A/N: Thank you for the kind reviews. Hope you enjoy this part!
That memory of talking to Emily the night through and then waking up in her apartment to the comforting smells of a delicious breakfast; her genuine and shy 'thank you', provided him with some comfort in this tense situation.
Hotch had been sitting in the interrogation room for nearly an hour and was about to simply get up and leave when the door swung open and Kramer walked into the room.
The detective was still dressed in his dark suit and for a moment, Hotch felt as if he was thrown into some bizarre world, as he stared back at a tall, dark-haired man in a suit on the other side of the interrogation table. Then Aaron realized he had been thrust into a bizarre world.
"Detective Thomas Kramer of DC Metro PD speaking with Aaron Hotchner," Kramer said into the microphone placed above the table. He sat down opposite Hotch. Before he would even look at Hotch, Kramer flipped open a file and shuffled through a few papers as he pulled out a pair of reading glasses with his free hand and put them on. The light reflected off of the glasses, making it impossible for Hotch to see the other man's eyes.
"You have been apprised of your rights and have waived the right for counsel to be present?" Kramer queried.
Hotch let out an annoyed huff. It was stupid to speak or answer the detective's questions without a lawyer, but he was a lawyer, plus a skilled interrogator and he had done nothing wrong.
"I have nothing to hide," Hotch said firmly. "Yes, I am speaking to you without a lawyer of my own free will."
Kramer nodded. "Please tell me about your relationship with Beth Clemmons."
"I met her about six months ago while I was training for a marathon. She approached me in the park after a run and suggested we train together."
"She was preparing for the same race?"
"No, one that would take place several months later."
"How did she know you were in training?"
Hotch hesitated. He wasn't proud of himself that he hadn't been concerned about Beth admitting she had been watching him long before she approached him. He had been flattered, but after breaking up with her, he realized it was probably something he should have been concerned about. "She had said she had been watching me train. Swimming at the Y, bike trails and running in the park."
Kramer tilted his head and the lights were no longer reflecting off his glasses, allowing Hotch to see the surprised look on the other man's face. "That didn't cause you some concern that it was obvious she had been watching you long enough to know your habits?"
"I was…flattered. She was an attractive woman who had gone through a lot of trouble to approach me."
"Was?" The insinuation in Kramer's tone hung heavily between them.
"I use the past tense simply because she is not a part of my life and has not been for several weeks."
"When was the last time you saw her?" Kramer still had a suspicious look on his face, but he had moved on.
"About three weeks ago. We had broken up the week before and I still had some of her things at my apartment. I was returning them to her."
"At her apartment?"
"Yes."
"Was it a mutual decision to call things off?"
"No," Hotch replied slowly. "I realized we were incompatible and ended things, but they were pretty much over by that point."
"Did she feel the same way?" Kramer had tilted his head back again and the glare on his glasses made his eyes unreadable, but Hotch had felt the very air sharpen with a tension that was not there before. He knew he had to tread carefully.
"No."
"Why? Did she feel you two were compatible?" Kramer's voice remained calm and professional, but Hotch could tell Kramer was doubting every word of his story.
"She wasn't happy when I broke things off," Hotch supplied. "She was persistent in her calls for a time after the break up and then they stopped about a week or so ago."
Kramer regarded Hotch for a few heartbeats and then suddenly asked, "Was there another woman involved?"
"Absolutely not," Hotch replied firmly.
"But she thought otherwise, didn't she?"
Hotch glared at the other man. He had underestimated Kramer. Either he had far more information than he was letting on or he had a few profiling skills of his own.
"She believed the reason I was breaking up with her was because I had become involved with another woman, but I had not. Beth didn't truly understand the work I did nor the sacrifices it requires me to make sometimes. Canceled dates and dinners. She grew dissatisfied with the amount of time I was spending out of town. It made me realize how incompatible we truly were so I ended it, but she refused to believe that was the reason."
"She called you persistently in the following weeks?"
"Yes."
"But stopped about a week or two ago?"
"Yes."
"Did Ms. Clemmons indicate who she believed you were seeing?"
Hotch's brief hesitation was a dead giveaway and Kramer looked at him expectantly, patiently waiting for an answer.
"She thought it was one someone I worked with, one of my agents." Hotch leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest, indicating that was all he would say on the subject. He would not drag Emily's name into this mess.
Kramer regarded him carefully. He started to open his mouth to say something but Hotch would never know what it was to be as a knock on the door interrupted the questioning. The uniformed officer who had accompanied Kramer to Hotch's apartment walked in and handed the detective another file. He leaned over and said something in Kramer's ear that Hotch could not hear. The officer then straightened up, glanced at Hotch with a stone-faced expression and then left the room.
Kramer read the file he had just been handed and then took off his reading glasses.
"Well, it seems this new information has changed things a bit," he murmured.
"How so?" Hotch asked.
