My Life Had Stood
Chapter 7: A Secret Told
The sky sapphire blue with clouds accenting it with white until it reached the horizon. There her eyes took in the train tracks stretching far and appearing to converge - though that was just the trick distance and the horizon played on the eye.
'I need to get out of here. He's going to find me...' Amy Vaughn tried to breathe evenly in effort to calm her racing thoughts. It was futile. All she managed was to worry herself more for pulling attention to herself.
Not that many cars passed by this place or that the people driving them cared who she was.
She clenched a newspaper in her fists, twisting and untwisting it. It was foolish, she should've known after reading the first article. Should've realized...there was no escaping the past.
He was in the city. Amy had seen him while out with her daughter Amber. It was mere chance that she'd seen him before he'd seen her. Otherwise...she didn't want to think about otherwise.
Twenty-one years. That's how long it'd been since she'd seen him. Yet she still remembered him, despite the years. Almost as though she'd been his real mother. Though in every way imaginable she had been. Except...
"James..." Amy trembled, her mind on the article about the series of rapes that occurred. Particularly about how the victims were left blinded. She recalled pictures James had drawn when he was twelve - women with their eyes blacked out or red with blood. Each one had been more vivid, more graphic.
She'd done what she could for him. She hadn't wanted to leave him in that place but that had been the deal...
Amy breathed in deeply, glancing down at the newspaper crumbled in her hands. Tears dripped onto the newsprint. She'd turn fifty soon, her husband, almost six years younger than her, had turned 44 last month. Maybe it was time to stop hiding.
If she told Randy the truth, maybe he could help...
She was still distracted by her thoughts when someone pulled up, parking by the curb.
0
Hotch frowned, reading over the information gathered about the unsub's latest victim. Unlike the others, this woman hadn't been raped. Her eyes, however, had been stabbed and gouged, and then bleached before being sutured, same as the other victims.
It was their unsub's signature, brutal yet unique. This wasn't a copycat. But the absence of sexual assault and no signs of increased torture to compensate didn't make sense. If the unsub was devolving there would be increased violence and less control.
Furthermore, even though this victim had died, evidence found at where she was left by the unsub, strongly suggested she had accidentally fallen into the river herself. The unsub had left her near the river but just as near to the road.
In her blind state, she'd picked the direction heading toward the river and drowned.
Hotch rubbed his forehead, closing the file.
"...Hotch," JJ called out as she entered the room. She'd been trying once more to arrange interviews with the other victims, yet still received only refusals. "They've identified the victim who drowned."
Hotch looked up, his expression asking the question before his words. "Who was she?"
"...Julie Vaughn." JJ replied after a brief second. Hotch drew in a breath hearing the name, having just interviewed her father a few hours ago about her mother's sudden disappearance.
"Has her father, Randy Vaughn, been notified yet?" Hotch's eyes narrowed slightly, considering the lack of rape with this victim in a new light.
"Morgan and Rossi are bringing him in now." JJ replied, she continued before Hotch could voice another question. "Before marking Mr. Vaughn as a suspect, you should know Garcia's already checked in on his alibi. He was out of town for those two weeks. And, turns out it wasn't a business trip."
"...he was having an affair?"
"With a married man." JJ finished, dashing the theory Hotch had started to consider. "It'd been going on for seven years, and according to the man Randy was seeing, Amy Vaughn knew about it. According to him, Randy and Amy's marriage was one of convenience to placate Randy's parents."
"What about their daughters? If he's their biological father..."
"That's the other thing Garcia found out. Amber is Randy's biological daughter but was conceived through in-vitro fertilization." JJ paused. "Julie, on the other hand, was already four when Amy and Randy met."
"So Randy Vaughn's her step-father..." Hotch said as he considered this new information. He also thought back to how Mr. Vaughn had reacted when he questioned him before. Randy Vaughn's concern for his wife and love for his daughters was genuine. He wasn't their unsub.
"..." JJ opened her mouth to speak further when Mr. Vaughn's anguished voice echoed through the corridor outside the room.
"Where's Julie?! I want to see my daughter!" Randy Vaughn's voice reached them despite the door being closed.
JJ and Hotch shared a look. Sometimes this job sucked.
0
Spencer searched through their victims' files again, trying to find some commonality. The anguish cry Randy Vaughn had given after being told about his daughter Julie reverberated in Spencer's thoughts. It wasn't something he'd ever get used to - though he was sure Hotch, JJ, and Rossi were all more affected by it since they were parents.
He swallowed, briefly pondering the same what if scenario he'd repeated considered over the years. If Maeve...
Spencer cleared his throat and shook his head, bringing his attention squarely back to the files. There had to be something that could link their victims, other than just being in the Niagara Falls-Buffalo region of Western New York when they were abducted.
"Wait..." Spencer furrowed his brow, looking at each victim's driver license or ID photo that showed what they looked like before their attack. Aside from all the unsub's victims being Caucasian, their age, hair color, and eye color had all varied, precluding a type.
At least at first glance.
Spencer noted the different eye colors: blue, green, gray, hazel, as well as hair colors: ranging from various shades of red, blonde and black. None of the victims had brown eyes, and only one had hair that could be considered brown. The shade however could be taken as a reddish blonde rather than brown.
Considering the statistics on brown eyes and brown hair, that both were predominant worldwide, and that the unsub chose a tourist hub as his hunting ground: the fact that none of the victims had either suggested the unsub wasn't choosing them at random. Rather he was deliberately not choosing those with brown eyes or hair.
