My Life Had Stood
Chapter 19: My Only Sunshine Pt3
Benjamin Fletcher wailed, his crying voice shrill. His eyes, a soft amber hue, wrinkled up as he bawled. The strange woman was standing over him and his mother was nowhere to be seen.
"Shut up. Shut up." Isabel hissed through clenched teeth, though not at the two year old. Rather the hiss was directed toward the other end of the trailer. No one was there. "I am his mother. I am."
Isabel growled at the empty air, her voice soon becoming as shrill as the wailing toddler's. She paced across the small trailer's floor, not paying any attention to Benjamin crying beside the bed. She nearly stepped on him.
"Shut up!" Isabel shouted, glaring at the empty air. Her eyes seemed to be seeing someone despite it being only her and the boy in the trailer. "He is my baby. He is. He has to be."
She picked up the pistol and continued to pace, mumbling to herself. Still ignoring the crying toddler.
0
"Hello, Jenna? I'd like to ask you some questions." Rossi asked the fifteen year old, his vocal tone sympathetic. "Do you think you're up to it?"
Jenna frowned, her lips quivering. Her entire demeanor that of someone ready to fold under a terrible weight. Rossi quickly led her to a chair and offered her a cup of water. Her distress stopped him from asking his questions.
"It's okay. Just rest." Rossi said, feeling a tidbit of disappointment at being unable to ask her questions, but it was generally overwhelmed by feeling her distress. He decided it would be better to start with Ted Gregson instead.
He was about to do so when Jenna grabbed his sleeve.
"Did they find her yet?" Jenna asked haltingly in a broken voice. She searched Rossi's face, imploring him to answer.
"Find her?" Rossi asked, thrown off by the pronoun. The child taken was a boy, and Jenna's younger brother.
"Isa. The woman who took Bennie." Jenna swallowed back a sob, though tears still fell silently down her cheeks.
"Jenna, you know the woman who took your brother?" Rossi asked as he sat down next to her.
"She wasn't supposed to hurt anybody. She only wanted to see Bennie and tuck him in. She wasn't supposed to..." Jenna started sobbing, halting the words she was no longer able to keep to herself.
Rossi gaped quietly at the teen for a second, her admission explaining much that had baffled them. "You gave Isabel the key to your house."
He drew in a breath as Jenna nodded. "It's my fault."
"No, no, it isn't. You didn't know what she was going to do." Rossi reassured Jenna, while he heard someone approach before suddenly stopping. He glanced up and saw Ted Gregson.
"Jenna, what did you do?" Ted asked the distraught teenager. His own face and posture displaying terrible fear mixed with horror. There wasn't however any anger.
"I...I...I'm sorry." Jenna sobbed, wrapping her arms around herself in a comforting gesture. "She seemed so lonely, I didn't..."
"Jenna, Jennie. It's all right." Ted knelt down in front of his daughter and gently held her hands. "It's okay. It's okay."
Rossi watched as Ted consoled Jenna, the misgivings he had had earlier vanishing. Ted Gregson was a father who genuinely loved his daughter.
"No. It's not all right." Jenna pushed her father away suddenly, her pained expression also angry. "Mom's..."
Ted took a deep breath, composing himself before responding. "I know...it's not your fault. It'll be okay."
Jenna shook her head, denying the reassurance. "You're lying. You always lie. It's not going to be all right. Mom...I...it's my fault..."
"No." Rossi reassured the teen when Ted seemed unable to say more. "You had no control over what Isabel did. That's entirely on her."
Jenna looked at Rossi, her tear-stained face conflicted. She wanted to believe him but something prevented her. "No, you don't understand. Isa...she doesn't always know what she's doing. I should've been there. I should've made sure she was okay."
"Jenna..." Ted said, interrupting Rossi attempting to reassure the teen again. "Why were you talking to her at all? That woman..."
"She doesn't lie. She may get confused and not know what she's doing, but she doesn't lie." Jenna snapped, though her tone remained more sad than angry. "Unlike you and mom."
"Jenna, we didn't lie. We didn't..."
"You lied about Isa. About me." Jenna snapped again, her tone getting more accusatory. "You said I wasn't adopted. I..."
"You weren't. You're our daughter. Our flesh and..."
"I had a DNA test done." Jenna said, shaking her head vehemently against Ted's denial. Rossi quickly glanced at Ted, though it wasn't quite the questioning session he'd sought, there was a lot of information being given. Even if inadvertently. "Neither of you are my biological parents."
Rossi noted that Ted blanched and gave a furtive glance at him as though terrified of Rossi overhearing. It wasn't at all a normal reaction. Ted Gregson was more terrified of Rossi hearing about Jenna not being related to her parents by blood than by him learning that Jenna had given the unsub her house key.
"We should talk about this later." Ted said, swallowing and throwing another furtive glance at Rossi.
Jenna looked at Ted, a mix of emotions running rampant through her. "Why do you keep lying or avoiding talking about things? I know the truth...Why...?" Jenna implored, her eyes searching his. They slowly widened as an idea occurred to her. She pulled away, slowly shaking her head. "Was Isa right? Did you and mom...? Did you take..."
"Enough. I'm not going to talk about this now." Ted replied, trying to regain control of the conversation and hide the truth, but failed miserably. Rossi saw right through him.
"God, I'm gonna be sick..." Jenna mumbled and ran to the lavatory. She too hadn't been fooled by Ted's denial or avoidance.
"Jenna, wait!" Ted started after her, only to be stopped by Rossi.
