March 9th 2006

10:36 AM

Las Vegas, Nevada

The minute the team touched down, they were off and running on the case. Elle and Morgan headed to the dump site of the last victim, while JJ, Hotch, Gideon and Reid headed to Northeast Area command unit, Eric Williamson's district and the area were two of the kids had gone missing from.

They were greeted by a young officer, who was understandably frantic, he directed them to Captain Frances. It seemed that all the officers were doing what they could to gather evidence and keep Eric Williamson as distracted as possible, because the young officer did not point his commander out.

Williamson's friend and fellow captain from the Downtown district, Greg Frances was co-leading the case, though Grant Dennerson had gone missing from the Northeast District and lived there, he had been found within Frances's limits, so like the other Captains and detectives in the city, he felt connected to it and was determined to bring the bastard in at all costs, even if that meant asking the FBI for help.

So when the team walked in, he was on his feet in a second and at the door to greet them, the stress was written on his face, after nearly two months of chasing their tails and getting nowhere, Frances was very happy to see the FBI. He appeared to be in his late 50s, though the stress of his job had obviously added on a few years, so his real age was probably in his mid 40s, his hair was beginning to grey, but he appeared to not be stuck in his age, and JJ could register a guess that when he wasn't chasing down murderers he was probably a fun loving guy.

"You must be Agent Jareau," Frances said picking JJ out, he had a strong Texan accent and had no problem showing his Texan pride, "I'm Captain Greg Frances, wish it was under better circumstances, but y'all have no idea how glad we are to see you people." He shook JJ's hand gently and turned to Hotch,

"This is Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner," JJ introduced

"Captain Frances, I'm…well at the moment I'm in charge of the investigation." He nodded over his shoulder to a tall, grey haired Captain staring at a map, he was rubbing his chin and had a look of fear plastered on his face and Hotch could only guess that this was Williamson, the man in charge of the investigation and more importantly the latest child's uncle. "Eric…FBI's here," Williamson turned around and faced the agents, he slowly walked over to them, reaching Hotch first, he stuck out his hand

"Captain Eric Williamson, thank you for coming."

"I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner, this is SA Jennifer Jareau, media liaison." He turned to Reid and Gideon as they entered and introduced each of them.

"Has the media been notified about your nephew's disappearance?" JJ mentioned, Eric exchanged a look with Greg, "an Amber alert?"

"We've been trying to limit media attention with this case, for the sake of the families and to keep panic down to a minimum; we were waiting for your lead." Frances finally said "the press has been having a field day with this, and we're having trouble reining it in. This was the headline after they found Josie Marshal" he held up a newspaper, the headlines read another child found dead, the in-competency of LVMPD brought out into the open, how many more of our children have to die before something is done.

"We've got officers working day in and out on this case, most of them have kids of their own so their putting all their strength into finding this guy, but we're fresh out of ideas and are running out of hope."

"But what about your nephew?" JJ repeated

"Paris took off from school this morning after getting in a fight, we've got officers canvassing the area, he hasn't been kidnapped, he simply took off. He'll turn up, he always does, this isn't new, he does this…" Williamson said loudly, "again thank you for coming, now if you'll excuse me, I've got a real case, Greg here can show you around and get you settled, anything you need, our station is yours." And with that the captain turned his attention back to the board that was filled with details about the case.

Hotch, Gideon, Reid, and JJ all exchanged a look before looking at Frances for an explanation.

"Eric's usually a lot more pleasant, he's just stressed." Frances paused and rubbed his chin "and he's right about Paris. He's a good kid, but he's going through a tough time, this isn't the first time he's taken off, first time from school, but unfortunately this is becoming a weekly occurrence."

"Any idea why?" Gideon asked

"A million of 'em, and all of 'em work," Frances looked over at Williamson, before looking back at the team "come on, I'll show you where y'all can set up."