My Life Had Stood
Chapter 18: My Only Sunshine Pt2
"Jenna Fletcher? I'm David Rossi, from the BAU. And this is Aaron Hotchner." Rossi greeted the pacing teenager, whose tear-reddened eyes kept darting toward Nicole Fletcher's hospital room. The fifteen year old barely registered Rossi's greeting.
Instead she chewed on her fingernails, and wrapped her other arm around herself.
"...your father is on his way, Jenna." Hotch spoke, following the teen's gaze. "You can go in and see your mother if you want."
The teen sniffled, partly approaching the door at the same time as she shook her head. She backtracked just inches from opening the door. She mumbled something that neither agent were able to catch.
"Jenna?" Ted Gregson, Nicole's ex, called out as he approached. He held out his arms as though to embrace his daughter, but the fifteen year old instead mumbled a quick excuse and darted toward the lavatory. "Jen..."
"Ted Gregson, this is agent Rossi and I'm agent Hotchner." Hotch greeted Ted. "I know this must be a difficult time, and that you've already been questioned by the police, but we were hoping you could shed some light on a few things."
"...I already told them cops I didn't do it." Ted replied, belligerently. His deep gray eyes glared at the agents.
"We know you couldn't have done this." Hotch replied. "We just want to ask some questions concerning Nicole."
0
JJ stood in the center of Benjamin's room, staring at all the toddler toys and furniture. This was the type of case she hated.
"...based on where paramedics found the Fletchers, the unsub must have been in the room when he fired." Morgan studied the room and the crime scene report. "He was already in the room when Nicole Fletcher surprised him. He could've taken the toddler hostage to control the mother without needing to fire. Yet he didn't seem to hesitate shooting the Fletchers."
"...Morgan," JJ interrupted, realizing what had seemed off the moment she'd entered the room. She picked up a photo of the toddler in sleeping. "The unsub took Ben's blanket and his favorite plush toy as well."
JJ handed the photo to Morgan. Both the blanket and the stuffed bunny that Ben had in that photo were nowhere to be seen in the room. She approached the child's dresser and inspected the drawers, noting right away that it had been rifled through.
"The unsub also took a change of clothes for Ben." JJ said, after a drop of blood on one of the outfits caught her attention. Thinking for a moment she glanced back at the crib, then the rest of the scene. "...I think our unsub's a woman."
0
The lavatory lights were bright, and Jenna could hear the sounds of the bustling hospital through the door. She breathed in deeply to steady the flow of tears, then splashed water on her face.
She trembled, feeling nauseous as she recalled her mother lying in bed, hooked to those machines. And what she'd overheard the doctors say...that her mother was brain-dead.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Jenna gasped, sobbing once again. She took out her cell phone, checking her inbox through blurry eyes. Another sob escaped her once she saw there'd been no response.
Trying once more to steady herself by taking a deep breath, Jenna dialed a number. Barely a ring and a half in it cut off and went to voicemail. She felt her stomach clench at the beep and the automated voice.
"...what did you do? Oh, god..." Jenna half sobbed, half whispered into the phone. Her hands shaking. She quickly pressed the call end button when the restroom door opened.
It was one of the nurses, there to ask if she was all right.
0
Isabel hummed, holding Benjamin against her. She had dressed him in a green and blue dinosaur shirt with a lighter blue pair of pants.
"Mommy's here, mommy's here. It'll be all right." She crooned and patted the boy's back gently. She kissed his forehead and started singing to him. Her voice melodious and soft.
The sounds of the forest outside were the only other noise, the trailer quite peaceful while the boy slept. The sound of her cell phone ringing again broke the tranquility. It's shrillness caused Benjamin to stir in her arms.
Hushing the toddler, Isabel picked up the phone, saw the number calling and pressed the hang up button. She held down until it powered off. Her face scowling at the contraption even then.
"Shh, shh. It's all right. No one's gonna take you again." Isabel whispered between kisses on Benjamin's forehead. "No one will. No one."
Her eyes locked on the pistol laid on the trailer's small counter.
0
"What do you think?" Hotch asked Rossi after Ted Gregson left the room. The sobered up man hadn't been much help answering questions. Nothing about his demeanor suggested he was lying or complicit in the abduction, but something bothered Hotch.
"...I doubt he had anything to do with our unsub. But there's something about him..." Rossi replied. He rubbed his chin, thinking. "You saw how his daughter Jenna avoided him. Her mother and step-father are both shot, her baby brother kidnapped yet she avoids her father. She didn't even look at him."
"I agree it's strange. But who does it say more about? The father or daughter? Mr. Gregson doesn't seem to have any animosity towards his daughter. Nor his ex-wife." Hotch's cell phone started ringing before Rossi could suggest talking with the daughter. Glancing at the number, Hotch answered it and placed it on speaker. "JJ, did you and Morgan find anything?"
-"The unsub is a woman. Possibly a mother." JJ said, she and Morgan searching the downstairs pantry. "She took the time to take not just Ben's blanket and favorite toy, but also a change of clothes and some baby food and a bottle. A man would likely not bother taking anything but the child. Especially not after he shot the parents."-
"Um, that does make it more likely that the unsub's a woman." Hotch replied, about to say more when Morgan interrupted.
