A Voice Cries Out

Chapter 18

JJ's head whipped around when she heard Reid call her name. She quickly replaced the books she'd been holding when she noticed he was waving a piece of paper.

"What? What did you find?"

As anxious as he was to share his discovery, Reid was hesitant to speak in front of a stranger. JJ saw his eyes move to Guidry and back.

"It's okay, Spence. We've bonded."

"Bonded?"

Guidry looked an apology at Reid as he pulled his phone from his pocket and pressed the screen. He moved over toward Reid to show him.

"My kids. A boy and a girl. Just a little bit older than yours, it sounds like."

Reid looked at the photo, then to JJ, and finally to Guidry. He would never cease to be amazed at his wife's skills of persuasion.

"They're cute."

Guidry's face broke into an unfamiliar smile. "So are yours." As he put the phone back into his pocket, he offered Reid the same apology he'd already given to JJ.

"Sorry for earlier. And for the last time, too. Last couple of times, in fact. I have a tendency to be defensive, I guess."

"No need to be defensive with us, Frank. Remember, we're only called in to help, not to take over." JJ's tone made it sound like they were going over ground already covered.

"Yeah, I know, you're right. I guess I just thought the FBI would come in and show up the municipal guys."

"Las Vegas isn't exactly a small city," observed Reid, "You've got pretty big time cases here. And, besides, I thought you guys worked pretty closely with our local office." A lot of the crime in Las Vegas crossed state lines.

"Some divisions do. Just not usually mine. Anyway, I hope we can start over."

Reid gave him a small grin, feeling magnanimous since he'd made his discovery. "No hard feelings."

JJ was satisfied with the truce, and encouraged her husband.

"So….you were saying? What did you figure out?"

Reid positioned himself between the two to show them the articles he'd found.

"I think this first article came out not too long after my Uncle Daniel was working there. Not long after he died," he corrected.

JJ wasn't sure where he was going with this. "And you think he knew this guy? The physicist, Albrecht?"

"I'm sure of it. He was working at the lab at the same time. This older article was announcing Albrecht's upcoming retirement, but it's dated after my uncle's death. They had to have known each other. Uncle Daniel might even have been working in Albrecht's lab."

JJ still wasn't sure it had anything to do with their case. "But, why do you think…..Oh."

He'd just put the more recent article on top of the older one.

Guidry commented this time. "Same guy, nearly thirty years later. Must be….what does it say…..95 now? How does that help?"

Reid was insistent. "Because he was going to be in town for the dedication right at the time my dad went missing. Look at the date."

Guidry played devil's advocate. "So, maybe your father knew him from back then and decided to go see him when he was in town. I still don't see how that's helpful."

Reid was undeterred. "I don't know if my dad knew him, but he knew about him. Look." He pointed out the faint underlining and the 'No!' in the margin.

Guidry shook his head. "I don't understand."

Neither did JJ. "Spence?"

"Don't you see? He was saying there was something not right about Albrecht. About him being honored."

As much as she wanted to support her husband, JJ feared he was on the wrong track. "Are you saying you think your dad had information about Albrecht? That he went there to confront him?"

Guidry may have atoned for his earlier behavior, but he still had no qualms about disagreeing. "Like what? It says here his money was legit…..it came from some patent or something. Besides, the guy is ninety-five years old. What could he possibly do to your father?"

Reid deflated. "I don't know. That's the piece I can't figure out."

That drew a snort from Guidry. "Like the rest of it makes sense? I don't know, man. I get that you really need a breakthrough, but I'm not sure you've found it."

JJ wasn't either. But she eased the blow with a suggestion.

"Why don't we take these articles back to the team and see what we come up with?"

Aaron Hotchner could be persuasive when he wanted to be. He wasn't positioned to commandeer anyone or anything at the Las Vegas office of the FBI, but he knew how to finesse a request. Consequently, and despite the fact that they didn't have an 'official' case yet, the BAU were granted use of a conference room, several computers, and phones. Already settled into the conference room, he greeted each member of the team as they trickled back from their various tasks.

The others had been alerted that Reid had come across something, but not what it might be. Once they were all gathered, Hotch started the non-official meeting in his usual official manner. At his nod, Reid told the story of finding the articles and what he thought they might mean. When he was done, a silence filled with indecision hung in the air. None of them were sure they were on board with him.

JJ and Reid had already phoned both Morgan and Garcia to explain that they needed additional information, and about whom. If either of their friends thought Reid was off base in his thinking, they declined to say so.

He's sounded crazy before, and been right, thought Morgan. Maybe I should start thinking that way, too. Decision made, he began his report.

"I asked Professor Dahlgren about Albrecht. He remembers the guy, thought he was pretty full of himself. I guess Dahlgren started with the department after Albrecht had 'come to glory'," making finger quotes.

"Come to glory?" repeated JJ.

"Yeah. It sounds like he was a pretty key player in moving the Manhattan Project along." Morgan got up to pour himself a cup of coffee.