Spencer's brow furrowed more, considering why an unsub would have a preference against a certain type rather than for it. An idea occurred to him just as Rossi opened the door.
"Police just brought in Amy Vaughn." Rossi told Spencer. "She was at the Amtrak station."
"...She was trying to leave the area?" Spencer asked, puzzled. If Amy Vaughn hadn't been abducted by their unsub, why had she not been home or answered her husband's calls? And what about her alleged agoraphobia?
"Hotch and JJ are still questioning Randy Vaughn about his daughters, so I was heading to question Amy Vaughn. Care to join in?"
Spencer nodded, following Rossi to the room Amy Vaughn had been brought. On the way he filled Rossi in on what he discovered, as well as the possible explanation behind it.
"If that is what he's doing, he's either gutsy or smart or both." Rossi replied, considering Spencer's theory that the unsub was deliberately picking victims not his type. As well as it being possible that the unsub had assaulted women matching his type before and hadn't been caught.
"He's taunting the police. Saying 'you can't catch me, I've done this before and you don't realize it.'" Spencer said, feeling a sense of certainty. This part of their conversation stopped as they entered the room to question Amy Vaughn.
0
Amy Vaughn trembled, eyes downcast as Rossi and Spencer entered the room. She picked at the skin around her fingernails.
"Mrs. Vaughn," Rossi approached the table: the room was a spare meeting room, not an interrogation one. "I'm SSA David Rossi and this is Dr. Spencer Reid. We're..."
Amy Vaughn, having been only nervous before, became suddenly terrified. Her round, hazel eyes looked at Rossi, giving the impression of a deer caught in the headlights. The next few seconds passed in silence before Amy caught herself and quickly averted her gaze back to her hands.
"...I didn't know the FBI were here." Amy said, picking more at her nails before realizing what she was doing and stopping it. She interlocked her hands together, stopping her nervous body language.
Unlucky for her, neither Rossi nor Spencer missed any of her peculiar behavior. Spencer glanced at Rossi, noticing that the elder agent studied Amy closely. It seemed like he was trying to figure out if he and she had met before. Considering her reaction to his name and the terrified stare she gave him, it was possible - probable - that Rossi had met her before. Most likely on another case.
Rossi considered Amy quietly, wondering if he should've brought her to an interrogation room instead. Her reaction screamed guilt, add to that her attempting to leave the region before police brought her in and that the only victim the unsub hadn't raped was her daughter - Amy Vaughn was hiding something. Most likely the identity of their unsub.
"Who is he?" Rossi went with the direct approach and remained where he was.
"..." Amy stared up at him, showing the same terrified and guilty expression. Rossi repeated the question, specifying that he wanted the name of the rapist. It seemed a few minutes passed before Amy Vaughn realized what he'd asked. She managed to stop herself before giving a relieved sigh.
Rossi and Spencer still caught it however. It perplexed them, and for a second both wondered if Amy would deny knowing the unsub.
"Jam...Kevin Wagner. My son." Amy spoke, her voice clear though she had amended the name and put a strange emphasis on the word 'son'. Like she was lying, but desperately wanted to be believed.
Rossi considered Amy and her answer for a moment, before requesting she remain there in case they had further questions. He then motioned Spencer to follow him out into the hall.
"That was strange." Spencer said.
"Yeah, tell me about it." Rossi mumbled, already dialing Garcia's number. "What's bizarre is I swear I've seen her before but it wasn't during a case."
"Well, um..."
"No, it wasn't on a date either." Rossi replied reading Spencer's suggestion on the younger agent's face. The next moment Garcia had answered his call. "Garcia, look up everything you can on a Kevin Wagner. And Amy Vaughn... No, Amy Wagner..."
Rossi's eyes widened then narrowed in confusion, suddenly realizing where he'd met Amy Vaughn before. However it just made things more confusing, it had had nothing to do with his job or a case.
"Rossi...?"
Rossi quietly ended his call to Garcia, impressing on her the importance of getting that information asap. He turned back to study Amy Vaughn, wondering why she would be terrified of him. The hospital hadn't been at fault...
That's where he'd met her before. While visiting with Carolyn after their son James had been declared dead. She had just given birth herself, and had offered condolences to Carolyn.
While Rossi stared through the glass at Amy Vaughn, mulling things over in his head, she suddenly met his gaze. That same terrified look flashed across her face, only now it seemed even more so. It was like she feared he knew...
Rossi's stomach clenched, reading Amy Vaughn's expression; a sickening feeling he could only describe as horror filled him.
'No.'
"...Rossi?" Spencer watched the older agent, worried at the sudden anger and horror that splashed across Rossi's face.
Instead of answering Rossi turned and left, storming down the corridor. Mentally denying what he'd read in Amy Vaughn's face, though it was the only explanation that could account for her bizarre behavior. As well as her slip when saying her son, their unsub's...
He stopped suddenly, taking a sharp inhale of breath. 'No, no, no...she has to be delusional...or just unhinged...or I just read too much into it...It can't...'
"Rossi?" Hotch called out to him, having noticed the older agent storm down the hall and then suddenly stop. He stood just outside the door to the room where he'd been talking to Randy Vaughn.
"I just need some air, Hotch." Rossi replied, heading toward the exit before the man could question further.