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"Okay. Just so we're clear, we don't even glance at another case until Andrew and Isabella are back with us." Hotch ordered. He turned to Spencer and Derek. "Which, they will be. We just need to be quick and focused to beat this guy. Got it?"
"Hey, what's going on here?" Said a voice behind them. They all turned to face the source of the noise. It was a man, blonde about 30 by the looks of it, standing by the door. He spoke again. "Is everything okay?" He asked, peeking into the room.
JJ met him by the door. "Yes, everything's fine. But this is a pedestrian-free area. I'm going to have to ask you to move along, sir."
The man looked appalled. "Well, sorry. I'm just curious. You have nothing to worry about; I'm leaving, anyways. Good luck with whatever this is." He said, waving absentmindedly and making his way down the hall, pushing his luggage cart and muttering to himself.
"JJ, can you get someone to cross this area off?" Dave said.
"Yes." She replied, going over to the group of officers.
"First off, we need to find out how he got in here. This whole place was on lockdown." Hotch said, trying to focus. "The security footage outside their room. We need to see it."
"Sure. Gimme a minute." Garcia said, plopping down on the closest chairs and opening he laptop. The video feed popped up.
"Fast forward, see if you see anything suspicious."
Garcia nodded and she fast-forwarded. Everything seemed normal until finally she saw two figures emerge form the room. She rewinded and played it.
Andrew walked Bella out of the room, clutching her arm tightly. Bella thunked down the hall and when they had almost walked out of the frame, Andrew pulled Bella to a stop.
"I have a bad feeling about this, Bells. Let's go back." They heard him say, sounding nervous.
"No way! We're like, already there!" She exclaimed. She was half-limping, half-pulling him down the hallway and out of the frame. Then, they were gone. Those couple of seconds were all they had. Garcia paused the video again, looking up at the team.
"They left." Rossi stated blankly.
Hotch shook his head. "What time was that?"
"Um, 11:47."
"Where were they going?" Morgan asked, his voice not even sounding like his own.
"Wait, did they ever come back, Garcia?" Reid questioned. She fast-forwarded until she saw the officer come and open the door, per Morgan's requests.
"No."
"Then, maybe there's something down there then." Prentiss said. "Come on."
Prentiss, Morgan, Reid, Hotch and Rossi ran out of the room and down the hall, until they hit where the ice machine was. There was nothing out of the ordinary. Hotch stopped and looked around. "All right. We have to act quickly. Reid, you and Garcia review that video. Pick out anything, anything at all, that's out of the ordinary. Also keep a look out for the…video stream. Morgan, Prentiss, you guys and JJ go look at the other security we had up. And talk to other guests. Ask if they saw anything out of the normal. Dave and I will go talk to the officers. Let's get to work."
-:-
Reid and Garcia sat next to her computer, playing and replaying the few seconds of video with the kids on it.
"What's she holding?" Garcia asked, pausing the video and pointing to Bella's hand.
"Um, zoom in." Reid said. She did. "It looks like…a card and…some coins?"
"The card is probably the room key. And the coins…why would she have money?"
"The vending machine!" Reid exclaimed. "There was one right at the end of the hall, remember?"
"Right. But why wouldn't they come back? Getting candy only takes so long." Penelope pointed out.
Reid ran a hand through his hair, the terror setting back in. "I'm not sure…play it again."
"Hey, can you turn up the volume?" Reid said after watching it. She turned it up and replayed it. "Did you hear that?" Reid asked.
Penelope shook her head. "No."
"Listen." He said. They leaned close to the screen. They heard the thunk of Bella's boot. And Andrew's pleads to go back. Then, Bella's voice again along with her leg brace hitting the floor. Then, very quietly, they heard a door slam, followed by silence. "The door. Did you hear that?"
"So, somebody opened and closed a door?" Penelope asked, confused.
"And silence!" Reid practically yelled.
Penelope was lost. "So…?"
"So, the kids must've gone inside that door!"
"How do you know?"
"The entire time in this video, you can hear Bella's boot thumping against the floor when she walks. Then as soon as that door slams, it stops."
