Reid insisted on seeing the dump site as soon as they got off the plane, on a normal case this is always where the team would start.
They walked along the Thames until they reached the exact spot where Sarah Grimes was spotted, floating in the river.
"She was found in the early morning, she was probably dumped when it was still dark", Prentiss said.
"I doubt anyone witnessed that. This particular street doesn't have any businesses that would have been open at that time", he added, looking around, observing the neighborhood.
"I'm not so sure about that", Prentiss disagreed, nodding towards a group of homeless men, huddled under a nearby bridge.
"I know police canvassed the area, but you're right, they might have missed them".
"I'm on it", she said, walking away from him and towards them.
Reid approached the water, his trainers slipping a little on the wet pavement. For a long time he just stared at the river, somehow hoping that there were answers there that he might be able to transform into something concrete or helpful. The only thing that popped into his mind was a line from a poem, something he thought his mother might have read to him ages ago, although he couldn't recall the title or author.
"Twenty bridges from Tower to Kew, wanted to know what the River knew….".
"…For they were young and the Thames was old".
He turned around quickly to see the woman who had completed the poem. He hadn't realized he had been talking to himself.
Looking at her, he thought the weather had suddenly changed from grey and stormy to sunny, because she seemed to be standing in a beam of sunlight whose origin he couldn't pinpoint. He came to the conclusion that her wavy, coppery hair, cascading down her back, was a source of light in itself. She shivered and buried her hands deep in the pockets of her jacket, as if she were cold, but she looked incandescent to him.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you", she said, coming closer to stand next to him.
"You didn't. I was just…thinking out loud I guess".
"Is it working?", she asked, gazing at the water as well.
"Working?", he repeated, confused.
"Has the river shared any of her ancient secrets with you yet? Like in the poem", she said with a smile.
He was about to answer when Prentiss returned, shaking her head to indicate that she didn't get anything from the people under the bridge.
"Inspector?", she said, surprised, when she came face to face with her.
Although the woman seemed to know Prentiss personally, she didn't answer, choosing to glance at Reid uncertainly.
"Oh this is Dr. Reid, with the FBI, he's consulting on this case", Prentiss explained uneasily.
She eyed him suspiciously, but didn't ask why he came all the way here or why he didn't present his credentials.
"Delma Jones, C.I.D", she said as she finally shook his hand.
Reid recognized her name from the case files; he knew she had handled the first kidnapping and that it backfired on her when the victim died.
"I thought someone else was leading the investigation now", he said, uncertainly.
He regretted his remark immediately, she seemed to interpret it as the implication that she had failed somehow.
She looked down and shrugged, "Exactly, which means I have a lot of time on my hands. I just thought I'd come out here and have another look around".
They nodded and she relaxed.
Relieved not to be asked to justify herself some more, Delma went on: "Based on where the body was found, I was thinking she must have been dropped from that bridge", she said, pointing to it.
"Makes sense", Prentiss agreed, "it would have been easier to dispose of her from the road up there than by taking the risk to get all the way down to the river and be spotted with the body".
"Not so easy. First they would have had to drag the body from the car, and then heave it above the railing for the body to fall in", Delma said.
"You said "they", you're thinking of a team?", Reid asked.
"Certainly feels like a two-person job to me".
Now that he was thinking about it, Lester was quite petite and he was having trouble imagining her dragging and carrying all this body weight on her own. And this new proximity to her victims had always felt out-of-character to him.
He shared a look with Prentiss who seemed to be thinking along the same lines. Lester had a new partner.
"What?", Delma asked, perhaps feeling left out of this silent realization.
They didn't answer immediately, not knowing how much they could tell her without having to answer a lot of uncomfortable questions too.
"I was there when they pulled her out of the water", the inspector said firmly, sensing their hesitation, "I'd like to see this through".
They continued their conversation at a nearby restaurant. Delma and Prentiss both felt that they could talk more freely there than at either of their workplaces where they would be overheard.
It took a while for Delma to catch up with them on the elements of the case; they went through everything with her, only omitting Reid's wrongful arrest and subsequent escape.
"I don't understand", she said, after they ordered, "she still has millions of dollars from the bank robberies, why the abductions, why the ransom demands?".
"It takes a lot of money to erase yourself and create a new identity", Prentiss explained, "imagine doing it over and over. Maybe she ran out of it".
"Lester's a psychopath, it's never about the money for her, I think having the power of life and death over the victims is what matters to her", Reid said.
"It would explain why the ransoms are so low", Prentiss agreed.
"You were right", he told Delma, after re-reading Sarah Grimes' autopsy report, "we are looking for two unsubs".
"Unknown subjects", Prentiss clarified as she looked confused.
"The stab wounds seem to indicate that her killer was right-handed. Melinda Lester is left-handed", he said.
Reid had noticed it first when reading her handwriting on the back of the Liberty Bell postcard; she had also favored her left hand every time he'd met her in person.
"There were no hesitation marks though, so I'd say we're looking for someone who's done it before", he added.
"I'm gonna get someone to look for similar homicides, perhaps involving kidnappings too, we might get lucky", Prentiss said, taking her phone out and stepping outside, away from the chatter of the restaurant.
"I wish I had known who I was dealing with earlier", Delma sighed, "I probably wouldn't have talked Sarah Grimes' father out of paying the ransom".
"There aren't any official statistics on extortion kidnappings because victims don't always report them to the police, but when kidnappers don't provide any proof that their captive is still alive, the odds of the person being found unarmed drop considerably, usually it's the sign that the victim died in the struggle during the initial abduction or in captivity", he rambled, "I'm sure you did the best you could with the information that you had".
She seemed relieved to know that the facts were on her side, or perhaps she was comforted by the knowledge that he would have done the same thing in her situation.
"I know", she conceded, "but it didn't make informing Mr. Grimes of his daughter's death any easier".
As she said this, the waiter came back with their food. And Reid took advantage of her looking down at her plate to study her.
He didn't think she could be more than two or three years younger or older than him, and yet in the bright light of the restaurant he could see a twinkle in her deep brown eyes that he'd only ever seen in those of children and always assumed disappeared in the process of growing up.
He couldn't help but feel self-conscious; knowing he probably looked like he desperately needed a shave and haircut. He was thankful for Prentiss' return which gave him a reason to focus on the case instead for the rest of the evening.
-If anyone is curious about the precise poem mentioned here it's "The River's Tale", by Kipling, a fun read if you ever thought to yourself "how can I combine my love of early 20thcentury poetry and my hardcore passion for history"? Well there it is, you're very welcome.
-I realize it might be weird to use last names for Reid and Prentiss but refer to Delma Jones by her first name; I mostly do it because her first name is kickass.
(For etymology freaks out there, Delma is the abbreviation of Fidelma, in Irish folklore she was a warrior princess sometimes also called "the nine times beautiful").
-(C.I.D stands for criminal investigation department).
-Someone asked me in the reviews why I don't translate the fics in French. I think I'd feel weird doing this since I've never watched Criminal Minds in its French version, (there are certain things that you can't unhear, and disappointing dubbings of shows you love is one of these things).