Reid interjected. "The Albrecht lens. It wasn't really a lens as we picture one. It was a way to focus the energy waves of the smaller explosions that triggered the atomic one."

Morgan nodded as he stirred his cup of brew. "That's what Dahlgren said. But apparently it wasn't known until years later, because everything about the Manhattan Project was top secret. And all it got Albrecht was fame, not fortune."

JJ was confused. "I thought we read he'd gotten a patent on it. Wouldn't he have made money from that?"

Her husband advised, "That's what I thought the article was talking about, too. But then I remembered that everything developed under a government contract belongs to the government. He couldn't have gotten a patent on it. And he wouldn't have made any money on it."

"So the patent in the article had to be for something else?" Emily wanted to make sure she was following him.

Reid nodded. "I asked Garcia to research it for us."

Rossi had been holding his tongue, not wanting to discourage the young man of whom he was so fond, but not at all sure Reid wasn't diverting the team from more significant leads. Of course, that would mean we'd found more significant leads. He decided to enter the conversation.

"Don't universities insist on their employees' work product belonging to the school? How would Albrecht make any money on anything he'd developed in the lab?"

Hotch fielded that one. "I was a prosecutor, as you know, so patent law isn't my area, and neither is contract law. But I don't believe universities had realized the potential gain from their faculty's discoveries back then. It may have been emerging in the 80's, but I doubt it was standard in a faculty contract."

Rossi stayed with the theory. "All right, so we're saying that Albrecht may have discovered something else, and gotten a patent on it, making him rich. But why are we thinking that this might have had anything to do with William's comment on the article?"

"I think my dad knew something about the discovery. Like maybe it wasn't really made by Albrecht."

"Spence…..are you saying that Dr. Albrecht stole the idea from someone?" If so, JJ knew exactly who Reid thought that 'someone' might be.

He confirmed it for her. "I think he might have stolen it from my uncle."

Seeing the quizzical…and outright unbelieving….looks on the others' faces, Reid went on to explain.

"My Uncle Daniel was a genius, too. He was in graduate school….MIT…. when he was only nineteen. And he was back here in Vegas that summer because he was interning with UNLV. They'd had an exchange program with MIT since the days of the Manhattan Project. Don't you see? It all fits!"

Morgan didn't see at all, but he tried to be gentle. "Reid, all we really know….maybe…. is that your uncle knew Albrecht when the professor was at UNLV, back in the day. And we're only supposing that from the timeline."

Emily spoke up. "I can confirm that. I went through all the yearbooks from 1980 to 1990. Reid, did you know your uncle spent time with the department four years before he died? He didn't make the official list, but there was a photo with him in it. The caption read, "Daniel Reid, fifteen year old future physicist. We grow them young here in Nevada."

Reid was surprised by his own reaction. He'd known his uncle was a genius, but to have it made concrete, to hear something of the young Daniel Reid's experience, moved him. For Spencer Reid, 'genius' had never seemed unusual. It was just how he experienced the world. It was him, inherently him. As he grew up, he came to realize it as a gift not given to many others, and one that carried a certain responsibility. But he'd more than once wanted to reject that gift, because it had also become a source of unrelenting pain and isolation.

Emily's report brought it all home to Reid. In losing Daniel from his young life, he'd lost someone who might have truly understood, who might have helped him navigate the treacherous waters of middle and high school unscathed. Or maybe just 'less-scathed'. Reid didn't quite remember mourning the loss of Daniel as a child. But he mourned him now.

"Emily, did you happen to…"

She handed him a piece of paper before he had a chance to finish. "Yes….I copied it for you."

He took the photocopy and stared at it. JJ could see he needed time, so she moved the conversation along for him.

"So, was Daniel in the later yearbooks?"

Emily nodded. "He was listed in the 1985 and 1986 books." She shuffled through the copies she'd made of the department member lists from each of the ten years. "And so was Albrecht. He was already on the list in the 1980 yearbook, but he came off the list in the same year your uncle did."

"So they had to have known each other. Reid's right about that." But Rossi wasn't sure he was right about anything else.

Emily decided to put into words what they were all thinking.

"So, Reid, are you saying that you believe Daniel may have made the discovery, but Albrecht took credit for it after Daniel died?"

Morgan added to the question. "And are you thinking that your dad somehow knew about it? That he knew it had been Daniel's discovery? And he went to confront Albrecht?"

Before Reid could answer, Rossi interjected. "But, if that's true…why did he let it go for so long? Why not confront him years ago?"

The question had certainly occurred to Reid as well. And there were many possible answers. But he'd settled on one. He gave it back to Rossi as a question.

"How often do you think a scientific discovery makes the news? There are literally hundreds, maybe even thousands, of discoveries made each day, around the world. Only a few are made public. Really, I don't think the public is all that interested in most of them."

"Not unless it's a new electronic gadget or something that makes their lives easier," agreed Emily.

