Disclaimer: Still don't own it
Spencer was surprised to see her boyfriend at the crime scene.
Especially since when it came to murders, Tanner always kept him pretty close to the office in case it was something big.
After the girls had escaped from the Dollhouse with the true identity of A, Toby had been at the forefront of the investigation along with Tanner. The rookie officer had become the right hand man of the State Police Sargent, replacing Holbrooke after he had become corrupted because of his illicit relationship with Alison. He had also been there to speak up against the girls during their mistake; which led to a brief breakup with Spencer though they had gotten back together once they realized they had screwed up. This earned him a lot of respect with Tanner who then got him a job with the State Police after everything was resolved.
Unlike back during high school when Toby was with the Rosewood Police Department, his job with the State Police did not make their relationship complicated. In fact, when Spencer joined the FBI, things seemed to get easier because they were on the same page for once; with the young woman understanding how the system works. While they were still planning on getting married at some point, knowing full well that they were soul mates, both were focused on their careers at the moment. Hanna constantly teased Spencer about it though Aria seemed to understand.
"What are you doing here?" Toby asked, clearly surprised to see his girlfriend here at his crime scene; looking formal at that.
"Someone called the FBI because of a body found here; they sent me," Spencer answered as she smiled at the young man. She would have embraced him but this was a crime scene and this was not the time.
"I did but I didn't believe that they would send you," said her boyfriend quizzing and Spencer thought that he was mocking her.
"Are you saying that I shouldn't be here?" Spencer inquired, her tone sounding angry though she kept her face neutral and narrowed her eyes.
"No; I am just curious since we have always gotten the same agent in the past and this seems a little beneath your skills," the young man said defensively, trying to placate her.
"I can do boring as well Toby; besides, this gets me away from all of the paperwork," the FBI Agent said as she turned her attention back at the body.
From first glance, Spencer could tell that the body was placed here on purpose; especially since the victim had been posed for full display. The young woman, who looked like she was in her college years, was outfitted in a red and black dress with her body perfectly placed in a sitting position on the bench in front of the receptionist window. She was short, had pale skin, and long black hair that didn't look like it was her natural color. Moving in closer, Spencer looked at the roots of the victim's hair and had her theory confirmed when seeing the brown roots.
"What have you guys found so far?" Spencer asked her boyfriend as she joined her side to study the victim as the medical examiner was doing her job.
"No signs of how she died physically though they found multiple injection marks on her arms. They won't know until they have her back at the lab; the local police have ceded this case to us and other than you, no one else on the Federal level has shown up yet," Toby answered with his face grim. He hated murder investigations since they were always complicated; reminding him of what happened in his earlier years.
"No ID on the victim?" the young Agent asked and Toby shook his head. Spencer was about to ask another question when she spotted another State Police official talking to one of the employees.
"Is that Mike?" Spencer asked, shock to see the younger man as he appeared to be writing down what the woman he was interviewing was saying. Her boyfriend nodded and Spencer was practically gaping.
"Tanner assigned him to me a couple of weeks ago; I was going to tell you but wasn't sure how given everything that happened," Toby stated, almost apologetically since the couple did their best not to keep any secrets from one another.
"I didn't even realize he was back in the country since Aria never said anything," said the young woman as she studied him. Mike Montgomery looked the same though a little more bulky from his muscles; which he probably got when he was in the army.
"She might not even know; I got the impression that they still weren't speaking," said the young man as he glanced over at the body. He was waiting for the medical examiner to be finished so he could get a closer look at the corpse.
"They're not but I would have though he would at least let his own family know he was back in town. How did he get a job with the State?" inquired Spencer as she looked back at Toby, curious for the answer.
"Mike was an MP and applied once he left the service so Tanner snatched him up before someone at the Federal level could grab him first. According to his file, he was rather good at his job so she decided to give him to me so that I could train him," informed Toby as he glanced at his partner. He was nervous about Mike and Spencer meeting since the younger man was still holding a grudge after all this time.
"Has he been spiteful towards you?" Spencer asked, wondering if Mike was still angry after all of these years.
"No; but Mike was never angry at me about what happened. From what I can tell, he is still at you so please take it easy with him. He'll act professionally but I can't risk any problems," the State Police officer advised and Spencer nodded. After he was done, Mike made his way to the pair to let Toby know what the employee had said.
