Sorry its taken me so long to update! We had finals at school and you'd think they'd give us less homework around finals, but they gave us more and Christmas was crazy!

I'm back to writing this again though so hopefully I'll be able to get back to updating regularly!

Thanks to kdzl and DeviousRobynno for reviewing the last chapter!!! :)

From Darkness to Light

A CM fanfic

Chapter 12

Spencer Reid was standing by the coffee machine near the front of the police station, attempting to create something edible out of the terrible police force coffee by adding even more sugar than usual to it. A secretary who was filling her own mug with the brown concoction stared in disbelief at him as he continued to add spoonful after spoonful of sugar to his beverage. The woman just shook her head, quietly mumbling to herself as she walked away when the young doctor finally put down the spoon and took a sip of his drink.

Reid watched as a middle-aged woman walked in the door and after looking around the bullpen for a certain local cop she walked up to him, calling his name as she did.

"Matt!" She yelled at the young, red-headed cop, causing him to jump and turn around in surprise.

"What are you doing her?" He asked exasperated.

"I've had it with him! I can't take it anymore and if you won't listen to me I'll find someone else who will, Matthew! I know what I'm hearing!" She said.

The young cop put his arm around her, attempting to quiet her down while looking for some help from his friends, only to find that they all had run away as soon as she had called his name. "Aunt Aurora, I'm sure there's nothing wrong. I've talked to Sam. You were even there! Maybe you should just go back home. I can have mom stay with you." He said as if he were talking to a seven year old.

The woman who Reid now knew to be Aurora pushed the man's arm of her shoulder while saying "I don't need a babysitter, Matthew! If you won't listen to me I'm going to find someone around here who will!"

It was then that Reid decided to step in. He put his coffee on the table and walked towards them. "Excuse me." He said. "Is there something I can help you with ma'am?"

She looked at Reid and smiled before tossing a look over her shoulder at Matt that caused him to roll his eyes. "I think you might be able to help to help young man." She said. "Are you a police officer?"

"I'm with the FBI. We're here working on the kidnapping case." Reid replied, while showing her his badge.

"You're exactly the person I need to talk to then!" She told him with a smile before waving her nephew away and following Reid to an interview room.

After closing the door to the small room and sitting across from the woman at the metal table in the center of the room Reid asked "What seems to be the problem?"

"Well my neighbor, Sam Howard, has been acting strangely for months! And sometimes I can even hear screaming coming from his house." She added in a voice that sounded as though she came right out of a horror movie while raising her eyebrows.

"What do you mean by strangely?" Reid asked, intrigued by her story, but also wondering if maybe she was as crazy as her nephew's reaction to her had implied.

"I never see him around anymore, he's got at least two week's worth of newspapers on his front lawn and there's always some kind of noise coming from his house! It's always either loud music or his crazy dogs barking and when it's neither one of those it's screaming. I think he plays the music to try and cover it up, but it doesn't work."

"What does the screaming sound like? Is it a man or a woman screaming?" He asked.

"It sounds like a little girl." She said, before adding "I told my nephew and he went over to Sam's house one day and asked him about it and he just said I was crazy. I'm not crazy! You have to believe me!" Her voice rose with the last sentence and she leaned over the table, hoping that Reid would believe her.

The gears in Reid's mind were turning. He wondered if this woman's neighbor could actually be their unsub. Suddenly he asked "What does your neighbor drive?"

"A van. A big white van."

Now the young profiler was really thinking. What are the odds that a man who owned the same type of vehicle J.J. saw the unsub in and had a young girl's screams coming from his house wasn't their unsub? But Reid had to be sure. "When did Sam start acting differently?" He said quickly. "Was there a major event in his life that happened right before?"

"Well, now that you mention it, I guess it all started after his daughter, Lindsay, died."

"How did she die?"

"He took her camping. She wandered off into the woods and there were some wild dogs, wolves I guess, and they attacked her. It was terrible! They just tore the poor girl apart before he could get to her. She died on the way to the hospital." Aurora finished sadly.

"How old was she? What did she look like?" Reid couldn't get the words out fast enough. He knew they had their guy.

"About six. Blonde hair, blue eyes. The most beautiful little girl you'd ever see."

Reid just barely missed knocking over his chair as he stood up as quickly as possible. "I think you're neighbor is the man we're looking for. Come with me. We need to let my boss know what's going on." He said as he grabbed Aurora by the arm and practically drug her out the door and to the conference room where the rest of the team was. He burst through the doorway with her right behind him and interrupted Hotch saying "We got him. I know who the unsub is!"

Hotch, Morgan, Emily, J.J. all just stared at a smiling Reid. Finally, Morgan broke the silence. "What are you talking about Reid? And who do you have with you?" He asked gesturing towards Aurora, to which she just smiled at him, happy to be noticed.

"This is Aurora…" Reid just looked at the older woman, suddenly realizing he'd never even asked her what her last name was.

"Grimmet." She replied. "Aurora Grimmet."

"Right." He said suddenly picking up speed. "Her neighbor is our unsub. His daughter died from being attacked by dogs. She looked like our victims and she was the same age as most of them. He drives a white van. And she can hear a little girl's screaming coming from his house!" He gestured to Aurora as being the 'she' that could hear screaming. "This is our guy, Hotch! Sam Howard. We gotta go get him!" Reid said and headed out the door while trying to catch his breath.

Morgan chased after the young genius. "Wait a second, Reid. How can you be so sure? What if we're wrong?"

"We're not wrong Morgan. Trust me!" Reid and Morgan both looked back at Hotch for some sort of instructions on what they were do to. He was talking quietly to Aurora and suddenly he looked up at them.

"Let's go." He said sternly after having her write the address down.