Hey guys, thanks so much for all the reviews and views, it means a lot. Sorry for the delay in the update, I had to do a lot of planning for this chapter and I will need to do a lot for the next but please stay with me. I really hope you enjoy this chapter and I will try to update as soon as I can.
There was a loud crash and a slam of a door. I turned around to see a dent in the wall, and Hotch happened to be missing from the room. Everyone was shocked to see a live streaming of Beth on every computer screen in the room. Rossi seemed to be the only one alert and found the file.
"All she's left is their files. Both victims were overdosed on drugs." Rossi said in despair.
"That must mean it's easy then." I thought out loud.
"What do you mean?" Henry asked.
"I hate to say it but there's a whole stack of files. We just need to answer this one question to get Beth back. That means more people will be taken. She wants us to keep going. That means this should be the easiest case. That's why she hasn't given us a lot of information, because we should be able to solve the case without it." I replied. I was hoping this was true, it made sense to me.
"Stella's right. We can do this." Emily said optimistically. The door opened again and Hotch appeared. He was clutching his hand slightly, but he seemed a lot more composed.
"Sorry about that. It won't happen again." He said in his usual tone.
"There's no need to apologize Hotch. We understand." Derek said.
"What do we have?" Hotch asked.
"Well the question was why they were killed. Both victims look the same. They both have brown short hair and blue eyes. They are also around the same age, Gloria was 28, and Daisy was 27. This could mean that they reminded the killer of someone." Dad said quickly.
"He also drugged them. The autopsy showed that the victims had no other wounds, he didn't even beat them. It would make sense if these woman were replacing a lost lover, he treated them all with care." JJ added.
"We need to be sure. Garcia can you look it up?" Hotch asked desperately.
"I would my munchkin, but she's got complete control." Garcia sighed. As if by magic, one of her computers was freed.
"Well that was considerate of you." Rossi said sarcastically.
"Garcia, look up each victim, see if there lives ever crossed." Hotch ordered.
"I'm on it." Garcia said before she went frantically typing. The phone rang and JJ put it on loud-speaker.
"Jennifer Jareau."
"JJ, it's Mike. I've got Lola Hotchner on the phone, do you want me to put her through."
"Yes." Hotch basically shouted. Mike didn't need telling twice before he buzzed Lola through.
"Daddy, is that you?" Lola asked, she sounded scared.
"I'm here honey, what's wrong?" Hotch asked, his tone changing completely.
"I don't know where mummy's gone. I came downstairs and she's not here. I'm scared daddy, I don't like being alone." Lola cried.
Careful how you handle this Hotchner.
Came a message on one of the screens. She'd warned us not to get anyone else involved.
"Don't worry Lola, she's just had to pop out. She told me to tell you she's sorry though, she didn't mean to leave you alone. Don't worry though, I'll ring Jack. Why aren't you at school?" Hotch said softly.
"Okay, tell her it's okay. But hurry, I don't like being left alone. Mummy said I could have the day off, she thinks I'm getting the flu" Lola said a lot calmer, you could hear that her voice was full of cold.
"I will, I promise, just focus on feeling better sweetie." Hotch said.
"Thank you, can you stay on the phone?" Lola asked. Hotch looked slightly strained.
"I can." JJ offered, reading Hotch's expression. Hotch gave a thankful nod and passed the phone over to JJ. He quickly pulled out his own phone and rang Jack.
"Hey Jack, do you mind watching Lola she's ill, Beth had to go out." Hotch asked as casually as possible. He didn't put the phone on loud-speaker but I assumed Jack agreed, seeing as Hotch thanked him before hanging up. JJ was still having a conversation with Lola at the back of the room.
"I've got it, both victims purchased flowers from Flora's Florest." Garcia practically screamed.
"Did anyone who worked there, loose a loved one a few months before the first murder?" Derek asked.
"Yes! The owner Flora, she died of cancer. Her husband Freddie Jay took the shop over. It fits, she was 28 when she died and her description matches the victims." Garcia said excitedly.
"He was abducting them to bring her back." Emily stated.
"But when he realized they weren't the same he killed them. Obviously with drugs, because his doesn't seem to have the physical strength to do it himself. His wife, also, went through so much pain from the drugs trying to cure her cancer." Dad added.
"Sounds like it fits. That's our answer." Hotch said, even he couldn't hide how nervous he was.
