Chapter 11

A Heart of Ice

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In the late morning, the team was gathering in a room at the police station to make a point on everything they discovered. They left the house, leaving only some cops to watch the scene. Jordan on her side was sleeping at the hotel. JJ had told her about what they discovered, the death of Curly, and in contrary to Spencer and Emily she didn't try to hide her tears. The liaison had done everything to calm her and convinced her to have some rest. Her friends promised themselves they would go and see her, but for now, they had to continue their work.

"Okay," Hotch began, "so far we know that William Curly bought Gary Michaels and plotted with his mother to make that look like the work of an unknown man. We found Curly dead and proof that Gary Michaels was here. Yet we didn't find him in the house. Reid you and the cops searched everywhere?"

"Yes, they did a good job with the garden, for now it doesn't seem that anyone was buried here but we will have to turn everything upside down to be sure. We found some pictures of Gary...On the most recent he was just fifteen or fourteen."

"Maybe he became too old for his taste," Gideon said.

Morgan threw an angry look at Gideon, he didn't like the way he was saying that in front of Reid and Emily, but the man failed to notice. He was also feeling somehow hurt at this, he had seen the place and felt torn apart that this kid hadn't been saved. Yet Derek didn't let his feeling overtake him and spoke:

"There is something I found in Curly's room, it looks like a diary, I began to read some pages but I couldn't continue further, some cops asked me for help."

"Okay, read it," Hotch ordered, not wanting Reid to do it.

"We didn't find much in Gary's room," Elle continued, "at least not many things that could help us telling where Gary could be, but it seems like it didn't stay unoccupied for long."

"So Gary Michaels was still here not so long ago."

"Or maybe another boy was taken," Emily said slowly. "Gary should be around our ages now, not exactly the kind that his captor seemed to like. He could have...Gotten rid of Gary and take another boy."

"True, I'll tell Garcia to check that. The scientific team will send every pieces of DNA to the lab, yet they still didn't get any result for the DNA found in the cave, so don't expect to have results so soon. Now, Elle and Morgan will work on Curly's profile, Gideon and Reid will work on Gary's, as for Emiky and I we will pursue the investigation on Marc Potter and Trisha Lauren. JJ, when will you be ready to talk to the press?"

"Tomorrow, the local press is enthusiastic."

"Okay, we have to take that chance to make the Unsub react, but we can't take the risk to have him killing someone else."

"Maybe one of us could speak with JJ," suggested Emily.

"No, I don't want people to know that the Unsub is doing that to attract your attention, this could put you in danger."

"Maybe we could encourage him to contact us directly," suggested Elle, "tell him that we wish to understand what he wants."

"She is right," Gideon said. "You could tell him that we know that the recent murders are linked to the kidnapping of Gary Michaels and we wish to know what he wants."

"Yeah, he wants to interact with you three, he could decide that he wants more than just leaving messages," Morgan also said. "When they obsesses on someone, unsubs generally wish to have more with the object of their fixation, if we give them an open door to speak directly with one of you, there are chances that they'll accept."

"I don't want to expose Miss Todd to that," Hotch said, "so you two will have to do it. Are you ready for that?"

The two nodded, they were about to continue when a cop came in and interrupted them:

"We received a call, something happened."

Earlier that day:

Tyler McFerson wasn't the type to worry for nothing, yet today he was worried. This morning he had seen that his father tried to call him yesterday, yet he hadn't heard anything because he and his girlfriend were in a bar and the music was loud, and when they left, they didn't bother looking at their phone, only focusing on more intimate activities. It was only in the morning that he saw that his dad called and the message he heard wasn't reassuring him much. His father's voice seemed strange, depressed. Plus he wondered why he didn't finish his message; it was as if something stopped him halfway. It didn't necessarily mean anything bad but he preferred to check before going to work.

He had called his father but he wasn't answering his phone so he called the police station and apparently his father didn't come to work. That was weird, his dad was rarely late. So he went to his house and saw that his car was still parked here, which meant that he was still here. He tapped at the door, several times but no one answered and he began to worry. Lately his dad hadn't been that okay, his divorce with his mother had been hard on him and apparently he was working on gruesome murders recently...Tyler took out his spare key and opened the door. Maybe his dad had overslept, or maybe he was bathing but he'd rather be sure.