"So she doesn't know how the body came to be here since the doors were still locked after everyone left last night. There's been to tampering with the security system so there is a chance that we are looking at an inside job though I don't think that is the case," Mike informed the senior officer while ignoring Spencer. Under normal circumstances, she would have been offended but this was hardly normal.
"Why not?" asked Spencer though she already knew the answer. She was curious to why the younger man thought as he did. When he appeared to be ignoring her, Toby spoke up.
"Respect the office; answer her question," Toby ordered with slight sternness since his partner was being impolite.
"An employee wouldn't risk being found out through our sweep given the posing of the body; knowing that we would be thorough in going through the records of everyone who works in the building. He or she went through a lot of trouble setting the victim up like that so that tells me that our perpetrator is making a statement," Mike stated and Spencer nodded in admiration since it was a well thought out observation.
"Unless the perpetrator deliberately did that to throw us off our guard so that we would look elsewhere; this could be all a ruse," Toby said and both nodded in agreement.
"It sounds like you guys aren't having issues or are there people not talking to you?" Spencer inquired since she wasn't seeing how her presence was needed.
"The security people are being a hassle upstairs; there were two of them running the shift last night and they keep saying that they have to check with their superiors before answering any of our questions," Mike informed with a glare and Spencer couldn't tell if he was mad about the issues he was having or if it was intended for her.
"I'll go talk to them; if the killer got in with the body without them knowing then either they are being too prideful that their system was hacked or there was incompetence somewhere," stated the young FBI Agent since she had seen this kind of think before with security people at Federal Offices. More than likely the two guards that had worked the nightshift had been distracted by something and had not paid attention to the cameras.
"Thank you; go with her while I talk to Tanner to let her know what is up," Toby ordered Mike and the young man gave him a slight glare before nodding. Both Spencer and Mike then walked away towards the security office.
Spencer was tempted to talk to the man beside her as they silently headed towards their destination but thought better of it. Even after all of these years, it was more than obvious that Mike Montgomery still harbored a serious grudge against her and her friends after what had happened with A; reminding her that the mistake they had all made was still on his mind since it had cost him the love of his life. Even Aria was ignored by her own brother and the two hadn't talked in years; communicating only through their parents. Spencer was tempted to ask if Mike had heard from the victim of their mistake though she doubted it; when Mona vanished, she told no one where she was going.
Supposedly, not even her own mother if the rumors were true.
The security office was located at the top floor of the building according to Toby; which was something that seemed not only unusual but impractical as well. By being on the top floor, it meant that the security staff, especially at night, would be slow to stop a break in and go after the assailant; which was why it should be on the bottom floor to be the first line of defense. This told Spencer that either the people who renovated the building were incompetent, or were just lazy since they probably forgot all about security. Since the elevators were still down, both she and Mike had to take the stairs.
"No surveillance cameras; I wonder if our assailant knew that when he or she brought the body into the building?" Spencer mused out loud; hoping for a response from the young man next to her.
"Maybe; this might play in our favor since it meant that he/she possibly scouted out this location before planning the dump. We might be able to get something off the cameras in the front of the building," Mike answered professionally and not completely unfriendly.
Spencer motioned with her head that she agreed and the two reached the top floor; noting that there was a ladder to reach the roof which seemed like another odd construction choice for the building. Entering the floor, the duo walked down the barren hallway where it seemed that there was nothing but empty offices which was a little surprising since every Federal Building Spencer had ever been in always seemed crowded; some even being packed to the point where two or more people shared the same space. The security headquarters was located at the end of the hall and the two just walked inside without even bothering to knock.
From first glance, it was clear that the people who ran security for the building were anything but professional. The three young men, two a bit overweight with two Caucasians and one Asian, who were manning the controls looked like they were working at a fast food joint rather than making sure the building was secure from intruders. None of them had their blue shirts tucked in, or even washed since they had highly visible stains, and their workspaces were a pigsty with crumbs as well as other junk. In fact, their workstations looked away from the camera monitors which meant that anyone could slip in if security wasn't paying attention. If this place ever had a surprise assessment form the Inspector General, they'd fail in a heartbeat.
"Can we help you?" asked the chunkiest of the security officers asked, a little too testy for Spencer's taste. The name on the tag on his uniform said that his identity was Davis.
"I understand that there is a problem with cooperating with the investigating authorities downstairs?" Spencer inquired as she showed her badge. This had an apparent reaction as the three looked at one another in nervousness as well as Davis clearing his throat.
