I do not own Criminal Minds or any of its characters. Just a big fan.

Chapter 9

"Got it. Thanks, Hotch." Reid hung up the phone and sat with Josselyn in their special room in the Woodinville police station. "Josselyn, I need to ask you a few more questions. Is that okay?" Josselyn didn't answer. "Do you know where your dad is, Josselyn?" The girl showed no reaction. Her coloring continued.

"Yes."

"Can you tell me where that is?"

"I'm not allowed to." Josselyn continued coloring the tree on her piece of paper.

"Josselyn, you don't have to listen to the bad man anymore. It's okay to tell me where your dad is. I promise." Josselyn looked up at Reid, confused.

"The bad man didn't tell me not to tell anyone. Daddy did." She looked back down at her artwork and continued to color. Reid decided to be direct.

"Is your dad Randy Mchale? Is he in prison, Josselyn?" Josselyn didn't have to answer. She dropped the crayon in her hand and started crying.

"How did you – I want to go home now! Please find my mommy and my brother! He's going to kill them just like those other families! Please!" Reid looked at her sympathetically.

"Okay, it's okay. We're going to find them. You did really good, Josselyn." Reid stepped outside the room. He flipped open his phone and pressed the speed dial. "Rossi, you were right."

Conference Room – Woodinville PD

"No, no, that doesn't make any sense." J.J. could tell Garcia was getting upset. "Randy Mchale does not have a family. At least, there's no record that he does."

J.J. leaned in closer to the speaker phone. She wanted to make sure no one at the police station was listening to her conversations. "There might not be, Garcia. If he wasn't married, and the mother didn't list him as the father on the children's birth certificates, then how would anyone know?"

"But I don't even have any record of him living in a home with anyone else."

"Did he live by himself?"

"Well, actually, I don't know. I have his last known address, but I'm not sure if he was there alone."

"Garcia, send me that address. And send it to the rest of the team as well. That might be where our unsub abducted this family."

Mchale Residence

Hotch, Morgan, and Prentiss knocked on the door of the one story home. "Hello," Prentiss called, "FBI, anyone home?" No answer. Prentiss looked at Morgan.

"Makes sense, Randy's in prison, his girlfriend and son likely taken to a secondary location. And we have his daughter. This house is abandoned, Hotch."

"Still, we need to take a look inside. We might find something useful." Hotch took a step back then kicked in the door. The three agents entered the house. Prentiss looked around.

"Well, what do you know. Family photos. And look, a woman, a boy, and Josselyn. And Randy Mchale."

Washington State Prison

"You're sure? Okay, thanks Emily." Rossi closed his phone and looked at the prisoner sitting in front of him. It's amazing how far a father is willing to go to protect his family, Rossi thought. "Mr. Mchale, I'm going to be straight with you. We have Josselyn. She's sitting in the Woodinville Police Department right now." Randy Mchale didn't try to pretend like he didn't know what Rossi was talking about.

"Is she…is she alright? Tell me Agent Rossi, is my daughter okay?"

"She's fine. But I can't say the same for her brother and mother." Randy Mchale lurched forward in his chair.

"Where are they? Are they okay? What did he do to them?"

"What did who do to them, Mr. Mchale? Who did this?"

"Just tell me if my fiancé and son are alright! Now!" Randy Mchale slammed his fist down on the table.

"They were abducted, Mr. Mchale. We have reason to believe that they are alive, but we need to know who did this so that we can find them and bring them home safe." Randy Mchale was done hiding.

"Robert Miller. He murdered the Zamon family six months ago. He panicked, came to my house and said my family was dead unless I took the fall for him. I would have gone to the police, but, well, you know…."

"Robert Miller is the Lead Detective of the Woodinville Police Department. Makes sense. But there's something that doesn't make sense. There was another murdered family today." Randy Mchale put his hands over his eyes.

"Oh, God."

"And the murder happened while Detective Miller was having an argument with my Unit Chief – at the Woodinville Police Department. He couldn't have killed that family." Randy Mchale slowly looked up at Agent Rossi.

"Then he's doing it all over again." Rossi was confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you see, Agent Rossi? If he can get me to confess to murder and spend the rest of my life in prison for a crime I didn't commit, don't you think he could get some other father to murder a family to save his own?"

"That's why the MO was different," Rossi realized, "It wasn't because it was a personal attack. It was a different unsub. He tried to make it look like the same killer so Detective Miller would be off the hook, but he made a mistake. Mr. Mchale, do you have any idea who Robert Miller might have manipulated into doing this?"

"No idea. But I'd be willing to bet he has a family."