When Nothing Goes as Planned
Week 20
Emily sat with her head leaned against the wall next to the window. She was so tired, but she could not sleep. They were on their way to Seattle and had only been in the air for three hours, which meant that they still had about five hours left. She closed her eyes, but they only stayed that way for a moment because all she saw was the image of a dead, young, brunette woman with blue eyes. While going over the case at the BAU Emily's chest had actually hurt when JJ had given them the details of the murders. She did not know why, there was not anything about this case that they had not seen before, it was not children or pregnant women being kidnapped and murdered, but still there was something about the case that made Emily positive that this was a case that would somehow cause her pain.
Emily sighed while lifting her head of the wall and straightening her back a little so she could get comfortable in the seat.
"Are you okay?" Morgan asked from the seat across from her.
"Yeah I'm fine," Emily said. Morgan did not look convinced, but she did not care, she just reached for the case file on the table. Emily wanted to go over everything one more time and memorize the file so she would be properly prepared. 'I could use some of Reid's eidetic memory and his fast reading skills right now,' Emily thought to herself as she went over the first page. Victim number one – Holly James, 20, blue eyes, brown hair. Disappeared November 5th 2009. Found dead Marts 10th 2010. Victim number two – Marie Phillips, 22, blue eyes, brown hair. Disappeared April 1st 2010. Found dead July17th 2010. Victim number three – Jennifer Young, 19, blue eyes, brown hair. Disappeared September 14th 2010. All the women were last seen in the area around South Seattle Community College, which they were all attending doing the time of their abduction.
Emily sighed and laid the file back on the table. Jennifer Young had only been missing for 48 hours, so there was a big change that they would be able to find her alive, seeing that the other women had only been dead for a couple of hours when they were found. Meaning that they had been alive doing all of the time missing, but that also meant that the team needed to find something the others had not and what if they could not? What if their profile did not help at all and they had to give up and go back home. And then in three months the body of Jennifer Young would be found in Puget Park like the others. Emily ran a hand through her hair. She could not let that happen.
"Emily?" She looked up and found Morgan staring at her. "Are you sure you're okay? You look pale. Do you need me to get you something to drink?"
Emily shook her head while smiling softly. "No I'm okay, it just... The case is just kind of messing with my head I think."
Morgan nodded. "Are you sure there is nothing I can do? Maybe grab a bag of M&M's for you?" he asked with a smile.
"That I can't say no to," Emily said, laughing. Morgan got up and as he passed her seat he squeezed her shoulder lightly.
/
She walked out of King County International Airport with her backpack hanging in one hanger on her left shoulder and with her yellow teddy bear Brooke pressed to her chest. She knew she was too old to walk around with a stuffed animal like that, but she was in a foreign country for the first time without her parents, so she decided that being 13 years old and hugging a teddy bear was not weird at all.
Sitting on a plane for over ten hours with both her grandparents asleep for at least 6 of them had not exactly been fun. No, the flight from Denmark to Seattle had been long and boring. And now she was sitting down again, this time on a bench waiting for her grandfather's cousin. They were staying with her and her husband during their 16 days stay in the US.
A car drove up in front of them and an elderly couple got out. The man reached his hand out and shook her hand and then took the backpack from her should. He laid it in the trunk of the car while the woman walked up to her. "Simone, it's so great to meet you!" the elderly woman said and then wrapped her arms around the young girl in a tight hug. 'You don't hug people you don't know,' Simone thought as she stood still with her arms hanging to the side, waiting patiently till this woman – who she could not even remember the name of – was done hugging her.
/
Emily stood in front of the whiteboard, looking at the pictures of the three victims. She felt how a drop of sweat was running down her back. The room they had been given had air condition, but it did not work properly and the small room as quickly getting hotter. Emily took a deep breath and and ran her hands over her face and through her hair. She needed to focus. The others had been driving to speak with the victims' families. Detective Keenan and Rossi were going to see Holly James' parents, Hotch and Reid – Marie Phillips' parents and JJ and Morgan – Jennifer Young's mother. And Emily was left alone here at the South precinct of Seattle police department. That was not really true. Emily herself had actually asked to stay behind instead of Morgan and Hotch had not protested at all. She knew that if it was up to him then she would never go anywhere while they were on a case and today she was okay with that.
Emily turned round when she heard the door being opened and saw Captain Mike Nolan walking in. "Here is the map Dr. Reid asked for," he said, lying it on the table.
