My Life Had Stood
Chapter Three: Unanswered Questions
Giselle shivered, her eyes opened wide as she heard the door open. Her arms tied tightly to a pipe behind her back and her mouth gagged. The man had brought her to this place – a cellar going by the musty smell and lack of any but the faintest of light.
Even as the door opened, there wasn't any sign of light. The man approached her – she could tell by the way he breathed through his mouth. She shivered again, remembering how the man's breath had felt against her throat when he'd threatened her family.
0
"We should go over what we discovered about the unsub's victims." Hotch said to his team. Though the local police were still searching, only one more body had turned up. Making a total of six bodies found. "Let's start with Brie Adams."
"According to Brie's grandmother, Brie was a normal teenager. She'd had some adjustment issues after her mother died and she moved in with her grandmother. But her behavior improved after Brie started attending counseling." Rossi said, glancing over the notes he'd taken. "Celia James didn't deny that her granddaughter liked partying, but Brie would always be back before midnight to help her grandma into bed. So the night Brie went missing, Ms. James knew right away something was wrong and called the police."
"That sounds like Mary Ann Michael, the second victim discovered since we got here." Lewis said. "According to friends and her boyfriend at the time she went to her grandparent's place every weekend to help out, and would drop anything she was doing if they asked her for help. It was often a matter of contention between her and her boyfriend, and they'd get into fights about it. Initially police had her boyfriend as their main suspect, but his mother was a lawyer and there was no body, so the case went cold."
"What about Jessica Williams, Tabitha Grieg, and Laney Nichols?" Hotch questioned, looking over the files at the names of the other victims.
"Jessica Williams parents died in a car crash seven months ago, and she has no other known family in the area that we could question. Laney Nichol's husband still lives in town. He's a quadriplegic, so police never considered him a suspect. According to his nurse, who worked as needed for the Nichols at the time of Laney's disappearance, Mrs. Nichols cared for her husband like a mother would a child." Lewis iterated.
"Mr. and Mrs. Nichols were both in their early twenties at the time. It couldn't have been easy for either of them."
"From what I could get from questioning the nurse, Mr. Nichols' condition had something to do with Mrs. Nichols' estranged father. He didn't want her to marry Kyle Nichols and confronted him after the two had eloped." Lewis explained.
"So Laney Nichols felt guilty for what her father did and took care of her husband ungrudging. She wouldn't have just left." Morgan spoke, continuing after looking over the page in the file. "So why did it take so long for the missing person's report to be issued?"
"Laney Nichols was her husband's primary caregiver, and the nurse only checked in on Kyle Nichols when Laney called. Since Laney worked freelance from home and seldom went out, no one realized she was missing or that her husband had no one to care for him until nearly two weeks later. Police were called to their house after a neighbor grew concerned about not seeing the husband or Laney. Laney would bring her husband over to this neighbor's house every week to socialize. The neighbor had been away on a trip for a while and had only just returned two days prior to calling the police. Kyle Nichols was nearly dead from dehydration when he was found."
"How horrible." JJ said, her eyes teary.
"Mr. Nichols managed to recover enough to be put in a managed care facility. The police in this case pursued two possibilities. One being that Laney's father had kidnapped her. The other being that Laney may have abandoned her husband."
"They obviously were wrong." Rossi said, leaning forward in his chair as he read over his notes and the case files. "Tabitha Grieg had custody of her nephews when she disappeared. The younger one was four and the older one had just turned six. Their mother was in jail and their father was in rehab, so Tabitha took custody. She had lost her son a few years back, so taking care of her nephews made her happy."
"Did the police have any suspects in her case?"
"None. She had only moved to the area after her son died, and hadn't socialized much."
"What about our unsub's most recent victims? Michelle and Giselle Kramer?" Reid asked.
"Surprisingly little. Other than that Giselle has a seven month old son who was over at the babysitter's house when she was abducted. The sisters had only moved into town a few months ago, and haven't done much socializing with their neighbors." Hotch said, revealing what he'd learned after interviewing the Kramer's neighbors and coworkers.
"It seems each of our unsub's victims had someone dependent on them, except for Michelle Kramer." JJ said, her thoughts on Giselle's child and what would happen if they didn't find her in time.
"It's possible she just returned home at the wrong time, and the unsub had to kill her." Rossi replied.
"Why abduct Giselle from home though? None of the other victims were abducted from inside their homes. Laney Nichols had been out buying groceries when she was abducted according to her husband." Lewis said, pausing a moment. "Then there's our unidentified victim, were we able to find anything about her?"
"Garcia's working on it. But so far nothing." Hotch replied, his expression betraying none of what he was feeling at the moment. "It's possible she was homeless or an orphan, or may have been kidnapped from abroad."
