Disclaimer:
I DO NOT OWN CRIMINAL MINDS. I do happen to own that poem however. Please don't steal my poem.
It was this part of her job that Emily hated. She was sitting in the Mc Keeves' living room with JJ and a distraught woman. The woman was crying, JJ attempting to get her to calm down. Emily's brown eyes flickered about the room, taking in the décor. Faces lined their walls and the mantel. There were a lot of pictures of the kids, Sarah, Angelina, and Theodore. There didn't seem to be many pictures of the adults, Emily noted. It was as if the parents centered all their attention and affection on their kids.
She focused on Angelina. She only looked about five in the pictures she could see, Theodore looked about nine. She turned her attention to the woman.
"Mrs. Mc Keeve, how old are your children?" Emily asked gently.
"Sarah as you know is twelve years old. Teddy's ten years old….but Angel's only five," the woman replied. "You don't think they're dead do you?"
"No we don't," Emily told the woman. "We think this person still has your kids…but Sarah is the key to all of this. We sent two of our agents to speak with her. Hopefully she'll tell us something."
"But right now you need to help us," JJ said. "Is there anyone you can think of that acted strange around Sarah?"
"Strange how?" Mrs. Mc Keeve asked.
"Was there anyone who always wanted to be around Sarah?" Emily asked. "Anyone who was a little too close for your and Sarah's comfort?"
"Was there someone who went out of their way to be nice to Sarah?" JJ asked. "Did anyone you didn't know give Sarah presents or something like that? They might have been uninterested in Angelina or Theodore, but seemed to give Sarah their undivided attention."
"Why would they be uninterested in Teddy and Angel? That son of a bitch took them too!"
"Mrs. Mc Keeve, they might have seen their older sister being abducted," Emily said. "Maybe Teddy even tried to stop it. The unsub couldn't allow eyewitnesses. We should be thankful they weren't killed on the spot."
"Aside from that," JJ said. "Our unsub likes girls that look like Sarah, and I mean almost exactly like Sarah. Angel's eyes aren't hazel, and Teddy's a boy."
"Well…there are a few people," Mrs. Mc Keeve admitted. "Oliver Rosiano gave Sarah presents…but that's because he's the only one of my children he's ever met."
"He never met Teddy or Angel?" JJ asked.
"No… Oliver works with my husband at the hospital. He was there the day Sarah was born, and Sarah loved going in with my husband to work. Teddy and Angel weren't that interested in medicine, not like Sarah was," Mrs. Mc Keeve said.
"Why do you keep talking about your daughter in past tense?" Emily asked.
"Has she woken up yet?" Mrs. Mc Keeve asked. "The last time I was at the hospital…they said she might not wake up."
"I can ask," JJ said. "I'll call Spencer to see if they're having any luck with her."
JJ took out her phone and dialed Reid. Mrs. Mc Keeve looked anxiously at JJ. Emily then asked, "Who else? You said a few people acted like that."
"Well there's Inspector Francis," Mrs. Mc Keeve said. "Sarah used to be friends with his younger sister."
"Used….?" Emily asked.
"Adelaide was killed in a car accident sixth months ago," Mrs. Mc Keeve said. "Darryl was rather upset when she died. He kind of took Sarah on as another little sister. And there's the mailman, Jack Chamberlain. Sarah always waits for him so she can ask him about his day. Jack's an elder man; he really appreciates what Sarah does for him."
"Have they been around lately?" Emily asked.
"Jack and Darryl have been around frequently," Mrs. Mc Keeve said. "Oliver's only been to our house once, and that was before Sarah was born. He doesn't come for visits."
Emily nodded and then asked, "Can I go look at their rooms?"
"Yes…Angel and Sarah share a room," she said. "Teddy has his own room. It's rather small, but it's still his room."
Emily walked into the larger room. It was bright pink with darker pink streaks. She saw a difference between the two girls immediately. Emily chuckled and muttered, "Reid would love Sarah, and Pen would be all over Angelina."
Sarah's side of the room was practically filled with books. There were an assortment of science, history, and old literature books littering her shelves. Papers were askew on her desk, almost like she was in the middle of something. Emily picked up a paper and read it.
