My Life Had Stood
Chapter 5: First Glimpse
Alsie watched as Spencer left, her burnt umber eyes heavily shadowed by her hair. She sighed and leaned back in her chair. The cafe speakers played a soothing melody that overpowered the noisy bustle of people on their lunch breaks. She sat calmly, sipping her coffee. The area around her the least inhabited part of the cafe, as well as the dimmest.
The light above her flickered. She closed her eyes, finishing her coffee while trying to drown out the sounds around her. She had lied. The narcotics she'd taken hadn't helped her head. It had only dimmed the pain, while doing nothing about how the noises and lights around her assaulted her ears and eyes, respectively.
Her cell phone beeped, the custom tone less grating than the other sounds filling the cafe, but not by much. She placed her empty coffee cup down and checked the message on its screen.
"R u free 2day?" Shelly's text asked, "On lunch brk, want 2 talk 2 u. Worried abt u."
Alsie sighed, rubbing her eyes and brow. For a moment she thought of ignoring the text. Her conversation with Spencer hadn't ended how she'd thought – not that she thought he'd agree right away, but rather that she'd get either a yes or no. His needing to 'think about it' had thrown her off. If she hadn't been muddled by the narcotics running through her body, she'd have demanded a yes or no.
Picking her phone back up, she text Shelly back. Telling her the cafe name as well as to bring her a hot chocolate.
"What's a little thing like you doing sitting all alone?" A stranger approached, holding two coffees. One he held out to her. His ice-blue eyes studied her hungrily, roaming from her face to the rest of her body. He prodded her to take the coffee, his lip twitching when she shook her head while smiling politely. "Here..."
The stranger sat down before Alsie could more than glare at him. He wore a slightly faded checkered dress shirt and dark slacks. His hair tawny, with a splash or two of gray.
Considering him quietly, Alsie pulled her lips taut. A moment later she stood up, pulling the hair covering the right side of her face behind her ear. Once the scar was in full view, she glared down at him – her eyes filled with cold loathing.
The stranger flinched, the cut of Alsie's glare immediate. His blue eyes widened at the scar, which seemed to be as angry as her eyes. They gave the sort of glare one would give an insect that tried to bite you before swatting it. The stranger quickly apologized, though Alsie was already walking towards the cafe's back exit.
She took out her cell phone, quietly snapping a picture of the stranger before exiting the cafe.
0
Shelly arrived at the cafe fifteen minutes later. After parking in a shady spot next to the cafe, she entered the building and made her way to the counter. The line to order wasn't that long – just two people ahead of her, and most of the cafe seats were empty. Her eyes scanned the cafe before returning to the overhead menu.
She chewed on her lip, reading over the selections while the people ahead of her ordered. Her blonde hair framed her slightly round face and her green-gray eyes. As the people right ahead of her finished ordering, she scanned the cafe again. Her gaze halted on Alsie standing quietly by the back exit, having just reentered the cafe. Shelly hesitated before approaching to order, the cafe employee having to prop her twice with a greeting.
"Sorry. I'll have a medium hot chocolate and a small herbal tea. Plus two croissants." Shelly ordered, taking out her wallet. Her fingers first reached for her bank card, but instead took out a twenty dollar bill. After putting away her change and collecting her order, she headed towards where Alsie stood.
"We should go." Alsie spoke, her usually soft-spoken voice harsh. It had the same edge that Shelly had gotten used to over the years. Alsie also wasn't hiding the scarred part of her face, instead seeming to flaunt it. Shelly handed Alsie the hot chocolate, before taking a sip of her own tea. Her eyes once more scanned the area, only this time paying more attention to the outside than the inside of the place.
"What happened? Why...?"
Alsie silenced her with a glare, and instead opened the back door again. The two of them headed to Shelly's car, parked conveniently next to the back exit.
"I got the text." Shelly said, entering the driver side. Her eyes briefly glanced to the back of her sedan. "Did you really hav..."
Alsie didn't answer and simply sat back, turning on the car stereo.
"All right." Shelly gave up getting an answer and instead left the parking lot. In the passenger seat, Alsie hummed – though not to the song playing, but rather a different one. Shelly chewed on her lip, and sighed. "Once we get back to my work, you can borrow the car. However, I expect it in the same condition."
