A/N: Once more I must apologize for the delay with this post. Turns out misplacing your flash drive with all your info, research, and story is a big no-no. *rolls eyes* Luckily I did eventually find it, but it put me behind big time. Couple that with my birthday on the 10th and the Death of a friend's little baby boy, Noah - just 3 weeks old - and well, time just got away from me. But hopefully things are a little more back on track and I'll be posting in much more regular intervals. Thanks for hanging in there with me and for the awesome reviews. Luvs ya all. {{HUGS}}
"Okay let's forget about what just happened with Angel for just a minute, because until she comes back with J.J., we can argue with each other until we're blue in the face and it won't change a damn thing or get us any further with this case. Right now we need refocus our energy, go back to where we were before all of this hoopla began, and start again."
"Dave's right." Hotch gave Derek a quick, but meaningful glance that spoke volumes, before turning his attention over to Reid. "Catch us back up Reid."
Without batting an eye and after less than five seconds of recall, Reid began reciting a short summary. "We discovered that Christina Marx, the first missing victim, is actually Candi Lansky; Great-granddaughter of Meyer Lansky, historical Crime Lord. According to phone records, she was in contact with U.S. Marshall Sam Kassmeyer in Florida approximately two and a half years ago, prior to her coming to work for the FBI. The name change and the association with him points to the probability of her being placed in the Witness Protection Program, just months before Marshall Kassmeyer's death. If so, his death so soon after her placement may also explain why she started taking self-defense classes with Morgan and why she kept mostly to herself. After learning of her connections to the Mob, we considered the prospect of her being the Unsub. However, given the apparent lack of a dominant personality, as well as other mitigating factors, we've since disregarded the probability. We were then beginning to explore the possibility of a dominant partner or coercion when Morgan had his revelation."
Hotch stepped in and picked up where Reid left off. "Right. Rossi, I want you to put in a call to the Tech pool and get us a T.A. we can borrow for the next hour or two. Lie if you have to. Meanwhile, we need to get our hands on Christina Marx's employment records and find out her exact start date, what position she held, as well as her clearance level. Prentiss, call J.J. and see if she can secure a hard copy of the personnel file while she's there. Morgan if you're right about Garcia being the second victim, we need to see if the Unsub found himself a replacement. Call your contact on the force and go back over Missing Person reports and cases with him. No need to go back further than a year, since that's the time frame for Garcia's return. Use our knowledge of preferential victims as a base and go from there. If he's taken someone else, that's our best chance for potential discovery, at least for the time being. We also need to know who filed the MP report when Marx disappeared - who knew her well enough in her new identity to count her as missing and not just gone. Reid, factor in Garcia as victim #2 and go over victimology again. See if it changes anything or if there's something we've missed. I need a working profile to send to the Alexandria PD, since they've got jurisdiction on the majority of the missing children cases, then to the rest of the involved departments, and I need it now. I'll put a call into the in the Marshall's office. I've still got contacts there and with Lansky missing for over a year, there's a chance they might be willing to part with information and details regarding her original placement. We're running out of time on this one people. It's only a matter of time before the Unsub finds another way to transport the victims and if he can't, he'll most likely cut his losses and begin again somewhere else. If he does, we'll lose him for good. Let's not give him the chance."
In a flurry of activity, the team set out on their given tasks and the clock watching began. It only took a few minutes for Dave and Emily to finish their calls and when done, they returned to the conference room to lend a hand with the profile. Rather than wait on her return, J.J. had Christina's personnel file faxed ahead to the department and they began adding the data to the board. Stepping back, Rossi began to verbalize the information before him.
"Christina Marx started out her illustrious FBI career, in the office pool as support staff two and a half years ago. In just two months she made a name for herself as the go-to girl for computer issues. After several recommendations, she was promoted and permanently moved into the Tech pool, where she was the T.A. shared by both White Collar Crimes and DEA, right up until her disappearance 14 months ago. My, my, that certainly puts her in a handy spot and with plenty of clearance, now doesn't it?"
"So it's conceivable she wasn't a victim after all. Do you think she was a mole and using her position to get information out to someone?" Prentiss asked, comprehension and plausibility filling her head with a dozen potential scenarios.
"It definitely fits, but if so, I'd like to know how she got past the routine lie detector test we're required to take every year. One of the questions asks if you've ever passed classified information to anyone, even your family, outside the Bureau. She was here for two years so she'd not only have to get through it once, but twice. She's either very good, or we're way off base."
"Trust me, we're not that far off base," Morgan interjected as he walked back into the room and right into the tail end of the conversation. "I just got off the phone with Nick over at APD and there were no other MP cases that we haven't already got. But I did find out who filed the MP report on Christina Marx."
"Something tells me by the look on your face that our job just got a whole lot more complicated," Prentiss surmised.
"You could say that. The person who filed the MP report for Marx was none other than our very own Penelope Garcia."