He took some steps in and saw something which sent a wave of fear in him: a track of blood, as if someone wounded had been dragged...He looked at it, it was leading to the freezer...An image went through his mind, his father dead in the freezer. But it couldn't be...His father couldn't be...

"Dad!"

No one answered. Tyler walked slowly to the freezer, tears were threatening to fall and his guts were twisted, fear invading him. He reached the freezer with his hand and hesitated. He felt that he didn't want to know what was in this. Then he rushed to it and opened it brutally. In that instant, Tyler stopped to move, stopped to breath, as horror befell on him. Hi father's corpse was here, covered in blood and frozen, and his chest...The young man vomited on the floor, bend in half, the first tears rolled down his cheeks and when he looked at his dad again, despair invaded him...It couldn't be! His father couldn't be dead! He ran away and exited the house like a crazy man. Once outside, he yelled with all his strength and despair:

"HELP! HELP! SOMEONE HELP!"

Neighbours came to see what was happening, through tears and sobs, Tyler could hardly explain, two women entered the house to see what was happening. One of them fainted and the other one called the police, horrified and shocked because of what she saw. When they heard the Sherriff had been found dead, almost every cop in the police station came to the crime scene. Being a cop wasn't a safe job and they all knew that tragedies could happen to police officers, even in little towns, however none of them would have ever imagined that one of their own would ever end up like that.

The team members here weren't as affected as them, except Prentiss and Reid. It wasn't because they knew McFerson had been close to them, far from it, but when they had seen him again, the sheriff seemed to regret what he did, and even if that wasn't enough to forgive him, they never wanted him to die, especially in such a horrific way. Even if they didn't forgive him immediately, they couldn't deny he had at least the decency to acknowledge his error and through their rage, they saw he regretted it sincerely. Now their grudge and anger just faded when they saw the corpse in the freezer. They looked at each others; they wished to talk but couldn't do it so openly. Seeing Gary's prison and now this was beginning to be too much.

Hotch and Gideon were also here, Elle and Morgan had remained in the station, they would continue to work on what they found in the house. Hotch looked closely to the corpse, even if he was experienced, some crime scenes were just gruesome and it would always affect you a little. The killer had made a hole in his chest to take his heart out; it was resting at his side in the fridge. There was also a big cut on his neck, Hotch had the feeling it was what killed him and the hole in the chest had been made after, but he couldn't be sure and he would need to wait for the autopsy's results. Looking more closely he noticed something strange. He looked more closer, and realised something was in the Sheriff's chest.

"Here there is something, the killer put something in his chest."

He put on plastic gloves and took it out very slowly, careful not to damage the body, while the three others and some cops were watching. What he took out astonished everyone: it was a piece of ice.

"What...That asshole put that in his chest?!" A cop exclaimed, obviously angry and sad at the same time

"Yes, obviously," Gideon said, "replacing the heart with a shard of ice...That's certainly the only reason why the killer put him in the fridge, he didn't want to hide him, otherwise he would have cleaned the blood."

Reid looked at it and then realised what it was and what the killer did this time:

"The wendigo."

Prentiss looked at him as her face lightened with realisation, everyone else was confused.

"It's...The myth of the wendigo they are supposed to be monsters of winter...With a heart of ice."

Hotch nodded; he remembered Reid and Emily talking about it in the forest now. The killer was definitely sick to put up something like this.

"I invented a story about it," Reid said in an empty voice. "When we were kids, it's in one of the notebooks."

A silence followed, when suddenly, an officer bursted out:

"It's your fault! You fucking freak! It's your fault that he died!"

"Calm down immediately," Hotch said in a tone that would accept no refusal.

"No! It's their fault! They wrote sick stories because they were sick kids and now people died because of that. No wonder he didn't listen to you when you were a kid! You're..."

"That's enough!" Hotch yelled again and this time the man stopped.

The team leader watched everyone; some cops were glaring at Reid and Prentiss, obviously feeling the same, others had softer looks which meant they weren't thinking the same, others had their heads down, torn between the blind anger and compassion toward Reid and Prentiss.

