AN: Thanks for being paitent everybody, and here's you're reward a nice long chappie. Oh, I've rewritten chapter 4 and it would be really helpful if you went back and read it. That would make the beginning of this chappie less confusing. Trust me you'll miss a lot if you don't. Thanks again and enjoy!
Oh! And the lyrics mentioned in this chapter are from Tom Petty's song "Have love will travel" i don't own them although it would be cool if i did.
Chapter 5: Discovered
"Hey Hotch, looks like we'll be here for a while."
"Why? What's taking so long?" The supervisor agent asked into the phone. He was staring off into space, acutely aware that he was the center of attention for the other agents in the room.
"We have four different employees to look at."
"All right, get a copy of their files and try to get them to answer some questions."
"Sure, if you want I can leave Prentiss and the Detective here with a few officers and bring the files back."
"Fine, get back as fast as you can."
Morgan took Hotch at his word and returned in record time. They now sat in that room pouring over the company's files, trying, and failing to see anymore connections between the victims.
"This is ridiculous man," Derek proclaimed. "We're not getting anywhere! How is this helping?"
"We need to give them a profile." Reid replied, for once not immediately answering a question.
"We need to find Matilda." Gideon told them. "She's the only one of this unsub's victims to survive, she was probably his first. It is obvious that her disappearing is the stressor and she will know who he is, or at least give us someone else to look at."
"How can we even be sure she's still alive? No offense Gideon but we can't really accept Stephen's word, he's involvement is still rather suspicious." Morgan told the older man, his tone making it clear that he doubted she was still alive.
"The pen name is actually a good proof that she's alive," Reid interjected, "the probability of someone else using the same pen name is" –
"Reid please," Hotch interrupted. "We'll give them the profile than you and I," he pointed at the young doctor, "will go pay a visit to Stephen."
"JJ, Morgan, and I will go try and find Matilda. We'll start at the publishers." Gideon decided before heading out to the bullpen.
Hotch and Reid rode the elevator in silence - dead silence - all the way to the twenty-third floor of the apartment building. It was an uncomfortable silence for Reid and he started fiddling with the strap of his leather messenger's bag to try to ease the anxiety he felt. Anxiety was nothing new to the young agent, he had felt it all his life at one point, or another, it was only worse, a constant sensation now. It had been worse ever since Tobias Hankel had kidnapped him, then it got even worse when Reid realized that Gideon knew he was using. He was trying not use the drugs now, an effort that often resulted in useless gestures such as repeatedly twisting the strap on his bag.
With an annoying and useless ding, the elevator doors opened on the twenty-third floor and the agents stepped out into the hallway. Hotch walked about halfway down the hallway with a confidence in his stride that Reid wished he could feel. He followed meekly and almost ran into the senior agent who had stopped out side of a door with brass numbers 3120 engraved on it. Hotch knocked on the apartment door and waited patiently for an answer.
They did not have to wait long before the door was whipped open and they were face to face with the younger Gideon. Reid was forcefully reminded of his mentor by the intense way the man stared at them; the only thing that threw him off was the pale green eyes that met his own instead of the brown eyes he expected.
Stephen Gideon stood there in the door way not saying anything for a long time, long enough for Spencer to become aware of music playing from somewhere in the apartment. Faintly he could make out the lyrics:
"Oh, and if perhaps I loose you in the smoke down the road, I want you to know that you were the one….And may my love travel with you everywhere, yeah, may my love travel with you always…."
"I should have known that Gideon would have sent someone to check up on me." Stephen finally said breaking the silence. A part of Reid's brain registered the strange way Stephen referred to his father, especially after he had addressed Gideon as 'dad' while at the police station; meanwhile the rest of his brain searched for the artist of the song playing in the background.
"Well I'm glad its you Hotch instead of him," he continued moving so that he was no longer blocking the doorway, "come on in." With a nod, Hotch entered the apartment. Reid hesitated on the threshold. It was bothering him that he had not been able to figure out the artist yet. He did not realize that Stephen was watching him until the man cleared his throat.
"You can come in as well; I swear I'm not as mean as I sound."
"What, oh," Reid exclaimed quickly stepping into the apartment and out of the way of the door. Stephen closed it behind him then fixed the young agent with an obscure look.
"Sorry I was just trying to figure out who was playing."
"Tom Petty," was the answer. "Haven't you ever heard of the classics?" Stephen asked not noticing the warning hand gesture Hotch was making.