Congratulations Agents. She will be deposited back at your house. One down, three to go.
This time the message sent a sense of relief around the room. Hotch let out a breath. On the screen we watched Beth being untied. She whispered a thank you towards the camera, before she was roughly taken out of the room and out of the screen.
"Thank you, everyone." Hotch smiled.
"Hotch, it's fine. What did you expect us to do, Beth's family." JJ said back. She'd just gotten off the phone to Lola.
"I hate this though, she took Beth, god knows who she'll take next. We can't even call up our families to warn them." Garcia cried.
You got that right Techie.
"Shut-up!" I pratically shouted. I regretted it straight away, the whole room gave me strange looks.
Mouthy one you've got there, .
"Sorry." I said embarassed.
That's more like it. Now for our next victim...
Yet again everyone's heart stopped. Even though Dad and Henry were in the room it didn't make me feel better. All I knew the unsub could have gotten to my friends in Alaska, and what affected the team affected me. The screen turned into another live stream. Garcia let out a yelp as Kevin appeared bound to a chair. He was trembling a little, but apart from that he looked pretty confident.
Your second case is the murders of Haley Jacobs, Holly Evans, Hilly Burbeck, Helena Wade and Harriet Long.
Your question: Where were Helena and Harriet buried? Why couldn't the police find the bodies?
This time everyone was more alert. Hotch already had the file out and was scanning through it. Garcia just stared at the screen, tears spilling out of her eyes. Derek noticed this so sat beside her.
"We will get him back babygirl. I promise you, he's not going anywhere." Derek said softly.
"I know my chocolate god, but I just can't help but think about if we got it wrong." She whimpered.
"We won't babygirl, we won't." Derek smiled.
"I know. Sorry I need to pull it together. I shouldn't let this sicko mess with me or my family." Garcia said a lot stronger, as she brushed away the tears. "What do we have?"
"All victims very strangled and beaten. They all had the letter H carved into their torso." Emily said.
"Whoever did this does seem to have an obsession with the letter H."Rossi commented.
"Garcia can you bring up a map of where some of the victims were found." Dad asked.
"Sure thing Genius." Garcia said quickly. She brought up a map with the disposal sites on. Dad moved towards the screen and started murmuring things to himself. Everyone knew that he wouldn't be very responsive for a while. Not wanting to distract him, we waited in silence.
"I've got it!" Dad shouted. Causing me and nearly everyone else in the room to jump.
"All victims were buried in places that were going to soon be turned into new developments. Each disposal site was five miles apart to at least another disposal site. If you go five miles from each one and pinpoint the results, you can see that two of them form a H with all the bodies." Dad said quickly.
"Reid you're a genius." Morgan said speechless.
"I don't need reminding." Dad replied cooly, loosing the atmosphere slightly.
"Garcia look up the name of the companies that built the developments. Also, find out the exact location of where Reid thinks the bodies are, and find out information." Hotch ordered.
"Sure thing boss man." Garcia replied. Typing away, trying to get her husband back.
"Who do you think did this?" JJ asked.
"Maybe someone who had a grudge with Rowley&Co. they were the owners of each development complex. The owner also happened to be called Harry Rowley." Garcia said.
"Once you finished your other searches look this man up." Hotch said.
"So this guy really does have a thing with H's." Henry said uneasily.
"Just as well your name is Blondie then." Derek teased.
"You're really going to be that immature Baldie." Henry sighed playfully.
"If you two are going to joke about, then go outside." JJ said sternly.
"Sorry." They chimed.
"Our Genius is spot on. The two disposal sites were going to be changed into development complex's by Rowley&Co., however the first one didn't get planning permission, so no-one went to dig it up. The second one Rowley pulled out due to all the H murders. Also get a load of this, Harry Rowley's wife, Hannah Rowley, used to be married to Harold Hunter, but they got a divorce and she re-married. Hunter is said to have been arrested when he was younger for strangling animals. He's also a constructor for Rowley&Co. so he knew where to place them. I guess he wanted the bodies to be found." Garcia told us.
"So Hunter, kills woman beginning with H and buries them in places, were his ex's new husband, wants to start a business." Rossi summarized.
"Where's Hunter now?" Emily asked.
"He died of Huntington's disease, quite ironic really." Garcia said.