"I think that agent Reid, Prentiss and I could go back to the stations and begin to work on the profile," Gideon proposed in order to get them all out.

Hotch agreed, it was indeed better. The two agents walked away with Gideon gladly, Emily was boiling in anger, how did they dare to blame them if those idiots had listened to them in the first place maybe all this mess wouldn't be happening. Reid was feeling completely overwhelmed, he didn't even know if he had to feel guilty or if he just had to ignore those accusations. A part of him was feeling like he deserved those, because he was indeed the one who wrote this, but on the other hand, how could he know that one day a psycho would use those stories like this.

Hotch went on with the work, ignoring the cops around, and none dared to bother him. He spotted something on the table which caught his eyes: a white envelope, with a very small dark red stain on it. He took it and opened it with plastic gloves on. He was pretty sure it was another message from to killer and he was right:

To my dear Spencer,

This is my present to you, this one also offended you greatly, and I hope that now everyone will see him for what he was: a monster without heart. More importantly, I hope it will please you. I will give something to Jordan too, I admit I neglected her; I only gave her a turtledove, while you and Emily got heads! It's not that I don't love her less; I just wondered who could be a good present, but I think I found someone.

Love you all,

Anonymous.

Hotch felt his blood rushing in his veins; the killer would do something again! He wished the police hadn't seen his letter, but he had to warn everyone.

Meanwhile, the others weren't having a good time either. Morgan was reading the diary while Elle was working on Curly's profile and JJ was interviewing Tyler Mc Ferson who was still shaken.

"Why did you come to see your dad this morning? Was something bothering you?"

"He...He called me yesterday but I couldn't hear my phone, so I saw his message only this morning and it got me worried."

"Why?"

"He sounded sad..." He stopped and let out a sob.

"I'm really sorry, take your time."

"He wanted to talk and..."

He took some times to calm down and finally calmed down.

"What made me worried is that he stopped halfway. His message wasn't finished; listen to it if you want."

He handed her his phone and let her listen to what her father told her. JJ felt somehow strange hearing the voice of a man who just died like that, a man she despised for ignoring a call for help. Now even though she still blamed him, she felt a stir when she heard his depressed voice. She heard how he suddenly stopped talking and it also seemed weird to her, but maybe he just got a problem with his phone. Or maybe he heard someone entering the house.

"The rest of the team will have to hear that too, do you mind if we borrow your phone."

"Just find who did it, take whatever you need for that."

"Thank you."

"The worst is that I could have saved him...If I had heard my phone and came..."

"No, don't go that way. If you had come, the killer would have either killed you or he would have just waited for another moment, or he would have knocked you out like he did for one of the victim's mother. Believe me it's not your fault."

He nodded but didn't seem that much convinced. She took his hand gently; she didn't know what it was like to lose a parent but she had no doubt that it was extremely painful. She left him alone for a short time, to give him some space and give the phone to her colleagues. She saw Jordan with them, she greeted her nicely, she knew the shock it had been for her when she learned about what happened to Gary. She looked tired and sad but at least she wasn't broken, she still had some fire.

"Hey, don't you want to rest?"

"I'm fine, and I am here to help, in case there is something I could remember."

"Speaking about that," Morgan said, "does the name Warren Curly remind you of something?"

"Well...It does ring a bell but I'm not sure. I already heard it I think why?"

At that moment Reid, Prentiss and Gideon entered the room, Morgan went to them and asked them the same thing.

"Well, no it doesn't remind me of anything," Reid said

"Wait, I think I do remember that name. William Curly didn't remind me of anything but Warren..."

"Morgan, why are you asking?"

Derek hesitated a little before answering Gideon's question, it wasn't something easy to announce especially after what happened.

"Because I read in this diary that William Curly had a brother named Warren and he was actually coming to 'see' Gary Michaels."

"Are you fucking kidding me," Emily said in despair.

Gideon composed Garcia's number immediately, she had to find this guy's whereabouts as fast as she could. William couldn't tell them what happened to Gary anymore, but maybe Warren would.

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