"As a matter of fact I have. There is Ludwig von Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and George Frederic Handel although both Bach and Handel were composers of the Baroque period rather than the classical period. Of course, there are more classical composers than these four. They just happen to be the most commonly remembered composers. How Tom Petty fits into the classics I'm not sure, unless you want to call him a contemporary classic which is a contradiction in terms…" Reid paused in his headlong rush noticing the look on Stephen's face and the amused twinkle in his eyes. Steve smiled at Spencer before clasping him on the shoulder.
"Nervous much?" He asked a teasing tone to his voice. "Petty's a classic because the ideas voiced in his songs are universal and timeless. Besides that he's been around since the 70's, he's an oldie but a goodie."
"I still fail to see how that makes his music classic"—
"Reid let it go."
"So you're the good Dr. Reid," Steve said extending his hand. Reid took it uncertainly. "My father's told me quite a bit about you; don't worry all of it flattering."
"Ah, thanks I think." Steve smiled again, the same smile that Gideon would give Reid then turned his attention to Hotch.
At a loss Reid stood in the middle of the man's living room looking around trying to find if there was any reason for Steve to be an anniversary serial killer. The room was generously furnished, with a black leather sofa set with a matching recliner as well as a mahogany coffee table and mahogany end tables. The flooring was a glowing hardwood floor with a white area rug in front of the big entertainment center and underneath the couches.
The entertainment center occupied one wall and the other wall, from the front door to the corner was lined with bookshelves. Tall, impressive looking wooden bookshelves the kind one expected to see in an old library, seven shelves deep and each shelf full to the brink. Drawn to them like a moth to a flame, Reid made his way over the bookshelves uncertain if he was hallucinating or not. He began reading the bindings not believing his eyes. Stephen had everything, from classical literature and Ancient philosophers to modern science fiction and graphic novels.
Reid could not believe it, there was the complete set of the works of Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, Heidegger, Nietzsche, and others; at least forty philosophers that Reid was familiar with. As well as novels written by Margaret Atwood, Dickens, the Bronte sisters, Hemingway and about fifty more. That was just for classical literature, Reid could not even begin to count how many contemporary and modern authors Stephen had on his shelves. Every literary genera was represented and after recognizing about a hundred or more authors Reid decided that he could joyfully spend months looking over Stephen's collection.
"Impressive isn't it?"
"You could say that again," Reid exclaimed, his voice cracking a little. He did not need the others to tell him that he looked like and sounded like a kid in a candy store. "Have you read all of these?"
"Oh yes," Stephen replied, "most of them I read in college and during graduate school the others I've just sort of picked up along the way."
"What's this?" Reid asked picking up a slim volume of poetry by William Butler Yeats, for some reason it did not seem to fit in with the rest of the collection. Stephen reached over and gently touched the cover.
"It's Matilda's. I got it for her when we first moved in." He answered; there was a distinct note of sorrow in his voice. "Half the books on these shelves are hers; in fact a great deal of the stuff in this apartment is hers. This was our apartment it was going to be our home after the wedding. Since she disappeared, well I just cannot bring myself to get rid of her stuff. There's still a bunch of her clothes in the closet and…" he trailed off turning away from the bookshelf.
Curious Reid flipped open the cover, there right inside the book was a little inscription written from Stephen to Matilda. It was even dated, June 2003, the year she went missing.
"That reminds me Hotch; you wanted more substantial proof that she was still alive." The younger Gideon said heading over the dinning room table and picking up a stack of papers.
"That would be helpful Steve."
"Well here," he said handing Hotch the stack of papers. "Since we we're getting married we opened a joint account at the bank then agreed that we would each set aside our fair share of the rent in that account. Ever since she went missing, each month without fail, her share of the rent would be sent to this account. Those are all the bank statements since August 2003. I'm pretty sure that it's Mattie sending the money, I don't know how anyone else would have the account number."
"Thank you Steve," Hotch said sincerely, "this is very helpful." Hotch reached in his pocket for his cell phone only to have it go off just at that moment. He dug it out quickly then answered it.
"Hello, Gideon." He said into the phone. He was quite for a moment while the person on the other end said something. "You found her... She is in Vermont, are you sure... Yeah, we are with him right now…. No do not worry we can stay with him…. Alright." With that, he hung up.
"Vermont?" Steve asked looking at Hotch with hungry eyes. "All this time she's been in Vermont?"