"Thanks," Emily said with a smile as the man walked back out of the room again. There was something about the way he acted that made her feel like he was avoiding her and it may have to do with how their first meeting played out.
The team had walked into the precinct and was welcomed by Captain Nolan and Detective Keenan. They had shaken each others hands, but when Nolan had reached Emily he had shaken her hand and then moved to touch her stomach saying, "If you ask me, there's nothing more beautiful than a preg-"
Emily had grabbed his arm before he was able to touch her. "Do it and I'll grip you're arm off."
Nolan had quick taken a step back and while Keenan had showed the others to the room that had been setup of them, Hotch had stayed back with Nolan and apologized for Emily's behavior, saying something about it being hormones fault that she had acted like that. But that was not true at all and Hotch knew that. Emily shook her head. She did not get why her stomach all of the sudden had become public property just because she was pregnant. Her being pregnant did not make it any else creepy to have strangers touch her.
The door opened again and thinking it was Captain Nolan again Emily just ignored it. So when a hand touched the small of her back and she startled turned around to find Hotch standing beside her.
"Don't do that! Do sneak up on me like that!"
"Sorry, I thought you heard me when I came in."
"I did, but I thought you were someone else so I didn't expect to get touch all of the sudden," Emily said as she sat down on one of the chairs by the table. "Where's Reid?"
Hotch sat down next to her. "He's talking on the phone with JJ. She and Morgan are on their way back here and so Dave and Keenan. We will go over everything we have found out when they get here."
/
Simone looked out of the side window of the car. Once again she was sitting and her bottom was really starting to hurt, but at least she did not have to sit in the middle of her grandparents. She hated sitting squashed in the middle, but she hated even more when she was not able to look out the window properly and the front window did not count. She liked being able to watch as the world passed by quickly and you could not do that by looking out the front window.
The car came to a sudden stop in front of a much bigger house than Simone had thought. She had expected it to look kind of like her grandparents house – small enough for two, but with a little extra room for visitors. This house could host a lot of visitors.
She got out of the car and was handed her backpack and Brooke. She tucked the bear under her arm and swung her bag over her should as she followed the others into the house. The living room was nothing like her own, here everything was white and neat and Simone was almost afraid of touching anything. They walked down the hall and was shown into a room. In the middle of the room stood a big bed and on the floor next to the bed laid a mattes with a pillow and blanket dressed in purple bedding. 'Great,' Simone thought, 'this house has at least five bedroom and I still have to share a room with my grandparents.' But she did not complain, she just laid Brooke on the mattes and went over to her suitcase that her grandfather had brought into the room. She opened it and got out a pair of jeans and a white shirt with small pink flowers on it.
"Where is the bathroom," she asked shyly, pressing the clothes to her chest, afraid she would say the words wrong. She had only had English in school for three years and she was still not very good at it.
"Right through that door over there," said her grandfather's cousin – who she had found out was named Inger – pointing in the direction of the door. Simone smiled politely and walked into the bathroom where she changed her clothes.
When she stepped out again the bedroom was empty. Simone quickly laid her old on top of the suitcase and grabbed her red backpack, before leaving the room to go find the others.
/
"What have we got?" Hotch asked as the whole team was seated at the table.
"We know that all three women went to South Seattle Community College, but none of then knew each other according to there family and friends," Morgan said. "They did however attend some of the same classes – art and psychology – but never in the same year."
"Could it be one of the teachers?" Dave asked.
"I doubt it," JJ said. "The psychology professor is a man in his mid fifties and the art professor is a woman in her early thirties."
"What are their names?" Hotch asked.
Morgan looked through his notes. "Mrs Young couldn't remember the name of the psychology professor, but the art professor is Louise Campbell."
"Okay, Morgan call Garcia and have her find out everything she can about the two professors," Hotch said and then turned to Emily. "What did you find out about the victims?"
"Both Holly James and Marie Phillips were strangled and they had bruises around their writes and left ankle. But the bruises on the writes were faded, which makes me think that they at first were restraint by their hands and than later had them removed and replaced by a foot chain," Emily said, looking around at the others. "Because why would they only have bruises around one ankle?"
"I think you are right," Dave said. "We know the UnSub keeps the victims alive, so it's very possible that he over time allows them more freedom in whatever place he's keeping they? Was there any trace evidence fund on the victims that could tells us where that might be?"
"The first two victims had vitamin D deficiency and Marie Phillips' lungs showed signs of pneumonia, which suggested that they have been kept in a cold place with no sunlight," Reid said.
