"Do I have your attention now?" The smug voice said down the line.
"You give me back my baby you son of a bitch!" JJ screamed, her eyes fiery from rage and locked on the phone.
"Language, Jennifer" He warned. "Wouldn't want Henry picking up that fowl word, would we? Run along now, Henry"
"I want to talk to Mommy" Henry's little voice said clearly, the team could imagine him staring down the other man.
"I said: run along" The man growled which made JJ panic even more.
"Henry, do what he says, ok baby?" JJ pleaded.
There was a long silence before light footsteps, running away from the phone, echoed around. "Good boy" The man said in an oily voice. "Do I have your attention now?" He repeated in a sinister voice.
"Yes" JJ replied in a breathlessly, her heart going into overdrive. "Just please, give him back" She begged.
"Oh, Jennifer. Jennifer, Jennifer, Jennifer" The man said and shook his head in disappointment. "I suspected a strong FBI agent like yourself to be a little more in control… I guess you're just as weak as the others. Must be the boy that stole your mojo" He summed up with a shrug.
"Why are you targeting us?" Hotch questioned in a neutral voice.
"Let's see who we have in this magnificent team, shall we?" The man continued his speech, ignoring Hotch's question. "An alcoholic, a mommy with no baby, a computer whiz with the mental age of a five year old, a spinster, a rich dude, a human computer and a man with the emotions of a rock. How do you guys get past the security checks?" The man asked with a sick laugh.
"What did we do to you?" Hotch asked while grinding his teeth together.
"To me? Lots. But that's just your problem, agents. You turn everyone's lives upside down and don't even give a damn! You ruined my life so now I'm going to ruin yours!" The man spat in a rage then disconnected the call and slammed the phone onto the table.
There was a long silence in the room, agents who were working at their desks had stopped and were looking up at the profilers with concern. "I need to tell Will" JJ mumbled then stumbled out of the room, pulling her phone out of her pocket and desperately searching her contacts.
Hotch took a deep breath then turned back to the rest of the team's distracted faces. "Morgan and Prentiss: go to Henry's daycare. The UnSub only had a day to plan this so he might have been less careful. If there's anything out of place, call me" He instructed before the two profilers left. "Reid I need you to nail the geographical profile. If he hasn't been specific enough for you to find anything new then come back and I'll assign you something else, we can't afford to waste time on this. Use Garcia if you need to. Rossi: go with Garcia and work on some new parameters for finding him. Remember- we need to find him as fast as possible"
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Morgan's eyes fixed on the ambulance as he parked the SUV opposite 'teddy bear's daycare'. "Looks like he wasn't so careful this time" He murmured as he and Emily hopped out of the car and started toward the ambulance. When they got within ten feet they caught sight of a woman with a large gash above her left eye who was sat on the edge of the vehicle. The profilers flashed their badges and stated "Agent Morgan and Agent Prentiss"
"I didn't get a proper look at the guy, it all happened too fast" The woman mumbled while a paramedic mopped up the blood.
"We respect that you can't remember much now but we think that if you agree to a cognitive interview we might be able to find out who did this"
"Why are the FBI here anyway? I know Henry's mom is with the FBI but it's a little extreme..."
"Three other children were abducted yesterday by the same people. If we're going to find any of them, we need your help" Morgan said with a twinge of impatience.
The woman made a look of concern and surprise then shakily nodded.
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"We need you to close your eyes, Sarah" Emily said in a soft voice. The brunette paused for a moment then slowly closed her eyes. "What were you doing before he came in?"
"I was setting up the crayons and paper for the kids. We were going to do some drawing before snack time" Sarah hesitatingly said.
"Then what happened?" Morgan asked.
"I heard a noise behind me. I turned round and he was there. Right in front of me" Sarah was squeezing Emily's hand tightly as she recounted the story.
"What did he look like?" Emily questioned.
