Chapter 24
Week 20

By now they were all thoroughly disheartened. Very few people had ever been a victim of a kidnapping for that long and survived. But this was Spencer they were talking about. Unlike, say, Morgan, whose strength was quick and powerful and overwhelming, Spencer's strength was slow and calm and built to endure. If anyone could make it this long, they kept telling each other, it's Reid.

August brought heat and sun and new problems. "I just got a call from the district attorney in Palo Alto, California." Hotch told Rossi one afternoon.

"Oh?"

"Apparently Laura Patterson's parents are moving to have her declared legally dead."

"You mean her stepmother is after her money. I thought it took seven years for someone to be declared dead?"

"It does. She's not letting that stop her."

"What are you going to do about it?"

"The judge has asked me to appear, so I'm flying out in the morning."

"Good."

Based on Hotch's testimony the judge refused to declare Laura dead. He then ordered all her accounts sealed and placed under a conservatorship. The money she'd received from her mother's family and her life insurance would be waiting for her return. But Laura's stepmother did not stop there. Two weeks later Morgan got a call, "Hey Tonya."

"Hey. How close are you to finding Laura?"

"Not as close as we'd like to be. It's going to be the end of the month at best. Honestly, it could be the end of the year. Why?"

"Her Mom and Dad are here. They intend to move her out today."

"I don't know what to tell you."

"…into a dumpster. They're just going to toss all of her stuff. Technically now that she has her degree she's supposed to move out, but I don't know…"

"Morgan sighed. "I don't know how to stop them either."

"I'll see what security can do. I'm willing to pony up for a storage unit, I've already got her research put away, but her clothes and her books…"

"I know."

Rossi, on the other hand, decided to take a more direct route. He immediately started calling, looking for a flight. "Can we call her room a crime scene? Is any of that evidence?"

"No." Blake sighed. "And we sent her hope chest back once we had the profile, it was no longer needed. Why are they doing this?"

"Laura's stepmother is taking her frustration at not controlling all of the money out on her scapegoat. She's trying to erase the reminder of her failure. Damn." He shook his head. "I'm not going to get there in time. But…maybe we can add to that failure just a little."

Later that day, in Ithaca, New York, an expensively dressed woman strode in to the local yarn and fabric shop. She imperiously asked for the owner. "May I help you?" Hickory Chu asked.

"I'm Karen Patterson. I believe my stepdaughter, Laura, used to work here?"

"Yes, she did. It's a shame, what happened. We miss her around here, she was a great teacher."

"Yes. Unfortunately she won't be returning to school, we're here to collect her things. I heard she left some quilt-thing here?"

"She did, but it sold recently. I have her share of the payment though."

"Oh." Karen brightened considerably. "Well we'll just put that in her account then. How much did it sell for?"

"Ten dollars," Hickory handed Karen a five out of the register along with a cold smile of victory.

Three days later Dave Rossi poured himself a glass of good red wine, climbed the stairs and looked over the small pile that had been moved to a corner of his guestroom. There were two suitcases, one containing toiletries and simple clothing for a tall, slender man, the other now containing clothing and toiletries for a petite woman, collected on the advice of her former housemates. There was a well-made leather satchel holding quality writing paper and a carefully crafted quilt. There was a box containing letters and a book and a parcel wrapped in brown paper. On the dresser were the keys to an old Volvo and a thumb drive holding years of research into how to manage a home. A small stack of envelopes held statements of insurance funds and salary deposits and invested inheritance that would give them each a stake to restart their lives. There was a degree in a leather folder given based on excellent work already done and back at the BAU a badge and a weapon waited in Hotch's desk drawer to be returned to a man who deserved them. There in a corner of his guestroom were two lives, just waiting for their rightful owners to step back into them and go on living.

Dave didn't know why some instinct was telling him to keep it all together like this. Or why it was telling him to spread that quilt over this bed. "Caroline," he said down into the ruby liquid swirling in his glass. "If this is you whispering then I need a bigger sign. The way this case is going the dammed thing would just get dusty." But the urging didn't let up, it just grew stronger, and over the years Dave had learned to trust his instincts. "Fine," he said at last, putting down his wine. "I'll put a sheet over it."

Katie found two more videos, plus a few from past years, before the underground room had been installed. As a result of that they knew that Unsub Two spent his summer week-ends on the farm sticking close to the property,

So no one was surprised when Lizzy didn't call in August.