"That may very well point to a basement or even an attic," Morgan said.
Hotch nodded and asked, "What do we know about the UnSub?"
/
She found the others in the back garden, getting the table ready for lunch. When they were done Simone placed her bag next to the chair and then sat down and they all started to eat. While the adults talked, Simone quickly pushed her food back and forth on her plate. She was not really hungry and fish was not really her favorite dish.
"Are you bored?" Inger asked.
Simone looked up from her plate with a shy smile. "Maybe a little," she admitted.
"We have a bike you can borrow if you want to go take a look around the area. There's a park just down the road."
"I would like that," Simone said and followed Inger as she got up and walked towards the shed. Inger could out the bike and rolled it over to Simone. It was a black man's bike that was at least a size or two too big for her. She wondered how she would be able to get on it, but she did not say any other than a polite "Thank you" and then she swung her bag onto her back and rolled the bike out of the garden. Out on the road Simone took a moment to remember how the house looked, so she would be able to find it again later and then she carefully crawled onto the bike and drove down the street.
At the park Simone saw a lot of children playing on a playground. It looked like it belonged to a school or something like that. She saw that the swing set was empty, so she decided to get of the bike and go over there. But getting of the bike was a lot harder than getting on it and Simone ended up on the ground with a leg on each side of the bike.
"Are you okay," a woman asked.
Simone sighed and looked up at her. "Yeah I'm fine."
"Here let me help you," she said, taking Simone by the hand, helping her up from the ground. Simone was just about to thank her when the cries of a small child filled the playground and the woman turned around and ran towards the small boy that was sitting on the edge of the sandbox with a bloody knee. Simone guess that the boy was the woman's son and it made her kind of homesick to see the woman care like that for the boy. So she decided not to go swing, but instead just take the bike and go back to the house. She lifted the bike up and started walking away.
Simone walked up one street and down another, but she still could not found the house and she was back at the park. It was the third time she had reached the park and tears started to fall down her cheeks. How was she going to find her way home if she kept walking I circles? She sniffled and wiped the tears of her cheeks with the backside of her left hand.
"Are you lost?"
Simone looked up startled to find a man standing in front of her on the sidewalk. "Yes."
"Do you need some help finding were you are going?"
She nodded hesitatingly and then said. "I'm looking for my grandfather's cousin's house, but I can't find it."
"Do you remember what street it's on?" he asked as they started walking slowly down the road.
"No, but it's a big red house and I remember it being close to a place called 'Pearls Tea & Coffee'."
"Oh, I know where that place it. Let me show you."
Simone sighed happily. "Thank you." Now she was going home.
/
Emily was leaning against the desk with a hand resting on her stomach while she listened to Hotch talk. They were giving the profile to the Officers and Detectives in the precinct. She was waiting for her turn to speak. It was not like they all had a specific time to say something, but all just knew each other so well that that could feel when a other member of the team had something to say.
And now it was Emily's time. She stood up straight and let her arms fall to the side as she said, "From what we know about the victims – their looks, what they like and how they acted around others – we believe them to be surrogates for someone else."
"Surrogates?" a young Officer asked.
"Yes, the UnSub may be building up the courage to go after the woman he really wants, but till then he uses other women to get his frustration out on," Emily said, leaning back against the desk, as Morgan took over, tell them what kind of guy they should be on the lookout for.
When they were done giving the profile and the Officers and Detectives had gone back to work, Hotch walked over to and leaned against the desk next to her. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be," Emily said, trying to smile convincing at Hotch.
Hotch shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, you just don't seem like yourself."
Emily sighed. "I don't know that it is, but I just have this feeling that something is going to happen, something bad."
Hotch looked worried at her. "It isn't something with the babies, is it? Are you having any pain," he asked, lying a protective hand on her stomach."
"No, no! There is nothing wrong in here," she assured him and placed her hands on top of his. "It's just the case. I can't put my finger on it, but I think something will happen."
"Agent Hotchner?"
Hotch hand fell from Emily's stomach and he turned around to look at Captain Nolan. "Yes."
"I just got a call about a 13 year-old getting kidnapped from Puget Park," he said and Hotch was quickly on his feet and walking with Nolan into his office.
She had known it. She had known something bad was going to happen and now it had. A child had been kidnapped from the same area as the three other victims. Was it the same UnSub? Emily sighed. This case just kept getting worse.