"The body found in Ms. Clemmons car was too badly burned to be identified, but her teeth were intact. Ms. Clemmons was also a very organized individual and it was an easy matter to contact her dentist who sent over her dental records immediately. They were a match. That was Beth Clemmons in the car. We'll be here for a while, Mr. Hotchner."
Hotch sat there, stunned that Beth was dead that it took him a few moments before he realized that Kramer was looking at him as a suspect in her death. He inhaled a shaky breath. "I'd like to make a phone call now."
Frank Williams strode rapidly through the hallway into the bullpen of the BAU. Agents looked up curiously as the Assistant Director made his way to where Aaron Hotchner's team was assembled around the cluster of desks that belonged to Prentiss, Reid and Jareau.
"Conference room now," Williams barked out, not even breaking stride as he headed directly to the room they typically used for their briefings.
The agents exchanged glances, but got up and followed the AD. He closed the door after Morgan and waited until they were all seated around the roundtable. Williams' eyes went the assembled team: Rossi, Morgan, Jareau, Reid, the tech analyst, Garcia and finally, on Prentiss. Each of them looked at him with a mixture of curiosity and concern on their faces.
"An hour ago I received a phone call from Agent Hotchner," Williams began.
"Oh, good, we were getting worried about him," Garcia began, but none of the agents were comforted. They grew tenser. They knew if Hotch was calling Williams, who was now supervising them in Strauss' absence, something had happened. Something bad.
"Agent Hotchner was brought into questioning by DC Metro in the disappearance of Beth Clemmons."
"What?" Morgan barked out, leaping to his feet. "They're treating Hotch like a suspect?"
"Sit down, Agent Morgan," Williams said sharply. He did not need this to spiral out of control. When Morgan didn't budge, the AD leveled a hard stare at the younger man. "Sit down, now."
Slowly, Morgan sat down.
"What's going on?" Rossi asked in a calm voice.
"I only have the barest of details and that's all I'm going to get and I shouldn't even be sharing any of this with you," Williams continued. "Last night Beth Clemmons disappeared from her apartment. When she didn't show up for work, a co-worker went to check up on her. It looked like a struggle had taken place there and blood was found. Preliminary tests indicate its Ms. Clemmons' blood type. A witness places Agent Hotchner at her place yesterday evening."
"But Hotch broke up with her weeks ago," Rossi murmured. "He's been actively avoiding her. Why would he be at her apartment?"
The others looked at Rossi in surprise. The older profile was the only one who knew of the current state of Hotch's relationship with the curator. They all thought he was still dating her.
"Agent Hotchner hasn't been charged, but he is being questioned," Williams continued. "The Agency cannot be involved in this investigation in any way." He stared hard at each of them. "That is why I am telling this team to stand down and for all of you to take a two-week leave."
They all began to protest loudly, except for Rossi who gazed at the other man thoughtfully.
"Enough!" Williams roared. "I will NOT have any arguments. Leave is to commence immediately and that includes you TA Garcia. And mind you, we will be monitoring all of your accounts so no use of Bureau resources for you own investigation. I repeat, there must not be any Agency involvement in this case. Any. Now, all of you, get your things and get out of here. Now." He spun on his heel and left the room.
"Can you believe that?" JJ sputtered out in indignation.
"We're not just going to leave Hotch to fend for himself, are we?" Reid asked.
Rossi shook his head. "Don't you see what Williams just did?"
"Yeah, he told us not to help Hotch at all," Garcia puffed out in irritation.
Rossi exchanged looks with Morgan and Prentiss.
"Baby Girl, the FBI can't touch this case or it could be seen as a cover up," Morgan explained.
"And Williams just gave us two weeks off to run our own investigation," Emily said. "He can't sanction anything or help us, but he's giving us time to work on this."
"It's the best Williams can do in this situation, and more than we can expect. So I suggest we all meet up at my house and go from there," Rossi said as he stood up, a determined look on his face.
"You don't think they actually believe Hotch had something to do with Beth's disappearance?" Garcia asked as they stood and started to head out of the room.
Rossi hesitated. "We'll have a better idea once we get some details on the investigation, but the fact that Williams is telling us to stand down now means he expects this to be a bad one."
"You think he knows more than he's saying?" JJ queried.
"Oh, definitely, but he won't tell us," Rossi replied. "We need to get some details on the investigation. Anyone has a good in with DC Metro?"
They looked at each other and while several of the agents had some type of relationship with a DC police officer, they knew it wasn't enough to get information on this type of case. Given the FBI connection and Hotch's position here, Metro will be even more closed mouth than usual and only a very select few will have access to the details of the case.
"We need that case file. We have to know what they have on the case and what they might have against Hotch," Rossi stressed.
"I might know someone who might be able to help us," Emily said slowly. "He's not DC Metro, but he has a lot of connections there."
Rossi nodded. "You go work that angle, Prentiss. The rest of you, get your stuff and meet at my house for further planning."
A/N 2: The crossover with another show that I hinted about appears in the next part but people who are familiar with some of my other work may have worked out what show that's going to be!