"...your pick next time." Alsie replied after nodding, her lips a thin line. Her eyes not at all demure, but rather intense. Not a further word did she utter, both of them understanding without elaboration. It wasn't much longer before they arrived at Shelly's work, and Shelly parked next to the curb. Before the two of them could get out and switch seats she turned to Alsie.
"Not the same as last time. Use something else." Shelly cautioned, before allowing Alsie into the driver side. The keys were still in the ignition, the music still playing. Despite this she still glanced toward the trunk, but only briefly. "Al..." Shelly hesitated in addressing Alsie, instead just letting her drive off.
0
BAU Jet:
Spencer read over the file in front of him, head resting on his propped up arm. He and his team were currently on the BAU jet heading to western New York State. Over the course of five weeks, six women had been abducted, blinded and raped repeatedly, in the area. Another woman had been reported missing that morning, and the local police feared she was a new victim.
"Six victims in five weeks – seven counting this latest abductee." Rossi paused, curtly shaking his head as he read over the file. "That's a lot of victims in such a short time period."
"Why weren't we brought in sooner?" Morgan queried.
"After he finished with his victims, the unsub dropped them off at a different city or town in the region." Hotch replied, sitting straight in his seat while they brainstormed. "Four of them were tourists visiting the area alone and so weren't known to be missing until days or weeks after they were abducted. One of them, Melissa Joyce, wasn't known to be missing until after she was abandoned by the unsub just outside of Buffalo."
"It's interesting he's keeping them alive and isn't taking any measures to remove his DNA from these women's bodies." Lewis brought up. "This unsub is confident we won't be able to identify him."
"Only two of the women abducted were interviewed so far, and neither of them were able to give a description of their rapist." Spencer said, reiterating what was in the reports. "It isn't clear since neither interview was completed, but based on what Phyllis Thomas, the second victim interviewed, told police, it's likely the unsub blinded each victim first before sexually assaulting them."
"That's an effective forensic counter measure. By blinding his victims and never letting them see his face, they'll never be able to ID him or give a description to the police." JJ said. "That shows he's organized and intelligent."
"But then why make no effort to clean his DNA from each victim? He has to know they'll be found, questioned by police and given an medical examination." Rossi rubbed his chin, rereading the page he was on. "He didn't bother with his fingerprints either."
"It's possible blinding his victims is a compulsion rather than a forensic countermeasure. He needs to blind his victims." Hotch suggested, though he too found the mix of organization and disorganization of this unsub vexing. The way the unsub abandoned each victim in a different city or town, and to strike in an area where there were a lot of tourists suggested that the unsub was organized. Though the way the unsub didn't bother with cleaning up his DNA or fingerprints which, once he was arrested for any crime, would connect him to the sexual assaults, suggested otherwise.
Rossi, about to respond, paused instead when his cell phone rang. Making a 'hold on' gesture to the team, he answered it.
"Hello, yes. Are you meeting us...oh, okay." Rossi listened, saying a few more sentences before ending the call.
"Was that agent Fitzgerald?" Hotch asked after Rossi put away the cell phone. "Is she joining us?"
"...Cam apparently transferred to the L.A field office five weeks ago." Rossi replied, referring to an agent that had helped the team a handful of years back when most of them were out with colds. She had helped out now and again since then, but always temporarily. "She sends her regards. But won't be able to help out this time."
"That's too bad, I was looking forward to finally meeting her." JJ mentioned. Out of all of them, aside from Lewis, she was the only BAU member not to meet Cam Fitzgerald yet. Mainly since Fitzgerald was only called in to help when the team was at least two to three agents down. And it seemed that JJ had always been one of the team members out each time Fitzgerald was brought in.
"All right, back to the case at hand..."
A/N: I've decided to connect this fic and Time's Sublimest Target, as revealed by the BAU talking about Cam Fitzgerald (my OC from Time's Sublimest Target) at the end of this chapter. So far I don't have any concrete plans on bringing Cam into this fic, but consider this fic as taking place after Time's Sublimest Target (I do plan on updating more to Time's Sublimest Target while writing to this fic.)
On another topic, if any of you reading this who are also fans of the manga Skipbeat, then you'll already have noticed after reading this chapter, but I based Alsie partly on Mio Hongo. However, only partly. I can't say who else I based her on without giving away much of the plot (though I may have already given it away, depending on how observant readers are, and if my writing was obvious...) People haven't mentioned so in reviews, so I don't know...
PS: I named Cam Fitzgerald after my favorite Harvest Moon/Bokujo Monogatari character...