"What if it's just because the microphone stopped picking up the sound?" Penelope asked.
"The thumping noise didn't fade though, it abruptly stopped. And later in the video, when the officer walks up to the door, you can hear him talking to Morgan well before he gets on screen. The only thing between this room and the vending machine is other rooms. They were forced into one of the rooms right here. He's inside the hotel. He was checked in. That's how the UnSub got in here undetected. That's why they never came back." He explained quickly, barely breathing in between words. He pulled out his gun, calling for the rest of the team.
"What's wrong?" Hotch said, seeing Reid's pulled gun.
"He's in this hotel. In one of the room's next to us." He said.
"How do you know?" Rossi questioned.
"In the video, Bella's holding coins. They're going to the vending machine. The whole time, you can hear Bella's boot hitting the floor when she walks. Then, when they're off screen, you hear a door slam and then it's silent. They must've gone in a room." He re-explained, panting.
"What if he left with the kids already?" Emily asked.
"We would've seen it on the video. The only way to get out of the hotel would've been the main entrance due to all of the security. And he would have needed to take the elevator, which he couldn't have gotten to without walking past this camera." Reid added, bouncing up and down out of anxiety.
"Okay, so let's go. We need to search every room between here and the vending machines. Have JJ ask which rooms are occupied, then we can search them." Hotch demanded.
"No, we can't wait. We need to go in now." Morgan retorted, forcefully. "What if he's hurting them?"
"We can't just barge in." Hotch replied.
"He's right." Rossi added, seeing the seething look Morgan's face. "But no one can leave this floor until we search. He can't go anywhere."
Morgan slammed his fist onto the table and Reid looked like he was going to punch somebody. "Fine." Reid mumbled.
-:-
"That doesn't make sense." Reid said twenty minutes later, after searching the last of the three rooms. Two were unoccupied, completely free of anything suspicious and two young women occupied the other. It was also free of anything out of the norm. He turned to the hotel manager, who was standing with JJ by the door. "Had anybody checked out of these rooms today, around 12?"
She flipped through some papers. "Um, well, 12 is our usual check out time and a Todd Rivers checked out of 304 today at that time."
"304? That's this room!" Morgan exclaimed.
"But he couldn't have left without being on that video or having one of us see him!" Emily said, puzzled.
JJ sighed, putting her head in her hands. "We did see him."
"What are you talking about, JJ?" Hotch asked.
JJ looked up, tears streaming down her face. "He walked right past, I told him to get off the crime scene."
-Flashback-
"Hey, what's going on here?" Said a voice behind them. They all turned to face the source of the noise. It was a man, blonde about 30 by the looks of it, standing by the door. He spoke again. "Is everything okay?" He asked, peeking into the room.
JJ met him by the door. "Yes, everything's fine. But this is a pedestrian-free area. I'm going to have to ask you to move along, sir."
The man looked appalled. "Well, sorry. I'm just curious. You have nothing to worry about; I'm leaving, anyways. Good luck with whatever this is." He said, waving absentmindedly and making his way down the hall, pushing his luggage cart and muttering to himself.
-End Flashback-
"He didn't have Andrew and Bella with him though. It still doesn't make sense." Hotch pointed out.
Morgan shook his head. "Wait, how long was he checked in, ma'am?"
The manager looked through her papers again. "Um, just one night…"
Morgan immediately squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his hands over his head, breathing hard.
"What?" Rossi asked.
"Why the hell would he have a luggage trolley with that many large suitcases if he was here for on night?" He said in an eerily calm voice.
"You…you think he…?" Emily stuttered, unable to even fathom the thought.
Rossi sighed. "They were right there. They were in those bags."
Reid ran from into the bathroom, the sick feeling in his stomach finally winning him over. Then, just when things felt like they were at an all time low, Morgan's phone rang.
"Yeah, Garcia?" He answered, trying to ignore the sound of Reid's retching.
"Come back to the room. The video's here." She stated in a un-Garcia-like monotone.
The End (for this chapter). Review, please!