Chapter 19
Woodley Park Guest House
Washington DC
Morgan
"You sure about this?" Morgan asked.
Once they landed in DC he'd expected to take Spencer off to his apartment while Rossi took Alice to her hotel. As it turned out Spencer was staying at said hotel with Alice. "Am I certain about what?" Spencer asked.
"Are you or are you not moving in with her?"
"Temporarily yes. Perhaps permanently, we're giving it a few months to see what happens after some therapy."
Which was not the ideal flat out no Morgan wanted, but better than a flat out yes. "A few months?"
"Until my lease is up. It would cost too much to get out of it right now so I'm keeping my place. But right now I do want to stay with Alice."
"Fair enough." Should this relationship fall apart after some therapy Spencer would have a place to land. That worked.
Of course when they pulled up Morgan saw the For Sale sign out front. "Is she buying this place?" He asked.
"She's considering it." Spencer replied.
"You're going to live in a hotel?"
"Why not?"
Morgan went into a long sales pitch about the value of home ownership, of the stability of a house, of the traditions you could build in one, of having a place where the little geniuses could return to someday. While he was doing that he helped them bring in bags, waited through check in, and walked with them to the top floor. "So you need a house." Morgan finally finished up.
"I don't know how to live in a house." Spencer replied.
Morgan stopped. "What do you mean you don't know how to live in a house?"
"Morgan." Spencer sighed. "How long were you in college?"
"Four years."
"And how old were you when you went?"
"Eighteen."
"I was in school for ten years straight, nine of those in college and one at Quantico. I lived in an institutional setting from when I was twelve until I was twenty-two. Before that I had to look after myself and my mother with no instruction and no training. I just don't seem to know how to do things other people do. But I manage. I like my life, okay, I'm happy but I'm not house friendly."
"What do you mean not house friendly?"
"I don't know how to cook Morgan. I don't know how to do laundry, I don't know how to load a dishwasher, I don't know how to do household repairs..."
Huh? "Then how do you live?"
"I live in a very nice building in single room with a bathroom that doesn't come with a kitchen, kind of a lot like a dorm room. I have a microwave, a toaster oven, a bar fridge and a coffee pot, if I can't do it with those then it's either take out or eat out. Dad set us up with laundry service when Mom got too sick to manage it. Ever since then I put my laundry in bags, they get picked up once a week and the next day I have clean clothes waiting at the front desk. I wash my coffee cups in my bathroom sink. If something needs repair I call the front desk and they send up a repair man. I live in a dorm, more or less. Which means I practically live in a hotel already; only this one comes with a much nicer garden and a chef."
Morgan was kind of shocked. "I had no idea. And Alice..."
"Alice was in and out of the hospital between the ages of seven and twelve, then she went off to boarding school until she was eighteen and then college. She's also more comfortable in an institutional setting."
While they were talking the clerk had been showing Alice around the empty third floor. Now she returned to the room they had rented. "This is a very nice set-up." She said. "We could make some comfortable living spaces up here."
"It's a good neighborhood and close to a Metro line." Spencer replied. "That would be helpful. What do you mean could?"
"Tomás wants a house. He swears he will help us learn to live in one."
Morgan nearly fell over laughing. "Going to put a dungeon in?" He was only half-teasing there.
"Here? I don't think so." Alice replied. "This is actually one of two properties they're trying to sell together. The other one is off Dupont Circle, which looks to be closer to the nightclubs and such. I think we'll put the dungeon there and keep this one vanilla."
"Probably better for this neighborhood." Spencer agreed.
"As for the house, not for me." She shuddered delicately. "That will be up to him. Now I won't say final decision yet, but..."
Just then Morgan's phone went off. "We need to head in to the office." He said. "They found something in Oregon."
BAU Headquarters
Quantico, VA
It was a video conference call. Spencer kept his eyes shut for most of it.
Sheriff Johnson was standing next to a tall man with pure white hair wearing civilian hunting clothes. "This here is Frank Underwood." He said, by way of an introduction.
"I am a civilian." Frank said, in ponderous, pedantic tones. "My actions today were of my own free choice. I was not under any sort of order or request from any law enforcement agency."
"Okay." Rossi said. The tone, body language and smile indicated that those words were lies, and that Frank and the Sheriff knew it. They were making those lies official record. "You know, you look familiar to me."
Frank grinned. "I should. We worked together on the Grim Sleeper case."
"The Grim Sleeper?" Hotch asked. "That was in Los Angeles."
"Yep." Frank replied. "I was on the police force there. Forty-two years. I retired ten years ago. Moved up here for the fishing."
"Oh really." Rossi said. "As I recall you ran search dogs back then."
"I still do." Frank replied. "I train the volunteer K9 unit for Manzanita County Search and Rescue nowadays. So there I was early this morning." He launched into his story. "I heard the fire had burned out along the river and I wanted to go check on my favorite fishing hole. It was a mess, let me tell you. I don't know when I'm going to be able to fish there again. I brought my dogs with me of course, George and Gracie, in case of bears or wild cats. They went off to sniff around while I checked out the river. Imagine my surprise when they came back and jump spotted me."
"What are your dogs trained to spot on?" Morgan asked.
"Human remains." Frank replied. "I didn't know why they would be spotting out there, the news didn't say anything about anyone missing in the fire. I followed them to the foundation of this house out by the river and lo and behold, I spotted a body! I didn't know what to do!" Frank's acting skills were lacking here. "The batteries in my GPS were dead so I didn't know which jurisdiction I was in. So I called my good friend Sheriff Johnson to ask him for advice."
"Of course you did." Rossi said. He and Hotch looked at each other and nodded. It was obvious what had happened. Knowing Frank's background and the training on his dogs Sheriff Johnston had asked him to take them out to try to find the bodies. But because Frank was technically a civilian plausible deniability could be maintained.
"I was going to call Sheriff Blackburn. I was pretty sure it was his jurisdiction." Sheriff Johnston picked up the tale. "But I checked the county records first, to see who owned the land, in case it was actually under the Forest Service. When I found out it was his building I called in the State Police. They've taken control of the crime scene and picked up Blackburn. When they looked through his home office they found ID's for all our bodies in his desk drawer, as well as three others. We figure those were the bodies we found in the cellar, we just need to try to match them."
"Trophies." Rossi nodded. It was exactly as they had profiled.
"Uh huh." Sheriff Johnson smiled. "They also found this." He held up an evidence bag.
In it was a FBI badge.
The team chuckled. "I'd like to see Cramer deny that." Morgan said.
"We have a list of other suspects for you to bring in." Hotch said.
Sheriff Johnson nodded. "We'll coordinate with the State Police." He said. "If you contact..."
There was no longer any need for Spencer and Alice to stay in the conference. Morgan kind of faded back with them. "Does this mean it's over?" She asked.
"I hope so." Spencer replied.
"Not quite." Morgan said. "You get interviewed tomorrow."