"What about the possibility that her parents killed her and hid her body?"
"….that wouldn't explain why she was dragged. Two adults working together would easily be able to carry a young child's body. Even if it was just the father, which given her injuries is statistically more likely, she wouldn't needed to have been dragged." Spencer's cell phone beeped as he talked, indicating a text. He briefly checked it before returning it to his pocket. "It could be that the person who killed her had some injury at the time that prevented him from lifting the body. But considering the injuries sustained by our unsub's other victims, it's unlikely to have been a lasting injury."
"Morgan and I think we should consider the possibility that we were wrong about our unidentified victim being killed by the same person as these others." JJ said after sharing a look with Morgan. "No attempt was made by the unsub to move the Jane Doe's body. Despite the fact that the construction project has been in the news for years before being green-lit and that until construction started, the area was pretty much deserted."
"Instead of moving our Jane Doe's body away from the construction zone, the unsub moved Nichols and Adams' bodies closer to it." Morgan added, the rest of the BAU digesting this information. "It's like he wanted to make sure these other victims were connected with our Jane Doe's."
"That makes sense. Based on the geographic profile I made based on where each victim was found as well as where they were last seen, our Jane Doe's location inside the unsub's comfort zone is completely dependent on Nichols and Adams' bodies being moved to where they were found." Spencer explained, being interrupted again by the sound of another text being sent to his phone. He ignored it, though Rossi raised an eyebrow at the sound and a few others seemed curious. None of them mentioned it however. "If neither body had been moved from where they were initially buried, our Jane Doe would be at least four miles outside of the unsub's comfort zone."
"If our unsub did deliberately move his victims to connect them to our Jane Doe, then he must have had prior knowledge that she was buried there. Forensics indicates that they were moved no less than four months ago. Before the first victim was found." Hotch said.
"What would motivate the unsub to move his victims to an area bound to be investigated once the construction crew digs up the first body? Why not move that first body, even if it wasn't his?"
"Maybe he didn't want to move it or maybe he's trying to pin all his murders on whoever killed the Jane Doe?" JJ suggested. "It's possible he may have an alibi for the Jane Doe's murder and is hoping to use that as a way of escaping suspicion for the other murders?"
"I'll have Garcia look into possible unsubs for the other five victims who also have an alibi for the time the Jane Doe was killed." Hotch replied, standing up. "In the meantime we should deliver the profile."
0
Spencer's brow furrowed as he looked over the geographic profile, then the report on the Jane Doe. The body had been buried twenty years, and not much could be determined from forensics. Until they got a hit on either the DNA or dental records, they couldn't even inform the girl's family.
Nearly a hour ago they had delivered the profile on their unsub, careful not to give away their suspicion about the Jane Doe not being the unsub's victim. The idea being to possibly lure the unsub into a false sense of security when they did find him. If he thought his plan to blame his victims on whoever did kill the Jane Doe was still possible, he might come in without a struggle.
Spencer's cell phone beeped a text message alert while he puzzled over some information in the Jane Doe's file. Apparently some pebbles found in the remnants of the girl's clothes showed signs of having been submerged in water. It could mean that wherever this victim was dragged from included a body of water. The only snag was the distances between the burial site and the closest bodies of water.
He stretched and put down the file, his body feeling the effects of drowsiness as he glanced at his phone. Displayed on the screen was a text – from Alsie – clarifying the texts she'd sent earlier.
- Sorry, the texts earlier were for Shelly. She put your number in my phone without telling me. (^_^;) -
His lip twitched at the emoticon, his first thought about how Garcia would respond if she saw it. The texts in question were those he had received earlier, and had been about a foreign horror movie about a VHS tape and haunted well, and he at first didn't know who had text him. Alsie hadn't identified herself in either text, obviously thinking she was texting Shelly.
"Have you figured out anything that may help narrow down who our unsub is?" Rossi asked as he entered the room.
"Uh, um, not yet." Spencer replied, slipping his phone back inside his pocket. "I thought you went to look at the rest of the crime scenes with Morgan and JJ."
"There's only one more to go, where Jessica Williams was found. But it's too dark to be able to find any clues or whatnot." Rossi said, indicating the time. "Hotch sent everyone to the hotel to rest up. We'll get a fresh start on this in the morning."
Spencer gave an uneasy smile: he did feel drowsy, but also felt close to a breakthrough. If they could figure out more about the Jane Doe and her killer, then they could likely find the unsub who killed the other five victims.
"Spencer. There isn't much we can do until the morning." Rossi said. Before either could say anything more, Spencer's phone beeped. The younger agent checked the message in an effort to stall responding to Rossi.