"They are asking for our security tapes and other records but that has to be cleared with the main office in Philadelphia; which I tried to explain," answered Davis as professionally as he could. He was lying though since Spencer knew the regulations for situations like these by heart since they often came up with her duties.
"Except in the case of extraordinary cases such as murder; which this clearly is," Spencer pointed out chidingly, motioning to the screens that showed the crime scene. From the look of it, there was no way that the assailant could have been missed in placing the body.
"We don't know this is a murder," one of the other security officers brought up; a man named Perkins who looked way too thin which told Mike that he could be a drug user.
"Look at the body; not only is she dead, but someone posed her as well. What I want to know is how you missed her appearing there?" Mike asked, his tone indicating that he was clearly suspicious of the three with Spencer looking like she agreed with him. This seemed to break the trio since they started stuttering.
"The cameras were out; we didn't see a thing," Perkins stated quickly as if it were an excuse; the other two men nodded in agreement.
"So why didn't you go and check what was wrong? All the cameras going out at that specific place should have signaled that something was wrong," Spencer pressed, finding their excuse disgusting.
"The cameras have gone out before; in other places. We figured that there was a bug in the system since we never found anything suspicious at the locations. So when the cameras went out for a few hours last night, we figured nothing was wrong," Davis admitted, just shrugging his shoulders.
"Every time a particular area went out, did you run a sweep of the location?" asked Mike as a though entered his mind. Spencer was also curious since she had a good idea where the young man was going with the question.
"The first two times we did; after that, we just chucked it up to something in the system and stopped since they always came back online later," the third man in the trio stated, an Asian named Shinji.
"Sounds like our perpetrator was testing them," Spencer said to Mike and he stayed silent though there was a motion of his head that he agreed with her.
"What do you mean?" asked Perkins, who like his fellow security officers, was clearly confused and didn't understand what Spencer meant.
"What she means was that whoever dumped the body was the one knocking out your cameras to see how you responded. Have you noticed that you've been hacked?" inquired the State Police Official and sighing since it appeared that the trio didn't get what he was talking about.
Not bothering to ask, Mike shoved past them and went to the main security terminal. Sitting in the chair, he began typing which earned a protest from Perkins; who was shushed into silence by a glare from Spencer. The FBI Agent was surprised that Mike looked like he had gotten to know computers well since the last time she had seen him. Either he made a point to learn when he was in the Army or Mona had taught him a few things when they still had been dating. Either way, Mike knew what he was doing and just typed away. After a few minutes, it appeared that he found something.
"Their system has been hacked and for some time too. Since no one bothered to install or maintain the security software, anyone from the outside would have no problem getting in," Mike informed the group, turning to glare at the group. Reaching into his pocket, he grabbed a USB drive and hooked it into the computer. After downloading everything he needed, He put the drive back into his pocket and walked out of the office without another word.
"If I were you guys, I would straighten up since a surprise inspection might just happen," Spencer threatened before chasing after Mike. She vowed to give the Inspector General Department a call later to tip them off about what she had found.
"What did you find?" Spencer asked the young man once she caught up to him and was alongside him as they headed back to the crime scene.
"There were two hackers; one of which was in the system as we were talking to those incompetent losers," Mike answered and the young woman nearly stopped clear in her tracks in surprise.
"Are you sure? How do you know it wasn't the same perpetrator?" inquired the young woman, more curious than anything else.
"Like Serial Killers, Hackers have their own unique signature and there were two different ones in the system though I couldn't neither trace it back to the source," Mike simply answered and kept quiet after that. While Spencer wanted to know more, it was clear that she would have to hope that he would divulge more to Toby that could be overheard. The two met Toby as he was walking towards them and away from the crime scene; he didn't look happy which Spencer knew immediately by his demeanor.
"What's wrong?" Spencer asked and Mike also was curious as well.
"Tanner just called; apparently this might be a Serial in the making and wants us back to give her the details," Toby answered and Mike nodded while Spencer raised her eyebrows.
"Did you need anything more from me; I could help," Spencer stated and Toby considered her words while his partner just glared.
"I am not sure; come with us and we'll talk to Tanner together since we might find more bodies in Federal locations," said her boyfriend and Spencer went off to call her boss. Mike didn't look happy at that; though Toby knew that he would have to get used to it since this could only be the beginning.
And he was right.
Please Read and Review; also a shout out to my friend Paraddicted for the pre-read!