Reid smiled his gratitude that she seemed to be going along with him and then continued.

"For all I know, Albrecht could have taken credit for something Uncle Daniel did, and no one realized at all. But maybe my dad found out, and decided to talk to him about it."

"But why, Reid?" Morgan wanted his 'little brother' to think it all the way through. "Did he want the money, your dad? From what we know of his lifestyle, it doesn't look like money was all that important to him. Why would he decide to confront Albrecht now?"

"And how would he have suddenly realized it in the first place?" Rossi thought it important for Reid to live in reality as well. "If it hadn't come up in all these years, why now?"

JJ worried as she saw her husband slouch in defeat.

"I don't know. I don't know any of it. And yet, I'm sure. It has to be this. I don't know how I know, but it has to be. My dad was last seen at the science building, at the same time Albrecht would have been there. And he….Dad, that is…..was obviously upset by something in the article. It has to be."

Hotch recognized Reid's posture and heard the desperation in his voice as well. It had to be….because they didn't have anything else.

"Reid…" he started, but was interrupted by the sounding of his phone.

"What do you have Garcia?"

She sounded flustered. "First of all, do you know how many patents have been issued in the United States?"

Reid's response was automatic. "As of 2011, eight million." Smiles were suppressed around the table when he added, "I haven't kept up with it since then."

"Right! Well, let me tell you, boys and girls, this was no easy task. I had to write three different programs just to make sense of their search engine. And then…."

"Baby Girl, do you have anything?" Morgan was responding to the growing anxiety visible on Reid's face.

"Sorry…yes! Yes, I do. Claus Albrecht actually has sixteen patents registered with the Office of Patents and Trademarks. They're all for some obscure something-or-other, and none of them sounded like anything anyone would ever have heard of. So I had to follow the trail of each of them to see what he might have made his money on, and…."

"Garcia…" Now Hotch was impatient as well. Notably, Reid hadn't said a word. He simply sat, gripping the edge of the table as if holding on to a lifeline. Hotch joined him in hoping Garcia was about to throw one.

"Right, sorry. So, there's one thing that looked promising, but the best I could do was to trace its sales and then match it to Albrecht's annual income. Did I mention I had to make a little…foray….into the IRS database? Just a little one, Sir, I promise."

"Never mind about that, Garcia. What did you find?"

"Well, it looks like Dr. Albrecht invented something that focused sound waves. Some kind of sonic lens, it was called. Which wouldn't have been interesting, except someone else figured out how to apply it in the medical field, and…."

"Lithotripsy!" Reid sat up straight in his chair as he shouted the word.

"Litho…what?" asked Rossi

"Lithotripsy. It's a noninvasive technique for treating things like gallstones and kidney stones. Sound waves are concentrated to create enough vibration to break the stones apart without requiring surgery."

"That would be a huge moneymaker for whoever discovered it," remarked Emily. "And we're thinking Albrecht did it?"

"No, I'm thinking Uncle Daniel did it. And Albrecht took credit," corrected Reid. "Garcia, what year did he file that patent?"

"It was…..oh. It was 1986."

Eyes met around the table. What had sounded crazy a few minutes ago was starting to make some sense. Rossi sat back and philosophized.

"You know what they say…follow the money."

JJ had been silent for a long time, focusing her attention on her husband and his reactions to the conversation. She was satisfied that he seemed a bit more animated now that his theory seemed to hold some weight. But there were still unanswered questions.

"Spence, we still don't understand how your dad might have found out about it. Unless you think he knew all this time, and simply didn't choose to battle with Albrecht. Is that it?"

"That's what I can't figure out. It feels like there's a missing piece."

Rossi hadn't reported on his morning yet. "Well, I'm afraid I can't help with that. As I expected, the police file on your uncle's death was thin. Three sheets thin. A one page case report, including an interview with the hiker who found him, an identification sheet signed by your dad, and the coroner's report. Nothing we didn't already know. The police and the coroner assumed suicide, so no further investigation was made."

Morgan had a little more information from his morning at UNLV.

"Professor Dahlgren knew about the dedication of the new lab, but he wasn't there for it. He suggested I talk with the university president, who'd hosted. Of course, he wasn't on campus today, so I didn't get so speak with him directly. But his secretary gave me a guest list from the event. It looks like Albrecht was there with his grandson, Karl, and his great-grandson, Kristian."

"Not his son?" clarified Emily.

"Deceased. Two years ago, heart attack." Morgan could see they were wondering, so he added, "I had Garcia check."

Hotch decided to recap what they knew. "So, we have some indication that William had some contention with Albrecht. And we know that at least three generations of the Albrecht family were at the same location where William's car was found, a day after he was seen entering the building where the lab was being dedicated. But we don't have…."

He was interrupted by the abrupt opening of the door to the conference room. All eyes turned in that direction, settling on one of the agents from the recent joint task force.

"Agent Hotchner, it looks like you won't have to investigate 'unofficially' any more. We've got a body."