"It makes sense. Hunter placed the bodies to form an H and the reason the other two weren't found, was due to the last-minute pull outs. Does everyone agree that's our answer?" Hotch asked. We all nervously nodded.
"Did you get that?" Hotch said aloud.
Congratulations, another correct case. Kevin will be returned.
Garcia squealed with relief. Everyone was over joyed that we'd gotten it right. However it somehow dawned on all of us that there were two more left.
"If she's doing it this quickly, it means she's already taken all her victims." Dad observed.
"So now all we can do is wait." Rossi sighed.
"I'm just so glad Will left this morning." JJ said relieved.
Time for our next one.
Everyone dreaded the screen going blank as the live streaming came on. This time it was a huge shock to see who was sitting tied to the chair.
Guess he might not be coming back after all.
There sitting in the chair was Will. JJ and Henry's faces both paled. She'd gotten to Will somehow. Tears started to well up in JJ's eyes and I felt so sorry for her.
"The fucking bitch." Henry shouted. Angrily, he kicked over a chair and a bin, before he stormed out of the room.
Sort out your children, the amount of attitude the brats have on them. Anyway the case..The murders of Logan Jones, Alfie Fellows and Patrick Vickers. Your question is, who murdered the boys and why?
Emily was scanning through the file, reading the information. JJ had brushed away the tears. Will was staring straight at the camera without any sign of fear on his face.
"Go check on him." Dad said quietly to me. I nodded and left the room. The door was going to need new hinges seeing as it had been slammed so much. I looked around the bullpen and was happy to see that Henry had only ventured to Dad's desk. He sat with his head down on the desk. Quietly I made my way to Emily's desk and swung on her chair.
"You alright?" I asked casually. Henry just put one of his thumbs up from underneath his head.
"I really think that the BAU should invest in some easy shut doors. I really think it would save them a hell of a lot of money. Besides there's nothing funnier than someone going to slam a door which doesn't slam. I'd love to see the look on an angry agents face when that happens." I commented, I wasn't really sure where I was going with this conversation. However, it did make Henry look up.
"You're mad." He said. I was happy to see that there were no tears in his eyes.
"Ahh, what can I say, I like being mad. Mad is fun." I replied. This made him smile.
"Sorry, I lost it." He said quietly.
"It's fine. Believe it or not, I have the worst temper." I admitted. It was true. When I was younger it used to be awful. I could barely control it. However it'd gotten better the older I got. But even still, things got messy when I fully lost it.
"I'd like to see that." Henry smiled.
"You really wouldn't." I replied.
"Still I shouldn't have sworn like that. Great, now I'm going to be grounded." Henry sighed.
"I think your mum will forget about that. It's understandable." I tried to say reassuringly.
"Believe me, my mum doesn't forget things." Henry sighed. "Anyway, we'd better get back in there."
"We should." I agreed half heartedly. It was nice to get away from the dark lair, which at the moment seemed to be full of murders, unsubs and blackness. We walked down the hallway hand in hand. By the time we got to Garcia's lair, everyone was so engrossed in conversation that they hardly realized us.
"So all the boys were from a small town?" Derek asked.
"Yep, which means they had a lot of people who they crossed paths with." Garcia sighed.
"Well each boy was killed by a single stab wound, apart from that they were well looked after." Emily observed.
"Meaning that the unsub cared. All the bodies were placed gently in the woods and had flowers around them, as if it was some kind of memorial." Rossi added.
"It also means they need medical experience. Only doctors would know where exactly to stab the victim, in order to give a quick death." Dad said.
"It's as if the unsub didn't want to do it, but felt compelled to do it." Derek concluded.
"All these show signs that the Unsub could be a woman. All boys were also found wearing a clean set of clothes. Garcia, narrow down your searches to woman who had a connection to all three boys, with medical history." Hotch ordered.
"I'm on it." Garcia said, typing away.
"Henry." JJ smiled.
"Sorry." He said back.
"It's okay, I understand." JJ replied.
"The list had only narrowed down to four people, Winnie Green, their doctor, Anna James, their teacher who used to be a doctor, Tessa Shannon, the doctor who delivered them and Ingrid Atkins, she was all three boys childminder and she went to medical school." Garcia read out.
"Search for any triggers." Rossi said. Garcia typed away.
"Slight problem. Both Tessa Shannon and Ingrid Atkins have triggers. A few months earlier, Tessa lost her eight year old son, she was then fired for behaving inappropriately to other kids around the same age. Ingrid Atkins also got her eight year old son taken away from her a couple of months prior." Garcia sighed.