- Nighty-night. ((_ _))..zzzZZZ - Alsie had text, leaving another emoticon. Bemused by it, he wondered if Alsie had once again meant the text to be for Shelly.
"….I see your breakfast date went well." Rossi said, noting the slight smile Spencer had as he checked the text message.
"What? No. It didn't…it wasn't a date. Just a chat over coffee." Spencer replied, once more putting his cell phone away. "It was platonic."
Rossi raised an eyebrow, lips twitching into a slight smile.
"What?"
"You just met with her and she already text you three times?" Rossi asked, his tone and expression saying more than his words.
"It was four times. And the first two were Alsie miss-texting me rather than her friend Shelly. This latest was likely the same miss-texting." Spencer said, picking up his messenger bag. He quickly added that he was going to the hotel, bypassing listening to the response Rossi had been about to say.
0
Spencer awoke sharply at the knock on his hotel room door. He rubbed his eyes and checked his watch in the sparse lighting. 4:53 AM. Before he could blink away the sleepiness gradually, another knock interrupted. Along with Morgan's voice saying the local police had just found Giselle.
He replied that he was awake as he got out of bed. His brain, though waking up, was still more conscious of the dream he'd woken from. He couldn't tell if it was a dream or a memory or a bit of both. There were some things like the neighborhood park he'd visited growing up and his mother that were clearly part of a memory. Yet there were other things like a lace shawl and a well surrounded by trees that were clearly dream fragments.
The bizarre thing was that he had had the same dream before, just slightly tweaked. Instead of the well, there was just the shawl and a chess piece placed in a darkened room. Unlike the dreams he had concerning Riley Jenkins, this one he'd only had that one time. Until now.
Spencer rubbed his face, shaking away the dream and instead focusing on the case. Though he'd learned not to dismiss his dreams right away after the Riley Jenkins case, this current case had nothing to do with his dream. Despite the well in it.
It took just as long for him to narrow his eyes for Spencer to realize the connection his subconscious mind had made. The rest of his dream slid away, but the well remained. 'That could explain….'
0
"The coroner still has to do an autopsy, but a preliminary examination of the body puts Giselle's death at a little after 3AM." Hotch said after the last of the team showed up. Unlike the other victims, Giselle was left on an abandoned house's front porch instead of being buried.
"This is a drastic change in M.O." Morgan said, looking over the scene. "There wasn't any attempt to conceal her body."
"….even if the unsub knows we found his dump site, there are plenty of wooded places around where he could've buried the body." Spencer replied, surveying the area. "Instead he left her in an area where she could easily be found."
Hotch's phone rang at that moment.
"Yes, Garcia? Did you find anything?" Hotch asked after checking caller ID.
-"So far I've been able to narrow down our suspect pool to eleven people."-
"Eleven? Couldn't you narrow it down some more, baby girl?"
-"For that I'd need more data. Perhaps if I had a specific time when our Jane Doe was killed rather than just the year, I could pinpoint it down further."-
"Garcia, were there any incidents involving a well in the area twenty years ago?" Spencer asked, arms crossed. "There were stones found with the Jane Doe that showed signs of submersion in water. It's possible she was moved from a well, or another body of water nearby."
-"Ok, give me a sec..." Garcia typed in the new parameters. "...Got it. There was an incident involving a teenage boy allegedly pushing an eight year old into an old well twenty-two years ago. The teen was then sent to live with relatives in Maine. Charges were never filed."-
"That could be our unsub. Garcia, what's his name and current address?"
-"That would be Stephen Barker, and...oh." Garcia paused, reading the information on her screen.-
"What is it, Garcia?"
-"...His current location would be the local cemetery. He died eight months ago."-
"He isn't our unsub then. He wouldn't be able to move the two victims' bodies let alone kill Michelle and Giselle Kramer." Morgan said, giving an exasperated sound.
"..." JJ, quietly thinking as she pondered the scene, spoke up. "...it's possible that the unsub who killed the Kramer's isn't the same one who killed those other five victims. Other than Giselle having a child who depended on her, nothing about her or her sister matches the victimology of the other victims. Their killer didn't even bury either of them."
"...JJ's right, this doesn't match the other victims." Morgan said. "And with how the unsub took the risk to move those bodies to match where the Jane Doe was buried, it's possible that he's trying to cover up who actually killed those other women."
"Garcia, does Stephen Barker still have any family in the area?"
-"...He has two aunts who live in town. As well as a wife and son. His mom and stepdad died years ago, and...oh." The sound of Garcia typing could be heard over the phone. "Barker's biological father moved back to the area a year and a half ago, and apparently tried to get back in his son's life."-
"All right. Send us his name and address."
