"Agent Greene, I'm sorry that I have to say this, but we will need an alibi." Hotch told her while everyone else tried to get over their shock.
"Yes, of course." She said, "Well, they were all murdered within this month. I've been at work on time in the office, so that handles some of it. We've had one case this month, during which I roomed with Emily, and Garcia can check my credit cards and phone records and verify that not once in my adult life have I been to or ever contacted someone in, from, or near Mississippi."
"She speaks the truth." Garcia confirmed after a few moments of typing and reading.
"Okay, so now Melyssa's cleared, is she going to be coming with us?" Morgan asked, apparently forgetting that she was sitting next to him.
"Greene, do you think you can handle it?" Rossi asked her. It was without a doubt unorthodox to let someone work on a case when they are personally involved, but they'd done it plenty of times before. But this was different, he knew she ran away, but she more than likely felt guilty. This case could very easily be the end of her if she worked it.
"I'm more than willing to try." She said, "Clark and Jean are part of Anna's life. I left that life and all people related to it behind a long time ago."
"Alright then," Hotch said, standing up and walking out of the room, "Wheels up in 20."
Everyone was on the plane talking about the profile.
"The assailant definitely knows the victims. Is there anyone besides yourself and Leroy that knows them all?" Prentiss asked Melyssa.
"Honestly, I have no idea." Melyssa admitted, "I only met Ronda once and it's not like I went out of my way to spend time around Tack, the exact opposite actually."
Morgan looked at her in confusion.
"I thought you two were friends?"
The entire plane was filled with bitter, humorless laughter.
"What the hell gave you that idea?" Melyssa asked, her voice rising, "Tack was, is, and always will be the biggest freakin' asshole I've ever met!"
The other passengers of the plane, Spencer included, looked utterly shocked. None of them thought anyone was worse to her than Spencer was.
"He went out of his to make my life hell." She continued, her voice quieting, "You see, Tack and I are very similar. We both have this uncanny ability to zero in on a person's biggest insecurities. But that's where our similarities end.
"He is a borderline sociopath," She told them, "And I was apparently the only one to see it."
"And because of that," Spencer reasoned, "you were his number one target."
"If he could take you down," Morgan continued, "he'd be in the clear."
"But for what? I highly doubt he was murdering anyone in high school." Prentiss reasoned.
"Junior High," Melyssa corrected, "and for dominance."
"Please elaborate." Rossi requested.
Melyssa sighed and told another story from her past. This was getting annoying.
"In the eighth grade my best friend, Tricia Lake, started dating her best guy friend Leroy Tack. Even though his locker was about five down from mine, I never actually met him. When I did, all hell broke loose.
"He was a monster. He had complete control over Tric, he made my other two best friends- Nicole and Adam- want to kill them selves and he tried to do the same to me."
JJ spoke for the first time, "Tried?"
"Like I said, we are very similar, so what worked for Tric, Nicole and Adam didn't work for me," Melyssa clarified.
"So he tried harder," Spencer guessed. This started to sound too familiar, both from his schooling, and from what he did to her.
Melyssa nodded, "And succeeded."
"How so?" Morgan asked.
With a sigh, she continued, "Back then, I was bi-curious, and I was worried. News like that doesn't go well in the south. After one fight, Tack decided that the reason I hated him so much wasn't because I cared about all of my friends, but because I was a lesbian and in love Tricia."
"That must have killed you." Prentiss sympathized.
"I wished it did." Melyssa told them. "On the bus home I was zombie. I took a seat far away from Tricia and put on my head phones. I completely ignored Tirc at the bus stop and went straight home. There I walked to my room, ignoring my brother. I locked the door and laid on my bed in the dark for the rest of the night, not leaving my room for anything."
"Bathroom?" Morgan joked, trying to lift the mood.
It didn't work.
"You really don't have to use the bathroom when you don't eat or drink anything for 15 hours."
"Um, guys," They heard the open laptop screen say, "I found something interesting."
"What is it, Baby Girl?" Morgan asked.
"Well, because Tricia and Leroy are the only people we know of right now that have a connection to the victims and don't have solid alibis I decided to check it."
"What did you find?" Spencer inquired.
"They did both schedule for vacation time, both got tickets for the Bahamas and the hotel room was checked in…"
"But?" Rossi urged.
"But," Garcia continued, "They don't show up anywhere. Not on cameras, their credit cards never went with them to the Bahamas and no one at the airport or hotel at the time of the honeymoon remember seeing them."
"I think we have our top suspect." Hotch announced.
"More like suspects." Melyssa murmured, not really intending for anyone to hear.
"What do you mean by that?" JJ asked her.
"Tricia. She'll do anything for Tack." Melyssa told them all, the sadness obvious in her voice.
"That's why you said she 'was' your best friend." Spencer reasoned.
"Yup." She confirmed, "After the whole 'lesbian' thing, I hoped she'd see how horrible Tack was, but she never did. Eventually she lost all of her friends, all because she wouldn't leave him."
"And if she didn't leave him then," Prentiss said, "She definitely won't now."
"What the HELL is the about!" They all heard a very feminine voice shriek from the doors of the station.
"That's her." Melyssa sighed.
Hotch walked up to the very distraught woman and tried to calm her.
"Miss Lake…" He started before she cut him off.
"MRS. TACK!" She shouted, "And why the fucking hell did you drag my husband in for questioning on his family's murder! Don't you think he's suffered enough!"
"Nope." Melyssa whispered, making Morgan and Reid chuckle.
"Mrs. Tack," Hotch began again, "Aside from Anna Wheeler, you and your husband are our top suspects."
"So why don't you find Anna and bring her in!"
"We've already spoken to our third suspect," Hotch told her, being vague about the 'suspect', "We've collected, checked and verified her alibi."
"You found Anna?" Tricia asked in a much softer voice, "Is she okay? We've all been so worried about her."
This took Hotch by a slight surprise, "How long has it been since you last saw her?"
"12 years, three months and 18 days."
"You really miss her." Hotch gathered.
Tricia sighed. "I love Anna. She's my sister. When she left, we were on bad terms. Really bad." She finished, a few silent tears running down her cheeks.
Melyssa saw and heard everything. And as much as she hated it, she couldn't help but feel bad. She knew she had hurt people when she just up and left, but until now, she didn't really care. Until now people's reactions were just ideas, but now she had witnessed how bad she hurt someone.
She didn't even want to think about what running away did to her parents.
Apparently, Spencer noticed her sudden change in mood. She felt his hand envelope her own. He gave a gentle squeeze, letting her know he was here for her.
She squeezed back, a small smile coming to her face.
The smile became larger and Melyssa felt a metaphorical warm blanket wrap around her when Spencer pressed his lips against her cheek.
Not even Morgan's chuckle could ruin the warm fuzzy feeling that was over taking Melyssa's entire body.
A/N: This was going to be about mainly interrogating Leroy Tack and going to Wheeler crime scene, but it didn't work out like that. The next chapter should be more about that.