"Tall, white… H-he had black hair" She stuttered. "The window was open, that's how he got in… He grabbed me by the throat and said if I didn't get Henry he'd kill everyone… I didn't know what to do! I panicked and-"
"It's ok, Sarah" Morgan quickly comforted her as the woman became more and more uncomfortable with the situation. "We're right her with you, alright? What was he wearing?"
Sarah took a deep breath then continued. "Jeans… blue jeans, I think. He had a white t-shirt on too…" She mumbled "I went and got Henry… I begged the guy not to hurt him but he threw me on the floor and… and when I woke up they were gone" Sarah said then slowly opened her eyes. "I shouldn't have let him take Henry, should I?"
"You did what anyone else would have" Emily said softly then stood and left with Morgan close behind. Once they were out of earshot Emily glanced over to the muscular man. "Tall white guy in jeans and a t-shirt… Shouldn't be hard to find" She commented grimly.
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"That was Prentiss" Rossi said as he hung up the phone. "The witness can't tell us much other than it was a tall, skinny white guy"
"Age range?" Garcia asked while typing in the information.
"It's unlikely to be the leader so go for twenty to thirty years old"
The blonde typed it in then looked for results. "Twenty hundred possible" Garcia stated in a disheartened tone.
"Alright, now cross check those with people who recently quit a job with low power or small pay" Rossi instructed.
"Now we're getting somewhere" Garcia grinned. "Three hundred and sixteen, got anything else for me?"
"See if any of them or anyone they know had a run in with our team"
Garcia typed as fast as she could then grinned like a Cheshire cat. "And bingo was his name-o" She said with glee. "Let me introduce you to Mr. Chad Moore" Garcia added proudly, her screens filling with Chad's picture. "Weighing in at one hundred and twelve pounds with a height of six foot and skin begging for a spray tan, I present to you our skinny white guy. He and his brother have a record as long as my arm but both mysteriously stopped in 2007. This happened to be the year Chad's younger brother, Tommy, was investigated by our team. He fit the profile for the guy we were looking for but apparently it wasn't him and he was cleared of all charges… However, Tommy lost his job, was diagnosed with depression and… he died from a drug overdose in 2009" Garcia explained, her voice becoming gentler toward the end.
"You brother kills himself because of our team, It's more than enough of a motive to join the leader" Rossi sighed.
"Which the leader would have latched onto" Reid broke in.
Rossi and Garcia spun round to see the genius standing at the entrance with a look like he was processing something. "How long have you been there?" Garcia asked.
"Long enough to hear your explanation" He answered in a rush. "If we raid Chad's house we might find something linking him to the UnSub"
Rossi thought for a moment then walked purposefully toward the door. "Let's do it then"
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A shadowy figure sat back in a blood red armchair with a smug smile. He'd really riled them up this time. He spent a few moments enjoying the pleasure of getting back at them then stood and sauntered out of the room and down a corridor. "It's time to feed them" He instructed the group of four men who slowly stood and made their way out of the room. The leader smiled at his authority then followed them.
One of the men opened an old fashioned fridge and pulled out four trays holding a single sandwich covered in saran wrap. The man passed the trays out to the three other men, each now holding one tray each.
The group of men then strolled out of the kitchen, followed by the leader, and down a long corridor. Each man kneeled down by a door, lifted up a latch, pushed the food through the hole and gave a harsh rap on the door before leaving. The only man remaining in the corridor was the leader who slowly walked toward the last door. He undid the three different locks then pulled the door open. He smiled smugly at the crumpled figure lying in the corner. "Hello, Nathan"
cliffhanger, anyone? (i seem to be doing quite a few of them lately) i really wanted to incorporate Nathan a little into this chapter as well as in the next one so if you've got any ideas on what you'd like to happen with him PLEASE let me know in a review or a PM. i might try and explore Chad too and possibly even the leader, depending on the feedback i get and how it goes with the general plan i have for the team/case. please review if you've got time, it means so much and is really encouraging!
EDIT- ahhh! accidentally loaded up the wrong chapter, anyway here is the right one.