0
Around 2-3 hours later:
JJ gazed out the window at the passing horizon, the jet taking them back to Quantico. Not long after receiving the name from Garcia, they had managed to find evidence and arrest Stephen Barker's father Andrew Kendall for the murders of Michelle and Giselle Kramer. He hadn't even resisted when they brought him in.
Only when they questioned him about his son did he balk; he had kept insisting that he was the one responsible for all the victims. It had taken finding evidence that Kendall had been out of the state for at least two of the murders to get him to admit his son Stephen had killed those women.
Ultimately, Mr. Kendall answered all their questions in regards to moving the two bodies and the murders of the Kramer's. Kendall had done so in order to stop his son from being labeled a serial killer. Though it was more to do with Kendall's grandson – Stephen Barker's son – than with Barker. No one on the child's mother side knew who Kendall was, and so he thought he could protect his grandson from ever having to deal with being the son of a serial killer.
The only thing Kendall wouldn't answer truthfully were their questions regarding the unidentified victim. He resisted all attempts of theirs to get him to admit that he hadn't done that murder – something they had considered he may have done, until his body-language and micro-expressions said otherwise.
JJ sighed.
"What is it, JJ?" Hotch asked, sitting down across from her.
"..." JJ turned from the window her eyes meeting Hotch's. "I wonder if we'll ever find out who killed that little girl or even who she was."
"The Bureau will continue to investigate her identity and what happened. Maybe one day Mr. Kendall will break and reveal what he knows about her and her killer." Hotch replied. He studied JJ, realizing his words didn't assuaged her as he hoped they would. "What is this really about?"
JJ shook her head slowly and frowned, her lips a thin line. "Garcia searched through all the databases. There's nothing in them that matches the Jane Doe. There were a few possibilities but none panned out. It's like no one reported her missing."
Hotch sighed. "I know what you mean. She could've been homeless or a orphan, but there should've been some sort of trail or someone who noticed she'd gone missing."
"What if her parents did kill her?" JJ asked, her stomach roiling at the thought.
"It's possible. But the parents in those cases will generally report the child missing, or leave the area to hide the unexplained disappearance of the child. Garcia's search didn't reveal either in relation to the Jane Doe."
JJ scowled. "I really want to know who Andrew Kendall is protecting by confessing to this little girl's murder. What could make someone think a child murderer is worth protecting?"
Hotch remained silent and looked out the window, not having a good response.
0
Rossi walked towards the back of the jet, passing by Hotch and JJ conversing. He made his way to where Spencer sat, the younger agent deep in thought and fidgeting with his cell phone.
"Hey kid." Rossi said and sat down across from Spencer. His action and words pulled the younger man from his reverie.
"Rossi, this was some case."
"Yeah. Tell me about it." Rossi replied, feeling dissatisfied by how the case turned out – not only did they not get to the latest victim in time to save her, but they also hadn't learned anything about the ten year old victim.
Spencer didn't reply, his eyes knitted in thought. He was once more considering his cell phone silently.
"It isn't the case you're thinking about, is it?"
Spencer gave a demure smile, his eyes like a deer's for a brief few seconds. He placed his phone down, considering things.
"This is about...Alsie, right?" Rossi asked, recalling the name the younger man had used the night before when questioned about the texts. "Alsie's an interesting name..."
"It's short for Allison." Reid replied, his eyes giving the impression that the brain behind them was thinking deeply about many things at once. "...Have you ever met someone for the first time and they didn't seem like a stranger?"
Rossi crocked an eyebrow.
"It's been my experience that such a thing is rare. Are you sure you haven't actually met her before?" He asked, guessing correctly that Spencer was talking about Alsie. The younger man shook his head. "Maybe when you were children? Children change a lot physically as they grow up, enough to be unrecognizable once you see them again later on."
Spencer thought a few seconds. "No. There were a couple Allisons at the schools I attended, but none of them are Alsie." The furrow in his brow deepened as he said the name Alsie. There was something about that name, but he was positive he hadn't heard it before meeting Alsie.
"If you didn't meet her before now, then maybe she reminds you of someone?"
Spencer paused again, considering this possibility. His mind came up blank however. Though he felt sure that Rossi was right and that Alsie did remind him of someone. He shook his head, confused.
Rossi sat back, mulling things over. He'd briefly considered mentioning Maeve and asking if Alsie reminded Spencer of her, but he decided not to.
0
A/N: End Chapter.
Hoped you enjoyed the chapter and reviews are highly appreciated.
I was half asleep when I typed this up, so if there are any mistakes that's why. Also I really wanted to conclude this case this chapter, so it probably feels rushed though it is longer than most of the chapters I've ever written (or ever will write, probably). (I'm also not confident in writing out the profiles of suspects, so I skimmed over that part.)