Murder in the Forest, Epilogue
The better part of a year later, Jennifer Jareau got a phone call from Ashley Seaver. Seaver wanted to know if it would seem presumptuous if she sent wedding invitations to the BAU team. "After all, I haven't worked with you guys in awhile."
Jareau told her to send the invitations. "We may not all be able to come, but I think I'll try, and you'll get some gifts. The main thing is, no one will feel offended that you didn't invite us."
"Sounds good," agreed Ashley. "Okay, I'll send them. While I'm on the phone, do you want an update, telling what became of all of us out here who were involved with the Bigfoot case?"
"Sure," said JJ, who was off duty and relaxing at home, if housework could be deemed "relaxing." "How's Peter? I thought you two would have already been married. We thought of taking bets about how soon the wedding would be."
Ashley laughed. "Well, that's part of why I called. Peter and I are getting married, but not to each other. But we're still good friends. Actually, I'm marrying Bill Waters. Want to guess who Peter is marrying?"
Jareau snorted. "Probably some lingerie sales clerk. I remember that trip you two made to those shops and your description of the women there."
Seaver laughed. "A good guess, knowing his interests. By the way, we did shop there together a few times and those girls seemed interested in him. But, no, not a lingerie sales dolly, nor is it one of those VS models that he admires. It's Courtney Cassidy.
"Peter and I were together for almost four months," she continued, "but it was a drag to commute to Elk Pass for me and for him to drive to Seattle. And he wants to live in Elk Pass and succeed Grant Ford as sheriff when Grant retires in a year or so. I think Peter will be elected handily. John Knowles, the Undersheriff, and Grant have both said they'll endorse him. John is retiring, too. He doesn't want to be sheriff, says it'd interfere too much with his fishing time. That's so totally John, if you know him.
"Another reason why we broke up is that I want to remain with the Bureau and retire with my pension when I'm old enough. And I like what I do here for the Bureau. I've helped to break several big cases and rescued over 30 trafficked women. Many were underage. I feel really sorry for them.
"But back to me: Bill and I got better acquainted at work and I realized that he's a really funny guy, if a little droll. Peter is that way, too, of course, but Bill and I have more in common, and we're both FBI agents. When we began to drift apart, Peter asked Courtney out and she accepted. By the way, she gave up dancing in that club after we saved her. Said that she couldn't continue there, especially with men coming to see her because she'd become a local celebrity. And it was her dancing there that got her spotted by Mason and Bamka. With Mason Realty and Insurance closed, her dad's business picked up a lot, and he hired her as a realtor. She's good at that, and her infamy probably even gets her some customers. So, she sells houses and offices and dates Peter, who she admires as her rescuer. Peter says that runs in the family: his great grandfather, the famous white hunter, saved his own wife from slavers in British colonial Kenya in 1928. Now, Peter is marrying a girl who he helped to save. He chose well, I think. Courtney is all giddy over him, and she has prime qualities that Peter wants in a wife."
Jareau laughed. "Like, she can bait her own hooks when they fish? Knows her way around a rifle and where to shoot an elk? Likes amateur astronomy and birdwatching and gets off on modeling lingerie for her guy? Am I pretty close?"
"Yeah, you hit all of those nails on the head," Seaver admitted. "And she wants to stay there and raise their children in Elk Pass. It's really a nice place for kids to grow up, without the race issues and crime and schools focused on educating at the lowest common denominator level, for Politically Correct reasons. And as you'd expect, plenty of fishing and hunting opportunities. And Peter's family winery isn't too far away. His family likes Courtney, by the way. And she admitted to Peter and me that she'd been hoping that he'd ask her out back when she was dancing at the Boobalicious club. She and I can laugh about that now and how she tried to sit by him when we saved her. I like Courtney and I'm really relieved that Peter and Bill are still friends, despite Bill sort of taking me away from Peter. I think Peter viewed that with relief, because he'd realized that we weren't ideal for one another and Courtney is exactly what he wanted, in looks and personality. I think she'd even tolerate him asking for Candice Swanepoel's autograph if she ever visits the VS shop there. Courtney admires her, too, and would probably ask for an autograph for herself, and ask her for glamour tips. Not that she needs any. Courtney is beautiful, as you know. Her mom taught her and Tessa - her sister - a lot about makeup and whatnot, and she was a beauty pageant contestant. Her daughters have both benefitted from her background.
"That brings us to Melissa Winters. She and Courtney are still friends, but after a few months, she decided to take a semester or two off from college. She's serious about wanting to try her hand in Hollywood, so she moved to Los Angeles. It's gone better than expected. Because she and Courtney got quite a bit of national publicity from the kidnapping and they both sold their stories to publishers, she was able to get an agent, and she got roles in several TV commercials and did some modeling for car shows and the like. Then she and a friend went to one of those clubs where girls go to look for sugar daddies to keep them. Those rich guys know where to shop and they often keep girls they meet there. Now that a certain famous publisher of a men's magazine is married, some who'd otherwise try to become one of his multiple girlfriends have to prospect elsewhere, I guess. Melissa impressed a producer and he got her a role in a B film and they started hanging out. She's moved in with him. He's only 20 years older than her, and she seems smitten. She told Courtney that he's sort of masterful, and she likes that. She just didn't care for having to be Mason's slave, afraid for her life. But he turned her on to some stuff that she likes in role play. You can guess most of it, I think. I'm afraid to know all of the details. But she loves him, and he seems to really care for her. I'm sure they're the ultimate kinky couple, and he thinks he can get her additional roles in films. Of course, what's kinky in most places is just the norm in Los Angeles.
