CWC: 1,423
Chapter 10: South Dakota
Two hours later the jet landed in South Dakota and the team was filing into the provided SUVs. Gideon, Hotch, and Reid ended up in one car while Greenway, Morgan, and JJ piled into the other and headed to the Sioux Falls police department. Once they got there, a scruffy middle-aged looking man greeted them.
"Y'all are from the FBI?"
"Yes, I'm Agent Jareau. You must be Captain Robert Singer?"
"Yes I am and I can't express enough the thanks for you all to come down here."
"It's no problem at all," JJ smiled. "This is the rest of the team, SSA's Hotchner, Morgan, Gideon, Greenway, and Dr. Reid."
Singer raised an eyebrow at Reid, "You're kinda young to be a doctor, ain't'cha?"
Reid just shrugged and tried not to blush. Hotch cleared his throat.
"Captain, what more have you got for us?"
The captain led them into a room, "I'm afraid not much. Probably not much more than what was sent to you."
"What makes you believe that this is a BAU case?" Morgan asked stepping in the room behind the detective.
"This isn't the first time something like this has happened here in Sioux Falls. But it's not just happening here in Sioux Falls. Three years ago, three women fitting the same description disappeared from Spearfish. These women all disappeared. Not a trace. When I had spoken to one of the victim's families, they informed that this girl was on her way to being accepted into college on a full cheerleading scholarship. I just have the feeling that these woman wouldn't disappear without a trace."
Hotch nodded, "Thank you. Morgan, Reid, I want you to visit to visit Margaret Alvarez's neighborhood, Greenway, you and JJ head toward Traci Coleman's, and Gideon, head over to Sasha Brown's neighborhood. See what you can find, if anything."
The team nodded and dispersed to their given destinations while Hotch stayed behind at the police station. Morgan and Reid headed toward the town of Oacoma.
"Did you know that Oacoma only has a population of 451 people?" Reid said.
Morgan chuckled and shook his head, "No, I didn't."
Reid nodded, "Yeah, it's amazing, really, that many people living in one city. What's really interesting is most people believe that Sioux Falls has the most people just because it's a well-known city in South Dakota, but it doesn't have the most people. Wanna know what city does?"
"I'm sure you're about to tell me," Morgan said stopping at a red light.
Reid grinned, "Its Aberdeen. Surprisingly Aberdeen has a population of 26,091 people."
"That's nice."
Reid shrugged and turned to look out the window, "Morgan, stop!"
Morgan pressed quickly on the brake, "What, Reid?"
Reid pointed, "That's Margaret's house."
Morgan looked at the house where Reid was pointing and frowned.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, it was in the file."
"Dude, how the hell can you remember what was in the file?"
Reid sighed, "I have an eidetic memory, remember?"
"Riight. So let's take a look around before we come back to the house."
{~CM~}
JJ and Greenway had just reached Traci Coleman's house herein Sioux Falls about the same time that Gideon reached Sasha Brown's neighborhood in Plankinton.
"So what exactly are we looking for?" JJ asked.
"Hopefully anything that might lead us to why Traci was abducted or any of these three girls for that matter," Greenway explained.
JJ nodded. The two women headed toward Traci's house and JJ knocked on the door.
"May I help you?" An elderly looking woman asked opening the door.
Greenway and JJ flashed their badges, "Yes, we'd like to ask you some questions about your daughter if that's possible," Greenway smiled.
The woman grinned, "Oh, she's my granddaughter but please come in. I'll try to answer the best I can."
JJ and Greenway followed the woman to the living room where she gestured them to sit. They sat down and took in the place.
"What would you like to know?"
"You said that Traci's your granddaughter, correct?" JJ asked. The woman nodded.
"Yes, Traci's parents died in a fire two years ago. She had been living in Arkansas at the time and since she was twelve at the time, she would've been a ward of the state. So they searched for living relatives and they found me."
"And how did Traci feel about that?" Greenway asked.
"She was very happy to be staying with me. I had no problems with her. She always did what she was told, never stayed out late. She was a well-behaved girl. So I don't understand why she would just disappear," Miss Coleman asked.
"Miss Coleman, do you believe Traci ran away?" Greenway asked.
"No, Traci wouldn't runaway. I mean she was such a good girl. No problems with school, had plenty of friends, participated in extracurricular activities. She was very happy."
"Miss Coleman, one last question, did you or Traci notice anyone around her or following her prior to her disappearance?" JJ asked.
Miss Coleman bit her lip and furrowed her brow trying to think, "A week before Traci disappeared she came to me one night complaining about this boy who would constantly follow her around."
"Do you know the boy's name?"
"I think she said his name was Harold. I am sorry I don't know the last name."
JJ and Greenway stood, "That's quite alright. We appreciate your time. If there's anything else that you happen to remember please give us a call," Greenway said handing the woman her card.
Miss Coleman nodded and escorted them to the door.
{~CM~}
Half an hour later, everyone trudged back into the police station. They all sat down at the table while Reid stood in front of the board that Hotch had set up.
"So what have we got?" Hotch asked.
Morgan shrugged, "Reid and I noticed how, where Margaret lived, was a busy area. So it's hard to figure out how no one saw anything."
"It's possible these women were stalked," JJ said. "Traci's mother said that Traci complained of a boy constantly following her around."
Reid frowned staring at the map. He was trying to figure out the pattern with the places. He turned to face the rest of the team.
"Who was abducted first?"
"Uh, Margaret was, then Traci, and Sasha was last," JJ said looking up at him. "Why?"
Reid frowned again, "How old where they?"
"Let's see, Traci was fourteen, Margaret was twenty, and Sasha was nine."
He abducts a teenager, an adult, and a child," Reid perused.
"What's up, kid?" Morgan asked. Reid visibly flinched and put his head down.
Hotch frowned, "Reid?"
"Oh, sorry. I'm not sure, but something about this makes no sense to me."
"Like what?" Gideon asked.
Reid shrugged, "Like why this unsub chose to take girls from these three specific places? I mean it's gotta mean something, right?" Reid shook his head, "Maybe I'm just reading too much into it."
"Yeah, you are," Gideon snapped.
Reid slightly jerked back while both Hotch and Morgan glared at Gideon. Hotch shook his head.
"I think that's a good angle, Reid. See where you can go with it. There's a meaning for everything this unsub does, we just have to find it."
Reid shyly nodded and turned back to the map. Morgan rubbed his hand across his chin, "Okay, so what if these women are being stalked. That's gotta take time and precision."
"A lot of time," Greenway agreed.
Morgan pulled out his cell and dialed Garcia.
"Hey hot stuff, calling to tell me that you'll finally be the man of my dreams?"
Morgan shook his head chuckling, "Behave, baby girl."
"Or what? Gonna spank me?"
Morgan cleared his throat, "Baby girl."
"I've been such a bad girl. I think I'm in need of a very hard spanking."
Morgan dropped his head on the table, "Garcia."
"Yeah, my chocolate buttercup?"
"You're on speaker."
The line went silent. There wasn't a sound that Reid thought Garcia had hung up the phone.
"Garcia?"
"Yes?"
"I need you to compile a list for me."
"Uh, what kind of list?"
"I want you to see how many people you can find with the first name Harold in South Dakota, but not in the entire state, just in these three cities, Sioux Falls, Oacoma, and Plankinton. Then I want you to cross-reference that with any who have had some sort of record. Big or small, it doesn't matter."
"Absolutely, and, Derek?"
"Yeah, mama?"
"I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it."
TBC...