"Both of them fit the profile." Henry gulped. This wasn't good.
"We need to think why they had motives." Hotch said in his usual manner.
"Start with Ingrid Atkins. Why would she murder three boys and place them with so much care?" Rossi said.
"Well why did she get her son taken in the first place?" I asked.
"That is a good question Junior Genius, which I'm finding out right now." Garcia said. "The official report states domestic violence, but not towards the son. But get this, I searched newspaper articles and the towns paper reports that it was Ingrid who was violent towards the son. In fact they are trying to start a petition to let the father have full custody of the son. They were making out that she was a psychopath."
"Who wrote the article?" Dad asked.
"Victoria Fellows, Alfie Fellows mum." Garcia told everyone. This sounded like our unsub.
"So she's taking away their sons because her son was taken away." Henry summed up.
"They had to take away her son, she didn't want it to happen but it had to be done." Derek added.
"Logan Jones mother and Patrick Vickers mother were also against Ingrid Atkins. In fact it was the three of the who made the call to Child Protection Services." Garcia said.
"This sounds like our Unsub." Hotch said. We were all a bit unsure but it sounded like it all fit.
"That's our answer, Ingrid Atkins did it. The three woman took away her son, so she felt that they should feel her pain when she took away theirs." JJ said confidently. There was a nervous pause.
Well done, he will be deposited back home. That's if you want him.
"Yes I want him, I love him!" JJ practically shouted. Everyone smiled slightly when she said that. All we had, was one more case and then we could relax slightly. This sick game would be over. Well for now at least.
"I need some air." Henry said excusing himself.
"Be careful. Garcia can you pull up security cameras outside the BAU. I'm not taking any risks." JJ said concerned.
"Mum, I'm not five." Henry moaned.
"Well funnily enough there's a unsub after you." JJ replied back.
"Fine." Henry said leaving the room.
"I'm going to." I stated.
"No you're not." Dad stated back.
"Dad we'll stay on the steps by security, I promise. I really don't want to get taken by a physco again, trust me." I tried to assure him.
"Fine." Dad sighed. I thanked him before I ran out the room. I skidded into the bullpen and screamed Henry's name. He was just about to get in the elevator and he must have been in deep thought because he jumped so high. I quickly ran towards him and we hopped into the elevator.
"You gave me a heart attack, why the hell did you scream." Henry moaned.
"I wanted to get your attention." I smiled.
"Well you've got it." He said back. Something was wrong because he wasn't looking at me.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Nothing, I'm fine."
"Well that's a lie."
"I feel awful." Henry said finally.
"Why?" I asked gently.
"What if we got it wrong. I didn't even say a proper goodbye to him when he left this morning. I guess we all have to let go to people, but it hurts when you don't get the chance to say goodbye." He said glumly.
"Henry I get it. But if we always had the chance to say goodbye, we couldn't properly let go." I said equally glumly. I didn't get a proper chance to actually tell my mum goodbye and I loved her, but if anyone ever got that chance we'd never let them go. If my mum magically appeared from the dead so I got a chance to say goodbye to her, I'd never let her go.
"Shit, sorry, I really shouldn't have said that. I'm moaning about nearly loosing my dad, when you've been through so much with your mum." Henry said apologetically.
"It's fine Henry, don't worry." I smiled. We'd reached the outside now. We decided to sit on the steps which was near security and in view of a camera. Out of nowhere Henry hugged me softly, careful not to hurt my bruise body.
"What was that for?" I asked confused.
"I think we both needed that." He smiled. He was right, we were both pretty down at the moment.
"How are you anyway? It's not every day you get poisoned."I asked.
"Not bad, but I can't look at food. I haven't eaten since yesterday and even if I wanted to eat, I really don't think I could keep it down." Henry joked slightly.
"I really hate this bitch." I said bitterly.
"Trust me so do I." Henry nodded.
"Excuse me, I was asked to give you this." Came a man out of nowhere. He handed Henry and I a piece of paper. We knew straight away this wasn't good. Trembling slightly as I opened it, I read it.
Both of you come quietly to the black van ahead of you. Scream, shout or make any contact and I will blow up the whole building.
Henry and I looked at each other. We knew what we had to do. Getting up, we made our way over to the black van. We were the last case.