"Melissa told Courtney that she'll marry this guy David if he asks and he seems to be moving that way. He quit keeping a couple of other girls and she's his sole lay now. She must be doing something right, if that's the sort of man she wants. Courtney said that she was wearing a ring that looks like a miniature slave collar when Courtney visited her in LA last month. She met the guy, too, and he's very imposing, with an aura of power, and he's worth over $50 million! Melissa fawns over him and he seemed to care for her. They were quite affectionate. Courtney said that he does have an exciting 'presence.' I wish them luck. But Courtney and I are happy, too, and I'm totally looking forward to getting married. Bill is just wonderful. I hope you and the other BAU people can get to know him better at the wedding.
"Look, how did the Bureau handle the Bigfoot angle to that case? I still think they're real and Melissa and I compared notes on the ones we saw after things settled down. Officially, the lab that tested the blood, the hairs, and the tracks would only say that they were not those of any known animal. They stopped short of saying that the evidence confirmed a Bigfoot."
"Same here," confirmed Jareau. "Hotch had a meeting with Diefenbaker and the Director and was told to inform the BAU that we were not to discuss the animal with anyone. The Director is afraid that if the FBI admits what some of us saw, the Bureau will be held up to ridicule. Remember the cardinal rule: Never Embarrass the Bureau! But Hotch admits that Peter and you and Melissa saw real Bigfoots."
"I'm glad," Ashley said. "Dr. van Reenan and his colleagues and Peter tried to track the one that killed Mason, but lost the trail. They agree that at least two of them were nearby, and that one killed Mason. Officially, his death was listed as due to attack by a large wild animal, possibly a bear. But none of the evidence suggests a bear. Grant Ford went along with that, to clear the case. But he told Peter and me privately that he accepts that we saw one Bigfoot and that Melissa saw another, and we all three heard a third. Melissa is really ticked off that her account of the Bigfoot was written off in some quarters as due to her being in shock and maybe suffering from PTSD because of her captivity. That was, after all, a stressful experience. She and Courtney have had some flashbacks and bad dreams. But their guys are helping a lot with that, and their families have been very supportive. I think they're dealing with the matter as well as any girl can. And probably better than most..."
"Did the sheriff ever decide why Bamka and Mason did what they did?" Jareau had often wondered about that.
"Yes, so far as we know, from what Mason told Melissa, they were just mean and liked hurting people and other animals. They were drinking one night and thought it would be cool to kill some people and see if they could get it blamed on Bigfoot. And then they saw the girls at the club and the ice cream store and just thought that it'd be fun to take them and see how well they could make them perform as slave girls. It was a sex thing and a power thing. The murders were mainly a power thing and for the thrill they got from killing and from thinking how they'd make the police think it was done by Bigfoot. They figured that even if we saw through the Bigfoot angle, they'd get off on our not being able to solve the crimes, while they lived right there in Elk Pass and walked around in front of Sheriff Ford and his force. They were driven by sheer raw lust to kill and to feel a power rush from that. They didn't expect that the girls would get to them on a personal level and make them like them so much that they didn't want to kill them if they could force them to debase themselves and please them as masters who could demand whatever they wanted from two hot blondes. Melissa said that she never knew what her ultimate fate was to be, but hoped that if she kept Mason impressed with her in bed that he'd hang onto her and maybe something would happen to free her, or he'd let her go when he ran for the Mexican border when he thought the heat was off. She thinks he meant to go to Brazil eventually.
"By the way, the biologists who did the necropsy on that bear said that it was probably Peter's .375 Magnum bullet that killed it, but your 10mm bullets also helped and one got in deep enough that it was probably a fatal wound. So was my hit with the 7mm-08. But the state insisted on keeping the hide, so I'll need to shoot my own bear, with a hunting license, if I want a rug. And I think I may just do that. Bill wants to hunt both elk and bear next year. I want to join him.
"So, are you coming to my wedding? Let us know in a couple of weeks. We need to finalize the guest list and tell the caterer what we need for the reception. Peter and Courtney are getting married the week after Bill and I do, so we can each attend the other couple's nuptials. Like I said, we're all in a good place with one another. I think we'll stay friends. Peter's family winery is supplying most of the wine for both weddings. They make fantastic wine. Tell Reid that we'll serve coffee, too, though. " She laughed.
"Well, I'll tell everyone to look for your invitations, then," said Jareau. "Look, my son is making a mess with jam. I need to go. But thanks for calling, Ashley, and tell everyone there hello. We'll get back to you soon on who's coming to the wedding, but congratulations to both you and Bill."
Later that night, she called Kate Callahan, now one of her best friends at the BAU. "Kate? It's JJ. Hey, Ashley called this afternoon, and guess what?"
The End
Well, it was a long journey, and if anyone read all of this fic, nearly a year in writing, thank you, and I hope that you were well entertained. If nothing else, you got your money's worth. I hope that the fic proved the adage that the best things in life are free.