Back in Norster, Hotch walked over to the fax machine awaiting Garcia's fax, which she promised was on its way. The first document to come through was Paris's second birth certificate, with no mention of either parents, but had mention of the doctor who delivered him and the hospital's social worker.
But it was the second document to come through…the original birth certificate, with Paris's birthmother's name written clearly on the paper. Hotch nearly dropped the documents in his hand. Quickly he looked around the office wondering who of his team was there… and caught sight of Gideon; Reid and JJ were nowhere in sight, but he heard Paris shout out:
"Check!" from inside Williamson's office and he had a feeling that Reid was still talking to Paris. Gideon looked up and met Hotch's gaze. The older agent quickly walked over to Hotch and slipped off his glasses.
"Everything all right?" he asked. Hotch glanced around once more, before moving to a quiet corner of the station, where they wouldn't be overheard. Once he was sure of this, Hotch began to fill Gideon in on everything Garcia had found.
At first Gideon looked stunned, he looked over the paperwork that Hotch presented and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Are we sure about this?" he ventured to ask.
"Document wise, yes; Garcia's digging deeper, but she was so sure that she called me."
"Does anyone else know?" Hotch shook his head
"No one." He paused "I don't think it is anything to be concerned with right now, but Jason this does put Paris into a different category, and they both need to be told."
Gideon nodded, but raised a hand cautiously
"But right now we need everyone's focus on this case, so I think for sanities sake we keep this quiet. The only change this could bring is distraction from the case."
"She gave him up, but do you really think this lawyer had more say in the decision then we realize?" Hotch said, thinking.
"Possibly according to this, he had power of attorney and was responsible for her care for the time being."
"If what the documents from the social worker are true, the lawyer encouraged her to check out barley eight hours after giving birth, completely against medical advice. The social worker and the nurses tried to get her to hold the baby but" Hotch looked down at the paper "but she repeated over and over that the baby was dead and that they had killed her baby. No one is sure how that notion came about, because all the nurses explained to her that the baby was weak, but he was alive. But she would not listen."
"None of this adds up Hotch…Right now we have two focuses…catching the unsub and protecting Paris. If we're right…Paris could easily be the next target. I've got Reid talking to him, I do not want Paris out of our sight. Williamson may not be convinced that Paris is on our unsub's list, but I am not taking any chances."
"Check!" Paris's voice echoed from the office again followed by a groan from Reid.
"Sounds like a good game," Hotch noted chuckling a little
"It's a rematch from a rematch, Reid has finally met his match." Gideon replied taking the papers from Hotch, folding them, and slipping them in his pocket. "We did learn one thing from talking to Paris that Reid found interesting, a key piece of the profile."
"What's that?" The two agents were walking towards the board, Gideon looked over at Hotch
"Details," Gideon replied "details only someone extremely close to the kids could know. Grant Dennerson was left at the Grand Gamers Domain, near a skeet-ball machine. This was not coincidence. According to Paris, skeet-ball was Grant's favorite game and the Grand Gamers Domain? It was his favorite arcade. Paris believes very few people knew those facts about Grant." Hotch nodded his understanding.
JJ walked over to the two senior agents her phone pressed tightly to her ear she was frowning and nodding every now and then. When she reached Hotch and Gideon she held up a finger
"Ok…ok Garcia I'll tell them…thanks." She slammed the phone shut and looked at the pair "Garcia says that her systems can find no connection whatsoever linking the victims." Gideon looked over at Williamson's office
"We have one connection, Paris and Grant…something links them together and therefore links them to the other kids. We just need to dig deeper to find out what that is." Gideon paused and looked at JJ "call Garcia back, have her get the names of any and all adults Paris and Grant have contact with, then have her see if there is a repeating name." JJ nodded and walked off again, her phone back to her ear.
Just then, Hotch's phone went off, he unclipped it from his belt and answered it,
"Yes?" he said. Across town Elle, Williamson, and Morgan were just leaving the Vernon Bookstore, where Mike King had practically lived at and had been found.
"Hotch, it's Elle, we're just leaving the bookstore now, we spoke to the owner and he mentioned something interesting."
"What's that?"
"Well the report said that Mike was found with a book in his hand and Williamson mentioned that everyone assumed the unsub picked it at random. But the owner doesn't believe so."
"Why?"
"Because, the book was Dracula…it was Mike King's favorite book, but it wasn't his own copy it was the bookstores."
"Could be a coincidence," Hotch replied
"It could be, but Grant was found on the other side of the store, no where near the horror section, he was found in the history section of the store." Elle paused and slipped her seatbelt on as Williamson started the unmarked Ford. "I'm going with my gut on this…this unsub, he knows details about these kids, remember the band-aid with Phillip?" Hotch nodded, remembering that observation. He turned to Gideon and repeated what Elle had just told him.
"Hurry back…I think we're ready for a profile."
"You sure?"
"Definitely."