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a/n as always, thanks to my faithful reader. Here's the next chapter.
Another Pawn enters the Game
"Reid…" He said."
"Hey there," JJ said.
"What's wrong?" He asked getting up to go to the entryway of the suite and away from the pity and concern radiating from Emily and Morgan.
"I wanted to give you a head's up. The media got hold of your name. I'm trying to spin it for you, but they smell blood in the water."
"I can handle it JJ."
"You wouldn't say that if you knew what they're saying about you and your father."
"I don't care what they're saying JJ. I have a job to do. There's a dead woman here. It won't be long till your friends in the press get wind of it."
He heard her sharp intake of breath. "What happened?"
"Do you remember the hooker Morgan teased me about after the Riley Jenkins case?"
"No… I was on maternity leave." The badly hidden curiosity in her voice made him smile just a little.
"I'll tell you all about it later. I ran into her again. It turns out that our meeting again wasn't an accident. She was working for Mason Parker. She was supposed to distract me."
"Distract you how?"
"It's not funny JJ…"
"I'm sorry."
"We came back to my room last night at the same time Detective Hyde went missing."
"What happened?" JJ interrupted.
"Nothing… We talked, played a little poker and she left less than hour later."
"If you say so."
"One of Mason Parker's men, and man called Hank beat her up and raped her for not seducing me." He said flatly and angrily. "She's dead because of me!"
"No!" She responded loudly.
"Don't shout at me JJ."
"You always blame yourself Spence. She was working for the man that may have your father and may have killed Detective Hyde and Lily Camden. This is not your fault. I'll shout until you get that."
He held onto the phone, feeling like someone had released the band around his chest that hadn't let him breathe since the paramedics had called her time of death.
"Spence!"
"I'm okay JJ… Can you keep this under wraps?"
"I'll do what I can."
He hung up his phone and headed back into the bedroom. He saw that Hotch, 2 uniformed officers and the medics crowded the small space around the bed.
"Let us by please." A female voice said from behind him.
He let a medium sized black woman with short curly hair into the room with another man in plain clothes who ignored Reid and addressed Hotch. "I'm Dr. Henry Rollins, the ME, and this is Detective Sand." He gestured to the African American woman.
"Were you first on scene," She asked the young blond office that looked like it was his first day out of the academy. "Yes…"
"What's your name?"
"Rogers, um, Daniel Rogers."
"What did you see?"
Reid listened to them discuss Angie as though she were just another hooker killed by an overenthusiastic john. He saw the moment when his name came into the conversation, but ignored it when Hotch stopped her from drawing him into the conversation.
The last thing Angie said to him wouldn't leave him alone. It filled his ears so that he couldn't think straight except for her words. What did it all mean? He looked back at Hotch, the detective and the ME, everyone seemed to be engrossed in Angie' death. That was a good thing, but he felt like he had landed in the middle of a hurricane. Voices rose and fell around him. The zipper on the black body bag with the beeping of the medics' radio and Hotch's voice talking to the police began to swirl around him.
He turned his face to the blank, white wall across from the blood-splattered wall and projected on it, the file his father had sent to him. More documents from the financial files joined the file, as did the crime scene photos of Lily Camden and the press photographs of Mason Parker.
All of it began moving around on the wall as though his hands pushed it around trying to solve the puzzle. He moved the letter to the middle, but no, that wasn't the right place for it. His eidetic memory pushed it aside and put the financial and real estate documents to the forefront, but they didn't help. Finally, he pushed the face of Mason Parker to the front and studied it while everything else receded into the background, including the voices. He walked closer to the wall, avoiding the body bag the way you put on your shoes without looking down.
Mason Parker… There was something in his face when he looked at him. It was something familiar that he'd seen before.
I don't want to see that face again.
He shook his head a pulled the old memory out of his brain despite the voice of panic rising in his head. It was over!
No, it's not over!
He put the face from his memory next to the face on the wall… and jumped when someone put a hand on his shoulder and shook him hard. "Reid!"
He blinked and everything disappeared from the white wall that had become like a movie screen for him. "We have to go back to the field office now." He said to Hotch who stood behind him with Detective Sand.
"I need to get your statement." She demanded.
"We're not doing this here." Hotch put a hand on her shoulder to hold her back from Reid.
"You man may be a federal agent, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have some questions to answer. He was the last one to see this woman alive." She stated the obvious and something in her eyes had Hotch glowering.
"Dr. Reid didn't kill this woman."
"I can't take your word for that." The detective said with a bitter laugh.
"You better take it…" Morgan began as he advanced on her.
"Back off Morgan!" Hotch stopped the angry man with a look. "I said we'd talk about this at the field office."
"You better be right about him." She jerked her thumb at Reid. "I don't give people a pass based on who they know, or who they work for.