-"It's definitely a woman. One that either had kids of her own or took care of other people's. Nicole Fletcher made her own homemade baby food for her son. The unsub recognized it for what it was and took a few containers."-
"In that case, it's possible the unsub used homemade baby food herself. Likely with her own child." Hotch considered things, and glanced at Rossi.
"If our unsub is a mother, it's likely she lost a child recently and took Benjamin as a replacement." Rossi said. "We should have Garcia look into women in the area who lost a child recently."
Hotch agreed, and while Rossi called up Garcia to do just that, he continued with another question. "Have you managed to find out how the unsub got inside the house?"
-"There's no sign that the unsub climbed up to an upstairs window. Nor is there any sign of forced entry downstairs. One of the Fletcher's must have left a door unlocked or let the unsub in."-
"Considering the unsub is likely female, Mrs. Fletcher might not have had the same reservations about letting a strange woman in as opposed to a male. Especially if the unsub used a ruse that would play to Mrs. Fletcher's maternal instincts."
-"Maybe. But that doesn't explain how the unsub managed to slip into the nursery before the Fletchers. The unsub shot them from inside the room."-
"All right, Garcia." Rossi's voice cut through before Hotch could reply to JJ and Morgan. He turned to Hotch, as Garcia patched into the phone call with the team. "Garcia may have found something."
"What is it, Garcia?"
-"Sirs, Nicole doesn't seem to have much in way of relatives. Neither does her first husband, and both seemed to have moved around a lot. For various reasons." Garcia spoke, fidgeting with her glittery pen. "Nicole's recent move with her second husband seemed to have been prompted by a stalker. Not the scary, perverted kind, but rather a woman around Nicole's age who kept harassing her."-
"Did the Fletchers know her name? Or what she looked like?"
-"Oh, yes. In fact, Marcus took out a restraining order against the woman after finding out about the harassment." Garcia paused, clicking her pen. "Her name's Isabel Kaurich and she had been stalking Nicole for at least six months. Here, however, is were it gets dicey. When questioned by the police about the harassment, Ms. Kaurich accused the Fletchers of kidnapping her baby. She insisted that Benjamin was hers and that the Fletchers kidnapped him."-
-"Wow, that's a serious accusation. How did the Fletchers respond?" Morgan inquired.-
-"They denied it. And local police looked into things, found that Ms. Kaurich had given birth to a child around the same time as Nicole and even at the same hospital, but to a girl not a boy." Garcia replied, a sad curve to her lips. "Further, Ms. Kaurich's daughter died while she was in a psychiatric hospital in Nevada."-
-"That has to be the trigger. She couldn't handle the truth and so she convinces herself the Fletchers took her child." JJ said.-
"Garcia, do you have an address and photo for Isabel Kaurich?" Hotch asked, only for Garcia to reply of course and that she was sending it right away. Once the information reached their phones, Hotch suggested they meet there, and ended the call.
Rossi, however, paused after glancing at the photo of Isabel Kaurich. His eyes narrowed, something about the woman familiar, though he had never seen her before.
"Dave?"
"...I don't know, Aaron. Something about this feels off. I can't..." Rossi trailed off as he saw Jenna Fletcher standing outside her mother's hospital room. He looked at her and then back at the photo of Isabel. "Am I crazy or does Isabel Kaurich resemble Jenna Fletcher?"
Hotch's brow rose in surprise, but he nonetheless looked at the photo Garcia had sent then at the fifteen year old down the corridor. He quickly noticed the similarities between the two. Both in coloring and facial features. Hotch turned back to Rossi, expression incredulous.
"They look like they could be related." Rossi suggested, still glancing at Jenna.
"...Jenna does have a widow's peak and cleft chin. Both, I believe, are dominant genetic traits. A child who has them usually has a parent with the same trait. Yet neither Nicole nor her ex-husband have either." Hotch replied, while also noting that Isabel Kaurich had both. Combined with the similar coloring in hair and eyes...
Rossi quickly called Garcia back up. "Garcia, did Isabel Kaurich have any other children?"
-"Oh, let me just check..." Garcia mumbled, the sound of her typing audible over the phone. "Yes. Fifteen years ago, Ms. Kaurich gave birth to a daughter that was reported to have died within hours of being born."-
Rossi shared a look with Hotch. "At what hospital did Isabel give birth fifteen years ago?"
-"That would be..." Garcia paused while she read the information on her screen. "That is so uncanny. It's the same one Nicole Fletcher, known as Nicole Gregson at the time, gave birth to her daughter Jenna. The only difference is that Nicole gave birth fourteen hours before Isabel. Hm." Garcia paused in thought, considering the coincidence.-
"Thanks, Garcia." Rossi replied, hanging up.
"Dave, you don't think that...?" Hotch started to ask, glancing back at Jenna.
"It could explain why Jenna hasn't stepped foot in her mother's hospital room and why she's avoiding her father." Rossi replied.
Hotch mulled over the idea. "All right, see if you can get Jenna to tell you what she knows. And question Ted Gregson again. I'll meet up with JJ and Morgan at Isabel Kaurich's place."
"Good luck."