts her. The mom finds her comfort area and continues to abduct within it every eleven years" Morgan concluded.
"I just ran a check on Kathleen's mom- her name's Joan Davis. She has a husband… called Arthur Davis, they got married two years before Kathleen was born… After Kathleen disappeared Joan quit her job… Arthur kept his and stayed with the same company until he retired in 1987. Oh, there's a death certificate for Arthur dating back to 2002"
"Davis couldn't be doing this all on her own. How old is she Garcia?" JJ asked.
"Joan is… seventy five. I've gotta second JJ on this one, guys. "A seventy five year old woman abducting seven year old girls for fifty five years?" Garcia said, not completely convinced they'd found the UnSub.
"Garcia, check if they had any children living with them within the time of the abductions" Hotch ordered.
"Ok…" She said and hurriedly searched for more information. "Joan's five year old nephew , Michael, moved in with the Davis' in 1987 after his mom was killed in a car accident and they became his only living relatives" Garcia relayed down the phone line.
"That would make him thirty now… He could be abducting the girls to carry on Joan's legacy" Prentiss thought aloud.
"Garcia, what's Michael and Joan's last known address?" Rossi asked quickly as the team stood.
Garcia searched her computer as quickly as she could then relayed the information to the team.
"That's great, baby girl. We'll call you later" Morgan said sweetly as he reached to end the call.
"Later, baby" Garcia flirted down the line the quickly hung up the line.
Hotch waited for everyone to leave then pulled Morgan aside. What's up, Hotch?" Morgan asked confusedly.
Hotch made sure the rest of the team were out of earshot then answered quietly. "Get Reid down to the SUV's. I've got a feeling Desiree isn't dead"
What d'you guys think? Sorry this chapter didn't have much Reid in it, I might make the next chapter from his perspective if that would be interesting for you guys or I might just send the team to find the UnSubs. Feedback and reviews are always welcomed and it makes me so happy to hear what you think. Hope you enjoyed the chapter :D