"Come with us… If I'm right about something, I'll be able to hand you Mason Parker." Reid said dully.
He walked away from her. He didn't hear her swear in a way that would make a sailor proud. Suddenly he couldn't be there anymore. He needed Garcia's talents.
Garcia was about to pick up her phone when the team entered the conference room. The site of her baby boy alive and well pushed everything out of her mind for a few moments.
"Don't you ever scare me like that again?" She scolded him.
"I had to go help her." Reid squeaked. "I'm sorry."
"You owe me."
"Later… Can you bring up the old news photo of Gary Michaels and the recent press files photographs of Mason Parker?"
"Reid… Where are you going with this?" Rossi asked.
"Look at the photographs."
They all looked at the photographs with varying degrees of confusion and anger on the part of Detective Sand who had stormed into the room with them. "What's he talking about?" She snapped.
Hotch turned his glower on her. "Let him work it out." He said loudly.
"I don't have time for -"
"Look at the jaw line between Michaels and Parker." He let his fingers wander over Garcia's computer screen as he talked. "They have the same zeugmatic arch and the same ears. The nose and the eyes have been changed, but -"
"Are you saying what I think you are?" Morgan said.
"Yes… Michaels and Parker are related. Garcia, can you use your age progression program and turn it around so we can see what these two might look like as kids."
"Sure…"
The entire room went silent except for Garcia's finger on the key board. New images popped up on her screen and Morgan whistled. "They're brothers."
"This doesn't prove anything." Detective Sand commented. "A judge would kick me out of his courtroom if I bring this in on its own."
"She's right! We need DNA."
Garcia's computer beeped. "Finally… I've never had so much trouble breaking a seal on public records. Someone didn't want us to see this."
They read over her shoulder. "Well it looks like you were right Reid. They are brothers. Michaels was twenty years older than Mason Parker, who's real name is Jeremy Michaels. They have different mothers but the same father." Garcia read aloud. Brandy Carroll met Harvey Michaels after his wife divorced him when Gary was nineteen years old. His little brother was born two years later. He was nine years old when he died. Why is he after Reid and his dad?" She asked Hotch.
"I don't know yet."
"You have some theories though." The detective asked.
"Yes… I think he may have somehow witnessed his brother's death. He wouldn't have known that Michaels was under suspicion for the Riley murder by Lou Jenkins and Detective Hyde because it was never made public. He's pursuing a path of revenge that he shouldn't know to take unless he has inside knowledge about the crime."
"What do we do now?" Garcia asked.
Reid's phone beeped again. "This is Dr. Reid." He answered calmly recognizing the number on the caller ID. What? When? No… I'm here in Las Vegas on a case. I can be there in thirty minutes."
He slapped his phone shut. "That was Bennington. My mother went missing a few hours ago. They don't know how she got out of the building. I have to go Hotch."
"Emily… Go with him."
"Excuse me." The detective pushed Martinez out of her way. "We're in the middle of a case."
"My team will fill you in detective. Just know that my mother is part of this."
He grabbed his bag and left with Emily on his heels.
"Will someone tell me what's going on?" Detective Sand demanded.
William flinched when the door to the grubby little kitchen opened when Hank entered the room. "You have a visitor," He said, smirking at he lawyer still dressed only in the same pair of filthy white cotton boxers.
The thug that had removed William from his prison to another less dirty prison dragged someone into the room.
"Dianna!"
"William… Why are these men here? Why aren't you dressed? What's going on? Tell these government thugs I want to see my son."
"They're not from the government Dianna. They kidnapped me because of Riley Jenkins."
The larger thug pushed Dianna into a chair they'd place next to William. He tied her hands behind her back.
"I told you not to touch me young man. I'm a professor at UNLV. I'll have a chat with your Dean."
"You're crazy you bitch. Shut up and stay still." The thug slapped her so hard her head flew back on her shoulders.
"Stop it!" William shouted as Dianna began to cry.
"Or what, you'll kill me." He taunted William.
"No… I'll let my son kill you when he finds us."
The big man laughed throwing his head back in glee. "You sound so confident."
"I am… There's no one better than Spencer. He'll find us."
"Yes he will," Dianna said as a bit of blood dripped over her chin from her mouth. "My son won't rest until he arrests you young man."
Someone began clapping as they entered the kitchen. "Bravo Mrs. Reid. Your faith in your son is utterly magical. Still… It's taking him longer than I thought to figure it out. I left him so many clues."
"Why don't you just tell us why we're here?"
"William… I'm so disappointed in you. I thought you would've figured it out by now. I guess you're not as smart as your son is. Did he get his brains from you?" He asked Dianna.
"Don't you talk to her?" William shouted.
"No matter…" Mason said, ignoring William. "We'll all be together soon. One big happy family."