Silence: By Sarah Mc Keeve
Silence
That painful stone weight
Silence
Full of Hate
Silence
Cuts you to your core
Silence
Till you don't care any more
Silence
Pushes you away
Silence
Never lets you stay
Silence
Wishes for revenge
My silence
Wishes for the end
"Interesting…"
"What's interesting?" a voice asked.
Emily turned to see JJ standing behind her. JJ then smiled and said, "Sarah's awake, Morgan's talking to her now. Apparently Morgan was able to coax the girl out of her shell, and guess who was there?"
"Who?"
"Inspector Francis, I overheard a bit of the conversation. Think he could be a suspect?" she asked.
"I wouldn't doubt it," Emily said. "He's been friendly towards Sarah before, and he knows where she lives. Read this poem JJ. I don't think the unsub was the first to touch Sarah."
Emily looked through other papers, gathering some of them up. JJ read it and looked at Emily. Emily gestured to Angelina's side of the room.
"Jay, think you could start digging through Angelina's garbage?" Emily asked.
"Yeah," JJ said.
She looked over at Angelina's side. It was different than Sarah's side, instead of books there were jewelry boxes and masses of play makeup. Angelina apparently liked to dress up from the abundance of costumes under her bed. She seemed like a normal five year old girl. There was an abundance of stuffed animals, but something disturbed JJ. All of her dolls…their hair was cut very short, almost to the point where they didn't have hair. They had purple sharpie on parts of their bodies, along with red sharpie.
"Em…you should see this," JJ said taking one of the dolls.
"Okay…a girl who writes depressing poems…one slightly suicidal…and a little girl who defaces extensions of herself," Emily said. "I wonder just what Theodore's room will hold."
"Hey Em…can I ask you a quick question?"
"Shoot JJ."
"Why do you call the kids by their full names?"
"Jay…for some reason it doesn't feel right calling them anything but that right now," Emily said. "A nickname is something usually only close people use. I feel like I know Sarah and Angelina a bit now so I might call Angelina Angel. Let's go see Theodore's room now."
JJ nodded and exited the room. The opened the door to the little boy's room. The first thing Emily spotted was how neat the room was. Sarah and Angelina's room was a bit disorganized, not surprising considering there is a five year old in there, but Theodore's room seemed too neat. She frowned and looked at JJ.
"It seems too…empty. There's nothing on the walls, no posters or anything," Emily said. "There's nothing of the boy's interest around. Look in the boxes."
They started to dig through the boxes and found trains, lots and lots of trains. JJ smiled softly and said, "Gideon would've loved this kid…."
Emily looked at JJ and said, "Missing someone?"
"Every now and again," JJ said. "Gideon was kind of like a fatherly figure towards the team, especially Reid. It's just hard to believe he left. He liked trains…"
"So does Theodore. He's got loads of them," Emily said. "I still find it weird though."
"What?"
"That a ten year old boy lives in a completely white room, nothing on the walls, and with all his trains in Rubbermaid containers," she said. "Most boys his age would decorate their rooms don't you think?"
JJ nodded crossing her arms. The blonde looked at the brunette and narrowed her blue eyes.
"Do you think something else is going on here?" JJ asked.
"I've got a bad feeling you're right Jay," Emily said. "We need to wrap it up and go back to the station. We need to share this with the rest of the team."
JJ nodded as she headed back into the living room. Mrs. Mc Keeve was sitting there politely talking to a man. This man had dark brown hair and piercing green eyes. They frowned looking at him.
"Mrs. Mc Keeve?" JJ called.
"Oh, Darryl these are the FBI agents I was talking about," Mrs. Mc Keeve said. "Agents Prentiss and Jareau this is Inspector Darryl Francis, he'll be working with you."
"Hello ladies," the man said smiling.
He held out his hand, but neither woman shook it. Emily simply smiled and said, "Hello I'm S.S.A. Emily Prentiss, this is S.S.A. Jennifer Jareau. Would it be too much trouble for you to direct us to the station?"
He laughed and said, "No, no trouble at all Miss Prentiss."
"Agent Prentiss," Emily corrected him.
The man laughed again walked out the door. He got into his vehicle as Emily and JJ got into the sedan. Emily looked at JJ and said, "There's something I don't like about this guy."
JJ just nodded as Emily began to follow him back to the station.