"I believe we should have another chat, Mr. Gregson." Rossi spoke, his tone and expression leaving no room for dissent.
0
"Isabel Kaurich! FBI!" Hotch shouted as he, Morgan, and JJ, along with a few of the local police, approached the tiny trailer. The mobile home was too tiny for their arrival to be a surprise from the occupant.
Sure enough, Isabel Kaurich exited the trailer. A child's wail could be heard coming from inside the home. Isabel stumbled to the ground however, blood covering her leg.
They quickly hurried toward the woman, and to the crying boy inside the trailer.
"His arm's broken." JJ called out after reaching the screaming child and picking him up. She noticed quickly that Benjamin's showed signs of being stepped on. A result of which was his broken arm.
"Damn." Morgan said, noticing the blood pooled on the trailer floor. He let JJ enough room to exit with the crying child in her arms.
"Is Benjamin all right?" Hotch asked as JJ handed Benjamin to the paramedics. He had knelt next to Isabel Kaurich while JJ and Morgan had checked inside the trailer, which barely had enough space for two adults.
"He has a broken arm, but I think he's okay otherwise." JJ said, staying close to the child while the paramedics did their job. "What about Kaurich?"
"She has a bullet wound in her leg and has lost a lot of blood."
"Self-inflicted?" JJ asked, smiling sadly after the boy when the paramedics took him away into the ambulance.
"Hard to say. The angle of entry seemed strange, but it's possible." Hotch replied while Morgan stepped out of the trailer.
"I think Ms. Kaurich might have tripped and shot herself in the leg. There's indications she was pacing quite a lot inside the trailer." Morgan explained, while JJ tittered incredulously.
"She must've stepped on Benjamin and tripped because of that. His shirt sleeve had a shoe-print on it." JJ felt half relieved but also disgusted. She had pictured Isabel as a distraught mother, but what sort if mother would step on a child?
"Isabel Kaurich did spend time in a psychiatric hospital. It's possible she had a psychotic break after taking Benjamin and shooting the Fletchers."
"It's lucky the bullet only hit her leg and not Benjamin." Morgan shook his head, looking while the paramedics brought a bandaged and sedated Isabel Kaurich to a second ambulance.
"We should return to the hospital and tell the family Benjamin's all right." Hotch said, and headed to the SUV.
"All right." JJ said, climbing into the passenger side. Morgan got in back. "You said Rossi stood behind to question Nicole's daughter and ex-husband. It doesn't seem necessary now."
"That depends on what he finds out." Hotch replied as he pulled back onto the road. Morgan and JJ gave him curious looks at the cryptic response. "It's possible that Kaurich was right about her child being taken but wrong about which child it was."
"What?" JJ and Morgan both gaped. Their impression about Kaurich and the Fletchers changing. "You mean Jenna Fletcher could be Isabel's?"
"She might be. Ms. Kaurich gave birth fifteen years ago to a daughter within hours of Nicole Fletcher. At the same hospital." Hotch replied. He continued before JJ or Morgan mentioned it could simply be a coincidence. "Neither of you saw Jenna Fletcher. She resembles Isabel Kaurich a lot. Enough that it's possible that they're related."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah."
"Damn..." Morgan breathed, the next moment narrowing his eyes as he remembered a detail. JJ seemed to also be thinking. "Wait a minute. Didn't Rossi mention Mrs. Fletcher's doctor had the same name as the person who sent James a letter in prison? A Dr. Somerfield?"
"And if Nicole Fletcher did take Jenna from Isabel Kaurich..." JJ looked at Hotch. "Hotch, you don't think that this...this might be connected to what happened to Rossi's son James? That the Somerfield who sent the letter is the same as the Fletchers' doctor?"
"I don't know. But it's possible. It depends on how many Somerfields there are. It could be a coincidence."
"I'll call up Garcia." Morgan said, dialing up the tech analyst. She answered shortly after the first ring. "Baby girl, I was wondering if you could tell us how many 'Somerfields' there are?"
-"In the US, less than 200. That's to say it's a very uncommon name." Garcia replied without a pause to actually type on her keyboard. She noticed the surprised silence at the quickness of her answer. "What? After Rossi mentioned that his son received a letter from someone named Somerfield, I did some digging."-
"...What else did you find out?" Hotch asked after sharing a silent glance with JJ and Morgan.
-"Well, sir, I believe I found out which Somerfield sent the letter. And that old lady Rossi spoke to might not be so innocent." Garcia revealed. "She's the sister of a Dr. Morland Somerfield, a psychiatrist, and he ran his practice out of her home until fifteen years ago. He's moved his practice quite a few times since then, mostly due to a loss of reputation after his longstanding friends and colleagues Dr. Gregory and Dr. Judith Bennett were arrested and lost their licenses after it was discovered they had been conducting psychological experiments on their patients without informing the patients or bothering to seek consent."-
"Did those experiments have to do with sensory deprivation?" Hotch asked after turning onto the street that led toward the hospital.
-"Yes. Their focus was on the effects of the more extreme types of sensory deprivation and social seclusion, among other things. They were investigated after the deaths of three patients in their care due to severe sleep deprivation." Garcia paused as she read the files on the Bennetts on her computer screen. "'Monsters' doesn't begin to describe these two. When questioned after being arrested, they justified what they did by saying they had consent. But those patients they experimented on weren't well or competent enough to give consent."-
"Damn." Morgan mumbled, his thoughts like JJ and Hotch's were on James Rossi and the near certainty they had that he had been subjected to similar experiments. The only reason they didn't know for sure was because James still refused to speak with any of them.