2. Hidden horror
The motel where Theodore Camden works, is on the interstate road, in the middle of nowhere. There's an old, two-storey, wooden house behind the building that, according to the information Garcia gave them, belongs to Babette Camden, Theodore's mother.
The reception is deserted and creepy. Emily calls for someone for the third time, but to no avail. Eventually she leans over the reception desk and looks at the open register, "Sir," she calls Gideon, "Janet Crane, the last victim checked in five days ago, but she left the day before yesterday. Which puts her out of this motel at the time of death…" by her tone she sounds unconvinced.
"So what's wrong?" Gideon looks at her intently, yet patiently.
"She checked out but the keys of her room are not on the panel…"
Gideon nods and heads out toward the victim's room, hiding a little smile. She's good, he mentally says to himself.
Janet Crane's room is untouched. The bed is made, the closet empty, a coat is hanging behind the door and a few parking tickets are sitting on the bedside table.
"These are parking tickets from four days ago," Gideon comments reading the faded piece of paper, "…but there's no car outside."
"She might have left the tickets here," Emily offers back.
"She forgot also her coat…" Gideon carries on.
"This window faces Theodore Camden's house," she continues, moving a blind and pointing the old building "he could have spied on her from his room, and she could have seen him…" then she freezes spotting an unmistakable movement behind a curtain at the first floor of the house; it's just a second, but she's sure someone's in that house.
The three of them rush toward the building; once inside Prentiss can't help noticing the creepy atmosphere. The house, dark and dusty, smells like if nobody has let any fresh air in for a long time. There are no pictures on the walls, neither personal items around; just an eerie stillness permeating through every corner. This house looks like a mausoleum.
Morgan takes the ground floor, Prentiss and Gideon head upstairs.
They search the entire house and once they've cleared all the rooms, Emily internally curses her faulty perception. Only then a creak stops their steps toward the stairs.
Prentiss and Gideon silently look at each other and draw their guns, slowly approaching the master bedroom from which the noise came.
It's there, crouched in a corner of the wardrobe, that they find an old woman, Babette Camden. She's terrified and so thin that a gust of wind could probably dissolve her into ashes. She's muttering to herself nonsensical words and looking around, disoriented.
When Gideon approaches her, she startles scared, and looks at him with desperate eyes full of tears; but when Prentiss gets closer to help her out of the corner, a metamorphosis occurs in her demeanor. Her gaze becomes nasty and an uncanny strength gets into her, she starts cursing against the woman, calling her a harlot, a dirty whore, it's because of her that her Theodore disappeared, she's the seed of Satan. Eventually Gideon manages to take a raving Babette out of the room and gestures Emily to stay back.
A couple of minutes and the storm is over, the old lady is meekly complying with Gideon's directions and getting into the car.
"I'm taking her to the station to question her. You two stay here and search the house," Gideon orders to Morgan and Prentiss, who nods mortified and still abashed.
"What the hell just happened?" Morgan asks once they're alone.
"I don't know. One moment she was this lost, dovelike, little lady and then, when she saw me, she turned into a fury" she admits clueless.
He chuckles lightly and is about to produce a joke, but sobers up, "Are you okay?" he inquires, not used to see her shaken.
"I'm fine." she hastily responds, "let's get back to work."
Morgan stares at her unconvinced for a few seconds, then heads to search the ground floor and leaves her silently thanking the solitude of Theodore's bedroom, where nobody can discern the shock on her face. That look of pure hatred in Babette's eyes was specifically directed to her; whether this is the consequence of a merciless aging or a trademark of her personality Emily doesn't know, but it's easy to imagine how the latter might have affected Theodore's mind.
It's with this gruesome considerations floating around her mind, that she opens a wooden box and make an even more gruesome discovery.
When Morgan hears her voice calling him from the bedroom, he immediately senses something's off and reaches her in no time. He finds her standing in front of a box, her expression tense and aggravated and her voice dry while she asks on the phone for a CSU and a forensic anthropologist. Only then he spots the content of the case, approximately ten human skulls accurately stored.
Emily Prentiss cannot remember what she was thinking this morning when she woke up; surely she didn't expect to hunt down a psychopath who might turn out to be one of the most prolific killers of the decade. One thing she knows though, she would like to rewind time and not get out of bed at all. She nods at the CSU team, done with bagging all the material found in Theodore's room, and ready to leave the scene, when a truck veers violently from the main road and skids in the parking lot, stopping few meters away from her.
A man visibly agitated jumps out of the truck and heads toward Prentiss "Sir, this is a potential crime scene. You're not allowed in here" she halts him.
He doesn't seem fazed by the warning while he walks up to her with an expression of sheer determination on his face, "I'm Josh Camden, my mother owns this place, my brother Theodore lives here with her. I need to know what's happening!" he urges upset.
Emily gapes at a frowning Morgan, then again at the man resolutely standing in front of her with his hands planted on his sides. The moment she offers to stay there with him and to ask him some questions, she knows already it's not a good idea and she can read it in Morgan's berating look, but at this point it's not a matter of what is more sensible or not; it's a priority to find out as much as possible about Theodore Camden.
Morgan knows that as well, nonetheless he doesn't feel better at the idea of leaving Prentiss alone, questioning a man who doesn't convince him in the least, at a crime scene, with a lunatic serial killer on the loose. She's a trained agent, and she seems to have it all under control, but this doesn't make him feel better while he heads to the morgue to gather information on the skulls. He looks in the rear mirror to check she's fine one last time and resolves to be back as soon as he can.