JJ in Wonderland – Chapter 9

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When they arrived at the railway depot, they found the Sheriff still cuffed but he was wide awake and angry.

"Dean! You place them FBI agents under arrest! They're gonna be charged for bodily harm to a law enforcement officer. Cuff 'em, Dean!"

The deputy came near him and squatted down and shook his head, "I don't think so, Sheriff. You'll be charged with two counts of murder and one count of kidnapping."

"Kidnapping! What'er you talking 'bout?" Peter Dougherty snarled at him. "I'm innocent here! Get 'em now or I'm gonna fire your sorry ass!"

"Not happening, Sheriff…or if you're arrested, you won't be the Sheriff anymore." He grinned at him.

"You!" He began but Dave came to the Sheriff, "He's right, Peter Dougherty or should we call you Pashtu Degonatu?"

The man hissed, "No one utters my name and get away with it!" he glared at Dave. "I'm a Native American from the Muscogee tribe."

"Thanks for the heads up, Dougherty but it means nothing to me. You're under arrest." Dave picked him and stood him on his feet, "Here you go, deputy."

Dean nodded and came to escort the protesting Sheriff to the police unit.

"We should contact the Crime scene unit," JJ suggested. "They'll more meticulous."

Dave nodded as he got on to his phone and made some calls.

"They'll be here in two hours; they're coming from Birmingham."

"And we can begin to dig for the body, we've dug up the skull." JJ said as she looked around the Depot.

"JJ, you said the witnesses saw the headless specter at the Mills, we should be digging up over there."

"Yeah, you're right…let's go then."

He nodded and followed her out of the building and towards the police car.

Frankie drove them to the Mills as he knew the way and ten minutes later, they were looking at a large brick building, the word 'Avondale' that was painted on the side of the building had faded.

"Dang shame, what's happenin' here at Avondale," the deputy shook his head. "My mamma worked here till her death and she'd been with them for over 30 years."

"I guess this factory had many loyal employees." JJ pointed out.

"Oh yeah, a whole bunch of us kids, we all grew up playing near the Mills while our parents worked inside. More than 60% of Sylacaugans were employees of Avondale Mills."

"It's still not too late to bring back business to this town." Dave pointed out.

"Nah," The deputy shook his head, "The factory ran its course. I'm thinking we should build a new factory or two. We've plenty of limestone to dig up."

"Limestone?"

"Oh yeah, agent, we have a limestone quarry west of Sylacauga at Fayetteville."

"Now, that's a lucrative contract," Dave nodded at him.

"Dave, look at this spot," JJ was shining a flashlight inside the building on the ground, "The concrete looks different from the rest of the ground."

"Reckon it's Susan Martin buried in there, or maybe the rest of her." The deputy said.

"We need a digger," Dave pointed.

"They'll be here in a bit, I'd called them and they're gearing up."

Dave nodded again in satisfaction.

And hour and a half, the digger carefully broke the concrete before a worker began digging and found the body.

"Oh hell, deputy!" The worker gasped as he began to pale. "I've never seen a dead body…without its head…I'm gonna be sick!" He put his hand on his mouth as he rushed out of the empty factory.

"Well, I reckon he ain't gonna eat anything soon." The deputy smiled as he watched the man left in a hurry but he became somber when he turned back to the hole. "I've never actually seen a skeleton before, I mean in training classes they should you a full set of skeleton but it was not real, it was ordered from a manufacture company." He continued his scrutiny on it. "Dang shame, if you ask me."

"The crime unit will have to send it out to confirm its DNA," JJ said to him. "Then you'll make arrangements to contact her family and burial arrangements."

They heard a car pulled up near the factory and saw it was the crime scene unit.

The digger came to greet them and pointed the hole to them.

The deputy stared at her, "Golly, never knew there was so many instructions just for some bones."

"Deputy, it's not just bones it was a person." Dave pointed out to him.

"Oh yeah, you're right, I have to show proper respect to her." He looked apologetically.

"No worries, just remember they're victims and it's your job to handle them with care and respect. The family will be very grateful you took good care of their loved ones." JJ smiled at him.

"Thank you, Agent." He scratched his head in wonderment, "Now, where do I start?"

Dave glanced over to JJ who nodded at her before he turned back to the deputy, "You can start by giving us a ride back to your precinct, we've done our job so we should be going now and join up with the rest of our team in Texas."

"Of course, Agent Rossi." The deputy began to walk towards his unit car. "I bet you're eager to be off."

"Well, it was interesting here in Alabama and in this city but yes, we have to go." Dave opened the back door for JJ as she climbed in, he followed after her.

….

JJ took her phone out as Dave drove out of the city and headed to Birmingham.

She explained to Hotch the entire incident.

Dave felt as if they had been stuck in the small town for a long time even though it had been only a day and a half since their arrival. "Strange place," He muttered to himself, "Feels like I've been here forever."

"Yeah, it looks like it," JJ said as she placed the phone on her lap.

"How's Hotch and Killeen?" Dave glanced over to her.

She nodded, "Oh, they are done. The serial killer is off the street and in police custody, he was caught in the act of strapping his next victim into a car loaded with bricks and near a lake."

"Lucky for the guys. But you haven't answer the rest of the question, how is Hotch?"

She began to chuckle, "Ready to strangle Morgan and Reid and pushed them into that lake himself."

Dave laughed, "That bad?"

"Oh yes! They upped their prank level several notches and Hotch was caught in the middle of it. Morgan had asked Garcia to change Reid's ringtone and gave out his phone number to a 900 number, a dating site, it had gotten out of hand when they were presenting the UnSub profile." JJ continued to laugh.

"What was the ring tone?"

"Well…it was from a singer back a couple of years ago, one of those one-hit wonder by Right Said Fred, it's called 'I'm too sexy."

Dave frowned, "I'm not familiar with this tone…"

JJ began to type in the information on her cell phone and soon the music began to play and the singer whose voice sounded low, suave, and sexy began to sing."

Dave's eyes widened as he started laughing, "Oh, I'd give anything to see Hotch's face."

"Me, too." They laughed more.

After a while, JJ continued, "I told him we'll fly back to Virginia ourselves but they'd wrapped up their case and will be leaving shortly and if we can get to Birmingham in two hours, Hotch can swing the jet to pick us up."

Dave nodded, "That's fine, are you okay with it?"

JJ looked at him in surprise, "You're asking my opinion?"

"Of course! You're my partner."

JJ thought about it for a moment and replied, "It's fine with me but are you sure you're able to get to Birmingham in that amount of time? I mean, aren't you tired or something? I don't know about you but I feel as if I had not slept properly on a bed in the 48 hours or more."

"You're right, you've been on the go since you came back. I'm pretty beat myself." He saw a sign for an hotel coming up and spontaneously left the ramp from the highway and turned into the parking lot of the hotel.

JJ was quiet as she watched him parked the car and turned to her, he said, "Is this okay with you?"

JJ nodded.

They got out of the car and went into the hotel and the register desk.

They asked for one room only and with the keycard, Dave led her to the room.

No words were spoken as he closed and locked the door.

JJ stood near the bed and turned to face him.

"Jennifer…" He reached for her face and dipped his lips into hers, she didn't resist him.

He looked at her face, "There's no going back…"

JJ nodded as she gasped softly at his touch, "I want you Dave."

"I'm glad, Jennifer." He began to unbutton her shirt as he rained kisses on her face and her neck.

JJ held on to him tightly as she too began to unbuttoned his shirt…

Her cell phone began to ring.

They both sighed as they separated and JJ picked up her phone and frowned.

"Who is it?"

JJ looked up at him, "It's Will."

End of Chapter 9