Chapter 23
Week 17
By the start of July despair had settled over the entire unit. This was the longest they had gone without contact and without more contact they simply did not have enough to get anywhere. Reid had been gone seventeen weeks, what felt like a small lifetime. "What do you think he's doing right now?" Garcia asked Morgan one morning.
"I don't know." Morgan replied. "Lizzy said they had coffee and books, I bet he's all curled up and happy right now."
"Or else he's trapped in some horrifying experiment, having his brain zapped or something." She replied with a despairing sigh. "What are we going to do?"
"We're going to jump on the next scrap of information we find and we're going to use it to get him home." Morgan said. "And when he gets home we're going to do with Dr. Cargill told us to do, we're going to be honest and explain things clearly and simply until his brain hooks back up with society. He's going to go stay at Rossi's, and Rossi is going to keep everything quiet and on schedule until Reid is settled enough to start talking. And then we'll take it from there. Simple as that."
"I know, I know. It just seems too simple, you know?"
"You work with victims, baby girl, you know this."
"I know, you can't fix people, you have to let them heal at their own speed, but he's Reid and he's my friend and I can't help wanting to."
"I know, but you have a job. You're our chief resource finder and errand runner; because you are the best at finding stuff."
"Then why can't I find him?"
All Morgan could do was hold her.
A few days later Katie came back to the BAU. "You all have to see this."
They assembled in the conference room where Garcia booted the video onto the large monitor. "What is it?" JJ asked.
"Child porn. And it's as bad as you would expect." When Garcia started it up they saw that it was; little girls, prepubescent. "Garcia, can you focus on the background. Upper left of the screen, right…now."
The corner came into focus and their jaws dropped, "White barn, red roof, black glass solar panel." Rossi nodded. "You think that's the place?"
"It gets better. Garcia, move ahead to nine minutes, thirty seconds."
By then the girls were in the barn. They steeled themselves against the horror and again focused on the background. "Yellow house, sun porch, and another solar panel," Hotch murmured. "It fits the description. What is that on the ground behind the house?"
"That is what clinched it. Garcia, thirteen minutes, fifty seconds." In that shot they had a clear look at the back of the house. It was a concrete pad with three glass domes and some kind of ventilation system. "Those are solar tubes. They're a kind of sky light. They can carry light down up to thirty feet. There's a living space under there."
"That where they're keeping them." Hotch replied.
They all sat quietly as they digested this. Then Rossi spoke up. "Does this video take us down there at all?"
"No." Katie replied. "In fact, Garcia, the twenty minute mark please." At that point they spotted a tall, rangy figure moving across the yard and into the house. "I don't think Unsub One is involved with the abuse at all. But at twenty-two minutes we get a good look at someone who might be Unsub Two."
They moved ahead and finally got a look at him. Not much of one since he was wearing a lucha libre mask that covered his head and eyes, but the grey moustache and beard and the large belly fit the description. "The Rights of Men must be your only concern!" He was pronouncing to his cowering victims.
"But we never see his face." Rossi sighed, "Slick."
"So they're just using the farm as a movie set." Morgan pointed out. "I wonder if that's how they're making their money."
"Probably not, this thing was a giveaway." Katie sighed. "If one of the victims is Lizzy Martin that would explain why she didn't call, they would have stuck around the house to film."
"Poor little tyke." Garcia murmured.
"Does any of this get us any closer?" Rossi asked.
"We can run the footage past the NSA, see if they can get anything for a satellite check." Hotch replied. "And I'll watch the entire video to see if Unsub Two says or does anything to help with the profile."
"Sure you want to do that?" Katie asked. "It's rough stuff, especially for a parent."
Hotch sighed. "Atonement has to start somewhere."
The NSA couldn't find anything.
Lizzy didn't call in July either.