Talking to Vickie's father had ultimately been a waste of time. After spending the first five minutes of the conversation denying that anything even happened, he finally told them that his daughter had been deeply affected by the abduction and that he wouldn't make her go through a questioning that would bring everything back.
It took a lot of finagling for him to even take Delma's card to give to Vickie.
Reid spent the following couple of days, anxiously waiting by the phone, hoping for some new developments, and felt both excited and profoundly sad to learn of another abduction.
They assembled quickly outside the latest victim's job, trying to make sense of this new element.
"I don't get it", Prentiss said, "they usually go for the private school types, kids from moneyed families whose parents will be able to pay the ransom. This is pretty far off script".
Their new victim, Lora Norman, was a 16year-old dropout working as a part-time waitress.
"We did say Lester's partner had much different urges", Reid pointed out, "Moreno probably wouldn't care about her social status".
"You think their partnership has fallen apart?", Prentiss asked.
"Not necessarily, she might have voluntarily let him take control for this kidnapping, to insure his loyalty somehow", he said.
"That's a line she never crossed before. She lives for control, allowing her partner to pick the victim and deviate from the M.O is highly uncharacteristic for her", she said, "and that means we probably won't get a ransom note this time".
Delma joined them, phone in hand: "I just got a call from Vickie Paterson. She heard there was another kidnapping. She wants to talk to us now".
"I need to brief the Met on this", Prentiss said, "you guys go ahead and keep me posted, okay?".
They drove to the Paterson's penthouse in the City, Vickie's father sat them down in the living room with her; he had first intended to stay in the room while they interviewed her, but he eventually excused himself when it became obvious that his daughter felt more comfortable opening up without him around.
"I'm not sure what you expect me to say. I'd like to help, I just don't remember anything", Vickie said, wringing her hands.
"Don't feel bad about it, the other girl couldn't recall anything either", Delma said kindly.
"What's the last thing you remember?", Reid asked.
"Stepping out of the club for a cigarette, but even that is blurry".
"Can you do me a favor and close your eyes?", he asked, "try to concentrate only on the sound of my voice".
She hesitated, unwilling to put herself in a position of weakness where she would be unaware of her surroundings; it was always an issue for trauma victims they questioned. But she nodded and slowly closed them.
"You remember leaving the club, right? How does it feel outside? Cold?", he asked.
"Freezing", she smiled a little, "I've left my coat inside".
"Ok, good, what do you do next?".
"Take out my cigarettes. I'm about to light one, but then this woman comes up to me", she said.
"What does she look like?".
"I don't know…White, dark hair… Pretty I guess…She asks me for a light, I look for it in my bag, and when I look up I see she's got…this nosebleed she didn't know she had. So I told her, and when she asked me for a tissue, I turned around a bit, looking for one".
"And then?", Delma said encouragingly.
"I don't remember much else", she said, tears falling down her cheeks, "I know I fell down afterwards, and then…I don't know".
"It's okay, you've given us a lot already", he said.
"I wasn't even supposed to be out that night. I sneaked out, I shouldn't have. It would never have happened if I hadn't", she said, in tears.
"We have reason to believe that the kidnappers target specific victims, I don't think there's anything you could have done to prevent it", he explained, awkwardly.
"You've helped a lot Vickie", Delma said, squeezing her hand, "thank you for talking with us".
"You know, nosebleeds can be symptomatic of a lot of things, it's usually benign in most cases, but it can also be a sign of organ failure, blood diseases, intranasal tumors…the list goes on", Reid ranted as soon as they left the building.
"You think Lester's sick?", the inspector asked.
"It would explain why she chose Moreno as her partner and allowed him to be in charge on the last abduction. If she's growing weaker she might need to rely on him for physical tasks and be forced to relinquish some control too".
"Doc?", Delma suddenly said, "look at that".
She pointed to an envelope left under the windscreen wiper of her car. Reid opened it and read the note to her: "You hope to beat me. I tell you that you will never beat me. If you are clever enough to bring destruction upon me, rest assured that I shall do as much to you".
"What does it mean?", she asked.
"It's a quote from Conan Doyle. Something Moriarty says to Holmes in one of his stories".
"I recognized the passage", she said, "I meant what does she mean by it? That the only way for you to stop her is through mutual destruction?".
"I think the note in itself is what matters, rather than the words", he said, slightly surprised that she got the reference, "she's showing me that she knows I'm here and that she's watching".
"You can't ignore the fact that Moriarty eventually throws Holmes off a raging waterfall, that note seems pretty hostile to me".
"Holmes survived", he simply said.
"He wasn't supposed to", she persisted, "the author was pressured to bring the character back, but he had meant for him to sacrifice himself and die for the greater good".
He was sincerely touched by Delma's concern but his mind was entirely focused on finding the missing girl alive and stopping Lester from doing more harm, and he felt that the literary debate they were getting into was rather pointless since there was nothing he could do about the threats.
He pocketed the note and got on the passenger seat, not quite meeting her eye.
They met up with Prentiss in her office as the agency was deserted at this time of night.
"So I called Garcia on the DL, and after a quick hack into the government's HMO database she told me that Lester was diagnosed with a cancerous nasopharengeal tumor a year ago, before she quit her job and went on a rampage", she said.
"Was she put on a particular treatment?", Delma asked, "we could try and track her through her medication".
"The tumor was inoperable, the doctor recommended chemo but she never showed up to her next appointment, and so far there's no papertrail that indicates she underwent any treatment either here or in the U.S. But according to her doctor, the chemo wouldn't have given her more than two years. I'm amazed she's still alive considering the prognosis that was given to her".
"Lester's disease might explain her actions. Patients suffering from a terminal illness sometimes engage in high-risk behaviors when they learn their days are numbered", he said as Prentiss excused herself to answer a call.
"How long do you think Lora Norman has?", Delma asked in a whisper.
"It's hard to say. Without a ransom demand with a clear deadline there's no telling how long they might keep her", he replied, "but if they had killed her we would have found the body already".
"I know…But I find it hard to hope that they keep her for as long as possible knowing what Moreno did to his victims", she sighed.
He nodded; he knew that even if they somehow managed to find the girl alive, she'd never be the same again.
Prentiss re-entered the room, making them jump a little.
"They found Lora Norman's body", she said sadly.