Chapter 5

But that intimacy of mutual embarrassment, in which each feels that the other is feeling something, having once existed, its effect is not to be done away with.
- George Eliot

July 10, 2014

JJ walked into the dining room as Rossi was ending his phone call with the rental company. "JJ, we have the number where Morgan and Prentiss are staying. I think you should make the call. You'll be the best person to give her this news," he gestured with his hands towards the kitchen island.

"Wait," said Garcia. "If Creeper Peeper was able to get a camera up there, I think we should assume that he had access to the place and the phone there is tapped."

"True," said Reid. "But I'm not sure it matters. Creeper Peeper, as you call him, knows Hotch has the pictures, assumes he's contacted us, and therefore knows we'll be trying to get in touch with Emily and Derek. He doesn't gain anything by having that confirmed over the phone."

Hotch nodded. Reid was right and they didn't have time to over-think things too much. "JJ, make the call."

JJ closed her eyes briefly. This was going to suck. She picked up her phone and dialed the number Garcia had written on a pad of paper.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Right there," Emily gasped.

Derek moaned and gripped her tighter, lifting her legs a bit higher around his waist, careful to keep his footing on the slick tile in the shower stall. The warm water pounded on his back as he pounded into her.

Emily's back was pressed firmly against the wall. She had her left arm wrapped around his neck and her right hand was gripped tightly to the top of the shower door, trying to support some of her weight and keep them anchored.

"You know, this kind of defeats the purpose," she gasped out teasingly.

Derek stopped moving for a moment and looked at her, confused.

"Of the shower," she continued. "To fuck in the shower, when the shower's purpose was to wash up after fucking in the bed," she said with a delicious grin.

Derek smiled at her and bent to latch on to her nipple. Emily moaned, "Not that I'm complaining," and Derek started moving again.

Several minutes later, they stepped out of the shower and dried off. Derek slung a towel around his waist and sank down on the toilet seat.

"Legs a little weak there?" Emily asked.

Derek scuffed out a laugh, "Just a little bit."

"Still up for a run?"

"You know that kind of defeats the purpose – to take a shower only to go for a run and get sweaty."

Emily smiled at him, "Yes, but then we'll get to shower again," and gave him a wink.

He laughed and followed her into the bedroom where they dressed in running clothes. Emily pulled her hair up in a messy ponytail and Derek stepped up behind her, planting kisses on the back of her neck.

"Keep that up and we're never going to get out of here."

"Mmmmm," he hummed against her skin, "That's ok with me." He turned Emily around in his arms and kissed her under her ear. "If a couple typically has sex four times a week, and I haven't seen you in twelve weeks, that means we need to have sex forty-eight times in the next five days."

Emily laughed. "Forty-three more times, then? We'll both be dead of a heart attack by Monday. Besides, we're soon going to have plenty of days to make up for lost time. And since when does the average couple have sex four times a week?"

"Princess, when have we ever been average about anything?"

"True," she responded with a smile. Derek ran the tips of his fingers over her ass and kissed her lips. Seconds later they were interrupted by the ringing telephone.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

The phone rang three times before someone picked up. JJ heard laughter and a muffled, "Stop it. It's probably the rental company checking in. Derek, I swear to God. Stop."

JJ couldn't help smiling at the relaxed tone of Emily's voice, and she felt wretched that she was going to be the one to bring this party to a screeching halt.

"Hello?"

"Em? It's JJ."

"JJ? Oh my god. JJ, what's wrong? How did you get this number? How did you even know I was here?"

There was a brief muffled sound and then Derek's voice came on the line. "JJ, is everyone ok?"

"Yes, we're all ok, but we need to talk to you guys. We're all here and I'm going to put you on speaker. That phone up there doesn't happen to have speaker capability, does it?"

"Yes, it does. Hang on." JJ heard a click and then Emily was back on. "What the hell is going on, JJ?"

"Before I start, in case we get disconnected, call me back on my personal cell. And, Morgan, don't use your Bureau phone for now, ok?"

"Got it," Morgan replied worriedly. "Now talk."

"Hotch received a package this morning. It contained about 50 pictures."

"Forty-seven," Reid chimed in, and then nibbled on the tip of his finger nervously when JJ shot him a glare.

"OK, forty-seven pictures. They were of you two. They track your relationship from the beginning. They are…graphic," she said quietly.

Emily hissed, "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"No, Em. I'm sorry. Most of the pictures were taken from inside your homes. And there was one from inside my guest room. We're investigating that angle now. We think our alarm systems are the connection."

"Son of a bitch," Morgan said loudly.

Hotch chimed in, "Morgan and Prentiss, we are treating this professionally, like any other case, but we're keeping it out of the FBI. We need you to leave there and get to Rossi's as quickly as possible. And we need you to be careful. We don't think you're in any danger since this has been going on for years and the unsub has never done anything physical. But the last picture was taken yesterday, of you two on the deck of that house you're in right now."

Emily moaned in despair. "JJ, take me off speaker for a second," she quietly demanded.

"OK, Em. It's just me on the line now."

"JJ, how graphic? How bad are these pictures?"

JJ paused briefly. "They're very graphic, Emily. I'm so sorry. But they're not bad. In fact, I'd say that they're romantic." Another pause, "I've never seen Hotch blush before today, so thank you for that."

Emily laughed a little, but then sniffled and sucked in a breath, clearly crying, "You've all seen them?" She whispered.

"Yes. Emily, it's going to be ok. Just get here and let's figure this out."

Derek spoke up, anger in his voice, "What angle was the picture on the deck taken from? I want to go out there and check it out before we leave. The whole back area is trees, so the unsub would have to be up high and pretty damn close to the house."

"At least the camera would have to be. Hang on a second," JJ said and walked back to the kitchen island to look at the picture. "OK, if you're standing with your back against the center of the French doors on the deck, the camera would have to be slightly above your height and about ten degrees to the left."

"Got it. I'm going to check this out, we'll throw our things in a bag and we'll be on our way. See you in a few hours."

"Drive safely."

JJ disconnected the phone and fell back in a chair, letting out a huff. "Poor Emily."

"It's Prentiss. She'll handle it," said Rossi in a matter-of-fact tone.

"OK, we've got about four hours until they get here and I want answers for them when they arrive," said Hotch.

JJ nodded. "Will's going to find the receipt from the alarm company and scan and email it to me. He remembers that the worker was a fit Caucasian man in his mid to late fifties, but that's about it. He and Henry mostly stayed in the living room playing. Will's going to go home now, to get the receipt and see if he can find the camera in that room. He said he'd call me back."

Reid was back at the pictures, "Look at this time-gap. There are forty-two pictures from 2007-2011, then only five between then and now. I guess that makes sense since Emily was in London. There's the picture at JJ's from October 2011, and then not another one until July 2012. That follows what you said, JJ, that you didn't think anything was going on that year. After that there's one on October 12, 2013. That's Emily's birthday. Then February 2014 at Morgan's house, that was the day after we rescued JJ, and then the one taken yesterday."

Reid picked up the picture from July 2012 and the one from October 2013 and walked into the dining room. "Garcia, I need you to look at these two. Sorry." He set the picture from July 2012 down. "Is this Emily's flat in London?"

"Oh my," said Garcia, looking at the picture. Emily was perched on a counter, shirt unbuttoned and no pants, and Derek was shirtless, bent over, his head between Emily's thighs. "Yes, it is. That was the last night we were there. I was out with some people I'd met. Emily called me and asked me what Derek and I were up to and I told her that Derek had headed back to her flat, but I was still out. She said she was heading home as well and would make dinner so we could all enjoy our last night there together. I came home a couple of hours later and Morgan and Emily were cooking."

She sighed and shook her head. "What is it, Garcia?" asked Hotch.

"They could have told me. Emily wasn't with the BAU anymore, so that wouldn't have mattered. We sat around that night talking and laughing and I didn't even have a clue."

JJ went over and placed a gentle hand on Garcia's shoulder. "They were very practiced at not telling anyone, Penelope. The only reason I knew was because Morgan reached his breaking point about Emily actually being alive while she happened to be staying at my house. Plus, if the timeline of the pictures are accurate, that time in London was the first time in almost a year. They probably didn't even know themselves what was going on or if there was anything to tell."

Garcia nodded and Reid took that picture away and replaced it with the one from Emily's birthday in 2013. "And this? Is this her bedroom in London?"

"No. She might have repainted and got new furniture since I was there, but this window is wrong. She doesn't have a window there."

Reid picked up the picture. "These two pictures are probably our best clues. We know at one point the unsub flew to London. We'll need to find out where this other one was taken to see if he flew somewhere else. Also, I find it doubtful that they didn't see each other for 14 months, so we need to figure that out, too."

Hotch nodded. "We're not going to bombard them with questions while they're driving. Reid, I need you to work a timeline. Write down what you remember about the dates from each of the pictures. When we get Prentiss and Morgan here, they are going to have to fill in the rest. We need to know if the unsub omitted pertinent dates, and if so, why?"

"Rossi and JJ, Morgan and Prentiss are our best bet to pick up any nuances in those pictures that we'd miss, but it's going to be brutally humiliating for them to do that. I want you to work an interview angle for them. You both know them well. We're going to have to walk and talk them through these pictures on some level. Talk about the best way to approach this so we're ready for when they arrive."

Garcia looked up from her computer screen. "Bingo! OK, there are six main alarm companies in our area. They each subcontract out their installers, and there's actually a lot of overlap with those employees. It's a needle in a haystack. However, I went back in JJ's phone records and I see they called the alarm company on September 30th. But then, here's where the strangeness starts. JJ said her motion sensors were going off and that's why she called, but when I pull up her account, it doesn't show the alarm was triggered around that time at all. And get this, Jayje. You dialed the alarm company, but then your call was rerouted to a different number – 540-685-4217. Creeper Peeper is a smart cookie. Skeevy, but smart.

Now, Derek uses a different alarm company, but I searched his phone records for the company number and I see he called it back on October 18th, 2007, the day after the infamous Emily Prentiss Can Dance revelation. And guess what, contestants?"

"That number was rerouted to the same number JJ's went to," said Hotch.

"Excellent! You win the prize, Boss Man! Now I took a look through Emily's old bills and other than learning that she charged an inordinate amount of money to Thai Palace, I also learned she used the Quantum Alarm Company. Same as JJ. No service calls that I can trace with her old numbers, but that alarm was installed on November 10th, 2006, approximately one week before Emily moved in there. So I'm thinking the concierge let the company in. And I'm willing to bet that Creeptastico himself was the installer. Unfortunately, that number gives me nothing. It's a burn phone, but I'll dig deeper."

"How would he reroute the calls like that?" asked Hotch.

"The same way he looped the video surveillance at your apartment building, from being inside the source, either physically or online. In this case the source was the alarm company. He would have to write a code so that when any one of Emily, Morgan's or JJ's numbers called their respective alarm companies, the call was rerouted. He probably did the same with your video surveillance, preprogrammed a way for the camera to automatically start looping at a certain day and time, which means he could have been in your building weeks ago or yesterday installing that virus.

Like I said, he's smart. And, Hotch, I doubt this is even close to his first rodeo. This guy was an expert by the time 2007 rolled around."